T-Dot's Eating Manifesto

I'm tired. It's only 12 days into the new year and I'm already tired.

It didn't come from the high butter dishes over Christmas. This fatigue set in since the New Year began. And I think it has a lot to do with my diet.

I'm a notoriously bad eater. I love to cook, but I'm also lazy, settling for fast food, conveniences and we all know I love some Ramen.

I think it's starting to catch up to me. That, and my lack of sleep. But that's another post.

So I figure what could it hurt to eat a little more healthfully? A little more whole? A little more like Setta B?

I browsed through Food Rules, the new hype book about how we should eat. The advice is boiled down essentially to this rule: "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly vegetables."

Sounds easy enough. A flip through the book suggests eating plants -- not anything that was made in a plant. I thought about that book as I drove home from work today. I'd slugged through the last 4 hours of work, even after I'd had half a salad with rotisserie chicken breast for lunch.

I wasn't up to cooking (really, the tub is calling my name) so I considered ordering out or *gasp* making some Ramen, though I knew it wasn't good for me. On the ride home, I vowed to myself that I'd buy real food when I went to the store to reup my pantry. Though I wondered to myself what I would do when I got home.

Women's Health to the rescue. A few months ago, they released an issue with the best packaged foods for women. I'm a fan of the magazine, and I'm all for making small changes with big results, so I picked up a few. An antioxident veggie blend was served with baked salmon and risotto a few days ago. And today, I'm pulling out a stir fry mix with noodles and cooking it with shrimp and some soy sauce.

My plans to be healthier, this time, were actually backed up by my eating habits. I've been doing better on drinking more water (64 ounces a day, playa!).

Anyway, I've decided I need to get a little more serious about eating well. Here are a few of the things I'm going to try to do:

• Eat few foods with ingredients that I can't pronounce.
• Buy fresh. If not possible, buy frozen. Not canned.
  
• More water, less juice.
  
• Eat veggies and protein as often as possible (no more Ramen solo for dinner!)
• Eat the fruit instead of drinking the juice. If drinking juice, check the ingedient list

This is evolving as I learn. If you have suggestions, let me know. I'll keep you guys updated on my progress.

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