We are fresh back from a week away in Norfolk, so a trip to Aldi was necessary as there was no fresh food in the house at all. Because we have both put on a bit of weight recently, we have decided to eat more plants! So this week’s meal plan – although not vegan – is geared towards a plant based, wholefood way of eating. We will still include some fish, dairy and eggs. This is mainly because we have some that need eating up, but also because we want to go in gently.
It’s not that we are massively over weight. We both have an acceptable BMI. However, as usual, we have got into the habit of snacking on rubbish in the evenings and drinking wine/beer. This is fine occasionally, but it was starting to happen almost every night and we both have the bellies to show for it.
I did some research on a plant based diet whilst we were away and came across a couple of useful and inspiring resources. Firsly, Michael Pollan’s well known quote: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” I have also found his book second hand, which is on its way, called Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, in which he lays out a common sense approach to healthy eating based on unprocessed, whole foods. Basically, he suggests we eat more plants.
As well as this, I came across Project Diaries on YouTube, who has recently completed a six week plant based wholefood challenge and found that many of the illnesses he was suffering disappeared (and he lost weight too). You can see the video on that here.
If you can transform your health in this way when you eat more plants, it has to be worth some consideration!
Here is what we have planned for the coming week.
Our meal plan to eat more plants
Monday
Cashew nut and vegetable stir fry with brown rice
Tuesday
Lentil bolognese with whole wheat pasta and salad
Wednesday
Greek style roast cod with sweet potato mash and broccoli
Thursday
Chick pea curry
with spinach and rice
Friday
Green salad of lettuce, rocket and spinach with roasted red peppers, olives, humous, nuts and rye bread
Saturday
Black bean and sweet potato quesadillas
Sunday
Cashew nut and mushroom loaf with roast potatoes, carrots, greens
Breakfasts and lunches
Breakfasts will be sugar free muesli with fruit, or porridge with fruit, or a home made smoothie.
Lunches will be leftovers from the night before, home made vegetable soup, or a big salad with eggs, nuts, humous, avocadoes, etc.
I am keeping snacking to a minimum, but it could be peanut butter on oat cakes, fruit or a handful of nuts. As well, as this, I am also cutting back the amount of tea and coffee I drink, opting for red bush or chamomile tea, or water.
Will we feel healthier and lose weight if we eat more plants and less processed rubbish? Will we be able to stick with our good intentions? Watch this space! You can also keep up with me on my YouTube channel.
I am joining in with Katy Kicker’s meal planning linky. Check out her meal plan this week too. You can see more of my favourite food ideas and recipes here.
Karen says
Hi Jane,interesting read ,I need to loose weight and I’m vegetarian so most of the ideas I could use thanks
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I hope it works without the faff of counting calories!
Karen says
Yes I hate all calorie counting make me obsessed with food and end up buying diet foods which aren’t great for you,just good honest basic food ,I think when I was growing up we didn’t count calories but fad lots of fruit and veg mostly out of the garden,once a week we had a treat on a Friday night nothing like a takeaway though ,and Sunday tea maybe some sandwiches and triffle or cake homemade,we never carried weight then and didn’t have the money for junk foods, so the frugal life is the way to go, I think,iv spent over the years so much money on one diet or another,now I just keep it simple and loosing weight slowly but surely
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Totally agree! Diet foods keep you fat and hungry too and are processed rubbish
Karen says
Very interesting ,I’m overweight found the article useful I will incorporate some of the meals in my diet thank you Jane
Katy Stevens says
Ooh you’ve got some really delicious meals on here this week -h ope it goes well for you & thanks for linking up!
Moira Sutherland says
We put on weight slowly over a year and the initial lock down, we decided it had to stop. I had a look at our diet which was not bad but made a few changes, the first was to eat more protein and second to cut out snacks and eat less starch. Ten months later I have lost 9kgs and my husband 12kgs. In fact we miss nothing we really like but the portion sizes are smaller. We have a boiled egg plus muesli and fruit for breakfast normally soup or salad for lunch, some days a baked potato. For dinner we have meat or fish with potatoes or we have a pasta meal, but a smaller portion. The main problem was we are getting older, 80 & 71 and we needed less food. The main thing was to increase our protein, as we had got older I had decreased our portion sizes but that meant less protein, so now we have cut out the starch and increased the protein and never felt hungry.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
That’s good going! Sounds like a good move reducing the carbs and increasing the protein