Mrsnroth asked me after Saturday’s post to write about a typical day for me.  Well, a typical day is definitely not perfect.  I have hypoglycemia and crave sugar constantly.  One taste just makes me want more and it’s better if I stay away all together.  Sometimes I win over the craving and sometimes not.  If I give in to the craving, I feel terrible physically and lose energy within a few minutes, but strangely enough, I still fight the same craving the next time.

Also typically it’s very hard for me to get up and do my exercises.  If I skip them first thing in the morning, it’s not likely I will come back to them during the day.  I’m telling you these things because I’m going to write about a good day.  A day I make the choices I want to make and don’t let my physical and emotional weaknesses sabotage my goals.  But I’m just like you and probably not as good, so don’t feel bad or wish you could do things like I do.  Try to be better :).

6:15 wake up–say prayers/read devotions, weigh, shower–put on exercise clothes. (I know this sounds backwards, but with my hypoglycemia I have to eat before I exercise and I want to weigh before I eat and it’s easier to weigh before I shower.  Plus the shower wakes me up so I can fucntion.)

Breakfast:  I usually eat one of 3 things:  1 cup of bran flakes with 1 cup of skim milk;

or A Veggie Omelet:  1/4 onion sauteed with 4 fresh mushrooms sliced and 1/4 cup frozen or fresh spinach with 2 eggs scrambled in

or A Strawberry smoothie:  1 scoop of vanilla whey protein powder with 1 cup water and 6 frozen strawberries (pureed in the blender.)

6:45–exercise with a 20 minute video using the interval method of exercise.  I have several but like the Mama wants her Body Back series and for pregnancy:  Summer Sander’s Prenatal Video or Tracey Mallet:  Fit For Pregnancy.  I don’t have any fancy equipment, but I do use a yoga mat for floor exercises, a pair of 5lb dumbells, a resistance band, and a stability ball.  I like to mix aerobics with weight training and combine movements within exercises so in the same amount of time I get twice as much done.

7:30 Dressed and wake up kiddoes–Cook their breakfast, then supervise chores and music practice.  I am with the children for breakfast and this is when I clean up the kitchen, but I do not eat with them–since they need more carbs and calories than I do.

9:30-10:00  Snack:  I’ll choose a second breakfast from my typical 3 that I listed above.  I also drink a cup of green tea or Holy thistle tea.  This helps me keep my colon regular and not retain too much water and the Holy Tea is also a liver tonic which helps regulate metabolism.  Green tea is full of antioxidants and a mild stimulant–which helps to keep my blood pressure at normal levels and boost metabolism.  The warm liquid also helps me feel less hungry.  I’ll have a cup or more of each before the day is through.  (I use the same tea bag all day.)

11:30-noon lunch:  I fix the kid’s lunch first–grilled cheese and soup or whole wheat pizzas or quesadillas–something like that.  Then I fix mine after they begin eating which is usually a stir fry of some sort:  1 cup of fresh or frozen veggies and 3 oz of chicken breast, shrimp, salmon, or turkey. I season my stir-fry with various seasoning blends.  Changing the seasoning helps me not get bored:  either southwest–taco type seasonings, Cajun, hickory smoke  blend, lemon peper, or seasoning salt.  I also eat a huge tossed salad with low fat dressing.   My meals are gorgeous!  But the kids aren’t jealous at all.  In fact, they turn their noses up at all my veggies.  I wish they loved vegetables more, but it is easier on the budget not to share my fancy food.  I sneak in their vegetables where I can.  I put spinach in their meatballs and puree lots of vegetables into their spaghetti sauce that I also use on pizza, lasagna, and manicotti.

2:30:  Afternoon snack:  3/4 of a Pure Protein brand bar (I cut the bar’s in fourths and put 3 chunks in a little baggie) and a piece of fruit.  Or a cheesestick and fruit; hummus and raw veggies; apple and peanut butter; 2 graham crackers and skim milk; or 7 almonds with a cut up cheesestick, fresh pea pods, and 1 T craisins–Yum!  Often this snack has to be portable and go in my purse with me for our afternoon music lessons or ballet classes.

5:00 dinner:  I fix a typical dinner for my family and modify it for me.  If theirs is way too heavy on grains, I’ll make myself another stir fry and sit at the table with them.  Or if they are having hamburgers, I’ll have a turkey burger (saves 100 calories.)  I use sandwich thins or pitas instead of traditional buns, which saves another 100 calories–and the whole family prefers them.  If they eat tacos, I have a taco salad without the shell.  I eat pizza with them, but use ground turkeyhome seasoned as Italian sausage, and turkey pepperoni, part skim mozzarella cheese, 100% whole wheat crust, and lots of veggies.  I try to hold myself to one piece, but I always eat 2 :).  On pizza night I skip my evening snack.

I usually have a huge salad available and fresh fruit at this meal too.

7:30 snack:  Usually a dessert snack for the family and a sugar free version for me or light popcorn.  I often have gotten all my protein in for the day by now and it’s just something small to tide me over for the night.  I’ve been known to eat a healthy amount of raw celery and other raw veggies before bed.  The high fiber content boosts my metabolism and flushes water over the night since even though my digestion slows while I’m sleeping; it has to work harder than usual to deal with all that fiber.  

I try hard not to eat after 7:30 since my activity really slows down after this and food eaten now is likely to be converted to fat.

In the evening, I usually stay up wayyy too late talking to DH after the house is quiet.  And we enjoy watching mystery or spy shows on the internet together too.  I’ve been trying to go to sleep by 10:00, but often Darren’s company is too hard to resist.  Staying up late sometimes messes up my early morning activities, so we are trying to be better about that.