Choose your plate

Since I'm only weighing in once a week, I figured to keep a good frame of mind during the week, I'm going to share any health/nutrition tips or tricks I know or come across. I've got a few. This first one, however, came from my mom. I've been to the Government's food pyramid website many times of the last few years when I've been of a mind to reform my food intake. This site was new to me. It is www.choosemyplate.gov.  It has a few tips listed, one of which was new for me, but easy to remember and I will be using it to help me get a good serving of fruits and veggies. Here are the tips on which foods to increase:

1. Make half your plate fruits and veggies. (This is the one I really liked. It's easy for me to make my plate and think that half should be fruits and veggies. It's a nice visual reminder for me to get the servings I need.)
2. Make at least half your grains whole grains. (We eat wheat bread, and other whole grain products as often as possible. I'm pretty satisfied in that regard.)
3. Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk. (I've been doing this since my freshman year in college. I took a nutrition class and she talked about the difference in calories in the different milks. I was raised drinking 2%. The calories you can save from switching from 2% to fat-free is quite a bit, and in my mind it was such an easy thing to do to save calories. So I did. I've been drinking it ever since.)

There are other tips on that site that are great. I'll share more soon. Not to mention my other tricks for easy, healthy eating. So far I'm very pleased with how I've done. My biggest victory comes from my night-eating habits. I was getting into a real habit to snack on treats at night when the kids were in bed. Now, I either have a moderate dessert with the kids, or I have one after they've gone to bed, but before 8 o'clock. A few times I've really wanted to snack on ice cream or something, but it's been after 8, so I've restrained myself. It may seem like a small thing, but gaining mastery over your mind and body can be a very empowering thing and it really made me feel good. Self-mastery is another topic I might have to blog about sometime. It's something I've made quite the study of, and I'm still getting there. But I enjoy every bit of progress I make.