Leave it to Kara to bring this blog back up, whereas I have been eying its presence with disdain whenever I peek back into the Blogger world. But she's right— it was a good tool, and shouldn't be ignored.
The past week, as life has finally seemed to settle down and the threat of Road Trip Food (a.k.a, free-for-all garbage in a bag) is behind me, I've been able to make some much better choices.
Breakfasts have included occasionally two eggs, sunny-side-up, with sprouted grain flourless bread and salsa. Sometimes, like today, I just have Greek yogurt and granola or Kashi cereal— something with a lot of crunch. Other times, it's a slice of sprouted grain bread with peanut butter and a yogurt. (Been eating Wallaby Organic Lemon yogurt for awhile now.. Nomnom.)
Lunch today was Richard's doing (though I was pretty specific on what I wanted.) Scrambled eggs with spinach and tomatoes, a little bit of extra-sharp cheddar, and salsa in two whole-wheat tortillas. As "dessert" and a way to motivate me to go back to work, I drank a big cup of coffee with some chocolate Ovaltine powder (hey, vitamins, right?!) in it, and some organic milk. Also been eating a lot of soup.
Last night's dinner sounds completely random, but it is one of my FAVORITE things: what we call sweet potato "pillows," thick slices of sweet potato tossed in a bag with olive oil, thyme, sage, LOTS of black pepper, some cayenne pepper, and sea salt, and then baked at high heat. Plus a spinach salad with feta (I've found it's cheaper to buy the blocks instead of the crumbles, and it lasts longer.. and takes .2 seconds to crumble it) and tomato and balsamic vinaigrette, and.. call me weird.. but two veggie dogs with ketchup and mustard wrapped in wheat tortillas. I LOVE veggie dogs. Gross but true. Richard had a sausage link in his, but the same meal. He's been very open and happy to eat my rabbit food.
And most of all.. I drink every meal with a huge glass of water first. At least pint-glass sized, if not larger. Buying a Brita water pitcher has possibly been one of the best contributions to my well-being— part of the draw of drinking orange juice or apple juice or Italian soda (we have been stocking lemon and prickly pear flavors in our fridge; SO tasty) when I come in from the outdoors is that it's COOL, and easy, and fruity and nice. Now, having filtered water in a big pitcher that is constantly kept cold is one more reason I can't start chugging milk instead of water first. If I want something else, like juice, than I drink a glass of water first. A lot of times it curbs the desire to drink the juice in the first place, and if it doesn't, it means I drink the next thing for taste instead of thirst. Meaning I drink less. And then eat less down the line.
As for snacks.. a lot of natural applesauce (no sweetener,) crispbread with Laughing Cow light swiss and basil, tons of green tea— I find that the act of making tea with a little honey can substitute for my natural instinct to relax with some sort of food. That's not to say I don't still want to comfort-emotion eat, but the tea helps. I'm tempted to ask for a real tea set for my birthday so I can graduate from Tazo bags, but I'd probably screw it up.
I realize that I'm going to blow a lot of calories on going out with friends; even though I make "healthy" choices and avoid most meats and overprocessed things, I can still eat a
lot of food in one sitting. But structuring the rest of my home meals accepting that fact is helping, and making me feel less like a lard.
As for working out, I've put no stipulation other than I need to do SOMETHING, at least 30 minutes of it, five times a week. Exercisetv.tv has 80-something free videos you can watch on the internet, and I've done a few of them in the evening when I don't have the motivation to power walk or go to the workout room and try P90X again. My job keeps me from being sedentary, but being in "working" shape is quite different from "work-out" shape. Yeah, I can throw saddles and lift buckets all damn day, but that doesn't mean I can run a marathon.
Finally.. I am reading (and this is hard to admit) Bob Green's "The Best Life Diet" book. And following it, in Phase I currently. (Still not totally sure I want to go without ANY alcohol for 2 months
again.. I think I may count a weekly glass of wine as a health benefit instead of cheating.)
Basically what that entails is the following:
- Don't attempt to cut out foods altogether, unless they're just really terrible for you. (I'm pretty good, and I've been a pescetarian since May, and I don't really eat a lot of highly processed stuff.) (That said, I fully plan on eating a little bit of turkey at Thanksgiving, and when co-workers start hunting, I will happily be eating venison and other game again.)
- Identify your current physical activity level (there's some outlined in his book, or you can figure it out for yourself— I was surprised that I couldn't call myself more than a 1 [between 0 and 5] because when I started reading the book, I wasn't adhering to regular workouts even though my job was physical and I walk everywhere I can) and bump it up at least one level.
- Don't drink alcohol.
- 3 meals and at least one snack per day. Stop eating at least 2 hours before bed.
- Drink water when you eat.
- Take a multivitamin.
- Don't weigh yourself. (I don't anyway, except when I get on the Wii.)
After 4 weeks, you can either ramp it up to Phase II, or keep it at Phase I.
I don't care where my weight's at. My weight never gets that high, considering my height and build. I just want my clothes to fit better, and I want my endurance and core strength to get better.
