New Diet

One week ago today, I had my first visit to Joan Gangwer, a local Dietition that my family practice Dr. Bennett Cozen recommended I see to help me loose some of the 30-40 lbs. of weight I've put on over the last year since being on Prednisone. Since then, I've been on this fabulous new diet, composed of 6 small meals/day and "rich" in fruits and vegetables to increase my metabolism. Over the last month, I've lost about 10 lbs. from my own three weeks of huge breakfasts, normal lunches, and salads for dinner as well as this last week of monitored diet. It's hard to say exactly how much I've lost from this diet per se, but I know it's working wonders! I have more energy from it because I never eat enough at any one time to make me feel groggy while digesting it and the combination of fresh produce with complex carbohydrates spread out over the course of the entire day help keep me going strong. It is mostly organic in case I'm allergic to any of the pesticides and they are interfering with my autoimmune condition. The one down side is that it requires a few extra trips/week to the grocery store (fresh things don't last as long!) and quite a bit more time and energy preparing the meals as well as cleaning up from them. Below is an average day:

7:30am - 1/2 cup Oatmeal, 1 Tablespoon Raisins, 1/2 c milk, and a 2 egg white omelet (I grease the pan with 1 T of Extra Virgin Olive Oil). Twice a week, I'm allowed to make the omelet with 1 egg yolk.

9:30-10am - Apple slices and 1 T peanut butter

12 noon - 2 sl Whole Wheat Bread, 17 grapes, lettice and tomato, 1 c raw vegetable sticks (about one large stick of carrot and celery), 3 oz tuna, turkey, or chicken (6 T meat; if canned, wash the salt off first), 2-4 T light mayo (which I never use).

2:30pm - 1 1/2 c Strawberries, 4 oz Yogurt (8 T). I usually substitute some of the fruit here and make a smoothie of it all with the yogurt: 1 frozen banana, 1/2 c apple juice, 1 T wheat germ, 1/2 c frozen blueberries, & 1/2 c frozen strawberries or 1/4 c frozen raspberries. It's the highlight of my day! Yummie.

5pm - 1 small sweet potato or 2/3 c Brown Rice (cooked) or 2/3 c Whole Wheat Pasta (cooked); 1 Clementine, 2 c salad (I usually add a whole roma tomato to the top as well as 1 T olive oil and 1 T lemon juice), and 3 oz Salmon/Turkey/Chicken (about the size of a deck of cards).

8-9pm - 3/4 c Cheerios (or any other cereal with less than 5-6g of sugar/serving), 8 oz milk (1 c).