REALLY trying to resist those crackers with nutella…..

It’s Tuesday again, and once again, the week got completely ahead of me food-wise. This is going to be a shortish post to state openly and without shame that I am dying to attack a jar of nutella with some crackers or pita chips, and I’m resisting with every ounce of will power that I possess. I can’t guarantee I won’t get up at 3 am and eat the whole jar, but I will NOT eat eat before I go to bed. Stay tuned…..

The Day I Began Recording Everything I Eat (Again)

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Topical Blog Post of the day, here’s my doofus dog terrified of the storm last night:

It’s a pretty dark picture, I know. That’s sort of the point. HE DOESN’T WANT TO BE SEEN. Shortly after I took this, he hightailed it upstairs and attempted to spend the rest of the evening under the bed (while crossing his legs – no bathroom break for Scared-y Pants Dorky Butt. He would have none of the outdoors).

Okay, so.

In the spirit of the “tomorrow is another day” mentality, this morning I decided to approach my eating with a clean slate and a fresh perspective. And I vowed to record every morsel of food I ate today.

For those of you who have never embarked on this endeavor, it’s somewhat daunting, especially as you see the food stuffs rack up over the course of a day. I’ve been using MyFitnessPal. I love it. I use the Android app when I’m on the move, and just login to the website when I’m at my desk or at home. Super easy. The database has almost everything I eat in it. Users contribute to the database and can verify the nutritionals. I’ve never come across an entry that’s been wrong when I’ve got the package with nutritionals in front of me, so I trust it for the most part. You can also record your workouts. Very helpful when tracking calories earned as well as used. Added bonus: you can add people as “pals,” a la any other social networking site on the interwebs. Gotta say, it helps keep me motivated to see my pals entering their workouts and recording their food intake.

But before there was recording of food, there was getting out of bed and getting my butt to the gym.

I know, that one’s dark too. It was early.

I did my 1.5 miles plus another 2 miles of walking. I’m *slightly* faster than a 12 minute mile. I’m good with that. At some point I’ll work on my speed, but right now I’m working on sustained running first, distance second, and then I’ll think about speed.

I’m going to just put this out there. Every Tuesday morning for the last few months, I’ve been seeing a therapist. I figured it was time to get some help when I turned into a crying mess one day at work over something stupid my boss did. Very few things that happen at a library should elicit that response from a seasoned professional, and none of those things happened to me. The therapy has helped me become much more self-aware and, I think, much healthier. I’m happier, calmer and feel much more capable of reacting to stress in a manner that doesn’t involve weeping and gnashing of teeth. Win and win.

Anyway, I mention this because sometimes the therapy sessions can be a bit….trying. Painful, even. So I give myself permission to indulge just a little on Tuesdays, and I indulge in the following specific ways:

I have as many frappuccinos as I want (usually it’s only one, but today it was….more).

I have a Caramel Macchiato Biscotti if I want.

I have half a cake-style bakery doughnut with vanilla frosting.

Thus, I give you….

Me on my way to the appointment.

Grande Coffee Light Frappuccino (the others were talls, at least. Oh, yes, there were others.).

Caramel Macchiato Biscotti.

That was breakfast.

I didn’t take a picture of the other two frappuccinos. Just pretend like the Grande one had a couple of babies, I guess.

Then when I got to work, I had a doughnut.

(notice I gave half to my staff member, Brian – one of the men in my life who regularly eat my leftovers. Okay, so it’s really pretty much Brian and The Boy. Brian, because he’ll eat anything, and The Boy because he loves me. And he’ll eat anything.)

I had a Weight Watchers pizza mini meal for lunch, and a good-sized salad with a hard-boiled egg for dinner. I forgot, or didn’t get a chance to, take pictures of both.

I’m always amazed at how many of my calories are made up by snacks. Here’s today, in addition to what has already been mentioned:

One Ferrero Rocher (can anyone resist these??? I can’t believe I only ate one)

Two Mini Luna Bars

Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie

Half a Healthy Life English muffin with 1.5 teaspoons sunflower butter (wow – that’s actually not a terrible snack. I should do that more often)

That’s right. I ate a COSMIC BROWNIE. You wanna know how many calories that brownie had? ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE. I did not know that until after I ate it.

What’s a girl to do after a day of eating like that? Have a couple glasses of wine, of course. Hey, we all have our coping mechanisms. At the end of the day, I went over my 1,200 calories (plus extra for exercising) by just over 90. There are a couple of ways to look at that. I can say, wow. I only went over my goal by 90 calories! Or I can berate myself and tell myself what a terrible person I am for going over my calories for the day. Helloooo therapist!

While there’s something gut-wrenching about looking over a day of eating like this, there’s also something freeing about it. I can see at a glance where I could have cut some things out and where I did okay.

And for the record, Cosmic Brownies? Not so cosmic.

Oh, yeah — then I got to snuggle this little guy when I got home.

*Love*

Have a good night!

Do you keep a food journal? Does it help?

Another day, and another, and another….

I started the week on Monday with a rest day. I’m following the Hal Higdon training plan for a 5K. So I got to sleep in a bit (nice!). I managed to eat a healthy breakfast:

 Fiber One cereal with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze.

Iced coffee with more Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze and Splenda.

I’ve read that some people have found that Almond Breeze curdles when added to coffee with ice, but I haven’t had any trouble, and I think it’s super yum!

I got myself off to work and was fairly cheerful.

Around 11:00, I had my snack, a peanut butter Luna Protein bar.

Aaaaand that was the last picture I was able to take. I had a string of meetings for the rest of the day and that night The Boy and I had to attend the wake of a friend’s father.

 I tried again on Tuesday. I did an early workout.

I was cheerful (it’s a new day! Woo!)….

….but I still felt like this:

The hair was bad, but things could be worse.

Aaaaand that was it for that day. I have a standing appointment on Tuesday mornings and then had a crazy busy day at work. Tuesdays are my late nights. I work until 9:00 pm, and that really screws with my schedule.

 So I started again Wednesday morning. I decided to run outside that day. I’ve noticed that I have a much easier time running on the track at the gym than I have running outside. Since I’ll be running outdoors in my races (obviously), I should probably get better at it. That also means I get to sleep in a bit later.

I was excited!

It wasn’t a great run. In fact, it was more walk than run, but hey — I’m a work in progress. And the hair was good!

I had a good breakfast again, Fiber One with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze and iced coffee with more UVAB and Splenda.

I was also able to have a good lunch. I go home every day to let Nemo stretch his legs, so I hardly ever eat fast food or even better take out for lunch (unless I have one of the infamous lunch meetings). Healthy Life whole grain bread with 98% fat free ham, a little roasted red pepper hummus and carrot shreds. I had a few pita chips for good measure.

Happy face!

Nemo did not have Happy Face. He didn’t want me to go back to work.

That night, I made dinner for myself. The Boy works Wednesday nights, so I get to eat whatever I want! I decided on a pizza mini with bruschetta, nutritional yeast, and Daiya mozzarella style shreds. Oh, and some fresh basil. Delish!

I read that people have had great success with separating the top of the mini pizza crust from the bottom, thus cutting the calories in half while having the same real estate as you would for a whole mini crust. I did not have as much luck.

It was still super yummy, though. I had it with a Magic Hat Wacko beer.

Aaaaand that was it for the week. No more pictures, no more documentation. Sigh.

But for tomorrow! I have my camera battery charged and I’m going to try again.

What do you like on your pizza?