Now that I've found a happy place with my eating and exercise I thought I'd share some of the "tools" I use on a daily basis. A week ago I decided I wanted to get more serious about losing that last 5 lbs. The first thing I did was download a free app called My Fitness pal. This allows you to input your current weight and your goal weight. It will come up with a daily amount of calories you can consume to achieve your goal. My current daily goal of calories is 1,380 and anytime I add exercise I get more calories to eat. (I put in that I wanted to lose 1 pound a week). So its been quite the motivator for exercise. Last week I burned 800 calories on the elliptical so I had that much more I could eat. Its been interesting to see what I actually eat during the day and how many calories that equals. What I like about this app is I can scan my food and it will record all of the nutritional information. It is very easy to look up meals at restaurants as well. A typical breakfast for me is a cup of coffee with creamer, whole grain english muffin sandwich, with egg white, spinach, and swiss cheese. The total for my breakfast this morning was 207 calories. For lunch today I had a spinach salad with egg, mushrooms, tomato, carrot, zucchini, cottage cheese, and yogurt dressing, total calories was 235 calories. I usually average closer to 300 calories for breakfast and lunch. But this allows me to have a treat later, possibly some frozen yogurt or a Starbucks drink. I'm not starving, I enjoy each meal and I don't feel bad afterwards. Last week we did go out to one of my favorite places for lunch. I had fried fish tacos and I didn't feel so great afterwards. Its not that I don't enjoy eating the food but my body has really adapted to my healthy eating and it knows when I don't eat as well.
As far as meal ideas I usually rely on Pinterest. I found a great zucchini skillet recipe that you can change or add ingredients and it is super easy to make. http://www.readyseteat.com/recipes-Zucchini-Black-Bean-and-Rice-Skillet-5623.html
I use shrimp for shrimp tacos, shrimp pasta, shrimp salad. I also like to make different types of fish with brown rice or quinoa.
Exercise should really be something you enjoy doing. I promise if it is a chore eventually you will quit. I have to say spin/yoga has become one of my favorite classes. Its intense but I enjoy the teacher and love the results. A friend of mine loves Zumba and she said for her the pounds fell off and she couldn't wait to go to a class. Of course its always good to make exercise a routine but it is so much easier when is something you enjoy. We keep our family active by walking our dog daily, hiking, and playing together outside.
Did I mention I feel great??
So in the past, I could easily skip breakfast! I know...most important meal of the day! But if you skip, saves calories for later! Wrong!! Still can struggle, but picked up Slimfast ready to drink shakes, so I always have a fall back! But your breakfast sandwich sounded so good I had to try! Now the kids even want them! Well to save the hassle I cooked up bacon and egg whites so in the morning we can just heat the stuff up and go! Figure doing this every few days will keep me on track to eat and get them something better tan cereal! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds yummy. I'm not sure if you've tried this before but I have a microwave egg cooker. You can put one egg in it, scramble, and microwave for 30 seconds. I buy the egg whites in a carton, cut up spinach, measure my 3 tablespoons for one egg, then heat up. I bought the cooker at Walmart, our family uses it on a daily basis. If you don't have one I've also used ramekins, the trick is to spray it with non stick spray or olive oil to keep the egg from sticking. You can really customize the sandwich to your preference, I've also put tomato and avocado. The bacon sounds great, but I stopped eating meat last year. I'm so happy you are eating breakfast!! Here is a link so you can see what the microwave egg cooker is http://www.bigkitchen.com/product/nordic-ware-microwave-egg-muffin-cooker-484976/
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