Holding myself accountable

Last week I wrote a post with a list of action steps I would take to start turning around my sloppy eating habits. Here’s how I’m doing a week in:

Throw out frozen chocolate covered raspberries – Done. Ooof, it was hard. They’re so tasty. But they’re gone.

Throw out Quest chocolate peanut butter mini cups – Not done, but hid them in the fridge and limiting myself to one after dinner which I count (38 cals, 2g protein, 2 carbs, 3 fats).

Eat in the Dining Room 3-4 days a week instead of 6-7 – Last week ate there 4 days and brought leftovers home for extra meals. I’ve marked up this week’s weekly specials menu for 4 days that work best, including today, which was taco salad with black beans and elote corn. Yummmy, and I have leftovers for 2-3 more meals.

Pre-Plan and Track Meals and Snacks – I’ve been planning meals while drinking tea in the morning, entering foods and snacks into my Bariatastic app. It’s reminding me that looking at metrics before I eat keeps me from eating really tasty things that are full of carbs and fats I’m trying to minimize.

Put measuring cups and spoons on the counter and use them – Done. I have a clear plastic holder with my colorful cups and spoons. AND I pulled the food scale out of the pantry and up on the counter. I’ve been using all of them. And let me say that 1 oz of mini pepperonis is a whole LOT more pepperonis than I thought it was.

Limit protein snacks to one bag a day – Mostly happening. I try to drink one bottle of protein and eat one bag of chips, which I like better than most of the other protein snacks. Plus that one little itty bitty Quest peanut butter cup which is a treat, not a snack. Snacks need to take longer to eat 🙂 When I get the munchies, I’m reaching for 1/4 of a pre-cut Honeycrisp apple.

Set reminders to get liquids in – Not done, but I’ve had 64-72 oz every day anyway. This morning I had 50 oz before I went to lunch! It helped a lot that I could stay near a bathroom today.

Schedule NuStep time – Not done. I ended up with a left shoulder impingement last week and my PT advised me to give it about 5-7 days rest and only do gentle stretches. Today I hopped on the NuStep for the first time in 2 months and did 25 minutes while reading my Kindle. And for the first time EVER, I didn’t need to use a leg lifter to get my legs in the right position. This sped up the getting on/off process considerably which felt great. I have nothing scheduled this week so am scheduling NuStep time for Wed, Fri, and Saturday at 2:00pm. Scheduling has to vary from week to week depending on visits to doctors and shopping.

Thaw out meat sauce for dinner – Ah, no. I decided on two mini pizzas made using Mission Carb Balance street taco tortillas (the itty bitty ones) with 2 TB of pizza sauce, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, and 1 oz mini pepperonis. It was wonderful and I already had the ingredients. Go me.