Life After I "Dew"

A long time ago I promised you guys a food post and then I never wrote it.

When I lose weight I tend to be very boring when it comes to food.  I tend to eat a lot of the same stuff for breakfast, lunch & dinner.  Even my snacks are the same day in and day out.  The reason being, once I know what works {aka how many calories each thing is} I stick to it because it's easy.  It's annoying to track your calories sometimes, ok all of the time, so when I already know that THIS bread is 110 calories it saves me a lot of time figuring out what I'm going to eat for breakfast.

The last time I wrote a post like this I was eating a lot more packaged stuff.  Lean Cuisines, cans of soup, Jell-O, etc were a big portion of my diet.  I'm proud that to say that this time I've cleaned that up a little.  That's not saying I'm perfect and eat clean all of the time because I don't but I have learned a lot about the stuff that goes into our bodies and I am trying, every day, to make better choices for me and my family.

One thing we have cut out completely is fast food.  I watched Food Inc and, man, were my eyes opened.  I was completely repulsed by not only the food industry but our government as well.  My weekly trips to the supermarket have also changed, the way I look at food has changed.  There is some stuff that I just can't anymore, I just can't.  I don't want to go into details because some people are like I was and just don't want to know.  That is fine because I've been there. When you are ready you should watch it, I promise it will change your food life.

OK, now on to what I DO eat.  Keep in mind I'm at a 1200 daily calorie allowance right now.  I try to make breakfast the least amount of calories and each meal gets more calories as the day goes on, does that make sense?  When I workout I burn calories which technically means I can eat back whatever I burn but I don't usually do that.  I will sometimes at some of them back but not all of them,ever.

Breakfast:  Listen, I love breakfast foods.  All of them.  Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day.  Sometimes I try to be a smoothie for breakfast kinda girl but the reality is I love to EAT at that time of day so smoothies don't really work.  Typically I have eggs of some sort.  I'll do an egg white on a slice of whole wheat toast sprinkled with a bit of cheddar, that's probably the thing I eat most frequent.  When I have the fixings I'll do an omelette or some scrambled eggs with salsa and avocado {yum!}.  When I'm in a hurry {preschool days} my go to is a Luna or Lara bar.  I love them.  They fill me up, taste yummy, are easy and {relatively} good for you.

Lunch:  Lunch is probably my least favorite meal of the day.  I just find it so boring.  In fact, I don't even buy myself lunch food when I go grocery shopping.  My most frequent lunch is a Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger with steamed veggies.  I eat the veggie burger bunless and spread some hummus on top.  It's under 300 calories for that lunch.  It's quick and easy, I love it.  Sometimes I'll do a sandwich and some fruit and I've switched my mayo out for mustard {this is huge b/c I've always been a mustard hater}. Lately I have really loved having a Shakeology for lunch.  I stay full until dinner time and it keeps me from reaching for snacks or even thinking about them.

Dinner:  I am guilty of not cooking dinner much these days.  I'd say I cook dinner about 3-4 days a week right now.  I've been using the Skinny Mom site to find lots of low calorie dinner options.  I love that you can search by beef, chicken, clean eating, paleo, Mexican, Italian, etc and they are all low in calories.  I have yet to have a meal I didn't like from there.  Then there are old stand-bys like bubble up enchiladas and crock-pot chicken stroganoff that I know like the back of my hand and can make when I have no idea what to cook for dinner.

Snacks:  This seems to be the area I get the most request for, guess I'm not the only one who loves snacking!  I've found these delicious little snacks by Special K called Moments.  They are only 70 calories and come in yummy flavors.  They are the perfect little "treat".  I love love Goldfish.  It's about 140 calories for 55 pieces so I feel like I'm getting SO much {hello 55 pieces is a lot!!!}.  I have been snacking on cantaloupe  like it's my job lately.  I was randomly like, "OMG cantaloupe sounds soo good!!!" and bought it and have been eating it for like two weeks now.  Skinny Cow ice cream bars are good if you are an ice cream lover, like me.  I get the cookies and cream {my all time favorite} and they're only 110 calories each.  Not as good as a Dairy Queen extra Oreo blizzard but it does the trick.  We love the Stretch Island Co. fruit leather too, all of us eat them all of the time.  They are 45 calories and you feel like you're eating a Fruit Roll Up, kind of.

We usually eat out on the weekends.  It's crazy that we do because I spend 5 million dollars at the grocery store but it is what it is.  When we do I usually ALWAYS look up the menu and nutritional info {if available} before we go.  It drives Jimmy nuts because I always know what I'm going to order before we even leave the house but you gotta do what you gotta do.  That has helped me from falling for the "healthy salad" that's 1400 calories vs the grilled chicken with steamed veggies and a sweet potato.  It's not as "fun" to go out to eat when you are counting calories but it doesn't have to be sabotage either.

I try not to have cheat days or even cheat meals but it happens and is unavoidable at times.  Since January I can probably count on one had the amount of cheat meals I've had.  When I'm in the thick of the losing weight process I think it's important to be very disciplined and stay on point.  I also don't reward myself with food when I hit a goal or feel great about an accomplishment.  I'll reward myself by working even harder to get to the end result even faster.  I'll reward myself with smaller pants in the end!

Like I said, I'm not perfect.  I am not a dietitian or nutritionist and what works for me may not work for you.  This is what I've been doing and what's been getting me the results I want and hopefully it'll give you some ideas for your meals/snacks.