Eat this:

In my quest to beef up a little (without actually eating any beef, ha!) I purchased the above pictured yogurt at the grocery store yesterday. Holy Hannah! Is it ever delicious! I packed some for The Bee's lunch, too, and we'll see what he says about it when he gets home. It pretty much tasted like whipped cream with my blueberries this morning!

In addition to eating whole fat dairy, I am going to try to keep track of my calories for a few days to get an idea of what I am actually consuming. One of my best gal pals had the idea and signed me up for FitDay when we got together for some crafting this afternoon. I figure it can't hurt anything and this girl is the one responsible for getting me and The Bee together in high school, she was there (hiding in the bushes and taking pictures) when The Bee proposed, she was one of my bridesmaids and she played a part in The Bee landing his new job. Plus she is just an amazingly kind, generous, supportive person. If the world had more of her walking around, it would be a much better place! She is largely responsible for many of the wonderful things in our lives (although she is so modest, she'd deny it) so I thought, "If she thinks this might help, I'll try it!" She also told me to immediately stop drinking green tea since that speeds up your metabolism. I started drinking green tea about 13 months into our ttc adventure because I decided that my morning coffee HAD to be responsible for my lack of pregnancy and green tea has less caffeine (and I read that it improves CM). Well, the tea hasn't helped anything so I don't mind giving it up!

Calorie counting was actually very telling. According to FitDay (assuming it is accurate) today I have eaten breakfast, lunch, a snack, dinner and dessert and have only consumed 1059 calories.

1059 seems freakishly low to me, but if it is true then that is definitely not helpful while The Bee and I are ttc. Using this calculator thingy I found online (also assuming it is accurate for the purpose of this blog entry) it says that for my age, height, weight and activity level I need 1630/day to maintain my current weight. Hmmm. This means:
A. These tools are inaccurate
B. I don't know how to use them properly
or
C. I need to seriously evaluate my food habits.

My general food rules are:
1. When you are hungry, eat.
2. When you are full, stop eating.
3. Aim for 3 meals a day (plus 1-3 snacks and dessert).
4. Make sure you have variety (in colors, textures, flavors, food groups) so that it is an enjoyable experience and you get all of the vitamins, etc that you need at the same time!

These rules have always served me well. I have, of course, overeaten when something I really like is on the plate (or in the bowl) such as french fries (or any other form of potato, for that matter), ice cream, pasta (in days of old, anyway), or tortilla chips with salsa/guacamole. Generally, though, I eat three meals a day, however many snacks I feel like I need and dessert if I want, then call it good. I am convinced my recent weight loss is caused by stress and the absence of gluten in my diet. I eat WAY more fruits and veggies now so I feel full but they don't carry much in the way of calories. I need to try to get more non-gluten grains like rice and quinoa into my daily meals and I bet that would help.

So, now I am going to go consume about 600 calories worth of chips and guacamole and hope for the best in this new experiment!