The following is what I generally eat on a daily basis:
Breakfast: (421 Calories)
1 Apple
1 8-ounce glass of skim milk
A packet of Quaker Oats Weight Control Cinnamon Oatmeal
One DanActive (Strawberry flavored)
Mid-Morning Snack:(10 - 50 calories)
I usually have either a lightly salted rice cake, sugar-free Jello, fruit and a granola bar. One excellent snack is strawberries with some fat-free yogurt and whipped cream on top.
Lunch: (351.5 Calories)
1 Apple
1 pickle
1 ounce serving of Baked Lays Sour Cream and Onion chips
3 slices of Oscar Mayer Shaved Roast Beef
3 slices of Oscar Mayer Shaved Baked Ham
1 Tablespoon of French Onion Dip
2 ounces of Carrot Chips (you could substitute some other vegetable here)
Lunch can also be a sandwich (preferably on wheat bread) with whatever meats you like and lots of veggies. Just be sure to keep the meat servings to a proper portion, which would be 2 or 3 slices of the leanest meat you can find. Oscar Mayer's shaved meats (mentioned above) are pretty good as calories go. You can include some Baked Chips with this as well.
Snack: (127 - 195 Calories)
1 8-ounce glass of skim milk
A piece of fruit, usually one of the following:
- Peach (37 calories)
- Strawberries (45 calories)
- Blackberries (75 calories)
- Banana (105 calories)
Dinner: (Calories depend)
1 apple
Dinner is whatever I feel like having, but I try to keep it under 650 calories. I will make roast beef, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable; chicken, rice, and a vegetable; 2 servings of Banquet Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings; or sometimes I will have for dinner what I had for breakfast or lunch. I also try to have a salad here with a light dressing. I personally like vinegar based salad dressings. Light and not a lot of calories.
The thing with dinner is that you need to properly portion the food. You can actually have a lot of food in single servings. For example, I can eat baked chicken, mashed potatoes or rice, and a vegetable for under 500 calories if it's in proper portions and still get enough food.
Snack: (127 - 210 Calories)
1 8-ounce glass of skim milk (80 calories)
There are a ton of possibilites for after dinner snacks that are healthy. My goal is to keep the snack at 200 calories or less, which includes the glass of skim milk. Because the milk comes in at 80 calories, that means the snack needs to be 120 calories or less. Here are some ideas:
A serving of fruit of any kind with a little whipped cream on top (a little bit means a teaspoon or less)
Quaker Oats Granola Bars: I like the chocolate chip or peanut butter chunk ones myself.
Nestle's Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches.
Jello Pudding, sugar-free reduced calorie version. Sounds like it would be awful, but it's really good especially with a touch of whipped cream on top.
Smart Ones desserts. These are Weight Watchers foods and typically come in at over 200 calories, but are quite good so you can have these once in awhile if you like.
Yoplait Light Fat-Free Yogurts.. These are a recent discovery for me and I LOVE THEM! They are so good. I was never a huge yogurt eater, but these are like having a dessert. You'd never know they were light or fat-free. I'm a fan of the Boston Cream Pie and Banana Cream Pie flavors. I will be trying the others soon. I put it in a small bowl with a little bit of whipped cream and sometimes add a few walnuts. YUM!!
What About Drinks?
I don't drink alcohol at all and never was a big drinker before so completely eliminating it for me was not a problem. However, if you do consume alcohol and you're looking to lose weight, I suggest you cut down on it. One or two drinks a week is a good target.
You also want to consider cutting down or eliminating your soda/pop consumption. I was a BIG soda drinker prior to beginning my plan. You can switch to diet, but I often find it helps just to eliminate it alltogether because that way you are forced to drink more water. I drink water and iced tea A LOT.
Free Days
It's important to note that with any healthy eating plan, you need to build in at least one day a week that is a free day. This means you can eat what you want on that day, within reason of course. It's not a license to stuff yourself with thousands of calories, but for dinner you can have a cheeseburger and fries, lasagne, ice cream for dessert, or whatever you choose without feeling like you are blowing your weight loss efforts. It's important to have those days so you don't feel deprived.
Remember, the plan you are on is not a diet, it's healthy eating that you can keep up for life. Keeping this up for life means that you have to allow yourself some junk food sometimes.
Now, let's talk Exercise.
