As I mentioned yesterday, I am getting the hang of how to gauge how many calories are in a meal.  What occurred to me today is that if I go for 400 / 100 meaning 400 calories for breakfast, 100 calories for mid-morning snack, 400 calories for lunch, 100 calories for mid-afternoon snack and then 400 calories for dinner, then I will have certainly simplified this whole calorie counting thing.  This is because I am relying on the notion that most of us eat the same foods repeatedly 80% of the time.  If I can come up with a variety of 400 calorie meals and 100 calorie snacks then I will not have to get too caught up in the numbers game.  The key will be making sure that the meals and snacks are both nutritionally balanced and nutrient packed.

Today breakfast was an omelet consisting of 2-egg whites and 1-whole egg, spinach, tomatoes, kalamata olives and feta cheese with a small side of potatoes.  Lunch was 1/2 of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made up of super wholesome whole grain bread, 1 Tbs peanut butter and 1 Tbs berry jam with 7 whole-grain chips; dinner was 4 oz of lemon dill salmon, green salad with balsalmic vinegarette and super food salad (wheat berries, quinoa, almonds, dried blueberries, pomegranate juice and olive oil).

Exercise was a 70 minute bike ride covering just over 15 miles on our beautiful bike paths that wind behind Autzen Stadium where Oregon and Purdue fans were making their way to the football game in 90 degree only to later be furiously rained on in the third quarter.

I am getting the hang of a calorie restricted diet.  I spent five days in Bend, Oregon visiting with my son for his birthday and did not have total control over the food that was available to me.  Nonetheless, I am getting to the point where I can guess how many calories might be in certain foods and can make reasonably good food choices without having to whip out a calorie counter.  On the most challenging food day of the five that I was away, I calculated the calories the following day and found that I had only gone over my daily budget by 300 calories.  According to the Longevity Diet, all I need to do make up for that is eat less than my budgeted amount on some other day this week.  I am happy to report that my clothes are fitting better (not so tight) but the scale is still showing a loss of only about 3 pounds so far.

Let me start by saying that I stayed within my calorie budget.  However, they weren’t the most nutritious calories; it’s not that they were all bad, they just weren’t all that good. 

My dad told me today that he was ready for hospice care; that it was time for nature to run its course.  In other words, he is finished fighting cancer and ready for his journey to the other side.  This of course made me very sad.

I started my day with steel cut oats, blueberries and soy milk.  I was a guest speaker at a luncheon today so naturally lunch was provided.  I had green salad, sauteed vegetables and 4 small meatballs with marinara sauce.  From that point foward, the calories all went down hill as I tried to comfort myself with food.  In late afternoon I had 2 pieces of dark chocolate.  For dinner I had corn chips and artichoke-jalapeno dip.  And for a late evening dessert I had frozen yogurt.  I don’t understand why we turn to food for comfort.  My food choices didn’t really help me in any way - my sadness is still there, my dad will still die soon, and the sun will rise again tomorrow.  Perhaps now my own personal challenge ought to be learning to forego food when I’m down to see what else I might turn to for comfort. Maybe I’ll learn to meditate or practice yoga.

Here are 5 ways to outsmart hunger.  These are all strategies that I used overcome stronger than normal hunger today.

1.  Create a distraction by taking a walk, reading something interesting, viewing a video, talking to someone; sometimes just a change of scenery or mental imagery can help you forget your hunger.

2.  Drown it with tea or flavored water;  this can literally eliminate the hunger sensation.

3.  Munch on low calorie vegetables or fruit like carrots, celery or an apple; this can tie you over until your next scheduled meal time.

4.  Recite an affirmation such as, ”this hunger is a good sign that my body is letting go of excess fat”.  This kind of affirmation can help you experience hunger as something positive as opposed to something negative that needs to be fixed.

5.  Make a mini goal by deciding on when and what you will eat next and set your sights on achieving that goal; this strategy will help you resist wreckless binging.

My mother always said that it’s the effort that counts; today I get an A for effort.  I was whistling zippity- do-da today as I enthusiastically hit the local farmer’s market to pick up produce that I would need to make an awesome dinner tonight.  I found a fabulous sounding recipe this morning for Italian Frittata that suggested it be served with braised kale “recipe on page 54″.  I assume is was called an Italian Frittata  because it called for fresh basil and mozarella cheese.  However, since there was also spinach in the recipe and, I already had feta cheese in the fridge but no mozarrela, I figured why not substitute feta for mozarrela and throw in some kalamata olives to make it a Greek frittata instead of Italian.  I suppose that could have been okay but the strong taste of the fresh basil was far too much competition for the kalamata olives, and the hash brown potato base wasn’t brown let alone crisp but instead was rather mushy, and the eggs were somewhat runny until I re-cooked the whole thing in the microwave.  In short, it made me want to gag.  Add to that the misfortune of accidently braising the kale on high heat which caused the vegetable broth to quickly evaporate resulting in partially burned kale that smelled worse than burnt popcorn.  My supportive husband insisted it was still edible and picked off the burnt sections and carried on with adding lemon juice and tomatoes to create a quite awful tasting side dish.  The strangest thing about all of this is that my husband was okay with how everything tasted and is willing to eat the leftovers tomorrow.  I don’t know if he’s just feeling sentimental about his survival days in the military or, if he is is experiencing fond memories of his depression-era father who was just happy to have a meal.  I just don’t understand how  this food-loving guy of mine with a true passion for really, really good food could even stomach a dinner like I prepared tonight.  He even livened up the frittata with the lemony broth from the kale.  I guess it’s just good medicine in his mind.  Either that or he just really, really loves me and doesn’t want me to get discouraged.

Here are 5 ways I had fun with cooking today while sticking to my diet:

1. Gave myself the challenge to only use food that I already had on hand.  No quick trips to the store or borrowing from neighbors.

2.  Mixed and matched recipes to put together a meal.  I had 2 red bell peppers that I could stuff but the only healthy, low calorie recipe I could find called for bulgur, which I did not have on hand.  So I found a recipe for a quinoa pilaf and stuffed the peppers with that instead but used the first recipe as a guide for stuffing and baking the peppers.

3.  Experimented with flavors.  I didn’t have argula which was called for in the pilaf so I looked at other cookbooks to see what they seasoned quinoa with and decided to use some turmeric to help boost the flavor.

4.  Had fun with colors.  Since I was making stuffed red bell peppers as the main dish I had a green bean and aspargus sautee sprinkled with red pepper flakes for the side dish.  The bright red and green looked great on the plate.

5.  I kept it simple.  It’s a Monday and it would have been easy to say forget it to cooking tonight, in fact it would be easy for me to say that on any night.  Although I did not know what I was going to fix, or what ingredients I was going to use, my only requirement was that it had to be easy to prepare.  Mission accomplished.

Today is Sunday and we celebrated my birthday this weekend which was yesterday.  I had such a good time being spoiled by my family that I forgot to write a post last night.  For my birthday I was treated to breakfast, a  1-1/2 hour massage, red roses, a bike ride and a nice dinner out on the patio.  My husband was very supportive of my wishes to NOT have a cake, which is a huge tradition in our family.  In fact, he kept asking me if I felt celebrated since we did things quite differently this year to help me stay on track with calorie restriction.  Yet even with no birthday cake and no red wine I had a fabulous time.   I am finding that I really feel so much better overall with a cleaned up diet and more exercise.  In fact, we rode our bikes a again today.  Both yesterday and today we rode 20 miles (an 1-1/2 each time).   So with that extra bit of exercise I did allow myself a few indulgences such as salmon mousse on crackers and a bit of blueberry cobbler with a scoop of low-fat vanilla icecream.  I think what is most interesting about this Longevity Diet is that it is so loosely defined you just kind of try to figure it out for yourself.  So I would have to say this is pretty easy because if I overeat on one day I can undereat the next.  The goal is to hit your calorie target for the week, not necessarily everyday.  I like that concept. Oh, and by the way, I have lost 3 pounds so far.

As I reflect on my day to think about what to write I realize two things…1), I didn’t use my VitalityCheck diary today and 2) as a result I was out of balance on my food choices.  I had almost all carbs and no veggies.  If I had been using my VitalityCheck I would have caught this mid-day and been able to make a course correction.  I had oatmeal for breakfast, beans and rice for lunch, a Kashi bar for a snack, and popcorn (yes, popcorn) for dinner.  Although I stayed within my calorie limit, my day was nutritionally unbalanced.   Well at least I know what I need to do tomorrow…load up on fruits and veggies and use my VitalityCheck!

With this being my ninth day on the Longevity Diet I am getting stronger and more adept at adhering to calorie restriction throughout the day and finding the time and energy for exercise.

I started the day with a 40 minute walk that included jogging for two segments on my route.  Then I dashed to the lab to get my blood work done - I requested a lipid panel, cortisol and thyroid tests.

During the day I felt a bit hungry on two occassions so I drank Rooibos tea to overcome the urge to eat.  Rooibos is an herbal tea that is naturally caffeine free and high in antioxidants; I figured this was a great way to get filled up on zero calories especially since I love the taste of the tea.  

In addition, a friend invited me to happy hour at a local restaurant after work.  I enthusiastically agreed and then panicked about what on earth I could eat at this high calorie restaurant.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they post their menus on-line including nutrition information.  This gave me a signficant strategic advantage.  I decided what I was going to eat ahead of time based on the calorie count.  I ordered chicken lettuce wraps and steamed pork dumplings and only ate two of each.  I was more than satisfied and stayed within my calorie limit for the day.  And, again - no wine or alcohol of any sort.  I saved on calories, cash and brain cells!

Being on the Longevity Diet is certainly saving me both time and money.  For dinner tonight I made a two bean and rice chili from the Seven Pillars of Health.  Not only was it satisifying to my foodie-husband, but we had enough left over to freeze for next week.  There really isn’t a more cost effective way to power eat than beans and rice.  I used the broth from the kale that I parboiled last night as the base for an added boost of nutrients.  The chili consisted of onions, garlic, green peppers, celery, pinto beans, kidney beans, long grain and wild rice, corn, stewed tomatoes, cumin, oregano, chili powder and black pepper.  It was a one-pot dish that was really tasty.

I’m on track with calorie restriction but I crumbled when I got home after work and had one of the cookies that my step-mom sent home with us after our visit this weekend.  I will have to tell you about those cookies some day, then you’ll understand why I can’t resist them.