As I promised in yesterday's post I would spend some time talking about the changes I have made in what I eat. I think the easiest way to do this would be to break things down by meals. This will be the first of a 3 part series.
Breakfast:
I was going to McDonald's every morning. Here was my excuse: We have to try and get ourselves and two kids ready every morning and be out of the house by 7:30. There is no time to eat at home. Not to mention there is a McDonald's I have to pass every morning and it is literally 0.5 miles from our school.
For quite awhile it was the same thing each morning: Chicken Biscuit with cheese and a sausage burrito. Sometimes I would throw in the special coffee drink on top of it.
Total Calories (without the coffee drink): 800
When I started to realize I was putting on the weight and it was starting to bother me I decided, "I'll still stop by McDonald's because it's convenient". "Instead of getting a chicken biscuit I will get the sausage burrito and a sausage mcmuffin. Surely an english muffin is better than a biscuit." Not by Much!!!
Total Calories (without the coffee drink): 670
What I've Changed:
The first thing I changed was that I made a better effort to try and give myself enough time to make something at the house. Pretty much the same thing everyone morning. Three eggs over medium with a little cheese on top and one piece of toast.
Total Calories: 300
I took it one step further and switched from eggs to egg beaters. It's crazy...that change took me from 210 calories for the eggs to 70 calories! Crazy right?! On top of that the cholesterol level dropped dramatically. I did increase to two pieces of toast, but I still went down. The one disclaimer here is that the egg beaters (I buy the store brand) are a little more expensive than buying a carton of eggs.
Total Calories: 200
There are days that I just don't have enough time, but I made a plan for that as well. Jimmy Deans makes a turkey sausage, egg, and cheese muffin that has 240 calories. I bought a box of them and have them at school. Not quite as tasty as what I make it home, but still close in calories.
My goal for breakfast is to be in the range of 200 - 300 calories.
So let's think about it.....I have decreased from 800 calories to 300 calories. That's 500 calories a day and 3500 calories a week! Did you know 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 pound? On top of that I am saving about $20/week or $80/month!!!
I think what's important is to set a goal for each meal, as far as caloric intake. Once you set that goal do some investigating and see how you can mix things up so you don't get bored with the same food every morning!
I'm off to bed for some quality sleep time now! Goodnight and I will see you tomorrow!
This is good stuff! Diabetes sucks. I had it with both of my pregnancies (thankfully, gestational diabetes is only temporary) and my life centered around what I could eat, and when I could eat it. Not only did I have to count calories, I had to count carbs, and balance that against the ratio of proteins I was eating. Some carbs were unacceptable (i.e fruit juice, soda, even milk!) because it was TOO quickly converted into blood sugar. Then, after all was said and done I had to remember to stick my finger exactly one hour after I'd eaten. I won't even get into the insulin injections here. Eek.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine living the rest of my life that regimented.
You are doing yourself a great service in getting the weight under control now. Type II diabetes would be awful!
So are you doing better now? Or do you still have diabetes? My mother and sister both have it so that was another motivating factor for making these changes! I think I have enough motivating factors, I just have to remember all of them in moments of temptations.
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