Wednesday

Food was back to normal today.  We are going out of town Friday after lunch.  We are going to Key West, then on to the Dry Tortugas Saturday.  We'll be back Sunday.  I doubt I will post until we get back.

Anyway, here are today's eats:

Coffee and prunes (call me weird, but I really like prunes!)

Breakfast was turkey meatloaf.

Lunch was the oh so exciting salad that I eat for lunch 6 days a week.

Before I left work I ate my grapes:

When I got home I wanted something so I had a bran cracker with egg salad (no mayo)

Dinner was salmon patties, roasted broccoli, and sweet potato fries.  I cannot stand boiled vegetables and I don't much like steamed veggies either.  But roasted? Oh my! ;-)

Then I had a sugar free popsicle.

Now I'm off to brush my teeth.  Kitchen is officially CLOSED,

Nothing to see here

I was home sick yesterday.  I didn't photograph either the noodles or the broth I consumed.

My stomach feels better today, but I still feel like overall poo.  However, I need to go into work today so I am putting my hair in a ponytail and sucking it up.  Ugh.  I expect food to be the regular suspects.

Have a good day - will post later.

Monday

Breakfast: meat loaf made with ground turkey

Lunch: the usual salad

Dinner was a steak, leftover brown rice & quiona, and broccoli

I didn't feel good, I still don't feel good.  Ugh.

sunday

Yesterday was not a good day.  Partly sad about being away from family, but also dealt with some dhrama.  Ugh.

We were going to grill out, but we had a terrible thunderstorm.  Any by then we were both spent.

So, my food for the day ended up looking kinda crappy, and honestly making me feel that way too. 

Sunday breakfast: 2 eggs with salsa, a turkey sausage, and a small biscuit.

Lunch: a bratwurst, red cabbage, saurkraut, cucumber salad.

Sunday dinner: a slice of pizza and a beer.  Uh, hello, wtf!?!?

Yeah, I went along with it.  And paid dearly.  Clearly my digestive system is no longer accustomed to this stuff.

MIA

Sorry about not posting pics yesterday, I wasn't feeling well and ended up going to bed early. :-(

I did take pictures, and I will post them when I get home from work.

The rest of the food

Mid afternoon I had another bran cracker with chicken salad (now all gone).

For dinner I had roasted asparagus, 2 chicken thighs which were cooked in the crock pot with onion, garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar, and 3/4 cup of a sprouted rice & quinoa mix I buy at Costco.  I forgot to take a prior photo, but here is the after.

I had a sugar free fudgecicle.

Saturday so far, and exercise

The dogs woke me up at 6:30, demanding breakfast.  Got up, fed them, then fed myself.  I didn't feel like fixing anything, so I had leftovers: 4 oz baked catfish and roasted broccoli.

The I headed out to do the grocery shopping.  When I got home, I had my cup of coffee with almond milk and 2 prunes.

After that I loaded my food into sparkpeople for the day and did a few things.  Finally I got off my butt, had a bran cracker with 1 ounce of chicken salad, and headed to the gym

After I got home from the gym I got in the pool for a while, grabbed a shower, and then fixed lunch: my usual salad of grilled chicken thigh, cuke, 4 small tomatoes, and homemade ranch.  I had a can of sparkling water to go with it.

I know I mention it sometimes, but I don't track my exercise here.  I do that in sparkpeople, which is where I also track my food.

I have a sedentary desk job, so I set a goal for myself of 360 minutes of activity per week.  My goal is 3 elliptical sessions, 3 sessions of kettlebell swings, and 3 weight training sessions (for that I am currently using "The New Rules of Lifting for Women", which contains 6 months worth of progressive workouts).  The remainder of the minutes are walking, yoga, swimming, riding my mountain bike, etc.

Sadly, this house won't clean itself so I'm signing off!

The rest of Friday food

Dinner, turkey chili (homemade) and roasted green beans.

Then a sugar free fudgecicle for dessert.

Took a 2 mile walk around the neighborhood with the husband, then came home to watch a little tv.  Hub wanted air popped popcorn - I measured out 4 cups for myself.

According to sparkpeople, I ate around 1270 calories for the day.

Eating your feelings

So, pretty normal day around here so far. Breakfast was this week's usual of oats, a turkey burger with mustard, and a diet pepsi.

Lunch was SOS (same old salad) and green tea.

In the afternoon I walked downstairs with a friend to get a soda and bought a sugar cookie.  We ate downstairs and I didn't have my phone with me (he wanted to talk).  So, 1 sugar cookie approx 2 inch diameter, not photographed.

I went back to my desk and ate my grapes, but no nuts.

I served out the nuts, ate the grapes, and realized I was full. 

This afternoon I was feeling down and I had to stop by the grocery store on the way home.  I really wanted .. maybe some cheese? I was looking for a party in my mouth.  I bought what I stopped for, came home, and took a nap.  I was tired and a nap is a better cure than food!

Dinner coming soon, after pool time!  I'm off!

Snack and dinner

For afternoon snack, I had 2 oz chicken salad on a bran cracker, about a cup of grapes, 1 piece of chocolate, and lemonade made with stevia.

For dinner I had 6 oz baked catfish (I weighed it) coated with seasoned flour, sweet potato fries, and roasted broccoli.  We have certainly been eating a lot of sweet potatoes!  Thats unusual, but I bought a bag and they needed to be used up.

I will have a popsicle later.  Per sparkpeople, I'm at around 1100 calories for the day.  If I feel hungry I will eat an extra ounce or two of catfish.

Breakfast, then lunch

Breakfast was 2 eggs with salsa, oats, and unsweet tea.

Lunch was the usual: grilled chicken thigh, cucumber, tomatoes, and homemade ranch.

I drink water throughout the day.

Coffee, and a picture from my morning walk!

First, coffee and 2 prunes. 

After I packed my husband's lunch and loaded the dish washer, I took a nice walk around the neighborhood - its really nice outside.

Orchids don't need soil to grow, so people will just set them in a tree and let them do their thing.  I think its really neat looking to see the tree trunk "blooming" with the orchids!

Observations after a week of photographing my food

In no particular order:

1.  I won't be quitting my day job to become a food stylist!  There are blogs out there that make food look amazing.  This isn't one of them.  I photograph my food with my cheap LG not smart phone.  It works, but especially in my house (due to the lighting) my food doesn't look very appetizing.  Luckily it tatstes good!

2.  We are pretty much all creatures of habit.  Of the participants, our eating habits run the spectrum (it's been really cool to me to see what other folks eat).  But we all tend to eat the same things frequently.  Have you ever read a diet book that included example menus? They have different foods for every meal of every day.  I thought people actually ate like that!  Reading blogs, I've realized they don't because they don't have the time or money to cook like that either!  Pre-cooking on the weekend and or using leftovers for lunch saves time and money.

3.  We all eat differently.  Well, duh. But its been interesting to see how differently.  444 Dad eats Wheat Thins and peanuts - 2 things I could never keep in my house (for more than 5 minutes!).  I keep my bran crispbread crackers and raw tree nuts, because neither are trigger foods for me.  In order to be successful, you need to figure out foods that work for you - then stick to them! 

In the week we've been doing this, I've lost right around 3 pounds - not too shabby.  I haven't drastically altered the way I eat, but having to photograph my food has kept me from taking little nibbles in the kitchen, and forced me to stop & think before I eat something in the evening.  Not huge changes, but small changes that have made a huge difference.

I have loved Allan's challenge so far - I think it was a great idea!

No food yet today, but pics coming soon!

Wednesday food

Breakfast, grilled turkey burger with salsa, 1/8 c dry (served cooked) oats, and diet pepsi.

Then coffee and 2 prunes.

Lunch: 4 small tomatoes, mixed greens, and a grilled chicken thigh with 2 T homemade ranch. No cucumber today.

Snack: a cup of grapes and 12 almonds.

For dinner we had a baked pork chop with bread crumbs & spices, about 1/3 of a large baked sweet potato, and roasted green beans.

I had forgotten to brew tea, so I made lemonade with lemon juice, water, and a packet of stevia.

I plan to have a popsicle later as well.

And I'm headed out for an evening walk with the dogs!

Ugh

AM coffee with prunes and I ate my oatmeal before I left. It's 1/8 cup dry, cooked.

When I got to work I had my turkey burger with mustard and the half a diet pepsi from yesterday.

Lunch was the same salad and green tea.

I had a tough day at work, got home late, and my husband picked up dinner.

He picked me up 3 chicken tamales and a side of beans.  I ate the tamales with a glass of tea. I didn't touch the beans, I was stuffed.  Ugh.

What can I say? I ate them - I was hungry and tired and I know he meant well.  Moving on.

Monday, the rest of the story

Knowing I was going to the gym and that we'd be eating late, I opted for a small second snack: a bran crispbread with an ounce of chicken salad and a cup of coffee with almond milk, 65 calories:

Then I went to the gym.  After that I came home and made dinner: crab stuffed tilapia, baked sweet potato, and roasted brussel sprouts.  (530 calories).  I know I haven't mentioned it, but I eat corn, sweet potatoes etc. plain.  I genuinely like them that way.

It was a yummy meal, I'm full, and the kitchen is now officially closed for the evening. :-)

Monday so far

This morning I ate breakfast at home before leaving for the office: A homemade ground turkey burger (cooked weight 3.1 oz) smothered in fresh salsa with a small side of the steel cut oats and a diet pepsi: 243 calories.  Then I took a cup of coffee with me and forgot my prunes! 10 calories with my almond milk.

For lunch I had 1/2 cucumber, large tomato, and small grilled chicken thigh over a couple of cups of mixed greens.  For dressing I used nonfat greek yogurt mixed with lemon juice and spices (kinda like tsaziki sauce). 217 calories.

Afternoon snack was 12 raw unsalted almonds, a cup of grapes, and half a bottle of diet pepsi.

That's it so far, more to come - off to the gym!

The rest of Sunday

Had an afternoon snack - a bran crispbread with an ounce of the chicken salad I made and a cup of coffee.

Sorry the picture is out of focus.

Dinner was filet mignon, roasted broccoli and an ear of corn. And unsweet tea.

 Dessert was a popsicle.

Per sparkpeople, my calories for the day are right around 1300.

Sunday food so far

Got up, had coffee and prunes, took the dogs for a walk.

After we got home I made breakfast: 2 eggs with salsa and a slice of tomato, half a graperfuit, a cup of steel cut oats with cinnamon and vanilla, 2 sliced of bacon, and diet pepsi.  If I weren't doing this, that would have been 3 slices of bacon.

After that I did the week's food prep while hub mowed the grass.  I picked the rest of the rotisserie chicken.  If I weren't doing this, I would have simply made it into chicken salad and snacked on it over the next few days.  Today I weighed the chicken, figured up the calories of the batch, weighed it and calculated calories per ounce (43) and when I do eat some I will weigh it so I know the calories.  (I added celery and onion so by weight it now has fewer calories per ounce than just the chicken.)

Sometimes I was eating hunealthy things, but a lot of it was that I had gotten a little too fast & loose with guestimating what I was eating.  So this have been very helpful to me!

After we finished our work, we ran a couple of errnads and went out to lunch.

This is a picture of the shawarm platter I shared with my husband (the diet coke is his).  I ate just under half the shawarma, 2 smal bites of the hummus, and half the salads - chopped cuke and tomato, eggplant, onion relish, red cabbage, and a shredded green cabbage.  The platter comes with 2 fresh pitas, we did get one, which my husband ate.  I had a bottle of water.

Taking care of a few things at the house and then we are off to the gym.

Sunday

I haven't had anything so far today, but I did sit down and put everything I plan to eat into sparkpeople.  For lunch today we are going to Sunrise Pita Grill - an awesome kosher restaurant.  If you are ever in Ft. Lauderdale, I highly recommend it. 

IMO, eating out can be a challenge if you are counting calories (or anything else) at a place like this.  It's not a chain, they have no nutritional data available, so I'm making the best estimates I can.  I know we are having chicken schwarma and it tastes like it has a fair amount of fat.  I looked it up and I'm estimating 400 calories for a small portion.  I know I will have a couple tablespoons of hummus, and I estimated that as  80 calories (I used Hannah restaurant style as a proxy - it has a lot of tahini).  Other than that I will be eating various marinated vegetables, so maybe an extra hundred? I'm eating lighter the rest of the day so I can keep my calories below 1500 (my personal limit).

We are ordering a platter and splitting it.  Last time we did that we still ended up with leftovers!  Seriously, the platter is pretty big and neither of us eat epic portions (anymore).

We have a rule that we don't eat out more than once per week.  When we do eat out, we like it to be someplace special.  So we frequently choose places like this - not a chain, the food is made fresh in the store, and you aren't going to find it just anywhere.

Yesterday we got a notice in the mail that our house insurance won't be renewed unless we either get a new roof (around $10,000) or get a roofer to certify it has at least 3 more years of useful life.  Ah, the joys of liing in a hurricane zone.  Given that we are looking to move very soon, I can't see the exppense of a new roof, so calling a roofer is now added to my list of crap I have to look forward to Monday.  Sigh.

The rest of the day

For dinner I made shrimp spinach enchiladas, with roasted broccoli and unsweet tea.

Sorry my pictures look so unappetizing.  I think part of it is the lighting in our kitchen.  It looks better in real life!

While watching tv, I made air popped popcorn:

And that brings us to the end of the day.  Per sparkpeople, grand total is right around 1500 calories.