What I Eat

This post is by request. I've had a handful of Facebook & Twitter direct messages asking me what sorts of things I eat during the day while counting calories. So here you go...

Let me preface this with a little background info. I am hypoglycemic. If you don't know what hypoglycemia is, it's essentially low blood-sugar. This is caused by the over production of insulin which sends my blood-sugar plummeting. When my blood sugar drops, I experience an array of symptoms. It starts with the shakes, then morphs into a headache and nausea. If I let it go on too long (which rarely happens) my symptom progress into fatigue, faintness, dizziness, tingling in my hands & face and in rare cases I experience heart palpitations. Oh, and mood swings. Ryan & my parents wouldn't let me forget those. ;) All that being said - every single one of the food groups is important in my diet. In order to regulate and stabilize my blood-sugar, I need protein, carbs, fruits & veggies, good fats and, yes, sugar. (The one I probably don't always get enough of is dairy, but I'm working on it.)

I have a few "go to" foods that quickly and safely get my blood-sugar back to a normal level. For example, I eat a banana everyday. Another is a "trail mix" granola bar. My favorite is Nature Valley's. It's whole grain oats with almonds, raisins, peanuts and cranberries. This is an "all-in-one" snack; I get protein, carbs, fruit/natural sugar and good fat.

Lately, my food intake has been like this:
Breakfast: (Around 7am) Thomas Whole Wheat Bagel Thins
                 2 tbps Whipped cream cheese
                 6oz Simply Orange juice
                 Coffee

Morning Snack: One banana around 9am
                          Trail Mix bar around 10:30-11am

Lunch: (Around noon) This changes. Usually it's a SmartOnes meal (my favorites are: Rigatoni in Vodka Cream sauce, Three Cheese Ziti, Pasta with Ricotta & Spinach and Fettuccine with Broccoli.)
                                  Sometimes, I do wraps with Spinach Herb or Low Carb Mission tortillas, one 100 cal Wholly Guacamole pack, a couple slices of turkey and a sprinkle of cheese. (Hey! There's some dairy in this meal!)

Afternoon Snack: Grapes & a good handful of almonds OR an Apple w/ 1 tbsp peanut butter usually around 3pm. (See what I do there? I get one fruit/natural sugar with one protein/good fat.)
                            If I'm having a "hungry" day (I have days when I feel like a bottomless pit) I eat a mini bag of Smart Pop popcorn (100 calories for the whole bag).

Then, of course, dinner changes everyday. Many may read this and wonder, if I know "how" to eat, why did I end up over-weight? Well, knowing "how" and doing it are two very different things. Ryan & I love to eat and we tended to cook heavy meals, and I won't lie - I LOVE SWEETS. For years, we just honestly didn't think about what we were putting into our bodies.

So, for the few of you who wanted to know...there you have it. Also, as a little update, I've lost 3lbs since June 24th. That's an average of 1.5lbs a week. Considering I didn't count calories for two days over the 4th of July holiday, I am happy with a 3lb loss. Well, that is, until Ryan told me he's lost 9. Jerk. ;)