April's Low Tech, Happy, Easy Version of CR

I promised some new readers some more food-related content, since if you're looking for ideas for what to eat on a daily basis, you might not have found much in the last few days to help you.

Today I'm having one of my very low tech CR weekdays. Here's what I'm eating today:

280 calories of fat free cottage cheese, 42 g protein, 70% of the RDA of calcium. I mix a little tabasco into it. I had some for breakfast and some with lunch.

For lunch along with half the container of cottage cheese, I ate about a cup and a half of my gazpachzo that I made on Saturday. It has organic whole peeled tomatoes, blended in the food processor with red bell pepper, cucumber, the juice of one lemon, and a large clove of garlic. I added paprika and cumin, a tablespoon of lemon herb olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. I add tabasco to it before eating... as you may have guessed, I like spicy food.

Tonight I'll eat my brewers yeast soup, which is made of two cups free range organic chicken broth mixed with two tablespoons brewers yeast, a little salt, and half a bag of frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. That has 221 calories and is very warm and filling. The brewers yeast solves a lot of my nutritional problems, like iron and copper, and I like the taste. I've also learned to like nuts, so lately I've been eating about 200 calories of hazelnuts or almonds at night. Those are really filling. I think I'll stick with the hazelnuts that I've had the last couple of days because I'm not tempted to overeat them, as I sometimes am with almonds. When I was little, I hated nuts, but have grown to like them, no doubt a sign of emotional maturity.

My favorite thing to do at night is to curl up in bed with a bunch of blankets, a glass of red wine, and a good article... back in the early days it was all stuff directly related to CR, and mostly about specific food choices, but lately I've been on an Aubrey de Grey kick. More on that later.

My whole day, added up carefully in Dr. Walford's Interactive Diet Planner, comes up to 990 calories. It's got over 100% of the RDA's of everything except: iron 54%, manganese 90%, and zinc 44%. Not bad for under 1000! And check this out (you have to have been reading the blog for awhile to know why this is so exciting for me: 30% protein, 34% fat, 36% carbs! When I started CR, my idea of protein for the day was one hard boiled egg, and I thought oil was something you put in cars. Lots of normal people think that all fat is bad, but some kinds of fats are really important. I've tried it both ways, and I feel so much better now. I especially notice when I don't get enough protein. The high carb roller coaster makes you think you want things you don't. Like bagels. Or Dunkin Donuts coffee with cream and sugar. Or tickets to a Brittney Spears concert. Or whatever.

So that's my day. Low calorie, great nutrition, and I'm never particularly hungry. Also note: all my food is very easy to prepare. The cottage cheese I just buy in large containers, the gazpachzo I made in about twenty minutes on Saturday, and the soup takes maybe five minutes to prepare at night. Nuts live in the freezer, wine keeps with a stopper in the fridge (the wine store people say to put it in a sealed glass jam jar to keep it fresher, but I have a thing about opening jars so I don't.)

It took me a long time to develop an easy CR lifestyle that works for me, and it might take you some time and effort too. What you eat is so personal... what you like, what you're willing to make time for, how much hassle you're willing to put up with from the people in your family and social circles. If you're new to CR, try some of the things I do, but try other things too. Read Mary's blog at www.crdiary.blogspot.com, and see how two women eating similar calorie levels eat radically different things, but still great great ON! There's no one way to eat. Try it and see what works for you.

But I beg of you: buy yourself some nutritional software. Nutribase, DWIDP, whatever. I thought I was eating healthy before I bought my software, and the first time I put a "good" day into the DWIDP, I almost died of shock. It's worth the $48 to know that you're giving your body what it needs. You'll feel the difference, I promise. Just go do it. Go do it now. Go on. Click on www.walford.com. You're wasting your time trying to figure out what to eat until you have the software. And no, I do not have any financial connection to walford.com, or really to much of anything. Just buy the software. And eat your protein. Please. I promise, you'll be glad you did. It'll change your whole life.