Weigh in #9 - Opera

So the pizza from last night had an impact.  I had a good number on Saturday when I weighed in, but I could see the impact this morning.   271.2.   Still a 1.8 pound weight loss.  So I am very pleased with the nearly 2 pounds per week still.

Today after bowling I went downtown to see Nabucco at Lyric Opera House with my friend Tony.  We met at Ogilvie train station.  We grabbed a quick lunch.  I ordered a veggie panini.   It was very tasty, cucumber, onion, tomatoes, and a few other things.  It was a good little snack.  I can see it being a go to as a "dinner" for the train home if I have to go to the downtown office some other time.

After the opera we went to Sunda, it is a japanese place that specifically had a vegan menu.

Tony and I split
Spicy Edamame  

Sweet Potato Caterpillar roll 

and Tofu Pad Tai with Brown rice and Bok Choi 

PIZZA!!!!

Today was a mixed up day for me.  I did not get to sleep until 2 AM this morning.  My cat woke me up at 7 for her treat. (she does that EVERY morning at 7).  Deb and I were going to go to aqua class at 9 am, but I was still tired at 8:15 when Allie came by for her second morning treat.  (This is ALSO an every day occurrence).  So I fell back asleep.   Deb left to get her hair done around 10:30.  I was only a little awake when she texted me at Noon to know if I wanted to go to lunch.   So I scrambled to get ready and met her at Donkey Inn.   I ordered the veggie burger with tater tots.


Tonight we went out for pizza.  I split a veggie double crust pizza.  It was pretty good, but nothing spectacular.


There were a few fried dough desserts consumed as well, and maybe a bite of chocolate cake.

I had a really good weight number this morning, but I am afraid that the pizza may have ruined that a little.  We will see

Downtown office

Today we went to see the downtown office (77 w Wacker).   We are on the 22nd floor.  The view is nice.  (that is marina tower and Trump behind it.)


They have a galley area with FREE food


and free drinks


I got down there at 8:20 the rest of my team was not arriving until 8:45, so I grabbed a breakfast bar.
  it had 200 calories, it was not that bad.

For lunch we went to Hub 51, I had veggie tacos.  It was really tasty.  I liked the guac and salsa.

For a snack in the afternoon I grabbed a bag of chips.

  (they LIED, these were not even spicy, let alone HOT!)  (a waste of 220 calories)

What was amazing for me was that they had Einstein bagels when I got there, I did NOT take one.
Then after lunch someone brought over a box with a dozen BAKERY donuts (they had brought in a bunch more, these were the leftovers.)  They looked AMAZING, but I was able to walk by them 3 or 4 times and NOT give in to the temptation.

For dinner Deb and I went to Bennigan's on 31 and 90.  I had a apple walnut salad.


It is AMAZING how much I am LOVING salads now.  This had raisins, walnuts, blue cheese, apple slices, baby spinach, red lettuce and vinaigrette dressing.

I had a Sprite to drink and I did steal 3 or 4 bites of Deb's brownie and ice cream dessert.

Pool Time

Today I got in to work at 7:45, this threw my whole day off, since everything seemed to be occurring an hour TOO late.

Breakfast was breakfast bar and key lime yogurt.
Lunch was Salad and my fake tuna.
Snacks were Orange and black cherry yogurt.

Other groups have been doing planning this whole week, so they have been bringing in lunch for those groups.  Well they ALWAYS over order.

Today when I went in to see what they had, I found Veggie Pad Thai.  It was really good, so I had almost 2 plates of it.   So much so that it basically became my dinner.

When I got home from work I saw that I had a few apples that were getting a little soft.  So I looked up a recipe and made an Apple Bake.  It had 3 apples, almond milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, walnuts, raisins, oatmeal and flax seed.   It tasted pretty good.   Think it can be dessert or breakfast.

Went to LA fitness after dinner, I wanted to play basketball, but tonight is volleyball night, so the court was taken over by that.  So I went to the pool and walked laps for about 25 minutes.   I went to check out the racquetball courts, but they were ALL full, so I went back to the pool and walked another 20 minutes.  The second time I did it with one of those foam floatation tubes as resistance.  It was actually hard to keep the tube under water and still move well when I got to more than 4 feet deep.  I like using that as added resistance.

Tomorrow our team is going downtown to check out the office space Capital One has.  Should be fun.

No cheating, nothing unusual

Just a normal day today.

Breakfast was the last of the Apple Supreme I had in fridge.
Snack was an orange and black cherry greek yogurt.

Lunch was my salad and a breakfast bar.

Afternoon snacks were apple, key lime yogurt and my fake tuna.

Dinner was the last of the shepherds pie.

BORING,  sorry, not all days can involve sneaking eggs and pizza.

Bowled bad tonight as well, so sad panda.

ZUMBA???

Food today is going to sound a lot like yesterday, without the eggs and pizza as cheats.

Breakfast was a breakfast bar, and an orange.
Lunch was the salad, I added strawberries (since I had some extra left, I had bought them for Deb)

Snacks during the day were an apple, key lime greek yogurt, black cherry greek yogurt and my fake tuna salad.

Tonight after work we went to LA fitness and I TRIED Zumba.  I did the first warm up song okay, during the second I started to feel short of breath, then during the third song, I had to stop.  At that point I had started to sweat, but not too bad.  It was the fact that I guess my lungs have not fully recovered from Pneumonia.   I hope to try going back.  But I did not waste the trip to the club.  I brought along my racquetball stuff.  I spent about 25 minutes "playing".  Basically I stand and if I have to take more than 1 big step, I just let it go.  I basically just move around a little and try different shots.  I feel like it will be a MONTH until I feel I could actually play.  But I kept the activity up enough to keep sweating.

Aqua class - working out

Today there was a lot of different foods.

Breakfast was a bar I had made.  The irony is that when I first made these, I was not a fan.  Now a few weeks later after they have been in the fridge, wrapped in foil, I kind of like them, and will probably make them again.

As soon as I finished my bar, a co-worker said there was food in the conference room, because they had accidentally double ordered.   So I went in and had a small scoop of scrambled eggs and breakfast potatoes.

For a snack I had an orange.

Lunch was my baby spinach and romaine HUGE salad.  Add ins were nut/seed mix, mushrooms and mandarin oranges.

After I came up from lunch I had some of my fake tuna fish (made with chickpeas and mustard.....) again this is growing on me.

I brought in some greek yogurt and had the key lime.

Then I saw someone walk by with 4 pizza boxes, so I followed them.  Luckily there was some cheese pizza left.  So I grabbed 3 SMALL squares.  I probably would have gotten away with, but I ran into Leo, and he said "WHOA WHOA, that is not on your diet!!!  You better write about your little cheat".  So thus, I am confessing.

Tonight for dinner, I had worked up an appetite, because Deb and I went to the health club and participated in a aqua class.  It was not aerobics, but it was moving around with "weights" and using the foam float tubes as resistance.   I thought it was fun.    Just wait until you hear what we are going to do tomorrow!!!

So I heated up some chili and ate the black cherry greek yogurt.  Both of these I had taken to work and was thinking that I may not eat them.  But I was hungry.

Sushi?

Bowled pretty well this morning. Then we had a massage. I had hoped that the massage could eliminate some of my knee pain. But it did NOT!!  So this leads me to believe it is more a nerve thing. I will call Dr Raj in the morning and see who he recommends.

After the massage, we met Traycie, Jason, Reese and Zoe at Asian Tokyo, it is an all you can eat sushi place.  I did NOT have sushi, I ordered off the menu.  I had some edamame, tempura sweet potatoes, hot & sour soup, a tiny salad (smaller than a cup of soup) and my entree was Fried tofu and veggies with a spicy sauce.  It was good. I did not finish it.  What I brought home became my dinner.

After the Denver, New England game finished I went shopping for food for the week.  I bought apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries, mandarin oranges, baby spinach, romaine, almond milk, orange juice and 0 calorie dressing.   I pecked 4 days of lunches for both Deb and I. My bag also contains an apple and an orange and the last of the breakfast bars I had.

I think I have enough dinners to last the week


Forgot to add that I went to LA Fitness tonight and hit the racquetball around for about 25 minutes. Worked up a little sweat. Then I walked laps in the pool for about 25 minutes

Weigh in #8 - Saturday food

Saturday morning I had to go to doctor to ensure that I did not have a blood clot in my leg.  The ultrasound showed NO blood clot.  So that is good news, now I just have to figure out WHAT is causing the pain.  Will call back Dr Raj to see which doctor I should go to now.  Could be a tendon thing, could be a pinched nerve.

After the doctor, I met Deb at Egg'clectic cafe in Rolling Meadows.  There were about a dozen healthy/veggie options to choose from.  I went with  

Veggie Skillet

Fresh sauteed zucchini, asparagus, spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes over diced potatoes. Topped with Monterey Jack cheese and two eggs over hard.   (I added a lot of tobasco sauce)

I added an unbuttered english muffin.  I had 3 cups of coffee to drink.

In the afternoon Deb and I went over to check out the LA Fitness in Bloomingdale, We did a 20 minute walk in the pool, 10 minutes in hot tub, then another 10-15 minute walk in the pool.

Last night we had tickets to go see "the man who nurdered Sherlock Holmes" at the Mercury Theater.  It was a REALY good show.  I recommend it to everyone.  You do NOT have to know a thing about Sherlock Holmes to enjoy it.  But if you know anything, there are some nice lines that will make you laugh.  So far we have loved every show we have seen at Mercury.

So we met for dinner before the play/musical.   We went to Mia Francesca's in Wrigleyville.  (Which was a bonus for me, since I got to drive by Wrigley Field on the way to restaurant and on the way back to the play)

I ordered

Bruschette alla Romana

Garlic toast with tomato, basil & fresh mozzarella Insalata alla Francesca Romaine, endive, radicchio, carrots, cucumber, tomato, string beans, peapods, olive oil, balsamico & blue cheese Ravioli al Ragu di Verdure Spinach filled pasta with a vegetable ragu of zucchini, peppers, asparagus and shiitake mushrooms with garlic and tomato basil sauce I also had 2 glasses of  VICCHIOMAGGIO “SAN JACOPO” CHIANTI CLASSICO

I had been pretty good during the week, but wondered if my weekend change of eating style would do me in.  To my surprise it did NOT.  The number today was 273.  another 4 pounds lost this week!!

WARNING SHIRTLESS PICTURES BELOW!!!!!!!!!

Doctor visit to get me numbers!!

I worked from home today, so food was just go to the fridge and microwave something.  All over the show, but that is not the important part of my day.  The important part is reporting the numbers from my blood work


Here is what I wrote Dec 7th with my BEFORE numbers

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The numbers that were bad were
Hemoglobin A1c   6.1% anything over 5.7% is a warning for Diabetes.  6.5% is where it IS diabetes.
AST 75 (should be 10-40)
ALT 69 (should be 9-46)  Both of those are liver indicators, they have been high for a while
Cholesterol 202 (should be 125-200)  I am on medication to get it DOWN to this level
HDL 27 (should be greater than 40)  This is the "GOOD" cholesterol.
Triglycerides 266 (should be less that 150) that is the fat in your blood <<< this is the scary number
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Here are those same numbers
Hemoglobin A1c 5.5% (below any Diabetes threshold)
AST 38  (again in the range)
ALT 44 (again in the range)  Both are near the top, but not 50 to 90% over.
Cholesterol 143  (huge drop)
HDL 27 <<< Did not move, need to start exercising to raise it
Triglycerides 185 (Still high, but over a 30% drop from what it was)

All in all the doctor was impressed, he pointed out that I had done this before, but yo-yoed back. I told him this time is different, because this is NOT a diet, this is how I plan to eat the rest of my life.  I never go hungry, I eat all the fruits, nuts, beans, salad and veggies I want.   So I feel like I can do this forever.  I will find the weight I like and I think I should be able to stay there.

I have been having some knee pain on my left leg,  it seems to start at the top of the knee and radiate upwards.   I described it to Dr Raj, and he want to check to see if it is a blood clot, so I have to go back tomorrow and get something like an ultrasound to make sure.  

The office brought in food today!!

I packed up my food and headed to work today.  When I got in, I was reminded that we had a planning session, so we would have breakfast AND lunch brought in.

For breakfast they had yogurt with blueberries in it and strawberries around it.  I had about 3 scoops of that.  They had some fresh fruit (honeydew, watermelon, cantaloupe and grapes).  I also had 2 orange juices.   They had chocolate donuts and chocolate chip muffins, I looked right at them and walked on by!!!

For lunch they brought in Chipotle.   They ordered the meatless tofu crumbles and chicken.  It was served buffet style, so I made myself a medium sized bowl of tofu, pinto beans, guacamole, salsa and some spicy red sauce.   It was so good, I went back and made another bowl basically the same.   I did cave in and have a handful of nacho chips.  They were sooooooo salty, and thus so good.

That was so much food that I did not even eat dinner tonight, but I did go to LA fitness and do 35 minutes of walking in the pool.   It was 20 minutes at first, then I went in to sauna for about 6-8 minutes, then back in the pool to do 15 more minutes of walking.  Thankfully I now have blue tooth headphones, so I was able to listen to Penn's Sunday School podcast the whole time.

Tomorrow I go to the doctor to get the results of my blood work and to show him the 30+ pounds I have lost since I saw him.

Lots of random food today

Breakfast was Apple Supreme.
Someone brought bagels into work, so I caved in.
  That is honey almond spread.

Lunch was chili (Have I mentioned that I really like this stuff??)
I was still hungry, so I went to cafeteria to make a salad.  Baby spinach, romaine, carrots, celery, beans, broccoli, mushrooms and vinaigrette.
I also brought in some of the fake tuna fish I made.  It was pretty good, better than I expected.
I was still hungry so I bought veggie chips



Dinner was the veggie lasagna that I never got around to eating today at work.
I also heated up the last sweet potato I had around.  Sprinkled it with cinnamon, garlic powder and mrs dash.

Now off to bowling.

Pretty normal food day

Had to be to work at 8 today so grabbed apple supreme from fridge to eat at work. Had a couple people ask what it was after they smelled the cinnamon.  I did not shop this weekend, so I didn't have any salad to bring in, so lunch was the chili.  They had a celebration for a project today, I did a little work on the project, so I went to celebration.  They had ordered in Lou's. Fortunately they had ordered a salad, even though the sausage pizza was calling my name.  I paid no attention to the call.  They also had samosas. I had 1 of them.   For an afternoon snack I brought in the veggie lasagna.  That too got some questions about what it was, because it smelled so good.

For dinner tonight I cooked the shepherd's pie that had been in the freezer from a few weeks ago. It came out perfect.  I ate a third of it and cut it into 2 more pieces for dinner the next 2 nights.


Not much excitement today!

Rivers Buffet and CHILI!!!!

Since Deb and I had the day off today, we went to Rivers in Des Plaines and had the buffet for lunch.

I tried to be good, but cheated a little.   Veggie pizza, corn bread muffin, mashed sweat potato, broccoli, carrots, Japanese tofu, veggie egg roll, green beans, mushroom ravioli.

Plate 1   

Hey, how did more veggie pizza SNEAK in there!! peppers, romaine let's with olives, garbanzo beans, carrots, raisins, sunflower seeds and catalina dressing.
Plate 2 

Here comes the cheat.  I only ate half the Nutella cheese cake, the sugar free was kind of taste free as well.  The pecan bars were REALLY good.

Desserts
    

I did have 2 cups of coffee for my drink.

Tonight I made a double batch of chili.  I decided that it was easier to make 2 pots side by side, instead of 1 giant pot.   I honestly think I could not do this diet if it were not for this recipe.  I owe Shoba a LOT!!!!

2 pots of chili  (I found out the left burner runs HOTTER than the RIGHT (thanks Traycie), so swapped sides halfway)


DINNER (had to eat some, it was YUMMY)


Lined up waiting to be filled (I saw online that this was an easy way to fill bags, it WAS)


After being filled  (I did 2 ladles full in each one, so each batch makes 7 servings, Deb had 1 tonight)


Safely in the freezer (they lay so nicely)

Weigh in #7 - Nephew Ryan's birthday

I think last nights trip to the teppanyaki place did me in.   My weight this morning was 277.  So down 1.8 from last week.  I feel that this week I ate more than I had been eating the last few weeks.  Finally over the cold and pneumonia effects, so I expected a bounce upward.

Today for breakfast I had 4 of the berry cookies I had made with extra muffin mix and half a muffin (the part that actually had cooked).

I skipped lunch today, because we went to Tom and Lynda's house to celebrate our nephew Ryan's birthday.
Lynda always has a bunch of snacks out.  She had potato chips, carrots with ranch dressing, strawberries, grapes, the cheeto/pretzel/dorito mix and 3 interesting flavored popcorns (wasabi, jalapeño, and buffalo/ranch)  They all had ZING.    I knew that she had catered Portillos (since it is Ryan's favorite).  So I knew I would be having salad and cheesy potatoes for dinner.  So I OVER did it on that snacks.   For dessert I had a small slice of the oreo ice cream cake.  (Oreo's are vegan, look it up).

Today I tasted the guacamole from yesterday.  It was TOOO runny and really did not have the right flavor, so chalk that one up to a lesson learned, that I don't know how to make guacamole.  It ended up in the garbage.  Oh well.

I also made the fake tuna salad this afternoon.   I just tried it now, and i think it will make a nice salad topping.  Not sure I could sit and just eat a scoop of it, but I had good flavor.

Taco Bell, Kampai Japanese steak house

Breakfast this morning was 2 of the reheated muffins.  Still not fully cooked, so more like a berry muffin crumble.  I like the taste of it.

For lunch Deb and I each had 1 of the salads left that I had prepared during the week.

We then went tile shopping where we picked out new tile for our bathroom  (pictures on Tuesday when we pick it up)

Around 2:30 Deb and I were getting a little hungry, so we stopped at Taco Bell.  I ordered a Bean burrito and the nachos (just the chips and cheese).  So if the $1 small Nachos is how I "cheat" now, I think that is a good thing.

Tonight we went to a Japanese steak house in Elmhurst.  They had a vegetarian delight.  It consisted of the salad, edamame, the onions, zucchini, carrots... that everyone gets, and in addition, 6 veggie pot stickers, 2 slices of japanese sweet potato (which was really good), and 2 potato things (like McDonalds hash browns, kind of).   Dessert was lemon sorbet, which I only had half of.   I did have a before dinner drink of a Blue Hawaiian.



I had 2 avocados that were going to go bad soon, so I decided to make guacamole.  It is in the fridge, so I have not tried it yet.

But it looks good.

Muffins, Joe's Crab Shack and Bulls Game

This morning I went to the Dr. office to have them draw blood.  I go back next Friday to get results.  I will post before and after numbers of all of my numbers that were bad.

This meant I could not eat until after 9:30.   Every Friday we go out to lunch, so I just grabbed a few small things.
Banana
A muffin
one of the cookies made from muffin mix
and a breakfast bar that I had made 2 weeks ago.

The banana was starting to turn brown.
The muffins are under done, so I nuked it for 2 minutes to see if it made it better.  It did make it stay together, but I still had to eat with a fork.
The cookie (the ones stuck to foil last night, were also a little under done), but I liked it.
The breakfast bar was surprisingly still good.

For lunch 1 of my co-workers had a 20% at Joe's Crab Shack.  Before we went there I thought the place SUCKED.  I am disappointed to say that it did NOT even live up to that low standard I set.
There were 14 of us.  The waiter was nearly nonexistent.  We had the manager doing most of the bussing of done drinks, finished meals and drink refills.   They had NO IDEA how to do the 20% off and at best gave us 15% off.  They said there was NO button on register to do the 20% off, so the coupon was supposed to exclude drinks.   The place probably did not have even 14 additional patrons in it while we were there.   I ordered a caesars salad.  I think I was brought a side salad portion.  At least that is all I was charged for.  The good news is that they advertise that tipping is no longer required.  Which is good, because we ended leaving about a 3 or 4 dollar tip on a $200 bill that should have been about $175 if they had done coupon correctly.

Tonight we had tickets to the Bulls game.  So I had a veggie burger (which I have had before).  It is the best veggie burger I have had  (mind you this is probably only the 3rd veggie burger I have had out, so I have a limited list to choose from).  I cheated and ordered fries.  {Potatoes are a vegetable, right??}  I also had Goose Island Beer.

muffins

This morning I made a smoothie with Strawberries, Bananas and Almond milk.  It was pretty good.

For lunch I brought in my salad, but forgot to bring anything to put on it.  I was going to eat it plain, then my co-worker reminded me that IN the cafeteria they had ALL the stuff to put on a salad.  (I really was not sure how I did not think of that.  Must have been hungry and not in my right mind).  So I bought a plastic container of peppers, onions, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli....   (Thanks Brian).

I also brought in some lasagna for an afternoon snack.  It really is just a container of veggies with pasta sauce, but I still like the taste.

Tonight we had our FINAL follow up meeting with the Doctor that performed Deb's surgery.  He gave Deb the all clear to return to normal activity.  That is great news.   It was actually kind of a happy/sad meeting.  We think it has been about 3 years that we have gone to him.  He has such a great bedside manner and was wonderful to keep seeing Deb even though she did not have cancer. (He is an oncologist)  But I am SOOOOOOOO happy that everything turned out okay and Deb will not have to go through any more of the awful biopsies she had to endure.

To celebrate, we went to Flat Top.  I filled up a GIANT bowl of veggies and put on lots of spicy sauces.  It was really good, and I did not have to cook or clean up.

Tonight when I got home, I made up 2 breakfast dishes.

One was the Apple Supreme.  I had made this before, but this time I modified the recipe to have more of the blend apple, cinnamon and almond milk.  I liked the way it came out.  After cooking, I split it into 4 containers and put in fridge for next couple of days.

I then tried to make Very Berry Muffins.  They have banana, dates, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.  I cooked them for 5 minutes MORE then was suggested, since they did not look done at end of the recommended time.  I let them cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes then took out to cool on a wire rack.  They still seem to be a little soft on inside.  I think I may have mixed the batter too much.  I will see how they are in the morning.

Oh well, worse case we eat them as a crumble.  Can't eat the whole muffin in 1 bite.



There was extra batter, so I tried to make cookies.  The book said to cook on foil line cookie sheet.  Well the cookies are STUCK to the foil.  Hopefully they will come off once cool.

Sleeping in

This morning I OVERslept.  My co-worker texted me at 9:43 to ask if I was okay.  DOH!!!
So I ran out to get to the office.   I grabbed a banana, my salad, some pineapple and some of the lasagna I had in the fridge.

Ate the banana on the way to work.  Lunch was the salad, then around 3:30 I heated up the lasagna.  It was just as good today.  Pineapple was a early afternoon snack.

Tonight before bowling I microwaved a sweet potato.  I had looked on line and they suggested wrapping in a damp paper towel and nuking for 4 minutes, turn it over and nuke 4 more minutes.  I let it sit a few minutes after that.  While it was cooking I mixed up some garlic powder, onion flakes, mrs dash, oregano and some cinnamon.  I cut the potato in half, lightly buttered it and sprinkled on the spice mix.   I needed a bit more of the spices, but it tasted very good.

As for bowling, this was the first time in 3 weeks, so I wondered how my energy would be.  Well I did my best to conserve energy by throwing 9 strikes the first game and shot 258.
Games 2 and 3 were both right around 200.  Very happy with a 661 series my first night back.  I was a little tired, but not exhausted.


Yes our team name is "We are Pig".  Don't ask.

I had made salad for Deb to take to work, and here is what she had for lunch.



Baby Spinach, Romaine, mandarin oranges, blue berries and some ground nuts.  All with 0 calorie blue cheese dressing.   She said she really liked it.  Which is good, since I have 3 more made up for her this week.

Jimmy Johns

Last night I actually got SLEEP.  I fell asleep a little after midnight.  I had set my alarm for 7.  Slept straight through.  RESET alarm to 8 AM and slept another hour.

So of course that meant I was running late to work.  I knew that we were having lunch brought in at work, so I just grabbed 2 veggie patties to take in to nuke at work.   They are actually REALLY good, closest to a REAL burger of the ones I have tried.   (Boca all american).

For lunch they ordered Jimmy Johns.  I ordered the #6 vegetarian on the multigrain bread.  I got Jalapeño chips and a pickle.  Turns out that came out to 945 calories  (YIKES), but it was YUMMY.

For dinner tonight I made the No Pasta Zuccini Lasagna.   It took a lot of dishes to do the prep.

Here is what it looked like before I baked it

And the results after 45 minutes.

Deb tried some.  She finished it, but I don't think I have to save 2nd for her.   I liked it, but it really did not come out like lasagna, just came out as a veggie medley.   I cut it up into 6 more pieces.  Froze 5 of them and put 1 in fridge for dinner tomorrow.

Shopping

Even when I have a precise list, it still takes me OVER an hour to get everything at Valli.  I had 4 things that I had to get at Jewel as well. It was pretty much 2 hours from leaving home until I returned.  Then I had to put everything away.

Oh well, better than eating out.

Since tile shopping and dinner at country club wiped out my day yesterday, I was stuck with breakfast AND lunch being the same thing.  CHILI.  Glad I love that stuff.

After shopping I wanted to eat the other half of the acorn squash I had prepared last week.  The problem is that it takes 45 minutes to cook the squash, then another 35 minutes to cook the squash with the filling on top.  But the pay off is that it tastes so good.

Shopping was for 

apple supreme breakfast

berry explosion muffins

no pasta zuccini lasagna 

chickpea "tuno" salad

double batch of chili

salad for Deb and I for lunches (strawberries, blueberries, romaine, baby spinach, mandarin oranges)

So there was some items I had to buy that will last more than the week.  Almond extract, whole wheat flour, nutritional yeast, more small tupperware containers

Tomorrow night I am going to try to make the zuccini lasagna.

Weigh in #6 - Breakfast out and dinner with gramps

Today was weigh in day.

278.8  down 40.2 since Nov 30th.  This is a little less than 2 pounds from last week and that is due to me ACTUALLY wanting to eat this week.   I am surprised that I had lost weight, I would have been okay just staying the same.  So very happy.  I feel so much better in general (even with the recent pneumonia).

Again another day of skipped bowling.  I did not sleep well last night and just did not have the energy to even try to bowl.

So Deb and I decided to go looking for new bathroom tile.  It has been 10 years and the grout is going and we just want a change.
We were shocked at how many choices we had.  We went to Century Tile and picked out 5 samples, which we were able to purchase and bring home.  Then we went to The Tile Store in Schaumburg.   Surprisingly they had 3 to 4 times the number of choices, so on our first past we chose 13 potential choices.  We did notice that the price was almost double the price of Century Tile.  We ultimately narrowed it down to 6 choice....  But here is the part that was BEYOND frustrating... they only had 2 samples in the store.   I do NOT understand why they would not have a box of everything they sell.  I do not know how someone can pick out a tile without being able to see it in the room that it will be going in.  So now we have to wait for Wednesday until they are delivered to store.  Out of the 7 samples we brought home, we do have a clear leader..

Now done with my Rant and back to food....

Well, I did NOT eat anything before we went to Century Tile, so I was starving at 12:30ish when we finished.   So we went to Teddy's diner.   This is apparently my weakness to sticking with a VEGAN diet and crossing into vegetarian territory.  I ordered a Veggie scramble with Eggs and American cheese.  Wheat Toast with Grape Jelly as my side.  Orange juice to drink.  But, wow did it taste good.

Tonight we were going to dinner with Gramps (101 year old) at his country club. North Shore in Glenview.  They had a buffet, so I had salad with carrots, mushrooms, onions, broccoli.  They also offered stir fry, so I had a veggie with corn, pea pods, other veggies.   It was pretty good.

Due to all the running around today, I did not get a chance to do any shopping.  So tomorrow will be a shopping day and a cooking day.

Casino Buffet

Today Deb and I wanted to get our gamble on, so we headed out to Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Michigan.  It is an hour and a half drive from home.

For breakfast I heated up the last of the Apple supreme I had left.

While at the casino we saw that the buffet lunch price lasted until 3:30 then dinner prices kicked in at 4PM (no-one allowed in during that 30 minute window).  Lunch was $22, dinner was $34.   The reason for the BIG price jump is that Saturday night they have seafood.  Crab legs, lots of fried fishes and sushi.  None of this was important to me, but Deb had a taste for crab legs.    I was STARVING around 2:30, so I went and got Deb and we made it to the buffet around 2:45.

I had first asked if I could do a "fly by" of the buffet to see if there was anything I would be able to ear.  Turns out there was a TON.

I started with this plate


from top to bottom,  banana peppers, jalapeño peppers, peppercino, mushrooms, red and green peppers, green beans, asparagus, mexican beans and a jalapeño popper.

Plate 2 was


Veggie spring rolls, carrots, sweet potato, bok choi, some asian noodle, jalapeño corn bread, corn

dessert was a salad (which I only ate about half of)

pineapples, cucumbers, melon, romaine with olives, sesame seeds, balsamic dressing, broccoli and oranges.

So I had a lot of food.  2 unpictured items  Baklava (it is a weakness of mine) pretzel roll (this was the MOST amazing pretzel roll I have ever had) Thankfully I was sooooo full or I would have eaten more.
Iced tea was my drink.

So I think I did a good job of eating lots of different foods, without being too bad.

We did stay at the buffet long enough for Deb to get her crab legs.  (she said they were good)

So our lunch was almost 2 hours, but it allowed me to eat slowly and eat enough that I did not have to eat anything else tonight for dinner.

Elvis Birthday

Every Friday we go out as a team for lunch, so I knew not to bring in any food to the office.

So for breakfast I took in the apple breakfast I made earlier in week.  I also brought in 2 bananas for snacks.  We chose Stir Crazy for lunch.  This was great since I could make a bowl of ALL the veggies I wanted. I chose brown rice and packed my bowl with just about every veggie they had. I like things spicy, so I put in a lot of chili peppers and jalapenos, I also picked some of the spiciest sauces they had.  It was really good.

The reason the post is titled "Elvis Birthday" is because today Elvis would have been 81 years old.  Every year around his birthday there is a concert with 3 Elvis tribute artist that comes in town. Last year Deb surprized me with awesome seats in Northbrook.  This year at Christmas I mentioned that I was hoping I would have gotten a present of tickets to this years concert.  I did not, BUT my amazingly wonderful wife went and bought 3 tickets so that my sisters and I could go see it tonight.  I hyped up to my sisters how Incredible Shawn Klush is, when he came on, he blew my sisters minds as to how much he sounds, talks and acts like Elvis.  It was so great to go see him with Deb and Traycie.  We know our Dad was watching us and enjoying the show.

To make it an evening, we met up for dinner before hand.  We went to Elgin Public House.  I had never been there before.  I got there at 6:30, we were supposed to meet at 6:45, but I got there early, so I ordered a Fat Tire beer.   For dinner I ordered the Veggie Melt with portobello mushroom cap 
(Smoked Provolone and Gouda Cheeses, Spinach, Tomato, Cucumber, Red Pepper, Avocado, Onion, and Pickle, Sprinkled with Balsamic Vinaigrette on Sour Dough Bread - description from website). With fresh fruit side. Both of my sisters were in awe. It sounded SO funny to them to hear me ordering healthy food!!!

It was a really, really good sandwich, so much so that I told Wife Deb that next time we want to go to Elgin Casino, we need to go there to eat.

Again eating out 2 times and both times I ate healthy.  I am really loving this new lifestyle

Back to work

Today was my first day back to work in quite some time.  It felt good to be back.

Breakfast today was oatmeal, cinnamon and blue berries
Morning snack was a banana.
For lunch I had my HUGE salad.  I went down to lunch area and people asked if I brought that for EVERYONE to share, I said "Nope, I eat 1 of these a day"
Afternoon snack was some veggie chili (have I mentioned how much I love this stuff) (maybe 1 time)
Dinner I tried to cook something  -  Acorn Squash Supreme.
It is half an acorn squash, with dried apricots, pineapple, raisins, walnuts, cashews and cinnamon.

The recipe called to cook the squash for 45 minutes first face down in 1/2 of water. While that was cooking I cut up, chopped up, soaked the other ingredients.  (that process took about 15 minutes.  After 45 minutes, I flipped over the squash, put it in a dry pan and spooned in the mix of fruits and nuts.  Cover with aluminum foil and cook 35 more minutes.   It came out AMAZING!!!!
(I had had something like this at Walnut room when Deb and I went with Nieces Reese and Zoe)



The filling makes enough for 2 halves. I put the extra filling and the other half in the fridge.  It will probably be lunch on Saturday.

No bowling!!! Pneumonia sucks

Today was a straight forward food day.

Apple Supreme heated up.  (Still have 2 servings left) 350 calories
Late morning snack - Veggie Chili 265 calories
Lunch my Salad  375 calories and a banana 100 calories

Then I went back to urgent care to follow up.  They said my recovery was coming along as expected.
I asked if I could bowl tonight. While she did NOT say no I could not, she did say that I probably would only have the energy for 1 game.  So I decided that it was better off to not bowl.  This is now 3 times in a row that I have not bowled (wed-sun-wed)  I hope I have energy to bowl Sunday.

in the after noon I took a chunk of Jalapeño Havarti Vegan cheese.  It was ok.  (175 calories though)

Dinner was the last of the 1st Shepherd's pie I had baked.  (260 calories)

I am still a little hungry, so I think I may go make a smoothie.

I think tomorrow I may try to make the Acorn squash recipe.

GREAT News from my Mom

Today my mom had an appointment with her cancer doctor today.  This is the text she sent when the appointment was over

This was AMAZING to hear from her.  She is a fighter and she is NOT giving up!!

I thought today was going to be a simple day with the cooking I had done the past few days, but NO, I decided I wanted to make Apple Supreme for breakfast.   Either I am a slow prep guy, or no-one tells you HOW long things take to make, or else no-one would ever cook.   From prep to eat, this took about an hour and 45 minutes.

I had to peel and chop 6 apples. Chop some nuts, measure out stuff......  AUGH.  I will get better.

Here is what it turned out like.  

It tastes better than it looks.  I already wrote down modification to the recipe in the book for NEXT time.  I learned that BIG chunks of apples take a LONG time to cook.  Now I know to chop smaller.

It made an 8x8 pan full.  Enough for 4 breakfast.  350 calories per serving.

Lunch was the BIG salad I put together yesterday.  I used 0 calorie blue cheese dressing.

I also had chili.  I do not know if I have ever posted a picture of the chili, so here it is.

Tonight for dinner I had some of the Shepherd's Pie from last night.  4 minutes in microwave, and it was just as good as last night.

I also finished up the last of the green beens from yesterday.  I added some salt and pepper before heating them up.  They also tasted good.  (Glad I bought another bag of frozen green beans, so I can make again this week)

At some point during the day I did snack on an orange and in afternoon I had a banana.  So my appetite is coming back.

I went through 2 of my recipe books and put in a sheet of paper that lists ALL the pages I want to make.  May tackle some of these this weekend.  1 was the book of CHEESES!!! so may want to try to make some of them.

Things I have learned

Thought I would start the blog today with a little recap of the first MONTH of my journey to a new way of thinking about food.

Things I THOUGHT I would miss - Pizza, Dr Pepper, Fast Food.
Things I actually miss - none of that.  VERY SURPRISED about that.  I did cheat and have the 2 pieces of so-so pizza the other night (just cheese).  I really just drink water now (even though the orange juice at breakfast the other day tasted good).  The lack of fast food craving shocks me the most.  I used to eat 2, 3 sometimes 4 meals a day at McD, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell.

Things that I have noticed changed.  I am not as sweaty.  (Uncle Jimmy is WET, was the line my nieces used ALL the time).  I actually feel GOOD after I eat and not like I want to go take a nap.  Under the TMI category... Since I changed what is going in to my body, there has been a DRAMATIC change in what comes out.
Up until the cold and now pneumonia, I was feeling like I needed less sleep, but that I had more energy then ever before.

Things I have found that I like.  COOKING, I think I always enjoyed this, but NEVER really did much of it.   But I am liking the chopping of the vegetables, and the measuring of the liquids and spices.

Things tied to COOKING I do NOT LIKE.
a) Shopping.  There are times I wonder around the grocery store NOT sure what I am looking for, nor where it is located.  I have no idea what a good price on produce or nuts is.  It is getting better and now I have the cookbooks, so there are more new ingredients that will start coming.  (Nutritional yeast, tofu)  
b) Cleaning Dishes.   I use SOOOOOO many bowls, measuring cups, cutting boards, and I feel our water bill is going to double, because I am constantly rinsing things off, then I have to prewash off the nuts and stuck on stuff BEFORE it goes to dish washer (which I run almost every day)

Things I am shocked I enjoy.  Huge plate of Veggies.   With onions, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, garlic...  I just love the smells, the colors, the textures.   I cannot believe how good different veggies taste.

Pleasant surprise is how many veggie/vegan options are out there in a normal restaurant.  I was afraid I was not going to be able to eat out much, but I can still always get a salad and mix a bunch of the side veggies to make my own plate.

Other things that have amazed me is the support from those around my. Deb has been AMAZING at making sure WHEREVER we go out, that she looks to find something for me to eat.  The other day when I was at Reese's party, my little sister asked about cheese on salad and other things that she would have done separate just for me.  I love the outpouring of support all of you that read my blogs give me.  Little comments on face book, or a comment at work (from co-workers I did not know read my blog).  Even friends of friends are reaching out to me and asking me questions.

I was afraid this was going to be impossible and that I would QUIT 2 to 3 weeks in.  But I feel I have BARELY scraped the surface as to food options that are out there.  And I am so looking forward to NEW foods to fall in love with

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Now back to your regularly schedule food post  :-)

Breakfast was a "bar" I made last night.

Turns out more like a mini cake, but not bad cold.
I also had an orange and a banana throughout the morning.
Working from home for at least the 1st 3 days this week, so I waited until lunch time to make my lunches for the week.
First to prep was the 5 salads that will be LUNCH every day.
2 cups baby Spinach
2 cups Romaine
red, green, orange pre cut peppers.  Enough to make about 2/3rds of a pepper per.
I made a nut/seed mixture of (These are the per salad average)
1/2 tbsp each of flax seed, sesame seed and pumpkin seed
about 9 grams each of Almonds, Cashews and walnuts.
       (I actually had about 10 times that and blended it all together with my hand blender.  It was so much that I split it in HALF.  Half for this week and half in fridge for next week)  
I have 4 or 5 different dressing, so today was 0 cal French.  Tomorrow I may do 0 cal Blue Cheese.
This salad, due to the nuts, has about 375 calories.

Here is where the REAL cooking finally took a hold of me.  I decided to may Veggie Shepherd's Pie.
 <<>>

So a bunch of NEW stuff here.  Never baked sweet potatoes, never had a leek.  This was A LOT of work!!   I started at 5:15.   Here are most of the ingredients.


By the time ALL was said and done, it was almost 7:30 before I ate.  This makes 2 "pies", so I froze 1 without cooking, the other I cooked for dinner tonight.   Here is what it turned out like



It tasted REALLY good.  I ate about a 1/3rd of it, and put separated the remaining into 2 tupperware case for the next 2 nights.  I think I may eat this every night.  I liked it.  The calories on this are about 260 per serving

But the cooking did not end!!   I still wanted a little snack, so I made the below recipe.



I ate a 1/3 of it and Deb wanted to try it.  She REALY liked it.   I saved what was left in a plastic container for tomorrow.

All in all I was glad that my 2+ hours of work yield something that will end up being 6 meals for me, so time well spent.   Lunches are set for the week.  I should make some more of that overnight oatmeal I like so much.  Maybe I will do that in the morning and have it for the rest of the week.

All this and I have bags of chili in the freezer, so I am pretty set for the rest of the work week.