Now on my desk at work, I have a mug and two water bottles. That means I can drink more water between refills. Lately I’ve been trying to drink a full glass of water instead of eating something when I start to feel hungry. Yesterday I had about 8 Unsalted almonds as a mid morning snack.

I’ve also been trying to have a glass of water with a fiber supplement in the mornings for a first ‘breakfast’. :) 13 months ago

Trying to be good this week. Wednesdays at work is “Wing Ding Day.” Chicken wings, chicken fingers, french fries, and pizza logs are part of the main entre (you choose what you want). Of course, there is always soup, salad, pizza, or the sandwich station.

I really wanted pizza logs and fries today. But I made myself pack a lunch this morning. So what I had instead was:

Bottle of orange juice (190 C)
Applesauce (50 C)
Two puffed cakes (20 C each, 40 total…think of rice cakes, but made with flour)
and those were covered in about a serving of Almond butter (190 C)

Last night dinner, was stuffed shells, a breadstick, and side salad. (Just pretend that the small McDonalds french fry and small strawberry shake didn’t happen after rehearsal, LOL!) 15 months ago

I knew I should have just stuck to the cup of tomato & tortelini soup! The extra side salad was too much food. :( Only draw back is that this soup is so salty (maybe all the oyster crackers I added??).

This might not be the best food extended weekend that I will be having. We are making turkey meatloaf to have for two dinners (leftovers, woo!). One side will be brussel sprouts and pancetta in a balsamic vinegar sauce (omg Brad is such a good chef!). The next night we will have broccoli and potatoes. Other than that… we are going to go to Buffalo Wild Wings one night and then we are having a Super Bowl party. The party means lots of dips, snack, and of course pizza and more wings.

And Brad and I are going to go to the movies to see “Chronicle”. I may want popcorn. Unless we eat right before we go. Hmmnn 16 months ago

So I have this one girlfriend who is (AWESOME) vegan. Through one of her links to a vegan dip (that sounds delicious) I found this little nugget of almondy gold: link

It is delicious and tastes like a vanilla, banana, almond milk shake. Fewer calories. Goodness from the bananas. And protein from the almond. Perfect thing to get me going in the morning.

One this I will say… I should have peeled the banana, stuck them in a bag and THEN froze them. Trying to peel frozen bananas…that was an adventure. Thank goodness I learned the “defrost under warm water” trick two years ago. 16 months ago

Even thinking about food makes me want to throw up right now. I am so nauseous. Brad and I decided to have one last junk food meal (well, really junky). And now I want to throw up everywhere (four and a half hours later). yuck, yuck, yuck.

Maybe I’ll remember how shitty I am feeling the next time I even have a flash thought of junk food. 17 months ago

Tonight was taco night! It is the first time that we’ve had tacos in months! Partially due to the fact that I stopped eating red meat. Brad was a little worried (and still is I think) that it will mean no more red meat dishes. Or that it will be too much hassle. It wasn’t at all. He could half of the pound of ground beef that we bought (and froze the other half to make meatballs later).

I had black beans, mozzarella cheese, lettuce, and onion in a soft shell. :) And they were SUPER tasty!! I think I would have been a little scared off by the look of black beans, but for the fact that a few weeks ago I had black bean soup at Panera Bread (and oh my it was yummy!). Black beans actually have a really great taste and texture. I put the rest of the black beans in the fridge to save for another lunch or dinner. Perhaps I will mix it with some corn! (from our farm share veggie box, that is!) 22 months ago

This past week/weekend has been pretty OK as far as diet goes! I started eating chicken again (oops!)... but it’s just so tasty. I had two Greek Salads this week! Neither of those had meat on them. Just veggies and feta (yum!), dressing, and pitas. Right now for lunch I am eating chick peas, three cucumber slices (leftovers from last night’s falafel experiment), some green pepper slices (also leftovers), cherry tomatoes, topped with Greek Feta dressing and feta cheese.

So maybe the dressing and cheese don’t add up to healthy, but the rest of the stuff does!

Did I mention that one of my greek salads was done with Swiss Chard as the greens? It’s apparently a super food. :) 22 months ago

This is my first attempt at a “real” meal for myself.

It’s little bit of a thrown-together tofu and veggie stir-fry. I decided to wing it. From buying the tofu, to the ingredients I used, and the list goes on!

Over all, it’s pretty tasty. A little bland still. I added ginger, teryaki sauce, and red pepper flake, but still not much taste. I had to add feta cheese for some extra zing and flavor. Verdict is also out on the tofu. I think maybe I need to learn how to cook it better.

There is so much of it that it’ll end up at least being leftovers for tomorrow. 2 years ago

Just like I said in my latest entry, I wasn’t planning on being really hard core with my transition to pescetarian. I really don’t think that I’ll be going to complete vegetarian any time soon, if ever. Have seafood is a nice balance and a nice meeting place (meating place, ha ha!) for Brad and I. It gives us at least two meals a week that we can really have together 100%. Plus crab on the half shell?? Mmmmmm!

Anyway, last night we planned on making vegetable soup, and we were going to throw in some rotisserie chicken for Brad. Ya know, compromise. Well that chicken just smelled so good. Plus we ended up using chicken bases since we didn’t have any vegetable stock. Turns out that there was so much chicken that it was pretty much impossible to get a bite without chicken in it. On the bright side, the soup was DELICIOUS!! Definitely going to be making more soup. And I didn’t have a digestive rebellion (which is wonderful). The downside? I’m feeling… I don’t know. Sluggish? Off?? I attribute it to the chicken. Brad told me that he “votes for coincidence.”

The next time we do soup, I’ve already asked for a better compromise. Let me just have the veggies part. I can put in my own “extra” to make it more filling. Maybe pour the soup over rice. Or add a meat ‘substitute’ like tofu. Once we run out of chicken base, we’re definitely moving to vegetable stock. ;-) This is definitely a transition for both of us, and I’m glad that Brad has been (mostly) supportive. He still asks me when I’m going to be “over this phase.” But he’s certainly more supportive than my parents would be (I’ve still not told them).

Now I really need to find healthy ‘substitutes’ for meat. I know that my local grocery store sells their own kind of tofu, but then I read online that you shouldn’t get the stuff that ‘lasts forever.’ But I have absolutely no experience with the stuff, so I’m a little leery to even try. Although, I must admit that the meat-free burgers I had last week were tasty! Couldn’t even tell the difference.  I think that black bean burgers are next. 2 years ago

It’s pretty safe to say that I’ve officially made the move to “pescetarian.” In other words, bye bye land animals and fowl. I’m still eating all manner of seafood. That is to make the transition a little easier on mine and hubby’s meal planning.

Tonight we’re having steak salad. Well… Brad is having steak salad. I’m just having the lettuce, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and criss-cross fries. :) Topped with cheese and ranch. ;)

One of the big reasons that I am cutting back on the meat in my diet is to try it out for health reasons. So many people say that once they cut out red meat, they start to feel better. Healthier. For the foreseeable future, I certainly don’t see myself going back to beef.

Although I will admit… I’m not completely against indulging in a chicken tender sub or chicken wings every now and again. Or maybe sometimes leaving the pepperoni on my pizza. Doing that in the future may depend on how my stomach takes it, of course. The misery of digestion may not be greater than the satisfaction and pleasure of taste.

I’m still not overeating (I think I posted about eating smaller meals and generally eating less earlier under this goal). There are definitely things that aren’t healthy for me that I still eat (like those french fries). Every step in the right direction counts. I may never eat perfectly or get exactly all the nutrients I need, but I’m getting there. 2 years ago

OK- today I needed extra food and extra calories because I donated blood!! (and didn’t almost pass out, a miracle!)

Breakfast 1: Carnation breakfast drink smoothie (almond milk, drink mix, a banana, and strawberries)
Breakfast 2: Mixed fruit, a pastry, homefries, and scramled eggs
Snack: Two cups of orange juice
(bye bye blood!)
Snack 2: Ginger Ale and cheese-its (post-donation snack)
Lunch: Salad: with chick peas, cucumbers, some mushrooms (gasp!), alphapha sprouts, cheddar cheese, and ranch dressing
Dinner: quinoa (first time experience) with cut up orange bell peper and some more asparagus 2 years ago

Breakfast: Carnation breakfast drink made with Almond Milk
Snack: (not so good): Snackwells brownie bites
Lunch: 1c carrots, 6 oz ‘organic’ yogurt, 1 orange, 1 serving of triscuits.
Dinner: Salmon burger on a whole grain kaiser roll, asparagus cooked in EVOO and baked with feta 2 years ago

My appetite has been so tiny lately! I will attribute that to not working out or exercising very much lately. It’s really just been on Mondays. And occasionally blading.

I expect when I’m back to working out 3-6 times a week that the hunger will come back. My e-mail just informed me that the two yoga videos I ordered will be here in 3-5 business days. Woohoo! Bring on the exercise and bring on the hunger! 2 years ago

So I ended up going several days (maybe 4 or 5 days) without eating land animals. Last night we had baked cheesy chicken for dinner. This morning, my stomach disagreed with me. Don’t tell me it takes less than a week for your body to adjust to meat-free!!

(I’ve done little to no research on changing to a vegetarian diet so I have absolutely no idea.)

Right now I’m starting to do some research on where I can get protein and other ‘substitutes’ for meat. I’m looking for things that can be cooked side by side with meat since DH won’t be giving up steak any time soon. One woman I work with mentioned that mushroom are often cooked up as a substitute to meat.

I must say, he’s ever so slightly more supportive about me giving up land animals (which I would be doing for health reasons primarily). I’m not going to give up sea creatures quite yet (I love me some shrimp, crab, and fish!! DH makes the BEST shrimp scampi!!) One thing that is for sure: if I do a fair amount of research and come up with a ‘plan of attack’ for cooking dinner, he’ll be much more on board. It’s just that since it’s such a different lifestyle than he knows and understands, he’s very resistent to it right now. His big beef (haha, that’s a pun!) is that I won’t get enough nutriets/protein if I’m not eating meat every day. Shows how much we know about nutrition…maybe it’s time for me to finally crack up that nutrition book I have with my Pilates certification things?? 2 years ago

I decided to give up hot dogs… and that was probably in January or even late in 2010. I had seen some special on TV that was focused on the Iron Man Competition. There was an old gentleman (in his 70s) who was on some ridiculous number of consecutive Iron Mans (one a year, I assume). Like 20 or something.

Obviously, there was a lot more going on in his life than not eating hot dogs (major exercising every day, fitness supplements, and still working/ doing presentations for some health company or other). But one thing that he said during one of his interview was that he never eats anything that he doesn’t know what has really been put into it. His example was hot dogs.

In some ways, hot dogs will be difficult for me to cut out. But at the same time I think it is necessary for my health (of course, there are lots of other things I should cut out too). And just because hot dogs were my favorite summer food, doesn’t mean that it has to continue being my favorite summer food.

And for the record… I’m not really interested in meat-substitute hot dogs. Tofu dog just sounds… kind of gross. :-P I’d rather just cut it out without substituting something else. 2 years ago