my daily plate days 6 & 7 April 20, 2009

Alrighty. So Saturday and Sunday were my last days of tracking my eating habits on thedailyplate.

It’s been helpful tool for getting some more awareness about the way I eat. There were no dramatic developments, and I mostly learned things I already knew. But it always more beneficial to relearn things from personal experience.

My goal in doing this was to achieve some balance in my eating habits, so that I can enjoy things like alcohol and cheese and sweets and still feel my best all the time. So, how can I do that?

1. Grocery shopping, and being pro-active about planning my meals. In New York, this means packing lunches and dinners. (Don’t laugh at me when I pull out grilled chicken and a spinach salad at Mustang Sally’s!)
2. Planning for the indulgences, if possible. If I know I’ll be out at night having 2 or 3 drinks, then I should eat better during the day, and skip desserts. Also, I should do my best to drink on a full stomach so that I don’t get a case of the drunken munchies.
3. Exercise (duh). I feel so much better on a day that I make yoga or bike-riding a priority. It also makes room for guilt-free indulging!
4. Pack snacks. Going 5 hours without eating leaves me dizzy and hungry and then I overeat.
5. Include LOTS of fruit and vegetables in meals and in between.

Now, I immediately have doubt that I will be able to follow through with all these little goals. (Hush hush, you naysayer in my head!) I’m going to reach for them and do my best to follow through with what I learned, and that’s all I can do! I should include “be easy on myself” in these goals.

The next area of my life I want to bring more awareness to: expenses. “Especially in this economy, AMiRightFolks?!”

my daily plate day 5 April 18, 2009

What I am noticing from Day 5 (and this whole experiment): It’s pretty much impossible to control what I eat unless I plan accordingly. I gotta stock up on groceries and plan meals if I really want to be in control of what I eat and how I feel!

Fruit and vegetables are key. We all know that these are good for us. Looking at them in a list with everything else I’ve eaten is a great reminder that I can pretty much eat as much fruit and veggies as I want to during the day. They are full of great nutrients, and can be very filling even though they are so low in calories.

Also, being aware of what I am eating helps me to not feel guilty about indulging. I have an idea of what I’ve consumed for the day and can have nice treats guilt-free. Yesterday, after a wonderful bike ride, I enjoyed a coconut creme brulee and a soy cappuccino and it felt great. Then at night when I went out, I skipped the drinking and stuck with water since I had already had a great treat that day.

my daily plate days 3 & 4 April 17, 2009

It’s been a busy couple of days so it’s been difficult with keeping up with my daily plate here on the blog, as well as keeping up with it on thedailyplate. But I’m sticking with it!

Things I have noticed from Days 3 & 4:
1. This is a big pain in my ass to keep up with.
2. I’ve had a couple days where I don’t think I get enough nutrients at lunch, or don’t have enough small snacks in the early part of the day. Around 4 or 5, I’ve gotten really faint and dizzy and super hungry and then ended up gorging on dinner. Today I had a late dinner and ended up eating both sushi and pizza! I wonder if I need to have a bigger meal in the middle of the day or some better snacks before dinner so that I don’t always overdo it at night.
3. One serving of Jack Daniels has fewer calories than bud light, and is carb-free.
4. Three servings of almonds (which I can take care of in about 5 minutes) have more fat than one slice of pizza! Wowsers! Omega 3 Fatty Acids are certainly better for you than cheese fat. But, good to know.
5. I had to look up bikram yoga in order to add it in with the whole calorie counter business. Apparently, bikram burns 800 calories! HOT DAMN! That’s a lot. So, doing that a couple times a week really makes room for some indulging. Like this.

On another note: 70 degrees tomorrow.

Bicycles make me happy.

my daily plate day 2 April 14, 2009

So I have made it to Day 2 of keeping up with my eating habits on my daily plate.
Things I have noticed so far:
—-Just posting here, on this blog, that I am doing this for a week is helpful incentive for keeping up with this little experiment.
—Keeping track of my eating choices definitely makes me more conscious of what I am eating.
—Being more conscious makes me want to be more in control of what I put in my body. I packed a lunch for work today. Usually we get a staff meal. It can be anything from oatmeal or scrambled eggs to fried chicken and white rice. I’m glad I was prepared—today was a chicken and rice day. 11am is a little early for that! I had a delicious turkey and avocado sandwich that made me feel really good for the rest of my shift!

Tonight, my friends The Wilhelm are guest bartending at a bar down on the LES to raise money for their trip to Chicago. I think I’m going to stay in tonight and catch up on some rest and try to go to yoga in the morning. If I go out I will end up drinking a lot, and will sleep in tomorrow morning. My fun tank is pretty full, so I’m going to try and balance it with some rest and exercise. (But you know I love you, Wilhelmers.)

my daily plate April 13, 2009

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been having lots of fun lately, which I really, really needed. This fun has included parties, shows, and late nights with friends in bars. All of these usually go hand in hand with drinking and junk food.

Oh how I love junk food at night. Fried jalepeno peppers, nachos with the works, and pizza—oh pizza, the history you and I have together.

I don’t like the feeling I get from eating all that crap and drinking too much! I was complaining about how I felt physically to my friend Laura. “Maybe I should give up drinking for a while! Or bread! Or sugar!” (I think I say this every two weeks. While eating a chocolate chip cookie.) She suggested that I check out The Daily Plate, and just try keeping track of what I eat and drink for a week. She encouraged me to not make any changes, but to just eat like I normally do and just see what it all adds up to.

I think that probably every diet book or healthy-eating program instructs you to write down what you eat. That’s part of what makes the Weight Watchers point system work. But, this little web site is pretty cool, because you can search the database for almost anything and it has the calories, carbs, sugar, etc. listed. There’s a little pie chart that shows you what percentage of your diet is from carbs, protein, and fat. There’s also a place to enter in water intake and exercise for the day.

So—I’m going to try to do this, for a whole week. I want to feel my best, look my best, and still be able to enjoy fried food and ice cream sundaes! Here’s to hoping that keeping track of my eating habits for a week will bring about more awareness and help me to have the balanced lifestyle that I really crave!