Days 57 - 60 (Week 4 Thursday and Friday)

Monday Morning Weigh In:
I lost 3 pounds this week!  I can't believe it.  I've lost 11 pounds in 8 weeks and now I'm only 2.5 pounds away from my goal weight!  I'm really happy with the way I've been losing weight.  Not a lot at one time and I really don't feel like I'm on a diet.  I cheat.  I eat twix bars.  I substitute out things I don't like for things that sound better.  I drink.  But I do everything a lot less than when I wasn't "eating clean."  It feels great to have made this progress.  In fact, today a male friend of mine asked me if I lost weight.  I didn't think my weight loss was noticeable and I really enjoyed getting that compliment from my friend.  

***Now since it's been so many days since I've blogged, I can add that three separate friends have come up to me to tell me it looks like I lost weight.  Feels great to know that my hard work has been noticed.  Thanks friends!

DAY 57

I did not follow a meal plan today.  


For breakfast, I had my "go to" breakfast.  Whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter and bananas.  And I look lots of pretty pictures for your enjoyment.  

Also, MJ made a smoothie for breakfast, so I drank about 1 sip.

For snack 1, I had my "go to" snack.  A slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.

My new best friend, Mr. Almond Butter

Folded up, ready to go!

I had another snack later, because they were giving out free FREE free chocolate pudding at work.  I looked at the label and recognized everything, so pudding I did eat.


For lunch I had leftovers from when we went out to dinner the night before.  Essentially, I had some rice and veggies left over, so I added my own cooked grilled chicken to make it a meal.  Yum!

For snack 2, I ate some grapes.  No picture, but they were green.


Dinner
Tonight for dinner I decided to make pizza!  I wanted to reward myself with some food that I love and show that anything can be healthier and still taste good!


I open up my good ol' clean eating cookbook and find pizza in the index.  SHOCKINGLY the page numbers are wrong.  Seriously???  Where are the editors to check for these things?!  I flip through until I find the pages and essentially find out that if I don't feel like cooking my own dough (which I certainly do not want to do) then it's just a matter of finding pre-made whole wheat dough and putting whatever topics I like on it.  The cookbook also comes with a website for more pizza ideas.  I'm excited and check out the website they've given me.  And, the link doesn't work.  You go ahead and try it and tell me - www.cleaneatingmag.com/pizzacombos.  No go.  @#%$!$.  Seriously?  Seriously.  Edit this sh!t.  You are editors, after all.  


Apparently my grocery store doesn't have any whole wheat pizza dough.  We compared calories for our other options and picked the next best thing, and then bought a can of diced tomatoes (better than a jar of sauce), mushrooms and peppers for topping, part-skim mozzarella cheese and lots of spices.   Delicious!

Also I had a glass of wine.  Red wine.  

DAY 58

My goal today was to do a meal from week 4 meal plan.  I even went to the grocery store to buy everything last night.  But I woke up late and had 20 minutes to get dressed and get out the door, so if it wasn't already wrapped (i.e. bananas and granola bars) it wasn't coming with me. 

I started my day with a banana and a very large coffee.  My first snack was a Health Valley Double Chococlate Chip Granola Bar.  It was pretty good for a healthy granola bar. 


Lunch

As I said before, I didn't have time to pack a lunch.  I ventured into Mexican place by my office.  But remember, I vowed never to eat a ridiculous taco again. I saw that they had a special "tofu fajita."  Call me crazy, but I tried it.  Crazy!  Essentially they were 2 small tortillas with grilled onions, peppers, tofu and some cheese.  They were..... eh. ok.  Just ok.  I would never order them again but I didn't keel over and die.

When I got home I found out that those muffins I made went bad.  Guess failed didn't pass my "last a long time" test.   

My sister in law, Bethany, had been telling me about these things called VitaMuffins, so I finally looked for them in the grocery store.  I could read all the ingredients so I bought a box of VitaMuffin Deep Chocolate Muffin Tops.  I opened up the box and threw one in the microwave for a few seconds.  It was pure deliciousness.  Enough so that I made Michael Jordan try one when he got home.  Okay half of one - I ate the other half.  With a big glass of skim milk.  Delicious Delicious Delicious!!!

Dinner

For dinner I made another salad - spinach, grilled chicken, pistachios, craisins, blueberries, blue cheese, raspberry walnut dressing.  Yum! 

DAY 59 (Week 4, Thursday/Friday)

Today I really did make an attempt to follow the meal plan.  After all, I'm so close to finishing and bought all the foods to Thursday and Friday!  But, I accidentally switched what I was doing half way though the day, so I created a little Thursday/Friday mutant baby.  Oh well.

Breakfast: 1 hardboiled egg; 1 apple, 1 slice whole-grain bread, 2 tbls natural almond butter (Friday)

I liked having so many things for breakfast.  I ate the egg at home and then spaced out the rest of the breakfast during the morning.  I prefer snacking to having a large meal.

Snack 1: make ahead watermelon freeze (purée 2 cups watermelon chunks with 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice; freeze in a small cup with stick to make freeze pop); 1 cup low fat milk (Thursday)

This sounded way too complicated for a morning snack, and I wasn't about to try to bring a frozen watermelon freeze pop to work.  So I just ate watermelon.  Just plain old water melon.  No need to complicate things.  Skipped the milk.  I don't bring milk to work.

Lunch: 3 oz grilled chicken, 1/2 cup spinach, 1/4 cup each green and red bell pepper, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp fresh ground blakc pepper on 1 whole wheat tortilla; 1 cup low-fat milk (Friday)

I simplified this lunch: threw some chicken, cut up peppers, and lettuce onto a wrap and sprinkled some red wine vinegar on it.  Wrapped it in some tin foil and threw it in my bag.  Super fast because we had left over peppers cut up from our pizza the night before.  This didn't taste like anything really.  Just a different way to eat a boring salad.  Skipped the milk.  I don't bring milk to work.  Still.

Snack 2: 1 cup blackberries, 2 oz goat cheese, 4 multigrain flaxseed crackers (Thursday)

I obviously replaced the blackberries with blueberries.  For the goat cheese and crackers, I bought this flavored goat cheese (olive and... something) that was low cal and spread it one some crackers.  Didn't really love it.  Ok didn't really like it, but I survived the 4 crackers.  I'll probably let that one expire... quickly


Dinner: Meh (Neither)
 
My dinner plans were spoiled because I got held up at work.  While I was stuck at work, I had an apple and another health valley granola bar.  

When I finally got home I was exhausted and decided I was only patient enough to make some eggs.  I whipped up some eggwhites with mushrooms, orange peppers and part-skim mozzarella cheese.  

Then I passed out from exhaustion.

 

DAY 60 (Week 4, Thursday/Friday)

I was a little discouraged today because most of the things I needed to complete the Thursday/Friday mutant child day are gone now.  I made do with what I had and ad-libbed the rest. 

Breakfast was supposed to be: 1 banana with 1.5 tablespoons natural almond butter; 4 hardboiled egg whites (Thursday)


This breakfast failed because we had no bananas or hardboiled eggs left.  I made a "go to" almond butter bread slice and called it a day.

I think we've seen this before...

Snack 1 was supposed to be: 1 pear, 1 oz goat cheese (Friday)
 
This snack failed because I didn't have a pear and didn't want to eat goat cheese without crackers.  So I replaced the pear with an apple and ate a mini twix bar.  A mini one I swear!!

Lunch: 2 cups torn Boston lettuce, 3 ox tuna, 1/4 cup each chopped carrots, celery, cucumber, scallions and basil with 2 tbsp red wine vinegar and 1 tsp evoo; 1/2 cup brown basmati rice

This lunch failed because I didn't have time to make rice.  I ate the rest of it, and it was horrible.  Just tasted like soggy red wine vinegar leaves.  Horrible.  I ate some of the tuna threw it out.  

I had a few cubes of cheese and crackers instead.  And 2 mini milky way bars.  Mini ones, I promise!!!

Snack 2: 2 tbsp hummus, 10 carrot sticks, 4 multigrain flaxseed crackers (Friday)


This snack actually didn't fail, per se, but I did upgrade it.  I ate hummus with snap peas and carrot sticks.  No crackers. 



Dinner: Nope (Neither Thursday or Friday)

MJ and I decided that since we actually had time to sit down together and eat dinner and watch some March Madness, neither of us wanted to cook.  We ordered in some thai food.  I had 2 steamed veggie dumplings, some Chicken Pad Thai and some Chicken Pad See Ew.  Mr. Jordan consumed twice as much as I did.  Good lord, why can't he gain weight???

For dessert I had a nice glass of white wine and split a vitamuffin top with MJ.  Perfect dessert after a not so perfect day.   

Sorry it's been so long between posts.  I promise to do better.

Days 53, 54 and 55

In order to fight off my problem with leftovers getting lost in my fridge, I interrupted week 4 for a few days of leftovers.  Brace yourself for the boredom (but at least there are pictures!!):

DAY 53

For breakfast I had about a cup of Nature's Path Optimum Blueberry Cereal... or whatever it's called.  


For lunch I had leftovers from Day 50's Lunch.


During the day, I snacked on:

• cheese stick
• 2 whole wheat crackers with peanut butter
• cocoa almonds
• 1 apple

For dinner, I used the leftover chicken (4.5 oz) and made a salad with spinach, grapes, strawberries, pistachios, and some blue cheese.  I topped it off with a little raspberry walnut dressing, which is not very healthy but I used a very minimal amount. 

After dinner I tried out a new healthy breakfast muffin recipe, that I will post about another time.  I know, talk about cliff hanger, right?!?  Just like the girl with the dragon tattoo trilogy - which I highly recommend!!!  

DAY 54

Today for breakfast I had 2 healthy muffins - post coming soon.  


For lunch I made a "healthy taco" using a whole wheat tortilla wrap, veggie burger, black beans, part-skim mozzarella cheese, chopped tomatoes and chopped onions.  It was pretty good, and a nice variety to the usual veggie burger meal.


My snacks today were:

• 1 chewy mocha brownie cookie
• 2 mini muffins
• 1 cheese stick
• cocoa almonds
• handful of grapes

For dinner I decided to re-make Lunch from Day 50 and upgrade it.  This time, I replaced the tofu with shrimp and the green onion with red onions.  Those little changes made a HUGE difference.  I would highly recommend this version of the meal - and it took no time to make!

DAY 55

Sorry for the lack of postings.  I've been unbelievably busy with work and just had a half second to sit down and finish up this post so you can read all about my lovely meals.

Today for breakfast I had a VERY LARGE cup of coffee and 2 healthy muffins.  I think.  I'm so tired I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast.  That is horrible.  I bet I'll find 3000 typos in this post when I re-read it.  Sorry for the severe sleep deprivation.

I snacked on an apple, cheese stick, and cocoa almonds in the morning.  

I ate a really late lunch from Chop't - a salad place that makes yummy salads. I had a salad with shrimp, tomatoes, avocado, pita chips, chick peas and a spa asian dressing (on the side - barely used it).  The nutritional info is the most complicated thing I've ever seen, but I think my salad was about 400 calories.  Which is amazing because I didn't even eat half of it.  Chop't = winner.  Or I = horrible at figuring out their nutritional info and I'm totally wrong and just too tired to figure it out.

I was exhausted all day and my friend Aimee and I were working overtime on this ridiculous project we have for work.  I was dreading when dinner time approached.

But then guess what happened for dinner?!?!!  

You will never believe it!!!

MJ COOKED DINNER!!!!

This is a rare occurrence in this household, so praise, thanks, and compliments must be given so that MJ will continue this new trend.

Chef Jordan prepared an feast for us, comprised of scrumptious morsels of chicken mixed with a medley of greens served over steaming brown rice a topped with a glazed orange soy.  

AKA he made asian stir fry.  Chicken.  Veggies.  Rice.  Asian flavoring.

But hey, I didn't have to make dinner so major props to you Michael Jordan!!

After dinner I had some low fat chocolate frozen yogurt and low fat cookie dough ice cream for dessert.  

And a large glass of wine to make the work seem less painful.

Now I think I need to get some sleep, since I'll be losing an hour anyway for daylight savings.  Sigh.  This may call for some more wine.

Also, I'm officially at 2,000 blog views!!  Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable for my clean eating life style.

Week 4, Tuesday (Day 50)

Monday Morning Weigh-In:
I'm about 5.5 pounds from my final goal weight.  Which means I've lost 8.5 pounds in 7 weeks.  That's a little more than pound a week.  Not too shabby.


As for MJ?  I think he's given up gaining weight.  What a lucky SOB.  


Today I took more pictures.  Hope this makes the experience of reading my blog better!


Breakfast: Peanut Butter Breakfast Wrap (2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 tsp honey, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 sliced banana on a whole wheat tortilla); 1 cup low fat milk

This breakfast was a nice change of pace from the usual peanut butter/banana/carb combo.  I'm not sure if the honey and cinnamon were really necessary, but they added some extra pizzaz and that's probably worth it.  I guess.

My friend Aimee is doing weight watchers and we figured out that my breakfast is 9 points.  I'm not following weight watchers, but it's interesting to see how this meal plan correlates with weight watchers points.  I do think the peanut butter I'm using is probably not the best and might consider switching.  Also, 1 tablespoon of almond butter is 3 points in case you were wondering.  Aimee says I get 29 points a day and 49 bonus points on weight watchers.  If I remember, I'll put my WW points in per day/week and we can compare.




Snack 1:  1 cup pineapple with 1/4 cup low far feta cheese


Is this not the weirdest snack you have ever heard of?  Do people really eat pineapple with feta cheese?  I measured out the two items and ate them at the same time and just thought it was ridiculously strange and not very tasty.  I will not be trying that again.




Lunch: Asian Tofu Stir Fry (3/4 cup sliced carrots, 1.5 cups shredded cabbage, 4 oz light tofu, 2 tablespoon light green onion, 1/2 tsp each chopped garlic and ginger in 1 tsp sesame seed oil; toss with 2 tsp low sodium soy sauce, 5 shredded thai basil leaves and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes; serve over 1.5 cups of cooked soba noodles)


Does anyone know what soba noodles are?   This required me to stop in the grocery store and google "soba noodles" on my phone.  I learned that they are buckwheat noodles, so I searched the asian section of my grocery store for he closest thing, and came across wheat noodles that were called soben or something similar.  I decided those were close enough.  


The noodles only took 3 minutes to make!  I wish all pasta was that easy!  

The rest of the meal was a really simple stirfry that was really easy to make and very colorful.  

I thought the meal was pretty bland until I realized I forgot the seasame seed oil.  I added it immediately and the meal instantly tasted better - and actually like a meal you would order from an asian restaurant.  I think I would like this much better with chicken and yellow onion instead of green (for more flavor).


I also didn't even come close to finishing it.  Which leads me to wonder - how does someone organize their leftovers in the fridge?  I'll have to write a separate blog about this.




Snack 2: 1 apple, 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter, 4 multigrain flaxseed crackers


Okay, this must be the 9th different type of cracker I've tried since I started following the meal plan.  I still like my whole wheat crackers that taste like shortbread the best.  I also obviously replaced the peanut butter with almond butter since I had peanut butter for breakfast.  




Awkward Gym Experience: Before dinner, I decided to try out this new bhangra dance class at the gym.  Turns out, the instructor was sick so my regular zumba class was taking it place.  This was fine with me, since I love zumba already, but I guess for bhangra it's standard to wear no shoes, so the girl next to me was barefoot.  And she was definitely more a free spirit moving all over the gym floor instead of staying in her set spot.  I was so nervous I was going to step on her feet and definitely came close a few times!


More importantly, I got to compare how much of a workout zumba is with the African dance class I went to a few weeks ago.  According to my fitbit, I had 44 minutes of being very active.  When I went to my African dance class, I had a full hour of very active minutes.  And I definitely got more steps in during the African dance class.  Good to know!  I'll keep analyzing the different gym classes as I go to them.


Dinner: 4 oz diced broiled chicken mixed with 1 cup wild rice blend, 1/2 cup sliced red or green grapes and 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts; 5 steamed asparagus spears (make 10 and freeze 5 for later in the week); 1/2 cup mango


This dinner called for the most random assortment of items ever, but I decided to give it a shot.  By the time we started dinner, it was too late to wait for some fancy shmancy rice to cook, and instead we used our frozen brown rice that is ready after 3.5 minutes in the microwave.  

Kind of crazy looking, right?   But it was actually really good.  I couldn't take a picture of MJ's plate because he had about 3 times as much chicken as I did and double everything else!  He was actually full before he could finish!  That's the key to fattening him up!  We both agreed the broiled chicken is really good, and will probably use broiling as our "go to" method of cooking instead of baking chicken.  Okay who am I kidding???? I will probably use broiling as our go to method of cooking, while MJ will continue his role of dishwasher after the meals.


Overall, a pretty great day in the eating world.


If you are interested in planning out your meals, visit orgjunkie.com to see meal plan options and links to other meal planning blogs!

Within the past 24 hours I've had over 100 more hits on my blog, and I'm sure orgjunkie.com is to thank for that!  Please take the time to fill out my poll while you are here so I can make my blog even better!

Days 27 and 28

DAY 27

My friends Desire and Tiffany were visiting from out of town, so I kicked MJ out of the house for some girl time and decided not to eat a set day's meal plan, but still try to eat healthy!

For breakfast, I ate 2 egg whites with cheddar cheese and some left over mushrooms, onions, and peppers in a whole wheat wrap from yesterday's breakfast with Sophia.  

We sat around talking and drinking Sangria with apple slices.  It was deliciously unhealthy.  For my morning snack, I ate a slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.  I made Desire and Tiffany try the almond butter as well on those yummy whole wheat crackers that taste like shortbread cookies.  They both really liked it.  Tiffany even made me take her to the grocery store so she could buy my same type of almond butter and the yummy Carr's crackers.  I highly suggest you do the same:

The we headed out on the town to get some manis and pedis.  My favorite salon serves wine and/or champagne while you get pampered, so we definitely indulged in a few free glasses of wine.  

For lunch, we went to a well-known restaurant that's a great place to take out of town guests.  I made the smart choice and had a Tuna (sushi grade) and Avocado Salad (fresh tuna pan-seared and served rare with a seaweed salad, sliced avocado, edamame, cucumber, tomatoes and mixed greens with a wasabi-honey dressing on the side).  The salad was delicious and felt very healthy, yet filling.   

We also got chocolate raspberry martinis.  They were delicious and felt very un-healthy, yet delightful.

We then did some sightseeing and decided to walk back to my house when we were done.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I got pretty good exercise (according to my fitbit). 

For dinner, I cooked whole wheat pasta, chicken and broccoli for Tiffany and Desire.  A simple, healthy meal that was very filling.  

After dinner I made Desire try an almond butter cookie.  She said it was great and tasted just like a chocolate chip cookie!  I only have 2 cookies left in the freezer - I guess it's time to try another type of healthy cookie!

We went to Michael Vick's house after dinner.  That also included some walking and I accidentally ate a half slice of pizza hut pizza.  It was probably 1000 calories worth.  Actually, my fitbit calorie tracker tells me it was only 140 calories.  Not that bad for a late night snack!  That makes me feel much better, but it was still a bad choice.

FITBIT Totals for the Day: 2225 Calories burned, 11,219 steps taken, 4.83 miles traveled.  I didn't go through to put my calorie intake in yet.  I think it might be too hard to figure out how many calories my lunch was, but minus the alcohol, I think I ate about 1300 calories.  

I also had 96% sleep efficiency.  Apparently I woke up 11 times in my sleep (Friday night).  I'm not sure how accurate this is.  The fitbit comes with a wrist band to wear on your non-dominant hand while you are sleeping and I believe that it tracks your motion and how much you roll around in your sleep.  

DAY 28

I really cannot believe I'm completing 4 weeks of healthy, clean eating.  I'm so impressed with myself.  

Because I didn't get a chance to go shopping, I had another day of making up my own meal plan.  For breakfast, I ate a whole wheat English muffing with natural peanut butter.  An easy, simple, classic breakfast.

I ate a 100 calorie pack of cheese as my morning snack.  Later on in the day I had a slice of whole wheat bread with almond butter.  

I was very tired and got a 140 calorie grande skinny caramel macchiatto at Starbucks.  It was wonderful.  And it was free.  

My day sounds boring, so far, but I made a delicious dinner that both MJ and I really loved.  It was the Thai-Style Chicken & Noodles (whole wheat linguine, chicken, red and green peppers with a peanut sauce).  The actually recipe calls for tofu, but Mr. Jordan nicely asked me to make it chicken instead.  It was incredibly simple to make and came out delicious.  The peanut sauce that was really yummy.  Can you tell I liked this meal a lot?

  

This picture isn't a full serving because I like to fill my plate less and go back for seconds.  Tricking my mind into thinking I'm eating more works like a charm!!

FITBIT Totals for the Day: Last night I had 95% sleep efficiency and woke up 10 times in less than 6 hours.  Allegedly.  I'm really not sure I believe that my sleep is being track accurately.  So far today I've walked 10,071 steps, which is 4.34 miles.  It also says I burned 2,174 calories, which is impressing since it says I have over 10 hours of "sedentary" time.  I also ate about 1800 calories, assuming everything was portioned out and measured correctly.

Loving this fitbit!

Week 3, Wednesday (Day 24)

I'm back on the meal plans and ready to start my third week of listening to "The Best of Clean Eating" cookbook editors tell me what to eat!


Shout out to whoever is reading my blog in Ireland!  My blog has reached over 700 hits!  Thanks for the support!!


Breakfast: 1 toasted whole wheat wrap with 2 tbsp natural peanut butter and 1 small sliced banana
Instead of toasting this whole wheat tortilla, I microwaved it for 10 seconds - just like my mom used to do for me to make wraps for lunch.  It tasted the same and is much simpler than toasting a big tortilla.  By the way, editors, what size tortilla should I be eating?  Large? Medium? Small?  I picked medium, but I really wish you'd specify.   You're so particular about everything else and I really think size does matter.  Julie: 1.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.
Also, I added 3/4 cup skim milk.  Because I seriously don't think peanut butter can be eaten in any other way.  By the way, I bought these great measuring glasses to make measuring liquids and random conversions easier.  It makes my life more enjoyable and I highly recommend them.  I wish they came in more colors and designs.


Snack 1: Roasted Red Pepper & White Bean Hummus with Crudités
HAHA what a FUNNY joke!!!!! Make my own hummus with a recipe that serves 16.  SIXTEEN!?!?! I'm just one person and I'm not wasting my precious time blending up some beans for 15 imaginary friends.  You know what I am doing?  Taking one of the travel-sized 2 ounce hummus packs in my fridge and 10 stupid snap peas.  TAKE THAT!  Julie: 2.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.


Lunch: Tofu Salad (5 oz tofu, 1/4 cup brown rice, 1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds, 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup chopped red peppers, 2 tbls shredded low-fat jalapeno cheese, 2 tbls balsamic vinegar and 1/2 tsp evoo)
This salad was actually pretty fabulous, besides the fact that the lid wasn't closed tightly and my lunch box now wreaks of balsamic vinegar.  I used a 1 ounce pepper jack cheese stick which nicely equates to 2 tablespoons.  Cooking up the tofu was fast and easy.  I bought microwavable brown rice so I only took up 3 minutes in the morning making rice instead of the typical 40!  The bag makes 1.25 cups, and I only needed a quarter so there's plenty left over for another meal later this week.  Julie: 3.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.


Snack 2: 1/2 cup dried apricots, halved, mixed with 1/2 cup Nature's Path Optimum Banana Almond Cereal
Holy super specific menu item.  I was shocked to see that my grocery store actually had Nature's Path Optimum Cereal, but only in the blueberry cinnamon flavor.  I decided that was really close enough, and then decided it was taste delicious with some of the leftover FRESH blueberries that I had.  Boy was I right.  This might be one of my favorite snacks, even though I totally changed what they told me to eat.  Julie: 4.  Clean Eating Editors: 0.


Dinner: Zucchini Pasta (3 oz chicken, 1 sliced zucchini, 1 diced onion, 1 minced clove garlic, 1 tsp olive oil with 1 cup cooked whole wheat pasta, shredded basil)
This dinner was so easy, even MJ could make it.  But I made the mistake of measuring out the cup of pasta uncooked instead of cooked, and only now realized that it called for 1 cup of COOKED pasta.  Huge difference.  Major fail on my part.  How much uncooked pasta equates to 1 cup of cooked pasta?  Does anyone know that conversion?  Julie: 4.  Clean Eating Editors: 1. (Luckily I went to the gym so maybe I burned off my extra pasta calories).


So I guess I win today 4:1.  Not sure if there's a prize for finding problems with the meal plan that I'm choosing to follow.

Week 2, Monday (Day 17)

Breakfast: 1 whole wheat English muffin with 2 TBLS peanut butter, 1 banana
This is one of my favorite breakfasts.  I used to eat this before I let a cookbook tell me what to eat.  I am pleased.


Snack 1: 4 whole wheat crackers, 1 oz low fat cheddar cheese
My only complaint here is that I bought shredded cheese (for last week's meal plan), so shredded cheese is not that easy to eat on a cracker.  The thought crossed my mind to microwave the cheese and make some "nachos" but I was too lazy.  


Lunch: Tofu & Edamame salad (5 oz sauteed firm Tofu, 2 cups romaine lettuce, 1/2 sliced red bell pepper, 1/2 cup edamame, 1 oz low-fat jalapeno cheese, 3 tbls red wine vinegar and 1 tsp evoo)
Tofu.  I cooked up 5 ounces of tofu last night so they would be ready to eat today.  It tastes like nothing.  I ate lunch with my friend who said it looked like I was eating chicken, but my salad was pretty pathetic.  Despite the pathetic review my salad received, it was very filling.  I was glad that I bought that 1 ounce cheese stick last week because the other half was exactly what I needed today.  The first item I've gotten that's actually been portioned correctly!  I would probably never pack this salad for lunch again, but would consider eating tofu again.  But probably served warm.


Snack 2: 1 apple, 1/2 cup chickpeas
I went to a meeting at 5pm and came face to face with my biggest fear: a plate of soft, delicious looking, fresh, chocolate chip cookies.  They looked so inviting and welcoming and good.  I took out my apple and stared at the cookies as I munched away at my healthy snack.  I owe myself an almond butter cookie for having such great will power!  I never got a chance to eat my chickpeas.  Sorry dudes.  I ate an almond butter cookie as soon as I got home.  I earned it.


Dinner: Farro Risotto with Wild Morels, Asparagus and Truffle Oil; 4 oz grilled chicken.  
If this dinner was a chapter book in elementary school, it would not pass the five-finger-test.  Farro?  Morels? Truffle Oil?  Google time. 

Farro.  Like Pharaoh?  Does this have anything to do with what's currently going on in Egypt?  Google tells me that Farro is something like rice or barley.  Google also tells me that my grocery store doesn't carry Farro.  I check out the recipe and decide barley is the closest substitute.  I call MJ:
"Hey could you pick up some barley on your way home?"
"Ok.. where do I find it?"
"It should be in the rice aisle."
"Oh, not with the lettuce?"
"No... it's like rice, not produce."
Much to my delight/surprise, MJ came home with the barley.  


Morrels. Google tells me these are mushrooms.  I buy two kinds.


Truffle Oil.  I don't need to google this one to know it's not worth buying a whole bottle of oil to use 1/4 teaspoon.  I'll pass.


I created this risotto and it was pretty good.  My only complaint is how much time it too and how many dishes got dirty in the process.  It sure looked pretty though:

Time to prepare for tomorrow's meals!  (What an exciting life I lead....)

Day 15

This morning I weighed in and saw that I lost another pound!  I'm down about 4 pounds from where I think I started.  I have about 9 more pounds to go to get to my goal "fit in my ski pants" weight. MJ weighed in too.  He gained one pound.  One stinking pound in 15 days.  I'm obviously better at gaining weight than he is.  
I'm still pleased with my accomplishments.  It's nice to know that pizza and mexican food still can equate to a negative weight on the scale.  


Today is leftovers day!  By that I mean I'm using up all the extra stuff that didn't fit into a meal plan for the past three days.  


For breakfast I have 2 egg whites, sautéed spinach, part-skim mozzarella cheese.  I have nothing exciting to say about this breakfast.  Sorry. 


Snack 1 was a slice of whole wheat bread and 1 tablespoon almond butter. Delicious as always.


For lunch I created my own salad: baby spinach, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 cup white beans, 1/2 cup tomatoes, balsamic vinegar.  This salad was okay.  For whatever reason, I liked it better as a snack yesterday than as a salad today.  Maybe I'm just getting sick of spinach.


My second snack was a 100 calorie pack of cheese; 8 carrots, 2 oz hummus. I decided to go with this snack because it was quick and easy, and the 100 calorie pack of cheese is obviously not going to show up in my meal plan, but I don't want them to sit uneaten in my fridge.


SURPRISE!  My cousin Jamie came to visit.  Jamie is a few years younger and many inches taller.  He was hungry, so I served him chips and salsa and made a little bit of guacamole.  I probably had about 15 chips with salsa and/or guacamole.  It was too tempting.  


Jamie decided to stay for dinner so MJ and I took him to the grocery store.  I can't express how pleasant it is to have two gophers come along for a shopping trip.  I bought food for dinner and another 3 days of the meal plan.  One of the upcoming lunches calls for tofu, and I was having trouble locating the tofu in the store.  I asked an employee for assistance:
"Excuse me, do you know where the tofu is?"
"Toe Food?"
"Tofu."
"Toad Food?"
"No, tofu, like what vegetarians eat instead of meat."
"You mean tofi?"
"What? I mean tofu.  T-O-F-U"
"Oh. Let me go ask."
I found the tofu.  I'm really interested to know what toe food, toad food, and tofi are, and whether any of them are typically sold in a grocery store.


For dinner, I served honey glazed salmon and tuna with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cauliflower.  I probably got enough food to serve 6 people, which was fitting when I have two hungry  men eating with me.  I helped myself to a little bit of salmon and probably 4 ounces of tuna with a lot of cauliflower.  Jamie and MJ devoured everything else.  I guess it was good.  


I didn't eat anything for dessert, even though I really wanted to.  I gave Jamie some Reese's Peanut butter cups and sent him home.  Jamie doesn't know that I'm doing this crazy meal plan and even after grocery shopping with us I don't think he picked up on it.  It's nice to know that I can cook a healthy meal and it appear to be a normal and fulfilling dinner.  Although Jamie did question why I purchased tofu.  I question that too.

Week 1, Saturday (Day 6)

Breakfast: Smoothie and a handful of almonds

Smoothie again?  I still don't have any yogurt.  And I still don't like smoothies.  

Replacement breakfast:  Week 2's Monday breakfast: 1 whole wheat English muffin, 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, 1 banana

Yum!  This was a personal favorite breakfast of mine from even before I started this meal plan.  I think this was a fair substitution for today's smoothie.  But who's really going to tell me I'm doing this wrong, right?

Snack 1: 4 dried apricots, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup granola

Naw.  I don't do dried fruit.  And cottage cheese?  I only bought one portion that I ate already, so that's a no.  Replacement: low fat string cheese.  Yum.  I also ate my granola, which tasted good and lasted a while.  Almost like eating a bowl of M&Ms.  Almost.  

Lunch: Whole wheat wrap with tofu, low sodium black beans, low sodium salsa, 1/2 oz jalapeno cheese

This was a pretty good lunch.  I couldn't find jalapeno cheese in the store, so I made the smart decision to get a single, 1 ounce pepperjack cheese stick.  Hooray for not having extra food rotting away in the fridge!  One small victory for mankind this week.

I made a major upgrade to this dish though.  I have no idea how to purchase, cook, or eat tofu, so I made the executive decision to nix the tofu and replace it with mushrooms (3 calories per ounce) and 2 slices of cooked eggplant (left over from lunch earlier this week).  

Snack 2: skipped

I skipped this afternoon's snack because we are having some friends over tonight and I know I will be snacking later and consuming alcoholic calories.  I was trying to make a proactive good decision before my impending bad decision.

Dinner: Easy and Elegant Salmon with fennel, carrots, and 1 pear

Easy and Elegant?  Come on.  Here are 4 reasons why I can't make this dinner:

1) That salmon you made me buy on Sunday?  Well now it's been 6 days and that salmon has gone bad.  Thanks for wasting my money.

2) Fennel?  I don't know what that is.  I don't really want to go to the store again.  Please don't make me

3) I'm supposed to make this on parchment paper?  When was I supposed to get that?  That wasn't on my shopping list.  Jerk.

4) A pear?  You want me to eat that pear I threw out yesterday because it was rotting?  No dice.

So no go on the salmon.  It does sound really good and I do plan on trying it, but instead we ate leftover "fried" rice.  My boyfriend added the left over beef to make his meal twice as yummy and filling as mine.  

Bonus Snack: Guacamole and home made pita chips

I decided to serve homemade guacamole - made from avocados, onions, tomatoes, and lime juice.  I love guacamole, and it's made from all natural ingredients, which has to be better for me than eating cookies.  I served chips with them, and also made my own chips.  We cut up some whole wheat pita and  baked them for a few minutes in the oven.  Instant, yummy, healthier chip.  

My boyfriend also wanted to serve cookies, but I asked him not to buy them, knowing that I would be unable to resist and we'd then have them sitting around the house, taunting me.  Calling my name.  Demanding that I eat them all immediately.  

I only had sangria to drink, and I really don't know if it was healthy or sugary at all.  This is probably the biggest "cheating" I have done.  But it's only cheating if this were a diet, which it isn't.  So there.

Week 2 Preview:

This next week is going to be challenging.  I will not be home for dinner until next Friday, and will be traveling as well.  Hopefully I can try to eat my healthy snacks and meals as much as possible.  I'm not upset about this glitch in my meal plan because I want to be able to live my usual life.  I want this type of life style to work for me - it's not a crash course diet like some other people try and then can't realistically follow because they can only eat oatmeal.  That could never work for me.

Wish me luck.