Year 38, Days 13 and 14

I didn't forget about you, my dear readers, I just had a very busy day yesterday! Over here at Little Bear Design we had a bunch of gals from the Unchained Girls come over to model some of my new feather earrings for the new catalog/webpage. Up at the crack of 10am, preparations were made, last minute trips downtown for replacement backdrop, you name it. And no time at all to eat, but we'll get to that. First up Saturday - still 173 lbs

Food detail:

2 large poached eggs - 140
4 oz OJ - 51
Swiss cake rolls - 270
Stouffers lasagna with meat sauce - 290
2 servings garden salad - 30
1/2 serving light ranch dressing - 35
Skinny Cow Carmel Cone low fat ice cream - 170
1 oz Malibu rum - 64
sugar free jello pudding - 60

total = 1116

Then Sunday I woke up and had some soup and then didn't eat again until DINNER so we splurged and went out to eat. And had two desserts. And STILL came out under for the day!
Sunday morning, still 173 lbs.

Food detail:
1 can Progresso light chicken noodle soup - 140
Chevy's fresh mex Santa Fe Chopped salad (no cheese or bacon) - 318
1 oz tortilla chips - 138
2 oz rum - 128
Skinny cow strawberry cheesecake low fat ice cream - 150
Skinny cow white mint truffle bar - 100

Total = 974

Year 38, Day 12

As we were finally out of leftovers, I had some prepackaged foods, but made dinner. Baked chicken breast over brown rice with chicken broth, onion, celery, red bell pepper, garlic and fresh asparagus. You'll notice I didn't put the veggies in the food detail. I see it like this: all but the red pepper are on that Negative calorie food list I posted earlier, and there's only 30 calories in an ENTIRE pepper so the 7.5 I actually had are so minute (and good for me) that I didn't bother. Anyway, Mark really liked it, I realized with my first bite that I had added WAY too much salt, but later realized that the problem was that I had used a TABLESPOON of chicken bullion to make the broth instead of a TEASPOON. Promptly went into sodium shock. Fixed it with a frozen yogurt from Ikea. Ended the day short a few calories, but that's ok, because THE SCALE FINALLY MOVED! I was about ready to ask Mark to check it and see if it could display anything other than 173.5 when this morning it finally did.

Saturday morning, 173 lbs

Food detail:
1 can Progresso light chicken and dumpling soup - 160 (both servings of 80 ea)
Eating Right frozen BBQ chicken pizza - 340
pudding - 60
5oz chicken breast - 139
brown rice - 150
Ikea frozen yogurt - 105
microwave popcorn - 100

total = 1074

Year 38, Day 11

It seems that either it's going to take more than cutting down the calories to make the scale move, or I'm losing such an infinitesimally small amount each day and since the scale only reports in half pound increments the loss is undetectable. I'm going with that one. At least until my neck/shoulder feel better.

Grumble, grumble.

Friday morning. STILL 173.5

Food detail:

went over this day, but it's Marks' fault. He ate half a slice of my HG keylime pie and didn't like it so I HAD to finish it.

tangelo - 70
leftover stuffed pepper - 210
leftover chow mein - 200
HG KLpie - 88
Trader Joes chicken patty - 140
fresh steamed green beans - 40
1 serving hummus - 50
1 can Strongbow cider (yay!) - 214
Oatmeal creme pie - 170
1/2 slice HG KL pie - 44

total = 1226

Year 38, Day 10

I'm starting to think my neck and the scale are plotting against me.

Thursday morning, 173.5. AGAIN.

Food detail:

yogurt - 80
ham and potato leftovers - 210
pudding - 80
pie (2 slices) - 176
stuffed pepper - 210
green beans - 40
swiss cake rolls - 270
popcorn - 100

total = 1166

Year 38, Day 9

I've been sleeping poorly for a couple nights now. Two nights ago I accidentally slept on two pillows instead of one and did a number on my neck. Yesterday I could barely turn my head. It's a little better today, but still ouchie. Needless to say that has precluded any form of exercise.

And after I did all the research to see what I could eat from Panda Express, I have a feeling they gave me more than a "serving" and that I am probably over my numbers that I have written down :(

Wednesday morning, 173.5 lbs. Still.

Food detail:
Vitamins - 20
Fiber One cereal 1/2 cup - 60
skim milk 0 1/2 cup - 45
broccoli frittata (made from leftover stirfry and two medium eggs) - 300
slice HG Key lime pie - 88
reduced fat string cheese pack - 60
1/2 serving Panda chow mein - 200
String bean chicken - 170
Skinny cow ice cream - 150
Total = 1148

Year 38, Day 8

With the extraordinary amount of exercise I got this weekend in the form of garden prep, I really expected the scale to move this morning. I am sore and can't even move my head, and the scale is stuck.

Tuesday morning, 173.5 lbs

food detail:
tangelo - 70
1 slice HG Key Lime Pie - 88
chicken burrito supreme (Taco Bell) - 390
hard shell beef taco - 170
salad w/1 Tbsp light dressing - 40
Skinny Cow Carmel Cone ice cream - 150
diet cocoa - 20
popcorn - 100
reduced fat mozzarella cheese - 60
fat free tapioca pudding - 80

total = 1168

Year 38, Day 7

Good morning, pretty people! Well, here we are on day 3 of a long weekend (yay!) and I'm finding that eating enough is going to be my problem. Once I shrank down my stomach on that first gut wrenching day, I haven't been hungry enough to eat all my allotted calories. That may change during the week proper, since I will be sitting around with work and all, but we'll see.

I also find I am completely food obsessed. There is hardly a moment during the day that I'm not thinking about what my next meal will be, what I can and can't eat, and what I could make from vegetables. This could be a problem.

Anyway, Monday morning, still holding steady at 173.5

Food detail:
4oz OJ - 55
yogurt - 80
leftover ham and potato lunch - 210
baked chicken breast - 200
hummus - 50
Skinny Cow strawberry cheesecake ice cream - 150
Faux fried mozzarella cheese sticks - 155
Sugar free carmel pudding - 60
Total = 960

Year 38, Day 6

I thought the weekend would be harder somehow. I guess I forgot that on weekends I'm usually not hungry at all, until I've gone HOURS without anything and then BOOM, I get swoony and have to eat SOMETHING. Well, I had my usual "little something" - this time it was an 80 calorie light vanilla yogurt and my 4oz of juice and then nothing else till nearly 3pm after we picked up my hubby's new truck. I was on my way to see my bestie (my birthday present had come in the mail) and I suddenly could go no further so I stopped at Wendy's. Yeah, I hear ya, but l happened to know that a Jr. Cheeseburger has only 270 calories! And they have the sweetest, softest buns.....

Sorry, I get swoony over them. Anyway, I had one - ate it nice and slowly like I ought to, and then my car wouldn't start. So while I waited for it to cool down, I ate my garden side salad (25 calories) with my fingers... dry.... no dressing or those fancy croutons that they included in my bag. And a water. I seem to recall that water is important.

By the time all my errands were done for the day, I had two hours to get ready for a show I was going to AND make and eat dinner. I had only eaten lunch a couple hours before so I decided to do hair and makeup first. Then I started chopping.

Sweet Mayan onion, red skin potato, fresh asparagus, red bell pepper and ham steak. When stir fried together with just zero calorie cooking spray, this delectable meal (in the right portion) yields a yummy dinner of only (approximately) 210 calories. How so? Well, we did the math. A one pound ham steak is 4 servings at 100 calories each. The bag of potatos claimed each potato had 110 calories. The onion and asparagus are on the list I previously posted of "negative calorie foods", and bell pepper, well, I figured it might as well be on their too, since an ENTIRE pepper only has 30 calories, I only chopped up half of one, and then only ate 1/4 of that. So I made a 4 serving dish, and we ate half of it between the two of us = 210 calorie dinner. Woohoo!


Oh and exercise? I got PLENTY. After a morning of yardwork (1 hr) and taking the dogs to the park, at the show I danced for nearly 3 solid hours. I have the blisters to prove it!

Sunday morning (holding steady) 173.5

Food detail
4oz OJ - 55
yogurt - 80
jr. cheeseburger - 270
side salad no dressing - 25
dinner - 210
2) double rum and cokes - 204
popcorn - 100
total = 944

Year 38, Day 5

Yesterday was marginally better. I was hungry for a lot of the day, but didn't end the day as starving. Probably because I managed to eat less for lunch and saved a few more calories for the END of the day.

But it's working.

Saturday morning, 173.5 lbs

Food detail:
4oz OJ - 55
instant oatmeal - 160
vitamins - 20
leftover pasta - 375
1/2 slimfast bar - 110
2 pickles - 10
stirfried broccoli and carrots - 120
salad w/1Tbsp light dressing - 65
microwave popcorn - 100
granola cereal - 100

Total of 1115

Year 38, Day 4, supplemental

So before I headed out to the store to get some celery (famous for it's negative calorie properties) I did a little research to see if there were any more of these magical foods that you could pretty much eat as much as you want of and still lose weight because they burn more calories to digest than they have. I came across this list:

Zero Calorie Foods List

The zero calorie or the negative calorie food list includes the following food items.

A: Asparagus, Apple, Apricots, Artichokes.
B: Beetroot, Broccoli, Blueberries, Blackberries
C: Cranberries, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Chile Peppers, Cucumber
D: Dandelion, Damson Plum
E: Endive, Egg Plant
F: Frog Legs, Flounder
G: Garlic, Green Beans, Garden Cress, Grapefruit, Guava
L: Lettuce, Lemon
M: Mango, Mustard Greens, Musk Melon
O: Oranges, Oysters, Onions
P: Pineapple, Papaya, Peaches, Parsley Leaves, Pomegranates
R: Raspberries, Radishes
S: Strawberries, Spinach, Shrimps
T: Tangerine, Turnip, Tomato
W: Watermelon, Watercress and WATER!
Z: Zucchini

My only question is.... does that mean I can actually just NOT COUNT the calories they have in my daily list? Should I not bother to weigh the grams in my apple slices and just have the whole darn thing? It will be hard enough to not put peanut butter on my celery, but if I can toss some blueberries and pineapple in my yogurt and just count the calories in the yogurt, I'll be a happy girl!

What do you guys think?

Year 38, Day 4

So I counted them. All 1234 of them. And by that I mean the calories I consumed yesterday. Oh, wait, technically it was 1363, but since I walked the dogs some calorie burn website said that I could subtract 120 cals for what I burned on our walk. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot eat so much at lunchtime because that doesn't leave me nearly enough at dinner, and that I have no room in this plan for desserts that have 270 calories.

I made two new low cal recipes for dinner which I will be happy to share with you now. One was for an oven fried chicken. I happened to get some skinless, boneless chicken thighs on sale and found this recipe. With only 265 calories per chicken thigh. Then I made some red skinned mashed potatoes with this recipe. For a one cup serving I determined that to be only 108 calories. And I didn't even miss the butter or milk I usually put in my potatoes because the chicken broth really does the trick.

Before we ate though, I was STARVING. I was ready to eat my own dogs. But we had errands to run (I was in desperate need of dishwasher cubes) and I held it together until I was able to cook my planned allotment. Hopefully this will get easier.

Friday morning... 175.5 lbs.

calorie detail:
8oz OJ - 110
cereal bar - 100
Multi vitamin - 10
Flax seed oil pill - 10
4oz ribeye leftover - 231
potato wedge - 40
Swiss Cake Rolls - 270
71g of apple - 37
potato flake chicken - 265
mashed red skin potatoes - 108
1 mini dill pickle - 5
1 cinnamon candy - 22
SCR split with Mark - 135

Beverages:
1 liter of water - 0
10oz diet soda - 0

Year 38, Day 3... supplemental

How in the HECK am I supposed to calculate the calories in leftover food?

2oz dry pasta = 270 calories
I have no idea how much that makes cooked, but we made about 1/2 the box (3 servings).
HOWEVER, we already ate some of it last night and didn't measure how much.

add to that the sauce (we mix two kinds, tomato and alfredo). The alfredo is 70 cal per 1/4 cup and the Ragu is 70 cal per HALF cup. I don't know how much I used.

The leftovers are about 16oz of coated pasta. (This is fairly approximate since it fits into two plastic containers that both claim to formerly have held 8oz each of their respective former contents.)

Is there anyway to determine how much of the container is sauce and how much is pasta? Half and half? So a half cup sauce (that is half alfredo and half ragu) would be 105 cal. Is there any way to determine if 2 oz dry pasta makes 1/2 cup cooked?

According to this site it does.
So that gives me a total of 270+105 =375 for an 8oz serving of leftover pasta?
Does that sound reasonable?

Year 38, Day 3

Bought the scale last night. Was equally trepidatious and excited to see what it said. I should NOT have stepped on it just then (after having finished cleaning out the house of everything I can no longer have). It was a number I never wanted to see again - after the last time. Fortunately, I know that the true weight is only first thing in the morning AFTER you eliminate, so I had hope that I wasn't really 180, just that the cheese dip and box of chocolates were bumping me up. I have placed an order to be delivered today from Safeway.com that includes carrots, apples, bananas (ok, those are truly for the dogs and not me, but I could have some if I wanted to) and chicken and broccoli stir fry. Tonight we begin eating right.... soon I will work on the exercise portion. Soon. I wonder how many personal training sessions I could pay for with our tax return. HA!


It's Thursday morning. 176 lbs.