New Plan, Day Three

I slept in until 8, which felt downright luxurious. It was a cold, rainy and occasionally snowy morning, so it was good to face it well-rested and feeling good.

Breakfast, 10:30am

• ham and cheese on a whole wheat roll
• cubed cantaloupe
• 24 oz. water

Because I was cold and put off by the weather, I really wanted a hot breakfast, and I realized that if I prepared this sandwich open-faced and heated it under the broiler, it would fit the bill perfectly. I might have swapped the whole grain roll for one of the light multigrain English muffins we got - will keep that in mind for future.

I Googled the serving size for cantaloupe and have come up with around 1 cup, which in this instance turned out to be about 1/4 of this cantaloupe. I need to make a list or chart of the portion sizes for these things, but I think overdoing on fruit is a lot less harmful than, say, accidentally eating a cupcake.

I'm very pleased with drinking so much water. A friend of mine happened to post a link to this page about water on Twitter, and it had many tips for making yourself drink more, as well as some interesting things to think about (though I really wish the author had used more paragraph breaks and some reference citations). I dug my Camelback bottle out of my swimming bag and have been toting that around - it's easy to suck down a few sips here and there and find suddenly the bottle is near empty.

I do think I'm going to make it a plan to drink an extra 2-3 glasses of water as well, totaling 10-12 8-oz. glasses per day. If I aim for 12, that's 4 refills of my bottle, which I think I can work my way up to.

Midday

• 24 oz. water

Lunch, 2:30pm

• flatbread pizza made with tomato sauce, part-skim mozzarella, broccoli and mushrooms
• bowl of tomato soup with herbs and sprinkle of pecorino Romano cheese
• 12 oz. Diet Coke

I was so enamored with yesterday's pizza that I made them again for my mother and me. We both really enjoyed this, and I think the success of it comes from flavoring the sauce, as well as crisping the pita in the broiler so it feels like a very satisfying crust.

I decided, while eating my soup, that hot tomato is probably my favorite savory flavor, and I am absolutely in love with tomato soup.

Dinner, 8pm

• turkey tostada, made with lean ground turkey cooked with onions and garlic, with mushrooms in salsa, served on a whole grain tortilla with reduced fat Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickled jalapeños, sliced avocado, and fresh cilantro
• Diet Coke (not pictured)

This meal was absolutely delicious, and both of my parents seemed to really enjoy it. My father complimented me on my cooking this week, saying he was pleasantly surprised at such nutritious, colorful, flavorful, "refreshing" meals and that he looked forward to more of this type. I felt very much the same, and we all agreed that it feels great to eat right.

Using my fats in the avocado is a nice move, I think, since I enjoy it so much more than I would a pat of butter or a glob of dressing. I'm also in love with jalapeños and fresh cilantro, as well as turkey perked up with salsa.

Summary

I meant to have another serving of fruit and some more vegetables, as well as the rest of my water, but I fell asleep in a chair downstairs (I've been doing this a lot lately) and didn't wake up until 6am, at which point it seemed silly. I really need to work on making the actual decision to go to bed, rather than fall asleep wherever I plunk down.

Apart from being short on water, I think today was a pretty good day.