log everything i eat for a month

I’ve been eating really healthy for over a month now, with 90% of my diet being comprised of fruit, vegetables, home-made hummus, wild rice, olive oil, and grilled chicken breast. The other 10% is some mix of healthy (gluten-free, sugar-free, all-natural) fruit and nut Kind Bars, coffee, Boca burgers or other vegetarian patties with a low-calorie count, and occasional minor splurges. (Splurges so far have been: a bit of strawberry ice cream, Jack-in-the-box tacos, a red velvet cupcake, and a hamburger.)

Other than those few splurges, I’ve nearly eliminated processed carbs, sugar, and unhealthy fats, and my body is really responding well to the clean living. Most notably, my HORRIBLE nails, which I’ve posted about before, have stopped splitting and cracking and snagging, and the ugly ridges on them have started to go away.

My nails have bothered me for almost a decade, because they were so weak and hard to maintain. And in just a month of dedication to my health, they have completely changed. Definitely a plus for me, as well as encouragement to continue on this path.

This goal is nearly complete! But just to keep myself honest, I am going to add another week to it, just to make sure I really did track my food for a whole month. Looking forward to checking off a goal as done. I haven’t done that in a while!

In five days I will have completed this goal. Wow. I’ve had it for so long and it was so easily accomplished once I put my mind to it. That’s a lesson for me.

In the past 20 days, I think I have only missed 3 or 4 days, and I have only cheated on my diet once (before today). Today I made a planned indulgence: a jalapeno and cheese croiss-agel with cream cheese. Strangely, it wasn’t worth it.

I was so looking forward to tasting one of my favorite treats again after a 20-day strict diet, and now that it’s in my stomach, I don’t feel anything. Oh croiss-agel, I wanted this to work out, and yet my feelings for you don’t exist anymore. I don’t know where they went, but I can’t keep doing this. It isn’t me, it’s you. Your guilty calories don’t fulfill me anymore. I know you’ll find someone else. As for me, I’m moving on.

Just to keep track… I haven’t written down every bite that has entered my mouth over the past week, but I have been really aware of everything, so I’m counting this as another week accomplished.

I honestly don’t think there was a single day in the past seven that I overate or splurged in a way that I felt guilty about, so this week was a really big win. Two more weeks and I’ll be able to mark this goal complete!

I wrote in my synopsis of Carrots ‘n’ Cake that the author is incredibly mindful of her eating, planning out what to eat and when, particularly when she knows she is going into an environment that will be a gastronomic minefield.

That’s what coffeeshops are to me. My coffee drinking easily devolves into massive caloric splurges because I don’t just drink coffee, I drink “foofy drinks:” lattes, cappuccinos, mochas, and more. When I forget to say nonfat (most of the time), that is easily 350 calories for one such drink. And I often get two or three in a day. No wonder I gained so much weight. That’s what lack of mindfulness about your food will get you.

Taking a tip from my recent descent into accidental coffee-overindulgence, I’ve made a few of my own rules to help me navigate the many coffee shops I frequent during work hours.

1. Never drink coffee first. Choose a big tea, and drink with just a bit of honey.

2. If I want coffee after that, choose a non-dairy based drink, like an Americano, for instance. At only 15 calories for a 16 oz, it’s definitely an acceptable drink. With an ounce of cream and a raw sugar, it’s 75 calories.

3. Splurges must be nonfat, smallest size available (for Starbucks, that means ordering a short, instead of cheating with a tall just because it’s the smallest on the menu.) and not include any syrups or additional calories. Short, wet cappuccino, for instance, to which I can add one packet of sugar.

For cappuccino lovers, by the way, the short cappuccino (8 oz) is by far the best in terms of flavor, because they use the same amount of espresso as in a tall (12 oz), but in a smaller cup, which produces the boldest flavor of any size. You end up paying more for four more ounces of milk, which just makes a gross cappuccino, IMO. That’s almost a latte, and at 50 calories in a short nonfat cap, the extra 40 calories in a tall nonfat cap is too high a price when I’m not actually getting any FLAVOR out of it.

Lose It! finally got its act together and created the Android app, which I have been waiting for… oh, for about a YEAR. Dummies.

ANYWAY, I have been religiously keeping track of everything [see 1] that enters my mouth. By religiously, I mean, meditating before ingesting each morsel, counting to 25 (thank you, Frenchie) before I eat something ill-advised, and saying a loud, lengthy grace before every bite (same effect, though my friends have stopped inviting me places to eat with them [see 2]).

My food is 95% fruit, vegetables, and chicken breast, with flavor coming from liberal use of spices rather than fat, so I’m not posting it here like someone with all the time in the world, a point-and-shoot, and a working internet connection (cough demented food bloggers cough [see 3]). I just think I will post weekly to prove that I am keeping on track. Anyway, one week down, three to go.

Don’t worry, subscribers. This isn’t a thinly-veiled attempt to spam you with updates of my intake all day long. Just the opposite, in fact.

I am going to condense several of my goals, pursuing them simultaneously so that I can accomplish them more quickly. The goals I think I can all lump together are the following:

Lose 20 lbs 
Log everything I eat for a month
Complete the 100 Pushup Challenge! [sic]
Exercise 3 times a week for 3 months
Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day

By April 17, I want to have each if these goals checked off my list. 

I don’t want to keep making mini posts here about my food, since no one really cares about the orange I ate at breakfast. So I downloaded the LoseIt! app and am tracking everything I eat there. I also downloaded the WaterYourBody app, which visually records the number of glasses of water I drink every day and gives me a grade that I can watch rise as I drink more water. I am such a sucker for good grades, and I might as well exploit that for the sake of my health. 

I think these apps will really help me keep myself on track constantly, and reduce the number of insignificant posts I make here. I plan to update weekly and track how it’s going, just a general overview of whether I am sticking to my goals. Onward!