Meal Timing and 1300 calorie day

Day 34 of my weight loss journal, for Bikini prep 2023

Several people in the last few days have messaged me asking when I eat my meals (as in the times). I LOVE your questions. Please keep asking and I can write something more interesting in these posts than just a recap of my day!

When it comes to weight loss, I’ve tried the 6 mini meals. It worked for a little while for me, but very quickly it stopped working. My 6 mini meals turned into 6 regular meals, which then turned into grazing all day long.

I prefer to have 3-4 BIG meals, because I like to be fully satisfied after the meal. To eat half as much food every two hours and never feeling “full” is kind of uncomfortable for me. I’m the ‘lick your plate clean’ kind of girl.

So, I’ve written two REALLY good articles about why snacking isn’t necessary and why snacking doesn’t “rev up your metabolism”, but quite the opposite. Always digesting food really slows me down. (read those articles here)

So, my meals happen at 9am, 12:00, 3:00 and 5:00. I do it early, because I go to bed early. I’ve always been a 5pm dinner kind of girl, and I actually never eat after dinner. It’s very rare I’d ever eat anything past 6pm. That’s more of a habit than willpower. Once I leave the kitchen for the night, I just don’t think of going back.

You might think that “eating by the clock” rather than “hunger” is a bad idea, but I am REALLY good at eating when I’m not hungry, so sticking to a diet is impossible if I’m not eating by the clock. I can look at the clock when I want a snack and think, “Amy- you don’t need a snack. You literally ate 20 minutes ago”. So, eating by the clock to help me delay eating between meals has been very helpful for me.

My meals yesterday were:

• Breakfast: 9:00 am: Protein waffles with caramel sauce! Same recipe as my pancakes from yesterday (1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup egg whites and 1/3 cup fat free cottage cheese). Then, I topped the waffle with Greek yogurt and the Walden Farms Caramel dip.
• Lunch: 12:00  Another salad, and I added 5 ounces chicken, 1 mandarin orange, won ton crisps, and Bolthouse Balsamic vinaigrette
• Snack: 3:00 pm : I doubled up on snacks today because I got the most recent Mint Brownie Puff built bar, and it’s SO GOOD! This one tastes like a york peppermint patty to me.
  Also, while we’re on Built bar, I usually will buy some if they are EVER selling white chocolate ones, and today they started selling white chocolate cookies and cream! My affiliate code is 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐓 if you are in the market for some too!!
• 𝐒𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑𝐃𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐈𝐍 𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒
  🔹1 scoop protein powder (you can use vanilla, but I used Clean simple eats snickerdoodle flavor)
  🔹1 tablespoon all purpose flour
  🔹2 tablespoons milk
  🔹1 tablespoon almond butter (I used off-bean cinnamon nut butter)
  🔹monk fruit sugar & cinnamon mixture for rolling the balls. Combine protein powder with flour, almond butter and SLOWLY add the milk until it forms a ball. If you can get away with less milk, it will be best. Too much milk will make it too sticky.
  Roll into two balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Chill until ready to eat.
• Dinner 5:00 YUMMY!! Sweet potato fries cooked in the air fryer with broccoli, also cooked in the air fryer, and chicken on a skillet.