My Favorites...

I was always a creature of habit. Except when I was obese, it was a bagel and cream cheese or a muffin I chose to eat every morning for breakfast along with a Dr. Pepper. I could have the same lunch everyday for a month and not bat an eyelash. I've realized that this hasn't changed with the lap band except now my habitual food is healthier. I thought I'd take a lead from some of the other bandster bloggers and share some of my favorites.

I start every morning with an iced coffee. I used to hate ice coffee and would have a Dr. Pepper, eventually Diet Dr. Pepper, every morning. I would usually drink at least three each day. Now I drink an iced coffee for breakfast. I use regular milk and sweet and low. The great thing is that I've found that I like lots of iced coffee places now (except Starbucks!)

At around 11am each morning I have one of two things. Either a chocolate and peanut butter Zone bar (absolutely my favorite) or a toasted nut and cranberry luna bar. I typically only have Luna bars if I've run out of zone bars since they sell them at my coffee place downstairs from my office.

I have 2% Fage greek yogurt almost everyday for lunch with Kellogg's low fat granola with raisins. This varies if I have a client lunch or a staff meeting. Today we brought in sandwiches and salads. I took the turkey and brie off of a sandwich, put it over some salad and had that for lunch today. But 4 days out of 5, it's greek yogurt and granola. Granola is high in calories (I probably use anywhere from 170-200 calories worth of it), but we eat such little amounts of food, that in the end I still eat only about 600 calories by the time I go home from work.

If I get hungry in the afternoon, I might have a small bag of this AMAZING Kettlecorn. Whole Foods sells the little bags in one big sack, so you get about 10 little bags. Each has 92 calories. Yummy, salty and sweet snack and I don't have any issues with popcorn. The key here is that they are portion controlled. I would not bring the large bag in my house. It wouldn't last the night! ;-)

           

I eat nuts daily and really like these Planters Deluxe Nuts with sea salt. I usually have a serving (19) nuts for 170 calories when I come home. Remember my post about needing a nut intervention? Well I've been able to reign it in, but I eat a lot of nuts! It's funny...my mom eats nuts. She's skinny. I say nuts are the secret people!

Stacy's pita chips (I've tried three flavors so far, naked, tuscan herb and cinnamon sugar) are the yummiest! I often eat them with Sabra's roasted garlic hummus. I don't advise doing this with the cinnamon sugar variety.

 

And for dessert...I buy a bag of peppermint patties about once a month and put them in my freezer. It's a great go to for a sweet treat. Three of them are 150 calories and I typically can't eat more than two at a sitting. Too minty! 

So, that's some of my favorites. Being a creature of habit makes grocery shopping a lot easier. I went to whole foods today to refresh some supplies and spent about $40. That will last me about a week and a half. Oh...the one thing that is missing here is ground turkey. I always have ground turkey, pinto and black beans, chili seasoning and tomato sauce in my apartment. Chili takes about 15 minutes and is always such an easy go-to.