Weigh Day: Microchallenge Week 2

I haven't lost much in the past few days, but I'm weighing in this week at 119 lbs, which is down from last week's weight of 120. Specifically, I'm down .4, which is almost a half pound, but considering I had that REALLY BAD day and was up 2 lbs the day after that, I'll take the slight loss and call it good.

I'm hoping to be at 118 by this time next week. Here we go!

I should go to bed.

It's past midnight and I should go to bed. But I've been working on a project I was hoping to finish before Bible study tomorrow so I could get it to one of the ladies then. But at this point my brain isn't really functioning well, so I should just get up and finish it in the morning.

I ended my day with not yet 1200 calories, so I'll consume a little something before I turn in for the night. Not ideal, but that's where I am. I've had PLENTY of water today, and I made it to 25 grams of fiber. 4-5 fruits and veggies, depending on serving sizes, but I'm happy with that. And I even got a walk / jog in tonight with the family. Well, we all walked to the park, then Leif played with Ellie while I walked/jogged around the lake and back to the park, then we all walked home. It's good for 40 minutes of exercise at least, putting me at 150 minutes of exercise this week already!

Okay... I'm heading to bed. G'night.

What's in a drink?

So I've been trying to pay attention to my vitamin intake to see if there's something I'm lacking and should supplement. I suspected I might need to supplement with some B vitamins (6 or 12), so I started tracking those vitamins, as well as A and E, on Spark People.

Last night as I was laying in bed I had a thought. Every day I drink my Fulfill Fitness water. I use it because it is sweetened with Splenda and it gives flavor to my water. But it's also vitamin enhanced. So what vitamins do that add to it?

The answer? Vitamins C, B6, B12, and Niacin.

Huh. So between my prenatal vitamin, my fitness water, and my cranergy juice, I'm pretty sure I don't need any supplemental vitamin B. And as long as I keep eating spinach and carrots, I shouldn't need any extra vitamin A or E either.

But I DID just notice that my fitness water isn't calorie free like I thought it was. Ack! It has 10 calories per 8 oz serving, and I drink approximately 8 servings a day. So that's 80 calories a day I haven't been accounting for. It's not too bad, especially since I stay on the low end of the spectrum for calories each day, but still. It's a shock to watch my calories so closely only to learn that for MONTHS I've been consuming almost 100 more than I thought I was.

I did check my Lipton iced tea packets, though, and they have neither calories nor aspartame, so I think I'm good there. Maybe I'll try to drink half that and half Fulfill each day.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Fries

Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Here's a recipe I want to try. It was recommended by my friend Jenn. I've tried something like it before, but want to try it again since I didn't use a recipe and therefore couldn't remember how long to cook it for! Costco carries the sweet potatoes already peeled and french-fry sliced, so I'll pick up a bag of those when we go to Costco next time. It will have to be soon, because we are already out of bread, spinach, carrots and I just used the last box of chicken broth for tonight's soup. (Asparagus potato soup. We'll have to see if it's good or not!)

So here's the recipe for Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries from Country Living:

INGREDIENTS

1/2 teaspoon(s)	ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon(s)	salt
1/4 teaspoon(s)	ground red pepper
1 tablespoon(s)	vegetable oil
2 sweet potatoes

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare the sweet potatoes: In a small bowl, combine cumin, salt, and pepper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel potatoes, cut each in half lengthwise, and cut each half into 6 wedges. In a large bowl, combine the cut potatoes, oil, and spice mixture. Toss until potatoes are evenly coated.
2. Bake the fries: On a baking sheet, arrange potatoes in a single layer and place on the middle shelf of the oven. Bake until edges are crisp and potatoes are cooked through -- about 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

I am planning on using cajun seasoning instead of the mix they suggest here, and I'll use the already prepared sweet potatoes, so this should be an easy dish. And if it's good using the sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, this is a great way to get vitamin A in my diet!

WOW!

Mission accomplished. Here's how I ended my day:

• 1259 calories
• 6 servings fruits and veggies
  
• 43 grams of fiber (WOW!)
• 3.5 mile walk (over an hour)
• 40 oz water (but I will drink all 60 by the end of the evening)

It feels so good to have set a goal and achieved it! I am amazed that I did (I was SURE I would go over on calories to get all the fiber in, and it turns out the fiber foods are pretty low cal and very low fat - only 26 grams today!) and it's got me excited for tomorrow. I'm going to do something with the asparagus for dinner tomorrow night. I just have to figure out what.

Take THAT, lousy day!

Ha! The day has improved since this morning. The vitamins did indeed help, and about an hour later I was ready to face the day. I made the bed and got ready to go for a walk. I put Ellie in the double jogging stroller at noon and we headed over to pick up Corinne (to give Taylor a little break and get Corinne out and about!) and go for a walk. Originally I planned to just walk around the pond and head home. But instead we went out and walked around the entire subdivision! I just mapped it out on Streets and Trips, and it says we walked 3.5 miles. My legs agree! We were out walking for over an hour.

My day has also improved because I found out that beans are a vegetable! I probably won't count them as one too often, and I'll try to get my fruits and veggies from other sources, but on a day like today I'm glad to hear that they count toward my veggie count! Plus, it's just after lunch and I've already had 24 grams of fiber today! We're having chili for dinner, too, so that will add another 9 grams. Yay! So I should be able to make my goal, no problem!

Also, the good news about Jennifer helped with my day. The Lord is good, and her laughter this morning and the delayed spinal tap are both reasons to praise Him today!

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.