The weekend is coming.  You need to know what to eat as one of your six protein meals a day.  Don’t forget, two servings of vegetables and fruits each and two small salads with two cups of lettuce in each serving.  That being said, let’s go over protein ideas (can be a meal or a snack).

On things like nuts, seeds or spoonfuls of things, measure them out though after looking at carb content and eat according to the number of carbs you are allotting yourself for one of six protein meals for the day.  (example, if each meal has 15 g of carbs, then you want between 50 and 100g of carbs a day to lose/maintain weight, then you can’t do much higher than that…unless one of your proteins is only a few carbs, then you can up them in another protein meal later in the day.  Mix and match.

1.  An Egg or 2 egg whites

2.  A protein bar, watch the carb content (Power Crunch and Nature Valley Protein Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, my favorites)

3.  Nuts and seeds.  Some nuts are higher in carbs than others.  Read the labels.

4.  Four ounces of a meat or 6 ounces of tofu (white fish, no other color)

5.  Cheese, 2 ounces regular, 4 ounces lowfat

6.  1 cup of milk or 4 ounces of cottage cheese, low fat and plan

7.  4 ounces of turkey bacon or turkey/chicken sausages.  Jenny O makes really good ones.

8.  1 cup of milk, non fat

9.  1/2 cup of yogurt (greek is lighter).  (Dannon lite and fit is great and flavored too!)

10.  Lindora.com has a lot of proteins for sale on their website that are good.  ( Their pancakes, oatmeal, pasta are my favorites!)  For pancakes, get lite maple syrup like Walden Farms, Cary’s, Mrs. Butterworth, etc.  Aunt Jemina lite is too high in carbs.  The others are 12g of carbs per 1/4 cup or less.  For pasta, Protein infused pasta at Lindora.com or any of the low carb websites.  Made with a dash of marinara and some parmasean cheese.  Yum.

11.  You can have a piece of bread, two times a week to replace a fruit.  Try to go for high protein, low carb bread.  Julian Bread has very low carbs.  http://www.julianbakery.com/  Western Bagel makes a Perfect 10 bagel, with only 10 net carbs.  http://www.westernbagel.com/products/_printable.php?PR_SKU=41269  I have had them and they are good.  But, keep your wheat to a minimum!  No more than twice a week to replace a fruit.

12.  Stick with any berry or citrus fruit for a fruit option.  All of the others, especially apples and bananas are high in carbs.

13.  Low-fat Chocolate pudding or Tapioca pudding.  Good ones at Trader Joes–Kozy Shack.

14.  Protein drinks.  Some great ones, cold and hot at Lindora.com site and at all stores.  The lowest I have seen are at Trader Joe’s Vanilla and a Chocolate at 4 and 5g of carbs.

15.  Carbolite in a small container, , a Yasso Greek Yogurt popsicle at 12g of carbs (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/search), and/or some frozen dessert that has a decent carb content.  Some of the Skinny Cows top the chart at 30g and some are 14.  You be the judge.  http://www.myfitnesspal.com/nutrition-facts-calories/skinny-cow

*Frozen Yogurt is about 4-5g of carbs per ounce.  Those self serve places have huge cups and if you really measured just having about 4 ounces as to not have too many carbs, 4 ounces is small.  Also, don’t do toppings.  Just more carbs!  If you must, just a few nuts.

16.  Stay away from cereal and rice if you can.  Not worth the carbs.  Look at the sides of the boxes.  Oatmeal would be safer and the Lindora.com oatmeal is really good.  You might find something online as well at Carbessentials.net or Netrition.com

17.  However, there are delicious protein infused cookies that are lower in carbs at Lindora.com, Carbessentials.net and Netrition.com  My favorites are:  http://store.carbessentials.net/Proti_SNAX_Cookies_p/600.htm  and http://store.lindora.com/index.php/dark-chocolate-tea-biscuit.html

18.  Peanut, almond, sunflower butter.  2 tablespoons is about 8 carbs.  Eat accordingly.

19.  Multirounds (at many stores, but Costco has low carb ones by Kirkland) that are low in carbs as your grain replacement or the Western Bagel Perfect 10 bagel or Alternative English muffins, with just a dash of cheese, basil and a touch of pizza sauce cooked for 10 minutes for a tiny pizza.  Also have a cauliflower based pizza recipe on one of my blog pages.

20.  Low carb tortillas (net 4 or 5 g of carbs).  Big thing of them at Costco and small package at Trader Joe’s.  Also online.  Cook them with a little cheese and meat, taco seasoning, lettuce and tomato inside on the stove, dash of enchilada sauce on top and you have a healthy enchilada.  I have the recipe on one of my blog pages.

There are most of my favorite choices.  Have fun deciding.