100 Day Challenge - Day 19 - All About Portions

It's been nearly a week since I last posted in my journal which was a few days after I arrived here at my daughter's in San Antonio.  I have now been here just over a week. My daughter and her family are going though a very stressful adoption trial, and my time and energy have been completely taken up with babysitting, running errands, and being a support to my daughter and son-in-law.   The stress has been more than palpable in this household.   Has it affected my weight loss journey?   Of course, but not because I've overeaten (except once - as I will discuss in the next paragraph) -  but more because I've not been exercising as much as I had been doing so, and I've not always planned out my meals - which means at times I've eaten 'on the fly' - and have had meals that were not necessarily well thought out.   Most days, however, I've stayed OP  (on my program) and was able to get in three days of walking, averaging 2 miles or more per day.   I am, however,  disappointed that I cannot continue my swimming therapy/exercise while I'm here in San Antonio.   I will need to wait until I return home before I can resume that aspect of my exercise routine.   If all goes well, I should be returning home toward the end of this coming week.   The adoption trial is scheduled to last 5-7 days - which will bring us to the middle of this coming week...of course, it's not possible to actually know the exact day the trial will end.

I have skipped the topics for Day 17 and Day 18 as I've not been able to relate to them very well. Both of them have to do with "throwing away food" or  "leaving food on the plate" - negating the "clean your plate" mandate many of us were raised with.   Since I usually decide ahead of time what portions are adequate  (though not always measuring our portions - which is the topic for Day 19), I don't find it necessary to "throw away food" as is suggested in Linda Spangles' book.  About the only time I find I really need to leave food on my plate is when I go out to restaurants - as often portions are too large.  Or I take food home and make another meal or two of the "leftovers".   I mentioned before that overeating is not usually my problem - even when I have my "trigger foods", I usually eat them in moderation.   This week, was not the case!   I had my #1 trigger food THREE times - a small ice cream cone on Tuesday,  a bowl of frozen yogurt on Wednesday, and on Friday, once scoop of ice cream.    It would have been fine if I had had just the small cone earlier this week and one scoop yesterday.   I would say the bowl of frozen yogurt was "over the top"!   We went to a frozen yogurt place called "Spoon It!" which is self-serve and weighed.  I had the equivalent of probably 3 scoops - with fruit toppings - a large serving indeed!   So this week I over-indulged once...the rest of the week,  I made healthy choices...salads and seafood (steamed or baked),  grilled chicken, lots of veggies, egg dishes, lots of fruit, etc.

Day 19 is all about measuring portions - something I don't always do as I often "guess-timate" my servings.  I do plan to spend the coming week actually measuring out what I normally serve myself to see if I'm staying within the serving sizes/portions I should be having.   While I'm here at my daughter's,  I won't be able to actually weigh my portions as she doesn't have a  food scale.  I will however use measuring cups, etc.  whenever I can.  I will report the results of actually measuring my portions at the end of the week. I actually chose the image above as sometimes I do eat a great deal of fruit - and I need to truly check as to what one serving of fruit really is.   In the WW program, fruit is supposed to be ZERO points.   However, one needs to not "overdo" the amount of fruit one eats.   Along with the other  foods I'll be measuring, I also need to monitor the amount of fruit I eat daily.

Tomorrow I'll be completing the 2nd decade of days in the 100 Days Challenge.   On Monday, I will be taking a road trip to Austin so I won't be able to blog.   Hopefully, on Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll be starting a new section of the Challenge  i.e.  Days 21-30.


I will end this post by focusing on just today in order to answer the following question:

What did I do today to demonstrate my TOTAL COMMITMENT?


Exercise:   2.5 mile walk, most of it on an incline as  this is truly the Hill Country of Texas!


Food Plan for the day:   Breakfast - 1.5 scrambled eggs w/cheese;  1.5 slices of turkey bacon and 1/2 English Muffin w/Smart Balance;       Lunch - Healthy Choice chicken noodle soup  and 2 tangelos
Snack - Greek yogurt w/honey;   banana      Dinner -  turkey, mixed vegetables and rice soup  (home-made)  and fruit.