Trial Week Planning

I have been thinking, and tweeting, that I should do a mini-experiment week that mirrors the full size experiment.  I want to get a mini-taste of even just a single day in the life of the various types of diets: Mediterranean, Paleo, Pescatarian, Vegetarian and Vegan.  So, next week I will take the plunge and for each day I’ll do a different diet.

Just like I would during the regular diet phase, I planned each day with the full meal plan that I was shooting for.  I put together a conforming meal for each of the major meals and planned some “treats” for snacks and possibly dessert.  I then put each of those foods into my FitDay program to make sure I’m getting the appropriate levels of macro- and micro-nutrients as well as to make sure the calories are in range too.

The upshot is that for each of the diets, for each of the days, I was able to pretty easily hit most of the levels of micro-nutrients, at least reasonably so.  There was some tweaking and repetition that I am not thrilled about.  For example each of the diets had a Vitamin E shortage until I had half or full handful of almonds.  I wouldn’t want to have almonds be the only major source of this vitamin, so for the long term diet I would want to find other sources as well.  However it is pretty encouraging that without doing lots of gymnastics I was able to get a good baseline diet for each day.

As each day unfolds I’ll log and write what I ate and what the nutrient profile.  However the types of food I’m looking at are:

• Vegan Day (Sunday): Breakfast will be “Rip’s Big Bowl”, a mix of whole grains and cereals, with fruit with some soy milk on it.  Lunch will be some homemade lentil and rice burgers with a side of sauteed spinach.  Dinner will be a sweet potato vegan lasagna with a large salad.  During the day I’ll be eating watermelon and other fruit
• Vegetarian Day (Monday): Breakfast will be a spinach and tomato omelet with banana.  Lunch will be vegetarian Chipotle burrito bowl with cheese and guacamole on top.  Dinner will be a vegetarian stir fry with string beans, mushrooms and tofu.  I’ll be snacking on yogurt, seeds, mango and almonds.
• Pescatarian Day (Tuesday): Breakfast will again be the “big bowl” but with skim milk instead of soy milk.  Lunch will be sushi, probably something like a traditional rainbow roll with some additional pieces of salmon, tuna and other sushi.  Dinner will be a massive salad, my favorite, with mixed greens, tomatoes, carrots, jicama with salmon on top.  Snacks will be the same as the vegetarian day
• Paleo Day (Wednesday): Breakfast will be eggs and bacon with a side of sauteed kale and some fresh sauerkraut.  Lunch will be a Tuna Tatake Salad from Cheesecake factory (Paleo at Cheesecake Factory sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it?).  Dinner will be roasted chicken with a side of potato pancakes and a small salad.  I’ll be snacking on fruit, nuts and “Apple Pie Caveman Bars”, which is a mix of dried fruit, nuts, coconut oil and a little honey pressed into a bar.
• Mediterranean Day (Thursday): Breakfast will be the same as on Tuesday.  Lunch will be a regular Chipotle Burrito Bowl with chicken.  Dinner will be shrimp marinara over whole wheat pasta with a side salad.  Snacks will be fruit, nuts and vegetables through the day.

Overall each day’s diet looks very flavorful.  I’m looking forward to test flying some of these recipes that I’ve been reading about for a long time.  I’m also curious how I am able to integrate diet restrictions into my work day diet as well.  It will be interesting to see how that actually works out