Protein Plan

It’s been great having my parents in town this week. Last night we went out for seafood and it was really fun…especially after navigating through the subway and fighting all of the people still making their way home after work. :) Unfortunately they don’t have the best weather today – it’s rainy – and this morning on my commute to work it even started hailing a little bit! Oh Spring…where are you?

When we went to dinner on Monday evening we chatted about many things, but one topic that came up was my dad’s new eating plan. A little background for you…

My dad is the master of trying new things and experimenting. He’s also a doctor so I think that this experimenting might come with the territory. For a long time my dad swore by the power of zinc to shorten a cold and then one day he decided he was actually going to test it out to see if it worked or not. Turns out the zinc wasn’t all that worth it after all…at least his personal study concluded it only shortened his cold by maybe a day - so the zinc was out.

His most recent “experiment” has been with a high protein/low carb diet. Now if you’ve seen my dad before (which if you read my blog then you have, but just in case here is a dashing picture of him from our wedding last June) you know that he is BY NO MEANS an overweight person. He’s tall (a little over 6 feet tall) and slim. Funny fact, for years my mom has tried to find him “more hip” styles of jeans…but alas, his long legs and small waist cause this task to be quite difficult...I wonder how he feels about me sharing that with the blog world!? :)

ANYYYYYWAY – So my dad has tested the waters with this high protein/low carb concept and like anyone on this “plan” he has lost weight. One of his meals recently included a big pile of black beans, sardines, salsa, cottage cheese (which apparently is “allowed”) and some vegetables with hummus. You might say that my dad is a bit of an interesting eater…or a garbage disposal. He has very interesting tastes and if you put a little salsa on anything, well, he’s sure to eat it. My mom said that she got quite a kick out of the fact that this was on his plate though. No wonder he’s lost weight!

So our dinner conversation got me thinking about my own meal planning. I have actually turned into a relatively healthier eater since my college days of pizza and cookies. Surprisingly, I haven’t really had any trouble staying away from the red meat for Lent. Since I’ve “given it up” I haven’t craved a cheeseburger one time (which is rare for this cheeseburger loving gal!).

Since I have been successful with giving up red meat for Lent I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to do a little experimenting myself. As soon as my parents leave (since it’s too hard to start this “experiment” out while they’re still here – too many fun restaurants to try!) I am going to try out the “high protein/low carb” plan that so many people have done before. I think it will be interesting to see if I can train myself not to crave things like bread….and cupcakes (HA!) the way that I do now. Of course, if I really want the bread or cupcake I may let myself indulge, but I’m going to see if I can stick to the plan for a week.

My dad also mentioned that in the journal article he read about this “plan” that you need to give yourself one cheat day – an entire day where you can eat whatever you want – carbs, sweets, junk food – anything. Funny enough, when it was finally my dad’s first “cheat day” during his little experiment, my mom was on the way home from being out of town. She called my dad and said something to the effect of, “It’s your big ‘cheat’ day, what are you going to eat?!” My dad replied that he might just save the cheat day for the next day….he’s the only person I know that would decided to “put off” a cheat day. Sheesh!

So my “plan” starts on Monday and I’ll certainly update you with how it goes! There is going to be lots of protein and many, many vegetables in my very near future!

My mom planned another fun dinner for this evening - Italian this time - LOTS OF CARBS!! :)