This is Day 3 of the 21-Day Journaling Challenge held in Nov 2011. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.
Hi everyone – Welcome to Day 3 of 21DJC! :)
Yesterday’s question was this: “If you are to do something for free for the rest of your life, what would it be?“. (Read the responses here.) Some of you said you’d want to travel around the world and explore new places. Some of you said you’d want to grow and learn forever. Some of you said you’d want to pursue your passions, which may include writing, cooking, baking, blogging, developing games, motorcycling, write music, planting, fashion, recording music, coaching, caring for animals, and more. Some of you said you’d want to help others – be it to grow, to discover themselves, to be better people, or to live better lives.
3 years ago, I asked myself this very question. If I am to do something for free for the rest of my *life*, what would it be? The answer that came out is exactly what you see me doing today. It’s to grow and help others to grow. It’s to be spreading my message to the world, be it via writing, coaching, speaking, running courses, videos, or other mediums. (Essentially, what I’m doing now.) It’s to inspire others to become greater than who they are now, so they can in turn inspire others around them to be the same.
The reason why I asked myself the question is this – We only have one life to live. We have the ability in us to do whatever we want, and to succeed in whatever we want. Instead of wasting our talents doing something that we don’t even have the passion to do forever, why not spend all that energy, starting from today, in something we’re really, truly, 110% passionate about? Why not devote ourselves 110% into what we really want to do, rather than do something because we think we ‘have’ to, and do a half-assed job in it? Why not do that, and make that your career instead?
I mean, no matter how “skilled” or “unskilled” you are in it now, you only have, like, the rest of your life to develop your skills in it. It’s only a matter of time before you’re the best in that field, really. (10,000 hours is all that it takes)
In doing so, it doesn’t even feel like work. It doesn’t even require any energy to do it. It’s virtually effortless. I made that shift 3 years ago, and while there were a few months of down time to develop myself in a new field, today I’m soaking in the long-term rewards from the move. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life, and I want you to experience the joy too.
The articles in my How To Pursue Your Passion series will help you in this area.
Let’s now move on to the question for Day 3 of 21DJC! ;)
21DJC Day 3
For Day 3 today, we’re going to explore a slightly different topic from Days 1 and 2. In Day 1, we looked at what we would do if we have a million dollars. In Day 2, we delved into some of our deepest, life long passions – things we would do for free for the rest of our life. For Day 3, we’re going to look at something lifestyle-related.
The question for Day 3 is this:
What is Your Ideal Diet Like?
Would it consist of happy meals, deep fried food and junk food? Would it be prepacked, micro-waved meals from the supermarkets? Would it be laden with fat? Would it be filled with meat? Would it be rich with vegetables and fruits? Would it be specially prepared, home cooked meals made by you, for you? What would your ideal breakfast, lunch, dinner be like? How much, how often, and when would you eat every day? What would your cue to eat?
Your Task Today:
- Reflect and answer today’s question. There’s no word limit – whether minimum or maximum. Write as few or as many words as you want. It’s all up to what you want to express!
- Share your answer. After you are done writing, copy and paste your answer in the comments area and post it there.
- Check out other participants’ answers. Other participants will be sharing their answers too, so feel free to read and reply to their answers. This is a group course, so let’s support each other in these 21 days.
((Images: Empty book for journaling, Vegetables wrapped in measuring tape))
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Lots of fresh foods. I’d be eating mainly raw foods, but with some cooked things as well for comfort/pleasure purposes. Key words for me in my diet are vegetarian, low GL, raw, fresh, seasonal, gluten-free, creative, conscious, healthy. By “creative” I mean that I can cook up almost anything from a few basic ingredients, and I’m also willing to use a variety of herbs and spices. I’d also do it with as little money as I can get away with, although I’d be prepared to make the investment. In my dream diet I wouldn’t be doing any emotional eating at all. I would enjoy some really high-quality sweets and chocolates but I wouldn’t feel like I “need” to eat them to feel calm. Recently I have actually made enjoying good chocolate a meditation-like activity: I make eating it the centre of my focus when I do so. I’d also like to home-make a lot of my food, although I have no great interest in actually growing my own food.
My Diet , Well it has changed a lot over the years and I sorta like where it is now . I love ground turkey so I eat a lot of that . and I also like fish . I love collard greens and green beans ,and pumpkin and squash . I am sure I do not drink enough water . I do like coffee in the morn black . and tea ,fresh from the leaves ! in the evening . Awhile ago I did wt watchers . after I quit smoking I gained some wt . love that plan shows you how to eat healthy and in what portion . So for now my diet is pretty healty ,not a lot of junk food and rarely do I do fast food .
Hey hey. I like it that you manage to stay off the junk & fast food.
But you get a thumbs-up for quitting ciggies!
My ideal diet would provide me with energy in abundance of my daily needs. It would also eliminate toxins and not create more toxins. It would be rich in vegetables and fruits. I would have some fiber cereal and fruit for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and lean protein and veggies for dinner. For a treat, certainly chocolate is in order. I would eat when hungry and hopefully get into a regular eating routine (bodies like to be fed regularly).
My ideal diet consists of much carbohydrates and starch. This is so, because, being a person who works out on a daily basis, i simply need that boost of extra energy to keep me going through out the day.So i would eat a lot of foods like cereals,rice, potatoes, and most food in this category. I will add a lot of fruits especially mangoes, grapes and mandarin. I am not into green vegetables very much, but i make sure that i consume ample potion daily,especially when i get it prepared well. I also drink a lot of freshly brewed fruit juices, my favourate being of course mango and orange. I also add on grape fruit juice. Fish is mostly part of my diet as i go for that high proteins,even though i include a bit of meat or chicken sometimes.I also drink a lot of milk especially in the morning. So my breakfast will consist of milk, be it in cereals or taken seperately fresh, scrumbled eggs with brown bread,toasted with baked beans or steamed vegetable . As for lunch, i settle for light meal,in most cases grabbing a sandwich with black tea and any of my favourate juices. My dinner which is the main meal of the day boosts a lot of the above mentioned mostly starchy foods with a lot of proteins. I also do drink a lot mineral water in between these meals. So any combination of the above foods make my ideal diet.
set menu for 7 days
Big Breakfast – different flavour everyday – yoghurt, fruits, toast or healthy muesli bar
Lunch – different healthy salad with any meat + fruits
Dinner- green mixed vegetables or roast vegetables or soup – all home made + fruits
have nuts as snacks
Exercise at least 15minutes every day and drinks heaps of water
hi dora do you stick to this menu?
I do it from time to time : )
sometimes I have cravings for other “unhealthy” food but then I make sure I exercise more…
Raw vegan, with occasional splurge on cooked vegetarian food from different cultures. I still like carbos too much to give that up. And I haven’t learnt how to get a blend of proper nutrition if I went raw vegan all throughout. I tried that for a couple of weeks, but need to get a real blender and more raw recipes. A couple of weeks is just sufficient for the beginning of detox. Hope to do a longer retreat to get back in tune with mother Earth and get back in touch of what we truly are.
It’s interesting how we have segregated ourselves from the Earth by depending on processed food, or even cooked food these days.
Ideal diet?
Eat anything I want at anytime I want and do not put on weight :D
Love that diet Joanna, but what about how the anything you want makes you feel?
Just wondering…???
I’m doing it at the moment – exercises yes, diet no – I eat whatever I feel like to eat. Because of the physical activity I am craving more healthy food, but if I feel like eating huge rubbish pizza or portion of icecream with chocolate sauce, I’m not even trying to stop myself and am still happy and full of energy :P
I grew up as a vegetarian, spent many adult years as a vegan, and a year and a half as a raw vegan. So imagine my surprise when I learned that I function best on a meat-heavy diet.
It was developing diabetes that led me to that revelation. I was having a hard time controlling my sugars and people kept recommending Dr. Bernstein to me. I read his book and went to a very low carb diet and now I’m able to keep better control. I also had noticed bad symptoms when I ate bread or noodles and found out that, like many people with diabetes, I’m also celiac.
So my ideal diet — the diet that makes me feel the best — is mainly meat and greens. If I had as much money to spend on food as I wanted, I’d eat grass-fed organic beef, free-range chicken and eggs, and bison every day, along with spring greens, spinach, broccoli. I had some raw, grass-fed cream and that was really good, as well as some raw goat’s milk cheese. These are really expensive foods, though, so mostly right now I eat commercially-produced hamburger and factory-farmed eggs.
I do really miss many of the raw vegan foods sometimes, especially fruit smoothies. But I’m willing to “pay the price” for good blood sugars, even when that price is fresh mangoes and cantaloupes.
Oh. I can’t answer that question. First thing, my Ideal Diet would be a no-dairy, no-sugar, no-fat but same taste vanilla eclair. That’s my favourite food -.- or maybe carbonara with no dairy and no meat. Huh.
Anyway, I like to avoid meat, dairy and stuff that are really too fat, even though this kind of food is generally delicious ! So my ideal diet would be something that tastes delicious, that is really varied (I couldn’t eat the same thing, as delicious as it may be..) and that doesn’t contain any milk, butter, or meat (and chicken – i hate chicken). This is why I love green apples.
And cereals for breakfast, a big bowl with muesli mixed with chocolate and rice milk ! *-*
This is a tough question. I moved out my parents house about two months ago and I´ve been thinking a lot about what my ideal diet would be like.
It would definetely be home cooked by me.
– Breakfast: juice / fruit, toast with olive oil / sandwich and keffir. I would try to quit eating all those sugary cereal and pastry. I guess that if you don´t buy it, you don´t eat it, so I should stop buying that kind of unhealthy stuff.
– Mid day snack: this is something that would be in my ideal diet, but I just can´t get used to eating something in the middle of the day, I never find time. I have classes from 9:00 to 13:00 or 14:00 everyday and I just don´t think that eating in the middle of the class is a good idea. But if I could I would try to eat maybe a piece of fruit or some kind of dried fruit.
– Lunch: I have a weekly menu and so far I´m happy with it. I eat pasta / rice once a week each, legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans, etc) twice a week, meat / fish once a week each and the day that is left which is usually Sunday I eat whatever I feel like eating. I usually eat a salad (lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber) with my meal, or a soup or other kind of vegetables.
– 18:00 snack: I don´t usually eat a snack, but it would definetely be in my perfect diet.
– Dinner: something light, vegetables, a sanwich or eggs.
I would drink only water. No chocolate or anything too artificial and sugary (this is the hardest part!!). I would eat a lot of fruit (something I´m not really doing now) and vegetables.
This exercise made me think! I´m going to make a change in my diet. Bye Bye unhelthy food!!
Ideal Diet?
Apple Pie, Chocolate Milkshakes, Pizza with pineapple and jalapeno, pineapple-coconut juice
Those things I only have very rarely – because of the calories – they are very good though!
In an ideal diet I could eat as much of whatever I wanted and it would all be good for me and it would automatically put lean muscle on me instead of fat and my body would self regulate to the perfect weight. (hmmm sounds like a 17 year old soccer player)
In my real world I eat:
Oatbran w/ soymilk and wheatgerm with apple
shreded-wheat with blueberries and soymilk
V8, OJ, Coffee
lentil, bean and vegetable soups
high fiber low cal bread with vegetables and sprouts with mustard
humus with apples, salads
thin crust pizza with veggies
strawberries, dark chocolate, Cabernet
water, vitamins. protein powder
occasionally shrimp and tuna
I am happy with this diet I can lose weight or maintain a weight level with this diet.
by regulating quantities.
This question is as easy as it is tough.
I’ve been constantly making changes and improving my diet since the decision to become a vegetarian that I made 15 years ago. And still – there’s a lot of work to do.
One new thing, that I’m going to try this time is to come up with an ideal diet plan, based on different seasons. In the North Europe, where I currently live, we experience all 4 seasons in their full beauty. It’s easy to go 80% raw in summer, when the temperature outside reaches +20 ..+30 C. But in winter it’s the same in minuses and nothing grows naturally in those temperatures. What about “raw” then? Is that (chemically filled! GMO!) tomatoe really a healthy option or rather a devastating one. Probably both. Are fresh vegetables enough to satisfy growing calorie needs? Not likely.
So here’s my plan:
General guidelines: vegetarian, 2000 calories (in summer can be less), coffeine-free, full grain.
Winter – beets, carrots, cabbages as a basic ingredients for salad. Good quality frozen vegetables are the way to go. Stay away from: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper (from experience they are ones of the worst). I will note in winter, when/which imported fruits are the best – mostly citrus fruits. Most of the calorie needs I would get from grains (I absolutely love oatmeal or buckwheat for breakfast) and dried fruit, nuts and beans. Lots of cooking. Homemade deserts.
Spring – this is the worst. Citrus fruits are low quality, local production is not yet available. So basically it’s the same as winter, just with even more limitation. Tough, but doable.
Summer. Now we’re talking! Everything fresh, local, tasty. All colours, all tastes. Lots of raw food, lots of salad. Basically I’m already living every summer very close to my ideal diet and it’s very easy to stick to it (after all – haven’t I been waiting nearly 10 month to taste those strawberries, blueberries and real tomatoes again?).
Autumn: This has been a season, by the end of what most of my “ideal diet” plans have failed. And there is a good reason – I’ve been trying to stick to the “summer” plan, but without all those locally grown and wide variety of vegetables and fruits available and with air temperature falling. So instead of eating raw to find myself one day shouting “I need energy!”, followed by finishing half bottle of honey in one sitting, I’ll see, that I’m slowly transiting to more cooked/dried/frozen foods and grains with some nice full wheat flour deserts.
TO DO:
1. get old cookbooks somewhere, they have recipes for every season!
2. keep making small changes.
3. try once again to grow my own herb garden (I’ve failed few times at this… But there can always be just one more attempt).
I *love* food, so my ideal diet would be to eat it all – in moderation, of course! I do try and eat a healthy diet most of the time, because I do feel much better and full of energy when I do – lots of fruit and veg, white meat, fish, etc – but then equally, I’ll happily eat chocolate cake or a McDonalds if I want one.
I spent the majority of my teenage years on extreme diets, and generally having a bad relationship with food. I also ended up being extremely unhealthy, and for the most part, unhappy. It’s taken me a long time to learn to enjoy food, and to not feel guilty about it, and I feel proud I’ve managed to accomplish that. In my opinion, food is one of life’s great pleasures; I now love cooking and trying new things, and it still feels amazing that I can do this now without worrying (most of the time, at least). So, as long as my diet is balanced and I feel good in myself, my ideal diet is to eat whatever I like!
1. Ideal diet would be vegetarian (and that is what I am) cooked by me for myself
2. It would be typical rice/wheat based food which I have been used to from childhood.
3. No sweets
4. Only baked and cooked food. No fried foods.
5. Lots of juices (I am lazy to do this) and fruits (again lazy to cut) Fruits is something I don’t include in my diet due to laziness.
6. Ideal breakfast would be Idli/Dosa/Upma/Puttu/Appam with an egg (boiled/omelette) and a glass of juice (one glass of milk in the morn)
7. Lunch would be 2 chapatis with little rice and curd and dal and plate of salad (cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, carrot, radish, broccoli, capsicum, sprouts)
8. Dinner same.
9. A glass of oats/cornflakes/sandwich for snacks in the evening with a glass of tea.
10. I manage much of this, but I really don’t enjoy the process of doing this myself. Would be happy to much away if this is all readily available on the table.
Currently I think my diet is a fairly healthy one that includes a high fibre cereal in the morning with fruit or a fruit juice if I am lazy to chew. My lunch mostly consist of a veg, chicken or fish wrap or a tuna sandwich. My dinner is a full meal made up of rice or noodles with salad and either a curry or stews or grilled meat. When I can afford to I have ice cream or cake or pudding dessert I have two helpings. I always snack on fruit, biltong, nuts or dried fruit in between my meals.
However, due to my age and the fact that my family’s generational diseases like diabetes and breast cancer, I know there are certain things I should eliminate from my meals such as red meat and the wicked desserts. Right now these are my comforting foods and yes they may shorten my life by a few years but then hey – an accident can end your life immediately so I think I’ll hang on to the few things I do that comfort me.
What is my ideal diet like?
Being vegan, my ideal diet is a purely plant based diet. Although having said that, such a diet will not always be healthy. In which case my ideal diet would have to be a healthy plant based vegan diet.
Now what will make a diet like this healthy? In my experience over the years I have found that the most important part my diet is what foods I exclude from the diet. It makes no sense to be eating more healthy food whilst continuing to eat other not so healthy food. I believe there should be a good balance. Whenever more healthy foods are introduced to one’s diet, other existing unhealthy foods should be removed. One example might be switching from eating deep fried potato chips or fries to baked or steamed potatoes. By steaming or baking potatoes, more of the nutrients remain intact.
Of course there are some foods that should really be avoided at all costs. Processed foods and foods containing large amounts of refined sugar have no nutritional benefit whatsoever. These foods (if you could even call them food) include cakes, biscuits, sweets, candy, and anything similar. Look at any cake recipe and you’ll see ingredients listed such as half a cup of oil, 1 cup of sugar, 2 eggs, a cup or two of flour, a cup of milk and maybe even cocoa if it’s a chocolate cake. None of which have any real health benefits that I know of, and definitely not when combined with the other ingredients.
I have considered switching to a 100% raw food diet, and this would be nice, but I don’t really see it as necessary. To be honest, I don’t yet know of anyone who has reached the age of 100 on a 100% raw food diet. Although I did learn recently about an Indian man in the UK who is 100 and runs marathons. Apparently he didn’t start running until he was 89. His diet is vegetarian, although I don’t know if that includes dairy? They did say though that he really enjoys his ginger curries. I then did a search for ginger curry recipes and discovered that it’s quite a simple meal to make. No dairy, but made using really basic ingredients. The ginger, a few spices and not much else.
One other thing I learnt recently from a presentation by Dan Buettner on Ted.com was that those living in the so called ‘Blue Zones’ around the world with the highest concentration of people over 100, also mostly consumed plant based foods. Further evidence that I appear to be on the right track with my diet. Although there were other factors the people in these blue zones had in common, one of which being a great sense of community and family around them. People whom they can always rely on for support. Another interesting thing Dan found was that they didn’t do any kind of exercise such as going to the gym or jogging. Instead they would sometimes go on long walks and would also do whatever manual labour needed to be done. Gardening, washing by hand and getting out and about whenever they could. There was one old guy in his 90s I believe who was building a fence because he thought the quotes he’d been given by contractors to build the fence were too expensive. So he did the fence himself. Quite interesting.
Getting back to my own ideal diet, I’m still progressing with it. Earlier this year I stopped eating anything containing wheat gluten. I wasn’t allergic to it, but have found that no longer eating it has helped my digestion a lot. According to Doug Graham who wrote a book about the problems caused by wheat gluten called ‘Grain Damage’, the human species as a whole are all allergic to wheat gluten, just some more than others. Humans are a frugivore species meaning fruit is our ideal food source, where as granivores such as birds are a species more suited to consuming grains.
Since completing the 24 day water fast I did a few weeks back I’ve also quit chocolate as well. The trouble with chocolate is that our bodies see the cocoa or cocao content as being the same as caffiene, which is essentially a stimulant that puts the body into stress mode. I’ve never drunk coffee, but am familiar with the similar side effects of chocolate. One example being the times I sometimes eat some dark chocolate at night and how it would keep me awake. Since I’ve quite chocolate, this means I’ve also quit anything containing caffeine for the same reason. Both black and green tea contain caffeine, but there are quite a few great caffeine free herbals teas available. The black tea I’ll miss the most would be chai tea. But I already have my own caffeine free chai tea recipe where I use Rooibos tea instead of black tea. I’m also interested in try a few variation made using just using the spices, but without the tea. I should also add that caffeine and theobromine (the caffeine like part of cocao and cocoa) also prevent nutrients such as iron, zinc and even B12, from being absorbed as easily.
Although I don’t plan on switching to a 100% raw food diet, I still believe it’s important to eat a lot of fresh, ripe and in season fruit. Last week for example I was eating a rockmelon for breakfast each day followed by some frozen banana strawberry ice cream, or smoothies containing mango for lunch. Salads I find to be very important also. Low fat salads of course. Keeping my diet healthy, I don’t believe in using any kind of oil on salads. The only kind of fat I will use will be avocado or nuts. Or tahini which I enjoy a lot also. A simple tahini sauce can be made by mixing some tahini with lemon juice and parsley. But for any of these fatty foods, it’s best not to eat much. Maybe half an avocado, a tablespoon or two of tahini or a small hand full of nuts per day. And for dressings, I’m also experimenting with different fruits and spices. One example might be mango blended with some fresh herbs and maybe some zuchini. There are so many possibilities.
As far as cooked foods go, steamed vegetables would have to be the best option. Rice meals are ok, or quineo which can be used in place of the rice and is healthier too, but also a bit more costly. Other rice based foods I’m fine with too, such as rice paper for making rice paper rolls, rice pasta as an alternative to wheat pasta, and of course rice noodles. Vermicelli being my favourite there. Although I don’t eat much of either that often.
Oils I try and avoid as much as possible too. Not just for salads, but cooking with also. There might be times that I’ll eat some deep fried foods at an Asian vegetarian restaurant, but will generally try and avoid these meals whenever I can. I no longer deep fry any foods myself at home. If anything, I will always try and bake them instead. Sometimes, some oil may be required to bake certain foods properly. In which case I’ll make any meals like that a rare treat. For frying foods too, I’ll do my best to avoid the oil also. Apparently oil can also affect eyesight, which is another reason to avoid it.
Salt is another problem ingredient I believe should be avoided. Small amounts may not do much harm, but overall I don’t see any benefits of using it apart from making certain food taste slightly nicer. We don’t actually have any salt here, but considering so many sauces, condiments and stock cubes contain salt already, the salt in those should be enough as is.
Before I conclude here, there’s one other ingredient I’m now making an effort to exclude from my diet, and that’s palm oil. Now this is purely for ethical reasons. I only discovered recently that rain forests in countries including Indonesia and Borneo are being destroyed to grow palm plantations solely for the palm oil to be sold to western countries. As a result many animals and plants are now becoming extinct. The rate at which these rain forests are being destroyed is quite devastating. This palm oil is big business though, and is used in so many different foods and other products. Everything from the vegan shampoo I use, to corn chips, potato chips, biscuits, soap, sauces, sweets, margarine, snack foods, and so much more. It’s not always labelled correctly either. There are at least 10 or so different names that may appear in the ingredients list. The most common being ‘vegetable oil’ which apparently is usually palm oil. So my ideal diet would not contain any products using palm oil either. But these products are so difficult to avoid.
So to sum things up here, my ideal diet is a vegan plant based diet. Fruit is a major part of this diet, as are salads and fresh vegetables. Legumes, rice based foods and spices are fine too. The less complicated, the better. If I stick to just eating simple whole foods, avoiding anything processed, any other unhealthy foods, or any products containing palm oil, gluten, oil, salt, sugar and so on, then that would clearly be my ideal diet. Organic produce would be a bonus too. We visited a a great farmers market just last week with lots of organic produce, so the plan to go back and start getting hold of as much organic produce as we can afford.
1616 words :)
Okay, my current diet: I’m eating whatever my parents want me to eat. :D
But my ideal diet consists of mostly healthy food. Once in a month I will eat junk food at McDonald’s (I don’t really like other stuff) but the rest of the time I would eat healthy food – lots of vege and fruit. Plus enough protein and carbohydrate and what-not.
I would also reduce how much meat I take. Now I am taking meat every day, at least twice a day (lunch and dinner) if I eat both meals (sometimes I skip meals). As a first step I would reduce it to once a day, then 6 times a week, 5 times a week, and so on, until I eat it once a week (I do not want to be a full vegetarian since I love meat more than any other stuff ;))
So all in all:
– lots of vege
– lots of fruit
– enough protein, carbo and others
– meat once a week
I can understand that at your current age you are bound to eat whatever your parents tell you to eat. But do you really think you need to kill other creatures in order to satisfy your needs :?:
Bilal, I understand your perspective but think about this: if everyone don’t eat animals, the animals will over-populate earth (because none of them are dying). Also, people who rear animals to sell to other people to make a living won’t be able to.
And as I’ve said, I’m already trying to minimise how much meat I take. If I feel good after I minimise it until I only eat it once a week I will try going full-vegetarian. If it still feels good I’ll become a vegetarian.
This is not yet a current, ongoing goal because my parents won’t approve of it yet.
Amanda, it’s ok, you don’t have to worry about animals over populating the earth if people don’t eat meat :) That won’t happen. The bigger concern is the environmental damage meat eating does to the planet. Many rain forests are being destroyed to create crops to breed animals for food such as cows. If those crops were used to grow fruit and vegetables instead of meat, there would be enough food to end world hunger. So all the kids starving in third world countries would have all the food they need.
Farmers would’t be out of work either. Many are already beginning to use their land to grow fruit and vegetables instead of cattle.
There are still a lot of farmers who still grow cattle. Anyway…
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Some possible drawbacks of ending livestock production:
We would likely have a surplus in wild animals, and hunting would still be prevalent to prevent animals from eating crops.
More deforestation; the nutrient composition in the soil would likely be overworked due to the increased need for food diversification. (increased production in foods to balance nutritional needs) Thus natural habitats would likely be destroyed to make room for farmland and increase the overall yield for the farmer. Some land used for grazing is only marginally usable for farming.
More irrigation would be needed to sustain the larger number of farm crops. More fresh water would be lost to evaporation.
More genetically-engineered foods would be developed, more resistant to various conditions, having a greater yield
Decreased production of certain products (gelatin for example might be produced less depending on the alternate source)
Lower world population – Depending on location, compromised crop yields could cause mass famine. The more land required for food production, the less there is for homes and buildings.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_would_happen_if_everyone_was_a_vegetarian#ixzz1dT5niEwX
My current diet is my ideal diet. I eat 5 meals a day, 3 – 4 hours apart.
For breakfast, I either have oats with milk, honey & dry fruits or cooked semolina with vegetables & milk. Weekly once or twice, I eat vegetable sandwich or pasta in breakfast.
Then, I eat one or two seasonal fruits as my mid-day snack.
For lunch, I usually have fresh vegetable salads, brown rice or homemade bread (Indian style), steamed veggies, cooked lentils and yogurt.
For my evening snack, I have anything I am craving for, but I eat it in moderation.
My dinner is same as my lunch.
In drinks, I only drink water. I don’t like consuming anything else as a drink, not even soft drinks like fruit juices or coke. Many people think I am on diet or its weird, but the truth is that I naturally don’t like these stuff. I feel like puking even if I take a few sips of any of those. But I love drinking water. I drink a lot of water daily.
My ideal diet would definitely involve home-cooked meal that includes balanced nutrients and lots of colours (natural ones, of course). Lots of fresh vegetable and fruit, and of course water. I do not consume too much caffeine, but I can’t give up on my london fog though (it’s earl grey tea + steamed milk + vanilla syrup)…yum!
Also I would include different countries’ cuisine in my diet – I really love to try out everything, if possible. I’m blessed to live in a city where so many diverse cuisines/restaurants are available and it’s always so fun and exciting to try out something new! So my ideal diet includes healthy meals as well as different country’s cuisine!
I also like home-cooked food as well as colorful cuisine from different countries. But where I live, we don’t get much variety. Though here are many restaurants offering international cuisine, but the menu is boring :( If I want to try something new, I’ll have to cook it myself and I am quite lazy when it comes to cooking :D
My ideal diet is cool and fresh and light. Fruits and ice cream and crystal light!
My ideal diet would be low-fat, low-carbs, high-fibre, enough protein, with daily calorie intake no more than 1500 cal.
I would love it if I could eat home cooked meal everyday, but unfortunately with my schedules, that may not be possible. So basically when I eat out, I will try to eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, and water, and lessred meat. Also try to look for steamed/boiled meals instead of fried ones.
Just enjoy the basic four food groups with high fiber diet, low in sodium, and with 1200 cal with prayer thanking God before and after meals for the blessings, graces, and His infinite and unconditional love. God bless the plants, and the animals, as well as the farmers and the people, who took cared of the animals to nourish us, and to the family, who eats together, may they have long life and be together always.
I love the simplicity of your ideal diet, Megan.
Gratitude makes the food more than just food.
Food is for the soul and body.
Alot went into the manifestation and preparation of the food we eat.
Especially if it is all done with clear awareness.
Thank you.
My ideal diet would consist of
a. Eating every 2 hours daily
b. Home cooked food by me for myself and my family
c. Food rich in frutis and vegetables (as I am a vegetarian)
d. Consuming diary products like milk, yoghurt
e. Relishing on icecreams and everything that I like, without thinking about calories
f. Eating in peace at proper times
My ideal diet would consist of italian, mediterranean and french food done japanese style.
So lots of rich sauces, cheese, veggies, chicken/turkey/sea food, fruits and rich small pretty desserts. I like the japanese aesthetic in food preparation so all my food wuold be small and cute and colorful.
Oh and alot of red spicy food. YUM!
Yes for spicy food! :D
An ideal diet would be something that is really filling and at the same time healthy. At this day and age we are surrounded with fast food, everything fast fast fast! Processed, unhealthy food that make us not feel to good after. An ideal diet to me would be home cooked or home prepared meals that are lesser processed, make me feel good after, eating in a way that I stop snacking specially on unhealthy stuff and just really eat whatever is good for my body. A diet that will make me function better and live longer. Amen!
my ideal diet should be:
BREAKFAST
milk without cream, wheat flakes , fruit
MID MORNING
lemon juice
LUNCH
salad, chapati and lentils, vegetables
DINNER
veg.soup and toasted wholemeal bread
My Ideal diet on a regular day would be:
Breakfast: fresh juice/milk, Butter toast / sandwich, small portion of cornflakes/ paratha / rice flakes / eggs etc.
Lunch: 2-3 chapatis/rotis (whole wheat pitas), home cooked vegetable, dal (pulses)
Snacks: Dosa / uttapam / bread toast
Dinner: Salads, 2 rotis (whole wheat pitas), 1 helping of home cooked vegetable.
I love fast food and deep fried snacks but would try to limit it to 1-2 times a week.
I primarily like vegeterian food, but can eat chicken at times.
I love to try local delicacies (both veg / non-veg) and international cusines when I am travelling.
I believe that along with daily 1 hr exercise I can eat anything in moderation.
Rahul, i like your way of thinking. Eat anything as long as you have a 1hr exercise. Great idea.
Thanks Jacque!
As a part of my learning, I spend time reading books and articles on nutrions. It’s great that when you know which kind of foods are good for your health and which ones hurt your body. To me, diet is not about starving myself to dead, rather, it’s all about choosing the right foods for my health. Diet by not eating enough is actually as harmful as eating a lot of junk food. Your body will suffer. Why? We need energy to live . When you don’t eat enough your body will see this as a serious threat to its existence; it forces you to eat, you will now crave for food, and you don’t really care how unhealthy it is. Even the food you used to not like it very much suddenly become amazingly attractive. Against the instinct of our own body, few people have enough will power to fight back. As result, they eventually find themselves eating more and more to satisfy their hunger. Finally, the result of that diet reflects on their images in mirror : they end up getting much more fat on their bodies. Diet by avoid eating almost always backfire.
That’s why the best way to have a lean body is not about eating less, in fact, it’s all about exercising regular and eating the right foods more.
My body is quite lean, the first four pack on my abs can be easily seen. My goal is to get more muscle and less than 8% fat to have six-pack abs. I go to gym for at least three times a week and I also do martial art as cardio. I do weighlifting for building muscles and my fat is burn through one -hour-long sessions of Taekwondo. I am a computer scientist and I spend a lot of time working in front of computers, and I don’t want my health to suffer because of my work, so that’s why I need to do more exercises than normal people.
Regarding to nutrions, I make sure that my body have enough energy to recover from those exercises by eating enough calories and protein. My regular meals always go with a cup of protein powder mixed with skim milk.
I also try to avoid fastfood and fried food. It’s hard (yeah, very hard) to prepare and eat healthy meals when I’m really busy. But to achieve the goal of having a good looking and healthy body, I am willing to do it.
Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you die! Seriously, what you eat is very important and quantity is a killer. The best advice I ever had was from Joy Gross( google her) when she told me that green is life’s blood. Not money but green foods. She believes that keeping a body alkaline prevents a myriad of diseases.
I eat when hungry and try to avoid too much meat of any kind. In the morning I have a green drink- cannot make it fresh so I buy Bolton’s Green Goddess and love it- but I can tell you that Joy’s freshly made green drink is superior. I also have a cup of oatmeal and for me coffee is essential.
Almonds and walnuts are a favorite snack. Lunch consists of avocado salad and green tea.
Snacks are nuts or fruit -blueberries are a favorite.
Dinner typically consists of whatever I desire in moderation.
I do not follow a strict regimen but watch my alkaline levels and adjust accordingly. I refer to Joy for guidance and to my insatiable love of good food for my joy.
Look her up, she is 84 and looks like 60…
My ideal diet would be jam packed full of energy foods. And desserts recipes I have not tried yet.
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