French Fries?

Ok, so here's the thing.  I get it, you're not supposed to eat French Fries, like, ever, or any fried food for that matter. You're probably also not supposed to eat cake or cupcakes or things like that.  Ok, well noted.  But since this is a lifestyle and not a "diet", chances are, I'm going to eat those things from time to time, even though I know they'll go straight to my ass and even though I'll probably even feel bad about it afterwards.  That sounds torturous, but don't act like you don't do it.

All in all, Friday was a pretty good day, bordering on great, even.  Part of my hesitation to call it great is the fact that I had some sweet potato fries.  I mean, surely they still count as a vegetable, right?  I looked up French Fries in the book just so that I could have some frame of reference and they were discussed on one solitary page and basically what was said about them was that if you eat them, your sex life may suffer.  Now I'm surely not about to go off on a tangent over sex versus French Fries or anything crazy like that, but I really do want to know, if I do happen to eat them, how do I count them?  I chose to count them as 2 vegetables and 1 fat.

Oh, yes, I'm looking at my notes and that's the other reason Friday wasn't great - my husband was working from home and declared it Donut Friday and I had a donut for breakfast, ha.  Oops.  But donuts are listed in the book - maybe not cream filled but still.

7:45 am
Donut (from the best, Dandy Donuts) - 2 "rarely" carbs

10:00 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

11:30 am
Plum - 1 fruit

1:00 pm
Zucchini, Squash and Corn (same recipe from the other day, but I added squash and left out cilantro -
If we're being honest, I left out cilantro partly because I had thrown out what we had the night before and partly because I'm lazy and hate dicing up fresh herbs - ugh, hate it.  I was on a mission to make some veggies that the baby would like, and he really did like this dish but I think next time I'll remove the skins and leave out the corn for him - be on the lookout for that modified recipe.  I digress, but these veggies were still damn delicious as they are described, even minus the cilantro) - 2 cups - 2 veggie servings
Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb
Mozzarella Cheese - 1/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Chicken Nuggets - 2 (3 fingers worth) - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Cherries - 1 cup - 1 fruit

5:00 pm
Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

8:00 pm
Burger - Beef Patty - 2 "thumbs up" proteins
Bun - 2 "sometimes" carbs
Cheese - 1 protein - I honestly don't know if this is thumbs up or down or otherwise - probably should have skipped it
Lettuce, Tomato - negligible
Sweet Potato Fries - 2 veggies, 1 fat
Banana - 1 fruit
Peanut Butter - 1 Tablespoon - 1 fat

Carbs: 6/6
Protein: 6/6
Fruit: 3/3
Fat: 2/3
Veg: 4/4.5

Saturday was a bit of a mess, partly because we ended up in the ER when my husband cut his finger on our food processor blade when he was putting it away.  It was nothing glamorous or intense, he just dropped it and it landed on his knuckle and there was quite a bit of blood so we made a visit to the ER for some dermabond.  All is ok, he's not going to lose a finger or anything, but I've been on kitchen duty ever since, which, if you know my husband, is killing him! We are both ready to have him back to normal.

Anyhow, I didn't spread my food out very well and also didn't get enough veggies, or fruit for that matter.  Most days, I feel like if I could eat more fruit servings instead of vegetables, I could totally do that, but neither was close this day.  I blame the ER.

7:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

12:00 pm
Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb
Mozzarella Cheese - 1/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Chicken Nuggets - 2 (3 fingers worth) - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Fruit - cherries and grapes- 1 fruit
Broccoli (the baby refused to eat it) - 1 veg

3:30 pm
Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

Dinner was homemade pizza - this really made my husband crazy because this is his thing and I had to do it for him.  I would like the record to show that it was still delicious.
Crust - 5 "sometimes/rarely" carbs
Pesto - 2 fats
Mozzarella Cheese - 3 proteins
Parmesan Cheese - 1 protein

Carbs: 7/6
Protein: 7/6
Fruit: 1/3
Fat: 2/3
Veg: 1/4.5

Ah, Sunday.  I took this day to make some practice cupcakes for the baby's birthday that's coming up in September.  I've been trying to make healthier options than the typical cupcake.  The first version was pretty gross.  This last one was palatable - so much so that I had to try 3 to see if they were ok.  Hmm.  If you're not supposed to have one cupcake, surely you're definitely not supposed to have 3.  And again, how do I count these?  I guess carbs.

7:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

9:00 am
Baked Oatmeal
1 "always" carb
1 fruit
1 "thumbs up" protein
1 fat

12:00 pm
Sweet Potatoes - the baby was fighting naps and actually fell asleep in the high chair before he got a chance to legitimately ignore his sweet potatoes - so I ate them while I was waiting for my husband to bring home Chipotle (my first Chipotle experience, EVER).

1:00 pm Chicken Tacos
Flour Tortilla (we requested whole wheat but to no avail) - 2 "rarely" carbs
Chicken - 2 "thumbs up" proteins
Lettuce, tomato, etc - 1 veg
Guacamole - 1 fat

Cupcake(s) x 3 - yikes - 3 "rarely/never ever" carbs

6:00 pm
Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

8:00 pm
Salmon - again, we love this recipe using salmon from the local Farmer's Market -2 "thumbs up" proteins
Broccoli - a lot - 1.5 veg

Carbs: 7/6
Protein: 6/6
Fruit: 1/3 - probably should have had some fruit instead of that last cupcake - or those last 2 cupcakes
Fat: 2/3 - buttercream icing probably takes this up to 5 - just now thought of that.
Veg: 3.5/4.5

I don't know what happened on Monday.  It was only yesterday but I honestly don't remember how I felt and what caused me to eat what I did.  Part of the problem is that we had leftover pizza.  God, I love pizza.  And we had leftover baked oatmeal - which, isn't bad but also isn't as good as the good old "regular" oatmeal.

I'm just going to give it to you straight.

7:45 am
Oatmeal
1 "always" carb
1 fruit
1 "thumbs up" protein
1 fat

10:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

12:00 pm
Pizza - now I'm starting to remember.  The baby didn't want to nap - we met some friends at the park in the morning and he might have taken a 15 minute snooze and then he didn't want to go back down so I had put him in his crib and he screamed while I "enjoyed" my pizza and then I got him up and we played for 45 more minutes until we tried again.  I finally had to rock him to sleep around 1:25.  Exhausting.
3 "rarely" carbs
1 fat
1 "thumbs up" protein

2:40 pm
Peach - 1 fruit
Cupcake - oops - 1 "rarely" carb, 1 fat
Nature Valley Pumpkin Flax bar - so yummy, I think the tiredness made me do it - 2 carbs?

5:30 pm
Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg
Peanut Butter - 2 Tablespoons - 2 fats

8:00 pm
Chicken Pot Pie - this Pilsbury recipe actually isn't so bad - at least I don't think so
Crust - 2 "rarely" carbs
Chicken - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Corn, Green Beans, Peas and Carrots - 1 veg

Ice Cream - I just had to do it - 1/2 cup maybe? - 1 "probably shouldn't" protein

Carbs: 9/6 - eesh
Protein: 5/6
Fruit: 2/3
Fat: 5/3
Veg: 2/4.5

I mean, I don't know what else to say about that.  That's all. 

I don't want to talk about today, yet.  I'm tired.  Say you have this baby that used to take two naps a day.  And say the combined time of those naps was around 2.5 hours.  When said baby goes from two naps to one, one would only assume that this single nap would be around the same time as the combined naps, right?  Right?  Riiight.  Or, said nap time decreases to around 1.5 hours total.  That's what we're dealing with right now - more awake time, later naps, nap rebellion, sheer exhaustion.  I'll come back later and link up a few more things - just wanted to let you all know I hadn't fallen completely off the wagon.

Vegetables, Anyone?

Shit show.  That would decribe dinner from Tuesday and Wednesday. Total shit show. And this would also probably describe most other diets I've tried after the initial honeymoon period. Even after I was doing so good. *sigh*

Tuesday went downhill early. Remember those sugar cravings I was talking about?  They hit full force on Tuesday. I compensated by loading up on carbs - popcorn and graham crackers and more popcorn, oh my. One thing I still know for sure is that I'm not getting enough vegetables. If I'm not eating them raw (or with peanut butter), I just don't find them as easy to eat. I feel like I have to think about it a lot more and make more of an effort. Maybe it doesn't have to be that way. 

7:45 am - baked oatmeal

1 "always" carb

1 "thumbs up" protein

1 fruit

1 fat

11:30 am

Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Plum - 1 fruit

1:20 pm

Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb

Mozzarella Cheese - 1/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Chicken Nuggets - 2 - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Graham Crackers - 1 probably "rarely" carb

Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

4:40 pm

Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg

Peanut Butter - 1 tablespoon - 1 fat

Still hungry...

More Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

Dried Apricots - 4 - 1 fruit

For dinner, we picked up Mediterranean food. This probably didn't have to be so bad, but then my husband picked up falafel balls (deep fried) and baklava (thankfully only 1 serving that we split).

8:00 pm Dinner
Falafel Balls - I had 2 - I'm guessing here at 1 fat
1 super yummy Pita (so tasty, so likely not whole wheat - will have to ask next time if they have whole wheat as an option) - 1 "sometimes" carb
1 Pita for hummus dipping - 1 more "sometimes" carb
Chicken - 2 "thumbs up" proteins
Cucumber - 1 veg
Hummus - 1 fat
I initially thought the hummus may be a protein because of its chick pea origin but I think that using all that olive oil to make it nice and smooth is what turns it into a fat - a friendly fat, but still a fat, nonetheless.

Carbs: 7/6
Protein: 7/6
Fruit: 3/3
Fat: 5/3
Veg: 2/4.5

Wednesday started out good enough but went downhill fast when my husband suggested pizza for dinner.  I could have still enjoyed pizza by making a better pizza decision but then I wouldn't have enjoyed my pizza as much.  Hmm.  I did feel guilty about it later, though.  Lesson learned.

7:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

11:00 am
Oatmeal - 1/2 cup - 1 "always" carb
Milk - 3/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Blueberries - 1/2 cup - 1 fruit
Walnuts - 2 Tablespoons - 1 fat

1:15 pm
Whole Wheat Bread - 1 slice - 1 "always" carb
Peanut Butter - 1 Tablespoon-ish - 1 fat
Carrots - 1 veg
Hummus - 1/2 fat
Plum - 1 fruit

4:45 pm
Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

7:00 pm
Salad Greens - 1 veg
Avocado - 1 fat
Blue Cheese - 1 "perilous" protein
Pizza best guesses:
4 "rarely" carbs
1 veg
8 proteins - probably not "thumbs up" but probably also not "perilous"
Chocolate - 2 fats?

Yikes.

Carbs: 7/6
Protein: 11/6
Fruit: 2/3
Fat: 5.5/3
Veg: 3/4.5

I got back on track on Thursday, but shockingly, still didn't get enough vegetables.  No, it's not shocking at all.  Maybe if I buy more vegetables, I'll eat more vegetables.  Or maybe I'll just throw more vegetables away.  The jury is still out.

7:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

11:00 am
Oatmeal - 1 "always" carb
Milk - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Plum - 1 fruit
Walnuts - 2 Tablespoons - 1 fat

We went to Gymboree today and left the house at 12 so lunchtime sort of got messed up.

2:00 pm
Cheerios - 1 cup - 1 "always" carb
Almonds - 11 - 1 fat
Peach - 1 fruit

3:00 pm
Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb
Cheddar/Monterey Jack cheese - 1/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein

4:45 pm
Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg
Hummus - maybe 1.5 Tablespoon (serving size is 3 level Tablespoons) - 1/2 fat

8:20 - For dinner we had this weird chicken nacho type meal from my Pampered Chef cookbook.
Chicken - 2 "thumbs up" proteins
Cheese - 1.5 proteins - thumbs up, perilous, I'm not sure - probably a mixture
Chips - Whole Wheat, about 3 cups - 3 "always" carbs

Chocolate - finished it off today so we don't have to worry about that anymore - 2 fats?

Carbs: 6/6
Protein: 6.5/6
Fruit: 2/3
Fat: 4/3
Veg: 1/4.5

2 inches lost!

That's technically since April, but either way, I consider it a win.  I don't care if it took 6 months - progress is progress. If I could add exercise into my current routine, other than standing most of the day and lugging around an 18 lb weight a good portion of the time, I think I'd be in really good shape. Baby steps.  Literally.

So Monday was great, naturally, since I learned that I was 2" leaner and food wise, it wasn't too bad either.

Baked Oatmeal for breakfast at 7:45.
1 "always" carb
1 fruit
1 "thumbs up" protein
1 fat

11 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

1 pm
Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb
Mozzarella Cheese - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Chicken Nuggets - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Zucchini and Corn (leftovers from the night before, still delicious) - 1 veg
Peach - 1 fruit

3 pm
Cheerios - 1 cup - 1 "always" carb
Almonds - 11 - 1 fat

5 pm
Banana - 1 fruit
Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

8 pm - Dinner was salmon again.  As a new fish eater, I've been sticking with what I know and with a name like cheesy baked salmon, how can one go wrong?!

This salmon was very good.  We have it on the list to put into rotation - the only thing we'd do differently is to dice the onion instead of slicing it in thin rings.  We found that when taking a bite, a ring of onion would pull off cheese from other parts of the fish.  I like uniform cheese distribution.

(click picture for recipe)


We had this salmon and some green beans.  Since the salmon had mayo (we used the olive oil version) and cheese, I counted it as 3 proteins and 1 fat (2 portions of salmon plus the cheese counted as the 3 proteins).  Green beans counted as 1 vegetable and then last night was our last night of pie so one fat.  I was still craving some sugar so I also had some graham crackers at 1 carb.  They're probably not an "always" carb but it is what it is.  I may or may not have dipped them in cool whip I had left over from making the pie.

So for daily totals:
Carbs: 5/6
Protein: 7/6
Fruit: 3/3
Fat: 4/3
Veg: 2/4.5

Still not terrible, but for whatever reason I am finding that I have a craving for some sweets.  It seems doubtful to me that it's because my carb intake is low but who knows.  I don't have any type of degree in nutrition.  I think I may re-read the book this week to get a reminder on what kind of side effects the different twin trials had.  If I'm having cravings, surely I'm lacking something somewhere, right?

The baby has been making me crazy.  He has not been ready to sleep for his 9 am naptime so for the last several days, I've been waiting until 11 to put him down.  Let's just say we're still working out the kinks.

Sunday, he slept for about an hour and a half starting at 11 so I figured he'd probably need another nap at some point and he fell asleep around 3 after nursing.  He slept for about 40 minutes and then had a hard time getting to sleep that night.  Yesterday, he slept for an hour and 15 minutes when I put him down at 11 and then slept for approximately 11 minutes (yes, 11 - there's really not much you can get done in 11 minutes) after he nursed around 3.  He went to bed without incident but was wide awake at 11:30 and needed nursing back to sleep.  Today, it's noon, and it looks as though he's just gotten himself back to sleep.  He was looking extra sleepy this morning so I nursed him at 10:30 and he fell asleep after that, around 10:50 or so.  He woke up, 52 minutes in (yes, I time all his naps) and it took him a few minutes but by golly, it does look like he's sleeping again.  Thank goodness.  I've been doing so much logging for the baby and now for my food that sometimes when I get done using the bathroom I look around for a minute to see if I should be recording that somewhere.  My husband thinks I need to get some more adult friends and get out of the house more.  Probably not a bad idea.
 

Our cornmeal expired, when?!

Saturday was a weird day. It started out pretty normal, with some baked oatmeal. We'll count that as 

1 "always" carb

1 "thumbs up" protein

1 fruit

1 fat

11:45

String Cheese - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Lunch was still pretty normal. 

1:30

Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb

Mozzarella Cheese - 1/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Chicken Nuggets - 2 (the size/amount of 3 fingers) - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Cherries - 1 cup - 1 fruit

I had some carrots and peanut butter set out but was feeling full so I didn't eat them. Around 4, I still wasn't all that hungry but ate some popcorn because I knew I was low on carbs and figured I wouldn't make it all they way until dinner around 8, after we put the baby to bed. 

By the time dinner rolled around, I was still feeling mostly full, which is just weird for me. Maybe my portions are off. Maybe it's the amount of water I had.  Maybe I'm just truly eating a better balance of things to keep hunger at bay. 

So, my husband wanted to fix his famous (Tyler Florence's famous, more specifically) shrimp and grits for dinner. Grits aren't mentioned once in my book. I can only assume they are a no-no so I convinced him to sub brown rice for the grits. I'll tell you this - honestly, it was almost just as good. If I hadn't had these amazing grits before, I wouldn't have missed them at all, and even with having had them, I barely missed them and felt better about myself, so bonus. 

Brown Rice - 1 "always" carb

Shrimp - enough to fill up the cup of your hand (I had about 5 large shrimp) - 2 "thumbs up" proteins

Sausage - about the size of your pinky finger - 1 "perilous" protein. It still counts but we shouldn't eat those often. 

Frozen Lemonade Pie - 1 fat

Day Totals:

Carbs: 4/6

Protein: 7/6

Fruit: 2/3

Fat: 2/3

Veggies: 0/4.5

Whoops, no veggies all day!  That's why I meant to eat those carrots!  My husband reminded me that there were onions in the shrimp mixture but I need to do some more research. I'm not sure how nutritious onions actually are to even count as a vegetable serving. Do people just eat onions as a main dish? They just seem like more of an accent food to me. 

Today, Sunday, we tested going out to eat. I ordered a healthy egg scramble that included 3 eggs, spinach, mushrooms, onions and mozzarella cheese. It came with fruit and a whole wheat English muffin. It was pretty tasty, actually, even though the three eggs was probably a little excessive. I didn't ask if they could do one whole egg and two whites or anything like that but I would bet some places would be accommodating for things like that. Eating half my English muffin and giving the other half to the baby, I counted as:

3 eggs - 3 proteins (probably only one whole egg would be considered a thumbs up protein but figuring it out sounds complicated)

Mozzarella Cheese - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Mushrooms, Spinach, Onion - 1 veg

Mixed Fruit - 1 fruit

1/2 Whole Wheat English Muffin - 1 "always" carbs 

11:45 - had my carrots from yesterday

Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg

Peanut Butter - 1 Tablespoon - 1 fat

Lunch was sort of a crapshoot. I don't know if this is what made me tired later in the day but I figure it's possible. I had made these new waffles for the baby that had part whole wheat flour and sweet potato purée mixed in and had to taste test them. I ended up eating a whole waffle and just had to count that as part of my lunch. I also had a plum so I counted it as 1 carb and 1 fruit. 

At 5:15 I had some popcorn while the baby threw most of his food (chicken nuggets and cheesy toast) at the dogs. 

3 cups - 1 "always" carb

For dinner we had some homemade fish tacos. The hubs made a breading and we picked up some grouper from the local farmers' market and we baked it. We were initially going to use a cornmeal mixture but after making up the mix realized that our cornmeal, though unopened, had an expiration date of April 2012. That's embarrassing. Why did we have that? And why did we move expired cornmeal at least 2 times, once out of state even?  We opted not to use it, just in case, and subbed some Italian breadcrumbs. We had some corn and zucchini on the side. It wasn't bad.  Picture is linked to recipe. 

 

8:00

Whole Wheat Tortillas - 2 - 2 "always" carbs

Grouper (baked) - 2 servings, each about 3 fingers worth - 2 proteins

Shredded lettuce - 1 veg

Corn and Zucchini - 1 veg

Frozen Lemonade Pie - 1 fat

Daily Totals

Carbs: 5/6 (I could have eaten that entire English muffin after all)

Protein: 7/6

Fruit: 2/3

Fat: 2/3

Veg: 4/4.5

Excellent! I didn't go over on my fat today and almost met the minimum quota for veggies!

One whole week and I'd say I'm feeling pretty fired up. Here's to week 2!

my pants are loose!

Even in spite of my derailment, yesterday, I woke up this morning, 2 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight and my normal pants are feeling a little bit loose. I can't believe it, but it's all the fuel I need to keep at this. 

As you may or may not know, my pre-pregnancy weight wasn't one to brag about. It was the point in my life when I joined weight watchers (only to have them kick me out when I got pregnant) but either way, it is a great feeling to be back at a familiar starting point. 

This is how I finished off yesterday. 

3:00

Popcorn - 3 cups - 1 "always" carb

5:00 

String Cheese - 1 "thumbs up" protein

8:00

Salmon - 2 oz - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Salad - 1.5 cups or so, counting it as 1 vegetable

Strawberries - 1 fruit

Blue Cheese - 1 "perilous" fat (sad, we love blue cheese)

Olive oil - 1 fat

Frozen lemonade pie - 1 fat

Carbs: 2.5/6

Protein: 4.5/6

Fruit: 2/3

Fat: 5/3

Veg: 2/4.5

I'm still getting too much fat, not enough veggies, protein or carbs. That's not all that shocking to me, really. Definitely an area I can work on. Small changes can yield big results. I'm already proof of that. I'm excited and inspired. I think this is a lifestyle I can keep up. 

Busy Baby

After three nights in a row of the baby sleeping through the night (so we know he is capable), he woke up last night around 11:30 wanting to party.  I changed him, fed him and every time I placed him in his crib, he began screaming again.  Around 12:30 or 1, thinking I wasn't going to get any sleep any other way, I brought him downstairs into our bed.  Well, we have done a good job of letting him know that his bed is for sleeping and ours is not because he started kicking his legs and looking around and took turns smacking my husband and I.  This wasn't going to work out for anyone.  So I took him back upstairs to his room, put him in his crib, crossed my fingers and walked away.  By the time I was back downstairs in our room, he was just about done.  Talk about a cramp in my style.  This morning I was expecting to see his first tooth or a fever or something remarkable to offer an explanation, but no, just the same old baby bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7 am.  Crazy baby.

Anyway, back to this diet thing, I rounded out Thursday on an ok note.

7:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

10 am
Cheerios - 1 cup - 1 "always" carb
Almonds - 11 - 1 fat

12
Oatmeal - 1/2 cup - 1 "always" carb
Skim Milk - 3/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Strawberries - 1/2 cup sliced - 1 fruit
Walnuts - 2 Tablespoons - 1 fat

While out grocery shopping, I had a hankering for some chocolate so I got myself a York Peppermint Patty.  I figure there are worse things I could have gotten.  I guessed it as being 1 fat since it's all sugar but I really don't know. 

1:45
Cherries - 1 cup - 1 fruit

4:25
Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg
Peanut Butter - 1 Tablespoon - 1 fat

5:30
String Cheese - 1 "thumbs up" protein

8:00 - Tofu Stir Fry with Brown Rice for dinner
Brown Rice - 1 cup - 1 "always" carb
Tofu - 3 oz or so - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Broccoli, Sugar Snap Peas and Onion - 2 veg
Cashews (my husband's idea) - 1 fat
Peach - 1 fruit

Carbs: 3/6
Protein: 4/6
Fruit: 3/3
Fat: 5/3
Veg: 3/4.5

If I had been paying more attention, I would have swapped my 4:25 snack for something else since I ended up over on my fats for the day.  I could have added in some popcorn or a piece of whole wheat toast or something like that to fill in the day better instead of the peanut butter.  I had a glass of red wine with dinner but all in all, I'm still feeling good.

Now today, Friday, I've lost control ever so slightly and I now understand the importance of timing snacks.  I've addressed it and even written it down and have opted to pretend it didn't happen and go about the rest of my day in a healthful fashion, instead of letting one slip up ruin the rest of my day, like I would have done in my previous dieting life.

This is what happened - I started my day like I normally do...
7:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

10:15
Oatmeal - 1/2 cup - 1 "always" carb
Milk - 3/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Strawberries - 1/2 cup sliced - 1 fruit
Walnuts - 2 Tablespoons - 1 fat

I nursed the baby around 11 and then went grocery shopping.  I had decided last night that I was going to make this frozen lemonade pie for the weekend.  I started thinking about the whole diet thing and thought that maybe we could have dessert if we limited it to the weekend.  As I type that, I realize that the two of us will not eat an entire frozen lemonade pie over the weekend and there will inevitably be some leftover and spill into the week so I may need to rethink this idea or my recipes, portions, something.  Regardless, this is the plan that I made.  I took a piece of string cheese with me as a snack but I didn't eat it.  As I was driving home, I was thinking about what I was going to feed the baby for lunch and how I could make the pie really quick during lunch time and it may even have time to set before dinner tonight. 

So that's exactly what I did.  I got home with the baby and the groceries and took turns putting more pieces of food on the baby's tray and whipping up this pie.  Well, I went to pour it into its graham cracker crust and there was too much filling for the crust - probably 1/2 cup worth that was left over, maybe even closer to a cup.  Naturally, I had to taste it to make sure it tasted good and then all of a sudden, it was all gone (it did taste good).  Oh no.  Why did I do that?  The answer is because I was hungry.  My body was craving fuel and as soon as I started with the sugary goodness, I wanted more.  When I realized what I had done, I put the bowl in the sink and filled it with water and then ate leftovers from last night for my actual lunch.  I'm feeling a little guilty and a little silly, but feeling better now that I got some real food.

I have snacks laid out for the rest of the day and we enjoyed the salmon so much from the other night that we're having it again tonight, with a big salad (and maybe some frozen lemonade pie).  The baby is fighting his afternoon nap and I'm fighting not taking one.  There's much to do!  Here's crossing my fingers this is just as easy to keep up this weekend when my husband is around.

Buying Salmon, on Purpose

Right, I can't believe it either.  If you follow me on IG, you may have noticed that I'm re-reading an old diet book and learning new things that I apparently never learned the last time.  In fact, in looking at this book, the only things I had marked were the meal plans - sounds about how I used to diet.  I would stick with something on the weekend and then by Monday, when I had to go back to work, it was just too hard because I couldn't make all those things the books told me to when I had to go to work.  Things are supposed to be easier now that I'm home all the time, right?  Ha, right. 

So, I'm reading up on how to 'fire up my metabolism' from the Nutrition Twins, Lyssie Lakatos and Tammy Lakatos Shames.  I figured if I could also share my journey, maybe that would make me a little more likely to stick with it this time as more of a lifestyle than a traditional 'diet'.

The book is based on 9 proven principles to help you burn more fat and lose weight.  What stuck out to me the most is that, shockingly (not really) most of us have a warped view of portions.  But I have to say that I'm on day 3 (probably more accurately day 2) of really trying to follow this thing and I think I'm feeling pretty good.  The basics are that you get a certain number of carbs, protein, fruit and fat per day.  I would say that you get to have a certain amount of vegetables as well but they basically say to eat as much of those as you want (oh goody). 

So my parameters are that I'm supposed to have the following:
Carbs: 6
Protein: 6
Fruit: 3
Fat: 3
Veggies: 4.5 or more

Monday was my first day on the job.  We had some leftover baked oatmeal from the weekend which, aside from the chocolate chips (even with the chocolate chips) really isn't that bad.

Baked Oatmeal - 1 cup - 2 "always" carbs, 1 fruit

String Cheese - 1 - 1 "thumbs up" protein
1/2 banana (the baby didn't feel like eating it) - 1/2 fruit
Yogurt (Dannon Greek Yogurt if we're being specific - love that stuff!) - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb
Pecorino Romano Cheese - this is probably a "never" cheese because I couldn't find it on the list and it didn't melt properly but I just called it 1 "thumbs down" protein
Ground Beef (leftover hamburger from the night before) - 1/8 of a lb - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Baby Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg
Peanut Butter - 1 Tablespoon - 1 Fat

Wheat Bun (not whole wheat, but enriched wheat) - 2 "sometimes" carbs
1 egg - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Avocado - roughly 1/4 cup - 1 fat
Basil Pesto - a smear - 1 fat
Mozzarella Cheese - 1 slice - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Pineapple and Peach salad - 1.5 cups/fruit

So I rounded out my day at:
Carbs: 5/6
Protein: 6/6
Fruit: 3/3
Fat: 3/3
Veggies: 1/4.5

Tuesday I was feeling good.  I had really finished the book again by Monday night so I felt like I had a better handle on this thing after one day of sort of doing it, however, around 4:30 or 5 pm I had a major headache.  I'm not sure if sugar withdrawal headaches can come on two days later but it was bad.  I drank extra water (I already drink a lot) and drowned my headache in pizza for dinner.

Baked Oatmeal - 1 cup - 2 "always carbs", 1 fruit

Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb
1/4 cup Mozzarella cheese - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Chicken Nuggets (2 - baked) - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Pineapple and Peach salad - 1 fruit
Mini Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg
Peanut Butter - 1 Tablespoon - 1 fat

Cheerios (dry) - 1 cup - 1 "always" carb
Almonds - 11 - 1 fat
1/2 Peach - 1 fruit

Mini Eggplant Parmesan Pizza - hmm...I mean, I have to guess at what I think this is, right?
4 Pieces, probably about equal to 4 slices of bread - so maybe 4 "sometimes" carbs since it wasn't whole wheat. 
Even if the eggplant is breaded, I can still count it as a vegetable, right?  Let's say 1
Marinara sauce - can that count as a vegetable?  Sure, let's say that
And the cheese, oh the cheese - probably a good 2 servings per piece - yikes, that's 8 protein servings

So before I ate that whole pizza, I did ok, but after the pizza, let's see

Carbs: 8/6
Protein: 11/6
Fruit: 3/3
Fat: 2/3 that I recorded - probably a few in that pizza as well
Veggies: 3/4.5 - probably generous considering the pizza but hey

Clearly, I could use some more veggies - they're practically free and they'd probably help to fill me up a little bit.

Today, Wednesday, we're doing good so far.  I'm feeling a little bit better, a little smaller, feel like I may have slept better last night, even in spite of my pizza annihilation.  And I'm so inspired that I'm actually going to purchase salmon on purpose (not that I've ever bought it by accident but you get the point) to cook with some broccoli for dinner tonight. 

7:45 am
Greek Yogurt - 1 "thumbs up" protein

10:25 am
Oatmeal - 1/2 cup - 1 "always" carb
Milk - 1 cup (3/4 cup is a regular serving so I'll adjust this next time) - 1+ "thumbs up" protein
Walnuts - 2 Tablespoons - 1 fat
Strawberries - 1/2 cup sliced - 1 fruit

Normally, I think that I need some type of sugar in my oatmeal.  I usually reach for the brown sugar and give a little sprinkle (or a hefty sprinkle if we're being honest) but I was shocked today that I didn't really miss it.

12:15 pm - I prepared my lunch in between giving the baby more pieces of cheese, sweet potato and chicken.  It was relatively simple to do while he was occupied.
Whole Wheat Tortilla - 1 "always" carb
Mozzarella Cheese - 1/4 cup - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Chicken Nuggets - 2, baked - 1 "thumbs up" protein
Baby Carrots - 3 oz - 1 veg
Peanut Butter - 1 Tablespoon - 1 fat
Popcorn - air popped, 3 cups - 1 carb (that's right, only 1 - for THREE cups of food!!)

Time for a snack and time to nurse the baby.  I'll let you know how salmon goes...

Salmon Awesomeness

I really never thought I'd say something like that but truly, the salmon was exceptional.  And it was beautiful.  I should have taken a picture.  I must give credit where credit is due.  I found this on Pintrest and we will for sure be making it again (the picture should link it, let me know if not).  I got a half pound filet and the hubs and I split it.  He asked me if that was all the fish I bought and if I had just gotten it for myself but I told him we were working on portioning.  No one starved.



And then we had this broccoli.  Again, amazing and only olive oil and sea salt. 



We had some baklava for dessert I picked up from the Farmer's Market.  All in all, I rounded out the day as follows:

Carbs: 4/6
Protein: 6/6
Fruit: 2/3
Fat: 4/3
Veggies: 2

I felt good yesterday.  I didn't feel like I was starving and felt pretty in control all day.  Also, no headache, so not sure what that was all about on Tuesday. 

The baby is fighting a nap at the moment.  I'm waiting for him to go to sleep before I go outside to water the flowers/herbs and thinking about my first snack for the day.  It'll probably be a repeat of that oatmeal.  Though, I may need to do the oatmeal for lunch as something quick since we have Gymboree today.  We will see.  I'll keep you in the loop. 

I jumped on the scale today (not when I first got up, but after I'd eaten a yogurt and had a good bit of water) and was 2 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight.  That's not displeasing to me.  But seriously, try that salmon and broccoli.  I'll bet you'll be as excited as I was!