Cutting out a little at a time. & watching fat intake (148.4) and Mumford & Sons

There's that 148 again!

First, the big news.  I'm going to see Mumford & Sons on June 17th!!!!!  I have never loved a band the way I love them.  Their lyrics are poetry. Their music is original, with a lot of different instruments. And Marcus Mumford's voice is perfection. When I found out they were touring the U.S. this summer, I told my husband that what I want more than anything in my life right now was to go see them in concert (yes, I'm being dramatic, but that's how passionate I am about them).

When they announced their tour (I am in their fan club, of course!), they emailed that they would have an invitation to buy tickets before they go on sale on April 5th, as a way to keep as many tickets as possible out of scalpers' hands.  I got invited, and on Tuesday I bought tickets.  They are choice seats--in the pit in front of the stage.  We are going with two other couples, who we went to St John with (they are easy to travel with) and we are great, long time friends. We got a VIP parking pass for $20 (did this with Pearl Jam in Indianapolis and it made a huge difference) and VIP passes for the concert.  The VIP passes allow us to get into the concert an hour early, access to a private bathroom and a private bar, and some other fun stuff.   The cost per ticket, with the VIP pass, was $86. 

It is in Bonner Springs, Kansas, so there is an 8 hour drive and we will stay the night at a hotel on Monday night, and we will miss two days of work.  But it is all worth it.  Sophie (and the other couples' kids) will be at church camp that week, and I'm having Luke spend the week with my mom for his away-from-home experience this summer (he's not ready for sleepover camp--going to the country with his grandparents is close enough to summer camp for him).  So it came at a perfect time of year, too.  It is a DREAM COME TRUE.  Seriously, I am still on cloud nine and cannot believe I get to see them live.

Okay, now onto food talk.

The other morning I added 2 Tbsp of peanut butter (natural, no sugar added) to my regular breakfast of oatmeal/berries/1 Tbsp chia seeds/2 Tbsp flax meal.  I was aiming to add more calories and protein to my breakfast so it would hold me longer. 

The combination of the PB with chia & flax was too much fat for my body to process.  I had my gallbladder taken out in 2002, and without it my body doesn't process excess fat well.  My GI tract reacts quickly, within about an hour, when I eat high fat foods.  Last Sunday's meal at the Japanese hibachi restaurant--which contained a crazy amount of butter esp. in the fried rice--was a perfect example.  It was not a pleasant afternoon.

After my PB oatmeal breakfast, I had the same reaction.  Not a pleasant morning.  I could do PB OR chia/flax, but not together.

I sometimes slip and forget about the high fat thing.  I don't over do it often, so it's not top of mind (just like when I forget to not eat cheese). For whatever reason I forget from one high fat meal to another.  Writing about it will help keep it top of mind.

A couple of days ago I started using only 1/2 Tbsp chia and 1 Tbsp flax meal.  The idea is to cut out some calories and fat, because as my weight gets lower, I don't need as many calories and eventually I will hit a plateau (too soon) if I keep my calories at levels I was eating when I was 25 pounds heavier. 

I think I'm going to start eating an egg before I leave home in the morning, to get the extra protein I need.  I don't have cholesterol problems.  I'm okay with eating real eggs, but I imagine I will need to mix it up with eggs and egg beaters every other day, just to be safe.  I know egg beaters has added ingredients, but I don't think I can do egg whites alone at this point.  I buy my eggs at our health food store, which gets them from a local chicken farm (is farm the right word?).

I was on quite a Starbucks latte kick for a couple of months.  I've talked about cutting down, but I hadn't.  It was a compulsion, which is not a good thing, obviously.  I am okay with liquid sugar in coffee; it doesn't trigger anything for me.  But cutting it out is, of course, a good thing and just cleans up my food even more.  The plan is one Starbucks a week. I have the Starbucks app on my phone (you can pay for your coffee and get a reward for every latte) and so I can track which days I buy a latte (it keeps a record of your purchases).

These are small calorie changes.  300-400 calories a day adds up.