A Day In The Life...

Well, here's the new plan for those asking "how do you do it?"... We've found the ONLY way for us to make sure we stay on plan is about the oldest trick in "dieting"... be mindful of the calories you take in. Wow, really? Yeah, that's our big secret. :) Here's how we usually break down our caloric intake over the course of an ideal day:

8am Breakfast - 450 calories (Jay); 350 calories (Dee)
11am Snack - 150 calories (both)
2pm Lunch - 300 calories (Jay); 250 calories (Dee)
4pm Snack - 60-90 calories (both)
7pm Dinner & Dessert - 500 calories (Jay); 450 calories (Dee)

TOTAL CALORIES: around 1500 (Jay); around 1300 (Dee)

The big secrets? If you notice, the largest meal is breakfast (not counting the dessert combined in with dinner). We try not to eat past about 6-7pm, as we want to be nice and digested by bedtime around 11pm or midnight. Also, we're eating FIVE times a day! Every 2-3 hours! Who has time to be hungry?!? :)

We also try to throw in a 1 or 1.5 mile walk around 9am and 5pm!

Here's how a typical food day looks for us:

Breakfast - 2 packets of oatmeal (OR a bagel); 1 serving Egg Mates (OR half a serving of Egg Mates and half a serving of deli meat); 6 oz. nonfat yogurt; 1 serving fruit; nice big cup of coffee with Splenda and fat-free creamer

Morning Snack - "Trail Mix" made of: 1/2 serving raisins; 6 almonds; and 1/2 serving pretzels (OR a graham cracker substituted for the pretzels)

Lunch - 1 serving of my Chicken Noodle Soup (recipe in this blog) OR a chicken/spinach wrap; salad with lettuce, spinach, carrots, snow peas, cauliflower, etc. and fat-free Italian dressing

Afternoon Snack - 1 serving fruit, such as an apple or orange

Dinner & Dessert - 1 serving of my Chicken Chili (recipe in this blog) OR 1 serving lean protein with a large vegetable portion (edamame, spinach, California blend, etc.); 1 cup sugar-free chocolate/vanilla swirl pudding; 1 oats & chocolate fiber bar

That's a snapshot of Jay's daily meal plan... Dee's is pretty much the same, but lose the Egg Mates. We find ourselves taking in about 15-25 grams of total fat per day (trying to keep it low!), while maintaining at least 38 grams of fiber and 56 grams of protein for Jay (25 fiber and 46 protein for Dee). We found some clever calculators online for those numbers, and I'll have to find the link and get it on here sometime.

We're also discovering the joys of water. And that whole "eight 8-ounce glasses" doesn't work for everyone. We've read in several places that you should take your body weight, divide it in half, and drink that many ounces of water each day! Dee and I typically go well beyond those numbers, and we feel like it's definitely helping to keep us hydrated and healthy, as well as flushing out all the bad stuff. :)

There's plenty of wiggle room in there, and we used to rely a lot more on the frozen convenience meals, but since we're starting to think Dee's headaches are coming from nitrite and/or MSG, we're trying to cook a lot of things ourselves so we can control the ingredients. We've found we can pretty much substitute whatever we like in there, as long as we stay in our calorie range and keep the fat low and the fiber high.

Anyway, that's where we are for now! We're both doing exceptionally well, and know this is something that we can keep up easily. Once you start a new way of life, you do pretty much have to do it forever. Once we get closer to our "goal weights", we should be able to increase the calories a bit, and figure out that magic number that will allow us to maintain.

Rock it!
--Jay :)