Thursday, January 25, 2018

Balancing Your Plate - Part 2



I am also not a dietician or food-a-tician or any kind of expert. I feel like, at this point in time, it’s important to say that.

Also, this is maybe just two big pointers. I might give you more later. 

1) Work Within Your Means. 
Am I buying the organic apple or the regular apple? Well, how much money do I have for food? Is the organic apple what I want to spend extra money on? Do they have organic apples in the apple type I like? I’m an apple snob in that I prefer Pink Lady apples, sooooo, it probably won’t be organic. 


I’m also not dead yet, so I don’t think the non-organic apple is going to kill me. 

The same applies to buying local and fresh. Yes, totally buy local and fresh if you can afford to. Otherwise, you buy what you can to survive and not starve. I do prefer fresh and frozen over canned because #Sodium. 

I’ve also been in the position where my last $20 has to feed me for the rest of the week. In that case, it’s totally a big pot of canned beans and saffron rice with some protein (cheese and salsa if I have the money). It’s fairly cheap and lasts for days. Not the most healthy, but filling. Thankfully, I haven’t been in that position in awhile, but I can empathize with people who are. You do what you have to survive.


 

2) Keep It Simple.
Eat some fruits (fresh or frozen) or some veggies (fresh or frozen).
Eat a protein. Can be meat, but could also be protein powder, lentils, tofu, or edamame (to name a few).
Eat some form of fat. Peanut butter is my favorite, but I’ll eat avocado (sometimes). Nuts like almonds also work as a fat. 

The picture, for reference, is Fage Greek Yogurt, frozen fruit with kale (I'm not sure I am excited about kale in my yogurt, but I'm working with it), almonds, and chia seeds. 

Eat these every freakin’ meal.

I didn’t include carbs specifically because lots of food already have carbs. Fruit – carb. Vegetables – carb. Yogurt – Protein and carbs. 



 

Once a day I have pasta, rice, quiona, couscous or some other similar more of a carb type substance. I eat mine at dinner, but you could eat it at lunch or breakfast.

I’M NOT TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO! You can eat carbs every meal if you want!

Okay, the other morning I did put 2 TBSP of rolled oats in my breakfast smoothie.

CAUGHT ME RED HANDED!

If you try to incorporate fruit and/or veggies, protein, and a (healthy) fat into every meal you’re pretty close to being balanced and you won’t have to worry so much about are you eating enough.. blah blah blah… 


My goal is to eat 45% carbs, 30% fat, and 25% protein. Remember this is healthy fats friends. I am usually pretty close and -- seriously--- I just make sure I have some of the three groups each meal. I don't get too nitty gritty.

 
This is especially true the simpler your foods are. I don’t have to worry about added sugar because they don’t add sugar to fresh fruit. I buy frozen fruit that is just frozen fruit (no added sugars). Same with vegetables. Yogurt – plain. If I need sugar (because honestly, that Fage Greek Yogurt that has tons of protein is not the yummiest stuff around), I add some of my own – usually maple syrup or honey. Because YUM.

I season all of my plain stuff on my own. That helps cut down on sodium and it’s not really hard. I just pick a few spices.

YOU! Rosemary. Get in my food. Dill. You too! Maybe some lemon. I just find combinations that work for me.

I try to use less oils for cooking. I don’t use cooking spray – I go for Olive Oil and Coconut oil. I switch it up. But if a recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil to cook the meat, I might just think… I’m pretty sure I can cook this with 1. Oddly enough, it comes out just fine.

As a parting thought – if you like the butter, eat the butter. Just like the cake. Sometimes you get butter. But when do I REALLY REALLY want butter? I want butter on bread or English muffins. And on that really nice spicy pasta I sometimes get that doesn’t go with red sauce. So I eat it those times. 

Just not every day.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Balancing Your Plate - Part 1



You know what I have a hard time doing?


Yeah, well yes, I’m going to tell you. Obvs.

I have a hard time balancing all of the things I’m supposed to be eating.

Like.. whoa, make sure you eat enough protein. Don’t eat too many fats, but make sure they are good fats. Drink lots of water. Eat lots of fruits and veggies. Eat food rich in fiber. Nuts are good fats. Eat an apple a day. But only an organic apple. Also, stand on your head for 16 hours a day to release your chi.


That last one I made up.

Don’t forget getting your steps in. Working out. Fit in time for you.

Look! I’m lucky I arrived at work today. Let’s take these success where I get them!!

But still, some days I feel like there aren’t enough calories in the day to fit all these foods in. Not to mention pairing foods with the right other foods to reap the largest benefit. There are apparently rules to this!

I don’t follow them.

Some days, I just eat pizza. Like this past weekend when I had to load a ton of pellets (that’s 50 40 pound bags, FYI) and I decided – pizza. That’s what’s for dinner.

But back to food.

Fish. Eat that twice a week. But don’t eat the bad fish. Eat Salmon. Don’t eat farm raised salmon.

Eat shrimp – it’s good brain food. But don’t eat shrimp because neither fishing nor farming shrimp is sustainable. Shrimp trawling, when they scrape the bottom of the ocean floor to grab shrimp, also grabs other animals who are left to die on the deck of the boat. Also, something to do with a slave trade in Asia over shrimp. Also, don’t eat it from the Gulf because of the oil spill. But definitely eat shrimp.

I didn’t realize this was going to go so much into shrimp.

Should I eat oatmeal? It has a lot of fiber and can help drop your bad LDL cholesterol. But it has a lot of calories and doesn’t have any protein. I’d have to eat something else rich in protein to go with that carbolicious meal. I don’t have that many calories to work with, so maybe I should eat oatmeal?

Quinoa. Eat it because it’s a whole grain that has lots of fiber and protein. Don’t eat it because the people from Peru can’t afford to eat it anymore because it’s become so popular.

Let’s not even go into eggs. I think this week they’re on the good list, but next week – WHO KNOWS?

Do I eat butter still or should I give that up?

Soda. Soda is bad, but diet soda is worse than regular soda, so if you’re going to drink it, go for the real sugar soda.

Definitely don’t eat regular sugar. Eat honey. Or maple syrup. Or no sugar. Also, the fake sugar, bad.

Eat Kefir, Lentils, Chia seeds, Coconut oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Artichokes, Kale, Red Meat.

Or is that no red meat?

GLUTEN!

I bet you were looking for the answer to all this.

Joke’s on you.

I don’t have it. I struggle with it as much as you probably are.

I will give you some strategies I use. As much as one can call them strategies. Perhaps my sage advice?

Which is probably neither sage nor advice.

But I'll save that for next time. I need to go drink some soda and eat some processed food. 


Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Meal Planning - To Plan or Not to Plan, That is the Question!



UGH. Meal planning.

Who has time to plan anything? I barely have time to plan what I wear every day. I just pull some clothes off the rack and hope they don’t clash.

Who am I kidding, even if they do clash, I’d still probably wear them.

But seriously. Planning meals. Who does that?

Not me.

I appreciate that planning out meals can be really helpful. In fact, at one point I did plan dinners a little in advance, but that was before I started this journey. I’m still working on how many calories to eat in a day and how to get in enough protein.

Well, I guess you CAN probably get in enough protein if you only eat meat, but you NEED to eat protein. Among other things, it gives your body an energy source so it doesn’t steal it from your muscles. 


\YOU NEED YOUR MUSCLES!

Also, focus up there Billy. This is a post about Meal Planning.


Which I don’t do.

At least, not in the traditional sense.
Instead, I have routines that help me be consistent. For starters, breakfast and lunch, especially during the work week, is not very creative. 


Breakfast – Banana Smoothie with Cabot Whey Protein Powder. (I’m thinking of getting a better blender so I can try some smoothies with maybe,.. vegetables in them? I know, crazy talk).

Lunch – Right now it’s Greek Yogurt (plain but with lots of protein), Maple Syrup (because plain yogurt), frozen berries (no, they didn’t quite work to cut out the plain from the plain yogurt), almonds and chia seeds (as a bonus item). Also, a whole or half RX bar, depending on my mood. I also have some other items I COULD flex in there, but I’ll probably stick with this for a bit.

So, breakfast and lunch set. That leaves dinner. For dinner I pick a protein. Chicken. Pork. Steak. Fish. I figure out how many calories I have left (#MyFitnessPal) and then I backwards plan. First the protein – 4oz of whatever I choose. Then vegetables – is it a salad night? Or frozen veggies? Or do I have some other vegetables to use? I just pick one depending on my mood (or my husband’s), what I have on hand, and what I think will fit best with the calories I have left. Then I pick a carb (or not). Maybe it’s just a really big salad with extra toppings, like cheese.

Who doesn’t like cheese?

I figure it all out before I make my plate. I get this much protein. I get a serving of rice, which is a quarter of the pot (why is a serving of rice always ¼ cup, but the instructions are for a full cup of rice – four servings?).  I get this much veggies. Maybe I get a little cheese. 

Yes, I mentioned cheese again!

The next day I do it again. I always make sure to hit my goal and not go over too much. Or be under. 

This also makes grocery shopping, which my husband does, pretty easy. Get some salad stuff. Get some frozen veggies. Check the rice and pasta supply. Check and check. Meal is done. 


On weekends we switch it up a bit. I make a killer egg scramble with vegetables and some leftover protein. That’s definitely legit. I might… and I don’t want you to get too excited about this, but I might splurge and have an English muffin.

RIGHT?!

Shut the front door!

I also have some benchmarks. I know that I want to spend about a third of my calories on each meal which gives me some idea of where I am.

And I thought I’d never use math after high school!!!


So, even though I don’t officially meal plan, I do plan meals.
Just not in the traditional sense.

And more importantly, that works for me. If you find success planning out meals weeks in advance, you should totally do that. Part of me wishes I would do that because meals might be more exciting.
But I'll take the baby steps where I get them.

And more importantly, you do you boo-boo. 

Hiccups and Derailments

You might think that everything is easy for me. I mean, this whole weight loss adventure is just all peaches and cherry blossoms. Nothing ...