3 Weeks Worth of Lunches Under 300 Calories

Say what? Yep, you heard right. One of my zillion missions in life is to get healthy by still allowing myself comfort food. We need food to live, period. I mean we can go without for awhile but that’s stupid. And we can over-indulge which has been a horrible habit of mine for 20+ years. I know that my way will probably take longer than someone who is willing to live off of shakes for a year or willing to give up bacon but that’s not me and it’s never ever going to be realistic. I’m open to trying new things but I’m a super picky eater. If I know I’m not going to like it, I’m not even going to bother. Funny how gigantic I am for being so picky. #thanksbread

I’ve failed more times than I can count on the road to a healthy weight but one of the reasons (I think anyway) is because I restrict myself. I don’t allow chocolate or lunch out with co-workers or a hot cocoa or chips or a baked potato. Whenever I’ve committed to something, I cut out all that is bad and do great for 2 weeks to a month but I ultimately fall down the steps at church and break my glasses then have to start all over again. Twice. Yes, that really happened.

Anyway, what I’m getting at is.. The meals I made below were made because I thought they looked delicious. My only goal was for them to all be under 300 calories AND to have decent serving sizes. Servings that would actually fill me up, not a tasteless TV dinner the size of a hockey puck. In order to make the cut, I took my ingredient list and probably took twice as long in the grocery store than I needed. I took my time and looked at every possibility for each ingredient. I chose the lowest calorie, lowest fat, highest protein, highest fiber items I could find. Some I had to compromise on and some were the most expensive but I was willing to take the gamble.

All three meals below gave me a total of 17 servings. SEVENTEEN! That’s over 3 weeks worth of work lunches. These meals are super easy. I don’t think it’s worth taking the time to post all the details and not every grocery store will necessarily have the brands I bought. If you just take the time to find the best product nutrition wise, you’ll already be ahead of the game. Here are the super short version deets:

Meal 1: Spaghetti & Sauce (I found high protein, high fiber ‘sketti and used traditional Heart Smart Prego).
Meal 2: Chicken Bacon Alfredo Penne (Same high protein, high fiber brand only in penne plus cooked and diced chicken, topped with Savory Bacon Alfredo Prego)
Meal 3: Loaded Baked Potato Soup (I used this recipe but when shopping, searched for the lowest cal, lowest fat products)

There you go! All the above meals were decent portions and hit anywhere from 230-295 calories per serving. Not bad, not bad.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

YUM! January is National Soup Month so we had a soup cook-off slash potluck thing at work. I found this recipe online and thought it looked both easy and good. Mine turned out to be more of a hot-dish and was much thicker than the video shows but it is DELICIOUS!

It’s not super health-oriented or anything but I think that I’m going to make another batch this weekend. I’m going to scope out and find low-fat, low-cal substitutes and portion them out for lunches. Preliminary numbers are looking at about 320 calories for a full cup. (This is based off of the brands I purchased. I was in a hurry so I bought the first thing I saw rather than looking for healthier substitutes for the cheeses, hash-browns, ect)

Stay tuned for an updated post with 3 dishes I’m preparing this weekend. I’m pre-planning meals for lunches thanks to an ingenious idea my aunt had. (Making lunch instead of buying lunch, who would have thought?!) It’ll include the nutrition info, ingredient lists, and savings compared to store bought TV dinners. I should be covered for 2-3 weeks!

What are you favorite homemade meals that you bring for lunch at work? I’d love to see some recipes to try!

New Dietary Guidelines

The U – S – of – A government released an update to the Dietary Guidelines. According to the article I read, they do this every five years or so. News to me. I’m still living in the world where the food pyramid exists. And Pluto. Actually I think they gave Pluto it’s planetary right back. Or maybe it’s a Dwarf Planet? I think.

So, one of the biggest things that these new guidelines outline is to cut the fuck back on sugar. Obviously. We know this already but sugar tastes so good and that’s why we’re the most obese nation in the world. How am I supposed to measure 12 teaspoons a day to stay under the 10% mark? “Hey little sugar, sugar..”

When you break it down, sugar is probably my 2nd worst enemy. My favorite foods are bread, potatoes, pasta, and chocolate which clearly makes carby/starchy food my kryptonite.

Anyway, there was some committee put together in determining the updated guidelines. However, it appears that all the advice given wasn’t shared to the world. One of the most controversial seems to be the cut back on red and processed meats. This wasn’t included in the new guidelines that were just released. Some health nut bloggers are outraged because they think that if the government says red meat is down then the Ag industry will take a nose-dive. Probs true.

But do that many people really follow these dietary guidelines? I suppose schools and daycares do. Kind of. I’m sure weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig somehow loosely keep it in mind. I don’t know.

The guidelines do mention a few typical things that have made sense to the world wide web of health freaks. More nuts, more protein, more fish, more veggies. You know, the norms.

I did find it interesting though, that they are no longer suggesting we limit cholesterol. I feel like one of my biggest risks (for me personally) is cholesterol clogged arteries given my family history and current health so it’s surprising that they claim they don’t have enough evidence behind LDL-cholesterol research. Hmm.

I know that I’m not advocate for health because I have yet to prove that I can “do this” but being thrown into every direction and trying a million things under the sun, I still really believe that a healthy, BALANCED diet is the best method. I think that it’s okay to eat anything and not limit ourselves to what types of food we can eat. The key word to success is balance. Balance candy with veggies. Balance eating out with exercise. Balance drinks at the bar with water. But for some reason our minds are hardwired to fight us when we know what is right. Such is life.

In case you’re super interested in reading a manuscript, the dietary guidelines for 2015-2020 can be found here. What do you think of the changes? Do you even care?

9 Healthy Tips For The Holidays

My work is trying to do a Healthy for the Holidays thing. They’ve been having brown bag lunches and such but guess what else my work is doing? Bake Sales, Pizza Days, Potlucks, Donuts, the list goes on.

Anyway, they shared an article today that I thought I’d share with you. Click here to read it. I like #1. “Keep the focus on fun, not food.” We always associate the holidays with food but the food is the least important part. Enjoying time with family is what we should associate the holidays with.

I also really liked the piece on “Indulge in only the most special holiday treats.” That’s so true but so hard, for me. It makes sense. Allow yourself to have cream cheese pinwheels or Grandma Aggie bars but don’t go overboard on stuff that you can get any day of the week like store bought chocolate chip cookies or ham. I’m going to try and keep this top of mind but if it’s anything like Thanksgiving, it’ll be a tough road.

I also think using our time to stay focused on something instead of getting in a bored slump is a great suggestion – like organizing family photos. Well, that might just be a me thing but if I organize, then the family can check out the pictures and we’ll have a grand time. I suppose I better see if my mom wants to dig out the bins of photos so we can start on that next week!

Let me know what you think of the article and feel free to share some of your tips and tricks for getting through the dreadful holiday 10 (pounds).