Friday, January 04, 2013

We've been eating too much (again)

The older I get, the less I mind being overweight.  Of course, this is not as it should be, because the older we are, the more we benefit from keeping our weight at a healthy level.  I heard last night on the news that one-third of Americans have type-two diabetes.  It's a wonder I'm not in that number, since my mother was diabetic in her later years, but so far, so good.  
The thing that really motivates me to get back to preparing the kind of meals that we should be eating around here is the memory of Cliff's four-way bypass seven years ago.  If I don't eat right, neither does he.  Do you realize what a burden that puts on me?  But actually it's a good thing, because I need the healthful regimen too.  
So as always happens after the two-month-long holiday gluttony that starts with Halloween and ends with New Year's Day (or in some years, the Superbowl... and then there's Valentine's Day), we're back on track.  I'm using SparkPeople.com again, which means I'm entering every bite of food I eat into the calculator there and finding out just how many calories I'm taking in.  
It's a wonder I don't weigh five hundred pounds, and that's with me eating the right stuff!     
Cliff and I both have problems with portion control, especially when we eat out.  The truth is, nobody who intends to lose weight should be eating out more than once a month to start with.  I wouldn't have any problem with that if it weren't for Pizza Hut, especially the one at Higginsville.  And Olive Garden, and the Mexican place at Lexington.  But a lot of the allure of eating out is just the fact I don't have to cook it and clean up afterward.  Now we're back to the occasional six-inch Subway sandwich if I want to get out of cooking.  
Yes, it is possible to make wise choices when eating away from home.  But if I'm going to pay anywhere from $7 to $25 for a single meal, I really don't want to graze at the salad bar.  I can fix a salad at home.     
If you can read between the lines at all, you can tell I don't want to do this.  I want to get a chocolate dip-cone every time we pass a McDonald's.  I want to bake an apple pie and fry that catfish that's in the freezer.  But once more I'll make an effort at this, for about the hundredth time in my life, and hope it sticks.  At least I have a lot of the right kind of recipes in my other blog.  
The good thing is, we've never stopped taking our daily walk.  

9 comments:

  1. Now I'm going to check out your other blog. I didn't realize it you had one or if I knew about it, I forgot. According to the charts I'm way overweight, but according to how my clothes fit, they are same ones I've been wearing for a long time so in my books I'm doing ok. I think a little treat now and then is just fine. I can't believe it's been 7 years already since Cliff's surgery. How time flies.

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  2. Let me know when the catfish is ready.

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  3. I dusted off my Spark People account, too. Tis the season, I guess. At least I don't have as far to go as I did last year ~

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  4. Anonymous11:18 AM

    I take a daily run & when I stop it I feel crappy. In your defense, this surely is the time of year to be eating too much.~Mary

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  5. You get out and walk which is great; so many people don't. Exercise is super good for blood sugar, according to my diabetic mother. I think most people have trouble with portion control. My issue is that I like to graze and not really eat meals, especially now that I'm by myself. Not very motivating to prepare anything.

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  6. Good for you on the daily walk, I try to do at least 45 minutes every night, Hugs

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  7. Check out www.myfitnesspal.com It does all of the things that Sparkpeople does, but they have an iPad app that let's you scan bar codes on food and adds it instead of having to search.

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  8. Rachel, Because have entered so many of my own recipes onto Sparkpeople over the years, it works best for me. It took a lot of effort to enter all my favorite recipes on there. I can't just abandon them! Also, Sparkpeople works very well on Safari on the Ipad.

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  9. Well now that I look, I see that SparkPeople has an app, too. I don't know what all it does, but it'd be worth checking on.

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