My Visit To The Nutritionist

[browngirl]

My nutritionist's appointment actually was really awesome and very useful. So of course it's taken me days and days to write up her advice, and I hope I haen't forgotten all the nuances.

The nutritionist was a very nice and personable woman who set out to work with what I like to eat, and phrased things in terms of portion and balance, protein-with-healthy-fats and fiber, instead of do's and don'ts. She understood that I like to cook and wanted to make my diet work with my roommates' (including the Joshlet), and agreed that I should avoid "low fat" products where the fat is replaced with fillers like corn syrup. (Note to self: I can subtract fiber grams when counting carbohydrate grams.)

First off, I need to eat breakfast. Two, really: a piece of fruit and/or a few nuts (1/4 cup or so) or a chunk of protein-rich bar, as soon as I can after waking, and then at around 10 AM some combination of these:


Column One
cashew butter
nuts
eggs (3 yolks/week)
cottage cheese (1 or 2 %)
plain yogurt
cheese (1 slice)
soybeans
Column Two
whole wheat english muffin
whole wheat toast
steel cut oats (cooked with 1 tbsp ground flaxseed per serving.)
fruit
kashi waffles, granola bars, cereal
7-grain flake cereal, heart to heart (Kashi brand)
Nature's Path, Smart Bran, All Bran (erk)


Some sample combos:
hard boiled egg + 2 whites + wheat english muffin + fruit
1 cup yogurt + 3/4 cup fruit + 2/3 cup smart bran
8 oz oatmeal + fruit + 1/4 cup nuts
wheat english muffin + cashew nut butter + fruit
wheat toast + scrambled eggs (1 egg 2 whites) + 1 slice cheese
2 kashi waffles + 1 tbsp maple syrup + yogurt + fruit

Dinnertime: the usual 1, 1, 2 (1 meat, 1 starch, 2 veg). 1 cup starch. Peas, corn, winter squash, potatoes, pasta, rice, bread all are starches. (Duh.)

So. Wolf kindly bought me big bags of dry frozen fruit, and Tigerlily gave me a lunchbox; I need to find one cup containers to carry yogurt and oatmeal in, but I can do this. I really feel like I can do this kind of thing, that it's not a punishing diet.

And now to implement this by finding some breakfast!

Comments

[hanseth.livejournal.com]

P.S. speaking of whole grains, you know about quinoa, right? I could write epic poetry about quinoa.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*giggle* I would like to see that.

I found it a little soapy tasting myself, but I'll try it again.

[hanseth.livejournal.com]

Soapy! that's interesting. I seem to recall that you've found cilantro soapy-tasting as well, I wonder if it's the same taste receptor. (Though Barb is cilantro-avoidant as well, and she loves quinoa as much as I do.)

Sometimes I make quinoa with part water, part chicken stock -- 1 part quinoa to roughly 1.75 parts total liquid. Chicken stock might help with the soapiness?

[(Anonymous)]

try rinsing the quinoa before you cook it. the seed coat of quinoa does contain saponins - in fact you can actually make soap out of the saponins from some kinds of quinoa. it's rinsed before it's sold, but i've seen many recommendations to rinse it before cooking to get off the last of the residue, and when i cook it myself i do notice a difference in some batches if i rinse first - although the taste difference is more bitter than soapy, to me.

another big quinoa plus is that you can make it in a rice cooker. i use slightly less water than for brown rice b/c i like it big and fluffy.