Meals

Breakfast

My breakfast generally consists of a container of A&E Greek Style Yogurt or 3/4 cup of the Kashi GoLean original cereal. I recently discovered the wonderful world of Subway's breakfast menu and I've fallen in 'like' with the egg white & cheese on an English muffin. Yesterday, I bought the supplies to make my own so that can be added to the breakfast option list as well. 

Subway's Nutrition Info page lists the Egg (White) & Cheese as 140 calories, 3.5 fat, 490 sodium, 5 fiber, & 12 protein. This is actually a pretty decent comparison to my other breakfast choices. If it weren't for the $4/day price tag (I get milk too) I would just continue to get it from them. However, I can definitely make it cheaper at home and better yet, everything can be prepared ahead of time and assembled whenever I want one (just like at Subway!)

Early Morning Snack

On days that I workout after breakfast, I have my 2 servings of fruit within an hour following in order to get my sugars back up. 

Late Morning Snack

Sometimes I get hungry again around 11. On those days, I open my bag of frozen veggies and pour 1/2 into a bowl with some pepper sauce or Penzy's Mural of Flavors spice (both have ZERO sodium!) and it satisfies me well into 1 or 2 when I normally eat lunch.

Lunch

Lunch is generally a HUGE salad or the bag of frozen veggies (or 1/2 if I ate earlier) with 3oz of boiled chicken, shrimp, or (rarely) leftover steak - and pepper sauce, vinaigrette, or spice. I made potato soup last week and felt pretty lousy all week. Simply put, there were too many carbs, not enough protein. With all those carbs, I was left craving more food. My belly was SO full yet all I could think of was eating! NOT going to make that mistake again. Last week was horrible as far as feeling restricted and giving in to cravings and feeling guilty. 

Afternoon Snack

Lunch wears off earlier on some days. If I have fruit or veggies available, I'll go ahead and munch on more of those. A favorite quote I've heard is, "No one is here from eating too many fruits & vegetables!" - from a friend sharing a story from her WW meeting.

The days I don't have extra fruits/veggies laying about are the days I typically give in to carb loading on pretzels, popcorn & candy - basically whatever's laying about the office. I always physically feel 'down' about an hour after. You would think I'd know this was coming and that would be enough to resist the temptations but alas, sometimes it's not.

Late Afternoon Snack

If I didn't workout in the morning, I'll need to eat a snack before working out in the evening. This is usually something small & quick - and usually the same as the breakfast options.

Dinner

I am in a relationship with the most wonderful woman who happens to cook very well and enjoys doing so. We came to an agreement that I could change my diet however I wanted as long as I would still eat what she made at home. For the most part, as long as I control the portions of what is on my dinner plate, the dishes she makes are not terribly unhealthy. The worst is 85% lean beef and cream-based sauces which really, in minimal amounts, aren't that bad for me. 

Summary

I find the easiest way to keep eating healthy is to find a way that works so that I'm not focusing on everything I eat. I am not the person who can write everything I ate in a journal and track all the calories, fat, and fiber for each food. The more I obsess over the details of my food, the more I stress over what I can and *can't* have. This stressing leads to impulse eating, which spirals out of control so fast. It's worked out so much better for me to ease these diet changes into my routine. Now it's so normal that I don't even have to think about how much I need to eat to keep energy for the workout. The bags of frozen veggies have helped tremendously as now I do not have to prep & weigh out each day's worth of food.