Feeling Full

One of the problems for many people my age is that as children we were indoctrinated to clean our plates and that there were children in China who were starving. (It only took one time for me to make a smart remark that I would be glad to send my food to them.) Much of the way we eat is a habit. I have been successful at not eating after 8 pm except when I work 1-9 pm and eat dinner at 4 pm. When I try to concentrate on whether I am hungry so far I have still been hungry. I think I need to think about eating more smaller meals instead of 3 normal meals. It takes me a while to make changes in my routine partly because I loose track of time.

Fruits and Vegetables

I have been more successful at making sure I use all the fruits and vegetables I purchase. I did make the mistake of buying a bag of apples that were on sale and one went bad. I plan to cook something with apples this weekend before anymore go bad. I have been making a kind of vegetable stir fry more often using whatever I have in the fridge.

Water Intake

I have been trying to increase my water consumption but I haven't been as successful as I would like. Now I always drink a glass of water when I wake in the morning but I get absent-minded during the day. It takes me a while to get something into my routine.

Sugar Intake

I started by measuring the amount of sugar I was actually putting in my coffee in the morning. Even though I thought I was just sprinkling in a little bit, it turned out to be more like a half a tablespoon. Now I measure a teaspoon of sugar for my coffee. I plan to continue for a few weeks and then cut it back to a half a teaspoon. Eventually I hope to eliminate putting any sugar in my coffee at all. I think it's more of a habit than anything because I drink my tea without any sugar and always have done so. I also put brown sugar on my oatmeal in the morning. I reduced the amount I have been putting on and as soon as the brown sugar is gone, I'm going to switch to maple syrup for my oatmeal.

Conscious Eating

I took some of the Prevention Magazine quizzes and there was one where I got a particularly poor score. That was the Metabolism Myth Busters. I have been working on making sure I drink 8 glasses of water a day but I didn't realize that drinking water could help your metabolism. I knew that tea had a lot of antioxidants but I didn't know that it could also boost your metabolism. I didn't know that eating and drinking ice cold food could increase your metabolism. I'm sure at home I can combine drinking more water that is ice cold. I have brought in a supply of tea bags to work instead of just keeping one in my purse so instead of a cup of coffee I'll try to have a cup of tea. I know this will be hard because I really, really love my coffee.

Conscious Eating Goals

Knowing that I am more likely to focus on smaller details than grandious schemes, I have decided on the following goals:
1. Continue to limit and monitor my sodium intake. Sodium is everywhere! You have to constantly check labels and ingredients.
2. Limit and monitor my sugar intake. I have been so focused on eliminating sodium from my diet that I have not been paying attention to the sugar content. I noticed when I ate a Health Valley soup with no salt added that it tasted sweet which I thought was odd. One serving of the soup had 14 grams of sugar. This may not seem like a lot until you consider that it is recommended that you not consumer more than 40 grams per day.
3. Measure and track water consumed each day. I don't think I drink enough water.
4. To tie in with Going Green, I am going to consciously plan meals to make sure I use the fruits and vegetables before they spoil. I will purchase fewer items based on a planned menu rather than just what looks good in the store. This will make sure I eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
5. I will continue to restrict gluten from my diet.

Health and Wellness

Today begins the OCL Health and Wellness challenge. I will use this blog to report my progress to the committee.