Food is not the enemy although sometimes it may seem that way. Food is a tool, a tool we need to function and live well. When we select the right tool for the job, the finished product can stand strong. When selecting what foods to eat there are many things to consider in addition to the nutritional aspects. Time, budget, energy, food preparation skill level, you name it. There are many variables. During the initial phase of my healthy life plan, I was still on supplemental oxygen at least part of the time and would get short of breath and exhausted easily. I needed quick and easy food options. I was also used to eating takeout frequently. I found it best to not change too radically all at once or I may not be able to keep it up. I incorporated my ideas of eating fresh, nutrient dense foods with my current eating habits and found a way to make it workable. I did have to lower expectations quite a bit due to my physical limitations, but I always knew that the dishes I prepared would improve as my condition improved.
High protein breakfasts seem to satisfy hunger much longer than cereal or other processed, refined carbohydrate foods like bagels and muffins, so eggs are an excellent choice to start the day. I love to incorporate a lot of vegetables in my breakfast egg dishes—a throwback from my Whole30 days. It may sound strange at first but give it a try. Also, periodically I will save calories to have something special. It all just depends on my mood and what I feel like having, all things considered. There are higher calorie foods that I am not going to mention because I do not want to start thinking about them, but if I really want them, I will have them, just a smaller serving. I am not saying no to any particular food item, I just may tell myself to plan, or to think about it later. I do not want to be impulsive, but I don’t want to fixate on any food either. There is a balance that I am finding. So far I have not had a difficult time thinking about high calorie, non-nutrient dense foods with intense longing and desire. I have my plan and that is motivating for me. Curbing habitual snacking is an issue that I am working on. I usually remember to stop and think, but sometimes I still think that I need it.
There are a number of items that I have found substitutes for. An example would be San Pellegrino Flavored Mineral Waters in place of soda. I enjoy an occasional bubbly drink, and these have such a lovely fragrance and zero calories. Soda is basically just liquid sugar and chemicals, and completely unnecessary. I do not need it. The so-called diet forms of soda are even worse, in my opinion. Think about it. How many overweight people do you know personally who always order a diet soda when they go out to eat? I know quite a few. Diet sodas have not helped them in their battle of the bulge. They may not contain sugar, but I think they can become addicting and make us crave more sweets, and the chemicals are probably not what we should be putting into our bodies. If I cannot quickly pronounce it, I do not want it. Find a bubbly water that you enjoy and toss the pop. An obvious simple substitute for desserts is fresh fruit, and something I never thought that I would enjoy, but cottage cheese with crushed pineapple in its own juice is a new favorite. When you refrain from consuming added sugars and artificial sweeteners you will be amazed at how sweet and satisfying fresh fruit can be. Lettuce wrapped burgers are still satisfying, delicious, and significantly fewer calories. I also hold the dressing and use mustard instead, and I still enjoy them. There are so many small changes that you can make without denying yourself your favorites, and if there is no way to reduce the caloric content, simply have a smaller portion. Eat that food along with the rest of your balanced, healthy meal and you will hardly notice that it is a reduced size portion.
The number of calories will vary from person to person, but I use 1200 calories as a general guideline. The main point to remember is to make this new way of eating as painless as possible. Change is hard. A family member recently brought home a pumpkin pie from Marie Callender’s, which is a favorite of mine. Rather than deny myself a piece and sequester myself and pout, possibly later fixating on deserts, I opted to have a tiny piece and just count it with my daily calories and not worry about it. I had ¼ of a regular slice and that was just enough. It was satisfying. The best part is there was no binging later from denying myself. I got to have all the flavor and all of the fun, but none of the guilt from gorging and being gluttonous. I remember reading a book years ago about French women never getting fat. The part I remember most was about having a small amount of whatever it is you want, so if I want some, I will have a bite or two and savor the flavor then forget about it and move on. That seems to be helping so far.
Menus are readily available online today for so many restaurants. There is almost always something on the menu you can modify to make fit into your meal plan. I love Chick-fil-a’s cobb salad, and to reduce its calories I get it made with the cold grilled chicken instead of the breaded, fried chicken it usually comes with. Also, try the reduced fat balsamic vinaigrette—I wish I could buy it by the bottle. This is a delicious, filling, high protein, low-calorie meal. Taco Bell’s crunchy tacos are a reasonable choice calorie wise, and El Pollo Loco has several good options, too. Check out their Fit menu. They now have a tasty, nutritious cilantro lime cauliflower rice dish to use in place of traditional rice or as a side dish. I had Claim Jumper’s shrimp dinner recently and found a way to make it work within my calories. It felt great having a nice dinner and knowing it was not hurting my healthy life plan was a big bonus. Some of the foods I have mentioned here may not be the most nutrient dense, but there are times when you find yourself on the road or you just need something fast. Losing the weight is the number one goal, so eat as healthful as you can within your calorie range—give or take, make it easy on yourself, and do not stress about it. Be proud of yourself each and every time you conquer your issues from the past.
If you are vegan/vegetarian, I do not have any knowledge in that area. Most of the basics of this plan should be beneficial, you just have to modify them to fit your needs and goals. Using MyFitnessPal will help you see if you are getting enough protein and help you gauge your carbohydrate intake. If you are having a weight issue, you might want to check out reducing processed carbs and increasing vegetables and fruits. There should be helpful information available online, but as I said, I do not know much about this area.
What have I been eating, you ask? Well, this is a typical day for me right now while I need quick and easy, no fuss dishes.
Typical breakfast: my eggcellent breakfast veggies (recipe to follow), “miracle” bacon, small yogurt with probiotics, and an orange for about 360 calories
Typical lunch: tomato soup, cheese quesadilla, vegetable stick medley, and apple slices for about 400 calories
Typical dinner: large vegetable salad, grilled chicken, roasted Brussel sprouts, carrots & figs for about 380 calories
Snacks: choose between fruit, cheese, nuts, a Kind bar, sliced raw veggies and yogurt dip, cottage cheese and pineapple, anything of that type for about 75-100 calories.
Perhaps most people do not typically think of including vegetables in their breakfast plans, unless it is a type of potato dish. But, to get the amount of veggies that are needed to optimize health and reduce the caloric intake of a bountiful breakfast, including a variety of vegetables in the morning is a lifesaver. I thought it was strange at first. What do you mean, have broccoli in my scrambled eggs? What the heck! You just have to try it a few times, and you will see how good it is. I love it and now prefer it to any other type of eggs.
This is not a cookbook and I admit I am no great cook—I’m really, really not. But there are a few basic things I make that I do enjoy that incorporate more vegetables into my daily plan. There are also many recipes available online. I love my cookbooks, but I notice my go-to for new recipes is a quick click on a search engine. I recently found a great website with delicious, nutritious real food recipes: Therealfooddietitians.com. They have so many appetizing dishes and I want to try them all! I made their Healthy Cauliflower Stuffing the other day, and it was amazing! My entire family enjoyed it...my entire very picky family! I wish I would have discovered this website before Thanksgiving because I would have served this recipe for the big day; it is that good! It is gluten free and makes a great substitute for traditional dressing. This would be a great side dish with your turkey or chicken dinner, or even alone—it is that YUM! So healthy and satisfying.
When I cook, I usually eyeball everything, so it is difficult to give an exact recipe. If you need precise measurements, you should probably look elsewhere, but I’m going to add a couple of recipes just in case you want to try some of what I have been eating lately. I will make more or less of a dish depending on how many servings I need. If you make any of these simple dishes, you can easily adjust amounts as needed.
Tip: I always like to make enough to last several meals to save time and energy.
Jamie’s Eggcellent Breakfast Veggies
Ingredients
12 eggs (give or take, can easily expand or reduce this)
1 T Minced garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped or minced, your preference
Bag of shredded broccoli slaw
1 cup water
Season to taste
Pour olive oil in a large skillet, enough to cover the bottom. Add minced garlic and sauté, then add the onion and continue to sauté for about five minutes. Toss in the shredded broccoli slaw, salt lightly, and add a cup of water, cover and simmer till water disappears, stirring every 2-3 minutes. Lightly whisk eggs in a bowl and add a little salt and pepper. Test broccoli for desired tenderness, then add egg mixture. Continue to scramble until eggs are thoroughly done.
This recipe makes about 6 servings. You can adjust the number of eggs depending on the number of servings you want to make. This keeps well in refrigerator for about three to four days and can be put in individual serving sizes and frozen. Feel free to change it up and add other vegetables. I often make a similar dish using sliced mushrooms that I sauté in olive oil with a little garlic salt and substitute spinach for the broccoli slaw, add about one quarter cup of water, depending on how much spinach you use. Sometimes I will top this with salsa and a dollop of guacamole—so good!
This dish is great served with easy breakfast potatoes and what I call miracle bacon. Miracle bacon is simply a precooked bacon that you can microwave for about 20 seconds and voila, it is done. A four-slice serving is only 80 calories! This helps me believe that I am cheating the diet gods! I can eat four slices of bacon and still lose weight! Admittedly, they are probably the thinnest slices of bacon I’ve ever seen, so it’s probably similar to two or three regular slices of bacon, but hey, it’s bacon, it’s fast, and it’s easy peasy. I know bacon is not what I call a nutrient dense food, and once I have more energy for food preparation, I will eventually reduce my use of my newfound miracle B, but for now I am going to thoroughly enjoy it.
Apple and Sweet Potato “Pie”
This is a homey recipe that can be made year-round but is especially welcomed in the fall. You cannot mess this up unless you let it turn to mush or burn it. It is not an actual pie, but it is so good it could almost be.
Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes: use as many as you need. I usually use about 3-4 medium to large
Apples: use as many as needed to layer between potatoes. I use about 4.
Small amount of butter thinly sliced on top of last layer of potatoes, but this can be omitted. I usually don’t use the butter anymore.
Apple juice: about 3/4 cup.
I also used to use real maple syrup with this recipe, but honestly, I don’t miss it much.
Cinnamon as desired
Peel and slice sweet potatoes. Peel, core, and slice apples. Use a 13” x 9” baking dish, prepared with your choice of non-stick spray or butter or olive oil. Place a layer of sweet potatoes, then alternate layers of apple slices, sweet potatoes. You can put thin pats of butter on the top layer of sweet potatoes if desired. Pour in about ¾ cup of apple juice, then sprinkle with cinnamon as desired. Cover and bake in 350° oven for about 50 minutes. Remove cover, test for doneness. Continue baking till desired tenderness.
Carrots & Figs
This is as simple as they come, but a nice change from plain cooked carrots. When not trying to reduce calories, I usually put about ¼ stick of butter in the skillet to sauté the almonds and add a tablespoon or two of brown sugar, but this way is good, too, and healthier. It’s such an easy dish and one that people always ask me for the recipe.
Ingredients:
Carrots: 6-7, peel, trim off ends, and slice on the diagonal, OR use a 1 lb. bag of baby carrots washed thoroughly
Dried figs: 6-8, trim off stem end and quarter
Olive oil
3 tablespoons of sliced almonds
¼ cup of orange juice
Steam carrots while preparing figs, then toss in figs. Continue steaming until desired doneness. In a small skillet, add olive oil and almonds. Sauté the sliced almonds. Add the orange juice. When carrots and figs are done, pour the orange juice mixture directly into the carrots and stir gently.
Roasted Brussel Sprouts
The Brussel sprout is a much-maligned cruciferous vegetable, related to broccoli and cabbage. They are so nutrient dense, high in fiber, and healthy for you. Yes, they do have a strong scent, a few may say odor, when cooking, but just think of it as the scent of healthy eating! Roasting these delectable treats is so easy you don’t need a recipe for them, but just in case you’ve never made them before, here is my favorite way to prepare one of my favorite veggies.
Preheat oven to 400°
Trim ends and outer leaves, wash, and cut in half about 1 ½ pounds of Brussel sprouts (that is about how many fit on my baking tray). Coat in olive oil and place cut side down on a baking tray. Lightly season with salt and maybe pepper as desired. I just use a tiny bit of salt. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes then fork to check for desired tenderness. I like mine to look roasted on the outside and to be soft, a bit creamy, on the inside. Enjoy! So delicious!!
You can also steam your Brussel sprouts if you prefer. I don’t cut them in half if I’m going to steam them. Trim and wash them then toss into your steamer for about 8-10 minutes, then check for desired tenderness. Some prefer them less done than I do. Depending on the size of the Brussel sprouts, I may go a few more minutes. Season to taste and feel the nutritious goodness down to your toes!
If you search the internet for Whole30 recipes, you will find many good ones and they are made without added sugars. They also exclude other things that you do not necessarily need to exclude, so feel free to change up a recipe to suit yourself and your needs. Most of these recipes will incorporate a lot of vegetables and they do not add sugar. Consuming less sugar is helping me in numerous ways. I am losing weight, I feel calmer, and I have less food cravings. Look at your favorite recipes and see how you can modify them to make them healthier. Can you incorporate more vegetables? Switch to extra virgin olive oil? Reduce the sodium? Eliminate added sugars? There are many things you can try. Be adventurous!
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