How Do You Create Meals?

My primary goal is to get healthier so I have taken what I know about healthy power foods and tried to incorporate those into my diet. I have also made a concerted effort to reduce my sodium intake so I've tried to limit the amount of processed food I use.

Generally I stick to the same breakfast because to be honest, I don't have much time for thinking in the morning what with getting two kids to the bus stop and getting DH ready and off to work. I used to have rye bread and peanut butter but am now trying to eat Quick Oats oatmeal (I will switch to Steel Cut oats when I have used up most of my Quick Oats). I eat this with a banana and log my two cups of coffee and 1 cup of milk (which I drink in my coffee -- 1/2 cup of milk with each 1 cup of coffee).

Lunch tends to be soup. I make it with either low sodium or no sodium broth. I use tons of veggies, whatever meat I might have leftover from previous meals (or none if I don't have any) and throw in some barley. I always make it in the crock pot to try to keep as much of the broth and trap as many nutrients as possible. One crock pot full of soup usually lasts me 3-4 days depending on whether my daughter likes it too or not. I tend to eat this with either crackers (I'm planning on learning how to make my own when the ones in my pantry are gone) or with high fiber low cal toast and low fat cheese. I also add a small fruit for dessert.

Supper tends to be a meat, a starch and two veggies. I try to keep the starches natural foods (sweet potato, potato, turnip, rutabaga, squash) as much as possible and alternate between chicken breasts and other lean meats. Veggies are usually one cooked veggie (carrots, peas, sauteed peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, etc) and a small salad with lots of greens. I dress with salad dressing or olive oil depending on my mood.

My morning snack is invariably a fruit -- apples are my favourite because they keep me full longer but I also like 1/2 a grapefruit or an orange.

My afternoon snack includes a protein -- hard boiled egg, handful of almonds, piece of low fat cheese -- and raw veggies (usually carrots, cabbage or celery).

My evening snack, which is my biggest indulgence, is a bag of Smart Pop popcorn and a plum or other small fruit like a clementine.

Hope this helps. It's been working very well for me.

How many calories are you allowed Danshkee?

I'm allowed 1200 a day so my meals are usually:
Breakfast - 2 peices of whole grain, dry toast with 1 tsp of honey, and tea (200 calories)
Lunch - soup from for the office cafeteria (between 300 - 500 calories)
Dinner - baked chicken thigh (I know breast is better, but I really hate white meat) in a marinade, 3/4 cup of rice, 1 cup of steamed veggie (no butter) (500 - 600 calories)

I will mix things up a bit for dinner (mostly because my husband can't stand eating the same thing every day), so I've done pork tenderloins, stir fry, turkey, etc.

What helps me is I will plan out dinner ahead of time, and log it to see how many calories it is, adjust as necessary. It takes some trial and error. The first time I started counting calories, I was shocked by how many calories were in things that I thought would be calorie free (like plain white rice!). I'm now much more aware and try to watch portions if the meal I'm eating is high in calories...

The most important thing is not to get discouraged when you have a bad day or two. I went to the gym for 1.5 hours on Friday, in anticipation of having a bad calorie blow out from the New Year's Eve parties...and I STILL went over my calorie limit (above what I burned while exercising). It was annoying, but it's just one day, and I got back on the wagon yesterday and will watch myself for the rest of the week to get back on track

Best of luck!!!!!!