Weight Loss and Exercise #5

Today I've had a bottle of Coke, 35 pretzel Goldfish, an Atkins wafer bar, a bag of Green Giant corn in butter sauce, a burger from Sonic and a Route 44 Diet Coke with sweet cream. It was around 1340 calories, 137 carbs, and 54 grams of protein.

Today is one of my 1600 something days, but I am tired and my stomach is off.

MD - By item, thats 1/3 food, 2/3 junk, 100 pct processed. They have these bags of like 3 or 8 heads of Romaine lettuce now, you can just chop one up, add some dressing, and youve improved your diet a bunch! You dont even have to wash them. They stay fresh the whole week in the fridge. Will also help you poop. I eff around with statistics and my diet too (look i only had 2 treats today, what a tiny number!) So i am definitely pointing 4 fingers back at myself.

They also have those giant clear boxes of individual Romaine leaves. You do not even need to do any chopping. I actually eat them straight out of the box without a dressing, but that may be due to laziness. They are still good and very crisp.

This is woefully deficient in protein.

I went to a 2 hour yoga workshop this afternoon. The poses (stretches) were either supine or sitting or tabletop/child pose, nothing standing. I was able to do most of them, except when my belly got in the way.

And then there was a lot of breath work. That was a little difficult because I am still congested, but I still greatly enjoyed the workshop.

How do you recommend increasing protein? I really struggle with this. I'm not vegetarian but vastly prefer vegetables and fruit. I still eat meat 4-5 times weekly (I'm guessing). I get about 4-8 oz of milk daily and eat at least 1, sometimes 2 servings of cottage cheese and/or Greek yogurt daily.I eat some cheese daily; amount varies. My treat food has 4 g of protein per serving and it's low cal so I eat maybe 3/day. But I still am consistently low on protein and since I'm trying to fight off a diabetes diagnosis I really need more. I just struggle with increasing protein without sending my calories sky-rocketing.

Thanks!

It is a challenge indeed. Some suggestions:

-- Whey protein powder: Amazon.com Nutricost Whey Protein

The package says take 1 scoop a day, but my registered dietitian OK'd my using it twice a day. I do not use it everyday, but I will make it a goal to increase protein.

I normally use it in a smoothie. I put some frozen raspberries into the blender, add 2 tbsp chia seeds, 2 tbsp flax seed that I first grind in a spice grinder, some plain kefir, some plain nut milk (just nuts and water without any additives, from Nuts.com), and a scoop of this powder. It is palatable enough. I wish I could add more raspberries but the dietitian said not to.

I also mix it with farmers' cheese and you can try mixing it with cottage cheese. Maybe not even the whole scoop but half of it. It is worth experimenting with.

-- Milk: switch to Fairlife ultrafiltered milk (advice from an RD). It has more protein than usual milk with half as much sugar and carbs. It tastes just the same. It is more expensive, but the price is worth the nutritional benefit of it.

-- Greek yogurt is high in protein. Icelandic yogurt called Skyr is also high and sometimes even higher. With them, it pays to read the labels at the grocery stores to pick the one with the most protein per serving. There is usually a spread of several grams among brands. Picking the highest protein content brand typically does not result in your consuming any more calories.

-- For my post workout drink, I use Fairlife protein chocolate shake. It has 26 g of protein per serving and is delicious chilled. I buy them in bulk from Amazon. Here is the link: Amazon.com Core Power Protein Shake Chocolate
It is also available in vanilla which I have not tried and in strawberry banana which I have tried and found artificially tasting.

-- Do you not eat eggs at all?

Oh yes, I forgot about eggs. We have 5 chickens so I actually eat eggs fairly frequently. There was a long time I was eating one daily but I've backed off that. I should try to save the calories for that again though.

I had a piece of roast beef for dinner but I threw up tonight so idk. Maybe I'll lose weight from being sick. Not ideal I know though.

Right. Ideal weight loss is when you change the body composition, increasing the muscle mass and the relative proportion of muscle in your total weight.

Oh you should eat eggs from your own hens for sure! And an egg contains 6 g of protein plus all the lutein and choline and other good stuff that is in the yolk. Eggs are precious.

I used to get eggs from local hens, too. Then the hens became too old and stopped laying eggs. The woman from whom I got the eggs last told me to wait until May. They are getting new hens. Hopefully I will be able to go back to getting those eggs from local hens, from an adjacent town.

The hens were different in color and size and so were the eggs: some white, some brown, some large, some small. Some more obtuse in shape and others more pointed. It was fun simply opening the carton to look at what I got.

I am saving cartons from Trader Joe's eggs to deliver them all to that woman who keeps the hens when she finally summons me back. I also regularly open the paper recycling containers at the apartment complex to see if anyone has put a clean carton into recycling, and then I pick those up, too. This way there is no waste: I deliver the cartons, pick up the eggs, and the cycle goes on.

I had a breakfast shake with my meds, a can of Coke, an iced chai latte, and a Healthy Choice grilled chicken and broccoli alfredo meal which only had 190 calories.

I'm not sure on the rest of the day, my stomach is still acting up.

Suddenly I have gained weight. A couple of pounds but it worries me. My hunger pangs stopped a few weeks ago and I have been feeling so thankful but then why this gain?

I will have my second Dexa scan soon, so we will see what the body composition is.

You know, caffeine is like booze - this menu is like having 3 drinks on an empty-ish stomach. It affects people more on an empty stomach. Whats the caffeine count here? You often complain you are queazy when you overdo the caffeine.

Im sorry, i dont mean to be cranky, but i hate to see you sick.

I don't know the caffeine count. The breakfast shake was just to help my meds. The Coke was probably about 38mil of caffeine. I don't know anything about the chai latte except that I ordered it sugar free.

I've had some Green Giant smash in the bag potatos too today. They are fresh potatoes you heat in the microwave then you smash the bag with oven mits so you have fresh mashed potatoes.

Those potatoes sound good! A good antidote!

I did not know about smash potatoes. Gotta try them.

Just spent an hour on the mini bike. You guys are keeping me going, even if im not every day. Sometimes i am too tired from a previous hard workout. Like this past week i saw that i sleep an extra 2 hours in the morning one day. But i do find myself saying, i dont really have an excuse for not doing it tonight, so lets do it!

The pedal resistance is FINALLY starting to feel like it will need an increase. I was starting to worry it might never feel that way. I had gotten it to the max before, but then who knows what happened. I disappeared.

way to go, pedaling for a whole hour!

Just got up to pee, and i feel pretty good, like i have advanced from debilitated to almost able to stand erect.