December 2007

I woke up to cloudy skies and rain today — it reminds me of lazy Sundays growing up and I swear I can still smell the huge pot of tomato sauce with fresh basil and assorted meats cooking slowly all day long. I’d sometimes dip a piece of bread or 2 in while it was still cooking, it was sooo good. Being Italian, we had pasta, ravioli, and/or “something parmesan” every Sunday, is it any wonder I love good food? lol I haven’t made a homemade pot of sauce in at least a year, maybe 2. Maybe I’ll make a nice, big pot of it on New Year’s Day. We’re having filet mignon but what the heck? It’s a free day, we’ll have both! I can’t get the memory of that scent out of my head, I must fulfill this craving. hehe

I’m anticipating TTOM and a no counting day starting around 10:00PM tomorrow night through all day January 1st. We usually have prime rib on New Year’s Day and it’s so tasty (how could it not be with all that marvelous fat? lol) but I don’t ever feel like there’s much meat on it — I’d rather buy a whole tenderloin, cook half, and freeze the rest for later in the month. So with Aunt Flo visiting any minute now and another free day, I am trying to stay low on sodium and grain/sugar carbs today and most of tomorrow to help with my water retention issues. I am already starting to feel bloated and I know I’m going to gain about 7 or 8 lbs of water and undigested food weight. *sigh* No worries, it goes on and it comes off again. I think it’s fine to give yourself 5 or 10 lbs to work with. Nobody stays the exact same weight each day and if you do, that’s amazing! lol Even when I hit my goal weight, I still expect to lose and gain the same 5 or 10 lbs over and over. I’m ok with that. Sometimes it will be fat, other times it will be water or who knows? I’m not worried. The only thing that matters to me is being in healthy weight range and being able to eat as much as possible for my calorie range. *giggles*

I made a gorgeous, robust salad for dinner:

I made a bed with 84g fresh spinach, then piled on: 2 huge plum tomatoes, 50g onions (used some in the tuna salad), 30g roasted red peppers, 2 slices lite Jarlsberg swiss cheese, 42g cooked chicken breast, 1/4 cup Bumble Bee low sodium tuna with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s Canola mayo and 1 TBSP Smart Balance fat free mayo and drizzled 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar all over it. ABSOLUTELY delectable and only 470 calories for all of that and it included at least 5 servings of fruit/veggies in ONE meal. I love salads so much. I guess because they are like an unraveled sandwich, minus the bread. And sandwiches are my favorite food in the whole world. I also love to add a pita on the side or even whole wheat toast — takes much longer to eat than a sandwich and often just as satisfying. I’d never replace sandwiches completely but I’m loving salads lately. YUMMY!

Aunt Flo is always cramping my style (no pun intended lol). She always brings a great big zit on my forehead, so now I look like a puffy unicorn ROFL. Men are so lucky; women have to deal with 1 or 2 weeks a month of fatigue, cramps, ravenous appetite, bloat, and being otherwise completely uncomfortable in their own body but MEN are the ones that get all the naturally occurring lean body mass?! SO unfair! LOL I was thinking about the leftover birthday ice cream cake in the freezer last night and probably gained a pound in thought while my husband has lost 4 or 5 lbs in the past 2 months without even trying despite all the calories he consumes. *pouts* Let’s not even get into the pain of child labor! You fellas have it made. Only half kidding…

My hormones are obviously in high gear lol. I’m about to go take some of this frustration out on my elliptical and then lift some weights. Mother Nature has me all riled up! hehe

Today’s menu:
Sunday December 30th 2007 – 1500 calorie day
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After discovering how fabulous Joseph’s pita bread is, I went to Walmart and bought 6 packages today LOL. I’m not kidding! They are so awesome and I don’t want to “not be able to find them” again — so I bought all they had and froze 5 of them. I’ll buy 5 more every week, I hope the Walmarts or other stores in NY carry them when we move back. I’m sure they do, but if they don’t, you can be sure I will be dragging hubby down the east coast on an 800 mile road trip to stock up again!! *giggles*

My insanity knows no boundaries…

Tonight’s supper was very, very good! I made pork tenderloin with applesauce, baked butternut squash with 100% pure maple syrup, green beans, Alexia whole grain dinner rolls, and a side salad — YUMALICIOUS! Everything came out perfectly:

The pork tenderloin was so tender and the unsweetened applesauce complimented it so well. This was such a hearty dinner for only 592 calories! I started cooking the pork tenderloin on 400F about an hour and a half ahead of time and then lowered it to 375F about 30 minutes through. I normally don’t add salt to anything, but when I’m making a roast of any kind I sprinkle a little garlic salt on top. I put the butternut squash in at the same time as the pork because it takes some time to cook too. First I cut it in half and removed the seeds from the inside and placed it on a baking sheet covered with nonstick foil. When the pork was done I weighed 4oz out on my food scale, then topped it with 1/4 cup unsweetened Mott’s applesauce and I drizzled 1 teaspoon of 100% pure maple syrup on the butternut squash. The green beans were tossed with 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, and Mrs. Dash salt free lemon pepper seasoning. I was wrong about the applesauce calories when I was menu planning; the last unsweetened applesauce I got from Whole Foods was 100 calories for 1/2 cup; the Mott’s is only 50 calories for 1/2 cup — wonder where the discrepancy comes from? I could tell that the Mott’s brand was a little more watery than the Whole Foods brand but they both had identical ingredients. I’m glad I check labels often, too easy to get things wrong for things you think you know lol.

Before I cooked dinner I had an intense workout on my elliptical; I love working up a sweat, it feels really good. Of course, a hot shower feels even better afterwards lol. I’m going to do some strength training later on, that usually doesn’t get me too sweaty. I need to set up a more consistent strength training regimen — I’ve been winging it for too long. Time to get more serious about it and have a plan to follow. I’ve been doing pretty good sticking to my new cardio schedule, I find it much easier to do things like that when I have it planned ahead of time. I’ll save the extra exercises for my spontaneous moments and chalk them up to “random fun.”

We woke really late today so I haven’t eaten lunch yet, I went right from breakfast to 1 snack, then we had dinner about an hour ago. I’ll have lunch later tonight, it looks way too good to pass up!

Today’s menu:
Saturday December 29th 2007 – 2100 calorie day
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Oh my GOD! I love Joseph’s pita bread! I made pizza out of one for dinner and I swear, it was almost up to the standards of real Italian pizzeria-style pizza. YUM, YUM, YUM!! First I preheated the oven to 450F; dampened the pita bread with water to keep it from drying out too much in the oven; topped it with: 2 TBSP (32g) Hunt’s no salt added tomato PASTE, 1oz part-skim mozzarella cheese, 1 slice South Beach reduced fat mozzarella cheese (.75 oz), and sprinkled the top with dry oregano, garlic powder, and a little bit of water (reduced fat cheese tends to dry out quickly). I placed it on a baking sheet that was lined with nonstick foil and popped into the very hot oven for about 7 minutes. It came out PERFECT! Maybe it could have gone 1 more minute for extra crispy, but I loved it as is:

The pita pizza itself was only 230 calories and the entire meal with broccoli and salad was only 350 calories! For only 230 calories, I could work 2 of them into my higher calorie days. Of course tomorrow I’m going to have to go buyout every package of Joseph’s pita bread Walmart has LOL.

I didn’t exercise today; it feels good to take a break. I tried the Bowflex dumbbells last night and they are awesome! My arms should be all set for awhile; now I just need the full size Bowflex and I’m all set. I’d also like to add a stair stepper, treadmill, and stationary bike to my home gym — I like variety.

I can’t wait to get back on my normal calorie cycling menus — I’ve been soooooo hungry the past few days on only 1200 and 1500 calories. I was ravenous last night, I’m glad I still had my lunch left to eat from my menu or I would have been so cranky. I find it hard to sleep on an empty tummy.

It’s definitely time that I buy some new clothes, my pants are getting to be a hazard! I took out jeans that used to be too small for me to wear and now they’re too big! I’m literally stepping on my pants now lol. Ugh… well, I guess I have a good excuse to go on a shopping spree.

Today’s menu:
Friday December 28th 2007 – 1500 calorie day
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I tried Quinoa for the first time tonight and remember when I first read about it; I thought it was pronounced kwin-oh-ah haha. It was pretty good, reminds me a lot of couscous. When it’s dry, it looks like little tiny Pac-Man pellets lol. I liked it, though, I’m sure it would have been even better with more spices or a better sauce than what dripped down from the beef and peppers/onions. I look forward to finding more recipes to use it with, it’s fun to look at when you’re eating it:

I steamed 50g onions and 40g green peppers in the microwave for a few minutes, then added them to the frying pan where I had 3oz thinly sliced flank steak cooking in a light spray of Pam olive oil cooking spray. Then I added 2oz of Marsala wine and let it all cook down. When it was done, I placed it over the bed of Quinoa. Including the broccoli and salad, the entire meal was only 540 calories and very satisfying. On a yummy scale of 1 to 10, 10 being highest, I’d give this meal about a 7.

Last night I ate a piece of Godiva chocolate that wasn’t on my menu Ooooh, I’m such a rebel lol. It was worth every calorie too lol. I typically don’t eat things like that spontaneously on my planned menu days, but I felt like it, so I did. hehe I can tell that TTOM is coming next week because I feel puffy today and my appetite is up — 2 biggest signs. Yippy lol.

I’m heading over to my elliptical now, then I’m going to try out my Bowflex dumbbells; they should be fun!!

Today’s menu:
Thursday December 27th 2007 – 1500 calorie day
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