No Food in the House

Basically this is my week and a half mark and I am doing very well. Except for the fact that I am running out of foods to pack for my mega lunch. Every morning I generally pack up about 5 or 6 items to eat throughout the day. Depending on how long my day is going to run, this may also include my dinner. For example, today is a day where I will pack my dinner because I have teaching until 5:15 and then I go to the gym and I won't be home til about 6:30 or 7pm, which is late and if I wait to eat, I may be tempted to stop at a fast food restaurant on the way home. My house is starting to get harder and harder to pull healthy foods from. So for breakfast, I am eating things like 1 chicken wing? It's quite humorous actually.

Yesterday's Subsistence

Breakfast - 2 boiled eggs
Snack 1 - yogurt
Lunch - a half sandwich with cajun turkey, pepper jack cheese and American cheese with mustard with apple juice
Snack 2 - yogurt / Craisins
Dinner - Juice Plus
Snack 3 (OPTIONAL IF AFTER 7PM) - nothing

The plan is to do some serious grocery shopping over the weekend in my efforts to make this lifestyle change more effective and to consume a healthier amount of calories per day without eating dangerous foods like fried chicken wings for breakfast. Here is what Dr. Ian from the 50 Million Pound challenge says that I will need for a 7 day meal plan:

Cold cereal (Avoid cereals with lots of sugar. Try corn flakes, Cheerios, bran flakes, puffed wheat, puffed rice, shredded wheat, etc.)

Oatmeal

Eggs

Turkey bacon or ham

Low-fat milk

Low-fat yogurt (6 oz servings)

Fruit smoothies or whey protein shakes (such as Juice Plus)

Fresh fruit (Bananas, cantaloupe, etc. Berries to mix into yogurt and add to cereal. One serving of fruit should be the size of your fist.)

Vegetables (Celery, carrots, beans, lentils, chickpeas, corn, broccoli, etc. Consider vegetables for sides, snacks and ingredients. Avoid baked beans.)

Salad Ingredients (Lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.)

Low-fat salad dressing

Brown rice

Wheat, whole grain or multi-grain bread

Turkey, chicken and ham sandwich meat

Mayonnaise

Soy patties or veggie burger

Potato chips or pretzels

Lean steak, fish, chicken (5 oz servings)

Whole wheat pasta

Tomato sauce

Preparation is Key

I have learned in this one day that preparation is very key! I have left home without all of my meals prepared for today and I am instantly craving fast food. However, in my efforts to diet in the past, I have some powdered milk and Juice Plus shake mix. So at best I can make shakes all day long until I get home. BUT the big caveat here is that Thursday is my long day. I have work from 9-5pm, Education meeting from 6-7pm, Bible class from 7pm-8:15pm and at that point, it is too late to eat according to most health gurus. So with that said, I am letting this be a lesson learned to 1) always have snacks at my job for emergencies and 2) don't leave home without packing a meal pack.

Yesterday's Subsistence

Breakfast - nothing
Snack 1 - nothing
Lunch - two boiled eggs with about 2 ounces of American cheese
Snack 2 - 10 ounces of orange juice
Dinner - sushi (6 avocado and crab pieces and 1 each of tuna, salmon, eel)
Snack 3 (OPTIONAL IF AFTER 7PM) - nothing (it was after 7pm)

OK so as you see, I am not following the million meal per day rule very well. However, this will be a task since I am used to have one huge meal per day at about 7pm and a midnight snack before climbing in the bed. Everyday I will post what I ate the following day as I try to stick to at least 5 small meals a day. When you don't get these meals, your body goes into starvation mode and whenever you decide to feed it, it will slow the metabolism and store the food as fat so that you won't die right away in case of an emergency. So everyday that I go to bed at 12am and I wake up at 8am and then I don't eat until 6pm, my body is extra confused. When you eat frequent meals, you keep your metabolism going and you keep burning fat and you can actually lose weight.

"Just Keep Swimming"