Lunch, and Lunch!?

I’m here, barely awake! My body feels like I have the flu going on 5-6 hours of sleep. People: DO NOT SKIMP ON SLEEP! It’s sooooo important to your health! I can’t believe how much worse I feel than usual, and I only got a few less hours! Guess my body needs every minute. I’ll be in bed early tonight to catch up

The newscast went well and actually flew by (unlike the last one I did at 5 a.m.!) It was lots of fun. They had the most wonderful tea – Earl Gray Lavender - and I had four teacups!! I split the four cups between one of those half and half containers, for 20 calories, but otherwise I didn’t snack. I was offered omelets, smoothies, and more, but I knew I didn’t need any fuel because of my superstar breakfast, so I turned them down. Next time I might skip breakfast and just eat there (this was a breakfasty client that actually has healthy options) but it was easier to just say no.

Lunch #1
I got home around 8:30 and took a 30-minute power nap, as I was pretty exhausted, and felt better after that. By 9:30, it had been 5 hours since breakfast, so I figured I should have “lunch.” I whipped up some pumpkin yogurt and fiber one and had some coffee, decaf ironically, with skim milk in it.

Calories: ~120.

Lunch #2
I started to get really hungry around 12 – not sure if my body knew it was usually lunchtime or if it was ready for dinner!! I ate too fast and am now really full!

Leftover homemade Butternut and Carrot Soup: (DEE-licious!!!) This was a HUGE bowl too, so it’s more soup than it even looks like.

Sliced apple with cinnamon:

And Kashis:

From above, with Cooking Light:

Lunch calories: 467 (Soup was 250, 15 crackers were 130, 6 oz apple was 88.)

I’m still hoping to go running this afternoon. We’ll see how I feel when the time comes.

I’m surprising the husband with a really fun dinner tonight – I’m using a surprise ingredient that I normally would never want to use and he’s stumped as to what I’ll be making. Guess you’ll have to wait and see!

Rainy Lunch

First off, let me say thank you to all of the wonderful comments! I’m completely flattered that so many of you find my blog, photos, recipes and meals inspiring. I’ll keep the posts coming!

For some reason, I had a really late lunch today. I usually eat at 12 on the DOT but today I had a few things to do at work and just kept working. Must have been that stellar breakfast this morning that held me over!!

I had hot pumpkin tea at 11:00 because I was freezing (not because I was hungry!). NOTE: I got really “hungry” at 10:30, but I knew it wasn’t real hunger. I guzzled some water and sure enough, 20 minutes later I was chugging along again on my projects. I think I was just bored! You can tell when I’m bored because I go through sugar-free gum like water.

Lunch:
My “go-to” lunch when I want to feel healthy is tuna salad. Last night I decided on salmon salad instead, and it was great!

Ingredients:
3 oz packet of pink salmon
1 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp reduced-fat mayo
3-5 squirts of 2 kinds of mustard
1 celery stalk, diced
1 carrot, diced

It was great and mighty filling!

Of course I had to have Kashi crackers! I treated myself to 5 more than usual since I left out the yogurt today.

Also had 1/2 cup of leftover brussels sprouts (from Thanksgiving – sauteed in apples and bacon) over baby spinach:

And my fruit component, kiwi Yes, I eat the skin. Who wants to peel fruit when you don’t have to!?

All together with my big orange cup of water for 485 calories. A little lower than usual, but I thought the two salads added enough bulk. I’m still a little hungry, but I think I just need some more water.

I REALLY wanted to go walking today, but it’s raining and the radar doesn’t look good. I guess I’ll have to wait another day.

I brought some skim milk in a jar to have hot chocolate (CIB) as a snack. Yum!!

Lunch breakdown for Hope:
(This is EXACTLY why I believe in food journaling! Calories do sneak in where you might not expect. I had 20 Kashi crackers, which is more than a serving, and the brussels sprouts were about 50 for half a cup per the recipe nutritional info since they had bacon and apple in them.)

Lunch		Cals
	1 serving, 1/4 cup (2.2 oz) Bumble Bee: Fish, Canned, Packaged: Salmon Pink	90
	1 tablespoon (0.5 oz) Hellmann’s: Mayonnaise: Reduced-Fat	20
	2 teaspoon (0.2 oz) Hellmann’s: Spreads: Dijonnaise	10
	3.75 oz Vegetables, Fresh: Carrots, raw, edible portion	44
	2.5 oz Vegetables, Fresh: Celery, raw, edible portion	10
	20 cracker (0.1 oz) Kashi: Crackers: TLC, Original 7 Grain	173
	1 1/2 cup Brussels Sprouts with Apple	54
	2 oz Fresh Express: Salads: Blends, Baby Spinach	13
	3 oz Fruit, Fresh: Kiwi Fruit (chinese gooseberries), raw, edible portion	52
	0.25 serving, 2 tablespoons (1.1 oz) Newman’s Own: Salad Dressings: Lighten Up, Honey Mustard	18
Total:		484

Wrapping up with Sunday

What a cloudy overcast day! Fits my mood somewhat Since we were staying at someone else’s house, we decided not to get up and run in the morning. I think I’m actually going to take today off of exercise, as I haven’t had a day off in a long time. It’s raining out, but we’re going to try to get in a walk before dinner to get some movement in.

Breakfast:
I brought some plain instant oatmeal and a pear for breakfast. Also found some almonds in my purse (which I keep in there for emergencies) so I had all of that for breakfast. It was delicious!!

Plus coffee with some skim milk:

Breakfast calories: ~289. Rather low! But that’s a good thing, I suppose!

Lunch:
I couldn’t decide what I wanted for lunch. Husband’s mom came over with her friend and we were still with his brother as well, so there was a crowd. I decided on a bowl of leftover vegetables and a piece of Ezekiel toast. Along with some tea.

I was still a little hungry, so I had plain yogurt with cranberry sauce afterwards.

Lunch calories: 469.

Snack:
Went grocery shopping (LOVE grocery shopping!!!) and got healthy food for the week. I’m so excited about the meals I have planned. I definitely want to have my curry tuna salad for lunch tomorrow Anyways, I have been enjoying Carnation Instant Breakfasts in milk as hot chocolate, but I always have to use half a packet and hate having to save the other half, so I investigated other options in canisters (I can’t find the No Sugar Added kind in a canister). So I got some NSA Nesquik. It’s great!! It’s very similar to the CIB’s but isn’t made with dried milk and doesn’t have as many vitamins, but I think it’ll do find until I get the courage to just order a canister online. I’ve hesitated because I think I might not drink it all if I buy it and pay for shipping and all. Dumb excuse, but at least I have a temporary solution.

8 oz of milk with 2 tbsp Nesquik. It was delicious!!! 125 calories.

We’re making homemade butternut squash soup for dinner tonight. I’m pretty starving now at 4:30 and hope I can make it without needing another snack.

See you then!

I’m Done!

Whew. Done eating out. Done overeating. I’m ready to get back on track (and couldn’t be more excited about eating healthy again!) I think I did some damage this weekend, but not as much as it could have been thanks to a few hard workouts and good choices.

Saturday recap:

Lunch:
Once we arrived in Spartanburg we had Progresso Reduced Sodium Gumbo with grilled cheese. I had my grilled cheese open-faced to save calories. Also had a Diet Coke.

Lunch calories: ~371. Rather low!

Snack:
I was starving around 2:30, so I decided to try the Kashi GoLean Crunchy Pretzel Chocolate bar I brought along if I needed it. 150 calories, 8 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber. It was good, but I was expecting more pretzel and less chocolate. I only got a few tastes of pretzel. But it did a good job holding my hunger for a late dinner. I’ll probably get these again, but I didn’t think it was as good as the TLC bars. But the stats are heavier for longer tiding of hunger. Hard decision!

I also had a few sips of husband’s nonfat latte at Barnes and Noble. Sorry, no photo.

We came back to get ready for dinner and I had a few Wheat Thins and some of the husband’s Bourbon on the rocks. I LOVE this drink, but only as sips from the husband. I don’t think I’d want my own. I am certainly acquiring a taste for liquor these days! Bourbon reminds me of Christmas, so that’s why I love it

Total snack calories: ~225, which put me around 1,000 for the day. Had plenty available for dinner.

Dinner:
But……..unfortunately I blew it at dinner!!! I made healthy choices, but I just ate too much and did way too much nibbling off of other people’s plates. It was also the kind of place that I couldn’t pass up on wine (we got 2 bottles for the table) so I had about 8 oz – not. good.

Had two of these:

Had a tiny piece of bread:

And two mussels from the appetizer:

Husband had frog legs for his appetizer – ewww! I couldn’t bear to try them, although I believe they did taste like chicken. Duh.

I had a tomato / goat cheese / balsamic / pesto salad to start. I had 2 of the 4 tomatoes and shared the rest.

I went with the healthiest choice I could: Grilled pork chop with asparagus and beets. Well, the pork chop was covered in butter sauce and served over buttery grits (NOT on the menu!), the asparagus was just 3 spears and the “beets” were just two beet chips. All topped with fried carrots. Of course I ate too much of the grits (probably half served) but I did only eat about 1/3 of the pork chop and gave the rest to the husband. I wanted the Grouper, but I got this because it seemed healthier, but the grouper was a much better choice!! Ugg. Oh well. It was good.

Also had 2 bites of husband’s filet, about 4 french fries, and 1/4 of this braised cabbage, which was SOOO good. Not sure the nutritional, but I logged it as 50 calories.

Since the restaurant screwed up our order a few times, we got 2 free desserts (too bad they couldn’t just have reduced the bill instead of giving us food we didn’t need!). I had about 4 bites of the creme brulee….

And two of the chocolate mousse….

And a decaf coffee….

So that was dinner. I ate about 1,000 calories, and did NOT do a very good job, thanks to the wine. But as always, it could have been a lot worse. Amazingly, I did so well during the first half of the day that I hit about 2,000 calories total. Thanks to 500 calories worth of exercise, I net about 1400 - which is actually acceptable.

The worst part was that I when we got home and I was a little tipsy, I had 2 Starburst and 2 Wintergreen candies. Totally out of character!!! I told you wine is my best friend and worst enemy. I think I was just sad the day was over. I logged them though, so they’re included in the numbers.

All three holidays, I was at or just over maintenance calories, so although I drank and ate too much, I didn’t do as much damage as it feels like. Just a few days of healthy eating will get me right back to where I was.

And I can’t wait to resume my healthy lifestyle!!

Alcohol + Leftovers = ugggggggggg!

Wine = <3

Did I mention that alcohol is a big trigger of mine?? How is it that I managed to do more damage the day AFTER Thanksgiving than the day itself?? ALCOHOL!! I had a glass of wine before we started dinner….and the rest is history.

Breakfast:
Starting this morning, I woke up on little sleep and feeling icky from a glass or two of wine the night before. I had a big bowl of oatmeal with banana and walnuts before we departed on our family hike to Crowders Mountain.

Breakfast calories: 340

Hike!!
We did a 3.5 mile hike up a mountain and back down. I wore my heart rate monitor and burned about 300 calories. Not too bad, but not enough to fight Thanksgiving leftovers! At the top of the mountain, I had a cranberry-turkey-spinach sandwich and some fresh fruit. Check out the view!!

Cute husband eating!

View from the top of the mountain:

Lunch calories: 357

Afternoon:
After we got back from the hiking, I was pretty hungry. I had a cup of tea to tide me until dinner, but it didn’t do much….I had some bites of mashed potatoes and vegetables.

And mom and I got in 40 more minutes of walking!!

After our walk, it was about 4pm and I was going on about 800 calories with 450 calories burned. I need some fuel!! Had a bowl of leftover veggies and brussels sprouts. And one too many nibbles of sweet potato casserole

Afternoon calories: About 300. Too many bites of other people’s dishes!

Dinner
OK, can we emphasize again that wine is the catalyst for me to overeat?? At 5:00, the whole family came over again for a dinner of leftovers. We opened a bottle of pinot, and it was FABULOUS!!!!!!!! I had a glass before dinner (about 2 of these 3 oz ones) and it triggered me to overeat….

I also sipped on the husband’s DELICIOUS Chardonnay (Indian Wells from Washington – unbelievable!!) 2 more oz under my belt.

Here’s my plate of leftovers, which isn’t that damaging, except that I did a lot more nibbling than is photographed. Sorry to be inaccurate, but I was BAD tonight!

For dessert, I had a sliver of pumpkin chiffon and some pecan - too much of both! But seriously, is that really 151 calories worth of pecan pie?!?!? It is 1/3 of a slice, but I find that so hard to believe!!!

Also had about 2-3 oz of mead (honey dessert wine) when the husband surprise-opened it, which was above and beyond what I had planned.

Here’s my dinner calorie estimate:

Dinner		Cals
	5 serving Roasted Veggies by OZ	102
	4 serving Cranberry Sauce – Thanksgiving Version	85
	0.5 serving, 1/2 cup (4 oz) Wegmans: Bread Products: Holiday Dinners, Herb Stuffing	103
	1 1/2 cup Brussels Sprouts with Apple	54
	0.5 serving, 2/3 cup (5.9 oz) Puddings: Corn, home prepared	109
	7 fl.oz Sutter Home: Wines: Pinot Noir	161
	1 oz Turkey: Light Meat, boneless, no skin, roasted	45
	2 fl.oz Wines: Mulled or Mead	88
	2 fl.oz Sutter Home: Wines: Chardonnay	47
	.4 serving, 1/2 cup Vrooman: Sides: Sweet Potato Casserole	82
	0.25 oz Be Happy & Healthy: Breads: Pumpkin	19
	1 piece (0.2 oz) Sunspire: Chocolate: Grain Sweetened, Dark Earth Balls	32
	0.3 piece, 1/8 of 9″ dia (4.3 oz) Pies & Tarts: Pies, Pecan, prepared from recipe	151
	0.33 serving Pumpkin Chiffon Pie	98
	1 oz Beer: Regular (5% alc.)	12
Total:		1188

SO as you can see, I was not very well behaved today. One day this week was enough damage!!

Total Friday calories: 2189

-448 through hiking + walk

+ 300 added maintenance calories to lighten the load.

= net of 1440.

Now I know plenty of people who have done fine on 1440 net, but I’m not one of them. I know my body and know that this was overboard. This is NOT how a nutritionist would eat. This is how the old me would eat. Get a grip, me!

Tomorrow we’re headed to Spartanburg, SC to visit my husband’s dad, and we’re going to dinner at a German restaurant. I would love to limit myself to NO alcohol tomorrow, but I know that is unrealistic. I think I’ll just do my best (absolute BEST) and call it a weekend. I’ll be back on track hard core on Monday. We do plan on hitting the gym hard tomorrow morning, early, so that should help.

See you then!!

Kath

Thanksgiving 2007 Recap

I did great!!!! I’m full, but not stuffed. Very satisfied. Got lots of exercise today, and ate a little of everything. I’m guessing I had about 2200 – 2300 calories. I had planned for 2000, so I consider being just a hair over a great success. I also can’t believe how easy it was to eat a small amount for breakfast and lunch since I was so busy. I think being the chef for Thanksgiving really helped me eat less (if I was a guest at a more traditional (and more unhealthy) dinner, I’m sure I would have eaten more).

Our guests had a great time and we got lots of compliments on all the foods!

I do feel pretty full and uncomfortable, but I think I’m more full from drinking lots of water than lots of food!! I also did eat most of my calories at one meal, so it’s no wonder I’m full. I’m reallllly thirsty, but other than that, I feel like I just had a big meal, that’s all. Go me!!!

Here’s a recap…………….

Thanksgiving Run:
Woke up to a drizzle outside – so cozy!! After a small bite of banana and PB, husband and I set out on our run just in time to have the sun poke through the clouds!! It was a wonderful run (despite my aching hamstrings, which took a while to warm up!). 5.3 miles; 450 calories burned. Perfect weather: overcast with bouts of sunshine, 60* and a slight breeze.

Breakfast:
Since I’m obviously trying to eat light today, I just had an oatmeal pancake and coffee. Yum! The coffee made me rather jittery and my shoulders did their tension thing. I am giving up caffeinated coffee forever!

Breakfast calories: ~310 (including pre-run banana)

Morning Meal Prep:
We spent the morning prepping for afternoon cooking. Veggies were chopped, ingredients measured, and everything was put in tupperware so it can be dumped right into the recipe when we’re under time pressure.

Lunch:
Kept things simple and light with a smoked salmon sandwich.

And some sliced apple:

Lunch calories: 310.

Afternoon:
Of course we spent the afternoon cooking. I went for a 30 minute walk with my mom, sweet! Got in all my required exercise. I was pretty hungry after our walk, but I had a few grapes and a virgin tonic and lime and felt much better to make it until 5pm.

There are a few bites missing of things throughout the day, but I kept an eye on my bites and don’t think I had more than 100 calories of extra bites of things like Brussels sprouts and 1 bite of cornbread.

Afternoon calories (sips of husband’s beer, apple core, grapes, cornbread): ~100.

Chopping apples:

Virgin Tonic (everyone else had liquor in theirs!)

Table Decor:
Here’s our beautiful table….

Kitchen centerpiece:

Cocktail Hour:
I assembled the appetizer plate and put it out at 4pm. I only had a few grapes and one piece of cheese. No crackers and I certainly didn’t nibble. Nice!! The guests gobbled it up like turkeys!

Cranberry cheese, crackers, grapes, almonds, apricots:

5:00 Dinner is Served!

Pumpkin Bread and Blue Cornbread:

Vegetables on the grill:

Bleu Cheese Smashed Potatoes:

The most amazing wild rice, mushroom and sourdough dressing (with homemade bread!)

Apple-Bacon Brussels Sprouts:

Mom’s Corn Pudding:

My cranberry sauce (made with brown sugar…). And in the words of my 21-year-old brother in law “This cranberry sauce is DEE-licious!!! The best I’ve ever had!!”

Gravy..stovetop homemade

And our favorite: roasted vegetables:

Turkey!!!!

Carving the turkey!

My plate:

A little of everything, in moderation of course! I was full about 1/2 way through but kept eating. Was just perfectly full when I was done. Only had a little seconds on the dressing (which I usually hate) and the cranberry sauce, but not enough of either to do damage. Also had exactly 6 oz of wine – go me!!! Dinner calories: ~1,000 (including 6 oz wine).

Dessert:
We cleaned the entire kitchen before eating dessert, so I built up another appetite. I had the exact portions I had planned but they seemed SO SMALL!! I had a few more nibbles of pie, but not a significant amount (although with pie, it’s always significant!). But my initial pieces may have been a bit small, so who knows what my exact calories were! We also had a dessert wine with dessert (duh) and I had my planned 2 oz. I pretty much ate exactly as planned.

My grandmother’s Staffordshire turkey plates:

The pies!! Pecan and Pumpkin Chiffon (so much better than regular pumpkin!)

The table all set up with the turkey plates:

Dessert calories: ~500, including dessert wine.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!!!

Tomorrow is a hike up Crowders Mountain with turkey sandwiches at the top and leftovers for dinner. Can’t wait!

Spinach Overload!

I got pretty hungry today around 10:30. Could walnuts be the secret ingredient to satiety? I had the same weight and calories in almonds today, but that’s the only thing I change. Hmmm. Experiment in store!

Had 5 almonds at 10:30

And hot tea at 11:00

And the most AMAZING PB + Banana + Honey sandwich at 12:00!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This Ezekiel Sesame bread is so. good.

DROOOOOLLLLLLL!!!

And a HUGE spinach salad with pom. Didn’t realize how much spinach was packed into my zip-lock bag!

Kiwi:

Cran-Yogurt:

Note the size of the spinach compared to the slices of bread – or my tupperwares! It was a LOT!

Total lunch calories: 511.

My stomach is kind of hurting. Maybe from a spinach overload? No walk today – gotta get through work so I can leave! Can’t wait to start the weekend

Best Lunch Ever Take II

Remember how good my lunch was last week when I had curried tuna, a spinach salad with roasted veggies, fruit and Kashi crackers? I made it again and it was just as good!!!

Tuna salad:

• Packet tuna
• 1 tbsp mayo
• 1 squirt mustard
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• Sh!tload of curry powder (maybe 1.5 teaspoons?)

YUM!! And super filling.

Spinach salad with leftover veggies:

Pineapple and kiwi:

And Kashi crackers

All together for 500 calories:

with hot tea to drink

Also got in 40 minutes of walking!!!

I really wanted a homemade ginger cookie (which I didn’t get to try yesterday) with a dollop of Cool Whip but the husband convinced me not to, so I brushed my teeth instead.

I’ve got yogurt and cranberry and Fiber One for a snack, then Taco Salads for dinner!

And 248 calories left to eat weight loss calories. Gah!! Maybe I should have a cookie…. : )

If I do, you’ll see it here!

B+

I’d give myself a B+ on lunch today. Could have been better, but it also could have been much, much, MUCH worse!!! There was a ton of stuff that I didn’t even try, and although I’m full, I’m no where close to being FULL, which I could have been. I’m perfectly satisfied, if just a little more full than normal.

Here’s my plate – from L to R –

• A few marinated veggies (green beans, snap peas)
• Big helping of collard greens
• Black beans and brown rice, ~1/2 cup?
• My roasted root veggies, nibbled on these too so I’m guessing I had 6 oz total
• The most heavenly, fattening buttery corn pudding ever (which I wouldn’t have had so much of if I knew it was 350 calories per serving!)
• 1 tbsp rice casserole
• 1/4 cup baked mac and cheese
• 1 oz turkey (I only had 2 pieces/bites)
• Bite of a mini biscuit (not shown)

Pretty healthy!!! I certainly ate lots of healthy things, the corn pudding and mac and cheese being the exceptions. The corn pudding was made from Jiffy corn muffin mix, so I was able to find the recipe and calculate the nutritional info. It makes 8 servings at 350 calories each!! I’m guessing I had half a serving and leaving it at that.

Dessert:
I had more than I had planned. I even waited a while to go up to get some. It was delicious but so damn high in calorie!!

Clockwise starting at the 12:

• Scrapings of pecan pie with 2 tbsp of Cool Whip (co-worker dolloped that on!)
• Apple crumb cake – small piece
• Sliver of oatmeal cookie fruit pizza, which was 300 calories per slice. I’m counting this as 1/3 a slice and crossing my fingers I’m accurate
• More corn pudding. Drool.

So it looks like I was pretty good right? Try 914 calories for lunch, WRONG!!! Argh!! Really I’m just mad because I don’t get to have a good dinner tonight : ( I’m bringing home leftovers, but I’m sad that my eating is basically done for the day. Maybe I can get in a walk before the sun sets.

However, if I ate 2,000 calories today, which is what all the “normal” calculators say I need to MAINTAIN my weight, height, and activity level, I’d be fine. I guess I should just give myself some wiggle room and not eat weight loss calories today. It’s just hard because my body likes eating weight loss calories. It doesn’t NEED more calories today. But I just want the fun of more food : (

Here’s some more highlights from lunch:

Root veggies the husband brought for me <3

Food items:

More food:

Desserts:

Lastly,

Here’s my calorie estimate logged in my food dairy:

		Cals
	1 oz Turkey: Light Meat, boneless, no skin, roasted	45
	1 serving, 2 cups (2.8 oz)Glory Foods: Vegetables, Fresh: Collard Greens	25
	0.15 piece Fresh Choice: Desserts: Cake, Southern Apple Crumble	65
	6 serving Roasted Veggies	165
	0.3 1 slice Oatmeal Cookie Cake	98
	0.5 serving Jiffy Corn Pudding	155
	1 serving, 1/2 cup (3.4 oz)Rice: Brown, medium-grain, cooked	109
	0.15 1/2 cup Low-Sodium Black Beans	15
	2 oz Canned Meals: Entrees, Macaroni & Cheese	46
	1 serving, 2 tablespoons (0.3 oz)Cool Whip: Cream: Whipped Topping, Regular	25
	1 oz Pies & Tarts: Pies, Pecan, prepared from recipe	117
	0.25 serving 1/2 cup (3.9 oz) Wegmans: Vegetables, Packaged: Sauteed Greens & Beans	18
	.2 biscuit Red Lobster: Sides: Lighthouse Menu, Cheddar Bay Biscuits	32
Total:		914

Sunday Recap

I’m feeling rather down today and I’m pretty sure hormones are to blame I can feel them racing around my bloodstream, and I wish I could make them go away! I had a good day though, and we got lots of stuff done, including my final project for Nutrition. All I have left is the final exam!

Breakfast:
Had a leisurely breakfast of PB oatmeal and a Toffee Latte:

Breakfast calories: 472.

Workout:
Was going to skip a workout today and just go for a long walk, but husband suggested a run around 11:00, so run we did. About 4.75 miles. 400 calories burned!

Lunch:
Had the most AMAZING lunch after our run. I was brainstorming what I craved most and decided I would have whatever that was.

Tuna salad?
PB + J?
Bean Sandwich?
Spinach salad?

Nothing was appealing. Then I thought about grilled cheese – and grilled cheese it was!!

Ezekiel Bread with 1 slice chipotle cheese, 1/8 cup shredded reduced-fat Italian, and some Smart Balance (~ 1 tsp?) on the bread for good flavor. We put it in a pan over medium heat and topped it with a few pots for a panini-style press.

Had it with Pacific Buttery Corn Soup. I LOVE this brand of soups. They are a little on the boring side by themselves, but they make the perfect base for a quick homemade soup. I chopped up some carrots, celery and broccoli, presto soup! You could easily just add pre-chopped frozen veggies too.

All together for 420 calories. I felt SO satisfied when I was done…

After lunch the mother-in-law stopped by with pecan pie. I had 1 good-sized bite and that was it (husband wolfed the rest down before I could even think about a second). Logged it for 60 calories! Yikes!! I’m well aware that pecan is the MOST DANGEROUS pie there is, but it’s one of my favorites

Afternoon:
After lunch I worked on my project, then we went to Target and World Market for some items. I was hungry when we left at 3:30 but decided I would live without food since I didn’t feel like making a snack. But when we got home, I was sluggish with low blood sugar (or something!) and needed a snack. Vanilla tea with yogurt, cranberry, pom and fiber one for ~120 calories.

Dinner:
Dinner was good, but left us wanting more.

Salmon patty on a big white bun with spinach, avocado, dill and mustard.

Steamed broccoli that I did in the microwave for 3 minutes with a little water in the bottom of the bowl. It was the PERFECT doneness and SO quick and easy!

And rosemary oven-baked red potato “home fries” with ketchup:

All together for ~480 calories (thanks to that huge bun!)

Dessert:
Had a warmed jello pudding cup and chopped pineapple for dessert. And 2 bites of a chocolate-covered frozen banana (husband’s). Last night I did have an oatmeal pancake but didn’t get the photo up. ~125 calories.

Total Sunday calories: 1686

-450 from run and walking

= net of 1235.

I’m thinking of upping my net back to 1350 or 1400 after I get through Thanksgiving. Just seems like I’ve been eating so well that my body could use some more fuel. We’ll see how the next week goes!

Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving Pot-Luck at my office. I know the menu since I’ve been the one in charge of coordinating the dishes, including like 10 desserts! My strategy is going to be:

1. Skip the turkey since I’ll be having it again this week (I’ll probably just have 1 oz instead of the usual 3-4 oz serving)
2. Fill up on the dishes that look homemade and worth it (the healthier ones, that is)
3. To not eat anything store bought (I can eat that anytime!)
4. Stick to two SMALL bites of dessert – whichever looks the best
5. I’m also going to log it all before lunch rather than after – that always helps keep things in perspective.

I think I’ll do well at the lunch, but the real question is: can I stay away from the leftovers all afternoon? We don’t have dinner planned tomorrow to leave some wiggle room. I’m hoping to be a show off on my blog at how well I do, but we shall see!! Hold me to it ladies!