Day 5

Is it really even Day 5? I don't feel like I've been doing this forever anymore, lols. And I'm not hungry all the time! My stomach isn't alerting me 30 mins before ever scheduled eating. I swear all I thought about the other day was food, when and what I was eating, how to prepare it, how many calories was in it. And now it's more like natural and less emotional probably. I mean I know I'm an emotional eater. It started during Jr High and has just continued with me through life so far. Now that I'm thinking about what I eat and why I want to eat things, it's become so much more clear to me why I was so unhealthy and gained so much weight.

Breakfast/snack - SK chocolate peanut butter snack bar, banana

Lunch - Sweet Tomatoes, small serving of cold pasta with tomatoes, kidney beans, olives, and regular ranch dressing (such a splurge I know), small side of ceasar salad, small side of potato salad, a couple spoonfuls of Buffalo Chicken soup and Pinto Basil soup, 1/3 cup macaroni and cheese, 1 low-fat cornbread muffin, 1 pralin crunch muffin (omg this was sooo tasty, I could have eaten another one!)

Snack - Skinny Cow Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sannich (this was alright, I wish I would have bought the mint ones instead, M insisted on the peanut butter ones)

Dinner - SK Chocolate, 1/2 cup Greek Yoghurt, 1 peach

Snack - WATERMELON!

Lunch sounds like it was a lot but it was a lot of little bits of this and that. Normally at Sweet Tomatoes I tend to eat a lot of all my favorite things and leave the place feeling over-stuffed. Today I put things on my plate more sensible. Tried the soups and stopped eating them when I didn't particularly care for them. The mac'n'cheese was a splurge just because I love their's. Also, the praline crunch muffin apparently has 250 calories in it (I checked the website), it was sooo tasty but I'm not entirely sure if it was worth that much.

I'm trying to do the stop-when-you-feel-full and leave some left on the plate mentality. I've always been one to clean my plate whether or not I was full 10 bites ago. This isn't particularly healthy. I'm starting to realize that this is really bad and why I used to eat so much food. It's a whole mind change for eating, but I'm really trying to stick to it now! I read this earlier from a website and thought it fit perfectly:
"Do you stop when you're full?
Many people still have a "clean your plate" mentality. You will have much more energy and feel less tired if you only eat as much food as your body needs. Think of it this way--you don't continue to fill your car with gas when the tank is full, so why would you do it to your body?"

A note about dinner: SK Chocolate was terrible! I'm not one to like cornflake cereal (even though I love it with the strawberry twist), and that's what it was! With little pieces of pretend chocolate thrown in. I poured my bowl and saw all the little chocolate piece fall into my bowl looking all decadent. I'm still a fat kid at heart so I snatched one up to eat it and...it was like a little pad of subtlety chocolate flavoured crisco. Ugh! Well I still ate it with my greek yoghurt for dinner, although I doubt I will be eating it again. It might be better with milk, but I hate eating cereal with milk (I won't eat cereal once it loses its crisp factor). And since I'm trying to eat more slowly (and listen to my body when it says its full), I doubt I'll finish the box. Le sigh.

About the running: I expected it to be all kinds of hot and muggy outside like it was all day today (M, C and I went out shopping and I bought nail polish!). We're even under an air quality alert but I knew I had to go out running anyway. I went out and it wasn't bad at all; it had just started cooling off out. I ran slightly more than yesterday AND I covered more distance. I would have run more but my lower stomach/intestines area started hurting (not like a cramp but hurting nonetheless), so I just briskly walked the last half of the return trip.

I even saw interesting things during my run! I saw (1) walking lady; she was behind me when we started and I saw her again when we crossed on my return trip, (2) mallard ducks; okay these aren't all that interesting because they hang out in our yard all the time. My favourite thing to do is get in their space, they quack if you're within a 15 ft radius of them! (3) tractors in operation, and (1) red cardinal. Fun times! :D

I can't wait to cut into that watermelon! I'm also excited about making watermelon rind pickles! It's a southern classic! My grandmother (who passed away) used to make them and I LOVED eating them at her house. Now I'm going to make my own!

Bob