I tried living with “all natural” foods only, but meh, did not work well for my needs and lifestyle haha…
A couple reasons:
- We basically don’t cook at home at all. We rely mostly on salads Mon-Fri (we both have pretty great and healthy cafeterias at work, thankfully) and “cheat” during weekends and eat out lol… Though I left Manhattan, I guess Manhattan did not leave me. I find grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning consume a lot of effort and time and I don’t enjoy it. Since the last decade, I’ve tried to do, to the possible extent, only things I enjoy, and this is true for myself as well as my S.O. Some mundane tasks have begun to seem too mundane to me lately, and I am constantly trying to develop more equanimity so that these tasks don’t throw me off neutrality by a wide margin.
- Getting all nutrients through natural foods seems like a big lift! Precisely for the reason you stated. The amount of ingredients and calories need to get there is big! My metabolism is not one of those eat what you like and stay skinny kind, so I do need to watch my calories and workout (and regularly use Sapien workout fields).
- I travel a lot for work, so I need a sustainable, healthy solution to survive in airports and hotels.
So, I’ve been a supplement junkie and that has worked well for the most part.
For protein, I also use a powder. I’ve been using this brand called Huel Black and I quite like it!! It is plant based protein, diary free and that is certainly one of the factors I like this one. Do note that it is pretty fiber rich, so some folks initially have tummy troubles. 