Sunday, 20th May 2007

Weekly Goal: Reduce sugar intake - get rid of sugar addiction. Read more sugar addiction and understand what to expect with withdrawl symptoms. Eat plently of wholesome, nutritious foods. Eat slowly, put a little less on my plate and think about and enjoy what I'm eating.

Today's Goal: Prepare healthy meals at home. Turn off the TV and take my time to eat and enjoy my meal. Avoid snacking when bored.
Emotional rating:
Morning: I felt a little ill and lacking energy. By 9:30am, I really needed to eat some food. I had a hankering for bacon, eggs, mushrooms and onion on toast, but I didn't have any toast. So I quickly did a walk down to the local grocery store and breadshop to pick up some basics. The meal was healthy and delicious. I only used the fat off the bacon in the fry pan and used no butter on the toast. 1/2 way through my meal I was interrupted by the "Samsung" man who came to install my airconditioner. This helped slow me down a little and made my meal last a little longer.
Afternoon: Again, I was feeling weird... I don't know how to describe it actually, just I think it is sugar addiction symptoms? I think i'm eating healthy meals and I'm not depriving myself too much, only I have really reduced my sugar intake.

Today's Sucesses/Challenges: By dinner time I was contemplating what to do. I could make a salad sandwich at home, or I could take a good 15 min walk down to my local university and buy a salad sandwich at subway. I could feel myself at that crucial point swaying back and forth. At this point I realised that to convince myself to go, I have to give myself some incentive and a reason to go. I made a promise to myself, if I get out of the house and do a good 15 min walk there and back, I can earn 1 scoop of baskin and robbins ice-cream and I can get a 6 inch sub from subway. This did the trick. I don't want to make a habbit of rewarding myself with bad foods, but I felt in this case it was worth it.

To be honest, I really struggled the whole 15 mins walking there whether giving myself the scoop of ice-cream was the best thing to do. And, if I did give myself the ice-cream, should I get a low fat ice-cream or sorbet style. In the end, I decided that I was going to keep my original promise which was simply to give myself the reward I promised - 1 scoop of ice-cream of my choosing. I got the praline n cream which is very sugary and enjoyed every slowly eaten mouthful.

On the way back home, I thought again about my ice-cream choice. I think in the future, I'm happy enough to reward myself a small treat like a scoop of ice-cream or ice-block, and it's OK to choose which ever flavour I like, BUT I think I want to try and choose better choices next time. For example: I would usually always choose coffee over tea, but because I'm trying to develop a healthier lifestyle, I'm making more of an effort to choose tea more often than coffee. As a result, I've actually grown to like tea a lot more than I used to. In the same way, next time with the ice-cream, if they have a healthier choice and it still seems to be a flavour I would like, then I want to try and choose that option rather than the high sugar, high fat option.

So I guess today had both a sucess and a challenge element to it. Regardless, I feel good about my choice and I have felt challenged to change my thinking and actions to more healthier ones in the future.
Food/Exercise Diary:
Breakfast: Home
1 piece of toast (1 grain)
2 thin rashers of bacon (1 protein)
1 egg (1 protein)
1/3 onion, 1 mushroom (0.5 vegies)
Morning Tea: Home
1/2 apple (0.5 fruit)
400ml water
Lunch: Home - Sundubu Jjigae
spring onions, onions, carrots, zucchini, mushroom (2 vegies)
1/2 packet of udon noodles (0.5 grain)
3/4 cup cooked rice (1.5 grains)
tofu (0.25 protein)
spicy stew and 300ml water
Afternoon Tea: Home
1/2 packet of japanese snacks (1 fat, 1 protein)
200ml barley tea
Dinner: Subway - 6 inch Subway melt
Breadroll (2 grains)
1 cheese slice (1 dairy)
1 slice of ham, 1 slice of turnkey, 1 rasher of bacon (1.5 protein)
Salad vegetables (2 vegies)
mustard and vinagrette dressing
300ml water
Supper: Baskin and Robbins Ice-cream
1 scoop of Praline's n Cream (1.5 dairy, 1 fat, 1 sugar)
Exercise:
20 min walk to University area
10 min walk back to home