Eating habits.

Something I learned from my Nutrition class (my teacher was awesome and the class was so interesting and practical!) was that one step in eating healthier is taking a look at our eating habits and environments.  One of our paper assignments made me think a lot about how my eating habits change when was on campus, when I was at home, and when I eat out.

Food is so available and accessible when I'm home, and since the food tastes yummy and because my parents are always offering seconds or treats, I've found that it can be difficult to make healthier decisions - maybe not in the type of food (I think because home food is usually made from scratch or cooked by someone, it's healthier than the mysterious foods in the dining hall), but definitely in portion sizes and sometimes variety.

I've learned that I hate leaving food on my plate and that I will work hard to eat everything on it, even if I'm extremely full.  Sad but true, I know.  And if seconds are offered and the food tastes really good, I have a hard time saying no.

Now, this is a poor habit because overeating means disrupting my energy balance (especially if I'm not exercising regularly), which leaves my energy intake outweighing my energy exertion.  The imbalance means most likely those sources of energy will get stored as fat.

So as I've learned with any improvements in health and wellness, simple, attainable behavior modification is the way to go.  Start small and build up.  I'm terrible at "eye-ing" proportions and depth of space (hence, why I tend to make wide right turns and drive closer to the middle of the road instead of hugging the right side on a narrow street while driving - I'm scared I'm too close to the cars), so I'm trying to modify my behavior by limiting my portion sizes than I would normally have on my plate, eating slower, and deciding beforehand that I do not plan on taking second helpings - unless I rest for a few minutes and decide I really do need to have a few more bites.

Knowing how much I hate leaving food on my plate, limiting my portion sizes helps me not have to worry about feeling guilty for taking too much.  Eating slower reminds me to enjoy and savor the food I'm eating and helps me recognize the signs my body tells me that I'm getting full (this is why it's often not good to eat while watching tv or doing other things - your attention is distracting from eating and it's harder for you to recognize when you are actually full, causing you to overeat).  Deciding not to take second helpings beforehand helps trigger a reminder when I find my plate empty from my firsts and have to decide whether or not I want more.  By making that decision beforehand, I can at least decide to wait a few minutes to see if I'm actually full instead of listening to my taste buds which more often than not want more than my stomach should handle.

So far, I think I've been making some progress.  I don't really know how to chart it, but it's only been about a week or so since I've actually been having some success, so we'll see how this goes for the rest of the summer.  It's a huge mental thing, so hopefully my mind is starting to adjust to being okay with not having seconds and having smaller portions.

Here are some of foods I've been concocting recently:

I love chopping vegetables.  Chopping and stirring are my two favorite things to do in cooking.  It's just really fun to me, I have no idea why.  So I loved finding this recipe for honey chicken stir fry because it required a lot of chopped vegetables and pretty much just needed to mix everything together.  It was simple and easy to make, but I wasn't really a fan of how I made the chicken or the orange-y taste of the sauce.

Honey chicken stir fry

 Libby was telling me how she's been making a fruit smoothie for herself every morning since she's been home from college, and reminded me about the Magic Bullet we had sitting in our pantry, all dusty and lonely from being unused for so long.  I decided to break it out and give it a whirl, experimenting with some pumpkin leftover from the iced pumpkin cookies I had made a few weeks earlier.  It was delicious!!

Pumpkin smoothie

Some of Tammy's eating habit fun facts:

• Give me a dish that contains peas and I may very well squish them with a fork before consumption.  I do not enjoy the squishy/squirty round feeling of peas in my mouth.
• I usually take my cereal dry, thank you.  Milk on the side in a cup, please.
• Working for my food, even if it tastes good, is a big turn-off.  This includes being careful about bones in fish, shelling any seafood, and sometimes (depending on my mood) cutting up meat.  Come on, people.  I just want to eat.  I don't want to have to be extra conscious during my eating time or do extra work in order to eat.  It just slows the eating process.  The most work I want to do is the work it takes to stick my fork into the food and transport it to my mouth.