Healthier Eating Sample Meal Plan

I had a request for a sample of what I'm eating. I'm not following Jillian Michael's eating plan 100%, but I am following a lot of her suggestions. I highly recommend her book and to see what you think of her eating plan. She gives you 2 weeks worth of meal plans and includes a grocery shopping list for you which makes it easy. However, I like to plan my food day to day because I may have some leftovers or craving something in particular. I don't like having my food planned out in advanced. I feel like if I can eat what sounds good to me then I will be satisfied.

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 ;-)

Healthier Living

For more than 5 weeks now I have been on a quest to healthier living. Suffering from frequent headaches and severe plantar fascititis since last fall I had to seriously take a look at my life. I also have been struggling to loose the same 35 pounds from what seems like forever. I was almost 20 pounds still over my pre-pregnancy weight and took up running once again to help shed some of the weight and try to get fit. I would go do good counting WW points for a few days then totally fall off because really, I HATE keeping track of what I'm eating. I was really getting discouraged and thinking I'm going to be doing the same thing my whole life.

Then, I did what I knew I needed to do: eat whole foods and very little processed foods. What processed foods I ate needed to be made from scratch because I knew there would be no sugar and preservatives. I cut out all artificial sweeteners as well and used agave(I am phasing out this as well now!), honey and a little stevia. I paid attention to my stomach and tried to not over eat. The weight was starting to come off slowly and I was starting to feel so much better.

After 3 weeks I thought I was doing so good with my way of eating, then I read Jillian Michael's "How to Master Your Metabolism". I am NOT going to list all the things she suggests in her book because I think EVERY person should read this book entirely themselves. However, this book changed my life forever and it will do the same for you as well. It's time we stop making excuses for the way we are living and make those healthy changes. Really healthy eating does not cost that more if we are not buying all the junk food and processed foods that we consume so much of.

Since those last two weeks I have followed more to Jillian Michael's way of eating. The weight is still coming off slowly because I'm still learning to cut back on the carbs in the evening and re-learning healthy eating habits/portions. Within 1 week of this WOE (way of eating) I saw a huge difference in my hormones (a huge part of her book) that I have not had in years! I also feel so much better and have more energy than I can even remember when. No headaches and my plantar fascitis pain is 99% gone. I have more energy and stamina for my daily workouts. Just this week I transitioned from treadmill to outdoor runs. This is my 4th season to transition from treadmill to outdoor runs and I am blown away of the amount of energy I have during my outdoor runs. When I go from treadmill to outdoor is has ALWAYS set me back, but have not had much trouble at all.

Just today I tried on my pre-pregnancy denim capris because I forgot to wash my capris I have been wearing. I could fit into them! I'm 8 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight, but at least I get them them on and they weren't too tight. I was ecstatic! I have not been counting or keeping track of anything I have been eating either. I'm really trying to listen to my body because this is not a diet, it's a life style change. I know you hear that all the time, but really, it's the only thing that works! I also do not want my kids to see me battle with my weight and constantly "dieting". This is so much more than that. It's about living healthy and making the best choices for my family as well. I'm proud to say that Ethan has not had any ear infections since we have started this WOE and he is less moody as well.

I will let you know that my husband is not with me on this at all. He is an extremely picky eater which of course everything he eats I consider junk food now. When he complains of something hurting or a headache I try not to give him the line "It's because of all the crap you eat!", but it does come out sometimes ;-)

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with everyone. You really need to check out that book! I will be sharing photos as I reach my goals (pre-pregnancy weight and final goal).

Weigh In Wednesday #1

OK, after 1 week I've lost 5 pounds! Very typical for me to loosing that much the first week. The most I ever lost after 1 week of WW was 11 pounds, but that was over the summer when I was still nursing and exercising about an hour to hour and half a day.

I'm shooting for a 2.5 to 3 pound loss per week. If I can at least hang around the 2 to 2.5 pound loss a week I would be ecstatic. If I loose 2.5 pounds a week I would be at my goal just in time for our 6 year wedding anniversary. Also it would be about the time we would open our pool for the summer. *keep focused, keep focused*

I did so good with my eating this week and did not go over my points. I did not start working out until Saturday though because I was still getting over a sinus infection....well and you know what happens when you exercise with that stuff ;-)

Something I tried a couple times this week was eating more for lunch and less for dinner. I have read this many times with other diet plans and it makes a lot of sense. What you eat earlier in the day you have more time to burn off. I also found that I am not starving by dinner and I fill more fulfilled when eating a smaller amount. I am going to try to continue doing this the best I can this week and see how it goes. 

I started back running with the Couch to 5k program on Saturday. Since it's been about 6 weeks since I've (but much longer since I've ran 3 miles) I started off on week 3 and did pretty good.

This morning I finally used my "Your Shape" game/workout. Wow, I totally underestimated how tough it could be!! Such an awesome program and I really look forward to using it. It automatically has me set up for 5 days a week to workout. I really wasn't wanting to do 5 days a week, maybe just 2 since I run 3 days and wanted to continue doing the 30 Day Shred for 2 days as well. But, what the heck!! I'm trying to get this weight off right??

I've also thought a little ahead to when I reach my goal weight. It's so important to me to keep the weight off when I get there and not slide back into old habits. I'm thinking of doing a bi-weekly or monthly post on a challenge to work on for that period of time. Maybe a food and fitness challenge. I have plenty of time to think about that.

Here's to another great week ahead and I'm excited for the next two weeks as I settle into the "real weight loss". My husband's birthday is Sunday (yes, Valentine's Day) and I will be making him a cake. I'm thinking I may not be eating of it though....

Lost this Week: 5 lbs
Total Lost Since 02/03/10: 5 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 24lbs
Left to Loose: 37 lbs

New Goals

I have battled with my weight for a long time. Really it is just the matter of being consistent with a diet and exercise to get the weight off, everyone knows that. I'm still 14.5 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight and 39.5 lbs away from my ultimate goal weight.

I turn 30 in April. When looking back on my 20's I've pretty much spent it being plump. Isn't your 20's the time that you should look your best? I missed out on that. I missed out looking good and ever wearing a bikini. In fact, it's sad that really my husband has never known me as thin. The photo I posted on my Flashback Photo Friday post I put it on my refrigerator a couple days ago. My husband asked who that was in the photo. He wasn't being mean about it at all, in fact he has never said anything negative to me about my weight.

So, I'm tired of being over weight. I'm tired of missing out on all the fun outdoor water activities. I'm tired of having a "fatitude". I want to look good for my husband and be a good example of health and fitness to my son. Enough, is enough.

I've been on track since Wednesday writing all my food down and keeping within my point range. I started exercising Saturday as well. Every Wednesday I will post my weigh-in stats here so I have a record of how I'm doing.

As for other goals. I have started running again. For those of you who have followed my blog since the fall you may recall I was training for a half-marathon. I got 3/4 through my training before quitting. This was my 2nd time to get 3/4 way through half-marathon training. I hit a huge wall of burn out. I have never had burn out with running. I have always loved to run. I weaned Ethan from breastfeeding and I think it may have been the cause of the burnout. My hormones were pretty crazy for a few weeks. Also he was waking so much during the night I was exhausted.

I felt so much better when I was running and really want to get back into it. I decided to set a goal of a 5k. Yes, back to square 1 yet again. I have a good friend who is training with me and we are going to do a 5k May 15th. It was actually the first 5k race I've ever done 3 years ago. However, I have always run the races by myself. I'm so excited I have someone doing it with me and maybe she'll be addicted to racing after our first 5k :-) I want to say I'll go on to bigger races later, but right now I'm starting with a 5k. I won't let myself train for a larger race until I have reached my goal weight. For me it has been difficult to train for a larger race and loose weight.

By the time I reach my goal weight I will have lost a total of 61 pounds. Good grief!! I also have not been at my goal weight since I was probably around 13. My goal weight is within the healthy range for my height and I know it is still attainable. This will be a very important goal for me to reach. I have been trying to think of a reward for myself when I reach this weight. The only thing I really want  is a nicer camera. I have been researching for a few weeks and found this advanced camera that is super nice and offers lots of features a dslr has. After talking to my husband he thought it would be a good reward. So I have another incentive for reaching my goal weight! I'm super excited!! I'm not setting smaller rewards for mid-point weight goals since this camera costs quite a bit.

I would like to encourage any of you that need to loose a few (or a lot) pounds. Don't give up on yourself, you deserve to loose the weight and feel good about yourself. If there is enough interest I can add a linky to my weekly weigh-ins if any of you would like to post about your weight loss from week to week. Anyone on a weight loss journey needs some positive encouragement.

After I reach my goal weight I will post my story and photos. I did take photos at my highest weight, but sadly they were lost on my hard drive last fall.