As I mentioned in the previous post, my family is a foodie family, and as a result, we eat a lot. A few years ago, a cousin stayed at our house for a week–and ended up gaining ten pounds. Yeah.
It has always been a mystery to the various members of my extended family as to why my immediate family never gains weight. Of course, this is untrue, because we are always gaining weight; however, we are always trying to lose it, as well. As for myself, weight has never been a comfortable topic; for most of my life, I’ve been pretty chubby. Being surrounded by fit, skinny people at school has never helped that. As a result, I’ve gone on countless “diets,” but I’ve failed countless times. My weight isn’t threatening to my health–it’s just something I, like many other girls, sometimes get insecure about.
Recently, though, I’ve decided to go on a more solid plan to brighten up my lifestyle into a more healthy one. This means, of course, eating more healthily, and getting more exercise (at least a little more than I currently am). I am one of those people who will try to cheat the system and try to lose weight without exercise, and has no guilt eating out of boredom and having way-past-midnight snacks. Now that my last season of high school sport is done forever, I’m afraid I’ll fall into a deep pit of unhealthiness and weight gain because I simply do not, and never have had the motivation to persist in maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle.
So to make my plans more concrete, I wanted to share with you all. While I can’t share any fitness plans, because that just isn’t my forte, I can share some food ideas; I am definitely not willing to sacrifice taste for convenience, so we might be in luck.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but when I have the time, I love to pack my own lunch, especially in the form of “bentos” (packed box lunches). They just make everything more fun to eat. Lately, I’ve been filling up my boxes with a bunch of healthy snacks. It doesn’t seem filling or interesting at all, but I swear it is and it keeps me full for a good handful of hours. The secret is to find something that you can eat and enjoy slowly. Here is what it consists of: (I will upload pictures later once I can take a good one)
Meanwhile, I hope this picture suffices.
- A heapful of baby carrots–with or without dip. I usually don’t have dip, but when I do, I use hummus.
- Strips of cucumber rolled up in ham, about 8 1.5-inch rolls. I use these super cute toothpicks I brought back from Japan, and they make the whole lunch fun!
- A boiled egg. I love eggs. Can’t live without them.
- A few (5-7) .5-inch cubes of smoked Gouda cheese. This is key! I think this is the main ingredient that keeps me full (surprisingly). It’s also my favorite part, so I eat it last, and I savor them very slowly. However, these can be high in calorie, so there can’t be too much–they are also easy to get sick of if you eat in excess.
I’ve had this kind of lunch, or variations of it, for a few days now, and I am pretty satisfied. I also have gotten into kale (late to the party, I know) salads, and they are delicious. If the above doesn’t work for you, you can have a more exciting, varied lunch in the form of a quinoa kale salad. It’s a super basic recipe that anyone can prepare! The ingredients are also variable, so I won’t really be sharing any portion sizes because that is all up to you (I will also be updating this with a picture and more details if required):
- A scoop of quinoa
- Kale leaves, washed, dried, and chopped. We use leaves from our garden, so they are a little more tender than store-bought leaves.
- Olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper for dressing (massage and toss into leaves)
- Chopped tomatoes and cucumbers
- Dried cranberries
- Let’s not forget the boiled egg.
And that’s it! There we have it. All you have to do is toss everything together. This is one of my favorite salads, and it’s also really filling as well. I hope you can all enjoy it!
foodienaut 