Stuff I Just Bought For This Diet

I just went to the grocery store to get more Arizona Diet Green Tea with Ginseng, because I absolutely love that stuff, and it has 0 calories. Unfortunately, they were out, so I threw a short temper tantrum (in my mind, I didn’t actually make a scene), and bought other things to calm me down. I ended up with several boxes of Special K cereal bars (90 calories each), lots of fruit (already chopped and mixed in bowls - ready to eat), and some low fat popcorn. Just knowing I have munchies makes up for the lack of the tea. I will need to find some place that has the tea though. I really love it.

Fake Eggs And Salsa

I decided to give fake eggs a try. I guess they aren’t really fake, but they aren’t exactly real either. I’m talking about those liquid eggs that come in a carton (like a milk carton). They are fat free and cholesterol free. I believe they are really just egg whites with yellow coloring added. In any case, I scrambled some of that up this morning with a little salsa to make my own version of heuvos rancheros (fakos rancheros). How’d they taste? Well…they were edible. A little on the dry side, but not bad. I added a miniature whole wheat bagel with nofat cream cheese to the meal, and the combination was a good one. Not a bad little breakfast this morning.

I haven’t yet planned out the menu for the rest of the day yet, (or been “informed” either), so I’ll let you know later what that will be.

Menu For Today

Ok, so breakfast was a little egg burrito thingy that was about 150 calories. Lunch ended up being a quick slice of roast beef on whole grain bread, with a bit of dijon mustard. Both of those were basically, “quick, last minute, thrown-together” ideas. Dinner will be a little more thoughtfully planned. I’ve been “informed” that we are having baked salmon with cilantro, zucchini, spinach, and mushrooms. I say “informed” because it implies “against my will”. I don’t like salmon. Blech, icky. But I’m told it’s only 2 oz. I mean, how hard could it possibly be to eat 2 oz. of anything. Just one shove, and it’s gone, right? Then, I’ll cover up the nasty taste with lots of cilantro. (I love cilantro). I’ve also been informed that if I eat all my salmon, like a good little girl, I might get a turkey meatball sandwich for dinner tomorrow. That sounds really yummy, and it’s actually on the diet menu, so I’m excited about that. (Oh, and now I’ve been told that I get a baked apple for dessert tonight. Cool, that’ll get rid of the yucky salmon taste).

Surviving Super Bowl

The Super Bowl was a really great game, and yes, I cheated. Not much though. I had some whole grain chips and salsa. I mean, how bad is that, right? Right? Anyway, today everything returns to normal. Grandkids are back home, so no distractions there, and no major events to mess with me. I did have to bring my car in to get repairs done bright and early this morning, so I haven’t yet figured out what the meals will be for today, but that’s next on my to-do list. Plus, today I’ll exercise. Got my little dumbbells sitting here staring at me, so there’s no chance of me forgetting.

The routine isn’t established yet, and that’s the biggest problem for me so far. I’ve been in the same routine for years, so changing that is the hard part. Once the new routine actually becomes a routine, it should be a lot easier. So, now I’m off to scour recipes and such so I can work up some menu ideas. Later, y’all.

We need your support! Even if it’s just wishing us luck every now and then, we’d be grateful. Of course, linking to the contest orbecoming a sponsor would be very cool too, and would be appreciated by the winning charity, I’m sure!

Stream of Consciousness Thoughts

I’m totally digging on whole grain bread. Personally, I would have been eating whole grain breads, but my family wanted white bread. Now that it’s a must, I am totally enjoying it. Not totally digging on some of the whole wheat crackers I bought though. Some are fine…some taste like cardboard. Had tofu for the first time in years. Not sooo bad, though it will never go on my list of things I actually WANT. Brown rice. Yuck. I’ve never been a fan of wild rice or brown rice. I’m not sure I can enjoyably make the transition from white to brown rice. Maybe the taste will grow on me with time.

Exercise. I haven’t done any yet. Wait, not totally true. I did take a 15 minute power walk yesterday, and I’ve been running around after my 2 year old granddaughter all day today. Does that count? But I haven’t yet started on a real “regimen”, with weights and everything. Between the kids and the fake hangover I had today, it just didn’t happen. The kids go home tomorrow, so maybe then I can get into some kind of diet routine.

That’s the stream of thoughts for now.

Is There Such A Thing As A Diet Hangover?

Wow, I’ve felt like I’ve had a hangover all day. The only problem with that is that the closest thing to alcohol I’ve had in months is the Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng I had last night. So, I figure it must be the “lack of junk food” that is causing this hangover. Shhh, don’t read so loud. It makes my head hurt.

Switching To SparkPeople For Now

For the time being, I’m going to do a combination of “winging it” along with semi-following a plan from SparkPeople. SparkPeople is a free site, and it looks pretty comprehensive. If nothing else, I’ll use it to grab recipes from it, even if I don’t follow the plan exactly. If I find other sources of recipes, I might mix and match. But basically, the plan is to stick to about 1200 calories per day (or less), and eat things that are heart-healthy. It’s the heart-healthy part that makes this a little extra difficult for me, simply because I’m not used to paying attention to such things. But I’m confident that the all-wonderful Internet will supply all the info and recipes I need. Oh, and SparkPeople has exercise plans for me too, so that’s a nice plus.

So tonight, we had Turkey Burritos in whole wheat wraps, with black beans and fresh salsa. It totally rocked. Of course, I only ate one, and would have liked to have at least one more, but I contained myself. For dessert, I had half of a really yummy navel orange. That meal was a winner, and will definitely return.

Cancelling eDiets Account Already

Wow, that was a quick and very unsatisfactory membership. I’m already frustrated and ticked off at eDiets. I’ve just been given the run-around by 3 people on the phone about my order, and have been treated to everything from “Duh, I dunno” to rudeness. And on top of all that, they are having major site issues. So, cancelling my account with them asap. For now, we’ll wing it on our own, and if I come up with a better “plan”, I’ll let y’all know. eDiets…lousy customer service.

Official Starting Weight and First Breakfast

Ok, just to be sure nothing had changed since I took the pic yesterday of my weight on the scale, I checked this morning, and sure enough I’m still starting off at 190. So that’s my official starting weight.

Just had my first breakfast. The lunchmeat thing was still a little weird, but it was ok. Everything else (oatmeal, bread, fruit) was fairly normal and I’m happily full and ready to start my day. More later.

P.S. Looks like this eDiets plan is set at about 1200 calories, with around 350 per meal, and the rest in snacks. So, I’ll keep that in mind if I need to make substitutions for things I don’t have along the way.

Day 1 - The Beginning of The Diet

Hi, everyone! Today’s the big day! (bad pun intended) Today I have to give up all the foods I hold so dear to my heart, and eat…ugh…healthy stuff. Ok, ok, shake it off Donna. You can do this! Rah Rah!

So, what method did I choose and why? I decided to sign up with eDiets.com. I’ve done the Nutrisystem thing in the past, where my food was delivered to me, and that was great. I saw an ad like this one below somewhere and that fit into my needs at the time.

Try our delicious foods at NutriSystem & eat FREE for 2 weeks with the purchase of a 28-Day program on Auto-Delivery.

I liked it because there was no thinking involved. I Simply ate one of the pre-arranged meals sitting in the pantry. Easy and effective. I highly recommend it to anyone dieting just by themselves. This time, however, I knew I couldn’t use that method because that only works well when one person is on a diet. Since my entire household is going on a diet, it only makes sense (financially, I mean) to actually cook the meals so everyone can share. I chose eDiets specifically because they had so many plans. (By the way, eDiets also has a food delivery plan like Nutrisystem. Kinda curious how the food compares).

I felt like there was bound to be a plan on eDiets that had some food I could stand to eat. See, I’m a fast food kinda gal. Give me a fast food burger 3 times a day, 7 days a week, and I’m happy. Fat…but happy. Healthy food is generally not in my eating repetoire. I don’t DO healthy.

But now I have to…

Anyway, I figured with 21 plans available, there’d be one I could manage to stick to. Since someone else in the household was just informed of heart issues, and the sample meals sounded ok, I chose the Heart Smart Plan. The official description of that plan is: …follows the American Heart Association recommendations and is low in cholesterol, fat, saturated fat, and sodium and includes whole grains, nonfat and low fat dairy, and lean protein to provide a delicious and heart-healthy meal plan.

Hmph. Ok. We’ll see just how delicious it is. Here’s a quick glance at my meal plan for today:

Breakfast: Crunchy Cinnamon Oatmeal and deli chicken on toast
Lunch: Roast Turkey with Potatoes and Balsamic Green Beans
Snack: Pretzels with club soda
Dinner: Turkey Tostada with black bean-corn-tomato salad and mandarin orange

Hmmm…well, breakfast sounds a tad bit weird, what with me not used to eating lunchmeat for breakfast, but at least I don’t hate those things. Lunch sounds good. The snack is a little bit blah, but do-able. Dinner sounds interesting, perhaps even yummy. We’ll see.

Ok, so that’s it for now. I’ll talk about exercise tomorrow and go into details about what I’m eating, etc. I’m a little nervous about this, but if you’ll cheer me on, I might be able to wrap my brain around the thought of healthy food. Later, y’all!

We need your support! Even if it’s just wishing us luck every now and then, we’d be grateful. Of course, linking to the contest or becoming a sponsor would be very cool too, and would be appreciated by the winning charity, I’m sure!