December 31

I was doing great. My day was planned, all was well. And then I remembered that my in-laws wanted to have dinner at one of the WORST places to eat for someone who gives half a hoot about nutrition. And that place, dear friends, is O'Charley's. Totally ridiculous (though to be honest, I could've avoided the dessert and roll)!

Breakfast:
green smoothie (200)

Morning snack:
cranberry nut bread (300)
banana (90)

Lunch:
ww pasta and sauce (220)
green smoothie (150)

Dinner:
OCharley's (enough said, yes?)
salad (100)
roll (150)
broccoli (40)
salmon (500)
chocolate macaroon ice cream thing (500)

Evening "snack":
tortilla chips (100)
cranberry walnut bread (150)
pear (80)


Water:
13

Fruits and veg:
15

Total calories:
2580

Exercise:
90 mins Reformer (250)

Weight:
144.4

Nicole--The World’s Largest Breakfast --December 27, 2008

I’m a breakfast person. If there’s one meal I’ll go all out for it’s breakfast. I try to keep it to a minimum, but if left to my own devices I order everything on the menu… bacon, eggs, pancakes, biscuits… if it’s there, I’ll eat it… And so we saw today…

I met a group of high school friends for breakfast at a pancake house and probably demonstrated that I really could eat a linebacker under the table. Of note, the pancake place wasn’t a chain, so everything’s a huge guess on the calorie count.

Breakfast
Two biscuits (500)
A bit of scrambled eggs (100)
*Some people question the term “a bit.” Here it’s defined as about two or three bites as I didn’t really care for the things.
Bacon (150)
Honey (75)
½ chocolate chip and peanut butter pancake (200)
French toast (928)
Hash browns (350)
Butter (80)

Dinner
Crescent roll (170)
Mashed potatoes and gravy (300)
Stuffing (400)

Total calories: 3053

Weight: 72.1kg

December 30--heather

Breakfast:
banana (100)
green smoothie (180)

Morning snack:
almonds (100)
banana (100)

Lunch:
french onion soup (100)
salad (50)
yogurt (150)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (120)
bread w/ apricot jam (100)
pear (80)

Dinner:
steamed broccoli (50)
ww pasta and sauce (250)

Evening snack:
cereal and milk (240)
banana (80)

Water:
9

Fruits and veg:
16

Total calories:
1700

Exercise:
60 min pilates (150)
12 mins elliptical (150)

Weight:
145.8

December 29--heather

I chickened out of going to my street jazz class at the gym today in fear of making a fool of myself, so I skipped it altogether. I had a dentist appt anyhow, and I'd have been cutting it really close. I'm pleased that I stayed at just over 1800 calories, though, and my Reformer class was pretty good.

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (250)

Morning snack:
banana (90)
almonds (50)

Lunch:
eggs w/ pico de gallo (160)
tangerine (50)
yogurt (80)
more almonds (50)

Afternoon snack:
banana (80)
green smoothie (200)

Dinner:
cake (250)
veggie fajitas (260)
salad (40)

evening snack:
cereal and milk (250)

Water:
9

Fruits and veg:
17

Total calories:
1810

Exercise:
Reformer (250)

Weight:
145.8

The Day I Heard the Scale Creak: December 26, 2008 – Nicole’s Food Log

So this whole eating like a cow and sitting on my ass thing appears to be working out real well for me. Or not.

The scale worked it’s way up to a number higher than I’ve seen in weeks. Perhaps this means I should stop spending two weeks home for the holidays.

Breakfast
Pumpkin pie (265)

Workout
23 minutes on eliptical (192)
Can I share how much I HATE elipticals? Rowers, treadmills, bikes… all machines I can hang out on forever without getting bored. Elipticals and stairmasters make me want to kill myself within the first five minutes. That said, it was pouring down rain so I sucked it up for as long as I could handle.

Lunch
Mac and cheese (780)
Mayo (40)
Hot dog (40)

Dinner
Four pieces pepperoni and sausage Papa John’s (1400)
Three bread sticks (435)
Cheese sauce* (80)
*NOTE: The cheese sauce itself almost made getting fat worth it! Papa John’s discontinued the stuff in most cities that was once the dipper of choice for Heather and I back during our Papa John’s madness days during college, but it appears to still exist in Dayton. No comment on whether that’s because it’s still the same cheese from 1999.

Total Calories: 3040

December 28--heather

The Music Man is home this week before heading back to school, so I'm back to a mini boot camp diet and exercise week. Not as intense as my summer schedule was since there are no classes Wednesday and Thursday and I only want to do 2 hours per day instead of three, but I'm hoping to drop 2 lbs and jump start my weight loss since I've been lazy and lagging and NOT logging since the middle of October.

Breakfast:
cereal (250)
eggs (150)

Lunch:
eggs with red onion, turkey and arugula (250)
banana (80)

Afternoon snack:
pb choc chip cookies (250)
green smoothie (250)

Dinner:
Ruby Tuesday: steak, broccoli, and mashed cauliflower (450)
oreos (160)
sundae cone-yum (275)

Evening snack:
banana (80)
cake (100)

Water:
13

Fruits and veg:
16

Total calories:
2245

Exercise:
60 min step (500)

December 25 – Nicole’s Food Log, The Christmas Edition

Bring on the holiday madness…

Sigh.

Breakfast
Three biscuits (510)
Margarine (100)

Snack
Two pierogies and a bit of spaghetti-o’s (200)

Dinner
Turkey (60)… no really, I had literally a bite and a half
Two rolls (250)
Margarine (100)
Mac and cheese (900)… note: the mac and cheese is brought out not for me, but for a cousin
Mashed potatoes and gravy (350)
Stuffing… and lots of it (600)

Dessert
Pumpkin pie (265)
Whipped cream (40)

Total calories: 3375

December 27--heather

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (250)
banana (80)

Lunch:
almonds (50)
tiny banana (60)
tortilla chips and pico (140)
turkey (80)

Afternoon snack:
pizza (580)
green smoothie (200)
2 bananas (160)
popcorn (50)

Dinner:
french onion soup (200)
salad (100)
yogurt (180)

Evening snack:
cake (200)
banana (100)

Water:
12

Fruits and veg:
21

Total calories:
2430

Weight:
145.6 (or 66.2 kilos)

December 26--heather

Yesterday wasn't bad. I don't remember everything but when I was counting up last night, I managed right around 2600 calories. Of course, it helps when I do all the cooking so that I can control the calories!

On another note, I SCORED at the Kroger manager's special again today. I love to buy produce there, and today I actually saved more money than I spent. I spend $96, saved $97, and that includes $19 worth of diapers! Tonight we had a ready-to-heat cheese pizza that I topped with "fajita mix" veggies (cut peppers and onions) and a big ol' salad. Tomorrow we'll have fajitas with pico de gallo. We'll move on to french onion soup and arugala-based salads on Monday (Sunday is dinner with the in-laws). So exciting!

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (250)

Morning snack:
sweet potato pie (300)
popcorn (100)

Lunch:
salad with leftover turkey (200)
tortilla chips and pico (200)

afternoon snack:
banana (80)

Dinner:
pizza (580)
salad (30)
yogurt (190)
green smoothie (200)

Water:
8

Fruits and veg:
13

Total calories:
2130

December 24, 2008 – Nicole’s Food Log

So it’s Christmas Eve… Ran around shopping all day which meant by 3 I was starving. Lesson of the day: The more (and the more often) you eat, the more you need to eat. Ordinarily 3 o’clock is not a big deal.

Hungry yes, but not ready to gnaw on an arm.

Nope, eating tons of crap while home means you need to eat more crap, otherwise you’re going to keel over. Good lesson to remember for when I need a detox! Hahaha…

Breakfast
Scrambled Eggs (140)
Bagel (260)
Cream Cheese (30)
Margarine (50)

Dinner
Steak and Shake…
Grilled Cheese (680)
Split order of fries (250)
2/3 chocolate shake (500)

Snack
Wheat Thins (150)
Spreadable cheese (180)

Total Calories: 2240

Finally, a Trip to the Gym!

December 22, 2008 – Nicole’s Food Log

After several days of sloth, I couldn’t handle it anymore and went to the Bally’s up in Englewood (er, Clayton) to try and score two free weeks. Though the manager was kind of ridiculously evil, I got my pass and my visit to the treadmill before I went completely stir crazy.

(Of note: Bally’s is less than impressive and has an aesthetic that reminds me of a larger version of a hotel or apartment complex gym).

But at least I got to move a bit to offset the rest…

Breakfast
1 ½ bagels (390)
Cream Cheese (30)
Margarine (100)

Workout
4.40 miles on treadmill (540 calories burned)

Lunch
Mac and cheese (820)
Hot dog (130)

Dinner
Garlic bread (595)
Marinara (120)
Ravioli (770)

Total calories: 2955

I'm Back...Though Still a Slacker

December 21, 2008 – Nicole’s Food Log

Getting behind is one of those things that I do frequently, but yowsers it’s difficult to dig out of…

So I fell off the face of the earth for the past week because I had this notion that I couldn’t just skip a few days of blogging, that if I was going to hop back on, I had to write up everything I missed and when you’re behind by one day that’s fine, but when one becomes five, it gets overwhelming until you come full circle and finally say “Screw it. We’re starting over again.”

So that’s where we are. I’m back in the DYT for the holidays where I’ve been since Friday night and I have to say this place is a fat trap. It’s wayyyyy too cold to do anything outdoors that’s more strenuous than walking to your car, nobody works out and the combination of holiday eating plus my penchant for foods that can only be found in the Midwest all spells “let’s see if we can pack on a pound for every day I’m home.”

Now I brought a scale with me to assess the damage as I go, but haven’t actually had the nerve to use it. Guess I’ll get on that (literally) tomorrow.

On to the food…

Breakfast

2 Biscuits (340) Margarine (100) Scrambled eggs (180)

Lunch

Two Skyline coneys (700)
½ order of Fries (250)

*Yeah, so Skyline has no nutritional value, but I do dump 60% of the cheese off… and, more to the point, they’re YUMMY GOODNESS. For those not from Ohio, Cincinnati chili is so fabulous you can actually go online and buy party packs to be shipped to you so you can recreate it for all your friends. And not only is there no Skyline in Colorado, but when you go to the grocery store and ask for hot dog chili sauce they look at you like you’re crazy…

Dinner

Lipton Fettucine (500)

Workout

Yeah, right…

Total Calories: 2070… gosh, that coulda been worse… oh wait… I forgot the cookies…

Post Lunch Snack

Three peanut butter cookies (600?)Two cups milk (160)

New total Calories: 2830… That’s better.

Nikki, Where Are You?

Here I am, boring these people with my good eating, then my junk eating, and I haven't heard from you. I'm leaving town tomorrow and can't update until 12/25, where are ya?

Dec 17--Two More Sleeps!

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (250)

Baking tasting:
cookie (225)
caraway cumin, and corainder crackers (50)
almonds (100)

Lunch:
egg (70)
toast (90)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (300)
ccc crackers (150)

Dinner:
banana chips (75)
salad w/ lentils (100)
cookie and a half (300)

Water:
14

Fruits and veg:
10

Exercise:
Reformer (250)

Total calories:
1710

Weight:
144.0

December 16--Baking is My Undoing

Also known as, "the day I decided not to care". Yeah.

Breakfast:
banana (100)
cereal and milk (250)

Lunch:
cranberry pecan bars (450)
eggs (140)
rolls (300)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (300)
cranberry pecan bars--uhm, ok. no more of these. really. (500)

Dinner:
plantains (200)
taco style lentils and rice (650)
cranberry pecan bars--I'm REALLY done now... (200)
popcorn (200)

Fruits and veg:
11

Water:
10

Total calories:
3290

weight:
144.0

December 15--The Whole Stack

So a while ago, Nikki wrote about how I "inspired" her to work up to the whole stack on the seated leg press. I'm the girl at the gym who only takes classes because I'm far too lazy to hit the treadmill (and have bad knees), but last night I was upstairs waiting for my Pilates Reformer class, so I sat down and tried it. I started at 220 because I haven't done it in years, and found it fairly easy to pump out 2 sets of 16 reps. Moved it up to 260 and did 1 set of 16 reps, but stopped because a) I was heading into Reformer, and single leg work on that puppy is harder than any stack of weights and b) did I mention I have bad knees?

The whole stack on that machine was 400 lbs, and I'd say I probably max out around 360 these days. One day in the middle of the week (when I come off of my 5 day cardio binge, I don't do cardio on Wednesday and Thursday), I'll give it a shot. But for a first time back, 260 isn't half bad.

Breakfast:
banana (100)
cereal and milk (250)

Lunch:
2 eggs, scrambled (140)
yogurt (80)
pear (80)
1/2 kids' cheeseburger--told you i've been starving lately (300)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (150)

Dinner:
pancakes and maple syrup (400)
sausage (180)
naan with peanut butter (200)
banana (100)

Water:
13

Fruits and veg:
11

Exercise:
reformer (150)

Total Calories:
1980

December 14--6 Days Until WDW

Madness. I was doing amazingly until dinner. My in-laws have all the crap food (worse than junk food, it's literally just crap. You'll see below) you could ever indulge in, and I was so hungry that I ate it. They don't have any real food, so I should've just ordered something more substantial for dinner. However, they picked O'Charley's which is among the worst available. I should've just packed my own food from home, and probably will next time. Case in point, even though I just ate more than a ridiculous amount of food, my father-in-law's DINNER had more calories than my entire day, and that's totally ok with them. Sigh. No wonder I had to teach the Music Man to eat and enjoy veggies!

Breakfast:
banana (80)
cereal and milk (250)

Lunch:
ww pasta and sauce (200)
pear (70)
banana (90)
Dale and Thomas popcorn (75)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (225)
buckeye candy (75)

Dinner:
broccoli soup (200)
onion rings (150)
steak and broccoli (520)
taffy (25)
Oreos (320)
Zebra cake (160)
cookie (130)
rolls (300)
popcorn (100)

Fruits and veg:
13

Water:
15

Exercise:
step (425)

Total calories:
3280

Weight:
142.8 (for today, that will likely not be the case tomorow)

December 13, 2008 -- Nicole's Food Log

Breakfast
Pancakes (590)
Syrup (100)

Workout
2500m on rower (133 calories burned)
2.25 miles on treadmill (270 calories burned)

Dinner
Two pieces papa john's (600)
Five pierogies (300)
Margarine (60)

Total calories: 1650

Weight: 70.8

December 13-The 7 Days Before WDW

Got a good workout in today with an hour of step and an hour of weights. I'm JAZZED for this week, because the music man doesn't have lessons, so I can hit the gym every night, woohoo!

I think this week will be:
Sunday-step
Monday-kickboxing and Reformer
Tuesday-pilates mat
Wednesday-weights and step
Thursday-pilates mat and legs RT
Friday-boot camp (maybe, we leave that day for WDW)

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (250)

Post-workout snack:
banana (90)
raw crackers (25)

Lunch:
sweet potato w/ sour cream and chili powder (195)
pear (80)

Afternoon snack:
banana (90)
Dale and Thomas popcorn (150)

Dinner:
ww pasta and sauce (350)
salad (50)

Evening snack:
green smoothie (225)
cereal and milk (250)

Water:
12

Fruits and veg:
16

Exercise:
step (450)
weights (250)

Total Calories:
1755

All Good Things Must Come to an End

December 12, 2008 -- Nicole's Food Log

So today was a bad bad food day, but man was it yummy...

In other news, I decided I wanted to return to trying to train for a half marathon again. Haven't picked a date, so think I'm gonna take the training a bit easier this time. (Tried this earlier in the fall and it went better than I thought, but stopped when I realized that I was too broke to fly out to Vegas for the fool thing. Did get up to just over six miles, though...)

On to the gluttony...

Breakfast
Toaster strudel (200)

Lunch (at the caf)
Grilled cheese (350)
Fries (175)
Spaghetti (200)
Sauce (50)
Parmesan (40)
Hot fudge Fro yo (250)

Workout
2.25 miles on treadmill (272 calories burned)
18 minutes on stationary bike (102 calories burned)

(Completely forgot how f-ing miserable incline days were... think I was supposed to go for five miles or so, but wanted to die after two and a quarter)

Dinner
Two woodchucks (450)
Pepperoni rolls (1800)

Total calories: 3515

Weight: 69.9kg (Familiar huh? You won't be seeing that tomorrow!)

December 12

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (250)

Lunch:
white chocolate (75)
baked polenta (150)
pumpkin bread (125)
yogurt (80)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (425)

Dinner:
chicken, sweet potatoes, and green beans (750)
cookies--doh (450)
Random snacking, popcorn mostly (200)

Fruits and veg:
13

Water:
12

Exercise:
boot camp (400)

Total calories:
2405

Weight:
143.6 woohoo!

December 11

Breakfast:
banana (90)
cereal (250)
orange (50)

Lunch:
dahl and naan (300)
yogurt (80)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (250)

Dinner:
baked polenta (300)
salad (40)
chocolate (210)
dry cereal (50)

Fruits and veg:
14

Water:
13

Exercise:
pilates mat (150)
Abs, Legs, and Glutes--30 mins (150)

Total Calories:
1620

December 11, 2008 -- Nicole's Food Log

Ok, not to be obsessed with the scale or anything, but after the previous babbling blog, I thought I'd share that I'm still under 70kg. Happy day.

Anyhow, nothing exciting to report, so here's the food...

Breakfast
3/4 chocolate banana Smoothie (113)

Lunch
Budget Gourmet Fettucine (300)
Pretzel Bites (260)

Workout
3.40 miles on treadmill (408 calories burned)

Dinner
Mac and cheese with tuna and mayo (910)

Total calories: 1583

Weight: 69.9kg

69 Baby!!!

December 10, 2008 - Nicole's Food Log

Ok, first off, get your head out of the gutter.

That said ... I woke up this morning and nearly did a dance of joy when my scale said 69.9kg.

Happy day!!! I'm under 70!!!

Granted, I intended to drop under 70 on Thanksgiving which was a full two weeks ago, but whateva.

So here's why 70 is special...

A year ago I made a dumb bet. I'm more than a little competitive and found myself betting someone that I could (in the spirit of sport) cut from 75kg down to 70.

In about 12 days.

Now by athletic standards, that's not a big cut. Hell, I think I've seen people do it in a couple days (record goes to a guy way smaller than I who did 13kg in eight days), but for a rookie it was dumb. Suffice it to say, first I procrastinated, then I got cocky. I figured I had the weight to lose so if I just buckled down and worked my ass off I could lose the weight legitimately, no tricks needed.

Kinda. After procrastinating, I was down to about nine days and with a low cal diet and two hours in the gym a day, I was looking good, but not that good. So with five days left I gave in to the fact that I was going to have to drip off the last three kilos. And thus I began a schedule of water-loading for several days that left me peeing truly every half hour. I always scoffed at the notion that drinking water makes you eat less 'cause I drink a lot and that's soooo not true.

Uh, when you drink two gallons it is. If for no other reason than the fact that you're too damn bloated to eat. Anyhow, the cycle of stupidity continued up to 36 hours before where the liquid and food consumption stopped. Food I could handle, but no water? Painful. By weigh in day I was on a plane thinking I was going to gag on my own tongue. With a couple hours left I was up by half a kilo which I figured I could sweat off in a sauna.

But this is me and anything that can go wrong will. Cause guess what? There was no sauna. Hell... so after cycling and trying to turn my bathroom into a steam room, I had two options. The first being give up, admit that self torture is lame and that I suck at it... OR (did we mention I can't stand losing?) option b... let someone else beat it out of me. So I borrowed plastics and sweats and let a friend of mine run and bike me to death.

This wasn't really bright either because while people who are used to it adapt, my body started screaming ''What the hell did I do to you???'' It was upset. And thirsty and hungry and reallllllly mad. (And did I mention that all my calculations DID NOT take into account what happens when your body's way of rebelling is to stop pooping??? Shit's heavy people.)

In the end, the half kilo came off... I won, though it would be debated forever that I used a non-approved staff member to conduct the weigh-in.

Meanwhile ... whereas I thought I could run right out and grab a burger, I quickly realized that my stomach was very very hostile and I became terrified of eating anything for fear it would revolt.

But most of all, I learned that I couldn't fathom what it would be like to do that over and over again ... all year long, tournament after tournament with about half the body fat to play with.

Insane. And, suffice it to say, Beijing excluded, I haven't seen a number on the scale under 70 since 2004.

And seeing it without starving, suffering or dressing in plastic is all the better.

That said, I started my staycation (the trendy new term for going on vacation in your house) today. Breakfast was ok, then I worked out and promptly got sucked into work drama that kept me occupied til dinner which was bad bad bad, but whatever... I'm just happy to introduce my scale to the 60s... even if it jumps back up tomorrow.

Breakfast
2 slices Orowheat toast (180)
Margarine (60)
Egg (70)

Workout
2500m row (132 calories burned)
32 minutes on stationary bike (192 calories burned)

Dinner
Mac and cheese (1280)
Turkey dog (70)

Total calories: 1660

Weight: 69.9kg

December 10

We're nine days out from the start of our second trip to WDW, and I'm starting to stress. There is food to cook and freeze for Christmas morning, the whole house to deep clean, packing everyone, etc. This is about the point that I start to flip out a little. That said, here's the food.

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (230)
banana (90)
pear (80)
pumpkin bread (130)

Lunch:
raw crackers (100)
banana (100)
sweet potato pie filling (320)
yogurt (80)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (180)

Dinner:
dahl (150)
naan (420)
banana

Water:
10

Fruits and veg:
13

Exercise:
Weights (250)

Weight:
144.2

Total calories:
1970

Not The Most Productive of Days

December 9, 2008 - Nicole's Food Log

Days like today you realize how much the little things add up. I avoid snacks exactly for this reason 'cause lo and behold my day is over and I managed to kill damn near 500 calories that I hadn't planned to ... for no real reason. Now the French fries I wouldn't take back ('cause HELLO! Who DOESN'T love a good fry???), but the Dunkin Doughnuts?

That was just dumb.

Oh... and before you people start in on me for the fries... I don't want to hear it. They're salty and fatty and made (minimally) from potatoes which are two steps away from being starch Satan.

And you know what? I love them and could care less.

Now here's where the foodies of the world introduce me to sweet potato fries. Nope, I like sweet potatoes straight up, but as fries? No flavor. I've tried twice. Once at a lunch at Phantom Canyon and once in the OTC caf. The OTC fries were definitely better as they were more baked and thus more potatoey, but still... nope.

Figured I'd save people the typing.

So on to the food...

Breakfast

Two slices Orowheat toast (180)

Margarine (60)

Egg (70)

Snack

Three Munchkins (225)

*Hell, unlike most of my eating which is intentionally bad, I just grabbed three of the fool things during a meeting break. Whoops!

Lunch

Budget Gourmet Beef Mac (280)

Small McD's fries (250)

*This was another accident that came as a result of nibbling off my coworkers!

Dinner
Grape Uncrustable (210)
*Love these things!

Workout note... Was one of those days. I'm on vacation (uhhhh, kinda... the judo equivalent I suppose) starting tomorrow and so not only didn't I get to leave for a lunch workout, I didn't leave at all until 7something at which point I realized the OTC gym was closed and I didn't have a gym ID for 24 Hour. Realized on the way home I could've borrowed a bike in eddie's dojo, but by that point said screw it. Hence my sandwich dinner to compensate.

Total Calories: 1275

Weight: 70.3kg

December 9

Breakfast:
banana (80)
cereal and milk (230)

Lunch:
sweet potato pie (320)
pb & j (220)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (180)
lemon bread (200)
banana (100)

Dinner:
tacos (470)
small chocolate dipped cone--thanks DQ (340)
sweet potato pie filling (100)
banana (90)

Fruits and veg:
15

Water:
12

Total calories:
2330

Weight:
144.2

December 8--heather

After yesterday's post on how I couldn't remember the last time we had meat, I looked back through my logs and realized I haven't had any this month at all, and haven't cooked it at home since November 25 (when technically the Music man cooked it, not me). Because I was a vegetarian for 13 years, it doesn't seem strange to me, but it is strange to realize that we haven't had it, cock my head, and think when the last time was.

Breakfast:
banana (80)
cereal and milk (230)

Lunch:
banana (90)
ww pasta and sauce (250)
pb bread (150)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (220)

Dinner:
sweet bean lettuce wraps (180)
pumpkin bread (125)
banana (100)
pear (80)


Water:
9

Fruits and veg:
16

Exercise:
kickboxing (400)
Reformer (150)

Total calories:
1370

Weight:
144.4 (amazingly steady, that weight of mine)

December 8, 2008 - Nicole's Food Log

Breakfast
Biscuit (360)
Margarine (90)
Egg (70)

Lunch
Frozen mac and cheese (300)

Workout
2500m row (133 calories burned)
55 minutes on stationary bike (270 calories burned)

Dinner
Spaghetti (600)
Vodka sauce (120)
Parmesan (50)
EVOO (120)

Total Calories (1710)

Weight: 70.9kg

The Best Burger on Earth

December 7, 2008 - Nicole's Food Log

I had the best of intentions for today... until i ended up at Blue Star with Jess for dinner. One of my favorite restaurants, Blue Star features a rotating menu and... drumroll please... half-price bottles of wine on Sundays. The home of fabulous food, Blue Star's menu includes such quirks this time as potato pancakes with caviar and maca gnocchi and cheese (which Heather will be pleased to know involves squash). But best of all, they have the best melt-in-your-mouth cheeseburger on earth... complete with yummy smoked applewood bacon.

Thought I'd at least throw the above out as a prelude to the following...

Lunch
Budget gourmet Fettucine Alfredo (300)
Soft pretzel cheese bites (320)

Workout
2500m on rower (132)
40 minutes on stationary bike (180)

Dinner
1/2 bottle of chardonnay
Bread with EVOO and hummus
bacon Cheeseburger
Fries
1/3 of a corleone
(yummy goodness!!! it's homemade vanilla ice cream rolled in honey, cinnamon and various other stuff)
1/2 chocolate pumpkin parfait thing
(amazingly tiny... probably double the size of a sot glass... and not sure what all was involved, but there was pumpkin bread, brownie, some kind of pumpkin whipped cream meets mousse... divine...)

Another good food day, right? Well, at least it was one hell of a dinner!

Weight: 70.5kg

December 6, 2008 - Nicole's Food Log

Breakfast
Pancakes (590)
Syrup (100)

Lunch
Chicken Pot Pie (300)

Workout
2.85 miles on treadmill (335 calories burned)
30 minutes on stationary bike (152 calories burned)

Dinner
Mac and Cheese (1280)
Turkey dog (70)

Total calories: 2290

Weight: 70.5kg

December 7 (already??!)

I wish I had words for why I'm so stinking hungry these days, but I don't. So here's the log, still eating good food and increasing my plant food. In fact, I can't remember the last time I made meat at home, probably at least two weeks. The family doesn't miss it, and we eat it when we're out some, so it's not like it's "gone" from the diet. Apparently I'm raising flexatarians. :)

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (230)
banana (90)
pear (80)

Lunch:
homemade pizza (350)
pineapple (25)
banana (90)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (200)

Dinner:
ww pasta and sauce (400)
pumpkin bread (150)
salad (50)
esther Price (75)

Evening snack:
cereal and milk

Water:
11

Fruits and veg:
15

exercise:
60 min step (400)

Total calories:
1990

Weight:
144.4

No Gym=Unhappy Mommy=Skipping "Healing"

Confession; I skipped the first half of my inner healing class, Elijah House, today. To go to the gym. This week was crazy. The kids slept through Monday's kickboxing, so I only got Reformer in. Zumba was canceled Tuesday. Wednesday I just did weights before Elijah House, Thursday I had Pilates before small group, and yesterday I had to skip boot camp for MOPS (sigh). Then I was supposed to skip weights and step for Elijah House? I just couldn't do it. I went to step and left before weights, but at least I got step and abs in! Tomorrow I get to go to dual step (or tri-step, or quad step, whatever Amber wants to do), and I'm excited!

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (230)
banana (100)

Lunch:
green smoothie (250)
pineapple (50)
lentils (200)
salad (60)
yogurt (170)

Afternoon snack:
banana (100)

Dinner:
white chocolate (50)
homemade pizza (350)
pumpkin bread (250)
banana (90)
Esther Price chocolate (75)

Water:
11

Fruits and veg:
15

Exercise:
step (530 calories burned)

Total calories:
1970

Weight:
144.4

December 5-Walt Disney's Birthday

Yesterday was an OK, but radically busy, day. Last night the Music Man and I had parent's night out where we dropped our three kids off at church for three hours and headed out. We went to Seasons 52 (amazing) and then hit the mall for a while. Seasons 52 is all aobut fresh food, no butter, cream, or deep fryers in the place. No soda either. I love all of that. All the entrees have less than 475 calories, and that's great too. Unless you're like me and eat half an appetizer, a salad, an entree, and two dessert shots. The way they control calories is through portion control, not using less caloric ingredients. My Greek salad had 312 calories, and it wasn't exactly dinner sized! The flat bread was literally the thinnest crust I've ever seen on anything, almost lacy around the edges. The grouper was amazing, and the mayan veggies underneath were great. The desserts were heavenly, though 300 calories for what was literally a shot glass is outlandish. And wait, they said no cream in the place, but there was real whipped cream on top (and I know the taste of hydrogenated oil, um, Cool Whip). Interesting. The damage was HUGE.

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (230)

MOPS:
fruit (50)
pastry (made by yours truly) (350)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (260)
buckeye candy (courtesty of Aunt Kay) (80)
raw crackers (50)
cereal (250)

Dinner:
Seasons 52 (1450)
lemon bread (200)

Water:
10

Fruits and veggies:
10

Exercise:
none

Total calories:
2920

Weight:
144.4

I'm Alive, Honest

December 5, 2008 - Nicole's Food Log

This week's been a bit stressful... combine that with socialization and it's bad bad bad...

Probably the greatest damage was done the day I got into a hard core feud and my coworkers decided to make me feel better by bringing me little ceasar's. Yup, felt way better after half a pizza and some crazy bread...

Then there was lunch with friends yesterday in the caf ... complete with grilled cheese and a mocha chip brownie...

And then the trip to Fazoli's for dinner before the TSO Show (waited for 45 minutes at Macaroni Grill before giving up and heading to Fazoli's...)

All awful. And I find it to be ironic that Heather's topic was emotional eating as clearly that was my downfall this week. When you're happy, you eat... when you're pissy you eat. I've never been an ''eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full'' girl. And, frankly, when I'm not eating the house if I'm cranky, I just decide not to eat which apparently also makes me feel better.

Only thing that fixes this at all is pre-packaged food... sounds awful, but if you eat whatever's in front of you, throwing a frozen thing in the microwave means that's all you get unless you make the conscious decision to take another box out and fix something else. Other foods (and trips to restaurants) leave wayyyyy too much ability with which to fluctuate.

Anyhow, that's my rant... Today I bypassed on ordering lunch in with my cohorts (as I guarantee it would've been a pizza sub!) and brought frozen food back out. Not ''Heather healthy'' but it's my attempt to introduce porton control into my crazy little world. while I was at it, i kicked myself briefly for going to the caf instead of the gym yesterday and hopped back on the workout wagon.

here goes:

Breakfast
Apex bar (160)

Lunch
Four Cheese Lean Pocket (280)

Snack
Five premium crackers (60)

Workout
2000m on rower (107 calories burned)
38 minutes on stationary bike (231 calories burned)

Dinner
Mac and cheese (780)
Mayo (80)
Turkey dog (70)

Dessert
Pumpkin Pie (500)
* actually it was a small piece so probably nhere near 500 and really I just ate it because it was the last piece.

Total: 1910

December 4--Get Me Off This Roller Coaster

You know the one, called "emotional eating". Sigh. And next time, don't follow that ride with the mini-coaster called"baked bread and scones all day".

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (225)
2 herb and cheese scones (300)

Lunch:
pb bread (150)
yogurt (110)
raw crackers (50)

Afternoon snack:
green smoothie (300)
2 eggs (140)
sweet lemon bread (500)

Dinner:
pasta and sauce (200)

Food at Ginger's (sigh):
pumpkin gooey butter cake (500)
chex mix (100)
raspberry tea with honey (30)

Water:
12

Fruits and veg:
9 (thank God for green smoothie, otherwise almost nothing)

Exercise:
1 hour Pilates mat (150)

Total calories:
2605

Weight:
146.2

The Day the Wheels Started to Come Off

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (250)
raw crackers (75)

Lunch:
peanut butter sandwich (350)
brussel sprouts (100)
CCM's yogurt (he wanted to share) (25)

Afternoon snack:
green and beet smoothie (200)

Dinner:
honey lentils (200)
bread and nutella (150)

This is where the breakdown occurred:
McChicken (340)
Oreo McFlurry (550)

Sigh.

There's something going on in me that's spiritual, and part of eating that tonight was in response to that. I have work to do.




Water:
12

Fruits and veg:
8

Exercise:
1 hour weights (200)

Total calories:
2240

Weight:
146.2

So What Is Moderation?

Lately I've been musing over how hilarious food and diet propaganda is in the health food world. I like to think that we're pretty balanced. You've got vegans who eschew kefir and yogurt but think it's ok to eat margarine and shortening (ick). You've got the raw movement where it's ok to eat nuts and avocados up to 50% of your diet, but nothing heated to more than 115 degrees. You've got the Weston Price folks who say sure, eat as much meat and dairy as you like, so long as it's grass-fed and organic. Then the Maker's Diet, who say that phytates in grains will kill you unless they're soaked out.

Then you have me. I take some from all of those places. I eat meat and dairy in moderation. Prefer baked bread, wholesome from organic grain and made in my own oven. Use my new dehydrator to keep nutrients intact and soak nuts and seeds to activate the sprouts. I guess where I'm going with this is that there are thousands of degrees even with "moderate" diets.

I've noticed that when I eat the SAD, I feel sick. My digestive system all but shuts down, but is back to normal within 48 hours of being back on our diet. I'm really seeking our own nutrition truth, and allowing it to evolve.

Earlier in the year, when I was focused on shedding lots of weight, I ate a high protein, low-fat diet. Now that I'm in a maintenance mode until the end of the year, I'm eating more fats and less protein. I'm ok with that. I know that when it's time to get back to weight loss after Christmas, I'll need to be more strict with myself. Why the break? Other than the fact that it's Christmas and I want an excuse to indulge, after having lost 80 pounds in nine months, I think my brain and my metabolism both need a break. I think after the gluttony that marks Christmas around here I'll be so sick of feeling bad that I'll want to get back on the wagon. Not to mention that the week after the Music Man is home so I can log some serious gym hours!

What you've seen lately is moderation to me. Mostly good stuff, with chocolate mixed in. :)

Smoothie Day

December 1, 2008

Heather should be (kinda) proud... On Black Friday I took advantage of the Kohl's sale and bought a Smoothie maker.

(and yes, I'm 29-years-old and i've never owned a blender... don't say it...)

So this morning I decided to give it a run with a banana chocolate smoothie.

Here's what I learned:

1. I like smoothies Fribble-thick so I halved the milk and tossed in an extra half cup ice.
2. Damn 1 serving is HUGE! Thing filled up a bar glass with a bit leftover.
3. While it was tasty, that's a lotta drink and I couldn't kill the thing before it started to melt.
4. something that thick and that cold takes forever to suck down.
5. Anyone who replies that I should take it in the car with me has never seen snow.
6. While yummy, I probably should've chased it with a hardboiled egg to get some protein to carry me longer than 9:30.
7. I'm disturbed by the notion that you can throw raw eggs into smoothies. uncooked eggs have one place in food... carbonara. That's it.

On to the food log...

Breakfast
3/4 chocolate and banana Smoothie (115)

Snack
Two crackers (24)

Lunch
Four cheese Lean Pocket (280)

Workout
53 minutes on stationary bike (322 calories burned

Dinner
Three servings spaghetti (600)
Vodka sauce (120)
Olive oil (120)
Parmesan (100)
Margarine (30)
Crescent rolls (425)

Total Calories (1714)

Weight: 70.5

December 2

I'm dealing with some drama in my life that's making me not hungry. Not sure if that will translate into eating more calories (just easy ones), or less, but I'm not really worried about it. Nothing too much going on, just internal struggles bubbling to the surface (you can check my personal blog if you care to read). Anyhow, with it being December and therefore crazy busy AND the internal drama AND a month where we're taking a 6 day vacation out of state, I'm a bit out of sorts. It's harder to hang on to whole foods eating and exercise during times of stress, but that's when it's most important!

Breakfast:
cereal and milk (260)
nutella bread (200)

Lunch:
raw crackers (50)
oatmeal walnut burgers (400)
greek yogurt (240)

Afternoon snack:
raw crackers (25)
green smoothie (180)
nutella bread (150)

Dinner:

Esther Price (200)
egg salad w/ red peppers served in lettuce wraps (300)
roasted brussel sprouts (80)
white chocolate (30)
cereal and milk (300)

Water:
11

Fruits and veg:
9

Total Calories:
2415

Weight:
146.2

December 1 Already?

I can't believe that it's already December!

Breakfast:
banana (100)
cereal and milk (275)

Morning snack:
nutella bread (150)

Lunch:
brown rice and broccoli stir fry (100)
raw crackers, pre-dehydration (that means dough) (75)

Afternoon snack:
Green smoothie (275)
banana chips (125)

Dinner:
Oatmeal walnut burgers (150)
salad (20)
yogurt (240)
cracker dough (50)
Esther Price chocolate (75)
cereal and milk (300)

Water:
10

fruits and veg:
12

Exercise:
90 mins reformer (250)

Total calories:
1935

Trying To Return to Normalcy

Breakfast:
Green smoothie (250)
teriyaki almonds (75)

Lunch:
bread and Nutella (450)
ww pasta and sauce (250)
banana (100)
1/4 Jack's burger, no bun (75)
banana chips (250)

Afternoon snack:
banana (100)

Dinner:
broccoli and red pepper stir fry w/ brown rice (200)
nutella bread (150)
cereal and milk (250)

Water:
10

Fruits and veggies:
14

Exercise:
75 mins step (550)

Total Calories:
2050