My New Food Journey - 56 pounds and Another Inch Smaller

Yippee! Another 4 pounds smaller and an inch from most of my measurements!
My energy levels are higher, my knees aren't threatening to buckle anymore, and my lower legs don't feel heavy by the end of the day now. Stairs are no longer an obstacle to be negotiated one step at a time.

Carb counting is my happy spot!
Food is my friend and I can eat a lot of food in one day. Protein, dairy, grains, vegetables, and fruit fill my plate and my stomach. I love smoked sausage, pork sausage, bacon and beef. I can have a link of smoked sausage or a bratwurst, but not in a bun. I can have a couple of chocolate chunk chewy granola bars a day if I want and this curbs all of my chocolate cravings.

Breakfast was a breakfast biscuit minus the biscuit. Lunch was my chocolate fix. Dinner was a skinny version of chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. My husband had oven fried chicken, but the skinny mashed potatoes and gravy. I use chicken bouillon and 2% milk to make my white sauce and mashed potatoes. I still put 1-2 Tbsp. of butter in them. 

Pizza is another food I LOVE!
Carb counting lets me eat pizza just not in the amounts I was consuming before. Pizza is now 2 slices a meal from a medium pizza and I usually eat it for supper, 2 slices for breakfast the following morning, and 2 slices for lunch the following day. Pizza splurge over 3 meals!
Cheese is another food I LOVE!
I can have 1/3 cup of grated Colby Jack cheese or Mozzarella on salads, scrambled eggs, skillet scrambles, etc. Cottage cheese, sour cream, and yogurt are all things I can still eat.

Are you seeing the heavy cream and butter that I am still eating? Yes, I eat heavy cream and butter on or with my food. I cook with the butter and the cream, but I seldom go over 2 Tablespoons a day. Dinner was a skillet scramble that I love. Lots of veggies scrambled with a large egg and egg white. Then topped with picante sauce. 

When I started my food journey, I used the app LoseIt! and set my goal to lose 95 pounds at a rate of a pound and a half a week.
The app tracks calories, carbs, protein, etc. For myself, I watched the carbohydrates, but found that the calories I consumed seldom went over the calorie goal anyway. Fat and sodium intakes were two things I also tried to balance out. My weight was put on gradually and wanted to take it off gradually.
The initial plan was eating 135-180 carbs a day and almost 1900 calories a day.
As I logged my weight loss, the app gradually reduced the calorie count, but I continued to eat 135 - 180 carbs a day. Honestly, there are days I can't eat another bite because I am full and my carb count is at 80 to 125 carbs. See the food diary snip for January 29th. I ate 87 carbs and couldn't eat another bite!

My New Food Journey Continues - Fifty Pounds Smaller

It has been awhile since I have posted here at SalleeB's Kitchen, but life happens doesn't it? My new food journey began in June 2017 when my blood work came back in the upper end of the prediabetic range. I immediately resolved to lose the extra pounds that I had slowly put on over the last seven years. However, this news just increased my resolve to follow through on a decision I had made in April 2017 after seeing the picture below. 

To date, I have lost 51.8 lbs. 
My original clothing size was a plus size 22/24. Now, I am wearing a plus size 16/18. How amazing is that? There have been several other benefits to losing this weight. The first one is that my November blood sugar, or A1C test, was at the lower end of the prediabetic scale. Another benefit is that my knees and lower legs no longer ache and cause me pain. No more one stepping up and down stairs while holding onto the banister. My energy level is much better too.
Exercising Much? 
One of the first questions I get asked is how often am I exercising. This is funny because I haven't exercised once. Yes, I have lost over fifty pounds and haven't intentionally exercised once. Instead, I have made a change in what and how I eat. This eating change is responsible for my weight loss.
My choice for dropping the extra pounds is a combination of counting carbohydrates and using the plate plan method. 
When I first started counting carbs, I decided to use an app to help me log my carbs. This has been a great way for me to track my calories, carbs, fat, sugar, sodium, and protein intake too. My daily carb goal is 135-180 carbs a day. As long as I don't eat a lot of pasta, cake, or food containing starches that turn into sugar, I can eat a lot of food and I do not feel hungry or food deprived.  A side benefit of counting carbs and using an app is that I find myself planning my meals most of the time. 
The plate plan is easy! 
I just imagine a line divides my plate in half horizontally. That top half of my plate is for non starch food like lettuce, salad olives, cucumbers, etc. The bottom half of my plate is for starches on the left and protein on the right. None of my food should be taller than a package of playing cards. How easy is that? 
Measuring My Food
In addition to carb counting and the plate plan, I started measuring and weighing the food that goes onto my plate at home. No more guesstimates for me. Now my kitchen scale is in use almost daily in contrast to before when it sat in the cabinet for weeks at a time. I also use 1/2 cup and 1 cup containers to use when I pack my lunch for work. 
A Label Reading Surprise
I have always been a label reader, but after I started counting carbohydrates, my first shopping trip to the grocery store took label reading to another level. That initial trip took much longer than usual because I had to read the ingredient list  and carbohydrate count on every prepackaged product I picked up and was surprised at how sugar hides as an ingredient in an amazing number of foods! 
One of the Changes in What I Buy
One of the biggest changes in my new food journey is that I stopped buying prepackaged pasta and pasta sauce. I can't eat prepackaged pasta mixes because of the carbs and pasta sauce has sugar hiding in it. Sugar equals lots of empty carbs. These two items are no longer found in my pantry. 

I could go on and on about the changes, but I don't want to overload you with information that I have acquired over a seven month period of time. My new food journey is continuing and I will tell you more about it in other posts. 

Oat Flour Sweet Potato Pancakes - A Gluten-Free Recipe

Golden brown and delicious oat flour sweet potato pancakes.
These pancakes are approximately 3.25 inches in diameter.

This morning Bill and I tried out this recipe that I adapted from superhealthykids.com. My changes are the gluten-free oat flour, ground flax seed, and honey. 

The pancake texture is denser than a traditional pancake and reminds me of bread pudding. The cinnamon, sweet potato flavor is only enhanced by the slightly nutty flavor of the ground flax seed. 

Yield and Nutrients
6 pancakes, 3.25 inch diameter
112 calories and 19 carbohydrate grams for each pancake
Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup, cooked sweet potato, mashed with a fork
2. 1 cup 1% milk
3. 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4. 1/2 tsp.  vanilla extract
5. 1 large egg
6. 3/4 cup rolled oats, blended into oat flour
7. 1 Tbsp. raw flax seed, ground in a blender
8. 2 tsp.  baking powder
9. 1/4 tsp. salt
10. 1 Tbsp. honey

Directions Step 1

• Put 3/4 cup rolled oats into a blender. Use the grind setting and pulse into flour.
• Put oat flour in a medium mixing bowl.
• Put 1 Tbsp of flax seed into a blender and pulse with grind setting
• Add the ground flax seed to the oat flour and set the bowl aside.

Directions Step 2

• Put the first five ingredients into a blender.
• Blend on stir setting for about 20-30 seconds
• Add the liquid ingredients into the oat flour mixture and stir until well blended
• Let the batter sit for 2-3 minutes to thicken up.
• Add more milk if needed to thin down the pancake batter.
• Then pour 1/4 cup batter onto a hot griddle for each pancake. Use a lower temperature than a wheat bas
• Flip pancake when it begins to bubble and is browned.

 Note: Sweet potato browns quickly so make sure your griddle isn't too hot. 

Homemade breakfast pancakes  = homemade happiness on a plate!

Learning My Carb Counting Range and More

Life-long learner is a term that describes me well. 

A new project, or interest means I will immerse myself into learning and studying how to accomplish the task, or interest. This isn't just a passing phase, this is a part of my personality

Learning a new way of eating means I will devote myself to the initial learning and then keep myself updated. 

Online Research

First, I researched online to find out what types of food I needed to be eating and what type of plan would work well for me. Websites by individuals can be helpful, but my initial search for information was from research-based websites, like the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders (NIDDK) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

The article that helped me shape my eating plan is linked to the NIDDK link above. 

Now on to carb counting.

I found a 15 pg. PDF booklet at www.lillydiabetes.com that I am finding to be very helpful and it has links to additional resources included. 

According to the booklet, most women need 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrates at each meal. This means the carb counting range for me is a total of 135-180 grams of carbs. 

I can easily count my carbs because I am using the LoseIt! online website and app to help me track what I eat. 

I hope you find this information helpful. I am finding that I can eat more food than I want and I am still losing weight and within my carb range. 

First Time Putting Spinach in a Smoothie

I made my first ever smoothie with spinach in it!
The taste was mango/strawberry with a hint of another flavor and surprisingly good. The luscious, thick smoothie was GREEN.

Go ahead and laugh, I don't mind.
If you have been hesitating about putting spinach in a smoothie, quit hesitating and go for it! The results will surprise you, I promise.

Recipe   Yield: One 10-12 ounce smoothie

• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1 handful of spinach I didn't grab a fistful, just reached into the bag and picked up spinach leaves between my fingers and thumb.
• half of a diced mango
• 3 fresh strawberries, stemmed and sliced. 

Directions
Put all the ingredients into a blender, or processor and blend until smooth and thick.
Pour into a 10-12 ounce glass and enjoy your smoothie!

Never tried using a mango and don't know how to cut it up? 
Watch the video below and you will be ready to slice and dice a mango.

#spinachsmoothie #eathealthy 

A New Food Journey Begins

Prediabetes
I have known that I have a high risk of developing sugar diabetes because during my last pregnancy, I developed gestational sugar diabetes. After the birth of my daughter, it went away. However, I recently found out that I have an elevated glucose level and my doctor wants me to eat healthier and exercise more. 

A New Food Journey - The Dinner Plate Eating Plan

After a little research, I decided to adopt the dinner plate eating plan. This plan fits in with my lifestyle and will help me eat consistently no matter where I am. The picture below shows how to mentally divide your plate into sections and what type of food to put in each section.

Today's Breakfast and Lunch Menu

• Breakfast: Overnight oats without any dairy, half of a mango,diced;  two large strawberries, sliced thinly; and  1 Tbsp sliced almonds. I put the half cup of oats on the bottom with an equal amount of water and layered the fruit and nuts. I added an additional 1/2 cup of water. Honestly, it needed a sweetener. Next time, I am adding a tsp. of honey. 
• Lunch Salad: 2 cups of chopped spinach and romain lettuce,  a small amount of thinly diced red onion, 2 large strawberries, sliced thinly; 1 Tbsp. of raw pumpkin seeds, and 1 Tbsp of lite raspberry vinaigrette. I was still hungry 15 minutes after I finished the salad, so I made a folded cheese quesadilla with one whole wheat tortilla containing 1 ounce of melted Colby jack cheese and ate it slowly - 10 chews per bite. 

Tonight I took a picture of my dinner plate. 

• The top half is filled with homegrown green beans and diced tomatoes, the non-starch vegetables
• Bottom left quarter has baked sweet potato fries, a starchy vegetable
• Bottom right quarter has my protein, Melt-in -Your-Mouth BBQ pork ribs that are baked in foil, unwrapped and brushed with BBQ sauce, then broiled on each side for about 2 minutes.

Drinks
I already drink black coffee by choice during the morning. For afternoon and evening,  I am now adding lemon juice to my water because the lemon juice will help lower my blood glucose level.
Exercise
A formal workout isn't part of my day at this time. To add more walking to my day, I am parking my car at the end of each store parking lot that I visit. Push mowing for 20 minutes instead of using the riding lawn mower the whole time has added more exercise into my day. Another way I am planning on incorporating exercise into my daily routine is to do leg lifts while watching TV in my recliner and to do some walking in place while watching TV. 
Two Weeks and 6 Pounds Later
I started my new meal and exercise plan two weeks ago. Yesterday, I decided that my clothes had definitely become a little looser around my midsection and hips. With some hesitancy, I took out  the bathroom scales to see if I had shed some pounds. I am happy to share that the fit of my clothes was from being six pounds lighter! 

I am still serving some homemade happiness on a plate; it is just a lighter version of homemade happiness on a plate!

 #prediabetes #dinnerplateplan