I was able to speak a little with the fitness guy from the hockey team I work for, and he helped me make sure I was getting the correct nutrients, and getting enough fruits and veggies.
In a typical day, the average person doesn't even consume half the fibre they should. I wanted to switch that up and found that a lot of the foods I was eating that I thought were healthy, really didn't have that much nutritional value to them, they were just low in calories or fat.
The thing that has been the hardest for me since I have switched is eliminating most breakfast cereal from my diet, which was extremely difficult, since cereal is one of my most favourite foods. I switched up instead to oatmeal, which I usually eat with frozen berries mixed in, and sometimes some dried fruit like raisins or cranberries as well. It's really important that you check the package of the oatmeal, because some have as low as 8% of your daily fibre, and some are as high as 20%. The trick is to find one that is whole grain. I was at Walmart, and checked all the nutrition info, and the highest fibre percentage was actually in their house brand, in the brown sugar variety. At 20% on its own, when you mix it with a high-fibre berry like raspberries (one cup frozen are about %30 of your daily) and there's 50% right there.
Another thing that's important about my new meal plan is getting lots of fluids. I typically tend to have juice (fibre-rich Oasis Fibre blend has tons of vitamins, no artificial colours, is not sweetened and has 12% of your fibre in a 250mL serving), I also have cut down significantly on my coffee intake and swapped it for tea, which has tons of antioxidents in it. I've also started using a fibre supplement to put in my water, Crystal Light singles, which give your water some flavour and contain 12% of your daily fibre as well.I don't eat as much animal fat as I used to, so less red meat, which I eat now only once per week. I do eat a bit of chicken, and often get chicken on a 12-grain bagel for my supper at work (I work in the evening from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. and typically eat around 9.) I also would recommend grabbing some granola-type bars. Read the boxes, those "Fibre One" bars and such have usually around 20% but you can get some better-tasting ones from Quaker that rival the same percentage.
I like to have some fruit and veggies as well, I often pack baby carrots for work, and if I can find pre-washed green beans, I'll take those. I've also swapped out regular lettuce for spinach in salads .. I'm not a huge fan of spinich, but load it full of veggies and throw some low-cal Italian on there and I can barely tell the difference.
Must be the Quebecker in me, but I've also been enjoying baked beans. These are great in the winter time, they're warm and hearty. I sometimes throw a little shredded cheese with jalapeno in it if I have, heat it up and have that and some fruit with yogurt. One of the things our fitness guy, Paul, said to make sure of, was that I'm getting calcium every day. It's tough sometimes, especially now that I don't have my cereal, but a little bit of cheese and a low-fat yogo during the day won't kill ya.
I wanted to make this as easy and painless as possible for myself, so that I would keep it up. I'm still doing it after a month, so that's gotta tell you something. The odd day, I will cheat, and maybe have fries instead of a baked potato at the restaurant, but generally I don't mind it at all, and even dropped a few pounds in the process, which wasn't my intent initially.
But I feel better, I have been sleeping a lot, and hopefully I will start seeing the long-term benefits of eating more nutrient-rich foods. It'll be interesting to see how my iron count does, but oats and beans are both great sources of iron, and maybe I'll have to start working some broccoli in somewhere (yuck) if I find my iron is low.
If you have any high-fibre foods or recipes you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them!
