Tag Archives: mediterranean

Healthy Living – Day 25

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I spent the better part of this week either traveling or at my in-laws house for Thanksgiving.  Other than a big fast-food meal on the 5-hour drive, I ate pretty responsibly at meals.  In between the meals, however, I have done horrible.  From afar, it would look to my in-laws or my husband like I was being responsible with my eating.  However, I had candy stashed away in my purse.  When I went alone to go buy gas and a few groceries, I bought cookies too and ate them before I returned.  What is wrong with me?  Why can’t I just stop eating them?

I did also get together a shopping list and menu together for my Mediterranean diet and now that I got paid, I can actually go food shopping.  The down-side is that my husband is making me be the one to cook the meals, so that means I have even less time when I get home to get stuff done or spend with my son.  He said it was only for two weeks until he gets an idea of how the diet works.  I have two options for breakfasts and lunches for myself and different dinners every day.   Each week I have fish scheduled once (the husband objected to any fish, so this is a first step for him), chicken scheduled twice, red meat scheduled once, and the remaining three meals were some variety of vegetarian.  I told my husband he is welcome to cook meat for himself on those nights since he is the type to “need” meat at every meal.  For me, it doesn’t matter all that much.  I don’t LOVE meat, it’s just that it’s the most convenient way for me to get my protein.  We’ll see how this goes.

I also did a poor job exercising this week, but it was not for lack of desire or motivation.  I woke up on Monday feeling really “off”.  It turned out that I had a UTI.  Once they treated it, my bladder was in pain for a few days.  I made myself walk when I wanted to do no exercise.  Then on Wednesday, I fell down my stairs and dislocated my tailbone.  It kept popping painfully in and out of place for the rest of the week.  It’s still sore today, but it’s slowly becoming more manageable.  I hope I can get back on track again next week.  Hell, I just want the pain to be gone so I can exercise and at least feel like I’m doing something right with my lifestyle choices.

Also, something odd happened after eating that big fast food meal and after my “cheat day” on Saturday.  I felt “off” again maybe an hour after eating.  I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong.  Maybe it was in my head.  Or maybe it was me feeling the effects of that unhealthy food on my body.  Either way, I need to remember that foods can have real consequences, including the painful abdominal cramps I got while my body was processing the fast food.  There are so many reasons why I shouldn’t be eating these foods and yet I consume them anyway.   I’m starting to wonder if I have a problem with food.  If so, what can I even do about it?  I’m familiar with how OA (Over-eaters Anonymous) and how they handle things.  I’m not terribly interested in following their program.  I wish there were other options.  I haven’t even filled out my food journals.  I need to find a way of being more accountable for what I put into my body.  I don’t need to declare myself powerless over food and as the Goddess to do it for me.  Although asking for help might not be a bad idea….  hmmm…..

Anyway, I’m just feeling frustrated and lost in all of this.  Sigh.


Healthy Living – Day 18

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Last night I woke up out of a sound sleep at 2am with my heart POUNDING.  It wasn’t like the pounding of anxiety or even being frightened.  It felt like my heart was trying to fly out of my chest — on the right side.  I had to wake up a little bit before I realized that my heart isn’t even on that side of my body, but nonetheless it scared me. 

I haven’t been following my healthy living plan very well this week.  I accidentally bought peach tea on Monday instead of unsweetened and didn’t realize until I had a sip.  After that, it just went downhill.  Sometimes it was little things like eating rigatoni whose sauce was sure to have added sugar in it.  Other times, I just visited my coworkers that give out candy and grabbed some.  I have been working out less this week too.  I had to stay late for a meeting at work on Tuesday and by the time I got home, it was too dark to walk.  On Thursday, the snow was falling so heavily, I figured it would be dangerous to walk on the road.  On Friday morning, I never got my e-mail with my strength training video on it.  To be honest, I have been pretty self-loathing about my inability to follow my diet and exercise plan this week.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me!  All of the pain caused by my weight, needing to lose weight so I can have another baby, and needing to lower my cholesterol should be enough to motivate me to lose weight, exercise, and eat healthy!

When I awoke in the middle of the night with my heart pounding, I immediately felt like I wasn’t doing enough to fix my cholesterol levels.  My sister did some research on diets to reduce cholesterol and it seems that the only one that actually shows anything definitive was the Mediterranean diet, of which I knew very little.  A few internet searches showed me that I wasn’t going to like it much.  One of them had a sample diet.  There was a salad for dinner almost every night.  I’m not a big fan of salads for a multitude of reasons.

I went online and found a few books on the Mediterranean diet.  I looked at the one that was the best seller.  It was even rated for 4.5 stars.  I read the one-star reviews.  They complained that all of the food took a really long time to cook and required ingredients that were not readily available in most grocery stores.  I live in a rural area, so the odds were, the same thing would happen to me.  I found another book instead that has recipes that can be made in 30 minutes. 

I bought and read the book today.  It also had a brief explanation of the diet at the beginning.  It’s pretty simple.  Half of the plate should be vegetables of some sort, a quarter should be protein, a quarter should be whole grains.  Fruit can be for dessert.  They also said fish and seafood should be consumed at least twice per week, beans/legumes should be consumed daily, poultry is fine, and that red meat should be only once a week.  Most of the dairy allowed are eggs, greek yogurt, and goat cheese. Sugars are kept to a minimum and occur only in fruit and honey.  The only bread seems to be pita bread and “crusty whole wheat” bread.  I’m not sure where to find it, but I suppose I could figure out how to bake it if I have the time.  I also put out a Facebook post, announcing to my family that I would be following this diet and to do what they can to help me stick with it. Right now, we’re working with the food we have until I get paid again.  Nonetheless, I did okay for dinner tonight: parmesan encrusted pork chops, balsamic broccoli and mushrooms, and white rice (we don’t have brown). A new week is starting, so I just need to pick myself back up again and keep on going.

Starting weight: 239.0 lbs
Current weight: 237.6 lbs