I ordered this little book, Food Rules, by Michael Pollan, which contains 64 basic principles about food and nutrition. It arrives tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to reading it.
I know I just got done a short time ago with a post here in which I whittled it down to “Real food. Mostly. Not too much of it. Avoid sugar. Avoid wheat.” But that is, in fact, extremely basic, so I’m open to the idea that there can be more specific guidelines, without the rules having to get all crazy out of control.
I can imagine some of the points that will be contained in this book. A lot of it I probably already know, so it will just serve as a refresher course. In the meantime, thinking about this whole issue of food and nutrition and health and weight loss, I looked backwards at the times in my life when I have lost weight and felt great, and it seems that I have some basic principles of my own.
I’m going to list them here, as a refresher for myself, and also in anticipation of receiving this book in the mail tomorrow. I wonder how many of my points will mirror the points in this book.
Okay, here goes.
My Lucky Thirteen for Weight Loss and Good Health
1. Avoid eating white flour as much as possible. (After being exposed to the ideas in Wheat Belly, by Dr. William Davis, I’m expanding this to “Avoid eating wheat products.”)
2. Avoid eating foods with white sugar.
3. An apple, a banana and a citrus a day…well, you know the rest…
4. Eat a salad for lunch.
5. Eat dinner as early as possible, and don’t eat anything else after dinner.
6. Don’t drink soda.
7. Don’t drink alcohol.
8. Drink a LOT of water.
9. Eat limited amounts of red meat.
10. Eat a lot of salmon.
11. Grazing is okay.
12. Eat oatmeal (and sometimes it’s okay to have oatmeal for dinner!)
13. Plain yogurt is okay.
Now, I’m not saying I do all of this all the time, but the more of these principles I incorporate into my everyday life, the better I feel, and the more weight I lose. It’s worked for me in the past, and it’s working for me again.
There’s definitely something to be said for Experience being the best teacher.
