First Week Update

Ok, so it's been one week since I started to really put a bit more effort into my eating habits.  I have not been perfect - as you can see from the last post there was a flat pizza night and I did have a Quarter Pounder on Wednesday (just the burger, no fries!) but I've made a massive improvement on my previous habits.  I already feel a lot more energised, and I'm not as tempted to sit on the couch and watch TV all day.
As well as making a conscious effort to eat better, I've also started taking an iron supplement once a day - I can't say whether or not this is what's behind my energy increase but I think it usually takes a couple of weeks for iron levels to improve from a supplement so I'd say my overall dietary changes are probably the cause.
I'm finding the diary very helpful, I've found it more beneficial to log what I've eaten for a few consecutive days than to try to maintain it non stop, but I can already really see where and why I need improvements.  Planning ahead is key - the meal plan I made last week was really helpful but once I'd got to day four, I had a few rushed meals that weren't as balanced as I'd have liked.  Although I intend to plan ahead more, I'm trying to negate the impact of the rush by cramming in lots of veggies into my "last minute" meals.  For example last night, after a long-ish day at work I just wanted something yum to eat.  I decided on Mexican but instead of making it with minced beef and not much else, I made it entirely out of vegetables.  Into the pan went three portions of frozen spinach, a half cup of green beans, a few chopped mushrooms, half a can of kidney beans, half a can of tomatoes and some Mexican seasoning.  I used baked taco shells instead of burritos or wraps and added a wee bit of grated Edam instead of sour cream.  Not a perfect meal by any stretch, and I probably made a little too much, but it was packed with a variety of vegetables, contained a protein source and was relatively low in fat!

I'm still wanting to experiment more and hopefully today I'll be doing a bit of "healthy baking". Last week I made a no-added-sugar banana bread which was really tasty, I might make it again soon and post the recipe.  I tweaked it a little bit and replaced the ground almond from the original recipe with wholemeal flour because of the cost.  I was a bit worried about the fat content since there was no butter and the only oils in the recipes came from the almond, shredded coconut and some peanut butter but it was actually really moist in the end!  It's funny how this all makes me realise how much I was taught growing up about the chemistry of baking!
If I do some more cooking today I'll make sure to post recipes and results up here.
Have a good day!
:)