Monday, June 7 -- Week 23, Day 2

Today was a good day! I got lots done. My eating was great. My exercise was fabulous. I was in a good mood all day. Everything was in balance! (Well, except my computer use, but that's just taking things a little too far - hahaha)

BREAKFAST:
Original:

• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 oz. colby cheese
• 1 slice toasted whole wheat bread
• 1 tsp. reduced-calorie margarine
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• coffee or tea

My version:

• exactly the same thing, minus the coffee or tea

LUNCH:

Original (I swapped the book's lunch and dinner today, so this is actually their dinner menu):

• Bean Curd Soup
• Spinach salad with 1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil plus wine vinegar
• 6 saltines
• 2 medium apricots

My version:

• 1/2 cup tomato soup, made with water
• lettuce, spinach, feta, cherry tomato salad with lite Italian Romano Pepper dressing
• 6 wheat saltines
• peach

That was a really big lunch. It took me forever to eat it. I'm LOVING the color that cherry tomatoes add to my food!

DINNER:

Original (the book's lunch menu):

• fillet of sole florentine
• 1/2 cup cooked green beans
• tomato-cucumber raito
• root beer froth

My version:

• lemon pepper chicken and cherry tomato kebabs on the grill
• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 1/2 cup cooked green beans
• salad with lite 3-cheese ranch dressing
• 1/2 cup fruit salad

I had originally changed the Sole Florentine to a chicken spinach roll-up, but I forgot to put it in the microwave. Then I was reading a blog that mentioned chicken kebabs, and I remembered that we had Jacob's new skewers, so I decided to go with kebabs instead. Not at all close to Sole Florentine, but the chain of thought is identifiable.

The tomatoes were good. I enjoyed the sweetness of the tomato and the smokiness of the grilled black parts. mmm.

Jacob made the fruit salad. He enjoys the process, and he's good at it. I'm certainly not going to tell him no. Tonight's included canned peaches and pineapple, diced fresh apples, diced fresh pears, diced kiwi, strawberries, grapes, and a sliced banana. It's always different, depending on what we have that needs used up. But it's always good.

Snacks today consisted of 1/2 cup canned fruit (which I counted as my fruit salad with dinner) and 1 cup of vegetable juice (apple carrot). I switched the root beer froth and the fruit salad. Had the root beer froth after my bike ride this evening. It's just a cup of diet root beer and a half cup of milk in the blender. Then add 3 ice cubes, one at a time until it's smooth. It was ok, but could definitely benefit from Splenda or some other sweetener. For 43 calories, though, it was fine. I also had 3 bites of leftover birthday cake, which is now gone, thank goodness.

I ended my day around 1050 calories. I ran just a hair over 1.5 miles this afternoon (burning 225 calories) and biked 5 miles this evening (burning 150 calories). That would have only left me 600 calories for the rest of my day, so I had a leftover frostingless cupcake, estimating about 150 calories for that. So 1200 minus my exercise.

It was a good day. I'm exhausted.