No More Second Breakfast

 

My plan for eating is this: three meals a day, each about 500-600 calories (not measuring too closely), and three snacks in between. I have things in mind for the snacks: string cheese, fruit, keto ice cream, oatmeal. Meals are whatever, but usually a main item and a side.

Seems pretty straightforward, but for me, still a challenge and a big change. The first thing I noticed is that I have to resist an impulse to eat way more often than six times a day. Things that trigger an inclination to want to grab a snack include every time I go to the kitchen to get something to drink, every time I go to the kitchen for any reason, cooking dinner (yes, I tend to snack as I'm fixing dinner), and getting ready for bed. I bet that I have been eating more than ten times a day average. And some of those times I eat can be an extra meal. Second breakfast, brunch, second lunch, whatever. My "snacks" can look a lot like my meals. So no more of that.

My portion sizes are mostly fine, but today I noticed that the burger I was preparing was 440 calories. That's just the patty, before bread, mayonnaise, honey mustard, cheese, and bacon. Until this week, I would chow that down without thinking about it, as one of my dozen or so times eating in a day. Today, I only ate half of the burger.

I am trying not to pay much attention to how much protein, how many vegetable servings I eat, any of that. I always eat a low carb diet because of diabetes, so that won't change, but I don't want to get complicated or too restrictive about exactly what I eat. Still, I made some split pea soup partly because I wanted to make sure I get some vegetables. I really like pea soup. I need to do that more often.

Results after three days are inconclusive, obviously, but my morning blood sugar has not been over 122, which is really good. If all I achieve is staying in that range, that will be a worthy accomplishment.