Living Maintenance - Maintainers No Excuses 8/17-8/23

Well, the kids all start back to school this week. Yikes!

Today:
3 mile run
pnb toast, berries, protein shake
cc/fruit
salad with protein and carb of some kind
turkey, veggies
1 hr weights
protein shake

Let's skip over the weekend. I was so sleepy and out of it after the race yesterday that I have no idea what I ate. It involved a lot of watermelon and pasta, that's about all I remember.

Monday:
B - peach, blueberries, raspberries, lf yogurt, lf granola
S - grapes
L - leftover: mushrooms, long beans, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes (baked)
S - :o succumbed to the unanticipated dessert buffet at a meeting. One raspberry cheesecake bite, mini brownie, small piece of cake with orange filling, cherries jubilee. :o :o :o Skipping my planned snacks to somewhat make up for it.
S - piece of challah
D - lamb curry with apples and rice
E - rest day, short walk with the dog

So interesting this weekend. I had planned to go off plan. I enjoyed one wonderful meal out, including splitting dessert, and a day of wine tasting with a big picnic of wine and cheese and turkey, etc. And then I had a piece of birthday cake last night. I had PLANNED for this.

But what I had not planned for is how bad it would make my BODY feel. Back on plan today, gladly!

B - French toast w/ egg beaters, sliced peach
S - Grapes
L - Tuna sandwich on sourdough, homemade pickle
S - Popcorn
S - Yogurt
D -
S - NSA Ice cream, berries

E - 60 min incline trainer, 40 min UB/LB

Sunday I also planned an 'off plan' evening, and also felt a little icky when it was over...

Sunday:
E - off day
B: kashi go lean w/ skim, blueberries & mango, coffee
L: pb&j, mango/blueberry/strawberry blend
Ss: kashi go lean w/skim, blueberries & mango again, 4 veggie chips, 100cal mini bagel w/ 1 slice thin turkey
D: at ballgame - hotdog w/chili, sheese & jalapeno, soft pretzel, after game rained out - sonic cherry limeade creamslush

Today:
E - planning strength training and light cardio when I get home
B: smoothie, coffee
S: kiwi, blueberries, grapes
L: grilled chicken salad
S: yogurt, string cheese
D: grilled chicken with peppers over rice
S: depends - most likely some kind of fruit, coffee

Hmmm, I had a off-plan lunch on Sat, and didn't actually feel too bad.......

Here's the plan for a nasty, cold, rainy day...

B - cheerios with walnuts, 1/2 banana, raspberries, skim milk; 1/2 ww bagel w/pb; :coffee:
S - ff latte
L - leftover "swiss chard lasgna," 2 oz grilled chicken
S - peach/banana smoothie
D - probably more leftover chicken, DH is out

Ex: 1 hour LBWO - done!

[QUOTE=WaterRat;2879691"swiss chard lasgna,"[/QUOTE]

What is that?

mmmm....Swiss chard lasagne intrigues me, as well!

I've already had my breakfast, morning snacks, lunch, string cheese & added in a SBD Cinnamn Creme protein bar... I have my yogurt left for snack this afternoon and am starving here at 3:22. I really need to hold off on the yogurt for at least half an hour or I'll eat something else out of my drawer... I'm thinking I'll make some tea... I know my starving today is from my 68% carb ratio yesterday... :eek:

Ugh. I had a run-in with some desserts at work. We had a big meeting to talk about our new building (we outgrew this one and are relocating to a new building a couple miles away) and I had no idea that there was going to be a dessert buffet at the meeting. When I walked in I was fine, because it was right after lunch and I was still full. But the meeting lasted an hour, and I usually have a snack at 2:00, and I admit it, I hit the buffet. The only victory is that I didn't take one of everything. That's something, right? Better than I would have done when I was fat.

I need to get back on the wagon with a vengeance. I keep saying that, but I keep not doing it. :sigh:

Ah, swiss chard lasagna is a concoction I made up yesterday. :) I took a casserole dish, layered it with swiss chard (cut up), ricotta cheese mixed with an egg and with nutmeg in it and grated parmesan/romano; and repeat. Then I topped it with left over jarred spag sauce (no meat) and a last topping of cheese. Baked at 350 for about 30 min.It was tasty. I didn't put in enough chard so I ended up putting the hot stuff over some uncooked, and it wilted enough. I also cooked some more and added it to the left overs. We had it with grilled chicken breasts. I have enough swiss chard to feed a small country. :lol:

Pat - that sounds pretty good to me! I might just give it a try! I've been looking at Swiss Chard in the store off and on for weeks now but couldn't think of how to use it...

That sounds GOOD! Plus my 9 yo dd's "secret ingredient" that she loves to use is nutmeg. She'll be thrilled!

Basically, besides using up swiss chard :) , I mixed the filling for stuffed shells/manicotti, but didn't add the greens, using them for the matrix instead. I would have made my own spag sauce, but we had 1/2 jar left from when DH was last on his own. Be sure to cut the chard up before you cook it, it's hard to cut after. (And I cut the ribs out. You can use them in place of celery in things, but I don't like the texture, so my friend's chickens get them). :shrug:

Today:
no run, early meeting and I just couldn't do it today
pnb toast, berries, protein shake
cc/berries
turkey/spinach/tomatoes/cheddar, tortilla
dinner? going to my sil's, will make good choices.

Tuesday:
B - raisin bran, raspberries, blueberries, skim milk
S - grapes
L - leftover flank steak with corn and tomato relish
S - plum, apple w/laughing cow lite
D - pasta w/sauce and 1 T parmesan, 2 ears corn, roasted cauliflower
S - piece of challah w/jelly, nsa pumpkin cheesecake pudding
E - NRLW S3W1A

Yesterday - was peer pressured into the smallest sliver of cake I could physically cut (I think the outside edge was 1/3 in, at most). Scale is still mighty displeased from this weekend.

B - French toast w/ egg beaters, peach
S - Frozen Grapes
L - Leftovers - Grilled chicken breast, roasted potato, chard
S - Popcorn
S - Watermelon
D - Pork tenderloin and long bean stirfry, brown rice
S - NSA Ice Cream

E - 60 min incline trainer, 40 min abs/legs

Yesterday came in just fine with calories even with the added protein bar mid afternoon. I had lowfat vanilla yogurt with mango, blueberries & pineapple for my evening snack and it was fantastic!

Today:
E: 35 pushups, 45 mins elliptical done
B: smoothie, coffee
S: blueberries, grapes, string cheese
L: grilled chicken salad
S: lowfat vanilla yogurt with mango, blueberries & pineapple, maybe some train mix
D: not sure - either PB&J or fish sticks I think. I might do PB&J even is DSS has fish sticks...
S: kashi go lean crunch w/skim, mango

I am having trouble dealing with all of the temptations around this house. I am hormonal, and I am realizing just how much of my success was about moderating my environment. The house is full of cookies, crackers, a birthday cake, some chocolate-caramel macadamia clusters, breadsticks...well, you get the idea. I'm keeping snacking to a minimum, but not out completely, and the bites are adding up!

B - French toast, sliced peach
S - Grapes
L - Pork and long bean stirfry w/ brown rice
S - Watermelon
S - Popcorn
D - Rosemary Garlic Roast Beef w/ Mushroom Gravy, Polenta, sauteed squash and cherry tomatoes.
S - NSA Ice Cream

E - 60 min incline trainer, 20 min arms, walk to store

Stay strong Amanda. It won't be forever. :)

Yesterday I never got here, but it was an okay day, though there was a bite of cheesecake at the end. ....

B - oatmeal with raspberries, walnuts, skim milk; 1/2 ww bagel with pb; :coffee:
s - hard boiled egg
L - cold grilled chicken breast, broccoli, tomato
S - smoothie (almond milk, banana, peach)
D - ?? Probably grilled steak with salad and veggies

Ex: cardio, done though not my best showing.....

I'm having a major fat day today. Like, my stomach feels like it has a balloon inside of it. Ugh. At least I avoided the ice cream social yesterday.

Wednesday:
B - 1/4 santa claus melon, small bowl of oatmeal squares w/skim milk
L - leftover pasta and lamb curry
S - plum, apple
D - roasted potatoes (with ketchup & bbq sauce), two ears of corn, salad w/lf dressing
S - the tiny bit of SF pumpkin cheesecake pudding that was left
E - rest day

I think I feel so fat because I ate a whole lot of red meat the past few days. I almost never cook red meat at home -- we usually have poultry -- but last week I cooked flank steak and this week I cooked lamb, so we have been eating lots of leftovers. Somehow "lean lamb stew meat" seems to have a massive quantity of fat on it. :p I never used to understand how someone could ever become bulimic, but today I finally do, because my stomach just feels disgusting. (No, I'm not going to go make myself throw up, I just finally understand the desire to do so.)

Amanda - I have to keep some things out of my environment, too, especially when I'm hormonal and crazy... Hope it gets better soon! :)

Jessica - I wouldn't think about lean lamb stew having a lot of fat myself.

Yesterday ended up fine - I had a PB&J for dinner with a carefully measured 20g serving of my veggie chips, cereal with skim for a snack, stayed mostly snack free at work.

Today has been weird so far, so I'm going to have to struggle not to snack. I didn't bring my normal snacks because I knew I would be in and out of the office, had my half sandwich with a cup of black coffee before exercising at 7:15am because I woke up starving to death, planned on a bowl of cereal when I first got to work, but that didn't happen.... Ran out for an appointment to evaluate an occupational medicine clinic, didn't get to eat again until 2pm, when I had my salad. So, not hungry now post salad, but I'm probably 300 cals below where I normally am at this point...

Tuesday:
E: strength training circuit, some ab work, 7 miles on the stationary bike done
B: 1/2 pb&j, black coffee
L: strawberry poppyseed chicken salad & 2 ounces of french baguette from Panera
S: kashi go lean w/ 2%, trail mix or protein bar maybe?
D: pasta with red sauce, ground chicken breast, peppers
S: depends on the calories left - probably yogurt with some fruit or another

Thursday:
B - oatmeal squares, raspberries, blueberries
S - four grapes
L - lean cuisine chicken and vegetables
S - the rest of the grapes, plum
D - pasta w/homemade sauce, made from: homegrown tomatoes, onions, garlic, homegrown fresh herbs, mushrooms, spinach, a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and it was SO GOOD. Plus green beans.
S - 1/4 santa claus melon, half glass of chocolate milk
E - NRLW S3W1B

I seem to be finally weaning myself off of my morning snack. Yay! I'm trying to embrace the hunger and say if I get hungry at 10:30, I can hold out until noon and just wait for lunch. Up next is weaning myself off of an afternoon snack (so that if I get hungry at 4, I will just wait until I get home).

Jessica - I go nuts without a morning snack and afternoon snack. Sometimes I have more than one of each, actually! But, I have a small lunch...

Yesterday came in 250 under my calorie norm...

Today:
E: 50 mins elliptical, some stretching done
B: smoothie, coffee
S: strawberries, blueberries, 2% mozzarella string cheese
L: grilled chicken salad
S: trail mix, plain fat free yogurt w/ blueberries, blackberries, raspberries & pineapple, apple w/ laughing cow lite
D: shrimp stir fry over rice
S: most likely more yogurt w/ fruit. Or Cracker Jacks - DH found the 3 packs of 120 cal boxes at Wal Mart. :)

I cannot go without a morning snack, though I probably skip my afternoon one 1/3 of the time, unless I'm doing an evening workout, then I make sure to have one.

Yesterday was good. I wanted another piece of the cheescake at work, but I waiting too long, and it was all gone! SO I stayed OP by chance. :lol:

B - cheerios with walnuts/raspberries/skim milk; 1/2 ww bagel w/pb; :coffee:
S - grr, I had an eye doc appt at 9, which ran very late, and I had nothing with me.... McD's sausage biscuit, iced latte (ff, no sugar)
L - salad with little bit of salmon, little bit of fake crab, tomato, beans, peas, beets, romaine and spinach
S - Choice of: banana/peach protein shake, HB egg
D - Salmon, peas and/or beets (fresh from the garden), and ??

Ex: woke up with a headache, took drugs and went back to bed - a rest day.

The problem is that I've been having one morning snack and three afternoon snacks lately, and eating them even if I'm not hungry. I want to taper down to just one afternoon snack, and make my breakfast and lunch a little larger.

You guys will laugh at this one -- I mistyped "amounts" as "amounds" and instantly had a craving for a Mounds bar. Lucky for me our vending machine doesn't have Mounds or Almond Joy!

Hey Pat, OP is OP in my book, either by chance or by design!

Jessica - :rofl: about the 'amounds' triggered craving... I've done similar things myself before!

Speaking of craving, I'm headed down to get my yogurt. Never done the fruit in plain yogurt before so I'm hoping I don't hate it... If it is terrible my fallback snack is Kashi Go Lean... :crossed:

The plain yogurt with fruit was pretty icky to me. I guess I need that little bit of vanilla flavoring... Might try it adding vanilla extract... might cut my losses and go back to the other yogurt, save the fruit for smoothies. I put in a little stevia and ate it anyway, but it was pretty ick.

Shannon - I go with "mooshable" fruit, and add a bit of sweetener (I use a sugar free vanilla torani, but that's Splenda). It helps!

So busy today!

B - French toast. No peach - no time!
S - Oatmeal apricot cookie
L - Leftovers: Beef roast, sauteed squash, polenta
S - Popcorn
S - Peach
D - Roasted veggie pasta w/ ground chicken, one slice rosemary bread (being made lovingly by our houseguest...told her I could only have a very little bit).
S - NSA Ice Cream...Last night, succeeded in avoiding the cake and alcohol, and had a small cookie with my ice cream. Progress!

E - 60 min cardio, bike ride to PT, PT, bike ride home, want to do some arms but we'll see, since the PT woman did the evil technique that causes my shoulder muscle to seize and spasm.

Shannon, you may also need to try a different brand. I find that plain yogurt varies a lot from brand to brand.... And Amanda is right, a good mushy fruit, like frozen strawberries/raspberries that would mix in totally rather than be a piece of fruit surrounded by yogurt - if that makes sense. :)

Smooshable fruit would probably work better - this was all fresh fruit, and the only one that was kind of squishy was the mango... the pineapple, raspberry & blueberry held up pretty well... No smooshing. :)

About to go to bed and today is another 250 cals under target day... Weird. DH has started watching what he eats more closely and I find I'm eating less as he eats less...

Shannon, I can't stand plain yogurt. It has to have some sort of sweetener to be remotely palatable to me. (And I can't stand artificial sweeteners, so this means either sugar or honey.)

My cutting out the morning snack is totally working. Weight is down this week. Woohoo!

Friday:
B - oatmeal squares, raspberries, blueberries, skim milk
L - @work two slices of veggie pizza, one slice cheese pizza :o
S - plum, apple w/laughing cow lite
D - probably leftovers, possibly pinto bean skillet chili w/rice
E - none planned

You know what really burns me up? This week, with houseguests, with the exception of two meals on Saturday night and Sunday lunch, I have limited myself to ONE small treat a day. A half inch edged slice of cake. One cookie I baked. No wine except on the weekend. Cooked OP meals every night so we could all eat healthy stuff together and I'd have OP lunches. One small treat, on top of my 1400 calorie days and regular amounts of exercise and tons of water, except for last weekend when I was higher. And my scale? IS UP SEVEN POUNDS. I'll own a pound for last weekend (Worth it)...but I KNOW that I'm not up 6 additional pounds of extra fat, so it must be water. Six pints of water. Just call me spongey.

Anywho. Guests are gone, so its back to eliminating the 200 calorie treat and trying to force some of the water weight out. But seriously. SIX PINTS!

B - French toast, peach
S - Grapes
L - WW Pasta, ground chicken, roasted veggies, tomato sauce
S - Popcorn
D - Grilled flank steak salad
S - NSA Ice Cream, Berries

E - 60 min cardio, abs, arms, legs

Amanda - that is a lot of water! It will come back off, but it sure is annoying to see it I know! Glad your house is getting back to normal!

I could not drag my lazy self out of bed to exercise this morning, and the extra hour in bed was such a waste... I was mostly awake from 6:30 on anyway... should have made myself get up and get dressed...

Today:
E: strength training and light cardio when I get home
B: tea, smoothie, coffee, 2 terra veggie chips
S: grapes, strawberries, string cheese, one baked cinnamon sugar pita chip
L: grilled chicken salad
S: vanilla yogurt w/ mango, pineapple, berries, an apple w/ lite swiss laughing cow
D: don't know yet... either tacos or vindaloo chicken with wild rice
S: depends on dinner

I aruged with myself and lost, Shannon, so I did a good LBWO at the gym. :) And that means that Friday night is free. Today is DH's birthday, so I have to plan a piece of cake into my day. (I made it yesterday and he took it to a meeting he was at, so 1/2 is gone... )

B- oatmeal with 1/2 banana/raspberries/skim milk; :coffee:
S - hard boiled egg, 3 crackers
L - Out - some sort of salad most likely
S - salmon spread (i.e. salmon/cream cheese, spices)
D - ?? DH hasn't decided if he wants to go out today or tomorrow, or at all.... Men! Oh, a small piece of cake!

EX: LBWO - done.

Pat - I feel a little run down gross right now, so I almost feel like I lost the argument with myself this morning by not exercising! :)

Ok, time to own up and start posting here because I am getting out of hand!

B: granola bar (I overslept)
L: roasted turkey on wheat bread, pickle, corn chips
S: two cookies at conference
S: mixed nuts (while cooking dinner)
D: polenta w/ spinach, tomatoes, and peas (from Trader Joe's), annie's chocolate graham bunnies for dessert
annnnd.... 2 and a half glasses of wine

I think my I need a little bit of work here. Today and recent days have not been horrible, but not nutritious enough and I want to get back to eating well!

Today:
E: 7.5 miles at the park
B: 1/2 pb&j, black coffee before run
L: grilled chicken salad
S: more coffee
D: ground turkey breast chili - DH made it and it had fabulous flavor, was low sodium & lo-cal! :) Had some multigrain saltines & a beck's light with it
S: mayfield cookie dough ice cream - discovered it today, only 160 cals per serving! Lower than the froyo I had planned on getting.