A day in the life..

I started this blog to help anyone that wanted to get healthy and eat right, so please forgive me if I say something I've already said before, bear with me! This is for you Le-ann!

Never miss a day of logging in my food I need to, I need the accountability of it.

We started at www.thedailyplate.com not knowing what to expect, I just trusted that my daughter, Melissa was loosing weight and she didn't have that much to lose, that's hard. More importantly, she was eating really good healthy foods. Plus it was free, what did I have to lose?

I can have 1511 calories a day based on my height, weight and age to lose 2lbs a week...I may change that soon to 1lb a week. The daily plate sets all that for you.

For breakfast I eat a Fiber One bar, Breyer's Light with natural probiotics yogurt (Walmart), Bigelow Earl Grey green tea and I take vitamins. Sometimes I have granola and 1% milk and an apple or banana.

Lunch varies, Dick loves to go get Subway a lot...any of their 6-inch 6 grams of fat on wheat. We love the sweet onion sauce or honey mustard. Love turkey on wheat with cucumbers or baby carrots and fat free Lays potato chips. Cottage cheese with pineapple, Ezekiel 4:9 bread. Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli is a favorite.

Dinner is so much fun now! We love to grill chicken, salmon, boneless pork. Baked sweet potatoes with Brummel and Brown butter and Splenda brown sugar. Any veggie we are in the mood for, love asparagus. Baked potatoes with salsa, or stir fried brown rice. Lot's of salads with Kraft low-fat dressings. I get recipes from www.myrecipes.com , www.sparkpeople.com, anything that has the calorie count with the recipe is great.

Snacks are usually fruit, rice cakes, natural peanut butter (Kroger's), unsalted nuts carefully measured. Thomas 100 calorie wheat English muffins..loaded with fiber, Pepperidge Farms baked naturals...a serving is 17 crackers or Triscuit Thin Crisp...serving size 15 with a wedge of Lite Laughing Cow Cheese. We love cranergy drinks...and lot's of water.

Desserts are angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream, sugar free Jello and puddings, McDonald's ice cream cones ( low-fat 150 calories!).

I found starving myself doesn't work, you have to eat to lose weight. Your body uses about 1200 calories a day to just be. Plus, using a food scale is a must...eye balling food does not work. It also helps to have a calorie limit, then you have the freedom to eat what you want...if you need chocolate, have it, just add it into your total.

I keep my sodium under 2400gm and fiber above 24gm. It's easy to keep track of it with on-line dairies. They have groups and forums that let people help people...awesome!

I'm still losing about 2lbs a week ...some weeks none at all, but not to worry, the weight is coming off. In the beginning we didn't eat out much and now only at places that post their nutrition on-line. Like Panera, Chick-Fil-A, Salsarita's. Most restaurants have grilled meat and salads...I just smell the bread now!

When we started, we walked 2 miles a day, now we walk 3 miles a day during the week. On the weekends we walk 5 to 8 miles a day. We quit the gym because it wasn't working for us, we do free weights at home, but I'm going to go back now to tone up some.

I'm here to help, just let me know!