High Protein Cream Cheese and Chicken Enchilada Recipe

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These creamy chicken enchiladas, made with cream cheese, salsa and chicken, are to DIE for! You do NOT want to miss out!

Before we dive into these creamy chicken enchiladas, we must talk about calories. Calories count when it comes to weight loss, no matter if your calories are from protein or carbs.

Eating healthy, but gaining weight

The most shocking thing for me to learn, after years of following diet plans and listening to diet advice from the experts, was that it is never about the food!

The very last diet I tried before finding mindful eating was to eliminate sugar. I listened to books about sugar being addictive, I subscribed to podcasts, I read articles, and I was convinced that if I simply eliminated sugar, I would never overeat again!

To me in that moment, sugar was the villain and, by simply taking it away, all my overeating and indulging would vanish. Imagine my surprise when I not only gained five pounds during those 30, sugar-free days, but my face broke out in acne!

All those experts who claimed cravings would dissipate and skin would clear up, were suddenly proven wrong in my personal experience. I gained five pounds because I simply replaced sugar with other foods that I loved to mindlessly eat: trail mix, crackers, and spoon fulls of peanut butter! Do you know how easy it is to eat 1,000 calories of the Costco trail mix while standing in the pantry?

VERY EASY! 

Mindful eating and weight loss

Mindful eating is intended to work in harmony with eating the best food for your body! While our body is learning what foods are best, it’s smart to set some boundaries if your goal is weight loss.

If it’s been years since your body felt true hunger, it may not be able to tell you when to eat and when to stop. Compare eating to budgeting: You can still buy the things you really want, you just need to look at the price tags more closely! With proper food, 400-600 calories at a meal is enough to satiate your appetite and give you the proper energy till the next meal.

Emotional hunger vs physical hunger

You must start here, while your body re-learns how to listen to hunger cues and learns the difference between emotional (brain hunger) and physical (body hunger). 

Emotional hunger is that child inside of you that wants to eat a cookie. Physical hunger is the grown up in you that knows a fresh piece of fruit will leave you feeling better than a cookie. 

When you begin to really taste your food, you might find there are some foods that you thought you loved, that you actually don’t like at all! By paying attention to the food you are eating and snacking on, certain foods may leave you feeling sick, bloated, or unwell. 

Save calories by only eating the food you love.

Before you begin your journey, make a list of the healthy foods you love, to include in your regime. For example, I love fruit and oatmeal. I love it so much, that I would eat it daily and I would NEVER tire of it! When I try to incorporate different breakfasts into my day, based on the latest fad diet or recommendations from fitness guru’s, I am not satisfied with breakfast! If I love oatmeal, but feel like I have to eat a protein shake, breakfast leaves me unsatisfied, and wanting to eat more food.

So, one food I LOVE is this Cream cheese chicken enchiladas! I’ve been making this for my family for years, but I also will make a single serving of it for me when the mood strikes. If you make it for your family, simple wrap an entire pan of these, and bake it in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes.

Otherwise, if you are making it for yourself, simply microwave for 1-2 minutes and you are ready to eat!

Follow on pinterest for more high protein meal ideas!

READ NEXT –> 19 Ways to Use Shredded Chicken!

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