Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nurse, or nutritionist. I am just posting things that have worked for me in my quest towards a healthier lifestyle. Any changes you choose to make to diet and/or exercise should be made only after consulting your physician.
Okay, so it’s been a week since I started with earnest to modify my eating, or as I call it, “cranking it down”. I find visual pictures helpful as I attempt changes in my life, and I equate the small, progressive steps I’m taking in my quest to eat healthy to putting a block of wood into one of those big clamps, where you slowly turn it tighter and tighter. Maybe not the greatest mental picture for you…but it works for me.
How am I doing with breakfast and mid- morning snack? Well, I’m happy to report “pretty darn good.” I’ve consistently eaten both a low-fat, low-sugar breakfast and a mid-morning snack every day this week, hitting in the ball park of around 400 –500 calories for the two together each day. I’ve been eating Kashi bars, cooked egg whites, fruit and peanut butter, and yogurt and nuts, mixing them up as needed to accommodate my schedule.
Not that it has been that easy. TWO days this week, sales reps brought food to the hospital. One morning, Shipley’s Donuts were in the break room for hours. And there were several of my favorites in the box just calling out to me. Another day, there were so many kolaches in the break room I got intoxicated just by the smell (for those of you not from Texas, just google “kolache” to see why I love them soooo much!)
Many people were eating the donuts and kolaches. And I was tempted to join in. However, I had my healthy snack to eat. And I thought about my ten reasons for wanting to get healthy. And I resisted the temptation.
Another big challenge for me it is that it is hard for me time-wise in the morning to pack food when I have to be at work at 5:30 am. I know I should get my food together the night before, but that doesn’t seem to happen much. I'm just not a night-time kind of gal. So, the temptation in the morning is to think “I don’t have time to pull together anything healthy for the morning. Where’s that left over banana pudding???” So far I’ve resisted, but I know I’ve got to get some more healthy “grab and go” options for the morning.
So have I lost a ton of pounds this week? I doubt it. But I don’t know because I rarely get on the scales. Just looking at my body and the way things fit, I might be making a tad bit of progress. A tad. Not much. But that’s okay, because I am not in a foot race. I am running a long marathon that is going to take time. It took me a while to put this weight on, so it is going to take a while to get my eating where it should be and time to take the weight off.
And how am I doing with lunch and dinner? No fair asking that now, because I am taking one step at a time and this week I was focused on breakfast and mid-morning snack.. Next week I will move on to lunch.
There are some modifications I am still wanting to make in my morning eating routine. As I have to be at work at 5:30 pretty consistently in the coming weeks, I want to make things even simpler…more “grab and go”.
1) Instead of buying one big container of yogurt that I divvy out of, I’m going to buy the small, individual portions. No need to find some container to put the yogurt in (since I can usually find all sorts of containers in my cabinet but no lids to match). No excuse…just grab the little thing and go. The individual containers have another advantage in that they hold ½ cup rather than the 1 cup I have been eating, so I’m cutting out ½ the portion and ½ the calories as well, which I think I can do with minimal pain.
2) At my shopping trip today, I’m going to buy some frozen whole wheat waffles. Again, something very “grab and go”. Slap some peanut butter on it or sugar free jelly and I’m good to go for one of my morning meals. I’ll let you know what brand I decide on. I can do the same with rice cakes. Also going to pick up some cheese cubes that I can partner with fruit some days. And replace the mixed nuts that I had been using on my yogurt with walnuts only (which are healthier than the peanuts in the mixed nuts).
3) Lastly, I found some protein shakes in my cabinet from an abandoned weight loss attempt a while ago. (and no, the shakes haven’t expired). So I am going to start adding them to my morning options. How much more “grab and go” can you get than that?
How are you doing with breakfast and mid-morning snack? Have you started bringing in healthier options and weaning out the less healthy stuff? What have been your successes and your challenges this week?
Maybe you have yet to get started towards better health. I hope you’ll give it a try. Maybe you jumped great guns into a radical diet or exercise program at the New Year that required too many changes too fast and you've already given up trying to get healthier. Don’t give up! I encourage you to begin again, taking small, progressive steps towards eating healthy.
We have a great FB group, “Steps To Better Health”, where we share, encourage, and support each other on our journey. I encourage you to join us!
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