Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Dieting Alterations

Having been exposed to countless fad diets during my lifetime, I am not fond of being a disciple of any specific diet available on the market today. Common sense should go a long way in eating better.

My major dieting vice has been consuming three Mountain Dew cans of soda per business day while I code programs at work. This translates to 15 cans a week or 60 cans per month. Aside of this being a $30+ per month habit, the caffeine and sugar ingested over the course of the last several years has contributed significantly to my physical atrophy. I have eliminated Mountain Dew, and sodas in general (even diet sodas), completely from my diet.

I have also gone from eating the three major meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner to six smaller meals per day. I have halved the portions I typically eat for the major meals and have added a small 'snack meal' in between these meals. One of the easier snack meals to prepare is cottage cheese coupled with crushed pineapples, strawberries, raspberries or whatever your fruit of choice may be. Eating the six meals a day helps to avoid the rollercoaster up and downs your body endures throughout the day as you repeatedly eat and get hungry.

The last major dieting change I have made was to add a significant amount of variety to my diet. Too often we become slaves to a routine of preparing meals, e.g. pizza and chips on Friday evenings. Adding a significant amount of fruits and vegetables to my diet has helped me avoid junk snacks such as ice cream and potato chips.

I recently steamed asparagus tips and covered it with a ranch dressing based sauce with bacon I made for a snack meal. I probably have not had asparagus tips for five years prior to this meal.

Long story short - eliminating obviously poor nutrional chocies, eating more meals per day and creating more diversified components for each meal has proven to be very effective in bolstering my daily energy level.

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