The Plan for Jan

Happy New Year! I'm glad 2015 is here with a blank slate, and I hope it will be sprinkled liberally with joyful and meaningful moments for you and for me.

I've read of people who, instead of making resolutions, adopt a word or an overarching theme for the new year. It is a great way to help steer one's life in the direction you want to go. I thought about it a little bit and chose the theme Nupur 2.0 for this year. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Seuss goes like this: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” So the goal is to listen to what my body needs and revise my habits to be more true to myself.

In more concrete terms, I'm going to be working on one major goal every month. Based on my family's medical history and my personal medical history that I've talked about before which points to insulin resistance, the most urgent change for me is to stop eating excess carbs. Other factors are important too- getting enough sleep, managing stress, exercising regularly- but this is the critical one. Without making this change, the rest won't matter much.

As far as cutting out excess carbs goes, I'm aiming for the low hanging fruit, so to speak. The stuff that is mostly empty carbs and that I tend to eat too much of- rice, bread, parathas, tortillas, noodles and pasta. These will be replaced by vegetables and more vegetables, both raw and cooked. I happen to love vegetables so this is no hardship. Beans and lentils, nuts and seeds are all in. Beans, legumes and some veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes have an abundance of nutrition even if they are carb-heavy, and if I'm cutting down on the other starches, then I have room in my "budget" for these. The idea is not to cut out carbs altogether but to bring them down to a level that my body can handle.

I'll continue to eat eggs and some dairy- mostly homemade yogurt and some butter, ghee and cheese which I use mostly as flavoring. And I occasionally eat tofu and meat substitutes as well.

Here are some examples of swaps I've been making in December, replacing carb-heavy staples with vegetables.

Our lunch consists of leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Often, my lunchbox would have rice, dal with pickle on the side. Here's version 2.0: garlickly moong dal with a large helping of roasted broccoli and squash and the requisite dollop of pickle. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not miss the rice at all.

Rajma (kidney bean curry) and tortillas are a popular dinner option at my home. On that day, a friend left on a long vacation and stopped by with a big bag of produce that he'd cleaned out from his fridge- could I please use it up so it would not be wasted? The bag contained lettuce, cucumbers and peppers among other things. So I skipped the tortillas and spooned the rajma on a giant salad, dressed simply with lemon juice, salt and pepper. This I expected would taste really weird. It was surprisingly tasty- the hot rajma wilted the lettuce a bit, and everything was juicy and delicious. I thought I would eat seconds but could barely finish this bowl.

Fried egg is one of my favorite breakfasts. Instead of eating it with a couple slices of toast or a whole grain tortilla, I took half an avocado, mashed it with a fork and stirred in a pinch of salt and some hot sauce. I had some salad left over (this was the morning after the rajma dinner) and ate that on the side. This was a great way to start the day.

Another favorite meal at my place is noodle stir fry with vegetables and tofu. For version 2.0, I skipped the noodles, and used broccoli slaw instead. Broccoli slaw is sold in packages in the produce section of US supermarkets- it is basically shredded broccoli stems, sometimes with carrots and red cabbage. I was pleased at how much the sautéed slaw resembled the texture of noodles. The whole meal was a snap to put together and very satisfying.

All this month, I will continue these swaps and pay attention to my mood and energy levels, my hunger and cravings, and to my weight and waist size. I've taken some "before" measurements so I have something to compare to. The idea is to make the changes, see if they work and adjust as necessary.

How did you ring in the new year? What are your hopes and dreams for 2015?