What I Eat...

A lot of people have asked me what I am doing, besides exercise, in order to lose weight. Most of you probably know that I follow Weight Watchers (I do it from home, by myself, and follow the OLD Points system, because I like it, and hate change). And, obviously, it works well for me. What you may not know is that my eating habits are FAR from perfect. I consider myself very much to be an “everything in moderation” person. You won’t catch me on a fad diet or doing a cleanse because I just don’t like to limit myself too much. I believe in losing weight in the same way as I intend to live for the rest of my life. I like to have variety in my foods -and that variety includes salt, fat, and sugar. Obviously I’m losing weight, so I’m eating a lot less of that “evil” stuff, but still…in a weird way, I kind of take pride in the fact that I have been able to lose without depriving myself of my favourite things. I know that it doesn’t work for everyone, but I’m thankful that it works for me.

Anyway, enough rambling, self. Since you’ve asked, I thought I’d share with you what a typical daily menu might look like for me. Again, I can’t stress this enough – I am NOT perfect. But that’s why you read, right? I won’t put you to shame!

Breakfast: Special K Red Berry cereal and a Babybell cheese or a banana….OR 2 boiled eggs with ½ a grapefruit…OR a homemade smoothie. I make mine with strawberry yogurt (Activia, if you must know), ½ a banana, about a cup of frozen raspberries, a big handful of spinach (I promise you can’t taste it!) and about ½ a cup of milk. SO good.

Okay, so one day I ate a bunch of chocolate-covered almonds for breakfast. You caught me.

Snack: I snack 3 times a day. Or more. Sometimes too much. This first snack of the day is when I’m most likely to eat a treat, which is probably a bad idea, but nonetheless, it’s what I do. It might be a Rice Crispy square (homemade or store bought, doesn’t matter), a chocolate chip granola bar, or a big ol’ blob of sugary peanut butter. That stuff is like crack to me. Not that I have any experience with actual crack.

Lunch: This is often my healthiest meal of the day. I may have a turkey wrap on whole wheat, or some tuna mixed into a salad. I do sometimes have microwaveable meals, I just try not to eat them every day. I usually have a serving of fruit as well, and sometimes just a few crackers with a small amount of cheese to keep it interesting! Or celery with peanut butter! Or chocolate covered almonds....

Snack: I may have more junk. Or I may have Greek yogurt. Or popcorn – love it sweet and salty! Or I may realize that I’ve eaten 3 points worth of leftovers from my daughter’s lunch, and just count that as a snack. I need to stop doing that.

Dinner: Dinners are all over the place. I might have a slice of pizza, or even better, my own mini homemade pizzas. (two halves of a whole wheat English muffin with pizza sauce, a small amount of cheddar cheese, green and red peppers, a tad of onion, and turkey pepperettes. YUM!) I might have pasta, or my dad’s delicious barbecue chicken dish that I finally learned to make. But I’ve been eating more fish, and have rediscovered my love of shrimp, so I’ve been eating a lot of that. In any case, I usually have one or two vegetables on the side, and maybe a little something sweet for dessert.

Snack: I have just discovered almond butter and I am in LOVE. I smother it on an apple or banana, and it’s become my favourite late-night snack!

I often eat out once a week. I stick to the kid’s meals at fast-food places to save calories, and just try to make the best choice possible at other restaurants. Often I get something breakfast-related if it’s an option.

I also drink a LOT of water. Less if I’m going out so that I don’t have to run to the bathroom every two seconds.

I haven’t eaten red meat/any meat from a mammal in almost ten years. It just creeps me out. I’m weird, but we all already knew that, didn’t we?

So, there you go. That’s how I eat! The good and the bad!