Onward to Day 3.
Breakfast: Banana. Nothing much to this, peeled one large banana and ate it.
Lunch: Pasta w/ cottage cheese. I boiled 3/4 cup Penne pasta in a small pot for about 10 minutes. I originally planned on eating 1 cup dry, but the serving size on the box said "3/4" so I decided to go with that instead. It didn't seem to be a large difference. I would be curious to see what it comes out to after cooked but didn't think about it until after I started eating. It filled up one of my small bowls about half full, so that is definitely less pasta than I typically eat. As for the cottage cheese, I mixed in about 1 & 1/2 tablespoons into the pasta as a substitution for spaghetti sauce. I wanted to use the spaghetti sauce I had in the fridge, but apparently it was older than I thought, as it had mold growing on the top of the lid. This dish was rather bland as a result. I probably could have added some cheddar cheese to compensate for taste but decided against it as that is just extra calories.
Dinner: Barbecue chicken, stuffing and baked potato. I used half a bottle of Kraft barbecue sauce to marinate raw chicken strips than baked them in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 min. They came out really well, very tasty. The chicken I used happened to be on sale, but I did notice that it was a hormone and antibiotic free chicken, which makes me happy. The stuffing was from Stovetop and I mixed it with water and canola oil instead of butter. In the future, I would like to learn how to make stuffing from scratch instead of relying upon processed methods. Baked potatoes were cooked for about 10 minutes in the microwave in a freezer bag, which steamed them quite well. I topped my potato with about 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese but no butter or sour cream. I'm not sure if I could eat a completely plain baked potato, so I figured that out of all the options, cheese was probably the best.
Treat: Brownie and banana bread. I ate one brownie in the late afternoon and a small bite of banana bread. Need to get all of those treats out of my house ASAP! They are way too tempting for snacking. Although, I do think that still, with my not drinking soda at all, it's not a really bad thing.
I have been experiencing some headaches that I am thinking come from caffeine withdrawal or from low blood sugar. One of the harder things to do in this is to make good choices while still maintaining a proper amount of calories because some of the more healthy choices do not carry a lot of calories. I think that I'm still so afraid to "mess up" by eating something unhealthy and I do need to remember that it's still about moderation.
So far, no more Mountain Dew and I've been drinking nothing but water. Pats on the back for me! I'm pretty proud of myself so far actually.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Day 2
Today I felt much more confident about making better choices because we actually have food in the house that contributes to healthy eating.
Breakfast: Cereal with milk. Special K Vanilla Almond cereal with 1% milk. I also sliced up half a banana and me and A split it between our cereal bowls. This was an extremely good breakfast.
Snack: Half a banana. I simply ate the second half of the banana we used for breakfast when I was feeling hungry later in the morning.
Lunch: Turkey & cheese toasted sandwich. I used two slices of whole grain bread, 1 slice of American cheese and 2 slices of medium-thick deli turkey. This is a common lunch item I have made in the past, so it was not difficult. However, instead of buttering the end sides of both slices of bread as I have in the past, I drizzled extra virgin olive oil on them. Then I proceeded to fry both sides of the sandwich on medium heat until they were toasted and the cheese had melted. This was an extremely good sandwich - and I did not taste a difference between using butter or olive oil, although I will say that my fingers got "greasier" than normal holding this sandwich. Will need to remember to cut back on the amount of oil used next time.
Dinner: Salmon, brown rice and stir fry vegetables. I cooked all of the food on the stove top. Brown rice was 100% whole grain. There was some left over so I will probably use it for a meal at lunchtime tomorrow. Vegetables consisted of yellow squash, red peppers and vidalia onions seasoned with garlic salt, Italian seasoning and olive oil sauteed in a skillet. I got involved doing something else and thus burned the vegetables a little bit - beginner's mistake. I will have to remember to keep the pan on medium heat rather than turning it up to high. I cooked the salmon in a skillet mixed with a little bit of olive oil as well. I'm finding myself thinking it is strange to use all of this olive oil for cooking, but then I remember that I was using butter in the same way before. What I do like about using the olive oil in place of the butter is that the fats in olive oil are much better for you, hence why nutritionists point to the Mediterranean diet as being healthy.
Treat: Brownie and small piece of banana bread. I made a pan of brownies today and I ate the equivalent of a small size brownie. (I was too impatient for the pan to cool completely, so I did a hack job at the corner.) Then I received a care package in the mail that included a couple of pieces of banana bread. In a way I feel that it is not a good idea to eat a brownie or a treat every day but considering that I have cut out around 450 calories and 120g of sugar a day by not drinking my typical servings of soda, I am not ashamed of letting myself eat a brownie and a bite of something yummy a friend sent me. However, I will not be making or buying any more treats to have in the house for a couple of weeks, as I also have ice cream in the freezer. That's too much temptation!
So far, A hasn't made a big deal out of the diet changes although he was a tad upset that he was asked to cut up vegetables for me tonight. I'm still not clear on how to do everything, so it's nice that he comes from a family that always made meals at home, eat a variety of vegetables, etc. I just honestly don't even know the simplest things, like that you should cut out the center of a bell pepper before slicing it. I am trying to not be discouraged by all of this and am just letting myself soak up the knowledge like a sponge.
No more Mountain Dew again today and I have been drinking water like crazy. I have gone through quite a few glasses! I will say that I haven't experienced any indigestion or queasiness from anything I've eaten today. I guess that time will tell on if I have any adverse effects to the introduction of more olive oil and whole grains into my diet - but I am hoping there are only positive things to come!
Breakfast: Cereal with milk. Special K Vanilla Almond cereal with 1% milk. I also sliced up half a banana and me and A split it between our cereal bowls. This was an extremely good breakfast.
Snack: Half a banana. I simply ate the second half of the banana we used for breakfast when I was feeling hungry later in the morning.
Lunch: Turkey & cheese toasted sandwich. I used two slices of whole grain bread, 1 slice of American cheese and 2 slices of medium-thick deli turkey. This is a common lunch item I have made in the past, so it was not difficult. However, instead of buttering the end sides of both slices of bread as I have in the past, I drizzled extra virgin olive oil on them. Then I proceeded to fry both sides of the sandwich on medium heat until they were toasted and the cheese had melted. This was an extremely good sandwich - and I did not taste a difference between using butter or olive oil, although I will say that my fingers got "greasier" than normal holding this sandwich. Will need to remember to cut back on the amount of oil used next time.
Dinner: Salmon, brown rice and stir fry vegetables. I cooked all of the food on the stove top. Brown rice was 100% whole grain. There was some left over so I will probably use it for a meal at lunchtime tomorrow. Vegetables consisted of yellow squash, red peppers and vidalia onions seasoned with garlic salt, Italian seasoning and olive oil sauteed in a skillet. I got involved doing something else and thus burned the vegetables a little bit - beginner's mistake. I will have to remember to keep the pan on medium heat rather than turning it up to high. I cooked the salmon in a skillet mixed with a little bit of olive oil as well. I'm finding myself thinking it is strange to use all of this olive oil for cooking, but then I remember that I was using butter in the same way before. What I do like about using the olive oil in place of the butter is that the fats in olive oil are much better for you, hence why nutritionists point to the Mediterranean diet as being healthy.
Treat: Brownie and small piece of banana bread. I made a pan of brownies today and I ate the equivalent of a small size brownie. (I was too impatient for the pan to cool completely, so I did a hack job at the corner.) Then I received a care package in the mail that included a couple of pieces of banana bread. In a way I feel that it is not a good idea to eat a brownie or a treat every day but considering that I have cut out around 450 calories and 120g of sugar a day by not drinking my typical servings of soda, I am not ashamed of letting myself eat a brownie and a bite of something yummy a friend sent me. However, I will not be making or buying any more treats to have in the house for a couple of weeks, as I also have ice cream in the freezer. That's too much temptation!
So far, A hasn't made a big deal out of the diet changes although he was a tad upset that he was asked to cut up vegetables for me tonight. I'm still not clear on how to do everything, so it's nice that he comes from a family that always made meals at home, eat a variety of vegetables, etc. I just honestly don't even know the simplest things, like that you should cut out the center of a bell pepper before slicing it. I am trying to not be discouraged by all of this and am just letting myself soak up the knowledge like a sponge.
No more Mountain Dew again today and I have been drinking water like crazy. I have gone through quite a few glasses! I will say that I haven't experienced any indigestion or queasiness from anything I've eaten today. I guess that time will tell on if I have any adverse effects to the introduction of more olive oil and whole grains into my diet - but I am hoping there are only positive things to come!
Day 1
So, because I want to be accountable to myself, here is the deal. I am going to type out each day exactly everything that I eat. Over time, hopefully I will be able to look back on this and be happy with the progress I have made.
Day 1 - July 11, 2009
Breakfast: 1 slice of whole grain bread. I was rushing to pick up a friend for a movie and thought, "I need to eat breakfast - what is quick?" We didn't have anything in the house so I just picked up a slice of bread, figuring it's basically the same as toast, just untoasted! It got something in my tummy.
Lunch: 2 whole grain blueberry & nut pancakes, 2 egg substitutes and 2 glasses of water. Me & friend had previously agreed to eat out at IHOP, which occurred before making the diet switch. I thought it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get a feel for what it's like to make a "healthy" choice in a restaurant anyway. I stuck to drinking water instead of soda like I normally do and chose a meal off the "heart healthy" portion of the menu. I also used the "light" syrup provided which had no fat and a lot less sugar than the regular syrup, and scraped all of the butter out of the center of the pancakes. I didn't find a large difference in taste in the least, but I was not pleased by the fat content of the meal either. Eating out will need to be a treat from here on out.
Dinner: Two hard shell tacos with ground beef, shredded cheese sprinkled lightly on top. These were left over from a previous night's meal and needed to be eaten. In the future, I would like to look into leaner cuts of meat or keep such meals to a minimum. Although, I was proud of myself for keeping a lot less cheese than usual off the tacos.
Treat: A single lime bar. Very good and very tasty. Probably full of sugar, but considering that I am typically a 4-cans-of-soda-a-day person, I do not feel like this small indulgence was hurtful to my sugar intake for the day.
In reflection, I am not very pleased with this first day's fat content, an issue that I will need to address with my impending gallbladder doom. But this is a start, and the biggest baby step I made yesterday was my commitment to stop drinking Mountain Dew for 2 weeks straight. This will be very hard, as I am used to drinking soda at work and we start back with 10 hour days planning for the grand reopen on Thursday. However, I have decided that if it takes buying sparkling water to get my fizz fix, if it takes drinking Kool-Aid out of mugs or if it takes me popping Excedrin every single day to get rid of my headaches - I am not touching the stuff for the next 2 weeks. A drinks a lot of Mountain Dew, and I have told him that I will not attempt to change that about it, so that is another hurdle as well because every time I open my fridge, I am met with lovely green cans.
But I am capable and I am strong. And I am going to make this work.
Day 1 - July 11, 2009
Breakfast: 1 slice of whole grain bread. I was rushing to pick up a friend for a movie and thought, "I need to eat breakfast - what is quick?" We didn't have anything in the house so I just picked up a slice of bread, figuring it's basically the same as toast, just untoasted! It got something in my tummy.
Lunch: 2 whole grain blueberry & nut pancakes, 2 egg substitutes and 2 glasses of water. Me & friend had previously agreed to eat out at IHOP, which occurred before making the diet switch. I thought it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get a feel for what it's like to make a "healthy" choice in a restaurant anyway. I stuck to drinking water instead of soda like I normally do and chose a meal off the "heart healthy" portion of the menu. I also used the "light" syrup provided which had no fat and a lot less sugar than the regular syrup, and scraped all of the butter out of the center of the pancakes. I didn't find a large difference in taste in the least, but I was not pleased by the fat content of the meal either. Eating out will need to be a treat from here on out.
Dinner: Two hard shell tacos with ground beef, shredded cheese sprinkled lightly on top. These were left over from a previous night's meal and needed to be eaten. In the future, I would like to look into leaner cuts of meat or keep such meals to a minimum. Although, I was proud of myself for keeping a lot less cheese than usual off the tacos.
Treat: A single lime bar. Very good and very tasty. Probably full of sugar, but considering that I am typically a 4-cans-of-soda-a-day person, I do not feel like this small indulgence was hurtful to my sugar intake for the day.
In reflection, I am not very pleased with this first day's fat content, an issue that I will need to address with my impending gallbladder doom. But this is a start, and the biggest baby step I made yesterday was my commitment to stop drinking Mountain Dew for 2 weeks straight. This will be very hard, as I am used to drinking soda at work and we start back with 10 hour days planning for the grand reopen on Thursday. However, I have decided that if it takes buying sparkling water to get my fizz fix, if it takes drinking Kool-Aid out of mugs or if it takes me popping Excedrin every single day to get rid of my headaches - I am not touching the stuff for the next 2 weeks. A drinks a lot of Mountain Dew, and I have told him that I will not attempt to change that about it, so that is another hurdle as well because every time I open my fridge, I am met with lovely green cans.
But I am capable and I am strong. And I am going to make this work.
The "Why" behind all of this
For awhile now, I have known that my gallbladder will be a problem. My maternal aunts and my mom all got their gallbladders out in their 20's. I am 21 and I know that even with a good diet, I will soon fall victim to gallbladder problems. Lately, I've been experiencing pain in my abdomen and some digestive issues. I know that it's not a coincidence. The last straw, if you will, was when I experienced a vasovagal episode during a bowel movement accompanied by intense pain in my side. It was intense and scary and I know that I need to change my diet not only because I want to fit into my clothes better, but because I want to be healthy.
My diet in the past has consisted of a lot of fast food, a lot of soda and simple carbs. I usually eat fast food at least once a day on a typical day, and I have eaten it 3 times a day before in the past. Not uncommon for a college student, that's for sure, but that's not really an excuse anymore. The biggest challenge for me in all of this is going to be learning to prepare healthy meals utilizing vegetables. I didn't grow up in a home where we cooked every night - I grew up in a home where eating out was the norm; fast food for lunch and a nicer restaurant for dinner. The extent of our "home cooking" was frozen food, Manwich, canned soup and the ocassional roast or taco/quesadilla thing.
I didn't really know what "eating healthy" meant until I took a Nutrition class in college. I am thankful that I learned a lot in that class and had a wonderful professor that made it easy to learn. Although eating healthy does not come easy to me, it is now something that I am confident that I can do with a little work.
One of the another hurdles in this whole ordeal was getting my boyfriend, who from here on out will be referred to as "A", on board. For months, I have been talking about making changes to our diet and he has been quite resistant to it. However, when I laid it all out for him yesterday, told him that this is something I have to do or I'm going to wind up in the hospital doing emergency surgery on my gallbladder sooner than I should, I think he finally got it. He's not going to make as dramatic lifestyle changes as me, and that's okay. He is supporting me in what I am doing and helping me to learn how to cook healthier things for dinner, if nothing else.
Yesterday I began my new lifestyle change, which is eating healthier. Me and A, went to the store and bought $65 worth of groceries, which consisted mainly of veggies, fruit and grain products. I'm in the process of planning out a weekly "meal plan" which will hopefully incorporate more healthy food items into my diet. For those who are reading and are curious to know where I am getting my ideas from, you have to thank KateC and her meal plan. I think it is an amazing place to start and that is where a lot of my groceries bought yesterday originated.
My diet in the past has consisted of a lot of fast food, a lot of soda and simple carbs. I usually eat fast food at least once a day on a typical day, and I have eaten it 3 times a day before in the past. Not uncommon for a college student, that's for sure, but that's not really an excuse anymore. The biggest challenge for me in all of this is going to be learning to prepare healthy meals utilizing vegetables. I didn't grow up in a home where we cooked every night - I grew up in a home where eating out was the norm; fast food for lunch and a nicer restaurant for dinner. The extent of our "home cooking" was frozen food, Manwich, canned soup and the ocassional roast or taco/quesadilla thing.
I didn't really know what "eating healthy" meant until I took a Nutrition class in college. I am thankful that I learned a lot in that class and had a wonderful professor that made it easy to learn. Although eating healthy does not come easy to me, it is now something that I am confident that I can do with a little work.
One of the another hurdles in this whole ordeal was getting my boyfriend, who from here on out will be referred to as "A", on board. For months, I have been talking about making changes to our diet and he has been quite resistant to it. However, when I laid it all out for him yesterday, told him that this is something I have to do or I'm going to wind up in the hospital doing emergency surgery on my gallbladder sooner than I should, I think he finally got it. He's not going to make as dramatic lifestyle changes as me, and that's okay. He is supporting me in what I am doing and helping me to learn how to cook healthier things for dinner, if nothing else.
Yesterday I began my new lifestyle change, which is eating healthier. Me and A, went to the store and bought $65 worth of groceries, which consisted mainly of veggies, fruit and grain products. I'm in the process of planning out a weekly "meal plan" which will hopefully incorporate more healthy food items into my diet. For those who are reading and are curious to know where I am getting my ideas from, you have to thank KateC and her meal plan. I think it is an amazing place to start and that is where a lot of my groceries bought yesterday originated.
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