Since I've been really bad about posting my meals over the last few days, I will go through from Sunday-Tuesday and explain what I mean by researching and planning ahead along the way.
Hopefully, at the end of this post you'll see that it's not hard to change your eating habits. I'm not eating "diet food" nor am I eating nasty cardboard stuff. I'm just following the rules and guidelines that I set up for myself and I'm not letting anyone or anything persuade me to get off that course of action.
Sunday
Sunday I drove back to Birmingham from Destin. I know that I always get hungry on this drive, and my usual reaction is to stop about an hour and a half in and get something from McDonald's like an ice cream or a McFlurry. If I'm feeling healthier, maybe I'll just go for a smoothie. But Sunday I ate Great Value nonfat yogurt before I left Destin and packed an apple for when the hunger would strike.
By the time I got back to Birmingham, I was still not hungry, so I went on to the grocery store, and then finally made it home. I had about 20 minutes to kill before Jason got back in town, so I made myself a smoothie for lunch. It was around 1:30 or 2:00 when I did this, so the yogurt and apple really held me over.
I don't have a picture of my smoothie because I drank it too fast, but here's the recipe -
Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie:
4 oz. skim milk
2 very ripe bananas
2 tbsp. natural peanut butter (creamy)
6 ice cubes (this may vary depending on the size of your ice cubes)
I really meant to drink half of the smoothie then and half before church, but I was kind of really hungry by then so I drank the whole thing. Jason and I were going to the 6:00 service at church, which means no dinner until 8:15 or so. I decided on a super filling snack to hold me over.
Nutella Yummy Oats:
1/2 c. whole wheat oats
2 tsp. Nutella
1 c. water
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| This will be a breakfast meal in the near future. |
After church, Jason wanted to pick up sushi and take it back to my apartment. I decided to just make a salad when I got home.
Dinner Salad Galore:
1-2 c. spinach leaves
1/2 avocado chopped
1/4 c. fat free shredded cheddar cheese
1 slice roast beef from the deli
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
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| Since Jason picked up food from Maki Fresh, I decided to pretend I did too and I used one of our many Maki cups for my water. |
Here is my calorie count for the day:
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| I think the smoothie and oats snack made my calories a bit too high for the day. |
Monday was date night. Here's where the research comes in - Jason had mentioned going to Stix for dinner. I usually get the teriyaki chicken without rice and I substitute double veggies. So I looked up the nutrition facts on that meal and it was pretty decent, especially for dinner. Then, I thought about another restaurant that Jason and I like a lot that is a Mongolian grill type place. You pick your protein, veggies, seasonings, and sauce and then they cook it for you. I looked up their website to try to find the nutritional information, and guess what? They let you build your own meal online and they count the nutrition facts as you're building it.
I built my meal and recorded the nutritional information. After that, I called Jason and asked if he wanted to go there instead. He was all for it, thus I had a super healthy dinner, even though we were on a date!
No special recipes today, but here goes a "normal" day for me:
Breakfast:
1 c. skim milk
1/2 lb. watermelon
Coffee - Millstone Foglifter
Lunch:
2 oz. turkey from the deli
Great Value nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/2 c. cucumber slices
1 tsp. wasabi mustard (probably less)
25 pistachios (no salt added, also this was throughout the afternoon)
3:00 Snack:
Sliced orange
Dinner:
Genghis Grill bowl - Chicken, shrimp, yellow squash/zucchini, celery, spinach leaves, broccoli, green beans, red pepper flakes, salt, island teriyaki sauce.
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| This comes with a starch, but I ordered tortillas on the side and I didn't eat them. |
Once we got home, I made a little snack because Jason popped some popcorn. I mixed up some fat free/sugar free chocolate pudding with skim milk. While that was gelling, I got out the Nutella (can you tell I'm a big fan?). I spooned some pudding into a bowl and put an even teaspoon of Nutella right in the middle. It was the perfect dessert for less than 200 calories.
Here's my calorie intake for Monday:
Tuesday:
Today was a little bit harder for me to research because Jason and I decided to meet for lunch about 20 minutes before we actually met. Luckily, I brought my lunch to work today, so if he picked some place that would be hard for me to eat at, I was just going to bring my lunch with me or eat after. Luckily, he chose a place where I can eat pretty decently and that has their nutritional facts online.
Breakfast:
1 c. skim milk
Oikos 0% Greek yogurt, vanilla
Coffee - Folger's Black Silk
Lunch:
Taziki's Chicken Feast with basmati rice (although I only ate about 2 bites of the rice) and a small Greek salad (but I didn't use the dressing).
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| Doesn't this look yummy? I even ate the tomatoes...but I still don't like them! |
Things got tricky at dinner tonight. I've been so excited about making Mini-French Dip Sammies for Jason, but that's not something that I can eat. So before I left for work today, I pulled from my stock of frozen tilapia and left two filets out to thaw. I recently saw a recipe for "Fish Cakes" on a blog and I've been wanting to try it. Tonight seemed like as good a night as ever!
My dinner -
Fish Cake Spinach Salad (recipe adapted from the Fit Cook blog):
Ingredients
- 2 filets of white fish (tilapia)
- 1/4 cup red pepper, chopped
- 1 tbsp Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp mustard (yellow or Dijon)
- 1 egg white
- the juice of half a lemon
- Emeril's Fish Seasoning
- salt + pepper
- 2 c. spinach leaves
- 1/2 cucumber sliced
- 1/2 avocado sliced
- 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil** in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the red pepper, and cook until soft and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
- Add another 1/2 tbsp olive oil to the pan. Season the fish with salt and pepper on both sides, and cook on each side for about 3 minutes, allowing the fish to brown (brown = more flavor). Use a spatula to break up the fish, then transfer it to the bowl with the onion and pepper.
- Add the Greek yogurt, mustard, fish seasoning, egg white, and lemon juice to the bowl and stir with a spoon until well combined. Set bowl aside and let mixture cool.
- Prepare spinach, cucumbers, and avocado on a large plate.
- Serve 1/4 to 1/2 (depending on how much you want) of the mixture on top of the salad.
- Pour balsamic vinegar on top and it's ready to eat!
Jason's Dinner -
Mini-French Dip Sammies (recipe from Plain Chicken blog):
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound deli roast beef, thinly sliced
- 4 slices provolone cheese
- Arby's sauce, horseradish sauce, or ranch dressing
- 1 can refrigerated crescent rolls
- 1 packet Au Jus Gravy mix
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles. Spread 1/2 teaspoon Arby's sauce or ranch dressing on each crescent. Top each crescent with 1/2 slice provolone cheese and roast beef. Roll up crescents and place on baking sheet. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- While crescents are baking, make Au Jus according to directions on packet.
I also had the second half of my pudding/Nutella dessert tonight.
Here is my calorie count for today:
If I can live a healthier lifestyle, so can you.
Goodnight everyone!
...and until tomorrow, happy ramblings!
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