SEVEN

This winter, I read the amazing book "7- An Experimental Mutiny on Excess" by Jen Hatmaker.  Wow- it was good.  In the book, Jen took 7 areas of her life that tended to be in excess, and radically pared them down month by month.

Month 1: Food (eat 7 foods)
Month 2: Clothes (wear only 7 items of clothing)
Month 3: Posessions (give away 7 things every day)
Month 4: Media (Eliminate 7 forms of media)
Month 5: Waste (eliminate wate in 7 areas of life)
Month 6: Spending (only spend money in 7 places)
Month 7: Stress

It was such a convicting book that after reading and discussing it with friends, I determined that I wanted to have my own 7 experience.  I wanted to be challenged and changed, but I also want to be successful, and so I have decided to 7 weeks, not months.  Today was the first day of the first week; FOOD.

I am not going to eat only 7 foods- I am not ready for that.  But I do want to make some changes in the way I eat.  I have been a Registered Dietitian for over 10 years, but there are still areas of my diet where I do not practice what I preach, and I'd like to see what happens if I make some changes.  I also wanted this week to be something that I could conceivably continue to do indefinitely.

Here are my rules:
Whole, unprocessed foods.  Natural sugar (honey), no refined flours.  I can have coffee with cream, and I can have dark chocolate if it is at least 70% cocoa.

Here is what I ate on DAY 1:
Breakfast: steel cut oats with honey, cinnamon and walnuts with milk.  Coffee with half and half
Morning Snack: brie cheese and an orange
Lunch: Chef Salad (Romaine, Spinach, carrots, tomato, green onion, chicken, almonds with honey mustard dressing), Skim milk, grapes.  Small Square Dark Chocolate
Afternoon Snack: Carrots and green onions dipped in hummus.   Water.
Second Afternoon Snack: (felt strong need for carbs): small bowl Great Grains cereal w/ skim milk
Supper:  Chili (homemade), topped with cheese, sour cream and green onions.  Carrots and celery sticks dipped in homemade ranch dip, skim milk
Evening Snack: Small square dark chocolate

*Ways I strayed:  the honey mustard salad dressing was Kraft- definitely lots of processed stuff in there.  The Great Grains cereal wasn't the best choice.  The grains are whole, but it had some brown sugar it it.  I should have picked GrapeNuts. I had about 1 tsp of vanilla ice cream after I dished up some for my son.

The most tempting situations:
-I took my kids out for a bagel this morning as a "no school treat."  My daughter ate all but 1/4 of her bagel.  It was all I could do to not eat it.
-My daughter did not eat all of her wheat thins.  Looking at those 4 Wheat Thins sitting on the table was hard- I usually would have grabbed them and eaten them right away.
-Dishing up ice cream for a bedtime snack:  I hardly every have my own dish, but I always grab several spoonfuls for myself right out of the carton.  Limiting myself to a 1/2 teaspoon amount was an achievement!

-My thoughts:
"I am hungry.  But I don't want to go into the kitchen and chop up and prepare something to eat, so I guess I'll just be hungry"
-How much quick-and-easy carbs play into my diet: cereal, cookies, crackers, etc.  These things are huge "fillers" for me.  In a usual day, I would eat a couple cookies, a few handfuls of crackers, and clean up whatever was left on my plate.  These things really add up and don't contribute much of anything good to my diet.

-Changes to my grocery list:

More fruits and veggies!  I found myself thinking; I had better buy more fruit, I'm going to need something to eat!  I bought hummus, and so bought more dipping veggies to go in them.  Instead of one sweet potato for the week, I bought four.
-More whole grains: steel cut oats for cereal, quinoa for supper/ breakfast and wheat berries to make one of my favorite salads.
-Fish!  We all like fish, but I often forget to include it in my weekly menu.  It's what's for supper tomorrow night!

The purpose of this week of dietary changes is not for me to put an end to eating habits like making homemade goodies or having ice cream now and then.  The purpose of it is for me to have my eyes opened to the state of my diet.  I am pretty much in my mid-30s and I can't eat like I did in my teens and 20s and expect to not gain weight.  I also want to fuel my body better- I don't eat enough fruits and vegetables because I don't plan ahead ways to make them delicious.  I also find myself feeding them to my kids, and just having a little hear and there as a way to save money and give them the good stuff.  Not a good idea.  I am also a big snacker- the second my stomach rumbles, I put something in it.  What a privilege.  I could stand to feel hunger now and then- much of the world does most of the time.