Hot flash, Wee bit more Weight Off , and Gots no Appetite--which I love--and Easy Baked Apple With Walnut Butter,

Tanita-San: 195.0

That's 1.6 pounds down from Sunday's official bloggy and P5 weigh-in. Hope to make it to 2 round pounds by Sunday. The body is weird. Who knows?

Been having occasional hot flashes again. Just spontaneously get the "I'm on fire" feeling and then break out in a total body sweat. Lovely. May be due to estrogen stored in the fat cells that are being tapped.

Glad the flashes aren't as common these days as during transition to menopause. I just went and doused my head in cold water and the cooling effect of my curls drying off is reviving.

I am glad my appetite is nearly non-existent. Yesterday, even after Pilates, when I generally wanna eat a nice big breaking-of-fast meal, Meh. Not hungry. So, I drank water and didn't eat.

I walked at 8 pm. Meh. Still not hungry.

So, I drank water while I got ready hubby's supper. After I had him taken care of, I went and scrambled some eggs with chorizo and peppers, sliced a tomato, drizzled it with EVOO and tossed herbs over it, cut up some ripe strawberries and mango, and brewed some lovely gourmet decaf, and that, along with a few bits of hubby's turkey fricassee and mashed taters,  was my only meal. I had some sugar free pina colada custard (80 calories, 12 carbs)  from a local diet meals vendor for dessert. Done for the day.

Woke up. Not hungry. I've been up for 4 hours and still have no desire to eat. The hot flash didn't help. ; )

Anyway, I'm gonna go have a chicken salad that's in the fridge. I have no appetite, but I do want to build muscle, and that requires protein and nutrients, so off I go.

I may head to the farmer's market for a couple Rome apples. Hubby loved the baked apple I made up quickie in the nuker for him the other day (served with sugar-free low carb vanilla ice cream). I may make it again. Easy: Peel 3/4 of skin (so top and middle are bald and bottom is "dressed"), core, then stuff the core with walnut butter, place on nukable bowl or plate that has a bit of water on the bottom, sprinkle liberally with true cinnamon, nuke for like 4 minutes or to the texture you like. If you like yours sweeter than the apple's sweetness, sprinkle with Splenda or add some honey or whatever sweet thing is your fave.

 Hubby loves it. It's a fruit. Has fiber. I love walnut butter and cinnamon. We're both happy. Hooray!

Don't you love it when something EASY to make and healthful is a nice dessert? Baked apples rule!

Happy Friday, folks. Make it a health-promoting weekend! Go swim or something.. ; )

Day Five of Double Dog Dare Challenge: "Clean-ish" Breakfast, Water's a Snap lately, Want to Get lPreplanning and Groove for Weekend Obstacle Course

It's not just the Halloween candy crap that's filling the food minefield this weekend. No, I also have a weekend family party and a visit to a new anime/manga/otaku store that will likely assault my eyes with the sight of Pocky. (I really like Pocky, strawberry flavor and chocolate coconut. I have a box at home that's been there since June...my temptation test. I've been very good.

So, I gotta jot down what to take to up the healthfulness and "filling" quality of what's available at the party (Cuban chicken and rice, for one). Mostly likely, I'll have a very low carb and low-cal breakfast to give me caloric room. Probably drink a protein shake before driving over and  take another to have a bit before cake-cutting to nip any sort of peckishness that might lead me astray. Maybe take various bottles of water to continually sip. Fruit for sure.

Anyway, doing fine. Had a big breakfast and still feel full almost 4 hours later. The 6 glasses of water helped with that fullness. :)

This is my food/water/accountability post for today. If that bores you, skip it. If you like seeing how other people eat/calorie count/drink, fine. Knock yerself out.

Calorie limit for the challenge is: 1760

BREAKFAST:

2 Alderfer (organic, free roaming, etc) eggs and 2 egg whites.
2 cups chopped veggies (mushrooms, zucchini, red pepper, onion)
2 oz Swiss Cheese (actual Swiss, from Switzerland, hah)
1 tbsp EVOO for cooking eggs and veggies in...
2 tbsp hot sauce (Crystal)
1.5 cups fresh organic cantaloupe chunks
(smelled nice while cutting, so I had a half cup before I even got to sit down to eat. Yum.)
2 cups fresh coffee (regular, Terroir Coffee blend, so good)
Sucralose drops for coffee
6 glasses of water (2 before bkfst, 2 after, and 2 more a while later. This is definitely getting easier. Allan's right.)

breakfast calories: 594
(41grams of carbs, 36 fat, 37 protein)

SNACK: water (2 glasses)

LUNCH:  (OMIGOSH, I WENT NUTS)

I had grilled chicken breast (1.5)
guacamole (260 cals worth, oh dear)
pico de gallo, cilantro, 1/4 cup refried beans
16 tortilla chips (YIKES)
1/4 cup queso dip
salsa
iced green tea
2 cups water before meal

Not having a snack and not portioning stuff out on a plate (as opposed to just opening stuff and dipping) is a huge mistake. I went nuts. I did not have my between-meals protein. Mistake. I got all cocky and idiotic cause I felt so good this am and after breakfast. Just goes to show...can't view any meal carelessly.

lunch calories: 1070 (!!!)

I have only 96 calories left. Sheesh.

SNACK: (no dinner today!)
2 servings Green Magma shaken in water (40 cals)
assorted supplements and fiber (29--yes, some supplements have calories)
water--2 glasses

snack calories total: 69

Total Calories for Day Five: 1733
Total Water for Day Five: 12

I suspect the salt bloat will be ugly on the scale tomorrow. But I managed to stay under 1760. Not happy with how I distributed calories (not optimum at all) or the loss of strategy and control. BUT...I'm glad I didn't add insult to caloric injury by overloading. Since I'd had plenty of fat and protein in previous meals, and carbs were over 100, I figured I had enough nutrition and could skip dinner. We shall see what sodium damage I did....

Nite...

Happy Waist-whittling Weekending to you!

*The Challenge Particulars for Day 1 of the Double Dog Dare

I'm gonna use this post to update water/calories for the Double Dog Challenge.

My Pur water pitcher is getting a workout! I've already refilled it a couple times since I made a pot of coffee and had 4 cups of my required 8 cups of water with breakfast. I plan to have the rest of the require 8 after Pilates around lunchtime. I don't like to drink water around suppertime, cause then I'm up at night weeing. Annoying.My goal for the challenge is to divide the water into 4 + 4 or 3 + 3 + 1 (the last with afternoon snack or just before dinner). Drinking water is a chore for me, so I just wanna drink it and be done.

My insides are sloshy. :)

So, I'll just edit this post as the day goes on:

BREAKFAST: (I entered the quantities at SparkPeople.com's Nutrition Tracker to get the particulars of calories, carbs, fats, protein, etc.)

4 cups water
2 cups coffee with sucralose liquid
1.5 cups fresh papaya with TrueLime crystals
1 servings WS protein hot cakes
1 serving Nature's Hollow "maple" syrup
1 serving Amazing Grass supplement (I usually take this the day of trainer workouts)
1/2 scoop Solgar Whey to Go

breakfast calories: 398

LUNCH: (was craving Southern Fried Chicken of all things. Ended up going with the least damaging "fried chicken" offering I could think of on the drive home...and yes, I'm a cheese freak.)

1/3 ounce Swiss Chees--after workout "immediate snack"
Wendy's Spicy Chicken Caesar salad--no dressing, no croutons
2 TBSP parmesan/shaved
Coke Zero (12 oz)
Water (done with 8 minimum for day)


lunch calories: 537



Snack:

WS Protein shake
1/2 cup 2% milk

snack calories: 161


DINNER:
FiberGourmet Rotini (2 oz)
Small Wendy's Chili (I got at lunch, reheated for dinner)
2 slices 2% Kraft American Cheese
(mixed the above to make a Chili Mac liter version)
1/3 cup Cubanelle pepper chopped
1/2 cup cucumber slices
Water

Dinner calories: 475

SNACK: (saved dessert from dinner for later snack)

WonderSlim dark chocolate pudding (chilled since dinnertime, yum)
Sliced Strawberries
1/3 WonderSlim caramel nut bar

snack calories: 179


Day's Calorie Total: 1750
Day's target calories: 1760

I ended up drinking 12 glasses of water, so I did better than the challenge demanded. Yay.


According to the SparkPeople.com Nutrition tracker, I met THEIR goals for me for:

--calories
--fat
--protein
--cholesterol
--calcium

I went over their goals for me for:

--sodium (er, I normally do, being the cheese and salt freak I am)
--fiber (I ate 52 grams of fiber. Heh.)

They have me low on carbohydrates (that's intentional on my part, though I'm not an Atkins sort of eater. I mean, I made it to 189 carbs, even though I'd ideally like to stay in the neighborhood of 125), as well as a lot of nutrients, but I just took a magnesium and multivitamin supplement, and that covers a lot of what I went under (magnesium, B12, folate, etc).

I didn't have a lot of fruit or coconut water today, so Potassium intake is low.

There ya go. Day one...on target re calories and water.

~~~

Sick o' da Scale And Angry at My Wonky Immune System....

Well, my eating this week has been between 1400 and 1800 cals.

And the scale is not budging.

And I'm really sick of that.

Well, okay, fine, deep breath.

I don't wanna stress and set off  a binge. Staying calm. :)

Tested my allergy to oranges by having one with breakfast. It was soo good. I used to eat or drink oranges every breakfast for years, then got really sensitized. So, I stopped having them for MONTHS now. Well, within an hour, I had a rashy patch on my arm and my skin felt prickly. So much for the test.

Had a ton of veggies yesterday. Like 4 servings at lunch (had low cal veggie soup from a gourmet deli and I added some of their pasta fagiole to up the fiber, then I added in some of the diet cabbage soup from same deli cause I like cabbage).  I was gonna have spinach salad, but ended up adding the handful of cabbage into the soup. Nice. With a sprinkle of parmesan and coconut water (for my BP and to balance the salt in the soup)--lunch.

Protein shake snack.

Late afternoon hot tea with 60 cals of protein cinnamon pretzels.

At dinner, I had a biggish salad with my chicken and lentil-rice (yeah, I let the carbs in, sigh.)  It had chopped tomato, peppers, onions, and a lot of herbs on top. Really nice with the lemony vinaigrette. I freely confess I gave into having too much rice and chicken.

Late evening snack: protein hot cocoa and three 15 calorie low-carb biscotti.

I saw some gorgeous seafood on a blog and have such a craving. I haven't been able to have seafood since December 1997. Yep, nearly 13 years. In Miami, where everywhere you turn has seafood, where you can go buy fish fresh off the fishing boats at various locales, it's torture. TORTURE.  But going to the ER in anaphylaxis ain't no picnic....so, no fish for me. No shrimp or scallops. I weep.

Dieting was so easy back when I could eat seafood. Shrimp and scallops and fillets (my fave used to be corvina, but any flaky, light-fleshed fish made me happy) are so easy to cook for a doofus-in-da-kitchen like me. And I loved it. And with some garlic and lemon and parsley, good to go. Low cal protein. I miss that ease.

And I miss tuna salads and sandwiches for lunch. A lot. Used to be my 2x a week lunch.


Today is organic co-op pick-up. Valencia oranges are on the list. I guess I better give them away. I'm allergic. Hubby has rosacea that blooms with citrus.

I love oranges. I love seafood. I can't have either.

I'm a bit mad about this today. I'm resenting my defective body.

Yeah, I better go distract myself from self-directed anger....

No EarthDancing, Just Routine Chores and Nookie....and a yummy breakfast

 714 days, 7 hours to go...

So, we didn't hit the EarthDance. My heat rash told me to stay INDOORS.

Which is fine, as I can enjoy hubby's body in privacy. How many calories does nookie-wumpsy-bumps burn? Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I can't be in the kitchen scrounging for crap, if I'm attacking raspberry-pink nipples.

Chores do need to be done--mostly laundry right now, but dusting needs are urgent and...okay, my least fave...bathroom chores. Ick. Scrubbing has to burn more than potato-couching.

And I plan to dance some more--gotta make up for missing the New-Agey prayerdance rave, right? Gonna cue up my Mac Mini with YouTube goodies on the flat-screen (Gosh, I love watching streaming Japanese anime on that big tv using the Mac Mini) and move my fat bod.

Brekkie made me very happy. I've been doing a combo of those high-protein hotcakes and something with eggs/egg whites with appetite-calming success, so I keep on trucking that duo.

Today, I put low fat cheddar and pico de gallo (leftover from yesterday's lunch) on top of egg whites scrambled. On the hot cakes, instead of just sugar free syrup, I nuked organic strawberries from my co-op for a minute to compote them, and mixed in a bit of sucralose, and that made a lovely topping. Added some gourmet coffee from Paradise Roasters (Safira, Brazil, mmmm) that I mixed with the last scoop of the Terroir Cauca, Colombia Select blend and it was surprisingly nice. Had a cup of fresh watermelon, which really felt like summer-when-I-was-young in my mouth (though Lord knows I detest summer in Miami when I'm a hot-flashing old dame.)

Gotta drink more water. I'm so bad with water, so I really gotta push and push myself to get it down. But coffee, yeah, I can take another cup. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Hope Sunday is seeing you slimmer and more joyful. A new week has begun. Aren't new beginnings just lovely?

Dinner: High Fiber Rotini, Sauteed Chard, Steamed Broccoli, Bibb Lettuce

715 days, 3 hours to go...

Okay, so for lunch I had a grilled chicken feast--the fajitas were nearly oil-free. I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of sauteeing, like so many Mexican places do, the chicken was simply grilled and the veggies lightly grilled (not much flavor, but that's okay, cause i had guac and pico de gallo and black bean salsa). Used low carb multigrain tortillas. No rice. No sour cream. No cheese. Had coffee and water.

Dinner: FiberGourmet rotini with Rao's marinara and 2% mozzarella. The steamed broccoli, sauteed rainbow Chard, and Bibb lettuce (with a tabespoon of Annie's Organic Goddess dressing) were all from my organic food co-op weekly share. Felt like a sweet drink, so had Coke Zero. Dang, that stuff tastes so much like the real, sugary thing. More Water.

I cut up fresh watermelon for dessert. Might have another pluot. They wuz yumsy last night.

Wondering if I'm going to the EarthDance event tomorrow (hippy dippy New Agey sorta "love the earth, love each other, dance for peace" sorta thing. There's gonna be music, geisha dancing, Bollywood dancing, drumming for healing, assorted spiritually classes/events--such as making a sexy organic vegan smoothie--and (if you were a devoted watcher of ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS, this next part will make you remember Edwina and the talking stick, and you will smile), a talking circle.  :::guffaw:::

Hubby's a drummer so he may do the drumming workshops.

I'm all psyched to see the fire spinners. Woohoo.

The neighborhood is artsy and up and coming, but still pretty much by the worst crime area down here. These are late afternoon and evening events.

I really don't wanna lose more parts of my car. Heh.

We'll see.

See, Allan. I made TWO POSTS.

If You Like Chili Mac (I do!) and If you have naturally curly hair...

727 days to go...

I love beans. I love tomatoes. I love ground beef (or the fakey soy crumbles you can use like ground beef). I love cheese. I love it mixed together, and I love it mixed together and then thrown over pasta.

These days I use super-high fiber pasta from FiberGourmet as my first choice (though I still have a stash of DreamField's higher fiber pasta to go through). Hubby loves chewy texture that holds up to next-day reheating. I like that we get a super dose of fiber. (Not the gas, but, hey, fiber! Filling and regulating!)

So, if you want to make a less diet-deadly version of Chili Mac than, say, Steak and  Shake's version, visit Hungry Girl's remade recipe of this comfort food, that is, if you like the following stats for 1.5 cups of the stuff:

Serving Size: 1 3/4 cups
Calories: 297
Fat: 2g
Sodium: 637mg
Carbs: 55.5g
Fiber: 9.75g
Sugars: 11.5g
Protein: 19g

POINTS® value 5*

If you're doing the WonderSlm diet, you can add the veggies, more spice to the Vegetarian Joe and throw that on half a cup of  FiberGourmet pasta and top with lite sour cream or lite cheddar and you're set. A little carb cheat, but you get lots of filling fiber that shouldn't spike up your sugar.
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

If you're a naturally curly girl (or you just want to use very gentle styling products without silicones or sulfates), there's a giveaway today. You only have until 11:59 to leave a comment on the Naturally Curly facebook page (scroll down to the giveaway entry on their wall). They've been doing giveaways for some days--this is the 8th day and they will do 10 total. Today, you can win a Deva Curl set of products (NoPoo hair cleanser, OneC conditioner and I can't read if there is a styler, but prolly).  You need to leave 3 reasons why you need this sulfate-free product line. :)

If you google Deva Curl or Deva Chan, you can find out about the line and salon that coined the term "Curly Girl Method" for caring for curls.

Back On Track, Says the Scale, and more concrete goals...

730 days to go...

I had gotten to 44 pounds down (when I was on previous blog, Once Upon a Diet), but I went from lower carb eating routine back to a, say, medium carb one, and the water weight came back. I know it was water weight, cause it was overnight that it went up like 6 lbs, then overnight again that it came down 3 pounds. Fat doesn't come and go that way.

I do notice I hold less water if I eat low to lower carb. If I have pasta, even in a small amount for dinner, it's like the Chinese Food effect--up go 3 to 6 lbs. When I eat Chinese, I just don't bother to weigh-in the next day. The bloat is immense.

I had a lower number today, so going back to lower carb got some bloat off. :) Not at 255.6 again, yet, but 1 lb away.

I had a lower carb breakfast, incorporating my new breakfast fave high protein and low calorie "hot cakes" from WonderSlim (a DietDirect program with low carb to lower carb items, and even some pasta items that aren't low-carb at all, which is kinda puzzling). I don't do the plan (it's a pseudo-Medifast type diet). I simply use the products for snacks or to augment the protein in my meals. These hot cakes make me feel like I'm having a luxurious treat. They're amazingly easy to make, no mess to clean up, and I have them almost every day. I use Nature's Hollow sugar free syrup and cinnamon most days, and when I feel like it or have raspberries or strawberries around, I make a quick microwave compote (put the raspberries or sliced strawberries in a small bowl, add a drop of sucralose liquid and nuke it for a minute or so--instant fruit compote!) I usually add an egg with cheese, or two eggs scrambled, or egg whites scrambled with veggies and cheese, or some other egg variation to up my early day protein. If I don't feel like eggs and veggies/cheese, I'll shake up an Aloha Mango smoothie (Bariwise from Diet Direct) or some Bariwise Fruit drink (grape, orangeade, wild berry). This way, I know I get more than 20+ grams of fiber to start the day. Satiates me.

I will note that I add the cinnamon not just for flavor, but for it's positive effects on blood sugar since I have insulin resistance and was diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome years ago. When my A1c and glucose was going up back in 2004 and I was almost put on diabetes meds, I asked my doc for a chance to bring it down on my own. Altering my meal combination (no carbs by themselves, eating complex carbs, reducing starkly processed carbs, reducing sugar) and adding cinnamon got me back to great glucose results and lowered A1c in short order and I only lost 5 lbs that year. I totally trust the effects of cinnamon. I never had to go on diabetes meds.

So...

To meet my goal of 98 lbs in 2 years, I need to lose, roughly, 4.08 lbs per month. 1.02 pounds per week, roughly.

I'll be configuring some sort of lower to medium carb type of eating plan (nothing really organized yet) to do this. I plan to continue with my 2x a week Pilates training as long as I can afford it, and my goal is to, by  month's end, be regularly adding 1 other day of exercise that is more aerobic. My goal is to be exercising 4x a week by year's end, 12-31-10.

I plan to only make measurable, reasonable goals. No crash diets. No grandiose exercise plans. Just increments and steps. This is why my timeframe is 2 years, not 1 year, not 6 months.

Now, we all know weight loss tends not to be linear. We bloat. We are more motivated or more active this month, less so next month. We plateau. We have setbacks. But if, on average, I'm going at a clip of a pound a week, 4 pounds a month, I'll meet my goal by September 1, 2012. I'll be 160 lbs.

So, for my next weigh-in on Friday next, I'm aiming for a one pound to 1.5 pound loss. It's not a high-stress rate. It's a healthy rate loss, I've read and have been told by the several nutritionists I've consulted since 1989 (back when I was 179, 120 pounds less than my highest weight ever).

If you have recommendations or links to great lower-carb, highish fiber lunch and inner easy to make meals, by all means comment and link me up. Especially if you made the recipe and took pics for YOUR blog. I love food pics, although I hate to cook.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!