So, for the last few days, I've been incredibly busy with work. That's a great thing, but it makes keeping up with my eating/drinking a little tough. I've posted before that I must get 64 oz of water and 70 g of protein in me daily for optimal results from my sleeve. So, here's how I've done it the last few days.
Each morning, I try to drink 1 16.9 oz bottle of water before I leave the house. I also take my meds with this bottle of water, so I have a mini babybel right after I take the meds. My multi-vitamin is in my morning med routine and it contains iron. Iron on an empty stomach for me is a no-go.
I take a Premium Nutrition protein bar with me in my purse. This often becomes my official breakfast, and it's a great start to my day. They are under 300 calories and have 30g of protein. I prefer the Yogurt Peanut Crunch bar, but any of them are okay tasting. I buy a box of 15 at Sam's for around $14 dollars. Another bottle of water goes with me, usually flavored with Mio drops. If you haven't tried these, they are the BOMB! The orange/tangerine drops make my water taste like Sun**Kist, IMO.
Since I usually drive about an hour, I try to finish the bottle of water and the protein bar on my drive. Food first, wait half an hour, then drink the water. I'm usually pretty close to finishing the water. Thank goodness I can drink faster now than I could right after surgery!
If I have lunch, it's usually around 1:30 or 2pm. I take something with me if I know I'll be out that late, usually a tuna kit or a can of soup. If I do have to resort to eating somewhere, I prefer a sit down restaurant because they almost always have a chicken breast/veggie combination I can eat. If I must do fast food, I'll order a salad with grilled chicken or a grilled chicken breast sandwich and eat part of the chicken and veggies on the sandwich. I'm still not eating much bread at all. I think I had a piece of bread last week...to sop up the gravy from my homemade beef stew! ;)
I'm getting a little more creative at home with dinner. Chicken and pork have been my go-to meats for a long time, but I'm now adding a little beef in there. I like to set up the crock pot in the morning with a piece of meat and some dried beans. Season it well with chopped onion and some spices and I can let dinner cook all day. It's been really nice to walk in the door with dinner waiting on me the last few days.
My real challenge in the last couple of weeks is to start cooking for one person instead of half an army. When I bought this place, my son stayed in the apartment we had been sharing. He was a great disposal for all of my leftovers before and now I have to eat them myself or get over throwing away food. My thrifty brain has a conniption every time I toss food, so I have been working on cooking smaller amounts, or on freezing the leftovers.
One trick I found is to purchase a full package of meat, pork chops, thin sliced steaks, etc, freeze them on a cookie sheet, then store them in a plastic bag or container in the freezer. Right now mine are in a round tupperware container, but I'm going to look for two or three medium containers on my next goodwill run. With a label, these should be a great place to store my meat. It's not like I need a ton. I can still barely handle 3 oz of meat per meal, so a medium container should be more than enough.
I also bought some "single serving" size veggies. Those are two servings (or more) for me, so I'll buy a bag of loose veggies next time and just dish out a spoon or two at a time.
One thing that seems to work really well for me, though, isn't tightwad at all: bottled water. I have a couple of water bottles and a water dispenser in my fridge, but I seem to remember to take water better if I can just grab a bottle from the fridge. Since I'm spending so little on other food, for right now, I'll use them. I really need to get myself in the habit of filling up my reusable water bottles and keeping them in the fridge, but I'm making a little progress at a time.
I do snack, but I try to make it healthy. I keep string cheese, mini babybel cheese, and peanut butter in the fridge/pantry. I've found that I really like something crunchy, too, so I have a bag of pretzels. I can eat 4 or 5 and feel satisfied, and they are great to dip in peanut butter for a sweet treat. I also keep skinny cow ice cream in the freezer, but my lactose intolerance hit me pretty hard this week.
In other news, American Idol is back!! That's my one TV show that I don't like to miss. I really enjoy watching the young singers who are trying out...and, my track record is pretty good on who will be the biggest stars. That doesn't mean I always pick the winner, but I can usually tell who is going to go on to have a good career.
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