Coke, Chocolate and Cha-Cha-Change!

I mentioned before that I started tracking my calories on Monday on this website: http://www.sparkpeople.com. I initially ran through it as fast as I could, clicking on "maintaining healthy lifestyle" instead of "weight loss program" because I didn't want to take the time to go through a questionaire. I just wanted to get to the calorie counter and check it out. I tracked my calories all day Monday to see where I landed with eating healthy stuff but not starving myself. I ended up at 1900. I looked back on what I ate, saw where I could easily shave off a couple hundred calories that I wasted, and decided to set my goal at 1600. The problem with is, I didn't know how to figure out what the corresponding goals should be for the fats, carbs and proteins. So tonight I logged in and totally started over. I clicked on the weight loss program this time, answered a few questions, and when it took me to the calorie counter in the nutrition section this time, it gave me just what I was looking for.

It asked me what my current and goal weights are. It asked me by what date did I want to lose the weight. I entered April 1, 2010, figuring in my head that would be somewhere around 10 lbs/mo since I have 92 lbs to lose. Those goals might be a little aggressive for an addict like me, but you've got to set goals. Otherwise you'll just be floundering around. It gave me a range of calories from 1200-1550 per day to reach my goal. Naturally, I'm choosing the 1550 because I want all the calories I can get right now. My body is still in shock from being at 4,000/day just last week, lol. So that's the high end. Here are my goals for each day:

Calories: 1550
Carbs: 250
Fat: 60
Protein: 136

These are the numbers that the program generated so these will be my guidelines. I'm going to try to list what I eat on a daily basis and my final nutrition stats for the day. I might not list every single baby carrot I eat, but I'll give you a good idea.

A couple of other changes that I've made popped in my head today so I wanted to share them. I changed several months ago from vegetable oil to olive oil because I kept hearing the Extra Virgin Olive Oil was a "good" fat. I've heard that canola oil is 2nd to the EVOO so I keep some of that too. I use the EVOO 98% of the time and I leave the canola oil for when I'm going to fry something. That's something else I've changed. I used to fry whatever meat we were having for dinner 1-2x a week. The other nights it was either baked, boiled, grilled, etc. When I switched to olive oil, I just decided to stop all that frying. I now fry about once every 2 months. And it's usually 1 of 2 things. My roommate's favorite meal in the world is fried porkchops, so every couple of months I indulge him. The 2nd item is for me....fried chicken tenders. Again, I fry those about once every couple months. Yes, the frying needs to go altogether and I feel like we'll get there eventually. But it's a vast improvement from what it was and I'm glad I made that change.

Another thing is mayo. I love mayo. It's the perfect accompaniment to my favorite sandwich in the world which is Boar's Head ham with tomatoes and onions. Now this was a hard one, and I'm still not totally where I should be. I used Blue Plate for YEARS because that's what Mom's always used and you go with what you know. About a year ago my boyfriend told me he liked Duke's and he bought a jar. Tasted just as good to me as Blue Plate, so I switched to Duke's. About 5 months ago I decided I was going to stop the full fat mayo cold turkey and bought a jar of Kraft Fat Free mayo. Blech. I didn't like it, but I ate it for about 2 months. I still kept a separate jar of Duke's for certain things like my Mom's potato salad. Some things you just shouldn't mess with....kind of like having white rice once every couple of months in a dish from my childhood. But for regular weekly use, I stuck with the fat free trying my hardest to get used to the taste. Then one day I went to get it out of the frig and it was beside the Duke's. I noticed the Duke's full fat mayo had streaks on the inside of the jar from the oil and egg and such breaking down I'm assuming. Seems like a natural process to me. Then I opened the Kraft, realized I'd had the same jar as long as the Duke's, and it looked the same as the day I bought it. No natural processes going on inside this jar. Then I had a thought.....what exactly is this stuff? I was immediately freaked out, kind of like cheese that doesn't melt in a 500 degree pan freaks me out. I threw it in the trash and went back to Duke's. About 2 weeks ago, I decided I needed a mayo w/ less fat in it again.....but not as drastic as the fat free. So I bought Kraft reduced fat mayo. Again, blech, lol. But I plan on sticking with this for sandwiches and such. I'm not sure where my mayo journey is going to end....but I feel like some change is better than no change.

Coke. The bain of my existence. I could write a sonnet and name it "Ode to Coke" but I'll spare you. I think I've been drinking this since birth. There has never been another drink on the face of this earth that even comes close to the taste of Coke for me. It is definitely my biggest vice in the food world. When I found out I had diabetes I was so ignorant at first about what that meant. I had to give up sugar. Big deal. Thank God in Heaven I have never been a person with a serious sweet tooth. I've never eaten half a pie, half a pan of brownies or half a gallon of ice cream. In fact, I cant' even handle more than half a candy bar at once. And then I started reading about diabetes and realizing how almost every single food has sugar in it. I learned all about bad carbs....how I was going to have to give up or seriously limit white flour, pastas, rice, bread....things were starting to look bad. Then I found out that Coke is absolute poison for a diabetic and I'd have to give those up completely.....OH YEAH RIGHT!?!......like that's ever gonna' happen!?!?!? And I continued to poison myself for many years, albeit now with a boatload of guilt.

This past January I finally decided to cut back. No, I haven't completely quit and yes I'm a moron for that. But I have made a change for the good. Before January, I was drinking at least 3 cokes a day and sometimes more, depending if I was at a cookout/reunion/birthday party, etc. But my bare minimum was 3 a day...one with each meal. That's a minimum of 21 Cokes a week. I now drink about 2-3 a week. It's averaging out to be around every 3 days that I cave in to the craving. You would think that only drinking 2-3/wk now I could just leave it alone completely. That hasn't happened. I still think about Coke every day....I'm just forcing myself to stave off the craving until I think I just can't handle it anymore. Say a prayer for me that I find the strength to kick the habit completely very soon. I'm proud of how much I've cut out of my diet....but I know with being a diabetic that it's just not good enough.

Chocolate. Now I mentioned that I've never had a big sweet tooth and that's true. However, chocolate is in a category all by itself. I eat chocolate about 5x/wk. I will probably do this the rest of my life. I eat a couple of bites nearly every day and it satisfies my chocolate craving. But I have to have those 2 bites. I haven't taken the time yet to see what's the best dietary choice to satiate my chocolate cravings mainly because it's only 2 bites a day. But if I can lower the sugar levels even in that little bit then I need to. Right now I have a bag of 3 Musketeers fun size snack bars in my frig. It's the 2 bite size. I eat one bar most days. It's not my fave kind of chocolate or anything....I'll eat just about any form of chocolate....but I just happen to notice the front of the bag saying 45% less fat than most candy bars or something to that effect so that's the one I bought. I hear that Russell Stover has some pretty good sugar-free turtles....I'm going to check those out one day. I also hear that if you're going to eat chocolate, then make it dark because the cacoa might actually have some health benefits if you eat it in small enough quantities.

I'm ready for bed but before I go I wanted to point something out. I told you I ate 1900 calories on Monday and decided to shoot for 1600 starting Tuesday. Then I ate the Subway and threw myself somewhere around 2000 calories I think. Starting anew this morning. my goal was again 1600. My total calories for today is 1667!! Only 67 calories over instead of 400. Woo hoo!
Considering I take things one day at a time....today is a win. Baby steps people...baby steps. Since I re-did my nutrition goals tonight, then starting tmrw my caloric goal is 1550. We'll see where I land. :)