FOOD: get in mah bellllllly

Suuuuuper uncomfortable writing about this.  I believe we are all our own worst critic.  I know I am hard on myself, especially when it comes to my body.  I try to eat semi-healthy and I like working out. The number on my scale would probably blow your mind-- and that's okay... (I once had a nurse say to me, "wow! Your bones must be super dense because you weight a LOT more than I would think you would....!" gee.  Thanks?)

ANYWAY... I had a super sweet friend from college (Hi, C!) reach out and ask me a long time ago to do a post about what I eat on a regular day.  I laughed it off and never did the post.  Then I had a friend from Edward Jones email me asking me what kinds of foods I liked to eat to stay healthy.  I sent her a pretty short email back because, I don't know much about much.  At all.  Then, my really sweet friend from college wrote me an email again asking me (very strongly (and sweetly!)).  She just had a baby and wants some guidance in the food department for weight loss.

This girl is about the most wonderful person you could ever hope to meet, and if she asked me to shave my head tomorrow, I would do it, without hesitation, so a little post about some food isn't so bad, right??
Plus I got on the scale Monday morning after a BIG weekend of eating and drinking (and Chinese food Sunday night....) and there was a number I never like to see...so I figured doing this would kickstart me back-- and happy to report I started recording for this post on Monday and today is Thursday and I have lost around 4.5 pounds-- most of that was water weight from the weekend binging, but still.  Feels better!

A few things:
- I am sooooo NOT a dietician.  I know nothing about food groups.
- I eat.  A lot.  I like to workout, which also makes me hungrier.  I enjoy food. Always have and always will.
- I have done Weight Watchers multiple times and have had a lot of success with that program.  Something about going to the place and getting on a scale makes me be that much more serious about what I am eating.
- I weigh myself every single morning.  Every doctor in America tells you not to.  I do it.  It holds me accountable.  I got wayyyy out of control about 18 months ago and could not believe the number on the scale when I finally stepped on.  It is easier to reign in 3-4 pounds than it is to get 10-12 under control.  If I step on and see I am up a pound or two (totally understanding that a trip to the bathroom could fix that number), I up my water intake for the day, maybe push myself harder at workout, or eat a little healthier during the day.
-I do not limit my drinking.  At all.  Judge me if you want.  When I did Weight Watchers, they had a point value for all (alcoholic) drinks.  I refused to count those points. 


All of those things being said... here is a typical day for me in the food department:

Breakfast:
I make eggs every single morning during the week.  I read somewhere that eating breakfast in the morning is the most important thing you can do when trying to lose weight.  It gets your metabolism started earlier, not to mention it gives you energy to get moving.  I like my eggs with some kick, so I start out with some chopped purple onion:

And then I add in some egg beaters (when I am on a weight loss mission, I use a measuring cup and measure out a half of a cup, which equals two eggs.  When I am not, I just pour the stuff in...usually way more than 2 eggs worth.)

Cooking up some yumminess:

I didn't take a picture of finished product...pretty sure you can guess what it looked like...?

After eating breakfast, I get ready to head to my workout.  I carry this water bottle around with me everywhere and I try HARD to drink two of these a day.  Sometimes, I am nowhere near there.  When I am on a weight loss mission, I make myself drink 3. It is a total force-it-down thing, but I usually do it.  

My usual workout is 9:30-10:30 and by 11, I am usually pretty hungry.  If I don't eat something during this time, I will OVEREAT my lunch-- I know how I am and there's a good chance I will eat until uncomfortable-- and way too much.

So, I have fallen in love with these almonds.  

 The toasted almond is sweet, so it totally satisfies my sweet craving and there's also salt and vinegar which takes care of salty craving.  I have a can in my car, so I pop 10-15 as I head to run my errands.  LOVE these.  They are super filling too.

They usually hold me off until about 12:30.  I don't always eat lunch at home (I'll add on at bottom of post fast food ideas....).  I did on Monday-- I made a big fat salad.

I always use spinach for my salads for a few reasons: I feel like the spinach stays fresher longer (could totally be in my head), it has more nutrients than iceberg lettuce (or so I hear...) and, I find it fills me up SO much more. 

I take a really large bowl and FILL it up with spinach.  All the other goodies will fit on the top, but I like to fill the bowl.  When I make lunches on work days, I fill the tupperware container all the way up with spinach and then load up the other stuff.

Sally turned me on to these... hard boiled eggs, all ready to eat.  I chop up one and put it on my salad for lunch.  Also, if I run home after morning workout, I can grab one of these as my snack-- super filling and yummy! (if you are not an egg person, you are probably totally turned off by me right now...)

I usually cut up an entire tomato-- I love the way tomatoes taste on salads- big ol' chunks thrown in there.  Normally, I chop up a cucumber too, but we were out of them this day.  Our grocery store sells packs of little miniature cucumbers so I will slice one up and throw it on there.

I added some lean turkey chopped up (Tyson makes some frozen grilled chicken breast strips that are also pretty good on a salad-- just pop in microwave and put on salad.).  

Weight Watchers will tell you to only use fat free salad dressing-- I am here to tell you, that is hard to find! I looooove this stuff from Trader Joes. I would drink it if I could.  Cal even likes it if that tells you anything.   The calorie count is pretty low, compared to other dressings, so it is a go to around here.

I add some red onion to the top as well as some pepper jack cheese (again, WW wants you to only eat fat free cheese.  That ain't happening either.  This is one of those things that I "splurge" on in my daily eating.  I love me some cheese) and I am ready to grub!

Andy watched me take pictures of the whole salad prep process and offered so kindly to take my picture.  Don't I look happy to eat my salad? I think I must me. 

The salad really filled me up-- I mean, look at the size of the bowl... it's pretty darn huge!
I made some cookie bars that day, so I went ahead and snagged a big one. Just keeping it real! I am not on a diet right now-- if I was in that full court press of weight loss, I would have skipped the cookie bar.  But it was delish.  And I am glad I didn't.  

We had swim practice later in the day so I grabbed on of these drinks on the way.  These drinks are SUPER good.  You can get them at Target, but my girl Sally picked up a huge box of them for me from Sam's club.  They are only 5 calories and they work to make me feel pretty full.  

I forgot to take any more pictures that Monday, but we had chick-fil-a for dinner that night.  I got the grilled market fresh salad.  If you haven't tried one before, you totally should.  I think it has like 370 calories or something like that.  I added some fat free honey mustard dressing to it and called it good.

Keeping it real, again... I always snag some of the boys' French fries on the way home from the drive thru.  Like a lot of them.  When I am in full blown diet mode, I limit myself to one or two (as opposed to 15...!)

(we don't usually fast food for dinner.... last night we had a spinach salad with grilled chicken, strawberries, goat cheese and some chopped pecans....yummmmm)

So, speaking of fast food-- we are a family on the go and sometimes, we have to eat fast food.  I am not a hater of fast food! Here are some healthy-ish items you can get if you are trying to lose/be healthy.

Subway: this is a favorite sandwich of mine: 6in turkey and pepperjack cheese toasted flatbread with loads of veggies and sweet onion sauce (fat free). It is soooo good.  Love their flat bread more than their regular bread!

McDonalds has those wraps-- their grilled chicken one is actually really good.  We do not go to McDs very often AT ALL, but wanted to throw that option out there in case someone frequents there.

We love some Dunkin Donuts in our house for special treat breakfast.  They have an egg white turkey sausage flatbread that is amazing.  Sounds awful, right? I know.  Well, that puppy totally fills me up-- more than any other option there.  I loooooove a good bagel from there (it is my weakness....I actually just ate a bagel from there right this minute), but it doesn't keep me fueled like their flatbread.

Wendy's has a fantastic grilled chicken strawberry salad out right now-- it is seasonal, so it won't be around for long, but it is yummmmmy.  Prob isn't as healthy as other options, but it really is good.

So, there's some fast food options.  My last "trick" is gum.  My computer is at at little desk in our kitchen.  When I am on the computer, I am always wanting to snack on something.  Even if I am not hungry.  Next to my computer, I keep a can of those almonds mentioned above and I also keep a pack of this gum right next to me:

Mindless snacking is the death of me. Especially when I am doing something like working on the computer.  I chomp away without giving it much thought and next thing I know, I have finished a bag of chips. Whoops.  It happens! But this gum is sugar free and I like the way it tastes and keeps me from nibbling.

So, there you go, my sweet C and E! ha! A whole post about food! Hope this is what you wanted and that it helps.