Setting Healthy Goals: A Meeting with My Nutritionist

Chandra Carty, Nutritionist Extraordinaire

The new year is the perfect time to begin new habits and I have decided to make time, each month, to visit with Chandra Carty, my nutritionist. Chandra also happens to be an overall genuinely nice person, which is becoming a rarity in this day and time. We met in a one-on-one session to discuss my past successes and new goals for 2011.

Current Exercise habits: Zumba twice weekly, Power walking - once with one day of Jillian Michael's video thrown in on a GOOD week. Total of three days

Goals for 2011: Increase exercise to a definite four (4) days per calendar week (Sun. to Sat.); use a pedometer with the goal of walking 10,000 steps twice weekly...Good Luck, girl!

Food Goals:
1) decrease added fat (try for under 200g. per day)
2) decrease added sugar (track added sugar...try to keep it under 50 g. per day)
3) keep blogging...(add tidbits about emotional state before, during and after meals)
4) increase water intake (increase from 16 oz. to 32 oz. per day)
5) Eat out in restaurants ONLY twice per week

Having someone with whom to talk about my goals is a great release. Chandra helps me to analyze my eating habits and the attitudes that I have about food. This year, I am planning to join one of Chandra's healthy eating groups for monthly meetings.

Thanks Chandra!

Day 18: End-of-the-Week Juicing

"The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry." What a very prophetic quote. After visiting my nutritionist, Chandra Carty**, this afternoon, I thought I would come home, juice, eat dinner and blog...blog...blog. Well, after leaving Chandra's office, I managed to bypass the local restaurants (unlike after my last visit with her...see SATURDAY, May 1, 2010 blog entry) and return to work/school. I ended up in an evening meeting with another teacher without stopping for any "real" food. Just so happen I remembered that I stashed a nutrition bar (Nature Valley Apple Crisp) in my classroom. It gave me the much needed energy to continue with my day AND it had zero trans fats!

**See tomorrow's entry for a blog about my visit with Chandra and my latest nutrition/exercise goals.

During the after-school meeting, I checked the time frequently because I knew that IF I stayed at school too long, I would get hungry and irritable. Luckily, that bar allowed me to stave off hunger until I made it home.

As soon as I made it inside my little townhouse, I dropped everything and prepared to juice. Because of the nutrition bar, I didn't feel jittery or anxious to eat. My stomach held out until the juice was ready. Halfway through the drink, I remember that I was suppose to take a picture of this last concoction. That's the reason the photo for this blog entry only shows a half-serving of the juice. (The rest was heading for my stomach...LOL.)

Tonight's juice consisted of 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks with leaves, 1 roma tomato, a large green bell pepper and about 1/8 tsp. of minced ginger root. These ingredients made for a slightly sweet spicy drink. (If you are new to juicing, I would recommend an apple to add a little more natural sugar to this juice.) This mixture allowed me to prepare my dinner without the slightest bit of hunger.

Friday night's dinner included: four (left over) Mardi Gras chicken wings from Publix and a tomato/cucumber salad. It was all that I needed for the night. The last thing that I wanted to do was to over eat before preparing for bedtime. This quick meal was over by 7:30 p.m.

Mid- afternoon snack was a small to-go-cup of Mott's cinnamon applesauce.

Lunch was a California Pizza Kitchen Margherita pizza from the frozen food section and Green Giant veggies.

Breakfast included: 2 mini bagels lightly buttered with two Jimmy Dean's turkey sausage links and water. Oh yeah, I had a small helping of grits and three small bite-sized pieces of Salmon croquettes.
*Once-a-month, we have breakfast for our faculty and staff at school. There was NO WAY that I was going to miss out on Ms. Shaffer's grits and croquettes. :)

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Today, I only drank about 16 oz. of water.

After Spring Break 2010...

...I have managed to stay more on-track than off-track. I met with my nutritionist, Chandra Carty yesterday. I walked into her office with a plastic Kroger bag full of empty food boxes and can labels, so that I could show her what I'd been eating. After being on my own for a month, I managed to maintain my weight at 190 lbs. This was great because I didn't have to feel guilty about having gained weight over the break.

I told Chandra that cooking for ONE can be torturous. So, I devised a plan to eat BETTER than I have in the past. Cooking is the BEST way to eat healthy. Eating frozen or prepared food is usually better than eating fast foods because I am able to carefully select what I eat AHEAD of time. (That's the foundation behind the success of Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers.)

Chandra told me it was OK to start with small changes, which encourage successful, long-term habits. (I guess it's ok to share that I stopped by American Deli, after yesterday's visit to Chandra. I bought AND ate lemon pepper wings with fries and a sweet tea. I only ate five of the ten wings; however, I demolished the fries...smile.)

Today's Menu

Breakfast

This morning, I made pancakes from the Bisquick mix in the pre-portioned container. While the serving shows 6-8 pancakes, I always manage to get DOUBLE that amount because my pancakes are smaller. Standard Bisquick pancakes are 220 calories for three. I managed to cut that in half to about 110 for three. This reduced the sodium intake from a whopping 880 to 440.

The tsp. of Land o' Lakes butter/canola oil combo was about 33 calories. The 2 TBSP of Cary's syrup (the best syrup in the world) was 1/2 of the 1/4 cup serving, so my calories for the syrup totaled 105 calories. Also, I had a serving (3) turkey sausage links from Jimmy Dean. They taste AWESOME! My calories for this delicious treat were 120. I topped breakfast off with a 1/4 cup of lemonade at 60 calories, since the standard serving was 8 fl. oz (at 120 cal.) and 1 full glass of water (not shown) worth a healthy zero (0) calories.

Total Calories for Breakfast: 428 Total Daily Calories Goal = 1,400
Remaining Calories: 972/day
(Lunch and dinner = 486 each)

Lunch
I ate a small bowl of Amy's Organic Soup Low-fat Split Pea. Each can is about 2 servings. This portion was worth 100 calories, but the salt intake was a little high at 670 mg. (28% of the total daily value). I ate a piece of Pepperidge Farms Whole Grain (15 grain) bread with the total of 100 calories and only 115 mg. of sodium.

This meal was simple, yet filling.

Total Calories for Lunch: 200 calories
Remaining Calories: 772

Note to Self: I didn't eat enough food for lunch. My meals needs to be closer to 400 calories with snacks from 50-75 calories.

Monday 3-22-10

OK...I can do this! Recently, I went to see a nutritionist, Chandra Carty, because I am overweight. She suggested that I take pictures of myself, my food and keep a diary of all that I eat. WOW...as an emerging photographer, that is right up my alley (smile).



So, here goes everything... For breakfast, I had instant oatmeal (with a tsp. of honey and 1/8 c. of soy milk, 1/4 c. water), along with three strawberries. For dinner, I had a lean cuisine Sesame Chicken meal with green peas...which was delicious. For dinner, I had half of a turkey sandwich with two thinly sliced pieces of Boar's Head Honey Maple-Glazed turkey and a salad with organic sundried tomato dressing and shaved Parmesan cheese.

I don't really thing that this is even close to my daily allowance of 1,400 calories; however, we will see.