Day 17 There are gaps...I know, I am stressed

So I have not been as consistent lately with my blogging and dieting for that matter. It is so hard for a strict diet to coincide with life when you are surrounded by others who eat and do as they please. Some of my friends are dieting, it has be helpful to talk with them about my woes with my diet. However, there are more people in my life who aren't dieting, and certainly don't need to. I have been very wrapped up these past few days with events like bridal showers, birthdays, fundraisers and many others... not to mention a few very important people in my life have birthdays coming up. Sadly between the stress of bills and trying to be a part of these events y diet is yet again falling by the wayside. It is discouraging and upsetting to me but all I can do is keep on trucking. My friends Hailie, Katrin and I have set a goal for April 11th to lose 10lbs. If we succeed then we get one cute outfit for ourselves and go out for a night on the town. This has also been a lot of motivation for me.



So this morning I woke up late but I still had a few hours to get a workout in before I go in for my shift at work so I had some oatmeal and raspberries and headed to the gym. I was pissed to find out that I had been going to the gym for over a week now and no one who works there bothered to stop me to let me know my account balance had a late fee tacked onto it. I was of coarse pissed, I had my credit card stolen at work a few weeks ago, so I canceled the card and ordered a new one. In the meantime I gave someone at their finance office my account routing number so that the fees could be taken out directly and they lady I spoke to said everything was good. Well, apparently it wasn't because a month later I am now trying to pay a balance which has a bunch of late fees tacked on, I was pissed but luckily we had it sorted out. But that put me in a fowl mood and I only ended up doing 40 minutes of cardio and leaving. But I just did my 1 hour pilates video and I feel much better. I am going to make some tilapia and asparagus for a late lunch and pack a nice chicken salad to eat at work. The stress is building with all the things I have going on but at least working out helps take some of that away.

Day 15 Feeling an Itch for Chocolate

Went to the gym really early this morning it feels good to be done early so I have some of the day to look forward to although I work until late and then turn around and work at 6am on Thursday morning. I just had some lovely oatmeal with frozen raspberries on top which I put in the oatmeal halfway through its microwave cycle. It was so yummy and had just the right amount of bitter are sweet flavors plus it made the oatmeal pink! I am most likely going to have a grilled chicken salad for lunch and I am packing a shrimp and spinach wrap with mango salsa and some sliced apples with peanut butter for a desert/ side dish. I hate working until close because I either have to eat really late or starve so I need to start packing dinners or myself.


Last night I made some yummy shrimp and Hawaiian stir fry with half of a baked potato, no salt or butter. It was so good combining the stir fry with the potato...

Of coarse it is getting close to that time of the month so I have seriously been craving chocolate so I am going to have a little bit of sugar free jello chocolate pudding and do some research for more low calorie chocolate desserts in an upcoming post.

Day 14 Bored but Happy

So this morning I had to wake up super early and take Gene to work, his car has been in the shop for a few days. After that I headed to the gym and did 40 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes on the elliptical and the other 20 on the bike. I also went tanning, a bit vain but like I have said before I hate being so pale. I ate one of my 90 calorie bars before I worked out. I didn't feel up to eating a ton so early. But when I got home I made a lovely egg white omelet with some fat free cheddar and mild salsa. I make this dish quite often but today it actually looked pretty so I took a picture.

I used...

1/4 cup fat free cheddar (45 calories)

9 tbls egg whites (60 calories)

4 tbls mild salsa (20 calories)

Yesterday I had some lightly breaded halibut for lunch topped with mango/ginger chutney and some steamed spinach on the side it was delicious. The chutney is from Trader Joe's, my favorite place to shop when I can get over there and their chutneys, sauces and accents for food are low in calories and so delicious. This mango and ginger chutney had a nice spicy kick to it beyond the sweetness. Yummy! For dinner last night I had a grilled shrimp salad minus the tortilla strips it normally comes with, which rounded out to 466 calories with the chipotle apple vinaigrette dressing.

My breaded Halibut with Mango and Ginger Chutney

Day 13 While I was gone...

Soooo as it is apparent I have not posted in a week. It is terrible I know but there were fun activities and holidays to which dieting was not an option and I am a firm believer in making the best of every situation, not to mention drinking heavy amounts of beer during St. Patricks day with only some oatmeal in my stomach is just plain stupid. It seems like I am making excuses but truly I planned these event before my dieting revelation. Anyways, I had a wonderful week/ break from the blog.

I did keep with my diet between March 13th-17th and 18th-present day. I ate the usual egg white omelets and oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I did the occasional veggie tacos, chicken salad and grilled tilapia with brown rice. I also tried a few new recipes.


This one was simply grilled chicken breast, which was stuffed with a little cheese and steamed spinach. It was on top of a bed of steamed veggies, peppers, onions and zucchini. There was maybe half a cup of tomato sauce on the top and it was delicious and only 480 calories!

This was a bit messy but very yummy!

This meal was a little higher in calories but it was delicious and helps provide energy! I used two whole wheat tortillas which I fused together with 1/4 cup light cheddar cheese. I placed about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and a few thin slices of fresh mozarella on top. I added some chopped onions, spinach and chicken on top with some seasoning and then placed it into the oven at 350 degrees for about ten minutes. Yummy!

Chicken, onion and spinach tortilla pizza!

I just did my favorite  Windsor Pilates video workout and then I ate an egg white omelet with some light cheddar cheese and salsa. I am going to the gym shortly and then off to the store for some healthy groceries!

Day 12 Revved Up!...But feeling ill

So the beginning of my night last night didn't go very well, I was very upset and down in the dumps. Gene was being very sweet and told me he wanted to take me to dinner. He was looking around for places that he and I could both enjoy because of my diet. We decided on Copeland's New Orleans style restaurant. I had a wonderful steak salad, there were very tiny onion rings as a garnish on the salad which I ate and shouldn't have and I also had some crawfish bread. I was very disappointed in myself although the bread and the onion rings were not enough to but my calories to far over the edge, I still should not have caved. But I have to say nothing comforts the soul more than good southern comfort food.

This morning I felt really terrible and since I was feeling under the weather, I have a long shift ahead of me this evening and I have Shamrock Fest tomorrow I decided to not go to the gym and just mellow out until I have to go into work. I had some Special K cereal this morning, about 300 calories all together with skim milk. Alex is still visiting so were just hanging out at my place and doing nothing, kind of nice every now and then to just do nothing.

I then became inspired to paint my nails with something crazy on them so I went with a St. Patty's Day theme!

I am so excited for Shamrock Fest its ridiculous. I am going to enjoy myself tomorrow with the beer and the food they have there, I am going to try to watch what I eat but I feel like special occasions like this should be enjoyed. But I will be right back on my diet by sunday.

Oh by the way I lost ...


3 more pounds!!!!


Hope everyone has a great weekend, I know I will. Happy Dieting!

Day 9 Relaxation

I have had a lovely day off today. I enjoyed an egg white omelet with spinach while waiting for my laundry to be finished. I have done a little cleaning around the house and even got to some painting. (my grammy would be proud) I am going to head to the gym in a little while after I eat a nice salad for lunch. My workout clothes are still in the laundry so I have to wait for those to be done as well. I got an e-mail form my grandmother today showing me all these hilarious photos of food and other inanimate objects doing strange things in photographs. It was so interesting to me I decided to do a little research so that I could share.

             

               "Marilyn"

"Many Passionate Fans"

The artist's name is Terry Border and surprisingly he has a blogspot site just like I do! Here is the link "Bent Objects"


I think that the site give a funny twist to food and how appropriate for my blog as well. Off to the gym I go, hope all of you had a good day.

Happy Dieting!

Day 3 Happy Hump Day!

Today went very well. I went to the gym with my man and seeing him workout as hard as he does was definately a motivator not to mention he would occasionally come over and encourage me to go faster on the bicycle. It was nice having him there most of my friends either live in my hometown or further away and the ones that do live near me have completely opposite schedules. It was nice to know someone was cheering me on (as cheesy as that sounds). But truthfully today went well and I reserved just enough calories to have about three drinks this evening for my wednesday ritual. I am so excited to just go out people watch and dance...I figure if I don't like the vodka sodas I will drink a lot less them hahahaha.


Happy dieting!


Oh I had blueberries and oatmeal this morning and another one of the spinach, romaine and chicken salads I mentioned yesterday for lunch ....delicious!