The Rules

A few months ago I wasn't feeling well and went to see a nurse at my work. The office happened to have a scale and I decided to see how much I weighed. I had a number in mind, but what I saw shocked me (and not in a good way).

Since then, I have been following a few "rules" to keep my eating in check. Some days are better than others, but I found a few things helpful:

** writing down my food intake in an Excel spreadsheet really helps me not to overeat (it's almost like I'd be embarrassed to eat another cookie if I had to write it down)

** cutting off food intake (other than fruit) after 8 pm is very important for me (the days when I for some reason have a late night dinner don't count)

** no second helpings!!! (okay, this one is really easy to cheat on by simply making the portion sizes bigger, but I'm trying to work on it)

** chewing in between bites (this seems really easy, but you'd be surprised how quickly food can disappear if you don't pay attention to chewing it)

** 4 physical activities per week (luckily for me I decided that dancing and dancing practice counts. Most week that's 3 out of 4. Last week I went ice-skating instead of going to the gym)

** 1 dessert/day (again, this seems ridiculously easy, but here's an example of how sometimes I break this rule: just yesterday Stacey brought to work some sugar cookies and I had one. Then I went out for sushi with Jenn and had tempura ice cream. And I finished the whole thing....maybe today I'll skip dessert all together...)

New rules:
From now on I will only buy complex carbohydrates: this means sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes (good thing I like them!), wholewheat bread instead of white bread, wholewheat pasta, etc. [Exception: I'm still allowed to finish the pasta and rice I have in my cupboards: no need to waste food. And of course when going out to eat I can splurge a bit.]