I haven’t posted in a little while. I went on a trip… which not only took me away from my computer, but threw me off my strict regime and I gained back what I lost in the weeks prior. Ooops.
I think the hardest part of eating so many times a day (between 6 and 8 meals/snacks — “mini-meals”) is time. I don’t really feel like I have time to prepare full-on meals. Maybe it’s laziness and a lack of time, either way, I’d rather microwave something than start pulling out pots and pans.
I generally wake up, eat some cereal (bran flakes and skim milk!), make myself two sandwiches for work, get ready for work (and check my e-mail and stuff), eat a Lean Pocket before heading out the door, and then have some microwavable soup (along with my 2 sandwiches) during my work day and probably a Kashi chewy honey almond flax bar or a handful of almonds. Then when I get home from work between 9 or 11 p.m., I want something quick and easy so I can finally just relax… so I have another Lean Pocket.
Let counts how much processed crap I am eating. The Lean Pockets, clearly. The microwavable Campbell’s Select soup and Healthy Choice soups, yep. Even the chicken I use on my sandwiches is not deli chicken but Hillshire Farms in a little vacuum-sealed package. (The free Gladware containers you get from those are useful though.)
This is my favorite kind of lean pocket: cheeseburger. Doesn’t it just sound healthy? (Sarcasm.) It’s about 280 calories, an extremely quick and somewhat tasty 280 calories. I’ve started, however, buying the chicken fajita ones because they are the lowest ones they sell at 240. (Well, the lowest I’ll eat. Maybe turkey, cheddar and broccoli is lower… but that sounds like a repugnant combination.)
It’s just easiest to count the calories on packaged foods. And they are so quick and easy. But I know they are probably filled with salt, nitrates, preservatives and crap. It’s a dilemma.
A great work-around I have found is using a slow cooker. You can throw a pork tenderloin, for example, in there without any butter or oil and when I get from work, it will be tender and falling apart. It makes great microwavable leftovers I can bring to work too. But it requires some planning and you have to measure what you put in there so you can make an educated guess to the calorie content.
Mental note: I have a slow cooker… use it.
For the hell of it. Today’s total:
Foods
| Cals | Fat | Carb | Prot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wegman’s sushi – California (1 roll) ( 8 serving ) | 320 | 8 | 56 | 8 |
| Tops Fat-Free Milk, vitamin A & D ( 0.55 cup ) | 50 | 0 | 7 | 4 |
| Tops Bran Flakes – whole wheat & bran ( 1 cup ) | 120 | 1 | 31 | 4 |
| Campbell’s select Italian Wedding (healthy request) ( 1.33 cup ) | 160 | 3 | 20 | 9 |
| Tops original Oatmeal, instant – 1 pouch ( 1 serving ) | 100 | 2 | 19 | 4 |
| Lean Pocket Chicken Fajita (Mex Style) ( 1 serving ) | 240 | 7 | 35 | 10 |
| Sensible Portions multi-grain mini crisps ( 1 serving ) | 100 | 3 | 17 | 2 |
| Lean Pockets three cheese/chicken quesadilla 1 ( 1 serving ) | 260 | 7 | 34 | 13 |
| Almonds, unroasted ( 6 almond ) | 42 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 1391 | 35 | 220 | 56 |
| Total: | 1391 |
|
||
| Fat: | 312 | |||
| Saturated: | 79 | |||
| Polyunsat: | 12 | |||
| Monounsat: | 31 | |||
| Carbohydrates: | 784 | |||
| Protein: | 223 | |||
I had more fat than protein. That’s really not ideal. I had almost 9 grams of saturated fat. That’s bad. I also had about 2800 mg of sodium, which I think is too high. I didn’t even eat 25 grams of fiber. Too low. I need more raw foods, whole grains, and less processed crap! Can I do it?!
1 Comment
August 14, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Isn’t that just one of the hardest parts, cutting out that processed crap. I don’t have a microwave or fridge at work, so it’s a choice between buying food at work, lugging around nine pounds of ice packs (for food I can’t heat up anyways) or going for the easy processed foods like crackers and apple sauce.
Plus, there’s so much food being marketed now for people “dieting” and trying to lose weight, it’s quite easy to give into the temptation.