Substitutes: Yes You Can (part 3)

I usually eat dinner at home during the week. I keep chicken, shrimp, and meats in the freezer as I buy them in bulk. I usually buy fresh seafood when I am really in the mood for something specific, and I cook it that night. I like fresh veggies but they go bad fast so I only buy what I will use for about a week at a time. I always have a bag of broccoli florets, baby spinach, grape tomatoes, and onions in the fridge. During the winter I like soups and casseroles; comfort food. I like to make my own but I do buy cans to have on hand when I don’t have time to cook or I am just getting home from the gym and want something fast and easy. Some of the soups I buy are Amy’s organic soups; lowfat split pea, black bean vegetable, black bean chili, vegetable barley. They are very healthy and flavorful but be careful of the fat content in some of them. My son is a vegetarian and he loves her chili made with vegetable protein. The consistency is just like meat but it’s a little high in fat. I also buy the Campbells Healthy Request soups; Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and Italian Wedding Soup. These are my favorites but there are many choices. You have to buy what you like or you will not eat it. I also love little smokie sausages. When I was a kid we would make sausage sandwiches all the time. I was so excited when I found Hillshire Farms turkey smokies. They are great and the fat content is so much less than the pork or beef smokies. Recently I found chicken smokies and they are even better, with the same fat content. Substitutes, substitutes, substitutes. I add the smokies to the split pea soup and it is great, as well as adding a boost of protein. Grab a handful of reduced fat wheat thins or a peice of wheat or pumpernickel bread and you have a quick balanced meal.  I also buy the Indian vegetable packages such as Spinach Channah, or Madras Lentils. These are great to add to your meal as a side dish or a topper for fish, chicken or meat. I forgot to mention that I do go to Nawab, the Indian restaurant, for lunch about once a month. The food is fresh, with lots of veggies, good spices and sauces, meats and chicken. I don’t go more often than that because it is a buffet and I always tend to eat to much and want to take a nap by the time I get back to work. Everything in moderation.

I do like to go out on the weekends since I have eaten home all week.  I can find just about anything I want at any resaurant and fit it into my food plan. Once again I try to only order what I will eat, unless I am going straight home and I can take the leftovers, or I can split the dish.  I order what I like, keeping in mind the basic food groups; protein, carbs, veggies, as well as lowfat items. I do let myself go sometimes if there is something I really want that I would not otherwise eat on a regular basis. About every 6 to 8 weeks I get a pedicure in the evening, and next door to the nail place is an Uncle Al’s Hot Dogs. It’s usually around 7:30pm when I’m  done with my pedicure, and I am hungry, so I go next door for my usual indulgence; one hotdog with hot mustard, chili, and onions, and an order of sweet potato fries with an unsweet tea. It is just enough and I do not feel guilty as it is only once in a while. EVERYTHING IN MODERATION!!

You shoud always enjoy eating. I was raised to appreciate good food, and have been exposed to the worst and the best. The point is that there are good, healthy, satisfying, flavorful choices that will fit into your lifestyle.  Stick with what you like, but be willing to try new things. You never know what you might be missing!!

Living and Loving Food

To Eat Or Not To Eat

So I have decided to log my food into the activtrax online system.  Now the questions are;  what do I eat, how much, and how often.  I am continuously reading articles and books about food, and what benefits are derived from eating certain foods.  I’ve read diet books such as “The Abs Diet for Women”,  “Harnessing the Healing Power of Fruit”, “The South Beach Diet”, and various articles that I find online and in health magazines.  As I said in  “The Weight Gain Dilemma”; I thought I was eating healthy.  I was just not as disciplined as I needed to be.  I knew this needed to change. I really had to get serious and apply more of this knowledge to my everyday eating habits.  As I logged in my food everyday and noticed how much fat was in everything, I focused on eating basically no fat.  That’s pretty much what you have to do in order to fit into the 20% a day category. Let me backtrack on that.  I was set up on activtrax to eat 20% fat, 50% carbs, and 30% protein.  I have always tried to eat balanced at every meal; protein, carbs, and veggies. I read that half of your plate should be filled with vegetables.  Also you need at least 7 to 9 servings of fruits and veggies a day; maybe 9 to 13 by now.  My goal was to eat my 3 meals a day with a morning and afternoon snack.  I was careful to keep all  my food intake to one serving size of everything. That included sauces, condiments (butter, mayo, dressings, etc. ), EVERYTHING.  I would also concentrate on drinking as much water as possible to get to the 64 oz a day.  This is not the first time I have tried to lose weight, and I know how my body will react to drinking more water, and eating less at each sitting, but more times a day.  At first you feel hungry because you’re stomach is used to having more, and it has to shrink.  You also don’t feel like eating every time you should. You have to give your body time to adjust to this new way of eating and drinking. After a couple of weeks, I started feeling hungry when it was time to eat, and I was eating or drinking all the time.  I brought healthy snacks with me to work; fruit, nuts, hummus and crackers, or celery, protein bars, etc. I made sure that I ate enough protein before going to exercise.  My body was changing quickly due to the change in what I ate, when I ate, and how much I ate. The exercising everyday was really making a difference in how I felt, as well as reducing the inches around my hips, legs, and belly.  I ventured into my closet to see how my old clothes would fit.  The results were amazing.  I was only losing about 1 to 2 lbs a week, which is what I was told when I was setup, but where I really noticed a difference quickly was how trim I was looking and feeling.  This was my incentive and motivation to keep on going.  IT WAS WORKING!!!  

Please read on to the next article “Getting Over The Plateau”.