Wednesday, June 25, 2014

A Closer Look At My Eating Habits

Last post, I talked about My Fitness Pal. An app that makes it very easy to track food and count calories and helps keep you accountable of your daily habits. Pretty awesome if you ask me. I have now been using it for a couple of weeks simply to keep track of my current eating habits and see where I am exactly and where I have to put some effort. What I have found is pretty interesting so far and while some of it I already knew, most of it I had no idea. Here are some of my findings.

Soda Sucks
This one is no surprise at all, but let's forget about the health issues involved for a moment. Even if there weren't any, soda simply doesn't make sense. Why drink your calories when you can eat them? As a self confessed soda addict, I have always struggled with this and in the past two years I have decreased my consumption significantly, but looking at my food intake graphically, the difference on days I drink soda as opposed to those days when I don't is pretty significant. When do I drink soda? If I eat fast food, I usually cave on the soda. It's just too convenient and cheaper. This is a sad, telling fact of the way we live. A double cheeseburger, fries and a soda is a lot cheaper than a salad with a bottle of water. Want to trade the soda in your combo meal for water? You gotta pay extra. And don't get me started on the bottled water racket... Which brings me to my next point.

Eating Fast Food is a Big Problem
I'm trying to cut this down but I'm in a vicious circle regarding my food budget. Avoiding fast food means having your fridge and pantry stocked with food so you can make your own but we are a family of five and our grocery bill can get pretty high. When the food runs low, we can't always fully re-stock right away so while that happens we order out, which in turns drains our budget even more. Usually we try to find a middle ground where I buy a few things that run out and leave others for later but that means I'm always running to the store to get "something". In the meantime, we order out and since we can't spend too much, we go for the cheap combo meal. Again, I try to avoid this as much as I can but once or twice a week, I end up in some drive-thru. And folks, if you haven't done the calorie math on this, you should. The calorie intake when I eat fast food versus days I don't is ridiculous.

Lunch is the Worst Meal of the Day
When we cook at home, we always make sure there are leftovers I can take to work the next day. This works out great from a health and budget perspective but when we don't cook at home I have to buy lunch. Where do I end up? The drive-thru. Remember what Joe Pesci said about the drive thru in Lethal Weapon 2? Exactly. There have been days when I have blown half of my calories for the day on just lunch. 

The Night Grazer
It's important that I leave some calories every day for a nighttime snack. If I'm hungry, I get restless, if I get restless I can't sleep, if I can't sleep I watch TV, if I watch TV at night I head straight to the fridge and I'll eat whatever is there. This is not a problem if you have snacks planned and enough calories to eat them but if not, watch out! And Lord forbid, that there should be ice cream in the fridge. (There isn't... usually.)

We Need to Ban Weekends
Ok, that might not be such a good idea but weekends are dangerous. They are like a free pass to do stuff you shouldn't do or don't do stuff you should like, you know, cook. Suddenly, the stove becomes your worst enemy and our brains start to think differently. Whereas during the week I would consult with my wife: "What should we make for dinner?" During the weekend that exact conversation becomes: "What should we buy for dinner?" Or Lunch... Or Breakfast...  I realize that the week is pretty hectic and we like to wind down a little during the weekend but we have to discipline ourselves more regarding this issue. What is worse, I find myself NOT counting calories during that time. I'm eating junk and suddenly I start to "forget" logging my food. Not good at all.



Breakfast of Champions
I thought I should close on a good note and this is definitely it. 5 years ago, I was defiantly entrenched in the "just a cup of coffee for breakfast and screw everything else" camp. Not anymore. It took some time and effort but I always make sure I eat something in the morning along with coffee, even if it's just some cereal and toast. It is now a habit and one that helps immensely. If you are an over-eater like me, missing a meal is just a cheap excuse to eat everything. Have some breakfast. It makes a difference. Believe me.

And that's the findings so far. I know it sounds pretty horrible but all in all, I actually manage to stay within my calorie intake pretty consistently. However, I could be doing much better, especially regarding the quality of what I'm eating. Fast Food joints have a pretty strong grip on our lives. Yes, lives. This applies to my whole family as well. Our daughters are young and we still have time to turn this around somewhat. So this effort is not just for me to lose weight but to place healthier eating habits for all of us.

11 comments:

  1. so... i have a few suggestions if it isn't too bold. first, buy a big thing of spinach for salads... not lettuce. spinach will fill you up where lettuce is mostly water. you can slice up strawberries and put them in with the spinach as well as some nuts and you've got a beautiful and easy salad for lunch with very little prep. snacks too. very yummy and goes well with just about any dressing although there is a strawberry dressing that goes well with this mix. for the late night snacking protein! i like to have hard boiled eggs on hand at all times for just that thing. as well as cooked chicken breast or smoked salmon. these things are easy to eat, filling, and good for you. if you eat them slowly so that your stomach gets a chance to feel full with some water then you will feel sated without over eating. these things are also full of GOOD FOR YOU fats that your body needs for the exercise you do. also... POPCORN! it is good for you... get the microwave kind with very little salt/butter on it and you will get used to it. it is a good snack for your late nights. as for the fast food... *sigh*... there's no way around it except to just not eat it. it's really just so bad for you and if you just stop going now your kids will not know the difference. i stopped going just over 2 years ago and at first my sons had a really hard time with it but now it is no big deal. we still eat at subway once in awhile but never a burger spot. you are spot on with the breakfast... most important meal of the day! good for you for making the changes in your life. i find that if we have easy "finger foods" (things that are already cooked and can just be eaten) sometimes that's all that is needed for a meal.

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    1. First, not too bold at all!! I love all these suggestions. Especially the spinach/lettuce substitution. Definitely gonna try that one.

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    2. awesome! i just realized tho' that i implied lettuce has no nutritional value... that's not true! lettuce is really high in vitamin A so there's that. :)

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  2. I was a diet Coke addict for years! I made it my NY's resolution to stop. I replaced it with Nuun electrolyte tablets. I still needed that sweetness and plain old water wasn't going to cut it. I switched to iced tea as well if I am out. Eating out was when I hard the hardest time. But tea is usually an option so I go for that instead. My habit is gone and I no longer drink soda. Good luck!

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    1. For the most part, I'm handling the soda thing pretty well. I have no problem ordering and drinking plain old tap water at restaurants. My problem is at fast food joints when they include them wih the combo meal. I can't help myself!! LOL And I can't bring myself to pay extra for a water bottle. I guess the solution is to just not go.

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  3. Frank!!! I feel like we are the exact same person! LOL I can be totally good during the week and then the weekend hits and it's like, What diet?
    I'm a total soda addict too! Last night I was home alone and couldn't open a bottle (I even bruised my hand trying to open it) so I cut the plastic open with a knife and poured it into a cup! So sad, so addicted!

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    1. James Bond has a license to kill. We seem to have a license to binge on weekends. And I will neither confirm or deny that I've had similar situations regarding "soda anxiety".

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  4. Oh soda is so so bad! But I love Coke lol! But I haven't had one in 127 days and I really don't miss it. It's easier when you think about what you are putting in your body. One thing that has helped me who has a family that loves eating out....I get on the restaurant's website before we go. I look at the nutritional info and decide before I get there what I can eat. Some places don't have healthy options. So I tell my family NO lol!

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    1. You know you are a soda addict when you know exactly how many days you have gone without drinking any. LOL

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  5. First, I think it's great that you're able to identify where some of your pitfalls might be when it comes to watching what you eat. A lot of people don't even realize what they're doing wrong (I was DEFINITELY one of those people!) so the fact that you already know where your challenges are is a really great thing. I say that from experience! I, too, have a hard time with the takeout issue -- I really don't enjoy cooking (or grocery shopping for that matter) so take-out is just a way of life. Especially on weekends, like you said. But I somehow managed to lose my weight eating out at least 2-3 times a week. It's all about choices, and really training yourself to navigate a menu and not being afraid to ask for your food the way you want it! And I'm TOTALLY with you on the need for breakfast -- if I don't have enough to eat first thing in the morning, I am RAVENOUS the rest of the day. It absolutely makes a huge difference, no question about it.

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    1. That is a problem area for me. If I go to Wendy's, its not to eat a salad. They make cheeseburgers!! (Obviously that is not the way to look at it at all but it's what goes through my mind when I'm ordering) I really have to develop the willpower to either choose the healthier fare or just not go at all to those places.

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