friday June 2, 2008

for lunch i had lettuce wraps with avocado for 285 calories:

and snack was lots of carrots. i tried to soften them in the microwave but it didn’t really work. i initially put some hummus on the side but the flavors together didn’t agree with me so i just ate all the carrots for 88 calories.

later on before the cocktail reception for SATC i had an apple enchilada that melissa had written about a few times. to add some healthy fat i used a 1/2tbsp. of vanilla bean olive oil. it helped the cinnamon and splenda coat really well! second snack/light dinner was 255 calories.

i’ll make a separate post about the reception because my pictures got separated for some reason. later on that night after the movie i had a makeshift quesadilla in one of the pita pockets with laughing cow and kraft free cheddar. i dipped it in a little of mom’s blended salsa. 164 calorie midnight snack.

oh, and the last of my fresh blueberries because i didn’t want them to go bad over the weekend while i was gone. i guess i could have frozen them… oh well, they were tasty!

ok, that completes friday except for the festivities. it’ll be out of chronological order when i finally get around to posting it but i promise i will!

just keep swimming May 29, 2008

before i get to the swimming i must confess that i had mint medley tea before i went to bed last night

it soothed my tummy that wasn’t very happy with me for some reason, maybe it was the wine i had with dinner…
another confession to make about yesterday (just for accountability), i had a bite of the zucchini walnut muffin i got for mom from starbucks when i had the coffee. it looked really good so i had to steal a morsel from the top, just to make sure. it was. but i was already digesting it before i remembered to take a picture, oops.
ok, NOW on to today. this morning i woke up bright and early to go swim laps at the aquatic center near where i live. i thoroughly enjoyed it! i woke up without too much trouble and seemed adequately prepared (i have a lock i was able to use to lock up my purse, a big towel, a sporty swimsuit and havaianas) except no goggles. i really really need some if i am going to keep swimming because my eyeballs still hurt and it feels like i am looking at everything through frosted glass. other than that, i did pretty well. i managed to swim 30 freestyle laps in 25 minutes for 246 calories burned before i even started my day! for the record, i tried to swim a few butterfly and breaststroke laps but i couldn’t even get across one length of the pool doing the butterfly :/
i am really rusty but with practice and awareness of my technique it should get easier as the summer wears on. i’m going to have to switch pools so i can continue making it a morning swim but luckily there is another one close by i can easily transfer to. i’m excited to throw something else into my fitness mix because it’s already waking up my muscles! my arms especially are talking to me right now, i love it!
APPLE WALNUT OATS
when i got home from the pool i had lots of time so i made oats-on-the-stove. today, because i didn’t have any ripe bananas to throw in, i used double milk (1c.) with my usual 1/2c. of oats to make them creamier. first i chopped up a green apple and tossed it with cinnamon and splenda. after “baking” the bite-sized pieces for a minute in the microwave, i added them to the oats just as they were starting to thicken on the stove. i toasted 1oz. of walnuts (about 2tbsp.) for a minute in the microwave as usual and topped the bowl with them. the result was a lot like oat-y apple pie, yum!

the bowl of oatmeal, including all the fixings, was 345 calories of deliciousness. if i am ever craving apple pie i will at least consider having this instead
i mean, look at that appley goodness:

it was pretty filling but i ate it really early so by the time i was showered and dressed and ready for work, i had a teeny pang of hunger. so i had a mini-smoothie, same as yesterdays but with half the ingredients. i guess i can’t start my day officially until i have some banana in me.

i had it to go
that added 103 calories to breakfast for a grand total of 448.

ruby tuesday May 28, 2008

i never actually ate there yesterday, but it was a gem of a day the way i did eat. i started out with a lovely breakfast of cream of wheat made with 2/3c. of nonfat milk. i topped it with a 1/2c. of blueberries and 1oz. of toasted walnuts. i didn’t have time to make oats on the stove so the cream of wheat was the instant kind. i was really pleased with the result.

it filled me up on minimal calories (290 total) so i was happy.
four hours later i had my hummus, wasa, avocado concoction with two pluots. i rather enjoy this one and i have lots of avocado and hummus so it will definitely be making another comeback.

i chopped the wasa into cracker slices and covered the avocado with the hummus and dug into it like that. lunch was a total of 342 calories.
four hours and lots of water later, i had a snack of chopped apples with almond butter. this is a new fav.

i guess i wasn’t eating enough calories though, because i was beginning to feel lightheaded. i couldn’t be having that with my workout coming up. so i supplemented with an extra protein snack before i hit the gym.

i had three of these roll-ups and it powered me through a very tough boot-camp workout. the snack totaled 271 calories and i burned 363 calories strength training.
i got to this boot-camp class every tuesday evening for an hour. we do 40 minutes of strength/circuit training with spurts of cardio in between, usually. yesterday it was supersets of biceps, triceps, chest, back, squats, lunges, and planks. then we stretch for 20. i can totally feel it today. i also did 30 minutes of light spinning before class. that was an additional 310 calories burned.
after all of that, i realized i hadn’t gotten nearly enough protein for the day. i came up with a protein rich dinner for not many calories. i call it my turkey-spinach-egg white scramble with cheese.

it was 3 scrambled egg whites with 4oz. of grilled turkey, a handful of organic baby spinach and a 1/4c. of fat-free shredded cheddar. i also had the last two pluots before they went bad, they were very ripe and juicy.
here’s a closeup of the yummy goodness that was my inventive scramble.

this was so light calorically (word?) that i treated myself to a glass of the pomegranate wine i bought at whole foods this weekend and a dark chocolate square.

even with the treat, dinner was only 363 calories.
so you see why i felt pretty good about yesterday, i managed to keep my calories low without going hungry and even saving room for that piece of dark chocolate

a quick snack May 24, 2008

around 5pm i got hungry again, even after my masterfully planned lunch, so i had a sliced apple with almond butter! i just got it at whole foods from their neat little machine. so i know exactly what’s in my almond butter… almonds. and nothing else
here they are freshly sliced

and with the almond butter, before i ate them

and it was yummy but it didn’t hold me over very long, i got back to my parents house and had some more freshly sliced fruit, honeydew! it was unbelievably juicy and completely worth the extra 61 calories.

i didn’t eat everything shown here, it just looked nicer in the gladware than speared on my fork halfway to my mouth before i even remembered to take a photo.
grand total for late afternoon snack was 344 calories. and then the real trouble started :/

apples & pb May 23, 2008

i held off all four hours i’m supposed to wait between meals. the only way i make it without mindless snacking is by guzzling water. i suppose i could eat every three hours but the timing works out much better this way… there’s a reason, i’m just not sure what it is yet.

so, without further adieu, my lunch:

it’s a medium granny smith apple (cut into perfect pieces with an apple slicer) with 2 tablespoons of laura scudder’s peanut butter spread on 2 pieces of eating right reduced sodium bread for a grand total of 470 calories. yikes, thats a few more calories than i was originally willing to spend on this meal. i’ll have to modify it for next time…

i ate each piece individually instead of stacked like a sandwich so i had extra apple slices to polish it off with.

i feel like it should be noted that i’ve never been a huge fan of peanut butter until recently. growing up, i never liked pb&j. i know, scandalous! but something about those two flavors together still doesn’t sit well with me. anyhoo, with all the reading i’ve been doing it has come to my attention that peanut butter is like one of the super diet foods out there. i bought a jar and now i can even enjoy the taste of it, without any kind of fruit preserve, of course. i still think i’ll enjoy almond and cashew butter much more. i’ll eat those without provocation any day and i only eat peanuts on planes