Day 25 - Good Choices and Portion Control
So today I was reflecting on my success so far with the program. What have changes have I made be on the right track and staying on target so far almost 4 weeks in. I would say that following the program's guidelines for good choices and portion control. For portion control, I took a picture of some of my tools that I use. The scale of course is to weigh my protein. I am to have 500 calories of protein in a day. Even though I pretty much know for example, what a 4 ounce piece of chicken should look like, I still weigh it to make sure. My total calorie count per day is around 600-700 and 500 of that is the protein. Sometimes I actually have a hard time getting up to the 500 calories of protein. So the weighing is not so much so that I don't get too much it is that I make sure I get enough. The measuring spoon measures my condiments. I am not fudging with these items either. The program allows me Miracle Whip Free, which I normally just use to mix in my tuna or chicken salad. I measure it each time. No guessing, no mistakes, no messing up and no guilt. The other thing I measure each and every time is my CoffeeMate sugar free liquid creamer. Other condiments are allowed such as mustard, Butter Buds, lemon juice, Tabasco, dry spices, salt and pepper, so basically nothing with sugar in it. So my beloved ketchup is out. The chopper...not as fancy or as new as the "As Seen On TV" Slap-Chop but it is an old Pampered Chef one that I think is old as Carrie, my 16-year-old. Anyway, I use it to chop up the onions, celery and pickle for the tuna and chicken salads as well as chopping the tuna and chicken into finer pieces (which makes it look like more). I forgot to put my measuring cups in the picture but I do measure my veggies. I can eat 1 cup a day of veggies and a cup of fruit or 2 cups of veggies and no fruit. I usually opt to alternate the days I eat fruit.
The picture on the right, is a picture of my food staples. A few posts back, I mentioned Dr. Oz's book You on a Diet. In that book he describes that to be successful, eat the sames things every day. You can mix them up and alternate but basically eat the same things. The reasoning behind it is that you know what you are going to have, there are not a lot of choices to trip you up and you already know the calorie and carb content of each item so it is easy to keep track. This thinking falls right in line with that of the Medi Weight loss program. My problem in the past was that I hated keeping track of what I ate and researching all of the food counts, fat, carbs, calories, fiber, whatever....with the program, I don't have to look anything up. I know that 1 ounce of very lean protein like skinless chicken breast, tuna, shellfish, white fish filet, and 2 egg whites are 35 calories per once. Regular lean protein sources are 55 calories per ounce, and they include dark meat chicken (no skin), Pork, Salmon, etc. Medium fat proteins like ground beef, prime rib, ground turkey are 75 calories per ounce. The Perdue chicken breast package is my favorite choice for chicken right now. Those are the individually wrapped frozen 1/2 breast portions. Normally they weight 3-4 ounces and cook up relatively quickly. The turkey sausage has really grown on me. I normally have 2 patties for breakfast with 1 egg. I have also cut them up to add to an egg white omelet with some peppers. As far as vegetables go the nonstarchy vegetables, 1 cup of raw vegetables or 1/2 cup cooked, are 25 calories and 5 carbs along with 2 grams of protein. They include things like Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Celery, Zucchini, peppers etc. I have learned to love celery. I eat it in place of crackers or chips with my tuna or chicken salad. I buy a big bag of frozen broccoli florets throw them in the microwave to have with my chicken, steak or fish. The frozen peppers are great for also throwing into the egg white omelet or for having with the chicken or fish. The little green apple in the picture is my fruit serving. Fruit is 15 grams of carbs and 60 calories. I pretty much have just stuck with little green apples. Occasionally, I will have a salad with my meal and my choice for convenience is the bagged salad as seen in the picture. Although I can use a dressing that has only 30 calories, 2 grams of fat and 2 carbs (do you know how hard that is to find) I choose to use just rice vinegar. It is not as tart as other vinegars so I don't need to add the fat from adding oil to the vinegar. Snacks: I am allowed to snack on the program. In the picture you will also see almonds (just 6 almonds 3 times a week). Other snacks can include Lite and Fit Sugar Control and Carb Control yogurt, Jello, dill pickles, Laughing Cow cheese, turkey pepperoni, which so far, I have not wanted to get used to snacking so I have avoided all those things. Lastly is the Powerade Zero in the picture. Because the diet is so restricted, the Powerade provides electrolytes that water does not and because it has no calories or carbs it is a good choice according to the program. They recommend drinking 64-128 ounces of non-caloric fluds every day. So those basically are my good choices and portion control strategies for this program. I'm looking forward to a good weigh-in on Tuesday and hope to be back soon with more good news. Thanks for following me.
So today I was reflecting on my success so far with the program. What have changes have I made be on the right track and staying on target so far almost 4 weeks in. I would say that following the program's guidelines for good choices and portion control. For portion control, I took a picture of some of my tools that I use. The scale of course is to weigh my protein. I am to have 500 calories of protein in a day. Even though I pretty much know for example, what a 4 ounce piece of chicken should look like, I still weigh it to make sure. My total calorie count per day is around 600-700 and 500 of that is the protein. Sometimes I actually have a hard time getting up to the 500 calories of protein. So the weighing is not so much so that I don't get too much it is that I make sure I get enough. The measuring spoon measures my condiments. I am not fudging with these items either. The program allows me Miracle Whip Free, which I normally just use to mix in my tuna or chicken salad. I measure it each time. No guessing, no mistakes, no messing up and no guilt. The other thing I measure each and every time is my CoffeeMate sugar free liquid creamer. Other condiments are allowed such as mustard, Butter Buds, lemon juice, Tabasco, dry spices, salt and pepper, so basically nothing with sugar in it. So my beloved ketchup is out. The chopper...not as fancy or as new as the "As Seen On TV" Slap-Chop but it is an old Pampered Chef one that I think is old as Carrie, my 16-year-old. Anyway, I use it to chop up the onions, celery and pickle for the tuna and chicken salads as well as chopping the tuna and chicken into finer pieces (which makes it look like more). I forgot to put my measuring cups in the picture but I do measure my veggies. I can eat 1 cup a day of veggies and a cup of fruit or 2 cups of veggies and no fruit. I usually opt to alternate the days I eat fruit.
The picture on the right, is a picture of my food staples. A few posts back, I mentioned Dr. Oz's book You on a Diet. In that book he describes that to be successful, eat the sames things every day. You can mix them up and alternate but basically eat the same things. The reasoning behind it is that you know what you are going to have, there are not a lot of choices to trip you up and you already know the calorie and carb content of each item so it is easy to keep track. This thinking falls right in line with that of the Medi Weight loss program. My problem in the past was that I hated keeping track of what I ate and researching all of the food counts, fat, carbs, calories, fiber, whatever....with the program, I don't have to look anything up. I know that 1 ounce of very lean protein like skinless chicken breast, tuna, shellfish, white fish filet, and 2 egg whites are 35 calories per once. Regular lean protein sources are 55 calories per ounce, and they include dark meat chicken (no skin), Pork, Salmon, etc. Medium fat proteins like ground beef, prime rib, ground turkey are 75 calories per ounce. The Perdue chicken breast package is my favorite choice for chicken right now. Those are the individually wrapped frozen 1/2 breast portions. Normally they weight 3-4 ounces and cook up relatively quickly. The turkey sausage has really grown on me. I normally have 2 patties for breakfast with 1 egg. I have also cut them up to add to an egg white omelet with some peppers. As far as vegetables go the nonstarchy vegetables, 1 cup of raw vegetables or 1/2 cup cooked, are 25 calories and 5 carbs along with 2 grams of protein. They include things like Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Celery, Zucchini, peppers etc. I have learned to love celery. I eat it in place of crackers or chips with my tuna or chicken salad. I buy a big bag of frozen broccoli florets throw them in the microwave to have with my chicken, steak or fish. The frozen peppers are great for also throwing into the egg white omelet or for having with the chicken or fish. The little green apple in the picture is my fruit serving. Fruit is 15 grams of carbs and 60 calories. I pretty much have just stuck with little green apples. Occasionally, I will have a salad with my meal and my choice for convenience is the bagged salad as seen in the picture. Although I can use a dressing that has only 30 calories, 2 grams of fat and 2 carbs (do you know how hard that is to find) I choose to use just rice vinegar. It is not as tart as other vinegars so I don't need to add the fat from adding oil to the vinegar. Snacks: I am allowed to snack on the program. In the picture you will also see almonds (just 6 almonds 3 times a week). Other snacks can include Lite and Fit Sugar Control and Carb Control yogurt, Jello, dill pickles, Laughing Cow cheese, turkey pepperoni, which so far, I have not wanted to get used to snacking so I have avoided all those things. Lastly is the Powerade Zero in the picture. Because the diet is so restricted, the Powerade provides electrolytes that water does not and because it has no calories or carbs it is a good choice according to the program. They recommend drinking 64-128 ounces of non-caloric fluds every day. So those basically are my good choices and portion control strategies for this program. I'm looking forward to a good weigh-in on Tuesday and hope to be back soon with more good news. Thanks for following me. 
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