whoops

apparently, I suck at blogging.

Okay, so a quick update, I am now within 4.4 pounds of my goal.

Things I'm trying/doing differently:
I'm still sporadically doing the oil. The grapeseed oil makes me sooooo quesy that I can only manage it a couple times a week.
I'm also drastically limiting my carbs currently and will do so until the end of this week. From what I hear, this doesn't actually help you lose weight, but gets rid of a ton of retained water, which is fine, because assuming that all the weight I've lost in the past week was water weight, I had 3.8 pounds of it. I seem to retain a lot of water....so I feel like I'm at my *real* weight now.

My appetite reduction continues, and my meals now mostly consist of protein and veggies. For example, yesterday, I had a serving of sauteed shrimp and some roasted turkey breast.

I've already made a list of things I will eat once I can eat carbs again....

I really need to get a scale

So I've been staying over at B's and there's NO scale. So no progress to report right now, but thursday I will have a number for you.

Food Journal:
everything I said yesterday plus some leftover chinese food. I had about a cup of noodles and three or four pieces of chicken and a half a cup of fried rice.

Today:
about a cup and a half of noodles and three or four pieces of chicken.
rotisserie style chicken for dinner.

The chicken is currently in the oven, and it smells soooo good. It's a chicken with a can up its butt with a sugar herb rub and some smart balance. I think I'm serving it with some herb parmesan breadsticks (white bread dough with some sugar herb mix and parmesan.)

The fiber cereal I ate yesterday is REALLY filling. It has 7 grams of fiber per 2/3 cup serving and it tastes okay....it tastes like sugared high fiber cereal. But I throw it in yogurt and I can seriously just have a yogurt and 2/3 cup cereal from breakfast and lunch, which will keep me full until dinner. I think it's a great find...for 380 calories, I'm full until dinner!

oh the laziness....

I stopped blogging for a bit out of sheer laziness.

Alright, let's try to recap.

Wednesday:
What I had posted before plus
1 bbq chicken thigh
2 ears of corn
1 beef hot dog and bun
a bite of brownie
half a chocolate chip cookie

Thursday:
half a wheat pita with chicken breast (2 oz) and some cherry tomatoes
two ears of corn
a beef hot dog an bun
1 oz of rotisserie chicken
cup of cherries
12 oz orange juice

Friday:
half a wheat pita with chicken breast (3 oz) and some cherry tomatoes
1/4 bag of banana chips
2/3 cups of high fiber cereal
1.5 giant soft stuffed pretzels (jalepano cheese, pizza, and plain)
2 blue moons

Saturday:
1 shrimp tempura roll
1 american roll (shrimp tempura, eel, roe)
1/2 spicy tuna roll
2 pieces japanese shumai
2 pieces of veggie tempura
6 pieces of nigiri
2/3 cup cambell's new england clam chowder in a homemade bread bowl
5 jack and cokes (they are in 8 oz glasses and it was filled to the top with ice, so it wasn't actually that much)

Sunday:
1/2 a cup of soy sauce lomein noodles
1 egg roll
a couple bites of chicken fried rice
a couple botched egg foo youngs (which turned into egg, bbq pk and beansprout omlettes)
some apple juice

Today:
2 Dannon Light and Fit yogurts (200 calories total)
1 1/3 cups high fiber cereal (180 calories total)
1 chocolate with sprinkles donut (200 calories....crap.)

Dinner tonight: leftover soy sauce lo mein.

Tomorrow:
probably more lomein and a roasted chicken. It's set up so all the oil and fat will drip out.

I'm currently in love with rotisserie style chickens. Not only are they good to eat just outright, but they're great for chicken sandwiches and chicken pitas and lettuce wraps, stir fry, etc. But, they're actually kind of pricy. $6.99 for a 3 lb chicken! So, I'm making it myself! I bought my own chicken and I'm going to season it, stick a beer can up its butt and roast it in the electric oven. I'm super, super excited and I got a few recipes, so hopefully it turns out yummy. I'm a little worried about the chicken falling down, so I am thinking about using a wide soup can instead of the beer can. We'll see what I can do with it.

::sigh::

134.2

It's coming down, but I'm in a serious plateau.

I'm switching to grapeseed oil to see how that turns out.

Food Journal:
1/4 bag of banana chips
2 cups of coffee
leftover honey roasted chicken and some mashed potatoes (breast and wing only of half a small chicken)
3 pieces of candy
3 pieces of tortellini
one medium calzone with cheese and pasta sauce
1 whiskey and ginger ale

Big mistake on the calzone...tried it with swiss cheese melted inside with pasta sauce. BEYOND GROSS. EWW.

Today:
last small slice of bbq chicken pizza
2 ounces of leftover rotisserie chicken (breast)
1 full size kit kat bar
a half a cup of blueberries
a full cup of cherries

I'm going to a company softball game tonight, so I'm sure dinner tonight will consist of a hot dog or a hamburger and a few cups of beer....but at least I'm sort of exercising...right?

Less than 6 weeks away...

Food Journal:
3 1"x1" brownies
2 cups of coffee (2 creams and 1 sugar each)
3 pieces of chocolate
5 pieces of salt water taffy
chicken casserole
4 slices of deli turkey

Not so good. And I'm already on 3 pieces of salt water taffy for today...

Lunch is leftover honey roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. I believe dinner will be some homemade breadsticks. I have some leftover dough from making pizza over the weekend, so I'm thinking Pizza-hut style breadsticks (yummm) made slightly more healthy. Like using Smart Balance.

Yesterday I bought a bread machine, cast iron skillet and pizza stone!! The bread machine is used, but it looks nice and easy to use. I paid $30 for it, so I decided that if I use it at least 30 times, then I've gotten my money's worth. My first project will be making some more pizza dough. I figured that pizza can't actually be that bad for me, as long as I control what goes in it. The recipe I have uses about 3.5 cups of flour (and I'll substitute in some whole wheat flour too) for 2 large pizzas and I brush the edges of the pizza with olive oil, and then top it. I'm thinking that I'll just keep topping it with healthier items...so no pepperoni (not my fav anyways) or sausage (I looove sausage. I bet some italian sausage sans casing will be really good on a pizza). I'll make sure to pick up some part skim cheese when I'm at the store today and stick to toppings like chicken or pineapple (yummm, pineapple) or mushrooms or spinach. I can even make a small deep dish pizza with my cast iron skillet!! I can see where the deep dish has a lot of grease because the cast iron skillet needs to be well oiled before the dough can go in, but I don't understand how oily regular pizza is from a restaurant....unless it has to do with the meats on the pizza...but I've definitely have had a cheese pizza with tons and tons of oil. I don't use any oil in my recipe, except to let the dough rise, which is less than a teaspoon of oil.

Maybe I'll have B host the superbowl this year and I'll make pizzas for everyone....I want to get the dough right. The one over the weekend had too much flour (kneading is freaking hard!)...but B said it was much better than the frozen CPK pizzas he loves so much. I don't think he'll go as far as to say my pizza was better than a pizzaria or the real CPK restaurant, but that's what I'm aiming towards...

I don't actually forsee myself making a lot of bread with the bread machine...just because I really don't eat that much bread and I currently have a package and a half of bread in my freezer, but I can definitely see myself making a lot of pizza dough, or sweet dessert breads (like cinnamon rolls, elephant ears, sticky buns...which is really bad for me, so maybe I won't....). I do want to try some potato bread (I didn't realize that mashed potatoes were actually IN potato bread) and some bread bowls.

Yes, I'm a freak. I know. Leave me alone to be excited about my bread machine.

Catch Up...

Friday's Food Journal:
2 bagels with a tablespoon of salmon cream cheese
2 cups of coffee
1 Coors Light
1 Miller High Life
2 Jack and Cokes
1 SoCo shot.
It was B's birthday. I wasn't hungry....but look!! NO CANDY!!! Yay!

Saturday's Food Journal:
1 slice of deep dish pepperoni and spinach pizza
1 cup of cherries
1 cup of coke
2 small slices of bbq chicken pizza (homemade!)
2 small crab cakes (homemade!)
1 molten chocolate cupcake (homemade!)
1.5 cups of soy milk
1 cup of apple juice
It was a continuation of B's birthday, where I made him dinner.

Sunday's Food Journal:
1 small slice of bbq chicken pizza
4 oz of leftover rotisserie chicken
1 cup apple juice
1 small crab cake, handful of fried shrimp, handful of fried calamari, a couple fried jalepano slices
1 honey roasted chicken thigh
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
This was another birthday dinner, this time hosted by his parents

Weight this morning: 135.8.

BAH. I guess this weekend was full of heavy eating, so we'll see how this week goes.

On another note, I went grocery shopping! First time in over two months. I spent about $76, but I should have enough food for a month or two. I bought some yogurt (yum, yum...fat free of course), pita bread (for low-carb pizzas and lunch sandwiches), a gallon of skim milk (which I separated into five portions and froze 4 of them. I don't drink enough milk to justify buying a gallon, but this way, I'll have milk for months...), smart balance spread (which is proven to lower cholesterol), some lean frozen dinners ($1 each, 4 packs for the days I'm too lazy to cook), Orange Juice, canned soup (I should stop buying this stuff and make my own, but this is for emergency lunch days where I stayed at B's and didn't have anything to bring to lunch), romaine lettuce (for the pitas...though I forgot to get some tomatoes...), blueberries (oh so good...I looove blueberries), pasta sauce (4 jars...on sale), stewed tomatoes and tomato paste (to try this recipe for marinara sauce...I haven't decided which is cheaper yet since I don't know how much the recipe will make. The stewed tomatoes and tomato paste costs about $2.14..I'll update later with the cost per serving), spicy italian sausage (for ziti, when I get lazy, this is an easy and cheap dish to make), rotisserie chicken, old bay seasoning, bbq sauce, red onion, and canned crab meat (for B's dinner), paper towels (again, on sale), and bay leaves (for chicken stock).

So really, after taking out the items for B's dinner, I really only spent about $58.

I do still need to pick up some small whole chickens at Jewel (0.78/lb) to make some easy roasted chicken recipes (and then use the bones for chicken stock), and some soda at CVS (free after rebate!), some english muffins (good for breakfast...hopefully they have a wheat variety), extra light olive oil (buy one get one free at jewel), and grapes.

I do get chicken breast, shrimp, and veggies from my parents (yay for wholesale prices), but I think I'll get some extra grapes and freeze them. The problem is that my freezer is SO full of stuff. I think I'll start expanding to B's freezer as well. Or maybe I'll buy a freezer for my garage....ooooooh. Oh and the other problem is that I don't use much in my freezer. I'm going to try to plan a bit more so I can empty out my freezer a bit.

Along with the goal of trying to eat healthier, I'm also trying to cut back on how much I spend on food. The Tightwad Gazette has been super useful in teaching me how to reduce my grocery bill, though I know I can do much more than what I have been doing. Like shopping in Cicero. I'm trying to factor in gas costs as well, and I'm too unmotivated to actually sit down and figure out the savings. I should probably make a spreadsheet that I can plug in gas prices and food costs into...

Anyways, I digress. Today I plan to eat: 2 cups coffee, 1" x 1" piece of brownie, leftover chicken casserole, and something else for dinner....

and the beat goes on...

So no weigh in this morning (I have to get a scale for my bf's place...) but I will recap my food consumption yesterday (it wasn't that good...)

Half a bag of banana chips (120 calories)
2 cups of coffee (2 creamers and 1 equal each, 60 calories or so)
Half a meatball sub (leftovers, and again, very filling)
6 pieces of candy (I fail! Again, they are mini kit kats. There's only one side of a 2 inch kit kat in each and I tried to only eat the dark chocolate ones)
3 small pieces of Tyson fried chicken fingers (one to one and a half inch pieces)
3 bites of ziti (I was checking if the ziti was warm enough...I was heating it up for my bf)
a small slice of chocolate cake (1/2 inch thick, 5 inches long and 3 inches wide)

Overall, not so hot. I wasn't even hungry for the cake, just wanted something sweet.

I almost think I should cut out carbs for 2 weeks to KILL my sweet tooth (it definitely worked before) but today, I have a casserole in the fridge with whole wheat pasta, and this weekend is the bf's birthday.

Okay, so it's time to re-focus and get some freakin' SELF CONTROL. I only have 6 weeks to lose 8.6 lbs....