[![](/checklist-diet.png)](https://critter.blog/2023/12/04/the-checklist-diet/)

# "All foods are either protein or candy."

I cannot fathom how Mike Crittenden was able to follow
[his checklist diet](https://critter.blog/2023/12/04/the-checklist-diet/) for
118 days (and counting?).

Here's how I generally plan my meals: (1) forget to eat for 1-2 days, then (2)
panic while devouring everything visible in my fridge/pantry.

Of course it would be nice to be _nutritionally complete_, but that's the luxury
of people who have enough discipline to eat from a h\*cking checklist for four
months.

Okay, that's not entirely true. "Lack of discipline" is not a good excuse for
people like me. I have plenty of discipline, I would just rather spend my energy
thinking about ["ya'll'n't"](https://taylor.town/yallnt) instead of Vitamin E.
To make healthy eating my baseline, I try to design my life around
[my "dietary defaults"](/how-i-eat).

Lately, I've been eating more
[meats, eggs, lentils, etc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foods_by_protein_content)
because [a YouTube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ORs9hJfiw) conviced
me that protein is underrated
([and also a class issue](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2954450/)).

Throughout the past few weeks, I've found that protein alone is a suitable proxy
for tracking all other micronutrients. When I eat enough protein, I'm probably
getting enough vitamins, minerals, etc.

Through this process, I've somehow convinced myself that "all foods are either
protein or candy" and it's been working pretty well so far.

Anyway, it's time for me to go prepare more fish jerky.