Healthful Choices in One Day – Part 1

I figured I would do another one of these types of posts for the new readers that have stumbled onto my blog because of their new year’s resolutions.

Sometimes when you take a peek into someone else’s life, it’s really only a fraction of what that person is allowing you to see. It’s so easy to judge, “Oh my god, she’s eating THAT?” Sure, I wrote a post about beer and pizza but maybe what doesn’t come across is that it was one beer and one slice of pizza with a salad and NOT the entire pizza! I don’t post my food much anymore because I just don’t find that as interesting as I did when I first started writing this blog.

This post is a peek into one day of my eating. I wanted to give another example of a typical day of food. It really doesn’t change all that much, honestly. I’ve found what works for me and tend to continue eating the same things out of habit or ritual. I do eat out at restaurants, but I’m doing my best to limit that to once a week tops. Doing it any more often than that starts to make me edgy! I start to worry about the calories, the number on the scale, and the $$ in my wallet! All of those factors snap me back to reality and I try to limit restaurant food.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast was two fried eggs, one slice of Dave’s Killer Bread with some avocado spread on it. This is a frequent breakfast for me because it’s fast and easy and low in calories. The combination of the avocado and eggs fills me up for hours.

I have a pint glass of unsweetened iced tea with breakfast. When I get to work, I have one cup of coffee with  some creamer in it (currently peppermint mocha flavored creamer).

Total Calories: 418

MORNING SNACK

Right now I’m eating whatever fruit is in season–which happens to be satsuma oranges! I love them! They are delicious, healthy, take the edge off my hunger and are low in calories.

I had two small oranges for around 50 calories total.

LUNCH

Lunch is usually leftovers, or a big salad with some protein in it, or soup (my go-to lunch) but I’m out of leftovers currently so I fell back into the habit of eating frozen meals for lunch. I try not to do this very often because I’m trying to limit my processed food intake. Sometimes, I just want something easy!

I’ve been craving Indian food lately, so I went with the next best thing: Trader Joe’s Indian food. It’s really tasty and pretty low in calories. I did make a small trip to the Candy Room at work to have a few pieces of chocolate (dammit) after lunch.

Total Calories: 300 + 100 calories of candy!

AFTERNOON SNACK

My favorite pre-workout snack is plain Greek yogurt with a little bit of honey in it, or some dried fruit and nuts. This week I have cottage cheese from Trader Joe’s. It’s a good snack before a workout, too, because it fills me up without making me feel stuffed.

At the gym I also had about 25 calories in dried apricots as a snack.

Total Calories: 90 + 25

DINNER

This dinner appears about once a week in my house, usually on nights when I’m cooking. One of my specialties is baked salmon. For this dinner in particular, I baked the salmon at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes. The salmon was topped with leftover stewed tomatoes, freshly chopped parsley, seasoned with salt and pepper and minced garlic. I wrapped it in foil and baked it.

With dinner I had gnocchi from Trader Joe’s and mixed it with pesto. The tomato, garlic and pesto all went together very nicely. The gnocchi and pesto were a bit high in calories, but the salmon was low so it all balanced out. I had a sparkling water with dinner, as well as a small geen salad (not pictured).

Total Calories: 691

DESSERT

Hot cocoa! It’s perfect hot cocoa weather: cold and icy and all I want to do is cuddle with my kitty wearing my  flannel pajamas and drinking a hot cocoa. It’s a nice dessert because it’s less than 100 calories (depending on what brand you get). I added two big marshmallows to it.

I also had a few pieces of chocolate with the cocoa.

Total Calories: 226

EXERCISE

It was a very cold (like 30 degrees) and windy out but it wasn’t raining. I considered going for a run outside simply to avoid the crowds at the gym but it was just too cold out. My eyes were tearing up the second I stepped outside. So, I headed to the gym and did a quick workout.

I was able to find refuge in the empty spin room and most of my workout was solo (nice!). I did about 35 minutes on the bike and then used the weight machines. I hopped around doing mostly arms, shoulders and chest on whatever machine was free.

I finished with my stretches and got the heck out of dodge. I was glad to get out of there in about an hour and still have a decent calorie burn.

Calories Burned: 547

THE BREAKDOWN

It was a pretty decent day of food for me and also pretty average. There’s some variations but the general idea is the same.

Total Calories Eaten: 1900

Total Calories Burned: 547

Total Calories Left for the Day: 247

This particular day is kind of heavy on the processed foods. Usually I don’t have frozen meals for lunch, and the gnocchi was a treat that we rarely eat (maybe a few times a year, tops). So I went with more “convenient” food than I usually do but this is the general idea. My calories stay around the same for each meal and snack. Dinner is usually a lot higher in calories but salmon nights are always low!

QUESTION: Does this help give you ideas on how to make your meals healthy?