Merry Christmas! That is our Christmas tree. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is turning my tree on (it’s on whenever I am home and awake) and firing up my fireplace while I eat breakfast or dinner. It is so peaceful to me.
I cannot believe that it is Christmas Eve already…which means 2015 is just a few days away. Yikes. I have had a fantastic year and look forward to 2015 for sure. I mean, who knows what shenanigans will come Donny & my way over the next 365 days!
For the past few weeks I have been eating quite a bit differently (and no I do not mean extra holiday goodies…). I track my eating most days using My Fitness Pal on my phone. I was going through it the other day looking at how much protein I consume and I was surprised to see the real numbers. I wasn’t consuming as much as I thought!
I read a lot of articles about nutrition and fitness. A lot of them say that women who train should consume 1g to 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight. It is obviously less if you are fairly sedentary. Anyway, I was only consuming 90-100grams…..let’s just say I weigh a bit more than 100lbs. I decided to play around with my meals and change things up a little and just see how it went. I am a firm believer that there is no one-size-fits-all-diet and each individual needs to try different things and figure out what works with their body and their lifestyle.
With that being said, I found this article with a quick and easy way to remember how to eat to get the proper proportions of macronutrients (carbs, protein, and fats). Here is a basic idea: you eat 6 small meals each day and aim to get the following…
6 glasses of water (8 oz per glass)
5 servings of lean protein (3 oz chicken, 4 oz tuna or salmon, eggs/egg whites, etc)
4 servings of vegetables (a servings being 1 cup raw veggies or 2 cups leafy greans)
3 servings of whole grain (1/2 serving of oats, quinoa, brown rice, whole grain bread)
2 servings of healthy fats (2 tbsp PB, 1 oz nuts, 1 oz avocado, etc)
1 serving of fruit
I was very intrigued by this so I tried it a few days and found out that I am better suited to eat 5 small meals a day and then increase my protein in the meals. For years now, I have eaten 3 meals with 2 smaller snacks throughout the day. Now I am eating more at breakfast than before, more in my “snacks”, but less at lunch and less at dinner. I aim to get 250-300 calories each meal. If I do quite a bit of cardio during my morning workout then I also increase breakfast to 300-400 calories.
I’ve done this for a few weeks now and I am loving it. It still takes a little getting used to because I am not as hungry when it comes lunch time and dinner time. In the long run I am hoping it teaches me to eat when I hungry, and not just at those times when I think I should be eating. I use to eat at 6:30am, 10:00am, 12:00pm, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm almost like clockwork. Now, there is nothing wrong with eating at those times, but I was getting to those times in the day and thinking I was hungry when really I was not. Now I am trying to listen to my body and decide if I am hungry or if I can wait a little while.
On that same note, I don’t want to go more than 4 hours without eating….am I confusing you yet? Well if you decide to try this then you will quickly see that it is not be hard to eat within those 4 hours. The meals are smaller so you will want/need to eat within 3-4 hours. Fueling your body with nutrients steadily throughout the day does wonders for your metabolism and for your blood sugar…you don’t see big spikes in your blood sugar right after lunch or dinner (meaning no crash either!) and your metabolism increases. That my friend, is what I call a win-win situation!
Eating this way requires quite a bit more meal planning and prepping. I usually eat leftovers anyway so I just increased the amount I was cooking even more. For example, I grilled 4 turkey burgers the other night, instead of just 2. Here is an example of what my day looks like eating wise.
Meal 1:
½ cup rolled oats
1 scoop of whey protein powder
1 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 2:
Egg white veggie omelet – made with 4 egg whites and 1 cup of mixed veggies (I mix it up between broccoli/cauliflower, peppers, onion, tomatoes, spinach, etc)
2 slices of Alvarado Flax Seed Bread (these pieces are pretty small, only 100 calories for both slices but you might have to adjust depending on what kind you prefer)
Meal 3:
1 cup spaghetti squash
4 oz ground chicken (93% lean, 7% fat)
½ cup tomato sauce
1-1.5 cups of raw veggies (baby carrots, pea pods, bell peppers, celery, etc)
Meal 4:
6oz 0% fat greek yogurt mixed with ½ scoop chocolate whey protein powder
2 tbsp PB2 (peanut powder)
½ large banana (about 70 grams)
1-1.5 cups of raw veggies (baby carrots, pea pods, celery, cucumber, etc)
Meal 5:
4 oz lean turkey burger
3 oz sweet potato
1 oz avocado
I typically choose the protein I will eat at each meal and then build around that. For example, if I want eggs for breakfast then I decide between toast or oatmeal to go with that, add some veggies and voila Meal #1 is done.
I also usually pack my lunch bag the night before hand and enter everything into My Fitness Pal app to see how I am doing on calorie-control. I hope to eat this way for a while and then I won’t have to track it anymore. Hopefully I will be able to know how big and how much to include in each meal. It has gotten easier as time goes… I have my go-to meals and then try to be creative and change things up on a daily basis. I will start sharing some recipes that I’ve made the last few weeks that I have enjoyed and also follow these guidelines.
If you have any questions about this way of eating then let me know! Comment below or shoot me an email. Merry Christmas!!!
What does your day look like eating-wise?
