Meal Ideas...please!

Right now, I am eating a lot of sandwiches, wraps and soups. There is not an extreme amount of prep work with the sandwiches and wraps, and the soups last through many meals or are easily frozen.

For healthy real food, you have to take a look at this site, www.skinnytaste.com. She puts weight watcher points (which I don't use, but she also has nutritional info). I have tried two recipes this past week, and my husband (VERY picky eater) has raved about both.

I use http://www.eatingwell.com/ to find recipes. There are some really great recipes! Good luck!

I eat about 6 times a day: Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Dinner, and Snack. They are not large meals.
I like to eat CHICKEN QUESADILLA using spinach wraps and low sodium mix to season the chicken.
I make pizzas out of wheat pita bread. I have used turkey pepperoni but I cheat and eat it with regular pepperoni. Turkey pepperoni taste fine.
I like pita sandwiches as well with wheat bread of course.
I plan of trying wheat pasta soon.

Starch...(Potatoes)!!! This is the perfect "side"dish with your dinner! It'll keep you full longer than anything else. Also, wholegrain bread, brown rice, and bananas are filling as well. Beans are a great side dish as well! Pasta (whole-grain) is a great dinner choice! The grains fill you up, and if you eat penne pasta (or something with holes)...it allows you to take in more air, filling you up faster!

As for snacks, POPCORN is the key!!! So instead of icecream, or candy, or something like that...go for the popcorn! It's actually pretty healthy, until you add all the butter and salt! And it's delicious without it
Also, Peanuts are a great snack!

Soup is the perfect lunch dish! Even if you eat it before you eat a sandwich! The soup improves satiety so you eat less and take in fewer calories as a result! A soup and salad, would be the perfect lunch to stay full till dinnertime!

Eggs make for a good breakfast! They're supposed to stop hunger from kicking in so fast after your first meal, causing you to eat less and still feel alright!


Hope that helped in some form or fashion!!!
Feel free to add me as a friend, if you'd like!

-Melissa-

If you're worried about making it between meals, you shouldn't limit yourself to 3 meals a day. Grazing is actually much healthier as it keeps your blood sugar level, and amps up your metabolism. The best way to graze is pack a small cooler/lunch bag with different whole foods like sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, grapes, cherries, celery, carrots, raw almonds, tuna with lemon juice and pepper, a boiled egg with a tablespoon of organic salsa, etc. If you graze you won't need to eat huge meals, and you'll be satisfied. It's not that you're 'stuffing' your face but keeping yourself level.

That being said, if you prefer the 3-meals/day with 2 snacks in between apples are a GREAT source of fiber and vitamins. Also, the whole "apple a day keeps the doctor away" has some truth to do. I can't remember where I read it, but there's been studies done about people who consume 1-2 medium apples per day (with skin) are more likely to lose weight faster than people who don't eat them at all.

If you're going to eat potatoes do NOT load them up with butter, sour cream, etc. small potato about the size of a baseball with some organic salsa is a good alternative to the ones the size of your husband's universal remote loaded to the brim with fattening calorie laden junk.

I need help figuring out what kinds of foods to eat that will be both healthy and filling. I'm under my calorie goal today, but I don't feel happy with everything i've eaten today. My breakfast started out really good, but I blew it with lunch. Help!

This is a plan I followed several years ago and was successful at shredding 50 pounds.

Here are the four simple rules I followed…


Rule #1: Avoid “white” carbohydrates
Avoid any carbohydrate that is — or can be — white. The following foods are thus prohibited, except for within 1.5 hours of finishing a resistance-training workout of at least 20 minutes in length: bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, and fried food with breading. If you avoid eating anything white, you’ll be safe.


Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again
The most successful dieters, regardless of whether their goal is muscle gain or fat loss, eat the same few meals over and over again. Mix and match, constructing each meal with one from each of the three following groups:
Proteins:
Egg whites with one whole egg for flavor
Chicken breast or thigh
Grass-fed organic beef
Pork
Legumes:
Lentils
Black beans
Pinto beans
Vegetables:
Spinach
Asparagus
Peas
Mixed vegetables
Eat as much as you like of the above food items. Just remember: keep it simple. Pick three or four meals and repeat them. Almost all restaurants can give you a salad or vegetables in place of french fries or potatoes. Surprisingly, I have found Mexican food, swapping out rice for vegetables, to be one of the cuisines most conducive to the “slow carb” diet.
Most people who go on “low” carbohydrate diets complain of low energy and quit, not because such diets can’t work, but because they consume insufficient calories. A 1/2 cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a 1/2 cup of spinach is 15 calories! Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes for caloric load.
Some athletes eat 6-8x per day to break up caloric load and avoid fat gain. I think this is ridiculously inconvenient. I eat 4x per day:
10am – breakfast
1pm – lunch
5pm – smaller second lunch
7:30-9pm – sports training
10pm – dinner
12am – glass of wine and Discovery Channel before bed


Rule #3: Don’t drink calories
Drink massive quantities of water and as much unsweetened iced tea, tea, diet sodas, coffee (without white cream), or other no-calorie/low-calorie beverages as you like. Do not drink milk, normal soft drinks, or fruit juice. I’m a wine fanatic and have at least one glass of wine each evening, which I believe actually aids sports recovery and fat-loss. Recent research into resveratrol supports this.

Rule #4: Take one day off per week - I DON"T FOLLOW THIS TO THE LETTER AS I TENDED TO GAIN WEIGHT.
I recommend Saturdays as your “Dieters Gone Wild” day. I am allowed to eat whatever I want on Saturdays, and I go out of my way to eat ice cream, Snickers, Take 5, and all of my other vices in excess. I make myself a little sick and don’t want to look at any of it for the rest of the week. Paradoxically, dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate (thyroid function, etc.) doesn’t downregulate from extended caloric restriction. That’s right: eating pure crap can help you lose fat. Welcome to Utopia.