wiaw. weigh-ins. updates. blah-dee-blah

Oh hey, poor forgotten blog.

Not that you really expected me to follow through with my posting plan. But I tried, didn’t I. And a post even days late still counts. Considering its my blog, and since I’m not getting paid to do anything specific, I can do as I like.

**********

So, without further ado my WIAW:

I started off the morning with a good old standby:

• Keurig coffee
• Packet of Truvia
• 1.5 ounces of Silk coffee creamer (vanilla). Yes, I do measure it out

For a snack during the day at work I had some decaf Republic of Tea vanilla almond tea with 2 packets of sugar. I convinced my boss when we needed to replace our old water fountain (water cooler?) that the upgrade with the cold AND hot would be really good. It is good, and I don’t have to wait for the microwave for hot water for tea

For lunch I had Lilly’s brand kalamata hummus with some Crunch Master multi-grain crackers. Both I bought because they were on sale at Rainbow Blossom, and both I actually liked. Not the best of either, but the combo was good and I had it for most of the week because I’m lazy with lunches. I also had a bottle of Hubert’s diet blackberry lemonade. It was really good, and had Stevia as the sweetener so bonus points for that (especially since I didn’t even realize it was diet when I grabbed it, which in hindsight is stupid because look at how big the “diet” is on the bottle).

I then kind of had a splurge. I was at Earth Fare, hungry, and wanted something so I got some of their vegan chicken salad and a mini loaf of bread. I also then picked up the Rice Dream mint chocolate pie. I didn’t end up eating most of the chicken salad/bread because it really wasn’t good, but I did eat the ice cream. I should have just gotten the ice cream, less calories and less money. If you want vegan chicken salad, go to Whole Foods, so much better.

Even with the splurge I was still doing pretty ok on calories and I made a really awesome meal of quinoa with onions, broccoli, mushrooms, and Beyond Meat chicken strips.

**********

I didn’t do a weigh-in this week. I know I gained and I just couldn’t face the scale. My portions and calories were out of control. I really have no excuse except letting my urges get the best of me. I’m trying my best to recover and turn it around. So far today I’ve been pretty awesome, and really re-learning and re-teaching my body to be ok with being hungry when I don’t need to eat, and not falling for every craving. It’s a battle, but I’ll get there. There was one glimmer of change for the better during the week when I went for a walk as soon as I got home from work. I threw the purse in the trunk and just took off. That was the moment I knew, that even though I wasn’t exactly there, there was hope left.

week of food: day 1

What better way to start off this project with a complete fail. I couldn’t find my camera until the very end of the night, so Monday’s foods are all from my cell phone. The point of this project is to show my food: it doesn’t have to be pretty, in the best light, or perfect. It just has to show the food so that I can visually see what I am eating, and assess what I need to change in terms of eating healthier. I think of it as more of a wakeup call to see the food visually, much like it was when I first just started recording it and counting calories.

I started off the day (if you reallly want to call it that-it was technically afternoon, thanks insomnia!) with quite possibly my favorite thing in the world right now: a slice of Whole Foods Early Bird Multi Seed Bread, 1/4 of an avocado mashed on top, with pepper and dulse (with garlic). I cut up a small tomato to go with it.

Doesn’t the color of the tomato look unnatural? Thanks, iPhone!

I also had some of this Reed’s kombucha. I hadn’t tried this brand before. Still has the same vinegar taste, but I think it has a stronger taste of the flavor than most others I have tried. It was good! I usually end up drinking one of these over the course of a couple of days because of how expensive they are.

Next “meal” of the day was some kale chips. This is currently my favorite brand because they are cheaper than most, and I really like the ranch flavor. I had almost a serving but they were a little stale so I didn’t finish it up:

I was on an eating weird things at weird time trend and so I made my go to snack: 1 head of romaine, 1/4 avocado, 1/4 English cucumber, 1 tbsp Annie’s goddess dressing:

There was no way to make this look appetizing, but it was really good. Trust me

I also had another slice of the bread, with a tbsp of peanut butter on it with a really bad no good Diet Dr Cherry Pepper:

Then, for dinner I ended up being lazy and made some baked potatoes with Tofutti sour cream, Earth Balance, Daiya pepperjack, and some chives. Not healthy, but delicious (they were smaller, that is a dessert plate):

The last thing I had for the night I didn’t get a picture of. I’ve been making a strawberry shortcake off of a recipe on the back of a Bisquick box (I cut the recipe in half to make 2 biscuits). While I do make it pretty low in calorie (using almond milk and truvia, it comes to a little over 300 calories) it’s still not the best and it’s definitely been a food I shouldn’t keep around the house, as it’s been my go to snack/dessert for a couple of days, which tends to be a red flag. Not a good day by any means, in terms of healthy options that are diverse, but I was fairly good on calories. I was at 1776 calories, which is 156 calories over my day. Not too concerned since I counted full calories for the serving of kale chips (which I didn’t have) and the Reeds Kombucha (I probably had 1/5 of the bottle) so I had a little wiggle room. I am still well below maintain weight calories.

Trader Joe’s! Trader Joe’s!

 

Hi!

So normally I would do a video on this, but seeing as I haven’t posted in a while and I do not have the want to fuss with any sort of editing or trying to get my computer to decide it likes me enough to record, I figured that writing a post on it would be the best thing.

Today was the grand opening of Trader Joe’s here in Louisville. As someone who was part of the hundreds who contacted Trader Joe’s store suggestions page, and made many a voyage to Trader Joe’s not within my immediate vicinity this is a dream come true. I knew it would be crowded, and chances are not much left on the shelves but when I got there I found myself pleasently surprise that A) I found a parking spot and B) food was still on the shelves. As an added bonus, there were even shopping baskets!

I had a half day at work today to make up for the fact we’d be going in tomorrow night to strike Tom Sawyer. I know that this played a pivital role in the reason I was able to find that parking spot and food, but luck was on my side today and I wasn’t angry about that. I didn’t want to buy a lot, honestly I just wanted a few things and just to check it out. Get the lay of the land, and see how big it was. It was crowded, no doubt about that, but I was able to make it through and get some things that I wanted.

I decided early on that I wanted at the very least a package of beefless strips. From there I decided that I should actually find some whole meals so I can get some things, not spend all my money on trail mixes (which I got none of, thank you very much). I ended up getting supplies for fajitas/quesadillas. I’ve been in a hotdog mood, and with TJ brand vegetarian packaged foods being a good dollar less than name brand, I figured I would try it out. Especially since I could buy frozen things without fearing that I didn’t pack a cooler enough with ice and the two hour car trip would make it defrost.

I got:

• 3 Cheese Blend
• Beefless Strips (obviously AFTER I opened them)
• Chickenless Strips
• Chile and Garlic Tortillas
• Sour Cream
• Veggie Corn Dogs
• Guacamole Hummus (Not pictured)
• Dried Mango Slices (Not pictured)
• Fire Roasted Pepper Mix (Not pictured)

Am I going to shop at TJ a lot now? No. Trader Joe’s is, and has always been, a treat store. I don’t go there for real whole foods, I go their for packaged items. That being said, the occasional “I’m out of a frozen veggie product run” will always show up, along with the fact that their dried fruit and nuts section by far surpasses anyone in town, means that I will go every now and then. Especially now that it’s just opened up.

I also bought some tofu, which I plan on making a video about. When I first tried to prepare tofu packed in water, I didn’t know what I was doing. I ended with a soggy mess. I figured someone out there will benefit from a video tutorial on how to press and prepare tofu for the first time. Also, I wanted to try it out!

Any TJ suggestions now that I can get them? I’m open to try anything, especially if it’s frozen!