Tracking My Protein Prints

One of the things that my nutritionist has asked me to do was to track everything that enters my mouth. I have done this before but under the watchful eye of watching the calorie and carb intake. Now I am switching gears from watching the calorie to watching the PROTEIN. Protein is the most important thing in my diet. It keeps me full. It keeps me from ever feeling hungry, but it also gives me the energy I need and keeps the control malnutrition controllable by giving my body fuel. It is more important than I ever realized now that I am eating soft foods.

I used to be found with a small notebook everywhere I went. I would meticulously write down everything and if I left my notebook I felt "naked" and was always scared that I missed something. Yesterday, I am reading my facebook and a dear friend from college shared how she managed to loose her baby weight plus 20 and shared her tools. One of them was www.sparkpeople.com It is an amazing website! I love it. I also love the food tracker. I was able to customize it to follow my protein intake, watch the sugar intake, and give me a daily report on how I did! What is great is I can update it via the web or via my phone (as soon as hubs installs it on my blackberry)!!! It is a great tool and I am excited to use it. Yesterday, it impressed me with the amount of searchable foods it has to find the right brand that I am using. WOW! So if you need a tracker, I suggest sparkpeople.

Along with tracking I continue to journal. I love my journaling and I have found that I now have two distinct journals. For all of my weight loss thoughts and feelings I have subconsciously put them all here and I am glad because one day I will have one great record of this major change in my life. My daily journal that travels with me is now filled with personal goals, thoughts, dreams, and how I am processing all of this. I told Dr. Brynda at my last session that I have 2 and felt that she was going to tell me no, but she really encouraged me to take the time to separate thoughts and told me if it is working for me than by all means go for it! I'm finding that out a lot lately. For the first time in my life and the history with my doctors I am finding that if it works for me and meets the guidelines that I am getting support from my doctors. It has been great! I love to know that they trust me to 1) stay to the plan and 2) know my body well. If I know my body and can tell them about it then I am succeeding and I crave the success of a healthy ME!

I am still healing. I am not as sore as I used to be and I can proudly say I can shower myself again, dry off my own legs, bend over to pick a few small items I drop on the floor, and lay in bed comfortably. I have found I can actually sleep on my tummy again if I happen to role on it, but try to stay on the right side since the left side is still healing. My incisions look good. I am having trouble with one itty bitty one on my left side. Seems water got under the glue and there was a little liquid. So now I make sure it has neosporin on it and it is covered until that new skin comes in and the scab re-takes while I am still keeping it open to air under a clean environment. It is scary and frustrating, but I am obese and know that healing can take time with wounds.

Exercise starts in tomorrow. The new schedule of me figuring out my schedule! I am both excited and feel daunted by the task. I am heading to the rec center after work. Here goes nothing in tracking my exercise. I know I need it to a) be healthy for me b) keep to the basics of taking care of me c) meet my goal of loosing weight and d) meet my goal of walking in a 5 k. I am determined, just scared. I know I can do it. I'm pledging 3 X this week to work out at the rec. I'm going to make it.

Off to run errands and to find soft veggies to add with my meats. Tonight I'm making tilapia. Yum!