Food {Thursday}

I have been in maintenance mode for 2 weeks now. The Clean Eating magazine (April/May) only has two weeks of meal plans. Yes, they have many other recipes in the mag, but I'm still appreciating the meal plans because they give me new ideas and it takes very little thinking on my part.  If you go to their website, they have additional 2-week meal plans mostly arranged by season. So, I'm using "On the Road to Spring" as my guide. I printed it out a long time ago in preparation for my maintenance phase. It looks like the link to this particular menu is down right now.

I adjusted the breakfast. I think it sounds amazing to have the yogurt laced with a nut butter. However, I have a LOT of almonds, so I chose to use 2T of almonds instead.  I was happy to see carrot sticks with hummus on the menu because I already  have both in my fridge and I was nervous my hummus was going bad.  The turkey salad is excellent. I love putting dried fruit and nuts in there. I also love any excuse to eat Amy's Lentil Vegetable Soup!  The second snack is also easy because I had some leftover mozzarella cheese sticks.  Dinner is tricky. It's the end of the school year and between going to work, grocery shopping, working out, and grading papers, I am spread pretty thin. I don't have time to make this delicious-sounding recipe. Maybe I'll work it in later? I planned to have leftovers from dinner last night {Chicken + Zucchini}, but hubby loved it. So, I planned to wing it and eat my favorite "clean" PB&J with almond milk. HOWEVER, I realized that I have some items in my fridge that need to be used (spinach and cherry tomatoes), so I made dinner with 1 egg plus 2 egg whites with spinach, tomatoes, and blue cheese crumbles with toast. Then, I allowed myself 2 cheats: a glass of almond milk and 4 organic graham crackers with almond butter and 70% cacao chips.  Putting all of this food in pictures is really helping. I'm sitting here now feeling completely satisfied. I'm not hungry. That has been the struggle these past few days. I'm still working out, so I feel like I could use an additional snack/small meal each day or I feel hungry. Basically, I think if I'm maintaining, I shouldn't feel hungry like that. So, I'm experimenting with adding more calories to my diet. As you say in a previous post, according to my BMR + AMR, I should be able to consume about 2,150 calories and not gain weight. Hopefully I'm okay. That's what this blog is. Accountability for me. I seriously post everything that I put into my mouth. There is no private food story that I'm not sharing with you. If I gain weight, it's documented why that happened. If I lose it, I've documented why.

Clean Eating Magazine

Breakfast {Yogurt + Blueberries}



Snack {Carrots + Hummus}

Lunch {Turkey Salad + Veggie Soup}

Snack {Apple + Cheese}

Cheat {Almond Milk}

Dinner {Egg Scramble + Toast}

Cheat {Graham Crackers}