Many people ask me about my diet and what I eat so I’m outlining it here with the hope you might find something that you can apply to your own situation.
As a disclaimer, I’m not a nutritionist, a dietitian or a doctor. I’m just a yoga instructor.. 🙂 I will say I have more energy now than I had in my 20s, and my mood is generally happy. I think a big part of that has to do with my diet.
I also think it is important to say that I believe every human body is different and there isn’t a “one size fits all” diet. Your body is influenced by genetics, environment, lifestyle, stress levels, and age. You and I might eat the exact same diet with different results. You will need to tune into your own body to figure out what works. That said, regarding what I personally eat, here it goes…
I’m an incredibly repetitive eater so I have a few basic dishes I cycle through every week.
- For breakfast I pretty much always eat 2% fat Greek yogurt and 3 brazil nuts with a little cinnamon on top. Why do I eat this? A high protein breakfast is important. Cinnamon helps regulate your blood sugar (and I like the taste). Brazil nuts give you selenium and selenium has a wide variety of health benefits. I also like the taste. 🙂 I almost never skip breakfast.
- For lunch I usually eat basic tomato sauce I make myself. It’s easy and full of nutrients. Lately I’ve been going more low carb so now I eat konjac noodles with the tomato sauce and I mix in some walnuts for protein and nutrients. Then I eat one serving of this raw fudge.
- For dinner I usually eat a giant green salad from romaine and red leaf lettuce, lemon juice, sunflower seeds, salt, pepper, and olive oil. And since that still leaves me a bit hungry, I’ll have a serving of something from the recipes page here.
My food goals are always the same—high nutrients, low to no sugar/fructose.
A few other things that work for me:
- When I eat out, I’m relaxed about my diet but when I’m home, I’m very strict. I find this balance lets me enjoy my life and still eat well.
- I think white sugar is poison and don’t even want it in the house.
- I haven’t eaten meat since I was a teenager though I do eat fish. I think most of us can be quite healthy on a vegetarian or pescatarian diet.
- I’m not Paleo but I’ve been going gluten and grain free more and more and that’s working really well for me. I seem to have more energy with less wheat.
- Over the summer, I tried the Keto diet for 30 days. While I find it a little strict to keep up year round, I follow a lot of the principles and am eating low carb these days.
- I have found that my body is really sensitive to sugar and fructose so I keep to a really low fructose diet. You can learn more about a low fructose diet here. And the interesting thing I learned is that my thoughts are different when I don’t eat sugar. I’m happier, less irritable and don’t think about the past/worry about the future as much on a low sugar/fructose diet. Who knew? 🙂
- I drink the juice from at least 3-4 lemons a day (I just squeeze the lemons into regular water and drink it). I also drink lots and lots of water…
- I’ve learned my particular body is not sensitive to caffeine. This is probably because I was severely asthmatic when I was young, and the asthma medication left me fairly insensitive to caffeine. I can easily drink coffee and go to sleep immediately afterwards. I point this out just to illustrate how each body is different. The common guidance is to avoid caffeine and while I agree with that as a general guideline, with my body it doesn’t seem to matter much.
I hope this helps! Some general guidelines that I imagine apply to almost all of us:
–avoid white sugar and white flour. They aren’t good for you.
–focus on high nutrient food.
–drink lots of water.
–figure out your own body. 🙂
If anyone reading lives in Athens and is having trouble finding the ingredients you need, feel free to email me at lynn@lynnroulo.com. I constantly add to the recipes page so check back for updates.
thanks for reading!