This article was written by Take The Magic Step™ staff writers Peter Pippig and Silvie Nohr. Both try their best to eat well while living and working in Berlin. The tips were crafted by Uta and nutrition advisor Dieter Hogen.
For a long time, people who try to eat healthfully were derided as “health nuts” or as part of the “nuts and twigs” set. But with increasing concerns and information about how what we eat affects everything from our health to our energy levels to the environment, healthful eating has become a basic principle of life for more and more people, and the food industry has had to respond to supply the now sought-after whole-grain and organic products.
But the process is slow. Very slow. Healthy eating in many Western countries is still rather difficult. In Germany, for example, although whole-foods stores are springing up everywhere, more and more organic products are displayed on supermarket shelves and many restaurants offer the odd wholemeal bread roll. Still, it is still tremendously difficult to eat healthfully throughout the whole day. Stressed-out working people are particularly affected, as without their own refrigerator or a whole-foods store handy, the search for a healthful meal can turn into quite a challenge.
In this series of articles, we will offer you a little insight into the lives of three young people who want to eat healthfully but constantly fail to do so due to a lack of knowledge as well as a lack of options in daily life. We wanted to know how difficult it really is to eat healthfully, so we sent three guinea pigs - Marie, Sandra and Stefan - on their way to find out. All three live in Berlin, are in their late 20s and have a full-time job. Their task: to record what they eat over a week! Our goal: to find out which problems they encounter in their search for healthful food and where their limits were. As with many people, these three have been confused by the food industry’s advertisement claims of how healthful their products are, and often find themselves struggling from one meal to the next, not knowing what to believe and what is really good for them.
As our guinea pigs did not know anything about our Take The Magic Step™ nutrition philosophy, they had to find their own way through the jungle of nutrition options. This is why we want to emphasize that we do not recommend copying our test persons’ eating habits. Scientifically proven information on healthful eating can be found in our Nutrition section. It contains the first basic nutrition principles of the Take The Magic Step™ educational program, which we’ll expand in the coming months, as well as ideas and suggestions of how to eat healthily.
Although our test persons are a long way from the ideas of the Take The Magic Step™ program in regard to nutrition, they try hard to eat as healthfully as possible every day. Still, there are significant differences among them: While Stefan started to eat healthfully a few years ago, Marie has just begun to do so and has tried for a few weeks to develop good eating habits. Sandra is somewhere in the middle - for a year she has tried to satisfy her appetite in the healthiest possible way. They share one problem, however: they’re busy, so it’s often a struggle to regularly make good food choices. Although our guinea pigs live in Germany, their problem, then, is near universal.
In this first installment, Marie documents her attempts to eat well during one work week, and we offer a short, practical tip for each day. While there are many changes Marie could make, we’ll focus on one different choice she could have made, because the Take The Magic Step nutrition philosophy is based on slow, practical changes that will finally lead to better nutritional habits and, because of that, a better lifestyle and health. In future installments, we’ll see what Stefan and Sandra experience, and provide a few more after-the-fact recommendations for how they could have made good choices in whatever situations they find themselves. We hope you’ll be able to use our recommendations when you find yourself in similar situations.
Marie
29 years old, works as an editor, lives in Berlin-Pankow
Monday: A typical day at the office
9:15 a.m.: A toasted slice of wholemeal rye bread with low-fat cheese (I am still struggling a bit with the rye bread but toasted it is not too bad), a boiled egg and a freshly squeezed grapefruit-orange juice are waiting for me in the kitchen. Energized and with a good feeling of having eaten something healthy, I go to the office.
12:30 p.m.: First signs of hunger. As the only option would be leftovers reheated in the microwave, which would also involve making my way up from ground level to third floor, I usually do not take any food from home. Instead, I go around the corner to an Arabic take-out restaurant with our intern and order a Muktar dish: haloumi cheese, falafel, hummus and salad.
8:30 p.m.: After the haloumi cheese for lunch, dinner should be lighter. We are going to a Greek restaurant, so the chances to stick to the plan are slim. Nearly everything on the menu is fried, drowned in creamy gravy or spiced with a lot of garlic (garlic is meant to be healthy but won’t work as I have to go to work tomorrow). Consequently, I choose fish soup and a tomato salad.
11:30 p.m.: Fell asleep. (Conclusion: Quite happy with today!)
Tip of the day: Between breakfast and lunch, have some fruit from home. An apple is always a good choice. At the Arabic carry-out, have less haloumi, but more hummus and salad.
Tuesday: Casting in Dortmund
7:.00 a.m.: As I know that there won’t be anything to eat for a while, I want to take good precautions: I eat a toasted wholemeal rye bread with Quark (a mixture of yogurt, cream cheese and ricotta cheese which is quite popular in Germany) and scrambled eggs. I still don’t fully enjoy wholemeal bread but I want to be persistent.
8:30 a.m.: At the train station my casting colleague is buying a wheat baguette to be prepared for the three-hour train ride to Dortmund. Makes sense to me, but wheat baguette is not really ideal. As there is no other choice, however, I get one with tomato and egg myself.
12:30 p.m.: In Dortmund we quickly have to eat something as the subjects of our TV feature certainly will not offer us anything. Under time pressure we are looking for a healthy carry-out (which is doomed to fail anyway). As our appointment is at 1:00 p.m. we don’t have time to go to a restaurant. Desperate and short of time we end up in a Chinese carry-out. Here they offer a lunch buffet of pork, duck and beef dishes. As a vegetarian I can only indulge in the accompanying vegetables and side dishes: fried noodles, fried rice, fried vegetables, four small spring rolls. I have a bad conscience because of the high amount of starches and fat! How I would have loved to have a crispy salad with some fish instead, but this was unfortunately nowhere to be found.
10:30 p.m.: Arrival at the hotel in Kassel with an absolutely empty stomach. After 10:00 p.m. it is unfortunately very difficult to find something decent to eat here. Next to the hotel is a Thai restaurant where we quickly get some dinner. Everything is pretty expensive. I choose fried rice with vegetables and shrimps and gobble it down greedily.
12:00 a.m.: Fell asleep. (Conclusion: Not a very nutritious day!)
Tip of the day: Because Marie knows in advance that it will be a hectic day where good nutrition might not get its proper importance, she could bring sliced pineapple and an apple to have available. At the Chinese restaurant, because she’s a vegetarian but is okay with eating seafood, she could have steamed shrimp, or request steamed vegetables and tofu.
Wednesday: Second casting day in the Harz region
9:30 a.m.: Breakfast at the hotel. The buffet looks pretty rich on first sight but the search for fresh fruit, yogurt or muesli is in vain. There are also only completely over-sugared multivitamin juices. Consequently, I joylessly eat 1½ slices of rye bread with different cheeses, smoked salmon and the leftovers from carelessly prepared scrambled eggs. A small pot of coffee helps to wash it down.
12:45 p.m.: Arrival in the Harz region where the subjects are awaiting us. We are offered some homemade carrot soup and I would love to accept but decline as I am still full from breakfast.
5:00 p.m.: I have an empty stomach and am terribly thirsty. I hope someone will offer the carrot soup again but no one does. Opposite is a bakery, the absolute only chance to get something to eat. The shelves are quite empty already. There are only some sugar-glazed and chocolate donuts and some similar pieces of pastry left. I am too hungry to resist. Don’t have much money left but it is just enough to supply the subjects and myself with cake. I eat a chocolate donut with cream filling. A short moment of satisfaction and happiness followed by stomach cramps which last for several hours. Very bad conscience and a short time later I am hungry again!
8:15 p.m.: Before departing the subjects invite us for dinner. We are having pasta with tomato sauce (which was very sweet – I assume that they put ketchup in it) and sausage. Everyone seems to be surprised by the fact that I don’t eat meat. As I don’t want to be impolite I only eat a small portion and pick out the sausage pieces. The alternative would have been not to eat anything at all!
2:00 a.m.: Fell asleep with a rumbling stomach. (Conclusion: In regard to nutritional values I could totally forget about this day!)
Tip of the day: Skip the cheese in the morning, and have a lighter breakfast, such as cutting back to one slice of bread. That way, she’ll have more of an appetite for lunch. Because of the work her body must do to digest it, a large breakfast will rob Marie of energy. Smaller, more frequent meals will give her more and steadier energy throughout the day.
Thursday: Back in the office
3:00 p.m.: Lunch was actually to be skipped today as I had a late and very rich breakfast but I am meeting a freelance author for lunch. Had nearly forgotten that. So we end up going to a Jamaican place she is keen to go to. I search the menu for some steamed veggies or a light fish dish, unfortunately without success. I choose the only vegetarian dish: coconut vegetable stew (whatever that might be). The waitress only speaks English - I don’t - so I order without asking. Instead of fresh vegetables I get a greasy mixture of overspiced rice, overcooked vegetables and a poorly looking tiny salad. Yum!
Tip of the day: Again, a smaller breakfast will ensure that Marie has higher energy levels throughout the day. In addition to the fruit recommended above, Marie could also start bringing from home whole-grain energy bars, with oats as the first ingredient. When she unexpectedly finds herself at lunch without much of an appetite, there’s nothing to stop her from ordering sparingly, such as having just the salad.
Friday: Another day at the office
2:30 p.m.: For some reason I am not very hungry today. I have a cold and drank a lot of tea throughout the morning. Once again I don’t have the time to go out for lunch and food from the microwave is not an option!
8:00 p.m.: At home I get a bowl of homemade soup with carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, watercress, tofu sausages and a little bit of cream (the latter of which was not mentioned to me beforehand. I was assured, however, that it was only a tiny little bit.).
12:00 a.m.: Fell asleep.
Tip of the day: Marie is feeling sick, so soup, tea and raw vegetables throughout the day will help her to rebound. Poor nutrition and stress can lead to a weakened immune system, which Marie is experiencing today.
Overall recommendation for Marie: Slow, step-by-step nutrition and lifestyle changes will help Marie to get stronger and have a more satisfying lifestyle. Overall, she could be better prepared for hectic days and bring a few nutritious items with her, such as apples, whole-grain energy bars and sliced pineapple. Most of all, Marie could take five minutes at night to plan the next day’s nutrition.
Next time: Find out what our second guinea pig, Sandra, has been experiencing on her daily search for healthful food, and learn what we think of her choices.
