What’s in the rotation?
Hey guys! How’s your day going? Hope you’re having a lovely morning. I enjoyed reading about your fitness and food goals for April! I have a good feeling about this month 😉
So does Bell. She’s already enjoying smelling the fresh flowers that I will most likely kill,
and the run we took yesterday to get the crazies out.
My effort was fruitless though, because when we came back home to my mom and Liv, she laid on the tile for about 5 minutes before tossing her snowman toy around and trying to break its neck. She’s a wild one.
Yesterday afternoon, Madre, Liv and I went to lunch at a family friend’s house. She lives on property at work, and it was her first time meeting Liv. We had an amazing time catching up with her and dined on quite the salad beast feast:
The photo doesn’t do it justice but it was a giant plate stacked with greens, tomatoes, olives, hummus, tuna salad (the best I’ve ever had), chickpeas, hearts of palm, artichokes, balsamic dressing
and gluten-free goodies for dessert.
(plus another cookie.. and another macaron)
She also sent me home with the rest of the desserts (and fruit!) so there will be lots of chocolate chip crispies in the near future 🙂 The Pilot was very happy to see the tray of goodness when he got home from his flight.
Speaking of cookies….
the bfast cookie is BACK!
Since I never know how the night will go over here, it’s pretty fantastic to wake up to a breakfast waiting for me to devour it. It’s probably my next breakfast obsession until I go to egg burritos, smoothies, then back to hot oats. It’s all a rotation over here.
I was listening to Jillian Michaels in the car the other day –an old podcast since I’m catching up- and she was talking about the fact that we really only eat 5 breakfasts, 5 lunches, 5 dinners and the same snacks day in and day out. Of course, I try to get a little more creative with things since I try not to bore you guys, but really, it’s true. I’m a creature of habit, and if I didn’t have a blog, I’d probably eat the same thing every day for weeks. Sometimes I do, so I’ll just blog about other things besides food. Blogging forces me to think outside the box a little, which is a good thing 😉
Here are the things I tend to rotate between:
Breakfast: Breakfast cookie, egg burrito or egg sandwich, smoothie, protein oats, omelet and salad
Lunch: Salad beast, turkey wrap, grain salad (grain, greens, nuts/seeds, dried fruit, dressing), omelet with toast and salad, giant smoothie with ab&j toast
Dinner: Salmon with sweet potato and veggie, chicken with veggies and brown rice, Mexican night, pizza night, jalapeno turkey burger with sweet potato fries and veggies
Snack: small smoothie, fruit with almond butter, trail mix, amazeballs, Larabars, veggies and hummus
Do you rotate between 5 things for breakfast, lunch and dinner? What are the usuals?
This also reminds me that ‘tis the season (in blogs and real-life) to see people hustling and bustling to lose weight and get in shape for the summer. Here is my friendly little reminder to be kind to yourself <3 If you’re working to get to a healthy weight, trying to be mindful of portions and up your exercise a little, that’s all fine and dandy, but remember that slow and steady wins the race. Pick goals that you can easily maintain for the long term and you’ll be far more likely to stick to them.
If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out the Summer Shape Up on the fitness page: lots of meal ideas and workout plans over there.
Enjoy your day and I’ll see ya later with a Fashion post!
xoxo
Gina
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Yep – breakfast, lunch, and snacks are all pretty much the same everyday. However, dinners and desserts are a different story – I try to mix in a new recipe or two a week. Having a blog helps to inspire me to try new things. 🙂
I eat pretty much the same breakfast and snacks every day. I’d go weird if I didn’t, I think.
Here are my usuals:
Breakfast: protein smoothie, larabar/other healthy bar, scrambled eggs with cheese
Lunch: salad, tofurkey sandwich, egg salad, veggie wrap
Dinner: homemade pizza, veggie burgers, soup, homemade mac and cheese, pasta, quesadillas
I’m definitely a creature of habit, so I tend to stick with the same basic meals, too. I love oatmeal in the morning (either hot, overnight oats, or a breakfast cookie), sandwiches/ wraps/ salads for lunch, and then I’ll often make one or two meals for dinner on the weekend and eat them throughout the week. Part of the reason I love reading blogs is to get inspiration to switch things up and try new things! And I agree – writing a blog does encourage me to have at least a little bit more variety in my diet than I would otherwise.
PS That macaron looks DELISH! Yum 🙂
Hmm very true! I think snacks more than anything are in rotation for me. Larabars with a babybel cheese, a piece of toast smeared with AB and plum slices, or my crunchy clementine creme, which I blogged about today actually!
Perfect look raspberries and strawberries! i just bought some pineapple yesterday…I’m all about delicious fruit these days. Spring does that to me 🙂
me too 🙂
Breakfast: greek yogurt+ banana+ ground flax+ almond butter.. Overnight oats.. Protein pancake.. egg white and cheese omelet.. oats. Snacks: Morning snacks are always a variation of a smoothie with Protein powder.. (sometimes I’ll have another one for the afternoon snack if I am at a loss for something else to snack on).. cottage cheese and fruit, fruit and nut butter. Lunch and dinner tend to be similar- so they are one category around here: Eggs + greens, huge salads, brown rice+ veg, homemade pizza.. whatever veg I find that looks amazing with anything randomly laying around 🙂
I eat pretty much the same bfast every morning. For lunch I make a recipe in bulk for hubby and myself to last the week. Dinner is where I am creative. I always try to come up with different things. I usually cook so the meal lasts 2 nights… so I have to make sure the meals are different from each other.
I totally rotate like you. This week is stir-fry (chx sausage veggies) for breakfast. Next week, I’m sure, will be something different. Same goes for lunch patterns, too.
I am curious, and perhaps you’ve gone over this in an old post. You eat really clean now. When you were trying to lose your last few pounds, did you eat less than you do now or how was it different? Hope that makes sense. Just curious!
i ate a lot less fat and a lot of “diet food” like sugarfree, fat free, south beach stuff. i also counted calories for quite a while
now, i just eat whatever i’m feeling and when i’m more active with teaching, i add in about two more snacks.
when you made that transition to “real food” did you notice a change in your weight? Or were you still successful with keeping your weight off? I am always tempted to suffer through a phase of “diet food” just to get to my goal then transition….It seems like a lot of the blog world has done this
I meant to say that it seems like a lot of the blog world’s weight loss journey’s started with diet food, lost the weight, then they changed their diet to real food. Anyways-Just curious :):):)
when i transitioned to real food, i gained a little bit of weight, but i think it’s because the lowest weight i got to wasn’t my maintenance weight. maintenance weight is when you don’t have to count calories, can still occasionally indulge, and maintain the results of your hard work.
i gained about 5 lbs, which has been much easier (and more fun) to maintain. 🙂
Thank you for your response 🙂 Have you ever thought about doing a post comparing how you used to eat to how you do now? it would be interesting to see 🙂
I definitely have a rotation going on! It used to always be oats for breakfast but then my naturopath advised me that whenever we eat something EVERY day we run the risk of becoming sensitive to it over time, and I couldn’t face the thought of being sensitive to oats! So now I alternate between protein oats, protein smoothie, egg on toast, peanut butter + jelly on toast or protein pancakes.
My eats are pretty much the same as well! I try so hard, especially because I blog about my eats, to eat something new. But I LOVE what I currently eat. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right??
I definitely have basically the same 3 foods for breakfast each morning: either a breakfast cookie or overnight oats if I plan ahead, or a smoothie. I hate hot oatmeal and I usually don’t make time for eggs or protein pancakes in the morning- I save that for the weekend! Lunch is typically a salad or a frozen meal but dinner gets changed up quite a bit. It makes it so much easier to plan when at least 2/3 meals are the same each day!
This post has made me REALLY hungry!
I tend to rotate between green/protein/banana smoothies, eggs + toast, and homemade “power” muffins for breakfast.
Lunch is usually a salad or leftovers.
Dinner is a mixed bag. Last night it was a smoothie because I was exhausted after swimming!
My breakfasts are pretty standard (on a cookie kick these days), but my lunches & dinners change a lot!
I am such a creature of habit! I try not to bore people with my eats but I can’t help what I’m craving sometimes!
Here are my dailys Breakfast,1/4 cp oats n berries with protein frosting,or your cookie or egg sandwich,or omelette.Lunch is Salad or veggies or both with some lean meat.Dinner is Mini turkey loaves or grilled chicken or stk or fish B.Potatoe of some sort,asparagus,salad and we have chinese night once a week and sometimes a pizza or mexican night,and Sushi Saturdays 🙂 Have a Great day girl!
I could eat the same thing every single day and never get tired of it. I’m such an old lady. ;p
Um, I just tried the breakfast cookie for the first time…AMAZING!!
yay, i’m glad you liked it!
I’m a creature of habit for breakfast (yogurt & a larabar on a hectic morning, scrambles or oats & fruit on days when I have more time) and lunch (hummus & veggies/turkey sandwich/cottage cheese etc).
But I LOVE to cook and dinner is when I like to mix it up! We do lots of roasted chicken with veggies, fajitas, different chilis (white & red), steak or salmon salads, chicken dishes (piccata, marsala etc), home made pizzas, turkey spaghetti, paninis w/ soup etc etc. I couldn’t even name a rotation of 10 regular dinners!
I definitely guilty of also sticking to the same few meals. For breakfast 9/10 times I’m eating eggs with veges. Sometimes I’ll switch it up and have some oatmeal or a protein pancake, but eggs appear to have just stolen my heart. Lunch is typically a salad with a piece of fruit while my dinners have more variety. Haha, writing this really makes me think I may need to switch it up just a bit.
That looks like an awesome salad beast! Then again, I’m partial to any salads that include hearts of palm and artichokes– 2 of my favorite salad toppings! And I think that’s probably pretty true about us eating mostly the same things! I think this is especially true for me with breakfast, I tend to rotate a few things and greek yogurt and granola almost always makes an appearance. I do need to bring back the breakfast cookie though and will make one tonight for tmw’s breakfast!
Yep, I’d say I’m a creature of habit too! Although it’s not the exact same ingredients every time I make a particular ‘dish’. For example, salad beasts have variation based on what I’ve got in the fridge. Right now, I’m wishing that that was everything in YOUR salad because it looks amazing!
I always switch it up, I have about 10 breakfasts I rotate through and rarely eat the same thing each week, lunches are more repeats than anything, usually a salad, veg&hummus wrap or leftovers and supper is even less repeats, way too many different ones, and we might eat the same thing once a month! Snacks are limited to about 8-10 ones I rotate though.
I typically eat the same thing for weeks before switching it up. Right now breakfast is a protien shake with an apple and peanut butter. When I get sick of that I will go back to an egg scramble or oats 🙂
Lunch is typically always a salad of some kind with a Greek yogurt.
The only food I switch up often are my snacks. I pick them each morning depending on how I feel.
I loved this post! fabulous ideas and a great reminder to switch up my meals- I tend to eat same thing every day and night haha
I don’t even make it as far as 5 things for breakfast! I’m either eating an egg white scramble with onions, jalapenos, and mushrooms with Ezekiel toast, or oats with egg whites! That breakfast cookie looks amazing though!
My meals are definitely boring over here. I recently changed it up and got into cottage cheese…such a risky rebel, I know 😉
The usual culprits are:
Breakfast: protein pancakes/waffles, oatmeal, baked oatmeal, egg & cheese sandwich w/fruit
Lunch/Dinner: hummus & veggie sandwich on a g-free english muffin w/alexia fries or fruit, homemade mac & cheese w/edamame, tofu parmesan, twice baked sweet potatoes, veggie burgers, smoothies, lettuce wraps (quinoa, veggies, feta, kalamata olives in boston lettuce) and salmon if i’m out to eat – i still haven’t mastered making it at home 🙁
PS: I had a breakfast cookie this morning… it was AMAZING!
The Salad Beast! I’m now SO hungry for that for lunch, but I’m at work and won’t be getting anything that fantastic 🙁
I totally get stuck in ruts with food, glad i’m not the only one… Mine:
Breakfast – oatmeal (irish steelcut these days) with raisins or cranberries, flax seed, nuts, and almond milk OR scrambled eggs and toast, OR Asparagus, fried eggs, and toast OR Kashi Autumn wheat with walnuts, cranberries and flax and almond milk.
Lunch – this is usually dinner leftovers or eggs (if i didn’t have for breakfast) with asparagus and toast, or something quick and easy – often trader joes gyoza or the like…
Dinner – ok, not much of a rut here because its almost always a last minute thing… 🙁 I need to try your meal planning trick!
I too am totally a creature of habit. I literally eat oatmeal almost everyday, with the occasional pancake or french toast day. I know I should try to think out of the box, but I totally look forward to my oats everyday lol
Great idea to ask a bunch of food blog readers what they eat all the time!
Jillian is spot-on — it sounds like everyone is a habitual eater! My staples are smoothies, scrambled eggs, salads, quiona, kale and…pizza. Sometimes, you have to live a little!
I love that photo of Bell with the flowers. It screams Spring and it’s artsy. You should frame it and hang it up!
I am definitely a creature of habit. I am trying to challenge myself this month by stepping out of my routine and trying new things! Which includes new recipes, eating out with others and switching up the times I eat too. At least my workout routine varies everyday!
I am definitely a creature of habit. I am trying to challenge myself this month by stepping out of my routine and trying new things! Which includes new recipes, eating out with others and switching up the times I eat too. At least my workout routine varies everyday!
For breakfast I am a creature of habit, I usually make an egg bake at the beginning of the week for my husband and I, and from week-to-week change up the veggies I put in it.
But for Dinner I try to make a different meal every night. I almost always try new recipes or drastically alter something I’ve made before. And then try to rotate a favorite meal in every few weeks. I would say since I’ve been married (8 months), we have only repeated a meal maybe 5 times.
And then for lunch I have leftover’s from the night before.
My breakfast is almost always a green smoothie. I’m not too into other breakfast food and it’s such an easy way to get my day started with a hefty amount of nutrients. Lunch is almost always a salad. I am obsessed with cooking so dinner is where I get the most variety!
Also, I just want to thank you for the reminder to us all to be kind to ourselves. When I started reading that paragraph, I was expecting to hear your tips for slimming down for summer. To hear something OTHER than pressure to lose weight quickly and look “good” in a bikini was truly a relief.
Happy Spring to you and yours!
Creature of habit over here, too, but only for b-fast & lunch. Breakfast during the week is always the same: 1/2 c oatmeal with a mashed banana, flax, cinnamon, vanilla, & blob of nut butter. Weekend b-fast is usually eggs of some sort w/ toast- omelette, over easy, scrambled…Lunches during the week is usually a salad beast of some variety or I’ll make a big batch of veggie-bean burgers. Dinners are where I mix it up- we eat lots of fish & shrimp, with at least 2 vegetarian dinners. I love to cook, so dinner is my time to shine! I like surprising the hubs with yummy healthy food that doesn’t taste like “health food”
That beast salad looks sooo good!
I have my regulars, but like to go out of the box as much as I can for dinners. I wish I worked from home so I could play in the kitchen all day long! Breakfast regular: Chobani yogurt (flavors rotate though!). Lunch regular: Delicious salad or sandwich on thin bread (again, mix up the toppings the meat, etc). Dinner is always changing. Maybe I am not soooo bad after all:)
breakfast: allbran and oats with yoghurt
lunch: peanut butter and honey or banana or grilled cheese or egg salad
snack: fruit and possibly something sweet
dinner: whatever i’m experimenting with at the moment, but i’m a big fan of chicken, cheese, and tacos (of the mild variety – like you, hubby loves the spice, but i can’t handle it)
I’m always eating oatmeal! It really is boring… but it keeps me full, which is why I eat it so often. You bfast cookie looks lovely!
Hey Gina! Yes, I seem to rotate without actually noticing. We eat pretty similiar too. 🙂 Have still need to make you breakfast cookie!
We used to be in a major food rut especially since I was sick all the time and never felt like cooking. Now that we’ve changed our diet to dairy free, gluten free, plant-based we eat sooooo many different foods all the time! Most of the variety is in our dinner menu because we like to stick to juice, smoothies or g-free pancakes for breakfast, the usual leftovers or veg+hummus or other dip for lunch/snacks but dinner has been more fun! We also like trying new things since this has all been a learning experience ~we’ve pretty much nailed g-free/vegan pizza and we do have that quite a bit! We also have our faves for when we’re short on time like baked sweet potatoes, salads, pasta, etc. It’s funny when we talk to people about what we don’t eat because it DOES sound like we would be limited with our diet…..”Meat free, egg free, gluten free, dairy free, soy free”……haha but really, we eat way more variety now than ever before and our kids eat a bigger variety of foods than others their age as well. It’s been fun!
It’s funny that you mention this “five things” situation. I’ve actually been working on a list of 4-5 staple ideas for meals for my Mom. She wants to start eating healthier but just doesn’t have the motivation to create, track and log something different for every meal so I told her I’d help pick out some simple things that she can eat every day or rotate weekly. Once she catches on and gets the motivation happening then she can branch out if she wants…but I’m willing to bet she’ll happily eat oatmeal and veggie chili every day if she can prepare it in batches once a week. hehe.
Another creature of habit over here! I have an autoimmune disease that seriously weakens my digestive system though, so I have to be careful with too much fiber and roughage. I used to eat more the standard HLB diet, but it would absolutely destroy my stomach now.
Breakfast is always either two slices of homemade white toast with cherry jam or a cheddar omelette made with two whole eggs and three extra whites.
Lunch is usually either homemade minestrone soup, cheese and crackers; or a chicken sandwich and steamed vegetables; or meatloaf and steamed vegetables.
Dinner is usually a chicken burger with roasted parsnip and carrot fries; chicken, cranberry, rosemary and cream cheese pizza with homemade potato fries; cottage pie and steamed vegetables; pan-fried fish fillets with steamed vegetables; salmon cakes with steamed vegetables; or curried chicken kebabs and fries.
Dessert: cake if it’s a birthday or special occasion, otherwise Yummy Earth hard candy (slightly addicted to the pomegranate flavour!) and often a treat-sized Milkybar.
breakfast: i used to be a cereal and milk every morning for breakfast for probably..20 years. now i’m on a yogurt, chia seed, sometimes coconut, fruit, and granola kick.
lunch: couscous and spinach/kale, quinoa and spinach/kale, half an everything bagel with veg cream cheese and cucumber, and fruit. my lunches are so boring.
dinner: my go to meal is portobellos or tofu, asparagus or spinach, and sweet potato fries or some sort of potato wedge. or spaghetti squash, tomato sauce and veg meat balls.
i am in the biggest food rut. i love to change things up. help.
Good Lord, I eat the same thing every day. I am totally that person who eats something until she gets sick of it; then I switch it up and start all over again!
Yum…even though I just ate dinner, all the food photos in this post looked awesome!
I am a total creature of habit. I rotate maybe three breakfasts, tops. Lunches are almost always the same. Since my husband went vegan, we rotate about 10 healthy dishes. I love it though!
Girlfriend! Enlighten me: where can I find/download J Michaels podcasts? Just iTunes?
thanks! xo
Either my rotations are super short (like 1-2 days) or I don’t have the same five meals…..Boo to feeling left out.
I almost always make a breakfast cookie when I have a super early morning, I flatten it out in wax paper to set and take it with me on the subway/plane/train/ferry.
Other than that, I’m all over the map. My fridge is never the same two weeks in a row! Probably because my fridge is one of those dorm sized fridges.
No, I don’t live in a dorm :-/
What do you recommend for someone who hasn’t worked out in six months, but walks about 3 miles per day (flat with some stairs scattered in).
Please don’t say running. I will break my legs on purpose just to avoid running. I was thinking weights, and cardio will take care of itself. I’m so lazy, bah!
OOhh that reminds me I haven’t made a breakfast cookie in a long time. I normally rotate between hot oatmeal with protein powder and protein pancakes for breakfast. Lunch is some variation of a salad with chicken or a turkey wrap. For dinner I love taco salads, spaghetti squash with marinara and I usually have some crazy amount of roasted veggies with every dinner. Right now I’m on a asparagus kick. Thanks for sharing new ideas everyday 🙂