" For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. " Song of Solomon

March 11, 2008

Follow up on Ramblings and Musings......


Today was spent mostly at the doctor's office. Husband had some emergency surgery for a retinal detachment. I only had time to grab a cup of coffee this morning....went all day with nothing to eat or drink...can you believe I really wasn't even hungry...that is until I finally did eat at 5pm. Surprising how long I can go without food when I must. And when I did eat, it was just a normal portion.

Here is what I'd written yesterday as a follow up to my previous post......

Yesterday's post was an attempt to distract myself from eating...and it worked. I managed to make it until bed time without eating another bite, although I did sip on some water...thinking perhaps my dry burning mouth sensation was due to inadequate hydration.

During the night I was not awakened by hunger, and, get this, woke up with no desire for breakfast even, proving, I think, that I was not experiencing true hunger last evening. Were I, you'd think I'd wake up starving.

After my coffee, one cup, I prepared a half serving of oatmeal and stirred into it a tablespoon of milk and egg protein powder in an attempt to meet my protein needs/goal. My oatmeal also had half a banana, a quarter ounce of walnuts, for the good fat, and 16 grams, which is one tablespoon, of organic peanut butter...also a good fat. I find the fat is satiating and helps curb the appetite. It seems there must, at least for me, be adequate good fat and animal protein.

It is now almost noon and I'm still not hungry...so the fat and protein combination seems to be doing its job. I am thirsty and plan on having some water just now.

Since I did my walk/run yesterday, I just finished my work with 3# weights for the upper body, also did some modified push ups, and for the lower body some squats and stretches.

Will update later to see how my appetite/need to feed is affected by consuming the animal protein that has been missing from my diet these past couple of weeks.
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In the meantime I leave you with this to ponder: considering mindful eating.......

When I pay attention to what I'm eating, with no distractions like TV, etc,. I find it difficult...I want to hurry up and get on to something interesting, and find little pleasure in the eating process itself. Unless the food tastes wonderful......then I'm so focused on the taste and I end up wanting even more of the food because it does taste so good.

On the other hand, I have also noticed that when I'm eating mindfully, foods that I've commonly thought were delicious turn out to not taste all that good, and in that event, I do eat less because I skip that food.

As an example, we were eating out and free soft serve ice cream was available. I got a small portion of the chocolate. It looked like chocolate.

But when I focused on it, closed my eyes and really tasted, I realized---it had no taste!!!! It was just cold in my mouth...not even a hint of chocolate. The suggestion of chocolate was there due to its color, but it was devoid of flavor....a fact I may not have noticed if I hadn't really paid attention.

So...here's the point....mindful eating is a benefit when the food is tasteless...I actually realize it and skip the food...but when it is wonderful tasting to my palate I want to indulge in more.

Mindful eating seems to be a double edged sword for me....the result can be me wanting more or eating less.....
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Lunch and supper: I had a lot of protein at lunch---a string cheese stick with 9 grams, a ham and cheese sandwich and a fruit smoothie with some protein powder and cottage cheese.....then for supper we had a stir fry that contained shrimp and paneer---an Indian milk cheese that I make and use often in Indian recipes.

The result? I did not have near the problem with hunger.....so based on this one day's result it does make a difference.

As Shirls pointed out in the comments in my previous post we need to get 1/2 of our body weight in grams of protein....your weight times .5 grams .....if you want to maintain your muscle.

Maintaining muscle is key to keeping the metabolism reved up....the less muscle we have the less calories it takes to maintain our weight.

So, my game plan includes continuing to make sure I get enough protein...no more skimping or negligence.

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FYI: on average one ounce of meat contains 7 grams of protein....other good sources of protein are dairy products like milk, cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese..... and eggs. These are complete proteins that contain all the essential amino acids and these are easily absorbed by your body.

While combining vegetables, like beans and rice, can provide all the essential amino acids, they are not readily available to the body according to several sources, due to the fact that they are high in fiber and tend to be eliminated rather than be absorbed.


"....there have been many times when I have shed bitter tears, when if I had understood the situation better, I would have celebrated my good luck instead."

DISCLAIMER

I am not a doctor and all information, suggestions, etc are my personal opinion only.