December Healthy Eating

[ixtap]

Day 19: We have had a beautiful Saturday including brunch, a walk, a dance session and lots of chatting. One of the lowest stress days of recent memory. Oh, and a beautiful french toast made with whole grain seeded breaded and topped with cream cheese (for me, mr. no dairy just much more toast), berries and a drizzle of maple syrup. So delicious and it kept me full until a late lunch. The health is strong in this household. Which is more than we can say for our backs...

Day 20 challenge: take a break

That's it. I don't have any real tips or tricks, except that obsessing isn't any healthier than bingeing or starving or whatever your weakness was that brought you to this thread. Keep up the good work and don't overthink it!

[SquashingDebt]

Food tracked:  19/28
Under maintenance calories:  19/28
Under goal calories:  15/15

Apple Watch activity rings closed:  19/31

Still on track! Enjoying my rest-of-month goal of just staying under maintenance, instead of hitting a 500 calorie deficit.  Mainly being used for chocolate and the cookies I made yesterday :)  But it also feels good to be aware of/in control of how much sweets I've eaten and know I'm not totally derailing my progress.

Also, kind of weirdly, I'm already looking forward to my annual no-sweets January.  It'll be a nice, refreshing contrast with this holiday month.

[ixtap]

That all sounds awesome, @SquashingDebt . Except the no sweets January. My sweets are already rationed, I don't need to torture myself!

Day 20: DH woke up in a panic (work related) and it kind of set the tone for the whole day. His chain broke on our bike ride. But eating has gone well, and we did make it home with the bikes, as well as dancing in the evening.

Day 21 challenge: Congratulations! You have been working on these goals for 21 days! Give yourself a good pat on the back.

Do you put any focus on salt in your diet? Many people need to lower their sodium for their blood pressure, but I find that I am constantly craving electrolytes (Ultima, usually) or even licking the salt off my hand when adding some to dinner. Homemade foods are the simplest way to cut back on sodium, processed foods are a good way to add sodium in. The more homemade foods I eat, the more likely I am to be craving salt, rather than avoiding it. Tonight, we used soy sauce, albeit the lower sodium variety.

[Moonwaves]

Another successful Sunday where I peeled, chopped and otherwise prepped a load of vegetables to use throughout the week. This is actually working out pretty well at the moment.

I've decided to do chicken satay for Christmas dinner and chopped some Chinese cabbage very finely and blanched it. Also spent the time chopping some carrots into little sticks. Along with some frozen broccoli and green beans, that'll be a nice mix of veg to stirfry. And the simple vegetable soup I made yesterday (the rest of the cabbage, onion, carrots, potatoes) is really delicious. I put half of it in the fridge and then added a bit more water, more potatoes (skins on) and broccoli to what was still in the pot. And, funny that you ask, ixtap, I also added more salt.

Generally, I don't use a lot of salt when cooking. One of my sisters told me when I was a kid and wondering what a pinch of salt is, that it's the amount of salt you can pinch between your finger and thumb. I still consider that to be a pinch of salt and am generally horrified when I see chefs on television and what they consider to be a pinch - it always seems more like they use a handful to me! My brother always complains that I don't use enough salt but since that's the way I've basically always done it, I like the taste of things my way. And I eat more than enough processed foods so the chances of my sodium intake not being high enough are pretty non-existent.  I do use a lot of other herbs and spices most of the time.

Salt at the table is generally reserved for just a few things: chips (of the fish and chips variety), boiled egg, steak (sometimes) mainly.

[Metalcat]

I cook with a decent amount of salt, but much, much less than I did in restaurants. IMO, restaurant food is way too salty in general. I have a theory it's because smoking is so common among chefs.

However, I don't generally salt finished dishes, I add salt to my onions while they cook because it makes them far more aromatic. That's really the point of salt, especially early salting, is to allow your ingredients to taste the way they're supposed to, not to make the dish salty.

As for a pinch, it's more like the amount you can pinch with all of your fingers.

[ixtap]

I, too, always assumed that a pinch of salt was just like a pinch of the skin. Then I saw a cookbook that put it in terms of other measurements and it certainly wasn't the tiniest!

But I don't follow recipes very often, so I'll take my lightly salted food and add crunchy sea salt when I want!

[ixtap]

Day 21: Three weeks, already! Today was a another day moving in the right direction. I am going to miss my yogurt and berries until I can get back to the store next week. Tofu Shawarma for dinner, with a lovely cucumber and tomato salad, and because we don't have pickled onions, sauerkraut, of course. It actually went well!

Day 22 challenge: A good night's sleep

Did you know that good sleep is highly correlated with other healthy outcomes, including food choices? Do you have any special routines that let you sleep well? Have you been keeping them up lately?

I listen to British murder mysteries that I already know by heart most nights. It gives me something to focus on besides the hamster wheel in my brain, but since I have already seen them, I am not curious about them. I have been adding in some meditation before I put the murder mysteries on. Perhaps I will get to the point that I can meditate until I fall asleep?

[Metalcat]

When I was going through a very, very bad time in 2019 and having a hard time falling asleep, I listened to bedtime stories on the Calm app. Very soothing.

I don't think I really slept optimally until I have up alcohol. I wasn't a heavy drinker, but a glass or two of wine a night to wind down was normal. I had to quit for a.medication, but the difference to my sleep quality after a few weeks was notable.

I then gave up coffee and waking up became even more pleasant.

10/10, highly recommend

[SquashingDebt]

Food tracked:  21/28
Under maintenance calories:  21/28
Under goal calories:  15/15

Apple Watch activity rings closed:  21/31


Today I ate too many cookies and my body is a little unhappy right now.  I'll have to keep that in mind for the rest of the holiday season - it doesn't feel good to overindulge.  I did hit my calorie goal, but too many of them were cookie calories, haha.

[ixtap]

Food tracked:  21/28
Under maintenance calories:  21/28
Under goal calories:  15/15

Apple Watch activity rings closed:  21/31


Today I ate too many cookies and my body is a little unhappy right now.  I'll have to keep that in mind for the rest of the holiday season - it doesn't feel good to overindulge.  I did hit my calorie goal, but too many of them were cookie calories, haha.

They say the key to improving your relationship with food is remembering this feeling the next time you want to eat the whole plate of cookies. Luckily, the cookies my parents sent us only has 3 servings for the two of us to share, so overindulging won't be an issue!

[Moonwaves]

I've been using the Sleep Cycle app for over a year now and I like having some data to look back on to see if how I'm feeling on any particular day relates back to a particularly bad/good night's sleep. I also started using the Insight Timer app a few months ago and (according to my sleep app) tend to sleep much deeper and with less snoring if I fall asleep listening to one of their bedtime meditations. They're usually between 30 and 60 minutes long but I rarely hear more than the first 5 or 10 minutes. If I'm not really sleepy when I go to bed I sometimes listen to a podcast episode (the Blindboy podcast, pretty accurately self-described as a podcast hug) - I'll stay awake longer than with a meditation but never for the whole thing. The key for meditations or podcasts or audiobooks is to find voices (and accents) that you find calming.

I do try to get to bed at around the same time every day and my alarm lights up/rings at the same time every day. On the weekends, I'll mostly just switch it off and go back to sleep, but it seems to make it easier to get up during the week if I at least wake up for a few seconds at the same time on Saturday and Sunday.

[ixtap]

Day 21: It has been an odd day. No breakfast and lunch was take out. We got three sharing plates between the two of us - lamb, duck and veggies. I am less stressed about having enough food to make it through the weekend now! We even biked over to the restaurant to meet a friend, after I had already played my Ring Adventure and gone for a walk, so health all over the place today.

Day 22 challenge: Drink responsibly

My facebook and youtube feeds are flooded with eggnog and other holiday cocktails. I have never been much of drinker, and indeed I haven't had a drink since sometime before the coronavirus, possibly before I had even heard the words Novel coronavirus. But boy those eggnog recipes are looking good. Personally, I will choose to get my sugars from foods, rather than drinks for this season. How frequently do you indulge in drinks? While there is good evidence that some alcohol, especially in the form of red wine, can be quite healthful, overindulging has a myriad of health risks, the most immediate of which is reducing the filters that allow you to be mindful of what else you are consuming and how much exercise you are getting.

[Metalcat]

Funnily, a lot of the evidence claiming health benefits of drinking can be a little muddled because the population of total abstainers is often confounded with people who cannot drink because of health issues, so health problems can be overrepresented in those groups. I mean, that's why I don't drink.

Regardless, there isn't evidence of a large enough effect compared to just consuming antioxidant rich foods and beverages to be worth feeling like you *should* be drinking.

I'm actually allowed to drink again now that my drug trial is over, but I still don't drink at all, and don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

Actually, now that I don't drink, I cannot stand the smell or taste of it. It smells like literal gasoline to me. I honestly don't know how I was ever a wine lover.

[ixtap]

Funnily, a lot of the evidence claiming health benefits of drinking can be a little muddled because the population of total abstainers is often confounded with people who cannot drink because of health issues, so health problems can be overrepresented in those groups. I mean, that's why I don't drink.

Regardless, there isn't evidence of a large enough effect compared to just consuming antioxidant rich foods and beverages to be worth feeling like you *should* be drinking.

I just didn't want anyone to feel like they needed to abstain, either.

I'm actually allowed to drink again now that my drug trial is over, but I still don't drink at all, and don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

Actually, now that I don't drink, I cannot stand the smell or taste of it. It smells like literal gasoline to me. I honestly don't know how I was ever a wine lover.

Interesting, I have gone longer than this without drinking before, so I don't lose the taste for it. I just don't very often think "You know what would be good with this?" either. In grad school I was the designated driver for two different academic departments.

Some people say that after they have gotten used to eating lots of veggies and lean proteins and whole grains, they loose the taste for fatty carby things like fries. That is also not a thing with me. I am not craving them or anything, but I am willing to bet I would enjoy a few if I had them. Just not while my blood sugar is still so...fragile? It was up a bit this morning, despite keeping to my goals every day :( Nothing dangerous, just a reminder that I still have to be quite careful. Especially since I want some Christmas cookies on Thursday!

[Metalcat]

If I stop eating sugar, I lose all taste for it and find most deserts bland and gross. I can very easily re-acquire it though.

I stopped cooking meat a few years ago, and now a mouthful of bacon is almost inedibly gross, and like most people, I used to love bacon, so that's a neat one for me. I still like meat, and will eat it outside of the house, but it tastes like junk food now, kind of gross, but fun gross once in awhile, sort of like poutine.

I never lose my taste for potato chips though, no matter how long I go without. However, I have never overly liked fries. They're fine, but I could always take or leave them.

Overall though, after years of eating a lot of veggies and whole grains, even if I enjoy a meal that's off my regular diet, I always crave getting back to it. It feels like a deviation from my normal, and my system doesn't like it.

[ixtap]

Day 23: Time is flying this week! Not sure I am done yet, but proper choices have been made.

Day 24 challenge: CHRISTMAS EVE!

I love Christmas! I might play Christmas music all day for the next two days! We are splitting the chocolate cookies while we open presents: it is so fun to be Santa Claus and the recipient all in one. Yes, we are celebrating Christmas Eve, so that we can go do boat projects on Christmas Day. DH has even requested Christmas Eve brunch, which I don't think.is a thing, but we play by our own rules!

The time has come to indulge, but that doesn't mean you have to make yourself sick. Find joy in your treats, not punishment!

If you don't celebrate Christmas, this applies to whatever your next celebration may be.

[SquashingDebt]

Food tracked:  25/28 days
Under maintenance calories:  25/28 days
Under goal calories:  15/15 days

Apple Watch activity rings closed:  27/31 days

Still on track!  I was just a little too indulgent on Christmas Eve and Christmas, but I'm happy overall with how my December is going :)

[ixtap]

Still on track!  I was just a little too indulgent on Christmas Eve and Christmas, but I'm happy overall with how my December is going :)

It is all about balance!

I didn't eat too many calories on any give day, but I did eat more carbs than usual with pancakes, a little bit of candy and even a serving of chips. Then we went down to the boat and decided to stay, requiring us to feed ourselves with what was laying around the boat.  Chickpea masala and steel cut oatmeal may be very nutritious and healthy, but they still have tons of carbs.

My sugar was up a bit for my Monday morning check in. Still not in the diabetic range though, so yay me! I might have sashimi rather than sushi for our anniversary next weekend - woe is me ;)

I have started doing yoga three days a week. DH has a Zoom class on Tuesday and Thursday, so I do my yoga on MWF. I'll get going as soon as I finish this beautiful cup of coffee. Just another healthy habit to add to my toolbox.

[ixtap]

I was definitely back on track yesterday after two holiday days and a weekend on the boat. I think the extra processed foods might be having a lingering effect, though. I woke up with achy joints this morning. I hope I don't need to try eliminating nightshades, but we did have eggplant and tomato sauce last night...

Off for a walk on the beach and a Costco run this morning.

I am thinking of a more generalized healthy habits thread for January. Perhaps there would be more interest due to new year's resolutions?

[Moonwaves]

I was supposed to start a weight-loss programme (OptiFast Professional) at my local hospital in mid-November and it was postponed, yet again, because of Corona. Because that involves an intial three-month phase of just eating their soups and shakes, I had slipped into a bit of a "one last" way of eating for the month or so before that (one last pizza, one last kebab, one last bar of this chocolate, one last packet of these crisps etc., etc.) and have been getting back to paying proper attention to my diet over the last couple of weeks. My vague plan is to make two big pots of stew/soup at the weekend, which gives me a good option for lunch every day and then on at least some days, to have one of the OptiFast Home sachets in the evening. I prefer to eat my main meal in the middle of the day. I'm also trying to make sure to incorporate at least some salad every week.

Well, I'm declaring this December Healthy Eating challenge at least half a success for me - and it's the important half that was successful, so that's good. I have made some kind of soup or stew at the weekend and had it for lunches during the week pretty consistently throughout the month. Didn't manage it today because it turns out that the pumpkin-based vegetable soup I was really looking forward to is something I only actually made in a dream on Monday. I was so convinced that I had actually done it! Dreams are a bit mad sometimes.
I don't think I've had more than one or two OptiFast sachets this month but I haven't been getting takeaway every evening either - it has mostly been toast and cereal. That's the half that wasn't really successful. Overall, I'm happy with my progress though. I have certainly massively increased my vegetable intake again, especially compared to October and November, and my body is thanking me for it.