Hope your St. Patty’s Day is going great!
Sadly, this was not green beer that fueled my workday today- it was a green monster- but I had to have it in a beer mug! I made this GM with kale…and I forgot how horrible my Kitchen Aid blender is with kale. It was soooooo chewy. Not cool. I dream of the day when I can buy a Vitamix!
Until then, I chew my kale. :mrgreen: and I check my teeth very carefully before going out. ;)
In the St. Patty’s Day GM: 3 cups kale, 1 cup hemp milk, 1 tablespoon cashew butter, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ice.
My exercise today was quite the change of ‘pace’! It was so gorgeous outside, I decided to go for a walk on my lunch break. I can’t remember the last time I just laced up my sneakers and went for a WALK! Sometimes, a walk is all you need to feel re-energized. I did a brisk 30 minutes around the neighbourhood. Sometimes workouts don’t need to be intense to feel amazing!
Health Tip #2: Eat Volume Food!
If you guessed that I eat volume foods everyday you’d be right! This is how I eat a lot of food and still maintain my weight.
Volume foods are foods that physically have a lot of volume (or size) to them, but they are typically low in calories.
For breakfast, my favourite two volume foods are Green Monsters and oatmeal. The key is to have protein and healthy fat in addition to your volume foods.
For breakfast, I typically use protein powder, chia seeds, and nut butter to give them staying power.
Want to add more volume to your GM? Just add ice and water! Sometimes I put 4-5 ice cubes in mine and 1/4 cup water if I want it really big volume wise.
My oatmeal typically has the following: 1/2 cup oats, 1 banana, 1 cup non-dairy milk, 1/2 cup water (or bit more), 1 tablespoon chia seeds, 1 tablespoon nut butter.
Perfection!
On the other hand, no amount of cereal or toast ever seems to fill me up! What is up with that?!
For lunch I typically have wraps. However, wraps on their own do not leave me feeling satisfied. They take about 2 minutes to eat and when I am done I am asking where my wrap went! ;)
That’s why I always have lunch with at least 2 servings of veggies on the side. Sometimes I have an English cucumber and hummus or 3-4 carrots and salsa. Crunching veggies is very satisfying as they take a long time to eat and give your brain a chance to register that it is full.
Soup is also a great volume food! I love this Amy’s Reduced Sodium Split Pea Soup:
I usually end my lunch with more volume food- fruit!
Grapefruit is very filling due to all the water!
During the day, I have lots of tea to stay hydrated. I make sure to never let myself get very thirsty.
For dinner, I always have a large salad to go along with whatever we are eating. It fills up my stomach and doesn’t make me feel like I need second helpings.
Salads are great because they take that ‘edge’ off your hunger!
Stir-frys are another great volume food…
As is savoury oatmeal…
My favourite dessert may come as no surprise to you… ;) Banana soft serve and cacao nibs! 1 frozen banana, splash of almond milk, cacao nibs.
I typically make this around 8pm when Eric and I watch a bit of TV. It is a fun treat to end the day.
Generally speaking, I try to have at least a bit of volume food in each meal. This keeps me feeling satisfied mentally, visually, and physically.
[P.S.- All of these recipes can be found on my Recipes page!]
Do you try to incorporate volume foods into your daily diet? What are your favourite volume foods or recipes?
Post complete, next up- another Breville juice article! I am on article 6 of 8 and I need to finish them before I leave on Saturday!
Have a great day!
Yum!
Just make sure you drink lots of water along with that tea girlie, the caffeine won’t keep you as hydrated as you need to be!
xox Vera
well check this interesting article out :)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5281046.stm
I always add h2O to my green monsters not only to make them voluminous but also so the blades of my blender can whirl away. I like them a little watery too.
Grapefruit is becoming my new fav fruit lately. It changes all the time but it’s grapefruits turn this week.
Voluminous food also contains a lot of water–>hydration!!!
Great tips – especially about filling up with veggies when you have wraps etc! I totally agree about toast & cereal…I try not to eat them that often because I could eat waaaay too much of both. We bought white bread today as we had visitors over and we’ve been eating it all day…soooo not good!
I love the food pics! You always take such nice ones :)
I dream of the day I have a vitamix too, can’t wait to pulverize that kale. Do you use Kale in your Breville? If so, high or low setting? I feel like such little liquid comes out of the greens I juice, it seems so wasteful!
I tried kale in the juice article I am doing today actually- I found that such a tiny amount of green juice came out too :( It was sad. I don’t know if I will be using kale in my juices anymore…might just stick to the GM for that! I used the lowest setting too. Hrmph.
My post today was essentially about the same thing – bulking up a meal with veggies!
I try to always pair fruits or veggies with what I eat – it holds me over longer :)
Love bulking up meals with tons of veggies!! It makes them last so much longer :)
If it makes you feel better, I have a vita mix, and I still feel like I’m chewing the kale in my GMs :-)
I love soup for volume food– all that broth really fills me up!
love the GM in the mug :) your presentation is always spot on! lovely!
Great tips! One question though: when you add extra ice cubes and/or water to your green monsters, do you find that they end up tasting too…well…watery? I used to use fresh fruit and ice cubes but then switched to frozen fruit b/c I felt like all of the extra water really took away from the taste. But I’d love to be able to make my monsters BIGGER without adding anything extra, you know?
Not really. Since I have been drinking veggie juices I find that I don’t care if it is really sweet or not. I am just used to it. I don’t find that the ice really waters it down because it just tastes so COLD that I don’t notice, perhaps!
Are you blogging on vacation?
As long as I have internet where I am I will be. :)
i normally eat volume foods, but my bfast and lunch were so light i’m having some lasagna as we speak!
Volume foods are an absolute must!! I eat tons of fruits and veggies, even raw ones and I get full super fast! These are really great tips…thanks Angela.
Hey Angela! Would you suggest this way of eating for someone trying to lose a lot of weight? i know you say you maintain your weight with this type of eating..just a question! :)
Love the banana oats!!
I also ate lots of volume foods when I was losing weight too. :) The only difference between now (maintenance) and then (weight loss) was just scaling down my portions a bit. I still ate lots of veggies, salads, etc. I dont think anyone can go wrong with those types of foods!
I try to eat this way too-but, it’s hard to digest it all! I often feel bloated and my stomach gets distended. Have you ever had to overcome this or did that never happen? If so what did you do?
I have had this problem in the past too. I started to eat slower because my doc told me that I was probably swallowing way too much air by eating so fast (bad habit!). It seems to have helped. I also find that blending veggies in a green monster makes it a bit easier to digest.
Thanks so so much! I’m going to try and get back into the green smoothie habit!
Great tips! You basically just set out my exact day of eating!! Green monster for breakfast, crackers and cheese for snack, lunch with lots of veggies and grains, grapefruit for snack, and a large salad with dinner! And lots and lots of tea! :).
I loved this because I’m HUGE on volume food. I usually load up on volume food at dinner though, because I don’t like feeling bloated or heavy after lunch. I usually eat literally 3-5 servings of veggies at dinner, and my roommates think I’m crazy! Well, I think they’re crazy for only eating 3 spears of asparagus! LOL. Smoothies are great, I agree. And I love to load up on huge salads.
My favourite volume meal is my smoothie with oatmeal and brocolli mixed in. So filling I go a good 4 hours before I’m hungry again.
i always have a salad with whatever dinner I am eating too! and as for my wraps, I PACK them with veggies, so many people asked me how I still am able to wrap them so I gave a wrap tutorial on my blog haha…I just stuff that thing till it is about to burst! :) I also fill up on fruit of course…sweet dessert!!
link??? :)
What a great post – thanks for sharing Angela! I am huge fan of bulking out whatever my meal is with vegies – works every time!
I TOTALLY agree (obviously). I am all about volume (that’s why almost everything I blog about is voluminous). I go through 2 tubs of organic spinach and a 10 lb. bag of carrots per week filling the gap. Great tips, hon!