Ok, so I know I'm a skinny person, and I have been for a long time. I'm able to eat whatever I want, when I want, and I don't really gain weight.
I'm lucky that way I guess.

But recenty I feel like my eating has gotten out of control. and I know what I want to do, I just don't know exactly how.

I don't want to stop eating, I just want to eat healthier. But I don't know How to put together a lunch thats healthy yet fills me up. So far I've invented one:
Special K cereal with 1% milk ; celery sticks ; and sometimes grapes.

It kinda gets boring after awhile; so any suggestions?

I eat soup for lunch pretty much every day. I have six or seven varieties that I rotate and take with me to school in a thermos. Whether you're at home or at work, it's easy to find healthy and filling soup. :) Canned soup is really, really simple to make and is fantastic for cold days.

I usually have chips with mine, too, but they're not exactly "healthy." Almonds are delicious -- smokehouse ones are sweet and salty.

Best of luck with finding good, healthy food!

I usually eat sandwiches for lunch with turkey, lettace, tomato, and mayo on a french roll. It's filling and healthy for you. You can add a piece of fruit like an orange or apple.
You can also try something like a salad with a little chicken with it. You need to have some protein along with veggies/fruits to keep you energized and focused.
If you would rather not have meat, nuts are great for protein. I can't tap into that benefit because I'm allergic to the things!

If you aren't concerned about weight or whatever then it should be pretty easy to find filling foods that are healthy.

Don't go overboard and follow diets that you know sound like a bunch of b.s. You need food to live after all.

I think if you punish yourself with food (celery? eew) you end up kind of rebelling against it and splurging on a load of junk food. Better to eat a little bit of what you like as a treat but generally cut back on really high fat snacks like ice cream, chocolate, fried stuff.
Don't deny yourself too much dairy, especially since you're in your teens when it's important to get a lot of calcium. If you eat meat every day you can cut that back a bit since you'll still get enough protein eating it a couple of times a week.

Well, here's my day at a glance. Take into mind, I'm older than you and probably a bit larger, but I do work out almost every day (that's one of the most healthy habits you can get into...doing some form of exercise almost every day!)

Breakfast - cereal with soy milk, banana (sometimes it's oatmeal, no soy milk). You could probably add a bit of peanut butter and maybe some raisins, since you're not watching calories.

Lunch - beans with vegetables. There are tons of different varities of beans and a million different veggies out there, so no need to get bored. You could also try some of the faux meats (no cholesterol, very little/no fat...healthier than "regular" meats) on pita bread or regular sandwich bread. I also try to eat a carrot with lunch (I'm a bunny!).

Dinner - Pretty much the same as lunch, but I add something like a sweet potato, white potato, brown rice to the mix. Here's where you can do low fat spaghetti sauce and whole wheat noodles with a salad, etc. There's no law you can't do that for lunch, either.

My advice would be to pick up a book geared towards vegans for recipes. The recipes are going to be a heck of a lot healthier than their standard counterparts. There are also a lot of "regular" cookbooks that deal with low fat and low cholesterol dishes.

Basically, the more whole foods you eat (vegetables, fruits, grains in pure form), the better it is for you.

mmmm Jude I absolutely love celery =]

lol

and thanks guys.
Nah I'm not worried about weight, I just dont want to overeatt.
And I wans't going to go on a diet, I just wanted ot change my eating habits.

Is PeanutButter and Jelly sandwich healthy?

xdefylifex wrote:

Is PeanutButter and Jelly sandwich healthy?

Nope. Peanut butter is full of fat (it's the butter that does it ) and the jelly is mostly sugar.

I have leftovers from the previous night's dinner or a sandwich for lunch. If one sandwich (turkey/chicken breast + cheese and mustard, maybe lettuce) isn't enough, there's always fruit, nuts, and veggies to snack on. It's also nice to have a cookie/dessert with it so I don't go nutz and eat 12 later on.

I also saw a recipe on tv for cashew butter (like peanutbutter but better!). I'll try to find it on the internet. It still had lots of fat in it (walnut oil), but non of the bad-for-you processed food stuff (like high fructose corn syrup and weird preservatives). It used honey as a sweetener, too.

Here we go on Alton Brown's cashew sauce page http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_26277,00.html scroll down to the cashew butter.

"Cashew Butter:

2 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup walnut oil
10 ounces (approximately 2 cups) roasted cashews
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place the honey in a microwave-safe container and heat in the microwave for 15 seconds. Remove from the microwave and add the oil to the container. Place the nuts and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse for 5 seconds. Then, while the processor is running, very slowly drizzle in the honey and oil. Process until an emulsion is formed and the mixture is smooth; this will take approximately 45 seconds to 1 minute. If the mixture is too thick and doesn't spread easily, add a little more oil.

Yield: Approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cups"

I'm guessing some kind of treat or dessert, making this into a half sandwich or something in lunches for a week or two.

Since you don't have a weight problem, just try to eat healthier and just eat a bit more if you're hungry, since you probably have a good metabolism and will burn it anyway.

Avoid fatty foods, like mayo (I use a yogurt based one by Kraft I think which has like 15% fat instead of 80%), butter, oils, bacon and too much fatty cheese. Also avoid fried food and try to bake/boil food instead of frying it. Olives are very good for a healthy diet if you like them as well as olive oil.

Since you go to school maybe a fruit or something home made like a sandwich with cheese/lettuce/tomato would do for lunch. Also nuts is a good idea for a snack since they too have many vitamins and things that are needed.

Ooh and a thing i like to eat and it's healthy is sesame paste (called tahini) with honey on bread. It tastes good and it's a healthy alternative for eating something sweet. Sesame paste can probably replace peanut butter but it's quite different (but also very healthy).

Jude's right, since you're in your teens and are also a girl you should try and get calcium. Milk, cheese , yogurt are good sources for that.

If you eat natural peanut butter (no transfatty acids & little or no sugar), it's pretty healthy. I wouldn't eat TONS of it (though it's tempting), but 2 Tablespoons or so a day is fine for someone not trying to reduce their weight.

That being said, peanut butter like "Jif", "Skippy" and other brands that contain hydrogenated oils are crap. I second tahini (sesame paste). It's absolutely delicious. If you happen to live in an area that has a Middle Eastern grocery, it's usually super cheap there. In regular groceries/health food stores it's typically 2x as much as the good peanut butter. You won't use a ton, though. Tahini is also really good on carrot sticks, or you can thin it out with water and a little lemon juice and use it as a salad dressing. Yum! Now you've gotten me hungry.