Checking In

It's day 5 now of life post-nutritionist, and things are going pretty well. I've been following her advice and making all my meals, changing my kinds of snacks, and writing everything down. Today is the last day that I have to fax to her (though I don't know if my building has a fax in our business center so I may not do that until Monday), and then she's going to call to give me her feedback on how I'm doing so far.

I have quickly realized that, with all this cooking and bringing leftovers for lunch, I'm going to get sick of my usual meals VERY soon. So I've been trolling for new healthy recipes and asking friends for their (easy to make) faves. I've gotten a lot of great new ideas, and I think my new plan will be to try to do major cooking of at least 2 big dishes every weekend that can serve as my lunches during the week. That way, I can make new dinners on weeknights and not worry about having to eat the same thing for lunch every day that I'd just had for dinner the night before. I like leftovers, but it can't always be an exact repeat of the previous meal.

A few other updates:

• On my nutritionist's advice, I tried that super-healthy plain Greek yogurt. FAIL. That stuff is disgusting!
• I did go out and buy a whole bunch of new pans, more cutting boards and some utensils (including a better garlic press with the little nubbins like Scotte recommended). So between the nutritionist's fee itself and the new kitchen stuff, I'm making quite a financial investment here.
• I did sneak a peek at the scale this morning. It appears this low-sodium, less-refined-sugar plan may be having a very positive effect...
• I've had no caffeine since Monday! None! (She didn't rule out sodas, but I didn't make any Coke Zero runs during the day this week anyway. That'll probably change next week.)
• I've really cut down on refined sugar, with the exception of a birthday cupcake on Thursday afternoon. I can feel a difference - my afternoon hunger is still there, but the lightheadedness and crash feeling have been noticeably absent.
• While I have been making big changes to what I'm eating, and cutting down on portion sizes especially at dinner, I don't feel like I'm depriving myself like on a usual "diet." Yes, I'm feeling hungry at times but that feels normal and natural, not like the insane starving feelings of being on a 1200 or 1500-calorie-a-day WW plan. So, after years of not really using it anyway, I actually just cancelled my online WW account. I can still access the recipes and exercise info on the site, and I'll save myself the $17 bucks a month since I haven't been using the online journal anyone. My trusty little spiral notebook seems to be doing just fine as a replacement.
• The acidophilus continues to do its trick!

That's all for now - stay tuned for cooking adventures!