What Go To Foods are in your Home at all times?

Just add a healthier side option for yourself. Instead of fries and mac salad, have a salad, steamed cauliflower, baked potato or other veggie. Even when my hubby fixes a pasta dish as the main course, I have a few bites then have veggies on the side.

Things I always have in the house are salad greens, mushrooms, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, sweet or regular potatoes, canned veggies and cheese.

Turkey meatloaf muffins!
Here's a link to how to make them:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/video-jamie-eason-turkey-meatloaf-muffins.htm

Soo awesome.

I DO agree with those who say "you can eat anything if you stick to portions that fit your calories" and such...I eat ice cream and pad Thai and some processed foods myself, at times. But I also know it can be a very slippery slope, when there's a lack of vegetables and a surplus of sugary, salty, fatty things around it can really cause one to slip back into old habits and/or overeat at times.

I'm lucky in that my husband eats even healthier than I do, or at least equally so. He is usually a great influence on me and 95% of the time we cook and eat the same meals. However in the past I was married to a different man who basically lived off pizza, canned biscuits, chicken alfredo pasta, and Little Debbie cakes. That makes it tempting to just eat junk, too...or think "anything I eat is better than what he's having". So I can see the need, at times, to make separate meals!

At any given time, we have the following in our kitchen:

some sort of bread (or Sandwich Skinnies)
eggs (for omelettes, egg salad, egg tacos, etc)
many different types of beans
brown and white rice
frozen fruits and vegetables
bag of some sort of shredded cheese (or block that may be sliced/shredded)
Morningstar Farms veggie burger patties
plain Greek yogurt
variety of different nuts

We usually have lettuce, baby spinach, hummus, and fresh veggies as well, but sometimes not. Frozen fruits & veg aren't my preference but they are wonderful during winter or when the fridge is bare.

I can usually throw together a stir fry or have a veggie burger and/or salad. Grilled cheese with spinach, onions, mushrooms...or avocado, even.

French toast with sugar free syrup is another of my "go to" meals when I either don't have a lot of calories left in the day or just don't like what my husband's having (rare).

HTH!

Fruit and cereal

I do pretty much all of the cooking in our house, since my husband's kitchen skills are frightening, so this isn't a HUGE problem for me, but I do like to keep some back-ups in place for when I really don't feel like cooking, etc. We typically have at least berry mix (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries), chicken breasts, and edamame in the freezer. Because I do smoothies for breakfast most mornings, we almost always have bananas and some type of leafy green (spinach or kale), and since my husband is a total freak for yogurt, we often have that, too. I like to have low-sodium canned chicken noodle soup and low-sodium black beans on hand, too. So, those are probably my most common go-to's so that I don't have to worry about eating junk. Although, like some others have already said, every once in a while, throw together a salad and eat that with the ribs; nom!

Baby carrots, raw nuts, BRUSSEL SPROUTS!!, and in case I get a sugar craving I always have apples and almond butter (I microwave the apple and sprinkle cinnamon then drizzle almond butter on top, my fiance loves it too!)

For me its important to have fruits and veggies on hand in the crisper, healthy fats in abundance, and some lean proteins. A little of other stuff can sneak into the diet and its fine as long as its mostly the prior. My usual produce and healthy fats and lean proteins look like so in my grocery basket:

onions/garlic
spinach or kale
squash or zucchini
carrots
avocados
peppers
Brussels or broccoli or cauliflower
bananas, apples, oranges

frozen berries and almond milk- for protein powder smoothies

chicken
lean pork or beef
fish - salmon or tilapia usually
eggs

canned low sodium beans - black beans or garbanzo or white cannellini beans
low sodium stock - for soups or flavoring /cooking proteins and veggies
greek yogurt - for protein packed snack or to replace sour cream or cheese in soups

coconut oil
peanut or almond butter
small amounts of good full fat cheese
nuts in pre portioned packages (so I don't go crazy on them, its easy b/c they are delicious)

This list covers snacks, ingredients for basic healthy meals, soups, etc!

Quick dinners:
Cereal
DiGiorno Pizza
Tyson chicken nuggets
Tacos

Easy snacks:
doritos
granola bars
peanuts
popcorn

There is a way around EVERYTHING. Jess spoke earlier about eating what your husband is eating, and I do agree with that, but another thing you can do is "tweek" what he is eating for yourself.

Example----when he is grilling or smoking ribs, have him grill or smoke a rack of baby backs for you. They have a lower fat content than spare ribs and don't baste them with sauce; have the sauce on the side and consider thinning it down with a little water to reduce the sugar content.

When he is grilling burgers and brats, have him throw on a couple of turkey burgers (turkey breast---lowest in fat) and turkey or chicken brats (there are lots of them out there with different seasonings that are AWESOME)

Keep plenty of small packages of steamer veggies to go with your meals. 4 or 5 minutes in the microwave and you have the perfect item to fill up half of your plate to help fill you up

I AM ALL ABOUT THE GRILL (bet you couldn't guess that) and when I grill, I pretty much always do 2 things
1) I grill enough for 3 or more meals
2) I under cook what I am going to put in the fridge/freezer just a little bit so that way when I reheat it, it will finish cooking it and it won't be dry.

Hope this helped young lady :-)

I'm the main cook and I have three kids, ages 4 to 16 (a hungry boy!). We had BBQ ribs, red-lobster-style biscuits, and greens simmered with ham hocks last week. It was a hefty dinner, but I just had a bigger serving of greens and a smaller serving of meat and one biscuit. Everyone gets the same dinner. Half the time I make lighter meals and I make a little extra for those who are more hungry, or I set out cut veggies with hummus before dinner to help fill everyone up. I might go a couple hundred calories over if I'm eating lasagna or ribs or burgers, but it all balances out, and keeps me from feeling deprived at all. There's always the option of going for a walk after dinner too.

Typically if my partner is eating junk food I will prepare something different for me - like frozen veg, salad, easy to bake fish/chicken and jacket potatoes - or soup!

If I am eating the same, I try to get alternative healthier options in or just have a smaller portion!

We all eat the same meals at home.....Monday-Friday lunches are varied as kids are at school and husband at work.

I am in the same boat as you! My boyfriend is thin and fit, he's a runner and it's not that he can eat "whatever" he wants, but hes basically in maintenance and every weekend (especially if football is on) is a free for all.

When I realized I couldn't control myself when he would get pizza, wings, fries etc... I started making my own meals entirely. I keep frozen veggies and chicken in the freezer, I always have yogurt on hand, eggs, and lime seltzer water (no sugar added)

Since I've gotten into this habit, I don't have my hunger dependent on when my bf orders crappy food. Now I have more of an understanding of *when* I'm hungry and *what* I'm hungry for. I realized that more often than not, I'm not hungry for 4 slices of pizza.

This past weekend he got a pizza, and I made my normal healthy meal, and as a snack I had one slice of his pizza. I made sure to stay within my calorie limit AND I got to eat some of his food. Best of both worlds!

Good snacks to have around - premixed tuna pouches (tuna creations), cheese sticks, skinny pop, homemade soups (I usually have at least one of these in the fridge - this week it was stuffed pepper, last week veggie beef). There are tons of recipes on skinnytaste.com that are delicious. I also keep protein bars and shakes handy. Frozen shrimp is another go to. you can eat 8 oz of shrimp and a 1/4 cup of cocktail sauce for just 250 calories and tons of protein. This gives me the feeling of getting a 'football weekend' kind of food without the calories of wings, etc.

Apples with cheese and kalamata olives is also very satiating and salty.

Good luck!

I find it hard to stay on track on the weekends also, because I eat with my family or go out. That is ok. What I do is eat my maint. Cal lvl which is 1750 and eat lower calories durning the week. I still lose weight and I dont beat myself up about it.