Christmas Tree Cakes

Confession:  I love Little Debbie's snack cakes.  Unless it has nuts, there really isn't one I don't enjoy.  My favorite are the chocolate squares with white icing inside. They're twin wrapped. Back before I counted calories (way before, I haven't eaten these for years), I loved twin wrapped snack cakes. Now, I only eat one and only once a year...Christmas Tree Cakes.

My mom had a snowman cookie jar and she used to put Christmas Tree Cakes in the snowman.  They are about 140 calories each, so it's not a terrible treat.  Anyway, these remind me of Christmastime (uh, obviously as they are shaped like Christmas trees).  Today when I opened my lunch my husband surprised me with....a Christmas Tree Cake!  Yay!  Merry Christmas!

Breakfast:  Special K Protein Meal Bar - 170 calories
Lunch:  leftover ziti (400 calories - smaller portion), grapes (60 calories), Christmas Tree Cake (140 calories)
Dinner:  Buffalo Cutlets/Risotto (550 calories) - cutlets dredged in Buffalo Shake N Bake and topped with some cheese and risotto cooked in chicken stock.  The risotto says 300 calories prepared online, but 150 on the container.  Whatever...I calculated it with the higher number.
Dessert:  ice cream - 130 calories

Total: 1450 - and I went to the gym!

Week 1 results

I hate to admit it, but this whole recording calories thing works. I lost 2 lbs this week. I also made it to the gym four times last week.  I'm not dieting as much as I am trying to be mindful of how much I am eating and trying to keep my calories around 1500 a day.  Most days, I come in under that. Today I will be exactly at 1500.  I choose to eat most of my calories at meal time because I would rather have a good, satisfying meal.  For me, this is a lifestyle change. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that I have to record the calories to kepe this lifestyle change going.  It helps keep me aware of what I am eating.

Weekends are hard.  I can stay home and totally control my meals, but that's no fun!  So, in reality I will probably do some splurging on the weekends. Saturday night was my splurge...Cheesecake Factory.  Even so, I shared my meal with Caleb (because he said, "Mommy, I want pasta!" when he saw my dinner) and shared my cheesecake with Glen.  I never eat a whole piece there anyway, they are huge and REALLY sweet. 

Saturday:
Breakfast:  Cheerios - 150 calories
Lunch: Chick fil a Chargrilled sandwich (290 calories), soup (190 calories)
Dinner:  Cheesecake Factory - 4 Cheese Marinara with chicken, 1/2 piece Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake

Total:  Well, 730 before dinner.  I only ate about 2/3 of the entree because Caleb decided he really liked it too, which was probably a good thing. 

Sunday:
Breakfast:  Cheerios - 150 calories
Lunch:  Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla (500 calories because I used two fried chicken strips (no skin) left over from the dinner Caleb didn't eat last night, chips (150 calories)
Dinner:  Ziti with Tomato-Basil and Asiago Cheese sauce (600 calories)
Dessert:  ice cream cone (200 calories)

Total:  1500 calories - and yes, I went to the gym.

Cravings...

I've been craving Long John's Silver. The yummy battered fish and hush puppies. I know...who craves LJS?  (No, not pregnant).  I haven't eaten it because I looked up the calories online.  Omg.  Plus, the sodium there is ridiculous.  There is less salt in the Dead Sea. 

I don't really have anything interesting to say.  So, here's the last two days.  I was a little bad, but I'm still proud of being bad and coming in well under 2000 calories.

Thursday:
Breakfast - Special K Protein Meal Bar - 170 calories
Lunch - leftover chili (350 calories), apple (60 calories), 100 calorie cake
Dinner - thin crust supreme pizza - 1000 calories...I was hungry.  No I didn't eat the whole pizza...I ate less than 1/2. 
Total: 1680 calories - still not terrible especially with a splurge!

Friday -
Breakfast - Special K Protein Meal Bar - 170 calories
Lunch - I was in a meeting that provided lunch, so choices were limited. I had a turkey sandwich, cheese doritos (150 calories...they were in a bag with the info), a cookie.
Snack - popcorn (60 calories...said so on the bag)
Dinner:  Lemon chicken pasta - 400 calories
Dessert:  ice cream - 130 calories
Total:  760 + lunch (and lunch couldn't have been that bad).  Plus, I worked out!

I jinxed myself

After my blog yesterday about "doing what we have to", I totally hit the snooze button this morning and somehow screwed up my alarm and was almost 30 minutes late getting up.  On the bright side....I still was NOT late to work!  Go me!


My menu:
Breakfast:  Special K Protein Meal Bar -170 calories
Lunch:  I had to have a school lunch so my choices were limited. Fried chicken thigh (I googled "fried chicken thigh" and got 250 calories.  I didn't eat the whole thing,and I peeled off a lot of the skin, so I'm going to say 200 calories), salad (100 calories), a little whole wheat pasta salad (light italian dressing) (200 calories...I didn't eat a full serving). So about 500 calories total.
Dinner:  Homemade chili with extra lean ground beef and crackers- 500 calories - that's with a "larger" serving, too.
Dessert:  I don't know...but I'm allotting 200 calories.  I may be out of ice cream, but there's definitely Halloween candy around here!

Total:  1370 calories

Early morning workouts

I believe we do what we have to do. I've been trying to go to the gym a few mornings a week before work.  My goal is 3 times a week and maybe once on the weekend.  I went today (my second trip this week) and I always feel great afterwards.  The problem is that I can have an entirely logical conversation with myself at 5am when the alarm goes off about why I don't actually need to go right then.  It's only 25 minutes earlier than my usual wake up time so it's not like I'm losing lots of sleep.  So why do I stay in bed more often than not?  Simple - I don't have to go to the gym.  I have to be at work on time so I always am.  You know how many times I've been late for work in the 10 years since college?  I can probably count it on one hand and have some fingers left over.  I always make it where I have to go on time because it's not an option to be late. But the gym is different.  I don't have to go there so I talk myself out of it at 5am.  I usually regret that conversation at 5:30am. I need to create a situation where not going isn't an option.  So...who wants to join me on the elliptical machines 3 mornings a week?

My menu:
Breakfast - Special K Protein meal bar - 170 calories
Lunch:  leftover cowboy spaghetti (450 calories), apple (60 calories), 100 calorie cake
Dinner:  Chipotle - chicken burrito bowl with rice, chicken, peppers, onions, corn salsa, tomatillo salsa, cheese (630 calories) and chips (160 calories...chips from the store have far fewer calories than Chipotle chips).  I love Chipotle and even with it I did okay with my calories today.

Total:  1570 calories

Cowboy Spaghetti

I've noticed that when I'm counting calories, I focus my calories to meal times. I would rather have a satisfying meal than a bunch of little snacks. I'm usually honest about how much I'm eating - that whole recipe calculator allows me to enter the number of servings that I really make.  I'm sorry, I've never seen a box of pasta make 8 servings in real life.  Anyway, here's today...I'm realizing how carb-loaded my diet seems. On the bright side, I use Smart Taste pasta - so it has the nutritional value of whole-wheat pasta. 


My menu:
Breakfast - Special K Protein Meal Bar (170 calories)
Lunch - leftover chicken pesto pasta (350 calories - smaller portion), apple (60 calories), 100 calorie cake
Dinner - cowboy spaghetti - (450 calories)  This stuff is great.  Ground beef, tomato sauce, bacon, onion, garlic, worcestershire sauce, and some hot sauce. I usually top it with scallions and a little cheddar cheese. 
Dessert:  ice cream - 130 calories

Total for the day:  1260

Back on the wagon...

This past weekend, I went to New Orleans.  I ate for four days.  I had po-boys, crabcakes, shrimp ravioli, and beignets.  At the end of this my time, I felt like someone was going to have to roll me on the plane.  Since June, I've tried to work out and be mindful of my calories, but I haven't been posting my daily caloric intake. At the end of this weekend, I got on the scale.  I lost 15 lbs in the four months was posting daily (a pound a week...I'll take it), and I've gained 10 lbs back.  I have to be honest...I was pretty excited that I hadn't gained all and more back. But, my clothes are getting tighter, so time to return to blogging.  T-minus 30 pounds to go. (As a side note, it's also time to return to my 3-4 times a week early morning gym visits...)

So, it's time to return to reading labels, entering recipes online, and googling every food I eat to find out how many calories there are.  I'll probably take off a day here and there (it's the holiday season!), but I'm going to try and be good, or at least prepare for when I'm not by eating lighter beforehand.

So, today I want to introduce you to the Special K Protein Meal Bar. I discovered these when I went to QT after the gym one morning on the way to work.  I needed something that would fill me up until lunch. These are AWESOME.  They taste great (I recommend peanut butter and chocolate) and I'm not usually hungry again for a few hours.  Plus, they only heave 170 calories.  The downside is that they are expensive. But, Kroger does have them 10/$10 on occasion, so we stock up. Don't confuse them with the snack bars...very different.

My menu:
Breakfast:  Special K Protein meal bar - 170 calories
Lunch:  Chicken Quesadilla (350 calories) chips/salsa (160 calories) = 510 calories
Dinner:  Chicken Pesto Pasta with Sundried tomatoes = 500 calories.  This stuff is awesome.  It's sauteed chicken in garlic and red pepper flakes tossed with pesto sauce, sundried tomatoes, and bowtie pasta sprinkled with feta cheese.  I found it on allrecipes.com. It's delicious!!
Dessert:  ice cream cone (lowfat caramel ice cream) = 200 calories.  The cone helps me with portion control, and it's only 70 calories.  On days when I have 70 calories to spare, I add it to the ice cream.

Total:  1380 calories - and I went to the gym!