Magic Food

Remember the pictures I posted back on Dec 19th? Well, imagine I just reposted the same pictures. It's crazy. The snow started falling yesterday at 11am, and it just stopped about a half hour ago. (It's 5:20pm.)

I just saw a neighbor ski down the street.

I told Mike to come over yesterday and get snowed in with us. Mike is family. So Angelina, Sade, Mike and I are all just lounging around the house trying to enjoy ourselves so it doesn't feel too much like prison.

But in all reality, driving is out of the question.

Church is cancelled, again.

But the stores are within walking distance. Mike went and got a slurpee this morning and a bunch of junk food.

I am still trying to eat healthy. I made whole wheat apple coffee cake for breakfast. It was healthy and tasty! I put a little bit of sugar in it--just because others were eating it as well--and that's the most sugar I've had in a week.

I've lost the same six pounds that I lost last weekend when I first started this journey, but it's not about the weight loss. I have so much more energy.

I have discovered tasty ways to eat veggies. I tell myself that I can't eat a piece of fruit until I've had a vegetable. For every strawberry, I need a piece of brocolli. For every blueberry, I need to eat a leaf of spinach. Frankly, without all the triggers, I find that I'm not really hungry ever.

I have learned to eat often enough to never get hungry though. I find that if I always say yes to my body, I don't have these crazy hunger pangs.

For the first 4 days, the headaches were pretty horrible though. But I decided that pain was an indicator that I was doing something right.

Rather than decide "No sugar!" or "All Meat!" --I'm trying to just have balance and moderation. I am trying to eat only wholegrains. And I'm trying to eat lots of veggies. I am really enjoying fruit.

More than anything though, I'm counting calories really faithfully.

I'm letting myself eat out and eat what I want--but I have to count it. And it makes such a difference when you realize that eating one thing is fine--but it will wipe out your calories for the day. It also makes a huge difference when you realize that the tasty blueberry/spinach snack only took up 45 calories!

I've decided that certain foods are magical. I eat them because they are filled with magic. Raw brocolli tastes like dirt, but it's magical. Somehow this makes it easier to choke down. Raw spinach--magical. Mangos--magic. Apples--magic. Green beans--green magic.

You get the point.

I'm enjoying this new way of viewing food. I wish I was losing weight faster. I realized the other day that I'm probably not eating enough. I've decided to raise my caloric intake a bit. I worked out on Thursday and woke up yesterday completely out of it. I decided to research how much I should be eating. Apparently, I need to be eating 1940 calories for my height and weight. (I weight a lot.) I have been eating around 1100 calories everyday. So, I've upped my calories to about 1400. It's still not enough, but I'm just not hungry.

Even though fruit is tasty and magical--it's still not an Oreo McFlurry. So what's the point in eating an extra 500 calories of fruit and veggies? I guess I could have some chicken or something.

Well, back to watching hulu. Here's hoping we'll be able to dig out by Monday morning.