week of food: last day

Sorry this post is so late! I was almost perfect on my mission to capture my week of food…and then I screwed it up at the very last day. My camera battery was drained so I had to charge it, and then forgot about until today- Tuesday. Such is life. One thing is sure, I could never be like some of those other bloggers who photograph every single meal.

I started off the day with a banana and normal coffee

Then for “lunch” I had two servings of the kale butternut pasta that I made the night before:

And thus endeth my pictures. Yep in the last day I dropped the ball hard. In more ways than just no pictures. Here is the rundown  of the things I had for the rest of “night” (aka up until 7am):

• 3 twice baked potatoes with butter, daiya, and a splash of milk. Only a tbsp of butter between the three, they were tiny potatoes (maybe at most 2 inches long) not normal baking potato sized
• 1/2 a bottle of beer
• 2 tortillas with daiya and avocado
• Peanut butter sandwich
• 1/2 a carton of So Delicious cookies and creme ice cream

I haven’t binged like that since first committing to this lifestyle at the beginning of the year. I was over 1,000 calories. Not even remotely good, at all. No exercise, just a horrible rut. I’ve been taking it pretty hard, and honestly it’s been hard staying on track the past two nights. Am I were I was 40+ pounds ago? Absolutely not. Before it would have been double that, and not a single of it weighed/portioned out. Even in these harder times I’m still portioning out 1/4 cup of daiya, or a tbsp of peanut butter. It’s still doesn’t help mentally though, but I can only take things day by day. I moved out of the 300’s. I’m not going back. Totals for the day: 2,656 calories, 1.036 calories over losing weight calories.

week of food: saturday

I spent most of the day watching a Bones marathon. I had recorded most of the season on my DVR and have yet to watch any of it, it was nice to not be running around doing other errands during the rainy day.

I started the day off with a normal cup of coffee, and a banana

I then used up the last of an avocado and put it on bread with dulse, along with Polar seltzer water. I really like the flavors on this seltzer water, but I can only find it at Earth Fare which is bit of a trek for me

I made a version of this recipe from EcoVeganGal for a kale butternut squash pasta. I’ve had it before, but did some things differently, and it was just as awesome. If you like butternut squash, you’ll love this. I’m probably going to put my version of the recipe up so you can see what I did differently. Both ways are fantastic. I had two servings

Later in the night (guess who went to bed at 7 am) I had what I’m calling as dinner. It was simple, 2 tortillas filled with a mixture of left over black beans, 1/2 an ounce of daiya, and about a tbsp of sour cream. One tortilla I put a romaine leaf on it.

I also worked out today! I did 40 minutes of the Wii Fit Plus that I found. I love that version so much more! I had been using the older version and I KNEW I was missing some of my favorite routines and I couldn’t for the life of me remember why. As soon as I turned this version on I realized why, they are all on that one! Wii Fit is a little annoying because you really have to plan out things. If you are in a time crunch, it’s not the best. When I say I did 40 minutes, that was 40 minutes of workout times. The switching through menus, listening to explanations, or just waiting for games to start take a chunk, and I was at if for at least an hour. Still, it’s better than nothing and for the days that I don’t wake up early enough to do outside things, this is a plus. I don’t have a gym membership (I think I will when I return) so this will have to do. Totals for the day: 1696 calories (-226 exercise calories) 150 under losing weight calories (1846= 1620+226).

week of food: friday

Happy rainy Derby day! I don’t really celebrate during Derby, but the town sure does. When I was little (in Florida) we used to have Derby parties every year. Grannie would send us plates/napkins/cups for the party, and I remember always having the best time. Now, even living all of a mile away from Churchill Downs, I don’t really do anything. I think if I were to do something, nothing will compare to those parties when I was little. I also rarely have money around this time since I’ve always just gone off contract. Not that I could afford a ticket to watch from a box/seat, but even the infield with all it’s muddy-drunken-college-party-ness is still pretty steep. I’m also conflicted about it morally. But enough about Derby, on with the post!

The day started out early than most, but later still then I wanted to. I have been loving this popcorn that I have been making lately so I had that. I just airpopped 2 tbsps of kernals and added nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I sometimes switch it up and add more seasonings, but this is the standard. The nutritional yeast gives it a yummy cheesy taste (while adding some B12 and protein). I used cooking spray to lightly coat the popcorn to get the seasonings to stick. Depending on the oil (I never count things like cooking sprays, no matter how much I use. It hasn’t hurt my progress yet), it’s about 100 calories and super filling.

I got hungry a little bit later but wasn’t in the mood to make anything, so I had a repeat of the other day with a hummus tray. I used new crackers that I bought at Trader Joe’s, but even the spinach hummus didn’t help their taste so I only ended eating about half of what is shown.

I also had a banana (I like mine green)

And then I tried the kiwi lime flavor of Mama Chia, which I loved, while watching a marathon of Bones.

For dinner I had rice, beans and vegetables. Before I was vegan, I was really into mixing rice and beans with alfredo sauce. I kind of did a variation of that in this meal instead using the Tofutti sour cream. The veggies were two things that were starting to go bad, spinach and mushrooms, and I added a small onion to the mix. The rice is a quinoa blend. I had two spinach wraps with it. It was fantastic, and I really didn’t need the wraps. Calorie wise, I wish I hadn’t had it because it would have made the entire meal under 500 calories. I’m working on my quantities, but sometimes I’m still off. I think that’s why I’m doing well in calorie counting, though. I haven’t had the shock of drastically limiting my quantities and then crashing and gaining all the weight back. With counting, I just splurge on some things, and cut back on the others and then gradually reduce. It also lets me realize that being at my weight I have to eat more calories than someone else losing weight who is smaller, and that is ok.

I also had some tea (like normal) and some oatmeal. I was really munchie towards the end of the night. Instead of taking a picture of the bowl I took a picture of the packages.

I didn’t picture it, but I had a glass of dark chocolate almond milk.

I also didn’t picture it, and in being entirely honest with myself, last night was bad. I had insomnia again (the worst it’s been all this week) and I ended up splurging later in the night and having a peanut butter sandwich. It could have been worse, and had something not as nutritional, but the bread I have is pretty high in calorie so it ended up being a 400 calorie “midnight” (aka 5am) snack. I know that if I had been asleep it wouldn’t have happened, but there you go. So, instead of being of being just 4 calories over my losing weight goal, I was over 400. Totals: 2,029 calories.

I did find that I have Wii Fit Plus, I had thought I only owned the older version (I “inherited” the system from my parents who never used it) so that was one positive of last nights insomnia.

week of food: thursday

As I said in yesterday’s post, I didn’t get up until extremely late so the first meal of the day was sort of repeat of yesterday. I had coffee the same way, and some oatmeal. This time, it was plain oatmeal with a tbsp of craisins, and a tbsp of the pomegranate/almond mix.

It kept me full for a really long time, and then I had to go to Target and Trader Joe’s so I ate a peanut butter Clif bar before I left to tide me over so I wouldn’t be too hungry while out and get something I’ll regret monetarily and calorically, like Starbucks.

Dinner was quesadillas. I had 3 in total (one after the picture). The filling had black beans mixed with Tofutti sour cream and a pepper blend, some pepperjack Daiya, and avocado on top. I used these spinach tortillas that I found at Trader Joe’s, which were only 100 calories a piece. They were pretty good.

This is a really bad picture

I didn’t picture it, but before bed I had a gala apple.

Dinner was pretty heavy calorie wise (considering the other two meals barely broke 250) but most of that was because I used almost a full avocado. I love avocados. A lot. 🙂 I still don’t like not having my meals calories being so better spread out and even, but not getting up at a decent time is not helping. I keep tabs on it, just because when I start not seeing any change in the scale I know that is the first thing I should look to change. I also don’t really know if  it’s necessarily bad, or if it just seems bad because it’s not like normal people’s diets. Calories were at 1509, 111 below losing weight.

week of food: wedenesday

Ugh. I have been so horrible with my sleeping pattern lately, I absolutely can’t stand it. I’m getting nothing done that I want to, and have yet to go out and exercise. I normally have issues falling to sleep (on a good day it’ll take me about an hour) but lately it’s been hours which in turn leads it to be ridiculously late- like 4-6am- before I finally fall asleep. Then I wake up extremely late, and even though it’s 6-8 hours I feel crappy for the rest of the day. Today was the same way. I didn’t get up until 1:30. My day is completely shot. I wanted to go for a long walk this morning, and do some projects around the house to prepare for me leaving in about a week and a half, and it’s not going to happen like I want. I’m slowly turning into a ball of stress. Tonight I am going to bed early, and waking up early!

I started off the day yesterday with some Better Oats pomegranate oatmeal and a tablespoon of this slivered almond and dried pomegranate mix I have, with the same combo of coffee as yesterday. I used to not like oatmeal, but I liked how full it made me. I found out that I prefer it to be pretty minimal on the toppings, and this brand is super awesome. It’s got flax and other good stuff in it, super cheap, and the package is it’s own measuring cup.

I had to stop into work today and do one last thing so that I could say I was officially done with the season. On the way back I decided that I wanted Quills coffee. The iced soy mocha to be exact. It’s really the best in town. Whenever I don’t know calories, like for this coffee, I always estimate using another brand/restaurant that serves the same thing. For this coffee I just went with the Starbucks calorie count. It might be a little off in either direction, but I don’t obsess about it.

Snack/I guess lunch was a simple salad: 1/2 an avocado, romaine, and the Annie’s dressing. The avocado was starting to look at bit rough (and so is the lettuce) so I’m trying to go through it, but it definitely does not make a pretty picture.

Dinner was 1/2 a block of tofu, and roasted garlic/onion potatoes (I ended up having about 2 small potatoes worth in the end) with some ketchup.

I didn’t take a picture, but I had the same tea and chocolate combo as yesterday to end the day.

Calories were really low. I did almost nothing yesterday, so I just wasn’t hungry, which is a good sign. Before, I would snack out of boredom, now I’m beginning to really listen to my body and know what it wants. I should have ate more at any rate, but seeing as I did absolutely no exercise it shouldn’t hurt me too much. Totals: 1298 calories, 322 below losing weight calories.

week of food: tuesday

I’ve been consistently waking up later than I tend to, but not as late as expected when you account for the time I head to bed. At any rate, I absolutely hate it and have been trying desperatly to get back into a better sleep schedule. I’m more productive if I wake up early, I love being able to do stuff outside earlier, and I directly link the lack of exercise this week solely on that.

I started off the day with a cup of coffee: pumpkin spice keurig with a packet of Truvia and 3 tbsps of silk vanilla creamer and water. I also had a serving of mixed nuts that I made a HUGE batch for a couple of weeks ago. It’s probably the best thing in all the land. I portion it out ahead of time, because it’s one of those foods that if I’m not careful I can eat and eat and eat, but good to keep around because I never want to binge on it when portioning it out. Look for a “recipe” for it on the blog soon, because I want to remember it always.

I wasn’t hungry for a while so mid-afternoon snack/late lunch was a go-to lunch of mine. Tasty, and fast: spinach hummus, baby carrots, english cucumber, and leek crackers.

Dinner was a mishmash meal. I made 4 oz of pasta and added spinach, mushrooms, an apple sage Field Roast sausage, and some Tofutti sour cream to it. It was good, largely in part to the sausage, but it could have used more seasoning (especially when I was cooking the spinach). I used thyme, rosemary, onion powder, and garlic powder. Not my best dish, but certainly not the worst. It also had 47 grams of protein in the entire dish! I had two bowls of this.

Last meal of the day was 2 squares of Theo dark chocolate (I keep it in the freezer) and my new current favorite Yogi tea: Tahitian vanilla hazelnut (with a splash of almond milk and 3 tsps of sugar):

Although dinner ratios per every other meal was high (which tends to be the case for me, I know you are supposed to eat less at night but I’m hungrier at night than during the day) it was a pretty solid calorie day. Could’ve had more, but I didn’t work out (sans moving some furniture around) so I wasn’t too terribly worried being under for the day.  Total: 1511 calories, 109 calories below losing weight calories