I was pleasantly surprised by the response to my proposed plan to write about a day in the life of the diet of That Wife, and so I’m going to continue the series. I think some of you thought that I would be writing about what I eat every single day and showing you lots of boring photos. What kind of time do you think I have people? I won’t be doing anything like that, just documenting and posting about one day a week.
I know that the photos aren’t very pretty, and they make the post really long, but I’m taking them for a reason. I think one of the reasons why so many of us have have a hard time losing weight is that we have lost the ability to understand what correct food portions are. Restaurants like Cheesecake Factory feed us enormous plates full of food, often with enough calories to last us an entire day (and that doesn’t even count the dessert course!). I hope that by showing you what my portions look like, those of you who are struggling with this concept will begin to see how all of your choices, big and small, can have an impact on your nutrition stats.
One thing I wuld like to note, is that I’m not looking for nutrition counseling by doing these posts. I understand that a person needs fruits, vegetables, fiber, whole grains, protein, fat, all of those things in their diet. I understand the food pyramid, I understand necessary calories, I understand calorie-fat-fiber-protein ratios. Remember that I don’t care about my nutrition stats for one day. It is the nutrition choices a person makes over time which determine their health, not their choices in a single day. And also, I’m not perfect. I hope that by writing about my own struggles and triumphs that I can help others see that you don’t have to be perfect in your food choices all of the time to reach your weight loss goals.
Commentary will be almost non-existent on this post because I’m losing the internet soon and it would cost me another $15 to renew! Let me know if you have any questions.
Loving this Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal I found at Costco. I’ts packed full of fiber and it’s so light and sweet. I highly recommend it!
I use a scale to get my peanut butter weight amount as exact as possible. Peanut butter is delicious and wonderful BUT it’s full of fat. If you eat a lot of dairy and animal products like I do you are already going to be getting fat from other sources and you don’t need lots of peanut butter sending your numbers sky high. Weighing my peanut butter helps me better understand what a good portion is.
This is a Pacific Rose apple, my favorite apple in the world. We are trying to keep our grocery budget low, so they can be a splurge, but I try to let myself have things like this every once in awhile because I figure that splurging on an apple is much better than splurging on a slice of cheesecake or something.
That is fat free shredded cheese. I love the extra protein it adds without the fat. And do you see why I called myself Mrs. Avocado on Weddingbee?I love me some avocado!
Milk helps me feel full, and gives me lots of protein. I exclusively drink fat-free. Don’t kid yourself if you are justifying anything other than fat-free, there are no additional nutritional benefits and unless you need the extra calories you are just drinking in excess fat for no reason. That fat could be “spent” in so many different areas of
If you have a sweet tooth like I do, dark chocolate can be your best friend. Lots of flavor packed into tiny portions. Milk and white chocolate are the enemy. Stay away at all costs.
Want to know why my stats are so good on these days? Because when I track what I eat and write it down, I naturally eat better. Just being conscious of my food choices makes a huge difference for me. I’m not restricting myself on purpose, I just do a better job of saying “Do I really want to snack on chips right now? It’s going to be extra work to log it later.” Just that little bit of extra effort I have to make saves me several hundred calories every day!






















February 16th, 2009 on 1:47 pm
Just a quick question based on observations from the two days you have posed — do you take daily vitamins and calcium? It absolutely makes sense to not look at each day for calories, fat, etc (I completely agree with this philosophy 100%!) but adding in a daily vitamin and calcium pill can be beneficial for those days that you don’t reach 100% of vitamin needs, and (unless you are consuming bizarrely HUGE quantities of something) not harmful to go overboard. As far as calcium, even though you are close because you do eat a lot of dairy, every day that you are under is a day that you are not stockpiling for the future, and your body can only build bone density until you are 30.
This comment isn’t just for you; every woman should take a daily multivitamin and calcium supplement — it takes 10 seconds to swallow, and is truly beneficial.
Reply
R Reply:
February 16th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Thanks, Julie for posting this. I’ll admit that when I first saw Jenna’s charts my first thought was the lacking vitamins, but I didn’t know how to politely ask considering both religious stuff and planning for pregnancy soon…
Reply
Jenna Reply:
February 24th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Definitely something I need to be thinking about as I start planning for baby!
Reply
February 16th, 2009 on 2:28 pm
I don’t want to correct you, but your food diary posts have been labeled as being from January (1-10-09, for instance).
Otherwise, thanks! I was one of the nerds who thought you would do this every day, so I’m glad you won’t, but I’m also glad you’re doing it occasionally. It does help me think about portion sizes.
Reply
February 16th, 2009 on 3:57 pm
Great post! I love reading what people eat to get ideas! Fun!
Reply
February 16th, 2009 on 10:43 pm
I agree, great post. I wouldn’t have the discipline! You have to eat what works for you.
Reply
February 17th, 2009 on 7:23 am
Those chicken burritos look delicious!
Reply
February 17th, 2009 on 8:26 am
Mmm, I agree — those chicken tortillas look yummy! And so does that cereal. I’ll have to try it — although it will be tough to tear me away from my favorite Kashi cereal (Heart to Heart)!
Reply
February 17th, 2009 on 12:05 pm
Hi Jenna, this has nothing to do with your food intake (great job with the diet btw) but I was wondering if you would write a more in depth post about that husband’s travels and how that affects your relationship or your life during the week. I’m sure you miss him to some extent but does that every get really bad and if so what do you do to combat those feelings? How do you guys see TH’s career affecting family life down the line? Thanks so much!
Reply
Jenna Reply:
February 24th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
For sure! It’s always nice to have post ideas for when I’m brainstorming what to write about.
Reply