Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Food - The Next Frontier

I’ve been doing pretty darn good with my workouts over the past three weeks. I’ve exercised 4x/week so far. I’m actually starting to notice a bit of a difference in my strength already – I’m no Arnold Schwarzenegger yet, but things are definitely going well in that regard.

The area where I could really use some work? Food. Yep, eating is still not coming along as much as I had thought.

Just to give you an idea, I’ve prepared a little scale – (kind of like the rate of perceived exertion scale for exercise people talk about) for your enjoyment…The percentage is the amount of healthy-ish food I’m eating.

10% - McDonald’s staff know me by name
20% - meh
30% - making a slight effort
40% - meh
50% - trying, but not really trying to hard
60% - getting better
70% - this isn’t so bad!
80% - bring on the fruit and veggies!
90% - superstah!

Right now, I feel like I’m bouncing around the 40-50% level. I don’t eat that much true junk food, but crackers (even “whole wheat” ones), cheese and store bought muffins aren’t exactly healthy choices either. Also, my portions are still a bit too big and my choices are lacking in fruits and vegetables most days. This is mostly due to laziness on my part. I like to cook and I like fruit and veggies. It just takes some work to wash and prepare that sort of food… Some days it is just easier to eat cheese and crackers and a muffin…

I can feel that my not-so-healthy food choices are sort of undoing the progress I may be making with my exercise. So, what to do about it???

Plan, plan, plan. That seems to be my best option. I need to write out some meal plans and log my food for a few weeks to get into the routine of eating better. I also need to incorporate more veggies in my meals. This is a bit tricky for me right now, since the easiest way to do that is to eat a salad every day. I love lettuce and spinach, but can’t eat very much due to some medication I have to take (weird, I know!). That limits me a bit, but I need to find ways to work around it.

I’ll be posting a bit about my food progress and trying to share some recipes and tips if I come across something interesting.

How about you guys? What do you eat day-to-day? Eat enough veggies? Like fruit but don’t eat enough? Spill the beans!

7 comments:

GunDiva said...

Oh, I'm terrible about food. I'm working on portion control and not eating out of boredom or just because something's there. I'm also a big stress eater and this month has been nothing but stress, so I'm a little afraid to step on the scale for weigh in tomorrow. Can't wait until this mod is over and I can start exercising again!

Anonymous said...

I'm in the 80-90% range. But, I love fruits and veggies. Eating them hasn't ever been the problem. Budgeting for them has been in the past at times.

We recently bought the Debbie Meyer's Green Bags or whatever they're called and I must say that they do work. Astonishingly well! I had strawberries stay good for 8 days, well, until I ate them all! And that is a HUGE improvement since unsliced and sugared, strawberries only last a day or two at most.

I cannot wait for gardening season to be upon us! It feels and looks like it now. But it is much, much too early.

So, why don't you tell us what you CAN eat and we'll make lots of suggestions for you?

cdncowgirl said...

I'd honestly rank myself in the 40% category.

But I'm with ya on the exercising!!

Laura said...

I would love to have a big garden - it is so fun to see stuff grow - it amuses me... :-)

Well, I just can't eat very much spinach, lettuces (all kinds), broccoli and kale (anything green and healthy, basically!)

Most other veggies are fair game. Fruit is easier, because you don't need to cook it. It is just a bit sketchy in the winter here to get good quality fruit.

Ideas??? :-)

Mrs. Mom said...

Hmmm... Let's see. Love me some fruits and veggies. Been on a major fruit kick lately. We've been on more of a make it from scratch binge lately too- for example- the other night, for the very first time, I made cube steak, and gravy. (Holy crap it was good too.)

Right- y'all are thinking...

Oh heck -- this just needs to be a blog post, since I have not been posting much!!!

Anonymous said...

How about snow peas? Carrots? Tomatoes? I love me some tomatoes! Green beans? Nothing leafy and nothing from the brassica family...

Peppers? They come in a rainbow of colors! Eggplant? I could scare up a recipe where you use eggplant to make mini pizzas. That is, eggplant instead of dough for a crust.

Corn? Asparagus? There's this awesome veggie mix that uses corn and asparagus by the people that make steamfresh frozen veggies.

I know! Radishes! you could even grow some in a window box inside since they take less than a month to mature from seed.

Beets? I like beets. And, if you have mashed potatoes, they turn your potatoes pink!

Sweet potato? I hear it's good baked. I still eat mine from a can. No extra sugar, just heated from the can. I know, I'm weird!

What about frozen fruits? I have blueberries, raspberries and peaches that I toss into oatmeal most mornings. It not only cools my oatmeal, but it sweetens it too!

I would send you some of my frozen blackberries from the farm, but I have a MAJOR beef with your customs people. Alas, that is another story for another time.

Turnips in a stew? Some Rutabagas for you? Leeks? I've had a good potato leek soup before.

Fruit canned in it's own juice? Something is better than nothing.

We're going to have a small garden this year and a huge one next. We're just not prepared for all the clearing and terracing that has to happen for the huge garden this year.

Laura said...

@OS - awesome list!!!! Tomatoes are the only thing on the list I don't like, so that is pretty good! Mmmm - snowpeas - forgot about those suckers! :-)

I haven't found a way that I like eggplant yet - but would be willing to try the pizza, if you get a chance to find the recipe...

I loooove sweet potatoes - baked, broiled or in a stew (hahaha) I have a couple of great soup recipes that I use them in too...

Don't get me started on customs - either side of the border. Some strange rules goin' on there! I wish you could send me some berries from your farm!!!

I can't wait to hear about your garden - I grew up in the country and we always had a big garden...I should blog about it sometime! :-)