Val's journal

[vegyluvver]

Are a few bites of oats and blueberries before errands. Wasn't hungry but didn't want to go out in the world on an empty stomach. Got home and had a big bowl of split pea soup. That's better.

[vegyluvver]

I do better when I post here daily, so here goes.

Going to be boring for anyone who's not me, but oh well.

List of starches currently on hand:

Rice (brown and white and wild)
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Pasta and Asian noodles (I will be buying whole-grain from now on, but these are a mix)
Oats
Grain mix
Bulgur
Wheatberries
Peas
Corn
Beans

[vegyluvver]

Thinking of separating out my food log from the personal journal, but we'll see. I'm paying close attention to hunger and fullness today. I stopped eating breakfast when I felt pleasantly full, and I am checking in with myself from time to time to see how I feel. It's nice to be full and not feel sluggish afterwards.

Made up a batch of black bean burgers using Jeff's recipe from Fast Food Burgers and Fries. It's chilling in the fridge until lunchtime.

Breakfast: cold tomato soup; air-fried potatoes; sugar-free ketchup (Checklist: -- I just had soup and potatoes (half and half) so I'm not sure if that means I should also have had some veggies, but at breakfast sometimes I'm wanting simplicity, so the soup was my vegetable)

Snack: had a blood sugar crash. Ate a bowl of watermelon. I unthinkingly went out on an errand without taking emergency food or glucose tabs, and it was 69 by the time I got home. Dumb especially since I had every intention of taking the rest of my breakfast potatoes with me but forgot.

Lunch: 50/50 plate: veggies with a little soy sauce and garlic; black bean burger; barbecue sauce; unsweetened green tea

Snack: black bean burger with barbecue sauce, leftover potatoes from breakfast

Dinner: Sweet potato with Fox Point seasoning

Snack: blueberries

Checklist:

0. Do your best - I think I fell a little shy of my best, but I did pretty well
1. Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit. - I can work on this. I think I need to have a batch of soup ready at all times.
2. Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert. I did this for breakfast and lunch (I don't usually do dessert).
3. Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them. -- I replaced the regular ketchup with sugar-free and my husband didn't notice. I'll slowly replace everything that way and it should be fine, but we're not there yet.
4. Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood). No problem
5. Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy). No problem
6. Eliminate any added oil. No problem.
7. Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e. bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit. No problem, though I did want those things. I had enough other stuff to eat. I am concerned about the oats in the burgers, but I wanted to try the recipe.
8. Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages). Missed my tea with almond milk and sugar
9. Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don’t starve yourself and don’t stuff yourself. This was a big win today. Ate (and stopped eating) completely based on hunger.
10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Honestly, I'm going to give my body a couple of weeks to reduce pain before working on this item.

[Growing a Pear]

0. Do your best

OMG. I love your list item, Val. May I adopt it for my check-ins?

I'm someone who tends to all-or-nothing thinking, but the most important thing is to just. Keep. Going. Self-compassion as the basis of change.

I like setting this out as an intentional philosophy.

[vegyluvver]

0. Do your best

OMG. I love your list item, Val. May I adopt it for my check-ins?

I'm someone who tends to all-or-nothing thinking, but the most important thing is to just. Keep. Going. Self-compassion as the basis of change.

I like setting this out as an intentional philosophy.

Thanks for the encouragement. It's so easy for me to be mean to myself that I need reminders that I only have to do my best.

[vegyluvver]

Breakfast: potatoes, onion, and peppers cooked in water, with sugar-free ketchup

Lunch: veggie burgers, sweet potato, barbecue sauce

[vegyluvver]

I think I need to incorporate some kind of planning into this. I'm resisting it. I'm going to do it anyway. Sigh.

Breakfast tomorrow: oatmeal and blueberries
Lunch: veggie soup
Snack: salad with fat-free dressing
Dinner: leftover veggie soup

[vegyluvver]

Saw a video from chef AJ yesterday where she was eating breakfast at 1pm or something and she says she eats when she's hungry until she's full. I know that's also a McD recommended path, so that's my focus today. I've been up a couple hours and I'm just now getting hungry so I'll eat my oatmeal in a little bit. I started a giant instant pot of veggie soup with onion, garlic, tomato, celery, mushrooms, peppers, potatoes, and carrots in veggie stock. Some salt in the stock but not much.

Breakfast cold oatmeal and blueberries

I think it was Mark who said eating cold oatmeal is like pudding, and I can see it. I dislike hot oatmeal and was eating dry oats with almond milk before starting MWL, but this is healthier and I like it a lot more.

Lunch veggie soup and a banana
Snacks soup and watermelon
Dinner soup and a little tabouli

I made a big batch of oil-free tabouli for tomorrow and there's still a half gallon of soup left, and quite a bit of watermelon. That should be all my food for tomorrow sorted.

[bunsofaluminum]

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Honestly, I'm going to give my body a couple of weeks to reduce pain before working on this item.

This! It's very important to be active, but when things hurt, or you hurt yourself whenever you do get active, maybe not worry about it so much until things don't hurt anymore...or the energy levels get so high that you CAN'T sit still

[vegyluvver]

10. Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking). Honestly, I'm going to give my body a couple of weeks to reduce pain before working on this item.

This! It's very important to be active, but when things hurt, or you hurt yourself whenever you do get active, maybe not worry about it so much until things don't hurt anymore...or the energy levels get so high that you CAN'T sit still

Thanks for the validation. I do want to find some movement that doesn't hurt, but right now, it's the food.

[Ruff]

chronic pain is such a downer . Is it summer where you are? Can you insert a sun bath daily instead of exercise? just sit in a sunny spot with skin exposed for vitamin D for 15 minutes, to enjoy the sun and the space in the day. Obviously if you live in a desert this might not work....

I live on a beach, and just taking 5 minutes to pop over the dune, sit in the sun and watch the waves was very restorative during the lockdown. I was on crutches at the time so I couldn't actually exercise.

[vegyluvver]

Great ideas, thanks!

[vegyluvver]

Starting weight, 7/3/20: 319
7/10: 319.6
7/17: 320.4
7/24: 318.4

Breakfast, cold cooked oatmeal and blueberries
Lunch, tabouli
Snack, watermelon and grapes, tomato juice
Dinner, leftover vegetable soup, tabouli, diet sparkling water

Two days in a row!

[vegyluvver]

Starting day 3 feeling energized.

My blood sugar was 93 this morning. It's been slightly high lately so that's nice.

Plan for today is my normal oats and berries for breakfast, a new pot of soup, and the rest of the tabouli. I drove to my daughter's house yesterday and dropped off a gallon bag of the tabouli. She loves the stuff.

Breakfast, oatmeal and blueberries
Lunch, veg soup, cherries, green tea, diet sparkling water
Snack, I have just been leaving the soup on low and getting more when I'm hungry. I think this is a key to why I'm not mindlessly snacking
Dinner, tabouli with extra tomatoes, watermelon

[vegyluvver]

Day 4 & I'm feeling better than I have in a while. My symptoms aren't gone but they're improving.

Noticed that there are two times when I tend to eat mindlessly: when I'm sitting at the table with my elderly relatives, just talking, and when I'm watching a movie on the couch with my husband. So for a couple of days I have been drinking water or green tea at that time instead.

Today's plan is to eat soup, fruit, the rest of the tabouli, and for dinner roasted potatoes and a salad. For breakfast every day I have been pouring a cup of hot cooked oatmeal over some frozen blueberries and stirring. A couple minutes later I have cold blueberry oatmeal, which I like better than hot.

Breakfast: blueberry oatmeal
Snack: cabbage salad (just chopped cabbage and oil-free dressing); unsweetened tea
Lunch: tabouli with extra tomatoes, diet sparkling water
Dinner: air-fried potatoes with sugar-free ketchup, veg soup
Snack: low-sugar boba tea

I've had an occasional tomato juice (but not today), but I haven't been sweetening or adding almond milk to my tea most times, so I'm drinking a lot fewer calories than before. As I was pouring the almond milk down the drain today, I said to myself "Yes, this is wasteful, but so is drinking food that's not good for me, and I'd rather waste it this way and stop buying it than hurt myself." If I were eating bread I would have added it to a batch of bread dough.

Fasting blood sugar today was 101. Really tempted to weigh myself but I'm going to wait until Friday.