Day 208

Updated Mar 3, 2011 - trying to get caught up for past week...

Breakfast - Turkey, Avocado breakfast sandwich (300cal)

Lunch - Asian style veg and beef dinner (420)

Snacks - string cheese, hummus, carrots, corn thin, artichoke dip (225)

Dinner - No idea and it was only 3 days ago... can't remember at all.  This kick-started a week of crappiness for me.  I've been super hungry, craving crappy sugary carby things and not controlling it well.  I'm up 3-4 pounds too.  ugh.  Not sure what the issue is.  May be TOM or may be that I started walking a bunch in the last 2 weeks.  May be a combo.  Starting to feel more under control by Thursday...

Day 207

Got up and walked 2.65 miles today.  Intended to got the full 3.2mi, but the dogs were being difficult.  Made it tough to walk evenly.  Ate half a banana before I left. 

Breakfast (1000AM):  Spinach/Mushroom Crepe with 2 cherry tomatoes and 25g of avocado.

Lunch (200PM):  Chicken with Brown Rice stuffing, peas, ratatouille, carrots.  Yum!

New Meal:  Grilled Chicken with Red Pepper Sauce... Pretty basic, but decent.  Basic grilled chicken, the sauce was okay, but didn't eat all of it.  The grilled veggie side is great! One of my faves -- eggplant and zucchini.  The pureed cauliflower is not my fav.  I replaced it with 1/4 cup of cooked quinoa (from freezer.)  Made a really nice warm salad/ stir fry sort of dinner.  Added a handful of arugula and a couple of cherry tomatoes too.  YuM!

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Day 206

Grandparent's recommitment ceremony... and family dinner.

Day 205

Got up and walked 2.5 miles on the treadmill, raining something fierce outside!

Day 204

Chicken Cous Cous with spinach tomato, almonds, cranberries

Day 203

Update:  Weight is back up to 226.5 today.  I was dehydrated yesterday, as I suspected... BUT I'm amazed that the weight didn't bounce higher given what I ate on Monday!

Woke up at 630, got up at 7, folded a load of laundry, started another and started a load of dishes... was walking by 730AM!  Who am I now??? :D  Mapped out a 5k course in my neighborhood.  Didn't want to eat breakfast first, ate half a banana (50) and a few almond (30) halfway through when I got hungry.  Finished the 5k in 50minutes.  Now I have a goal for the 5k in April... Just beat 50 min!  Will be able to do that... I walked quickly today, but I didn't really push myself hard because I wasn't sure how far 3.2 miles is -- I didn't want to crap out too soon!  So far 5.7 miles for the week!

Breakfast (900AM): Wheat english muffin (140), 2oz of ham (70), half an oz of cheddar (60) and a slice of apple...  Still my favorite breakfast and they still keep me full longer than any of the BMD breakfasts even though they have less calories...

<3

Snack()

Lunch(1215): 1cup of jasmine rice (180), plus a stirfry I made with 50 cal of edamame, 40 cal of broccoli/carrots/water chestnuts, 1/2 TBS of soy, 1TBS of rice wine vinegar, 30 cal of sesame seed oil, and 40 cal of almonds.  Pretty tasty...  Chose to make this because of the leftover rice... Cant really add 180 cal of rice to a BMD meal!  Feeling hungry by 230PM, lack of protein?

Snack(245pm):  String Cheese (80)

Dinner(730)  Dinner at friends... too many appetizers (lavash crackers with goat cheese and raspberry jam).  Dinner was roasted chicken (small portion of breast), quinoa salad with sweet potatoes and greens, roasted butternut squash, and an unplanned chinese eggplant in black bean sauce that was great, but not low-cal.

Daily Total: 1950

Day 202

So, weighed-in first thing, post happy hour disaster... I'm down to 225lb... huh.  I was not expecting that.  Now to move on with the week and see how much of that is due to dehydration.

Breakfast (830AM):  Cinnamon Sweet POtato pancakes (320)

Snack(1200PM): Corn Tortilla(55), 2oz Turkey breast(60), half a serving of artichoke dip (40) and 80 cals of almonds throughout the morn.

Lunch(215):  Not super hungry; decided to hack one of the last remaining "turkey with root veggies/broccoli souffle" meals.  Kept about 80% of the turkey(est.100), added a serving of Trader Joes Jasmine Rice (180) and 1.3 servings of Green Giant Steamed Veggies with Cheese sauce (60) that I've been wanting to try.  Ate some, then left meal in unattended to go check something on the computer and the dog ate the rest... (and promptly got put in isolation! The first time I've realllly had to reprimand my 18month old dog.  Usually, she's aiming to please.  She seemed quite embarrassed.)  Not sure what percent I ate... 60-70%.  Ate most of the rice, some of the veggies, and little of the turkey.  Let's just call it 230.

My nemesis... as packaged.





Far more palatable with replacements...



Snack()

Dinner(615PM): My very favorites... BMD Chicken Breast with Eggplant and penne pomodoro (410) added a small bit of arugula (5) and some red pepper flakes.  Soooooo freaking good!

Snack (900PM):  Little hungry and a little low on calories... Still managed to grocery shop with no list and no extra unwanted impulse purchases.  Had 100g of baby carrots (35) and 2 TBS of hummus (50)

Daily Total: 1280

I very successful and easy day staying home without munching or feeling the need to munch!  Yay!

Day 201

Breakfast (730?):  Chicken Mushroom Crepes (270) with a few almonds (50) and some green salsa.

Snack (100):  Half a Snickers Peanut Butter BCandy Bar that I bought at Target... but only half! (125)
Lunch(200):  Mediterranean Chicken (250cal) with a tiny bit of leftover spinach and juice of one lemon added.

Snack (300): Half bag of 100cal popcorn and half a serving of Cheetos (130 total)

Dinner/HappyHour (5-7):  2 Raspberry Lemon Drops (450), 3 stuffed mushrooms (150), 3 pieces flat bread (282), 1.5 avocado eggrolls (170), 1.5 pieces of Sweet Pig Mini Pizza (237)  BJ's Total = 1289
BellaBru = Rum and Coke (125), Shared Dessert (250) 

Daily Total: 2489! Sheesh... It's been forever since I went over 2000cal.  (Edit: Actually, I just checked and it was earlier this month!  BUT there have only been 4 days in the last 3 months that I was over 2000...)  Was fairly under control at BJ's... intended to share a bunch of apps and kenw I'd be over the normal 1500.  Had no intention of drinking or dessert after that, but it was ordered for me...  Still my choice to eat it and I'll moderate the rest of the week.  Will be interesting to weighin tomorrow and see how I'm affected the rest of the week.

Also worth noting... my total would be 700calories less (1789) without the alcohol.  Food for thought, hmmm?

Day 200

Walked 2.5 miles around the neighborhood, with the dogs.  Ate small breakfast at 10am.  Not hungry much.  Had a midnight snack of a tortilla(55) with a TBS of hummus(40), tomatoes, and a few almonds (50).  COunting for today.

Breakfast (10am):  half a whole wheat english muffin (60) with 130cal of almond butter (22g) and half a banana (55g) (50).  Also 35 cal of almonds.

Lunch (330PM):  Late lunch because I was shopping... SteakHouse Wrap (405) with a bit of green salsa, fatfree sour cream, and 3 cherry tomatoes.

Snack(?) - none

Dinner(700PM): Spaghetti dinner at mom's (2/3 cup bowtie pasta, 1/2 cup?  homemade sauce with meat, spinach, green beans, 3 thin slices of garlic bread)  No second helpings and I was sooo stuffed.  Estimate about 700cal.

Daily Total: 1560

WeighIn

I weighed in this morn, well noon by the time I got up, at 226lb, maybe 226.5lb.  That's down about 2 lb from last week.  :D  This coming week will be a difficult one... I'm on vacation from school.  Normally, I spend my breaks munching on food.  This will definitely test my new "habits"!!

Day 199

Woke up a bit later than normal, but stayed in bed until noon.  It was sooo cold!  Didn't eat breakfast.  Had lunch when I got up.  Snack in afternoon.  Turkey dinner at mom's house.  Over-indulged.  Mashed potatoes are soo good!  Had room for some excess... but feel really full and icky now.  Burping a bunch (sorry, TMI?)   :)

Day 198

I feel like I might have left something out, but I can't think of anything else...  Oh, I ate 2 sqaures of a chocolate bar (100cal).  It wasn't worth it at all -- bad, waxy chocolate.  Don't eat the Choxie brand from Target...

Day 197

Had a "snack" at parents' of a mini frito pie.  Really, it was like 7 bites.  Also, didn't eat the gravy with the dinner and added a ton of spinach and tomatoes.

Not that attractive, but pretty tasty with the extra veg.

Day 196

Throughout morning, I ate snack of string cheese, banana, and pretzels.  I knew I wasn't taking lunch with me, but planned to go home early and eat lunch then.  By the time I got home, I felt pretty hungry and I scarfed down the picadillo.  I still felt hungry, so I ate big snack about 30-40 minutes later of popcorn mixed with a few chips, then ate the rest of the serving of chips...  I realized later that my brain hadn't caught up with my eating yet.  If I had waited a bit, I wouldn't have still been hungry.  Ate dinner late, like 8pm, and wasn't super hungry for it...

Day 195

Did okay overall today, though I did have a bread attack when I got home today...  Didn't have normal snack and caved slightly when I was faced with cornbread and french bread! 

Day 194

Big time fail at dinner time... at my dinner, THEN ate some of what mom had made - a tuna casserole. dang.  Plus, I did NOT feel well that night.  Stomach felt like it had a rock in it and I fell asleep early.  Not sure if it was too much carbs or just too much food in general.  I was not a happy camper.  Lesson learned.

Day 193

Breakfast late-ish, 830AM.  Lunch early than expected with a friend, 1130AM.  Looked up LaBou nutrition info online, seemed low.  Way low - 140 cal for Thai chicken soup?  maybe.  200 cal for a half a tuna sadwich (a large half!)???  No way!  Found different stats online, used those because they seemed closer.  Not hungry until 430pm, had a mini pizza snack.  Dinner at...

 

Lab Results

I starting my weight loss in August of 2010 and I had blood tests done then... Seven months and 60 pounds later, I'm a bit over half way and I had blood tests done again. Just to see if there's a change. The results are in...

CHOLESTEROL (supposed to be < 239): 8/2010 = 182, 2/2011 = 146

HDL (good cholestrol, suppoesd to be >45): 8/2010 = 29, 2/2011 = 33

LDL (bad cholesterol, supposed to be < 129): 8/2010 = 125, 2/2011 = 97

TRIGLYCERIDE (supposed to be <199) 8/2010 = 141, 2/2011 = 82

So freaking happy!!! Major improvements in 3 of 4 areas in just 7 months of eating healthier!!! I'm within the "optimal", not just the "okay", but the "optimal" range on all but the HDL. If you're curious, here's a link that describes the different tests and what they should be at.  http://bit.ly/hcKmjg  HDL not much change, but exercise is suppose to help that. I'm getting ready to start seriously incorporating exercise. I'll retest in another 6 months or so. It'll be interesting to see if the exercise has an effect on the HDL. My own little science experiment! 

Day 192

Breakfast late, due to blood test...
The 400 calories "quick-added" are the snacking/grazing I did during the afternoon on things like corn bread, pistachios, a couple potato chips... I'm pretty sure I over-estimated.  The quick-add means that the carb, fat, protein, fiber and sodium counts are all too low.  Especially the sodium... the next morning, the scale definitely had something to say about that (up a poundish).

WeighIN

Weighed in this morning at 228.5, 4 lbs down from last week (which was inflated because of a Friday eve out), and 2 pounds down from 2 weeks ago.  Pretty decent.  Passing 229 puts me at my lowest adult weight, at least since I graduated college.  The last time I weighed 229 was sometime in college - not sure exactly.  I only have records back to Jan 2002.  If I had to guess, I think I was around 180-190 when I graduated high school ('95) and I was around 215 by my sophmore year of college ('97).  I've had few significant weight losses since then -- 20lb in 2002 and 30lb in 2008 -- but never a real serious effort.  I finally closed out my WeightWatchers account online.  I've been keeping it because it had a history of weights on it.  It feels good to close it -- I'm having more success just tracking calories and learning to eat right.  I felt like WW was learning how to game the system without making real changes (at least for me!).  This is the data from the last 9 years...



Day 191

Weird lunch today...  Had a bit of leftover salad (probably less than listed, but I think I ate more than a serving last night.)  So I ate that at school and stopped a grocery on way home to get deli meats and veggies.  Also bought a small (3 serving) bag of Cheetos... meh.  Ate half, along with some snacky things at home around 4.  Wasn't terribly hungry for obvious reasons... decided to walk on the treadmill for the first time in 2 months... totally an impulse thing. Walked for 18 minutes, 1.3 miles while watching Jeopardy.  Ran 7 minutes at 5-6 mph.  COnsidering I hadn't done anything for a while, it wasn't too bad.  Didn't feel like eating after for a bit... dinner around 8.  Dressed up the BMD Penne a la Vodka with red pepper flakes and a big handful of arugula.  It was soooo good.  I love arugula!  A very satisfying 235cal meal!  Going in for updated blood work tomorrow. 





Not a great pic, but super tasty!





 

Day 190

New breakfast to add to the rotation... I'm finding that the BMD breakfasts do keep me feeling as full as my english muffin sandwiches, even though they have more calories.  I'm always starting to get hungry by 2nd period after a BMD meal; after a muffin snadwich, I don't think about the snack until 3rd or even 4th.  Based on that observation, plus the fact that I wasn't very hungry this morning after last night's feast, I decided to eat a breakfast sandwich.  Unfortunately, I have no ham or turkey... So, I improvised with some almond butter with a slice of apple and it worked just as well.  Very filling.

Ended up at my brother's house for dinner.  I brought leftover salad to share, added roasted chicken and some edamame.  We also baked some chicken springrolls - 210cal for 3 of them... They were tasty.  Not terrible when eating with a salad.  Would've been even more reasonable if I hadn't eaten like 5 of them.

Day 189

Last minute invite to dinner at a friend's... Wonton soup, teriyaki chicken and rice. I volunteered to bring a salad.  I used napa cabbage, snap peas, yellow bell pepper, green onion, almonds with a dressing of soy, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil.  Pretty tasty!  I brought apples and caramel for dessert, but it got turned into an ice cream sundae night.  Oh well, it was small!

Day 188

Day 187

Meetings after school... with snacks.  That quick-added 210 calories is a partial snack bag of mini chocochip cookies...