I Love Food

Game Plan Part 2 - Nutrition

You are what you eat.

How many times can we beat that dead cat with a stick?  But alas, it's true.  Over the holiday's I tried to live on Nacho Doritos, Peppermint Bark Dove chocolate, Oreo truffles, caramel, Dr. Pepper, and every other Christmas food fantasy I could get my hands on. In the end, it wasn't pretty.  I felt like crap, was tired, and ended up sick for 10 days.  Not to mention the few pounds I shed beforehand came back with a vengeance.  So the next part of my "make your pants baggy" plan is to get back on the good eating wagon.

When it comes to food...I love it.  I'm probably the least picky eater I know.  I would probably eat card board with frosting on it if you told me it was a graham cracker.  Don't ask me to judge how good something tastes because it's pretty much awesome if I didn't have to make it.

What Works For Me

• Keep the junk out.  If it's in my home, I will devour it.  Like that frozen cookie dough.  What, your supposed to actually bake cookies with that?  Throw out the sugar.  It's okay.  I just tossed a whole brick of glorious fudge in the garbage after taking one bite.  It can be done!

• Eat a meal for lunch.  If I don't, I end up snacking my way from breakfast to dinner and shoving a whole lotta garbage down the pipes.  My metabolism works better for me when I eat small meals more consistently but keep the portions in control.

• Drink more water.  I know, beating another dead cat.  But I take this to a whole new level. Because I'm in love with a certain liquid heaven, I drink water to earn my can of Dr. Pepper.  2 water bottles = 1 can. Generally I'm too full of water to get to the can.  I was a mug a day kind of gal but it was adding huge calories to my diet so I had to pull on the reins a little.  I'm more of a social drinker now. :)  An occasional dirty DP might make it's way home too as a reward for folding the leaning tower of Pisa laundry but moderation is the key people. Moderation.

• Up the protein.  Palm size with each meal keeps you fuller longer.  I get in this mind set that I can only cook meat for dinner but that's not the case.  I like a lean pork chop personally.  It's cheaper and leaner. String cheese, greek yogurt, and eggs are great options too.  Here's an easy/healthy lunch that has 4 ingredients, actually tastes good, and it doesn't have any weird expensive ingredient.

Food pictures kinda gross me out but this tastes a lot better than it looks.

Palm size grilled pork chop.
Spinach - as much as you want.  This stuff is only 70 calories per 3 cups.
If you can make it taste good, go for the gold!
Sauce - honey and mustard mixed and drizzled to make it look all fancy like.
(honey is a better alternative to sugar and mustard has 0 fat and 0 calories)

So there you have it.  Less sugar, eat lunch, more water, more protein.  Not too overwhelming right?  This is just what seems to work for me because I can do it.  What works for you?  Love to get some comments from you on your tricks of the trade.