Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Considering Food

The holiday season is fast approaching, and I am sure that many of you, like me, are thinking about how to keep your eating in check.

I rarely write about food and nutrition for a couple of reason:

1. I am not a nutritionist and have no nutrition training. Fortunately, the things I know about nutrition are from my brother who studied nutrition in college. He's a pretty big help.

2. I am not that interested in food. I hate to cook and don't want to make anything that take more than half an hour or less.

That being said, I think I keep a fairly good diet and eat clean at least 70 - 80% of the time. To do this, I have a couple of strategies. I snack, and I eat a salad for lunch every day.

I am very set about my meal and snacking schedule. My meals and snacks from breakfast until (but not including) dinner are set. That means, I eat basically the same thing at the same time every day. This helps me make sure that I am getting some of the nutrients I want.

Here's a standard day for me:

7:00 a.m. Breakfast: The goal here is to have something fast requiring minimum to no preparations. I like to have breakfast out of the way in 15 minutes. Here are some of my standards.

Nutrition shake

Kind bar or Lara bar

Ezekiel bread with peanut butter (two slices)

Kashi cereal with milk

10:00 a.m. Snack: I always have a 10:00 snack, especially when I am at work. When working, I go to the gym from noon until 1:00 p.m. and need a snack to power me through.

Fage Greek yogurt 0%

Stretch Island fruit flat (Which I rip up and put in the yogurt. Yes, fresh fruit is better, but this won't go bad in a week. You could subsitute honey too.)

1:00 p.m. Lunch:

Salad (More on this later.)

Crackers -- Lately, I have been enjoying Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips. I put them in a small snack bag, so I only get aroung 150 calories worth, since this isn't the most healthy food -- it's not unhealthy; just kind of neutral.

3:00 p.m. Snack (optional): I may not have this snack if I am eating dinner early or if I am not doing any afternoon exercise and am not hungry.

Cinnamon apple rice cakes with peanut butter (two cakes)

TLC bar -- I like the cherry chocolate one

We usually have dinner between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., depending on our schedules. What we eat for dinner varies. We choose what we'll eat for dinner at the beginning of the week when we do our shopping. Stapes include: pasta with lean meat or veggies, tacos with beans, baked eggplant with sauce and cheese, tomato soup, fish with rice and veggies.

As I mentioned before, a staple in my diet is a good salad. I make my salads at home every day. They look like this.



I start my salad with a bed of mixed greens with spinach. Then I add grapes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes (I like the orange ones), avocado, and top it with goat cheese (which contains protein and is lower in fat than lots of cheeses). Totally easy.

I love eating a salad every day. I know I am getting good vitamins and minerals from the fruits and vegetables, plus eating a salad just makes me feel healthy.

With my meal/snack schedule, some salads, and some portion control, I hope to make it through the holiday season while keeping a healthy diet!

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