Not the best day

My plan — to eat something before I went to my Book Club meeting so I wouldn't partake of so many goodies — didn't work. I didn't get a chance to eat the Quinoa and Black Beans I'd planned on (recipe still coming, I promise!), and arrived at the meeting STARVED.

You can guess what happened next: I inhaled about 10 bite-sized quiches, several chips with salsa and way too much cheesy artichoke dip with pita chips. Two pieces of cake also were involved (but, to my credit, they were small pieces of cake — and it was a light berries and cream type of thing, not rich chocolate).

Needless to say, I forgot all about taking photos.

But I'm not going to let that derail my week. No siree! Instead, I'm going to take a little bit longer walk in the morning, before I settle in to read my Golden Heart entry ... the deadline to ship that puppy off is creeping ever nearer, and I want to read through it at least one more time before I make the final print so I can make copies and put it in the mail.

As I told my friends over at Blog to Lose yesterday, it's about persistence, not perfection.

Now if you'll excuse me, the midnight munchies are about to strike. Instead of saying "screw it" and hitting the all-night drive thru for some fries, I'm going to go home and make myself some "fries" on the George Foreman grill.

As Hungry Girl might say, baby steps, people ... baby steps.

Amazing what a week of strict tracking will do ...

I had my WI yesterday morning, but didn't get a minute to blog about it all afternoon. (Headed straight to the Boyfriend's after the meeting, and then he wanted to run to Prescott to buy a new GPS ... We had an early dinner at Olive Garden — only 10 Points for me! — but I ruined it by eating HIS leftovers at about 8 p.m. That's what happens when I eat dinner at 3 p.m.!)

Anyway, back to WI — I was down 4.4 pounds! Yep. I not only lost the 3 I gained last week, but a few more for good measure, and I think I have my new photo food journal to thank. I'm planning to keep it up again this week and see what happens.

Getting used to it

This visual food journal thing takes some getting used to. I forgot to snap photos of several things I ate this weekend. OK ... perhaps I purposely forgot a few. Nah ... I wouldn't do that! :D

Saturday started out with those yummy pumpkin pancakes from Green Lite Bites and some sugar-free syrup (5 Points total).

Lunch a couple of hours later was a burrito from Burritos Fiesta, a delicious little place next to (you guessed it) TCBY. I capped off a tasty chicken burrito with a kid-sized pumpkin yogurt from next door (another 12 Points).

Having eaten too many points by that time (a total of 17 if I'm estimating the burrito correctly at 10), I admit it: I went a little nuts. That darn "I already messed up, so screw it" attitude crept in. At work, I ate a Halloween-sized box of Hot Tamales, then went for the healthy apple I'd bought (2 more Points).

Tried to get back on track at dinner, eating a nice, healthy salad complete with a dressing of EVOO/balsamic vinegar and 2 ounces of turkey and cheese on a Sandwich Thin (4 Points).

After dinner, I had another Kashi TLC dark chocolate coconut bar and some Brach's Autumn Mix (5 Points total for both). I also munched on another Halloween-pack of Whoppers and a bag of microwave popcorn that you didn't see in the pictures, bringing the day's total to 32. And I doubt I had enough FPs left to cover it. :P

Today, I slept through breakfast. I didn't get up until almost 2 p.m., actually. Even so, I had some pumpkin pie oatmeal when I woke up (2). Then, I took a Sandwich Thin with hummus to the movie theater with me when I went to see "Couples Retreat" (2 more).

The good news? I said "no" to the movie popcorn! Go, me! (I have to celebrate the small successes.)

After the movie, I hit the mall. Read somewhere that Cost Plus World Market had a sale on Torani sugar-free syrups. (They were still a bit pricey at two bottles for $12, but I'll probably pick a couple up on payday.) I stopped in the food court for a butterscotch pecan cookie (5 Points, bringing the total so far to 9 for the day).

Then, feeling a bit annoyed with the Boyfriend, who knew I had the day off and chose not to spend it with me, I decided to have dinner at Long John Silvers. (I know, I know. Stupid, self-destructive thing to do.) I thought long and hard before doing it, though, knowing that I'd have to take a picture of it to show you all. Ordered the fish/chicken combo basket, with fries and 2 hush puppies. They gave me the 2 fish combo instead. I only ate about half the fries, so the meal totaled about 16 1/2 Points (12 for 2 pieces of fish, 2 for the hush puppies and 2 1/2 for the fries I ate).

Wow. Looking at it that way, that's a pretty steep price tag. Had I gotten the chicken plank I wanted, it would have been only 13 1/2. Only?! :P

Even though that brought my day's total to 25 1/2, I wanted something else sweet after dinner and a stint at Barnes & Noble, where I sat in the cafe and wrote for a while. Instead of buying something really awful for me (like one of the delicious-looking Red Velvet Cupcakes from the BN bakery case), I picked up a cake mix and went home to make diet soda cupcakes. Chocolate cake mix with a can of Cherry Coke. Mmm ... even with no icing, they're pretty tasty.

Remarkably, I stopped with just one (2 Points). Woo-hoo (another small success)!

After spending several more hours writing (my word count is up to 8,755 now), I popped some popcorn using the paper bag trick (regular popcorn in a brown paper bag. It pops up just like the microwave stuff, but tastes fresher.). And now I'm here, totaling up the damage ... 28 1/2 Points for the day.

Actually, that's not as bad as I thought it might be. Cool. Maybe I'll actually see a good result at the scale in the morning.

Forgot to take a picture of breakfast

I made pumpkin pancakes from Green Lite Bites this morning, and they were delicious. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap their photo before I snarfed them down.

They looked a lot like the ones Roni photographed, though. They were slightly cakey and just a bit sweet. Yum! And three pretty large pancakes had just 4 WW Points. (I added some sugar-free syrup for another 1 Point.)

Even better, they were a great way to use up the leftover pumpkin in my fridge before it went bad.

After breakfast, I hit the sidewalk for a 22-minute walk.

More later. I'll remember to take pictures for the rest of my meals. Promise!

Is it already Day 3?

The visual food journal thing seems to be working. Even when I don't get the pictures off the camera and into the blog, the simple act of stopping to take the photo makes me think twice.

Today was a decent day, food-wise. I ate a few more Points than allowed, but I think I'm still within the Flex Points for the week. I'm going to have to be more strict the next couple of days, though, because I've pretty much used them all up now.

This morning started off with breakfast of a Sandwich Thin topped with 1 Tbsp each of reduced-fat PB and sugar-free peach jam. Mmm. An hour or so later, while I sat at my computer, writing, I tapped into the Boyfriend's bag of almonds, which he'd conveniently left within reach. (Forgot to take their picture, though.)

By about 11 a.m., I decided I was tired of writing and took a nap. Two hours later, when I finally woke up, it was time to hurry back up the mountain to go to work. So I had a quick lunch at Subway (and ate a pack of mini-Oreos on the way to Subway. Apparently, all that sleeping made me hungry.)

My at-work, post-lunch snack was a Spooky S'mores Bar, and then some Whoppers that some kind soul left in the newsroom. Sorry to say, but I LOVE malted milk balls, so I couldn't resist. At least I only ate one tiny pack (just 3 Whoppers).

For dinner, I'd pulled a serving of Roni's Beef-A-Roni out of the freezer. I'm not sure it froze all that well (or maybe it was just old. I can't remember how long it was in the freezer.). The pasta was a bit mushy ... but it was still pretty tasty. I also ate a Jell-O mousse cup.

At about 10 p.m., I nibbled on the Kashi Fruit and Grain bar I brought in as my late-night snack. I love those things. I may also have some popcorn when I get home.

Overall, it was a pretty chocolate-heavy day. In retrospect, I wonder if starting the day off with PB&J works for me. (It does for Cristin at Eat Like Me!) But I seemed to want sweets all day long. That's not a good thing when I'm still trying to lose 20-ish pounds.

I also didn't get in any exercise today. Between all that writing, sleeping and working, I had no time to even take a short walk. Oh well. I'll definitely get one in tomorrow (or later today, actually, after I've gotten some sleep.)

Food	Units
sandwich thin w/ 1 tbsp rf pb, 1 tbsp sf peach jam	3
14 almonds	2
6-inch buffalo chicken sub w/o cheese	7
bag baked cheddar & sour cream chips	3
fun pk mini oreos	1
spooky smores z bar - yum!	2
3 whopper candies (from a fun-size pack)	1
roni's beef-a-roni	6
jell-o mousse	1
Total:	26

Table provided by Roni's Food Tweet, Eat, Post Generator.

Day One (again)

My first full day of snapping photos of everything I ate went very well indeed. I hit my target of 23 Points for the first time ever (since losing a Point on my birthday).

As I suspected, taking pictures of what I eat is making me more aware of the choices I'm making. I sure don't want to have to tell you guys that I scarfed down a bunch of junk!

Here's what I did eat:

I had lunch with friends at Picazzo's, my favorite gourmet pizza place. Got my usual, the caesar salad with the special slice of the week. This week it was a margherita pizza, with tomato, basil and mozzarella. Yum! At 11 Points, it is a bit of an indulgence, but I just love Picazzo's. I try to get there at least once a payday.

A couple hours after lunch, I had another fun pack of mini Oreos. Really — how much fun are 5 bite-sized Oreos? I should give the rest away (but I'm sure I won't).

My at-work afternoon snack involved grape tomatoes and hummus on a sandwich thin. (I remembered to take a picture of the tomatoes this time.)

For dinner, I tried a new recipe, Quinoa and Black Beans. Someone brought it in to share at my last WW meeting, and I thought it sounded good. It was. I bulked it up a bit with some turkey smoked sausage, because I'm not much of a vegetarian. Even so, the whole bowl was just 4 Points. Watch for the recipe in a separate post.

Dessert was a Jell-O chocolate mousse cup (forgot to shoot). Then, at work for the evening, I snacked on another honeycrisp apple and some no-sugar-added peaches for 2 more Points. (I also had a piece of sugar-free root beer hard candy, which has barely any calories, so I'm counting it as 0. A 3-piece serving is 50 calories.)

No real exercise today, unless strolling around two grocery stores looking for quinoa counts, but the weather is going to be perfect for a walk in the morning — not too cold.

Below is my food journal from Tweet, Eat, Post, a great tool at Roni's Weigh.

Food	Units
light yogurt	2
picazzo's caesar salad & slice of pizza lunch combo	11
halloween pk mini oreos	1
10 grape tomatoes	0
2 tbsp hummus w/ sandwich thin	2
quinoa and black beans w/ 2 oz. turkey smoked sausage	4
jell-o chocolate mousse	1
honeycrisp apple	1
no-sugar-added peaches	1
Total:	23

Table provided by Roni's Food Tweet, Eat, Post Generator.

Status quo is not working

I had my weekly WI this morning and was most displeased with the results: Up 3.4 pounds — since Wednesday.

Yes, there was a stress-filled Friday night binge (Taco Bell and too many Halloween cookies/candy) and the Boyfriend fed me too much for dinner Sunday night ... but 3+ pounds?

Some of it was probably water weight, but still, I'm unhappy with that. I'm supposed to be getting closer to goal, not farther away!

So I've decided what I've been doing is not working. The question is, what to do about it?

I think I've settled on an answer. I'm going to start taking pictures of what I eat before I eat it, and posting it here for you all to see, a la Self.com's Eat Like Me blog.

That ought to make me think twice about scarfing down 8 Halloween cookies and a plate of cheesy nachos!

Here's my stab at yesterday. I started with lunch, because that was after the bad WI.

Lunch was a beef/veggie bowl with brown rice from the Flame Broiler (8 Points). I forgot to snap it before I started eating, so by what you see is about half of it, after I'd eaten most of the veggies.

After lunch, I had

something sweet: a fun-size bag of Oreos (1 Point). I was excited to learn that

o

n

e

pack of those things

was just 1 Point ... but one pack is really a teeny tiny amount.

Afternoon snacks at work were a light English

muffin with hummus (2 more Points) and a honeycrisp apple.

Needed a quick dinner, so it was off to the Wendy's drive-thru. But I order

ed as healthy as I could: grilled chicken sandwich (7 Poin

ts) with a side salad (1 for the dres

sing).

What you didn't see: Breakfast was peanuts and a banana (5). I also forgot

to snap the 10 grape

tomatoes I ate at work (0) and the mini-box of Milk Duds pilfered from someone's leftover Halloween stash at the office (1).

My grand total for the day was 28 Points, so I used 5 FPs.