After much thought I've decided to really watch my calories. OK, so it was my husband's idea. He even made me a spreadsheet. Even so, I found my numbers getting pretty high. Then I had a blood test done a couple of weeks ago. My triglycerides are high. This is worrisome as issues with high cholesterol and heart problems are in my family's medical history.
At first, I got proactive and said I needed to change my diet. Or at least I pretended to when people were around. Whenever the idea of a cookie or fries popped into my head. I ate it. After a week or two of saying I couldn't eat better I gave in. I took a look at how much I ate and tried to figure out what I really needed to eat. I realized I could easily shave off 300 calories and be OK.
For me the 1300 is the lowest number of calories I can eat. 1400 is the max for what I am trying to achieve.Today was my day to eat 1300 calories. I did fairly well. I checked into Livestrong.com and got an idea of how I should proportion my meals by calories.
Basically it's 300 for breakfast and 300 for lunch with 500 for dinner. Snacks can be 100 calories. Breakfast was easy as I usually eat bran flakes and soy milk with a cup of coffee. I forgot to add some fruit in there so I may have to make my cereal portion smaller next time. Roughly 300 calories.
Lunch was difficult because I wasn't sure what to do. My go to lunch is turkey and cheese on whole wheat. But, a slice of bread, even whole wheat is 150 calories. Hm, tricky. I finally settled on a tortilla with a quarter cup of reduced fat cheese and an apple. All for 290 calories. I then ate a banana, 110 calories as a snack before dinner.
Dinner required a little more help because it was homemade chicken noodle soup with whole grain noodles, squash, zucchini, carrots, onion and celery. After putting the recipe through Calorie-Count.com I figured that a serving of my soup was 316 calories. I had two servings. This made my total for the day 1340 calories. I am impressed and surprisingly not hungry. Hopefully I can keep this up. I plan to focus on my cholesterol and heart this time around. We'll see if that works because so far trying to trick the scale isn't working.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Scale: Friend or Foe?
How many women step on their scale only to be disappointed by the number? Hundreds, thousands, every woman? First we feel sad. Then we play games with it. "I'm wearing really heavy (shoes, belt, jewelry) if I take them off than I'll get the number I want. Nope, that didn't work. Crap!" Then we either fight it or give up.
On a daily basis I am annoyed by my scale. I am convinced it doesn't work as the number never budges below 150 as far as I am concerned. So I run through my own games. "Maybe it's not centered. Maybe if I stand on one foot." When none of that works I kick the thing and stomp off losing the battle again.
So far the only thing I have learned in my battle of weight loss is that I need to learn to say when. Every time I think I've learned it I get PMS'd out and crave a cookie, or two , or three. But still, I continue to work at it and it frustrates me that my work never shows on the scale. I can now walk two miles in 30 minutes. Before I would get winded and could walk 2 miles in 45 minutes.
I have days where I am so diligent about my calories that I actually feel hungry. The hunger is not something I can deal with for very long and before I know it I have ruined my diet. But still, there are more days that I have more resolve and that does not show up on the scale either. I know the scale is not my friend. But without it how do you measure your success?
On a daily basis I am annoyed by my scale. I am convinced it doesn't work as the number never budges below 150 as far as I am concerned. So I run through my own games. "Maybe it's not centered. Maybe if I stand on one foot." When none of that works I kick the thing and stomp off losing the battle again.
So far the only thing I have learned in my battle of weight loss is that I need to learn to say when. Every time I think I've learned it I get PMS'd out and crave a cookie, or two , or three. But still, I continue to work at it and it frustrates me that my work never shows on the scale. I can now walk two miles in 30 minutes. Before I would get winded and could walk 2 miles in 45 minutes.
I have days where I am so diligent about my calories that I actually feel hungry. The hunger is not something I can deal with for very long and before I know it I have ruined my diet. But still, there are more days that I have more resolve and that does not show up on the scale either. I know the scale is not my friend. But without it how do you measure your success?
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Saying when
Sorry to be away so long readers, but it's been a busy week. I've been doing very well on the exercise front and have been managing to keep my calories low. It's been hard and rewarding work. Trust a family get together to cause some trouble. I went to a family BBQ with the best of intentions but I didn't plan well enough. I decided to eat light before I hit the BBQ and stuck to bran cereal and fruit before I left. I was under the impression the festivities would start at three which meant it was a late lunch or early dinner. I tried to avoid being hungry by nibbling on cantaloupe before we left.
My husband and I get to our destination to find that there is no food at this get together. Well, at least nothing aside from the potato salad I made and the basic sandwich fixings. I was confused to say the least. It turned out my family caterer and planner; my grandmother had forgotten to tell everyone just how behind she was on the food. It's a family joke how late she runs behind. But this time I was paying it for it with my stomach.
Three hours later and I was starving. Or at least tired of waiting for the BBQ so I took up an offer of fried chicken. An hour later the rest of the food and guests arrived. At this point I was no longer hungry but still attracted to the prospect of BBQ. So I had a plate with the intentions of stopping after that. But waiting for food for a long period of time triggered something in me and I kept going until I had overdone it.
The next day had proved no better as the previous day had set a pattern in motion. I've gorged on chicken Alfredo this evening. Later my husband broached the subject of dessert and I strongly considered it but said no. I am incredibly jealous as my husband indulges in a candy bar. I had to leave the room or else I would've grabbed the candy bar. It looks like it's back to the beginning for me. Just when I thought I had learned when to say when.
My husband and I get to our destination to find that there is no food at this get together. Well, at least nothing aside from the potato salad I made and the basic sandwich fixings. I was confused to say the least. It turned out my family caterer and planner; my grandmother had forgotten to tell everyone just how behind she was on the food. It's a family joke how late she runs behind. But this time I was paying it for it with my stomach.
Three hours later and I was starving. Or at least tired of waiting for the BBQ so I took up an offer of fried chicken. An hour later the rest of the food and guests arrived. At this point I was no longer hungry but still attracted to the prospect of BBQ. So I had a plate with the intentions of stopping after that. But waiting for food for a long period of time triggered something in me and I kept going until I had overdone it.
The next day had proved no better as the previous day had set a pattern in motion. I've gorged on chicken Alfredo this evening. Later my husband broached the subject of dessert and I strongly considered it but said no. I am incredibly jealous as my husband indulges in a candy bar. I had to leave the room or else I would've grabbed the candy bar. It looks like it's back to the beginning for me. Just when I thought I had learned when to say when.
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