Get Healthy, Not Skinny: Meals

I'm linking up again with Cherish for the Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up series.  You can read my fitness story and workout posts if you want to catch up.  This week we are talking about meals.

I've mentioned that all through high school, I didn't worry about what I ate, because I was burning so many calories through exercise that what I ate didn't really matter to me.  However, now that I'm not exercising as much as I used to, I try to be a little better about what I eat.  I like food, so it's hard for me to cut things completely out.  And I do have a bit of a sweet tooth sometimes (Did I tell you I once at 9 oreo balls in one night?  Not my proudest moment...)

My biggest problem is probably carbs.  I love carbs!  I could eat pasta every day!  My fiance and I used to eat pasta and/or bread several nights a week as part of our dinner.  We have been doing better and only eating it once or twice a week for dinner.  I now only buy whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, whole wheat english muffins, etc.  I also try not to buy sweets, so we usually only have them in the house if it's a special occasion (birthdays, holidays, etc.).  Then we are less tempted to eat them if they aren't around.  I also try to eat a salad as part of my lunch or dinner.  I love salad, but it doesn't seem to fill me up, so I usually eat something else with it.

My breakfast is usually a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter on it and a glass of 1/2% milk.  I love milk and always have it with breakfast.  Sometimes I'll have scrambled eggs with spinach, maybe some lunch meat, and shredded cheese in them.  Or once in a while I'll have a bowl of cereal.  I found a great recipe for Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal from Eat Yourself Skinny.  I don't really like oatmeal, but this was delicious!  I made a double batch and would just heat some up in the morning for my breakfast.

For lunch, I usually take leftovers of food we've had during the week.  I rarely go out to eat for lunch, which saves me money and probably some calories, because I don't eat as healthy when I go out to eat.

Dinner is usually cooked at home.  We have been trying to go out to eat less, because we know we eat healthier at home, and it also saves us some money.  We've been eating a lot of chicken and vegetables, and less pasta.  In the summer (or pretty much any time when there isn't a foot of snow on our deck), Kevin likes to grill.  We'll have steak, shrimp, burgers, anything on the grill in the summer.

Kevin grilling at his mom's, before we bought our house.

We do like to snack.  Kevin's go-to snack is popcorn that he pops in his air popper.  I usually want something chocolate, so I try to just grab a little handful of m&ms or something to satisfy my craving.  I try to keep some healthier foods around for snacking such as nuts, raisins, bananas, or other types of fruit.

I use Pinterest to try and find healthier recipes, or ways to make current favorites a little healthier.  I know that our eating habits have gotten better over the past couple of months, but I'm always looking for ways to improve and new healthy foods and recipes to try.  If you have healthy recipes or healthy eating tips, I'd love to hear them!

-Ericka