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Nelland Living

August 1, 2013 /

Eating Plan for Lughnasadh

I have always loved to compose eating plans for myself. They make life so much easier, because they eliminate the trouble of daily pondering on what to cook. With a plan I know what to make, and can be sure I get enough variety in my diet.

  Healthy food and decadent desserts have always been my thing. Eating is fun, I admit, and I like to eat until my stomach is really full. The secret to staying in my normal weight range by eating a lot, is paying attention to what I eat. This eating plan does just that. I can eat as much as I want, and still not gain weight.
  In my plan for Lughnasadh I draw influence from the Japanese and macrobiotic cooking. In Litha I focused on cutting out excess fat from my diet, and now it is time to tackle sugar.
  Our family is plagued by a large sweet tooth. I totally blame my Grandfather (easy to blame someone who has already passed away =)!  He was a positive, friendly, and happy man, my hero. But the sweet tooth on him… oh dear. For as far back to my childhood, as I can remember, he only had two of his own teeth left. He used fasle teeth of course, so the two didn´t stand out  in any way. But his two own teeth were a legend even when he was still here with us. He had even named his teeth. One was Max and the other Moritz. And I´m sure those bad guys are the sweet teeth behind all of the genes that make me like sugar so much. Bad teeth! They made my grandpa grab chunks of pure sugar from the coffee table, after everything else, the cakes and cookies, were already cleaned out. Despite of all the sugary foods he ate, Max and Moritz endured until the end of his days.

Here is my Max and Moritz-defying eating plan:

 

 

 

Breakfast:
Mon – Fri:
cooked whole grains (brown rice, rolled oats or barley, quinoa, millet, etc.)
miso soup (water, 1-2 types of vegetables, sea salt, tofu/legumes, 1 tsp miso paste)
salad (greens topped with a pinch of salt, and served with a wedge of lemon)
Sat – Sun:
whole grain bread with 1 tsp agave syrup per slice
a green juice/smoothie (1 cup of greens, 5 cm piece of cucumber, 1 apple, a dash of lemon juice blended in a blender until smooth)
Lunch:
sandwich (filled with raw or cooked veggies, tofu/bean mash seasoned with soy sauce, green leaves, all seasoned with balsamic vinegar)
herbal infusion to drink
Dinner:
cooked grains (quinoa and corn, brown rice, barley, noodles, etc.)
cooked veggies (any seasonal, alone or mixed)
skillet-fried protein (bean patties, tofu, textured soy protein chunks, or fish once in ten days)
Evening snack:
berries with plain or vanilla flavoured soy yogurt

(if more hungry, rice cakes with a little coconut oil and honey)

 

 

 

Breakfast salad: simple seasonal greens, a pinch of sea salt, served with a wedge of lemon.

 

 

 

Breakfast soup: textured vegetable protein or tofu, some veggie(s), a pinch of sea salt, water, and 1 tsp miso.

 

 

 

Breakfast grain pictured: rolled barley flakes cooked in water with a pinch of sea salt.
An eating plan is a guideline, not a rule, so I can go with the flow and make exceptions to it if I want. The plan is here to help me, not to restrict me! But it often turns out I rarely get the sudden burst of extra energy and time to prepare something extraordinarily fantastic, out of the plan. After all, I do live in the real world, not a fantasy land.
  Happy days!
-Nella-

P.S. If you want to see my eating plan for Litha, to which I referred, you can go to my blog Greetings From Nelland!