Im a creature of habit when it comes to food.
I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and have a weakness for beef jerky.
So I decidedfor health and journalistic reasonsto pay attention for once and see where I could up myhealthy eatinggame.
BYOS (Bring Your Own Snacks) in effect at the airport.
Heres what I learned.
This is particularly true when it comes to lunch.
I oftendont eat breakfast, which means Im famished by lunchtime.
Beige, beige, beige.
If I decide to have a morning meal, its often a couple of pieces of toast with butter.
Its beige and boring, which I learned is a pattern in my food routine.
(In fact, it’s lesson number two.
Beige, beige, beige.
So is my go-to lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I use regular creamy Skippy or Jif and not-especially-good-for-me strawberry jelly and whatever whole grain bread is lying around.
Mine is often Greek yogurt and about 100 pickled jalapenos.
New and improved dinner, now with colors!
That’s because the phytonutrients that give produce its nutritional goodness are also typically what give it its color.
So the more colors you eat, the more nutrients you’re getting.
My monochrome diet is clearly lacking.
For dinner, convenience reigns supreme.
(Though not on Tater Tuesday, obviously.)
My husband and I eat this ALL.
because its healthy and affordable.
Turoff suggests that I swap my slow cooker rice and beans for chili.
For vegans and vegetarians, they can stick with a variety of beans as their protein source.
For meat eaters, I recommend lean white meat turkey or chicken breast," she says.
But by day three, I am very tired of white bean chili.
I am having flashbacks to an ill-conceived cabbage soup diet from when I was in high school.
Turoff says that the freezer is my friend.
(Cheapand on trend!)
Theres plenty left over, so my husband and I eat said balls again the next evening overcauliflower rice.
I often feel that I have zero self-control come Friday at 5 P.M.
The weekend I start tracking my eating is a hot mess of food and cocktails.
It starts with an Oktoberfest where my dinner consists of a gigantic bowl of sauerkraut and two massive beers.
(Hi, beige!)
We then spend the entire weekend eating out with gluttonous dinners and too much booze.
My one at-home meal is a tortilla with cheese (see lessons numbers two and three).
Turoff warns me not to give into what is sometimes called the “What the hell effect.”
Inhibitions go down and it’s hard to resist the chips and guac.
She tells her clients to balance their choices rather than thinking of healthy eating as an all-or-nothing proposition.
“make a run at think about making one nutritious choice for every not-so-nutritious food choice, she suggests.
For instance, if I have French fries at lunch, then I should eat salad at dinner.
I like this theory.
I travel a lot, and the airport is often where I make the least nutritious food choices.
To combat this tendency, Turoff suggests that I “BYOS,” which is something she lives by.
(Stay tuned for my next story on my all-beef jerky diet.)
Theyre high in protein and very inexpensive.
For lunch, I upgrade my PB&J.
It costs a few extra bucks, its just as delicious and definitely more healthful.
