Still here! (reprise)

It's been a life and a half since I last posted, I haven't been good lately about updating online. Just too busy!

I've been doing my best to stick to the tenets I learned from the BFC but until this week my husband and I haven't completely been sticking to it. Since I last weighed in.. oh I don't even remember when!  I had gained 8.4 pounds (largely attributable to the recent visits by Msrs. Ben and Jerry). Not as much as I thought it would be when I stepped on the scale, but still a shame to take those steps backward. I still fit in all the new and resized pants, at least, though the one "measuring" pair of jeans has definitely been tight lately.

So Monday morning I weighed in at 156.8, and we put aside the brownies and BBQ ribs from my husband's birthday and went back on plan. Summer grilling season makes it a lot easier to rededicate ourselves, and I'm really hoping not to take the 'days off' from the BFC that my husband insists on (though we've already talked about what to eat on Friday when we go to Bertucci's with friends).

I'm also trying this time not to rely on grains as much. Every meal last time through was built around the bread or the buns or the pasta and the rice. What a waste! Not enough to make us satisfied but enough to force us to cut back on the rest of the goodies.

Our store did start stocking the Ener-G Tapioca bread, though, which (if memory serves) is 10g of carbs per slice instead of the usual 15 - 18. Might be some sugars in it, not sure. I do know we can have a very satisfying French Toast breakfast using it. French Toast may well be my favorite remaining food (since sushi rolls really don't work for the BFC, boo!).

Tonight we're having Carne Asada on tortillas and loading up the rest of our meal with veggies. We didn't use a lot of veggies the first time through because the S/C values were so hard to determine on our own, and I always erred on the side of caution. So I left out almost everything! Not in the plans, this time. It's easy enough to look stuff up, and I'll err on the side of more vegetables!

My husband just started some contract work so now we have to figure out how to pack lunches for him. Usually at home he works around mid-day exercise and has a protein/psyllium shake for lunch. Not anymore!

Also found the thinkThin bars locally and ordered a bunch more off Amazon. Hoping they can help me on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I go straight from work to martial arts (I've begun assisting my instructor so I can work toward becoming an instructor myself). Last night I think I ate it too early - after two back-to-back classes I was ready to drop and my muscles said "Nope!"  So tomorrow I'll try it a little later, around 4:30 instead of 3:30. I was just in the habit of eating at 3:30 from when I'd pack food that needed more digesting before I started jumping and kicking. I also forgot to take my vitamins yesterday.

I still have that old problem of not being able to take my vitamins comfortably with anything. After lunch today I took them with the rest of my unsweetened iced tea and I'm still gagging and feeling unhappy. Just about the only thing that's worked so far is the Magnesium Powder I found on Amazon (raspberry lemonade only, the orange is chalky!), and only until it completely dissolves. It's as though the rule for swallowing vitamins is that the liquid can't be translucent! And yet almond milk still doesn't work. Guess I could try the unsweetened almond+coconut milk that we just started buying. Orange Juice has always worked the best for me, so when I finally reach my goal I'll see what happens if I use half a glass to take my vitamins in the morning.

I was getting really sick and tired of the taste and texture of F-Factor cereal, and Shop Rite took pity on me and stopped stocking it. That'll teach me to pity myself! So I got two new cereals to try.

The first is Optimum Slim, which I had a bowl of last night after I got home from class.

When I saw it I couldn't believe that I could fit it into the BFC. Look at that! It looks like a commercial cereal for adults who still have the sweet tooth of kids! Now there are no peaches in there but their prescribed serving size of a cup still has 6g of sugar, so I had 3/4 of a cup to bring it down under 5g. It tastes as good as it looks, and the different textures are great. Not having to add powdered cinnamon and Truvia for flavor (like I would with the F-Factor) is a major plus.

The second cereal, Cinnamon Simply Fiber, hasn't been tasted by me yet. My husband made quite the face and said "You can tell this one has 0g sugar in it!"

I thought he'd like it because of the cinnamon in it, but the tube shapes are very dry. He only tasted a pinch, though, without any liquid. I suggested maybe these would do better heated like grape-nuts. At least there's room for some Truvia!

We bought some Coconut oil a few weeks ago and are going to try the coffee mug Skinny Muffins in the mornings before work. I think we need a test-run though to figure out how long it really takes to prepare, cook and eat them. I'm not good about leaving myself time to do everything in the morning!

Has anyone here tried the Barlean's products? Are they worth the hassle and cost of buying them if I can only find them on Amazon?

Portions of the concrete walls of our future Whole Foods have been erected, but it looks like it could easily take until Winter before they open. Boo! I need me some Clemmy's, LOL! At least we have the ice cream maker for the summer.

Still here!

I haven't posted since September... wow! The end of 2011 really got away from us.

A month after my last post, we had yet ANOTHER major storm and ANOTHER week without power. Which meant dumping our special order BFC friendly food. It was a major killer of our motivation, and while I did largely try to stick to the plan, there were definitely times when we just didn't care enough!

Add to that the stress of the holidays, and a decision to relaunch my webcomic, I was not able to prioritize the diet. I resolved to kick it back into gear on Jan 1, and we didn't stress about what we ate during the holidays that were already stressful enough. No regrets there!

Thankfully the year ended not too far from my best weight. I only went up about 5 pounds after eating with abandon - I think because I really did try to stick to the diet wherever I was able. So the starbucks sugary lattes and mashed potatoes didn't send me back to the beginning.

So now we're a week into the diet. Since Fridays always trip us up, we decided just to indulge on that day of the week. It gives us something to look forward to, making it easier to stay resolute on the other days. And we still end up doing fairly well when we know the rules are suspended.

I haven't had a chance to weigh in since New Years Eve, but I do keep myFitnessPal updated, so the ticker there is accurate, even if my comic is keeping me too busy to post every single day.

As for what I eat, breakfast is 2 eggs, 2 bacon and 1 Ezekiel bread toasted when I have time (hopefully today!), or F-Factor or Cheerios with Almond Milk and some sausage when I don't. Lunch has been a lot of soup, but I'm getting pretty tired of soup so I will start to make tuna or egg salad to have on my pitas again. Three nights a week my dinners are light since I'm headed to class. I found an organic Miso/Ramen Soup that is so easy and I love. The other nights my husband and I usually try to pick something from Jorge's book. Tonight is the Club Sandwich with Pirate's booty and a salad.

I want to focus on more vegetables, but I still need to really sit down and figure out how to maximize fiber from veggies without picking up too many sugars.

Anyway, there! Updated and moving along! My goal for the year, weight-wise, is to reach and maintain 130lbs.

I don't know if I'll check in again this week. I have an essay to write for my belt promotion exam in Soo Bahk Do, and I'm getting a little behind on my comic.

This year, despite what the comic would have you believe, I plan to simplify my obligations. I do a lot of painting and sewing and design for other people and it leaves me with very little spare time where I can just say "What do I feel like doing today?" Usually I already have a to-do list of things that are weighing on my mind, and I need to cut that out so I can enjoy my 30s before they're gone. ;)

Whoo!

Scale this morning says I'm down 3.2 pounds, so I guess my mostly behaving wasn't getting me too deep in trouble. F-Factor cereal for both breakfasts so far this work week. That stuff has 17g of fiber per serving, so it really kick-starts the loss of the false fat.

Dinner tonight is burgers. I found these really soft sandwich rolls that fit in the plan, and when I had one on Sunday I decided that I could probably cut out the middle third of the bun and still have plenty to hold the sandwich in (I put hot sauce on the burger and couldn't even taste it with all the bread in the bun!).

I think I'm coming down with something, though. My mom has bronchitis - and has for a long time - so I figure if I don't load up on the Vitamin C and the Zinc, I'll end up just as sick (though I won't wait months to go to the doctor!).

Here's another fun earrings photo:

I have had the hardest time getting back to good BFC behavior. I got very thrown off by the hurricane last month and I spent the entire month being good for breakfast and lunch and then eating whatever sounded good for dinner.

My husband has decided that, while he's going to try and make better choices, he's not strictly following the BFC anymore. I'm trying to just be thankful he'll still mostly eat it when we eat together. And since making that decision he's been mostly good. A package of Halloween Oreos and a carton of milk, but mostly good.

Or as mostly good as I've been, anyway. I would really like to see that scale turn around again, though, and so I'm keeping my eye out for a Fast Track book. I want to see the recipes before I start it. The way the free PDF menu was presented, there's no way I can get my husband to sign on. But he doesn't like repeated meals. I can live on leftovers forever but I knew just skimming it that we'd need more variety for my husband's palate!

So I want to see the recipes offered before dropping the cash on the book.

I'm actually interested in getting all my carbs and fiber from vegetable sources, but I need to research it because it seems like the ones with fiber are also the ones with sugar. And I am NOT a fan of bell peppers which tends to limit the recipes I can select from.

On Friday we had bulgolgi and those spicy asian green beans from Healthy Indulgences. Threw in some Shiritake noodles and it was EXCELLENT. So I think Friday was actually a <15/6 day! But every other day has gone over in one spot or another.

Yesterday was the only day I could say I didn't strictly adhere but also didn't end up eating something crazy, even with the cupcakes that we were sent home with from a friend's house on Saturday.

Today it was back to F-Factor for breakfast, Joseph's Pita Turkey sandwich for lunch and dinner.. well I don't know what I'm having for dinner yet. Possibly Oatmeal, as I find I definitely don't have time to cook for real on days I go to class (or I'd have bacon and eggs), and I need to stop at the post office on the way home.

I also have had a really hard time getting back to my usual class schedule for Martial Arts, so I think it's a general malaise thanks to really being thrown off by the hurricane.

Did I mention I found a Belly-friendly Latte option for Starbucks? It's still definitely a 'sometimes food' (as Cookie Monster would say), but it's delicious and I actually found I prefer it to the Pumpkin Spice Latte (and yes, I slipped up and had two - and both times wished I'd gone for something permissible!)

So I call it the "Special" -  a tall (12 oz) double-shot (because normally tall comes with one shot) half caff/ decaf (because caffeine is bad for our brain function and other nerves) latte made with Heavy Cream (not half & half! don't let them say "Oh, Breve, got it"), topped with whipped cream and powdered cinnamon. If only they had a sugar free syrup this sucker would get every box checked off on the side of the coffee cup! (I figure I get extra credit because they need to write a lot of it out!)

The double-shot is to cut back on the heavy cream necessary to fill the cup. I estimate there are about 8 tbsp of from-the-carton heavy cream in this drink, and myFitnessPal calculates this to be 4.8g of carbs and 1g sugar. Much improved over the 25g of carbs in a venti breve latte! And less calories because even though I'm drinking it with HC, I'm having 1/3 of the total size. So it's just over 400cal instead of over 700cal (I know we don't count calories, or fat or protein, but there's still that "use common sense" in the back of my head). But it is 24g of sat fat, might as well dunk some pork chops in it! So like I said, Jorge gave us free rein on the fat and protein but I won't be having this every day. And certainly not within a week of any insulin-triggering slip-ups.

Also, it costs the same as the venti breve latte, so there's another good reason not to have it too often!

And for no good reason but fun, I'll leave you with a photo of the new earrings I got on Friday:

Belly Blasted

Down 3.6 pounds from my peak weight of the last week!

Husband agreed to planning better for the weekends, so this Friday we'll try little pita pizzas. Saturday we haven't decided but we have a couple days before I stop for the groceries on Friday.

Managed to wake up and get ready with enough time left to make a hot breakfast, which was toast, eggs and bacon. Sipping my coffee with benefiber now. Rainy gray day, I'm thinking it's a two-coffee morning.

Restocking the Fridge, Refusing to Give In

I admit Autumn is a hard time for me to diet. Too many things I love about the seasonal food: Apple Pie, Pumpkin Bread, Caramel this and that, Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, Thanksgiving, oh my!

So this will be my real challenge ahead. There's a bit of a nip in the air and the leaves have started changing colors. Time to think up some substitutions - and fast!

We shopped for groceries the other night to restock the fridge from the ground up. I finally remembered we had a HUGE bag of frozen salmon steaks that we'd only had one dinner made from, and now I'm sad (and also unwilling to re-buy that bag of steaks until hurricane season is over!). The only thing we had was soup and cereal! I had to place an order from CarbSmart for ketchup and barbecue sauce - we can eat a lot of things with the help of condiments. But $19 for two kinds of condiments? Ouch!

So today is day 2 of being 100% back on the game. My body is already moving things right along, as it were. Martial Arts tonight, and then again Thursday night.

I just need a plan for this weekend. We never plan Friday - Saturday meals and I think that's why we always get in trouble (that and we have a friend who comes over on Fridays and I think it's too easy to assume cooking is more trouble than it's worth).

So I'm going to hope that being aware of that weakness is half the battle. I'll mention it to my husband and we'll see if we can't figure out something for Friday that's simple to make.

Thursday night we are going a bit fatty with our dinner, as it's the start of Football season, but it fits the count, even if most people would be horrified at the calories. ;)

So I'm back to using myFitnessPal and avoiding the food I crave. Lots of water, focusing on fiber.

Here we go (again)!

Irene Hit Hard

Good morning everyone, I'm back after losing power for a week thanks to Irene passing through our area and attempting to drag all our trees behind her. I've never had such a hard time with a power outage, and I think '87 was the last time we lost power for more than a day. Even in the 2003 East Coast outage we had our power back later the same day it went out.

So even though I attempted to stock up with soup and such, we had nothing to eat by the third day, and the entire fridge was wasted. We began eating and showering at the shelter set up at our high school, and so there was little way to avoid eating the usual 'healthy' fare of fruits and carbs. My husband and I agreed not to stress it - we were stressed enough! - and just resume our diet after life was kind enough to return to normal.

We capped it off last night by having Chinese Food after the power came back on, since our fridge was empty and our local grocery store had also lost power (and product) for most of the week.

So I was unsurprised this morning when I stepped on the scale and saw I'd gained 4.6 pounds. I imagine that will mostly fall off quickly if we return to the plan with haste.

So back to F-Factor cereal (17g of fiber, work your magic!). I considered making myself some eggs and bacon until I remembered there was nothing but an echo in the fridge. I did stop at Starbucks on my way into work, and had them make my "Breve" latte with heavy cream (they have no Light Cream) and a triple shot. No, I don't plan on making this a habit - the more 'customized' your coffee, the more it costs, anyway! But I wanted SOME kind of reward this morning, and it was a $5 coffee or a $35 pedicure. ;)

I had planned on finishing my Chinese food today for lunch but with the Heavy Cream in my coffee I'd better stick to the plan today. I'll probably get a flatbread sandwich from Dunkin Donuts for lunch, or maybe a couple tacos from Taco Bell.

We are going to the Cheesecake Factory tomorrow for an early dinner. I'll probably have a couple bites of someone's dessert, but mostly I'm looking forward to a repeat of the salmon and asparagus I had at a Cheesecake Factory last summer in New Jersey. We were in a hotel room without a fridge then, so I didn't get to take my leftovers with me, and that has haunted me to this day. That's why we waited for the power to come back on to go!

Now that we have to restock everything I am hoping to make very good choices at the grocery store. Maybe start by shopping directly off of a Jorge week's menu. Though I find his choices are typically very low in fiber, so we'll see if I don't end up modifying it.