Healthy Eating

I had my annual Doctor's visit last month. She told me what I already knew: I HAD to lose weight. She even suggested a liquid diet; which made me gasp. She'd never even remotely spoke of doing "fad" diets before. I knew going in I was overweight but when your doctor tells you under no uncertain terms you HAVE to lose weight for your health, well I really took it to heart. Name a fatal disease and either one of my parents had it. Heart disease? My dad. Diabetes? My mom. Cancer? My mom. High blood pressure? Both my parents.

So I began the "SlimFast" diet. Blech. No way could I drink 2/3 of my meals. I have to eat. So staying in the mindset of  SlimFast, I have decided to eat my calories as they suggest. SlimFast suggests drinking 2 shakes (190 calories each), eating 3 snacks (100 calories each) and one 500 calories balance meal. So in all you're eating around 1200 calories a day.

So my basic days goes like this: around 10 or 11am I drink my morning shake. I don't really feel like cooking first thing in the morning so it's convenient. This morning, I did make zucchini mini muffins. I ate one muffin, 3 pieces of center cut bacon and a scrambled egg for a total of about 190 calories.

Around 1:00pm I eat a 100 calorie snack. I Googled "100 calorie snack" and was pleased to see there's quite a few on the web. My favorite is cucumber slices, 11 Townhouse Oil and Sea Salt Flatbread Crackers and Tribe red pepper hummus. Today, I had Salmon and cucumber bites. It was sooo yummy and filling. The salmon you get is important. I tried several smoked variety and finally found one that wasn't too salty or fishy. I got it from Publix: Vita Wild Nova Salmon. Delish!

Around 3:00-3:30 I eat lunch. Sometimes, I combine a snack and lunch depending on how hungry I am at the time. My go to lunch lately has been Pepperidge Farm Thin Everything Bagel with 1 tsp of low fat cream cheese, about an ounce of turkey and spring salad sandwich. It is filling and yummy. Today, I was hungry, so I added a cup of Campbell's 100% Natural Tomato Garden Soup. Yumm.

I begin making dinner around 5:30 or 6:00. If I haven't eaten a snack with lunch, I eat one while prepping dinner. Usually the humus again. I just can't get enough of Tribe's Red Pepper!! Tonight we had King Salmon with Tomato & Peach Salsa.  I also served Parmesan Couscous with grilled vegetables (asparagus, red pepper, and yellow squash with garlic). I LOVED the salsa with the salmon. They really complimented each other. Bear liked it as well; Baby Girl, not so much. But she did enjoy the salmon.

 I kept wondering why some of my food was tasting "off" and found out it was my olive oil. It's EVOO but didn't taste like it. It was too strong. I took a look at the bottle and noticed "robust flavor" on it. Well no duh! So I have to get a new bottle of EVOO and my meals will be even better.

Around 9:00-9:30 I eat my last snack. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a sweet so I'll eat either Oikos Fruit on the Bottom Greek Yogurt or Healthy Choice Frozen Greek Yogurt. I also found mini ice cream sandwiches when I want a special treat. They are 100 calories and oh so cute!

I've been doing this for a little over a week and I feel amazing! I have no idea if I've lost any weight. I'm going to wait a month before weighing. I don't want to get discourage. I have more energy and just feel over all better.

I'm still trying to workout at least 3 times a week. We made it to the gym twice this week and Baby Girl, Bear and I played some ball for two days. My goal is to stay healthy. It's not about thin; it's about being here to see my grand babies and hopefully, great grand babies!

I do have to say that it's so expensive to eat healthy. I find it almost criminal. But we aren't eating out because the meals I'm making are damn near gourmet meals so that is saving money.  I plan on blogging later on some of the meals I've made. Some have been HUGE hits and some have been misses.

I'm hoping to have a huge smile from my doctor next year when she's seen the hard work I've done for me and my family.