Peeping In

Easter is over and the last of the Easter candy has been consumed. Gads, are we hooked on candy in this country or what??? I did not have a Peep though, because my kid got mine first. Bad me, for letting him have it and for having brought this confection into the house in the first place!!!

Have you seen the latest push on TV, or elsewhere, where they are condemning sugar in the American diet? It is the worst thing since....since they condemned fats in our diet!

I've been reading information here and there about it. I guess 60 Minutes had a piece on the evils of sugar on their April 1st show. I have also seen a report that says back in the early 1900's the average person may have been eating 20 pounds of sugar a year. Modern day has that amount up to 130 pounds (or more) per year! I can see this as being true because sugar is pumped into almost everything to entice our sweet-tooths. (sweet-teethes?) I wouldn't be surprised to see a future push, vilifying sugars, like they've done with fats in years past.
I can see the latest-greatest-diet craze out there being one that is low-carb with an emphasis on zero sugars unless they are in a vegetable or fruit. (not added to them, but as a part of their natural makeup.)

In other news, I was reading today about this woman who successfully lost a lot of weight over the past year and couple months. It was my own blog! I am sure some of you are getting tired of me exclaiming how weird this all has been! After five weeks of the scale not moving more than a half pound up or down, I have lost two pounds for these past two weeks...four pounds total! The change? I ate MORE! Really! I have often been guilty of not eating enough calories because I get so busy that I literally forget to. I really tried to eat more these past two weeks and it seems to have worked. I plan to try this experiment again, after this week.
This week will be all whacked out because of an upcoming trip out of town. I wonder if I will really, finally, eat a fast food hamburger? I haven't had one for over a year now. I just don't crave them and think they will taste yucky to my retrained palate. Why waste my calories on something that isn't satisfying? I have gotten more picky about such things as I continue changing my life around. But I am curious as to how they would taste after all this time.....

I've often been asked what do I eat? How much do I exercise? What is my secret? It is hard to answer these questions sometimes. When I first started out, I was a stickler for cutting the fats out of my diet. Zero fats were better, or so I thought. I tried to eat less than 25g of fat per day. I don't do that anymore though. I shoot for between 25g and 65g of fat per day. Fat isn't the enemy unless it is excessive. Again, everything in moderation is the key.

I also taught myself how to make favorite foods in more healthy ways. I have made it a point to eat more vegetables. I get creative and try to have fun while trying new spices or cooking methods. I am a avid Food Network watcher. I have tried more new things and learned how to cook better quality foods because of it! I used to cook chicken for hours to be sure all the germs were killed in the meat.

Now I use a thermometer to cook to temperature. My chicken isn't dry and the flavors are amazing!

I also make it a point to eat chicken or fish at the very least, once a week for both. We used to eat a LOT more beef, especially cheap hamburger. Not any more. I buy lean hamburger and rinse off the extra fats, after browning, with a tea kettle of very hot water. I then use the meat in pasta dishes or casseroles. Many times I will make two different sauces for pasta. One will have the meat in it and one will be only chopped mushrooms. I prefer the mushroom sauce. I don't miss the meat. I also don't like ground chicken or turkey, which would be a healthy alternative. I have found that I am perfectly happy with a half serving of pasta too. Oh, and I buy a store brand of Marinara sauce for the base. I suppose 100% homemade would be better than jars or cans, but I haven't tried that yet. Maybe someday I will try the made-from-scratch sauces.

I try to always have something on hand that I can 'grab and go' with. Apples are the easiest to have around. I sometimes have deli sliced chicken for a quick low-cal sandwich. When we make chicken, I de-bone the leftovers and freeze single portions for use in chicken salad or to add to soups. The carcass is then boiled off for homemade chicken stock. Much better! And there is a lot less sodium in homemade stock.
All in all, I just eat healthier! I say this as the sugar from the Sunday morning Bismarck is still tickling my tongue. It had blueberry filling though, so it is healthy eating...right? No, it isn't...but I don't eat more than one, I allow for the calories, and I don't have these every day, or even every Sunday. In the past, I would have had a couple of Long Johns, topped off with donut holes. Talk about mindless eating!!! (side note here: I started typing this on Saturday and am posting it on Sunday. Blogger uses the date that you start typing it, not the date when you actually post)

So there you have it. I touched on some of my eating habits both past as well as present. I plan to talk about exercise on another post. Speaking of postings, I was going to try to be all professional-like and structured with my blog. That was actually keeping me from writing as much! I plan to just ramble on with whatever is happening in my brain at the moment, when I have the time to sit and type. It is more fun for me, and less business-like for you. I hope that some of the words that spoke of to you last year will come through to you this year. (I am rambling...I blame it on the sugar rush from the Bismarck).

I'll leave you today from a quote I got off SparkPeople.com today:
Coach Nancy says: "Trust the process. As long as you are embracing healthy habits, changes are happening within you."

I agree!
See you next time! Now get out there and go for a walk!