Healthy Eating/Whole Foods

Cafe Society
1

I have decided that I want to start eating a more healthy diet for several reasons. I have put on a few pounds but I am not rabid about losing the extra weight. I figure that eating healthier will help with that on its own. I am actually more interested in thinking more clearly and having more energy and pep by improving my diet.

I recently quit smoking after a 13 year habit and am starting to feel better from that. I have been eating healthy for the past couple of weeks with lots of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and am feeling much more energy and enthusiasm for life again at age 45. I have, due to both life circumstances and, I am sure, bad diet and the smoking, been suffering from depression and came to just not care about anything at all. Now, I am doing much more with my (additional 3 hours per day, non-smoking) time and feeling happy and hopeful instead of hateful and resentful.

The gist of this post is that I need ideas for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner foods that are healthy and low in fat and sugar. I prefer to use honey for any sweetening that I do. I have become fond of greek yoghurt. I know that a lot of you are very good cooks and have a healthy lifestyle. Could you give me some of your regular menu items that are not too time consuming to prepare, have too many exotic ingredients (only because I live in a rural area and some things can be hard to obtain), and are tasty. I especially need ideas for between meal snacks as I do get hungry and enjoy taking a little snack break to catch up on the straight dope mid-day. Dinners would be just for the husband and I, so 2 person meals are great. Really, anything that incorporates large amounts of whole grains, vegetables and meat, low in fat and sugars.

Thank you in advance. I am excited about these new feelings just by becoming more disciplined and healthy in the past couple of weeks. What a difference–I feel 10 years younger already!

2

My foremost piece of advice would be to buy The New Moosewood Cookbook, by Molly Katzen. It’s a primer of vegetarian recipes covering all occasions and all levels of complexity, though mostly focusing on the simple side. The soups and salads are particularly good. Everyone in my family swears by it.

3

I subscribe to both Eating Well and Cooking Light - they’re chock full of healthy, lower fat and lower calorie meals that generally are pretty straightforward and easy to make. (I believe their conceit is that all meals are under 500 calories, and both stress vegetables and eating a variety of foods.) The directions in the recipes are good and complete, and one of them (I forget which) has a comprehensive page of notes in the back explaining any “exotic” ingredients and where to source them (or how to substitute for them).

It’s funny. Their version of exotic and mine differ, because I’ve seen sriracha/cock sauce/Vietnamese chili sauce explained in the notes. I don’t find sriracha to be all that exotic, but it shows how complete they try to be for new or inexperienced cooks.

Every recipe I’ve had out of both has been really tasty. I believe Cooking Light also has a series of cookbooks; perhaps you could check some out of the library to try them out before making any purchase.

4

Wholegrain bread with 100% peanut butter spread over it is very filling and also healthy, don’t go nuts with it though, as a filling snack it’s fine. Are sweet potatoes readily available to buy, they’re nice baked with whatever fish you’d want. Or sweet potato wedges baked with a little honey drizzled over them.

Is ready made hummus hard to come by? It’s yummy with rice cakes.

And really well done for improving your lifestyle! It’s not easy losing weight and changing eating habits but it is always worth it! :slight_smile:

5

Figure out a good tomato sauce recipe. It will go nicely with pasta, rice, potatoes, just about anything starchy.
My base is an onion fried until soft, a couple of cloves of garlic and then either 3 medium tomatoes or a tin of tomatoes, chopped. Gently simmer for 10- 15 minutes and you’re done.
To this you can add some combination of bacon, salami, chilli, herbs, mushrooms, olives, wine, some yoghurt or cream at the end depending on what you like/have got in.

Risotto recipes will also work with couscous, barley, quinoa, lentils, beans. You’ll need to slightly adjust the amount of liquid and the timing.

Chop up a whole load of vegetables into chunks eg onion, leek, beetroot, courgette, carrot, parsnip, potato. Stick in a baking dish, drizzle with a glug of oil (and maybe some honey or malt extract), give it a shake to coat the veg, season with some herbs, salt, pepper and put in the oven at 180C/350F/gas 4 for 40 minutes to an hour or until everything is cooked. It will take a bit of experimentation with chunk sizes to get everything to the done-ness you like. Leftovers will survive a reheating for a side dish.

Experiment with marinades for meat - chops are particularly good for this. Combine oil, vinegar and/or beer/wine/cider/fruit juice with herbs/spices/condiments and put in a freezer bag with the meat. Tie the bag off and give it a good shake to coat the meat. Leave for a few hours then cook the meat as you normally would - if you’re not using the marinade to baste the meat it will form the base for a nice sauce. Top tip - you can do this before you stick the meat in the freezer and it will marinade as it defrosts.

6

Not precisely an answer to the question you asked, but …

Do you have space for a vegetable garden?

You could grow healthy foods, including things that aren’t common in markets in your area, with some exercise thrown in, as well.

If this is an option for you, and you haven’t gardened before, you can start learning, researching, and planning now. The seed catalogs come out in January. Your state extension service will have advice on which varieties of what items are best suited to your area. Take some books out of the library for a test drive.

And, of course – consult the collective wisdom of the Dope. Lots of gardening threads …

7

I am a big fan of the Eat-Clean Cookbook

8

I’ve shared this one before here, but since 1) I made it last weekend and 2) you asked:

Almond Tilapia

Thaw (if frozen) 1 tilapia fillet per person, and season with salt + whatever you like.
Spread each side very thinly with mayo (or a mix of mayo + mustard … you could even mix in a little horseradish).
Coat both sides with crushed almonds, pressing gently so they adhere.
Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes - when the almonds start to turn golden brown, the fish will be done.

This works for a number of reasons for us:

  • tilapia is cheap, readily available, and so thin that it cooks quickly
  • it can be done in a toaster oven if you don’t want to heat up the main oven
  • the seasonings and even the nuts can be varied - try hazelnuts, walnuts, pistachio, etc. I’ve used curry powder sometimes, or thyme + oregano, or Old Bay seasoning, all to great effect.
  • the cooking time is hands-off and prep is minimal, so it’s easy to whip up some veggie sides to go with it
9

Well first off congrats on quitting smoking and taking a stand for yourself.

I have a medical background and am interested in health and weight loss myself.

For weight loss/maintenance: healthy or unhealthy food barely matters. It’s all about calories in vs calories used. (Unless you’re doing a radical diet that only let’s you eat protein or something that prevents your body from using the calories, but I’d recommend against those since they tend to be very dangerous) This truth tells us that if we want to reliably control our weight we will want to do a couple things.

1: weigh yourself daily at the same time of day in the same weight of garments. Various things cause your weigh to fluctuate that have nothing to do with fat stores. So understand that your weight will move around by 2-5% without having any meaning for the weight you actually want to lose.

2: Count your calories. Every single one (if it’s an estimate go with the high one). It’s easy for our brains to fool us into eating more than we want to. At the end of the day if the calorie count is lower than what we used that day, well have lost adipose weight that day. I have had success with any system that follows this formula. Sometimes I go very extreme sometimes I do it more slowly. Depends on my psychological state at the time. You can factor in cheating as well. As long as your weekly calories are lower than used you have lost weight. I often factor a buffet in at certain progress points like every time I see myself 5 or 10 pounds lighter than i ever have before I started. (for most people I think 1000 calories a day is good for fast weight loss, 1200 for a little slower, and 800 if you trust your health to bear the strain.

3: Muscles and exercise. The more muscle you have the faster you will use calories while exercising and while doing nothing at all. If you can manage to put on some extra muscle and don’t like where you’re adding it this will allow you to eat more and lose the same or more. You can also factor in any exercise and go ahead and eat that much more based on how muchyou should have burned.

These numbers are very person specific and can also have to do with some hormones and so you should of course modify as needed. Healthy food will make you feel better and help prevent illness and all sort of other benefits that will help give you the strength to lose weight and so thats great too.

Organic, whole foods, less ingredients is better in preprepared foods, balance (IE lots of fruits and veggies less of other stuff). Farm fresh = pesticides btw, and modern pesticides cannot be washed off. If you’re eating less anyway you can probably afford to eat the best =)

10

I like balsamic vinegar as a great flavor enhancer that adds very few calories, lime and lemon juice work well for that too.

11

Honestly, I would do this in small manageable steps, rather than one big whole-life makeover. Bring in one new healthy eating habit every week or two, try it out, see if it fits in your life, and only then move forward to something new. A couple of extra healthy habits that you hold one to for life is a billion times better than an absolutely perfect healthy diet that you manage to keep up for a month.

Here are some ideas. from my own life:
[ol]
[li]Eat two pieces of fresh fruit a day[/li][li]Always use whole grains when it makes sense- default to whole grain tortillas, bread, pasta, etc.[/li][li]Train yourself to love water. It can be done. [/li][li]Eat one good bowl of greens a day[/li][li]Get a fancy lunch box and challenge yourself to make the most colorful lunch possible[/li][/ol]

More importantly is refining your approach to food.

I find what works for me is understanding that in some situations food is a pleasure, but in others food is just fuel. So when I cook for my SO or go out to a nice dinner, I order what I want. But if I am grabbing lunch to eat at my desk at work? That’s just fuel, and I make it a game to come up with the healthiest option possible. If I run to the deli to grab a sandwich real quick, I’ll just scan the menu for whatever is healthiest and order that. Let’s face it a lot of the meals we eat are pretty joyless anyway, and it doesn’t really take away much by packing that meal with the healthiest food we have access to. But you don’t have to choose between being a foodie and being healthy.

Be careful not to overeat. A heaping bowl of whole wheat pasta will make you just as fat as a bowl of candy bars. Keep track of your portion sizes, even of “healthy” foods. I think the times I’ve gained the most weight have been when I was eating the freshest, most home mode food. It’s easy to “reward” yourself for making healthy choices by then downing a ton of those healthy choices.

And don’t forget that you don’t need to be 100% healthy all of the time for this to work. I had a McDonald’s cheeseburger for dinner. But I got it without frieds, added my own salad and piece of fruit, and enjoyed every bite.

12

While “calories in/calories out” is true, there are good and bad sources of calories that will help or hurt your ability to maintain a diet. Depending on activity level, you want about 55-60% of carbohydrates (primarily complex carbohydrates like whole grains and fruits), 20-25% fats, and 20% proteins (all percentages by calorie). One of the biggest mistakes dieters make–other than engaging in a “diet” that is not sustainable–is trying to cut out fats because lipids are calorically-dense. However, you need fats both for proper metabolic function and because that satiate (make you feel full). Many people try to eat carb-rich “fat free” foods which actually have the opposite effect of carb-loading and spiking blood insulin levels, which results in making you feel more hungary. (I am also in agreement that protein-rich diets are, in general, not desirable or necessary, unless you are suffering from severe obesity or are aggressively strength-training.)

A diet that is rich in raw or lightly cooked (steamed or grilled) vegetables, supplemented by lean protein and “good” fats such as olive oil, avocado oil, et cetera can make you feel quite satiated while maintaining a modest caloric intake. The trick is to eat a healthy balance of foods including those that will digest over a long period. It also helps to maintain a consistent eating pattern and minimize snacking; if you must snack, eat low caloric and low glycemic index foods like carrots, apple slices, or skim milk string cheese, along with a small amount of high fat foods like almonds. If you keep these around you can avoid the temptation to have “just a small” bag of crisps or a cookie that will provide sugars and starches.

While the nutritional value of “organic”-labeled foods is certainly overrated, eating fresh and flavorful fruits and vegetables is definitely beneficial. Be wary, however, of foods that would seem unhealthy if not for the label; “organic” potato crisps, cookies, and other junk foods are just as nutritionally void as the regular kind. The same goes for “whole grain” cereals and baked goods; by the time they’ve been processed into flour, the value of being whole grain (i.e. containing germ and bran) are largely lost (and are often reduced as part of the refining process despite the label). Actually whole grains, like brown rice or oat groats, are much better for you (lower glycemic index), as they will be absorbed slower and contain healthy fats and protein.

There is some good advice in the thread, but also some very poor advice. Someone recommended tomato sauce. Sorry, but tomatoes are naturally pretty high in sugar, and cooking them down into a sauce, however delicious, makes them significantly less healthy. Ditto for pasta, potatoes, et cetera. Anything high in starch will also have a higher glycemic index, especially if moderating constituants like skin or fiber are removed. This isn’t to say that you can’t have some of this in your diet–everything, including health, should be in moderation–but it should not be a staple. I find that steamed baby spinach or kale serves as a good substitute for pasta. And while I don’t advocate vegetarianism strictly for health benefits, the typical industrial world diet has more meat than is necessary, and often rich in saturated fats and sodium. Making vegetables the focus of a dish with meat as a supplement is a better approach. I personally like Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone (although Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian is also quite popular), and it is easy to modify these recipes to include meat as a supplement. While you don’t want too little protein in your diet, the body is very efficient about reusing protein, and unless you are going completely vegan or are striving to become an athelete it is unlikely that you will substantially underconsume protein.

Stranger

13

My advice is keep it simple.

#1 Snacks

Keep the following snacks around: fruits, nuts, dried fruits, snack veggies (baby carrots, sugar snap peas, cucumber slices, etc.). Snack guilt-free twice a day.

#2 Breakfast

If you don’t have time, shredded wheat (no frosting) and whole milk is one of the only cereals without ANY sugar or salt, which does not need to be cooked.

Plain oatmeal with honey and milk also works.

Eggs if you have time and $$$.

#3 Dinner

Buy whole-grain pasta and brown rice and learn to cook them. Presto, you’re eating a ton healthier with practically no effort at all.

#4 Learn to saute in butter or olive oil with a bit of garlic.

Heat oil on med-low. Add chopped garlic. Saute for 2-3 minutes. For frozen veggies, rinse in water then add directly. Put lid on, turn to low, keep in for about 10 min. For fresh, add about 1/4 c water for every c veggies. Put lid on, turn to low, keep in for about 10-15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Voila: a healthy, classy side dish at every meal that takes almost no prep time.

#5 Fish

If you don’t like fish, start with cod and pollock as they aren’t very fishy. Learn to cook them. Marinating helps. Then substitute for chicken.

#6 A green salad served before every meal.

If you don’t have time, buy bagged green salad and cherry or grape tomatoes. Top with organic dressing. Eat before main course is ready.

These six things will make a huge difference to your diet, and require extremely little effort and almost no knowledge of cooking. They are what I suggest to everyone. Good luck in your journey!

14

Thank you to all who have taken the time to post–I really appreciate the input and ideas and will be putting a lot of them to use. Going to the market today to pickup the items that were suggested. The encouragement and support is so uplifting as well and I thank you all for that. This is a big change for someone who always has eaten whatever they want and whatever looks yummiest at the time. One of the posters made an incredibly insightful comment about some meals just being fuel while others were for pleasure and to make the healthy choices for “fuel” meals–that is a FANTASTIC viewpoint and I think that is very helpful for me. That is a real change that I have personally needed to make was to not view food/eating as entertainment and that poster’s policy allows for enjoying yummy stuff without guilt when you do get the opportunity for a pleasurable meal out.

You folks are just the best and so helpful and thanks again. It is good to feel good again and those new good healthful feelings alone are helping to keep me on track, I have noticed.

15

I wish to share with you my current method of cooking brown rice. Brown rice, as we all know, is very healthy but it does take longer to cook than white rice. This method uses a microwave, so it doesn’t have to be watched like a pot on a stove.

  1. In a microwave dish that is suitably large, start with 3 cups of water.
  2. Microwave water 10 minutes on high.
  3. Add two cups of raw, brown rice.
  4. Microwave 32 minutes on 60% power (yes, I did say 32 minutes!)

I find this makes for a consistent result with minimal supervision/fuss required. While the rice is cooking I make the rest of dinner. Any leftover rice can be used the next day, put in soups, whatever.

I also suggest you use other grains in place of rice for variety. I’ve cooked barley, millet, sorghum, and quiona in place of rice numerous times. If nothing else, barley is usually available. The others can be ordered on line and shipped to you if you feel like experimenting. Regrettably, I have not yet worked out microwave techniques for all of those, but they do add variety and whole grain to your diet, and are quite tasty.
If you have vegetables you like, you can cut them up and have them in a bowl in the fridge for snacking. My spouse likes raw root vegetables, so I’ll have a bowl of carrots, radishes, and turnip pieces in the fridge for him, often adding pieces of celery and bell pepper as well. I like carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, and broccoli so I’ll use those for me. Contrary to what the marketing folks tell you, you don’t need a “dipping sauce”, though if you prefer that use that Greek yoghurt you like, peanut butter, salsa, or plain hummus instead of heavy creamy stuff. The point is, munching on those while watching TV or surfing the internet is far healthier than munching on chips or cheese doodles. My spouse has gotten so used to vegee chunks as a snack he goes through several pounds of vegetables in a week in this manner, and it certainly helps keep his weight steady, his bowels regular, and his diabetes under control.
I try to keep fruits around the house. Back when I worked a desk job I might have a bowl of 3-4 plums of different varieties/colors to snack on instead of candy bars, or different varieties of apples, and so forth. Apples, pears, bananas, plums, oranges, etc. don’t require constant refrigeration (though they do need to be eaten in a couple days), can be eaten with minimum preparation, and if they’re in front of you, you’re more likely to reach for them than some less healthy snack. In my current job I have a small refrigerator in my work area so I can keep chunks of melon in a bowl to grab as a snack - again, I like to go for a variety of types.
Another snack is, of all things, Jell-O/gelatin. You can get sugar-free varieties. Not exactly a health food, but it can satisfy that urge to snack without dumping a crapload of calories into your system as it has flavor and bulk.

16

I love the fact that you are focusing on living a lifestyle, not going on a diet or losing weight for the sake of losing weight. The truth is that when you eat well, are active, and doing the things that make your body healthy, your body naturally finds it perfect weight. It honestly is about being healthy, not being thin. I applaud you for wanting to take care of your body for the right reasons.

As a Registered Nurse and a Certified Wellness Coach, people ask me all the time how to eat healthy. Here are my best tips:

  1. Try to buy and eat the highest quality foods you can afford. This really is one of the most important healthy eating tips. Try to stay away from the overly processed packaged foods. If you can swing organic foods, do it. Be as kind to yourself and your body as possible. You deserve it!
  2. Learn what a healthy portion size is. Eat off of dishes that are sized for humans, not Big Foot.
  3. Learn when to eat. Knowing when to eat is almost as important as what you eat. Learn to recognize when you’re hungry and when you’re full. Rate your hunger on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being starving and 10 being stuffed). Try to eat when you’re a 3 (slightly hungry) and stop when you’re a 7 (satisfied but not stuffed.
  4. Learn how often to eat. Don’t skip a meal or starve yourself - your body will go into starvation mode, your metabolism will slow down and your body will hang on to its stores of fat. Plus, you’ll feel lousy. Plan to eat every 2 to 3 hours - that means about 5 or 6 SMALL meals a day. When you eat like this, your blood sugar stays steady and you never feel starving!
  5. Learn how to eat (not as crazy as it sounds!). Be mindful when you eat - be present, appreciate and enjoy each bite.
  6. That being said, eat more soup! Soups made from scratch can be easy, economical, convenient and incredibly healthy and delicious. Try having healthy soup for at least one meal a day. Take a look at* Enlightened Soups: More Than 135 Light, Healthy, Delicious and Beautiful Soups in 60 Minutes or Less*, by Camilla V. Saulsbury. Every soup in this book is chock full of healthy, easy-to-find ingredients.
  7. Start gathering cookbooks and recipes that inspire you to cook healthy foods. One of my first cookbooks was 20-Minute Meals, by Marian Burros. I found it to be a great starting point for learning how to put together healthy, balanced and very tasty meals.

As for snacks, here are some of my best suggestions:
• A handful of frozen grapes. You’ll almost believe you’re eating mini-popsickles.
• A few nuts and a piece of fruit.
• A sliced apple or banana with nut butter. Peanut, almond, and cashew are all wonderful. Make sure you read the ingredients, though. Most popular commercial nut butters have shortening (trans fats) and high fructose corn syrup in them - just another example of healthy foods gone bad! All-natural varieties are easy to find, however.
• Whole grain or rice crackers with smoked salmon, capers and lemon juice.
• Whole grain or rice crackers with hummus. There are so many different flavors of hummus (roasted red pepper, lemon, garlic, cilantro, kalamata olive…) you won’t get bored.
• Cucumber rounds topped with canned tuna or sardines.
• All-natural trail mix (nuts, seeds, dried fruits, dark chocolate).
• A square or two of good, DARK chocolate.
• Popcorn (made on the stovetop, not microwaveable). Experiment with toppings. Skip the butter and sprinkle on some chili powder or grated parmesan cheese. Some people even go for cinnamon.
• Roasted chickpeas. Drain a can of chickpeas, put on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt and bake at 400 degrees F until slightly browned.
• Celery sticks with nut butter or cream cheese with a few dried cranberries sprinkled on top.
• Mashed baked sweet potato.
• Gerber Graduates Lil’ Sticks. This is something that is kind of embarrassing to admit. I love little cocktail weenies - but, they are full of nasty things. I was doing without until I discovered Gerber Graduates Lil’ Sticks. They’re a great high-protein snack. And, unlike some regular hot dogs, Lil’ Sticks have no nitrites. Find them in jars in the baby food aisle.
• All-natural (organic if possible) apple sauce (look for no-sugar varieties!). The single-serve versions are great to have in your car, desk, or purse. I love the apple and berry combos, and the apple-cinnamon blend.
• Cucumber and Avocado puree: Put in your blender or food processor a half to a whole cuke, 1/4 avocado, juice of 1/2 lime, and a pinch of sea salt (or not). You can add some cilantro if you have it, and/or a dash of chili powder. Puree and eat with a spoon. So delicious and refreshing!

Do the best you can every day, yet don’t expect to be perfect. Be proud of yourself and let others in on how you’re changing your life and how good it makes you feel. You’re doing great!

Michelle
http://www.healthylifetoolkit.com/

17

Thank you again so much for the wonderful replies. Michelle–thank you for taking the time to post so many great ideas for snacks and recipes–that was quite a lot of writing and I appreciate it! I think that all of the snacks that you posted sound great and this will keep me satisfied throughout the day.

I love the idea of the previous poster of keeping veggies cut up and ready to go in the fridge for snacking and I will add this to my routine as well.

The roasted chick peas sound divine and since I have those items on hand, those will be made today. Need to get out and pick up some more veggies and some natural nut butters as I do like a dipping sauce. I am thinking of experimenting with adding some herbs/spices to my greek yoghurt for dipping as well. Gosh I love that stuff.

I can’t believe the amount of things that I have gotten done since I have started eating well/not smoking. Not only that but the enthusiasm that I now feel for doing things is quite the gift and making it all worth it. House is decorated inside and out for Christmas as of yesterday. Last year, I didn’t bother at all.

I have a tip that worked for me to quit smoking that I will share. I actually LOVE to smoke and only quit because I felt it made me lazy and unproductive plus the health implications. I was a 13 year pack to pack and a half a day smoker and I loved every second of it. I had tried quitting several times for the past 8 years but I just couldn’t break the addiction and the habit. This time, instead of using the nic patches, which have never worked for me as you have to then give up the patches, I used a combination of tea and Nic Rx lozenges.

I kept a cup of Yurba Mate tea with me at all times having read that it had qualities that helped with quitting smoking and I also found Nic Rx lozenge samples at the state fair. You pop one of these–all natural ingredients, no nicotine–when you feel the urge to smoke. I am not affiliated with Nic Rx at all btw just found that their product worked for me. Between the two of those things, within a few days I really didn’t even want to smoke. And within a couple of weeks, I actually went a day without thinking about it. Within a month, I went days without thinking about smoking or wanting to smoke. It worked for me, it may work for others too. Yurba Mate tea can be found online and at Whole Foods groceries. It may be found at some health food stores as well.

I just know that I am so glad to have found something that made it possible for me to quit finally. Oh and I am not trying to become an evangelist for healthy eating/not smoking–I really respect everyone’s choices to do what gets them through the day. I KNOW how much a cigarette or a big hot fudge sundae can take some of the stress/pain of living away for a while. But, if you are thinking of any of these changes, this has been my personal experience–you will start feeling better if you do make these changes. Not right away but it will make a difference if you have been feeling the way that I was. Not just physically but emotionally and mentally, you will begin feeling better but you have to be more patient than I was. I expected instant results and when I didn’t get them in the past, it was an excuse to go back to smoking or eating crap.

Happy holidays to all here and thanks again!

18

For snacks, I recommend my #1 “chameleon food” which is low-fat cottage cheese. I call it a “chameleon food” because it can taste like whatever you want it to. This is your chance to have a lot of fun with seasonings and spices. Most often I eat it with just salt and pepper, but you can put pretty much any herb/spice on it and have it taste good. Thyme and sage is a good combo, for example. Low-fat cottage cheese is (surprise!) low in fat and also very high in protein for its volume. It’s a very healthy food, and a container of it lasts quite a while in the fridge.

I keep a container of cottage cheese in the fridge at work for when I feel a bit nibbly. It always satisfies.

19

I learned a new word! Before this I thought that “adipose” was a word that Doctor Who made up!

20

I thought of something else. A lot of people say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, yet it is also the one we traditionally spend the least amount of time preparing. My husband has solved this problem: he makes a big batch of his breakfast food of choice on Sunday and then puts individual bowls of it, covered with plastic wrap, in the fridge to last the week. Right now what he’s been fixing is vegetarian sausage, quinoa, and veggies, but in the past he’s done egg-based meals and stir-fries (a stir-fry makes a surprisingly good breakfast!)

By doing all the work on Sunday, he makes it so that all he has to do is fall out of bed and put something in the microwave for 2 minutes in the morning, and boom healthy breakfast.