I made a post a few days ago about me changing my diet to a "clean" one. So, today was payday and off to whole foods I went. It was extremely overwhelming. I had been in whole foods many times - for seafood, booze, lotions... I have never walked through the produce section with the intent to buy anything and I quickly learned that a.) I dont know what I'm looking at - I can't identify most vegetables. b.) I don't know how to see if the ones I'm picking are good or not, like you check an apple for bruising... and c.) even if i did have a name for these items in front of me, and even if i did know how to figure out if it was quality produce or not - i have NO IDEA how to put them together, cut them, etc... SIGH.
Regardless, I stocked up and figure I will do lots of internet research and cook book hunting...
The second thing I did today (and possibly equally as eye opening and life changing) was that I went to Best Buy and picked up a Perfect Portion Nutrition Scale. Have you heard of this thing?? Its AMAZING. It comes pre-programmed with about 2000 foods and you can add to its data base.... You plug in a code number that correlates to the food you want to measure that you find in the booklet that comes with it and you just put your food on the scale - it not only tells you the weight - but the exact calories, nutritional content - everything. It creates a food label for the exact portion you have!!
So, armed with my new whole foods food, my new scale and a few boxed of ziplocks I took to task of weighing out every.single.thing.in.my.kitchen. After I determined what the calories were for my common things (how much is in a table spoon of bbq sauce and how much bbq sauce do I normally use?) I wrote the calorie and measurement on the label and on the lid in a big black sharpie. I also did the same thing for all of my new food and I measured out appropriate portions of fruit, veg, meat, fish, etc... to meet my meal plan guide lines. I want 200 calories of shrimp? Well, I'll just reach over to my new handy-dandy scale and measure up 200 calories of shrimp!... So i ziplocked and labeled all of those as well! I learned quickly that food that didn't come with a perfect food label on it (mostly meats, but many other things that are just difficulty to determine the portion size - ie, anything that doesn't clearly state that there are 250 calories in the meal) that I was wwaayyyy off on my in-my-head-calorie-measuring-skills! What really is 250 calories of beef looks a lot like what I thought would be 100 calories of beef and I have been eating well over twice that amount... Amazing!
Now my whole kitchen looks like a crazy person attacked it with sharpie calories written and almost everything portioned out in ziplocks in the freezer and fridge... I made it so that as soon as I open a cabinet or the fridge - not only do I see the food, but I see the calorie content as well. There is the 460 calorie soup next to the 110 calorie soup - with it written on the front of the label.
I think I officially just changed my life again! hahaha This whole weight loss journey really is just that--- a journey. One life changing discovery after another on your way to Goal. It will certainly be interesting to see DH's reaction when he wakes up to see that not only is the fridge portioned off foods, but that I also decided that even his food should have calorie labels!!!