Affirmation: Change is a choice, and planning facillitates change
Another Monday. I learned something again this weekend that seemed very profound the first time it occurred to me and reinforced it and convinced me of it this time around. Funny how you can learn something, and have to learn it all over again on another level later. What did I learn? That sometimes when I think I am hungry, all I am is thirsty. I was busy doing things on Saturday and didn’t get the amount of water in that I usually do and when I got home I was really hungry and thirsty. Or I thought I was hungry, in spite of the fact that I had a good breakfast before leaving the house and a large, healthy salad for lunch. As I looked around for what sounded good to eat, nothing really answered the question “Do I really want this to eat?” so I poured a new water jug of cold fresh water and gulped quite a bit down. Well I didn’t feel hungry anymore. No not in the way you try to convince yourself you aren’t hungry after you drink some water because you feel a fullness in your stomach from the water, but really still are hungry for food. I was just not hungry. So now I have a new question to ask myself when I am rambling around asking myself if I am really hungry….I will ask myself if I am hungry or if I am really thirsty…when was the last time I had water and how much had I had for the day. Try water first.
I decided to plan out breakfast and lunches this week and prepare ahead and pre-pack everything that I could so that I had lunches and breakfast ready each day. No choice means no wondering what I “feel” like eating. That usually leads to unhealthy choices. So this is what I made.
For breakfasts:
I made yogurt parfaits. Using the small ½ cup Glad Bowls I layered Mountain High organic plain no-fat vanilla yogurt with blueberries and raspberries drizzling just a touch of organic honey on the fruit.
Tonight (I ran out of time yesterday) I will make High Protein chocolate chip pumpkin loaf from Molly Katzen’s “Sunlight Café” cookbook. Here is an online version that uses bananas instead of pumpkin.
For lunch:
I adapted a Salad Nicoise from Bob Greene’s book “Get with the Program Guide to Good Eating”.
Salad Nicoise - my version
Basically roast some new potatoes – I cubed them up or you can just halve them. Sparingly sprinkle some EEOV and salt and pepper and paprika on them and put them on a cookie sheet covered with the non-stick aluminum foil (don’t need more oil if you use this). You can also dust with some cayenne pepper if you like heat
Steam some green beans until still crunchy and shock with ice water to stop the cooking.
Let these cool a bit and put in a large bowl and then add some (depends on how big a batch you are making) of Low Fat Italian dressing (I like Paul Newman’) use about half of the total amount you will ultimately use in the recipe. Adding it while the potatoes are still warm makes it all taste better.
Add a few nicoise black olives, pitted and chopped and some capers, rinsed and cherry or grape tomatoes. Use the cherry/grape and don't cut them so that the salad doesn't get soggy...which will happen if you use larger tomatoes and cut them up.
Boil a few eggs (depending on how many servings you make of the salad) (vegetarians leave these out; high cholestrol? just use the whites)
Have on hand either the tuna filets or salmon in the foil pouch that you can now get in the foil packets. Vegetarians could easily substitute a can of well rinsed beans (garbanzos would be terriffic) for the fish protein.
Now…for the week (yes I will be eating the same thing for all 4 days this week…don’t mind doing it this way) I used about 8 new potatoes and about a pound of green beans, 10 olives, a tablespoon or so of capers and 4 eggs…this made about 4 decent sized servings.
To pre-pack for lunches divide up the bean-potato salad mixture and put into a 2 cup glad bowl. Add the boiled egg and put the lid on. Have 4 packets of either the tuna or the salmon steak or both. Put a little of the Italian dressing in a small container to add at lunchtime. Pack this all in your lunch box and you have lunch for 4 days.
To assemble this you just peel your egg and crumble or slice it over your salad, put your tuna/salmon on top and add the rest of the dressing. Yummmm
Salad nicoise is usually what they call a composed salad…each ingredient is artfully arranged on a plate in pie shaped wedges. But this is impractical for brown bagging it. This “tossed” version isn’t as pretty, but tastes just as good.
For Morning snacks:
Small handful of cherries, 1 oz lower fat cheese, and a few whole grain lower fat crackers
For Afternoon snacks:
Raw veggies and a low fat ranch/yogurt dip. (I haven’t found any low fat ranch dressing I like yet so I use the full fat version of the Hidden Valley and thin it a bit with FF plain yogurt…it is ok. I like to dip things so I have a whole arsenal of healthy dip recipes that I use with raw veggies, whole grain toasted pita wedges (I toast them myself), baked whole grain corn chips, etc.
For suppers
I will either do pasta, salads, or roll-ups…or what ever else is on hand. Suppers aren’t as hard for me as I am not usually as hungry at supper as I am at breakfast and lunch. I am trying not to do evening snacks because I want to do yoga and the tape I use says that the last food should be 2 hours before doing the yoga…so that means no snacking in the evening as supper doesn’t happen until around 7.
Oh and a small note on a late (for us Americans) supper. Waiting until 7 or later for supper really has helped with the evening munchies. Think about it. If you don’t get to bed until 10 but you eat supper at 5…that is a loooong time until supper, much less breakfast. So I have pushed lunch until after 1 and supper until 7. This is where the morning and afternoon snacks help a lot.
Well I am off for now. Off to a good start on a good week.
For an excellent view on motivation go read Sara’s post on her blog.
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