Summer Slimmin' Challenge: My Meals in Pics and a New Low Weigh-In Milestone! Party like it's 2002!

I was VERY VERY happy with my visit to the scale today, my fourth day into the Summer Slimmin' Challenge. Very. I'll tell you why ....later.

I did fine with water and calories yesterday, but I didn't exercise (felt a bit unwell). Got my bloodwork done for my endocrinologist, so will be half-anxious/half-eager to see what THAT looks like. (I have hypothyroidism form Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Metabolic Syndrome.) Shopped for some meals at a local gourmet market. (Expect my vegetarian diet meals to be delivered tomorrow afternoon.) I posted on most of the challenge blogs. ( I will only post on blogs that update and will start to see which support me and only support those that support me. Hey, it's gotta be reciprocal.)

So, what did I eat that I haven't posted pics of? This:

LUNCH After Pilates on Monday: I was feeling mighty hungry, so I headed to a local Mexican eatery (with really good, authentic tasting food that has a nice fresh taste and is one of my faves). Instead of my usual bingeyness, I chose shredded chicken breast tostadas. You get two. I ate one of the tostadas and all of the beans, white meat chicken shreds, lettuce, cheese, and drizzled sour cream (they make it and it's very liquidy). I had 1/2 cup salsa (there's 1/4 cup in the pic, but I had more. I cup romaine lettuce, plain. A Starbucks sugar-free vanilla latte, grande size. Cantaloupe water. Arizona Blueberry no-carb green tea . Man, was that good. And about half of what I usually have at that restaurant. Total: 741 calories.

Dinner on Monday was a frozen meal: HEALTHY CHOICE chicken parmigiana with broccoli and apple crisp (basically an apple cinnamon compote with some oatsy granola-ey stuff sprinkled on top). It was surprisingly tasty. I added some parmesan to the chicken and broccoli. I had a cup of cherries (organic, numsy) and a cup of Blueberry No Carb green tea over ice. Had cantaloupe kiwi water. Total: 613 calories.  Monday's Caloric total: 1809.

Because I had bloodwork at 1:15 pm, I couldn't eat breakfast. So, I had brunch at around 3pm. Curried Chicken Salad (fruity and so good) on a bed of 4 cups of mixed lettuces. One cup lentil soup with 1/2 tsp EVOO. Blueberry No Carb green tea. Pineapple water. Calories: 616

I was really tired in the PM after not sleeping a lot for two days. So, before dinner (after a nice nap) I had a cup of hot tea splashed with organic half n half. (Even though we are having a hot spell with some record breaking heat, I craved a hot cuppa). It felt so luxurious and comforting. I had a cup of lentil soup with 1/2 tsp EVOO and some raspberry pineapple water. Calories: 187

About an hour later, when I felt less groggy-icky,  I had my meal. was gonna make some eggs, since I missed breakfast, but my hubby hadn't eaten his Starbucks sandwich. I took the " guts" and nuked them to get them hot and the cheese melty. (It's black forest ham with a bit of frittata with cheddar on top.) Nice. And gave me protein, as the rest of my meal was vegetarian. And fabulous. On the green rectangular plate: spinach and portabello mushroom orzo and ratatouille. SO GOOD.  Raspberry pineapple water and more tea to drink.

I didn't take a pic, but I had a half-cup of Tasti D-Lites chocolate frozen dairy treat as dessert. It's sugar-free, lowish-carb and low-calorie. And felt like such a splurge. Yum.

Dinner calories:  950   Tuesday Total Calories: 1753.

I still didn't sleep as much as I needed, but got more than  yesterday, so hurray. I got on the scale to see if the salty "guts" I had with dinner made me bloat. The scale was down: 264.2

That is my lowest weigh-in since starting this blog in May of 2007, which you can confirm by scrolling way down my sidebar to see the stats I've kept for three years. That's  lower than what I weighed in January of 2003, when I got weighed and measured for fat, etc, at a local gym. I'm happy. :)

What The Princess Ate Today: In Pictures. Yummy!

Breakfast: 2 eggs plus 2 egg whites scrambled with orange/green/red bell peppers, onions, and baby bella mushrooms with 2% Kraft singles melted on top. A Thomas' English hearty grains muffin with Smart Balance spread and Nature's Hollow sugar-free jams (apricot, strawberry). Coffee. A smoothie made with mango, raspberries, and blueberries with 1/2 cup fat-free milk and a bit of water. So good:

Lunch: Went to Wendy's cause I had a Mandarin Chicken Salad craving (had it for lunch yesterday, too). I had the almonds and all the dressing and I segmented a fresh orange and added it to the salad to up the vitamin C and my count of fruits and veggies. Mmmm. And I love oranges. I drank filtered water witih strawberry slices for flavor. Yum:

Dinner: Well, I didn't wanna cook, so when I was at Wendy's for lunch, I picked up a Southwestern Salad to have for supper. And here it is. I used the lite sour cream they give you and the tortilla strips, but I nixed the dressing. I added a half a cup of chopped tri-color peppers (under the chili, so you can barely see some pieces peeping out the sides) and about a quarter cup of chopped onions on top of the chili, under the cheese. I drank 10 oz of coconut water (to balance the salt content) and more strawberry slices-flavored water:

My Calorie Guesstimating Is Still Primo...Now, If I could Just Get My Dinnertime Appetite in Line

I started logging my food on SparkPeople today. (My user name there is PrincessDieter, for anyone who is in that community.)

It's a bit of a slow-going pain, but I wanted to see how the calories/fat/protein/carbs added up.

I had written what I ate quickly in my diet journal at home, with a pen,the old-fashioned way, and I had guesstimated that breakfast had been roughly 550 calories.

When I entered the food into the nutrition log at SparkPeople, it told me the calorie count was 535. Good huh?

I remember the very first time I went to a dietitian. Not as a chubbyish kid or zaftigish teen (I was normal on the weight charts, but you could tell by looking at my belly and butt and thighs that I was on the higher side). I went as an overweight 29 year old carrying close to 190 pounds. The dietitian quizzed me on calories in meals, and I nailed every single meal she projected on a screen. The surprised look on her face made me think that didn't happen often, if ever. But hey, I liked to read diet books even then, even if they weren't really sticking.

So, I lost about 20 pounds that time. Regained plus. The usual story.

All that to say that the head knowledge of weight loss isn't correlative to the reality of weight loss, but it's still good to be aware. I can't fool myself when I scarf down pizza or cheese enchilada take-away that I'm eating A reasonable number of calories, cause I know dang well it's more like Z. I've seen caloric underestimation in action (just about everyone I know other than my middle sister underestimates how many calories they have at a meal.)

So, I had a pretty decent, high-fiber, highish protein, veggie/fruit enriched breakfast. I already planned what lunch and my snack will be. The crux always tends to be dinner. That's when my appetite goes nuts. It went a bit nuts last night, when I gave in to seconds/dessert temptation and felt pretty stupid, too.

But, fine. It's another day. I started off well, the middle seems manageable, and if I strategize (drink plenty of fluid, have my whey snack a couple hours prior to dinner, have a fiber supplement, too, to start filling me up) then dinner won't defeat me.

Tomorrow, I plan to return to Pilates after a 4 week absence due to this really hideous, lingering flu. I still have some cough (not much), some plegm (not much), some fatigue (middling). The idea of exercising is daunting, cause I am nowhere near my best energy levels. But I plan to eat lots of fruits and veggies today and get a lots of potassium and rest as much as I can before my session tomorrow. I want to recapture the muscle I lost being ill.

I hope I can continue the logging of food at SparkPeople. I tried this before at WW online and really kind of fizzle away. I always have done better at the pen/paper journal of foods (faster). But I want to see the nutrient breakdown, even if it's just for a few weeks to see where I'm lacking/excessive/etc.

I hope today is a great day for all the fatfighters out there. Write down your calories/points. Eat lots of produce. Drink water. Move some. Do that, you and I, and we're halfway to a good food/fitness Tuesday.

Later,

What's On My Plate and Focusing on A Positive

I had a big breakfast. At, like, mid-afternoon, mind you. I was thinking what I really wanted, and thought, "I really want bacon." Now, I haven't had bacon in a while, but there was some in the fridge that I bought Sunday, cause I was craving bacon then. Only that craving passed, so there it sat.

To go with the three rashers of bacon, pork, not turkey--I used to make turkey, but that Oprah show where it was decided pork was better as it had less sodium and about the same calories--I made a small egg-white frittata with onions, tomatoes, and yellow peppers with a sprinkle of 2% cheddar. It came out nice and light and very veggie. I liked it. I wish I'd added zucchini, which I have some, but I got lazy.

The papaya is nice, btw, and I will finish it after this post with my second cup of coffee made in my spanking new Technivorm, which makes gorgeous coffee. I can actually taste the nuances that you read about in reviews of gourmet coffee, but my old Mr. Coffee and Melitta makers never achieved. Gosh, good. I decided to have the whole wheat Englsh muffin to increase my fiber for satiety. I want this meal to hold me through to dinner with hubby, unless he comes home late, in which case, I'm whipping open one of those light soups (a Campbell's select harvest light).

Three glasses of water, too. I have NOT at all been drinking enough. Maybe one cup a day. I know, bad.

It's not the most healthful breakfast, and all told I had 12 points--about 600 calories. This will require a light "lunch" so that I don't go over 900, 1000 max, between both meals. This will let me have a good number of remaining points/calories for supper and still keep me under 1800.

It's good to be conscious again of what's going in the feeder hole. I've just been totally lax in noticing, noting, jotting, calculating, etc. Which is why the weigh-in was scary. (Well, the sodiumfest which was Wednesday--feta cheese loaded Greed salad with lunch yesterday and the Chinese food at dinner--didn't help, either.)

So, I was sitting and munching down on brekkie, and my hand was on my thigh, and I thought, hmmm. Firm. This time last year, I could not have said that. But after months of Pilates, my thighs have density, not just wobbly fattiness. There's muscle there. And the little muscle I celebrated last year on my bicep is now quite comfortably larger and harder. I gotta say, it's really nice to feel solidity here and there when I touch parts of me. I used to kid that all my muscle tissue had disappeared from years of couch potatohood and bingeing, but I was only half-joking. I had become this soft huge blob. Now, I'm a huge blob with more definition and much more muscle.

Things like sitting up in bed or turning to switch off the alarm FEEL different, cause it's easier to roll up. I got me some abdominals under all that adiposity! Even my forearms are denser. My calves.

I figure I should remind myself that I've worked hard in ONE area, at least, and it has benefits.

I need to visualize daily what benefits can come from doing the hard work in other areas.

I've lost ground. Lots of ground. Ten pounds worth of ground. But the war ain't over.

Be of good cheer today, and never give up.