Reflections on Extreme Healthy Eating Month

Wow, February flew by! I guess that's what you get with a 28-day month. Extreme Healthy Eating Month went pretty well for me. I did break my vows a few times, but generally I was good about sticking to my list. Sticking to a list of allowed foods was actually much easier for me than just trying to avoid unhealthy foods.

It was easy to do at work, especially - which I didn't expect since we constantly have sweets at work. Right now there are cookies, Starburst candy, and chocolate caramel popcorn available at work, and it's always like that. Home health and durable medical equipment agencies bring sweets to us to try to win our favor (it's a competitive field) but I wish they'd bring healthy foods a little more often.

Where I cheated was mostly at other people's houses; I didn't want to turn down friends' hospitality. I also quickly realized that my favorite salads are those that have blue cheese or feta on them, so I made an exception to my no cheese rule for that.

Speaking of the no cheese rule though, I discovered that I feel a lot better with less dairy in my diet. I ate Greek yogurt almost every day, but we were drinking lactose-free milk (which I don't really like so I didn't have much of it) and other than that, the tiny amounts of cheese on salad were all I had. I don't think I'm lactose intolerant, because I can certainly handle dairy just fine, but I feel kind of sluggish and bloated after eating a lot of cheese. Too bad I also love cheese. I missed cheese way more than sweets.

Since yesterday was March 1, though, I went a little overboard on the sweets. I ate a cookie and some of that chocolate caramel popcorn at work, as well as several Girl Scout cookies at home. By dinnertime I was feeling kind of nauseous, but then Ross wanted to go for Free Pancake Day at IHOP, so we did. Honestly, I kind of just want to eat salad all day now.

February: Extreme Healthy Eating Month!

On the ski lift on Saturday, after eating a cheese and grapes for a snack followed by grilled cheese for lunch, I decided that I needed to do something about my diet. Namely, eat less cheese. So I ruminated about doing a cheese fast for February, but since I need to lose some weight, I wanted to go a little more extreme than that. I settled on the following diet plan. I am calling it Extreme Healthy Eating Month. So for the month of February, I will eat only the following categories of foods:

1. Fruits
   
2. Vegetables
3. Whole grains
4. Lean meats & fish
5. Seeds & nuts
6. Yogurt

I am not being as stringent about drinks. I am definitely allowed water, skim milk, coffee, and tea. 100% juice is fine too, though I don't really drink much of it. No soda (diet or regular) or sweet iced tea. However, I spent most of December and January abstaining from alcohol and I missed beer a lot, so the occasional beer is okay even though it is full of carbohydrates.

My goal is to exercise 40 minutes 4 times a week. I'm sure I won't meet that, but I will try.

Ross is joining me in this endeavor, although he admittedly is not being as determined about it. He doesn't need or want to lose any weight, but I buy and cook most of the food and he is happy to go along with healthy eating.

Our suppers for this week are as follows:
Monday: Leftover panang curry for me; not sure what Ross ate
Tuesday: Baked salmon and asparagus
Wednesday: Moroccan chicken stew
Thursday: Brown rice & pinto beans with salsa and salad
Friday: Buffalo chicken strips & Caesar salad
Saturday: Cranberry, Butternut Squash, and Roast Shallot Couscous
Sunday: Leftovers