The Nervous Fish Husband Cook

"29 lb" by Simon Britton

I read about the benefits of eating fish, but I don't really like fish. Here's why: my brother caught fish growing up and they always stunk. The slime would stick to their skin--just gross. He caught an inedible carp and he gave it to his dog, Athens. Seeing that convinced me even more that I hate fish. Those strange scales like a palm tree scattered across the dirt. Cringe. I must have a texture issue.

Anyway, I asked my husband to buy fish at the store yesterday. I am going to try fish again (I'm okay with halibut). He was so nervous trying to pick out the fish--he had to pick the best so I'll like it. So now we have a slab of salmon, the most expensive fish at the store. My husband has been sweating over preparing the salmon right. He wants me to like it so much. I told him not to worry about whether or not I like it. I'm already biased against fish, but I'm trying something new! He's cooking the salmon right now. I'll report the results later.

"Salmon with Green Onion" by Helen Barth Villareal

I'm counting my servings for each category under the diabetic exchange system: fat, starch, protein, vegetables, fruit, and dairy. I tend to have 2-4 more servings of starches than I need, but I eat less than I did before. I've kept my goal of tracking food. Getting in the vegetables and fruit can be a little difficult, but I'm doing better than before. It doesn't help that my sons take my food.

About half the time, my two older boys eat the strawberries and raspberries within a day or two. I haven't even cracked the case open and it's almost gone. Last weekend, they left my fruit alone, but not this weekend. It's good for them to eat fruit, but let the other three people in the house have some too! Sometimes, my husband and I charge them a dollar when they eat something before we get any.

This reminds me of when the dietitian asks if I eat food in secret. The answer is complicated. I hide and eat food in secret from my children, but not my husband. My husband won't eat it all or beg for half of it. As long as you won't beg for my food, I'll binge eat in front of you.

My husband gets jealous when he sees me build my salads. He was talking about it so I described more what I put on my salad. It made him hungrier. Do you think the experiment will work on you? Mix spinach, mushrooms, sliced almonds, shredded cheese, a little dressing, and some croutons. I added cucumbers yesterday. The almonds, croutons, and cucumbers add some crunch. On occasion, I'll add avocado slices. Did it work?

Working on Goals

"Carrots for Sale" by Paul Brennan

I've been weighed twice now with the new community program. My weight is more than I want or thought it would be. I weigh in at 232-234 lbs; BMI is 39.4; and my body is 48.8% fat. How depressing, but it is only the beginning. It is about measuring progress, right?

Goal Progress

I successfully went to bed by 10ish two nights in a row. That's great for me! So that means I can get a professional massage on 9/8 if I keep this goal for 29 more days. I still feel somewhat tired, but I have sleep to catch up on. My oldest was in pain last night and he woke me around 1 am. I was so out of it. He was better in the morning, thank heaven.

I've been tracking my food intake since Friday. After my appointment with a dietitian last week, I chose the diabetic exchange system. I just count servings instead of writing down each food I eat or the calories. It's simpler for me, but I still have to measure my food.

My last goal was to exercise twice a week. I've sort of kept that goal. I walked around the grocery store and rode my bike to and from a meeting over the weekend. I need something more formal, in my opinion. It's just difficult because I'm still feeling rather tired. Need to catch up on my sleep. I'm also debating whether to work with a trainer or not. I could save around $1000 a year if I don't do group training. I could even drop my gym membership and save around $350 a year, but the cold months are coming.

Rethinking The Formula

I mentioned The Formula plan to the dietitian at the appointment. She looked over the book and commented that it asks for a little too much protein and fat. Instead of 40-30-30, she suggested 50-25-25. So just 5% less calories from both protein and fat. It's still pretty close to the 40-30-30 formula. The dietitian recommended modifying the recipes.

We talked about the glycemic index for carrots. She said it's the glycemic load that matters. So high glycemic foods like carrots and bananas are back on my radar because they have a low glycemic load. I may try the lower glycemic formula recipes in The Formula because it may help. For now, I'm keeping life simple.

So for my diabetic exchange system, I can have 8 starches, 6 proteins, 4 non-starchy vegetables, 4 fruits, 3 fat, and 2 dairy. This is according to my weight, height, gender and age, so it's different for everyone. Here's an online calculator, but a dietitian is a better expert to determine number of servings. The dietitian handed me a booklet to show servings in the diabetic exchange system. (Here's an online list.) Looking through it, the vegetable and fruit servings are larger than I thought and the protein, fat, and starch servings are smaller than I thought. Of course that would be the case.

So now to keep moving forward. The day-in day-out seems really difficult. I just want a magic surgery for weight loss (that isn't expensive or risky in any way).

So how are you coming along on your goals?