From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue May 06 2003 - 22:24:45 MDT
Reason wrote,
> 2) vegetable and tofu stir fries (easy to calculate calories by the bowl)
> 3) vegetable fried rice (again with tofu)
Besides tofu, I also use wheat gluten, sometimes called wheat meat or
seitan. It has an even higher protein/calorie ratio than tofu. The brand I
get has a box of "stir fry strips" yielding 55 grams of protein in only 250
calories. This is a whole plate of fake veggie meat. For a while I was
eating two of these a day, but decided I didn't need 110 grams of protein,
even though it was only 500 calories.
Either way left over a thousand calories for trying to get veggies and
nutrients in. Being a high-protein meat-like dish made if filling and
satisfying. The only problem is making it taste different every time. I
used dozens of various sauces, steak sauce, worcestershire, pepper sauce,
etc. I also sauteed onions, garlic, tomatoes, veggies, mushrooms, and other
combinations of stir fries. They made great fajitas, but the wrapper had
more calories than the filling.
> I don't get hungry or fatigued on this diet, and can eat a modest amount 3
> times a day within the 1500kcal limit. It also allows a lot variety within
> the form. I would get hungry if I substituted 1 burger into the
> mix for the equivalent amount of rice, I suspect.
I also never got hungry or fatigued when I was under 1500 calories/day. I
have heard of these side-effects, plus mental fuzziness and lack of sex
drive, but never experienced these unless I went below 1000 calories/day. I
don't think I could stick to any diet that had side-effects like that. I
also wonder if one is doing damage to one's body if there are major
side-effects. It was easy for me to believe I was on a healthy diet while I
felt good and full of energy. I can't imagine feeling poorly or losing
mental and physical abilities, and still claiming that I was getting optimum
nutrition.
I personally found it easier to skip breakfast or eat a very small breakfast
(like 80-calorie diet yogurt), and have two slightly larger meals. I also
shaved 100 calories off each day to allow me to eat an extra 700 calories
when I wanted to splurge. About once a week I would suddenly get caught in
a social situation where I needed to eat out, and I would use the extra
calories to add to my meal at that time. I also kept meticulous logs of
everything I ate (protein and calories especially), and kept my average
where I wanted it. If I ate extra one day, I would skimp the next day to
make it come up even. If I was short protein one day, I made sure to make
it up the next day. Conversely, if I had to work through lunch, I would
allow myself a double-sized meal.
Lots of water is important. I made a lot of lemonade (with Splenda) or
unsweetened herbal teas. When I felt like soda, I would drink Diet Rite
(with Splenda, because NutriSweet tastes awful to me). I also used various
citrus-flavored Seltzer waters. All of these drinks had zero calories, but
could be used to give me some flavor so I wasn't drinking only water all the
time.
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC, IBMCP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> <www.Newstaff.com>
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