4 roma tomatoes, 4 small cucumbers, half a head of celery, a small bell pepper, half a small head of cabbage, two carrots, 2 key limes (made 4 cups of juice)
3 beets, 3 carrots, about 3 cups lettuce, 1 apple (made 2 cups of juice)
half a head of celery, two small cucumbers, 1 pear (made 2 cups of juice)
Feeling good and energetic. Kidneys working overtime.
2 zuchinni, 1 carrot, 1 apple, 1 mango, about 4 cups spinach (made 3 cups juice)
1 apple, about 3 cups each parsnips and carrots, 4 cups kale (made 1.5 cups juice)
1 apple, 1 orange, 3 carrots, a head of celery, 2 small cucumbers, 2 orange beets with their greens (made 4 cups of juice)
3.5 quarts water, 2 quarts juice
Just keep going, one day at a time.
It’s funny, a few years ago work days used to be my best eating days because I packed everything I ate. The last few weeks I’ve been eating out constantly. I just need to plan ahead so that I have good food to bring with me. Today’s totals: 1523 calories, 70 grams carb, 7 grams protein.
I ended up not making a frittata because I got busy and needed a faster lunch, instead I threw some scallops under the broiler with a few cherry tomatoes. Also had a large piece of cheese for a snack before going out to do week 2 of couch to 5 K before supper. Roasted corn on the cob on the grill for the family and had half a piece with butter, a hard-boiled egg, and tofu chocolate mousse for dinner. I have plenty of food to take to work tomorrow: 2 veggie burgers already cooked, hard-boiled eggs, kale chips from the dehydrator, and some broccoli and summer squash under the broiler right now for tomorrow’s lunch.
Here’s the recipe (which I kind of made up as I went along, but turned out well enough I’ll do it again.)
1 package mori-nu silken tofu
1 scoop Jay Robb chocolate whey protein powder
4 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp stevia powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
water
Mix cocoa powder, protein powder, and stevia with just enough water to make a thick, syrup-like liquid. In food processor, blend tofu until very smooth, scraping down sides. Add cocoa mixture and vanilla. Blend again. Serve chilled, with stevia-sweetened whipped cream if desired. Makes 2 servings, each 167 calories, 26 grams of protein, 10 grams carbohydrate, 4 grams of fat.
Woke up this morning feeling very grouchy and extremely hungry. Day three of low-carb is usually a hard one, but I know that if I can get through the “carb withdrawal” of the next few days without succumbing it will get physically easier. I had a green smoothie/protein shake for breakfast – kale, swiss chard, and beet greens from the garden with vanilla protein powder, milk, 1/4 cup of frozen mango chunks and 2 frozen strawberries (280 calories, 33 grams of protein and 23 grams of carbs.) Planning to make a veggie frittata for lunch so that I’ll have leftovers to bring to work tomorrow. Maybe shrimp on the grill for dinner.
Yesterday’s post got a comment from a food blogger who I assume just stumbled onto my post on the wordpress “recently posted.” She was encouraging and friendly and I do appreciate that! But she also included some “conventional wisdom” advice which, for me, is very very bad advice:
Did you know the average American eats too much meat and not enough fruits and veggies? A great way to keep track of what’s going on with your food intake is this http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov/. It’s a government website designed to help you track and analyze your diet. It will show you your trends over time and break everything down into individual nutrients.
If you have a junk food or splurge you love, don’t get rid of it. But don’t keep them all. Find little ways to cut your fat and sugar intake. Switch to 1% milk, use a little less butter, try fat-free yogurt.
First of all, as a life-long vegetarian (my parents both stopped eating meat independently of each other before they met) too much meat is definitely not the reason I’m fat. And I love fruits and vegetables. I have become increasingly convinced from my reading and research that attaining a healthy weight would be much, much easier for me if I could eat meat, unfortunately I have an strong aversion to it and while I will eat some mild shellfish (shrimp and scallops) I can’t bring myself to eat chicken or even salmon.
I am also not concerned about limiting my fat intake. I avoid hydrogenated fats like the plague they are but will happily load up on avocadoes, nuts, full-fat dairy, and coconut oil. Unlike starchy and sugary foods, fat is satisfying and does not leave me craving more and more and more. Adequate intake of “good” fats is also essential for health (as I sometimes point out to clients with gestational diabetes in trying to convince them that they don’t need any minimum number of “carb servings” and that decades of fat-is-bad-for-you rhetoric is wrong — ever hear of an “essential fatty acid”? Of course you have. Ever hear of an “essential carbohydrate”? …and I have a fantastic success rate at helping clients get their blood sugars back into normal range and keep them there.)
But the piece of advice that I absolutely need to reject, resist and run from is “If you have a junk food or splurge you love, don’t get rid of it.” Now, I know that the writer of this comment meant her advice kindly and I am sure that for some people, treats in moderation is a reasonable and workable plan. I’m just not one of them. I am not able to have “just have one bite” of anything with sugar or flour in it. I have years and years of trying to do just that to prove it. For me, sugars and starches are a highly addictive drug that I need to avoid for the rest of my life. I have seen the results in my body, my behavior, my mood, and most of all the compulsive binge eating that inevitably follows when I convince myself that it’s okay to have “just a little bit” of the treat that is calling my name (or more frequently, being offered.) Barbara Berkeley’s post about “rogue fat cells” was extremely helpful to me in offering a framework for what is going on on a physiological level in my body when I eat that piece of fudgy brownie or that fresh-out-of-the-oven home-made bread. If only I could reprogram my brain to see sugar the way it sees meat — as a revolting “non-food!”
I weighed 251 lbs this morning, a little more than I did when I started tracking my weight in May 2008. I can’t get the last four months back, but I’m starting over again. I just updated my “about” page and started a new progress page with pictures taken tonight. I am not giving up.
I started Couch to 5K again last week, from the beginning. I have not run since April, but this time I know that the difficult part is not physical, but mental, and I know that I can do it because I did it before. Ran Week 2 day one yesterday. Today I swam 10 laps at the pool with the kids. And the last two days I have kept on track with my new eating plan.
I still have a bunch of Medifast food in the cupboard but have no desire to try that method again. No packages and powders. My goal is to eat real, whole, healthy food while keeping my calories between 1500-1800, get at least 80 grams of protein and no more than 80 grams of carbohydrates a day. Most of those carbohydrates should come from vegetables; it would be really easy for me to overdo it on legumes, nuts and fruits.
I need to work on getting more water in. I haven’t been drinking enough. Also preparing vegetables in advance: I have a garden full of produce but don’t make time to prep, cut, and cook my veggies so I grab things that are quicker and less healthy. My husband came home with a dehydrator yesterday and I made a batch of kale chips that turned out great; I need to keep doing that every few days as they are delicious and portable (easy to bring to work!) I really need to plan the day before for food when I’m in the office as I’ve gotten in the habit of going out for lunch on work days and there just aren’t enough options that are on-plan for me if I do that (not to mention it’s expensive.)
Today I had a protein shake; a yoplait plain greek yogurt with stevia, vanilla, 1/2 a peach, and 10 pecans; 2 Morningstar Farms black bean burger patties with cheese melted on top, some cherry tomatoes and 1/4 of an avocado; and a 2-egg cheese omelet with some homemade kale chips. Was still hungry around 8 pm so had a second greek yogurt with stevia and vanilla and pecans, this time with a handful of frozen blueberries. I ate more pecans than I intended to and ended up at 1738 calories and 87 grams of carbohydrate for the day and 119 grams of protein. Yesterday I managed to finish the day at only 1590 calories and 38 grams of carbs but I also skipped breakfast and finished off the rest of the whipping cream in the fridge (with stevia and cocoa powder) as a huge chunk of my calories for the day. I do find it much, much easier to eat less when I get plenty of fat and protein and keep the carbs as low as I can.
So, there’s the ugly reality of March: hopefully to be immediately turned around in April. My morning weigh-in weight on March 1st was 226.8 and my trend weight was 227.4. On March 31st the morning weigh-in weight was 228.6 and the trend weight was 224.5.
I’m not going to do measurements until next month since I lost no weight in March.
My goals for March were:
New goals for April:
