Today flew by!

I started my day with exercise....today it was mowing the lawn. I like to mow because I feel accomplished and I know I am exercising. Today I walked faster than usual and actually got done in about an hour. So now the lawn looks good and I was able to exercise also.

Today I was allowed 1800 cals and I didn't eat that much. I had a glass of OJ and a couple of bites of my daughter's french toast for breakfast(total 200). For lunch I had an individual frozen pepperoni pizza(410). I like making a frozen meal every now and then. They are higher in sodium than fresh food so we try to stay away from them here for the daily lunches. While I was cooking all day I got hungry so I had some tortilla chips and cheddar cheese(300), not a lot, but enough to keep me satisfied. For dinner, it was leftover night because Steve is at the football game. I had a piece of the chicken I made earlier in the week with 2 small stuffed cubanelle peppers(rice and Parmesan cheese) for a total of 600. I think that may be a bit high because it was a small piece of chicken, but I always estimate high to be safe.

Since it is the weekend, the kids got to have a special dessert. I decided to have an ice cream sandwich along with them(150). It really cured my sweet tooth. I am still a bit hungry so I may have a piece of fruit later for 40 calories. Even if I do, that still leaves me with only 1650 cals eaten today. That is good to know because I am allotting a 1600 day tomorrow and I wasn't sure if I could do it. I know I can now because it is only 50 less than today. I think I may make some jello tomorrow for snacking this week since it is only 10 calories if I make the sugar free kind. What I might do is mix a box of sugar free with a box of regular so that I can reduce the calories but not eat as much artificial sweetener. We will see how tomorrow goes though. I was supposed to make 4 recipes today and I only made 2. I made 3 meals worth of turkey croquettes and that was a ton of work. I left one package out for this week and froze 2 other packages for future meals. I blanched and froze some squash and prepped some of the items for the meatballs I want to make tomorrow. I also want to make home made chicken nuggets since they are probably healthier and cheaper. If the kids like them I will make them more often.

So the day really went by quickly with all of the cooking, cleaning, and playing with the kids. I sat down with the kids before I started cooking and we painted our pumpkins. That was really fun!! And in between various kitchen tasks I managed to get a load of laundry done. I am tired and my feet are tired from standing all day. I think I will sleep well tonight!

Here's to a good week for everyone!

This week's goals....

So I have decided to reduce my caloric intake this week to see if I can do it. I am allowed a total of 13776 calories. For extreme weight loss I am supposed to eat no more than 1968 calories a day--that is with exercise 3 times a week and I hope to exercise more than that with at least 4 times, maybe 5 depending on the foot. I saw that it is supposed to rain again this week a few days so I am just going to try to work through the pain and see what happens.

Monday: 1600
Tuesday: 1725
Wednesday: 1825
Thursday: 1700
Friday: 1600
Saturday: 2700
Sunday: 1700

I know that I have not kept the calories as low as this week, but I really think I would see more results if I did that. I am also going to try to eat a snack only between lunch and dinner---not after breakfast. I will try to drink a cup of tea(decaf) instead. I enjoy tea and it is filling. The only problem with that is it is more liquid and I already go to the bathroom enough. We'll see.

I am also going to try on some winter clothes this week. I want to try to see what I need for the winter. I probably won't need anything because I have clothes that didn't fit last year. It will be fun to try clothes on that might fit better now though.

Stress free Saturday

Today was a very relaxing day. I had to bring Adam to karate this morning, so I didn't get to exercise until late morning. I enjoyed my 30 minute walk. I am seriously going to look into getting a stationary bicycle though because I was told that would be less stress on my foot injury. I am going to research various bikes and them make a decision. I think they are reasonably priced.

Since I had allowed for 2500 cals today I splurged a bit. I had oatmeal for my early breakfast(150) and half a brownie(75) around 10:30. For lunch I had fries with a bit of ketchup and a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato and mayo(990). For dinner, I went out with Becky and had a side salad with garlic chicken primavera. The menu at TGIF's said that this recipe was about 500 calories. I can't see how it was, so I am estimating that it was about 650.(I entered the various ingredients separately and estimated how much they gave me of each. I can't imagine that they would lie 150 calories worth, but I want to overestimate so I don't over eat.) The salad was about 185 with the dressing. After dinner, Becky and I sent shopping to get paints for pumpkins and she got to choose a dessert. We try not to let the kids have dessert right after dinner because we find that they will ask for food again later. So it was about 30 minutes later and she decided she wanted gummy worms. Since it was a splurge day for me, I ate them with her. They counted for 240 of my day.

So overall I consumed 2290 calories today. I was allowed 2500 so that was a great amount. I have reduced my allowed amount for tomorrow to 1800 instead of 1850 because I think I ate a lot today. I have a lot of cooking to do tomorrow for the week so I think I will be rather distracted. I usually drink a lot of water when I cook because of the heat of the oven. So tomorrow should be nice weather and not too hot.

I am also going to weigh in tomorrow and see how the scale treats me. I still feel slightly bloated from salt intake this week, but we will see how it goes after I exercise.

Frantic Friday

So instead of exercising in the morning, I didn't get to exercise until about 1PM. I walked even though the rain affected my foot. I just knew that I wanted to walk and pushed through the pain. I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast so I just had a glass of OJ(100). I had anti pasta salad and chips for lunch(700). For dinner I had ham, stuffing and some more pasta salad(800).

It didn't seem like I would stay under my allotted amount, but I did. I drank 9 glasses of water today and I will probably drink a couple more before the night is over. I seem pretty full right now, but if I do eat something it will probably be a cup of hot chocolate made with boiling water--only 80 cals.

I didn't eat a fruit of veggie today so I will have to do better with that tomorrow. But that is a good part of this program, I stayed under my calories for the day even though it was not particularly healthy.

A strange day after all

I woke up early today and walked on the treadmill successfully for 20 minutes quickly and 5 minutes at a moderate pace. So today was my 2000 day which is practically a splurge day. I was supposed to eat a nice salad for lunch and I did. However, the Greek salad I ordered, which had roasted red peppers, feta cheese, tomato, black olives and spring mix lettuce and a balsamic vinaigrette, was only total of 315 calories. Since I knew that I was going to have so few calories at lunch I treated myself to a bagel with veggie cream cheese for breakfast(670). For dessert at lunch we had brownies(270). For dinner, I made pierogies, veggie egg rolls, and I had 2 chicken wings for a total of 640. So even though I was supposed to use a lot of my calories at lunch, I wound up having them at breakfast and dinner. I have a bit of a stomach ache now so I might not have any more food, but if I do I will stay within the 205 calories that I have left--I will probably have a piece of cheese(110) if I do have a snack. So without the snack it will be 1795 and with the snack it will be 1905 total for the day.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a 1750 day but I am changing that to a 1700 day. I think that would be better since I am supposed to have a splurge day on Saturday with 2700 cals. I might decrease Sunday also since I have had such a problem with the salt retention. I figure it can't hurt to have a few less calories and drink a bit more water. Today I drank about 11 glasses of water and had 12 oz of diet soda with caffeine. So really 1.5 cups of my water went to counteracting the soda. Overall I am happy with the way things went today.

Sticking with it

I had a successful day today and ate pretty healthy. I was allowed 1750 cals and I have had nearly that by now(7:50pm). I have eaten 1588 cals today and I think that may be it. I am very full today. I may treat myself to a diet soda, but that has no calories just caffeine. I haven't had soda in about a week so I have been thinking about it today.

I had oatmeal and frozen coffee for breakfast(300). Lunch was peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread with a brownie(575). For snack I had goldfish(140). For dinner I made a new recipe with the cubanelle peppers that I was given from a friend's garden. It is a Rachael Ray recipe....you can get it from this link http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_29019,00.html

I also made the rice at the bottom of the recipe and placed it in the cubanelle peppers as the veggie side dish. It was really yummy and not that high in calories.

I don't feel as bloated in my fingers today and my rings are looser. I didn't get to exercise this morning but I am going to wake up tomorrow as planned and do it. I have 2000 calories to play with tomorrow. We are ordering lunch out tomorrow, but I am going to order a salad because of all the salt I have had this week. I don't need salt from the cold cuts. I am going to enjoy that and then have a dessert since I will have a good main part of the meal.

Nothing exciting

So I stayed on track with my calories today. I was allowed 1850 today and I did stay under that amount. I had oatmeal for breakfast(130). I had a snack of candy(200) in the morning because I was in a meeting and it was too tempting. At lunch I had leftover meatloaf with a bit of ketchup and 19 mini pretzels for a total of 355. I also had half of an apple but it was large so I think it counts as a regular size apple(111). I had a cup of popcorn(30) for snack when the kids came home. For dinner we had leftover smoked pork(280), half a cup of peas(60) and a very small baked potato with a tablespoon of sour cream(150). I had a brownie(112) for dessert and I am sure that I will have another brownie for 112 more calories in a little while. I have such a sweet tooth today. My total for the day will be 1529. That is excellent and I am not hungry at all.

I have reduced my calorie allotment by 50 tomorrow so I can try to get rid of some of this bloating from the weekend. I haven't weighed myself, but I can feel it in my fingers. I drank about 10 glasses of water today and I will probably drink 2 more before 9pm. I think this really helps.

Tomorrow is a long day at work so I have a tendency to be hungry on those days---here's hoping that I can do as well tomorrow as I did today. I exercised outside today. I might wake up early and exercise again tomorrow. I so enjoy it, but what I don't enjoy is the 5:30 wake up call. I much prefer 6:15 but if I want to exercise I must do it before work. At least I know it give me energy. My foot is feeling better this evening so hopefully that will continue.