Okay, well, maybe not extreme

Like most people in this country, Erin and I have both resolved to lose weight in the new year. I lost 60lbs last year and plan to take off another 30 this year, putting me at a weight I’ve not been at since, honestly, middle school. Where we differ from that vast majority, however, is in our approach:

Did we hit the gym with all of the other trendy resolutioners on New Year’s Day?

Nope.

Did we go to the grocery store and fill up on fruits, veggies, bottled waters and Healthy Choice 100 Calorie snack packs?

Nope.

Did we set up accounts on Men’s Health’s ‘Belly Off Club’ or Weight Watchers?

Nope.

Did we begin researching fad diets online and search for an easy way out?

Nope.

You get the point.

Last year, I saw my eating habits do a (nearly) complete 360º (we’ll say 345º). Sensible choices, smart alternatives, never starving myself, never forcing myself to eat something I didn’t like, still eating the foods I love, developing my skills in the kitchen more, all while never once referring to it as a “diet.”

This year, we’re doing more of the same. Starting off with adding veggies to breakfast. That seems like a no-brainer, but when you think about it, here in the south, the only veggies we ever have with breakfast are usually big honkin’ juicy tomatoes (technically a fruit, I guess) from the garden, but even then it was usually paired with biscuits and sausage gravy. I’ve started our days off recently with some steamed broccoli and scrambled egg whites topped with salsa, spinach and egg white omelets (also topped with salsa), mashed avocado (again, technically a fruit) on whole wheat toast with poached eggs, and have slipped some spinach in with our protein smoothies for a nice morning greenie.

So that’s breakfast – and our lunches are usually pretty good already, ditto for dinner – but what about snacks and desserts?

I found a great recipe for these pumpkin protein bars over at BodyBuilding.com.

Relatively few ingredients (you will likely have to go shopping, though, or at least make some changes, as I certainly didn’t just happen to have all of the ingredients in my cabinets), these bars are moist, nutritious and super tasty – good for a snack, a dessert or even breakfast if you have a few. The recipe was supposed to yield 24 squares but the way I cut mine made 32, each coming in at around 50 calories a piece.

Low calorie, tasty and full of protein? I’ll take ’em!

Enjoy!

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