Sorry I've been away so long, but life is hectic.

Wow! Time has gone by so quickly. I've been very busy with school, where I'm finding chemistry challenging. My weight had been holding, and I think it was the way I was eating. Food was too good at school, and I was eating more there than I should, and it was rich food. That being said, I still eat there once in a while so I don't feel deprived. I made a big dietary decision. Since I do not have time to calculate every morsel that goes in my mouth I'm primarily eating vegan. I'm not going to be dogged about it, although I did start to drop weight right away when I changed.
My first motivation to try veganism again was that I was having lots of inflammation problems, and I knew it had to be food related. Because I was eating out a lot it was hard to calculate things like sodium and fat. I know that even though I've been indulging a bit more in things like nuts and avocado, they are healthy fats, and much better for me than some of the fats I was consuming. Don't get me wrong, there are still lots of things I was doing right, but some old habits resurfaced too. Anyway, the inflammation was nearly immediately resolved, and then my energy level went up too. I'm able to push myself harder at the gym, and I'm sure that I will be seeing that 100lbs down mark sooner than later.
Here is the most astonishing thing, I think I'm becoming a morning person. Something I thought I would never be. I've always been a night owl, finding it hard to go to sleep before 11 and get up before 10, but that is completely different now. I'm super productive in the morning, and I get up by 7 or earlier everyday. A couple of days a week I go to the gym at 5 am. Something I wouldn't have even thought of doing before.
Also, since I've started school I have been making a habit of working on going up and down stairs more. I still usually take an elevator, but I go down stairs one foot at a time and forward. It may sound silly, but that is big progress. I don't know when I started, but at some point I started going down the stairs sideways and had to put both feet on one step before I stepped down to the next. It was a rather slow agonizing process. Going down stairs is still a challenge, but I do push myself to do a few more every week. Plus, my daughter asked me if I would go up the stair with her at Market of Choice one day and I did. She was astonished and said "Mom, you could never have done that so easy in the past." So, there is still constant progress, even though I feel like I've plateaued a bit. I don't plan on letting the holidays reverse that progress, and I should have more time once I'm past finals to let you know some of the strategies I use to keep it healthy during the holidays. Until next time, I hope you are spending time pursuing your health in a new way each day!

Chicken Meal Prepping

So, I follow a very general reduced calorie plan, where I eat 6 small meals spaced through the day. Generally speaking I try to keep the meals about 200 calories, with at least 10 grams of protein, and get a couple of veggie servings in each. I'm a bit more flexible about carbs and fat. A large part of my daily diet is chicken breast meat that I cook myself and keep on hand to add to meals. Today, that is what my blog is going to be about.

Part of my meal prepping strategy is to cook extra when I do cook, and package it into meal size portions. In fact, I do not leave food in the pan for "seconds", when I serve a meal I make all the plates up for my family, then I package "leftovers" for later meals. This allows me to always have a stack of grab and go meals in the fridge. 

Chicken is sort of an exception for me. Every week I buy a pack or two of chicken breasts, season them simply (either Spike, or salt & pepper), and then I cook the entire pack. After it cools I shred the chicken, put it in a bag and store it in the fridge. Chicken is such a great source of low fat protein, and by shredding it I have lots of control over portion sizes. I also find that when it is shredded everyone in the family is happy with less. I often eat a 2.5 oz portion of chicken. The pictures below show a comparison of 2.5 ounces of chicken in a single piece, sliced, and shredded. You can see that shredding makes the portion seem much larger. Each 2.5 oz portion is about 86 calories, with not quite 2 grams of fat, and 16 grams of protein. (I don't mention carbs, because it has none.)

86 calories of a blank slate. What are some of things I do with this? I use it with leftover cooked veggies and a tablespoon or two of sauce. Think any type of leftover veggie, chicken, and sweet chili sauce, or, sliced onions and peppers with barbecue sauce. I throw it on salads, into "pasta" or zoodle dishes, and sometimes I just eat it plain, with raw veggies. A recent fave is to take about 1.5 ounces, mix a tablespoon of salsa, and throw it in a corn tortilla with lettuce and lite sour cream and cheese. The options are basically endless and it takes on any flavor.

Planning ahead for success when you are hungry is the best way to succeed, and this is why meal prepping works and is so popular right now. However, you have to make meal prep your own. What do you eat regularly? What could you eat everyday in different ways? Get creative.

Eating Out!

I'm sure this has been said before, but the key to successful eating out is planning. I usually know when I'm going to be eating out, since it is typically something like a meeting with friends. When meeting with friends I generally let them know that I am watching what I eat, and most are understanding. This allows me to set the stage to go eat somewhere that is friendly to my plan. I am very particular about the places I can choose.

Here are the things I look for:
A menu with nutrition information I can look at before going (This does limit me to chains for the most part.)
A place that offers whole/fresh food options
Finally, a place I will enjoy eating at.

Some places I eat here locally are Laughing Planet, Chipotle, & Burgerville. So, now if I know I'm going out, the next step to my plan is to survey the menu. I'm looking for a meal between 200-300 calories, or 400-500 if I plan to split it. Keep in mind that I eat 5-6 small meals a day, each equal to about 200 calories more or less. I look at the carbs, I would not say I'm low carbing, but I'm cautious about my numbers on carbs and making sure that some of the carbs are fiber, not bunches of sugars. Next, I look at protein, and make sure there is sufficient protein for the meal to be satisfying. Finally, and something I'm finding increasingly important is sodium.

Sodium, especially when eating out, has become a pet topic of mine lately. I had hypertension when I started this plan just over 2 months ago, and I'm happy to report I no longer have high blood pressure. I'm quite sure that part of the high blood pressure was caused by all the eating out we were doing when I had the shop. I've been researching this after I discovered the high amount of sodium in some of the foods at restaurants.

To start off with, just how much sodium should we be taking in on a daily basis? According to the American Heart Association no more than 2400 mg a day, but recommended no more than 1500 mg a day. ("How Much Sodium Should I Eat Per Day?", 2017) Multiple sources say most of that comes from processed food. In fact "the watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest found that 85 out of 102 meals at popular restaurant chains contained more than a full day's worth of sodium. Some of the meals had four days’ worth of sodium."("Low-Sodium Diet: How to Eat Less Sodium at Restaurants", 2017). 

What does it all mean? It means eating out, and keeping sodium low is challenging. I will give you an example, I like Chipotle, and I know they try to offer healthy options. The great thing about their website is you can enter your choices and then see how it effects your meal. If I were to have 3 crispy chicken tacos with black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, and romaine lettuce the sodium is 1440 mg. Well, that is pretty close to the day's recommendation for sodium in one meal. (Actually, I wouldn't eat this particular meal, because it is too high in calories, but I thought it was a decent example.) There aren't really many choices that don't exceed the daily recommended maximum. Last time I went I had a salad, with chicken, black beans, fajita veggies, and salsa, no dressing. The calories were a bit high at 365, but I adjusted through the day for that. The sodium was 1225 mg. More than I like to do for a meal, but workable.

Long story short, make your choices carefully, and thoughtfully. Keep eating out to a minimum since you cannot control the amount of sodium in the foods you are consuming. If you are eating in a mom & pop type of establishment that can be great, depending upon what it is. I guarantee that if one of their suppliers is Sysco or similar national restaurant suppliers, you are at risk of eating high levels of sodium. Just making you aware, as I have become aware.

Citations:

"How Much Sodium Should I Eat per Day?" Sodium Breakup. American Heart Association, n.d. Web. 21 May 2017.

"Nutrition Calculator." Chipotle. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2017

.Zelman, Kathleen M. "Low-Sodium Diet: How to Eat Less Sodium at Restaurants." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 21 May 2017.