changing eatting habits

DH and I are changing our eatting habits. we both want to loose weight...more loose body fat. the hard part i am having is that two days a week i am at school/work for 14 hours and get home too late to cook and eat, so we eat alot on the go. i am trying to find meals that we can both take with us to work/school, but it cant be refrigerated. we are on a budget also. i can only cook 3 days out of the week becuase that is when i have time.

so far we are eatting bagels, toast, poptarts, or cearel for breakfast. normally with milk, water, or juice. for lunch it is pb&j (but it is getting old fast) and occasionally hot pockets with chips and alittle something sweet. unless we dont have time to make it then it is what ever they have at his work or my school. i normally have a marathon bar or harvest bar in the afternoon to keep me going. and dinner well it is picking something up, or having it delivered. when we pick up we try to get chicken or with mexican food we get fajitas and chinese we get something with veggies.

any help is much appreciated!

Sandy

Can you do some cooking or prep ahead of time for your busy days? Store things in advance in the fridge or freezer, and just nuke em when you're ready to eat?

What about cutting/washing a bowl of fruit the night before, and putting it in the fridge to wait for breakfast? Cooking up a pot of rice pudding with nuts and brown rice works well for us too, you can eat it cold or nuke it in the morning. Keep some yogurt cups in the fridge: instant food that might do more for you than pop-tarts. My son loves the "drinkable yogurt" in bottles for his school lunches, and sometimes I snag one of his bottles to drink as I drive to work.

For dinner you can prep a ziplock bag of veggies. (I love ziplock bags.) Put the veggies in a bowl with a little water and a plate to cover, nuke for 2 minutes or so. Now you have steamed veggies for dinner! Add a couple nuked (frozen) low fat chicken sausages and some nuked (previously cooked) rice or potato.

I find we eat a lot better if I prep stuff ahead of time. On the nights when I work very late the microwave is my friend. I use ziplock bags and Tupperware to organize my meals; servings of dinner or breakfast in the fridge or freezer all ready to go.

that sounds great for mornings! the hard part for me is two nights a week i am at school till 10pm and i have to take lunch and dinner. and i only have access to a microwave at lunch. so what do i do then? the veggies and all would hold till lunch but then i have dinner to figure out...

Those long days are a bugger. It's hard to come home and "cook" after them, getting ready for the next day or two. I understand completely! I don't like 'em -- hard on my TMJ, but DH has taken to buying the bags of baby carrots that are all cut/cleaned, etc. to take for lunch. It's more expensive to buy the stuff that's ready to eat, but when time is precious, and cooking's not a priority, it's sometimes worth the little extra expense.

I'm starting to buy frozen meals for those get home late suppers -- those little boxed guys can be tasty, they're quick, and they're a finite amount of food! I haven't been worrying about "lean cuisine" or "healthy choice" but I am reading labels, looking for content not calorie count (haven't found any individual meals over about 650, which isn't unreasonable for something like a chicken/pasta/broccoli/cheesy sauce dinner) and looking for things I wish I had the time/inclination to make myself.

We're struggling with the change of habit too, and it IS hard when life is on the go!

Just had a thought -- got a cooler? Those blue things stay frozen a long time! Heck, water can stay frozen a long time in a cooler these days: I just had a cooler with ice two days later! They're also making coolers that can be plugged in to keep cool, but then you might just as well get yourself a little end-table type fridge and put it somewhere less-than-conspicuous (so you don't have to share it with the whole staff!)

Karen in Boise

Dinner that won't go bad and can be eaten cold. Hmmmm.

Raw veges and aseptic-pack dip? (or make your own dip out of yogurt and stuff)

Sliced cheese and a couple handfuls of walnuts.

Single-serving canned fish and rice cakes or rye-crisp.

Drinkable yogurt or cup yogurt.

Smoked salmon, bagel, and squeeze-tube of cream cheese (aseptic)

Tupperware of frozen corn and frozen shelled edemame with salt and pepper. By dinner time it'll be thawed and it won't go bad.

Good ol' bananas for dessert?

Sandy, good topic, I've been dealing with this myself these days. On the weekends, I cook larger portions and freeze them in individual size container. A frozen container in an insulated lunch bag should keep for most of the day, or you can heat it for lunch. Or put a small freezable pouch in the bag to keep a sandwich, fruit or yogurt cool for supper. On Wednesdays I do this as I get to eat supper in my car driving from town to town for class.

I also buy the baby carrots, trisquits and cheese are a good snack and I like the south beach bars or special K low fat ones. Apples, raisins and bananas travel well as do nuts - almonds, pecans, filberts (my fav!), etc. A healthier pizza with lots of veggies and or chicken also tastes good cold. And then I only pack 2 slices so I don't eat half of it....:eek:

Hope that helps!

Sandy 45,

I have just recently discovered a wonderful way to make fresh veggies for dinner, without having to clean then, cut them up, boil/steam them, etc. They are already prepared and bagged fresh veggies that you throw in the microwave for 5 minutes and TADA you have fresh steamed veggies. :D

I found them by the salad area at Pick N Save, where the stir fry veggies kits, etc. are. I found broccoli/carrots and broccoli/cauliflower. They are about 4 servings per bag and are about $3.50. The shelf life is about 1.5 weeks.

For dinner at home, I will throw a bag in the microwave (5min), boil some whole wheat noodles (10 min), and heat up a jar of sauce (8 min) (last night it was sun-dried tomato alfredo~highly recommended:D :D ). All of this can be done in only 10 minutes and costs less than $10. It's really healthy, filling, and is easily feeds my family of 3 (my DH and I are both athletes, so we eat quite a bit). Or you can double everything, feed a family of 4 or 5 and have leftovers for lunch. Since there is no meat, you would be able to bring for lunch the next day without refridgeration :)

Roshelle

If you only have access to a microwave for lunch - what I would do is make lunch my large meal ( heat up things that you have cooked ahead of time ) and then for dinner have something like Knotted Yet suggested - that's what I used to do - I took entire meals to work and heated them for lunch - pack them in microwaveable containers and nuke 'em up... and pack lots of healthy snacks

I was going to suggest the same thing as bicyclette. Eat something hearty for lunch and eat a pb sandwich or something similar for dinner that doesn't have to be refrigerated.

I see you have a whole foods in San Antonio, have you been there? Some items there are a little pricey, but maybe 3 times a week you could have a premade salad with some meat (you could buy these ahead on the weekend)? You might check to see if they have any instant cereals for the morning like instant quinoa, kashi, oatmeal, etc. Those would provide more fiber than bagels or poptarts and should keep you feeling better satiated.

Instead of chips and a cookie at lunch, how about some dried fruit, trail mix or nuts?

Hey Sandy, I second the Kashi cereal, YUMMIES! I love the Kashi Go Lean Crunch, may fav...but it makes me a bit gassy. :eek: I found it the cheapest at wal-mart. The things the ladies have listed here are fabulous, the yogurts with the fruit on the bottom are great snacks for in between meals. Whenever you have pasta or bread, try to choose whole wheat rather than white. Also since you have such long days, try to have something healthy to snack on so you don't have long stretches in between meals and end up being famished by the time you do eat.
One thing that I want to remind you of so you don't get discouraged is...Men drop way so easily compared to women so don't gauge how you are doing compared to him. My husband will just have to think about losing weight and it happens for him. When I wanted to drop a few pounds a few years back...it was more of a struggle for me.

Hi Sandy-
It is sooo hard to eat well when you're busy, but if you are willing to spend a bit of time prepping (say an hour at most) on Sunday - you can really help yourself out during the week.
BF and I are fairly healthy eaters, and neither of us have lots of time. We go grocery shopping on Sunday morning (before the produce has been picked over) and stock up on the best looking veggies and fruits - to make salads with.
We get the big sized box of Spring Mix (or baby spinach when it won't threaten our intestinal system). If you want to be extra careful, you can rinse it, but we get the Organic kind that says it's triple washed already.
The fruit we pick out (lately it's been strawberries, rasberries, blackberries and/or blueberries) gets put into individual paper-towel lined bowls right away b/c the produce guy told us that is how they keep longest.
The veggies all get cleaned and cut up into bite-size pieces (when necessary) and put into small tupperware containers. These usually include cucumbers, peppers, celery, grape tomatoes (already small enough), sugar snap peas, shredded carrot....you can pretty much put anything in a salad I think.
In the mornings, before work, first person up gets the containers out of the fridge and sets them on the counter. It's basically like having an at home salad bar. We also buy the golden raisins, and lightly salted cashew halves to sprinkle on top. I don't really use salad dressing, but BF brings a bottle to work and leaves it there.
I eat a lot of trail mix. Keeps me satisfied, it's very portable, and I feel better eating natural foods. I also don't have that sugar crash that can come from other snack-type foods. Lara bars are good to keep around b/c they are pure food as well. No added sugar or flour or any of that other crap.
Also, check out Costco for the bag of Frozen Salmon Burgers. They are mostly Salmon, not breadcrumbs and stuff, and you can cook them in the oven from frozen. 9 min per side. You can make sandwiches, or cut them up to put in salad or pasta. Cooking isn't so bad when you just have to put something in the oven. Make a whole box of whole wheat pasta (wheat fills you up more - and keeps you full longer) and put it in a tupperware. Throw a box or bag of veggies in the microwave to steam them. Keep some good jar'd pasta sauce around. You can mix the sauce, the veggies, and the cut up salmon burger - and put them over the pasta. maybe add some lowfat shredded cheese on top.
A good standby is the frozen, ultra-thin crust pizza. We like Palermo'shttp://www.palermospizza.com/Default.aspx?bFlashFound=1
The Margherita (tomatoes garlic basil) is our favorite. The thin crust makes it lower in calories.
I could go on forever, but this is long already.
Lastly - if you are getting chinese food - order your meal with the sauce on the side. I've never had a problem when I've ordered it like this, and you end up getting a steamed dish of protein and veggies. Order brown rice whenever possible. It will also fill you up faster, leaving some for leftovers.

I love finding new ways to eat healthy and conveniently.
I hope some of this info helps - Good Luck!!
cheri

yeah we are working on everything together, but we both have different goals. we are doing the diet together more as support for each other. he is training more than i can also. but we are making time where we can train together. we are thinking about getting another trainer so we can both be on them at the sametime. it will make it easier to stay on longer. Thanks for all the great advice! I am going to try checking out Whole Foods this weekend. I know we have one store that has bulk of dried fruit and nuts, so i will go there also. I am running by the store tonight to pick up a few things...i will keep everything in mind when i am walking the aisles....but still more ideas and tips are more than helpful!

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Originally Posted by sandy45

Thanks for all the great advice! I am going to try checking out Whole Foods this weekend. I know we have one store that has bulk of dried fruit and nuts, so i will go there also. I am running by the store tonight to pick up a few things...i will keep everything in mind when i am walking the aisles....but still more ideas and tips are more than helpful!

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Whole Foods is great. You might get a little sticker shock at first, but I have found that the stuff from there seems to stay fresh longer, so in the long run it probably evens out.
Good Luck!

When I had/have long days at school/work I bring the following (on normal length days I bring this kind of stuff too for lunch):

Yougurt, you can even bring a small ziploc bag of muesli to throw in. Makes a very filling meal. You can also throw in fresh fruit and chopped nuts. And yougurt can stay out of the fridge for a whole day without going bad. Eat it for lunch if you're worried.

Sandwiches. Only takes me a couple of minutes in the morning to make up. Slices of whole grain bread with some slices of cheese or ham or salami and slices of peppers, cucumber, tomato, lettuce etc. Also will keep all day, although by late afternoon the cheese may be a bit sweaty.

Hard boiled eggs. They keep all day without problem and are very filling and nutritious. Feels like a proper meal full of protein even when you're just grabbing it on the go. Boil up a batch of eggs on the week end. They'll keep all week.

Lots of fresh fruit. Bananas fill me up the most, but apples, pears, oranges etc works too. Fresh veggies are good snacks too, although with my Chron's I found that fresh/raw carrots were a bit too tough to digest. Fruit of course keeps for several days...

Salad. Mix together a big salad one night when you have time. Throw a portion in a tupperware box and take to work. Bring your dressing in a separate little container so the salad doesn't go soggy. Keeps all day too. And so you don't get sick of eating the same salad day after day, mix the stable stuff ahead of time and then each day throw in one thing different on that days portion. Such as a hardboiled egg, or a handful of nuts, or some chopped cheese or whatever else you fancy.

Trail mix. I make up a big ziplock bag of it on Saturday when I come home from the grocery store with lots of yummy stuff. Mix in whatever you like such as dried fruit, chopped nuts, chocolate (dark works best in my oppinion), pretzels.

Granola bars. My favorite here in the UK are GeoBars. Fair trade granola bars either with chocolate and raisin or with apricot. Very yummy and nutritious.

I also used to cook big meals when I had time and keep leftovers to be nuked later when I didn't have time. Freeze in portion sized tupperware and nuke straight from the freezer when you get home late. Meal in minutes. Soup is excellent for freezing and very easy to make. So is risotto or stew. Such tupperware boxes of meals can also be brought to work and nuked of course.

It seems you're not eating any veggies -- just lots of brown/beige foods. Your diet seems heavy on carbs and processed foods. Adding in some raw fruit and vegetables would do wonders for your weight-loss (and your overall health and energy level). And lots of water.

It also seems you might not be eating enough calories (hard to tell without knowing your exact portions).

Did I mention you need more veggies?

Ditto velogirl. Toss the poptarts.

Watch chinese food that is breaded & fried. Very high calorie.

I'm a food dork - I have never liked the pre-packaged greens. As a child of the '60's, I was taught to be distrustful of the establishment. So, I wonder - how do they keep that stuff fresh & make a profit?

You can get bags for produce that will keep it fresher longer. I also clean all of my veggies (organic whenever possible) but I don't chop them unless I know I'll be in a huge rush - or it is a salad that needs to marinate. I've heard chopping veggies & fruit causes them to release nutrients.

I don't cook anything in their plastic bags because heated up plastic releases chemicals implicated in cancer. I take the food out of the plastic bag, put it in a bowl & cover the bowel with a plate (not a plastic wrap.)

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OK, now that I've ratted myself out as being a food maniac...

You need clean protein, good fat & complex carbs. A few excellent books:

South Beath Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook - meals to be made in 30 minutes

Anything by Moosewood.

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I absolutely love a book called Stop Your Cravings by Jennifer Workman. It is influenced by Ayurveda. The cover says "A balanced approach to burning fat, increasing energy and reducing stress." She talks about making lunch your biggest meal and making sure that you have all of the five tastes in your meals. She also goes into the different doshas and how to eat correctly (and even exercise) according to your dosha.

I usually avoid those kind of books like the plague, but this one is excellent. She is a registered dietician & isn't out to sell you her supplements, etc. She talks about doing a cleanse twice a year and how to fashion the cleanse based on your dosha.

Everyone's giving great advice... eat sensible healthy choices...

But one thing that has greatly helped me in losing a little weight is only eating when I am hungry. This might sound really obvious, but its actually quite difficult.

We are trained/socialised from the moment we begin eating to eat because it is time to eat, or because we must finish what is on our plate, or because someone else is eating.
As children we are taught to stop listening to our stomachs.

I found when I reminded myself to eat only when hungry, I actually found I wasn't hungry as often as I was eating... therefore I was taking in less food... logical sequence, I began to lose weight.

Combine only eating when hugry with sensible food choices (but don't deprive yourself of occasional treats) and cycling and you will sheed the pounds/kgs...

Microwavable soup containers - single servings with a slice of a hearty whole wheat bread would be good. Those pouches of flavored tuna is really good - doesn't need mayo, so you save calories right there (I like the hickory smoked rolled up in a wholewheat/high fiber tortilla) and you can bring a few weeks worth to work and store it there.

There are some great ideas here. This is what I try to do.

In the mornings I usually eat some grapes, piece of cheese, an apple, and drink some milk. Other times I have subsitute something for wheat bread. The mornings I'm post call I eat the scrambled eggs and bacon at the hospital.

Morning snack - I have some prepared bars that I eat - sometimes a Nature Valley bar, other times a South Beach one or Oatmeal Raisin breakfast cookie. Will also sometimes have another piece of cheese. Wheat or Grahm crackers with peanut butter also works. (no way I can go from 5am - noon without eating)

Lunch - depends on whatever is in the hospital cafeteria. If I can't find anything decent, then I have a bowl of cereal and some bread.

Afternoon snack - same as morning

Evening - usually something I prepared on an off day. One favorite is roasted potatoes with olive oil and spices added. Also do brown rice, wheat subs with meat and lettuce and tomatos, and some bought prepared meals - anything to keep me away from my standby, frozen pizza. I always make sure I have milk with this meal also, and if I've worked out, other things are added.

I try to remember to do my multi-vitamins and calcium with dinner also.

Hope this gives you guys some ideas. If you see anything missing from my diet, please share your recommendations.

Just remembered - I would invest in a good cooler. Stuff will stay good in that for a long time. I would try fruits and subs for dinner. Also you can get the rice packets where you can heat that up in the microwave.

lots of good comments here... I second eating when you feel hungry, not when you're supposed to, and also eating MORE often. In "Body For Life" (my husband did this and dropped 30 or so pounds, pre-biking) they say to eat 6 meals a day. The difference is they are little meals, You eat a lot, seems like all the time, but you are rarely hungry.

I find another key to eating right is having the right foods around. The more processed and prepped, the worse they are for you, almost always. We make sure to get lots of basic building blocks (fruit, yogurt, cheese, cereals, etc). If we have the good stuff around, we'll eat it, you know?

And we spend some time during the week to make foods that we can freeze, for fast lunches and dinners. Chilis, homemade mac and cheese, veggie soups etc.

We have a ton of single serving size containers (the reusable/recycleable kinds that are very inexpensive, so if they do break we don't mind). We never have enough of them. It's great because I can open the freezer in the AM and grab a meal for lunch. We especially like to make food from in season local produce, then in the wrong seasons we get a special treat of the local goods!

I've also taken a stash of food to work, so I don't need to resort to vending machine snacks or other goodies that frequently appear (candy, pies, ice cream, chips etc ...) in the work setting.

For deserts we get fruit popsicles or freeze jello & fruit cups. Better for you than ice cream.

It's actually not that hard to do, once you have a bit of a plan. But making the changes can be daunting at first. I am much happier with the way we eat now.

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Originally Posted by btchance

There are some great ideas here. This is what I try to do.

In the mornings I usually eat some grapes, piece of cheese, an apple, and drink some milk. Other times I have subsitute something for wheat bread. The mornings I'm post call I eat the scrambled eggs and bacon at the hospital.

Morning snack - I have some prepared bars that I eat - sometimes a Nature Valley bar, other times a South Beach one or Oatmeal Raisin breakfast cookie. Will also sometimes have another piece of cheese. Wheat or Grahm crackers with peanut butter also works. (no way I can go from 5am - noon without eating)

Lunch - depends on whatever is in the hospital cafeteria. If I can't find anything decent, then I have a bowl of cereal and some bread.

Afternoon snack - same as morning

Evening - usually something I prepared on an off day. One favorite is roasted potatoes with olive oil and spices added. Also do brown rice, wheat subs with meat and lettuce and tomatos, and some bought prepared meals - anything to keep me away from my standby, frozen pizza. I always make sure I have milk with this meal also, and if I've worked out, other things are added.

I try to remember to do my multi-vitamins and calcium with dinner also.

Hope this gives you guys some ideas. If you see anything missing from my diet, please share your recommendations.

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btchance - it occured to me that most of the foods you described are close to the same color. white, beige-ish, brown. (cheese, milk, brown rice, bread, prepared bars, wheat bread/subs, roasted potatoes....)
I think you should introduce some greens into your diet (other than lettuce that goes on a sub).
You must have a CRAZY FAST metabolism, because if I ate like that....well, first of all I would be really tired all the time.

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Originally Posted by sandy45

DH and I are changing our eatting habits. we both want to loose weight...more loose b....... we get something with veggies.

any help is much appreciated!

Sandy

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Well i think the golden rule is not to skip meals? cuz otherwise you may over eat come dinner time.

Of course i could direct you to some unhealthy eating habits that'll have you threading the line of "E" disorders, but, i'll get grilled by all the mother hens out and about here ;)

I'm a grad student so I sympathize with having a crazy schedule and needing to eat on the run. One thing that helps me is to make a big batch of some sort of one-bowl meal on Sunday, then eat lunch from that all week. As long as I'm going to be in an air-conditioned building, I don't worry too much about refrigeration, at least for things like yogurt or pasta salad, or even little cups of cottage cheese (very filling!).

Pasta salad is the best to make for weekday lunches - any concoction as long as it has some veggies and a bit of protein. (Obviously this doesn't work for low-carb dieters, but they don't seem too prevalent on these boards). Recent favorites include pasta salad with tomatoes, chickpeas and feta in a lemon vinaigrette, and pasta with pesto, peas and chicken. Epicurious.com, the Foster's Market cookbook and the Barefoot Contessa cookbook are my main sources of inspiration for these kind of one-dish salad meals.

Of course, if I make too much, by the end of the week I may be sick of it, which is why I have a bowl of week-old pasta salad in my fridge that will probably have to be tossed tonight.

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Originally Posted by Melstar

Well i think the golden rule is not to skip meals? cuz otherwise you may over eat come dinner time.

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If you eat only when hungry, and only eat til you are full, this does not become an issue :)

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Originally Posted by Melstar

Of course i could direct you to some unhealthy eating habits that'll have you threading the line of "E" disorders, but, i'll get grilled by all the mother hens out and about here ;)

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Melstar... whats an "E" disorder?? :confused:

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Originally Posted by RoadRaven

If you eat only when hungry, and only eat til you are full, this does not become an issue :) ]

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Well then again, some of us are hungry 24/7... i know i am...:p

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Originally Posted by RoadRaven

Melstar... whats an "E" disorder?? :confused:

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Eating disorders.

It seems like a struggle for us to get enough veggies also. I have been bringing Just Veggies (from Whole Foods) and low sodium V8 to add to my morning & afternoon snacks.
Another book to check into is Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness. He has some wonderful receipes. My standby for dinner-when-there-is-no-time nights uses canned tomatoes and white beans and frozen spinach over whole wheat pasta. I usually toss in a little feta.

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Originally Posted by Melstar

Eating disorders.

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Ah... eating disorders in general... sry, I thought "e disorder" was some special/specific thing I hadn't heard of before!

We usually have this problem in summer, when the sun just doesn't go down and there's no way we want to go home to cook food.

These are a few of our solutions, you'll need a supply of leak-proof plastic containers:
Yoghurt with musli, chopped nuts and sliced banana.
Mediterranean style lunch: cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, sliced ham, rolls, small bottle of olive oil etc.
Packed salad, make sure it has enough protein eg. hard-boiled eggs, chick peas, beans.
And actually - dinner leftovers aren't necessarily gross when eaten cold. When I cook I often make fast wok-type dinners: strips of chicken or beef, lots of vegetables (carrots, onions, red peppers, green apple, broccoli), spices, fried in oil and served with boiled rice. I find myself eating cold leftovers of this quite happily when I come home late a few days later :)

There have been wonderful suggestions. Everyone is different good thing there are so many food options. :)

I eat six small meals a day. My favourite book is Body For Life For Women. I need to keep my blood sugar happy and once I decided to actually listen to my doctor and do this, plus add in exercise, I dropped 60+ overall inches (fat, fat, fat), gained muscle (yay) and shed almost 70 pounds. (YAY ME!) It took me a year and a half, no quick fixes. Now I am healthier than I have ever been and loving every minute of it!

Now I just work on maintaining my weight and increasing my lean muscle mass.

I went from a size 20 :eek: to a size 6! :D I am extra proud, since I did it by myself. :)

FWIW-I did not overeat when I was big. Quite the opposite. I was never hungry. I would not eat until about 1pm or so after being up almost 8 hours! My metabolism had completely shut down, and it was a bugger to get it jump started again.

Now I am happily running, hopefully cycling outdoors as soon as I get the all clear from my neurologist and looking forward to my TNT training AND my goal to partcipate in a Tri before I am 40!

I have found that one of the best things I can do regarding healthy eating is to manage my breakfasts, because it is easy for me to eat a very healthy meal at that time of day. I eat the same thing most days: two slices of toasted Alvarado Street bread (weird nutty texture, but very high fiber and protein, and it's actually low carb although I don't really watch carbs) with about a tablespoon of no-added-sugar peanut butter and a little bit of low sugar jam. (Not the kind with aspartame, just the kind that isn't as sweet.) That has something like 14 grams of protein and some fat, but it's more filling than cereal and won't make me sugar crash like a pop tart! If I exercise in the morning or if I am hungry again, I have some combination of a banana, a small glass of skim milk, or a container of yogurt around 10 or so.

My rule with lunch is that I just try not to overeat, but I tend to be starving mid-day no matter what I did at breakfast, and I am often eating out, so I don't worry very much about lunch. I generally eat healthy leftovers or choose the healthiest menu option that doesn't sound revolting, but if someone invites me out for Mexican food I am not going to pick at a plate of plain beans and rice. But I do try to get three servings of vegetables in at lunch time.

For dinner we almost always cook something healthy, even when we have been out for a ride and don't get home until it's dark and we are already starving. The secret: garden or Boca burgers. We aren't vegetarians but we keep those in the freezer, along with whole grain buns. They aren't high calorie but they have a lot of protein, and they cook in about five minutes. Back in the days when it was safe to eat salad we usually had a Boca burger with a big salad after our Wednesday night date night (which usually means biking or canoeing).

Another thing that makes quick healthy meals easier is that Barilla Plus pasta, the stuff in the yellow box. It's not weird tasting like whole wheat pasta, but again, it's high fiber and high protein. (It's made with lentils or something weird like that, but it just tastes like pasta.) We eat that with sauteed vegetables, or a sauce made of roasted winter squash, or occasionally with low fat chicken sausage.

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Originally Posted by xeney

....The secret: garden or Boca burgers. .....


Another thing that makes quick healthy meals easier is that Barilla Plus pasta, the stuff in the yellow box. ... or occasionally with low fat chicken sausage.

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Have you tried Boca's Italian sausage? It's really, really good - I had some pasta sauce and hearty wheat bread left over after my BF's visit, so I've been making sausage sandwiches with this - wonderful, and I don't feel guilty eating it.

My confession: I kind of hate soy "meats." I can eat a Boca burger if I put a lot of other stuff on it (salsa, good tomatoes, maybe some cheese) but I'd rather have a Gardenburger. My husband likes Boca burgers so we usually do one of each. He loves the Boca sausages but I always wind up giving my share to the dogs. (Our dogs like Boca stuff more than they like actual meat.)

I am a big Quorn fan, though. We use the ground Quorn (unfortunately hard to find) for things like tacos, and I can add some seasoning and fool myself into thinking it's Italian sausage, too. Mostly we use the version that looks like chicken breasts ... low calorie, high protein, and much faster/easier than actual chicken (which grosses me out a little so I stopped cooking it at home).

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Originally Posted by sandy45

DH and I are changing our eatting habits. we both want to loose weight...more loose body fat. the hard part i am having is that two days a week i am at school/work for 14 hours and get home too late to cook and eat, so we eat alot on the go. i am trying to find meals that we can both take with us to work/school, but it cant be refrigerated. we are on a budget also. i can only cook 3 days out of the week becuase that is when i have time.

so far we are eatting bagels, toast, poptarts, or cearel for breakfast. normally with milk, water, or juice. for lunch it is pb&j (but it is getting old fast) and occasionally hot pockets with chips and alittle something sweet. unless we dont have time to make it then it is what ever they have at his work or my school. i normally have a marathon bar or harvest bar in the afternoon to keep me going. and dinner well it is picking something up, or having it delivered. when we pick up we try to get chicken or with mexican food we get fajitas and chinese we get something with veggies.

any help is much appreciated!

Sandy

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I did not read all the responses, so forgive me if I repeat something.

As far as breakfast goes... might I suggest that you stop eating PopTarts? Sure, they are yummy, but nutritionally, completely worthless and too high in calories for what you are getting. Also, if the cereal isn't very filling and leaves you quickly, oatmeal is a great low calorie/high protein option.

Hot Pockets... are you eating the low calorie kind? Chips, are you eating the baked chips (please say you do).

Can you find a microwave at your school/office? If so, you don't need to keep a frozen meal frozen until you cook it. If you put it in an insultated lunch bag until lunch, it will be fine. And it's typically still half way frozen.

As far as the bars you are eating... A marathon or harvest bar... are typically higher in calories than other bars you can get... depending on which one you are getting. You might want to look into Luna bars, Clif bars (Mojo bars are YUMMY!), or Kashi bars. All of those will be lower in calories, and have good nutritional value. If you go to: www.calorieking.com, you can compare/contrast the various bars.

Now, instead of eating OUT for dinner... why not eat a low-calorie frozen meal. Not very exciting ... I know.

BUT... if you look up what you are eating out vs. what you can eat frozen, you will find that there are more calories than you would expect from the take out food. You can look up MANY take out places on Calorie King.

If you are trying to stick to around 1800-2000 calories a day... that can by VERY QUICKLY if you eat out. This is also due to the PORTION SIZES with the take out food. Typically, a portion is the size of your hand. Is that all you eat of those fajitas or rice/chicken... then good. But if you eat more than that... then you are probably consuming too many calories.

If you aren't losing weight or seeing results... it honestly may not be what you are eating on those 2 days... but what you are eating across the board.

For example, on your PB&J sandwhichs... do you use low calorie bread? Did you know that Sarah Lee has this Delightful bread... 90 calories for 2 slices, and it's yummy. This is compared to normal white bread is around 70 calories a SLICE.

Might I also suggest you looking into getting a small, soft-sides ice chest to carry on those really long days. That way, you could keep some items cold. String cheese is low in calories, and high in protein. A great afternoon snack.

Uuuuummmm... not sure how much help I was... and sorry if I sounded "preachy"... I am currently trying to lose 10 lbs and I scrutinize EVERY bit of food I put in my mouth. For me, it's all about eating as few calories as possible, but getting good nutrition from those calories, and it filling me up.

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Originally Posted by xeney

My confession: I kind of hate soy "meats." I can eat a Boca burger if I put a lot of other stuff on it (salsa, good tomatoes, maybe some cheese) but I'd rather have a Gardenburger.

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I'm a vegetarian... and Boca burgers so so nasty!

Morning Star Farms makes a yummy black bean burger (140 calories?). They also make this delicious breaded "chicken" patty... 170 calories and GOOD!

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Originally Posted by Pedal Wench

Microwavable soup containers - single servings with a slice of a hearty whole wheat bread would be good.

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OH YEA! Those soups are a great idea. I get the vegetable... and for 200 calories I get a meal!

I would toss adding the bread though... unless it was 2 slices for 90 calories!

I lost six pounds recently by simply misplacing my wallet for about five weeks. I *really* didn't want to ask friends to cash checks, so I simply stopped feeding the cafeteria and the vending machines. (I found it last Friday. ) No poptarts!!
Those little packets of instant oatmeal are my favorite, even though they've got a fair amount of extra sugar in 'em when I have the apples & cinnamon. (I'll mix an apple & plain one sometimes.) We have a microwave but we also have an instant hot water spout coming out of the coffee machine, and that makes the oatmeal really quickly.
I'll also go for straight carbs - leftover rice from the CHinese - 'cause that fills me up, but then I have to be sure to toss in veggies somehow.
Of course, fruits and especially juices have tons of calories (especially those funky, expensive blends the cafeteria sells - geez, now V-8 is fattening!). I take extreme pleasure in throwing a 2-cent teabag (or even two if I really want a jolt :D ) in that cup and walking by the $1.25 "iced tea" to fill it with the hot water. Four cents, no calories.
Good old fashioned sandwiches work, too. For me, it helps to munch 'em a little slowly, too, or to put that oatmeal off for another hour.
And then of course there's portion control.

It is really hard to tell you that I eat something everyday - cause I don't I think it is really important to mix it up some - first for nutrition sake and second for taste's sake

I had a piece of toast, coffee with 1/2&1/2 and juice for breakfast.

Had a banana for a snack.

Had leftover mashed potatoes and mushrooms/onions/tomato curry for lunch.

Had coconut thai shrimp with butternut squash, red peppers and brown rice for dinner. Full fat coconut milk (Yum) and a beer!

Drank water throughout the day and one glass of lemonade

Today I had so far one egg and one piece of bacon on toast with coffee (no oj, we were out?)

This is pretty regular diet for me. I don't totally scrimp on fats, I eat lots of veges, I drink beer (tho I have to watch my intake); I up my intake when I'm riding or working out a lot. Usually, just by adding healthy snacks like more fruits, more lemonade, fig newtons, yogurt, ice cream sometimes as a treat!

B'fast: brown rice, spam, walnuts

Lunch: brown rice, beans, cheese, salsa, Larabar

Dinner: m+m's

Today was not a stellar nutritional day for me! :D

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

B'fast: brown rice, spam, walnuts

Lunch: brown rice, beans, cheese, salsa, Larabar

Dinner: m+m's

Today was not a stellar nutritional day for me! :D

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Please - NO SPAM SONG!

Regarding your nutrition - at least you got all of your "colors" in at dinner time!