Eating better

So, I'm sitting here wondering why I don't eat better all the time.  I've been tracking my calories for 8 days now and I've set a limit of 2000 calories per day.  I've gone through the last 8 days and although I had one day when I logged 2965 calories, the average of the other 7 days has been 2090 calories.  Some days I was under 2000, a couple days I went over, but the average is right where I want to be.  I haven't been starving myself.  I eat 3 meals a day, plus a snack before bed and other than 2 times, I haven't been hungry between meals at all.  Both times were at work and I went and grabbed a fiber one bar from the vending machine.

Why then, have I been eating the other way for so long.  I know part of it is just plain laziness.  It's easier to call for a pizza than it is to cook a meal.  It's easier to buy breakfast and lunch than it is to plan and pack.  But honestly, except for the breakfasts from the cafeteria and the salmon salads, I rarely truly enjoyed the meals there.  They are o.k. and filled me up, but rarely left me satisfied.  In the past 6 months or so, I've noticed this with all fast food, except pizza.  I still love pizza!

The last 7 days though have been very satisfying.  For breakfast, I've been alternating between a breakfast burrito and English muffin with peanut butter and apple slices.  The burrito is turkey sausage, egg, red and orange bell pepper, cheese on a flour tortilla.  I precooked the sausage on the weekend and froze individual portions.  When I get to work, I nuke the peppers and sausage  for a minute, then mix in an egg and the cheese and nuke it for another minute.  Lunch has either been soup and a sandwich, leftovers or a grilled chicken breast mixed with a pack of Green Giant frozen veggies.  Dinners have been normal dinner stuff.  Spaghetti, turkey cutlets, pork chops, etc... and I have a bowl of cereal before bed

Nothing I listed is complex, the most complex item is probably the breakfast burrito, second is the chicken because I had to pre-grill it on the weekend.  It only takes me a couple minutes at night to pull everything together and less than a minute in the mornings to toss it in my lunch cooler with an icepak.  I've also saved about $50 by not buying both meals every day.  I have been buying either a small salad or small soup and an iced tea to compliment my lunches, around $4 a day. I just need to keep reminding myself of these things and  take the time on the weekends to shop, prep, whatever I need to get ready.

The second hurdle I have is dinner.  My wife gets home before me and usually has dinner ready when I get home.  However we are terrible at remembering to pull something from the freezer the night before and then we end up ordering,.  Also there are times when she's had a rotten day at work and just doesn't feel like cooking.  We've all had those and quite often, I'm just too lazy to cook when I get home, so again we order. Both these things can easily change.  I drive past a grocery store on the way home, so I could easily pick up some fresh meat and we could whip up dinner together and we can start having some meals frozen for the nights neither of us feel like cooking.  Neither of these things are difficult, just a different approach instead of call for chinese.

These are the things I really need to change to keep the weight off.  I know what I should eat and I feel better when I do, so why don't I do it all the time?

Oh, the day I logged almost 3000 calories was last Saturday.  I had a 3 egg ham and cheese omelet with toast for breakfast, then went small game hunting in the snow for 2.5 hours.  The lowest calorie count I could come up with for that activity was around 1600 calories burned.  After hunting, we stopped at Eat N Park for lunch.  Frankly, after climbing up and down hills in 6 inches of snow with 20lbs of gear, I think that's a modest guess and counting those calories back in, I was well under 2000.   I try not to eat back my exercise calories, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!