Starting Fresh :3

[MissJenaKay]

Hey guys, I'm back. I have much better news about diet as of late. I went grocery shopping with mother the other day and before we even went into the store I told her that we shouldn't buy any sort of junky food and should look at getting healthier alternatives to the things we normally eat. Instead of cereal, I bought this amazingly delicious steel-cut oat, flax and rye hot cereal. Instead of caprisun drinks for lunches, I bought flavoured water. I also bought a head of cauliflower because I want to try mashed cauliflower to replace potatoes sometimes. We got a ton of yummy fruits and veggies and fish and stuff for healthier dinners and I managed to find these really great protein shakes. Taking into consideration that a lot of premade protein shakes have a TON of sugar in them, I was blown away when I saw that the ones I bought only have 1g of sugar per bottle with 30g of protein! They're really tasty too. Also, instead of buying premade hamburger patties, we bought an extra 5lb of mince and I spent about two hours on Thursday making 3 dozen healthy burgers and 1.5 dozen turkey burgers so if we want burgers, I can just defrost one of the packages of burgers I made, which are not only healthier than store-bought, but a heck of a lot tastier too.

I took to mind what MatthewCocking said and I've decided to set myself a couple of daily goals. I will have at least one well-rounded salad each day and I will make sure that I drink at least 3 glasses of plain water every day (I normally add little drink mix sticks to water, but I want to try to ditch them and drink more plain water).

I've decided to try to cut sugar intake which as we all know is usually pretty high on days that I reach a significant amount of calories. So, to help with that I got some freeze-dried fruit packets that have no added sugar, and they're delightful. I got some peach, strawberry, and mixed berry packets and I have to say the peach ones are AMAZING and only have 3 or 4 grams of sugar per packet.

I'm also planning on buying some flax seeds to make crackers out of because I remember having home made flax crackers at cousin's house once and they were so tasty. Does anyone have any good, healthy, low-carb snack recipes to share? I need to replace go-to snacks of cheez-it crackers and cereal (which tends to be quite sugary)

And one last thing, I decided to make life easier, I took the salad veggies that I bought and did all chopping and mixed them all up and vacuum sealed them into individual salad portions so I have no excuse for not making myself a salad every day because I have pre-grilled chicken breast strips that I can just microwave and hack up to throw in and cutting up half an avocado and a cheese stick is really easy.

Without any further ado, though, I'm gonna share with you guys what last two days (post grocery shopping have looked like)

FRIDAY:
Breakfast:
Oat, flax, rye cereal with a spoonful of peanut butter and a splash of milk
A cup of coffee with creamer and truvia

Morning Break:
A cup of yogurt

Lunch:
A salad (romaine, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, a cheesestick, chicken, and garbanzo beans) with some lite italian dressing (admittedly too much dressing, trying to wean myself down on the dressing)
Some baked ritz cracker chips
A bottle of flavoured water

After Work Snack:
Freeze-dried mixed berries

Dinner:
Top Round steak grilled with a bit of butter and steak seasoning
Mashed potatoes
Corn

TOTALS
Calories 1271
Fat 59
Carbs 133
Fiber 22
Sugar 43
Protein 80



TODAY:

Breakfast:
Oat, flax, rye cereal with a spoonful of peanutbutter and a splash of milk
A cup of coffee with creamer and truvia

Workout:
30min of playing a dancing game burned about 200Cal

Lunch:
A salad (romaine, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, a cheesestick, chicken) with some lite italian dressing (did only 2Tbs of the dressing this time and didn't hate myself for skimping, so that's a good sign!)

Dinner:
A Haddock fillet grilled with a bit of butter and garlic
A mountain of green beans
Freeze-dried peaches for dessert

Evening Snack:
A protein shake
Baked cracker chips

TOTALS
Calories 1295
Fat 56
Carbs 123
Fiber 25
Sugar 37
Protein 99

Admittedly, I was/am a bit low on calories both days, but I'm so proud that the quality of calories has increased so much. Just look how low those sugar counts are!! Boss, do you have any suggestions on how I can up calories a bit more since they're still so low?

[fat-to-fit]

Looks really good Jena. I need to watch sugar too and saturated fat...

[Boss Man]

Hey Jena, great job.

You actually miscalculated the fist amount by just over 100 calories. If you're just using the carbs total and not fibre or sugar along with protein and fat then your totals of 59, 133 and 80 works out at 531 calories, 532 calories and 320 calories so that's actually 1,383, not 1,271.

The second one is good to go however.

Yes I can provide you with options to think about.

You can use loads of things that are snacks or combine to make snacks, like microwave baked beans, rice and soup dishes, vegetables like pineapple, celery and sticks and raw carrot, fruits including tomatoes and cucumber, sandwiches, bread, beef, turkey, ham, pork and chicken from a packet, boiled eggs, nuts, peanuts, low sugar yoghurt, flax seeds, oat granolas, canned tuna, but limit tuna to 3 portions a week as per recommendations relating to heavy metal content and crisps a.k.a. potato chips, because these days they can have less saturates in them and healthy fats like sun seed and often can sometimes be under 200 calories.

You could also have protein bars if you get a good one like quest bars, but any sort of bars that avoid cheap and nasty ingredients like HCFS and hydrogenated vegetable oil, but offer at least 25g protein and preferably the same amount of carbs, but then that's 200 calories so you could have something else with that, but if it's one with about 30g protein and a similar carb profile, then you're looking at around 220-250 calories, so you could have that on its own on a non-workout day, or decide whether the calories a little two low and combine it with something like two celery sticks or a raw carrot or a small tomato as examples.

I'd avoid snacks that claim to be 99 calories. It's like 99 calories is suddenly some kind of magic bullet weight control intake, you have to have when you snack and to be honest if a sedentary female needs 1,800 a day, 3 snacks like that is going mean 1,503 calories for the rest of the day, which would be like eating about 501 calories in 3 other meals and it's a bit much especially first thing in the morning if you haven't eaten.

To put 500 calories into context, that's like eating a sandwich with two slices of wheat bread and a chicken breast, which is approximately 260 calories, then a small pot of yoghurt and an apple, which is approximately 150 calories and then 90 calories of nuts and you wouldn't want to be faced with that first thing in the morning to be honest.

Obviously the things I listed will be reasonably easy to distinguish in regards to being snacks or being parts of snacks I:E: a microwave rice dish is pretty much a snack, but a celery stick on its own isn't .

So I would say add a couple of snacks in, one between breakfast and lunch and one between lunch and dinner and I'd be aiming for around 250 calories from the snacks on non-workout days and around 350 on workout days.

Hopefully that helps.

[MissJenaKay]

Boss: Thanks for all the suggestions on the snacks and extras!

Yesterday:
Breakfast:
Oat, flax, rye cereal with 2 spoonfuls of peanut butter and a splash of milk
A cup of coffee with creamer and truvia

Dinner:
2 homemade hamburger patties (no bun or anything, I like them plain. )
Macaroni Salad (macaroni, tuna, peas, relish, and mayo)

First evening break:
A cup of yogurt

Work "dinner" break:
An apple
Leftover macaroni salad

TOTALS
Calories 1638
Fat 79
Carbs 156
Fiber 16
Sugar 51
Protein 94
(I planted a container garden full of veggies yesterday too, so I'm excited for those to grow!)

TODAY
Breakfast: (which was actually lunch because I worked until 3am last night)
A salad (romaine, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, a cheesestick, chicken, garbanzo beans, bell pepper) with some lite italian dressing (did only 2Tbs again)

Dinner:
6oz of grilled turkey breast
Some boiled potatoes with a bit of butter
Some small boiled whole beets

Evening:
A protein shake
a serving of black bean crisps

TOTALS
Calories 1149
Fat 45
Carbs 93
Fiber 27
Sugar 21
Protein 118

[MissJenaKay]

Nothing really to report in terms of diet, but I have dropped a couple pounds since switching to lower sugar diet and I am so happy! I've been getting a teeny bit bored of the same exact things every day, so I'm going to try to switch things up a bit, even if I do still have a TON of salad stuff left to eat since I bought it in bulk. Haha. In any case, I hope you are all doing really well!

[fat-to-fit]

great job on the weight loss.

[Boss Man]

You're still on the right track Jena, so be proud of yourself and WELL DONE

[chriscandothis]

Great Job Jena!!
Watching what we eat is sooooo hard sometimes! Just keep moving forward as best you can.

[MissJenaKay]

Thanks guys! Nothing to report other than I've finished up the last of salad stuff, so I'm trying to think of things I have in the house already that I can take for lunches at work, I'm thinking maybe egg salad or something. I'm not totally sure yet. In other news, ALL of veggies that I planted in container garden have sprouted! I'm so proud of plants and I love it!

[fat-to-fit]

Yay on the container garden. I'm buying a cherry tomato plant this year and that's it for gardening besides flowers and plants to water.

[chriscandothis]

Great job Jena! Awesome on the garden! They are so fun to watch grow. I decided to go with a smaller salad and pair it with protein (chicken breast) or soup or a sandwich. That way I get salad veggies and some variety. Best of luck!

[MissJenaKay]

goodness am I busy now! I picked up a new job, which is full time, and I'm keeping on at Old Navy for extra money and to keep discount there. I'm working at Best Buy now too which is exciting and I think I'm going to like it a lot there. Diet and stuff has been going well, I'e lost another 2 pounds I think.

[fat-to-fit]

Congrats on the job and weight loss. I just drove by best buys corp hdq about 30 minutes ago..

[Boss Man]

WELL DONE Jena on the new job and also the weight loss, I'm really proud of you .

[MissJenaKay]

Hey guys! It's been a while, I've got first day off since I started Best Buy today! It's been a little crazy and I'm learning a lot and I'm enjoying job quite a bit as well! I've lost another 3 pounds as well I think. I can't remember what weight was the last time I posted. But I'm doing pretty well, not that I'm eating well since I'm definitely under eating on the days that I'm running between both jobs in one day. But I'm trying!