Finding Yoyu with Food: Gamifying your Plant-based Diet with Two Simple Habits

How two simple habits help me gamify meal prep and maintain variety and balance in our plant-based diet.

My sister says I have a weird way of chewing. I chew to a certain beat and move the food from left to right every four beats until it’s time to swallow. Is that weird? Probably.

I grew up with a lot of weird habits around food. Some out of necessity. I used to be allergic to milk, wheat, eggs, and citrus fruits and learned to eat different foods at different times. While my friends might have been eating cold cereal for breakfast, I often warmed up leftovers from the night before.

Even today, I don’t enjoy a sweet breakfast. I would much rather have something savory and salty. When I first came to Japan in the early 90s, I easily adapted to the traditional Japanese breakfast centered around miso soup and rice.

I have another habit around food. It’s the number 10. I’m not satisfied with what I serve unless I can count at least 10 ingredients. It’s not the flavor I’m after, it’s the diversity.

Habit #1 – The Rule of 10 – Include at least ten foods in every meal

Let me be upfront. I am not vegan, nor am I vegetarian. However, I DO follow a plant-based diet. So, yes, on occasion, we eat fish, chicken, and eggs. I suppose that makes me a “flexitarian,” though I still like the term plant-based better because my meals are based on plants. The meat and fish we eat are more like condiments.

I’ve always loved vegetables but didn’t get serious about eating a plant-based diet until my husband had colon cancer, and we used juicing, herbal teas, and a plant-based diet as part of his recovery.

For the first six months, my husband was on a strict vegan diet while he rebalanced his body. Within a few days, I caught myself preparing the same foods over and over. For inspiration and to make sure we were getting variety, I tried gamifying our plant-based diet.

I set out to make sure every meal included at least ten ingredients. The habit stuck and now, even though we are no longer 100% vegan, I can’t help but count my foods, even when we are at a restaurant.

What does 10 foods look like?

Today for lunch, we had:

• Rice with Natto
• Miso soup – nameko mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, and wakame
• Leftover Cold Salad – daikon radish, shiso leaves, and cucumber
• Leftover steamed Vegetables – enoki mushrooms and komatsuna greens topped with katsuobushi (smoked bonito flakes)

Too Japanese for you? I keep the same policy even when eating favorite foods from my childhood. For example, our dinner might look like this:

• Coleslaw – cabbage, onion, celery, and pineapple
• Grilled Salmon (Sockeye if I can find it – I grew up in Washington State on the West Coast of the US, after all!)
• Cream of Mushroom Soup – mushrooms, garlic, coconut milk
• Mashed sweet potatoes or rice
• Black Olives (I like the color contrast. Besides, olives go with everything!)

Usually, it is super easy getting to ten. I typically prepare three dishes, each made up of at least three ingredients. Then, I just have to come up with the 10th ingredient, which is often rice.

Sometimes I feel stuck trying to get that tenth ingredient. When I can’t think of anything, I might add some pickled ginger to the side of the plate. Or chop up some scallions to go in the miso soup. Crushed nori goes well on top of fried vegetables. And, just in case, I always keep a jar of sauerkraut and a jar of olives on hand.

Habit #2 – Include foods from the land and from the sea

Since gamifying our plant-based diet with 10 ingredients at every meal is pretty easy now, I added an extra challenge. In addition to the 10, I also aim for something from the land and something from the sea.

I was inspired years ago by Tetstuko Kuroyanagi’s memoir Toto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window. The book is set during WWII and Toto Chan is in first grade. The headmaster of the school makes it a rule that all the students must have something from the land and something from the sea in their lunches.

Even though some kids have more than others, no one feels ashamed as the headmaster comes around to check. The only thing that matters is if their lunch meets the rule. And it’s OK even if their lunch doesn’t meet the rule. The headmaster’s wife always prepares an extra pot of something from the land and something from the sea to slip into any student’s lunch that is lacking.

I love the headmaster’s rule because it is simple. It made sense to me the first time I read it, and I’ve never forgotten. As I stand at the counter preparing food, I often find myself chanting,

From land and sea and into me
From land and sea and into me
From land and sea and into me

While chanting, I wash the wakame or cut the mushrooms and imagine all the steps it took for these foods to arrive in my hands. I am filled with gratitude.

Bonus Habit – Tracking your foods and aiming for 250

My two habits have served me well. However, now, I have a new goal. Ten is not enough because I realized it is still too easy to eat the same ten foods over and over again. I’m aiming for 250, thanks to Dr. Gundry.

I’m a fan of Dr. Steven Gundry and his book, The Plant Paradox. One line from his book stuck with me.

“We humans evolved as a traveling species. There is evidence that our hunter-gatherer forebears ate about 250 plant species on a rotating basis. Most humans don’t even eat a tenth of that number…”

Dr Steven Gundry, The Plant Paradox

What? How can that be? That would mean people only eat 25 plant species. Though I’m good at including ten foods at every meal, they don’t all count as plant species. What’s more, I usually eat many of the same ten ingredients every day.

Living in Japan, I assume I am eating more variety than my family living back in the US. Considering the variety of sea vegetables, I’m sure of it. But would it add up 250 plant species?

The first time I started tracking, I made it to 83 plant species and 109 species in total, including 8 fungi species, a variety of aquatic animal species, and a few terrestrial animal species like chicken, fish, and bees in the first three months. I wasn’t trying to eat differently. I was merely keeping track.

How about you? How many different plant species do you eat at a meal? Over the course of the day? Can you get your number up to ten? Want to join me and aim for 250?

The food we choose is one of the most important ways we find and cultivate more yoyu in our lives. The food we choose has a huge impact on the yoyu of our whole planet, too.

I am blessed by all the species that contribute their energy to my meals and fulfill me.