First off I need to remind y’all that I am not a: DOCTOR, NUTRITIONIST, or anyone that really knows anything.
This is a follow-up to my BREAKFAST post last week, feel free to read that one first. So today Im going to talk a bit about what I eat in the afternoon, lunch, brunch, snack whatever you want to call it. They say you should eat the biggest meal in the AM and then do mini meals through out the day, this is why I wouldnt necessarily call it a full on lunch or just a little snack, these are more mini meals. I work monday through friday 6:00 to 2:30, which means I eat breakfast between 4:30 and 5:00 am and then I take my morning break at around 8:30. For this break Im almost always hungry, and I full on give into that hunger. I dont need a mini meal but I do need something, usually a piece of fruit or a fiber one bar. Sometimes I have coffee and a low-cal muffin (I havent bought them yet but I hear Vita Muffins are excellent) and sometimes I have a Lara Bar or I eat a few bites of my actual lunch. The 8am snack for me is pretty important, on weekends Im rarely up at 8am so thinks are a bit different (Ill talk more on this later).
Anyways I have one weird lunchtime quirk: I HATE LUNCHROOMS! eeeew! They smell like weird food microwaving, theyre awkward and boring, I hate them! So I usually just eat in my car. I actually avoid foods that I have to microwave (and right now its cold enough that I can leave food in my car without it going bad) so I dont have to go into the dreaded lunchroom. Lunch for me is my third “eating session” of the day, so I really dont need to pound down a bunch of food, not to mention for me its only 10am, so I hardly feel like eating a ton. I often try to make a huge batch of something that I put in 5 containers on Sunday so I dont have to think much about this during the week. Here are a few of my lunch go to’s:
-One bag of frozen mixed veggies, 2 (uncooked) cups brown rice, shrimp or chicken all stir fried in a little hoisen or teriyaki sauce. Divide into 5 containers. Lunch done for a week. This is my #1 lunch.
–Smart Ones Frozen meals
–WW Tuna Fish sandwich on a Sandwich thin (Ill eat two of these)
-Big salad with fish or shrimp
I add fruit and a big bottle of water to most of these. Ill sometimes eat a 100 cal snack pack if I want some “Junk food” after lunch. So by noon I have consumed most of my meals for the day! Ha, sometimes this sucks especially around 4:00 when Im getting pretty hungry for dinner but its not quite time. Prior to doing WW sometimes I would just “graze through dinner” on snackie garbage and never actually eat anything good for me. Now I find the best way to avoid the “graze” is to not have snack foods in my house. True story people. If I have it in the house I will eat it, so we just dont. Well sometimes we will by 100 calorie cakes and then we eat them all in two days and I realize why things like that should never come into my house. So if Im starving by 4pm these are things Ill eat:
-Fruit. Have I mentioned this enough yet?
-3 slices of low fat swiss cheese (sometimes Ill add a healthy cracker and sometimes not, never more than 10 crackers)
-Almonds (a handful will do)
-Cucumbers in olive oil and balsamic
-Tuna sandwich
-A bowl of cereal
-A small salad
-Fiber one Bar
-Leftovers (yup, just a smallish cup or bowl of whatever was last night)
So as you can see I eat more or less about every 2-3 hours. If Im gonna “go hungry” its going to be after dinner, I actually enjoy feeling a little hungry when going to bed, and it always makes the number on the scale good in the morning. Now besides after dinner there is rarely a time when I let myself get STARVING. I find that eating small amounts every 2-3 hours keeps that away so I dont freak out and eat everything in the house!
As far as what types of food I eat at what times (like no carbs for dinner) pretty much the only thing I stick to is fiber and protein in the morning. I obviously try not to do a real HEAVY dinner so that often means less carbs, but this is more so I dont go to bed feeling like my stomach is still full of pasta…gross feeling. But NO I dont really tell myself NO on any one type of food unless its unhealthy. Saying “I cant have that” only makes you want it, and fail. So just start big and slowly taper down your food towards bed, eating very regularly.
***Oh and if your looking to kick your weight loss back into drive I really recommend upping the protein! My best weeks are when I never get super hungry and never get full (does that make sence?) I eat lean proteins, lots of vegetables and salad(but with a yummy full fat dressing, a little bit of ranch is ok if your not doing any pasta!) and only a little brown rice. Its ok to do a day or two of just vegetables and lean proteins, it will make you drop 1-2 lbs in a day and then if you dont go insane the rest of the week you will maintain that loss!
Ok now SHARE SHARE SHARE!
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HEALTHY HOLIDAY RECIPE:
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