Saturday 4-10-10

I think the hardest part of this whole blogging thing is coming up with a good title.   You can tell I had great imagination by the title above.    I hope this blog is a bit more interesting than yesterday.   I had some interesting emails yesterday that was full of some good information.   A couple of things come from a book by Michael Pollen called "Food Rules".   It is a book of 64 rules for eating.    Rule # 24 is Eat what stands on one leg (mushrooms, plant foods), which is better than what stands on 2 legs (Fowl), which is better than what stands on four legs ( cows, pigs and other mammals).    Rule # 64 is Breakfast like a King, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.    Which I think is the opposite of the way I eat and most of America eats.   We eat our large meal at dinner !  Then I had a email from the "Real" Jillian (not Stacey) about busting Plateaus.    One is to keep your salt intake down (which you will see later ...I DID NOT)  Eat no processed Carbs period...no chips, sugar, white flour. (minus the chips I am NOT doing that either)  Hit the gym hard  (hmmmmm...NOT doing that either...are we seeing a trend?)   Play around with your calorie intake..For instance have 1200 calories say Monday, Weds, Friday...Tues 1600 calories, Thursday 1400 and Sunday 1700.    And sometimes plateau can just be a simple matter of flagging resolve....(gee I am NOT doing any of the above!)   No wonder I am in a Plateau.  Some things for us to think about.   Also I was reading  ShopSmart, a neat magazine by Consumers Report, that covers all sorts of interesting facts.  One of the articles was called FAT PILLS which was about medications that can make you fat or at least hamper weight loss.    Did not like that the one drug I take is in that catagory.  Zyrtec can make you gain 1% or more of body weight.  Yippee...I need to hear that...Duh !    Not as bad as Antidepressants, blood pressure drugs, diabetes drugs, seizure drugs or Steroids but still not good.   Not that that is an excuse but it said if it does not make you gain weight it slows down your metabolism !

Ok here is the more boring stuff.   The bad thing of looking at my nutritional numbers is I see how bad I am eating.  The good thing about looking at my nutritional numbers is that I can see how bad I am eating and maybe learn something from it and improve my diet.   Yesterday for breakfast I ate an egg, whole wheat toast and skim milk.   For lunch I had 2 1/2 ounces of lean thin cut ham and a 1/2 cup of mash potatoes (left overs) and the pepper gravy.   For a snack, my usual of celery and cauliflower.  For supper I had a cup of Chicken lo mein.   Not bad as far as calories 1,412 and I burned 2297 calories but when you break down the nutritional part of it....horrible.   I upped my protein to 66 grams but my fat content is 55 grams, Carb 171 grams, cholestral 264 mg , Sat. fat 15 gms.  Sodium was off the charts at 4112 and calcium is low at 460 mg and Fiber was low at 11 gms.   Now I need to figure out how to change those numbers....sounds overwelming.   Any thoughts from any of you what to eat, etc to bring up the ones I should and take down the bad ones would be helpful.