Eats and Little Treats

One of the biggest realizations that I've come to in the last week and a half is that to maintain a healthy lifestyle is that I must do my research and plan ahead!

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

This will be a breakfast meal in the near future.

Stir all of this together and then put in the microwave for about two minutes. I honestly couldn't even finish this snack because I was so full. I also wasn't hungry until about 8:45 that night.

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)

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:

I think the smoothie and oats snack made my calories a bit too high for the day.

Monday:
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.

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).

Doesn't this look yummy? I even ate the tomatoes...but I still don't like them!

Dinner:
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

Directions

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Prepare spinach, cucumbers, and avocado on a large plate. 
5. Serve 1/4 to 1/2 (depending on how much you want) of the mixture on top of the salad.
6. Pour balsamic vinegar on top and it's ready to eat!

**I used nonstick cooking spray instead of EVOO.

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

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. 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.
3. 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!

Day 5 (Part 2): Tomaeto/Tomotto

The dreaded day arrived. It came and went swiftly. I'm not sure how I did it, but I ate tomatoes today.

So today was tomato and chicken/turkey day. I honestly meant to make a trip to Publix last night to get some turkey from the deli, but I was just too tired. Today was all about me, tomatoes, and chicken.

In case you're interested on why tomatoes, you're not alone. I asked myself the same thing. I was hoping to get out of eating tomatoes. But I had to eat them.

Here's what I discovered: the blog I got this cleanse from says to drink plenty of water with each tomato consumed because you're washing out the uric acid. I am not a science person, so I searched for what uric acid is and does. Basically, I had to eat tomatoes because I haven't been eating meat. My body is no longer accustomed to the 10-12 oz. of poultry I consume on a daily basis. Meat has uric acid. Too much uric acid causes gout. Tomatoes clean the uric acid from your system.

Now, I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist, so I don't know if this is the exact process that our bodies go through, but this was the gist that I got from Google. If you have gout and you're wanting to heal yourself, I don't know if you should eat tomatoes. I didn't go that far in my research.

Moving on...

I've never eaten a full tomato. One bite usually makes me gag. But at 10:30 this morning, I found myself sitting in front of this:

Tomato sliced. Large glass of water. Tea.

First bite made me gag.

Then I decided to chase each bite with a big swig of water. 

I did make it through, but I did not like it one bit.

About 45 minutes later I had to eat lunch because some of my co-workers and I were going to Rojo for a goodbye lunch. One of my friends/co-workers has taken a job at another company, so we took her out to lunch to bid her farewell :(

So around 11:15, I found myself in the kitchen making this lunch:

Plate before and plate after. Also, lots of water.

Lunch:
5 oz. of boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked in the crock-pot
1 tomato diced

I never thought I would put tomatoes on my plate on purpose, but this time was much better than this morning. Each bite had chicken and tomato, so I didn't have to wash the tomato down with water as many times.

I was so excited to eat chicken again though! I'm a carnivore...hooray!

Rojo was the first restaurant I've stepped in to since I've been doing the cleanse. I have to admit that I was worried I'd throw everything aside and order a huge burrito. But I did not. I fixed myself a glass of water and made some good conversation. I left without one bite of this yummy goodness:

Rojo is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Birmingham.

I must admit that last night I was praying for self control and God sure did deliver.

Around 2:30 I headed downstairs to the kitchen at work. I cut up another tomato at ate it plain. I stayed down there to eat it, therefore there isn't a picture. I figured I would just stand and eat it at the counter in an effort to eat it faster. It worked sorta, but I have to confess that I threw the last two bites into the garbage can. Then I made some green tea.

I made it through the rest of the work day just find, but when I got home I was ready for dinner.

I whipped up a nice little concoction of chicken and tomatoes.

I'm not sure if this is a full pound, but that's what myfitnesspal told me it was.

Dinner:
1 lb. ground chicken
2 cans of diced tomatoes

Dinner tasted a lot like spaghetti at first. It was delicious and I scarfed the first bowl down way too fast. I was still really hungry though because I'd only eaten about 200 calories thus far, so I went back for seconds and ending up eating the entire meal.

Many times I make something similar but I throw in a lot more veggies and usually some salsa and taco seasoning. That usually makes 2-3 servings if I eat it without anything else. I'm glad that I'm full now, but I'm kind of regretting the pound of chicken I ate.

Other than water and some herbal tea, that's a wrap on my food for today. Tomorrow should be much more interesting! I cannot wait to eat poultry and veggies!!

Here is my calorie count for the day:

Hope you all had a wonderful Wednesday. If you haven't read "Part 1," please take a few minutes to check it out!