New day, new opportunity to do the right thing

My Fitness Pal says: 1,535 calories total today Sitting here catching up on all the overnight news, with my coffee (using my own stock photo; the mug is different but the contents, the same.)  Sometimes I don't eat until 11AM or noon.  This might be a good idea today.  I find that eating early results in eating often (and eating a lot.)

See you later, barring cyber-mayhem, which I heard is in the cards for today (more than other average days recently.)

Didn't make it too long; added in the typical:

21 mini-wheats

Back for lunch:

That's green beans, plus a can of white albacore tuna packed in water (I emptied the can before taking a pic, but thought the can would be a good thing to show alongside the bowl of tuna) and a tablespoon+ of mayonnaise (let's call it 1.5 T) and a 100-calorie whole grain wheat round.

Couldn't hold off without eating something, and here is: 1 oz. of peanuts:



The birthday boy called in a belated birthday dinner and here is the result. Now, I remember that Allan said, "don't take a photo and then say 'but I only ate half of it.'" Well, I really did only eat half, saving the rest for tomorrow. It is orange chicken etc. with rice/noodles, bok choy or something, etc. I blanked out the uneaten half to make this appear factual. See tomorrow for the other half.



That's everything. Let me compute calories and get back to you with that. See the top of each post for the finalized daily calorie count.

Good morning - it's day 6

My Fitness Pal says: 1,958 calories today

Coffee, 1% milk with it, and exactly 21 mini-wheats.

All right, time for me to get yelled at. I mean, please don't. I already yelled at myself. Well... I ate my fruit:

And you may leave now. Goodnight! See everyone tomorrow.
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I didn't think that would work. So... that was after I ate something(s) and before I ate something(s) else. I did a double on one and a triple on the other.

What do I have to say for myself? Not much, really. Except... it was thin..? I didn't eat all the crust..? But really, I learned something new. I learned (through research) how many calories are in standard (that means not especially thick-crust or with greasy toppings) pizza per ounce. Who cares about "per slice" when slice sizes vary wildly? I spent about 1/2 hour researching (yeah, there are better things to do with one's time - like NOT eating, and like exercising some part of the body other than the eyeballs) and it's about 65-75 calories per ounce for thin, standard pizza without thick anything heaped on it.  And yes, I weighed a slice of pizza. That's about 900 calories worth of pizza for me. As for the brown-wrappered items, let's not even talk about the "S" word. Have you ever ripped into a bag of miniature ones and eaten them all day? Well, I didn't do that. Have you ever eaten a King Size Snickers? Well, hells bells, I used to eat those and think nothing of it!  They stopped making them, to protect people like me from themselves. (instead they put a "serving of 2" in one package and call it "2 to go."  HA!!!)  I didn't do that this time. But I guess a normal-sized one was not enough, and I knew where the others were, and... I guess I will not be joining the weight-loss club this week. Oh well... guess what I'm doing the rest of the day? Cleaning like the dickens and then exercising outdoors, to try to burn off a few carb calories.

OK, the cake is going to be gone today

My Fitness Pal says: 1,470 calories total today *note: I had previously miscalculated peanut butter as being 3T, not 1.5T, and just fixed this.  It was My Fitness Pal having "serving size of 2T" and I had written 1.5 servings when I meant .75 servings.  Anyone else ever have this problem?

Birthday boy is taking his cake with him, so that temptation will be removed.  Irony: This isn't even my favorite kind of cake - it's sort of like a twinkie, and that's not high on my list of favorite things to eat.  I did eat two gigantic strawberries in this deal, and I don't really like fruit or vegetables (despite all my sins lately, I am eating more of those, which is a silver lining) so there's that.  Breakfast of slackers:

Looks like cheesecake but it's not; its just a simple yellow cake with some whipped cream and strawberries on top.  It was about a 2"x2" piece, big enough to hold one giant strawberry. 265 calories according to My Fitness Pal, which seems high, but that's what someone computed or reported, so that's what I'm writing down. I estimate 1.5 cups of milk throughout the day for my four cups of coffee, total, so that's 165 calories, for a grand total of 430 calories to start the day.

Lunch: Yeah, hearty, I know. But a girl's gotta eat.

Similar to the one yesterday, except it's two slices of 15-grain bread, 1.5 tablespoons of grape jelly (not my favorite, but it's what we have), and 1.5 tablespoons of natural peanut butter. Do you eat the typical commercial brands of PB? We switched to Smuckers (just peanuts, I believe... maybe they threw some salt in there, I don't know) years ago and have never looked back. It took some getting used to, but now I would never eat the creamy, salty, sugary stuff. Instead I just throw jelly on it (yeah, that's funny, huh?) But seriously, no peanut butter tastes better than just pulverized peanuts.


Dinner and snack, as such:

NOT full-size; "snack size"

Chimichanga, 1/2 slice cheddar, green beans

Did I fail to mention that I just never use full-size plates?  Those plates you see are 8" across; that Chimi is 5" from end to end.

Last minute add: (day's total: 1,470 calories)

Uploading pics before I forget (edited to include the disaster)

My Fitness Pal says: 1,670 calories today

Got a little behind (well, I could make a joke by analyzing that comment) in posting pics, so let me do it before I forget:

Coffee - it's what's for breakfast

Yes, that's a PB&J

One slice of 100-calorie million-grain bread, one tablespoon of good old-fashioned grape jelly, one tablespoon of natural (no sugar or salt added) peanut butter.

Hmm... this day was going well enough.  I admit I ate one of these before spending the afternoon so busy that I forgot about eating... for a while.

 

I didn't eat it with a knife and fork - I just tore into it like a savage.

So... It was somebody's birthday.  Somebody special.  And he just suddenly asked for a few things, and I wasn't going to say no.  Of course, I could have locked my lips and just smiled closed-lipped at everyone else while they ate, but I did not do that.  Chomp, chomp, chomp....

And as for this... I admit, I scarfed it down before taking a photo, so at least I went back and got a close-up of the cut side of this delicacy. (it's plain cake with a squiggle of whipped cream and a strawberry with glaze.)  I ate a carefully-measured piece and looked up the calories, did the math, put it into My Fitness Pal, and MFP says:  (drumroll....)  Look at the top of the post to see the calories count for today.  NOT getting on the scale until next Friday, but then again...that was not part of this challenge.  I may be falling off the wagon in grand style today, but rest assured - whether I get back on the wagon or not (and for the record, I will) - I CERTAINLY WILL depict it here.  Those were the terms of the challenge, and I'm honest and dependable, if nothing else. 

Heading out for fitness - I mean penance - walk now.

Third day of the challenge

Lost since May 1st: 0.6 lbs. Stats: 154.8 lbs., 5'10", BMI: 22.2

My Fitness Pal says:  1,940 calories today

The usual coffee and milk, and 21 mini-wheats.

That left me feeling like I ate nothing. So here's some more (tasty) nothing:

Needed substantial food, so here's a sandwich for lunch. Same sandwich as yesterday except only 1.5 slices of bread.

Yes, these are small, and I put them on a tiny saucer.

Evil coming up... avert your eyes if it upsets you. Good thing my cookbook has calories listed because it vexes me when I have to guesstimate. This will inflate my daily calorie count but I am going to give myself credit for progress. In the past I would have eaten 3 or 4 of these immediately, and a couple more later in the day. This blog does not represent "recommended foods," by the way.

Uh-oh, I think I ate too much today. More chicken salad (don't worry, folks, it will be gone soon) with only 1/2 a slice of bread this time, mixed vegetables, and later one Black and Tan.

Made it through one day. On to the next

Lost: 0.6 lbs. Stats: 154.8 lbs., 5'10", BMI: 22.2 
My Fitness Pal says 2,062 calories for the day.

Coffee and 12 oz. 1% milk today, with a few Splenda packets, like every day. I don't always eat breakfast for breakfast; what's wrong with lunch food for breakfast? Yes, you're going to see the same food repeated a lot here. We have a large family and when we stock up on anything, we eat it until it's gone. We don't let anything go bad, so if there is chicken salad in the fridge, then that is what's on the menu - even if it takes days to eat it all up. Note that I used different bread this time, so there's a new photograph. Up to 744 calories for the day, and it's only 9AM. Should be an interesting day.

Ate apple in the afternoon, orange later in the afternoon.

 

Uh-oh, remember those?  I had three left (ate 3 yesterday, now ate 3 today.)  Typically I would eat all 6 just while making them and keep eating more.  So to eat 3 small cookies each day (and now they are gone)  seems like just sampling, to me, and I feel like I could eat a dozen more.  But I'll drink water and chew gum, probably. 

Didn't chew gum.  Should've done that, but instead chewed a sandwich: (repeated pic from yesterday - same bread at 100 calories, about 1/2 cup Sam's Club cranberry chicken salad with a few chunks of plain boiled chicken mixed in.

 Ate something good and something bad.  I'm honest, if nothing else.

First day of the challenge

Stats:  155.4 lbs., 5'10", BMI: 22.3 My Fitness Pal says: 1,690 calories total today

Spread out throughout the day:  2 huge tankards of coffee; 12 oz. 1% milk, a couple of packets of Splenda.

Breakfast: one packet of oatmeal, made with water.

Here you see a sandwich made of: 4 oz. boiled chicken breast, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, and 1.5 slices 100% whole wheat bread. This was a little boring so I added 2/3 of a slice of cheddar cheese.

I exercised a lot of restraint by eating only three. They are oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They are on the small side. Normally I would make them on the large side and eat twice that many, and keep on going. It's late in the afternoon now, by the way. I will only make one blog post each day, but update it as many times as necessary.
Dinner: 1/2 cup Sam's Club cranberry pecan chicken salad, 2 oz. plain chicken breast added in (it's too mayonnaise-y on its own); a 100-calorie wheat round. Yes, I know that's two chicken salad sandwiches in one day, but we had chicken in the fridge we had to use up. I normally have a more varied diet. I also know that there are no vegetables or fruit today, and this should be improved upon tomorrow. (I ate a lot of broccoli yesterday.) Calorie count will be updated daily at the top of the post, with the stats.