One of the toughest things about changing your diet is that you can't change everyone else's along with it. You can try, if you have children, to change their diet, but even then you face challenges. My challenges don't come along when it's just me, deciding for myself what to eat. They come when I go out on a date, and when I serve a family meal.
Yesterday was Easter. All in all, not the most awful food holiday there is. Fresh vegetables, ham... nothing too bad. But then again, what's a holiday without dessert? But a little planning goes a long way.
Now, I promised that this wouldn't be a rant about food, but I just have to say that the leftover ham is my favorite part of Easter. I boiled down the bone and then used the ham broth to cook up some barley. And boy was there a ton of leftover ham! What to do with it? Ham and barley, ham polenta, ham and pea soup, ham sandwiches, just plain ham... So much to do...
Super Easy Awesome Breakfast
3/4 cup water and a pinch of salt to a boil on the stove
Reduce to simmer
1/4 cup polenta (the uncooked kind)
2 oz diced ham
1 oz diced swiss cheese
Cook until no liquid is left, stirring frequently
So that was my low cholesterol breakfast today. And it was super yummy.
But I digress. I'm finding a big challenge to be jumping from event to event. Date night, potluck at work, kids birthday party, holiday, coworkers birthday, date night... Is it really enough to "be good" on the in between days? In my experience, there has to be a balance in making the right choices, and not feeling guilty to participate in a celebration. I have a lot of coworkers. We have at least one birthday/month on the sales floor, but really more like three or four. That's three or four slices of birthday cake/month. What the hell?
Yoplait would have you choose a yogurt instead. I think it's rude not to enjoy birthday cake on the sole principle of diet. Really, I mean, if you're vegan, ok, cool. If you don't like that flavor, aw, bummer. But no, I won't celebrate your birthday with cake because I've made poor life choices up to this point and now I'm trying like hell to reverse them.... Lame.
Anyhow,
Monday, April 1, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Epiphany
Spring Break. I have been "trying" to lose weight for months now. I've managed to steer clear of my all time high, but I've only managed to lose about 4 lbs. The honest truth is that I haven't been trying all that hard. I'll have days, maybe even a week, where I get some motivation, I eat healthy, resist temptation and maybe even do some exercise for a minute or two.
I'm not particularly fat. I look decent enough in my clothes and I fit into one seat on an airplane. But I hate how much effort it takes to find the right pants/shirt combo to look as un-fat as possible before I go out. I hate not fitting into my old jeans, and I hate running out of breath while hiking, despite being as un-asthmatic as Kobe Bryant. But I love my life, I love my boyfriend (and he loves me), and overall, I feel relatively healthy.
As you probably noticed, though, the title of this blog is "Epiphany." I recently went for my health screening. The one that I have to complete to save some $600+ a year on my health insurance. This morning started off like many others. I got up, I put on the coffee, kissed my niece and nephew goodbye and got some breakfast. Normally I have one large egg, two slices of ham, and a very thin half-ounce slice of cheese on a Thomas' lite English muffin; a holdover staple from my Weight Watchers days. This morning, we had no ham, and all of my English muffins were frozen, so I had two eggs on two slices of toast with cheese. After breakfast, I notice the email that my results are in, and I need to go fill out the survey on my Aetna site to qualify for my discount. Lo and behold! I have high cholesterol!! It's a mere 4 points high, but still. I had just consumed over 170% of the daily recommended allowance of cholesterol, and apparently, I am increasing my risk of heart disease daily.
Now, before you read this and think, well, duh... everyone knows eggs are high in cholesterol... I know that. Of course I know that. However, I don't eat a whole lot of foods that are, besides eggs, and one large egg is only 58%, so that leaves plenty of room for the rest of the day. Or, so I thought. But this morning my sister had bought "Jumbo" eggs, not "Large" eggs, which are some 60mg higher. Who knew. Did you know that Jumbo eggs had some 34% more cholesterol per egg? Then shut up.
So, here I am, worried about my health, not just for aesthetics. Actually at moderate risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and colon cancer. Apparently being more heavy set puts you at a higher risk for colon cancer, too. So I'm going to do what every other whiny pos in my generation does when we feel like we need the attention of the masses to put pressure on ourselves to follow through... I'm going to start blogging about it. 1. because if I journal it, I will hopefully be more likely to keep track of myself and hold myself accountable for missteps and improvements. 2. because all anyone out there trying to diet or get more healthy wants to do is sit around and read stories about how someone else has already gone through it and 3. because people need to stop talking about how easy it is. I did it once and it was easy. But I had a partner in crime. A roommate who was also dieting. <3
Challenges
1. I'm completely unmotivated and have no energy.
2. Excuses come so easily in my situation (I'm in school, work full time, have uneven hips for which I am seeing a chiropractor, etc.) In other words "I don't have time."
3. This one is a legitimate challenge, I live with my sister and her two children. So shit happens like coming home to fresh cooked lasagna when I should be eating salad and a salmon fillet, or like all of my more delicious diet foods like the yogurt and English muffins are gone, but there is plenty of broccoli (and garlic bread and lasagna).
Rebuttals
1. Quit being lazy. Drink more water. Exercise and energy have an positively correlated relationship. And now that you know about your cholesterol, really can't pull the "you look fine, quit worrying about it" card.
2. I am up to date on Bones. I am up to date on Dr. Who, Sherlock and Torchwood (as much as is on Netflix). I know that that Amanda chick who was acquitted in Italy is going to retrial, that Kim K. doesn't want to look fat, and that some teenager who was forced to drive during her own kidnapping sideswiped a police car to save herself. So, that excuse has no bearing.
3. Get over it. Buy your own food and quit blaming other people for your lack of willpower.
So, dieting sucks. It's more difficult when you don't have a real support system in your life every day helping you realize your goals. You know what else sucks? Heart attacks. So...
If you are reading my blog, feel free to make comments. Good comments, bad comments, Trolling comments, I don't care. I'm going to write it though, because it will (hopefully) help me stay on track. And I'm going to try really hard not to make it a daily menu of what I ate, or a beat myself up-fest of what I coulda shoulda woulda...
Wish me luck!
I'm not particularly fat. I look decent enough in my clothes and I fit into one seat on an airplane. But I hate how much effort it takes to find the right pants/shirt combo to look as un-fat as possible before I go out. I hate not fitting into my old jeans, and I hate running out of breath while hiking, despite being as un-asthmatic as Kobe Bryant. But I love my life, I love my boyfriend (and he loves me), and overall, I feel relatively healthy.
As you probably noticed, though, the title of this blog is "Epiphany." I recently went for my health screening. The one that I have to complete to save some $600+ a year on my health insurance. This morning started off like many others. I got up, I put on the coffee, kissed my niece and nephew goodbye and got some breakfast. Normally I have one large egg, two slices of ham, and a very thin half-ounce slice of cheese on a Thomas' lite English muffin; a holdover staple from my Weight Watchers days. This morning, we had no ham, and all of my English muffins were frozen, so I had two eggs on two slices of toast with cheese. After breakfast, I notice the email that my results are in, and I need to go fill out the survey on my Aetna site to qualify for my discount. Lo and behold! I have high cholesterol!! It's a mere 4 points high, but still. I had just consumed over 170% of the daily recommended allowance of cholesterol, and apparently, I am increasing my risk of heart disease daily.
Now, before you read this and think, well, duh... everyone knows eggs are high in cholesterol... I know that. Of course I know that. However, I don't eat a whole lot of foods that are, besides eggs, and one large egg is only 58%, so that leaves plenty of room for the rest of the day. Or, so I thought. But this morning my sister had bought "Jumbo" eggs, not "Large" eggs, which are some 60mg higher. Who knew. Did you know that Jumbo eggs had some 34% more cholesterol per egg? Then shut up.
So, here I am, worried about my health, not just for aesthetics. Actually at moderate risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and colon cancer. Apparently being more heavy set puts you at a higher risk for colon cancer, too. So I'm going to do what every other whiny pos in my generation does when we feel like we need the attention of the masses to put pressure on ourselves to follow through... I'm going to start blogging about it. 1. because if I journal it, I will hopefully be more likely to keep track of myself and hold myself accountable for missteps and improvements. 2. because all anyone out there trying to diet or get more healthy wants to do is sit around and read stories about how someone else has already gone through it and 3. because people need to stop talking about how easy it is. I did it once and it was easy. But I had a partner in crime. A roommate who was also dieting. <3
Challenges
1. I'm completely unmotivated and have no energy.
2. Excuses come so easily in my situation (I'm in school, work full time, have uneven hips for which I am seeing a chiropractor, etc.) In other words "I don't have time."
3. This one is a legitimate challenge, I live with my sister and her two children. So shit happens like coming home to fresh cooked lasagna when I should be eating salad and a salmon fillet, or like all of my more delicious diet foods like the yogurt and English muffins are gone, but there is plenty of broccoli (and garlic bread and lasagna).
Rebuttals
1. Quit being lazy. Drink more water. Exercise and energy have an positively correlated relationship. And now that you know about your cholesterol, really can't pull the "you look fine, quit worrying about it" card.
2. I am up to date on Bones. I am up to date on Dr. Who, Sherlock and Torchwood (as much as is on Netflix). I know that that Amanda chick who was acquitted in Italy is going to retrial, that Kim K. doesn't want to look fat, and that some teenager who was forced to drive during her own kidnapping sideswiped a police car to save herself. So, that excuse has no bearing.
3. Get over it. Buy your own food and quit blaming other people for your lack of willpower.
So, dieting sucks. It's more difficult when you don't have a real support system in your life every day helping you realize your goals. You know what else sucks? Heart attacks. So...
If you are reading my blog, feel free to make comments. Good comments, bad comments, Trolling comments, I don't care. I'm going to write it though, because it will (hopefully) help me stay on track. And I'm going to try really hard not to make it a daily menu of what I ate, or a beat myself up-fest of what I coulda shoulda woulda...
Wish me luck!
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