Summer is Here

As I look back over May, I see it largely as a difficult month to stay on track. But every month, really, is difficult if you focus on what you can't have.

There was Mother's Day, followed quickly by my mother's birthday, and that meant cakes and such. We ignored their sweets on Mother's Day but gave in to the chocolate layer cake on her birthday and since then have been struggling to get back on target.

I'd be really good all day, and then at dinner or just after I'd just crumble.

Then the guys from our UK office sent me two boxes of chocolates. One box was easy to resist, since I'm not crazy about chocolate and the texture was too thick and hard to swallow for me. The second box was a tray of Ferrero Rocher. I don't know if I'd ever even tried them before, but that tray was gone in under 48 hours. Not all to me, thank goodness, but plenty of it. Made easier by the lack of nutritional information on the package.

I may have said this before, but I heard about a study that says we only have *so* much self control, so that if we are using it for one activity, we will crumble against other temptations. The example given was that of a person being seated in front of a comedian and told, no matter what, not to laugh. The person focuses on that task and then a big piece of cake is placed in front of them. They are using all their self control on the task given that they don't even notice they've eaten the cake!

I can see the truth of this reflected in my own behavior. On a craving-filled day there's nothing I want more than ice cream or cookies or, ahem, a big bag of chocolate covered raisins. And on a day when something is stressing me out? Boom. Walls are down, and I'm halfway through the bag of Raisinets before I know what hit me.

On a good day I'm a BFC angel and can resist the sweets in the break room. I still don't know if I could resist Ferrero Rocher.

The good thing is, though, that I make the healthiest decisions I am able to at any point. I know where the sugar and the sweeteners hide and I avoid it. Even if I crumble and have a big plate of fries with my burger, I'm drinking club soda or water with lime. I still eat a BFC-approved breakfast every day. When I get up and start right at least I have the opportunity to make it a good day. The rest is up to me.

Yesterday I had a modified mug muffin (after it's cooked I add a 1/2cup of almond milk and a 1/4cup of wild blueberries), which I made in a glass storage container because I was running late. It's still good after my 20m commute! Lunch was two supreme crunch tacos from Taco Bell (would have made chicken salad if I hadn't been running late). I had a think thin chocolate covered nuts protein bar before my martial arts class. I had planned to make myself some eggs and bacon when I got home but by the time I was out of the shower my back was killing me and I couldn't imagine standing long enough to cook (and then washing the pans) so I made dessert instead: 1/6 of a sugar free angel food cake, 1/2c of strawberries and whipped cream. So not much fiber yesterday but still a success! My first fully successful day in a while.

Today I got up early enough to make eggs and bacon, which I had with one piece of Ener-G tapioca bread and coffee. Lunch will be that chicken salad (made with mayonnaise and relish to be quick) on a Joseph's pita with some baby spinach. I am so tempted to plant a garden this summer because I am sick of buying spinach just to find it gross and wet in the bag before the expiration date! Dinner tonight will be nachos, made with Bite Size tostitos, a rotisserie chicken, Nature's Promise chipotle salsa, this "taco dip" sauce we found, sliced peppers, cheese, sour cream and onions. Oh and black olives and shredded cheddar. If you pile on the chicken at least you get your protein and it's something my husband will readily eat. I just need to find a way to add more fiber to it.

I've been tracking my food with MyFitnessPal on my phone but I need to come back to their full website regularly, since the app doesn't give a total for each meal, just for the day. It's easy to think you still have room for another two helpings of carbs when you see 80/120 in the daily report, even though you technically had a serving of carbs at every meal! I'm going to try to find an email address I can send a suggestion to for totaling up each meal.

Okay, so I posted at the beginning of May and at the end. I'll try to do better in June, posting shorter posts, more photos of meals, more recipes and less info dumps!

Holding Steady, Doing Well

Yesterday was my birthday. We went out with friends on Saturday night and I had shrimp scampi with broccoli at dinner. I did have frozen yogurt for dessert, but that's because I'd never been to a Peach Wave before and I wanted to try it out. It was good, though not amazing, so I should be okay even though they built one right in the center of our town. We have an ice cream maker and the java chip recipe I found last year is amazing.

We also found Clemmy's ice cream! It's horribly overpriced (the whole store we got it from is, but they're the only local source of Xylitol). I had a few spoonfuls of chocolate on Sunday night and it was right on par with the ice cream we made. Honestly if I've got the time to make it the homemade ice cream is a bargain compared to $6/pint. :P We also got some Vanilla so I'll maybe have some with some blueberries later this week.

First we have to finish my birthday cake! We made the flourless chocolate cake (with black beans) again, but we doubled the frosting recipe. Should not have. Oh, we were nauseous after from all the extra Xylitol (we also licked the spatulas...)! So we will take it slow finishing the cake. We put fresh raspberries on it which were delicious!

Saw The Pirates! Band of Misfits yesterday. It was super cute, but I'm probably not going to be happy with a movie until I get back to see Hunger Games again with my husband. Now it's just a matter of being stubborn. We were going to see that last night but some friends want to see it too so we'll see it this Sunday. We did try the Kay's Chili Nacho Cheese snacks on Saturday while we were cooking, and they're really good! So we'll have those at the movies this weekend (we forgot to pack them last night so we had Burger King Chicken Strips for dinner and a club soda from the theater).

AMC theaters is really bad about providing Nutritional Information. I was given a really out of date binder last night when I asked, but it did confirm what I pretty much already knew: their pizza is out (88g carbs for a personal) a small popcorn is still too big for one person (IIRC: 70g), two people could split the nachos (~65g) and be okay (except they're gross) and the chicken breast tenders (34g) are really the only tasty option. That's assuming the sugar (which they don't print the info for) is on par with chicken strips from other places. They do now serve unsweetened iced tea (0.5g), but my husband and I both wanted something carbonated.  So us low carbers and those who have no choice, like diabetics, are still SOL when it comes to theater food unless we ignore theater policies and sneak in our own food (no one's ever dropped the apathy long enough to try and take mine away anyway).

A Little Caesar's is opening nearby soon, and there are actually a few tasty options to be had, according to their website nutrition info. Hot wings, with the exception of BBQ, are all close to 0/0, the baby pans are OK, a slice of anything but the pineapple pizzas is fine, and 2-3 cheesy breadsticks are also OK as a meal. Cool! They're right by my martial arts school so I'm sure there'll be some after-class gatherings there. The Yogurt Town also opening next door, I'm assuming, is less accessible but maybe they'll be smart and serve coffee, too.

My standard breakfast lately has been the flax mug muffin with blueberries and almond milk, then lunch is usually a joseph's pita with turkey, spinach and avocado. Dinner varies. Tonight I think we're getting another rotisserie chicken, which I will try to not eat before I can add some veggies to my plate (like last post).

My arms and thighs are not shedding weight like my stomach (my stomach measurement is beyond my goal as of this morning), so I've gotta try and figure out a way to work on them. My arms I know some exercises for but my legs really ought to be benefiting from my martial arts and I'm not sure why they aren't.