Calorie Count

Breakfast

1 banana- 105 cal

1 bowl of hot cereal with ½ cup milk-205 cal

Calories consumed: 310 cal

Lunch

I went to WF with my mom and ate tons of samples, pizza, and some seafood chowder. Around 800 cal?

Leftover calories: 90 cal

L How sad. Looks like it's spinach for dinner again. And maybe strawberries. And a kiwi.

…hey! I need my sweet fix.

So much for eating spinach for dinner. Well, I did, but I added garlic, spicy black bean dip, a small piece of salmon (it was the size of a third of my palm) and a small (very small) slice of bread. I felt like I was eating with the tiny tiny portions and the multiple flavours. I also had a little bit of whole milk with malt for a semi-dessert.

Maybe it's a worthwhile trick, because I'm not craving anything right now.

Today’s Calorie Intake

Caloric Intake Goal: 1300 cal

Goal: No overly processed food, i.e. junk food

1 bowl of organic multigrain hot cereal with ½ cup milk- 205 cal

1 medium sized banana- 105 cal

1 kiwi- 50 cal

1 cup of tea

1 bottle of water

Total Breakfast Calories:
360 cal

Fiber so far: 10 g

Brought to school: 1 bottle of water

Plan after class: Workout on ellipse while studying Differential Equations…

Goal for lunch: no dessert! ¾ of the plate is to be veggies! Otherwise, it's too hard to count calories…

 

After class…

It's too cold to workout and then walk back home sweaty. I'd get a cold! So I'm eating a snack while studying.

1 slice of bread- 75 cal

1 tbsp of spicy black bean dip- 15 cal

Mozzarella cheese- ??

Chicken- 30 cal, around?

Jalapeno- 0 cal

Chocolate- 24 cal

1 apple- 70 cal

Total Snack Calories: approx. 214 cal

Total Calories left: 726 cal

Fiber so far: 10g+5g= 15g

Lunch…

I ate lunch with my RSG (bible study) group, and the only food was my mom's noodles.

I don't know how much I ate or how much oil my mom put in, but it was good. I'd estimate that it was around 400-500 cal.

And since I wasn't full and I need energy for my next class, I'm eating some more hot cereal with ¼ cup of milk—around 165 cal.

It seems like I'm out of calories for the day. Man, I need to schedule my meals better. I'm going to eat spinach for dinner.

But so far:

Total Calories left: around 80 cal.

Fiber so far: 22g

 

 

 

My Healthy Eating Tips

1. Always have vegetables in the cupboard, the refrigerator, and the freezer. Put them in places you won't expect (that much). You cannot run from the vegetables.
   
2. Chicken stock is lovely for impromptu vegetable soups.
   
3. Whenever you prep vegetables, wash a bit more than you need. Store the extra in a plastic bag in the fridge so you don't have an excuse to not eat vegetables.
   
4. Steel cut oatmeal isn't just breakfast food or sweet! It can be savory and for lunch, too! All that extra fiber is good for you.
   
5. What about the meat? I have a bag of relatively salty meatballs in the freezer, buffalo wings flavored. I drop around three to four pieces into soup, and there you have your seasoning and protein!
   
6. Egg whites are good, too, for soups and if you feel like eating one scrambled egg in the morning isn't enough.
   
7. Sweet potatoes, baked, for a sweet treat. Lots of fiber, but careful of portion sizes! There's more calories in a sweet potato than you think.
   
8. Think color when cooking—it helps with nutrition. I like tomatoes for red and purple cabbage for purple. Lots of green veggies.
   
9. Choose fruit that you like, but don't love. Me? When I have fruit that I love, I'll eat too much of it, leading to sugar highs (from fruit, which is a bit sad) and more calories than you know. My picks: apples, grapes, pears. I love pears, but they're so good that I can savor them; plus, I always think, "If I leave them for one more day, they'll be even sweeter and softer."
   
10. Stock up on tea, bottled water, and milk. Convenient, tasty, cheap, and healthy. No excuse for not drinking enough fluids!
    

    
     

    Learn to love veggies! Veggies are your friends.
    

    
     

Lil’ Kids

I just recently realized that I treat little kids differently than most people—I talk to them like adults, almost. I don't talk down to them, but rather, give them my full attention when they speak (unless I really can't understand what they're saying).

Take this Sunday. I was feeding an almost one-year-old (let's call him "T") a tangerine in slices. He doesn't really have enough teeth, but is so greedy for real food that when he sees food that he wants to eat, he starts crying until he gets it. He knows the good stuff from the bad. He wouldn't stop crying after we walked past the dessert table.

Me: "Here you go, "T". Eat slowly. Chew. Look at how much more you have to go!"

Timothy: *slurps the tangerine slice out of my hand*

Me: "T"! (really loudly)

"T": *stops chewing, looks at me with eyes open as big as he can get them. He's bemused that I'm talking to him. "I'm eating, and I'm a baby! No one ever looks at me when I'm eating! What's wrong with this sister? I'm eating!! People are happy when I eat! They talk to other grown-ups while I eat! They don't talk to me!"*

Me: (in a softer voice) You ate that too fast! You know, it took you three bites to get through that other slice. You can't slurp things up like that; you'll choke!

 

Or… I was skipping back to his older sister (five years old; "R") with a slice of chocolate pudding cake in my hands.

Me: *euphoric daze induced by chocolate* Want some?

"R": *looks at me like I'm crazy*

Me: It's so good *star-studded gaze*

"R": I don't like chocolate (she says it like she's berating me for even thinking about chocolate. I feel like a five year old being scolded by someone my age).

Me: …

 

Maybe it's just because they treat me like I'm their age. They're not that far off. It's really funny, though, when I have little kids guess my age. When I tell them how old I am (eighteen), their mouths gape open. And then they start calling me "Auntie" ;_;

Fruit Drops

Ever since I saw "The Grave of the Fireflies" in middle school, I've always had this morbid fascination with the tins of Meiji's Fruit Drops (フルーツドロップ). Whenever my best friend goes anywhere, she always brings a can of these back regardless of where she goes. As a result, I have a can sitting in my apartment on campus and one at home. Today, I was hankering for something sweet (despite it being Sunday and having fulfilled my chocolate cravings for the day. You know how it is with me: I eat something I like, and then I have to eat it for the rest of the day. So today I like sugar. I'll exercise it off. I have this crazy Taiwanese exercise DVD series… ). So when I was doing the traditional rummage through my cabinet, I found the nifty tin and thought, "Why not?"

I ate one, and immediately was transported to my childhood *_* I'd forgotten why I liked eating them before I watched that darn movie (that's really just propaganda in disguise).

Yummy.

Savory Oatmeal

This evening, I was thinking of a way to cook with color, vegetables, flavor, fiber, carbs, and protein while spending minimal time. My answer? Savory oatmeal.

I have tons of oatmeal in my kitchen cabinet (the other ones I share with my roommate). I have steel-cut oats, old-fashioned oats, and organic oats. I always bring them back to college with me because I think, "Fiber! I can eat fiber!" but I never really get around to eating it. I used the steel-cut, partly because it has more fiber and texture, and also because I saw Irish oats sitting on my professor's desk during office hours. I was inspired by the fact that she has a yoga mat and oatmeal in her office. I thought, "I want to be that healthy, too!" I think she's pretty awesome.

For color, I chose a variety of vegetables: sun-dried tomatoes, purple cabbage, and green beans. I have this huge bag of sun-dried tomatoes, julienned, with no idea of what to do with it, so I thought that I'd just throw some in there.

For protein, I opted for just a bit of beef already cooked and seasoned, as well as an egg (My parents had just sent eggs to me this morning, and I really love eating poached eggs in soups).

I think what really made the oatmeal nice was the Maldon salt, chicken broth (in place of water or milk), and the tomatoes (which were flavored too strongly to actually eat—I have to find some way to dispel some of that flavor!)

It wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good. I think this is something worth experimenting with, especially since I want to cut down on eating carbs that aren't as nutritionally dense as oatmeal (i.e. rice and bread).