Today is Day 11 since I started my food journal which I blogged about back on April 10th.  And guess what?  I’m making progress!  Let’s talk about the food journal first for a bit.

I basically write down everything I eat or drink for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. No cheating and no skipping either!  I even write down sweets if I have any.  I also record all fluids I drink, mostly water and tea.

Here’s an example of a typical “good” day for me:

Breakfast
2 hardboiled eggs
1 avocado
salsa
1 cup of hot water with lemon and honey

Lunch
1 Tuna Sandwich, wheat bread
Carrot sticks with ranch dressing
1 red apple
1 can of Pibb Zero

Dinner
1 Turkey burger, no bun
Potato Salad
Sweet Iced Tea

Snacks
1/2 cup of mixed nuts

Water 9 cups
Hot Tea 2 cups

That’s it!  When I finish the day, I turn the page. As you can see, I don’t focus much on recording portions and I’m not counting calories.  Remember!  I’m trying not to focus on the numbers. But in case you want to know…

The salsa for breakfast was only about 3 tablespoons.  The carrot sticks were probably 10 small sticks and the ranch was a taplespoon or two.  The potato salad at dinner was probably about half a cup. The iced tea was about 2 cups. But since those are about my usual portions and I know I’m not going to overeat, I don’t worry so much about writing those down.

Notice I had a can of diet soda at lunch and the tea at dinner was sweet tea. I also use Splenda in my hot tea. I’m not going to deprive myself of those things that I enjoy because also notice I had no other “bad” sweets and overall this was a very healthy day for me.

As I’ve said before, I’m not on a diet.  I’m just changing my relationship with food. And the key to still consuming those things is moderation. I could have easily drank two cans at lunch and had about 3 glasses of tea, but I didn’t.

I also try to drink lots of water every day, at least a minimum of 8 cups, in addition to my honey/lemon water that I have every morning and any other fluids I consume throughout the day. It’s easy for me to do because I drink 4 cups of water (2 tall glasses full) every morning as soon as I wake up.

When you wake up and you are feeling groggy, most of us think we need coffee to wake up.  Your body is actually dehydrated and needs water. If you drink cold water first thing in the morning, it will wake you up too.  And it’s good for your organs and gets your system going.  And 4 cups is half the recommended daily intake so I’m already halfway there in a matter of minutes and my day has just started.

I said in Part 1 that the only number I’m focusing on is the number on the scale!  And it’s working.  I’ve made progress. By day 4, when I weighed in I had lost 2 pounds.  When I weighed in this morning, I’d lost 7!

This week I’m going a step further and focusing on food prep.  I came across some “healthy” pins on Pinterest this weekend that talked about preparing your lunches for the entire week.  Lunch is always a challenge for me because I have to think ahead about what I’m going to eat, and I have to do it that morning when I’m not usually hungry for much, and I have to do it quickly. So lunches can get boring at times, and yes, most of the time they are always the same thing anyway and not healthy.  For those of you out there who grab fast food every work day, think about that!

More about the food prep in my next post though!  Have a good week! Eat well!