Friday, January 30, 2015

Healthier Lifestyle - Part 2

If you missed part 1 yesterday you can read it here!
Thank y'all so much for all of your sweet comments yesterday. Y'all are so sweet!

I told you yesterday I would share some things that I am eating now that are healthier options.
1st I downloaded My Fitness Pal, I had it before but quit using it and deleted it for more space on my IPhone so I had to download it again. I'm watching four things mostly with this app. Calories, sugar, sodium, and protein. It has helped me to keep it all logged, sort of like a food journal. There are days where I don't log it because I simply forget, as in this whole past week. 

Breakfast
For breakfast I have been mixing it up between hard boiled egg whites and yogurt with cinnamon pita chips. Usually 3 days a week I will eat 4 hard boiled egg whites for breakfast. Surprisingly this holds me over better than the yogurt and cinnamon pita chips! I work 7:00-3:30 with two 10 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. If I am having my egg whites for breakfast I will eat them around 7:30 and then not eat again until my lunch at 11:00, with lots of water in between. If I bring yogurt and cinnamon pita chips then I usually eat my pita chips around 8 and my yogurt around 10. I tried eating them both around 7:30  but was absolutely starving when my lunch rolled around at 11:00. I occasionally have a rice cake with peanut butter, too.

Both of these are VERY simple and require hardly any work. I boil my 4 eggs at night or in the afternoon when I get home from work for about 20-25 mins and then I put them in a zip lock back and keep in my refrigerator for the next day. The yogurt I buy and the cinnamon pita chips I bag the night before as well. I count out 7 chips as that is 1 serving size.

I got my pita chips from Kroger. 


The yogurt...this is the ONLY kind and I mean ONLY kind of yogurt I can eat without gagging and almost throwing it back up. Weird I know, but I have tried (and wasted money) trying other brands, and I have tried almost every other kind. Even the kids yogurt packs. Haley let me try this flavor and I LOVED it. I went to the store the next night and bought some. I even got brave and tried the blueberry and banana cream one. I seriously want to lick the little bowl it comes in because it's SO good! The banana one tastes just like banana flavored pudding. AND only 80 calories AND 12 grams of PROTEIN. This is also a good snack for after you workout, too!

The rice cakes are good! Very good and a great choice for a small snack if you need something to hold you over until lunch or dinner. There are a lot of different flavors. My favorite is the caramel corn. 1 rice cake is only 50 calories! Add that with a 1tbsp of (Kroger brand) peanut butter at 90 calories or you can eat them plain!

So if you are doing the hard boiled eggs for breakfast 1 hard boiled egg white is 17 calories. 
I eat 4 eggs, so 8 halves total:
Calories: 68
Protein: 14 grams 
Sugar: 0.9


If you go the yogurt and cinnamon pita chips route: 1 pack of yogurt is 80 calories and 7 cinnamon pita chips is 140 calories.
Calories: 220, 
Protein: 15 grams
Sugar: 17 grams

If you go the rice cake and peanut butter route: 1 rice cake is 50 calories and 1 tbsp of peanut butter is 90 calories. So total:
Calories: 140
Protein: 4.5 grams
Sugar: 5 grams

Lunches
I am still working on this. Trying to find new things that are healthy to give myself a variety. I get really burned out on stuff if I am continually eating it over and over again.

-A lot of days I have about 4 ounces of grilled chicken with brown rice and mixed vegetables. Some days I will do about 2-3 ounces of chicken and add 1 hard boiled egg white.

-Some days I got to Subway and get a 6 inch flat bread with black forest ham and turkey, American cheese, onions, green bell peppers, lettuce, and sometimes light mayo. If I get chips I get the Sun chips because they are actually better for you than baked chips. I usually don't get chips unless I am really hungry. I will usually bring a pack of yogurt to eat with this.

-About 2 times a week I go to Salads-N-More and have a fresh salad. I always add in green bell peppers, egg whites, and onions. I top it with their fat free Ranch, because I just can't eat a salad plain. 

-Some days I will bring homemade spaghetti. Mine is a little different and it is definitely a small portion. I fix mine without meat if it's only me, only because I don't want to take the time to cook the meat and I am only having a very small portion for lunch. I use wheat noodles and I find the lowest calorie and lowest sodium spaghetti sauce I can find. I measure 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese to sprinkle on top. And a huge thing for me...NO bread with this meal. This is really hard for me as I love love love garlic bread with spaghetti.

-Some days I will bring sandwich meat and some sea salt pita chips. (no bread) 

and that's about it for lunches so far. Still trying to find more options! If you have any send them my way!! :)

Dinner
I am also still working on this. I eat A LOT of grilled chicken for dinner. As in 3-4 nights out of the week.

-I meet Matthew half way between here and home for dinner one night out of the week. We had Mexican this week so I got 1 grilled chicken and cheese quesadilla with lettuce on the side. I also didn't have as many chips and salsa as I used to (very hard to do!)


-I also have found A LOT of recipes from Julie over at her blog


-I usually have brown rice with mixed vegetables with my grilled chicken.


-Tuna is also something I like!



Dessert
Brookside Chocolates. These are seriously the best! I usually eat 5 of these after lunch or dinner...or both :) I count out 5 and put in a zip lock back to take to work with me so I won't be tempted to snack on them all day, because they are THAT good! 

-Sometimes I have a yogurt for dessert after dinner 


-Smoothies. I haven't started making these but I plan on trying a few out over the next couple of weeks. Haley gave me her old blender so that I can make my own and I'm really excited!
She has one that she likes to make in place of a strawberry milkshake.
She uses vanilla almond milk, strawberries, and the strawberry cheesecake yogurt (the one I talked about at the beginning of this post) and blends them together. She usually adds some of her vanilla or strawberry protein powder in to it. She says it tastes just like a strawberry milkshake from sonic!


-Cinnamon Pita chips, those are so good and so addicting. I eat 1 serving size (7 chips) for dessert sometimes. I really like crunching these up and putting them in my yogurt.



Snacks
-If I plan ahead I will bring an extra hard boiled egg white or two and snack on during my morning break of afternoon break. 


-Apple slices and peanut butter (A good snack to eat about an hour before I work out)


-Bananas and peanut butter (A good snack to eat about an hour before I work out)




I lied, I am going to have to break this up into three posts. Monday I will share with you some of our workouts so far and the workout plan she made for me for the next three months.
Like I said, I am not an health expert by any means, and I still am learning. I still have the urge to drink a Mountain Dew when I walk by the drink machine in the break room or really want to stop when I drive by Chick-fil-A but I haven't (30 DAYS Y'ALL!!!!) 


Thank you again for all the encouragement!
This weekend we are going FURNITURE shopping!! We picked a lot out online already but we are going to see it in person this weekend. And we bought our bedding set! We found a really good deal on a 12 piece set online at Bed Bath & Beyond and I am in love with it. Can't wait to show y'all next week!
Happy Friday :)

3 comments:

  1. For lunches I regularly bring hummus with veggies as part of my meal. Hummus is SO tasty and healthy so I love having a couple teaspoons of it with carrots, bell peppers or tomatoes! :)

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  2. great job on the no soda! I know how hard that is - i gave up my serious coca-cola habit almost 2 years ago. I'll occasionally have a sprite - but even those are few and far between!

    Ditto Erin on the hummus - i've been snacking on hummus with sugar snap peas, red peppers and tomatoes - there are SOOOOOOOOO many different kids of hummus available.

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  3. I literally almost finished a giant tub of hummus yesterday at lunch haha I need to pre package them into portions so I'm not over indulging ;) but I DID eat tons of carrots with them. I'm a huge fan of rice cakes!! Go you!! Sounds like you're doing great!

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