Being Souper

I love soups! My husband, not so much, but my lunches are for me! And with my new awesome bento box it is even easier for me to enjoy them during lunch. The challenge is that I love cream soups which directly conflicts with the 4-hour body diet.

So my new challenge to myself is to find soups that are 4-Hour friendly but I enjoy. My top two lately have been:

Edward & Son's Miso soup - This one can be found in most supermarkets (because if my Kroger has it, so does yours) but it hides in the organic section. It has 7 grams of Carbs and you can make with hot water from your office coffee maker. I'm also a sucker for Miso Soup

Gazpacho - There are like a million different ways to make this, but either way you blend it (ha!) it's just veggies in a food processor. Tomatoes can get your carb count up (I saw from 4g to 7g on the web per serving) so make sure you incorporate plenty of other veggies like peppers and cucumbers so you don't end up with more carbs than you planned. 

Cool Cucumber Soup - It's hot in Georgia so I need some more cold options. This is the most cheater of the soups because of the yogurt but I've learned to let Greek yogurt slide into my diet because it's very high in protein (for 9g of carbs, you get 23g of protein) and it is a perfect sour cream substitute. I use the Healthy Foodie's recipe for this soup.

Bento dieting

New year and I'm back! I have not been very good about blogging lately, but it's a new year and a new kickstart on the diet so here I am. I'm learning that I'm good at dieting in the first three months, then it's about maintaining until the holiday season (which is magical no rules time).

Anyway, for christmas my husband got me the coolest bento...the Mr. Bento Lunch Jar! Now it's easier to make meals that I can have small portions and big protein in. Below is my first meal in my new bento. Moving clockwise we have a salad, my "snack pack" consisting of almonds, olives, the some fruit roll and salad dressing, then it's turkey chili and we end with Tomato soup. 

The salad I now make as a big ziploc bag at the start of the week and just pour in portions throughout the week. The soup is from the organic section (Pacific Natural) and comes in a carton so I also just portion a bit every lunch day. Throw in some leftovers and we have a super fast and healthy lunch!

4 hour diet note- I found the lowest carb soups to be the organic ones. Even when it was a creamy soup, it had at least 5 less carbs than Campbell's or Progresso.