I started back on the DASH diet, eating about enough servings for a 1200-calorie day. I knew we were having beef stew for dinner, so I immediately subtracted servings for veges and meat in my head. I opened up the fridge and surveyed everything. Hmm....the lettuce was browning, so I couldn't make salad. The leftover purple cauliflower was already claimed for my husband's lunch. Vegetables are always the toughest servings to fill. It's not that I hate eating vegetables--I can eat mountains of vegetables; it's just that I'd have to cook, and I don't have the time for that before work. So, I started looking at menus online, trying to find a healthy salad for cheap from places nearby work. Then, I thought to myself, "Don't do this, because then you'll get into the habit of just going out for food instead of having it available in the house." I went back to the kitchen, put together a half of a tomato sandwich, a cup of applesauce, and grapes and carrot sticks. It was a sad-looking lunch. Cake also accompanied my lunch, but I couldn't turn it down, as they were appreciating my position at work by offering cake. It didn't sabotage my diet; I'll just be taking a grain serving out for tomorrow to make up for it. After work I picked up some lettuce and a cucumber. We'll be going shopping on Friday, anyway, so I didn't want to stock up today.
When I got home, I was pretty hungry, as I hadn't eaten for 5 hours. I'm used to getting home an hour earlier and having dinner right away, and I wasn't planning on all the delays. After eating a small helping of stew, I returned to the fridge a few times, scrounging around for fruits and other veges. There were a lot of starchy veges in the stew and they count as grains, unfortunately. I was hungry! I know I'll eventually get used to this smaller amount of food, especially when I get foods paired up better (fats, proteins, and carbs). Right now, I just don't have my act together in the kitchen and I'm going to have to get creative again.
Being tired, hungry, and worried about various chores needing done, I kept postponing my workout. I also enjoy having my own quiet workout area, but I just can't have that in my apartment, and especially with the location of the TV and the computer, which are really important because I can't come up with a good workout on my own. My husband was hogging the TV again for video games, but he was courteous enough to not use the internet during play so that I could make use of the computer, and that's how I worked out. I found the body challenge workouts from 2008 on YouTube and pushed myself to give it my all (without overdoing it for my first day).
Overall, I'm happy with how my first day went. Tomorrow, I think I'll make a quick breakfast wrap (something other than cereal), have stew for lunch, eat a salad for dinner, and throw in fruit and veges whereever I can.