well, after a good first week of the new healthy eating regime, i had a couple of days where i was a) eating too much at night (mostly healthy stuff , but still overdoing it, i think) , b) not drinking nearly enough water and c) indulging in some wheat/jam/butter.
i confirmed something that i have long suspected though, so it's not a total loss ... i am almost certain that wheat gives me morning headaches. i have been keeping a log and with very few exceptions, if i eat wheat the night before. i will be woken early with a headache. eating wheat earlier in the day doesn't seem to affect me as much but if i eat it at night, 9 times out of 10 i am going to have a headache in the morning. oatmeal is also a suspect.
so the goal for today is ... clean eating, adequate water, and NO WHEAT !
friday, nov27 ... declined a large sugary cupcake after the boys' final football game. in the future i will be able to partake in big celebrations like this, but i felt that i had to exercise a little willpower right now. got a decent amount of water in me but did a bit too much late night eating. healthy eating, mind you, but too much of it.
saturday ... woke up with a headache; i strongly suspect that i am sensitive to oatmeal and i did have some the night before. again, a good amount of water was consumed and ate clean all day. late night eating was way down only because i had almost nothing in the house that was 'ready-to-eat'.
today (sunday) ... no headache this morning and the scale rewarded me for 2 days of good work. grocery shopping today. who thought they would ever look forward to having cottage cheese and frozen strawberries in the fridge ? will have to make sure i don't buy anything that is going to tempt me late at night. this is a big challenge for me.
monday ... off the rails a bit ... got bored, ate 4 slices bread, 6 slices junky sandwich meat, 1/2 cup milk, couple of tablespoons peanut butter, some jam ... a better diet than most north americans eat on any given day but not good enough for me. woke up with a headache this morning from the bread ... no surprise there.
the good news is that i got a goodly amount of water into me again. no excuses today. i have plenty to keep me busy and a good supply of healthy food to eat. i seem to be taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back, so that IS progress.
tuesday, dec. 1 ... ate clean today (with the exception of some rye crackers, which resulted in a mild morning headache on wednesday). drank a good amount of water, but did too much late night eating. once again, healthy eating, but TOO MUCH of it.
wednesday, dec. 2 ... morning headache (see above). once again i ate healthy but STILL had some rye crackers (when will i learn ?). hoping i won't be woken early with yet another headache.
wasn't happy with the morning weigh-in today and decided i had to make a change. from now on, the kitchen is CLOSED from 9:00PM til morning. i have been a late-night eater for as long as i can remember and it is VERY common in my family. this will be difficult but i am determined to change this habit. the weird thing is, i actually find the thought of it scary.
thursday dec. 3 ... as expected, slight morning headache from eating crackers the day before. ate a few around mid-day today then fed the rest to the birds. i am done with that. having eaten this early in the day i might dodge a headache tomorrow morning but regardless, i can not and will not keep crackers or bread in the house anymore.
succeeded in closing the kitchen at 9:00pm last night. it was difficult and i did not sleep well at all, but i am determined to make this a permanent life-style change. it is the only way i am going to be able to lose the weight that i want to lose and to keep it off, since the majority of my calorie intake happens after 6pm most days.
still doing reasonably well with water intake. could do better but i have improved immensely in this area, so i am please about that.
friday dec. 4 ... no morning headache. as i suspected, eating those crackers early in the day did not have the same effect as when i eat them late at night. there were none in the house to eat today, so i expect to be fine in the morning.
i have found that when i remember to pour a glass of water i have no trouble drinking it at all; i just never developed that habit ; instead, i would reach for food, not even realizing that i was thirsty, not hungry.
shut the kitchen down again at 9:00pm last night, and again didn't sleep particularly well. when i woke up to go to the bathroom i was tempted by 1/4 of a grapefruit that i knew was in the fridge, but i resisted.
i have found that chicken poached in water in a deep frying pan with a few vegetables and seasonings is delicious. no need for calorie-laden cooking oil at all !
sat. dec. 5 ... while grocery shopping today i lingered in the aisle where the crackers were, trying to somehow justify buying a box even though i know for sure that wheat will usually give me a headache. in the end, i made the smart choice.
scale showed 200lbs today, so that was rewarding. will change my current weight when it shows 200 or less for 3 days in a row. ate clean all day; water intake not as high as i would like but not too bad. it's past 9:00pm as i write this so the kitchen is now closed. hoping to start getting a better nights sleep as i get accustomed to not eating all evening. not sleep deprived though because i can always have a mid-day nap.
using a day counter from now on, instead of just the date. i have now been at this for 20 days so ...
day 20 ...
another successful day of clean eating and adequate water intake. i think i might have slept better last night or maybe it's just wishful thinking ? sooner or later my body/brain has to adjust to no late-night eating. had pasta with onions and scallops for dinner. hoping that i don't get a headache from the pasta; i'm not sure if it affects me the way that bread and crackers do. will find out in the morning i suppose.
the mall that i do much of my shopping at has a cobs bread franchise right at the bottom of the escalator. to me the smell of fresh baked bread, etc. is intoxicating, but i managed to get through it and carry on with my business.
broke my own rule of no eating after 9pm but at least i didn't go overboard; just a banana and a half cup of cottage cheese around 1am. no eating tonight !
bought some canned crab meat today ...was totally disappointed with how it tasted. this stuff really needs a couple of tablespoons of seafood sauce in order to taste good. forced myself to finish it because it's difficult for me to throw away edible food. really though, i should have tossed it and walked over to the store for a couple of pieces of fruit. bad choice. food should be enjoyed.
all in all, i am managing the "clean eating " thing pretty well, i think, but i am not so sure i am keeping the overall calorie intake as low as i should. will be keeping a close eye on the scale. water intake was not as good as i would have liked but still miles better than i was doing in the bad old days. i am determined to have a good entry tomorrow night.
it's now 930pm and i am only just now making dinner, so technically breaking the 'no eating after 9' rule, but that's fine as it IS actually dinner. drank enough water today and ate clean again today. so an all around successful day, even though i was pathetically sedentary due to the lousy weather.
realizing that i really do like brussels sprouts, so that is a great addition to the eating regime. also, frozen fruit is my friend. i thaw the bag in the fridge and then bring it up to room temperature on the counter. when i am ready to eat some i usually warm it up just slightly in the microwave. an entire 600 gram bag of frozen strawberries is only about 300 calories so i indulge in the whole bag, guilt-free, throughout the day.
caved in again and ate a banana late last night in spite of having a VERY late dinner. it's hard, but i really have to break this habit in order to keep total calories down.
that aside, weigh-in was good this morning, drank plenty of water today and ate clean all day. kept myself fairly busy so snacking due to boredom was way down.
grocery shopping tomorrow; gonna get me some really ripe bananas and some carob chips and make a bunch of banana/carob "ice cream" to have for dessert. the carob chips are probably sweetened with sugar but i won't be using many.
water intake ... good;
eating clean ... sort of good ... had about 1/2 cup of white rice with some delicious stew. in the bad old days i would have gorged on it, so i am calling it a draw.
couldn't find any carob chips and after looking at the calorie count of semi-sweet chocolate chips i declined to buy them. too many calories. will just make my banana "ice cream" with no added ingredients; it's delicious anyway.
another VERY late dinner tonight. will do my best to not eat a single bite now until morning.
i usually post an entry at night, but i wanted to do this one while it's still fresh in my mind.
was knocked out of bed early this morning with a nasty headache. i haven't been bothered by a morning headache since i threw away the last of my wheat crackers exactly a week ago. i had 1/2 cup of rice last night but i just realized that the yogurt i bought was not lactose-free, so i have 2 prime suspects. i REALLY think it was the lactose but i need to figure this out. going to roll the dice and buy some sushi from the restaurant down the street. will make sure i have painkillers and water by my bedside when i go to sleep tonight. i am lactose intolerant (a relatively recent development) so i should ALWAYS be buying lactose-free dairy products anyway.
only got 3 or 4 glasses of water into me today. managed to eat clean though. nightime eating still a MAJOR challenge. i am not bingeing like the bad old days, but i always seem to go for a banana or some strawberries with yogurt. i am determined to overcome this old habit because i really need to keep the calories down (even though they are healthy calories, they are still excess calories to my needs). scale still hovering around 200lbs. has been that way for almost a week and i'm not going to change my current weight until statistic it holds at under 200 for 3 straight days.
had some sushi last night as planned and NO headache whatsoever as a result, so the previous days headache was likely caused by the lactose in the yogurt (which is gone now, and buying nothing but lactose-free from now on).
in fact, i had the best nights sleep that i have had in a while. not going to make sushi a regular part of my diet but i will definitely make note of how well i sleep the next time i do have some.
night-time eating ...FAIL;
water intake ...WIN;
clean eating ...WIN.
Last edited by VeggieManJoe; 01-03-2021 at 03:40 PM.
my progress
