Tag Archives: What To Eat

Running on Decaf…

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Hop in the time machine with me! Let’s navigate back again all the way to second grade and lets watch for a moment.  There I sit at the kitchen table, grumpy and groggy, sad, not wanting to go to school.  This is the year I cut my hair at school, lied about it, got into trouble for it.  I refuse to eat breakfast and it is the morning of the CTBS test, this is the standardized testing for the state.  This is the morning I get a small Peter Rabbit mug full of the blood of life, coffee.

Wayne’s World wavy lines, fast forward…. by the end of high school I would drink a cup before school, take one with me, and continue to fill my coffee mug throughout the day from the faculty pot.  I was downing something like 17 cups a day.  Water… what does that mean I existed on coffee and caffeine free diet coke.  I was forced off coffee, or moreover caffeine when I had my nervous breakdown and went into treatment for my depression in the hospital.  Caffeine is a drug and I was abusing it.

I had a coffee pot next to my bed when I lived with my now ex husband, there was pretty much constantly coffee available I drank it he didn’t.  He was into Mountain Dew and Southern Comfort.  When I saw the bad habits and behavioral patterns emerging that reminded me of how I was back in high school I went off coffee again, cold turkey.

So now I am a real adult, not that I wasn’t when I was married, but seriously I was still a child, I was still too young.  I live in the big city, I know I LOVE coffee.  I have used coffee as a crutch since I moved here.  When I would stay up for 2 or 3 days at a time working nights and trying to have some kind of life, swapping shifts to make social events, I would drink coffee like no one should.  I enjoy the flavor, the subtle differences in different blends, I enjoy savoring a cup of coffee.

Coffee cupI was bringing a mug (5cup home-brewed pot) with me every day to work in the morning, when you get up at 3am to work a 10 hour shift, plus prep time for your shift, and then have someone who isn’t quite on time EVER that is your relief it turns into a 10.5 hour day 5 times a week, coffee seems like it should be a part of the day.  I recently decided, about the time I gave up gluten and my stomach was being so horrible, that perhaps that much coffee was not a good idea.  I have been cutting back my coffee consumption significantly.  No more caffeine, and also no coffee until I have had a liter of water in the morning.  It is supposed to be really good for your skin to have water first thing in the morning, Can’t hurt to start the day with water right?

Have I noticed a change in the no caffeine role in my life yet?  Well, truth is I still have had a bit of caffeine here and there.  There is a small pack of 7.5 ounce cans of coke zero in my work fridge for the simple reason that on occasion my headaches are bad enough that I need the caffeine to make the pills work better.  I want to not be dependent on the caffeine, and while I know a decaf Americano still has a small amount of caffeine in it, I am certain that it is significantly less than what the quad shot tall had.  I still plan on drinking coffee, but only in moderation, not every day.  Like I said I enjoy the flavor, and that is what I am going to focus on, enjoying the flavor of the coffee, sipping not gulping, swirling not chugging.

Is it realistic to think I will never have caffeine, absolutely not, I do not live in a world of absolutes.  I want to go long enough without a significant amount of it in my system that I can feel what kind of effect it has on my body.  So here I sit with my decaf Americano with heavy cream. YUM!

Cleaning House

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So in getting myself set up for success I am slowly cleaning all the crap out of my pantry.  I am coming to terms with the fact that I am better for listening to my body.  Fighting the transition is silly, embracing the change is the only logical and rational thing to do.  As I dump boxes of Fiber One bars into a Target bag, and throw 100 calorie packs, and 2-point weight watchers bars into bags to give away I am faced with a dilemma.

Is it better to throw this stuff out, or give it away? I sent some of my Weight Watchers products to new homes already.  Friends that I know like the products, but won’t likely over indulge in them.  I have some bars left in my car back in the trunk where I can’t just grab one peel it and shove it into my mouth without thinking about the consequences.

I bring bags of my stuff to the office, spread them out on the snack table and watch and people snatch things from it like it were a magical wonderland! Skittles, Special K Crackers, granola things, reduced fat peanut butter, cookies, all dumped there sitting there like a treasure trove.  All the things that I adore, all the things that I like because they came from my home.

The torture only lasts about a day or so per bag, In general free food won’t last long in my office.  I purged the pantry of the jar of biscoff cookie spread today… it is still sitting on the table… no one knows what to do with it… if noone eats it or takes it by tomorrow I will throw it away.  Am I doing the wrong thing by bringing these things to my office?  I can’t donate open packages to a food shelf so my other option really is to just throw them out.

I feel like I am feeding/enabling people to binge on food by bringing all of this stuff to the office.  I know there is one gentleman who works for us who can use the food, and always asks if it is okay for him to take an extra one for later.  He knows where all the free meals in the city are, he has had a hard life.  I feel for him, he is why I bring the food here… but I wonder if on some level I am not trying to make everyone else fat?  I know that isn’t my intention… but could it be??

I guess in the end I know I am doing what is best for me, and that is something I keep doing.  I am not going to force anyone to eat the snacks on the table, and I am content to toss them in the dumpster at the end of the day.  I am slowly setting up my home environment for success as things change.  Next step is to finish setting my work environment up.  I dug out my extra Brita pitcher, that will be coming here to work this week.  I don’t like the taste of city tap water, and my Bobble Bottle is great, but once it’s empty I have no cold water left.

I guess the phrase adapt or die comes to mind when I think about where I am on my path right now.  I certainly don’t want to go back to feeling like I did when I was 430 pounds, and I certainly know I don’t want to feel like crap.  So we put our heads down and push through and find the upside.  Bacon and dippy eggs for breakfast with a side of asparagus? Sounds like a silver lining to me!

Now I just have to finish the cabinet purge, get the community snack table cleared and I will be in the clear :D

Excitement

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So what makes my little bradycardic heart go pitter patter? When I find something new and

Lemon Plum, ripening

Lemon Plum, ripening

fun at the grocery store! Anything from a new product on the shelves or a new recipe I get excited! However it seems rare-er and rare-er these days that I find new fruits and veggies these days that I have never seen or heard of before.

This week I nearly lept over a few people to learn what this pictured fruit was.  More than the “Next great potato chip flavor” from Lays, or the latest new burger combo from Burger King I am googling to learn about this fruit!  I cannot wait to feel the flesh burst under my teeth and the juices flow into my mouth.  Perhaps it is more that I miss summer, and the juicy fruits and wealth of produce that it brings.  The wait to try this fruit is killing me!

I have had so much underwhelming produce lately it nearly breaks my heart.  The other night I ate some starchy bananas, that left my tongue sore. My grapes have been small and sour, my apples are mediocre and the ones I like, expensive.  I spend more money buying the better apples so that I will enjoy them, the Opal apples the Lady Alice apples even honey crisp apples, but they just aren’t up to snuff.  Strawberries and blueberries are okay, but not as good as can be, the quality is just so hit and miss with them.

I am ready for summer, farmers markets, the warm sunshine on my skin.  I am ready for the smell of fresh tomatoes, and … dirt. I am hopeful perhaps some of my friends with larger kitchen space will share their spaces this summer and let me come cook for them.  Let me amaze them with me culinary capabilities to wow everyone.  *shruggs*

Have you tried anything new lately? Is there something in season that I shouldn’t miss?  Do you have a favorite produce gem this time of year that I should be trying?  Frozen and canned seems to be the way to go in the winter… but I am Freezer Burnt here in Minnesota.

Day from Hell in Survival Mode.

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So Last week I had a day from hell… if I had to pick a day where I was on a path for a disaster of derailment, Thursday would have been it.  I was swamped at work all day.  I had a workout scheduled on the books.  I was tired by the end of the day.  Worn out, and just so ready to call it a day.  I got in my car and headed the opposite direction from my house.

There are several ways I can go to get to the gym from my office and I knew if I went past my house, I would be on auto-pilot and just go home.  Looking back at the day, the self care involved in going to the pool was likely the best thing for me after the day I had already had… but I would have liked the events that followed to have not occurred.

I completed my workout, which included a little bit of jogging with the current in the pool.  I am after-all slowly training to walk a 5k, and I would love to not be last! Anyway the workouts are going ok, although I need to think about saving for some kind of waterproof mp3 player.  I got to the parking lot, approached my car and started slipping on the ice.   I fell most of the way to the ground grabbed the handle to my car-door to stop me from completely slamming into the ground full-impact, my phone bounced out of my pocket and fell to the ground and you guessed it. Shattered the screen.  I wasn’t far from Best Buy, who I have my phone protection plan from, so I went there, which meant I wasn’t on schedule for dinner and bed.  After waiting at Best Buy they told me if I needed the data (the 180+ photos off my phone) I would have to go home and back it up.  So i sadly walked to my car, grumpy hormonal and emotional.  I got to my car, being extra careful not to slip again… I look at my tire and see something shiny.

There was a screw in my tire.  FUCK! I pushed on the tire it was still, as far as I could tell, fully inflated.  I drove the opposite direction from home to Costco where I bought the tires.  They told me it would be 1.5 to 2 hours to get my tire fixed.  At this point I was in toddler-meltdown mode.  I said fine, just fix it.  I grabbed a cart and started wandering the store hungry and crying.

Sample ladies… sampling bananas foster trifle.  Oh lord help me.  I walked past, and I walked past again.  She was just across from the cuties.  I grabbed a bag, and a cooked chicken, and a container of blueberries.  I cried as I walked.  I put the chicken back knowing I wouldn’t eat the whole thing before it went bad this late in the week.  I grabbed some cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce you get an insane amount of shrimp for a low number of points on Weight Watchers.  I was trying to keep my head about me.  I sampled a small cube of Tillamook cheddar cheese and my phone rang.  More bad news, the tire center has now broken the stud on my wheel. FUCK ME! They tell me about 10 more mins and my car will be ready to go.  I just start crying again.

I don’t even want to check out at this point.  I just want to leave my cart and go home.  I grab some allergy meds, and a box of the Fiber One chocolate chip cookie brownies that they finally started carrying (they carried the brownies, but not the chocolate chip cookie kind before) and headed for the registers.  Small talk with the cashier ended with him being extremely happy his day was better than mine.  I was to the point where my small talk gene was just shot.

I went and got my car and wanted nothing more than junk food.  I had not really had that much to eat during the day, I could have grabbed a burger or something.  I drove home, passing a crap-ton of fast food places.   Including on the last few blocks, just before my house, a Burger King and a McDonald’s.  I kept telling myself You do not really want those things, you are working toward being healthy, this is stress induced.  You do not need to eat a burger just because it is quick.  You owe it to yourself to take the time to sit and eat your food.

I got home and sat down on my bed and cried.  Took my medicine for the pain that was growing in my neck and back, and I went to the kitchen.  I weighed out my shrimp, 6 ounces worth, I grabbed some fruit, and a skinny cow chocolate bar.  I sat quietly, and just wallowed in all the bad shit that had happened.  I wallowed in the jury duty notice I had gotten the day before.  I cried over all the shitty stuff that happened that day, and then I tried to find the good things that happened.

1.) The day was over, I was about to crawl into my warm bed

2.) I had insurance on my cellphone, even though I had broken it, it would not cost me anything to get it fixed.

3.)The tire that had a screw in it was not flat when I found it, however if I had not found it, it could have/would have been flat at 3:30 am the next morning when I went to go to work and I’d have been late and had to change it in the snow.

4.)I stayed in control of what I ate despite a bad situation where I would have and could have easily just grabbed a pizza or burger before.

5.)I stuck to my plans to workout.

So I slept through the night, mostly.  I woke up Friday, and greeted the new day for what it was a new day.  I tried singing to my coffee syrup.  I went into the day with a positive attitude, it was a rough day too, but it was one day.  I continue to babystep my way along.  Proud that I survived a shitty day.

Week1 at Weight Watchers

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So for those that follow me on “The Twitters” You saw something fun on Saturday morning.  Or rather, something that started out unusual.  I was not apprehensive about going for my weigh-in.  See I have kind-of taken this whole new adventure into the Weight Watchers 2012 Points Plus program as a, low pressure experiment.  Seeing as my calorie counting has become such a failure with the added stresses of my job This was logical.  So Saturday morning I tweeted as I headed out to my meeting.  Arrived, hopped up on my scale and collected my very first 5 pound loss sticker.

 

Now those of you that know me, or have known me for any period of time know I am a freaking sticker junkie.  I am absolutely obsessed with all things cute, cuddly and adorable, and also with stickers.  So the simple fact that WW uses stickers as part of the reinforcement for this program is just AWESOME!

 
Changes that have occurred in my household in the last week are things like, planning and packing my breakfast and lunch, instead of ordering Jimmy John’s (mmm vegetarian, add onions and hot peppers).  I have also gone out searching for new recipes again, instead of relying on old standbys.  I made breakfast for dinner twice, once was bacon egg and cheese biscuit cups, and once was hash-brown sausage egg cups.  Both are made in Cupcake tins! Yumm Cupcakes for dinner.

 

I have now attended three meetings, trying to find a group/leader that I mesh with.  I really liked the leader that I met on Saturday, sadly she was a substitute, and her meetings are on Thursday mornings at like 10Am which wont work.  The Sunday morning leader and group that I met yesterday seemed really fun, plus it would put me in the perfect spot to go do my grocery shopping at Target right after.  Nothing like getting inspired, and heading right to the store so I don’t fill the cart with junk right?

 

My fridge is pretty full of good things, I have been eating the same thing for breakfast everyday.  Cottage Cheese with fruit (a combo of pineapple, kiwi, plums, peaches, cherries) and some cucumber slices.  I like adding the cucumber to it because it lightens the flavors and makes it taste even fresher.  You will also find in my fridge tons of mushrooms and zucchini, some salad mixes, grape tomatoes (which aldi had for $.79 a pint!) Seaweed salad.  Then theres the typical base items to build meals from, eggs, chicken sausages, chicken breasts, lean ground beef, steaks.  I want to stop at Coastal Seafood this week and get some shrimp or fish.

 

Of the 5 new meals I cooked last week there was only one miss-fire, which isn’t too bad when you think about it… it called for 4 cups of cheese… I cut it in half… and it was still far too much.  Anything that isn’t a miss goes in my cute little book of dinners along with the point value per serving that should make meal planning a snap!

 
Confession time… I am still not in love with the gym.  Big surprise right? I am trying to keep my modalities mixed, and I am shooting for five days of activity.  I get so utterly bored when I am in the gym, I get in there and I just don’t want to be there.  I know I need to think outside of the box about activity, perhaps a class or something, and maybe shift one of my activity days to the weekend, and maybe try Zumba or something different but I don’t know.  Last week I did 2 days of walking 2 days of elliptical and 1 day on the bike.  I didn’t do any of those things on consecutive days.  I want to keep my body guessing a bit.  I may also spring for a personal training session or two in the next month to familiarize myself with the way the weights in the gym work, because that should become a part of my routine as well.

 

 

 

—–Closing thoughts—–

 

This week did have a rough spot in it.  My friend Mark passed away early Wednesday morning.  I have been grieving, in my own way, trying to feel my feelings, but not let them interfere with my life.  I appreciate my friends that have all reached out to me during this time, and I also appreciate the understanding when I haven’t returned calls because I just needed some space.  This is my first Monday morning without Mark, I mean he hasn’t been in the office in a long time on a Monday, but there was usually a phone call or some laughter.  This is the second coworker I have lost since I started here in 2005, but I was really close to Mark.

 

Mark paid me some of the highest compliments of my life in his last few weeks of life.  Speaking to his daughter and I together telling her how strong I was, and how much of a fighter I am, and how she needs to be sure to get to know me and stay involved in my life because that is important to him.  I am glad that I could provide him some awesome company during his life as well as some laughter and comfort at the end of his life.

 

 

And Really Bad Eggs, or Not!

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So I have been bringing my food to work for a while, and not too long ago I had a disastrous experience with some eggs at work.  I made eggcups, where you prebake the eggs in muffin tins and just reheat them.  I filled the eggs with spinach and ham and all kinds of good things that I love in my eggs.  I was excited to have something great for breakfast at work… The first day I brought them… was the last day I brought them.  I spent the day nauseated.  I didn’t want to think about eating for days after.  I was indeed sick.  There was a myriad of things that contributed to my sicknedd I am sure, but the entire batch went into the garbage faster than I could imagine.

The past few weeks I have been wanting eggs for breakfast, I bought a few of those frozen breakfast bowl things from Jimmy Dean.  I had coupons from the paper, but Oh My they are waaay too expensive to make that any kind of realistic option to sustain.  I tried the turkey sausage one, which was really *meh* at best and the Ham Bowl.  *insert ham dance*  Now we all know how happy ham makes me… for some ungodly reason ham is like a food of the gods to me… it sings a happy song… (no muppets were harmed in the making of my breakfast, or my infamous pink fuzzy hat)

So this morning I decided to take my hand back at making an eggmug again.  I filled my Pyrex bowl with eggbeaters and a slice of ham (ham ham ham ham ham ham!!!!!) and a smattering of pepper and spices before I left the house and once things here at work settled down I got my bowl out and nuked it.

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While I am not going to win any awards for creativity with my breakfast today, no veggies in it lunch is just lettuce and asorted veggies, I get my hammy eggs for breakfast packed full of protein, and it was a whole lot cheaper than the near $3.00 that Jimmy Dean wanted to sock me for yesterday, and I know what is in my breakfast.  So far it is sitting just fine in my tummy and that makes me a happy camper.  Maybe my eggy mornings can make a return afterall!

Chocolate is for Lovers Day

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Gourmet chocolates, a bottle of good wine, cream sauces covering large plates of pasta, ramekins of melted butter with lobster on the side.  Breadsticks, cheesecake, hand dipped strawberries, February 14th is so often a holiday that revolves around food that goes unnoticed as a food holiday.

So what is a girl supposed to do with the prospect of Valentines day on the horizon? Or even worse… the much celebrated discount chocolate day after holiday!  I was reading on twitter, or perhaps it was a blog, about a set of friends that actually celebrate the discount chocolate day as the holiday.  I remember buying the marked down candy just after Valentines day for my wedding many years ago. I didn’t ever really get into Valentines day, and that’s okay.  Not to say that it isn’t important to celebrate your love and affection for your partner, and also your friends.

The trouble becomes how do you stay healthy and celebrate the traditional way that most couples do?  There were a TON of 5k’s this past weekend that many of you participated in.  However a 5k really doesn’t scream romantic right?  It isn’t exactly the kind of thing you curl up and celebrate, it isn’t something that can be neatly wrapped up in a bow, or sent to someones office.

So let’s face it… most ladies, diets or not are going to be given a box of chocolates this holiday.  So what is a girl or guy to do?

Are you planning on going out to dinner for Valentines day?  Plan ahead, look at the menu of where you are going out to, or better yet, offer to cook at home!  Valentines day is very much “amateur night” in my opinion.  Everyone goes out, restaurants end up with long wait times, and by and large the service suffers because they aren’t in general equipped to handle all the 2-tops they have instead of groups of 2 & 4.  Cooking at home is a great option, you can know what is going into your food, and you can make sure you are getting great quality ingredients.  Even if you don’t know a lot about cooking, making a meal at home can be a great bonding experience for couples no matter how long they have been together.  Learning to work together and cooperate is a great skill!

Skipping the wine is, in my opinion, always the best option.  I’m not big into drinking calories unless they come from coffee drinks.  There are lots of no calorie and low-calorie sparkling beverages out there that you could swap out for.  Lately I have been enjoying the sparkling diet cranberry ocean spray juice cocktail drink.  It would make a great treat with a roasted chicken dinner!

Think portion control!  I know personally I would much rather prefer to have 4 pieces of really good expensive chocolate than a HUGE box of cheap chocolate.  This way it makes it more savorable, not to mention portion control is built-in.

Chocolates that are darker, (dark over milk) have more or the good stuff in them, (flavonols) that makes eating them better for you.  Opting for dark chocolate that isn’t loaded with creamy centers and jellies cuts out added sugars that your body doesn’t want or need either.  Dark chocolate nut clusters pack an added heart health bonus.

If you are looking for a more calorie friendly option with a chocolate punch think about some chocolate drizzled fruit.  I say drizzled instead of dipped because it allows you to still have the same taste with less of the chocolate. So take your traditional strawberries and drizzle some melted chocolate over them… but lets step outside of the box and grab a few oranges, after all it is citrus season, and you can get creative too and use any other fruits you like!  You can drizzle kiwi, pineapple, bananas, and raspberries too and it is a super satisfying sweet treat!

Now, we all know activity burns calories… so remember to burn off a few extra calories with a walk… or a dance… or whatever other activities you can think of!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!  May you celebrate as you see fit, and may you find a way love and yourself!

Flipping!

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So recently I have been hinting around on Twitter about a product I have Flipped over.  I have shared these snacks with a few of my closest friends, and even a few coworkers have gotten their mits on my latest fave treat! I was hopeful that someone would out me on twitter about one of my new favorite snacks and no one has!  I snapped shots of the bar code, which features a freakin surfer!  How cool is that, and the packaging which features a girl doing a cart-wheel.

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On this new healthy eating lifestyle thing I am always searching for new things to try, new products that might entice my palate or replace things that I used to turn to.  I know replacing one behavior with another is the best way to fix something… well let’s face it snacks are a HUGE part of life.  I on occasion have been known to want a cookie.

Cookies are loaded with crap!  Sugar, filler, more sugar, more filler, artificial garbage, am I right?  By and large most cookies out there are horrible for you.  You can make oatmeal cookies at home that aren’t horrible for you, and that is for sure a great option but what do you do when you are out at the store, or need something to share or want something different?

Happily I was strolling the isles of a local grocery store and stumbled across these little gems called Somersaults.  They are made by the Somersault Snack Co. I have been snacking on the Cinnamon Crunch flavor ones with my coffee almost every morning! They are crunchy and sweet and have a burst of antioxidants, protein, & vitamin E! Best of all I feel good eating them!  I had seen them in single serving packs at Caribou coffee a ton of times and never tried them, and now I know what I was missing and can’t believe it!

Have you ever heard of these little gems?  Have you seen them at your local store and ever wanted to try them?  I checked out the website for the company and they seem to be a really great company very into healthy living and keeping roots.  Very much a circular relationship to many of the things I talked about here on the blog in recent weeks.

So guess what?  After a few emails with one of the company reps One lucky reader of KrisGetsHealthy is going to get their hands on a sample pack of Somersaults!!!

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That’s right ladies and gents it is giveaway time again!

So here’s the deal to enter… Contest starts today Feb 12, 2012 and I will accept entries until 06:00 Central Time Feb 19! That gives you a whole week to take the time to head over to their website and check things out. I encourage you to seek out this product and try it on your own anyway because it seriously kicks ass!
One winner will be selected via random.org and the package will be sent directly from the great people over at Somersault!  Winner will be contacted by email.

Write one comment for each thing you do.

 GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER

MANDATORY ENTRY

Comment on this post (be sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you win!) after visiting the Somersaults website and tell me which of the 5 flavors you are most looking forward to trying!

Additional entries

Follow @SomersaultSnack on Twitter
Fan Somersault Snack Co on Facebook
Share this Giveaway on Twitter (tagging me (@KrisGetsHealthy)
Blog About this Giveaway (link to your blog in your comment)

Good Luck and Thanks for entering!

Disclaimer: Somersault Snacks has provided me with a sample pack to try the other flavors in their line and has agreed to provide a sample pack of their choosing to one winner of this contest. The opinions that these snacks rock my socks are completely my own.

Sitting Still

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So my new job involves… a lot of sitting. There are at times a lot of ladder climbing, and a lot of running back and forth from the warehouse to my desk, but lets face it… Kris is now a desk jockey and her caloric intake needs to change.  How do I know this?  Well the scale has not been my friend. Due to the shift in my sleep pattern I have had ZERO energy to go to the gym like NONE.  I starter regaining momentum and now they are cranking my hours around again.

Once my schedule is set in stone I will have no issues forcing myself to pick a class, or a new gym if need be, and making the commitment and getting back there, but my body needs the sleep right now.  This coming week I will need to be at work at 4am every day.  That means the alarm will be ringing at 3:00am every morning. That is an ungodly hour, but I will be logging out of work at 2-ish.  Which will end up being a perfect time to hit the gym when I am finally stable.

I however have forgotten that with less activity to crank back my calories significantly.  Yep, things are not happy in diet-land.  I have not fallen victim to ordering in lunches or anything like that.  I pack my salads and yogurts etc.  However I am falling into that get home and I am hungry while making dinner problem.  I start eating, then eat a few hundred calories, (cheese, or crackers or  nuts etc) then dinner.  This week I am plotting everything out.  I wont have time to be messing around at home with cooking something complicated, I need to take tomorrow and shop and prep EVERYTHING for the week.  Cut up not just the veggies and lay out my fruit but cut up whatever proteins I will be cooking for the week, etc.

So I am going to try a spreadsheet/chart type deal tracking the calories in each potential meal and then I can shuffle them, but I need to crank back my calories.  I am not willing to let my new job ruin all the hard work I have accomplished thus far.  I am not giving up this fight.  I have come too far.

So I need to do some research for recipes that are easy-peasy quick and easy, low cal and taste good!

 

I also am sad that I don’t sem to have much time for blogging right now… that will hopefully change as I get more settled in my job… and on a set schedule… but for now it is what it is.

Also Congrats to Amanda for winning my 5-year Plan book giveaway!

Smart Choices

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So Monday night I had the pleasure of dining out at a restaurant I don’t often frequent. Olive Garden Dun Dun Dun…..  Talk about walking into a caloric nightmare right?  Never ending-anything are not words a dieting person should be around!  Surrounded by bread sticks galore, cheesy sauces, and an appetizer list that is fried item after fried item it used to be very tricky to navigate the landscape of their menu.  It was much easier to just avoid this place!

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the calorie content of each item was listed on the menu!  Plain as day but unobtrusive, it made the selections of my dinner items much easier than pulling out my listings of food that I would have pre-printed out looked up before hand. As we all evaluated our options I looked at things I had ordered in the past, and was pleased to see that some of my favorite items were on the lower calorie end of the spectrum!  The mushroom appetizer that I would often make my meal of was a great choice!  The general consensus was that having the nutrition info on the menu was AWESOME! It won’t dissuade you from ordering something that you want, if you want it.  However it can guide you towards a better choice if you are looking for one.

Personally I went with something middle of the road caloricly speaking.  I opted for the Parmesan Crusted Tilapia.  I don’t often eat fish, other than sushi so I figured this would be a nice choice, it was buttery and delicious!  I looked at my choices of salad or soup, and seeing the stats on their salad, with the dressing I knew I wanted soup.  Not to mention I am a soup fanatic!  (I can’t wait to get home to my freezer full of homemade soup!)

I looked at the dessert menu, just to see what the caloric counts were, and oh my god, seeing just how many calories (920!) were in the Zeppoli was enough to deter me! Those little pillows of heaven, which I have never had at Olive Garden, but have had many times made from scratch called to me, but not so loudly that I couldn’t send them packing!

So as the changes to restaurant menus continue I am pleased to see people being receptive to them.  I know there is and was much apprehension about it however I think if people aren’t ordering the super-high calorie items off the menu’s simply because they are seeing the cold hard facts about the item then maybe there will be a shift to more development of healthy flavorful lower calorie foods.

This is only the second restaurant I have seen with the calorie content printed right on the menu.  The other one was a Ruby Tuesday, and I haven’t seen it at all Tuesday’s.  I look forward to this being rolled out as part of the reform package.  I think it is going to open a lot of eyes.

What do you think?  Have you come across many menu’s with calorie info right on them?  What do you think of them?  Do you support being an informed consumer?  I certainly like not having to go to the web to find out all the info all the time!