What I've been eating

I've mentioned one thousand times once or twice that I am trying to lose some L. B.'s. I'm down 5. Which isn't a lot, but this is, literally, the first time in maybe 3 years that I've lost 5 and kept it off long enough to blog about it. That right there is a victory. Usually, I get 5 down, feel good about my accomplishments, say "I've got this" and then throw myself a food party to celebrate.

At the beginning of April, I took a week off for the kid's springbreak and we traveled to see my parents. We didn't eat horribly, but I ate like I wasn't trying to lose weight and I snacked more than usual and I went out to eat a lot. I came back with a stomach at least 3 inches bigger, but it felt like it was 27 inches bigger. I was so bloated. And I hurt. My stomach literally hurt. Eating hurt. Something I was eating was not sitting right in my stomach.

Being the GI nurse, and the mother of two boys that are dairy free, my first two foods to point at are wheat and dairy. It isn't rocket science to see that I have one son that breaks out in a rash and has explosive diarrhea every time he gets dairy and another son that refluxes so bad, the reflux goes into his nasal and ear canals and he has an ear infection within a week of having dairy, that dairy might not be awesome for me.  And wheat seems the culprit in a lot of people's lives, and more and more patients that I work with are testing positive for wheat allergies.

So, I did a "poor man's advocare cleanse." I went off wheat, dairy, caffeine, and booze. I took a small dose of Miralax, just to get the pipes clearing out, if you will. I literally lost a pound a day. And my stomach shrunk probably an inch a day, I don't lie, I went from 5 months pregnant to regular stomach in one week. I still ate carbs. But I ate potatoes, rice, quinoa, lots of fruit. All stuff put on the earth naturally. And I felt like a million dollaz. At the end of the week, I bought a pair of capris in a smaller size that were almost too big. It was awesome.

Since then, I am figuring out how to keep this up full time. I don't want to be on a diet. I want to eat right for myself and not really have an end in sight. I don't want to get in shape for a cousin's wedding or a reunion or anything. I want to get in shape for life.  I am still finding my way to have a cheat meal and not turn it into a cheat month.  I haven't gained the weight back, but I haven't been strict enough to continue this awesome trend. I am probably 70% good and 30% not swell right now. I'd like to be 95% good and 5% occassional treats.

I do think I was on to something for this to not only help me lose, but it simply being the best diet for my body, for the long term, to feel its best. I find that eating to feel good versus eating to lose weight does a lot for my mind set. Telling myself I'll get fat makes me crazy and I turn into a 13 year old hormonal girl that wants to eat ALL THE FOODS that someone tells me I shouldn't. Telling myself "last time you drank a milkshake, you almost threw up after you were done, it made you that sick," makes it so much easier to make the right decision. I think dairy is the culprit of my stomach feeling so sick and bloated and laying off wheat is the key to helping me lose weight and (sorry, TMI) things not getting too slowed down in the ole' intestines. I come from a long line of sick bellies (which, sorry Max, I've passed on to my offspring) and when your stomach feels ill, your whole body wants to shut down. When my gut falls asleep, my whole body wants to sleep. The more I read about processed foods, the less I want to eat them. I've done decently well laying off the cookies, and waffles, and crackers, but I do love a good bagel thin and I have momentary weaknesses for cake, brownies, and Honey Bunches of Oats cereal still want to call my name. I've had an occassional Sonic blast or shared a slice of coconut cream pie. Like I said, I'm working on the 95/5. Working on it everyday.

Here are some foods that I've found that I really like that follow the Sara Plan.

I bought the 99% turkey meat and mixed it with hamburger meat (90%) and made grilled burgers. Instead of a bun, I topped mine with mustard and avacado. We also skewered mushrooms that had marinated in balsamic vinegarette. Fab.

Protein pancakes with pb2 and Walden Farms syrum, turkey bacon

Pancakes

1/2 cup egg beaters

1 banana

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup oatmeal

Blend it all in the blender, pour into pancakes over low heat and cook through. It takes a while, but higher heat will burn them errrrrr damn time. How do I know.

Corn tortillas, refried beans, avacado and a ton of cilantro. 

Refried beans

1 lb of pinto beans

6 cups of water

1 whole onion quartered

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp salt

Cook in the crockpot all day, when the beans are really really really done, put everything in the food processor with cumin and chili powder to taste. And....yum. Rylan will eat a bowl of the beans with a spoon.

Snack: rice cakes spread with pb2 or regular peanut butter and a chopped banana and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Butter lettuce, spinach, carrots, watermelon, strawberries, with light ranch and a small sprinkle of blue cheese. Rob had this at a restaurant and told me it was good, so I made the homemade version. If I take this to work, I'll put the fruit in a separate container so it doesn't get gross on the lettuce.

Corn's a huge crowdpleaser. Max would make it a main course.

Seriously, they could eat it every night.