How much should I eat?

There's this great website I found a while back called www.mealsmatter.org. They have fun quizes and a personal nutrition planner that helps get you in the mood for healthy eating. The nutrition planner is based on your age, weight, height, sex... all the things that determine how much we need to eat. The quantities given are recommendations to maintaining your average body weight and so eating more or less will help you gain or lose weight. Here is what Meelsmatter.org had to say about what I should eat: 

This information is based on the most current food pyramid. Now its time to plan some meals!

Cutting Ties with the Past

Hello!
So before I could go grocery shopping, I decided to empty my fridge of any bad energy that could contaminate my new healthy outlook on eating. Apparently I'm in worse shape than I thought. I opened the fridge door to an eclectic mix of leftovers and untouched foods turning bad. First there was week-old Chinese takeout, then leftover Domino’s pizza, a bag of chocolates, a half empty 12 pack of beer and lastly an almost empty bottle of cheap white wine (not mine btw). The only healthy food was a box of organic lettuces I bought 2 weeks ago and never ate so the lettuce lay gooey and wet in its plastic container. 
When did i turn into a 20 year old frat boy? If what the inside of my fridge says anything about me, it’s that I'm a mess! I'm so disappointed in myself after seeing what’s become of my eating habits, but now I’m even more motivated to get my groceries in check! 

Monday blues- 11/14/11

Its Monday...again. I dread Mondays simply because it’s the beginning and not the end of the week. Mondays also make me irritable because I’m usually not prepared for them. I sit in the office contemplating what I’m going to eat for lunch, meanwhile starving because I haven't had any breakfast yet. So far the only thing I’ve eaten today (by the way it’s almost lunchtime) is a gas station cappuccino and a brownie (from a batch my co-worker brought in earlier). See what I mean? Not prepared.     Seriously, at this rate my teeth are going to fall out from this much sugar. I can't blame anyone but myself. The lack of enthusiasm in preparing meals is partially a byproduct of many years living on my own, cooking too much food for one person, and then struggling all week long to eat the same thing over and over again so as not to waste it. 
You see, I’m a food junkie, a foodie, whatever you want to call it. I loooovvvvee food. I love cooking, finding new ingredients, trying new flavors, and my all-time favorite thing is having the freshest foods and knowing I’m eating healthy.
That entire last sentence was absolutely true up until about a year ago. I’m not quite sure what the turning point was, but my passion for food and caring for what I eat is almost nonexistent. It’s actually scary what I’m willing to eat nowadays…KFC, McDonalds, Subway…OMG I’m on the fast track to Fattyville and I’m the conductor of this train! It hasn't always been this bad, but the past few months I've acquired the laziest of attitudes towards eating- either i just don't do it or i eat from the first fast food joint i can find. It's not about gaining weight, although that is one of my concerns, it’s about knowing I’m not eating well therefore I'm not feeling well. I've got to start eating better so i can work better, feel better and handle stress better. I know it’s all connected, no one has to tell me, now I've got to do something about it before this spiraling takes me to places I never wished to go. 
Ok, so how come in the past 8 years I’ve lived on my own, it’s just started to be a struggle for me to plan my meals? I can tell you I'm needing something easy right now and the easy ways are not exactly at my disposal. I don't own a microwave, my kitchen doesn't have a dishwasher (I hate washing dishes by hand), and Tupperware is starting to annoy me (it always stinks of whatever food was in it). Another reason is by now i thought i would have my own private chef so i wouldn't have to worry about cooking anymore. At any rate, I’m nowhere near hiring my own chef or buying a dishwasher, so as I approach my 10 year reunion (yikes!) and the inevitable 30s (I’m 28 years old, but I’m aware of the countdown), it’s time to whip myself and my refrigerator into shape before it’s too late. I figure if i do this publicly, I’ll be more inclined to stick to it. 
Here's the plan, tonight I will create a plan for 4 days of meals and go grocery shopping. I will blog about the meals I create and will research the best ways to get the right nutrients on a budget.


Here are my obstacles- time, money, motivation, and my newest obstacle, there’s no microwave in the new office.
Consider this my food diary. Whether it’s worth reading or not, i leave that up to you....wish me luck!