writing it all down

If you checked the comments from my last post, my friend Flo sent a great article about journaling your food no matter what you are doing in the way of dieting (or non-dieting).  It's a great read.  But what really struck me and got me to thinking was Flo's comment itself: "I can just say that for myself, I can never "eat like a normal person", because I am not that normal person. So if I need to track calories, or points, or whatever, forever - it is really no big deal. That is just "my normal".

OMG - thank you Flo!  I really had to sit with that a week before I could even respond or blog again.  Yes - we have learned to define normal as automatically knowing what to eat and in what quantities and frequency.  But what if that is not MY normal?  What if MY normal calls for a certain amount of vigilance? Maybe it's normal for ME to have an awareness and an accountability with my eating?

Taking everything into account, I am willing to journal my food.  I am perfectly comfortable with Phase 2 of South Beach (very similar to Simply Filling/Core) and so for now, that is the route I am taking.  My immediate goal is to stick with it more than three days! (lol)  But really - no laughing matter.  As I've blogged about before I have seriously bolting tendencies.  I think what will help me through this is to eat my breakfast that I enjoy, and to use walnuts daily. I have to find something that I can live with, and if I take this seriously enough, this is something I can do.  Mostly it just deletes most processed foods. There are enough that are allowed to make this an easy plan to follow.  Also it takes the view: "Treat not cheat" - just don't go overboard.  My personal goal is to keep that to a minimum - maybe once a week: I usually pack a small dessert to bring to my mother's when we do lunch weekly at her nursing home.  Instead of avoiding it maybe I will use that as the week's treat.  I really don't have desserts in the house otherwise. Another treat is that only breast meat is allowed - so for today, for instance, when I have a whole roast chicken for dinner I am having the dark meat (no skin).  But we only do this 2-3 times a month so it really really is only a treat! 

Early this morning I put a huge chicken in a turkey brine - I've never done that before with a chicken and if it is yummy enough I am going to also brine 4 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts that I will use throughout the week.

For breakfast I had my "usual" - 2 Wasa crackers, 2 lite Laughing Cow cheese wedges, topped with tomato slices, and 2 coffees (with cream).  Ages ago when I was a member of the South Beach website I signed up for the extra feature of being able to work with a SB nutritionist, and her take on the cream was that if it was I something I really enjoyed, and it kept me on the straight and narrow the rest of the day, then not to be concerned if it wasn't on the approved list.

My morning snack was a small bowl of FF ricotta mixed with almond extract and Splenda.  

For lunch I made my own deli-style chicken salad.  I love my little "chopster" and have been using it more and more.  I took a cooked chicken breast and put it in the chopster with a spoon of lite mayo and an apple.  I had that with a salad tossed with olive oil and rice vinegar.

It's almost 3, and I'm feeling a bit hungry - I see a hard-boiled egg in my future, maybe with an apple.

For dinner I am having the roast chicken with sweet potato, string beans and another salad.  I am also going to make my favorite WW cranberry relish (a bag of cranberries, a navel orange with the skin on, an inch of fresh ginger, and a cup of sweetener - the recipe calls for sugar, but I actually like it just as much with Splenda). 

Babs - I'm not ready to add any form of exercise.  I am seeing my orthopedist tomorrow - I have a newly discovered (but apparently not new) spine condition (causing awful hip and leg pain) that the chiropractor actually thinks only surgery will correct.  But since I'm not going "there" I want to see what this doctor suggests.  He's a DO and looks at surgery as an absolutel last resort, so I trust him to tell me what to do.  I'm in such horrid pain within 1/10th of a mile of walking (and I can't even do my marathon cooking sessions anymore) - I know the recumbent bike probably is okay so I am just going to have to bite the bullet and probably take that as my exercise.  But meanwhile I'm doing nada until I see this doctor.  Anyway - I commend you for the pledge you took in your own blog!

Okay - off to put the chicken in the oven.

Miriam