Day 8 - Progress Report Wednesday!

Today is...SARCASTIC WEDNESDAY!

oh wait... I mean... PROGRESS WEDNESDAY!!

Since this journey started on June 1st which happened to be a Wednesday, I will be sharing a weekly progress report and at the end of the month a total progress report for the month!
So this week I lost....drumroll please:

7 POUNDS!  

Woohoo!!

This is probably going to be the most I lose in a week since I just started and you know, weight loss slows down and ultimately you hit a 'set point' that's REALLY tough to pass and stay past, but I'm going to enjoy this because I ate so many darn plants for it!!  My goal is to lose 2 pounds a week not 7 anyways so that's still the goal.  Thank you to those of you that are reading this little blog of mine.  It really encourages me to keep this going.  I love you so very much for your support, you know who you are!!!

BREAKFAST - 315 Calories

Today I awoke with the WORST cramps I have ever had in my life.  I don't know if the diet had any kind of affect on the intensity of my cramps but almighty spaghetti monster were they bad.  I woke up way late for work and had to call them to let them know that I was currently curled up into a ball and wouldn't make it in til the afternoon.  So since I was hungry AND in pain, I decided to eat some Raisin Bran Crunch with Vanilla Almond Milk (Unsweetened).  Then around noon I was nice and drugged up so I made a quick lunch to take with me.

LUNCH - 201 Calories

For lunch I made another protein style sandwich exactly like the one I made a few days ago.  It was perfect for today, though I did eat the rest of the pretzels in order to get rid of them & cure my hunger.

DINNER - 274 Calories

For dinner I made Pan Seared Tilapia with Steamed Baby Bella Mushrooms, Asparagus,  Brocollette and Avocado.  It was really tasty.  I seasoned it with Fresh Cracked Black Pepper and the Onions & Chive flavored Salt that I picked up from the Farmer's Market.  

When you are done eating this meal, it takes about 15 minutes to feel full.  However, during this 'time' I am hungrier than normal so I moved on to dessert...

YEP.  I DID THAT.  But in my defense, I had enough calories left over in my budget for it (although I DID go over my sugar goal for the day).  I think my body is burning calories much faster right now anyways.  One of the worst tortures ever right now are all the birthday club freebie emails I am getting!! Free offers for things like Ice Cream, Shakes, Appetizers, Entrees and so on.  I WANT TO USE THEM ALL BUT I CAN'T!! I CAN'T!! *sobs*

Speaking of birthdays, today is my brother's birthday!!!!! So I will end this with wishing my brother David Vera a VERY happy birthday today.  I am sure his lovely wife made it very special and I am looking forward to sharing my birthday on Sunday with him!!  His awesome wife is throwing a Mario Kart themed shin dig and I know it is going to be so much fun!! I can't wait! :)  Especially for the cheat meals I will inevitably have due to my lack of will power.  Anyway, let's say one more Happy Birthday to my awesome little brother!

Day 7 - My coworker vaccumed me today at work. That's special.

I just want to start todays entry by assuring you that all of these crazy shenanigans that I tell you happen to me are true and are not made up.  I think it is important to know that.

So today I wanted to replace the staples in our Ricoh Copier/Printer/Fax.  I opened where I thought the staples were...and saw that there was a bit of toner on the plastic piece so I blew a big gust of air at it to clean it and POOF!  Magenta, Cyan and Yellow all over me.  It looked like a unicorn farted on me.  My poor coworker was on her way out for the day and had to stop and drop everything to literally vacuum me.  Skirt. Blouse. Skin. Everything therein.  See for yourself:

SIGH....

Also, I voted today!!!! And it was my first time!!  I was so excited to finally have a say in where my money goes and who gets to take it!  I was also happy to have a say in local candidates for judges and mayors... It was just awesome to have a voice.  Even if it isn't heard.  I tried.  I did my part. :)

So let's get to it.

BREAKFAST - 340 Calories

You are probably tired of reading this.  I had the same ol' same ol' McD's Egg White & Turkey Sausage Breakfast Bowl with a tall iced coffee sweetened and with extra soy.  They got my order right today, and thank goodness because as my app warned me, PMS season is here and I want to eat everything.  So I NEEDED some more calories up in this diet beyotch.  

LUNCH - 374 Calories

Lunch could not have come soon enough.  It even came early since my coworker left for the day at 1pm.  I was able to go at 12pm.  I went straight to Von's to pick up more veggies.  I am afraid to run out and end up eating whatever is in my cupboards.  Chances are, cupboard food is no good.  So I picked up that salad I had last week, the Arugala one with Goat cheese.  There was only one left!  And I added avocado again because...it tastes good.

I was still hungry (surprise surprise) so I ate 14 pretzel thins.  Then I realized I was not supposed to eat wheat... but I have been eating it this whole time with these darn pretzels!!??  See, this is part of the journey, getting out of the intentional carelessness when it comes to food.  There is nothing wrong with eating these pretzels, but how did I forget that they were a bread?? lol... Sigh... So I moved on to dried apples instead.  These snacks accounted for 155 calories of my 1,360 budget.

DINNER - 167 Calories

I know, I just saw this and also said, WHAT THE HELL?  167 Calories?? Was it lettuce??

NOPE.  It was a ton of veggies:

I chopped the tips and about 3" of the stems from 12 asparagus, I chopped the top of about 8 broccolette and I diced 2 yellow squash, threw in some chive blossoms (which I read contain vitamin C, iron and sulfur, and have traditionally been used to help support healthy blood pressure levels...cool!) I used 1tbsp of Black Bean Sauce that I purchased from 99 Ranch.  While it provided flavor, I honestly think my fancy salts and pepper would have been better.  I tossed out the remainder of the sauce package.  I did buy a huge package of ground turkey so I will be getting more creative with that for the next couple of days.  And I definitely want to make Ka Prao again cause that was damn good.

Today I am having REALLY bad cravings for chocolate.  I know people joke about women wanting chocolate around that time, but guys... you don't understand what I would do for a Hershey's bar right now.  I would do jail time next week for ONE BAR if it had no calorie side effects.  I've already committed this much time to this so I might as well suffer more.  Right?...right?....Guys?

Day 6 - 66

Hello my friends!

It's another work week here and I did my usual run to Starbucks and McDonald's for breakast.  If you are wondering why I go through the trouble of going to both, you should know that it isn't much trouble.  As you can see, they are directly across from each other,  4 minutes away from my office:

BREAKFAST - 340 370 Calories

Starbucks didn't have their caffiene yet as they gave me a grande when I ordered a tall.  I was a little disappointed because I knew this meant 30 extra calories for me.  Now I know what you are probably thinking, "But Caresse, you do not have to drink the whole thing.  Why don't you drink the same amount as a tall?"  BECAUSE IT IS WASTEFUL and I have no willpower.  I had the Turkey and Egg White Breakfast bowl again and it was delicious as always.

LUNCH - 204 Calories

For lunch, I made a sandwich...protein style.  So I layed out an outer leaf of lettuce and put in Delifresh Cracked Black Pepper Turkey Breast (56g), 1/2tbsp of Best Foods Light Mayo with Olive Oil, 2 thin slices of a hot house tomato and half of an avocado.  I sprinkled a little salt and pepper on it and presto!  A delicious and quick low calorie lunch.  I had this with Jasmine Blueberry Iced Tea.  I am one of those weirdo people lucky enough to like unsweetened tea.  Because it was so low in calories I had 14 Rold Gold Original Pretzel Thins.  Now, I waited to log lunch til I only had about 5 minutes to get back to work and that's when I realized the pretzels brought my total calories for the day to 666 calories. GASP! OH NO!

  So naturally, I ran to the cupboard and grabbed 4 Mexican Hot Chocolate Almonds and ate them.  PHEW... 688 calories...  CRISIS AVERTED.

DINNER - 220 Calories

It has been five days since I started this journey out of junk food nation (heaven) and into low calorie hell but I will give it this, I come home feeling ok.  Now 'ok' is kind of a big deal at this point because when I was eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, come the time I was getting home from work I was ravenous for food.  I was mean to my sweetheart and that is just sad.  It was a feed me or feel the wrath of a hungry and angry scorned woman situation.  But today I got home and took a shower.  Perused pinterest recipes..and ultimately gave up because Pinterest couldn't help me when it came to what was in my fridge.  I finally just went in there and pulled a few things out that I thought would go together which is how I came up with this beautiful dish below.  

I don't know what to call it... Spring Vegetable Medley?  It is 2 leaves of Swiss Chard, 5oz of Baby Bella Mushrooms, 1 Cup of Yellow squash (all chopped), 5 Chive Blossoms and 1/2 cup of Bertolli Italian Sausage, Garlic & Romano Tomato Sauce.  I sauteed 1 minced clove of garlic in water and then threw in the chopped veggies, added a little more water to keep them from burning and shriveling, tossed in the chive flowers and once the veggies were cooked I poured over the tomato sauce.  When the sauce was warm I plated it in a bowl and sprinkled a dash of parmesan and topped it with 2 fresh chive blossoms.  It was DELICIOUS.  And I cannot believe it is only 220 calories.  That is insane.  

If you are wondering why I am eating flowers now, let me correct you, these are imposter flowers.  They taste like straight up onion.  My breath still stinks of onion as I type this.  In fact this would be great to eat before you go out with someone you would like to offend with your breath.  I picked these chive blossoms up at the Farmer's Market on Sunday, so I was excited to finally cook with them.  The reason I gave up on Pinterest was due to the lack of pin diversity for Chive Blossoms.  I just saw a bunch of fried crap recipes.  So, if you have a recipe for these that would fit my current journey, you tell me about it.

I might do a few teeny strawberries and almonds for dessert...we shall see.  I still have 427 calories left out of my 1360 calorie budget so I probably should.  I was thinking of going somewhere to walk but then I remembered that I am this type of person:

So I will stay here, lift my 3 pound weights and play some games before I go to bed.  I bought those new sheets so I am looking forward to cuddling up to my pillows in them.  And then thrashing.  That is how I get my exercise.  We all have our thing.  Here is this little guys thing:

Work for it baby...work for it.  We'll get it.

Til tomorrow! <3

June 1st, 2016 - The ONE YEAR challenge.

Well, I haven't updated this blog in quite some time... 

Not that anyone noticed.  

But, I have really good news which is what brought me back here!  I have decided to pay myself $100 a month in order to get a ticket on the Disney Cruise to Alaska with my family and friends next year!  So I have one year to lose some weight so that I can gain it all back in 7 days next year! lol...

So I figured I would share the journey so that I am held accountable.  If I stop updating, that means I am probably stuffing my face with horrifyingly delicious food.  But, YOU MUST NOT LET ME!  I love to cook and I love to share the end results.  So that is what I am going to do.  

I have an app that I use called MyFitnessPal and I log the foods I eat every day.  If you want to add me and join this challenge for the heck of it you are more than welcomed to.  My username is 'caressev'.  My goal is to lose 2 lbs a week (although I may lower that to 1.5 lbs a week because I love food too much.)  So I started today and this is how it went.

BREAKFAST - 370 Calories

Ok, don't get too impressed.  

This is the low calorie Turkey Sausage & Egg Whites Breakfast Bowl from McDonald's.  It was only 250 calories and honestly, it tasted pretty great.  I had this along with a Grande Iced Coffee, sweetened with extra soy milk.  This brought my breakfast to the grand total of 370 calories.  Yay!

LUNCH - 374 Calories

 This delicious salad is from VONS people.  I added half an avocado, but let me tell you that this salad is only 260 calories and is SO YUMMY!  The avocado added another 114 calories but it was well worth it.  I had a snack (Rold Gold Pretzel Thins) between dinner, and that was another 120 calories.

DINNER - 445 Calories

So for dinner, I was worried.  I only had a few calories left in my budget and I was HUNGRY.  So I steamed 5 spears of asparagus and 6 baby bella mushrooms and sprinkled a little salt and pepper over them and then I pan seared Salmon with Curry spice, salt and cumin.  I kept adding 1/4 cup of water to keep the salmon from sticking/burning.  It came out really great!

So total today I have had 1309 of my 1400 calorie budget.  I am a little hungry, but I noticed that I get hungry when I am watching tv (mildly bored) and I've learned that chewing on mint gum and drinking water helps me not want to eat anything else.  So... today went pretty well.  I guess tomorrow morning you will find out if I have to edit this entry because I lost my willpower.  It is a constant struggle.  Food usually wins.  

Anyways, thank you for reading, if you did!  I hope to keep this updated this time.  But who knows... if I can LOOK A BUTTERFLY!! RUUNNNN!!!