So this week, Mom lost four pounds (!!!!!) and I lost another pound and a half.  Not too shabby.  Not at all.

 

I've managed to get to where I'm able to control my portion sizes really well, and I'm staying within my calorie range almost every day.  A couple of times I've gone a little over, mainly when eating out, but even then I haven't gone too far over.  So now, my new goal is to be sure that I'm eating the right things within that calorie range.

 

I think I mentioned before that I'm using sparkpeople.com to track my food intake each day.  I discovered this week that I could use it to track an awful lot more than just calories, fat, carbs, and protein.  It will track calcium, dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and just about anything else you want it to track.  So, I set it up to start tracking those things for me...and I discovered that I wasn't getting enough of most of those things in my diet.

 

In addition to making changes to the things that I eat, I'm also taking a multivitamin, a potassium supplement, and a combination of calcium, magnesium, and zinc.  Between those things, I'm now getting the recommended amounts of those things every day.  But I was still low on dietary fiber more often than not.  So, I've done a little research on where to get the dietary fiber from, and I'm starting to make some changes.

 

A lot of times, I'll make a pasta salad on the weekends and take it with me for my lunch during the week.  I am doing that again today, but I am using a multi-grain pasta that has 6 grams of dietary fiber per serving.  I'm also going to include some lentils in the pasta salad, for some added protein and fiber.  I've also bought some multi-grain tortillas, that I'll have for breakfast some days with turkey bacon or sausage and Egg Beaters, with low-fat cheese.  It's a low-fat, high-protein, high-fiber breakfast, and it's pretty easy!  Also, did you know that Yoplait makes a low calorie, fat free, high fiber yogurt?  It's called Fiber One, and each 4 oz. yogurt has 80 calories, 0 fat, 5 grams of dietary fiber, and 4 grams of protein.  I've bought those to take with me for snacks this week instead of the traditional Yoplait Light yogurts that I've been taking recently.

 

With these changes, in addition to the changes that I've already made, I think I'm taking the right steps towards becoming really, really healthy, not just towards losing weight.  Yes, losing weight is one goal...but it is only part of the process.  I want to change my life, not just how I look!  And now I'm going to be able to do it.  These are just small changes, but they are going to make a big difference.

 

More soon!

~Mindy