New diet attempt

Hey guys!

So honestly I've been seriously struggling with my diet. It's pretty restrictive and doesn't allow for much variety or freedom with food. My beautiful and highly intelligent cousin advised me to try out her food program. I read it and I was surprised by how much I'd be allowed to eat so I thought what the heck let's give'r a try :) You'll find the plan below:

Here’s your nutrition program:
You need to eat 4 carbs a day, 4 vegetables, and 5 proteins, 2 fats
Each portion should be approximately the size of your palm, and fats should be one tablespoon…
(not more than 12 grams of sugar per serving in products other than fruits and veggies – anything with a label)
Carbs
Fruit
Corn
Beans
Whole wheat products (not more than 12 grams of sugar per serving in products other than fruits and veggies – anything with a label)
Light yogurt
Cereal – such as Kasha go lean crunch…. be careful of sugar (also no more than 12 grams of sugar per serving)
NO PASTRIES, DONUTS, FRAPPUCCINOS, CAKE, COOKIES ETC.
Potato – any kind, esp sweet potatoes
steel cut oatmeal


Veggies
Carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Asparagus
Lettuce
Bell peppers
Celery
Spinach
kale

Proteins
Egg whites
Chicken breast – 1
Lean beef – 5-6 oz
Canned white albacore tuna – 20-30 g
Turkey sausages – less than 10 g fat, at least 15 g protein
Ground turkey breast patties (for turkey burgers)
Protein bars (watch for sugar!!) less than 12 g sugar, at least 20 g protein, less than 250 calories…

Fats
Peanut butter (1 tablespoon)
Mixed nuts (1/4 cup or less)
Avocado (1/4 of a whole avocado)
Olive oil (1 tablespoon)

When cooking and preparing food, do not use too much butter, mayo, heavy salad dressing. If you need dressing, look for one with 70 cal or less per serving, use light mayo, and cooking spray. Seasoning is always ok. Its sauces and spreads you need to watch out for.

If you follow this program perfectly, then one day a week you can eat any regular food

Good luck everyone!

Mimi

That time..

OK so yesterday I was doing decent with my eating. I ate:

- apple
- banana
- grapes
- plain 1% yogurt with honey
- grilled chicken breast
- stir fried veggies
- stir fried noodles and veggies

then the red hormones started to kick in... you know which one I'm talking about ladies. I made a small vanilla coconut cake with vanilla frosting and I had the equivalent of about 2 cupcakes. It's only gotten worse today. WAY WORSE! Every few hours I want sugar... soo badly. No banana, apple or grape will satisfy my craving... so I'm ashamed to say that I binged out on sugar today. I was doing OK in the morning then all hell broke loose in the afternoon and I felt like I couldn't get enough sugar. Stupid female hormones!!!! I curse you!

Yummy ideas

Hey guys so I was looking up some ideas for cooking healthy meals and I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you:

Honey Curry Baked Chicken (I just noticed the amount of butter she includes!! wowza! I think I would cut it down to maybe one tbsp if I were to use any at all)

http://www.healthy-quick-meals.com/fried-chicken-recipe.html

mmmm I love mixing fruit in with dinner meals

Here are a few more recipes for healthier desserts:

http://www.helpguide.org/life/pdfs/DessertRecipes.pdf

Peace and cheesecake!

Write Off

Ok so don't scold me but yesterday was kind of a write off... we were having a special event at work that required me to be in from 7am to 5pm and during that time I was sitting at the registration desk and helping with set up so I just kinda ate whatever they put out. Basically what I ate was:

- Cheese croissant (i know that alone could be enough calories for the entire day!)
- Coffee with artificial sweeteners
- Green Tea
- An oatmeal raisin cookie
- 4 quarter pieces of sandwiches (two egg sandwich quarters and 2 Bree and red pepper quarters)
- A mini cupcake (it was terrible, hard as a rock and not even sweet, I think it was at least a week old)
- An apple
- A banana
- Some green grapes
- 2 mini egg roles
- A mini quiche type thing with goat cheese and mushroom
- 2 mini balls of beef wellington (sounds so wrong lol)
- A mini pieces of some sort of mango cake or pastry
- 2 slices of Swiss cheese and one slice of cheddar with a cracker

Then in the evening when I got home I did a little better I had

- Stir-fry veggies with a grilled chicken breast
- An apple

Disaster!

This weekend was a disaster in terms of my diet... it all started Friday when I decided to indulge in some noodles and an egg roll and it all went downhill from there... the rest of the weekend was a blurr of cookies, chocolates, cake, rice, lasagna... I could go on put I'd like to spare myself complete humiliation and shame.

Anyway, my motto now is: Today is a new day! Meaning I won't get discouraged! I'm gonna try again. Hopefully this time my will power will be stronger.

How do you guys cope on the weekend when there are parties and social events?

On track

So yesterday I did pretty well... I think.
I was able to stay away from the processed sugar but I must say the cravings are starting to be more powerful today. I just ate plain organic yogurt with honey, a banana and some grapes to try and wean this craving to no avail every time i think of chocolate my mouth literally starts watering (it's kinda embarrassing).

Yesterday I had vanilla field berry oatmeal
Banana cream coffee with fat free milk and artificial sweeteners
Macintosh Apple
Organic plain yogurt with honey
Grapes

A banana

now this is where it gets iffy...

Chicken shawermas with "garden salad" it was a very Arab garden salad with lots of oil and pickles lol and some tahina

at night after coming back from the play rehearsal I wasn't particularly hungry but because my boyfriend was I got food for myself too (I know shameful right). I ate chicken (not breaded) and broccoli from spring rolls express so it wasn't too too bad but considering all the oil and fat that was probably used to cook it lol

I'm actually terrified to blog about what I ate today! Let's just say I totally ruined everything I have been doing in the last few days :( but tomorrow is a new day and I'm determined to beat this!

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. Please comment and share so that others can join as well!

Peace in the middle east! (for real! woohoo!)

Fight The Power!

So today is a super great day for me for 2 reasons. Number one, it's Friday YAAAY!!! just a few short hours until the weekend (finally). Secondly because today is a historic day in the lives of the oppressed people of the world. Today a dictator of over 30 years, someone that everyone saw for a long time as untouchable, has stepped down from power after an exhausting 19 day protest. Yes I'm talking about Mubarak (no longer president haha!) and the people of Egypt! My people. I'm a proud Egyptian Canadian and their victory is not only their own. The whole world is celebrating! Dictators from every country are probably shaking in their shoes and finally the oppressed people of Egypt sent a message to their dictator "NOT WELCOME!" a message and movement that may be contagious among the other oppressed countries and citizens of this world. So hold your heads high my brothers and sisters and let us above all not forget the pride of our nation and the beauty and unity that is the Egyptian people. May God protect our nation.

Quick healthy meals

Hey guys I wanted to get some ideas from you about quick healthy meals that you like to make?

Sometimes I'm lazy and don't feel like spending an hour (or even half an hour) in the kitchen cooking. Have any ideas for yummy meals that are quick and easy to make and are good for you too?

MMM...

Hey everyone!

So this morning I saw this giant homemade cookie at Java Joe's and I was sooo tempted to buy it but you'll all be very proud of me because I resisted the temptation! YAY! I just had a field berry and vanilla oatmeal from them... it was yummy and I added some artificial sweeteners to it to make it extra sweet so that I wouldn't miss the cookie as much.

Yesterday's meals were similar to the ones I had the day before. I ate:

- apple cinnamon oatmeal from Java Joe's
- banana cream coffee with skim milk and artificial sweeteners
- a Macintosh apple
- red grapes
- plain organic yogurt with natural honey
- grilled chicken breast
- a small amount of left over broccoli and green peppers (roasted)
- a leftover potato from a Greek meal we had over the weekend
- another Macintosh apple
- 2 tiny lamb shoulders (2 might sound like a lot but honestly if you remove the bones all the meat from both shoulders was only about as large as my hand)

I should also mention that i try to do some cardio at least 3 times a week. I did an hour of cardio (running and steps) and ab work yesterday.

We should all try an incorporate some sort of physical activity into our routine lives. Honestly I HATE!!!! working out at a gym, I find it super boring and mundane. I love group sports and activities, something that engages me mentally as well as physically but it's too cold out and my motivation to do any physical activity that requires me to leave the building is low.

What kind of indoor activities would you guys recommend other than the gym (in my building)?

Interesting info about processed sugar!

Scary! check it out

Yesterday's meal

Hey guys!

I'll start off with what I ate yesterday, you may find that my diet will change radically from one day to the next, that all depends on my mood, how much food I have already cooked, how much money I have to buy food and what I feel like eating.

Yesterday I had

4 scrambled egg whites with red pepper, onions and a little bit of cheddar cheese
a Macintosh apple (those are the only ones i like)
some red grapes
organic plain yogurt with natural honey
grilled chicken breast (I love the george forman grill, everyone should have one!)
some broccoli and green peppers roasted in the oven with some spices and a lil olive oil
a lamb shoulder (I loooove lamb)
another Macintosh apple
some more organic plain yogurt with natural honey (honestly it tastes a lot like melted ice cream mmmm...)

that's it... and my cravings actually didn't kill me! woo hoo! the yogurt and honey thing really works i'll see how long i can hold up with just that.

Hello!

Hello, I'm Mimi Mystique and I've decided to blog about my experience battling my severe sugar cravings.

Let me start off by explaining why I'm doing this: Firstly I am seriously addicted to sugar, craving something sweet (i.e. chocolate or candy) every hour at least. Secondly, I have a family history of heart disease and diabetes in addition to being middle eastern so my chances of having health complications are higher than normal. Thirdly, many other women (and men) have expressed a similar problem, trying to beat their cravings and having no luck. I thought maybe if I create a blog about my own battle, people may try to join in and we can see if we can do this together!

A friend has advised me to replace processed sugar (i.e.chocolate and candy) with natural sugar like fruits and honey. I know that in the past eating fruits has not prevented my cravings for sugar but I'm willing to try again and this time incorporate more honey into my diet to see if that helps thwart the intense cravings. Also, I know that to a certain extent my cravings are related to emotional and mental states (i.e.boredom, frustration, worry etc...) I will try and blog about these things and see if I can try to find alternative solutions to dealing with them as opposed to reaching for a cookie or a chocolate bar.

If you're interested in joining me then let's start together. I'll let you in on what I'm eating every day and you can tell me what you're eating. If we stumble we'll get back up, if we're upset, we'll talk about it, if we're bored we'll figure out how to engage ourselves. Let's support each other and try to overcome this problem.

Love peace and sugar free chocolate!

Mimi