in need of a plan

I've always been a health-conscious person who watches what she eats and tries to get back on track if I fall off the healthy-eating wagon, but lately I cannot get it together. I am still eating more healthy than the average American, but I'm having difficulty with getting enough green things into my diet and coming up with healthy lunch options. We usually grill a lean meat or fish for dinner and have salad or green beans with it. Sometimes we have whole-wheat spaghetti with a few turkey meatballs from Trader Joe's and some Classico marinara sauce (no high fructose corn syrup)! Other nights we will have a stir-fry with lots of vegetables. I've recently decided to cut out deli meat from my diet because of the sodium and nitrates, so I need some lunch options. I definitely like the eat something small every 3 hours rather than having 3 meals a day. In the morning I will have a fiber-based cereal or oatmeal or one egg. A couple hours later I will eat yogurt with raw, unsalted almonds mixed in. A couple hours later, a Kashi bar, carrots, or an apple. I am getting bored, though. I need new healthy, fiber and protein-rich snacks or lunch ideas, and these options must be things that are easy and fast to make since I am taking care of Stella. Please share if you have something that works for you!

Lately I have been researching diets - particularly the paleo diet. While I can follow the logic of the diet, it sounds way too labor-intensive, and I don't like diets that cut out an entire food group. I subscribe to the balanced "everything in moderation" approach, but how do you manipulate your brain to eat everything in moderation? Or I should say how does one maintain willpower to eat the "bad" foods in moderation (salty, sweet, saturated fats, simple carbs)? I know what I should be eating (as most Americans do), but I want to make it part of my lifestyle - something natural and not something I obsess about.

I really like the ideas behind the book French Women Don't Get Fat. Author Guiliano promotes a lifestyle of enjoying healthy foods in appropriate-sized portions and occasionally indulging in high-quality chocolate, bread, and wine. When you eat something that is more on the decadent side, compensate for that indulgence by walking extra that day and cutting something out calorie-wise. For example, you have bread with your lunch? Enjoy it! Just don't reach for the dessert that evening. I am simplifying it a bit, but that is the gist of it. I like this approach because it's not about sweating it out at the gym for an hour "punishing yourself" or nixing carbs altogether or eating only protein. So many of American diets encourage over-thinking about food. I just want healthy living and eating to be so natural that it becomes my lifestyle. Life is too short to not enjoy a variety of foods (yes, even the "bad" foods).

Well, baby girl is waking up from her short nap! Gotta run.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!