The food...

You know, this part has been much easier than I thought. First of all, any nutrition plan that makes me record what I eat and how much exercise I'm getting in can shove it! Who wants to micro manage their life like that?! We train with Steve two days of the week with weight training, he tells us what to do for the other weight training day and leaves the cardio days up to us. Nothing to record and no guess work. Love it!

Steve gave us a very simple food plan. We eat pretty much the same things every day but it certainly takes the mystery out planning our meals and groceries. And it all makes so much sense. We eat about 1500 calories a day. I would say most days I can't even get in all this food but there are other days when temptation got the best of me or I was really hungry that I went over. Whole foods, lean meats and eliminate the fat, sugar and a big one though usually ignored, salt. You wouldn't believe how much sodium there is in prepackaged preserved foods!! And the huge culprit to retaining water and weight. Seriously, check your packages, you will be amazed! And I was never a soda drinker but even those diet drinks are loaded with sodium.

Breakfast: 3 egg whites and one whole egg (I never have been able to eat all of that!) and 1/2 C lowfat yogurt (we eat Activia which is fat free and 70 calories)

Morning Snack: Fruit (equivalent of 6 medium strawberries) and 1 oz almonds (about 21)

Lunch: 3 oz lean meat, 3/4 C brown rice, 1 C veggies

Afternoon Snack: 1/2 C fruit, 4 oz cottage cheese or a lowfat string cheese

Dinner: 4 oz lean meat, 1 C brown rice, 1 C veggies

Evening Snack: 2 rice cakes

Thank goodness for summer. We grill chicken, salmon, and lean cuts of beef for our meat and make our own marinades with as little sodium as possible. And we bought a rice cooker and always have that on hand. Sometimes we will substitute whole wheat bread (that mom makes, yum!) or whole grain pasta.

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!