Favorites

These are a few of my favorite things!

Here are some pictures of common things that I buy at the grocery store...

Let's start with breakfast. Kashi Go Lean and Fiber Plus seem to be the best cereals out there. The Kashi Go Lean has about 10 grams of fiber, and 13 grams of protein, which is just insane. It's a tad on the bland side, which I don't mind ( as long as I add some fruit!), but it's not for everyone. Kellogg's Fiber Plus is delicious! Nine grams of fiber and 150 calories with a sweet cinnamon taste...yumm!

Fiber One makes excellent pancake mix. Much lower in carbs and higher in fiber than most other brands, this is a favorite weekend choice for me! Delicious with some bananas, blueberries, or chocolate chips thrown in!

Aaaaand of course...Good old Quaker Oats. Sometimes I add peanut butter and bananas when I'm in the mood for hot cereal. I choose this oatmeal because it doesn't have the added sugar that you find with other brands.

 Now on to carby things. This isn't all of my favs, but it's a running start. For bread, I like the Holsum Lite'R wheat bread. 35 calories per slice plus a few grams of fiber. Thomas' makes so many different types of english muffins, it's hard to keep them all straight. I like the multi grain light version. 100 calories and 8 grams of fiber! As for pasta...I used to have a love/hate relationship with pasta. Meaning, I used to love it so much and ate too much of it, which made my waistline expand! Then, when I started watching what I was eating, I avoided it altogether, when I became a "carbophobe". After months and months of looking, I finally found an excellent wheat pasta (most wheat pastas are just darker versions of the high carb white types with no fiber- what a ripoff!) A lot of people always say, "Well, I eat wheat pasta, so it must be healthy". Not always the case! The DiCecco brand honestly does make their wheat pasta with a lot less carbs than other types, and it trumps a pretty decent amount of fiber as well! I can't tell you how happy I was when I found a pasta that I could eat!

 It's PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!!! One of my food obsessions. I love, love, love peanut butter. I love it on bread, I love it with ice cream, I love it on crackers, on a spoon...And I have plenty of brands that will suffice during a PB craving. Now, I've been told that when it comes to PB (not to mention all food in general), the less ingredients, the better. Peanuts and salt are the way to go. That being said, I really love Crazy Richard's all natural peanut butter. The only thing that stinks about natural peanut butter is the oil separation. Even after you stir it and put it in the fridge, there's still a block of dried out PB at the bottom of the jar :( . When I'm in the mood for a plain old creamy blend, I go to Simply Jif. I don't bother with low fat peanut butter, because in most cases, when food companies take fat out, they use disgusting additives and sugar to make up for the fat that was taken away. Soooo, I try to find peanut butter that has mono and poly UN-saturated fats (the good fats). Dark Chocolate Dreams by Peanut Butter and Co. is a tasty treat that I like to put in ice cream sometimes. I think the closest thing you could compare it to would be Nutella, so it's a pretty good alternative for that if you're looking for a chocolate spread.
And what would peanut butter be without a good jelly counterpart? Smuckers makes a sugar free grape preserves that is just as good as the regular stuff. I try to cut out extra sugar wherever possible!

Snacks! Snacks are an important part of any diet. I usually have a mid morning snack, and another before I work out. These are a few of my top pics:
1. Frigo Light String Cheese- 60 calories and delicious!
2. Yogurts- Yogurt is something I usually have to be in the mood for. I can't just sit down and gobble a cup of yogurt like I can eat peanut butter. The two that I stick with are Activia Light and Chobani. I absolutely adore Chobani Yogurt. Let me explain the difference between the two. I'm sure most people have seen the TV commercials for Activia. Dannon bought the rights to bifidis regularis, which is a fancy term for a type of bacteria (good) that regulates your digestive system. At 70 calories for the 4 ounce serving, I usually eat it with a piece of fruit. Chobani is a brand of greek yogurt. They really know how to make yogurt over in Greece. It's more of a custard, and it has waaaaay more protein than most regular yogurts. I don't care for the plain greek yogurt, but the fruit blends are delicious. It tends to be expensive, so I either get it on the 10 for $10 sale at the Weis near me, or I load up at Sam's Club.
3. Bars- Who doesn't love a good granola bar every now and then? I have searched high and low, and sought out some bars that are healthy, and not candy bars in disguise! I like the Fiber One 90 calorie bars- peanut butter and chocolate flavor, of course! The regular Fiber One bars are good too, but they tend to hurt my stomach (too much fiber in one sitting perhaps- I am not the first person to have this problem!) The Kellogg's Fiber Plus bars are absolutely amazing, they really do taste like a candy bar (again, in chocolate/peanut butter flavoring). Now, the Kellogg's bars have just as much fiber as the Fiber One regular size bars, but for some reason, these don't hurt my stomach. Unsolved mystery.
4. Prunes- not just for your grandmother! When my boyfriend's sister first told me to try prunes, I smushed up my face in disgust. But I have grown to love them! Again, I used my Sam's Club membership to get a Big Ole' Bag of prunes. I usually eat about 3 or 4 of them mid morning. Good source of antioxidants, fiber, good for the digestive track...can't go wrong!

And who doesn't love a good nighttime snack? I know I do. I don't really eat popcorn very often, but if I get that craving, I reach for the Jolly Time Healthy Pop, or Smart Balance. They are very low in calories and high in fiber- BUT you have to watch the serving size. One time I ate a whole bag and thought "Wow, that's a lot of popcorn for 100 calories", then I looked at it again and realized that there were 3.5 servings in that bag! Oops! So you gotta watch!

I have a textbook classic sweet tooth. I could pass up french fries any day of the week, but don't you dare walk past me with anything chocolate! I am an ice cream addict, especially in the summer. I think I just really love the consistency, because sometimes I will eat frozen Cool Whip. Then, magically one day, my boyfriend came across a no sugar added Turkey Hill blend...now, most of the time, the low sugar, low fat stuff takes like garbage, but this stuff is really, really excellent. And you wouldn't believe the nutrition stats. 70 calories per serving and 5 grams of fiber! That's like, better than most yogurts you find out there! Totally guilt free. Sometimes I don't have any ice cream in the freezer and I turn to Jello. The basic sugar free pudding is awesome. Now that I have been eating Sugar Free pudding for so long, I have no clue how I ate the regular stuff. So much unnecessary sugar!

Oh, Smart Balance. Making sure America gets their Omega 3 fats like no other. I stick with Smart Balance for most of my condiments, even if I do have to pay the extra dollar for it. I use their cooking spray, mayo, light butter spread, and cheese slices. They also make peanut butter, but there's a flax-seed type taste to it that I could never quite get used to.