Someone asked last week what I'm eating to stay in my calorie count of 1,200 per day. Here's a sample from last Monday, one of the days when I stayed in the ballpark of 1,200:
Breakfast:
1 English muffin (120 calories)
1 T strawberry jam (50)
Lunch:
1/2 cold cut combo sandwich from Subway (440) -- You can't beat $5 for a foot-long sub that can feed you for two meals.
Snack:
Apple (100)
Dinner:
1/2 cup sloppy joe (200)
1 wheat sandwich thin (100)
1 cup vegetable pasta (189)
1/2 slice American cheese (35)
I drink only water, which has no calories. So the total calorie count for the day was 1,234, and I spent 2 hours working in the yard (mowing, constructing a rock garden around my mailbox, and trimming limbs off trees).
Some of the things I've learned:
1. I don't have to have a full slice of cheese on a sandwich. 1/2 to 3/4 of a slice is plenty, and an easy way to cut a few calories.
2. I love using the sandwich thins. I'm a big fan of sandwiches, and with these I can have the bread for only 100 calories.
3. Risotto is good, but horrible in the calorie department. Same with the oh-so-delicious rolls at Logan's Roadhouse. OMG, they're like 275 calories each.
4. Having a piece of fruit as a snack between lunch and dinner helps to satisfy my cravings for sweets and helps me not get so hungry before dinner, tempting me to overeat.
5. It's awesome that we're going into fresh produce season. Things like tomatoes and cucumbers and green beans have so few calories that they're good things to help fill me up without packing on a lot of calories (or pounds).
6. I've observed that I can have one higher-than-normal calorie day without seeing too much of an uptick in the scale numbers, but it's when that day becomes two or three that things start going the wrong direction.
7. Things I need to steer clear of: white bread, white rice, corn.
8. Sometimes fate seems to be steering me right when I veer off the path. Last week, I caved and went through the DQ drive-through to get a small Blizzard. When I took the first bite, it was filled with nuts even though a Chocolate Extreme Blizzard isn't supposed to contain nuts. In fact, the whole thing was filled with so many nuts that I couldn't eat it. I hate nuts! 600-calorie catastrophe averted.
What lessons have you learned on your fitness/weight loss journey? Has fate ever given you a helping hand?
6 comments:
Congrats on the pound loss! Thank you for sharing what you ate in a day and the lessons you've learned. That's very helpful.
My mom swears by #5. #6 is so true!
Yes, #8 helps me all the time. For example, several times I've made the conscious decision to get a treat at Union Station (a chocolate oatmeal cookie or a starbucks earl grey latte usually) and the lines will be so long I skip it. (Or, I go try on clothes first at Ann Taylor/White House - Black Market and that steers me in a different direction.)
Wow Trish, #8 was exactly what happened last night. I decided to indulge in a couple of cookies but couldn't get the &*(@&$@ package open. By the time I finally did, I realized I didn't need cookies. :P
Here's my lesson: The less high sugar food I have, the more I can appreciate the sweetness of natural sugars. Spend a few days eating desserts and strawberries aren't as sweet. Give up ice cream for a month or two and suddenly yogurt tastes like a wonderful indulgence. I almost have to retrain my taste buds.
Congrats, Trish. Honestly I'm hungry just reading your food list.
You know, Michelle, when I'm craving something, I need to just go try on clothes instead. :)
Rachel, that's what I'm trying to do with sugars -- train myself to be satisfied with fresh fruits. I do also like the little Jell-O chocolate pudding cups that have Live Active in them to help digestion. I have a certain amount of digestive issues, and this and the occasional Fiber One muffin helps. I know there is fiber-filled cereals, but I hate cereal and milk.
Mary, it takes some effort, but you can satisfy your hunger and stay within certain calorie counts. For instance, tonight my husband had band practice and I knew he'd be home a little later than normal and I was hungry around 6 p.m. And I was craving soup and a sandwich from Panera. Before I allowed myself to go, I counted up the calories I'd already consumed for the day to see how many I had left. I went and got the You Pick Two with the half Smoked Turkey Panini (360 calories) and a bowl of tomato soup without the croutons (220 calories). I realized by looking at their site before going that I could save 80 calories by not getting the croutons.
Trish--congrats and LOL on averting the Blizzard. That's happened to me a few times--most recently with an Otis Spunkmeyer muffin that was too stale to eat.
Great suggestion on your calorie intake. I start with a similar breakfast, only I eat egg whites instead of jam--they taste more like real eggs than the Egg Beaters (yuck!) My other two tricks are the steamables veggies and the honking clam shells of salad at Sam's--can't lose weight without those bad boys. I'm going to have to try the Subway trick, though.
Keep on keepin' on!
Sally
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