Tips for the week

Dieting takes commitment if you are going to be successful!
Dieting isn't hard, if you prepare properly. Here are a few tips that I use:

Plan your meals for a whole week. Include breakfast, lunch, dinner (no more eating out unless you want to gain back what you lose or get frustrated due to lack of healthy choices at the restaurants) and at least 2 snacks a day. Prepare these snacks ahead of time or have something to grab quickly so that you don't grab a cookie or something bad for you while you are preparing dinner. When cooking, make a few meals at the same time. For example, when I make Crockpot Chicken and veggies, I debone the leftover chicken and use it to make Taco Minestrone. When I make Chicken and Salsa, I can use it to make Chicken Quesadillas, Chicken Chimichangas, Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas, or to have to a snack on a corn tortilla. When I make Rotel Roast, I use the meat for Rotel Roast served with a healthy veggie and a bean side, serve the shredded meat with a corn tortilla and salsa, or beef tips and rice made by mixing  the shredded meat with brown gravy and serve over brown rice. If you are interested in the recipes, go to the recipes tab above and if the recipe isn't there already, ask me for it and I'll post it.

I like to eat the same thing for breakfast everyday for a week (NO CEREAL UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER OPTION and add fresh fruit to it, choose low sugar high fiber cereal, and have as low of fat milk you can tolerate. I prefer skim milk. I started with 2% and worked my way down to skim as my tolerance and taste adjusted).

For snacks I like 30 grapes, an apple, an orange, tunafish sandwhich on whole wheat, 1 tsp (not a large spoonful lol) of peanut butter (preferably the natural peanut butter with less or no sugar added), low sodium turkey lunch meat (on whole wheat if you want), sugar free jello, sugar free pudding, smoothies (non fat yogurt, frozen berries and/or bananas, skim milk, and if you have this after exercise you can add protein powder for extra protein--plain protein powder not the flavored kind that comes with added sugar----avoid these!) Snacks should be high protein, low fat, and the carbs should be naturally occuring such as fresh fruit. Don't choose a prepackaged energy bar. They are full of sugars and that's what you are trying to avoid.