Caution: Vibrant and healthy food ahead!

This week I have been making extra efforts to watch what I eat. Not merely in what I eat, but noting when I get hungry and what I've had before, how long I've felt full, etc. My eating patterns come somewhat as a surprise to me, because of bodily contradictions. Let me explain.

I find that no matter what, how much or how little I eat during the day, I will get hungry around 8:00-8:30 pm. The problem with this is that if I eat after 7:00 pm, apart from cucumbers apparently, I will throw it up, unless I stay up for at least 7 hours after. See my problem? My digestion is that slow. So on weeknights when I work in the morning, I cannot afford to stay up that late. So I have to endure the hunger pangs. It might seem like nothing, I mean who hasn't been craving munchies sometime in their life? But this isn't munchie pang, this is full meal pang, which I cannot ever satisfy. And that sucks. I have been thinking of asking my doctor if there are any medications to help control my eating schedule, or stop my stomach from sending the 'feed me' signal to my brain...

But back to watching what I eat, I started to follow the Weight Watchers program again. In a very loose manner of speaking, because I don't go to meetings or weight-ins, or buy any Weight Watcher things. I simply write on a notepad what I eat, and attach the point value next to it. I use a Points dictionnary I found online (I checked up with the official WW mini-dictionnary I had to see if it matched up), and a points finder slide that I had from previous enrollment in WW. At the end of the day, I calculate how many points I have, and if its under 35, I am happy. It usually does.

Along with this, I've been using my 'cook-healthy' techniques that I had slowly been dropping again, and am surprised by how easy I am falling in that rhythm again. Here is what I ate today day, for example:

Breakfast
1 cup OJ (100% juice)
1 Activia yoghurt

Snack
4 pepper triscuits
1 slice of cheese
1 mini can V8

Lunch
1 cup Mexican Rice (spiced brown rice with mushrooms/peppers/onions/zuchini/eggplant and 3 oz of chicken)
1/2 cup 'fried' mushrooms (thickly sliced button mushrooms sauteed in a pan with 1 tsp olive oil and a few drops of soja sauce)
1 pkg of 100 calorie cheese crackers
2 small tangerines
2 bottles of water

Snack
Lime Jell-o

Supper
1 chicken breast (measuring my palm) cooked with onions and red peppers in a skillet
Greek Salad (lettuce, tomatoes, feta, kalamata olives, cucumbers) with oil/vinegar/italian spices vinaigrette
1/4 cup of herbed pasta
Bottle of water
large apple

I have always found that cooking meats with bright and flavorful vegetables, rather than with butter or sauces, makes them tastier, and better looking. Plus, its much healthier than dousing everything with gravy. That was deeelish and was worth 6 points. Yup. Compared to, say, McDonald's apple pie which is worth 14 points? Ridiculous. My tummy is happy.