hi ladies

i was wondering (and thought it might be interesting) for some insight to an average day in the life of our girls and what you generally eat/drink, etc. I know we all blow out occasionally, but what are your intentions for the day and how close do you get.

For me on average it is:

Morning - coffee in the car on the way to work
Lunch - sandwich or foccacia or chicken/noodle soup or nothing ( )
Dinner - Chicken breast with pasta or rice
Snacks - 2 x toast with cheese or vegemite

I know it is terrible and definitely want to change it up and this is how it will go

Morning - fruit with yogurt, coffee
Lunch - salad and turkey/tuna sandwich
Dinner - chicken breast with salad
Snacks - fruit, crackers with cheese and tomato

What is the average day for you?

I'm a calorie counter so my days vary a lot but I try to get a good amount of protein since I do a lot of weight lifting.

Recently it's been something like this (use to not be as good, much higher carbs!)

Breakfast - Cereal (1 cup) with skim milk (.5 cup)
Snack - Protein Shake (Orange Juice, Protein, Ice)
Lunch - Tuna Patties (1 can tuna, 1 egg white, 6 saltines) with Cheese (2 slices Kraft Free)
Snack - Sliced Turkey (.25 to .5 pound)
Dinner - varies. Sometimes healthy, sometimes not ie. spaghetti, chicken & rice, burgers...

A typical day for me is:

6:30am- Fat Free yogurt
11:00am-100 calorie snack
2:00pm-Usually a tuna or turkey sandwhich, String cheese and cottage cheese or apple sauce
6:00pm-I either eat Talapia (fish), stir fry or something that has protein and veggies and a salad
7:00pm- I have 100 calorie snack...usually the cookie ones

How many times a week do you eat tuna? My co-worker was telling me it is not safe to eat fish more than once a week, because of the mercury they contain. I have been too afraid to eat tuna since then.

As for me, I made a little menu last week, so I ended up eating a lot of : bananas, celery, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, cereal, and onions. I also ate potatoes, oranges, apples, pears, asparagus, chicken, rice, saltines, bread and pork. My huge enemies are cereal and bread, because I am lazy. I think I ate a lot less bread than usual on my meal plan, but I went crazy with the cereal at the end of the week because I ran out of cooked food and lack the energy during the week to make more.

I did not know this....on the fda website you can read more about it....they said it's mostly a concern for pregnant women or women who are trying to get pregnant. They also said that Tuna has different levels of mercury, and try to stay away from tuna steak and albacore tuna, they have the higher levels of mercury.....They are mainly talking about not having shellfish, shark (eww),Swordfish, King Mackerel, or Tilefish.....that is interesting

I have heard the mercury in fish thing, too, but I have also heard that fish is one of the only foods (or THE only food?) that contains essential Omega 3's (or something like that) unless you take fish oil capsules or something. Of course, I don't take supplements for it, and I almost never eat fish, so obviously, you're not going to die without them, but it's one of those things I have heard about.

As for an average day for me, I am doing calorie cycling, so it varies extremely from day-to-day. Today, for example, all I'm having is a yogurt (fat-free, no-sugar-added, 90 cals), a cup of chicken soup (70 cals), and a quesedilla (large tomato-basil tortilla--100 cals, skinless chicken breast--100 cals, shredded cheese--maybe 130 cals, and maybe some tomato and ff sour cream). I certainly don't eat like this all the time, but I do it for maybe 3 days a week. On my high days, I eat almost anything I want. that does NOT mean that I meet my calories with donuts, chocolate, and pastries, but sometimes I have restaurant burgers or potatoes instead of broccoli--things that can increase my calories without necessarily giving me a heart attack (or diabetes!).

I try to do the SBD diet thing, which means limiting "bad" carbs and sugar:

Morning-- usually one hard-boiled egg and 3/4 cup of Cracklin Oat Bran (lots of fiber and about half the sugar of many cereals, but still tastes good).

Lunch-- salad with some grilled chicken breast and low-sugar dressing. Sugar-free jello or pudding cup.

Dinner-- some sort of lean meat and lots of veggies.

Snacks-- a few slices of lunch meat, grape tomatoes, maybe some string cheese, sometimes yogurt or fruit. For dessert usually a no sugar added fudgesicle (actually very tastey). Oh, and sugar-free gum-- my personal diet-saver.

I currently eat pretty specific things, because I'm on a crazy diet prescribed by a dietician. I just realized that I barely meet 1000 cals on it, though, and I'm meeting with her Thursday when I'll tell her the plan she has me on is awful for me. (I think the plan assumed that for the choices I do have, I'd choose poorly instead of healthy... In that case I'd get higher cal count.)

Anyway, right now I usually eat:
Breakfast:
1/3c oatmeal made with water and 1% milk, 1 piece of fruit or a handful of raisins, a few nuts or seeds thrown into the oatmeal
Lunch:
approx. 10 baby carrots with hummus, a multigrain crispbread with 1/2 can tuna, a spinach salad or cottage cheese or yogurt
Dinner:
Varies... either a lean chicken/fish + veggies and a couple of new potatoes thing, or a wrap with chicken and lots of veggies, or a stirfry with brown rice
Snacks:
Fruit mostly, sometimes yogurt or 5 lf triscuts and lf cheese

I think this is going to change a bit soon... we'll see.

I'm also following SBD:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs w/ small amt of shredded cheese/sliced smoked turkey meat

Snack: 2% cheese stick

Lunch: albacore tuna, cheese stick, pickle

Snack: handful of peanuts/or cashews

Dinner: Baked chicken breast or Talapia/steamed veggies

Desert: Choc flavored protein shake (if I try real hard it almost tastes good)

I usually eat tuna 4, sometimes 5 times a week. Bodybuilders eat it a couple times a day! I don't think the mercury is anything to worry about unless, as others said, you are pregnant, nursing, possibly other health issues, etc.

I also eat tuna 3 to 4 times a week, so I agree with you there probably is a very small amount in tuna....

Pretty much off the food perimid. (wow, I can't spell. :x lol)
I had to go to a dietician because of my anemia, and she put me on the vegetarian perimid, and I wasn't even really exercising at the time, but if I went exactly off the perimid, weight just seemed to drop off of me.

I since then kinda gotten off of it because it does take a lot of work, but I really noticed a difference when I followed it. My nails grew and got stronger, my skin looked better, my hair grew faster, and I just had more energy... oh, and the weight loss, which is always always always a plus.


breakfast - bottle of cold water before I ate....oatmeal with blueberries in it (Fresh blueberries) 100% fruit juice, a piece of whole wheat toast with a tiny bit of natural peanut butter and a tiny bit of 100% fruit jam.

snack - grapes and a tiny bag of pretzels, bottle of ice water.

lunch - bottle of ice water, veggie burger, whole wheat bun, tiny slice of Farmer's Cheese, crinkle cut - raw - carrots, can of diet coke... I'm an addict and can't cut it out completley.

-or-

6 inch veggie delite sub from subway, 1 bag of baked doritos, bottle of water, 1 cup strawberry Lite n' Fit yoghurt.

snack - bottle of ice water, grapes, tiny slice of farmers cheese.

supper - bottle of ice water, veggie melt: (spray Pam...chopped up mix of black, a few green olives - tomatos - onion - mushroom...lite shredded 'veggie' cheese... and whole wheat bread.) Fruit mix (my favorite = pineapple, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and kiwi.), diet coke.


It's a pain in the butt to get everything ready, and it seems like I'm eating all the time, but it's worth is. When I follow it, I swear weight just kinda melted off and I lost 15 pounds in a month and a half... without even really exercising. just a 15 minute dog walk every day.

Living in a campus residence, pretty much everything I eat is bought from the various restaurants and cafs that are around. I keep fresh & frozen fruit, yogurt, cereal, milk, All Bran bars, whole grain bread and some canned soups & tuna around, but usually my lunch and dinner are bought already made.

Breakfast -- usually a bowl of cereal with skim milk or an All Bran bar with yogurt, and some fruit like melon, a banana or an apple. Also I usually pick up a large coffee with milk and sweetener on my way to class or work.

Lunch -- usually some variation of sandwich with meat like turkey, chicken or ham, cheese, and various vegetables. With this I usually have either salad or a piece of fruit, or sometimes soup.

Snack -- if there's a long time between lunch and dinner, I'll have a snack which really could be anything, I'll grab whatever is available, such as some fruit or veggies with maybe a little peanut butter or tuna... sometimes the choices are not ideal like yesterday I had a peanut butter sandwich.

Dinner -- It really varies but it is usually my biggest meal of the day and always involves some kind of meat and some vegetables, and usually some carbs too... although I usually try to stay away from potatoes, rice and pasta.

Snack -- Sometimes I have an evening snack because I am up pretty late... it's usually fruit and some hot tea with milk... lately it's been carbs galore, totally off plan

Other than coffee & tea, I drink water and diet pepsi.

Anyway this is NOT what my eating has looked like for the past few weeks.. I really need to get back on track!!

This is my meal plan for the week. I find if I can cook up on sunday then I have more spare time. Also I'm trying to cut down my spending and 'free form lunch/dinner' tends to get expensive (what can I say, I have champagne tastes!)

0645 Breakfast - low fat no added sugar yoghurt (75 cals)
0900 Snack - mini pretzels (110) and laughing cow light cheese wedge (35 cal)
1200 Lunch - homemade mini lasagne (2 cups worth = 500 cals?) I put heaps of veggies in my tomato sauce, only use 1 lasagne sheet per serving and have minimal (IMO ) cheese sauce (i use non fat milk to make it with too).
1500 -Snack apple sauce (80 cals) and mini choc bar (80 cals)
1830-1900 Dinner - Chicken and vegetable soup (2 cups soup/broth + veggies = 250 cals)with 1 peice soy and linseed toast. (80 cals)

Water = 2l a day at least and 1 cup of green tea sometimes. I also might have some coke zero or sprite zero with dinner if I am craving sweets.

I try not to snack after dinner. I might have about 200-400 cals of icecream one night a week. And probably some chocolate (200-400 cals MAX) another night.

In the weekend I just eat what I feel like, but try to stay below 1600 cals.

You can get omega's from flax seed! Just so you know, I really like it too.

Food Plan: Don't eat everything in sight. HA. Mine varies so much. I do always eat breakfast, and usually a couple snacks between meals. Lately I have been trying to do low carb, so it's been a lot different. I haven't had a consistant plan since before December.