When I write of diet, I'm speaking of diet as in a noun, not the verb form that so many people think of which pertains to something you do to lose weight. Diet is simply what you eat and EVERYONE has a diet or else you wouldn't be alive for very long.Diet - the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats. (Google dictionary)
We ate a certain way before I was pregnant because I had the time to make just about everything homemade. Then came my pregnancy and bed rest with a husband who can't cook - enter take-out and processed foods. We ate this way through my pregnancy and also most of the time throughout the first year of my son's life because it took me a while to get used to having him around and to get over the tiredness! We are now in a position that I'm better suited for this new life of juggling and I'm ready to return to a mostly-homemade food plan.
*We recently made a no-fast-food commitment to eliminate it from our diet because we have fallen back into the trap of grabbing it when out or when cravings call for it. We opt now for Subway or frozen pizza from the grocery store in those times when we are in a bind or out without food planned.
Organic
Most of what we eat is organic but we do sometimes buy non-organic cheeses if they are from antibiotic/hormone free cows and some fruits and vegetables depending upon the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen list. However when money is tight in a month, we will buy non-organic produce but we always, always buy organic milk - I just don't want to drink the other stuff knowing what it is laced with - synthetic hormones and drugs. Up until recently we were buying non-organic meat but we are going back to organic meat since we will be consuming less of it as we used to do a few years ago.
Non-GMO
This is something that we are switching over to more of. Most of our grains and flours come from a non-GMO farm. However, a lot of other foods are not marked, so even though we many buy organic, we have no idea if it is GMO or not. I hope that laws move forward to label food so that we can know if we are getting a real, God-made food or something made out of a laboratory!
Meat on Weekends
We also know that we feel better overall when we only eat meat on weekends but we got so used to eating meat daily, as most Americans do, that it is a hard habit to break - and an expensive one at that! However, I miss feeling better and I want to eat only organic, grass-fed beef and not consume the antibiotic/hormone-filled unnatural corn-eating-cow meat we have been eating that is cheap. I'm ready to dish out the moula for the good stuff and go back to meat on weekends, which does include chicken as well.
Fish, bacon and sometimes natural sandwich meat is the only meat we eat during the week but the meats that take longer to digest (up to 7 days), we will only consume on weekends; 2 days a week.
Main Protein Sources
We eat a lot of beans, nuts, dairy and eggs and that comprises our main protein sources. We occasionally have tofu. Beans are a super-food because they pack a punch and when you eat a diet that has them as one of your main protein sources, you will not have any issues in eliminating toxins in your body in a timely matter; a.k.a. going to the bathroom! Dairy helps you get in your calcium, magnesium and vitamin D easily.
Fruits and Vegetables
Remember these foods? Most Americans don't eat enough but they should be consumed at every meal and even snacks. Fruits that we eat are bananas, apples, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries and oranges. Vegetables we eat are carrots, dark leafy greens, kale, green/red peppers, onions, garlic, green beans, peas, broccoli, sugar snap peas, tomatoes and potatoes (and mushrooms when I can sneak them in). However my son is on some pureed jar foods right now due to a health condition and he eats a bigger variety of fruits and vegetables than we do.
Healthy Fats
Our healthy fat sources are nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocado. I only cook with olive oil but occasionally canola oil. Nuts are a great snack, we love almonds with yogurt and peanut butter as our other source. I use tahini, which is ground up sesame seeds, in our homemade hummus and we also eat sunflower seeds as a snack. I also use ground up flax seeds in muffin recipes, which also give you omega-3's, along with fatty fish like salmon. Everyone but my daughter eats avocado, with me eating half a one daily. My husband likes avocado when I make into a healthy, salsa-guacamole.
Whole Grains
Our diet is mostly comprised of whole grains in the form of oats, whole wheat, whole-grain pasta, brown rice and corn. All of these grains help with elimination and also keep you full longer with the fiber they contain. I use oats in our homemade granola bars, as just oatmeal and in many other recipes for breads and snacks. We are also going to be using our oats to make oat milk, which my daughter and I love but are tired of paying for it at the store.
Sweets
I'm probably the only one in my family that likes dark chocolate but they do eat other sweets - local, raw honey, sucanat, evaporated cane-juice crystals, brown sugar, molasses, stevia and pure cocoa powder. We don't use white sugar, also known as table sugar, unless we are making something for a get-together or holiday treat. I use the cocoa powder in making chocolate desserts and homemade hot cocoa.
Drinks
We are big water drinkers and have well water that is filtered for us by the company that owns it and it doesn't contain fluoride. Other drinks we drink are milk - cow's and oat, hot cocoa, coffee, tea and occasionally apple juice. My husband is the big coffee drinker and I'm trying to quit my 2 oz cup I got hooked on again recently. I tend to opt for teas - mostly herbal but also green tea. We only buy juice maybe a few times a year because we would rather eat fruit, then drink it watered-down!
Seasonings/Spices
Most of our spices, seasonings and/or herbs are organic. I plan on doing a post on these because it would take a lot of space to list them all here! Our main ones are curry, cinnamon, taco seasoning and italian seasoning.
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I think I covered just about everything and gave you a view into how we eat and what our diet is comprised of. We also have been eating 20% junk food but we are paring that down to 10% and totally elminating fast-food (we hope LOL!). When I say junk, I'm talking about processed snacks like chips, cakes and ice cream or frozen pizza. Keeping that to only 10% of our food is the goal!
