Diet thoughts

I was forwarded an email about a diet someone else we know is following. I tried to copy it here but have been unsuccessful. But I have decided to comment. #1. Attempt to drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily. I know the usual is 8 glasses which is only 64 ounces. Obviously that is nowhere hear half my weight in ounces. If it was I wouldn't be in a mission to lose more weight. When I travel I usually up liter bottles and try to drink 3 each day. I have a carafe that holds one liter as well. I fill this a few times during the day when I am home. I have two pitchers that hold more water that I use when at home as well. I struggle most with getting enough water during the work day. I will try going forward to do a better job at tracking this. #2 No processed foods. I am doing better with this. Especially when I am not on the road. OK this week I did waiver a little. We can confirm that I am a fan of M&Ms. And maybe my will power is a little lower than I realised when it comes to M&Ms. I also ate out 4 times this week - which I accredit tonthenfact I have not lost any weight this week. Glad I stayed out but was hoping to eek out a few more pounds this week. Obviously there is more to be said about processed food. What can be said about Silk? I am a fan of the soy milk with the DHA Omega 3. I would be willing to call this processed. There was a reference to Kashi as well. I view most of their foods as processed, right? And lastly these weirdly processed higher fiber whole grain concoctions sold as a better way to pasta. Aren't these processed too? What to do on those? Or am I going too far to an extreme on these? I know I need to get my head around this as I need to do better with getting whole grains in my menu. #3 No artificial sweeteners. Well I have been following that for some time now. So I won't worry much on this one. Actually am very happy with my stats on how long it has been since I have had any soda. Probably only a few weeks and I am not much of a soda drinker to begin with but I know I usually take that liberty when eating out. So much better this way. And the lack of caffeine has been nice too. #4 FRUITS in limited amounts. This goes more in hand with the 17 Day Diet than some of the items I am looking at on the Whole Living web site. WL has a number of recipes with tropical fruit which have a higher sugar count. I guess the technical diet term is glycemic count. So I try to stick to apples and berries. This email also references peaches and pears. Pears I am not a fan of but peaches... I love them. #5 No potatoes. I already do this for the most part. Especially the white potato variety. The email doesn't say much about the sweet potato. I only have them about once a month or so. This rule also comments to limit intake of carrots. I had heard this a while ago and hadn't seen much on this recently. But it has been noted. I wonder where the parsnip falls in that category. I have been contemplating adding them in the mix. Wonder if I should. #6 focus daily on vegetables. This I have been doing. I have been referencing most vegetarian type meals and then adding legumes or fish to them. At the moment the only meats I have had are the ones that are in the meals I have eaten out. Actually with the WL piece I am only now slowly reintroducing fish and legumes back into the mix. That is this weeks focus. And between WL and Mollie Katzen the search for veg based meals is pretty easy. Snacks referenced are hard boiled egg whites... Not sure how I feel about that. I am going tonlaynlow on eggs for a bit. I have a dozen in my fridge that I should be done with today or tomorrow. That will be it for a while. That will make sense after a few more posts. Other snack is almonds. I have been buying this Planters Digestive nut mix. It is tasty to say the least. But I think this week I will be switching to the pure nut mix and almonds may win that decision. Although pistachios sure are appealing. Lean chicken, fish or whole grain pasta daily. This is where I fall off. How does whole grain pasta like Dreamfileds act as a replacement for chicken or fish? I don't get that. I will have to think on that some more. Also beef twice a week. I am suspecting that this was a suggested reduction to the normal amount of beef that this person was consuming. Again, for me, the beef piece may be on the back burner for a while. 45 minutes of exercise 5 days per week at 75% of max heart rate. Well we know I am sure getting close to that. Not sure on the heart rate. Again something I need to revisit. 8 hours of sleep. Oh do I try to master that. Recently I have not been as successful. But as of lat nights 9ish bed time I would say I am getting back on track with that. Overall it seems to always come back to the basics.