I am leaving to go to Arizona tomorrow for Turkey Day. YAAAAY!! Which means I didn’t go shopping for my produce for the week, which means I have none. I hate having no produce. I honestly don’t understand what people who hate fruits and vegetables eat sometimes? So, I decided today to do an experiment. As I’ve probably mentioned before, I am a snacker by nature. When I am cooking dinner I’ll grab a handful of Kashi to munch on, or a few blackberries from the fridge, or sometimes I’ll even sneak a lick of peanut butter straight from the container with my finger. Gross, I know, but true. I wanted to be very conscious of my snacking today, so I decided to take a photo of everything that went in to my mouth. Keep in mind that having NO produce made for some interesting meals…I had to get creative to get those fruits and veggies in.
Breakfast: Oatmeal with a swirl of honey and a lot of cinnamon mixed in, topped with some peanut butter and a sliced up banana. So good, and it keeps me full all morning at work which is great.
Lunch: Lunch was all about the protein. I had a slice of wheat toast with ranch chicken on top, and a strawberry banana protein shake. (To make the chicken I used canned Costco chicken, and put two TBS of fat free ranch veggie dip and mixed it in with a little salt and pepper.) Because I don’t love meat I have a hard time getting all my protein in, so this lunch was GREAT for me. For the shake I had 1/2 a frozen banana and some strawberries i’d frozen previously as well.
Snack: A Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffin and an apple. I made these muffins last week and threw them in the freezer because I knew I wouldn’t eat them all. Thaw them in the microwave for thirty seconds and they are SO good.
Dinner: At this point in the day I was absolutely CRAVING vegetables because I usually pack them in at lunch, and due to the fact that I’m produce-less I was dying. I was about to drive to Pizza Factory for one of my all time favorite salad bars, when I remembered I had some frozen veggies in the freezer, and a Smart Ones, Teriyaki Chicken Dinner. I always have some healthy frozen dinners on hand in case I absolutely have nothing, like tonight. So, i steamed the veggies and heated up the dinner and mixed them together. I threw in a few pineapple tidbits for some added sweetness. It wasn’t bad. I’m not a huge fan of the chicken they put in those things, so I pretty much ate around it. I also only ate one of my pears because I was so full from all the veggies.The quality of these pictures is astounding…phone pics, what do you do?
Dessert: I have a friend who has always thought I was crazy for loving frozen yogurt so much until like two weeks ago, when he miraculously decided he loves it too. Duh. So, tonight he decided he wanted some frozen yogurt, and I was willing to oblige. Tonight’s delight included cookies and cream, coconut, and red velvet cake with some pretzels and cinnamon toast crunch. It’s good. Trust me on the pretzels. You won’t regret it.
The verdict on the experiment. It totally worked. I didn’t snack at all except for my planned snacks. If I felt like I wanted to grab something I evaluated whether or not I was really hungry, and remembered I wasn’t going to want to take a picture of it and declined. Although my food was kind of random today because I didn’t have my usual goods, it wasn’t a bad day overall, food-wise. I may try and keep the experiment up for the rest of the week to see how I do.
If you feel like you’re a mindless eater/snacker give this experiment a try. Even if it just means writing down your food to keep track of yourself. You might just be surprised at what you are eating!!