Keeping Healthy: Diet

In a few days I'll be celebrating my fifty-seventh birthday.  As the years go by it has become more and more important to counteract the effects of aging with good diet and exercise.  I'll share some of the practices I've developed and am currently following, starting with diet in this piece and exercise in the next.

The three goals I have with diet are focused on getting results concerning the issues of weight, cholesterol and antioxidants.  The means to get good results have to be realistic for me, meaning that I can't set a regimen so restrictive I can't follow it.  That means I have had to commit most of it to habit, and I have to allow myself some exceptions and treats from time to time to stay sane.  I am 5'8" tall and weigh 160 pounds.

Let's start with breakfast.  I eat after my morning exercise and shower.  My typical breakfast Monday through Saturday includes a bowl of cereal with 1% milk.  I like some variety, so I have a rotation of six cereals that I rotate from day to day.  I buy cereals without high fructose corn syrup and added sugar.  Yes, I have had to read the ingredient labels.  I look for ones that have higher fiber content.  To save you some time, those criteria eliminate Kellogg's products!  My rotation includes Shredded Wheat, Kashi Go Lean, Raisin Bran, Grape Nuts, Wheat Chex and Cream of Wheat.  The Chex are a little marginal nutritionally, but as I said, I get a bit of a treat now and then!  I heat up the Cream of Wheat on Saturday because I have more time that day, not having to go to work. 

I throw six to eight blueberries, three to four blackberries or raspberries and half a banana, cut up into bite-sized slices in there.   The berries are great for innumerable vitamins and powerful antioxidant effects.  Antioxidants work to prevent the basic biochemical deterioration that is at the heart of the aging process itself.  I also have a 12-ounce glass of water and eight ounces of prune juice and another fruit juice.  I know that's a lot of hydration, but remember I have breakfast after a good workout.  Most of us don't get enough fluids as it is.  I'm careful with the fruit juices.  I drink 100% prune juice and Healthy Balance fruit juices or 100% orange juice.  The Trim brand is good too, but our market doesn't carry it anymore.  It's easy to buy junk fruit juices that are full of sugar and calories.  I read the labels and avoid those.

I also take supplements with my breakfast.  The list includes Vitamin C, a B-Complex, Fish Oil for good antioxidant and cholesterol-fighting properties, Oscal with D and Calcium, Glucosamine, and a Centrum Silver multivitamin.  Yep, that's six tablets.    

On Sunday I typically splurge and have eggs and toast with canola margarine.  Sometimes I'll fry some lean turkey to go with the eggs.  I continue with the fruit and vitamins.

Lunch at work has become a consistent routine.  I have an apple or orange, a 4-ounce Activia lowfat yogurt, a couple of cherry tomatoes, about a dozen almonds and a handful of walnut halves with water to drink.  It's low-cal yet high in energy, vitamins and minerals, and promotes the good cholesterol.  If I need an afternoon snack I'll have some peanut butter, sometimes on soda crackers (unsalted tops!).  Breakfast and lunch have really come to be comfortable and ingrained as habits.  That makes the pattern easy to follow.

My keys at dinner are not as regimented, but incorporate some basic principles.  I have red meat no more than once a week.  Frozen or otherwise pre-prepared meals are as rare as hen's teeth, since they're usually full of fats and preservatives, often including way too much salt.  Speaking of which, I do not put salt on anything other than corn on the cob, which I love but have maybe twice a year during the summer.  In order to fill up before the high-calorie items I always start with the salad and/or vegetables and always drink plenty of water.  In fact, one dinner a week is customarily a salad meal.  Potatoes and other starch like rice are OK as long as they're not smothered in stuff like butter and gravy, other than once in awhile as a treat.

Stuff like chips and sodas have disappeared altogether.  When they're not around they're not even a temptation anymore, and I don't miss them, even though I used to be a Diet Coke junkie.  I confess I have taken lately to frequently having a little square of dark chocolate after dinner.  It does have antioxidant effects, and that's all the rationalization I need, there!  And it helps to allow yourself to go out at least monthly or have a splurge meal once on the weekend.  Few can stick to a fairly strict pattern without a break now and then without getting frustrated and chucking the whole thing, and I feel that's a main reason most diets fail.  I've been doing this for a few years though, and am very happy with it.  I feel better, get sick less, and have seen improved blood tests and energy longer at work.