Food Changes I've Made

Going over my blog posts I noticed I talk a lot about the results of my weight loss journey, but not so much about how I actually do it. Well, at least food wise. For this post I thought I would go a little more in-depth about how I changed my eating habits.

As you know, I started counting calories about two and a half months ago. And it was a really positive experience for me. My goal is to stay within 1200 and 1500kcals a day. I didn't take any specific approach (low-carb or blood type diet or whatever), I don't even check protein versus fats versus carbs. I just try to make smart choices within the calorie limits. I keep a spreadsheet with my daily weight, calories in, calories out, water intake and general mood. Although honestly I've been slacking a bit with the spreadsheet lately. It's hard to keep track of everything during busy weekends.

With this tracking, changes in eating habits follow naturally. In the beginning it was mostly about portion control, and after a while I started noticing I could get more satisfied feeling out of food if I ate more of the healthier stuff.

The foods/drinks that I'm now consuming less of:

• Booze - I used to have a glass of wine or beer several times a week. I looked up the calorie content for my favorite drinks and saw that it just wasn't worth it. I still have a drink here and there, but it's usually only a few during the weekend.
• Cookies - My employer places fresh cookies at our coffee machines every morning and afternoon. I'm no longer eating them, unless they are those yummy Belvita ones, then I will have one or two.
• Milk/cream and sugar in my coffee - I used to drink my coffee with milk and sugar, now it's virtually always black. In the weekend I'll sometimes have a latte with stevia or a cappuccino with steamed milk. Yes, in the weekends I'm definitely less strict.
• Sub sandwiches - I used to have these often at work. I once did the calorie math on my favorite sandwich and it was over 600kcals. Hmmm, not something to do every day.
• Bread in general - Bread has a lot of calories, actually. I never really knew that. I still eat it, but I will usually only have one or two slices per meal, and add some fresh veggies or trail mix instead.
• Potato chips - Need I say more? One of my top vices, together with booze. I often had a sneaky bag of them in the evening when Engineer Daddy wasn't home. I checked my favorite kind: 500kcals per bag. I could not believe it. And it's not even that filling; what a rip-off. I will still eat potato chips from time to time, but only when someone else puts them out. And even then it will just be a few handfulls.
• Portion sizes in general have become smaller. One meal I used to go to town with was spaghetti with tomato sauce. I looove that stuff, preferrably with lots of cheese. Well, I don't do that anymore. Now I have a sensible portion, often without cheese, but with a nice spoonful of hot sauce instead. I've noticed that I got rid of the "stuffed" feeling I used to have on spaghetti nights. Odd, don't you think?

The foods/drinks that I'm now consuming more of:

• Fruit - I have always been a good fruit eater. But I'll usually have more one or two more servings than before. They help keep me full and keep me away from the cookies at work.
• Fat-free yoghurt - I eat a yoghurt every morning (125g, 45kcals). Calcium, protein, and keeps me going until lunch.
• Cottage cheese - Curbs my cheese craving and is so versatile. Throw in some veggies, olives and pickles when you want savoury. Do the same with strawberries, mango or pineapple for sweet. I simply adore this stuff.
• Crackers - They are basically my bread substitute. For lunch I will usually put some lean lunch meat on them and eat them with a big bowl of fresh soup.
• Trail mix - I do try to restrain myself when I'm around this stuff because it's still pretty high in calories. It is delicious though, and I find myself craving it more and more so I will happily make space for it in my daily calorie allowance.

That's more or less it, I think. I will probably make a similar post about my workout habits sometime soon.

Some Favorite Snacks

My weight has been all over the place the past few days. A big influence is the constipation I'm dealing with - again. Ugh it's pretty bad. I had some fatty food during the weekend and as a result I have been doing number twos all day today. So I'm wondering what the scale will say tomorrow. This morning it was 68.6kg. We shall see.

Get ready for another favorite food post.

First up: Trail mix! It's pretty high-calorie but a few of these can really keep me going for a while. I love the combination of the sweet raisins and the fatty nuts. Totally hits the spot.

Secondly: Prunes. This is my attempt at getting my bowels moving. I have 4-5 of these as a mid-afternoon snack; they have a nice natural sweet taste so I don't mind. I just wished they helped more than they seem to do.

Thirdly: Belvita multi-grain cookies. Ooooh, these are so yummy. 55kcals a piece, so I often have two of them as a special treat.

A "Healthy" BMI

I did it, people. This morning the scale said (drumroll please)...

This means that my BMI is now 24.9 and I am officially classified as a healthy person. I know this is just a number on a scale and I considered myself a healthy person at my starting weight. I have always been in good shape, even with the extra flab. But this is still pretty cool.

This also indicated that I've finally cracked that damn plateau. OK, it may not officially have been a plateau but rather a period of eating too much good food. Which is not a problem when done occasionally. Anyway I broke it. Woop!

In food related news I discovered something new; well at least new to me. Around the runner blogosphere I had read about combining cottage cheese and fruit but always raised my eyebrows at it. For some weirds reason I have problems with the idea of combining sweet and savoury foods. But last week I gave it a go: I took some cottage cheese and mixed in our own home grown strawberries. When I ate it, in my head it went something like this:

That's some good stuff right there. Why did I not do this sooner? In the meantime I also tried cottage cheese and mango which is just as good, if not better. I am going to TOWN with this one.

BEST fruit EVER

I'm introducing you to the best thing that grows in our garden: STRAWBERRIES! I love them so much, and right now they're just ready for the picking in our own garden.

Feast your eyes on this, first harvest of the season:

I felt like a cocktail, but didn't feel like spending calories on the liquor, so I created my own virgin cocktail: Half a lime, three strawberries, two teaspoons of caster sugar, fresh mint, ice and sparkling water. It doesn't look like much, but it hit the spot just right. Cheers!

Weekend of Indulgence

I had a glorious weekend, food wise. Thursday was dinner with the in-laws. It was a decent restaurant, and I had starter, main course and dessert. Yes, I had dessert. It was a little dark chocolate cake with gooey center; soooo yummy! I can't possibly feel guilty for that.

Friday evening there was a work party for Engineer Daddy with a BBQ where I had a few glasses of wine, a full plate of food and ice cream. Saturday evening Engineer Daddy made lasagne in the most fattening way I have ever seen. I only had a small portion, but I could taste the fat. Tasted good though. And then Sunday evening was the usual dinner at the in-laws. complete with birthday pie for my sis-in-law.

Yesterday morning came the bill: 69.4kg. I was actually surprised it wasn't more. I guess it was a good thing I worked out on Saturday and I kept my portions reasonably small (except on Thursday).

I had a good day yesterday, complete with workout. I even managed to do a new long distance! Check me out:

957 calories burned in an hour and 9 minutes. Not too shabby. For now I'm going to concentrate on my speed. My goal is to run this 10K in an hour or less. I'm not going to set a time limit on this goal, just see where it goes.

And then this morning I read 68.9kg. Today should be a good day too so I expect to be back around 68.5 tomorrow. Then there's a long weekend coming up. There's probably going to be plenty of food too, so if I can maintain this weight for now I'll be happy. I still plan on meeting my goal of 64kg, but right now I feel good in my skin and I'm going to enjoy life. The weight will come off, I know it will. I'm in no rush though.

Lemon Water

70.9kg. Wow! I did not see that coming. Certainly because I ate spaghetti leftovers yesterday. It was a small portion and I didn't put any cheese on it, but afterwards I did feel a bit bloated and was worried I would weigh in 1kg heavier. Apparently it went in the other direction. Yay! Moving right along.

I would like to talk about lemon water right now, if I  may. I've always been great with my water intake; drinking at least a glass of water first thing in the morning has been a habit of mine for the past few years and the rest of the day I spend sipping water constantly. I read somewhere online that lemon supposedly speeds up weight loss, so I decided to add it to my new routine along with calorie restriction. First thing in the morning I drink half a liter of water with some freshly squeezed lemon juice in it. I figured "Eh, if it's a myth at least I'm getting some vitamin C first thing in the morning. Can't be a bad thing."

from astropeep.com

Well, yesterday evening I started reading about in on line and apparently there's a whole story about drinking lemon water first thing in the morning. Just google "drinking lemon water" and you'll find a shitload of websites that praise this habit. They do talk mostly about drinking warm lemon water, but I'll bet a lot of the advantages are true for the cold(er) variant as well.

I am always skeptical of things that are praised into the high heavens, so I also googled "drinking lemon water myth". Interesting stuff too. This blog post gives some interesting critiques. Fortunately many of the hits I got there still claim it is a good idea to drink lemon water anyway.

I don't know if it's actually helping my weight loss or that it's merely a placebo thing or all in my head. Truth is that I am losing weight at a nice rate. I'm also starting to enjoy the taste of this lemon water. Our bodies are designed to enjoy a whole range of tastes. It seems most of us go for the sugary or fatty stuff. If you give other things a try though you might find your world is much broader than sugar alone.

In conclusion: Drink up and enjoy!

Temptation in Pastry Form

This morning the scale read 72.2kg. Hellz yes!!! Ticker going down yet again. That also means I lost 4.3kg since starting my journey last summer. That's a third of the way to my total weight loss goal. Woop woop I'm so excited. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to update the stats though. Maybe I'll even take some progress pictures, if I find the time.

After my scale victory I went down to have my usual breakfast of oatmeal porridge. I packed snacks and lunch for MiniMe and myself, helped her get dressed, gave her breakfast, kissed and cuddled everyone goodbye. When I arrived at work I remembered it was Bike To Work Day, a yearly event where all bicycle commuters get a free breakfast. Totally forgot about it. A whole array of pastries were displayed: Croissants, donuts, eclairs etc etc. I used to love that stuff, so my brain did have an initial reaction like "Ohhhh yummm..." but then I thought twice. One of those things probably contains like 500kcals, it contains no nutrients just butter and sugar. Although it does tastes nice, I was not hungry and I did not need them. I took a black coffee, munched 4 strawberries (luckily they also put out a huge basket of fresh fruit) and before I left I also took a banana and a clementine with me.

Picture from http://www.ecns.be/

I am kinda proud of myself. After all I could've just gone for it. I do allow myself the occasional indulgence. It just didn't tempt me that much. I was also reminded of my indulgence the past weekend and that I actually felt a little sick on Tuesday. Nope, not worth it.

Making the case for dairy

Yesterday I was surfing YouTube again for some videos on diet and weight loss. I stumbled on this BBC documentary called "How to be slim". It focused on finding the best methods to lose weight. Woot! Sounds perfect, so I started watching.

The first couple items were interesting, but nothing I had not heard of before. Then the topic of dairy came up. From what I've read on the internet (because the internet is always right off course), dairy is getting a bad rep. People bashing the stuff and cutting all dairy out of their life. Whut??? Such drastic measures always baffle me.

On the show, they had a guy consuming a dairy-rich diet during one week (mostly low fat dairy products) and the other week he consumed a low dairy diet. Both weeks he consumed more or less the same amount of calories and fat. Then they measured the amount of fat in his feces. This is the icky but fascinating part. During his dairy week, he pooped TWICE the amount of fat than he did in the other week.

TWICE. That's some impressive shit right there.

I have always been mindful to consume enough dairy, because I know us ladies have to remember to keep our bones healthy (osteoporosis, anyone?) and in my experience the easiest source of calcium is still dairy. But I had no idea it could have such a drastic effect on losing fat.

I love me some science and I started researching further. WebMD talks about a study that compared three groups of people with varying dairy intakes and it was clear the high dairy group lost more weight. In addition, they also found that this group lost significantly more body fat.

I'm liking what I'm reading. To put that in practice, this morning I had my usual oatmeal porridge, prepared with semi-skimmed milk. For lunch I packed a 200g jar of cottage cheese and I also have a 125g pot of fat free yoghurt at my disposal for a snack. These are all low calorie food items, but also quite delicious and filling. Apparently they can help me lose some body fat too. I'm excited right now.

Favourite low points food

I know I posted that I wouldn't share too much about how many WW points I am eating, but I feel like I should be able to talk a little bit about some diet foods that I enjoy eating. Therefore here is a post about my favorite low WW points food.

Oatmeal
I ate it a few times as a kid and really enjoyed it back then. Somehow I forgot about it during my adult years. Then after MiniMe's birth I read something about oatmeal boosting breastmilk supply, so I went ahead and reacquainted myself. I make it really easy for myself: I put about 30g in a bowl, pour over 150ml milk (semi skimmed), heat it in the microwave and as the finishing touch I add a tablespoon of honey. It tastes quite nice and gives a full feeling for a few hours until I have my mid morning snack. I'm also giving it to MiniMe every morning and she's loving it. In the past few years I've read a lot of good things about oatmeal: lowers bad cholesterol, high in fiber, good for blood pressure. Superfood all the way

Cottage Cheese
A lot of people hate this stuff, but I strongly disagree. Cheese is a great source of calcium, something us ladies need to make sure we get enough of. But most cheeses are also very fatty. Cottage cheese is a great way of getting that calcium in and enjoying the cheese flavor without the fat content. I can have a 200g portion of cottage cheese for lunch and be satisfied. It's perfect! To top it off the flavor is enhanced when cucumber and cherry tomatoes are added. Win - win - win!! I don't eat it daily though because it is pretty expensive, or at least the brand I like is. I'd say I have one every weekend and enjoy every mouthful.

Fruit
This speaks for itself. Apples, pears, peaches, bananas, mango, pineapple, strawberries keep 'em coming! They are my standard snack foods. I eat at least three pieces of fruit each day, that's a habit I started during my first pregnancy and I have been able to keep it up afterwards. Both my children are also fruit lovers so after grocery shopping our refrigerator is always stuffed. It's sometimes a bit tedious to prepare them in the morning (some fruit like mango or pineapple must be sliced up beforehand), but all that effort is well worth it.

Soup
I know a lot of people who only eat soup during winter when it's cold out. But I can have it all year long. It's such an easy and efficient way to get your veggie intake. Plus children love soup, that way everyone's happy.

Coca Cola Zero
Before there was Zero, I used to drink Diet Coke, which was OK but not great. When Coke Zero became popular it was like a whole new world opened up to me. This shit tastes amazing! I don't have one each day, as fizzy caffeinated beverages have their disadvantages. On average I think I have one every other day. Certainly my favorite non alcoholic drink.