Hello loves! I hope everyone is having an amazing day so far! I wanted to make a quick post combined with another one because recently a girl I went to high school with contacted me about how she read my blog and how I inspired her to start to eat healthy and work out! I was so excited and giddy when I heard that because it makes me so happy to hear that I am inspiring people to change their lives for the better! Anyway, she started talking about how going to the grocery store and coming up with healthy meals is confusing and she asked me if I could make up a meal plan for her and I jumped on that right away! It is exciting for me to share with others what meals I have come up with and what healthy foods work for me and which ones didn't work for me. I went through quite a long trial and error phase where I experimented with every kind of health food there is! Some...not as good as I hoped they would be but I am glad that I experimented so that I could cross certain foods off my list. I wanted to share this with you guys because I would be honored to make personalized recipes and meal plans for any of you! All you would have to do is shoot me an email and I will send you some of my favorite breakfast, snack, lunch, dinner and dessert recipes with you that I loved and trust me I am a picky eater! I focus mainly on easy, simple, inexpensive meals which I am sure most of you out there are looking for as well.
My email:
ddeb12@aol.com
Another quick random thing I wanted to talk to you all about today is something that I have found out about that I am extremely excited to share and it involves food. SCORE!
I am sure most of you have heard of Panera Bread, right?! I hope you have because Panera is one of the best restaurant/cafes I have been to! I call it more of a cafe because it is more of a relaxed place and they also have a drive thru so I guess you could call it fast food. The difference between regular fast food and Panera is how fresh the ingredients are. I have a friend that works at a local Panera Bread and she told me that they freshly bake all of their breads, muffins, bagels etc in the early hours of the morning every single day so they are fresh for the customers and at the end of the day they throw out everything that hasn't sold, which makes me sad that all of that yummy food gets thrown away but also makes me feel better that I am not getting day old food! Anyway, the only downside is that most of the food comes with a hefty calorie count and is not the healthiest food in town. There are lots of rich soups, also they are known for their amazing panini's which are hands down amazing! Recently I found out about their salads which come in full size and half size. I had never had one of their salads before because I strictly stuck to their broccoli cheese soup and panini's back in the day when I was not on a diet. I hadn't been there in so long because I didn't want to get anything else off the menu besides what I usually got mostly because I was stubborn and because I still thought everything else on the menu was unhealthy.
After I found out about their half salads and about how most of them were only 230 calories including dressing I couldn't have jumped in my car fast enough! Before I started losing weight I could literally consume so much food it was embarrassing because my stomach was larger and it seemed like nothing could fill me up! When I started losing weight I noticed how much less food I could consume and how much my stomach had shrunk. So the reason for the story was I got their "Spinach Power Salad" and it was one of the best salads I have ever eaten and I got the half and it completely filled me up! I almost couldn't finish it!
The nutritional facts for HALF:
Calories - 230
Fat - 13
Protein - 7 g
Sugars - 11 g
There are so many more that I have tried that blew my mind on how good they were and an extra bonus is that the half salads are only around $5-$6! It comes with your choice of a piece of bread, an apple or a bag of chips so you should obviously go for the apple to keep the calories strictly at 230. How amazing is that for an entire salad including dressing? Most people are probably thinking how crazy I am for freaking how this much over a salad but I haven't found a lot of places that offers half salads that are packed with so much flavor for such little calories. Most salads after adding all of your toppings can be up to 400-500 calories! Another reason why I wanted to share this with you all is because it is amazing for people who are always in a hurry on their lunch breaks or for people who do not have time to pack a lunch before they leave the house and they are starving! You don't have to settle for a greasy meal at another fast food joint, you can get this amazing half salad and you won't feel bad after eating it. I had to ask the person behind the counter twice if those calories were including the dressing to make sure and she reassured me time after time that is the right number I am looking at!
I hope you guys enjoyed this quick post about some topics that I have been wanting to share with you all! Love you guys and make sure to email me if you are interested in not only a meal plan, but some advice on recipes and some suggestions!