a day in the life of a food combiner

So for a very very long time, like 7 years, I ate in a manner called "food combining." Food combining means exactly what it sounds like, it mean eating in a manner that combines certain food groups with other food groups, for optimal digestion and to promote weight loss. When done correctly, it includes all food groups, whole real foods, and no processed foods. It doesn't mean cutting out complex carbs, but it does mean cutting out simple carbs. So, you don't "have" to eat those complex carbs every day, but at least 3 or 4 days a week, you need to substitute out breakfast to be carbs, like oatmeal. :)  The basic rules are that fruit should be eaten alone, at least 30 minutes before any meal or 2 hours after, making it a perfect mid morning snack. (I personally don't eat fruit at night because its got lots of sugar.) Carbs are also eaten alone, 3 hours apart from proteins. 

Recently, since taking up DDP Yoga, (wow, since June 2013! that's actually a while ago, isn't it?) I have been playing around with food combining again and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get more in line with it over the next few months. When I did it seriously, I lost really well and ate really well. 

I used Suzanne Somers program, called "Somersize." There are 5 o 6 books, but my favorite is Get Skinny on Fabulous Foods. Here's what a typical day looked like for me:

Breakfast:

2 eggs, scrambled with spinach, onions, green peppers, and a bit of feta cheese or goat cheese.

cup of decaf with a splash of heavy cream

Morning snack:

A bowl of berries or a banana, or an orange, fruit basically.

Lunch:

I like to have a really big salad, with some manchego, avocado, lettuce, celery, radishes, etc., as well as chopped up ham or some turkey. I usually make a dressing with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Yum!

Afternoon snack:

veggies - I Love to cut up a gigantic red bell pepper to snack on

Dinner:

meat and veggies

It is a lot of food, and it's good, whole real food. You won't be hungry, and you'll lose weight. When you go out to eat, it's pretty easy these days. I order a steak or chicken or whatever meat, and then veggies and ask for extra veggies instead of potatoes or other starch. 

Now. All of this said, I modify a bit. I do eat potatoes now and again. In fact, sometimes I will have just a potato with coconut oil and lots of veggies. I use coconut oil instead of butter! It's great and so healthy. Also, nuts and seeds are supposed to be avoided, but I like hemp hearts in my oatmeal, and they have big health benefits. 

For an evening snack, I've been enjoying chia seed chocolate pudding. There are recipes all over the web, but my favorite is to take a medium size bowl and combine 1/4 cup chia seeds, 2 cups almond milk, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, 1 tablespoon of maca powder and 1 heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder. I whisk it all together really well, first thing in the morning, and by evening, it is delicious! This makes more than one serving. I can get 3-4 servings out of it.  Yum!

That's about it. This way of eating is quite easy to do, once you understand the rules, and as long as you follow it as closely as you can and don't get crazy, it isn't stressful. When you start to get too regimented, it's not so good, and can be overwhelming. Oh yes, and being dairy free and gluten free makes it more interesting as well! I am loving goat manchego cheese (we actually found cow manchego so I'm being specific), chevre (the kind with herbs is yummy in eggs!), feta (be careful that it's not cow feta), as well as almond milk. I really don't eat a lot of gluten anymore, gluten free pasta is pretty easy to find, heck you can get it at Costco! so that's not really a problem. :) 

Have a great day!