Week One, Day Four

I'm starting to get seriously sick of deviled eggs. They're just so easy to make! After a long morning, I have another tray of them in the fridge. Of course, a few of them made their way into my tummy, because cooking is hard work. I also have the ricotta herb stuffing ready for my tiny little cherry tomatoes. My ground beef for "just like Wendy's" chili is defrosted, ready to brown. I've already used up half of my small cold cut ration for breakfast. And I am nowhere near preparations for the other foods I've got to cook today.

(Big Yawn) It's always a bad idea to work all night and then think you can stay up and cook the whole day away. There's nothing good on tv during the daytime, for one. I've already learned the hard way that I can either listen to an audio book on my iPod or I can chop veggies. For some reason, I can't concentrate on both at the same time. Happily, few veggies were damaged by my gushing finger--no, just joking. Me and my fingers are fine. But I'm craving some kind of distraction. Um.. kind of like sleep. I'm also out of room in the fridge.

But I digress. It should be disturbing how much like a diet this whole process ISN'T. Which must mean that I've always been somewhat helpless about feeding myself consistently, without the help of a menu and a kitchen staff. Still, I think I'm coping ok.

Take last night for example. I overslept. In a big way. I woke up, got myself un-disoriented, looked at the clock and realized with total panic that I only had an hour and a half to feed myself, make dinner for work, provision the rabbits, and take a shower. How was this possible? I had luck on my side. I'd put some thin cut steaks in the fridge that morning to thaw and I also found the leftover veggie salad from the day before. My Dad has one of those tiny little George Foreman grills that everyone demeans (until it actually comes in handy) which heats up in 30 seconds. In literally 5 minutes, I had two steaks on my plate. All I did was take the jarred minced garlic (talk about staples) out of the fridge and spread it with a little cracked pepper, a dash of kosher salt, on the mostly defrosted meat. Because the grill cooks both sides at once, I didn't even have to turn it. From ziplock to table. And it was pretty good. I put a tablespoon of blue cheese dressing on my cukes and tomatoes and pulled a sparkling flavored water (no cals) from the cooler. By the time Law and Order was just starting up it's 9pm rerun, I was about done with dinner.

While showering, I ran over possible options to make for work dinner. They weren't good. Oh, I had raw materials aplenty, but nothing that could be assembled fast. Then, inspiration hit. South Beach makes frozen dinners that, if rather tasteless, are still Phase 1 acceptable. And there was a grocery store on the way to work. Saved! I got Caprese Chicken, which is chicken tenders covered with some sort of tomato-like sauce and a small bit of micro fat cheese with a side of broccoli. The store also had deviled eggs in the deli section, an unexpected bonus. Technically, I shouldn't have gotten those (not the right type of mayo and sure to have a small bit of sugar in it) but desperation does not lend itself to nitpickyness. I also had two cups of sugar free jello (black cherry flavor--pretty good) for dessert. More no cal flavored water--the remains of what was left from dinner and only a few sips of a new bottle (did very poorly at water drinking yesterday) finished off that meal. I did get that feeling of wanting something more around 4am. Thankfully I remembered, dug for, and found a jar of South Beach Planter's Diet Nut mix which did the trick.

Today, I have a lot more cooking to do so I have ready made and waiting choices for the next three days. On the agenda: chili, cauliflower soup, strawberry chiffon (a dessert), stuffed cherry tomatos, and stuffed mushrooms. I also made another batch of what's turning out to be my favorite thing on the diet so far: Japanese Cucumber Salad. Sadly, I ate half of it, along with my cold cut roll-ups, for breakfast. I just can't keep the stuff in the fridge.

Another two days successfully negotiated.

It's suddenly thundering outside and threatening an afternoon shower. A good excuse to nap. I'll post my two favorite recipes before I head off. But before I go, a bit of hope. I read online that after 2 weeks of phase 1, a person can definitely see a difference in their face and torso. Maybe not a dramatic difference, but definite, I-am-not-imagining-this difference. It's part of what keeps me going!