eat healthily

I’m going to use http://www.mealmixer.com. Seems to do everything I need (diet tracking, recipe search and store, shopping list, etc.)

I was thinking of changing this goal temporarily but I can keep the title I think. Basically I do well for vegetables but could do with eating more fruit.

When I went shopping last weekend I bought some strawberries, apples and bananas and have been having some each day. I think it’s been great actually so want to note how good it has made me feel so I’ll remember to do it in future.

Added bonus- the apples and the strawberries were from the UK. I may add fruit to my vege box in the future.

Right – it took me a while to actually start doing this – and to be honest it is still a work in progress and probably will be for some time. Having said that though, I have cut out the majority of the sugary snacks that I have been living on for the last few months (Hot Chocolate will be a constant battle) and am trying to eat a healthy breakfast lunch and dinner every day.

I am starting to feel better for doing it – I’m not feeling sick with sugar the whole time now – but my body is rebelling in other ways by being ill so I need to stay strong and stick to my goal.

have been quite challenging eating-wise. The negative aspect of the situation is that I binged on sugary stuff on several isolated occasions. The positive aspects are that, firstly, I never let it run over into the next day, secondly I didn’t let it affect my exercise regime and lastly I’ve learnt that the reason I was probably doing that is because I wasn’t eating enough in general. Now I’m eating a little more at each meal and feeling the benefit- no craving sweet stuff at all, and my energy levels have increased too. It’s all about balance…

What’s interesting is that, whereas before I wouldn’t be able to learn from my mistakes in terms of the binging because I just said “f* it!” and screwed up the whole thing until months later I’m now much more stable and feel in control, trusting myself to forgive and forget. I’ve also noticed I’m more realistic- as long as I’m not overeating on any particular day, I don’t have to stress about how much I’ve eaten.

I’ve dcided to start eatin healthily now as there’s no use putting it off. xx

but I’ve decided not to dissect what went wrong so I’m just putting it behind me now. At least I did some exercise on both days so I didn’t slob out AND eat badly.

I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not automatically going to put on weight overnight by overeating on one or two days!!

This morning I woke up late so didn’t have time for breakfast. There is a few minutes between my trains so I thought I would buy something from M&S Food on the way to work. Well I did, I bought a mango based smoothie and yogurt with granola for breakfast. Some blueberries and cherries and hummous with crudites for snacks and a pasta salad for lunch. I spent £12 on food for the day.

True I am eating like a queen and am getting lots of F&V portions but the cost is completely unsustainable. I don’t usually spend that in a week on snacks and lunches.

So I feel embarrassed for the expense (and all the packaging) but good about the quality food I am consuming. Perhaps as a one-off this is ok because it is making me feel good which will hopefully lead to me getting back into the kitchen and cooking healthy stuff again.

The past two days have been difficult. I’ve suceeded in staying on track with regards to eating in a balanced way, but it’s been hard.

The weather is god-awful here at the moment- all rainy and drizzly and cold and to top it off, I’m feeling more depressed than usual because I’m on my period. Today I overcame my first (relatively) strong urge to binge because I was alone in the house and feeling bored and tired and lonely.

Fortunately I made it through the day with only a coffee and a sugar free banana muffin as extra, and I still made it down to the gym for my 50 mins.

I think that counts as an achievement…sigh.

One of the hardest challenges to my healthy eating patterns is when people graze all day long, and also in a social situation where there is a buffet or meal with tons of enticing food laid out. For the past five years every single time I’ve been able to establish a healthy eating pattern for myself, I’ve landed up in difficulty after encountering these situations…often it results in not being able to get my eating back on a balanced rhythm at all, and at best it has caused overaeting until I feel sick everyday for several weeks.

Consequently, I was nervous about going to my friend’s birthday picnic because I was about to be faced with BOTH of my most challenging situations: an all-day picnic where there was tons of food for people to eat over several hours…

When I saw the food I got the normal panicky feelings which instantly gave way to the “rush” that junkies get as the temptation of eating without constraint began to tug at me. I managed to lower my anxiety level and ate a sensible amount. Back at the house there was further challenges as it was all laid out on the table indoors, but when I listened to the sensible voice in my head I realised it wasn’t really that exciting and that I could manage just fine with eating a little bit to tide me over on my journey home.

And so I made it!

I also found it easy (despite an inital knee-jerk reaction) to avoid buying chocolate when I waited for my train. When I got home there was a real trigger because I’d been stressed from my journey (long story!) and also eaten hardly anything whilst travelling so I did allow myself a dessert AND a chocolate bar after my tea that night but all in all I don’t think I ate too many calories that day, so all is good.

I feel really proud of myself for finally getting over these triggering situations and also for not beating myself up over eating more sweet things than I would on the night I returned home. I also succeeded in returning to the normal routine of healthy eating and gym today too, which has also never happened before.

I feel so much stronger and capable! I finally feel like there is an end to what has been a long struggle with eating disorders. Yay!

The water-drinking has definitely become a habit – and I feel so much more energetic because of it.
I drink a small amount of pure fruit juice, but have cut out all soft drinks, tea and coffee.

I’m working on cutting down on starch and junk. And eating more fresh foods – this isn’t quite a habit yet though.