Breakfast of Champions...

I am often a breakfast skipper. It's not good, I know. I know that my body needs breakfast to jump start my metabolism. But I often just don't feel hungry until lunch time, so I end up skipping breakfast, especially if I'm running out the door in the morning. Sundays and Wednesdays I almost never eat breakfast.

The other day Leif bought Pop Tarts. He's planning on taking them to work with him, but they have just been sitting in the pantry taunting me so far. I finally broke down and ate a package (because you can never open a package of two and eat just one!) on Sunday. And I've been craving their fruity pastry goodness ever since! True, he buys the organic ones, but the fact that they're organic doesn't make them any less fatty, and it doesn't change the fact that they're still over 200 calories each. One package of Pop Tarts is 1/3 of my daily calorie allowance!

But the other day I found a solution that satisfies my craving, is healthy for me to eat for breakfast, AND adds to my fiber intake! So for breakfast the past few days I have been eating...

two slices Wheat Montana Flax and Fiber toast with 1 T. 100% fruit spread, no sugar added.

It's a 220 calorie breakfast that gives me the warm crunchiness and fruit flavor of a pop tart, and also adds 10 grams of fiber to my diet. It's delicious, and the fruit spread is actually lower in calories and fat than the margarine I normally spread on my toast, so I feel like I come out better for it in the long run! Since I discovered my "breakfast of champions" I have been eating breakfast more often and have been making lunch fruits and veggies. It's been a good pattern!

Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition

I finished reading this book over the weekend and there are a few things I want to remember for future reference.

The PMS Diet (recommended for more than just PMS symptoms):

• Limit consumption of refined sugar (5 T/day), salt (3 g/day), red meat (3 oz/day), alcohol (1 oz/day), coffee, tea, and chocolate.
• Limit tobacco use.
• Limit intake of protein to 1g per kg of body weight per day.*
• Rely more on fish, poultry, whole grains, and legumes as sources of protein and less on red meat and dairy products.
• Limit intake of dairy products to 2 servings/day.
• Limit intake of fats, mainly saturated and cooked, to less than 20% of calories from fat.
• Increase intake of complex carbs to 60-70% of calories.
• Increase intake of leafy green veggies, legumes, whole grains and cereals.
• Increase intake of cis-linoleic-acid-containing foods (safflower oil is an excellent source). 1-2 T/day of unheated, unrefined oil on your salad, for example.

* I should be eating 54g protein based on this.

One thing I don't think I get enough of is vitamin B, specifically B6. I've added that to my nutrient tracker on SparkPeople, so we'll see how much I get from my diet and prenatal vitamins. But if I don't get enough, I may add that as a supplement, though I don't see a need to add the others she recommends, at least not while I'm on the prenatals and eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and complex carbs. They seem to provide adequate amounts of the vitamins I currently need, except for B6 (and maybe B12).

So there are a couple things I need to change to conform to the diet above. I need to eat a little less fat (I'm currently limiting it to 30%), more fiber, more complex carbs. So I'm off to adjust my settings on SparkPeople to reflect that.

Yesterday

I ended my day in pretty good shape (figuratively speaking! Ha!) yesterday. 1238 calories, 5 f&v, 2 liters water... pretty good!

Today I am really working on upping my fiber intake. I have not been getting enough (or at least my body isn't acting like I have!) so I'm aiming for at LEAST 25 g today. That means breakfast is 2 slice Flax and Fiber whole wheat bread from Wheat Montana. I put margarine on it, so that adds to the calories, but I'll get 10 g of fiber from those 2 slices of bread. Maybe for dinner we'll have something heavy on the beans, like chili or enchiladas. (Sidenote... I wonder if you can throw asparagus in chili?) I'll try to snack on strawberries throughout the day.

I am just flat out lethargic today. It is that lovely time of month where I feel like I've been hit by a train. Today is especially bad for some reason. I made sure to take my vitamin and drink some cranberry/B vitamin juice in hopes that it would boost my energy levels a little bit. We'll see.

I've got to pull myself together today, but it just seems like an overwhelming task! Right now Ellie is watching Blue's Clues while I get a few things done because I just don't feel like I have the patience to deal with her this morning. I'm hoping it will warm up a bit later so we can go for a walk outside before lunch. Getting out, even if there's no sunshine, should help with my mood, and the exercise can't hurt, either!

Okay... off to face the day.