With all the food I ate last week for Thanksgiving I figured today would be a great day to share my diet and workout regime with you guys since it’s highly requested but mostly to get myself back into gear. (FYI- my workout routine will be in another blog post so keep an eye out)
If you read my previous post on being 30-something yrs old, then you know how important working out and eating healthy is to me but if you didn’t well… basically, my mood really depends on how I’m feeling inside. If I feel bloated or lethargic I get really annoyed, easily irritated and sometimes upset. Listen, I know when to be lazy and relax (Saturdays and Sundays) but mostly I like being realllllly productive and on my feet.
After being married, I realized how much eating healthy and working out actually affected me because it started to affect my marriage. When I was single I could be annoyed and moody all day long to myself, but when I got married I was sometimes letting it out on my poor old husband. So that’s when I seriously realized how important this was for me.
MY DIET
Please note- I’m not a nutritionist and I’m not recommending you do or follow my diet this is just what works for me.
I grew up eating instant ramen (my mom’s favorite food), Taco Bell (Dad’s fave food), and frozen pizza (my favorite food) all the time so I had no idea what healthy really was. Genetically, I’m skinny. I know that. But after high school, I gained 20 lbs. It was bad. I had no idea why I was gaining so much weight all the while still eating pizza and drinking tons of Smirnoff flavored vodka (UGH).
Fast forward five years, I now know my body inside out. I know what bloats me and which foods I don’t digest very well, etc. Since turning 25 yrs old I’ve been on the same “diet” as I am now. It’s not even a diet per se, it’s now just a lifestyle. Although some things have changed. Luckily my husband isn’t the pickiest eater and he doesn’t mind eating healthy so we eat the same meals Monday through Sunday.
Weekdays
For the most part, we eat carb-free Monday- Friday. I focus on lots of proteins (fish or chicken) and veggies. I could never go vegan or vegetarian but I could possibly go pescatarian as I love seafood more than meat but that’s another post another time.
Every Mondays I go to Trader Joe’s (blog post on what I buy) and pick up groceries for the week. I cook two meals a week. Monday dinner and Wednesday dinner and on Tuesday and Thursday I’ll make dinner with our leftovers. For lunch, John makes a turkey sandwich every morning and I usually do some variation of egg whites and avocado. Here’s what a weekday meal plan looks like for us:
Monday:
Lunch- Avocado, egg white, and chicken sausage
Dinner- Spicy Thai basil ground beef w/ cauliflower rice
Tuesday:
Lunch- Fruit smoothie with protein powder and chia seeds
Dinner- Roasted veggie stir-fry with Basil Ground beef (leftover from Monday)
Wednesday:
Lunch- Chinese Chicken Salad (dressing on the side)
Dinner- Grilled salmon with mango slaw and salad
Thursday:
Lunch- Eggs, avocado, smoothie
Dinner- Salmon with Broccoli and cauliflower rice
Friday:
Lunch- Smoothies
Dinner- Krn BBQ with Salad and egg soup
Weekends
Oh the weekends…
The weekends are basically our cheat days. I’m all about balance with everything in life including food. However, I’ll only consume alcohol once a week so I’ll choose either Friday or Saturday whichever makes sense for that week.
Saturday:
Lunch- cute brunch place where I’ll usually order eggs benedict with no ham and no hollandaise sauce
Dinner- Cheeseburger with fries. I always take off the top bun and make it open faced
Sunday:
Lunch- Chicken Pho or Spicy Tofu Soup with Galbi (Korean grilled beef)
Dinner- Pasta and Salad
My Food Tips that changed my Diet
- I stopped eating pork in 2018. My family has high blood pressure and high cholesterol so my doctor encouraged me to cut out extra fatty foods so I choose to cut out pork. I can’t say that it changed my diet completely but I was getting tiny fat bumps on my eyelids and after cutting out pork that went away completely.
- We did paleo early in 2018 (you can read here) and I loved it! Great way to kick start your health journey if you’re looking for a change.
- I always take off one piece of bread from any sandwiches or burgers. I love bread but I don’t need an excessive amount. I always make everything open-faced and ask for extra lettuce to wrap.
- No sauces. Unless it’s pasta or something plated, I always say no sauce. Sauces can be overly salty and high in calories so I always say no sauce on everything.
- Since I eat unhealthy on the weekends, I like to have a protein packed smoothie for Lunch on Fridays. It helps me to eat light on Friday and heavy the rest of the weekend . All about balance.
- I will have dessert. I never deprived myself anything because I will end up binging. So weekday I’ll have a piece of chocolate, weekends I’ll indulge in ice cream or cake!
- Listen to your body. I’m not a breakfast eater. I just can’t do it and when I do I want to throw up sometimes because my body oddly doesn’t want to digest the food. I know breakfast is the most important meal.. blah blah blah, but I just like to listen to my body and eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full.
I’m not perfect, I still have bad habits too
From reading this post you’re probably thinking I’m a robot or something but I’m not. This is just my IDEAl week. I never have IDEAL weeks. They are always up and down but this is what I like to try to stick to. I’m not perfect and I still have habits I’m working on like snacking on chips every day! I love eating chips on the couch after dinner when I’m watching TV. Or fast food. Sometimes I just want fries from Mc Donalds or nachos from Taco Bell. I still struggle with bad habits and I’m still working on them so if you have any healthy eating tips I’d love to know.
Let me know what you guys think of this post. Would love to hear from you!
xx