Phew - just a hiccup, not a trend!

Last week was just a bad weigh in day I decided!  Yesterday I was running crazy so I weighed in today and I've lost 3 lbs since last week.  So I finally hit the 20 lb mark.  So 20 lbs lost since I went to the doctor 18 weeks ago.  Not too bad.  Fairly healthy weight loss! 

I am very grateful for all of you who check up on me and who read this blog.  It helps me so much to be accountable to you all.  I hope that you have laughed a bit and maybe been encouraged on your journey to healthy too.  And thanks to Melissa who reminded me on Sunday that I was weighing in and really DIDN'T need that second chocolate.  ;) 

I went to a class by a nutritionist this past week.  She said they teach people 6 main points when they are helping people eat in a healthier way.

#1. Eat 6 - 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.  A serving is a half cup of most fruits and veggies and 1 1/2 c of salad greens.  That is a lot.  And I know that I am far from getting this.  One thing to add to my "eat this - not that" list.

#2. Eat 3 servings of daity daily and take a vitamin d3 supplement.  Women need 1200 mg of calcium a day and 1000 iu's of vitamin d3.

#3. Limit salt and sugar - most of our salt comes in processed foods so check the labels. I was interested to find out that as far as actual nutrional science is concerned, all sugars are pretty much created equal - sugar, honey, and the dreaded high fructose corn syrup.  Lately, I'm finding myself substituting honey in a lot of recipes because I can use less and still have the sweet taste.

#4. Eat meat sparingly (includes eggs).  We really only need 2 - 3 servings of protein per day.  And a serving of meat is only 3 oz of cooked meat.  That isn't much.  She suggested having one dinner a week that is meatless.  And be sure to pick the leanest cuts of meat available.  For poultry that means the skinless white meat.  For beef and pork, that means the loin cuts.  And use beans and legumes as a substitute.  I made black bean burgers this past weekend and my 4 year old told me that she likes my burgers better than Wendy's.  :) 

#5. Use unsaturated fats and oils as much as possible.  Canola and olive oils are the best for your heart as far as nutritional science has proven at this point.

#6. Eat grains.  Grains are good for us.  Our goal should be to make half of our grains WHOLE.  Which basically means - substitute whole grain breads for white, whole grain tortills for white, whole grain pasta for regular, whole grain cereals for Lucky Charms, etc.  My family really dislikes brown rice - so that is our grain that we choose to not have as a whole grain.  We use half whole wheat and half white in baking. We had to experiment to find which brands of things that we like.  Harpers Homemade Bran Bread is great.  Its the texture of white with the fiber of really good whole wheat.  Mission Multi-grain tortillas are SOOO good.  Barilla makes a thin whole wheat spaghetti that is out of this world. 

A couple other tips - she said she uses whole wheat pastry flour - it's lighter than regulary whole wheat with all the nutrition.  She also said in baking, use 7/8 a cup of whole wheat flour when 1 cup of regular flour is listed in the ingredients.  Good to know!

Another one of her tips - she said "Don't drink your calories".  The only thing she drinks besides water is milk or fruit smoothies made mostly with fruit and ice.  She also adds fresh spinach to make them green.  Haven't tried that one yet.  I've heard its great but I kinda like my fresh spinach in a bowl, topped with salad fixings and dressing.  :)

REMEMBER - even one change is a step forward!  Maybe this month, decide to eat more whole grains and have one meatless dinner each week.  Maybe next month, you'll increase your fruits and veggies.  Then the next month, you'll give up your soda pop.  Notice I did not say give up chocolate!  :)