Tag: Mid Morning

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Weight Loss Exercise

How to Handle Snack Attacks on the Paleo Diet

Snacks are part of life and on any healthy diet you are told to eat something every few hours. This is very true if you are following the Paleo Diet. The problem is finding out what to snack on. You need to have snacks that are quick and easy to prepare and that fit in with the principles of the Paleo diet.

One easy snack to prepare in advance is sliced vegetables. This can include celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumbers, radishes and cherry tomatoes. Plus you can serve it with a low calorie dip or dressing. This type of snack is perfect for when you are at home on the weekend. Or it can be prepared ahead of time and packed for work or school.

Eggs are another suitable snack choice for anyone on the Paleo Diet. You can prepare them as hard boiled eggs, slices of frittata or as egg muffins.

Fruit is a quick and simple snack to prepare. Choose berries, slices of oranges, apples and grapefruit. These are easy to pack if you need to take your snack with you as well.

Small amounts of nuts and seeds can be packed into small containers and popped into your bag. They are easy to eat no matter where you are plus full of nutrients that help you get through a busy morning. As nuts are higher in calories it may be best to eat them as a mid morning snack. By eating nuts early in the day your body has lots of time to burn off the calories.

Leftover pieces of meat or seafood are wonderful snack choices. Just dice them up into chunks the night before and place them into a small container. By eating leftover meat you are adding protein to your diet which will provide you with energy during the day.

Chicken or turkey breast diced or sliced makes a good snack choice. So does canned tuna, peeled shrimp and slices of leftover meatloaf or meatballs.

When having vegetables or meat as a snack it is nice to eat them with a dipping sauce. Some good sauces to use that won’t affect your Paleo Diet are salsa, nut butters, pesto sauces and guacamole.

Once you get into the habit of making snacks that fall in line with the Paleo Diet principles you won’t be lost for what to eat. Instead you will have tons of choices which are healthy and taste wonderful.

Remember eating snacks is a good healthy choice and you should try not to go more than 4 hours without having some sort of snack. Now you won’t have to worry about what snack to make.

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General Weight Loss Tips

On The Mend

I’ve been on the couch since Thursday afternoon nursing a sprained knee. Picture me tripping over and ON  a dog. Who does that? I laugh because it’s pretty ridiculous. Thursday was the worst of the pain, Friday was better and today, while it still hurts a lot to bend my knee, I can move much better. Luckily, I’ve had these two to keep me company:

babyman On The Mend

googie On The Mend

I’ve been keeping a food journal these past couple of days and would like to move that documentation on the blog. I always say that though so we’ll see what happens!

Yesterday mid-morning I was starving and needed something quick, easy and filling to make. My friend Courtney’s Tamale Pie came to the rescue! Oh my, this was glorious and so darn easy…

tamalepie On The Mend

To make this all you need is a roll of prepared polenta, diced tomatoes, salsa (optional), black beans (one can), salt, cumin, garlic, green onions and cheese. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Crumble warm polenta in the bottom of a medium to small casserole dish. Top with black beans. Sprinkle with salt, cumin, and garlic. Add a layer of diced tomatoes (I used 3/4 of a very large can), then sprinkle with seasoning again. Finish with green onions and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

I ate two plates of this and another serving a few hours later with a turkey sandwich. Snacks included three clementines, a bite of turkey, and a little feta. I drank tons of water. I’m drinking about 12 oz. every hour which I believe is helping with the injury swelling. I like to think so at least.

And then later on in the evening I made vegetable fried rice and ate about a cup.

****

This morning I gave myself a little spa treatment. I was feeling gross and restless and desperately needed to shave my legs. The miracles of a hot shower!

I had a banana in the early morning and then made this plate before noon:

breakfast2 11 12 On The Mend

A slice of oatmeal bread with butter, three slices of local/nitrate-free bacon, and scrambled eggs with feta, green pepper and green onion. And more water!

I’m working really hard on not eating out of hunger. Some days are better than others and I’m finding comfort and control in a daily food diary and weekly weigh-ins. Yesterday was a hard day. I wanted to snack on everything, and I just had to sit with it. I remind myself every day that it will get easier. Admitting that it’s not going to always be effortless is important to me. At some point yesterday I wanted to eat so bad that I was literally biting down on my hard plastic straw and I knew then, that these are the hard days of breaking a habit.

I think before I would have thought that my desire to eat more was caused by being bored, lonely, sad or deserving. I would have believe it was because I wasn’t getting enough of one type of food or another. And the more I do it and the more I practice, the more I realize that I’m beating a bad habit and nothing more than that. I’m breaking a 20+ year habit of eating despite of hunger.

Today is much better, I am getting restless though. I’m making sure to move every hour and to stretch my legs to prevent them from getting stiff. Do you guys have any recommended exercises that I can do for the next week or so while I’m on the mend? Something that I can do at home with my upper body and good leg without impact on the bad knee? I’d love to hear!

 

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Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

Mental Notes

I woke up yesterday and enjoyed a small slice of leftover quiche with a glass of orange juice. A total of 395 calories. For a mid-morning snack I had an orange juice frozen pop (Josh wanted me to mention that he made these all by himself- a tricky method of pouring orange juice in a popsicle mold) at 55 calories For lunch I had a whole wheat flat bread panini with three slices of center cut bacon, 1/2 oz. cheddar cheese, tomato and mixed greens stuffed inside. This was incredible! So satisfying and only 395 calories. Snack: 1 serving nut and rice crackers with one wedge of laughing cow cheese: 165 calories 1/2 serving cashews- 80 calories Bowl of Indian lentils (and chickpeas) with onion and a cup of rice- about 550-600 calories Another orange pop: 55 calories Glucosamine chews: 70 calories

Total calories for the day: 1,765

I’ve been making some mental notes this week for myself, for future reference.

– I’m still eating what I enjoy and love to eat. I’m full and satisfied with my choices. I’m not stuffed, uncomfortable or bloated- I’m just full.

– Do it anyway. I feel my mental crazies picking up and I hear myself thinking “what if I continue to eat like this and stop losing weight?” Obviously I have no clue as to how the body loses weight.  I’m reminding myself of this: I’m eating significantly less food which will result in weight loss, trust in the process and do it anyway. I guess deep down I’m afraid I will get to a point where I weigh a lot less and in order to maintain that weight I have to eat much less than I am now. That is a very long bridge from now and I will deal with it when I get there. I’m finding that this fear of hunger, future hunger is sabotaging. As crazy as it seems (after typing it out) I’ve noticed a pattern of thoughts where I think “I can never eat this little, forget it” and before I even give myself a chance I give up. I give up out of fear of what doesn’t exist. I’m acknowledging this and continuing.

– Getting by on less. I think the biggest part of losing weight for those of us who have been overeating or binging for so long is letting it go. Letting go of too much, letting go of stuffing, letting go of mindless eating. I think that is why Atkins is so appealing, you can eat as much meat and vegetables as you want. There is a safety net. I’m finding slowly (very slowly) that the desire to overeat is less appealing than the desire to feel healthy and comfortable. One feels good for about 10 minutes, and leaves me feeling like crap. The other causes about 10 minutes of being uncomfortable (putting the fork down) and hours, if not a lifetime of feeling much better.

– The scale is moving. Even after four days, I’m seeing results that I wasn’t seeing with exercise alone. This is very encouraging. I keep telling myself: you’re doing what you need to do to reach your goals. And I am, and I’m allowing myself to trust in that.

************ We’re headed off to DC tomorrow morning for a weekend extravaganza with the blog girls. Lots of food, sight seeing and other nutty things. I will still take photos of my food while I’m gone, eat what I enjoy, yet remain mindful of not over-stuffing myself.

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