A little funny: I decided my title and then realized it's the 4th of August, I like those kinds of coincidences in life.
I am an on again off again food label reader and one thing I've learned is that the ingredients are listed in order of what is most to what is found least in the food. The rule I'm following where my abstaining is concerned (no corn products, no wheat, no rice, no potatoes, no fried) is it must be at least 4th on the list. With home recipes it must be a very small amount in the recipe. For example pudding*: it has a couple Tablespoons of flour or cornstarch -- no big deal. Granola bars usually start with oats (I eat!) but often have some sort of rice product next (I abstain!). I don't know how my friend gave up sugar for 100 days (she posted on Facebook she gave up caffeine, sugar, wheat, rice, chocolate) sugar is everywhere. She probably had some sort of rule like this as well. I'm trying to focus my food choices less on my weight and more on my health, at the same time I do want to become a smaller size. I am sort of missing the scale right now because pounds are so detectable (for the good and for the bad of it). I am planning to measure my waist but I keep forgetting. I really like the idea and I read a lot of articles about eating clean, I'm not doing that at this time but I'm sure eating cleaner that I was a month ago.
*pudding, like ice cream, could easily become a vice for me watching portions is so important.
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In yesterday's post I listed my Hunger Scale (HS) and eating that I've experienced lately. Today I am posting my prior to 7/13 eating, I haven't kept an exact list as is suggested in Meant to Eat, these are what I remember as my worst tendencies:
Breakfast: HS 4-- I would eat cheesy eggs and some sort of wheat product maybe a breakfast cookie. On the weekends I often treat myself to a jumbo sweet muffin or cinnamon roll from the grocery store baker. (I LOVE my morning coffee with a sweet pastry to dunk and eat.)
Snack: HS 3-5 (over the summer I tend to have a morning snack since I'm usually home) -- pretzels, cheese, nuts, or some combination of all of them
Lunch: HS 4 or 5 during school usually I have a sandwich with meat/cheese/lettuce, pretzels & cheese
After School: once I get home I'm at HS 5!! and I want dinner right away but my husband often gets home about 30 minutes after I do. Sometimes I go ahead and eat without him or I start in on some sort of wheaty &/or fried option if available. If my husband is gone for dinner I will go for some sort of over indulgence of potatoes maybe frozen french fries or make my own potatoes in the microwave --- it's an ugly scene that may or may not include cheese/chili when available
On the weekends (and maybe some week nights) some sort of movie will be watched w/ or w/o my husband with some fatcarbolicious foods to be consumed while watching to the point of HS 1 (stuffed!)
Late Night: HS 3 or 4 more of the same maybe cheese, nuts, pretzels etc.
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I previously posted that I was going to start taking a lot of short walks, that hasn't been happening. Last week I was dog sitting which got moving more with at least one 25 min walk a day along with frequent short walks. This week I've done no walks. I know I should and I "want to" but doing and wanting are not on the same page at this point. This week I have been doing a lot of house cleaning which is keeping me out of my chair (good!) but I am not wanting to interrupt my cleaning motivation by taking time out for a walk (bad!). I really want to believe Sitting is the New Smoking but obviously I don't have that in my heart too deep b/c I do a lot of sitting. Ideally I would walk at least 30 minutes a day at least 4 days a week and do Yoga-ish exercises for 20 minutes or more 2 days a week. I'm going to love and forgive myself through this for now as I am happy with myself for the recent changes I've made. I have my calendar sending me a reminder each day this month of my 3 goals for the month: 1) stick with my eating plan 2) prioritize helping my husband 3) forgive myself the same way I forgive others -- Walking may need to be a September goal.
Well, I was writing a comment, then I pressed something and now we are back to square one OR you may have 2 posts from me. I'll pretend it is gone.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate how your goal this summer has been to focus on food intake. I had set a goal to work on working out on a regular basis since during the school year I barely did any activity at all. I'm thinking that my next goal needs to think about food choices after 3:30. I FOUGHT!!! keeping a food journal for years, but just recently I decided I really needed to write down every time I took an almond. It is really not okay to take 10 almonds 4 times AFTER getting home from work.
So now, as the school calendar is becoming a bright light at the end of the tunnel zooming toward me, I think I really need to focus on how I'll continue once school starts. How will I hold myself accountable to MAKE time for an hour each day to do some sort of activity? I do know I must be more mindful of food portion sizes during the late meal. Having 2.5 portions of spaghetti noodles in one meal is just not acceptable.
So, thanks for sharing all of your homework as you move along this journey. It is helping me think about what I need to do for my own life journey. One thing that is really getting to me lately is how we use the word good when it comes to food. I think this started when a skinny, wear modern clothes, woman said she was going to order the burger and fries and then when it came time to order said, "I'm being good; I'll get the salad." Well that implies that I'm bad. Anyway, I began to realize how often people use good and I'm thinking I can't qualify myself as good or bad based on food choice. It becomes non-helpful self-talk. For myself, I'm going to think about healthy and appropriate vs. not -- this is mostly a going out to eat issue. Appropriate is that component of amount of food and food choice given what was offered.
Let me know what you think of the spaghetti maker!
Wow you've really hit on something I read recently regarding the "good vs. bad" talk. I'm so glad you reminded me of it. I need to keep that in mind more as I consider my word choices in the future. The author has observed that women often get competitive with this talk etc. This year I am enjoying that I've already decided what I'm going to decide by way of what is acceptable. I still need to watch amounts but many of the choices have already been decided, whew! For now that is working really well for me. Thanks so much for posting, I will definitely keep you posted on the spaghetti maker.
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