BL Diet, Days 3, 4 & 5

So the weekend totally trashed the diet. We BBQ'd at a friends house on Friday, had breakfast at a diner on Saturday, and dinner at an Italian place on Sunday...there's no way I could follow the plan! So we took the weekend off. But...I started again on Monday!

At the beginning of this thing, I was following everything to the letter, making sure I followed meal plans as well as I could, but not, just a few days into it, I've realized that doing that it harder than it should be. I'm adjusting things for foods we don't like (or I don't want to make) and have all of these cross-reference notes all over the place (Swap lunch day 3 with lunch day 21! Swap protein of day 4 with protein of day 17, leaving veggies!) and it's just a pain. So now I go through the meal plans and just look for what I'm in the mood to eat and make. It's a little complicated since I need to make sure we have the ingredients for the recipes, but it's easier in terms of figuring out what's for dinner.

So things are going ok! I haven't weighed myself since the evil 3+ weight GAIN, but think I'll do that tomorrow and see how things are going. I don't feel any lighter, but I'm happy with my food choices, so there's that. :)

And here are some food reccomendations from the book:

1) Portobello Mushroom Pizzas. Essentially this is just using a portobello mushroom as the base, adding marinara sauce, lean turkey sausage (cooked & crumbled) and low-fat mozz cheese. Baked for 6-8 minutes. Really yummy and only 100 calories each!

2) I just ate a chinese cabbage salad with homemade dressing. It was must tastier than I thought! The dressing had a lot of ingredients, but it turned out well. I can see it being a pretty good marinade too.

3) I've decided that my favorite snack is either the apple and string cheese or the laughing cow cheese with a slice of whole-wheat bread. I like cheese.

4) the turkery burger was awesome. easy and tasty and totally didn't feel diet. It's the diet trifecta!!

Now it's time to figure out what's for dinner...

Day 2

So I made it through Day 1 and learned a couple of things:

1) Jicama is weird. I'll eat it IN things and in small quantities by itself, but 1 cup of sticks? By itself? Eh, I couldn't do it
2) Same thing with tomatoes. I love them warm and IN things, but I wasn't a huge fan of the tomato salad
3) Hot sauce makes plain chicken awesome
4) Trader Joe's Thai green beans are spectacular

And thus far today, I've learned
1) greek yogurt must be an acquired taste. it's just kind of odd and
2) mushroom soup is pretty tasty, even if it looks kind of gross. And it's tastier with pepper.

I weighed myself yesterday so I'd have a starting point and plan on checking daily just so I can see how things are going. Today when I weighed myself, I was down 3 pounds! And, yes, that's got to be water-weight, but still...yay! :) I do NOT expect the same amount of loss tomorrow, that's for sure.

So here's the meal plan for today, Day 2. I swapped out the breakfast for another breakfast (greek yogurt, oatmeal, and a banana) since my bananas were ripe enough and also swapped out the lunch for a different day's lunch (mushroom soup, a slice of bread, and a wedge of cheese) since I didn't want to make or find sushi. :) Especially brown-rice sushi!

Breakfast

1 serving Banana Nut Oats

½ cup fresh blueberries

3 hard-boiled egg whites

8 oz fat-free milk

Tea or coffee

Snack

6 tablespoons creamy hummus

2 medium stalks celery, cut into sticks

Lunch

6 pieces California roll brown rice sushi

1 asian or bosc pear

Ice water or iced tea

Snack

PBJ: 2 slices Ezekiel whole grain bread with 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter and 2 tablespoons sugar-free black cherry all-fruit spread

Ice water or tea

Dinner

Doc’s Chili

1 ½ cups chopped romaine lettuce with ¼ cup sliced bell pepper, ¼ cup sliced cucumber, and 1 tablespoon low-fat vinaigrette

Ice water or iced tea

Jump Start Day 1

Ahh, Day 1. When you still have the best of intentions and you follow everything to the letter. Well, I'm trying.

Below is Day 1's menu, if you're curious. :)

So far I've only adjusted it a bit (adding a little bit of chocolate to my milk and using frozen fruit instead of fresh) so it's going well. The hardest part? I'm HUNGRY. I'm allowed to eat every 3 hours but I'm not used to eating limited portions. At least I know where my problem lies!

I made little lunch bags yesterday for today's meals which worked out really well. I'll have to do the same for tomorrow...

Breakfast

1 Ham & Cheese Breakfast Melt--YUM. I'd make this again every day.

¾ cup fresh blueberries--I didn't have fresh, so I had frozen. And added splenda.

8 oz fat-free milk--I added a touch of chocolate. I don't like regular milk.

Tea or coffee--neither

Snack

1 large apple--I had a small/medium apple. It's not really apple season.

1 stick low-fat mozzarella string cheese

Ice water

Lunch

Turkey Wrap

6 baby carrots

1 cup jicama sticks

Ice water or iced tea

Snack

2 servings (4 pieces) Hummus Deviled Eggs

Dinner

5 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, grilled or broiled

8 medium asparagus spears, grilled or broiled

1 cup cherry tomatoes with 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil

8 oz fat-free milk

Jump Start

I bought a book recently, The Biggest Loser 30-Day Jump Start, with the idea to try some new recipes and to use as a guideline to help me eat healthier.

I read the book very quickly and found it really easy to follow. The ideas presented are all the same ones that you always read, but the good part of the book is that it's not a restrictive diet like Atkins or any of the other low-carb things.

They give 30 full days of recipes and food to eat and for once it's almost all food I'd eat! I've found that the meal plans are not as well-mixed as I'd like, but the food is interesting and the recipes are simple. I think I just need to mix up Day 7 with Day 14 (or something of the sort) so that I'm not eating fish 4 days in a row. :)

I went shopping today to get the first week's worth of food and, WOW. That was a lot of food. And a high grocery bill, but I'm hoping that a lot of the food can be used in the upcoming weeks. Yikes.

So tomorrow is Day 1. I've made the lunch and the snacks for both me and Bob for tomorrow and put them in lunch bags (hee) so we're all set. I just need to get up in the morning and make breakfast, which should only take about 5 minutes. Quick and easy! And it really is a good amount of food for the day.

My biggest problem is going to be cutting down on the diet coke. :)

Yoga

Yoga in Millennium Park
Originally uploaded by hak123

On Saturday my mom came down early to pick me up and we went out to Millennium Park to try out the free Yoga they offer every week at 8am.

We got there just in time to grab a free bottle of water and find a spot in the grass before the class started. It was a good class! I haven't done any yoga for AT LEAST a year so I was a little worried that I'd have a hard time with it, but the instructor was great and didn't do anything too difficult, but didn't make it too easy either. It's pretty cool to do a downward facing dog and seeing about 75 other people doing the same thing. Outside. In a big grassy area.

Afterward we walked around the park for a bit and I took a bunch of pictures of the bean and the walkway. Millennium Park is really pretty.

It was a great day! :)

Oh, and atkins is over. As of Saturday evening and the pizza we ordered. It's just not worth it for 3 pounds and the struggle to find things to eat. I'd rather eat healthier and have the option to have bread. Besides...atkins made me really tired.

Diet

So Bob and I have decided to do Atkins. (yes, it's approximately 2002 in our heads) It's not the healthiest or interesting way to diet, but we're both fairly certain that it won't last more than a couple weeks at most--we just want to kick start diets and this is a good one for immediate results.

I've still been going to the gym--but, hello? How have I GAINED weight since going to the gym? I'd love to call it muscle-mass, but that's kind of crazy. So Atkins + gym should equal some better results.

The stats? I've lost 2 pounds since Monday. Hurrah.

Bob's lost 10. (Boys totally suck that way. But good for him.)

I'm also trying to do this as healthy as possible. Salads with lean chicken, scrambled eggs made without butter, celery, things like that.

Although I'm eating more cheese than normal. But cheese is soooo good.

So far I've avoided the candy dish at a desk near me, free cupcakes in the company kitchen, and the vending machine full of deliciousness. Well, delicious trans fats and empty calories. So that's good. Work is probably the biggest hurdle in food avoidance--there's just so much temptation! But so far it's not been too difficult to resist. Fingers crossed that it stays that way!

I imagine that I'll crack and want some toast (because...mmmm...toast. I love toast) in a couple weeks. And from that point on I'll try to keep eating salads and chicken and celery and avoid the twix bars. :)