.....

Sad to say, this diet has officially put us in the poor house. I have been spending anywhere from $50-80 every two days on groceries. Between my husband's dumb, unpredictable work schedule, and my dumb, unpredictable sales income lately, we just cannot afford to do this anymore. Sigh. :(

We have learned a lot of great tips in the short amount of time we have been on this diet. I've discovered lots of great healthy snack foods, and we have all developed a preference for fresh fruits and veggies, as well as for whole grains. We will continue to implement these tips as often as we are able, and I will continue to provide healthier choices for snack foods. I will continue to watch my caloric intake and hopefully to ramp up my exercise as the weather continues cooling off (running outside...).

We will try to continue the pattern of eating smaller meals more often (3 meals + 2-3 snacks a day), as that seemed to really help curb my hunger, which in turn helped prevent binging at mealtimes because of excess hunger.

I will keep this blog open, and I will post as I remember, but I make no promises. :)

Day 26

The Breakfast Menu:

• 2 cantaloupe wedges
• 1 whole wheat bagel with 2 oz. low-fat cheddar cheese

Bagels with cheese used to be a favorite breakfast. Nothing quite like a shiny white processed bagel with some nice shiny fake American cheese to get my day started! This is a much healthier (and tastier!) alternative. We all have definitely come to prefer whole wheat. It's such a shame that whole wheat breads are typically so much more expensive than white. These bagels, though, are only 60 cents each at the Weis bakery, which makes them only 60 cents more per 6 than the $3.00 I pay for non-fresh ones.

The Morning Snack:

I was running errands. Again. One of those errands was the grocery store, where I had just happened to buy a bag of apples. An apple was on my snack list today, so I ate that while I was out and about.

The Lunch Menu:

• 3 thin slices of roasted turkey breast on a whole wheat tortilla with 1 T. garden vegetable light cream cheese
• 1/2 oz. whole grain Wheat Thins with 1 oz. light cream cheese
• 2 T. cold edamame
• trail mix (this was supposed to be a part of my morning snack ... it's just 11 dry-roasted almonds, 1/2 T. dark chocolate chips, and 1 T. raisins)
• appletini Crystal Light :)  Water gets boring.

The Afternoon Snack:

• 10 baby carrots with 2 T. fat free ranch dressing

What I love about all these snacks is that it gets the kids eating healthy foods too. The little 2 saw me eating carrots and asked for some for themselves. Of course I gladly obliged!

The Dinner Menu:

I forgot to take a picture....

• 4 oz. broiled BBQ pork (center loin chop)
• 1/3 cup white rice
• 4 roasted asparagus spears
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

I was surprised by the white rice. Everything on this website is generally whole grains or whole wheat. The white threw me for a loop, but the kids do prefer white rice to brown, so they were pleased. It's mushy and flavorless, in comparison to brown though :(

The asparagus! I wish I had gotten more than 4 spears. Who eats just 4 spears of asparagus! I wasn't thinking when I bought the small pack. These were so good! And they were just asparagus, salt, and pepper. No oil. Well, cooking spray. But no actual fatty oil. Baked at 375° for 20 minutes. Yum!

The Evening Snack:

• homemade chocolate pudding with a few raspberries on top
• a Special K raspberry cheesecake granola bar

Ok. The granola bar wasn't actually a part of today's menu, but they are really good and only 90 calories. The chocolate pudding. Oh the chocolate pudding! I am so much happier with this website than I was with the book. Did I mention the chocolate pudding?? I don't think I have ever made homemade pudding. This was fabulous. And with the berries? Yum.

I might be pressing my luck with the berries. I had a couple yesterday and a couple today. That's it. No more until next week. I am cutting myself off.

I ended the day at just a hair over 1400 calories. That's a little higher than I prefer, and I really didn't actually get hungry at any point today. That's the nice thing about having 3 meals and 3 snacks. I do feel like I am constantly eating, even though it's just small amounts. I don't really get a chance to sneak in extra snacks (well, except late at night, which could be easily solved by going to bed at a normal hour), and I honestly haven't experienced any real cravings. I thought I would miss pizza or cheeseburgers. But I truly don't. Sure, I would love to eat a piece of pizza, but I'm not drooling over it or sad that I'm not eating it. It's just not a part of this diet. I don't desperately wish that it was.

Interesting how changing one's diet can so quickly change one's frame of mind, isn't it?
 

Day 25

The Breakfast Menu:

• 2 blueberry banana bran mini-muffins
• 1 oz. light cream cheese
• 4 oz. orange juice

I had my doubts about these muffins. They called for wheat bran or oat bran. I just bought All Bran cereal. I was also nervous about the berries, but I figured these muffins are so tiny, I really only ate about 4 blueberries between the two of them. I'm going to try to reintroduce berries into my diet, but only once a week. We'll see how that goes. If I don't have any problems, I'll just leave it at that. I miss them, so I don't want to eliminate them, but I obviously don't want to be miserable just because I ate some...

The muffins were VERY good! I would never have thought to put cream cheese on them, but that was good too. A whole ounce of cream cheese was a pretty thick coating on these two little muffins though...

The First Snack:

• 2 cantaloupe wedges
• "post workout" smoothie

Because the website called this a post workout smoothie, I didn't feel right drinking it without having worked out. lol. It actually spurred me to run on the treadmill this morning. It wasn't for long, and it wasn't fast, but it was more than I've been doing.

I was VERY nervous about the smoothie. It was 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt, 1/4 cup egg substitute, 1/2 a frozen banana, and 1/2 tsp. sugar. I wasn't sure how I felt about the egg substitute. Egg substitute is pasteurized, so I assume it's safe to eat/drink raw... But I had a really hard time taking that first swig, just knowing it had raw "egg" in it. But it was surprisingly delicious! Not just good. Delicious! It wasn't much, but it was just a snack, so it kept me satisfied until lunch.

The Lunch Menu:

• 1 cup chicken salsa brown rice soup
• 1 cup cucumber/tomato/balsamic vinegar salad
• 1/2 oz whole grain Wheat Thins
• 1 oz. light cream cheese

Again with the full ounce of cream cheese. It's just overkill. I absolutely LOVE the whole grain Wheat Thins. They are easily the best Wheat Thins I have ever tasted. The cucumber salad was much better than the last cucumber salad I ate. I made 2 servings of it and will definitely eat the second half tomorrow in place of something else that I had planned. The soup was very good.

I missed my afternoon snack, because we rushed out the door for riding lessons. When we got home (just in time for dinner), I was so hungry I forgot to stop and take a picture.

The Dinner Menu:

• 3 oz. sauteed chicken
• 1/2 cup brown rice with fresh tomatoes and cilantro
• 1/4 cup steamed edamame with 1 tsp. butter spread

The brown rice was decent, but I probably won't bother making it again. There are other things I would rather put in my rice. Or maybe if the tomatoes and cilantro were cooked WITH the rice. The recipe called for cooking the rice by itself, then stirring in cold tomatoes and cilantro. So maybe I'll cook it altogether next time.

The edamame was new to me. I liked it! I get more of it tomorrow :)

The Mixed-Up Rest-of-the-Snacks:

• 1 mango, chunked, frozen, and then pureed
• 1/2 oz. raisins

I had this snack at about 8, when the kids had their bedtime snack. The mango was supposed to be the afternoon snack, and the raisins were supposed to go with the evening snack. Things were just all goofy by this point, so I just ate whatever, whenever. Mixed feelings on the mango. I've only ever had one mango before, and it was nowhere near ripe when I ate it. I've had this one for at least 2 weeks, waiting for it to ripen. When it finally did, I couldn't work it into any of my menus, so I peeled and chopped it and threw it in the freezer. When I saw raspberry sorbet on today's menu, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to have the mango instead of more berries. It was JUST pureed frozen mango. No other ingredients. It was pretty good. I liked it more by the end of the bowl than I did at the beginning of the bowl.

The other 2 pieces of snack I was supposed to have today were 10 baby carrots and a 2 oz. chunk of reduced-fat cheddar cheese. I honestly wasn't very hungry, so I skipped the carrots and ate the cheese. Now I'm at less than 1200 calories for the day, so I suppose I might have one more nibble of something before bed, but nothing over 100 calories. I would love a banana, but we're out. Groceries tomorrow!

 
 

Day 24

The Breakfast Menu:

• 1 whole wheat bagel
• 1 oz. low-fat cream cheese
• 1/2 banana

My bagel had a little bit more cream cheese on it than that, but I dropped it face down and half of it stuck to the floor :(

The First Snack:

• 1/2 oz. raisins
• chicken salad

The chicken salad was delicious!! It was just 2 oz. of chicken breast (cut up and cooked), 1 T. light mayo, 1 tsp. Dijon mustard, some finely chopped celery and red onion, light salt and pepper. With the mustard, the salt wasn't necessary. Very yummy!!

The Lunch Menu:

• 1/2 a whole wheat pita
• 1/4 cup homemade hummus
• 5 carrots
• 2 tsp. natural peanut butter

I felt like the meals and snacks were switched today. The chicken salad makes more sense as a lunch, and this makes more sense as a snack. But hey - it kept my stomach happy all day, so whatever. I didn't realize I was out of cumin, so I ended up using taco seasoning in the hummus. I was afraid that would be weird, but it was pretty good. Natural peanut butter is really starting to grow on me. :)

The Second Snack:

• 2 cups chopped romaine
• 2 T. light Italian dressing 

Boring. I didn't take a picture.

The Dinner menu:

• beef kabobs!

The photo was pre-grill. Dinner was actually supposed to be beef-only kabobs, but what fun is that? We were also supposed to have parsley red potatoes and gingered carrots. I decided to pre-cook the potatoes a bit and add them to the kabobs (kebabs?). I also decided to skip the carrots and use up some veggies that have been in the refrigerator for awhile.

The marinade was only okay. There are plenty of others that I would prefer. And I don't know why I thought a 2" chunk of onion would taste good.

How did these go over?

Quite well!!

The Third Snack:

• baked cinnamon pears
• 2 oz. low-fat cheddar cheese

I love how this program turns fruits into desserts! These pears were quite delicious. I was supposed to have swiss cheese, but I didn't want swiss on my pears, and I didn't want it plain, so I swapped it for cheddar.

Everyone was very happy with the menu today, which makes me happy :)

Oh, weighed in this morning. I had a not-so-great diet week last week, so I was pleased to see I was still down a pound from last weigh-in. Slow progress is better than no progress.
 
 
 

Day 23

We were out running around much of the day today, but I planned ahead and packed our food for the first half of the day. Today's menu worked well for that sort of thing. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, so I only have pictures of the second half of the day.

The Breakfast Menu:

• 6 oz. yogurt
• 2 T. low-fat granola
• 15 grapes

Pretty basic. Bits and pieces. I like those meals. Lots of variety.

The First Snack:

• 1 oz. roasted turkey breast with 1 T. low-fat cream cheese
• .5 oz raisins

Cream cheese on deli meat has always seemed odd to me, but it's delicious! And a whole tablespoon?! How generous!

The Lunch Menu:

• 5 baby carrots 
• PBJ with whole wheat bread, strawberry jam, and low-fat peanut butter

We were at the playground. I just tossed all the parts into a cooler on the way out the door, so I was making the sandwiches at the playground. I got distracted and absent-mindedly made myself a whole sandwich instead of the half I was supposed to have. Oops.

The Second Snack:

• 10 baby carrots 
• 2 oatmeal cookies 

Not much to say about this. These oatmeal cookies are yummy! I used only wheat flour in them, and they are just delicious.

The Dinner Menu:

•   3.5 oz chicken with soy sauce
• 1/2 cup wild rice
• 1/2 cup steamed broccoli with butter spray

Ok, this was a first. So far in my life, I have had broccoli a grand total of two times. Both times it was chopped up into miniscule bits in an omelet. This is the first time I've ever just eaten broccoli. And you know, I can honestly say I almost enjoyed it! It's not the first vegetable I would run out and grab, but I will definitely add it into our veggie rotation.

The Third Snack:

• half a baked apple
• 1/2 cup low-fat vanilla ice cream

We were in a hurry with this. My husband had to leave for work, so the apples didn't get to bake the whole time. They were still delicious. Not overly stuffed, not overly sweet. Just right. Really enjoyed this.

I am thoroughly enjoying the ability to swap meals out for things I know we will enjoy, while still keeping our meals balanced over the day.

When I joined the Biggest Loser Club website, I got 3 free Biggest Loser books. They came today. Two of them I'll probably read once and pass on to someone else, but the third one is one that will end up dog-eared and ratty. The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook is FULL of really great recipes! I'm excited to try so many of them I don't know where to start! 

One quick thing that stuck out in my mind is their idea of desserts... the desserts are mostly centered around fresh fruit, but pepping it up with just a little something special. For example, a sliced banana drizzled with just a little sugar-free caramel. Or a bowl of strawberries drizzled with a little sugar-free chocolate syrup. I don't know why I've never thought of that before. I'm anxious to try some of these out and will, of course, post about them when I do :)

Oh ... we also took a family walk today. It was about a mile and a half. It didn't do much for my heart rate, but it's gotta be better than sitting on the couch.

Day 22

Ok, our food/eating events are over for awhile. I ate WAY too much at our family picnic and spent much of today suffering for it. It is very interesting how quickly our bodies have gotten used to eating healthier foods. We are used to lean meats, whole grains, and fresh fruits & veggies. Bombarding our bodies with picnic foods (burgers, salads, cheeses, rich desserts) was really hard to recover from. But I am back. I am re-motivated. I am focused. Here we go again. Sooner or later, it'll stick... 

I forgot to take any pictures today :(

The Breakfast Menu:

• omelet (egg whites, broccoli, red onion, garlic, spinach)
• 1 slice oatmeal toast
• 1/2 pear
• Special K cereal bar

I am fascinated by how different foods aren't fazing me nearly the way they used to. Broccoli, spinach, AND scrambled egg whites - all in one dish?? But I didn't even think twice about it this time. Good breakfast.

The First Snack:

We don't get home from church until nearly 1:00. I knew our breakfast wasn't going to stick with us that long, so I planned ahead and packed our snack.

• 11 dry roasted almonds
• 1/2 T. dark chocolate chips
• 1 T. raisins
• 15 grapes

The first 3 ingredients made a tasty little trail mix. It wasn't a large amount, but it was just enough to take the edge off our hunger until we could get home for lunch. The kids enjoyed each getting their own little bits in their own cardboard nacho chip trays :)

The Lunch Menu:

• sweet & spicy pork loin 
• small baked potato
• whole grain rice with tomatoes, garlic, and spinach
• thin slice oatmeal bread
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

This meal was a little heavy on the carbs/grains. We were supposed to have cooked cabbage, but by the time we got home, we didn't want to wait. We just grabbed the food out of the crockpots and dug in. VERY good pork recipe! We'll definitely be keeping that one.

Sweet & Spicy Pork

1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
1 lb. pork loin
1 tsp. olive oil
2 T. honey
1/2 T. hot sauce
1 T. minced garlic

Spray pork loin with cooking spray. Combine all dry ingredients. Rub onto pork. Spray skillet. Heat over medium-high heat. Sear pork loin for 1 minute on each side. Remove from skillet. Combine olive oil, honey, hot sauce, and minced garlic. Brush onto all sides of pork loin. Place pork in crockpot. Cover. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve with juices.

The Second Snack:

• 10 baby carrots
• 1 oz. low-fat cream cheese

I really like cream cheese, but a whole ounce of it is more than I needed for only 10 carrots. But I managed ;-)

The Dinner Menu:

This was odd. This is the actual dinner menu that was planned by the website. #3 said to me, "Mama, why did you plan all junk food for dinner?"

• 20 peanuts
• 5 baby carrots
• 3/4 oz. pretzels
• 1 oatmeal cookie

See what I mean? Everyone loved it, of course.

The Third Snack:

was supposed  to be fruit and yogurt, but it ended up being a couple more cookies instead ..... maybe tomorrow will be fewer grains....

Day 17

Grr. I am really struggling here. I need to make more of an effort to STAY HOME. Which is really hard to do when hubby is working night shift. I get tired of telling the kids to keep quiet so he can sleep, so I've been taking them out. And I ended up taking an unplanned trip about an hour and a half from here for a birthday gift ... right over dinnertime. Grr.

The Breakfast Menu:

• omelet (onions, green peppers, mushrooms, egg beaters)
• whole wheat english muffin
• pineapple rings

I've never eaten just plain pineapple before. I didn't think I would like them, but they weren't bad. I will eat them again. I paid an arm and a leg for the english muffins. I'm not sure I would do that again. I like them just fine, but when I can pay $1.19 for a pack of white ones, it REALLY bothers me to pay $4.29 for a pack of wheat ones. Why can't healthy food be less expensive?? It's no wonder so much of our nation is so fat.

Snack #1:

• banana
• 1/2 wedge Laughing Cow light garlic & herb cheese on 1 slice of turkey

This was split up. I had the banana while we were out running around this morning, and I had the turkey while I was making my lunch. DeLICIous cheese!!

The Lunch Menu:

• roast beef sandwich with mustard, onions, and the other half of the garlic cheese wedge
• 2 cups of popcorn (odd)
• tomato salad (with yellow peppers, celery, balsamic vinegar, oregano, lemon juice, and cumin)
• 10 almonds

That was a really bizarre tomato salad. I think I've managed to be pretty open-minded about new flavors this time around, but I just couldn't get into this one. I ate half of it and tossed the rest. It was REALLY strange.

Snack #2:

It was supposed to be a creamy cucumber salad, but we were out of the house for riding lessons & the unplanned looooong trip, so I missed it.

The Dinner Menu:

•  This is where it fell apart. I did Burger King drive through, and didn't even bother trying to keep it healthy. Shame on me. :(
• I had #1 with me, and I got pizza drive through for her. She couldn't eat it all, so I ate her last piece. More shame on me :(
• Hubby held dinner for us. I didn't have the heart to tell him we'd already eaten, because he put off his dinner until 8pm, waiting for us. I ate dinner with him. What is WRONG with me?

Snack #3:

Supposed to be a baked cinnamon pear and some ice cream. At this point, I didn't even bother with the pear, but I did have the ice cream.

My brain is NOT in the right place. I am telling myself that at least I didn't pig out the first half of the day in addition to the second half. But that's no excuse. I really need to focus here.... Help!!