A Closer Look at My Personal Eating Habits

Based on some of the questions I get about my diet, I thought it might be helpful to write about my personal eating habits in detail. Since I often say that a healthy diet doesn’t have to be overly elaborate or time consuming, I think it’s only right that I explain from experience how it can be done.

Although my interest in preparing elaborate meals is growing, I generally don’t like to cook, especially not on a regular basis. However, I’m dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to support my health and wellbeing with excellent nutrition. Based on these factors, nutritional quality and efficiency are the focal points of my diet. Although my meals would never be mistaken for the work of a gourmet chef, I’m able to follow a very healthy and satisfying diet without having to dedicate a lot of time to it. By reading about my eating habits, hopefully you’ll realize that healthy eating doesn’t have to be as difficult or complicated as you may think.

The Advantages of Cooking in Bulk

I’m never faced with the prospect of eating unhealthy food as a result of being hungry and too tired or busy to prepare a decent meal. This is because I prepare my meals in advance and always have one waiting for me whenever it’s time to eat.

I designate two days per week for meal preparation, which are usually Sundays and Thursdays, and prepare 3 meals for each day of the week. This amounts to 12 meals that are prepared on Sundays and 9 on Thursdays. Sometimes it will be less if I know I’m going to eat out which is sometimes the case on weekends. On the night before a cooking day, I’ll let a bowl of nuts soak overnight to neutralize the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors. The first thing I do the next day when I start preparing the meals is to put a few different types of meat or fish in the oven. I bake these foods in glass because it’s the most inert type of material to cook with and I coat it with coconut oil to prevent sticking and add nutritional value. I also cook at low temperatures, usually about 170 degrees Fahrenheit, to minimize the amount of heat damage incurred by the food.

I store each of my meals in a glass Pyrex container to avoid exposure to the toxins found in plastic. While the meat or fish is baking, I take out a Pyrex container for each meal and add vegetables and nuts to each one. Once the meat is ready, I cut it into bite size pieces, divide it up among the containers, and pour oil over each meal. I then put a lid on each container and store them in the refrigerator. In my experience, the meals start to degrade after 3 days of being in the refrigerator, so when there are 12 meals, I put the last 3 in the freezer. In total, it takes between 1 and 2 hours to prepare this many meals which isn’t bad at all, especially considering that it only has to be done twice per week. If you’d like to save even more time, you can prepare all of your meals for the entire week in one session.

I usually eat breakfast and lunch at work, and to be sure that I always have healthy food, I pack two meals in a reusable lunch bag each morning along with two Klean Kanteen canisters filled with filtered water.

The Art of Reheating at Room Temperature

In case you’re wondering, I don’t eat my meals immediately after taking them out of the refrigerator. However, I don’t reheat my meals either. I simply take them out of the refrigerator shortly before eating and let them warm up to room temperature. Although I prefer my food to be a bit warmer, I’d rather not cause any additional damage to the food by reheating it, and eating it at a lower temperature doesn’t bother me. Besides, simply letting it warm to room temperature is very convenient.

The Convenience of a Rotation Diet

The purpose of a rotation diet is to minimize the possibility of developing food sensitivities by not eating the same foods on consecutive days. A nice benefit of following such a plan is that it encourages variety, and when preparing meals in advance, it also adds convenience.

Although some people question the need of a rotation diet, many people who are tested for food sensitivities find that they’re sensitive to foods that they eat frequently. In the past, this has clearly been the case for me with a number of foods, and I’ve even developed new sensitivities by making the mistake of eating other foods too frequently while avoiding the original sensitivities. Fortunately, this is less likely to happen with a healthy digestive system, but most people’s digestion is not as good as they think. It’s not necessary to be obsessive with a rotation diet, but eating the same foods on a daily basis, or close to it, is a risk that I think isn’t worth taking.

Because oils don’t contain protein, they’re generally not as much of a concern, and I usually alternate them every other day. With all other foods, I usually follow a 3 day schedule. Each day, I’ll typically eat the same meal 3 times and won’t have any of the same foods again until at least 3 days later. Some people may find this painfully boring, but I don’t mind it at all, and it actually makes meal planning and preparation much easier. Because I tend to be a very habitual person, following a rotation diet has the added benefit of forcing me to eat a greater variety of foods.

My Typical Meal

Imagine a Pyrex dish that is roughly 7″ x 5″ x 2″ filled with a base of vegetables and some soaked nuts, packed full of meat or seafood, and topped with oil. This is generally what I eat 90% to 95% of the time. Each meal usually contains about 10 or 11 ounces of meat with all of its fat fully intact, about 1 cup of vegetables, a small handful of nuts, and about 2 tablespoons of oil. Although the amount of protein and fat that I eat may be shocking to some, I have learned through personal experience and the principles of nutritional individuality that this is what’s best for me.

The Foods I Eat and Where I Buy Them

With the exception of one or two meals per week, my diet is based entirely on natural whole foods. The types of meat I eat most frequently are beef, pork, chicken thighs, and turkey thighs, all of which are pasture raised. I buy most of it directly from a farmer and sometimes buy from U.S. Wellness Meats and Blackwing Quality Meats. I also tend to order fatty cuts of beef and pork because they help to satisfy my appetite and I think they simply taste better. As such, it should be obvious that I consider saturated fat to be healthy and don’t believe that it causes heart disease.

I’ve never liked seafood much, but I include it in my diet because I think it’s one of the most nutritious types of food available. Salmon and shrimp are my two primary sources of seafood, and although I wouldn’t consider them my favorite foods, I’ve grown to enjoy them. I also like scallops but rarely eat them because of their price. Based on my hesitations about polluted water and farmed fish, I buy all of my salmon and shrimp from Vital Choice Seafood and Organics which is the most reputable and pure source of seafood that I’m aware of.

The vegetables that I tend to eat most frequently are spinach leaves, mixed greens, green beans, peas, squash, carrots, and sometimes sweet potatoes which I enjoy thoroughly. To help maintain good digestive health, I include a healthy portion of fermented vegetables in each meal, usually in the form of sauerkraut, red cabbage, or beets. Unfortunately, I haven’t been overly impressed by the local farmers markets that I’ve been to. As such, I usually buy my fruits, vegetables, and nuts, all of which are grown organically, from my local health food store. What I don’t buy there, my wife will buy at a local supermarket that has a decent selection of organic produce.

The oil that I top my meals with for added fat and flavor is usually either melted coconut oil or ghee, and the nuts that I include are usually macadamia nuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds, or pecans. I sometimes add avocado as well. I buy coconut oil in one gallon buckets from Mountain Rose Herbs and buy the raw organic nuts from my local health food store.

What About Fruit?

Even though I don’t include it in my regular meals, I do eat fruit. Although I don’t eat a lot of it, I’ll usually have a piece of fruit before working out or playing tennis, and sometimes after as well. On occasion, I’ll also have a whole piece of fruit along with a meal, especially when I’m feeling fatigued and suspect that I haven’t been eating enough carbohydrates. The fruits that I typically eat include pears, plums, peaches, apples, and bananas. The reason why I don’t eat a lot of fruit is because it’s relatively high in sugar, and even though it’s natural sugar, it still tends to disrupt the balance of my mood and energy if I eat more than a small to moderate amount of it.

The Foods I don’t Eat

In case you haven’t noticed, my basic diet is completely free of grain and dairy as well as processed foods that are high in sugar and refined carbohydrates. On occasion, I do indulge in these foods in moderation, but never as part of my regular meals. Because I react negatively to gluten, I always avoid foods that contain it. Now that my digestion is much better than it used to be, I also plan on gradually introducing some raw dairy into my diet, especially in fermented form.

What I’d Like to Eat More Of

Although my diet works very well for me, it’s not perfect, and I always regard it as a work in progress. In fact, there are several improvements that I’d like to make in the near future, the most significant being the addition of organ meat. Our primitive ancestors preferred organ meat over muscle meat which makes it an important part of our evolution, and as such, it’s probably not by coincidence that organ meat is very nutritious. It’s rich in vitamin D, vitamin A, essential fatty acids, and a number of other vitamins and minerals. The only type of organ meat that I’ve tried is liver and I thought it was absolutely disgusting. As such, I’ll have to bring myself to try other types of organ meats and be more creative with how I prepare them.

I’d like to add some sea vegetables to my diet as well, particularly kelp which is rich in iodine and other important minerals. Despite the fact that I don’t eat a lot of fruit, I’d also like to eat berries such as blueberries and strawberries that are high in antioxidants and would make a great addition to healthy homemade desserts.

Don’t Try This at Home

The only reason why I’m sharing my eating habits with you is to show how a healthy diet can be a simple and efficient system that doesn’t consume an unreasonable amount of time. Even if my food choices appeal to you, don’t use my diet as a template unless you have good reason to believe that you too are better off eating more protein and fat. As Hippocrates once said, “one man’s food is another man’s poison.”

Although the proportions of food that I eat are always satisfying to me and leave me feeling great, my wife’s dietary needs are the complete opposite of mine and she probably couldn’t even bring herself to finish one of my meals. Similarly, the type of meals that she eats, which are higher in carbohydrate, would never satisfy my appetite and would cause undesirable fluctuations in my mood and energy. This is why some people feel great while following popular fad diets while others feel miserable. If you’d like to learn more about your individual needs, I suggest you look into Metabolic Typing.

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