Calories, Calories, Calories

I've lost about 4 lbs so far since I started dieting again. I know. Some of this is probably water weight since it hasn't even been a week. But I'm definitely deep into a calorie-counting frenzy. Due to a recent aversion to cooking vegetables (my hubby doesn't eat them anyway), I've been taking multivitamins everyday. My desserts have mostly been 100-calorie packs from Hostess and other such brands (ala Mark Haub's Twinkie diet).  I toss in some 100-calorie Sun Chips once in awhile as well. Main meals have been from Smart Ones, Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice. Some of the meals have vegetables, so I can force them down and feel a little less guilty about not buying and cooking them separately.. I especially love the Smart Ones Mini Cheeseburgers, because they're deliciously similar to White Castle burgers. I'm thinking of buying the following books, which are guides to getting what you're craving for, for less calories:

Eat This, Not that
Cook This, Not That

However, I'm a little low in budget this coming month, and I really wanted to get some outfits for my upcoming vacation (woot! woot!). So I might settle for using my Jenny Craig "Dining Out Success Guide" book (which has been busy gathering dust in the bookshelf) and "The Calorie King Calorie, FAT & Carbohydrate Counter" (the title literally has fat in all caps,  I'm not sure how I feel about that). Both of these list nutrition facts for the most popular fast food and restaurant chains in the US. The Jenny Craig guide is good for when I want to make a fast, easy choice, since they only list the things they approve of, while The Calorie King is better for when I want something specific, and decide to eat only half of it since it's way too many calories. For everything else, I'll have to use my LoseIt! app, which is still as helpful as always. I guess Eat This, Not that will have to wait 'til the new year.

I've been working out a lot too. This week was hard schedule-wise for going to the gym, although I did get one gym visit in last Thursday. However, when I did one of my workouts tonight that I usually could only do half of, I ended up making it through the entire 1 hr and 15 minutes. Those New York Sports Club classes have really been helpful with pushing me past my comfort zone. I just feel too embarrassed to stop when I'm with a bunch of people, and it's helped with my at-home workouts as well!

I've been working on the psychological side of things as well. Mostly about my perspective with regards to eating. Recently while reading Unbreaded, my friend and her best friend's blog about a low-carb lifestyle, I got into thinking about 'eating as entertainment'. I think this is the thing I have a problem with more than stress eating, even. I always think of what I could eat when I'm bored. Heck, I've planned out almost every single meal for my vacation in December. So whenever I'm bored, I try to think about what I could do that does not involve eating now. Due to this, I've achieved the following things:

1. A very clean sock drawer
2. Gotten ideas for outfits I want in the future (yes, online window shopping has been essential)
3. Taken very relaxing naps (yes, naps are helping me lose weight)
4. Exercised more

I expect I'll find more ways to pass the time without eating. But so far, just identifying this problem has helped a lot.

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Posted in: goals,low calorie

Panic Dieting

After about a month and a half of trying to count calories I am now 4 pounds heavier than when I originally started this blog, which was around 4 months ago. If you think about it, I guess gaining 4 lbs in 4 months is not that terrible. I seriously feel better about it, coz I've actually been feeling out of control most of the time. Especially regarding those post-dinner chocolate binges (Damn you Twix!).

But now it's time to PANIC. It's about 5 weeks until my best friend's wedding, and a much needed tropical beach weekend.

That's right. Be jealous.

I have about 25 pounds to lose.

I know. That sounds insane. Considering Thanksgiving and Christmas are both in those five weeks... So maybe my goal will be 15 pounds. Although I will keep in mind that Jillian Michaels got some people to lose 15 pounds in a week.

I started going to the gym last week. It was pretty brutal, but I surprisingly got through 2 classes without giving up. I'm going to one today, and hopefully that will kick off five weeks of unswerving dedication to losing weight.

I'm giving myself 2 days off. Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wish me luck!

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Posted in: goals,low calorie,why i hate dieting

LoseIt!

I've been so exhausted recently that I've barely had anytime to prepare food for myself. I've been cooking once in awhile but I don't have the energy to do the dishes. It's either all my energy is being sapped by work, or it's because I haven't worked out in so long. Which makes me think I should start counting calories again, and say goodbye to Low-carbing for awhile. :( I thought I would have the time and energy to do it once the wedding was over, but it doesn't seem like it. And I don't want to look the part TOO much when I'm the Matron of Honor at my best friend's wedding (I did my measurements last weekend, and the numbers were quite horrifying). So I'm going back to frozen entrees, which really aren't that bad especially when I get a lot of Amy's frozen meals. This will give me the time to start working out again as well. It will also be cheaper and will give me more options than if I went back on Jenny.

I use a very handy iphone app for my calorie counting called LoseIt!. It has a basic database of ingredients and common grocery items. You can also add your own items if you can't find them in the app. It shows your weight trend, and also calculates how many calories you should have every day depending on your age, your weight loss goal, your current weight and your target date. You can add friends as well and see how you're stacking up to them diet-wise. I friended my old roommate and we had a bit of fun comparing what we'd eaten and what exercises we'd done. I'm still deciding whether I should be completely shameless and tell everyone about my daily menu.

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Posted in: low calorie,technology,why i hate dieting

Menu for the Week - 9/23/2010

I forgot to post my menu for last week coz I've been so busy with work. It's not a big deal though, it was pretty boring because I still had a lot of the ingredients from the week before, so there weren't a lot of new dishes. I'm moving on to Phase 2 now, and if you see anything that's made with flour it's probably made with whole wheat or 10 grain flour (anything with a decent amount of fiber). Phase 2 also allows for brown rice and fruits, although at this time I'm not including a lot of fruits in the menu. I'm limiting myself to 1 carb-heavy meal per day (such as pancakes or rice).

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuZCIl3H85D3dHRFZHBTUm9LUWt0dVZHMlR1X2I1ZUE&hl=en&authkey=CJLx4cEL

I'm very excited to try the boeuf bourguignonne (and my new Le Creuset dutch oven)!

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Posted in: low-carb,menu for the week,south beach

Creamy Chili Short Ribs

olive oil
salt and pepper
1 cup of cooked cut up short ribs (or any other leftover meat)
2 cups cauliflower and broccoli
heavy cream
oil chili (found in Asian stores)

Saute the cauliflower and broccoli in olive oil (if not yet cooked). Add salt and pepper to taste (if needed).  Add the short ribs and chili and saute until heated. Add some heavy cream and saute, saute, saute. Give it a taste and add more salt if needed.

I've found that making a meal out of leftovers is more enjoyable for me than cooking regular meals. I never really look up recipes for them online, and always end up improvising. I guess it brings out my creative side, which really doesn't come out that often.

I usually saute a bunch of vegetables for the week when I'm on South Beach. Last week it was broccoli and cauliflower (I usually add onions but I ran out). So I had some veggies. Last night I tried a slow-cooker short rib recipe without using flour. Unfortunately since I'm still getting used to our new slow-cooker, I thought it lacked salt (it was extremely tender, at least!). So tonight I figured I'd have the veggies and the short-rib, but I wasn't too excited at the prospect since neither of them had any sauce, and who gets excited over veggies anyway? I though of sauteing them with chili first, because that's my go-to spice (that and sesame oil) for when I'm cooking originally bland leftovers. I looked in my fridge and saw some leftover heavy cream from when I made green bean casserole last week, and thought, 'Why not?'. So I added in some cream at the end, and boy did that make a difference. I can imagine shrimp, beef or chicken would work with this as well. This is one of the most delicious leftover meals I've ever made. For any people who don't really care about dieting but are just reading my blog to support me (:P) this would go well with rice or noodles (My hubby actually had it with some ramen and removed the veggies lol).

This is the short rib recipe for those interested: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooked-German-Short-Ribs/Detail.aspx I didn't use flour of course.

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Posted in: leftover fun,low-carb recipes,recipes

My Office Neighborhood is AWESOME... When I'm Not Dieting

The area around my office is overflowing with amazing restaurants. St Marks (japanese, mediterranean, etc.) is in our backyard, Veselka (eastern european) is a couple of avenues away,  so is Butter Lane cupcakes (one of their cupcakes is the best thing he ever ate according to Ted Allen), Otafuku (japanese street food) is near us as well,  and there are so many other choices if you want to eat great food. Except if you're low-carbing.

I have one go-to cart for when I have to buy a low-carb lunch near the office. It's one of those middle-eastern carts that sell the heavenly "chicken on rice". I usually order the chicken on salad, which isn't as popular but tastes almost as good.
I didn't cook last night for today's lunch because I realized I'm going to be in CT all weekend therefore whatever I cook will just go to waste. Of course, because it sells one of the few decent low-carb options here, the cart disappeared today. Lucky me. I detest salads, so I ordered a $15 salmon meal from a deli. I asked for just vegetables to go with it. The lady kept asking me if I wanted potatoes, or rice, or bread with it. She asked about the bread three times. I wanted to wanted to say "Please don't ask me again because the next time I might just have to say yes." but I didn't. The salmon was pretty bland, and I'm not sure why I even ordered the vegetables because I hate squash. I probably should have gone to Cozy for a low-carb burger platter but I didn't feel like having that (stupid, stupid). Please come back, cart!!

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Posted in: low-carb,south beach,why i hate dieting

Low-Carbing for the Nth Time

It's been about a month since my wedding. Around that time I was more or less 113 lbs. After post-wedding binging and a 7-day cruise, I am currently at 120.8 lbs. *sigh* I figured it was time to either go back to Jenny Craig, or time to take out my South Beach Diet cookbooks yet again. After consulting with my husband and a bit of persuasion from my low-carbing and karaoke buddy Katie, I went with the South Beach cookbooks. Michael convinced me it was better to be more in charge of my food options. So, here I am starting South Beach Phase 1.

Phase 1 is basically a very low-carb, low-fat diet. I cheat a little bit with bacon or mayo sometimes, but it's better to add those every once in awhile rather than eating white bread or things full of sugar. It's the strictest phase of the diet and lasts about 2 weeks. I generally last until the weekend when Michael asks if I want Indian food. :) It's been years since I actually got through 2 weeks bad-carb and sugar free. Here's to hoping!

The original SB book had menus for every phase. When I started it for the first time I followed the menu religiously. Since then I've realized it's very boring and unrealistic. First of all, I can't make a different dish for every single meal and snack of every day. That'd be a full-time job. So I now make several servings of 4-5 entrees for the week (breakfast is usually pretty easy so I don't count that). It also helps that I have 2 other South Beach cookbooks and plenty of recipes I can tweak online.

Here's my menu for the week starting tomorrow:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuZCIl3H85D3dGhfQk8wb0xYV1BWQVg0N3p1WWZlOWc&hl=en&authkey=COef9_UB

Technically today was my first day low-carbing. I'm proud to say I went to Olive Garden with Katie and DIDN'T HAVE THE BREADSTICKS. But since I didn't really follow a menu, I'm not counting it. This weekend should be a challenge too since we're trying out our raclette grill (a gift from my aunt) with Michael's family. I guess the cheese will just have to go over broccoli instead of potatoes.

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Posted in: low-carb,south beach