Days 20 and 21

I was off of the meal plans this weekend because I had a lot of leftovers to eat.  I was also conducting interviews all weekend, so I was not home for any meal except dinner.

DAY 20

On Friday night I threw all of my "to go" snacks into a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY bag.  It is not my birthday, not even close.  I just needed a good sized bag to carry all my snacks.  The unintended effect of using a happy birthday bag is that I was really happy when I saw it.  Perhaps subconsciously my brain associated birthdays with good things and so my snacks became good things.


For breakfast Saturday morning I had a whole wheat English muffin with natural peanut butter and a gulp of milk.  I would have had more than just a gulp of milk, but that's all that MJ left for me in the gallon.  I sent him out to buy more.  


When I arrived at the office for interviews, I saw that my team had brought a coffee pot, donuts and munchkins.  Sigh.  When they passed around the donuts, I declined and took out my apple.    Throughout the course of the interviews, I ate:
• 1 low-fat cheese stick
• 1 apple
• 10 snap peas with 2 oz hummus
• 1 whole wheat cracker with spreadable cheese
• 1 cup of coffee (half and half, no sugar)
• 1 almond butter cookie
• 1 glass orange juice
• 4 munchkins


I just found the Dunkin Donuts Nutritional Information and discovered that I ate 215 calories of munchkins.  Oh nooooo!  I had no idea they were that bad for you.  But I am SO glad I didn't have a full donut.  Those things are horrible! And delicious.  But horrible.  

For lunch, I made a salad with red leaf lettuce, white beans, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 cup edamame and 1 hard boiled egg.  The salad was actually very filling and I wasn't even able to finish it.   In the future I would add balsamic vinegar and tomatoes.  My coworkers complimented my salad and my snack bag.  The person who brought the donuts indicated that he would bring healthier snacks for me the next day.


When I got back home I made tilapia with sauteed broccoli and part-skim mozzarella cheese.   The meal was really easy and I had a lot of broccoli left over, so I wasn't hungry enough to eat any carbs.  Which is good because I had 4 munchkins.  

DAY 21

Today was another day of interviews.  For breakfast I cooked up 2 egg whites with mushrooms, low-fat cheddar cheese, 1/2 whole wheat English muffin; 6 ounces orange juice.  I still had that half of an English muffin left over from the time the Clean Eating editors only let me eat half of one.  I love mushrooms and wish they were in more of the meals.  


When I arrived at the interviews, my coworker presented me with a container of sliced strawberries he brought for my healthier alternative to donuts.  I was very appreciative.   During the interviews I ate:
• some sliced strawberries
• 1/2 cup granola
• 10 snap peas with 2 oz hummus
• 100 calorie bag of cheese
• 2 cups coffee (with half and half and 1 splenda each) 
• 2 munchkins (95 calories).
I didn't know yet that the munchkins were that bad for me since I just looked them up now, but luckily I picked less than 100 calories worth of fat.  


For lunch, I had a veggie burger with low-fat mozzarella cheese, 1/2 avocado and lettuce on whole wheat bread.  This made one of my coworkers question whether I was a vegetarian.  I'm not, but I really enjoy veggie burgers.  


Now for the bad part of my day.  Superbowl Sunday. 
We went to MJ's friend's house for the game.  I knew there would be a lot of unhealthy choices there, so I made my all-natural guacamole, which was devoured by the group by the end of the 1st quarter.  I personally ate:
• about 15 blue chips and guacamole, with a little bit of a bean dip
• crab dip served on 3 little toasted bread slices
• 2 beef sliders (no buns) with roasted onions and 1 scoop of mashed potatoes
• 2 brownies
• 1/2 piece of funfetti cake
• 1 light beer (No one noticed I only had one beer the entire game, and I didn't even finish it!)


Sigh.  I was doing well till the brownies came out.  I probably should have passed on dessert but I didn't want to.  Maybe I was rewarding myself for 3 weeks of eating healthy.  Or maybe I was celebrating the Packers' victory.  Or I just really, really, really love chocolate.  I felt bad until one of MJ's friend picked up the remaining tray of brownies and ate them like a slice of pizza.  Always good to keep someone around who will eat more than your daily serving of calories in one sitting.

Day 18 (Week 2, Wednesday) and Day 19

MJ informed me that I forgot to mention that while I was eating my mushroom asparagus risotto, he and his friend Michael Vick were eating 12 inch subs from one of my favorite (not healthy) sandwich places.  I tried to block this incident from my memory.  Like the plate full of fresh chocolate chip cookies.  I'm trying to be strong-willed against bad foods.  So far, so good.

DAY 18 - WEEK 2, WEDNESDAY

Breakfast: Breakfast Burrito (1 whole wheat tortilla with 4 scrambled egg whites, 1/2 oz cheddar cheese, 1/2 red and 1/2 green pepper); 6 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
This is one of my favorite breakfasts, especially since all my veggies were already cut up in my "Wednesday" bag.  But I can't possibly eat 4 egg whites in one sitting, so I cut it down to 2.  Today my wrap totally fell apart but still tasted very good.  I'd probably replace some of the peppers with onions next time.  And what's a "burrito" without some avocado?  I make a mental note to switch this up next time.
There is no way I'm squeezing my own orange juice.  The effort to results ratio is totally not in my favor.  Instead, I bought a small single-size container of all-natural orange juice.  I drank my 6 ounces (aka 3 gulps).  I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the carton.  Glad I didn't buy a full-sized one!


When I got to work, I made the necessary decision anyone facing 6 hours of meetings would do to survive: purchased coffee.  I got the smallest size and used skim milk and splenda.  I don't think the Clean Eating editors sanction the use of splenda, but I thought they would prefer the healthier "sugar" even if it was a substitute.  I wish the coffee shop had that flavored fat-free half and half so I wouldn't have needed any sugar at all.


Snack 1: Chocolate Smoothie (1 cup low fat milk, 1/4 cup chocolate protein powder, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 5 ice cubes); 1 handful of unsalted almonds
I look ahead at breakfast and see that there is no possible way on earth to make a smoothie at work in a blender!!!  I don't know how this could possibly be appropriate, so I improvise.  MJ makes me a "chocolate milk" for breakfast using some milk and chocolate protein powder.  It was very good.  I sure do miss chocolate milk.  I packed a container with plain yogurt and 5 frozen strawberries for work, but it tasted bad by the time I ate it at work (yes, I kept it in the fridge the whole time, Mom) so I threw it out.  Yuck.


I did eat the unsalted almonds.  And by unsalted almonds I mean 12 cocoa almonds.  Actually 11.  I let my friend Charlotte try one.  She's the one on the 1034 calorie diet.  I hope that one almond didn't push her over her measly calorie limit.  Charlotte informed me that because she lost two pounds, she is now only allowed to eat 1008 calories.  This cannot be a healthy diet.  I need to start carrying sugary snacks to revive Charlotte when she passes out from malnourishment.


Lunch: French Tuna Salad (green beans, 1 hard boiled egg, sliced radishes, tuna, red onion, red pepper, red leaf lettuce and 1 yukon potato)
This lunch may take the crown for most awkward meal ever.  It was so bad that someone even said to me "what the heck are you eating?!" 
Sigh.
First of all, this salad to forever to prep.  I had to hard boil eggs (BIG shout out to Michael Vick for this guidance on boiling eggs.  Now can you teach MJ how to peel them?!)  I also had to boil a potato.  The cookbook says it would be ready in 15 minutes and it wasn't close.  I let it cook for 25 and the middle was definitely still hard.  I also had to steam the green beans.  Then I had to cut slice and measure everything else.  Huge time commitment.
Second, the dressing had 1239081 ingredient.  It served 4 and only had 1/4 tsp of some ingredients which is a huge pain in my butt.  Essentially the dressing was red wine vinegar and dijon mustard. 
Third, the salad was ridiculous.  It didn't taste good and I only really ate the egg and the tuna.  Huge disappointment.  I ate my cashews early.


Snack 2: 1/2 grapefruit, 15 unsalted raw cashews
Okay I know you're not going to believe me, but I actually brought the grapefruit to work, already cut in half, and brought a spoon.  But I never ate it. I guess I have some mental block.  It's back in my fridge.  I'll probably throw it out soon.


Instead, when I got home I ate some whole wheat bread with almond butter.  When MJ got home, he ate finished the entire container of almond butter.  There go my snacks for the next few days!


Dinner: Boring Chicken, Boring sweet potato, Boring broccoli.
Boring, boring, boring.  Plain, plain, plain.
I purposely picked to eat Wednesday's meal today because I knew I was meeting my friends from high school out for dinner and didn't mind replacing this boring, plain meal.
Instead, we went out for Mexican.  Shocking, right?  I got to the restaurant first - mainly because I like getting to places early, but also because I wanted to really check out the menu and see what non-fried options I had.  While I was waiting, I also googled the calorie contents of Mexican drinks - Margaritas, Sangria, and Beer.  They are all bad.  I drank water.
I ended up ordering a grilled chicken fajita and only eating one of the little tortillas that came with it.  I ate the rest of the grilled chicken and veggies "a la carte," if you will. Oh yea, I ate about 10 chips with salsa.  But I let my friends finish the rest.  No one notice that I wasn't eating the chips or drinking.  Score one for me!


After dinner some co-workers were meeting up for drinks, so I met them for my standard vodka gimlet.  A few other women there were mentioning that they too were trying to watch their weight - one ordered water (cue pregnancy comments) and the other ordered vodka with diet coke.  I told her how fabulous vodka gimlets were and I think she's hooked now.  

DAY 19

Today was another day of leftovers!  My friend invited me over for breakfast.  I call her my Fairy Blog Mother because she told me to start "tweeting" when I made new posts so my "loyal fans" could follow.  I feel like a caveman trying to use twitter.  It's not as easy as Geico.


For breakfast, my fairy blog mother served 1 egg on a toasted whole wheat English muffin with some low-fat cheddar cheese.  It was delicious and I hope to convince her to cook for me more often!   I also had a cup of coffee because she had brewed some Dunkin' Donuts Hazlenut coffee and I couldn't resist the smell of it.  Two coffees in two days?  What's happened to me?!  This time, I only used 1% milk and no sugar (or splenda).  
We headed off to work and I went to a class during gym again.  For lunch I had a veggie burger with low-fat mozzarella cheese, 1/2 avocado and 2 slices red leaf lettuce on whole wheat bread.  So good!  I think veggie burgers are my new favorites.  I bought the morning star kind.  I'll have to check the box and make sure to buy the same kind each time at the store.


For dinner I ate the left over risotto with 3 ounces of shrimp.  It was just the right portion size and was a pretty good combo.  


My snacks today weren't at any particular time, so I saved them for the end.  I ate:
• a handful of cocoa almonds
• 1 low-fat cheese stick
• 2 almond butter cookies.


I know, I know.  What is wrong with me?  I'm not supposed to be eating those! But I went to the gym and I feel justified.  I also really didn't eat that many calories today.  But I'm sure I had more than Charlotte did.  Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Charlotte.  

Week 2, Tuesday (Day 16)

Wow.  I have over 500 hits on this blog.  Thank you for reading!  It has definitely encouraged me to continue on this eating adventure.


I did something that you probably thought I wasn't smart enough to do.  Monday night, I cut up all my veggies for the upcoming three days of meal plans.  Everything.  Every pepper and onion was cut up, measured, and placed in a labeled baggie.  I find that when I'm spending time in the morning chopping up stuff for breakfast, I don't get a chance to fully prepare my snacks and lunches, and I feel rushed.  I don't like feel rushed.  I liked preparing.


Breakfast: 4 egg whites scrambled with 1 slice diced canadian bacon, 1 slice diced tomato, 1/4 cup diced onion, 1/4 cup diced green pepper; 1/2 cup low fat milk
I open the bag labeled "Terrific Tuesday" (thanks, MJ) and pour my pre-cut veggies into the pan.  Easy as pie.  Mmmm pie.  That sounds good.  I replace the bacon with cheese because and egg without cheese is like a burger without ketchup.  Mmm burger.  That sounds good.  I am THRILLED that I get to drink milk today.  That is, until I pour out my 1/2 cup and see how much I really get to drink.   Go ahead and try this at home.  Pour a half cup of milk and tell me how many gulps it takes you to finish.  The answer is 2.  


Snack 1: 2 tablespoons hummus, 10 sugar snap peas; 1/2 avocado
When I ate this snack, I was talking with a co-worker who is trying out her own calorie counting to lose weight for her pending nuptials.  She is allowed to eat 1034 calories a day.  How frickin' unrealistic is that?!  That's definitely not a lifestyle change that could last for any long duration of time.  I'll have to keep tabs on her to see how she's doing.  I take out my sugar snap peas with pride and explain to her that I have 1500 - 1800 calories a day and I'm losing weight. I save my avocado for later because I feel obnoxious enough knowing that my co-working is starving.


Lunch: Sautéed Sole Sandwich with Citrus Slaw
How dare you, editors?!  You say I need to eat a warm fish sandwich on a toasted bun?  Seriously?  While at work?  You suck.  You advertise this as a meal plan for busy cooks, but you are seriously mistaken if you think a busy cook can make a fish sandwich at work.  
I'm mad.  I'm actually furious.  But I'm dedicated to the ski pants cause and I go home for lunch.  I replaced the sole with tilapia and it was SO good.  Almost worth leaving work for lunch.  But the Citrus Slaw (cabbage, carrots, orange, and some weird dressing made from lemon juice, greek yogurt and mustard) was horrible.  Absolutely horrible.  I threw it out and ate the other half of my whole wheat bun with almond butter.  Much better.  Back to work!


Snack 2: 1 pear; 1 oz stilton cheese, 4 whole wheat crackers
For whatever reason unknown to me, I can't bring myself to eat this pear.  I like pears, but I haven't wanted to eat this.  
What is stilton cheese?  I looked around the grocery store for 15 minutes and found no stilton cheese.  I replace it with a 100 calorie pack of cheese, which happens to also weigh 1 ounce.  Win.  


Dinner: 1/2 cup basmati brown rice, 1 cup assorted stir fried vegetables, 3 oz shrimp; sauce: 1 tbls balsamic vinegar, 2 tsp whole-grain mustard
I ignored the sauce and used my own spices to make this meal - which actually turned out tasty and very filling.  MJ and I vote this dinner most filling of all dinner's we've made.  I messed up on the shrimp though:  I weighed out 3 ounces before I cooked them, and they cooked down to two ounces.  It's okay though because it was very, very good.  

Dessert: Celebratory Almond Butter Cookie
MJ and I had some more good news to celebrate, so we each had one almond butter cookie.  I froze them last week and we just warmed them up in the microwave.  Mmmm.  Can I eat a second one MJ?  No?  Alright fine.  Jerk.

Week 2, Sunday (Day 14)

Today I partially followed the meal plan for Sunday of Week 2.  

Breakfast: Omelette (3 egg whites and 1 egg, 1 cup peppers, 1/2 cup onion, 1 tablespoon part-skim mozzarella cheese)

There is no possible way I could eat 4 eggs in the morning.  I cut the eggs in half and add some mushrooms so they don't go bad before I use them.  I definitely need to work on my omelette flipping skills.  The chefs on TV and those chefs at the omelette stations in hotels make it look so easy!  I'm more concerned about served cooked eggs than pretty eggs.

Snack 1: 1/2 cup white beans, 1/2 cup diced tomatoes, 1/2 avocado, balsamic vinegar and oil

This was a surprisingly yummy snack and definitely worth repeating.  It was also very filling, which I find better than, say, a grapefruit that I can't open.

Lunch: You Pick Two combination at Panera: broccoli cheddar soup and asian chicken salad

MJ and I ended up going out for lunch today, and I made a point to check out the nutrition info before placing my order.  The you-pick-two soup and salad that I got only came to 390 calories, which is really not bad for eating out.  But don't eat the bread or chips it comes with!  I was shocked to learn that the small 2.5 ounce serving of bread they give you with your meal is another 180 calories - regardless of if you ordered the french baguette OR the whole wheat bread!  I gave my slice to MJ and watched as he consumed over 1000 calories (salad, 2 pieces of bread, and a low-cal smoothie).  Attaboy, MJ.  Before I started this meal plan, I would never think that eating a salad bread and smoothie would be over half of the calories I should be eating in one day.  I'm really glad that restaurants are posting this kind of information now so that we can make healthy choices outside the home.  

Snack 2: California Pizza Kitchen: A few bites of the arugula salad, some white corn guacamole with 3 tortilla chips, 1 Mediterranean roll.  

In the afternoon we went to California Pizza Kitchen with the rest of the Jordans for some quick snacks.  CPK is also kind enough to list their nutritional info, but nothing is really good for you.  I had a few bites of each of the appetizers and 1 Mediterranean roll, which is 346 calories!  The roll was MAYBE 2 inches long.  Sigh.  This snack was probably about 400 - 450 calories for me.  More than my lunch and I had less than one quarter of the food!  Why are things that taste so good so bad for you?

Dinner: 1 veggie burger, 1 ounce part-skim mozzarella cheese, 1 slice tomato, 1 piece lettuce, 1 slice onion, 2 pieces whole wheat bread (really Lunch)

Dinner was supposed to be a Fajita salad (chicken, lettuce, salsa, peppers, onions), but the veggie burger meal that I was supposed to have at lunch sounded a lot more appealing and less effort.  And it was delicious!  I've never thought to use wheat bread as a bun but it was fantastic.  I also enjoyed taking out my new food scale and weighing out a full ounce of cheese - way more than I expected!  Thanks editors!  I'm pretty confident that I will be repeating this meal tomorrow in lieu of going to the grocery store again tonight.  But that's okay because I make my own rules, as evidenced by the fact that I ate out twice in one day.

Snack 3: 1 almond butter cookie

Surprise, surprise.  It's been 4 days for me without a cookie.  I caved an ate another almond butter cookie.  It was just as good as I remember.  I know I can survive on this meal plan if I add these cookies in as treats more often.  I'll have to ask MJ to hide them from me.

Days 9 and 10

DAY 9


Today is a full day of totally, 100% eating outside my own house.  I traveled another hour to spend the day with my brother Jason and his wife Bethany.  I ate a quick breakfast on the go - a slice of whole wheat bread with 1 tablespoon almond butter and 1 banana.   This would definitely be approved by the editors of Clean Eating.  


When I arrived at my brother's house he wanted to go out for lunch at his favorite Mexican place.  I was hesitant to agree until he told me there's a 2-for-1 deal on lunches.  Win.  Nothing beats a cheap meal.


When the bowl of chips and salsa were placed in front of me I was like one of Pavlov's dogs.  I sat in agony watching Jason devour the chips.  I caved and ate 4 chips with salsa.  And I even tried to wipe the salt off them... if that counts for anything.  For my actual meal I was not a good, healthy eater.  I had a mini-veggie burrito (with broccoli, onions, beans, cheese) and a cheesy something-or-other mexican dish.  I did leave most of the beans and rice on my plate and did NOT order a margarita! 


When Bethany came home from work I made Jason and Bethany try my almond butter cookies.  They both enjoyed them and I left a few for them to snack on in the upcoming week.  I ate one as well, so I guess that counts as snack 2.


For dinner I was much better - Bethany was nice enough to make a homemade meal, which totally makes up for my horrible lunch and dinner from the night before.  Bethany made ground turkey with sauteed onions, whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce.  It was so good!  I limited myself to a small helping and made a mental note of the recipe so that I could cook the meal for myself at home.  My favorite part about visiting Jason and Bethany was that they had a scale that weighed the food we were making so it was really easy to portion out how much meat, etc. to make!   I will have to buy one of those for my own home and avoid eyeballing the measuring cup and doing my own math for the fishman.  They seem to be pretty reasonably priced at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  


I thanked Jason and Bethany for dinner, left them some almond butter cookies, and headed back to our friend's place an hour away.  When I arrived, I was sad to hear they hadn't eaten dinner yet and they were on their way out.  We went to this place known for burgers and I felt compelled to have some type of food in front of me so I didn't just eat my boyfriend's french fries.  I ordered a plain side salad - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots.  Balsamic vinaigrette on the side.  I maybe ate half the salad, but it kept me sidetracked from eating too many french fries or tasting the hamburgers.  Meanwhile, they were downing beers.  I know that I can't have mexican AND beer in the same day, so I resort back to my vodka gimlet.  


Today I probably didn't lose any weight.  In fact I probably made zero or backwards progress.  Ugh I'm going to need new ski pants.




DAY 10


Before we head back home, we go out to breakfast with our friends to say goodbye.  The eggs benedict are recommended to me, but knowing that Hollandaise sauce is probably not on the top 100 list of healthy choices to make, I created my own egg-white omelette with onions, green peppers, cheddar cheese, and 1/2 slice of whole wheat toast.  


We say goodbye and then we were back on the road, ending our mid-week trip.  But first, another 6 hour car trip to get through.  I snacked on 10 cocoa roast almonds.

Jason suggested I try these and they are awesome.  Much tastier than just a regular boring old almond.  According to the Livstrong website, they are really not that bad for you and can make a good snack.  I also had 1/2 of a banana.  


For lunch we were set on not eating greasy, gross, rest stop food.  I held off having to pee for over an hour so that we could find a rest stop that had some type of sandwich place where I could buy a healthier sandwich on whole wheat bread.  After we passed 14 different rest stops, we finally found the holy grail: Quiznos.  We pull over and I sprint inside to use the bathroom. Much to my dismay, Quiznos is closed.  
The smoothie place is closed.  
Even the pizza place is closed.  
What's open?  
Burger King.  @$!*%!@$&* 


I insist that we leave the rest stop without food.  Heck, I have enough snacks packed to feed a very small country.  I refuse to eat the fried Burger King "food."  My boyfriend is understanding and we get back in the car.  He eats a clementine to prevent starvation and/or hating my guts for being picky about our lunch.  Luckily, the next exit had a huge sign indicating they were the proud home of Subway.  The true holy grail.  
Thanks to Jared's Subway diet, Subway makes it so easy to figure out what's healthy and what's pretending to be healthy but is really a fatty, lonely food item that just doesn't want to get picked last for gym class.  Not this time Mr. Mayonnaise.  I order a 310 cal turkey sandwich and I'm pumped.  I'm back on track to being a healthy superstar.


We get back home to our apartment and each enjoy an afternoon snack of 1 slice of whole wheat bread with 1 tablespoon almond butter.  Delicious and super easy to make.  


Now dinner.  You thought I was being really good right?  Did I convince you my bad eating habits from the previous days were over?  If so I am a good magician.  Watch out Harry Houdini.  


For dinner my boyfriend and I went out to celebrate a number of very important things that required a very nice celebration.  Life is full of celebrations and I will continue to celebrate happy things.  This means I had a 1 glass of white wine.  For an appetizer I had 3 steamed vegetable dumplings.  For the main meal I had sauteed chicken with vegetables (onions, peppers, zucchini) and a little bit of white rice and egg.  I'll have to remember to ask if they have brown rice if we go back to the same restaurant.  The meal also came with assorted side dishes - bites of eggplant, broccoli, sprouts and potatoes.  I tried to avoid eating too much rice and focus on the veggies.  The meal was probably not too unhealthy, but the portion sizes were way bigger than what Clean Eating would tell me to eat for a week!  


Oh and dessert.  I had some gelato.  It was very very good.  I was very very bad.  Tomorrow I NEED to go back to the gym.  I had a great mini vacation visiting friends and family and celebrating happy occasions, but I'm glad to be home so I can get back on track...
...and so can my zipper.

Week 1, Friday (Day 5)

I want to start by saying I can't believe how many hits I've gotten over the past 24 hours.  I'm glad to be promoting a healthy, clean lifestyle.  Feel free to comment or follow my blog and try stuff out on your own.


Breakfast: 1 oz ham, 2 egg whites, 1 Tablespoon Mexican Cheese blend; 1 slice rye toast; 6 oz orange juice


I really enjoy having eggs for breakfast.  I never really cooked breakfast before this new meal plan, but cooking up liquid egg whites is so fast and easy.  This morning I made an egg white omelet - using 2 tablespoons of cheese and no ham.  I ate it on the toasted pumpernickel rye bread as an open-faced sandwich.  Pretty good start to the day.   Except I never bought orange juice.  I've seriously gone to the grocery store 7 times now.  Seven!  For 5 days of food.  I refuse to go an 8th time just for orange juice.  I really need to re-do the shopping for week 2.  I replaced the orange juice with non-fat milk.  No harm, no foul.


Snack 1: 1 Banana, 2 Tablespoons almond butter (Friday's Snack 2)


The almond butter was calling my name, so I replaced today's snack with Friday's snack.  I also haven't had a banana all week.  This snack was delicious - but it is so hard to eat almond butter without having a glass of milk!  
By the way, I haven't mentioned that this whole time I've only been drinking water unless otherwise indicated.  That's right - I haven't had any coffee this week! (Except my vanilla frap on Monday, but is that really coffee?)


Lunch: Turkey Sandwich (3 oz turkey, 1 slice tomato, 1 oz jarlsberg cheese, 1/8 avocado, 2 slices wheat bread); apple; 1 tablespoon natural almond butter


Today I went to a gym class during lunch, which gave me extra energy to get through the day - and postponed when I ate each meal/snack, which left me less hungry come dinner time.


I was so excited to finally eat a "normal" lunch!  A normal lunch that required my 7th trip to the grocery store to get another avocado.  I replaced the slice of cheese with another 1/8 of avocado.  I love avocado and find that it completes a sandwich very well and you don't even need a condiment to make it taste good!  I also ate an apple, but since I had almond butter for my snack, I replace it with..... you guessed it... an almond butter cookie.  No surprise there.  I'm a sucker for cookies and will do whatever possible to add them into my meals.


Snack 2: 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt; 1 cup sliced strawberries


Tricked me again, Clean Eating Editors.  You told me to get low-fat plain yogurt for this week, and then on Monday you made me put it all in a smoothie.  There is no yogurt left to eat today.  I swap it out for my remaining Greek Yogurt.  I added sliced strawberries and the 5 leftover raspberries I hadn't eaten yet.  They really don't taste that good with the greek yogurt.  I guess I just don't like greek yogurt that much.  Oh well.


Dinner: Light and Healthy Chicken "Fried" Rice; Coconut Chai Chocolate Cake (Thursday's Dinner) 


I was very excited for this dinner - essentially its a lot of veggies in a home made "fried" rice that isn't fried.  You make the brown rice first, and then being the intelligent, planning woman that I am, I scooped out the 1/2 cup rice that I will need for lunch on Sunday.  My boyfriend kindly labeled it "Julie's little b!tch cup of rice."  Thanks for rubbing it in, dear.  
I cooked up broccoli, onion, peas, carrots, red pepper, scallions, and zucchini.  We need a bigger wok!  The recipe says it makes 8 bowls, and even though there are only two of us, I don't like cutting down veggies, so I made it all.  Also, my produce is going bad.  It was now or never, so I picked now.  
You cook the chicken, then cook all the veggies, add the rice and then push them aside to cook up some eggs to get that "fried" rice taste.  Did I mention we need a bigger wok?  


The final product looked - and tasted - delicious.  It was hard to resist taking more than 1/8th of the dish, so I ended up eating another spoonful.  Boyfriend devoured at least 3 servings.  But then he did ALL the dishes, so I instantly forgave him.  I mean there were a lot of dishes.  Did I mention I have the best boyfriend?  I think a huge part of living a healthy lifestyle is having a great support system.  I don't think I would have made it past the original shopping list if my boyfriend wasn't encouraging and supportive - and eating this stuff with me.  If you are thinking about trying this out, make sure you have some support - even if that's an online blog!  But seriously, thank you boyfriend!  


Finally, tonight's meal calls for dessert.  But I'm living a normal lifestyle, so tonight we're meeting friends out at a bar.  I skip the dessert in lieu of my pending alcohol calories.


At the bar everyone ordered beer.  But not I!  I ordered Vodka Gimlet - vodka on the rocks with a splash of rose's lime juice.  I got compliments on my sophisticated "adult" order.  I can't seem to locate a good calorie counter online to tell you how many calories that is - but I think the vodka is 64 and the lime juice is 13.  Not too shabby.  When we left the bar some people wanted to get pizza.  I made the smart choice and just went home.  I'm really proud of myself for being able to go out and keep making healthy choices.  Maybe this won't be too bad after all.  

Week 1, Tuesday (Day 3)

My produce is going bad.  I didn't realize when I was trying to pre-plan my shopping week on Sunday that all the nice, fresh stuff I was buying would be wrinkly and smelly before I was required to eat it.  Considering I have made 4 separate trips to the supermarket to buy more ingredients this week, I definitely should have held off on the produce.  Next week I'm only going to buy 2 days in advance.  


Breakfast: Oatmeal with cinnamon, low fat milk, 1 cut up apple


Sigh.  I'm not an oatmeal fan.  I feel like I start every post that way.  Maybe I am a picky eater.  I suck it up though, for the greater good of science, and eat the oatmeal.  Almost all of it.  Okay more like half but there's really no flavor in the whole bowl.   I threw some apple pieces into the bowl, but really apples taste better not cut up (and take a whole lot less effort too).  I barely eat half of the bowl.  This is going to be a long day.


Snack 1: 1/2 cup raspberries, 1 oz spreadable cheese


Alright I get the raspberry thing, but do people really eat spreadable cheese straight up?  Without putting it on anything?  I'm not one of those people.  I bring 2 whole wheat crackers (the kind that actually tastes like a cracker) to work and eat my cheese that way.  I decide the extra 30 calories are worth it.


Lunch: Sandwich with eggplant, onions, peppers, and tomatoes on whole wheat roll with goat cheese.


You've got to be kidding me.  When I saw this listed on the meal plan today I was so excited because it looked so good.  This morning I cursed loudly as I saw how long the prep time was to cook up all the veggies and prepare this sandwich.  I really should have thought twice about making cookies this morning - I should have been making lunch!  I flip to page 84 where the recipe is supposed to be and it's not there.  Typo.  C'mon editors, page numbers are so easy!  I flip to page 24 to find the real recipe and, low and behold, the recipe serves 4.  Great.  I do the quick math and realize that not only is my produce now old, but I have 3/4 of an eggplant that is totally useless, since it's not used anywhere else this weeks meal plan.  1 hour later I've made my meal, which still feeds two people even though I cut down the quantity.  I was only able to eat half of my sandwich before a 12:45 meeting, and at exactly 1:30pm my stomach started to growl.  Am I always going to be hungry?
I finished up the sandwich after the meeting and I really did enjoy it.  But the amount of time it took this morning was totally not worth it.


Snack 2: 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 1 nectarine


I swapped out my nectarine for a clementine, which is the same thing as far as I'm concerned.  I also thought I was supposed to bring cottage cheese for my snack (which was totally unacceptable) so I replaced the yogurt with an almond butter cookie.  I don't regret this decision, but by 2:07pm, my snacks were gone and I was starving.  




Snack 3: Low Fat String Cheese


This was not part of the meal plan.  I cheated again.  But it was 4:36 and my stomach was so loud that my coworkers were starting to stare.  As soon as I got home I had a string cheese.  I'm a little cheater short and stout.  Here is my (love)handle, here is my spout.

Dinner: Chinese 5 Spice Beef and Bell Peppers (Wednesday's dinner)


I've never cooked red meat before, and this was much easier than I thought it would be.  This recipe was fast and simple, and tasted good, considering I left out the Chinese 5 Spice for which the dish was named.   I ended up quadrupling the amount of peppers the recipe required because nothing's better than filling up on a 7 calorie food.  


Dessert: Almond butter cookie


Gosh I cheated a lot today.  I went to the gym after work so I felt justified in my extra calorie intake.  Honestly this last cookie was only so my boyfriend could taste our new go-to dessert.  He was a fan, but disappointed when I informed him the authors don't recommend you drink milk with the cookies because it takes away from any health benefits you get from dark chocolate.  He drank milk anyway.


Overall I probably had closer to 1800 calories today.  I hope the Clean Eating gods aren't cursing me for expanding the meal plan today. Sorry, Clean Eating gods.  I'll try better tomorrow. 

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This morning I woke up early to make the Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were so easy to make, I was convinced I did something wrong.  The recipe calls for Almond Butter, Sucanat, sea salt, 1 egg, baking soda and dark chocolate (that is at least 70% cocoa or greater).


Well, I don't know what sucanat is.  Add that to my list of unknowns.  There's an explanation in the book the Sucanat is some type of cane sugar.  Well, that's nice, but my grocery store doesn't carry it.  I did find some organic sugar that seemed to fit the same description of Sucanat, so I used that.  


The recipe also requests (I say requests because I really don't like to follow recipes) that you use a dark chocolate bar and cut it up.  I don't have time to spend chopping up a dark chocolate bar, so I opted to buy chocolate chips that met the same requirements.  Except, once again, my grocery store doesn't carry dark chocolate with 70% cocoa.  I settled for 65% and decided that was close enough.

Once the cookies cooled, I resisted approximately 23 seconds before I had to try one (who cares if it wasn't even 9am??).  Let me be frank: these are NOT chocolate chip cookies, that's for sure.  But they were still pretty good and I'm sure the remaining 23 cookies will be devoured in place of the cottage cheese snacks I'm supposed to be eating.