You have to eat!

One of my friends asked me about what I often eat on my diet.  One of my favorite parts about Weight Watchers is I can eat pretty much anything I want, I just have to be honest about it.  That being said, I have found that when I use my points for healthy options, I tend to lose more than if I use them to go HOG wild!

So here are some of the choices I make on a daily basis:

I generally start my day with either cereal, whole wheat toast or a light English muffin.  For cereal, I do one serving of whatever I’m having, for example Kix is 1 1/4 cup for a serving (3 points), Corn Chex is 1 cup (3 points, with this I add a teaspoon of sugar which is no points), Cheerios is 1 cup (2 points).  You get the point…  I have my cereal with a half a cup of fat free milk.

On the days I have an English muffin or toast, I usually do that with a tablespoon of light butter and a tablespoon of peanut butter or a tablespoon of strawberry jam (depending on how many points I want to use.  Peanut butter is 3 and jam is 1.  I tend to do pb on days I work out).

Depending on the amount of time I have, I’ll so egg whites with skim American cheese and some Mrs. Dash seasoning (seasoning is key or there’s not much taste at all).  This gives me lots of protein for very few points.  5 egg whites is 2 points (3 is 1) and the skim cheese is 1 for 2 slices, and Mrs. Dash is free!

Generally lunch is a sandwich of some kind.  I’m a big tuna fan and it is really low in points.  It has to be chuck tuna in water though.  Anything else I find a bit icky.  I’ll usually add some celery, onion, garlic power and paprika and 2 tablespoons of Miracle Whip (this is to a whole 4 oz can).  Depending on my points for the day I’ll either have it on whole wheat toast, a light English muffin or on saltines.  I’ll top it with some Skim American cheese and pickles (no points for dill!) and it is so good! 

Other days I’ll do a turkey sub with lots of veggies and mustard (mustard is no points!), or a green salad with cukes, green peppers, tomato, celery and deli meat, topped with some light dressing.  On my not so healthy days I’ll shovel some cup of noodles.  Not good for me at all, but so yummy and so easy!

For eating fast food options, I’ll so a salad or at Wendy’s I love their chilli and it’s only 7 points for a large (without crackers).

Dinner is pretty standard.  Steak (lean cuts), chicken breast (no skin), pork loin or boneless chops, whole wheat pasta (save a point per serving vs regular pasta), and lean ground beef.  For dinner, it’s all about the portion size.  Those kinds of foods are my weakness.  I could eat steak all day long and keep eating because I love it so much!  I have to make sure I put the proper serving on my plate.  If I have more, I will eat more. 

With dinner, we often have some sort of rice or pasta.  I don’t go super healthy with this, because my hubby won’t eat it.  The other thing I try to do is have lots of veggies.  I prefer frozen since they tend to have a fresher taste.  I go with green ones more often than not.  I love green beans, broccoli (so does my son, he pretends to be a dinosaur eating trees), corn on the cob or sweet potato (although not too often since both sweet potato and corn are points) and asparagus.  I try really hard to always eat my veggies first, then my lean protein and the starch last.

For snacks during the day I eat lots of fruit.  Mostly apples, pears and banana since they’re easy to grab and go.  I’ll do grapes, oranges and pineapple too, but it’s not as easy for a quick snack when you have kids. 

I really love Pop Chips (taste kind of like a cross between a real potato chip and a rice cake but believe me they’re yum!).  They come in flavors like Salt and Vinegar and Sour Cream and Onion. 

Fiber One Bars are also a staple of my snack routine.  I get the 90 calorie ones.  The brownies and the chocolate with pretzel are 2 of my favorites and they’re only 2 points! (Other flavors that are not the 90 cal, can be upwards to 5-6 points). 

I also much on chewy granola bars (less points than regular), beef jerky (just check the nutrition facts, some can be really high in points), pretzels, string cheese and veggies and ranch dip (cutting them all up and bagging them beforehand really helps, otherwise it’s too much of a pain.

For drinks, it’s water, water, water!  If I get all my water for the day in, I’ll reward myself with fat free milk.  Some tricks for making water yummier, adding fruit (any kind really), fresh brewed iced tea so I have control over how it’s sweetened and the concessional cup of coffee.  I add skim and sugar to mine.  I’ve find any artificial sweetener just hinders my weight loss.

These are on my good days.  There are days I fall off the wagon and crave Chinese food or pizza.  Like steak, I would eat Chinese all day everyday.  I just know I have to have it in moderation.  I used to be able to eat much of a large pizza by myself, now 2 pieces is plenty if I eat for hunger rather than for taste.  I am religious about measuring out my servings and portions and I think that is huge for me!