Monday, May 3 -- Week 18, Day 2

Whoops - many diets have a false start, right?? Trying again ...

(At the beginning of week 2, I am down 4 pounds, so a weekend off must not have been too detrimental!)



BREAKFAST:




Original:

• 1 medium kiwi or 2" wedge of honeydew
• 1 soft-cooked egg
• 1/2 english muffin, toasted
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• coffee or tea

My adaptation:

• 1 medium kiwi
• 1 over-easy egg (fried in skillet with cooking spray - no added fat)
• 1/2" thick slice of homemade wheat bread
• 1/4 cup skim milk

I think this is my first experience with kiwi. It had a nice sweet flavor, but I've always been averse to crunchy seeds in my food. I can easily see myself eating it again though. I assume a soft-cooked egg is the same as a hard-boiled egg, only not cooked as long? Since I wasn't sure and didn't feel like looking it up, I just went with another fried egg. I fry my eggs in butter cooking spray, so the nutritional value is the same.



I forgot to make English muffins yesterday, but we had some 2-day old homemade wheat bread. The older it is, the nicer is slices. I was able to slice a really really thin piece quite easily, then sprayed it with spray butter. AND ... I decided there is no good reason why I can't just buy a half gallon of skim milk for myself for the week.


So this breakfast was a grand total of 196 calories. Again, it wasn't very filling, so I'm glad I waited until after 10 to eat.



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LUNCH:



Original:

• 3 T. peanut butter on 1 slice raisin bread topped with 2 tsp. reduced-calorie strawberry spread
• carrot and celery sticks
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• hot spiced tea

My adaptation:

• 2 T. peanut butter on 1 slice wheat bread topped with 2 tsp. regular strawberry spread
• carrot sticks
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• hot spiced tea

I only used 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, because 3 seemed like a ridiculously huge amount to put on half a sandwich. And I'm not a peanut butter lover. Peanut butter flavored things, yes. Straight peanut butter, no. I used honey peanut butter. It was actually pretty good. I haven't had a pbj since probably 4th grade, so it was a little bit of a flashback to elementary school. :-)


I learned last week that I do NOT like celery sticks, so I didn't even bother with them this week. Carrot sticks are ok, but I get bored with them. I should find a fat-free dip or something. The applesauce is my homemade applesauce, only lightly sweetened. Mmm.


Tea - I don't recall that I've ever had a cup of hot tea. This was just a regular tea bag, then I sprinkled some cinnamon and 2 whole cloves into a coffee filter, wrapped it with the string on the tea bag, and let it all steep, with a splash of lemon juice. It was ok. A little on the bitter side, I thought. I added some Splenda and that made it alright. I'm sure I'll have it again, but it won't become a daily habit.


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DINNER:


Original:

• spicy meat turnovers
• 1/4 cup cooked peas
• 1/2 cup cooked wax beans
• tossed salad with green bell pepper rings and lemon juice
• 6 fluid ounces light beer
• fruit pie
• coffee or tea

My adaptation:

• spicy meat turnover
• 1/2 cup cooked wax beans
• green salad with light italian romano
• 1/2 cup boiled potatoes

I forgot to take a picture again. We were in a really huge hurry, running very late for gymnastics. My notes: the turnovers were pretty good. I should have seasoned the meat. That's just a common sense error there... How to make them: simmer sliced onions in a half cup of beer until the liquid is mostly gone. Plop the onions into a flat 6" burger disc and fold it in half. Pinch the edges shut and broil them. There was a sauce too, but it was pretty non-descript. I ended up using ketchup. It was a lot of onion. It didn't taste oniony, but I'm just not used to eating mouthfuls of onions.

I burned the peas, because I forgot to put water in the pan. Really, I have been cooking for longer than 2 weeks, although sometimes you'd never guess it. Wax beans are among my favorite veggies, so I enjoyed them. The salad was a time thing again. It was easier to just grab a handful out of the bag and throw it on my plate than it would have been to slice green peppers. The potatoes were just to prevent me from binging later. I love boiled potatoes. I figure a half cup now and then is better than eating a whole pot of them later because I miss eating them.

I skipped the beer because I don't like it. I've already expressed my opinion on coffee and tea (although I made an exception at lunch today). And we didn't have fruit pie because I forgot to make it. But it's just as well, because the in-laws treated us to an ice cream cone after gymnastics.

I ended today at about 1550 calories, which is very very high for this particular diet. Apparently I'm not supposed to use 80/20 burger. :-) But I burned 225 during my run this evening, so I'll consider it a 1325 day. Totally reasonable.

Looking ahead to tomorrow ... we will NOT be eating calf liver. Sorry to disappoint you...