Week Two Coming To A Close

I haven't posted much about the diet this week because I was getting pretty discouraged and found cooking every single meal was driving me nuts. I ended up sleeping more than necessary and often failed to eat that 3rd meal.

I also tried to go out to restaurants to relieve my frustration. I hit Outback twice, a Japanese place once, and a local steak place. With Outback especially, it felt like I was eating two meals at once. Some of you may be horrified that I had a 12oz steak and loved it (grin) but at least the 2nd time I managed to save back a portion of it for my next meal. Outback works great and is easily SB friendly. The Japanese place...suffice to say I won't be going back there anytime soon. I'm not sure if there was a language issue (the waiter's English sounded just fine) or if they just didn't care, but only one of my requests was followed through on. Happily, I did get double vegetables instead of the fried rice but they'd been cooked in oil and a soy sauce that I hoped didn't have sugar in it. The grilled shrimp looked pretty clean of sauces and oils, but tasted fishy and I had a hard time forcing myself to eat it. Normally I love shrimp. It was a big let down. Worse, I didn't even make it halfway home before my stomach started seizing up. So the shrimp was bad in more than taste. That was the final insult to the $23 hit my wallet took on that meal.

Thus, my monthly food budget has taken a severe nose dive. I have a package of lean turkey burgers that taste like cardboard to survive on til I leave for vacation. I have a few more odds and ends, meat-wise, in the freezer that I can scrounge, but I'm going to have to be miraculously creative with that turkey.

I had a recipe for Balsamic Chicken that I wanted to try today. What could it hurt to sub in the turkey burgers instead of the chicken? It wasn't so bad. Much better than plain. But my favorite of the day is the veggie stir fry. I used a steam in the bag frozen pouch of broccoli and cauliflower. While it was cooking in the microwave, I cut up some onion and several slices of 98% fat free bologne. I pan fried the onion and bologne in sesame oil, then added the cooked broccoli and cauliflower. A tiny bit of kosher salt and a good grinding of fresh black pepper and the mix was smelling really good. I added some cheese when I plated it, because the turkey burgers looked so depressing. It was great. In fact, I'm going back to finish off the veggie fry's remains as an early snack.

As for my goals for the week: failure, failure, failure. Though maybe I should qualify that, as my liquid intake has definitely increased and is just about what I'm supposed to be drinking. I drank too much Diet Coke this week, though, an average of two or three cans a day. This is bad because Nutrasweet gives me massive headaches and the sparkling water I drink already has a small amount of acesulfame potassium in it.

I got back into cooking a bit already today. I also went out and got some meal replacement shakes to help with the meal missing problem. I wasn't looking forward to trying them as they have hardly any fat and no sugar, also very low artificial sweetner. I was expecting total grossness, with that chalky or sandy texture, when I had my first one last night. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. No chalk, so sand. It was very much like chocolate milk and the taste wasn't off too badly. Not something I'm going to enjoy drinking, but in emergencies, it'll work. One shake ends up being about a regular mug full of liquid and I can chug it pretty quick. I have to remind myself that I hated the V-8 juice when I first started drinking that and now I kinda like it. I just wish the stuff was cheaper. Though at $5 a four pack, it's still cheaper than the almost $7 low carb Slim Fast alternative. The other option, which comes in vanilla and strawberry too, is the Atkins version. It's the same price, but has a bit more sugar and 4g more fat.

I'm probably going to keep myself on Phase One an extra week, til I leave for Florida. It's going to be a challenge, eating right while away from home (and away from my own kitchen) but I'm going to plan ahead, bring SB friendly food with me--including those meal replacement shakes. I figure that if I always have a zip lock baggie of nuts or turkey pepperoni with me, it'll be enough to get me past whatever difficulty I encounter.

And I will have difficulties. Dad has cheerfully informed me of the Einstein's Bagels and Smoothie King just down the street. Two of my biggest temptations ever. I can handle the bagel thing, but Smoothie King is going to be hard to avoid, especially since it's so hot in Florida. But I'll have a little support, with Dad being there. And I resolve not to go anywhere without a big bottle of sparkling water in the car (or the purse). I'm hoping that I'll be having too much fun to get into much trouble. That, and the outdoor activities should push up my pride for being healthy.

I'll be back again at the start of Week Three and we'll see if I've lost any more weight this week. Have a great weekend, all.