Saturday, April 11, 2009

What to Eat?

It's now been a few weeks since I met with the nutritionist, and I have been making changes to what I eat. Some of the changes have been harder - bringing my lunch (almost) every day, cooking a lot more on weekends to prep for the week ahead, cutting out some of my favorite things - but overall this hasn't been as difficult as I'd feared. It's amazing how easily you can make adjustments and adapt to the point where they just feel like a new normal.

I've still got room to improve, mostly in making sure I eat even *more* fruits and veggies. But I thought I'd share some more details on what I actually have been eating the last few weeks, including the nutritionist-approved snacking that I do all throughout the day.

What I Have Been Eating
Bigger breakfasts - egg beaters with mix-ins, whole wheat toast with Smart Balance spread, oatmeal with sugar-free maple syrup and raisins, bananas or oranges
Plain couscous, dressed up with my own seasoning and frozen veggie mix-ins
Whole wheat pasta with lots of good veggie toppings
small portions of meat - pork chops, chicken breasts, fish, extra-lean beef
Salads, with a variety of toppings to keep it interesting
My own homemade soups

Snacks: reduced fat cheese sticks, unsalted nuts, raisins, Activia yogurt, raw veggies with light dip, unsweetened apple sauce with a little cinnamon sprinkled on top, Sugar Free Jello and Jello pudding cups, oranges, bananas, Dole fruit cups, WW ice cream bars, reduced fat froyo, air-popped popcorn with Smart Balance spray and/or seasonings, herbal tea

What I Have NOT Been Eating
Starbucks lattes
Orange juice (this was a hard one to give up!)
Chips (ditto!)
Cookies
Deli sandwiches
Restaurant soups (sad! too much sodium)
Canned soups (ditto)
Turkey or chicken sausage (for breakfast or dinner, none of the turkey kielbasa, or chicken/feta/spinach sausage, etc. All terrible for sodium.)

What I Am Still Weeding Out
Boxed / frozen food -- I'm trying to eat this sparingly, and incorporating more veggies into them if it's possible. Technically these aren't supposed to be on the list, but I'm just working through what I already had in my kitchen and not replacing the items.

1 comment:

DC Food Blog said...

Yep. I have no idea how to cut the sausage and the deli sandwiches. Try being Asian reducing your sodium intake. It blows.