Loving the Scale

The scale has once again come down!  I am now down 16 lbs and feeling much better about the weight loss.  Of course in all reality, I didn’t start this for the weight loss.  I started it so that I can prevent another heart attack.  I look at those that have had a heart attack and are sitting in front of a huge plate of chicken fried steak and gravy and just shake my head.  Did your heart attack not scare you like mine scared me?  Do you not understand what caused it?  Did you not get good education about heart disease?  I will have to say that my education regarding nutrition was” limit your salt and fat intake.”  The hospital and doctors took wonderful care of me, but I left with piss-poor nutrition information.   I didn’t understand until I saw CNN’s “The Last Heart Attack” how much food plays a part in disease--not just heart disease but diseases like diabetes and cancer too.  They should send everyone who has a heart attack home with some of the books I read.

Back to the weight loss though.  I knew if I changed my eating habits that weight loss would be one of the side effects.  How could it not be?  I have cut processed foods, sugar, fat and added oil. Hold on to your hat—it has even been 2 days since I have had a soda! Even though this is about making my heart healthy, it feels really good to be losing weight.  Of all the ironic things, I am actually struggling to eat enough calories that my body doesn’t think it is starving and I literally eat all day.  For someone who has been fat for so long, this statement is crazy and I could never have imagined myself saying it:).

Right now as I type I am eating a huge leafy green salad with my homemade oil free dressing for breakfast.  It is a large salad and will really fill me up, but it has 50 calories.  I am eating with it 2 cups of raw cauliflower.  It is very filling too but has 35 calories per cup.  That is a lot of food but very little caloric intake.  I had some pasta last night with some of my veggie chili on it to try to up my intake of calories to an acceptable level for weight loss.

I tried out the Mexican spiced veggie crumbles this week.  With my dehydrated no oil tortillas and some fresh salsa, these made the perfect taco salad.  My girls even liked it.  The little one (almost 10 she will tell you and is the self-appointed food watcher for me) was saying “mom, you can’t eat meat – it isn’t good for your heart!”  I let her taste it and told her it wasn’t meat.  She didn’t believe me, so I had to show her the package.  I am going to buy more of these when I go to the store tonight.  This could become a favorite meal!

It turns out I did strike just about the right balance in shopping last week.  The kiddos have had healthy snacks all week!

This week marked the end of heart health awareness month.  A month is not enough--the awareness needs to be so much more for the number one killer of American's!