Eating Healthier

I've been trying to eat healthier this year.

Of course, I haven't ate a Big Mac or sausage biscuit from Burger King or Tudors in years, though I used to love those Big Macs. We now buy turkey sausage and make sausage gravy and biscuits at home on Saturdays to satisfy my husband's craving for sausage.

However, lately I have been trying not to eat at night and I have cut back on my sweets. I have lost six pounds just by doing this. I hate counting calories!

Junk food for me is sweets. I don't particularly care for potato chips and crunchy snacks, although that is the weakness of my husband. He has low sodium, though, and he gets cravings for salty items. Not me, just give me something with Hershey in its name, and I am happy.

Anyways I have cut back a lot on my sweets and I've started snacking on fresh broccoli and cauliflower when I'm starving in-between meals. Cookies never worked at filling a hungry stomach for me any way. I'd still be hungry after eating a piece of candy or cookie. Not so with the veggies.

There is a great dip at WalMart in the fresh vegetable section. It is made by Marketside and it is a low fat buttermilk ranch dip in a clear plastic container. It is delicious and great to dip the vegetables in.

I also make salmon cakes once a week for supper. Surprisingly, my kids like to eat them too. I just open up a can, take out the soft bones, add egg, finely diced onions, and a slice of our double fiber bread that has been chopped up fine in my Black and Decker mini chopper. I make cakes and fry them in olive oil.

Below are three things I've added to my diet.

a handful of almonds each day, steel cut oats and fresh garlic

I had never ate steel cut oats before, but had heard Dr. Oz and Oprah speak of them. While at a health food store in Flatwoods a few weeks back, I found them in bulk. I bought a big bag at only 79 cents a pound. This makes them cheaper than the regular oats. There were no instructions on the bag. I've been experimenting with the ratio of water to oats. I've found that two cups of water to 3/4 cup of oats makes two large size servings. I cook them for 15 minutes. Be sure the last few minutes of cooking time that you watch the pot, because it starts getting dry and I usually have to add a little water. I love the texture of them - a little crunchy and nutty. For those of you who don't like soft mushy oatmeal, I bet you would like this type. They also keep well. If you make too much, put the leftovers in the fridge and add a little milk and warm up in the microwave the next morning.

I've eaten almonds for quite some time now.

I recently read where garlic was good for your blood pressure, so I started cutting off slivers, putting it in empty capsules you can buy at the health food store, and taking it at breakfast and supper.  BUT, I STOPPED doing that because my blood pressure was getting a little too low. It worked that good! My pressure was getting so it was in the 90s on top and high 50s on the bottom. Even though my doctor said he never heard of anyone dying of low blood pressure, I don't like it that low. It makes me feel funny. I believe how it works is that it thins your blood.

I had been hearing on the news lately that they now think sugar contributes to high cholesterol. That may explain why my husband's cholesterol was always better than mine, he doesn't eat sweets like I do.

The last blood test I had about a month ago, my cholesterol had come down and my blood pressure wasn't high in the office. (I'm one of those that has blue coat syndrome and my pressure is always high in the doctor's office, even though I do take blood pressure medicine).

Have you been doing anything to eat healthier?

Posted by Janet F. Smart at Writing in the Blackberry Patch.
©Janet F. Smart