Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Eating changes

Today is my weigh in day, I am weighing 166 pounds now. Down from an all time high of 272 and from 168 last week. I thought I would tell you all something that has been a big change for me.

I love eating Chinese food and Indian food. For the most part, I make my own Chinese and it is as low in fat/cals as I can get it. I use steamed shrimp with the Chinese food or baked skinless turkey and the Indian food is a frozen dish and is vegan, so no meat products in that.

I love these meals, but I was getting so frustrated because they would really boost up my caloric intake for the day. Most of it was from the rice. I would add between one and two cups of rice to each meal.

I had a brainstorm one day and decided to make a change. For the past week I have been having my foods on a bed of steamed veggies instead of the rice. I use about a cup and a half of broccoli, snap peas, water chestnuts and carrots. I use the Steam-Fresh veggies from the freezer section. I love them. Then I top that with my Chinese or Indian food. Now the Chinese food has veggies already, so I just omit the rice entirely. If the Chinese is commercial prepared, I add more veggies because they never give enough to suit me.

This not only is much easier on my caloric count, but the feeling of fullness that I get lasts much longer. It was hard to make the adjustment, but now I don't see myself going back to rice. I know grains are good for you, but I really get enough throughout the day without the rice. I have two cups of thick sliced oats for breakfast.

One of the things that started me on this track was learning that when we get steamed rice from our Chinese food place, they add oil to the rice. That really bothered me. Here is another thing, for some reason, when I use the bed of veggies, I am not tempted to add soy sauce. Not sure why not. But I was becoming a real soy addict and the effects would be clear in increased fluid retention.

3 comments:

Chickadeeva said...

Jan, I am so excited about your strong will, your great results and your ability to articulate your process.

More veggies can't ever be mistake huh? Rise is good, but you made a choice for your health that is better.

What do you do to 'treat' yourself for being so good?

Mom said...

I pick things that I really like to eat. I don't compromise. I spend extra money on myself for my own foods, but I don't compromise. I get the exact thing that I want. Large raw shrimp that I can cook my way, frozen Indian food dinners that have to be purchased from a whole foods store, zone protein bars so that I can have one excellent treat per day.

I also buy myself clothes when the mood strikes me. I have a kicking wardrobe now and I keep adding onto it.

But more than anything else, just living in this new body is the best treat that I can come up with. People see me differently, I can dress up and look great now, I can be happy looking at myself in a mirror - even in those store dressing rooms. I love that. Who needs a better treat than that?

Kristina said...

Jan, you are just truckin' right along! You have inspired me to STOP BEING A PIG, and eat like a person that has a destination to get to! : )
In the beginning did you ever believe that you could lose over 100 pounds?! Now you have me thinking that I could as well lose a solid 100, and not stop at 95. Or not just stay stuck in the 80 pound range.
I totally hear you when you say that people see you in another light. Having a kicking wardrobe is a blast too! I don't think that I've ever had so many cute outfits... in fact, I'm sure of it.
Good for you for keeping at it. And thank you for inspiring all of us!