Food Picture Tracking - Oct. 3

Monday, October 03, 2011

BREAKFAST (7:00 a.m.):


Multivitamin
2 pieces of turkey bacon; 2 eggs; 3 oz (half package) baby spinach; 1 slice of Nature's Own Whole Grain 100% wheat bread; 1 tbsp Polaner All Fruit spread (strawberry); 8 oz Silk Vanilla soy milk

LUNCH (12:00 p.m.):


4 cups mixed field greens; .5 cup cherry tomatoes; .25 cup Kraft Triple Cheddar cheese; 3 tbsp Bolthouse creamy Yogurt Dressing (blue cheese)--I LOVE this dressing. It's only 50 calories per 2 Tbsp and its soo good; 3.5 ounces of grilled, skinless chicken breasts

SNACK (3:00 p.m.)


5 prunes

DINNER (7:15 p.m.)


Tilapia and Pacific Whiting; broiled cauliflower and brussels sprouts; Two 8 oz cups of fruit punch.

I know it looks like I piled some food on a big ole plate, but really it was a saucer. See...



I had the middle sized plate. The smallest one is really one of those plates you place your tea or coffee cup on. LOL I never eat off that size. So, it was okay that I didn't take the time to measure dinner.

I was so hungry by the time I got home and I was exhausted. Since I changed careers and started working for myself, I rarely get home late. I'm usually in and out of the house a few time during the day as I go from assignment to assignment. So, when I get home as late as I did when I worked a desk job, I feel exhausted...mentally. I'm mentioning all this because it's a trigger. I recognize that now. When I got home I wanted to "treat" (or rather sabotage) myself. I wanted sugar or chips or something. I ALMOST allowed myself to binge, actually. I was headed for the chips WHILE I was preparing my dinner. BUT, I stopped myself. I didn't have them. Instead, the sugar I decided upon was the fruit punch. I hadn't finished drinking my water for the day so it really was "off-plan" to have the juice first. But, I was like "whatever!" which really brought home the point that when I feel mentally drained and exhausted I still turn to food. I'm glad that it wasn't ice cream or cookies or something though. That fruit punch is Turkey Hill and it's about 100 calories per 8 oz or something like that. I didn't look. I didn't care. But, I could have just had the Single Serving Diet Snapple Peach ice tea packets that I have in the house. That would have been only 5 calories. Why did I pick the fruit punch. Hmmmm.... I still wanted (subconsciously) to be destructive and sabotage myself. Why? Goodness goodness me. Wow.... I still have some mental work to do, huh? Yep!

Overall: Good food choices and good self discovery. Successful day!

WATER TOTALS: 8 cups (64 oz)--I actually downed 3 more cups of water *after* having had the 16 oz of fruit punch, so that I wouldn't feel so bad for having the punch before I had finished my water for the day. I may not have had water first (before other drinks) but I got it all in today. :-)

NO EXERCISE TODAY. It was a scheduled strength training day, but I didn't do any. Boooo!

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Food Picture Tracking - Oct. 2

Sunday, October 02, 2011

OFFICIAL WEIGH-IN: 157.9
(Next blogged weight report will be this Wednesday)

BREAKFAST (8:00 a.m.):


Multivitamin (YAY); 12 oz cup Silk Vanilla soy milk; 2 pieces of turkey bacon; 1.5 egg (I cooked 3 and split with my daughter. That's how I wound up having 1.5. LOL); Broiled veggies--carrots, brussels sprouts, baby zucchini. (I love the broiler. I broil everything that I possible can. LOL It's quick, efficient and gives me that grilled tastes when I allow the heat to char (or burn) whatever I'm cooking. LOL)

SNACK after church (2:40 p.m.):


A Fiber One Bar

DINNER (5:15 p.m.)


My leftovers that I carried home from Olive Garden yesterday.

SNACK after workout (8:45 p.m.)


Six (6) entertainment crackers; about a Tbsp of peanut butter

Another great day! I am ABSOLUTELY loving these food picture logs!!! It causes me to think before I eat. I mean, I can't just pick up something and put it in my mouth mindlessly because I need to take a picture of it first. And, how embarassing would it be to take a picture of 4 huge cookies (like the ones I had last week from Wegmans). You guys would surely give me a much-deserved lashing. Also, if I take a picture and it doesn't come out well, I'll just decide not to have the food item. LOL That happened yesterday when I was going to have the after-dinner mint chocolate that came with the restaurant bill. (I'm sure it didn't have that many calories in it...but you never know.) The chocolate mint was wrapped in foil and it just didn't come out well in my picture. So, I just skipped it. LOL Now, If only all tempting foods came wrapped in aluminum foil this month. LOL

Until tomorrow...

WATER TOTAL FOR TODAY: 7 cups (56 oz)

EXERCISE TOTALS (copied from shared fitness tracker):

Treadmill - 24 min/mile: 10 mins.; 35 calories
Treadmill - 5% incline 24 min/mile: 30 mins.; 190 calories
Treadmill - 20 min/mile: 30 mins.; 112 calories

Daily Totals: 70 minutes; 337 calories

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Food Picture Tracking - Oct. 1

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Breakfast (7:40 a.m.)


A very ripe medium banana; Fiber one yogurt; multivitamin

This ISN'T a typical breakfast for me. But, I knew I was going out to dinner with my sister that evening, so I was trying to keep everything fairly light.

Snack or Lunch (whatever you want to call it) (12:18 p.m.)


I was in a class at church from 9am - 12p. When that was over, I immediately had my snack that I brought with me. But there were also refreshments downstairs, so I grabbed an apple and ate that too. The fiber one bar would have been sufficient. Honestly, I felt like "greed" caused me to consume the apple as well. I know that it was a healthy choice, but looking into the *reason* why I added that apple to my already consumed Fiber One bar was just because it was there and it was free. That IS something that I struggle with; so I thought I'd mention it here just as a way of bringing attention to it for myself.

Dinner (5p)

I had dinner with my sister at Olive Garden. Eventhough I'm not counting calories, per se, I'm still mentally noting them and trying to consider them. I couldn't help myself. So, I asked our server for the Garden Fare Nutrition Guide before I ordered so that I could make better choices. Yay me! LOL Sooo.. of course you get the unlimited salad and breadsticks:



I had two bowls of the salad. It already has the dressing on it, so who knows how many calories was in that. I had two breadsticks. The picture shows one breadstick split in half, because I thought MAYBE I could eat half of one and call it a day. That didn't happen. Anyhooo...

For my main course I ordered the Capellini di Mare, which was highlighted as one of their lower fat entrees. It was also a lower calorie choice. The entire entree is listed as being 650 calories. And this is what it looked like when they brought it to the table:



HOWEVER, I *immediately* asked the server for a to-go box and only left on my plate what I thought to be an adequate portion size (considering that I had already eaten salad and had two breadsticks). So, this is what what left on my plate after I put the rest in a to-go box:



Not bad, huh?

I really wanted a dessert, but the dessert I *really* wanted (Warm Apple Crostata) was 730 calories!!! LOL I didn't want one of those little itty bitty mini desserts either. Soooo, I decided to skip dessert altogether.

It helps when you go out to dinner with someone who is making good, healthy choices as well. My sister is a good influence as far as portions are concerned. She doesn't go overboard. She always eats just enough of what she needs. She's a Type 1 diabetic so she has always been really good about watching her intake and she has never counted calories. She always has leftovers. She's like a size 6!

Looking at her reminds me that my goal is attainable and that I'll mostly likely look just like her when I reach it. LOL People already asks us if we're twins anyway and I'm like 12 years older than she. We always get a kick out of that... well at least I do. LOL

Well, that's it for Day 1. Tomorrow morning is weigh-in. I'll just post it on my sparkpage. If there's a lost, SparkPeople will announce it and you'll see it. Otherwise, keep following the journey... something is bound to happen sooner or later. And, I think that THIS is going to be my month! :-)

EXERCISE TOTALS:

Cardio & Calories Burned MINUTES CALORIES BURNED
Walk 30 min/mile 120 348
Daily Totals: 120 minutes; 348 calories burned

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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Saturday, October 01, 2011

I have decided that this month, I'm going to track all my foods consumed by picture instead of using the tracker. I think I'm becoming a little obsessive about tracking. LOL And I'm not sure it's helping me reach my goals either at this point.

So, I'm going to take a picture of EVERYTHING I put in my mouth AND the times. I'm going to put the pictures up in a blog at the end of the day or the next morning.

It's just an experiment, and I'll probably go back to regular tracking next month. I don't know. But I'm hoping that, at least for this month, photo tracking helps me make better choices and be more accountable. I track on the nutrition tracker, but you won't see it unless you're curious and choose to click on it. But, putting it up in a blog means everyone who choses to read my blog, will definitely see. I'm hoping that in seeing what I'm eating, my Sparkfriends--my honest and insightful Sparkfriends--will be able to help me with some suggestions if you can see possible mistakes I'm making.

I know FOR SURE, it'll save a ton of time! Just click and eat.

Now, I warn you, I keep it pretty simple when I'm cooking. LOL There won't be any fantastic recipes or meals that you'd probably want to copy and fix for yourself. LOL Meat and veggies is my staple, with possible some brown rice on the side. I don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. But snacking...that's something different. So, keeping track of the snacks and the times, especially, that they are consumed will help me TREMENDOUSLY, I think.

During this experiment, I'm also going to weigh myself a minimum of three times a week: Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. My weight will appear in the blogs for those days. But official weigh-in is still Sunday. Without knowing the calories I'm consuming, I think I'll have to keep a more dilligent eye on what's going on with my weight so that I can adjust accordingly.

I am working out everyday this month too, alternating between cardio and strength training. That'll continue to be tracked on the fitness tracker. But, at the end of my blog, I may copy and paste my workout and the calories burned just so that I can have everything in one place.

Well, that's it. It's October TODAY and I haven't eaten breakfast yet. So.... gotta get my camera ready. :-)

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Skipped Week-5 Weigh-in

Sunday, September 25, 2011

This morning was supposed to be my weigh-in for Week 5 of 20-week to New Year Challenge. But, I skipped it because of T.O.M.

Honestly, I've been doing so well with my personal goals that I don't want any kind of set back at all. A gain (even logically attributable to T.O.M.) would be disappointing. I need my mind to stay focused. Soooo... I just decided to skip if today and continue what I'm doing and see where is pans out on the scale next week.

So, until next week.....

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