Healthy Eating

Ha ha this made me laugh!  What has happened to us!?

Ok so I have had tons of people ask me what Ted and I's "diet" is and how we eat healthy.  First off it really isn't a diet so much as our life style...but you will understand that more later.  And in no way am I an expert on this, we have just found something that works for us and has been pretty easy to maintain so I am sharing our theory on healthy eating :)

SIDE NOTE:  I have a lot of woman (friends and people I meet) that are so hard on themselves!  Some times they say things like I wish I could be skinny or this or that....well lately I have been saying - you have had X amount of kids!  Give yourself a break!  I would trade a different stomach line any day for even just one kiddo (for new comers Ted and I have been married 8 years and haven't been able to have kids of our own)!  Remember that no one is truly the same after just one pregnancy let alone after having several cute kids!  So give yourself some credit and please remember that you had a human in your stomach!

Ok now that I have said that :)  The truth is we can all eat better, exercise more, and do more...you just have to find what works for you!

Ted and I's healthy eating theory is simple: eat whole foods during the week Sunday -Friday every meal no exceptions.  Cut out most meat (especially red meat).  Eat only whole wheats.  Low sugar.  Lots of veggies.  That's it! (we count our calories to try to maintain a steady in take I am at about 1500-1600 a day and he is at about 2000)

Most whole food meals are so easy to prepare!  If you don't eat processed foods they need little preparation.  Our grocery bill has even gone down.  See below for some of our favorite whole food meals and snack ideas.

My favorite part!?  SATURDAY!  Saturday's we get to eat whatever we want for lunch and dinner (that means anything, any quantity, and thing we can think of)....so during the week if I crave my favorite candy bar (the new simply carmel milky way of course) or if Ted craves a big hamburger, we put it on our "eat on Saturday" list.

The first few weeks were hard....but after you hold tight to the weekly schedule Saturdays will make you sick!  We go all out dunkin' donuts, candy, ice cream, anything we want from 12pm until we go to bed!  Honestly it makes us sick for a few days afterward  making us not want bad food.  So by Wednesday when I start craving bad foods again Saturday isn't too far off and so it is realistic to wait a few days and  for me to just put my cravings on my Saturday list.

There are few reasons this works...one is what I mentioned above: the longer you eat healthy during the week and only eat badly on Saturday the less your body can tolerate the bad food.  Our Saturdays of later are pretty pathetic, our body can't handle nearly what it use to when we started serval months ago.

The second reason this works is caloric cycling, if you mix up your food you eat once in awhile it keeps your body in check and tricks it a little.  If you get in too much of a rut eating bad food all the time or just good food your body can get too use to it.

We have more energy, weight loss, muscle growth, my skin has never been better, and we are sleeping better.  It truly is amazing what our diet can do for us!

Ok so here are some of our favorite go to meals and snack ideas:

Breakfast 
- Oatmeal (not from a packet), you can still microwave it and I always add raisins and a little brown sugar
- Cream of What (again no packets) but the box still has microwave instructions and Ted loves it when I add chopped dates to his
- Baked Sweet potato with a little brown sugar (The Japanese say that their longevity and health is because they eat sweet potatoes for every meal)
- 2 eggs - I like mine scrambled Ted likes his fried or pouched
- Egg burrito - I just scramble 2 eggs for egg salt and pepper them and put them in a whole wheat tortilla with some fresh salsa for Ted

Lunch
- Wheat noodles
- Wheat pasta salad (I have some easy recipes if you want some let me know!)
- Ted likes brown rice with teriyaki chicken on top
- One of my go to's is a whole wheat peanut butter and jelly (with sugar free jelly)
-Veggie Sandwich
-Egg Sandwich
-Turkey Sandwich
-Veggie Hummus wrap

Dinner
- Our favorite easiest dinner are soba noodles pictured below we just salt and pepper them or use other seasoning or balsamic vinegar or soy sauce.  (these are a buckwheat noodle, really healthy, have protein, and only take 4 minutes to cook!)
- Pasta Salad (I usually make one a week and then we eat it for lunch the next day

- Hummus with a wheat pitta and veggies
- Stir fry veggies with low sodium teriyaki sauce over brown rice
- We do a variety of salads
- We love Mediterranean so a hummus pita wrap, or some of the boiled chicken or anything that is fresh and not fried at a restaurant

Snacks 
- Boiled Eggs
- Kind Bars (my favorite)
- Rock and Refuel protein drink
- Wheat Thins
- Greek Yogurt
- Pretzels dipped in the to go peanut butter cups
- Triscuits
- Fruit (apples, oranges, pears, peaches, nectarines)
- Veggies (carrot sticks and celery are our favorites)

Places we like with healthier menus
- Pei Wei - their Japanese rice bowls have grilled chicken and veggies and we get brown rice
- Any Mediterranean
- Cheesecake Factory - They have a new SkinnyLicious menu
- Luci's Healthy Market - you can have breakfast all day and they have buckwheat waffles and pancakes....they also have amazing wraps and hummus
- Zoe's 
- Robek's 

Every place you go you can find something pretty healthy!  You might just have to order it a little different than they have it listed :)

Hope this helps!  Send me any of your good ideas or recipes we are always dying to try new healthy things!

I already have an ice cream sundae with hot fudge on my Saturday list......