Eating is only as hard as you make it

With the new year having come and gone many of us are trying to start 2013 off on the right foot. Whether it be by spending less, saving more or getting in shape.

In turn a few friends of mine have been asking for advice on what I eat, when, how do I cook it all? Let me begin by telling you that I have now been eating this way for an entire year and I am to the point where I truly enjoy each and every meal I eat each day. Over time I have developed healthier ways to enjoy some of my favorite things and do not feel like I am missing out on very much food wise. I got to this point by thinking outside of the box.

When I first began trying to eat healthy and eat a certain number of fats, proteins and carbs each day, it was not fun.  In the beginning I was not planning my meals in advance, cooking ahead of time and in bulk or pre packing my meals.  This led to many frustrated nights, trying to figure out how to eat 20 carbs and 2 grams of fat and so forth.  Then one day the light bulb went off and it all came together for me.  (insert sigh of relief) From that moment on I would put my meals into myfitnesspal.com a week at a time, go grocery shopping and cook all of the food, put it into containers and be set for my entire week.  No guessing, no hunger, no running out of bread on Wednesday and deciding to eat a whole bag of chips instead and this is what I have done ever since.  I cannot imagine life any other way.

At the beginning of each week (which for me is Wednesday because of my work schedule)  I cook and package all of my food.  I cook one pound of ground turkey and make turkey taco meat, one crock pot of chicken breasts, a few cans of green beans, and a few packages of rice.  I weigh it out, put it into its appropriate place, stack it in the fridge and freeze the extras.  The food that is frozen is frozen in individual servings so in a bind I can just pull one out and go.  Over time my menu has changed and evolved, I get tired of things or one day cannot bear the thought of eating chicken so I adapt.  Do some research and think about what foods you like and if they are not healthy find a way to make them healthy.

Some of my favorite "fun" things to eat are pizzas with turkey pepperoni on pita bread, Quesadillas(the possibilities are endless) with fat free cheese and turkey, egg white and turkey sausage pizzas, wraps.  Mixing plain zero fat greek yogurt with chocolate cheerios is my current favorite snack.  Replace peanut butter with PB2 for a lower fat alternative that can be mixed into protein shakes, yogurt and cream cheese.  Mixing protein powder up with very little water to make a pudding is much better than you may think as well.  Don't feel like to eat healthy you have to be stuck eating chicken breasts and veggies forever.  There are a million websites, blogs and cookbooks that have awesome ways to adapt and change your favorite recipes for the better.

If you want to see what I eat join myfitnesspal and add me, lesterlie09