Day 4 of Food Journaling

Hi,

I have started my food journal to help me get in touch with my reactions to foods. The first three things that I am supposed to be doing is the journal, eating protein with each meal, and eating breakfast. I also had my first sweet potato with butter, cinnamon and nutmeg tonight because I was having a huge craving. Well... the instructions say cinnamon and nutmeg, I actually used my homemade curry powder because it has cinnamon and nutmeg in it -- plus some other spices.

As I sat in front of my computer I again noticed the nagging craving which had been hanging around for a couple of hours and getting worse. Knowing I did not have any complex carbs in the house to satisfy it, I kept thinking about pizza, but I needed a complex carb with no protein. Then I thought of chili cheese fries, but that would of course be a stretch in the wrong direction. It then dawned on me that if I am to do this program I need to get the right supplies so I drove to Kroger and got some sweet potatoes, butter, tuna fish, some broccoli, mushrooms, and a couple of hard green organic avocados -- the regular ones were so old they looked like they had snake skin.

It's been a long time since I have had a sweet potato at home, so I thought I remembered that it should cook for six minutes in the microwave wrapped in parchment paper, but it was over cooked and dry when I took it out. It was a little like eating peanut butter because it kept sticking to the roof of my mouth. A little more butter and 2 cups of already prepared chamomile tea helped unglue it. It still tasted good, though. I'll try four minutes with the next one tomorrow, then if it needs more I can do one more minute.

I'm not up to perfect at doing the food journal, yet. For one thing I have to remember to take it with me where ever I go, in case I eat something or have a reaction that I need to record. I keep forgetting it, or forgetting to write in it, but I think I will get better with time and practice. I can see that it is a good idea, I just have not gotten the habit worked up to autopilot, yet.

Remembering to eat breakfast is a lot easier. I am actually kind of surprised at how quickly I'm adjusting to that. I've been doing mostly protein for breakfast, eggs today and yesterday, peanut butter and banana with sunflower seed and almonds one day. Sometimes I seem to want it immediately, but today I waited about 1.5 hours before having breakfast... I guess that is not wrong -- at least I did not wait until lunch time.

I'm also juggling with having protein with every meal. When I think of a meal I think, "salad." I had been adding feta cheese but I don't think that is enough protein and I'm beginning to realize that feta cheese is a touch salty. The newly recognized saltiness might be because I accidentally bought "fat free" which I usually don't do. I bought the tuna to bring me up to speed in the protein department and the broccoli to add a little "special" to the salad.

I've finished reading the book "Potatoes Not Prozac" and have been looking at the author's web site: http://www.radiantrecovery.com/index.html. I found a print out of the directions for diabetics and printed that out. I think the only difference is that it takes into consideration that diabetics and prediabetics usually have a blood sugar monitor so they can be very accurate with their blood sugar levels. It says the journal should be a blood sugar journal to which you add what you ate and how you felt. I actually already have one in Excel that I worked up when I first discovered that I am pre-diabetic so I'll get that out and see what I can do with it.

That's about all I have for tonight. Just wanted to check in and keep in touch.

Hope all is well with you,

Be back soon

--Marcia