What I eat....

Lap Band Gal suggested we all comment on what we eat and I thought it was a fantastic idea!!!  Hopefully we can all get some good new ideas.

M-F, I'm very consistent.

On the way to work at about 8am I have 20-32 oz of water with a mix of 1 scoop of strawberry-kiwi protein powder and a powdered vitamin and powdered calcium.  It's yummy and 24g of protein and 100 cal and my vitamins and minerals all accounted for before I walk into the office.  If I feel I'm not getting enough protein I'll just up how much protein powder I add, so occasionally I'll add a scoop and a half or so for 36 g.

I pack an insulated bag with 2 cheese sticks (8g protein, 70 cal), Chobani Greek yogurt (14g prot, 140 cal), a little carton of Breakstone cottage cheese (11g prot. 90 cal), and 4oz of chicken salad (which I estimate at 250ish cal and 21g protein - I don't really know how much protein and cal so if anyone wants to help me out with that it would be much appreciated I'll post the recipe such as it is below).  Assuming my estimates are correct that's 62g of protein and 620 cal in the bag.    Before my last fill I also included 1/2 C Kashi Go Lean crunch which I added to the yogurt and it was my breakfast every morning, but I can't eat the cereal in the morning right now, so I haven't been packing it.

The protein water (as I call it) keeps me happy and satisfied for a while in the mornings.  Somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30 I eat a little something; either a cheese stick, or cottage cheese.

At about 12 or so, I have a little something else, perhaps the thing I didn't have earlier.  So by noonish I've eaten two pretty small things, but I do my best to listen to my body and eat as soon as I'm hungry, or I'll eat a cheese stick or something before I'm hungry if I'm going to head into a long meeting. 

Then I try to eat something a bit more, like either the yogurt or the chicken salad the next time I'm hungry, maybe at 2:30 or so. 

Actually I've been trying to eat the yogurt as the first thing in the morning, thinking it's more substantial with it's increased protein and then have the chicken salad for a late lunch, with maybe a cheese stick or two to round out the work day.

I never eat everything in the bag, there is usually at least one cheese stick and maybe the cottage cheese or the yogurt left over at the end of the day, but I really like having the variety of things in there that I can choose from - even if the variety isn't all that crazy.

For dinner I might have more chicken salad, or a boca burger with a slice of american cheese, or soup, or salmon.  Or whatever the rest of the family is having as long as it's not pasta, just in a small portion; maybe half of a chicken thigh and some broccoli.

I also try to eat dessert every evening; SF pudding with whipped cream, a weight watchers dessert of some sort, that kind of thing.

On the weekends I try to experiment a bit - I'm still figuring out what and when I can eat things with my latest fill.  I go for eggs or a warm spinach salad (with Gorgonzola, bacon and almonds) or fish or chicken.  I'm also much more likely to eat a little junk here and there on the weekends; which is why my Holiday Challenge weigh ins will most likely always be higher than my Friday weigh ins.


My chicken salad
Once a week or so I take a whole rotisserie chicken and make chicken salad.  I remove all skin and roughly cube all the chicken; white and dark meat.  To that I add celery and every once in a while a couple of pieces of very crispy bacon, and lite or fat free mayo and pepper and that's it.  Well sometimes I throw a cut up cucumber in there too.  I tend to make it a little more mayonnaise-y than I would have pre-band as I find this helps with it going down pretty easily.