Yes, I'm Still Eating!

But not much photographing.  I resumed that again today, and hope to have some tasty-yet-healthiness to show tomorrow.

Some food observations from over the holidays:

• I think clamping down tightly earlier in the month may have set up me up for a whopper of a holiday rebound.  There are still a couple of days before New Year's Eve, but I won't be ending the year the same as I ended last year, as I'd hoped.  OH well.
• Enstroms' sugar free toffee is the BEST, but boy, does it have a rather...um...aromatic maltitol after-effect to it.  Definitely a "proceed with caution" treat.
• A certain blogger friend of mine sent me a GLORIOUS care package!  (thankyouthankyouthankyou, even though you aren't around to read this right now. :-)  I have adored everything in it!  And now that I have her address, I get to send her stuff, too!  Muuuah ha haaaa!  (I hope she likes kale...)
• I still show love through food.  I got Mr. Handsome-and-Handy a bunch of items from a "wurst-haus" that makes their own sausages and smoked meats...one of those gifts that benefits both of us, I guess! ;-) I am a bit more particular about the food now, though, so I guess it's okay.
• So does Mr. Handsome-and-Handy.  He got me Kona coffee and scrumptious macadamia nuts from a small farm on the Big Island!  Yummy!!!  (He also got me the toffee.)
• Thing 2 enjoys making messes with me in the kitchen, even if she doesn't eat them.  We had a great time baking cookies, and a great time making roasted veggie ratatouille.  And while the former was probably more rewarding personally, she seemed very happy to make stuff and not eat it, too.  I call her our "little Polish grandma," because Mr. Handsome-and-Handy's Grandma Stella was a tiny, bird-thin woman who loved to feed people (and quite heartily) when they came to visit.
• I have been eating custard-style oat bran all along, and I didn't realize it until now!  D'oh!  I'd been wanting to try custard oats for awhile now, but the egg part seemed like too much work.   I usually  mix equal parts oat bran and flax seed meal, in a bowl, then whisk in hot water and let it sit.  Earlier in the week, I made some oat bran and didn't have the flax meal to add to it like I usually do.  And instead of being smooth and creamy, it was thick and pasty.  Icky texture, and not the nutty flavor of flax, but it was okay and I ate it anyway.  Well, as I cracked open a new bag of flax seed meal, I noticed that it had instructions for how to substitute flax seed meal for egg in recipes.  And that's when I realized that I don't need to try the mix-the-egg-in-the-oats thing.  (Although I still might try it one of these days, to see how it compares.)
• Georgie's almond butter cookie recipe (flourless, too stinkin' easy, and small batch!) works really well with peanut butter, too.  (And some chocolate chips. *cough*)
• Chocolate chip cookies (dough and fresh-baked) are still my kryptonite.  Which is why we baked only half a batch this year and ended up giving most to neighbors.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Quickie Update

[Note of caution:  There are cupcakes in this post.  More cute than delectable-looking - they may BE delectable, but I didn't get one.  Anyhow, you can't say I didn't warn you.]

Hey there!  Yes, I'm still here, trying to stay sane with everything going on!  Posting around these parts may be sporadic during the next week or so, but I just wanted to give a quick update.

• First, I noticed THREE of my favorite bloggers made it into this article on Woman's Day!  Congrats!!! I don't know how long the other folks featured have been maintaining, but Lori, Lynn, and Roni are some of the longer-term maintainers. I love all the good, sensible tips offered by all the featured bloggers.
  
• Secondly, my food choices are really running the gamut between sensible and "d'oh!"  This made me glad that I went more diligent than not earlier this month.  I loved that, at the recent potluck I went to, the favorite dish was the roasted Brussels sprouts and there were lots of healthy choices.  I also found an amazingly worthy burger at a place in San Mateo called "Jack's Prime" during another co-worker lunch.  (Debby, if you ever want to try it, let me know!  They have the most gorgeous side salad, included in the price of the meal, and they will serve any burger without a bun.)
  
• I'm more abashed at zero exercise over the last two (three if you count today) days than I am about my food choices.  It means I'm putting other things ahead of my health for the moment.  BUT I take it as a good sign that I felt more envy than awe when a friend of mine was describing her gym workouts.  Definitely a temporary blip in the grand scheme of things.
  
• It's raining here.  We stayed up too late finishing our Christmas cards.  Right now, I'm wondering how I'm going to stay awake for the work function tonight.
  
• To end on a light note:  I was at school this morning, in the office, when the mom of one of Thing 2's classmates walked in with a tray of reindeer cupcakes for the class party this afternoon.  

[All together now:  "Aawwww!"]

 The other classmates' mom said appreciatively, "Thanks for being the mom I'm not!"

Hope you all have a great weekend, everybody!  Stay warm & dry & healthy!

      

Tuesday 14 December, 2010

Breakfast:  Mexican cheese blend and spinach omelette, usual toast, usual coffee x2.  Plus I stopped at the coffee place in town and bought the gift coffee, so I got to enjoy a free cup.  Half "Autumn Spice" and half of something plain and dark, with half-and-half.  Yum!

Lunch:  2 oz. beef, 1/2 can of Progresso Chicken Barley soup with 1 cup of frozen, chopped spinach (made it a nice casserole consistency), and an apple.

Plus the 1/4 cup of pecans.

Snack:   This was 4 baby dills and 14 almonds.

Dinner:  Hungry, hungry Pubsgal wolfed down the BLT made by Mr. H&H without pausing to take a photo. So you get the sketch instead.

Not shown:  I also had 4 grams of toffee (so much for NSA day #2!), 1 baby carrot, 3 handfuls of peanuts.  (I know, where did that last bit come from?  I blame the toffee nugget.)

Workout:  Being the end of my "reporting" week, I wanted to get in a 2nd strength workout, but I also wanted to warm up properly.  So I hopped on the stationary bike for 45 minutes and watched the first part of "The Black Stallion" on Netflix.  *sigh*...still a beautiful movie!  And then I did the "Tinsel Vixens Mini-circuit," which you can read more about on Opposite Life.  It was good, but I think it will be more effective when I don't have to stop and look up so many of the exercises! :-)  It took about a half hour to do with the stopping and starting, but I think actual activity time was more like 20 minutes.  Unfortunately, this was all after the kids fell asleep, so I didn't get started until about 10:15 or so, which meant bedtime at 11:30.  Oh well, we'll try for earlier tomorrow night!

Nutri-stats!
Calories:  1996 total - 311 exercise = 1684 net calories (Under revised budget of 2040)
Fat: 130.2 grams (32 g saturated) - 57%
Carbs: 118.8 grams (29.7 g fiber, 40.3 g sugar) - 23%
Protein: 103.5 grams - 20%

Catch-up (Friday 10 - Monday 13 December 2010)

Catch-up summary:  Well, this past weekend was an interesting experiment. I was spot-on until Friday night.  I made some good choices, some not so good choices, but on both counts ended up going over calories during the weekend and doing some unexamined grazing from about 4:30-7:00 p.m. on Sunday. *sigh* So I decided to modify the calorie budget to target 1/2 pound loss per week (which gives me about 200 more calories per day to work with), and we'll see how that works.  Just because I have a budget for them doesn't mean I have to eat them.

Friday 10 December

Breakfast:  Express breakfast - flax toast, almond butter, sugar-free jam, usual coffee...ZZZZOOOM!

Lunch:  Mandarin orange, pecans (1/4 cup + 1/8 cup), 2 oz beef, steak sauce.

Snack:  8 oz. roasted veggies from Whole Foods.

And this, which was 105 calories for the whole bag!
"Raw - Organic - Vegan - Kosher"
Yes, but do they do windows?


Other, not shown: Tiny slice of bread and salmon spread, 2 slices apple, 2 slices pear at Whole Foods.  2 Tbsp chia seeds.  4 oz. of a mocha drink that I misread the label about - one serving would be fine post-workout, but not for general use.

Dinner:  I went out to eat before going to see the new(ish) Harry Potter 7 Part 1!  Woot!  The salad and bunless burger were fine (and soooo tasty), but I really didn't need the sweet potato fries.

With no exercise, I was 591 (or so) calories over budget.

Saturday 11 December

Breakfast as shown + 2 eggs with cheese + 1.5 slices bacon + more coffee.

Lunch:  Webkinz cooking show special - green salad with chopped fried chicken, most of the skin removed.

And some grapes!

Meat doggies snack mid-afternoon.  I also had some peanuts and almonds.

Harry's Hoffbrau for dinner - my tray is in the front, and the huge plate is flanked by veggies.  (Definitely not Plate Method!)  Mr. H&H ate 3/4 of my potatoes and 1/2 of my stuffing, I did a pretty good job demolishing the rest.  The turkey leg itself was mostly bone and those cartilage spears, but it sure looks impressive, in a sort of Primal way, doesn't it?

[Tuesday - The paper bag is a cookie we got to share.  We each took a little nibble, and went "Ugh - too stuffed!"  The nearly whole leftover cookie is still sitting untouched in my car.  It's probably stale, so I'll toss it when I get home.]

Over calorie budget 1002 calories today.  A pitiful but better-than-nothing 10 minutes of stationary biking didn't do much.

Sunday 12 December

Breakfast:  1/2 cup each sausage gravy with spinach.

Usual toast x2 and lots of coffee. Good news:  The donuts did not call me.

I got in a nice 3-mile walk + jog this morning.  It felt good, even though I am still not feeling like going super hard yet.

Lunch: Pippin apple and cheddar cheese.  I love this combo!

I also had some grapes.

And some peanuts.

And a leftover chocolate chip pancake.

We went to a birthday party later, and the best part was the "Super Ninja Scavenger Hunt," a nature walk where the kids had to find different things during different segments of the walk.  Nicely organized, and fun for everyone!

I did well at the party; there was Hawaiian kalua pork and chicken strips and I had some.  I tried a bite of cake but it was too sweet-tasting for me.  I would rather have had a bite of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream, but my kids didn't leave any of that on their plates. :-)

The rest of the day I didn't track and didn't photo.  I know I went over.

Obviously, I need to tweak this system, at least the fool-my-brain part.  I've seen this pattern before, where I'm spot-on during the week (more controlled environment) and then go rather gonzo on the weekend.

Monday 13 December

Breakfast:  Sausage gravy, usual toast, usual coffee x2.

Lunch:  Aaah, sanity.  Progresso Chicken Barley soup (80 calories), green salad with rice wine vinegar, 1 apple.

And some pecans.  (Effective budget move: Using plain rice wine vinegar on the salad meant I had some calories to eat pecans!)

Workout:  Nothing strenuous, did a 1.9 mile walk-and-talk after eating lunch today.

Snack:  Teriyaki turkey jerky and walnuts.

Dinner:  4 oz. steak with sauce, grilled pumpkin with butter/canola spread.

8 oz of non-fat milk

One delicious pear!

With my exercise, my net calories were 1,969, which was within my new budget of 2,040.  I never felt deprived.  The carbs were a little higher percent of calories (28%), but still not too bad (149.2 total, with 24.1 fiber and 75.2 sugar, most likely from the fruit, milk, and pumpkin).  I was happy to also log a "no sugar added" day; those feel good to me.

Thursday 9 December 2010

Breakfast:  Eggs + soy chorizo, usual toast, usual coffee x2

Mid-morning:  I had a hair appointment, so I stopped by 3 Bees again and got a double cappuccino for me and a latte for my stylist.  Yum!  (She bought this time.  I'd buy hers every time, but she insists we alternate.)  Not shown: the ginger chew I ate because I was out of cough drops and started hacking.

Lunch:  Green salad with walnuts and TJ's Tuscan vinaigrette, more walnuts on the side, and an apple.

And for dessert?  14 almonds.

Snack time:  1/4 cup of wasabi dry-roasted edamame.

I was hungry, I had the calories...so why did it feel a little like defeat to eat these?  (Although it's just as well that I did, I ended up needing to stay later at work than I was expecting to observe a test system being set up.)

A crawdad on a Christmas tree....?

...Laissez-les bon temps rouler!  It's a Mardi Gras Christmas!  (The gal at work in charge of keeping things festive-looking around here had a great time with her theme.  Aren't the inflatable alligators a hoot?)

Yes, please!

Dinner:  Forks and spoons at the ready for 4 oz. of tri-tip steak with sauce, 1.5 cups of Brussels sprouts with 1 tsp olive oil and lemon pepper and garlic powder, and a cup of non-fat milk.  Ahhh.  I was so hungry!

Nutri-stats!
Total calories:  1790 (Under my new daily budget of 1798 - the tally I use drops your budget as you drop weight.)  No exercise today, so this was my net calories, too.
Fat: 100.9 grams (18.7 saturated) - 49%
Carbs: 132 grams (32.9 fiber, 66.1 sugars) - 29%
Protein: 102.8 grams - 22%

So, how am I feeling?
Pretty good!  I feel like this is hard but doable during the week, but I'm not sure how the weekend will go.  We have a concert on Saturday night and will probably go out to eat, and I'm taking the kids to a birthday party on Sunday, and we might be making cookies (sugar or gingerbread, which aren't as tempting - chocolate chip cookies need to be off the agenda for awhile).  So we'll see how it all goes.

Weight-wise, I'm back to where I'd been maintaining for quite some time now.  (This morning I was .4 lb from where I ended last year.)  You know, I didn't used to be quite so concerned about weight creeping up, and it's not very fun to have to micromanage.  But that's part of what I had to change to make sure I would at least be able to maintain what I've achieved so far.  It's giving me some confidence to see that I have the ability to reverse a trend.

So...now I have a choice.  The calorie tracker I use has calculated my budget based on a 1 pound per week loss rate.  So do I keep it here and see how long I can go, do I modify it to "lose 1/2 pound per week," or to I set it to "maintain?"  On the one hand, I'm kind of on a roll and am curious to see what happens.  On the other hand, with photos and logging, it's a lot of steps before I actually stick food in my mouth - how long will that be doable?  Not to mention it's kind of demoralizing to see that calorie budget drop.  I think I'll leave things put for now and see what happens.  By observing, I hope to be able to catch when it starts getting crazy-making and avoid feeling a backlash.  The plus side is that I should have a really awesome a1c test result in January! :-)

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Breakfast:  Cheddar + tomato omelette, usual toast, usual coffee (2 mugs)

Cappuccino stop:  I had a follow-up appointment with the podiatrist, and I had a little time to enjoy a double cappuccino at my favorite coffee place, 3 Bees Coffee in San Mateo.

Hello, Bee!  (We have to fake our icicles here.)

Pre-workout:  I knew I'd need good fuel for L's torture today, aka "Chisel" class, so I had 2% Greek-style yogurt, a Cutie orange, and some walnuts.  (Sorry, this looks pretty gross.)

Workout:  I warned L that I might not be able to keep up on the legs today, but it went pretty well.  I have a little soreness in the shins on both legs, but it's mild and we didn't do anything high-impact.  My knees tolerated the plies, lunges, and one-legged deadlift routine just fine.  I took along a bottle of low-sugar sports drink and I think that helps quite a lot in this class.  We get very sweaty!

Lunch:  I ate this while waiting for my pork and green beans to cook.

To answer your question, Debby, this was an impulse buy.  I got a pack of these because they are low calorie and chocolatey but also sugar free.  I do like "real" food better, too, but this was sure convenient.  What makes me laugh is that I have a few packages of make-it-yourself Jell-O sugar-free and fat-free puddings (chocolate and banana) languishing in my cupboard...apparently "add milk and stir" was too taxing, so I had to buy the individually packaged, ready-to-eat ones.  (Sheesh, what kind of crunchy-green California girl am I?!?! ;-D )

2 oz. pork tenderloin with about 1 Tbsp BBQ sauce (lower carb), 1 cup green beans in hot & sour broth (Better than Bouillon, a few shakes of Tapatilo sauce, and some rice wine vinegar), and an apple.

And 12 pecans.  You know I really wanted to be chugging these by the handful.

This held me nicely over until dinner.

Thing 2 helped me prepare dinner and took the photos.

Dinner:  1 cup of nonfat milk, about 2 cups of cauliflower with 1 tsp olive oil + garlic powder + lemon pepper, a low carb tortilla cheese quesadilla, and some salsa.

I had 29 calories left.  This allowed me 2 turkey meat-doggies (not shown), which is almost more of a tease.  Oh well.



ACTION CAULIFLOWER!!!

Nutri-stats!
Total calories:  1905
Estimated workout calories burned: 101
Net calories: 1804 (1807 budgeted)
Fat: 96.3 grams (30.7 saturated) - 45% of calories
Carbs: 160.4 grams (36.4 grams fiber, 80.7 grams sugar) - 33% of calories
Protein: 108.8 grams - 22% of calories

I've been fairly well-satisfied at this level, once I upped my veggies.  My tummy is still a bit hungry-feeling at night, but not too bad.

Scenes of the season:  Here's our tree!  It's artificial (of course) and we replaced our old one last year after 1/2 the lights went out and Mr. Handsome-and-Handy spent 4 hours trying to replace bulbs.  This one is skinnier than our other one, so it fits a little better in our small house.  It went up in about 10 minutes (all we had to do was put together the 3 segments, fold down the branches, and fluff them a little.  The Things swarmed it for another 15 minutes, and voila!

Like Biz, I love snowmen!  You'll find more of them than any other ornament.

Here's my favorite snowman!