eating Italian style...

After two months in Europe (In Portugal and France) I've noticed Italians are really thin. More than the French, more than the Portuguese. 

How in the land of pizza and pasta and gelato and tiramisu are Italians able to do that???

Italians are incredibly thin like Asians. French people smoke. Portuguese people have hills for days. I looked up what Italians have going on for them and thus have a new meal plan (it's part Italian, part Asian).

Breakfast: decadent hot chocolate 

(In lieu of the decadent espresso or latte that is the usual entire Italian breakfast. If I must eat something, it will be one egg or one small toast or pastry)

The main meal - Lunch* or Dinner A (choose once from this list daily): 

- light Italian pasta (Italians don't usually use cream! They use tomato sauces or olive oil)

- Korean/Asian style tapas (rice and sides served separately)

The second meal - Dinner* or Lunch B: charcuterie board, can be themed but requires the following elements. 

- fermented item

- poultry, meat, or fish

- raw veg

- healthy fat

- one treat 

- minimum 3 colors

This meal is not mean to make you feel full, rather it's intentional snacking as a meal. 1-4 bites of each element based on it's nutritional grade. If eaten for lunch it's because you have a bigger dinner planned as the main meal. If eaten for dinner, it's because you ate your regular lunch as the main meal qand you don't need to eat a lot before bed.

Weeklies x max:

- (W) x 4: sorbet or dairy gelato

- (W) x 1: Italian style pizza

NOTE : consider this meal plan as version 1.0 as I'll likely modify it and add different elements, but this is the blueprint I'll try to base from. 

meal prep to LEVEL UP my simple meal plan

I'm trying a different type of meal prep. 

I've started to simplify what I eat. I think this will help me eat more intuitively and notice the food choices and how they affect my body. 

What I've noticed since starting to eat this way is that sometimes my meals are too simple in that they lack nutrients. For example:  for dinner I love my simple pasta meal: spaghetti, olive oil, and garlic. Yummy. But I eat it and get hungry and find myself snacking soon after. Is there a way to make this mean more hunger satisfying? It already hits the mark in terms of taste and craving satisfaction, but adding a protein and fiber would make a world of difference. Another example is eggs. I eat eggs every morning but what if I threw a couple onions and spinach in there? I'd be leveling up my eggs. And for my daily salads, rather than a simple greens + chicken combo, I could throw in beans and peppers too. 

I'm leveling up my food. 

This may sound like I'm un-simplifying my meal plan. It's not though because the additives I'm choosing are very simple, and require no additional cook time. Just something to toss in. This is because I meal prep these extra ahead of time and have them in my freezer. So when the spirit moves me, I can quickly and easily level up my food. 

Check out how I've meal prepped by chopping and pre-cooking the goodies that I can throw into my simple meal plan to level it up! 

Looking good ehh? 😊

ending the day/meal planning

So I've come to learn that after I break my fast at 11am/12pm, and then especially at night, the cravings are non-stop. 

While I think meal planning can help me during the day, I need to find something that that will help me get a satisfied feeling and to put an eating cap to my day, ideally at 6pm (for meals) and 8pm (when I return from my walk). 

I am hoping that satisfaction and cap are not good, but even if they are food that they would be sugar free. 

*Also, side note... I think grainy carbs for first meal only. Large first meal with a mega salad. Breakfast at night... And tea throughout. 

breakfast: eggs and sausage

Tabata Workouts w/ TabataSongs Music

Squat Challenge Combo with @KeairaLaShae

Hip Hop Tabata Dance Workout with @KeairaLaShae

Blueberry Muffins: coconut and almond flour

These gluten-free and flourless blueberry muffins are made with coconut and almond flours and sweetened with ripe bananas and maple syrup. They are a  healthier alternative when you want to splurge on a warm muffin with your coffee in the morning.

Source: Fool Proof Living

A FEW BAKING TIPS:

Be sure to use soft ripe bananas with black speckles on it. If you use bananas that are too ripened and turned brown, you will end up with gummy muffins that might not be ideal.

Keep an eye on them after the 15-minute mark during the baking process. The original recipe suggested that they should be baked after 15-minutes, but my muffins baked right after the 20-minute mark.

These muffins are best on the day that they are baked. However, if you keep them in the fridge in an airtight container, they will still be fresh up to 2 days. When ready to eat, just warm them in the microwave for 30 seconds for a delicious breakfast.

dinner: salad

Spinach

Sardines

Red onion

Cranberries

MCT oil

Sweet peppers

Yellow tomatoes

lunch and dinner: pasta and sauce.

I've been avoiding animal products. Trying to reduce it significantly. The pasta is Barilla Protein + variety. Homemade sauce is simple, diced tomatoes (from can) spices and really spicy. 

brunch: egg fried rice with spinach

dinner: soup

Swanson low sodium chicken broth (the whole 32 oz carton), veg (bok choy, tomatoes, peas, carrots), less than half a cup of protein enriched spaghetti, very spicy (heat and cumin, curry, thyme, basil, ginger), and sausage.

Idk if I can finish this volume but it is probably really low in calories. I didn't eat much today so I probably need all the calories from this otherwise today ends up being less than 500 calories. Lots of liquid though so this is good for hydration.

plantains

lunch: salad and chicken

Salad, cherry tomatoes, onion, cranberries, Sriracha ranch #nameALLtheingredients

breakfast: Kashi Go Rise cereal

Trying out high fiber cereals lately. Definitely more filling. Not too sweet and not a lot of sodium which is always a great thing.

Everytime I take the first bite, I'm tempted to add sugar to give it more flavor (it tastes like Cheerios).  I'm so proud though that mid bringing the sugar bowl out, I gain consciousness and choose to do without added sugar so as to not undermine the benefits of this cereal. 

I have this cereal with almond milk.

I'm coming back

So I'm coming back to the blog because I want to be happy. Blogging made me happy, writing and sharing my opinion even if private. So this will be my private good blog and hopefully I start to eat food again. Food I actually like. Good that tastes good.

Breakfast: eggs, toast, avocado

Yum

Breakfast: eggs, broccoli, oatmeal

Very hearty breakfast.

Mid morning/early afternoon snack was grapes and orange wedges. Don't judge the container, yes indulged in delicious ice cream--one must live right?!

Lunch (not picture) was sweet potato fries seasoned with salt, no sauces.

Dinner: pasta and cucumber

The image was my dinner: same pesto pasta as breakfast, and half a cucumber. According to verywellfit.com probably around whopping 815 calories. Idk about that... Hmmmmmm.

Btw snack earlier was tea, cookies, triscuit crackers,and V8 tomato drink .... probably 400-500 calories if I can guess. Pretty bad when I could have just eaten a real meal. Idk. It might be ok depending on if I am still hungry after dinner, then I'll know if I wasted calories (it might also be the carb only dinner that was a waste). But at the same time if you look at the contents it's not too bad I guess. Maybe?

In summary today was carbs, little protein,  negligible vegetables, 2 servings fruit. Lots of snacks. Terrible and my body probably feels like it's starving.

That's why I'm fat. Because I am hungry.

Breakfast: pasta, eggs, fruit

BREAKFAST: First meal of the day even though eaten at 12:52pm

Start time: 12:52pm
End time: 1:04pm
Duration of meal: 12 minutes

The pasta has pesto on it, and some chicken bits

The 2 scrambled eggs have carrots in it

1 whole orange and a branch of 11 grapes

Intuitively this looks good. Based on www.verywellfit.com , about 500 calories.

Not bad. Let's see how it balances the test of the day.