Day 1 on my own

Today I ate on my own with no outside pressures in any way.

The good news is I came within range on carbs and protein.

The bad news is I went over on fat and calories.

I know where I went wrong.

My first meal of the day I called lunch - it was a turkey and cheese sub from Sub Station II - 6" "all the way" which means with oil and vinegar. I usually like mayo but I thought oil and vinegar might be healthier and thought I'd try it. I also got black olives on it, which - looking at the numbers, wasn't a terrible offense. But the combo comes with 2 cookies. I only wanted one, but the combo comes with 2.

I also ate a Mounds bar because it was in my purse and I kept thinking about it until I decided that I had no choice but to eat it.

If I had done away with either the Mounds bar or the two cookies, I'd have been fine for the day.

I consider this a lesson learned. I'm aware as I go through the day that I have a limited number of calories budgeted to me for the day. I was sort of testing to see if I could get away with it. I tried to get away with too much. Now I know.

Dinner - this is awesome - I'm leaving town tomorrow for over a week so I decided I should use this opportunity to use up some of the food at home. I had a can of okra and tomatoes that's been in the pantry probably since before I started this diet in March, and it sounded awfully good to me. I realized I needed some protein, and I have tons of chicken in the freezer, and also fish, and some hamburger in the fridge (but I'm so tender about spoiled meat and I never know when it's spoiled so I always err on the side of caution and throw out a lot of meat.) I added some fish, and some brown rice, and some frozen shrimp and some frozen green beans, and extra can of diced tomatoes, threw it all in the slow-cooker, and voila! - fish gumbo! It was goooood, - about 410 calories - and I have an extra serving for tomorrow.

I started off trying to eat just 1/4 of the dish (200 calories) but was still hungry. I realized I needed more protein and saw the Light 'n' Lively Cottage Cheese in the fridge and had a couple spoonfuls of that, and that definitely helped bring my protein levels up and to satisfy my hunger. I need to have Light 'n' Lively Cottage Cheese on hand as I diet to keep up with protein requirements.

In other news, I decided to do some "cardio" since I didn't get around to it yesterday. I put "cardio" in quotes because I'm giving myself a hard time for it not being more intense right now, but that's the kind of shape I'm in. Part of today's cardio meant going to the recumbent bike, which faces a mirror. And I amazed at the reflection in this mirror. I haven't been on the recumbent bike much since I was around 280 pounds and looked at myself in the mirror as I biked. Tonight I can see that my knees are thinner, my calves thinner (and apparently a little baggier), and I had a neck. I could even see that my face was thinner. And - previously when I would bike, the belly was a gigantic expanse that pushed up into my boobs and into my fat neck with every pump of my legs. Apparently there's been a big decrease in the fat of my midsection despite my being not able to see it in my waist measurement. Boy, was that good to see. Before I was an abomination of a female bobbling about on that bike (although I did have more vigor and muscular strength then.)

So, hurrah for that.

If anyone's on sparkpeople, you can add me (Hazel7373) and that way you can see my tracking. I hope I keep up with the tracking. I'm liking it. Sparkpeople is a big confusing site, though. There's a lot of fru-fru that's best ignored. For example, an article entitled "Fun and filling lunches to go" offered the same kinds of bs suggestions you find in magazine articles, random haphazard advice, like substituting different kinds of bread for your regular bread (how exactly is that supposed to help?) and include a little ranch dressing if you don't think you can eat your vegetables plain (I mean, really?), drink milk but not fruit juice (...), and choose healthier options as much as possible (i.e. - and this is a real example they give, an apple instead of apple juice or apple pie! Now does anyone look at their packed lunch that includes apple pie and think "I should substitute an apple for this apple pie!" No.) What people like me in order to find success is NOT disconnected bullshit advice like this, like in every stupid worthless women's fitness magazine, but something concrete. We know the little advices, we know what's healthy, but what we don't know is how to put it all together. And the magazines never tell us because that would be actual work, rather than just regurgitating the same shallow tidbits (most of which is over-simplified interpretations of more complex scientific studies) that they've been spurting since the 1980s. No, there wasn't one single sample packed lunch in the article (let alone the 3 three I'd have hoped for).

On the other hand, I did find a group called "Lunch Packers" or something, with a thread called "What did you pack for lunch today?" Much much better.

Oh!! And another "NSV" we all love - how cool is it to pull out the Victoria's Secret pj's you splurged on in college and be able to comfortably fit in them? Size 18 :-)