12W12S2P Update: 21 Down

As of my weigh-in this morning, I am officially down 21 lbs., and unofficially I think the total is 40 lbs. I'm going to celebrate by having a Dorito today, and I might maybe buy a hunk of some sexy cheese at Wegman's and share it at my uncle's Labor Day picnic today.

Some things I have learned that I can't live without on this diet:

• Frozen chopped spinach -- yes, I know fresh is better, but a 1-lb. bag of frozen chopped spinach lasts me a month or more. I throw a handful in with my Egg Beaters, and I throw a couple of handfuls in with spaghetti sauce. Doesn't add much to the flavor but there's lots of iron, it adds color, and it's a nice little shot of extra veggies.
• Egg Beaters -- I'm using the Garden Veggie flavor now, but Cheese and Chive is also very tasty. I used to eat two eggs every morning on the weekends, but ½ cup of Egg Beaters is approximately the same amount of food, and it has fewer calories than one whole egg. Which means more calories available for meat and cheese and delicious, delicious English muffins.
• Sweetened dried cranberries -- I'm not a huge fan or plain Wheaties or corn flakes, but 1½-2 tablespoons of these bad boys really help. And they are delicious mixed in with raisin bran, too.
• Pistachios -- I'm getting to the point where I don't have a whole lot of calories left for snacks, but these suckers are worth it. My favorite kind? Everybody's Nuts European Roast.

Not sure what I'm going to change up this week. Hopefully this weekend I can get in some decent exercise (I will be swimming three days in a row, whee!), so maybe I won't have to think about it for a few days.