"Dieting" starts with GI

To kick off the new year, Sean and I decided to start the Glycemic Index "diet." What's that, you say? Well, the GI diet is basically eating foods that keep your blood sugar level at a steady rate in order for your body to feel fuller for longer. It doesn't require special foods or cutting yourself off from your favorite meals. The diet actually encourages eating 6 times a day: 3 meals and 3 snacks. This helps keep your blood sugar level from diving or skyrocketing - pretty neat, huh? WebMD had more good information on this site if you want to check it out.

Yesterday Sean and I tried this out. With the (possible) exception of my whole wheat waffles, the foods we had were pretty good for us, and delicious! The hardest part was getting Sean to snack - he felt full ALL day and wasn't really fond of eating more. Thankfully, snacks are small, so it was easy to encourage him eating some sliced red peppers or a zucchini lightly roasted.

The hardest part in this is going to be prep. As we all know, I'm bad at prepping anything in advance. Having Sean's meals ready to go in the morning (meaning, the night before) might be stressful for the first month, but I think it will really help with my procrastination :P

Here's the kind of meal planning I'll be doing this year:
Breakfast: 1/2 to 1 cup Special K, 1 banana
Snack: 1 handful (10-12) almonds, plain
Lunch: (biggest meal of the day) onion/pepper stir-fry with chicken in a whole-wheat pita, salad with red onion/tomatoes
Snack: Steamed asparagus with garlic
Dinner: Turkey Stroganoff, basmati rice, yellow squash
Snack: Grilled tomato salad (grill tomatoes in oven, add chopped red onion on top)

Sean's very excited because this means I have to cook fish! I'm not the biggest fan of fish; I will eat tuna and shrimp, probably because they smell the least "fishy" to me. Actually, Sean loves pho, but it hurts my stomach when I eat it, and I'm convinced it's because they use "fish sauce" and other fishy ingredients that my body's not used to :(

I think this will help a lot with my menu planning, too. It's easy to make soups or salad for the next few days. My next step is to make a little menu to go into Sean's lunch box so he knows which foods are for what time of day :)

Are you trying out some kind of healthy cooking or workout this upcoming year? Can't wait to hear about it!