Food Journal Friday

I told myself BEFORE my most recent marathon, that AFTER the marathon, I would not continue to eat like I was in high mileage training. And for about the first week, I was pretty good at keeping that in mind. However, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and quite frankly, my eating went to shit...especially during the latter part of December. Too many carbs, high fat items, portions out of control and late night snacking (the latter being my greatest down fall...Amy and I call it the late night feeding frenzy).

So...It's not surprising that I got on the scale after the New Year (after avoiding it for the entire month of December) and DID NOT like what I saw. I've only "recently" (within the past 6 months) even started weighing myself again because there was a time in my life where I was quite unhealthy and obsessive about it and I'm only now to a point where I think I can handle the number and react appropriately to it.

Even before "the weigh in", I had toyed around with signing up for Weight Watchers with the idea of reteaching myself healthy eating patterns/portions but wasn't totally in love with that idea initially. I also know how to count calories and can tell you the calories of most everything I eat (a throwback from my obsessive days) but truthfully, it's not the system that works best for me (I can manipulate around it too well, if that makes any sense). Around this same time, Amanda from Run to the Finish invited people to join her on a 30 day Food Journal Challenge for the month of January. PERFECT TIMING.

A food journal is more than just a food log and 6 days in, I'm really enjoying the exercise and the awareness it's bringing me. There are no specific "rules" to this challenge other than to try to log every day, so if it's something that you're interested in doing, please jump in! I'm doing the daily log and once a week, taking pics of what I eat for my own accountability. And I will tell you, the day I took pics (Wednesday), I was SUPER aware of my portions and I do think it influenced my decisions.

For now, I'll share my Wednesday (food) in pics and will be checking back each week with a Food Journal Update. Will make a decision on my next big action at the end of the challenge. Could be counting points for a while or maybe regular logging will bring me enough awareness to make the changes needed to drop the holiday weight plus the 15 or so pounds I've been looking to shed for a while now.

Food Journal: Wednesday, January 4, 2012


General: Working today, woke up absolutely exhausted. Busy schedule at work today...5 meetings!! Lower body (esp. hips) sore from yoga last night.
Ate a couple pieces of honey dew melon as I was fixing my to-go container because I knew that I would be hitting the ground running when I got in the office.
Aiming for 64oz of water (min) daily; so when at work will be drinking a glass of water (12oz) before I allow myself my daily diet coke.

~10:20 a.m.

Honeydew melon and a diet coke

Really hungry! I would not normally be eating for the first time this late, but such was the schedule. Came back from my meeting across campus and was grateful for the caffeine. 

~11:00: Hungry again. We are having a staff meeting at lunch and the office is getting food from the delicious and tempting Shindig's Food Truck. They have great hamburgers and the BEST fries and dipping sauce but really, even if I wasn't journaling and taking pics today, that does NOT fit with trying to detox my body from the holidays. I'll be walking to pick up the food with L. and will get a closer look at the menu when we get to the truck.

~11:45

Faro Salad

I can't believe I was able to sneak a picture, even though it is blurry and does not really express how dense and filling (and delicious!) this was. Local greens with pomegranate arils, kumquats, roasted beets, goat cheese, walnuts, grilled chicken and a homemade vinaigrette. Not my diet coke...I was drinking water! (Bonus: Walked .5 miles to/from food truck!)

3:00 p.m.

Lindt Truffle

Another co-worker brought this to me after lunch and I'm surprised I was able to wait this long to eat it!

~5:00

I am very hungry but my snacks that I brought with me today...an orange and a container of Greek yogurt...are not conducive to eating on the go. I am getting ready to meet Amy at the gym for some strength training and I need to eat something. And that something does NOT need to come from my assistant's candy bowl. While I am at it I throw away some chocolate covered short bread cookies that someone gave me...they are not that good and not worth the calories. I remember I have some almonds in my desk drawer and even though that's not what I feel like it, it's that or the candy.

10 Emerald Cocoa Roast almonds

**After work, Amy and I do 1 hour of strength training at the gym...upper body, back and abs at the gym. We use machines and do 3 sets of 12 on each of the following: lat pull downs, chest flys, shoulder press, row, bicep curls and triceps. Then use the stability ball to do: 60 crunches, obliques with a center lift between sides (20 each side) and 40 back extensions. I am really glad that Amy texted me to see if I would join her. I want to incorporate more strength into my routine and I'm comfortable with the moves but find it SO boring if not in a class format or with a friend.

~7:15 

 Matt cooked dinner (this is usual during the week) and decided to go to a movie while I was at the gym. I came home to find this plate waiting for me

3oz herb crusted pork loin (I measured on the food scale and I promise this was cooked even though it looks otherwise in this picture!), roasted asparagus seasoned w/salt, pepper and crumbled feta, pasta w/roasted veg and  light tomato sauce (this was from a Bird's Eye Steamfresh pouch!)

I was a bit water logged, so I supplemented with this:

No, not the entire 2L bottle :)

I found this while I was shopping last week and I really like it. It says it's a limited time flavor...go figure.

And later in the evening:

A Euro or two...

2 milk chocolate Euros stolen from Matt's candy stash. Plus a big glass of Arizona diet Blueberry green tea and more water.

Total ounces of water for the day: 60

Would usually have more fruit in my diet as a snack, but 5 meetings doesn't leave a whole lot of time for snacking!

I ended up with a migraine on Thursday, so I will keep logging to see if any of these foods were a possible trigger. Please don't say it was the chocolate!!