Yesterday was day 55 of my diet. Although I never went in much for pre-processed foods, now I am even more determined to cut down on salts, fats, sugars, and unpronounceable chemical additives in foods I consume. Therefore, nearly all my food is prepared by me. While shopping at Woodman's, my favorite grocery store (employee-owned), I searched the section that had the foods "on the cusp", as it were, or shortly about to expire. Most of it is still quite good. I bought a pound of mustard greens and 4 chicken sausages with cranberries and cognac. They had only 100 calories each and were exceptionally low in salt and fat, but high in protein. I put them together with other foods and created a new, nameless recipe. Maybe some day I'll make a recipe book of all these low-calorie meals I'm creating. Here's the calorie count I did on the recipe. You are welcome to try it.
calories
mustard greens, 1# 100
chopped tomatoes in their own juice 145
potatoes, 5 fairly small 400
carrots, 4 small, peeled and left whole 45
chicken sausages, 4 left whole 400
Italian seasonings 2 T miniscule
chopped onion 30
hot sauce I made 2 T miniscule
garlic, chopped 2 T miniscule
Total calories 1120 / 2 servings=
560 calories per serving
I shared this meal with my adult son. It was not only extremely tasty with all those good things in it, but it needed NO SALT because of the seasonings, and I added no form of fat whatsoever. That hot sauce turned out really hot; I made it from water and hot peppers blended together. I used enough water in the pot to cover the food while it was cooking. I did not serve bread with the meal because I felt there was enough starch in the potatoes. We were completely satisfied after eating that great amount of food out of two large serving bowls. Later I ate a small scone to satisfy my sugar craving. I must admit that after having only 1316 calories yesterday, I awoke at about 4 AM terribly hungry and unable to sleep, so I ate three crackers mindfully and finally got back to sleep. Betsey got only a few pieces from me.
This is my calendar entry for the day:
Saturday, April 2, 2011
+ 1316 =
85,379 / 55 =
1552
(106,865) [total calories I would have consumed over 55 days if I had been eating only to maintain a healthy weight]
On April 18 I'll be seeing my cancer doctor and I will have a weigh-in at a good scale. I'll let you know how many pounds I lost. I know it's going well because my clothes are getting loose. Now I guess I'm sorry that I donated 20 boxes of my old size 10 clothes. Many of them were brand new. Just think, I could have been WAY out of style if I wore those 20-year-old clothes again. I think I'd have some fun with that.
At last I finished the painting I was working on. It's not my usual subject. I do people portraits and landscapes, and I like for them to be quite dramatic. In this case, I painted flowers, but they are not done in a "feminine" style. (I've frequently been told that NONE of my paintings look like a woman painted them. I guess I just have to figure out exactly what that implies.) I made a portrait of dramatic peonies in my garden. I photographed them in June, and the time of day was sunset, with the sun very low on the horizon.
Last night I awoke with tummy growlings. I needed something to stifle them. I had consumed only 1390 calories during the day. On the headboard/bookcase I keep a package of crackers that I open when I get these growlings. I don't want to eat the crackers suddenly. Frankly, I could put a cracker in my mouth and give it a couple of gnashes, destroying it in seconds and swallowing it. I would barely taste it AND it would not give me much satisfaction. I would probably dig a handful out of the package and might eat 15-20 crackers that way before I'd no longer feel the hunger pangs.
I awake hungry during the night about three times a week. Rather than wolf down the crackers, I eat one tiny bit at a time. I practice "mindful eating" (after the book by the same name, authored by Jan Chozen Bays, MD) while I eat the cracker. With each bite,
- I control my impulse to quickly swallow it;
- I feel the crunch;
- I roll the cracker between my tongue and my upper palate while thinking of the texture;
- I taste the saltiness;
- I feel the crunchy texture slowly moistening and softening;
- I think about the reason I am eating the cracker;
- I feel the hunger slowly subsiding with each bit of cracker;
- I think about the process of making a cracker (and about the recipe for crackers that I found on a website--maybe I'll begin making my own herbed crackers when I finish my current box of crackers);
- I think about the people who made the cracker;
- I think about the little bit of nutrition I get with each bite;
- I wonder about the fat and sugar that may be in the cracker, and I remind myself to check the box next day;
- I think about why I am eating in bed at 3 AM; and
- I wonder how many tiny bites I'll take before the cracker is finished.
During this process, little Betsey, my son's 7-pound adult Manx cat, is posted at my right shoulder, staring at my eyes quietly. She's asking for a piece of cracker. She's a silly little thing. I'll give her the next tiny bit and she'll eat it much more quickly than I ate mine. She does not practice mindful eating.
By the time we finish just one cracker, four minutes have elapsed. I wait a moment, then begin my next four-minute cracker. I may challenge myself, trying for a five-minute cracker, but I fail. By the time I am finished, I've eaten 2 1/2 crackers and Betsey has eaten 1/2 cracker. I remind myself to count the calories in 2 1/2 crackers in my next calorie total. I hope that the cat-lovers of the world will not berate me for giving a cat crackers.
I practice mindful eating during my meals too, but not to this extent. If I did so, meals would all go cold after the first half-hour of such mindfulness. By the time I would finish one meal, it would be time for the next.
