Lost another 3 pounds last week (as of Saturday), so I'm down 14 pounds since I re-started. And again I must ask: what the HELL was I doing? But I am not complaining, because it's been easy to fall right back into my old good habits. I mean, once you know how much a cup of cereal is and how many calories are in a bagel or what have you, it's pretty easy to get back into the routine.
The one big thing that has been different for the past week is school. I have classes two nights a week from 6-9pm, so I go right from work to campus. Traffic and "commuter lounge" microwave availability are always variables, so I have been eating out on class days. And I can't tell you enough how much I love that so many fast food restaurants make their nutrition information available online so I can plan ahead.
Yes, I know that fast food isn't "good for me," and it's definitely not something I am PROUD of doing two night a week, but as I mentioned -- there are variables. I never know if I'd be able to reheat something once I got to campus, so packing my dinner in advance is a crapshoot. And I eat lunch kind of late most days, between 2-2:30, so I'm not really in the mood for a "big meal" at 4:00 when I leave for school.
So, like I said, I've been using online menu and nutrition information to plan ahead. The two closest restaurants to my class building are Boston Market and Wendy's, so that's where I've eaten dinner so far. Comparing my meals there is like comparing apples and oranges, because they're just different kinds of cuisine, but I can say that their websites have been infinitely valuable to me, as far as meal planning goes.
It's also kind of nice to have myself on a plan where I can "treat" myself like that without having to feel guilty. Boston Market has a very nice array of meals for 550 calories or fewer, and their food is pretty delicious. (I'd actually like to find a recipe for their vegetable stuffing, because I could eat that stuff all day long.) Wendy's is a little trickier, because that's more "traditional" fast food, but they also have an online too that simplifies things.
Now that I have a better handle on the traffic situation from work, I'd like to try some different places and see what low-calorie (or at least "more sensible") options they have. Last night I saw a Panera Bread, an Arby's, a McDonald's, a Chinese place, a pizza shop, and an Outback Steakhouse. At least two of those places (Panera and Arby's) have calorie-counting tools on their websites (I just checked).
It's nice to live in the future, sometimes.
1.26.2012
1.18.2012
12W12S12: A Lunchbag Full Of Random
Lost another 3½ pounds (as of Saturday), for a total so far of 11 pounds. Whoo hoo! And again I wonder: if I was able to lose 11 pounds in two weeks by simply eating like a normal person, then what in the holy hell was I doing before? The mind, she boggles.
= = = = =
Today is my first day of grad school classes, and in packing my lunch this morning I realized something: I tend to pack the most random things in my lunch. Not "random" in the sense of "junky" or anything -- although we have plenty of that stuff in the house, whose siren songs I have thus far mostly been able to avoid succumbing to, thank goodness -- but just random. Weird. I like variety in my diet, so even though I tend to eat the same things in the same amounts repeatedly, I try as much as I can to not eat the same thing two days in a row.
Except Mini Babybel Light cheese. I could eat that every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of it.
But if you look at my lunch bag, you'd never guess that all the stuff in there was meant to be eaten by the same person in the same day: cereal and milk for breakfast; fruit cup for morning snack; Lean Cuisine for lunch; cheese and V8 for afternoon snack; a 90-calorie extra-fiber granola bar for evening snack-slash-dessert (because I have class tonight, and I know I'll need something sweet-ish to get me through). Doesn't that sound ... like a lot of strange stuff just thrown into a bag together?
OK, maybe it isn't that weird when I write it all out and explain it, but it seemed weird to me when I packed it this morning. Although I guess it shouldn't, because my daughter took a "lunch" to school today (actually, it was breakfast -- the school provides breakfast and lunch but I guess since she sees me packing a lunch she figures she needs to take one, too), and her lunch consisted of cereal, cheese, and a whole-fruit snack bar (the kind that is made from real apples and stuff, with no added sugar, and counts as a serving of fruit).
Like mother, like daughter, I suppose. At least since I changed my diet, she is picking up some good habits.
= = = = =
Today is my first day of grad school classes, and in packing my lunch this morning I realized something: I tend to pack the most random things in my lunch. Not "random" in the sense of "junky" or anything -- although we have plenty of that stuff in the house, whose siren songs I have thus far mostly been able to avoid succumbing to, thank goodness -- but just random. Weird. I like variety in my diet, so even though I tend to eat the same things in the same amounts repeatedly, I try as much as I can to not eat the same thing two days in a row.
Except Mini Babybel Light cheese. I could eat that every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of it.
But if you look at my lunch bag, you'd never guess that all the stuff in there was meant to be eaten by the same person in the same day: cereal and milk for breakfast; fruit cup for morning snack; Lean Cuisine for lunch; cheese and V8 for afternoon snack; a 90-calorie extra-fiber granola bar for evening snack-slash-dessert (because I have class tonight, and I know I'll need something sweet-ish to get me through). Doesn't that sound ... like a lot of strange stuff just thrown into a bag together?
OK, maybe it isn't that weird when I write it all out and explain it, but it seemed weird to me when I packed it this morning. Although I guess it shouldn't, because my daughter took a "lunch" to school today (actually, it was breakfast -- the school provides breakfast and lunch but I guess since she sees me packing a lunch she figures she needs to take one, too), and her lunch consisted of cereal, cheese, and a whole-fruit snack bar (the kind that is made from real apples and stuff, with no added sugar, and counts as a serving of fruit).
Like mother, like daughter, I suppose. At least since I changed my diet, she is picking up some good habits.
1.09.2012
12W12S12: Magic Diet Miracle Trick
I lost 7½ pounds this week, by following the one simple magic diet miracle trick of not eating pizza bites at every meal. Seriously, I know that is a HUGE loss for one week, and that it's an outlier, and that any weight loss going forward will be smaller and more consistent, but DAMN. What the hell have I been doing for the past six months, if just eating like a normal person for a week helps me drop 7½ pounds?
= = = = =
One of the things that is always helpful when you're on a diet is knowing how to cook. I don't mean "tear open a package of rice and heat it up in the microwave," either -- although of course we do our fair share of that too -- but more of the "look at what sorts of random things you have in the fridge/freezer/pantry and throw together something that tastes good" kind of cooking. I would never argue that I'm any kind of gourmet chef, but I hope I never take for granted how easy it is for me to take one thing from Column A and another from Column B and yet another from Column C, throw in some herbs and stock, and come up with a meal that is delicious and satisfying and totally diet-friendly. (Plus, we very rarely have leftovers that go to waste.) This is what I came up with yesterday for dinner (we're having leftovers tonight - as always, see notes below the recipe for particulars and substitutions).
Sausage, Bean, and Vegetable Soup
Heat oil in stockpot over medium-high heat. Cut sausage into smallish chunks. Add sausage, celery, onions, and shredded carrots to pan. Season with rosemary, oregano, and pepper to taste. Saute until sausage is cooked through and onions are translucent, about 10-12 minutes. Add tomatoes and stir well. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add beans and stock. Adjust heat as necessary. Cook for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Add frozen vegetables. Cook for an additional 10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. Serve.
NOTES: Use whatever kind of sausage you have on hand, obviously. We only ever buy turkey or chicken sausage these days except for special occasions. If you cut your own celery-onion-carrots, you want about ½ cup of each. You can use chicken broth instead of veggie, and we used whatever leftover previously-frozen veggies we had in the fridge from previous meals, so we ended up with a lot of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and squash in there, plus a few random corns. Green beans (especially Italian ones) would be delicious -- perhaps with a can of dark red kidney beans substituted for one of the cans of cannellini beans. Almost a minestrone!
My math says there's about 200-225 calories per cup of soup, depending on how lean your sausage is and what's in the veggie blend you use. We served ours with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on each bowl, with a side of warm rosemary rolls. Delightful!
= = = = =
One of the things that is always helpful when you're on a diet is knowing how to cook. I don't mean "tear open a package of rice and heat it up in the microwave," either -- although of course we do our fair share of that too -- but more of the "look at what sorts of random things you have in the fridge/freezer/pantry and throw together something that tastes good" kind of cooking. I would never argue that I'm any kind of gourmet chef, but I hope I never take for granted how easy it is for me to take one thing from Column A and another from Column B and yet another from Column C, throw in some herbs and stock, and come up with a meal that is delicious and satisfying and totally diet-friendly. (Plus, we very rarely have leftovers that go to waste.) This is what I came up with yesterday for dinner (we're having leftovers tonight - as always, see notes below the recipe for particulars and substitutions).
Sausage, Bean, and Vegetable Soup
- 1 Tbsp. basting oil
- 1 lb. spinach and feta chicken sausage
- 8 oz. package chopped celery and onion
- 4 oz. shredded carrots
- Herbs: rosemary, oregano, and fresh ground black pepper
- 2 cans seasoned petite diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 qt. vegetable stock
- about 1 package assorted frozen vegetables
Heat oil in stockpot over medium-high heat. Cut sausage into smallish chunks. Add sausage, celery, onions, and shredded carrots to pan. Season with rosemary, oregano, and pepper to taste. Saute until sausage is cooked through and onions are translucent, about 10-12 minutes. Add tomatoes and stir well. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add beans and stock. Adjust heat as necessary. Cook for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Add frozen vegetables. Cook for an additional 10 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. Serve.
NOTES: Use whatever kind of sausage you have on hand, obviously. We only ever buy turkey or chicken sausage these days except for special occasions. If you cut your own celery-onion-carrots, you want about ½ cup of each. You can use chicken broth instead of veggie, and we used whatever leftover previously-frozen veggies we had in the fridge from previous meals, so we ended up with a lot of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and squash in there, plus a few random corns. Green beans (especially Italian ones) would be delicious -- perhaps with a can of dark red kidney beans substituted for one of the cans of cannellini beans. Almost a minestrone!
My math says there's about 200-225 calories per cup of soup, depending on how lean your sausage is and what's in the veggie blend you use. We served ours with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on each bowl, with a side of warm rosemary rolls. Delightful!
1.03.2012
12W12S12: Amateur Food Pr0n
This is going to be the phase of my diet where I take pictures of everything I eat, isn't it?
We started on Monday. And by "we," I mean "the lot of us," because I have this thing where I won't make multiple meals just because one of us -- or, in this particular go-'round, two of us -- are on a diet. One of the reasons why this particular "lifestyle change" (because I am already getting sick of writing "diet" and it's only Day 3) worked for me before and why I have faith that it will work going forward is that it's based on "everything in moderation" instead of "not eating anything that tastes good." So, if my kid wants to have teatime on a Sunday afternoon, then by hook or by crook, I will find a way to be able to enjoy teatime and not feel the least bit guilty about it.
PS: Stella d'Oro breakfast treats? They really are treats. And neither my kid nor my husband are particularly fond of them, so I am going to get that whole bag ALL TO MYSELF BWAHAHAHAHA. But what can I say? It's pretty easy to stick to your diet when it openly involves cookies, you know?
The only thing I'm really doing different this time is that I am trying to get as much buy-in as possible from my husband, which means that we're doing a lot of "convenience" cooking. As in, "let's see what we already have in the fridge and see what we can count as a serving of vegetables." On Monday we passed on the traditional New Year's Day pork-sauerkraut-and-mashed-potatoes dinner because EW! and instead had stuffed shells and this salad I concocted out of assorted kitchen fixin's: iceberg lettuce (which keeps surprising well when your refrigerator is set at like 35°F, bee tee dubs), shredded carrots, shredded cheese, and bacon bits, with some "crunchies" that I found in the fridge and a couple of croutons apiece. Plus balsamic vinegar -- just balsamic vinegar, plus salt and pepper -- which is my very favorite salad dressing.
It is also easy to stick to your diet when you can go out to lunch to use up a gift card and you can find a drink on the menu that is light, something you'd drink anyway, and actually good. That's a "skinny mojito" from The Cheesecake Factory, of all places, and that whole giant drink is under 150 calories. I think I'm going to Google a recipe for this, because it was perfectly light and refreshing and delicious and I'd definitely drink that on vacation.
This salad, also from The Cheesecake Factory (from their Skinnylicious menu, which is smaller than their regular menu, of course, but pretty damned good, honestly), is much prettier than mine, and of course better, because I assume the chefs at The Cheesecake Factory actually know what they're doing: chopped lettuce, chopped bacon, chopped chicken, chopped tomatoes, chopped apples, corn (not chopped), and blue cheese (also not chopped). The regular menu salad comes with avocado, which I don't like, and I don't know what kind of dressing was supposed to be on this thing, but (1) there wasn't much of it and (2) it didn't really need it, anyway.
And the really best part? We still had calories left to have some tuxedo cheesecake, which was TOTALLY WORTH IT.
We started on Monday. And by "we," I mean "the lot of us," because I have this thing where I won't make multiple meals just because one of us -- or, in this particular go-'round, two of us -- are on a diet. One of the reasons why this particular "lifestyle change" (because I am already getting sick of writing "diet" and it's only Day 3) worked for me before and why I have faith that it will work going forward is that it's based on "everything in moderation" instead of "not eating anything that tastes good." So, if my kid wants to have teatime on a Sunday afternoon, then by hook or by crook, I will find a way to be able to enjoy teatime and not feel the least bit guilty about it.
PS: Stella d'Oro breakfast treats? They really are treats. And neither my kid nor my husband are particularly fond of them, so I am going to get that whole bag ALL TO MYSELF BWAHAHAHAHA. But what can I say? It's pretty easy to stick to your diet when it openly involves cookies, you know?
The only thing I'm really doing different this time is that I am trying to get as much buy-in as possible from my husband, which means that we're doing a lot of "convenience" cooking. As in, "let's see what we already have in the fridge and see what we can count as a serving of vegetables." On Monday we passed on the traditional New Year's Day pork-sauerkraut-and-mashed-potatoes dinner because EW! and instead had stuffed shells and this salad I concocted out of assorted kitchen fixin's: iceberg lettuce (which keeps surprising well when your refrigerator is set at like 35°F, bee tee dubs), shredded carrots, shredded cheese, and bacon bits, with some "crunchies" that I found in the fridge and a couple of croutons apiece. Plus balsamic vinegar -- just balsamic vinegar, plus salt and pepper -- which is my very favorite salad dressing.
It is also easy to stick to your diet when you can go out to lunch to use up a gift card and you can find a drink on the menu that is light, something you'd drink anyway, and actually good. That's a "skinny mojito" from The Cheesecake Factory, of all places, and that whole giant drink is under 150 calories. I think I'm going to Google a recipe for this, because it was perfectly light and refreshing and delicious and I'd definitely drink that on vacation.
This salad, also from The Cheesecake Factory (from their Skinnylicious menu, which is smaller than their regular menu, of course, but pretty damned good, honestly), is much prettier than mine, and of course better, because I assume the chefs at The Cheesecake Factory actually know what they're doing: chopped lettuce, chopped bacon, chopped chicken, chopped tomatoes, chopped apples, corn (not chopped), and blue cheese (also not chopped). The regular menu salad comes with avocado, which I don't like, and I don't know what kind of dressing was supposed to be on this thing, but (1) there wasn't much of it and (2) it didn't really need it, anyway.
And the really best part? We still had calories left to have some tuxedo cheesecake, which was TOTALLY WORTH IT.
1.01.2012
Missing In Action!
Oh, this poor, poor spare emergency backup blog, being all neglected for lo these many months. So sad. But, alas, 'Raffi shall be lonely no more, for it is a new year, and you know what that means: a new set of calendar photos!
I'm going to start posting the monthly calendar photos on the first of each month. Unless I forget, in which case I will post them when I remember to post them.
Also, we're restarting the diet effective today. This time my husband is 100% on board, so hopefully he'll help me stay on track (and I won't have to nag him too much to do likewise). We're still doing Lose It, because that has worked pretty well for me so far -- I mean, yes, I gained some weight back from my lowest point, and of course that is to be expected because I haven't been the least bit careful. No exercise, no tracking, nothing.
So, yes, we're jumping right back on the wagon. Right now we're trying to get our eating on track because in just a few weeks I start grad school and we want to be "in a good place" for that. We're going to try to fit exercise in somewhere, even if we just go back to the "dance like you're drunk at a wedding" plan. Wish us luck!
BTW, I will continue to insist until the day I die that this is not a "resolution." This is not something we're doing because it's the New Year and we're supposed to. Yes, I have lapsed some in my diligence, but as I keep reminding myself, I didn't gain all this weight in a few months, and it's unreasonable to expect me to lose it all quickly. I am still down 50 pounds from where I started, and that's a hell of a thing. I still want to get healthy and be healthy and stay healthy, which has always been my goal.
Journaling has helped me before, so I'm going back to it again.
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| Cousins, January 2012 |
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| Cupcake, January 2012 |
Also, we're restarting the diet effective today. This time my husband is 100% on board, so hopefully he'll help me stay on track (and I won't have to nag him too much to do likewise). We're still doing Lose It, because that has worked pretty well for me so far -- I mean, yes, I gained some weight back from my lowest point, and of course that is to be expected because I haven't been the least bit careful. No exercise, no tracking, nothing.
So, yes, we're jumping right back on the wagon. Right now we're trying to get our eating on track because in just a few weeks I start grad school and we want to be "in a good place" for that. We're going to try to fit exercise in somewhere, even if we just go back to the "dance like you're drunk at a wedding" plan. Wish us luck!
BTW, I will continue to insist until the day I die that this is not a "resolution." This is not something we're doing because it's the New Year and we're supposed to. Yes, I have lapsed some in my diligence, but as I keep reminding myself, I didn't gain all this weight in a few months, and it's unreasonable to expect me to lose it all quickly. I am still down 50 pounds from where I started, and that's a hell of a thing. I still want to get healthy and be healthy and stay healthy, which has always been my goal.
Journaling has helped me before, so I'm going back to it again.
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