Adult Lunchables

So simple a kid can do it, lol. This is a fill in, I can have it as a snack or as a meal, whatever I need to meet my goals for the day. It’s also a very simple and fast meal I can make when I’m holding the baby. I have the nutritional info set per cracker so you can eat however many you need, but on average I have 15 for a meal. Also of course you can add cheese or some mustard to these if you wanted to change them up, but since I usually eat string cheese as a snack during the day I don’t add cheese to these.

Serving Size – 1 cracker
# of servings – 1
Calories: 20
Carbs: 2
Protein: 1
Fat: 1
Sodium: 50
Fiber: 0

Ingredients:
Ritz Crackers – Low sodium (make this healthier by using cucumber slices or a healthier cracker!)
Oscar Meyer Deli Fresh Rotisserie Chicken (or any lunch meat you choose, this is just my personal favorite)

Directions:

1. Rip meat in half, lay on cracker, eat. Can’t get easier than that lol

Ham, Cheese, and Tomato Omelet

Obviously this can be changed and adapted to what YOU want, which is what is great about an Omelet but in this one I had cheese, ham, and tomatoes. I also added the rest of the tomato on the side since my husband doesn’t like them and I couldn’t let them go to waste, but the extra tomatoes are not included in the nutrition info. I loved making this because it’s something I could make for my picky husband (with extra meat and cheese) but was able to adjust mine to be healthier. It’s very hard to find meals that we can both enjoy so we will definitely start making these more often.

Serving Size – 1 omelet
# of servings – 1
Calories: 351
Carbs: 8
Protein: 25
Fat: 23
Sodium: 673
Fiber: 1

Ingredients:
2 Large Eggs
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon milk (I used whole)
pepper
1/2 Tomato
1 oz John Morrell Diced Ham (96% fat free)
1/4 cup blended shredded cheese

Directions:

1. whisk eggs, milk, and pepper in a bowl with a fork until blended.
2. Melt butter in a flat pan on medium heat and pour egg mixture evenly over the bottom
3. when the bottom starts to become solid, add the rest of the ingredients evenly on top of half of the egg mixture (you can add or remove any of the other items to fit your tastes, try different veggies or even fruits, whatever you want!)
4. Carefully fold the other half over the top of the other ingredients with a spatula. Let sit until the inside looks solid and the cheese and other ingredients are melted and heated up (only about 20 seconds). Carefully slide it onto plate and enjoy (it may not look very pretty the first few times you make it, but it still tastes just as good!)

Weigh In!

Sorry this is a day late, I had a busy day yesterday. I did better this week, eating healthier (made it to the store finally) and just playing with my diet. Here I am entering my 3rd week and I’m still loving it…that says something. I just really love finding new things to eat and try, the flavors in natural healthy foods are just so much better, I do not miss the nasty “food” I used to eat. Sure I could still eat healthier than what I’m eating now, but I’m being realistic, these are easy to make/easy to eat meals on a low budget, but I’m still able to make it work and lose weight. I’m still not drinking soda, still lots of water, and worked out a little more (though still no Zumba yet, gotta get over my nerves and just GO). I’m even more proud of myself because we had family visiting yesterday and they ordered pizza and breadsticks and cinnamon sticks and soda, and although I wanted to eat it SO bad, I ended up eating grilled chicken and veggies instead and I was stuffed and felt good about myself! Anyway, here are the numbers:

Last Week’s Weight = 270 lbs
Current Weight = 265 lbs (-5 lbs)
Total Weight loss = -52 lbs

This means I am finally back down to what I was on my last weigh in before my pregnancy with David. I am also now in my 2nd set of goals in the glass beads I am using as my motivation. I can’t wait to knock out goal #2! I’m only down 10 lbs since the last picture but I’ll go ahead and post one anyway.

I’ve Got This!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I feel so good right now and I think I’ve figured it out. I am a control freak, I like things organized, planned, and going exactly how I want them. Along the way I grew up…and I have completely lost all control in my life. We are a military family, and any day my husband can come home and say we’re moving to another state, or even another country. Or he could come home with the dreaded news that he will be deploying soon. My colicky baby is having such a rough time and nothing I do can console him, it breaks my heart and I feel helpless. I can’t make my autistic son talk to me, no matter how hard we work or how much I pray. It will only happen when he is ready, if he’s even able to at all. And of course the autism rules our family, routines, changes in the plans, therapies, evaluations, meltdowns, people who can’t return phone calls…I never know what to expect in the day and I have no control over what comes our way.

What I can control…is this. I can control what I put in my body, I can control how often I work out. Sure my kiddos like to make it a challenge by crying the second I start to get ready for a workout, but I refuse to let that stop me. I don’t know how many workouts I do that I include David (my 3 month old). I lift him up and down over my head, laughing and cooing with him but always working out my arms (hey you try lifting 16 lbs up and down over your head 100 times, you’ll definitely be sore afterwards). And squats are a lot more challenging when you’re holding the baby or your 2 year old as you go up and down, but I have the best motivation right there in my arms, and I will only benefit from the added weight.

So I have finally found the control I have so desperately craved for the last few years. I can make a meal plan and stick to it, control the whole aspect of what my meals include or don’t include, and even though my mind tries to tell me that I can’t control my body I’m finding that if I can just push through the “yikes I have to quit, I can’t do anymore” that it is the best feeling in the world. To think you can’t possibly do something but then you pull ahead and not only accomplish it, but exceed it…it really is such a rush. And this is the one thing in my life I can just throw myself into. So if you find yourself losing control over your life, take control of your body! You will feel better mentally and physically!

Simple Pasta

The name speaks for itself, you seriously can’t get more simple than this. My plan is to work out a little more today so I knew carbs would be ok. This would be much healthier if you used a whole wheat pasta or less cheese, but this is one of the few meals that my husband will eat that won’t mess up my diet and I didn’t want to have to make 2 separate pastas. I’m determined that someday I can get him to make the switch but for now this will have to work. Also if it’s too bland for you, add some other spices (oregano, pepper, whatever) and play around with it. We prefer it simple like this, but it’s a good base to play with. This is also one of the few things that my 2 year old son will eat so it’s something I probably make about once a week (he has an ASD).

Serving Size – 2 cups pasta, 1/2 cup sauce
# of servings – 4
Calories: 464
Carbs: 90
Protein: 16
Fat: 2
Sodium: 835
Fiber: 6

Ingredients:
1 large can of tomato sauce (15 oz)
2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese (I use the shaker bottle for ease of use, but fresh is better)
Garlic (I use LOTS of garlic but we are big fans, use as much or as little as you’d like)
*optional* 2 shakes of LA hot sauce (just adds a little bit of kick, sometimes I add this to change it up)
1 box of Rigatoni pasta (you can use a different pasta but for these numbers that’s what I used)

Directions:

1. in one pan boil water and cook the pasta. In another pot mix all other ingredients and heat on low until warm/ hot. Don’t let it get to boiling and scrape the bottom as you stir to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom (learned this the hard way!)
2. pour sauce over noodles and enjoy (see I told you it was simple!) I use 2 cups of pasta with 1/2 cup of sauce.

Blueberry Oatmeal

The only oatmeal I’ve ever had has been the little prepackaged stuff that you add water to…I was never a fan. Everyone kept telling me I needed to try eating oatmeal but I just didn’t think I could stomach it. Fast forward to yesterday, I was pre-making my meal plan for today and searching my cabinets, fridge, and freezer for anything I could make that wouldn’t push me over (payday is tomorrow so things are pretty empty right now). A family member had bought some oatmeal to try on my son, who hated it, so I’ve had it sitting my pantry, and I had blueberries in the freezer from the blueberry muffins I never made. So I searched online and found this recipe. O.M.G. this was soooo good, if you’ve never had oatmeal from scratch I REALLY recommend you try it. I’m sure you can make it a lot healthier cutting out some of the sugar, using water instead of milk, etc, because it is really sweet, and of course you can substitute practically any fruit for the blueberries (online favorites are apples, peaches, and strawberries). You can also make it without the fruit, which was also really good (I’ll put the nutritional info for that as well). And heads up this recipe makes 2 bowls, but it doesn’t keep well, so if you’re just making this for you split everything in half, otherwise you’re throwing away half your food.

Serving Size – 1 cup
# of servings – 2
Calories: 455
Carbs: 89
Protein: 13
Fat: 7
Sodium: 271
Fiber: 7

Without blueberries the oatmeal would have been: 396 calories, 73 carbs, 7 fat, 13 protein, 222 sodium, 5 fiber.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup 2% milk
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:

1. bring milk to a boil. stir in oatmeal and salt. Cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until thickened.
2. stir in cinnamon and sugar
3. pour into 2 bowls and top with thawed blueberries

Weigh in!

so I did really good this week, completely surprised myself with what I was able to accomplish and I feel GOOD! A week into a full diet and I feel good, that can’t be possible?!? Just means I’m on the right “diet”. So my accomplishments for this week.

Cut soda completely, had a few cups of coffee at the start of the week to get through withdraw from caffeine but now I’m only drinking water.

Drank 2-4 liters of water every day (coming from the girl that probably had that much in a month, no lie!)

Only went over my calories once during the week, but all the other days were a little under.

Got MOVING! I mean with a colicky baby I’m already moving all the time, walking and bouncing my 16 lb bundle of cuteness. But in the very rare chances he let me put him down, instead of sitting and relaxing I did crunches, jumping jacks, lunges, jogging laps in my garage, going up and down the step in my garage, and even spent 45 minutes with my weighted hula hoop.

My BFF is married to a professional trainer and he gave me lots of pointers and tips. We came up with a game plan, sticking to the meal plan laid out by myfitnesspal and I will be doing 3 big workouts a week (Zumba Tuesday and Thursday, garage workout on Saturday, workout at home if I can’t make it to Zumba) and then my small workouts off and on all day the other days.

Planning out my meals every morning. It’s easier to play with the numbers and foods BEFORE you eat them, if you eat and then try to fit it in at the end it’s harder because you can’t change what’s already in your body. I cannot stress enough how much doing this helped, when I was hungry I already had what I was supposed to eat picked out and in some cases prepared and ready to eat (essential when you usually only have one hand to cook and eat with).

And of course the big one that is probably the only thing anyone cares about, the weigh in! (sorry no pictures yet, we’ll wait until there’s some change first)

Last Week’s Weight = 275 lbs
Current Weight = 270 lbs (-5 lbs)
Total Weight loss = -47 lbs

 

Here is how I could have done better:

less sodium, I would have lost a lot more weight if my sodium hadn’t been so high. But this will be a trial and error thing as I learn a new way of eating food.

Done more than 1 day of heavy workout, I did something small every day but now that I have a “game plan” I will get in 3 instead of 1

More eating in, less eating out. Even though I was in my goals, we at out 3 times this week. I made it fit my plan, stayed under my calories and everything, but it’s still much better to cook foods at home when I KNOW what’s going into it. Plus the highest sodium days are from the days we ate out. Payday is this week and I was waiting until then to do my shopping.