Chewing - a Unique Experience!

Ok, so a mid-week update.  Three delicious meals so far.  Remember the criteria - 3 oz. protein + 1 cup non-starchy vegetables.  I'm thinking, 'Wow, that doesn't sound like very much food'.  Well I'm here to tell you that it was plenty.  I walked away having practiced 'mindful eating' (who knew you could chew a bite of food 40 times?), putting my fork down between bites, AND even left a little food on my plate.  And I thoroughly enjoyed the meal experiences.

Friday was Thai chicken soup - no noodles and no coconut milk, but spicy and delicious!  And a rice paper wrap filled with julienned carrot, cucumber and lettuce with a dipping sauce of vinegar, soy sauce, and Splenda.  Heaven on earth.

Saturday was a leisurely breakfast on the deck.  Omelet with 2 eggs, 1 oz. ham (1 oz. is not much ham!) and 1 cup of veggies - mushroom, broccoli, carrots, peppers, etc.  Very nice - thank-you, Sue.

Today was a nice lunch salad - 1 cup of lettuce/spinach with 1/2 cup veggies (mushroom, peppers, cukes, carrots, tomato,etc) topped with 3 oz chicken seasoned with some Old Bay seasoning.  For salad dressing, I used Walden Farms brand 0 calorie/ 0 fat honey mustard dressing - 2 Tbsp.

All enjoyed with 1 1/2 cup 0 calorie sparkling mandarin flavoured water.

I was surprised by a few things:

• While the eating/tasting was great, the actual chewing part was not as exciting as I thought it would be - I've never felt deprived on Optifast and I got chewing from shaved ice in the shakes.
• I was amazed at how full I felt after each meal - not over-full, but yet stuffed and very, very satisfied.
• I didn't miss starch.  In days of yore, a meal would not be complete without a good dose of starch, maybe two different starches.  Funny, eh!  It's like my eating habits have been wiped clean - now it's up to me to choose my new eating habits.
• It took a lot of planning and work - I had to map out a week's food plan, order the groceries from my favorite shopper (thanks, Sue!), cook, clean up.  But it was social and fun to do.
• So far my stomach has not reacted badly to food - I was expecting acid reflux, IBS symptoms, etc, but nothing like that yet.  Well, there was an episode of impacted colon today (google that for fun reading, or not!), but not bad, all-in-all.

Here's looking forward to the rest of this week's meals - basically repeats of the first three.

Here's to a new and improved relationship with food - for life!