I'm trying really hard to eat like a queen for breakfast, a princess for lunch and a maid servant for supper. It's a learning process and it's also a process to get my stomach to relearn how to eat this way as well. Also I'm buying almost everything organic including my beef and poultry. I still have some "regular" beef in the freezer so I'm gradually going through the last bit of it. I'll include links to recipes below. If there is anything that I didn't link to that you would like just ask me. Or if you have any other questions about what I'm eating, etc.
Breakfast: I love my carbs! I especially need carbs after a run morning. I'm running 3 to 4 times a week and I'm also doing the 30 Day Shred level 3 everyday. I'm pretty hungry by the time I'm done exercising.
My usual 2 breakfasts right now are:
1 cup of steel cut oats with 1/2 cup of blueberries or blackberries, cinnamon and drizzle of honey.
or
1 whole wheat pancake (homemade and they are awesome and freeze well) with 1/2 cup blueberries and tiny drizzle of organic maple syrup or honey
Mid Morning Snack
On my run days I'm really needing a mid morning snack, but the day I don't run I could almost get by without anything. However I know she says to make sure you eat every 4 hours. Most days we are away from home during this time so I take things that I don't have to keep cool.
1 apple -which I only feel like eating half of if even that- Ethan loves apples and will finish it off for me
and
a small handful of some type of raw nuts: almonds, pecans, walnuts
Lunch
I'm trying to center our lunches more around veggies and beans. Beans are packed with protein and they are also much cheaper than organic meat :-) I'm thankful that Ethan is actually more of a bean eater than meat eater! We recently went to Arby's with my mom and he turned up his nose at the meat and cheese on the sandwich! I'd say his taste buds are changing from eating healthy!
Here I usually have a large mixed green salad topped with fresh tomatoes, a little avocado (for the fat portion of my meal), some type of beans and salsa. I'm a salsa addict! Whole Foods makes a decent jarred hot organic salsa. I stretch it out by adding fresh cilantro and tomatoes.
The last few days I've been on a quesedilla kick. I make up a batch of ww tortillas and they keep great in the fridge. The only problem with this is I'm consuming cheese and processed carbs/fat from the tortilla. I have to watch myself there. I just KNOW I had too much cheese on it today. That's ok, like I said, I'm learning self control and listening to my stomach. I add fresh spinach, mushrooms, cheese and beans. I make up a bowl of salsa with this as well.
Afternoon Snack
This is very difficult because of course Ethan eats all the time and that also means food during the afternoon when I need to stay away from it! It is so important that I still give him snacks that I do not feel tempted to partake as of well. Does that make sense? He loves nuts, raisins, homemade graham crackers, and homemade yogurt. Oh, and the wonderful no bake granola bars! (Yes I do indulge in those ;-)
I've also been trying to make "green monsters" to help fill me up in the afternoon. I still fall behind on veggie and fruit intake and this is a terrific way to get in several servings down fast. I learned that if I add half a banana I don't need to add any sweetener to it.
Typical recipe for a green monster: put 1 cup of water in a blender with 2 large handfuls of baby spinach, a few leaves of kale and half a banana. So yummy! I'm only going to Whole Foods once a week and I'm trying to pick up a new green item to try in my combos.
Supper
I TRY to keep suppers protein and veggies only with no carbs, but I don't succeed every night this way. My husband is extremely picky so it's been difficult to change suppers around. He will eat my homemade pizza with the ww crust and also the homemade ww tortillas, but that is the only healthy thing!
So here it's pretty much meat and veggies of some sort. For instance when I make stew I still put in potatoes in it, but I will only pull out a little meat and some other veggies in it. I try to have a large salad and it there is no other fat with my meal I will drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top as my salad dressing. I have not found a bottled organic salad dressing that does not have something added to it that I don't want to consume. I actually enjoy the flavor of my new salad dressing now.
For another example I didn't want to fix anything with the meat that I have on hand but eggs sounded good for supper tonight. I made fried eggs for everyone and biscuits. Ethan had his ww biscuit (I keep leftovers in the freezer and they cook just like freezer biscuits you can buy at the store) and Andrew had his white-crapola freezer biscuits. I just had 2 eggs and veggies. There is enough fat in the eggs to keep me satisfied for my evening meal.
Evening Snacks
None! But sometimes I'm starving (that is usually from my run days) and I'll indulge in a small square of my homemade granola bars.
Changing my evening eating patterns has been a little challenging. This would be the time I consume the most food and have to have sweets afterwards. Eating healthier has pretty much taken away the "need" for consuming sweets anytime of the day, but especially at night. If I make sure to have some fat with my evening meal it keeps me from craving something sweet. I think it's also important to consume as many veggies as possible because it helps fill all the vitamins that our bodies need and in turn we will not crave sweet things. I take a really good multivitamin/multimineral supplement along with a few other supplements. I'm a huge believer of these!
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It's amazing since I've cut out all sugar from my diet that I don't crave as much food and what food I do eat tastes soooo good! Or maybe it's just that organic food tastes much better?? I'm almost convinced it's the later!
Really eating healthier does not take that much more prep. There are also so many healthy foods you can freeze and cook as you need. This is extremely helpful with Ethan. He gets ww pancakes most mornings with blueberries on the side. I don't want to be making up pancakes every morning and I could use that as an excuse NOT to eat healthy or make healthy food for him, right? My recipe freezes well and I defrost a pancake in the microwave as I need it. He's gets a small drop of honey to dip it in.
For my oatmeal I make up enough for 3 meals worth. The leftovers keep great in the fridge in their individual containers. It only takes a minute to warm it up.
Links to recipes:
Most of these recipes come from Heavenly Homemakers and Passionate Homemaking blogs. These blogs are wonderful and have so many great recipes if you are looking to eating healthy. I'm phasing out my last bottle of agave and will not be using agave anymore. I will be using local honey mostly as well as a little stevia here and there. Some of these recipes on the blogs use sweeteners that are really the same thing as sugar. You need to read Jillian Michael's book to understand why this is so important.
WW Tortillas: I usually don't soak my mixture for maybe but an hour or 2 if even that. Most the times it's a spur of a moment thing that I decide we will have tacos or fajitas. They taste so good esp when they are fresh off the griddle with honey and cinnamon (but I haven't had one like that in a few days, I'm trying to be good lol)
WW Biscuits: I froze the leftovers and put them directly into the oven to bake when needed. Ethan has been the only one eating these lately. If he is ever up when Andrew is eating breakfast he thinks he needs a biscuit for breakfast as well. Little does he know he's eating the healthy version ;-) I put a small dot of honey on his tray and he dips his biscuit in it.
Homemade yogurt: I just made my first batch the other day! It's wonderful and so much cheaper. To make it like greek yogurt, after you have made it, pour it into a colander and put over a bowl to let the extra liquid drain off for a couple of hours. So thick and creamy!!
Chewy Granola Bars: These are divine! It's a good basic recipe that you can use to change what goodies you would like in them. Right now I've been adding 1 cup of raisins/sunflower seeds/pecans because I can make sure they are in small enough pieces for Ethan to eat. Ethan LOVES these, but we have to be careful since the oats are raw ;-)
6 comments:
Thanks for sharing...I will print this out for reference. I want to try this but am curious as to how this will work with breastfeeding? Any suggestions?
oh wow!
I certainly would have to relearn how to eat like a qeen for breakfast and maid servant for dinner. I am the opposite - eating like nothing in the morning and a HUGE dinner at night. That would really take some getting used to.
and way to go eating organic. My husband will never let me spend the extra money on organic meat since he says what the cows are injected with really don't effect humans. Who knows......
This looks great! Thanks for posting - it sounds like all natural and good for you food. Cheese is my downfall. I'm trying to go w/o!
I think you would be perfectly fine eating this way while you are breastfeeding because you are not restricting your calories you are just eat enough to feel full.
Eating oats for breakfast every morning was the only thing that helped with my milk supply so that would be another bonus of eating so much oatmeal for breakfast =)
Annie, I don't know if your husband is a scientist or not, but I would read Jillian Michael's book. She gives lots of studies and stats about the usage of antibiotics in our meet and thus ends up in our dairy products as well. It's a real eye opener.
I think I just read that organic costs typically 20% more. If you eat nutritious you wouldn't be spending all the extra money on packaged foods, etc. I'm learning to buy just enough produce to get me through a few days or a week so I do not waste any. That helps as well.
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