food replacements

Last night, after a bunch of obsessing about this, I went to the grocery store to check out some products to buy to replace things that I eat now, and see what was out there. I went to Giant, which didn't really impress me that much (Everyone keeps telling me I'm going to have to go to Whole Foods). What I learned is that some of my new weapons in my food arsenal are not going to be as good as the old ones...

I needed something to replace cheese as a snack, so I got peanuts, which will still be a source of protein and fat. I like them, so that's good, but they're messy (I got them still in the shell).

I needed to replace cheese sandwiches as my quick go-to meal, so I got garlic hummus to make sandwiches with cucumber slices in the middle. Healthy right? While this was super delicious, it definitely hit a different hunger spot so I still crave cheese, but it did the best job it could. Luckily the delicious factor is pretty high, so I'll have no problem sticking with this. Problem is, I think this isn't as fatty/calorie-loaded as a cheese sandwich with marinara sauce (my usual) so when I went to my friend's house and had one drink later, it got me tipsy pretty quick.

Butter: I got "bestlife buttery spread" made with extra virgin olive oil. I made toast with it last night and I have to tell you I'm not a fan. It tastes nothing like butter, and I probably would have been better off with straight olive oil taste-wise. That's not saying it tasted bad - it just didn't taste like anything at all. I guess I'll use it in cooking or whatever, or if I make cinnamon toast that'll cover up the nothing-taste.

Lunch: I would have usually would have had something with cheese in it, a sandwich, ravioli, pizza, something like that. I had some rotisserie chicken instead with bbq sauce. While I wasn't hungry later, I was having the shakes later, which I haven't gotten in a while, which means I probably should have had something else with the chicken like bread or some kind of carb.

I really have to work on eating enough. See, I don't get hungry until it's like a really dire situation. I don't get hungry unless I miss a meal - I never get hungry for a meal. I don't know why this is. I tracked what I ate for a normal week once, and including my Mountain Dew and everything I usually ate, and it was only 1300-1500 calories a day, which is not enough. I should be eating 2200 the site said. So, I'm worried that with this new diet change I'll end up not eating enough calories.

I thought I'd been doing better at eating, but when I told all my friends tonight about the day I passed out, and I said I'd eaten a lot from the night before (including the friend who ate dinner WITH me the night before), they were like "YEAH, RIGHT" because apparently it was common knowledge to all of them that I didn't eat a lot...Kind of wish someone had told me that it concerned them and maybe then I would have made more of an effort to eat enough.

I'm going to go find something else to eat...

Please, leave me some specific suggestions for easy stuff to eat!