This is my youngest grandson, J, finishing off his first birthday Cookie Monster birthday cupcake. I secretly think of him as the "Eyelash King." He's a good little eater, but he never cracked a smile while he was eating this. I think he was bothered by the blue icing on his hand. I took a cue from him and decided to forego trying one of the cupcakes. I did pretty well with the rest of the meal--grilled chicken tenders, corn on the cob, green salad, and chips and guacamole. I had some of everything, but limited myself to 13 (unbroken!) tortilla chips, which I seem to recall is about 2 or 3 WW points. Everything else fit in my CORE plan.
I've been thinking recently about my progress this summer. I am losing well, exercising a lot, eating well and feeling great. I think one thing that has been working for me is the idea of having just one major meal a day. This is one of the 12
I saw it explained in her book.I believe that eating a healthy breakfast is important, but I was never a big breakfast eater. You know the drill, in my foolish fat days, I'd skip breakfast to "save calories" for later splurges. No breakfast calories = two trips to the vending machine calories when I got hungry a couple hours after lunch. This type of thinking obviously didn't work for me. This last time I joined WW, I decided to eat breakfast. I'm not usually hungry then, but I got in the habit of eating breakfast--cereal (shredded wheat in the summer, sw or oatmeal in the winter), fruit, and ff milk. Early this summer, right about when I started this blog, I decided to change my habit of eating dinner leftovers for lunch (good, WW CORE plan food, but almost always including pasta/corn/ or brown rice and the main dish and side vegetables). Because I'm often busy with my grand babies at lunch time, I fell into the habit of eating ff (that's fat free, not full fat!) cottage cheese and mandarin oranges every day. Filling, easy, easy to keep on hand.
Berkeley's theory of the major meal, encourages you to eat one full, healthy meal per day [it doesn't matter which meal you choose; I chose dinner because I need to feed my two fellas, but if I lived by myself, I'd probably have chosen lunch]. The other meals should be small--just two or three ingredients, and boring--not so exciting that you're tempted to overeat at that meal. This really works for me. I'm satisfied with my breakfast and lunch, but if I'm tempted, I just remind myself that I'm fixing an awesome pasta salad (or stir fry, or chicken picatta, lamb chop dinner, or WW lasagna, or, well, you get the picture) for dinner. And, if I'm tempted into overeating a bit a special dinners (like last night's tortilla chips) I know I'll be right back on the straight and narrow at my very next meal. It's easier to resist the "I've blown it with the tortilla chips, so I might as well fix chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast" mentality.
My morning visits to my scale are making me smile. My weight loss goal in the Summer Diet Buddies (see red logo in right column) is 12 pounds in 8 weeks. I think I may do it!
What works for you? Do you have a major meal each day?
I love Refuse to Regain! I do tend to eat a large midday meal and a very small dinner. Your grandson is darling!
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I have one major meal, but I do know that breakfast and lunch are large, and by the time dinner comes, it is sometimes a snack. But I tend to have snacks too. Although I've noticed lately that I haven't been hungry for my snacks--probably the summer heat. Of course I always have room for dessert (after dinner snack. usually yogurt and something or other.)
ReplyDeleteHow cute is he! Those eyes:)
ReplyDeleteI sort of do that meal thing by default, but what kills me is snacking in between. Always been my downfall. Sigh.
You are doing a great job!
I think I'll have to check out this Refuse to Regain book..sounds like a good read! I guess I do tend to have one large meal, but I try to make it breakfast (not always successful). I find that a solid breakfast sets me up for staying on track the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteI never skip breakfast. When I was on a specific weight loss plan a couple of years ago (and successfully lost 70 lbs...we wont talk about the regain) I learned that breakfast within an hour of waking up is the most important meal of the day because it gets your metabolism going. So, I don't skip that meal. It can be large or small but the main thing I remember is to eat! I would rather have a bigger breakfast or lunch than I would dinner though.
ReplyDeleteI started eating a high protein low carb breakfast, and I HATE breakfast. But, it does make all the difference in the world...
ReplyDeleteMary @ A Simple Twist of Faith
What a doll baby! I would literally melt every time he looked at me....you are in big trouble. LOL!
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the meals. On a normal day, my three meals are pretty equal and I like it that way. I've always loved breakfast although I usually don't eat it until I've been up a couple of hours. I'm also right in there with Karen - snacking is my downfall and it makes no difference what I ate at the most recent meal.
Good question in your comment on my blog about the average steps. Ideally, I'd love to get 12,000 steps every day, but it usually varies based on what I'm doing that day and how much time I have. I keep a spreadsheet where I record my steps every day and it automatically averages them at the end of the week so I know how many I've averaged over the course of seven days. So if on Monday, I get 10,000 and Tuesday, I get 15,000, I've averaged 12,500 for the two days. I've been doing that since 2006 and talk about how I got started in my blog post from May 20. So yes, I'd love to do 12,000 every day, but right now, I'm concentrating on going from 10,000 to 12,000 as an average over seven days. Hope that makes sense!!
Oh, what a darling! I'm smitten! :)
ReplyDeleteIn the summertime, especially, I have several small meals each day. That seems to fit my hunger levels better. On strength training days, my midday meal tends to be somewhat bigger, but only marginally. So I guess I fall somewhere in between.
I lost my book list in my computer meltdown, but I'll start a new one with this book. I've been at goal for 1-1/2 years, but I'm always open for new tricks. :)
What a cutie pie!
ReplyDeleteI always eat breakfast. I love it. But, I've also slowly migrated into one "real meal" a day. I generally eat my largest meal in the evening. I was always an evening eater and snacker. It just makes since to me to accept that I like to eat more later in the day. Lots of people talk about not eating after a certain time or not snacking after dinner, but for me I know I'm gonna eat at night. So I eat my largest meal then.