What I eat - an average day

Hi everyone -

I thought I would post what I ate yesterday, to give an example of an average day for me. My goal is to eat around 1400 calories a day.

I recently watched the documentary Forks Over Knives, and it has changed how I'm eating. We eat less meat and animal products. I still use dairy and eggs, but I've cut back on both. We aren't vegetarian, but I guess we might be flexatarian? If you have a chance to watch that documentary I would highly recommend it. It's not gross or shocking like Food Inc, it's more a presentation of research and real life experiences that makes you think.

So, here you go:
Breakfast: old fashioned oatmeal with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, 1/2 tablespoon ground flax seeds and 1/2 a large banana mixed in (Benjamin gets the other 1/2 banana). Coffee with skim milk.

Lunch: whole wheat tortilla with tuna, broccoli slaw and shredded carrots, greek yogurt. I also really like making tortilla wraps with hummus, broccoli slaw and shredded carrots.

Afternoon snack: one cup blueberries with one babybel light cheese

Dinner: sprouted rice and quinoa salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, coconut oil and a dash of orange champagne vinegar. (Made earlier in the day and served cold)
I also made stuffed peppers which were stuffed with sprouted rice and quinoa with sauteed mushrooms, onions and diced tomatoes. David and Ben ate those for dinner. They don't care for my cold quinoa salads.

I use a sprouted rice and quinoa blend I buy in large bags at Costco. The brand name is Truroots, I think. It's very good in every way I've used it. You can add golden raisins and slivered almonds to make a side dish, use it as the base to a stir fry, stuff peppers, use it to make a cold rice salad type dish, etc.

This is awesome Steph! I am impressed How close are you to your goal weight? Is this something you always wanted to do?

Margo - I plan to keep losing weight for now. I'm not sure how close I am to my goal weight - I'd say I want to lose at least 25 more pounds. I started gaining weight when I hit puberty - I've never been at my goal weight as an adult, so I'm in unknown territory now.

I'm planning a big write up for all of you when I have the final ad to share but yes, I've wanted to lose weight/eat healthier/be more active for a long time. I tried a lot of diets and I would lose some weight, but I would give up and gain the weight back. Those were always really restrictive diets (like Atkins, or the Beverly Hills diet, or insanely low fat diets) so they weren't anything anyone could maintain for a lifetime. Eating healthy real food feels maintainable to me, and my perspective has changed. I'm a lot more focused on health and how I feel, not just the number on the scale.

I hear ya Steph. I can't wait to read the piece you are writing for us

The food sounds AWESOME Steph!! I'd sooooooooooo like to eat better, but I really don't know where I'd find the time to make the food (we only cook once-twice a week now). But if you cooked FOR ME....

I really admire you. How much you set your mind to a goal and have done SO DAMN WELL!! Awesome. Just freaking awesome

That sounds delicious Steph. I can't wait for the ad & look forward to your write up!!

What is broccoli slaw?

Karen - Broccoli slaw is like cabbage/cole slaw, except it is shredded broccoli, usually with a little red cabbage and carrots thrown in. I've seen a lot of recipes for make a slaw-type dressing to go on it, but I like using it where I would have used lettuce, in sandwiches/wraps/etc.