It has begun…

At the end of last week I sat down and really thought about the kind of healthy diet I wanted to follow. I thought about what I had done in the past, what had worked, and what hadn’t. Decided to go with a simple balance, so far as 35% protein, 25% fat and 40% carbs. I’m coupling that with a reduced calorie diet, so I did some math and came to the following levels:

• 1400 calories per day MAX, even when exercising
• 35% = 490 calories from protein = approx 123 grams of protein
• 25% = 350 calories from fat = approx 38 grams of fat
• 40% = 560 calories from carbohydrates = 140 grams of carbohydrates
• 24.5 grams of protein per meal (123 grams/5 meals)
• 7.5 grams of fat per meal (38 grams/5 meals)
• 28 grams of carbohydrates per meal (140 grams/5 meals)*
• At least 4 grams of fiber with EVERY meal

With all of that in mind, I went onto SparkRecipes and used their AWESOME advanced search, which allowed me to plug in all those factors and get the calorie balance I was looking for in each meal. We then went to the grocery store and this week is my “pilot” week – I’m taking everything in stride to work out all the kinks.

• #1: I need to find broccoli slaw and make oat bran (oatmeal+blender), for this brownie recipe I found that sounded perfect. Had it on the schedule to eat it today, but couldn’t find the ingredients last night so I had to skip.
• #2: I’ve got to start prepping the night before, like I used to, because this morning was hectic and I don’t look very “polished” as I sacrificed my hair and makeup for making my food for the day.
• I bought this reduced fat mayo for a tuna salad I made – but the fat is still too high. Worried using yogurt as substitute will be too bitter – since it’ll be plain yogurt. Any suggestions? Not a great cook, so not sure which spices would do well with plain yogurt and tuna.

I’ve already messed up some today, by eating too much HEALTHY fats and not enough carbs or protien. So now I’m on the hunt for a low fat meal that can fill in the gaps

I’m going to do this though! I took a walk this morning, I’m going to take a walk this afternoon, and next week I’m adding jogging to my lunches. Slowly but surely!

*Considering tweaking the carb levels to 35 grams per meal, and not eating any carbs with dinner. I feel it would benefit my burn as well as my energy levels to ensure I get to sleep at a decent hour.

From my Sister!

It was such a surprise! Animal cookies inside

MFD Wins!

Readers: I’m not going to apologize for being one of “those” dieters who can do nothing but talk about dieting. Blogging about this is helping at this point, though I’m sure one day I’ll get to a point where it wont.

I do apologize for boring you though I also fully urge you to skip past these posts and I’ll try to keep them JUST to dieting so you wont miss anything of actual importance said on my blog.

What can I say, I’m a sucker for the happy faces

But in all seriousness, MyFoodDiary gave me more incentives to improve my diet, not just cut calories.  It shows me what I am doing right, even if it’s just meeting a daily value for Vitamin A, as well as what I am doing wrong. When you’re over weight, it gets hard to constantly hear all the bad you’re doing. I know I’m doing bad – its why I’m over weight – I don’t need to be constantly berated.

Yesterday, after completing my daily record, I saw that I had a sad face because I didn’t exercise at all. You know what? That is sad. You know what I did? Took a walk. Sure, it was only a walk and it was only for a half hour but it’s still something. I wanted that happy face!

Today’s food includes…

• Shrimp & Orange Salad (2 cups Romaine Lettuce, 1/2 Cara Cara, 4oz Shrimp, 1 tsp Balsamic Vinegar)
• Ham Wrap (2 slices lean deli ham, two baby romaine leaves, 1/2 tbsp Miracle Whip)
• 1/2 Red Bell Pepper
• 1/2 Tangelo
• Ham & Bean Salad (4 Cherry Tomatoes, 2 slices of Lean Canadian Bacon, 1/2 Pinto Beans & 1.5 tbsp of Catalina FF Dressing)

MFD, coming up fast!

As I’ve been snooping around on the MyFoodDiary (MFD) site, I realize it is a STRONG competitor to DailyBurn (especially because it’s a whole DOLLAR less per month ). If it had better mobile tools (they have a mobile site, but not an app that caches anything when you’re out of coverage area), I would be dropping DailyBurn without thought.

One thing I’m really enjoying about MFD is the detailed analysis of the food I’m eating, much more than just fat and calories – but cholesterol and sodium as well, both areas I never paid attention to but I realize I should. After I entered in all my food for today (minus dinner) I had two red “sad” faces – one for sodium and one for cholesterol. Looking at the detailed reports I find that the salad dressing I’m using is REALLY salty and having an egg yoke would be all right if that was all the cholesteral in my diet – but it’s not. So, I’m going to look at some other dressings and start leaving out the yoke when having a hard boiled egg.

Any suggestions regarding salad dressing? I’m using fat-free stuff right now, which is helping me stay within my caloric goals, but as I said I’d like something less salty.

Not a New Years Resolution – a LIFE Resolution.

Since moving, I’ve vowed to stop eating out due to lack of forethought. Its just silly really – getting to a point in your day and A) Not knowing what you’re going to be eating next and B) Your only option is a burger and fries.

While this vow has a lot to do with my desire to lose weight, it has a lot more to do with a personal goal of mine to be more self sufficient. I need to stop relying on the easy way out and start learning and enjoying the right way out.

The first thing I did was check out my meal planning / food tracking options.

• SparkPeople (Free)
  • Pros: Cost, great community, teaching environment, mobile tools, balanced dieting
  • Cons: Online interface over-stuffed, mobile tools not as intuitive, too many emails (I know you can turn that stuff off)
• DailyBurn (Free & Paid)
  • Pros: Great tracking options, GREAT mobile tools, uncluttered online interface
  • Cons: Cost (everyone prefers free!), community options limited
• MyFoodDiary (Paid)
  • Pros & Cons: I’ve only signed up for this service today so I can’t really say, I’m comparing it with my other top pick
• Weight Watchers (Paid)
  • Pros: Recipes database, point system
  • Cons: Cost, online interface over-stuffed, poor meal planning/recipe mesh

While there were pros and cons to each plan, I decided on DailyBurn over the other services (aside from MyFoodDiary, which I’m still on a trial subscription). I found their meal planning tools were right on par with my idea of dieting – balanced meals. They give you a list of suggested food groups, and the amount you should be consuming, and then you configure them each day. They give you multiple daily goals to meet, so you know where you’re going wrong if you’re meeting a calorie goal and still not losing.

Also, they have a UPC scanning app for my phone which allows me to scan a UPC packaged food and track it on DailyBurn without very much entering of specific details. However, that only works with packaged foods and since I’m trying to steer away from processed foods whenever possible, this might not be worth much as time goes on.

So far I’ve been doing well in regards to taking food to work each day – which was the biggest hurdle for me.  To help out, I bought a nice “lunch kit” that’ll allow me to waste less on disposable individual packaging. Plus, it’s stylish and inspires me to prepare bright healthy meals

The set is made from recycled materials, has four containers which are all microwave & dishwasher safe, and they fit in the recycled materials bag. I loved the kit so much, I bought a second one in another color!

For breakfast, in order to minimize how early I have to get up on my new scheduled (6:30-4:30 with a half hour commute each way), I’ve been taking a blueberry smoothie that I make the night before. It is DELICIOUS and keeps me full until my morning snack. Its simple to make too, just yogurt, blueberries, banana, water & ice. I use greek yogurt to make it thicker and frozen blueberries so I can buy them in bulk. I bought a nice reusable sweat proof 16oz cup with a lid & straw and it works brilliantly.

So, with the edition of some chips, this is what I’ve eaten today so far (the 3rd snack is planned). This graph is from MyFoodDiary – and according to the percentages, I’m right where I’m supposed to be for a balanced day of food!

Japanese “Diet” Noodle

On Friday I ran across a post on Gizmodo about improving those dry, 3 minute ramen noodles. I really love ramen noodles – I just hate that I’m wise to how terrible they are – so far as fat, sodium and calories. In fact, I wrote a post about it awhile back!

Anyhow, so when I saw the post on Gizmodo, I told myself – there has got to be a better noodle out there. There has to be! After much searching (I wasn’t using the right search criteria), I ran across a forum for dieting and fitness and someone mentioned shirataki noodles. From the Wiki article:

Shirataki (白滝^?, often written with the hiragana しらたき) are very low carbohydrate, low calorie, thin, translucent, gelatinous traditional Japanese noodles made from the konjac plant.

Bingo! That’s exactly what I was looking for! I’ve been doing a bit of research on the noodle and have found that while the noodles are enjoyable – it’s important to note that just like squash noodles, just because it’s in noodle form doesn’t mean it has the same texture and feel as traditional flour pasta noodles. But, I’m willing to try them, and hope that I like them because I really love noodle soups and I want to be able to enjoy them again.

With the noodles in hand (I found some at a local Asian market, $2 for a 9 oz package of the wet variety), I began researching how best to enjoy them. The “white” kind of noodles have no taste to them at all, and therefore absorb the flavor of the meal they’re prepared with. I bought a package of chow mien seasoning as well, but I’ve decided not to use that. I found a recipe in my “How to Cook Everything” iPhone app – a ginger-scallion sauce. It only takes four ingredients and seems more mild and traditional. If I end up liking the noodles, I’m going to try them in this recipe I found on KitchenDaily for a Quick Miso Ramen Soup with Broccoli and Carrot.

*blurp*

I feel off today. Woke up with my throat itchy (noticed it a bit since yesterday afternoon), my nose runny and my eyes watering. I took some allergy medication this morning but it doesn’t seem to have helped. That either means it’s NOT allergies and I’m sick again or these are some bad-ass allergies that is going to take more than one dosage to beat back.

Either way, today I’m not feeling well.

Add that to my recent insane food cravings and I suck. For lunch I brought some black bean soup, but it just wasn’t cutting it. So I ate some baked chips thinking I just needed something snacky, didn’t make me feel better. Realizing I needed something sweet I ate some light peach yogurt. But I still needed something more.What I was really craving was pizza and Twix. Gotta curve my impulsive cravings though – I HAVE TO.

Didn’t get anything more, instead went out to my car to read during my lunch (and defrost – it’s amazing how much we complain about energy consumption and yet we keep the office in the 60′s) and just felt nauseous the whole time.

I hate having “ohh, I suck” posts – but it makes me feel a bit better to complain and have it fall on deaf ears.

Oh, my purse organizer should be delivered today

Turkey Chili FAIL!

Well, the turkey chili wasn’t good. The acidic level was astounding, and after looking at the ingredients I could see why: Tomatoes in every way, shape & form. But I’m on the look-out for other such recipes, preferably one I can cook in the slow cooker.

I also tried the butternut squash, but did not enjoy it. I found it rather tasteless – and when I did taste something all I thought of was pumpkins. Perhaps there is a recipe I could try, so that it’s not just the squash I’m eating. Or some kind of topping? I found the more firm it was, the less I enjoyed it. The really soft tender pieces weren’t that bad. I’m also wondering if it was out of season, considering this is a winter staple.

I was thinking about joining this weight loss challenge in my area. Its a well-known challenge, modeled after The Biggest Loser, and one of our friends had a lot of success with it. It seems really hard though. First, you have to apply – including getting your doctor’s release & paying a $70 non-refundable fee. Then, if you’re chosen after the interview process, you have to commit a lot of time. Basically, every Monday night (nutritional and life coaching), Tuesday OR Wednesday night (work out), and every Saturday morning (weigh in and group challenge). You can only miss so many of each day and you still have to be losing each week in order to stay in the challenge.

It’s only 12 weeks – but I remember how busy we felt doing our 12 week Bradley Method class while I was pregnant and that was only one night a week and BEFORE the baby. Plus, this is all centered about 30 miles away from my house so commuting would take a lot of gas. Just not sure, as I feel bad leaving Paul for a good 2+ hours three times a week to play single parent.

I <3 Fresh & Easy

I haven’t been doing very good on my diet, and it’s both a good thing and a bad to see I haven’t gained any weight because of it. I just have to keep trying.

In that spirit, we went to Fresh & Easy last night to do our weekly shopping and I changed it up a bit. I usually would buy only produce since I was being supplied with my main meals through NutriSystem, but I’m both tired of their meals and slowly running out of them.

I added sandwich meat and whole wheat sandwich thins (these are a great alternative to sliced bread. I find that two slices of whole wheat bread to be too much bread and these are amazingly filling without making you feel like you’re going to burst plus they are lower in calories) to my shopping cart, and this morning I assembled a good healthy sandwich which included low-calorie sandwich meat, two full leaves of romaine lettuce, two slices of tomatoes and some honey mustard. All in all, it should be about 260 calories and it looks really filling.

I also found that they had fresh broccoli & butternut squash pre-washed and chopped in steamer bags. I cooked the broccoli this morning and it’s amazing in comparison to frozen and it was easy too. I don’t think I’ve ever had butternut squash and I’m excited to try it

I found that the bushel of asparagus I had in the refrigerator was still good so last night we tried, for the first time, oven-roasted asparagus sprinkled with light olive oil, garlic salt & pepper. It was amazing! Very simple too. I even offered some to the baby and she seemed to enjoy it.

Tonight I’m going to eat some turkey chilli I also found at Fresh & Easy – more than 11 ounces is only 200 calories and a ton of protein and fiber. What a “super” dish! I only bought one, to try it out in case it’s over flavored (such a thing, since I’m picky) but if it’s good I’m going to get more.

Anyhow, like I said – I just have to keep trying. I’ve got six months before my self-imposed deadline and I’d really like to reach it.

Keep trying, even if it means failing.

My milk supply has dropped by half in the time I’ve been watching my calories. That’s not going to fly with me. I’ve been working TOO LONG and TOO HARD to stop so close to my one year goal of breastfeeding.

My first reaction was, “I’m done with this diet! I’m going back to eating french fries with every meal!” But then I got a hold of myself. I realized A) My previous diet wasn’t making very “good” milk for Evy, even if it was making a lot and B) Even if I can’t stay on a low calorie diet doesn’t mean I have to eat crap for every meal.

New plan! I added another 500 calories and have decided to dedicate that extra amount to veggies/fruits and good protein instead of what I really want which is chips & crackers. So I doubled up on my cottage cheese this morning, threw two more oranges in the mix and only one extra bag of crackers.

Speaking of crackers, I picked up two kinds of snacks when I was at the store. A variety of the Kashi TLC crackers and some Snyders of Handover Nibbler pretzel bits. I was disappointed by the Kashi price, but I bought it anyhow because I was determined to pick a good-for-me snack. However once I got them home and compared them (I bought the pretzel bits as a treat!) I saw they were practically identical except the PRETZEL BITS WERE BETTER FOR ME! Whats worse is that the Kashi crackers taste terrible They’re both over 100 calories a serving – which isn’t too bad – but I’m going to keep looking for something new.