Shrimp pasta and omelet..but first, have you heard of "Flexible dieting"? or "IIFYM"? how about simply eating for fat-loss?
As we've talked about before, it's hard to know what to cook and how to eat when you don't need the same amount of food that your growing kids or man-sized husband need. I definitely don't need the same amount of calories my husband does just to keep meat on his bones, and my 3 year old is a good eater but still a picker, she'll eat anything but she's still 3 and randomly picky. If you don't want to know about eating or fat-loss skip down to the recipe... (but it's pretty interesting info, if you ask me!)
I need more protein and fats than I do carbs, as many women with hormone issues/imbalances find they do. This is found by knowing your body (blood work from doctors helps) and trial and error. Carbs are awesome, and I eat them, but there are times when I'd rather eat mine for things other than just pasta and plain breads or there are times when my body just doesn't need 200 grams... though I do have those days too.
I guess I will take this minute to talk about carbs, just to clarify how I organize macro nutrients (fat, protein and carbs). As we are taught in college nutrition classes, there is a balanced way to eat your nutrients and every individual has a different need. This need can be calculated out based on many factors. Once calculated based on body composition and activity level it is truly trial and error over time... Eat what we calculate, see how your body responds then adjust accordingly.
These days, the days of needing to name diets and put Fancy titles to trends, people call this flexible dieting or "iifym" if it fits your macros. But calling it a diet is annoying to me because it's just how you should eat based on what you body needs....for life, as a lifestyle, not a diet. But if you need to tell yourself you're following a cool trend then go right ahead, because it works. But I've been calculating these things since 2002 (and many other have for many more years than I). **And for the general population, It's not about weighing your apple pieces or weighing minuscule crumbs of protein powder, but it's about knowing how much you need, how much that looks like and eating within what your body is requiring, but not being tied to a measuring cup or scale.
So I eat within what my body needs, and so do my clients. We track the food for and little bit so they can get to know their body and the fuel it needs and then they can wean off the numbers so they can learn to make appropriate choices to stay healthy and fit.
When my thyroid was off kilter (as diagnosed by a sports doc) I had to eat lower carb, higher good fat, high protein. Many women with PCOS or other hormone related issues (think pre, peri and post menopause) will realize that lower carb, higher fat eating will just make their body respond better to their fat-loss efforts. And the cool part is that if you can get your body back to where it should be, like I was able to do through diet (eating more) and minimal cardio, then carbs can come back with minimal negative effects. Though some with PCOS will always be insulin resistant and carbs will need to be low to keep fat off.
So, yes, women and men are the same as we can eat similar but there are unique things that may change what and how we need to eat to reach fat loss and health goals.
On to the food recipe!!!....
Ok, so that being laid out there. I don't eat low carb anymore because things are going well but as it pertains to the meal in question I had delved into a bag of pretzels and had a bowl of cereal for breakfast (those that know me know that when I say "a bowl of cereal" just double or triple it). So needless to say I had loaded on carbs for the day and by dinner I was out of my allotted amount. I needed some fats and protein! But the rest of the family wanted pasta. So here's what we did:
I had frozen shrimp, gluten free pasta, tomatoes and eggs.
-I thawed the shrimp while boiling the pasta.
-When that was boiling away I had my 3 egg omelet cooking in a pan (I had 3 whole eggs for the fat and protein, if I was limiting fat I would have done 4 egg whites), tossed in some shrimp, flipped, and let it cook.
-While the omelet was cooking I mixed the stewed tomatoes with the drained pasta and shrimp in the hot pot. Picture ----->
- Plated the pasta/shrimp and sauce up for the hubs and the kid.
- By then my omelet was done I sprinkled some pesto on top and plated that. <-----picture p="">
- We all sat down to eat.
Oh and since we require something GREEN at every meal I heated up some frozen green beans...1 minute in the microwave. No biggie.
This is what I call an overlapping meal...
3 people eating the same foods, different amounts with different nutrient needs.
We also watch our added sugars so instead of pasta sauce I made it with stewed basil and garlic tomatoes. This gave great flavor, less sugar, 1/2 the sodium and it stretched the serving size. My main focus is lowering sugars not total carbs or fat or anything, but it comes along with it sometimes. You can see the nutrition differences here:
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| Stewed tomatoes, Store brand |
