My new eating plan

I've often heard, as many of you also probably have, that eating 5 small meals a day is more healthy than eating 3 big meals per day.

With that in mind, and the fact that my work schedule is forcing me into some new habits, I've come up with a new eating plan.

I usually eat breakfast every morning somewhere around 7am. That's about the time I used to get up for work, so that's when I'm used to eating. I've been trying to push it back a bit, so that I'm not so hungry at lunch, so that's probably going to be close to the 8-9 area now. This morning I had some cereal for breakfast. usually it'll be either cereal or eggs, both with optional toast. I've gotta pick up some fruit to go with that too. (Bananas, apples, oranges... all good breakfast fruits)

Then, I'm finding that soon after getting to work (an hour or 2 in, roughly 12:00 or so) I'm starting to get hungry. So I need a small snack. Today I brought some of my mom's left over tuna salad that we had with dinner last night. Healthy, not too heavy, and a good time for a snack (given my schedule.) That will likely be an apple or something most days. Just something small to hold me until lunch.

Then I head to lunch around 2:00. Today, I had some more left overs from moms... a couple pieces of BBQ chicken, and 2 small salt potatoes. Not too big, but not too small either. I want to try to cook something for myself before work, so that I can have something healthy and not have too much work to do come lunch time.

Around 6 (when most other people are leaving my office) I have time for another snack. Tonight I brought a can of Chunky soup. I know for most people that's more like a meal, but it's not a full meal for me unless I have something with it. Plus, it'll give me energy to go work out after work. 

So basically, this is actually going to be more like my dinner. I'd like this to be something I've pre-prepared as well, and include some more of that fruit with it, balancing out the meal a bit.

Leave work at 7:30, gym probably 8-9 or so, that means I'm eating late, which I know is not good. But this time, something small and full of protein - since I just got out of the gym. Probably a couple PB&J sandwiches and a couple glasses of milk. Probably put some protein supplement into a glass of milk, and some more fruit. (My mom often has grapes sitting around, and I find myself constantly snacking on those when I'm at her house, so I'll probably get some grapes too.)

I've also found myself eating less beef and more chicken and turkey. So most of the meals will probably be chicken based, or I also occasionally have sausage. Either way, I've been kinda light on the red meat lately, and I kinda want to keep it that way. Not that I don't like it (I do enjoy a good hamburger or steak occasionally) I just LOVE chicken, and there's so much you can do with chicken.

So this is the plan I'm going to make for myself, and I'm going to try to stick with it as much as possible. I really want to start into a healthier life-style, and I think I'm in the right mindset right now to make it work. Tonight will be my first day back to the gym in a while, then I'm going to head to the store and pick up that fruit I was talking about. (I'm really craving some mandarin oranges right now...)