Day 8: 153

I am truly enjoying the automation of seeing charts and graphs that show me exactly where my diet is lacking, nutrition-wise, from Calorie King. (I have no affiliation with that company, except I've decided to let them charge my credit card and keep using their service! It's worth it.)

For example, although I suspected I was not getting enough calcium in my diet, I was REALLY not getting enough calcium in my diet. I am averaging only about 383 mg of calcium per day, compared with the RDA of 1,000 mg of calcium per day. (See my calorie diary, upper right corner of page.) Earlier this week, I stopped taking the One a Day Over 50 Women's supplement and started taking Caltrate 600+ Minerals, a chewable supplement that tastes rather like a TUMS. The One a Day vitamin is so huge that I have a hard time gagging it down, and also I have to have eaten a FULL meal or it actually upsets my stomach. I took it one morning after only a yogurt (big mistake); I ran to the bathroom and paid homage to the toilet bowl. I thought only iron pills did that.

According to the research I've read, increasing one's calcium and vitamin D to recommended levels supposedly works by shutting down the impulse from the brain that would otherwise tell one to keep eating until enough calcium had been taken in. I haven't noticed any change in my appetite, really, but again we are talking only a week on the diet, and I probably was calcium deficient for a long, long while (you may recall from an earlier post that my initial bloodwork almost two years ago showed low levels of calcium and vitamin D). The question for me is, will it not only help restrain my appetite but allow my body to start burning fat without storing every calorie like a miser?

Speaking of storing every calorie, despite my efforts to keep 25 g of fiber in my diet and to drink 60 fluid oz of water every day, I am really only getting an average of 15 g of fiber every day. And yes, it's frustratingly, maddeningly, a problem. I had hoped that flooding myself with water would do SOMEthing. But no. I'm not crazy about adding a fiber supplement, but I'd rather add a supplement than add more food, especially when I'm just not hungry.

Tonight my husband made a killer black bean soup with black beans (soaked overnight and simmered all day in fat-free, low-sodium chicken stock, some leftover rotisserie chicken breast that was shredded and thrown in, sliced carrots, sauteed yellow onions, a large can of Italian tomatoes, some cilantro, a bayleaf, lime zest, and a little red wine). He made a delicious topping of low-fat sour cream with lime juice, and put about a teaspoon on top of each bowl. I crumbled a 2" cube of homemade cornbread into it. It is so savory and delicious; I am sitting her sipping it as I write, and thinking, well, maybe I will reach 1200 calories today, after all... a little more of this soup would be ok... I'll try to get the recipe from him and post it.

Well, speaking of calories, I've entered the day's intake on My Calorie Diary, as you can see, and sure enough I'm at 1207. I'm afraid that means I'll be heavier again tomorrow. But we'll see.