One And Done

One and Done Turkey Burger

I think one of the hardest parts of this journey has been modifying my eating habits. If you’re anything like me, what you eat is challenging. I’ve gotten some questions at work recently as well as online so I thought I’d do a few posts on what I eat to entertain you guys. Come on now, food is fun! Low fat, low carb, gluten free, no red meat? You ask different experts and you get different answers to what you are supposed to be eating. I was the poster child for the typical American diet. Fast food, microwave meals, cans of soup. If it was low fat or sugar free, it was in high quantity in my house.

I’ve done a complete overhaul on all that and now follow what I call the One And Done eating plan. That’s me, the creative one. I named it myself. I try as best as I can to only buy things with one ingredient – broccoli, chicken, beef, green beans, milk, strawberries, sweet potatoes. You get the idea. I bend the rule slightly if it has a few ingredients but they are all One And Done type items. Have you looked at the ingredient list on a lot of the foods out there. Preservatives, chemical names, things you have to google. I’d rather not at this point.

I love cooking so I have no problem making things from my One And Done ingredient stash. Meat loaf, pasta, stir fry. Even cookies, cakes, and pies can easily be comprised of One And Dones and have you tasted a homemade cookie and compared it to a store bought? Squeals of joy at the thought. I don’t need a Chips Ahoy that crumbles apart when I bite it when I can make my own chewy, warm chocolate chip cookie. Plus I can involve The Kid and bake a batch while bonding. Take that Keebler Elves.

I’m not completely extreme on my eating. I don’t buy organic because I’m cheap and feel that it’s mainly big box companies hiding under the organic guise to charge us more for what we should be getting anyway. (I don’t lump local farmers into this bunch or smaller companies that are environmentally conscious.) I used to never salt anything and avoided red meat. I now salt my food at random and I eat cow-sized portions of red meat. Yet since doing this my energy is through the roof and my cholesterol has dropped almost 100 points and stayed there.

Next time you see someone loading their carts to the brim with Lean Cuisines, fat free baked chips, sugar free jellos, tell them that there is an easier way, not to mention tastier and cheaper. All you need is a little knowledge. One And Done!