Too many veggies + not enough water = unhappy belly

So, guess what I learned this week?

Yup, if you read the title, you get it...too many veggies + not enough water = unhappy belly.

I ended up not dropping out of WW. I will admit I was frustrated with doing things "my way" and then somebody had to go shakin' it up on me. After reading more about the new program, I can understand and even appreciate the changes. I plugged in all my points for the week, and wow! I thought I was doing good last week and when I finally had a chance to sit to chart, I was at least 10 points over each day. It was also the first week of my new job, and so I was nervous eating quite a bit as well. Excuses, excuses! I see where my problems are and now I need to do some adjusting.

This week, I did a little better, but not by much. I think my problem falls on work days. I work 12 hour shifts and so I need to plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner away from home. And since being able to suck, swallow and breath all at the same time takes quite an effort from the patients I work with, I can find myself sitting in a recliner for a good 30 minutes or so unable to get up, multiply that by 3 and you have one busy morning, do that every 3 hours, along with attending rounds, teaching parents, putting out fires, preventing emergencies, charting (at least the EMR is more user-friendly than the WW site), and the list goes on - before I know it, I have fallen into the trap that most nurses do, not taking very good care of themselves.

I will put on my trying-not-to-be-judgmental hat for just a minute. Looking around these past couple of weeks, as well as at my nurse-friend peers, it appears that those that spend the bulk of their time caring for others, seem to have lost the ability to care for themselves. I became a martyr at my old job. I was in administration and would give up my own lunch, to scarf down whatever I could find leftover from a lunch-and-learn to work at my desk to get ahead. Ahead for who? Finally, 2 weeks ago, I took a leap of faith and demoted myself back to floor nurse, and now am very concerned about falling back into that trap of not taking care of myself. I feel as though I need to take even better care of myself now and be healthy and appear healthy. Especially now, since parents are scared and trusting that I will take the very best care of their littlest little ones, not that I expect them to trust me based on if my make-up looks good, or my clothes are pressed, or if I weigh a certain amount. No, no, no, that's not where I'm going. I guess I'm trying to say that I want others to know how important health is to me and I feel as though right now, I am not setting a very good example of that.

Also for my kids. I will confess to being ashamed of my overweight mother when I was growing up. I remember feeling sad in the 6th grade because my arms would not fit around my mother. I have never shared this with my mother, because she is still obese and I don't see that changing any time soon. I became afraid to eat and was extremely underweight all through high-school and college. I'm afraid of being that person, too. And so I am very mindful of not talking about points, or "fat" in front of my kids. My kids know that my purpose for running in the Princess Half marathon next month is just to have fun! (And beat Al Roker's time of 3:16, but that's just purely for motivation.)

Back to my issue of working from 6:45am to 7:15 pm. I have found what works successfully for me to keep my hunger at bay is to do this:

Breakfast 0530 - whole grain, fruit, water

Snack - 0930 - greek yogurt, fruit, water

Lunch - 1330 - 2 veggies, 1 protein, water

Snack - 1730 - kashi bar, water

Dinner - 2000 - cereal, almond milk, fruit

Keeping in mind my 0930 and 1730 snacks must be eaten very quickly, so they are usually pre-packaged foods.

I did great with my veggies and fruits yesterday, but not so good with my water, and this morning, ugggg, it caught up to me. Let's just say, I felt a little heavy. My weigh-in was 148.2, which is basically no loss all week. Likely because there are about 4 pounds hiding in my colon. I know, TMI, but really what did you think when you read the title?

That aside, I am considering doing a 24 hour cleanse sometime in the next month. I've since, ahem, fixed my heavy problem this morning. But I think I need something to clean the toxins out of my system. I overindulged tremendously during the holidays and ate many things that I don't usually eat. I need a clean-slate, literally.