Wholesome Eating

As I mentioned last week when I did my post on "Jillian's Nuggets of Knowledge", I started trying to incorporate some hormone-balancing foods into my daily eating. I've stayed within my calorie limit every day, and have walked 20 minutes on the treadmill every day at a rate of 4.0-4.5, resulting in a 1.42 mile distance so far. I don't know why the walking is still so hard/painful for me, but I'm hoping that with continued perseverance, it will get easier and I'll be able to walk further over time.

Here's a list of the foods that I've had over the last 4 days since I weighed in last Friday morning:

egg whites
homemade turkey sausage
bell peppers
orange peppers
red peppers
onions
tomatoes
fresh spinach
baby portabello mushrooms
Arnold's whole wheat sandwich thins
Wrap-itz 100% stoneground whole wheat wraps
97% fat free pork tenderloin
boneless skinless chicken breasts
99% fat free ground turkey breast
Canadian bacon
potatoes
carrots
eggplant (blech!)
yellow squash
zucchini
cantaloupe
peaches
plums
prunes (blech!)
watermelon
Rainier cherries
walnuts
olive oil
fat free sour cream
garbanzo beans
black beans
fat free cream cheese
Smucker's low sugar strawberry preserves
reduced fat crackers
mozzarella cheese
64 oz of water every day (including protein water daily)
1 glass of tea in the last 4 days
decaf coffee w/ sugar-free creamer
NO COKE
NO DARK CHOCOLATE

I went out Saturday night with Dwayne and some friends with the full intention of giving myself an extra 1,000 calories for special days like this. I ate about 500 calories during the day before we met our friends for dinner at the Mexican restaurant, Los Reyes. I ate 2 grilled chicken tacos w/ lettuce only, and 1 regular chicken soft taco (stewed chicken w/ tomatoes and onions) with lettuce only.....no cheese on any of the tacos. I also had 1 1/2 beers and a few chips w/ salsa. I ended up concentrating on laughing and enjoying time with our friends and the food was just a side note. I enjoyed what I ate, took my time eating it, and didn't need the extra 1,000 calories!! I took control over the food instead of letting the food control me (GREAT ADVICE, SEAN!!!), and the feeling of freedom that came with that was indescribable. I've finally got my head in the right place and I am LOVING this new sense of power.

Now, I'm not so naive as to think there won't be anymore rough/trying days....of course there will. In fact, I was at a store today and there was a Wendy's and Arby's right next door. My addiction to fast food kicked in as soon as I smelled them. I wasn't particularly hungry, but they were right there, and I could smell them, and I hadn't had any fast food (except for Subway), since I started changing my eating habits over 5 weeks ago. It's funny how easily you can slip into your old way of thinking.

Time to stop and think. It was after lunchtime, around 2pm, and I had over 900 calories left for the day. Could I afford to eat anything from either of these restaurants calorie-wise? Sure I could. Could I get rid of the sodium with lots of water before weighing in on Friday? Probably. Does it jive with my new healthy way of eating? Absolutely not...I'm eating as much whole foods now as possible to straighten out my hormones. Fast food isn't on the list. Is it time to go home and make a better, healthier decision? Yep. And home I went.

One of the things that Jillian mentioned that we should be eating some of every day is cruciferous veggies (broccoli, bok choy, cauliflower, cabbage) and I noticed I haven't had any of those this week. I plan on rectifying that with some beef and broccoli later in the week. I will make it in the crockpot with a lean london broil, frozen broccoli, onions and mushrooms.

Tomorrow night I'm planning on making another crockpot dish that I found on Pam's food blog: http://lobsterandfishsticks.com/2009/03/30/chicken-and-sweet-potato-stew/. I love sweet potatoes but have only ever had them plain with a little butter on them, or sometimes brown sugar as a sweet treat. I'm so curious to see how they taste in a savory dish with chicken, mushrooms and onions. Looking forward to trying something new!

I'm also looking forward to the next few weeks to see if my body feels any better and some of my "symptoms" are relieved from the healthier food choices. I'm off now to make out a short grocery list of some of the produce I'm running low on. Can't live without onions!! I put them in EVERYTHING!! :) 'Night all.

Quote For The Day:

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." -Robert Collier