Hmm. . . my typical day?
I mentioned some of this in another post, so forgive me if you suffer from deja vu . . .
I usually alternate between two breakfast ideas:
I make a veggie omelette with the microwave. I take a big handful of freshly chopped veggies (spinach, broccoli, onion, peppers, etc.) and throw it in a bowl, and add one egg and stir (there are more veggies there than egg). I put it in the microwave for a minute, and flip it over like a patty. Then I add a bit of low or non-fat shredded cheese to the top and microwave it for another thirty seconds. This becomes the patty for my breakfast sandwich. I use whole-grain toast with fat-free ranch (or some other flavor) salad dressing instead of mayonnaise. And I switch around what veggies I use depending on what I'm in the mood for. I like to have this every other morning so I don't have too many eggs in one week.
The other usual breakfast I have is a fat-free no sugar added yogurt (like Blue Bunny Lite 85), but I put it in a bowl and add various fresh fruit (also depending on my taste for the day) and top it with a serving of whole-grain cereal to give it a crunch. Mmm. . . good stuff!
In the rare event I'm not in the mood for either of these, I have oatmeal with added fruit.
I almost always have a huge spinach-based salad at lunch (I don't even bother with iceburg lettuce anymore). I add various chopped veggies to it depending on my mood. I try to keep broccoli, carrots, peppers, onions, kidney and chili beans, corn, tomato, cucumber, and such on hand at all times. I usually top my salad with sliced roasted almonds or sunflower seed kernels. I try to fill up with salad before I get to the actual meal so I'm not tempted to eat a large portion, and even then I try to keep it low in fat. Today the "main course" was part of a frozen Boca pizza (low in fat).
For yesterday, I made stir-fry with one chicken breast, one green pepper, one red pepper, one yellow pepper, three green onion stems, one red apple (of all things), and some spicy Thai peanut sauce. I just kinda chopped up everything and threw it together. I was very satisfied with the results, but I probably should have added some wild rice to make it go further. I topped it with some La Choy rice noodles.
When I make a meal from scratch, I avoid simple carbohydrates whenever possible and concentrate on fresh veggies. Then I move on to what kind of meat (usually chicken) I might want, and then a complex carb. Brown and wild rice is a god-send: it can be a filler for most of my meals to make them last longer.
And for dinner, today I made a Healthy Choice seseme chicken meal (9 oz. size) to go with my usual salad. I'm not always in the mood to cook, you know. Those meals are nice to have handy for back-up. But basically, I can have anything I want for dinner, I just make sure it's relatively low in fat and that I eat a sensible portion.
I also have many small snacks throughout the day, whether it's a serving of yogurt, a small handful of almonds, a carrot, an apple, or whatever. I also drink fat-free soy milk and regular old skim milk.
I've pretty much sworn off fast food (I live two blocks from Burger King and there are four McDonald's in my town, AAAHHH!) but when I'm in that situation, I either get a grilled chicken salad with low fat dressing or I order a kids meal! If I really want a burger or fries, that occasional small portion isn't going to kill me. I also love to get the sweet onion chicken teryaki sandwich from Subway on honey oat, but I'll buy it as a foot-long and save half of it for another meal. Their spinach salad is really good, too, but my home-made one is a lot cheaper, LOL!
I've banned all sugar soda from the house. I will drink the various Diet Rite flavors as well as 7 up Plus, but even though it's diet I try not to overdo it; water is still a better choice. I love juice (especially cranberry), but it has a lot of sugar in it (even though I get the no-sugar added kind), so if I do want some, I either water it down and have a small portion or mix it half and half with white grape Diet Rite. The only juice I don't need to "water down" is grapefruit. It's not my favorite, but Jeff likes it and it *is* healthy enough for me to have it here and there.
If I really need a sweet treat I have frozen grapes (sliced in half) or a frozen banana. Yummy! I also have other fruit on hand in the fridge, and I try to get something different every week. I just try not to eat too much of it.
I also take a few suppliments every day to make sure I get enough calcium and omega fatty acids. I also take St. John's Wort for depression.
Well, my meal plans aren't an exact science, it's more of a flexible framework I like to use that took lots of trial and error to come up with. It's worked very well for me in the past; the only trick is to keep up the motivation. I enjoy the meals I have, I don't ever go hungry, and I don't count calories. I don't want to spend my life pre-occupied with counting calories and fat grams. . . the last time I did that, I became way too obsessive and slowly began to starve myself out of less and less food!
And while I don't count calories, that doesn't mean I don't check labels! I avoid buying anything that has more than 30% of the calories from fat, I check the ingredient lists for sugar and other simple carbs, and I check for portion size (since that can be deceptive at times).
Well anyway, that's what works for me. I'm gonna weigh in tomorrow to see how I'm doing.
