Nutrition diet hacks

[thegoldengod]

What are some ways you all are sticking to your eating plan, without indulging too much?

A few things that have worked for me:

• Cooking in butter / olive oil and some seasoning to get my veggies in
• Buying frozen vegetables to help me easily cook them. Will upgrade to fresh veggies once I've established habits...
• Replacing my cravings for candy with oatmeal + peanut butter, or banana + peanut butter
• Removing ice cream and sugary items from my pantry

I'm currently trying to do more meal prep, so I eat healthier when I'm at work or on the go.

 

[ShawnM]

I started with meal preparation this weekend. It helped the last few days. Of coarse I went to work today without any of the food I made. Lol. I was smart enough to grab some low carb/keto stuff on the way to work so I’m good to go.
I also bought all the stuff I needed in bulk so it cuts down on the chance I’ll stray from my plan.

 

[North Coast Miller]

I try to just keep it simple, when I'm picking out my grub I imagine eating it and when/where if possible. I plan most of my meals and also do most of the dinner cooking for the family. If the kids want hot dogs one night I plan on making something else for myself.

I'm trying "NorthCoastMiller" paleo, so at work have taken to snacking directly on plain spinach and romaine leaves, walnuts, apples, etc.

My cooked veg gets a dash of salt, no butter. Any fats are included during cooking, I don't put extra butter or oil on anything at the table unless it used none during the cooking process.

Have been working on just accepting the feeling of being hungry from time to time, esp when the cookie tin is right in front of me or between dinner and bedtime (this last I find to really help with body comp and overall food discipline).

The things that really helped turn me off to most sweets is that they actually do not make me feel good afterward. Another is that at work a couple of jars are maintained full of chocolates or Skittles - that sort of stuff. Reaching into a communal jar is a great way to give yourself a cold and I'm convinced I've caught several this way. Just another incentive.

I still eat the odd cookie (a whole bunch of them over the last 2 weeks!) or small dish of ice cream, but the heavily refined stuff is not appealing anymore.

 

[Snowman]

For the last few years I've gotten in the habit of basing my diet around a few good staple foods. I buy them in bulk, and make sure they're prepped in such a way that they're ready to go when I need them. For example, buying a bunch of onions, chopping them up, and putting them in the freezer. When I needed to cook with onions, I just grabbed a handful. I use past tense, because I don't eat onions anymore. I do still buy large chunks of meat and wrap them into pre-weighed portions, so 1 package=1 dinner for me and my wife.

My best "hack" as of late, was regarding my sugar habit. I've always had a heck of a sweet tooth, and no matter what else I did, I would always have some candy, cookies, etc a few times a week. I got rid of the carbs (less than 10 grams most days), and the sweet tooth went away. First time without sugar/candy cravings in my whole life. Neat. Definitely not for everyone, though.

I agree with the removal of junk food from the house. For me, the most effective dietary modifications are those that reduce my reliance on willpower. Relying on willpower seems to be a loser's bet for most people (myself included, generally speaking). In fact, it seems like the people who make big changes that are dependent on willpower are the very people for whom reliance on willpower will lead to failure. The very fact that they have big changes to make indicates that their strength of will is inconsistent at best, and consistently weak at worst. The people who have iron wills are already doing what they want, and the changes to be made in their lives are often small.

 

[Antti]

Finely ground oats and whey protein powder mixed with water make for a really fast, easy, convenient, nutritious and healthy snack or a meal.

 

[Oscar]

- I eat greens in fruit smoothies.
- I don't have junk food at home.
- I skip meals for calorie control.

 

[ali]

I make my own fruit and nut bars, loosely based on dates and various mixed nuts.
The idea to make a batch for some snacks in the following days is always an epic fail as I eat them all in one go, hehehe. Yum yum.

 

[Deleted member 5559]

1. Brush teeth right after dinner to prevent snacking.
2. Keep bulk bag of almonds/cashews in the glove box of the car so I always have something to satiate a craving but it's not as convenient to over do as if it were at my desk at work.
3. A few go-to recipes that are easily memorized and don't take more than a couple minutes to prepare to avoid grabbing "something easy".
4. Large water bottle at my desk. More likely to drink more and not delay refilling a smaller one.

 

[wespom9]

Planning, making small changes (with a long break in period) shaping my environment (keep it out of the house) work very well for me. I am very lucky to have a partner who enjoys planning meals, and whenever possible we always do the cooking together - our "us" time.

 

[Abdul-Rasheed]

- Dinner: Lately, I have been grabbing shredded veggies from Trader Joe's (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots.., they called it medley or something similar), saute in ghee for a few minutes (add spices if you like). In parallel, I would be either grilling/baking/broiling two pieces of fish/chicken/beef/lamb. Cooking takes about 10 mins. Perhaps another 5 or 10 mins for preparation. So easy. Eat half for dinner. Pack the other half for lunch next day.
- Breakfast: Eat (3 or 4 or 5) eggs with ghee in the morning IF you have to eat breakfast. So easy to do. It takes only minutes.
- Lunch: Packed left over food from dinner previous night.
- Protein bars. Very handy in snacking during my day at work. I have noticed I have been gaining muscle since the introduction of this.
- I don't keep any sort of nuts any more at home. I over-indulge in them.
- I have not been eating much fruits before. Lately, keep some banana or cut fruits and eat some after dinner occasionally.
- I eat carbs or sweets (rice, wheat etc.) when I visit friends or restaurants. This is the generally the time I am OK with breaking my food rules.

 

[J Petersen]

A couple decades late, but doing the "starving college kid" routine in Japan at the moment, and it's all too easy to fall into the trap of the convenient, readily-available junk food to be found all around campus (those steamed curry buns might be the end of me...).

I consider myself blessed to have access to Kerrygold unsalted butter once again, which means I can bring a massive thermos of what I'd called "Bullet Resistant" coffee along with me in the morning and even share it with some of my favorite people along the way--I opt to use a much more conservative amount of butter and coconut oil than the original recipe calls for. This concoction keeps me rockin' and rollin' all the way up until the afternoon, at which point I've been doing dandy on a couple of protein shakes (Ascent "Native Fuel") with powdered greens and milled flaxseed with a four hour gap between them. Nutritious, cost efficient, and it keeps things simple once you get into the groove.

I do, however, have a solid meal at night. Typically, it's something out of my handy rice cooker/veggie steamer with two or three hardboiled eggs and a copious amount of hot sauce chased with a multivitamin as an appetizer. Daily shakes are so much easier to take when you have a real dinner to look forward to.

That's Monday to Friday, at least. On the weekends, I eat as I please. This usually means at least one pitstop at Subway.

 

[mikhael]

Basically paleo and intermittent fasting ing. Eating only healthy food and avoiding junk food. A lot of veggies, olive oil, coconut oil, avicados, meat, eggs, fishes. Nothing special but it seems to work well in my case.

 

[Deleted member 5559]

Hopefully this doesn't derail the intent of the OPs thread but I would like to have a nice list of foods that I can feed anyone to accommodate their diet but I can only think of a couple foods that fit all of what I consider the most popular restrictive diets: vegetarian/vegan, keto, and paleo. The items I can think of are:

1. Avocado
2. Coconut
3. Tree Nuts
4. Seeds
5. Leafy Greens
6. Cruciferous Vegetables
7. Peppers

Basically make salads for dinner parties involving the health conscious?

 

[Snowman]

I can only think of a couple foods that fit all of what I consider the most popular restrictive diets: vegetarian/vegan, keto, and paleo.

As someone on a fairly restrictive diet, I feel like it's my responsibility to accommodate for my own weirdness as much as possible. If someone invites me to dinner, my response is usually, "That sounds great, how about I bring steaks?" People usually don't say no to that, and it circumvents a lot of issues.
I say this because I consider it a bit of a social food hack. Rarely will people turn down an offer for food, and that way you can be sure of something good to eat. Even if you bend your own rules a bit, at least you can load up on your food, and keep the rest to a polite minimum.
Pre-eating before you go out to eat is also good. Less likelihood to load up on the junk when you've already had half your dinner. Cheaper, too.

 

[Neuro-Bob]

Hopefully this doesn't derail the intent of the OPs thread but I would like to have a nice list of foods that I can feed anyone to accommodate their diet but I can only think of a couple foods that fit all of what I consider the most popular restrictive diets: vegetarian/vegan, keto, and paleo. The items I can think of are:

1. Avocado
2. Coconut
3. Tree Nuts
4. Seeds
5. Leafy Greens
6. Cruciferous Vegetables
7. Peppers

Basically make salads for dinner parties involving the health conscious?

If it’s the health conscious, I think the only ones with qualms to this list would be the rare carnivore.

However if you are looking at allergies, that’s a different ballgame. A relative is allergic to 1/3 of your list. Allergies would purely be person specific.

How much effort do you want to go to, as well?

In my family we’ve got quite the range of diet CHOICES and specific ALLERGIES. Choices may or may not get accommodated, allergies will always get accommodated. It’s just reality that not everyone will be able to eat everything all the table, but every WILL be able to eat something.

Probably not exactly what you were looking for but a perspective....

 

[Michael Scott]

Can you please share your recipe for "Bullet Resistant coffee"?

I consider myself blessed to have access to Kerrygold unsalted butter once again, which means I can bring a massive thermos of what I'd called "Bullet Resistant" coffee along with me in the morning and even share it with some of my favorite people along the way--I opt to use a much more conservative amount of butter and coconut oil than the original recipe calls for.

 

[J Petersen]

I'll do my best--I've never had to put this much thought into the calculations before...

For a 40-ounce thermos of coffee (most school days I carry two of these, which makes a grand total of 80 ounces shared amongst five or six folks), I'll add around 1/7th of a standard bar of Kerrygold (8 ounces) to the pot, and one to two heaping spoonfuls of coconut oil ("Spectrum" is typically the brand). I'm not terribly precise about any of these measurements; this is purely from eyeballing the amounts.

While I have played around with pure MCT oil, it's a much more pricey ingredient than the rest of the stuff and I personally do not feel any particular difference in comparison to the more proletariat coconut oil.

Just to help cope with the drudgery of the daily grind (the people I share with are clerical/administrative types), on some days I'll add just a small splash of Torani sugar free syrup to the blending process. Being the paranoid sort of fellow that I am, I'm not fully convinced that "Sucralose" is harmless, but I figure that just a tiny bit once or twice a week won't do any of us irreparable long-term harm.

 

[Steve Freides]

While I have played around with pure MCT oil, it's a much more pricey ingredient than the rest of the stuff and I personally do not feel any particular difference in comparison to the more proletariat coconut oil.

Too much coconut oil and I begin having to devote more time to being in the bathroom. I use Brain Octane Oil, and eyeball a spoon's worth (teaspoon? I don't know) in my first cup of coffee of the day, and that's usually it for me.

-S-

 

[thegoldengod]

For a 40-ounce thermos of coffee (most school days I carry two of these, which makes a grand total of 80 ounces shared amongst five or six folks), I'll add around 1/7th of a standard bar of Kerrygold (8 ounces) to the pot, and one to two heaping spoonfuls of coconut oil ("Spectrum" is typically the brand). I'm not terribly precise about any of these measurements; this is purely from eyeballing the amounts.

On days where I can't eat breakfast, I just drink black coffee and try to last until lunch. It can be hard, so I try to keep myself really busy, so I don't think about food.

I love the taste of butter + mct + coffee. I have it as a treat after lunch sometimes, as there is a local coffee shop that makes it using quality ingredients (they actually use Brain Octane Oil for the MCT). I do, however, feel guilty after drinking it because it is really high in calories, consumed after a relatively high calorie lunch. I'm probably not doing myself any justice here. Another vice, I need to work on and hack

 

[J Petersen]

On days where I can't eat breakfast, I just drink black coffee and try to last until lunch. It can be hard, so I try to keep myself really busy, so I don't think about food.

If you have the time and access to quality ingredients, I'd recommend giving the "Bullet Resistant" routine a whirl in the mornings and see how you feel. I can definitely relate to the sentiment of keeping ourselves so busy we don't think about food, and the calories in this concoction will go a long way in helping (I'll start sipping around 8 in the morning, and usually have to remind myself to put something in the tank around 2 in the afternoon). At the risk of sounding like a shill, I've found that it makes coffee work "as advertised" for the first time in my life, and I definitely feel the difference when circumstance forces me to go back to regular.

Too much coconut oil and I begin having to devote more time to being in the bathroom.

That's certainly a factor, and I've experienced the adverse reactions to too much/too soon with the stuff myself. As such, I've always been very conscientious when allowing my curious acquaintances expressing interest to have their first cup, and for the first couple days or so when they invariably want to join "Pete's coffee club," I monitor how they're handling it.

In the case of my favorite librarian, she admitted to me that she was draggin' that morning and could tell it was going to be a long day, so I offered her a hit off my thermos. The results were adorable: