Monday, February 8, 2010

Food&Mood

It has been five days since I have started my lifestyle change with diet and exercise. I have had every range of emotion from foggy , hating it, loving it ,pleased , exhausted, and energetic. It wasn't till yesterday that my body adjusted to eating modest servings and to the good nutrients. J noticed that I wasn't bloated anymore and that I have lost water weight. My body just feels better without the bloat. I couldn't believe how bloated I was before and I thought I ate half decent. I cut out most preservatives in food and rarely ate out. I thought I wasn't doing so poorly before until these last five days of eating way more vegetables and fruit.
My mood is even improving but I'm still a little indifferent to life. I have felt some periods of happiness , even if it was fleeting. I'm going to add Vitamin D to my mix of vitamins also. The multi-vitamin, I take is not the daily recommended allowance of 1,000 ICU. I was reading that Vitamin D might help with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) This time of year where I live you just cant get vitamin d from the sun. You can sun bathe all you want but because the UV is never at full tilt in the winter it is impossible to achieve getting vitamin d. I guess I can get it from fortified milk and grains but I don't like milk at all and rarely eat cereal. Fish is also very expensive to eat. I also worry about how polluted fish are anymore. I was trying to take cod liver oil capsules but it really made my stomach sick and made very smelly gas. I think I will just go with just a vitamin and some fortified grains.
I also didn't celebrate or watch the Superbowl like I usually do. The thing is I don't even like football so it wasn't that much of a loss. The party atmosphere that I usually make was missed though. I did have some of the food already bought for it like baby back ribs. I did end up making a rack of ribs but only eating three ribs. I also made scallop potatoes and greens. I ate a meager serving of scallop potatoes and made the greens very healthy without any pork product to season it and just some seasoning like a Mrs Dash product. It was amazing to make collard greens that weren't fating. Collard Greens are very good for you if you don't cook them in ham hocks or meat drippings. I ate more of those than anything else. I'm actually delighted with vegetables now because I can eat more of a serving than just very strict portion controls of certain things. I think my meal was about 350- 400 calories. It also helps serving your meal on a smaller plate as it helps trick your mind you are eating a lot more than you are. It really helped my mind. The thing about cutting down on portions is that you save so much money when you watch what you eat. Plus it has saved me time as I have dinner tonight also where as I would not have left overs. All I have to do is make another fresh vegetable tonight. I also notice since I eat three meals a day my blood sugar isn't always spiking or bottoming out. I'm less hungry because my blood sugar levels aren't high or low. I don't need to hurry up and eat something or put anything in my mouth to not feel starved. Eating sporadically would play hell with my moods also leaving me anxious , nervous, tired and moody. I know in theory that eating properly is good for my mental health and health but when you do eat properly and get what you need it really hits home how important it is to make healthier choices.

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