Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Tiny steps forward

I had two small successes this week. First, I have started realizing that I am hungrier when I eat junk food. I always knew intellectually that that should happen but it never happenend to me. The last two times I ate not so healthy items, I was still hungry afterward although I had just consumed a lot of calories.

The other success is that last night, after spending 2 hours working on a raw lasagna, Charlie asked me if I wanted a bowl of ice cream and I said no. It was chocolate chip mint which is my favorite but I am trying to avoid chocolate. I just didn't really want it and figured I should save the splurge for when I really WANT it. I sat there and watched him eat it and tried to decide if I wanted a different snack and then figured I might as well not eat anything.

I was talking to Ritamarie about not seeing weight loss even though I have made pretty big changes and she reminded me that I did see success when I gave up the carbs last summer. I think I am going to try to give them up again and not worry about the cheese for now. I really don't eat huge amounts of dairy as it is. Hopefully this will make the difference.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Progress?

I am doing well on the changes I made last week. I've done great on the water and not going overboard when I eat out. By eating an apple and nut butter in the morning, I haven't had any of the blood sugar issues. I am trying to figure out what is causing my fingers to break out. I know I am allergic to chocolate and I think that may be the culprit. I had a little bit the other day and I could feel my allergies starting up and my fingers itching and breaking out. I am going to stay away from it all week and see what happens.

I really expected to see a weight difference with the amount of water I've been drinking but I haven't. I had a bit of a hard time last weekend with either allergies or a cold. I didn't start feeling better until mid week. I am hoping that I haven't seen a weight reduction because my body is healing in other ways. I really feel a lot better from allergies. I have to believe that the weight will come off sometime. It is so hard to not get discouraged and chuck the whole thing because I can't measure the progress.

Another change I made last week was to do all the grocery shopping at Whole Foods. I am not ready to completely eliminate foods from the kids' diets so if they are eating Pop Tarts, at least I know that the ones from Whole Foods are made from whole wheat and don't have chemicals. Same with lunch meat. I convinced the kids to do 2 days dairy free. I was trying to talk to them about all the other foods they could have. They both did very well. I was especially worried about Becca because she has always lived off of cheese and fruit. She told me it wasn't very hard. They had a few missteps that I didn't point out (the peanut butter crackers were cheese and peanut butter) because I didn't want to discourage them. As I eliminate these things from our house hopefully we will get better at this. Mid week we ran out of salami (Jessie's choice for an cheese-free sandwich. We ran to the normal grocery store and bought some that had chemicals in it. Sure enough, Jessie broke out and was itchy that night. For now, with the slow changes approach, I would rather spend the extra money and get them the foods they like in a healthier version than tell them that they can't have them anymore. Little by little I will try to help us all make better choices.

Goals for this week:
continue water and supplements
continue trying to make better choices when eating out
continue 2 days dairy free and limit dairy on other days
ramp up exercise

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Trying to make changes slowly (again)

I am trying to make a few health changes at a time in the hopes that I will actually stick to them. This week, I am concentrating on water intake and supplements. I am also seeing how far I am willing to go with eliminating dairy. I found a 2.2 liter water container that I think will help me drink enough water so far day 2 is going well. I also have been doing a good job on my supplements. Milk is easy for me to give up, it is cheese that is hard. I am going to try to make some more dehydrated nut cheeses and see if that helps. It really satisfied me went I went raw. I am thinking about an ice cream maker again. We'll see how it goes. I have to keep reminding myself to be kind to myself and not beat myself up about my weight. If I make too many changes at once, I won't stick to them. This week, I convinced the girls to try 2 dairy free days also. Maybe by making small changes, I can bring the family along for the ride.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

healthy eating and kids

My allergies were horrible all weekend compounded by my poor eating habits all weekend. We ate dinner out on Friday which wasn't too bad because I ordered a salad. On Saturday, Charlie and I went to the UT game and ate all sorts of crap. Of course I got a migraine and had to take medicine. It seems to cycle from there. I eat poorly because it's quick and easy and what I'm craving when I'm on medicine. I then feel worse and need more medicine.

Poor Jessie had a hard time today. She woke up with an asthma attack and then started throwing up. Now she has a fever. I took her to see Ritamarie today and we talked about nutrition and eating habits. It is so hard to change the eating habits of a child. I never want her to develop an eating disorder later because we were too strict now. I also don't want her to have a lifetime of allergy problems. I don't know where the balance is. Hopefully we will figure it out soon.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Feeling off

Well, hopefully this time I won't have a hard time posting like I did last time. I kept typing and posting and it kept telling me it failed and then two days later I see all my posts. Oh well. The last few days I have felt a bit off. I think that my blood sugar is getting messed up. I've been having green powder first thing in the morning. After I work out, I have some juice (usually carrot and grapefruit). I had been eating lunch at Ritamarie's, but I had two days where I got a little busy and didn't eat until I got home at 3. I wasn't hungry but I didn't feel well. It took about an hour or so after I ate to perk up. I think that I may have to make sure I eat a morning snack on my way to work. That should probably cover it.

I had crackers yesterday that had flax in them and then my allergies started bothering me. I hesitate to say it was the flax because it could have been other things I've eaten, but it is suspicious that it happened pretty soon after the crackers. I made the mistake of taking allergy medicine and have paid for it all day with a hangover like feeling. I probably would have done better just to ride the reaction out.