People ask me on a near daily basis how it is that I maintain my 175lb weight loss. There is no magic bullet. No pill I take that makes it all go away. To put it simply, I watch what I eat like a mother loving hawk, using a food tracking app, keeping things out of my sight, and filling up on the right foods. That, paired with a decent amount of exercise keeps my weight in check. Don’t get me wrong, if there were a pill I could take that would trick my brain into thinking kale is an oreo, I’d take eleven of them.
A big part of my eating habits is eating A LOT of the right foods. I love volume eating. For those of you who aren’t aware of what volume eating or volumetrics is, it’s essentially eating a lot of low-energy dense foods (water heavy, low sugar fruits and veggies like tomatoes, onions, carrots, and berries) and making sure that the high-energy foods (breads, full-fat dairy, brownies, grains, brownies, meats, brownies) are extremely high quality and are more of the accent, than the main focus of a dessert meal. The “diet” (it’s really a lifestyle) calls for a lot of soups and stews, salads and raw veggies. If you don’t like soups and salads, volumetrics isn’t for you.
In general, I eat one serving of grain at each meal, breakfast being the heaviest in grains, a high quality protein at each meal, a high quality fat, and a lot of fruits and vegetables. Most of my snacks are fruits and vegetables, often, it is a soup that looks like it could be a meal in itself.
This is not a crash diet, you’re not going to go from (___insert star name here___) before “Dancing With the Stars” to (___insert star name here___) after “DWTS”. It’s a lifestyle that you learn to live with and love. Well, “love” in the same sense you would feel if you got stopped in Hollywood to be a contestant on “Jaywalking” and you paid attention in History class, so you remember what John Adams did before he was president, and not just who Hef’s last three grandgirlfrienddaughters were.
Last night’s dinner was a prime example of volume eating. The recipe I made was meant to serve 4, but after we had eaten our fill, we had LOTS of leftovers. We were just THAT full.
Healthy Chicken Casserole
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Keywords: bake entree gluten-free American
Ingredients (serves 4-5)
- 12 oz chopped chicken thigh or breast
- 1 2/3 cup cooked brown rice
- 15 oz canned chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 lb chopped carrot
- 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
- 1/2 large onion, chopped
- 12 large cocktail olives
- 2 bell peppers, chopped
- 1 cup cilantro (measured first, then chopped)
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
- 1 TBSP cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 TBSP chopped garlic
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/3 of an 8z bag low fat cheddar cheese
- salt and pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F
on an indoor grill,
salt and pepper the chicken
grill all the way through
chop the chicken into 1″ cubes
combine all of the other ingredients except for the cheese
pour into casserole dish
top with cheese
bake, uncovered for 30 minutes
optional-top with plain yogurt, salsa, and avocado
Incidentally, to make this vegetarian-sub the chicken for 1 can of spicy black beans!
