Food and (no) Exercise 33

My brother and me in my new dress. I look kinda fat there, pretty sure it looked better in person. Hopefully lol. Hard to see, but it has ruffles all over the front and cute flutter sleeves

-caramel chocolate brownie luna bar (not v. good) (190 cals)

-turkey sub on wheat from Great Outdoors (365 cals)

-iced tea (0 cals)

-taro bubble tea slushie (400 cals?)

-water (over 90 oz) (0 cals)

-tiny piece of polenta with tiny portobello mushroom and one or two pieces of zucchini in mezzaluna sauce (365 cals?)

-sample of spaghetti (50 cals?)

-sample of spinach artichoke dip & calamari (175 cals?)

-2 (delicious) glasses of pinot noir (170 cals)

-grande soy latte (170 cals)

-vitamuffin top (100 cals)

-organic strawberries (35 cals)

-club soda (0 cals)

tentative total: 2020 calories (and I was probably being conservative in my estimations)

yeah, I kinda couldn't wait to take a big bite out of it first. NOMMY.

That many cals= Gross. I knew the bubble tea + going out to dinner was going to be a bad combo, but I've been CRAVING the bubble tea for days now and had to have it. I was all excited about the mushroom/polenta dish, but daaamn. I wish I had taken a pic. It was seriously practically NO food. For $14. What?! I could have had the giant bowls of pasta for $11 or some yummy snapper and artichokes for $23, which would have been worth it to actually leave not still starving lol. The spaghetti I tried tasted like vomit too. Seriously. Glad I didn't order that sauce. I really did like the restaurant tho. It took the place of a different italian restaurant I'd been to once before and LOVED. I still wish the old place hadn't gone out of business, but this place was pretty lol. It was very nice seeing my cousin and her boyfriend, so it was worth it. It just sucks I ate so many calories. But the bubble tea kinda sabotaged me from the beginning of the day anyway. Mmm taro. 

Kinda dumb about the latte too. Why do I keep forgetting to order americanos w/ a splash of soy? That'd be more like 25 cals for the same taste! For 170 cals I would have rather had double the wine LOL. But soy lattes are just so good and it's almost too hot for them! (I don't like soy milk in iced lattes nearly as much). 

I also wanted to mention something I forgot to tell you guys yesterday. Alongside my salmon I made a little low-cal homemade tartar sauce. Instead of using mayo or something fatty (and nasty tasting, imo) like that, I just took a tablespoon or two of non fat greek yogurt and mixed it with dill relish and lemon juice and wa la! Nice and light, but still flavorful. 

Not much else to say. I suck at working out when I'm in school (excuses, excuses), so no news there. I did do a little bit of walking today (from my parents office to Great Outdoors + from the bubble tea place to meet my Mom at Q-Doba, but both of those walks were super short, so I don't count that as exercise). 

I have another long day of class tomorrow, so this time I made sure to pack food I know I like and can eat, so I'm not forced to get chips again. 

XO,

Amanda

Food and (no) Exercise 32

(before it had a chance to get blah)

-1/4 tofu sandwich (125 cals)

- berry almond luna bar (didn't taste any almond tho?) (180 cals)

-sugar snap peas (20 cals)

-organic string cheese (80 cals)

-garden salsa sun chips (210 cals)

-salmon (200 cals?)

-few bites of quinoa (i sliiightly burnt the bottom and it flavored everything. even covering it in hot sauce didn't help enough to finish it lol) (120 cals?)

-chocolate vitamuffin top (100 cals)

-small glass of milk (6 oz?) (60 cals)

-strawberries (35 cals)

-plain frozen yogurt with fruit and a few small pieces of mochi (yep, I'm just a little slow. They do have mochi! No mango yet tho ) (175 cals?)

-water (less than 70 oz. Tues/Thurs are hard water days for me) (0 cals)

-1 cream cheese rangoon (70 calories)

Tentative Total: 1375 calories

The tofu sandwich took forever to make (I marinated the tofu in homemade honey mustard), but it was kinda gross :(. So disappointing, b/c when I made it it looked amazing. I think if I ate it fresh it would have been good, but since I made it the nite before and tried to eat it for brunch it was soggyish and wahh. I couldn't even finish one half. Suckage. At least I had the (smushed) luna bar in my backpack. I had to get the chips from a vending machine to tide me over for my second class. I packed a really light snack assuming my big fibery sandwich would keep me full. Obvi that didn't work out. I tried to decide between corn nuts, peanuts, animal crackers, and sun chips. The sun chips had yeast in them (blah), but at least they're whole grain and not a million cals. I know peanuts=protein, but they were prob also like 600 cals or so for that little bag and I doubt just 1/3 of it would have been enough to last me 4 hours. OH, but the vending machine did that thing where the bag gets stuck and you have to buy another bag to get both out. UGH don't you just hate that?! I don't need two bags!

No exercise, but I did burn some cals walking around in the mall a litttle bit (in 4.5ish inch heels, no less) and tried on a few clothing items. I'm so pissed the shorts at American Eagle are so fucking short. Like seriously a .5 inch inseam it seemed. What?! They seemed to be my last hope too, wahh. For shame. I did get a cute dress at Forever 21. I'll have to show you guys soon. I think I may wear it tomorrow? Adorable. $30 tho. I know that's generally super cheap, but that's like twice the cost of most of the items there. Oh well, it's worth it. As long as it doesn't fall apart or anything. 

&, I did get my massage today. I still have a headache, but it relieved a lot of tension, even in just 12 minutes. Who knew my shoulder blades were SO tense? I can usually tell, but this time I couldn't until they were being worked on. Hurt so good! lol. I've had a headache every single day since I started the new medicine. Awesome. I'm still tired all the time too, even tho it's a little less than on Day one. If I drink a lot of caffeine tho I get kinda depressed. WTF? I never really get depressed, so it's very strange. No me gusta.

Other than that, I'm excited to see my cousin tomorrow. I haven't seen her since Feb of 2008 at my Dad's surprise party and she only lives like 20 min away. Unacceptable! I used to see her ALL the time when I was little and she lived over an hour away, yet we've kinda drifted apart. It's always nice to see her, tho. Awww. 

Besides eating out less (which I've been doing mostly good on), my other goal for this week (or maybe next? One goal at a time....) is to add more fiber back into my diet. I think I eat quite a bit, but I haven't really been keeping track, so idk lately. 

Another thing I'm excited about...I obvi went to that amazing fro-yo place again. I got the huge size and filled it, so know I have delicious icy, tart yogurt waiting for me! We spent $17 there, yikes LOL. I got a regular sized one for today, so did my Mom, and we got my brother one, plus that big one. Kinda pricey, but soo worth it. NOM.

XO,

Amanda

Food and (no) Exercise 31

Looks amazing, tasted mediocre/borderline blah for some dishes. No fair!

-Buffalo Flavored Pretzel Crisps (110 cals)

-PF Changs leftovers (600 cals?)

-Splash of Sunny Delite with Lime Seltzer (15 cals)

-Chocolate Vitamuffin top (100 cals)

-McDonald's Vanilla Cone (150 cals)

-Metamucil (45 cals, tho I think most of it sank to the bottom even after being stirred)

-Instant Mashed Potatoes (100 cals)

-A few bites of baked chicken (80 cals)

-Water (0 cals)

tentative total: 1200 cals

I felt like crap AGAIN. Acid Reflux and such. BLAH. I was so excited to make my veggie chili too, but didn't want to risk eating such a heavy, acidic meal. I don't know if it's the medicine, lack of sleep, just a coincidence, or what. :(. 

After feeling sick I really wanted broccoli cheese soup, but we went to the regular grocery store today, not a health food store, and they only had kinds chock-full of preservatives and I couldn't think of a restaurant within a reasonable distance that had any. I settled on a McDonald's vanilla cone. That always seems to help settle my stomach for some reason. I always read articles stating that dairy is the last thing your body needs when you have a gastrointestinal problem, but I swear it's the only thing my body craves and/or feels soothed by. All I know is any food I saw or thought about that was full of sodium/salt I felt sick to my stomach, so I knew to stay away from anything processed or made with a lot of salt. My Mom bought one of those pre-made chickens and some yucky preservative-filled side dishes, so I just had a sample of the chicken and made my own instant mashed potatoes (OK, so those are processed, but they didn't contain fillers). Not the healthiest, but bland and easy. 

I freaking love this bowl. It's really small and really cute. <3

I think tomorrow after school I'll stop by the mall for one of those asian acupressure chair massages. They really seem to work the same way my old chiropractor did all for a grand total of $15 or so. 

I only slept 6 measly hours last nite and took about an hour nap this afternoon. I always have trouble falling asleep on Sunday nites, hopefully history won't repeat itself tonite. I still have a little homework to do and I'm in the process of making a sandwich for tomorrow, but none of that should take terribly long, so unless I get insomnia I hope I'll be good to go. I just can't let Youtube suck me in as usual :-P.

No real exercise, but I did play Rock Band 2 for awhile, which I think counts for something. That shit's hard, man! Takes a lot outta a person :).

XO,

Amanda

Tentative Food Menu for the week

I just planned out a menu for this week. Who knows if I'll even stick to it, but I figured throwing some ideas out never hurt, right? I am curious if too many "fake meat" products are bad (from too much soy or whatever), but I am still trying to cut back on my meat and I guess one week of overload to start using up a few things in the freezer couldn't hurt. 

Monday:

-breakfast= the last 1/3 of my omelet and a cup of frozen grapes

-lunch= leftovers from pf changs (fish, veggies, and soba noodles)

-dinner= chili made with morningstar farm "meat" crumbles + beans & extra tomatoes

Tuesday:

-breakfast= oatmeal + nut butter & unsweetened coconut

-lunch= baked (or cooked on the stove top) tofu sandwich with baby portobello mushrooms, light cheddar, a bit of avocado, lettuce, tomato, and mustard 

-dinner= fish, veggies, and quinoa all cooked in white wine & low-sodium chicken broth with spices

Wednesday:

-breakfast= apple + 2 plain frozen sweet potato pancakes

-lunch= tempeh & veggie stir fry with soba noodles all in a peanut sauce

-dinner= italian restaurant w/ my cousin + other family

Thursday: 

-breakfast= oatmeal + nut butter & unsweetened coconut 

-lunch= tofurkey sandwich with cheddar & veggies

-dinner= salad + "chicken" parm (using morningstar farm herb chik'n patties) & sliced polenta

Friday:

-breakfast= apple + frozen waffle or two

-lunch= crumbled up veggie burger stir fry with veggies and some kind of sauce + a side of either sweet potato pancakes or mini spinach & potato knishes

-dinner=Chilis guiltless grill menu item 

Snacks for any day:

-frozen grapes, mango, apple slices, string cheese, akmak crackers, coconut milk yogurt, matzoh balls, celery with some sort of soft cheese or nut butter, plain frozen yogurt with fresh fruit, etc. 

I also still have about 5 of those rice pudding snacks left, so I could have those with a few chocolate chips for dessert some days, I have the other half of my pf changs chocolate dome, etc. 

Sounds pretty good, hope it mostly works out!

XO,

Amanda

Food and (minimal) Exercise 30

Woo-Hoo I've made it 30 days.

-2/3 of a spinach/mushroom/tomato/feta omelet made with better 'n eggs with fresh fruit (220 cals)

-lots of black coffee (0 cals)

-water (barely any.....40 oz? My Dad and brother keep promising to restock the water cooler and then not doing it!) (0 cals)

-one super small pork chop with my mom's famous zucchini and cheese (240 cals?)

-plain frozen yogurt with strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi (175 cals?)

-1/2 of the dark chocolate dome from pf changs w/ a little raspberry sauce (285 cals)

-small glass of lime seltzer mixed with a little pom juice (40 cals?)

-plain lime seltzer (0 cals)

-about 1/2 cup of frozen grapes (50 cals)

tentative total: 1010 cals

I was seriously eating pretty much every 2-3 hours or so (or more), it just doesn't add up to very many cals when it's all low-cal. 

We went back to iHop this morning. We used to go there every Sunday for a few months last year, but have since branched out. Nice to see they've added a decent health section to the menu. My omelet meal only had 660 grams (or w/e?) of sodium too. Not bad for a restaurant, especially at breakfast. It was quite delish too. I normally can only stomach egg whites in an omelet (ironically, I am technically mildly allergic to egg whites, yet only the yolks give me a stomachache in omeletes/scrambled eggs....but in fried eggs or poached or w/e I always feel fine. RANDOM. Not to mention I don't like the full egg omelet taste as much as just the whites), but the egg substitute wasn't half bad. I'd order it again for sure. The menu online says it comes with swiss, but our menu said feta and I LOVE feta so yay for me. It seemed like an herb feta? Really yum. 

I also finally tried the new fro-yo shop I noticed the other day (it's been open since March, zomg how did I not see it 'til this week?!) and O.M.G. I haven't had this blog long enough to mention my fro-yo OBSESSION. BUT OMG. So, we're not privileged enough to have Pinkberry or Red Mango here, BUT we have a few pretty good places. The best best BEST, though, was called Bliss. Yeah. WAS. They still have one or two locations, but none by me anymore. The one I always went to (seriously 1-3 times a week, but I easily could have gone daily) closed down, without warning, a few months ago. I've been DEVASTATED ever since. LOVED IT. You don't even understand. At first when I read a couple reviews they ALL mentioned it was great, but they only mentioned chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream, stuff like that. Never plain, so I got worried. But when I saw the plain my lil heart fluttered away ;). 

ANYWAY.

So this new place? TOTAL BLISS CLONE. Probably not intentionally, but def the same texture, flavor, everything. I was tempted to do cartwheels in the parking lot, but I didn't want to risk losing a drop of the precious yogurt. AND this location is even a little closer to my house. How many times can I say OMG in one post? OMG! Love. If only they had mango or mochi. Mochi I can live without, mango...more of a deal breaker (I kid. Actually, the Bliss by me rarely had mango either, so....). But some review I saw of the place mentioned mango, so maybe they ran out. ALSO, I did the freezer test to see if it froze well/kept it's taste/texture. It so does! See, this yogurt is kind of more icy than creamy. I've found the creamier plain frozen yogurts taste off when refrozen, but Bliss-style is just as good. PLUS, this place has a HUGE HUGE cup I could just fill with the yogurt and add my own toppings to and eat all week (or for um, 2 days). 

But no, I'm not that excited or anything. Really.

XO,

Amanda

P.S. Exercise was minimal....probably a 15 min walk. Maybe 20, but I'd say that's stretching. Scary too. RIGHT before we were approaching my house, legit like...2 houses down, someone's dog got loose (GODDAMMIT PEOPLE THERE ARE LEASH LAWS FOR A REASON--and this wasn't the only unleashed dog we saw today) and came up and got in my dogs faces. OMG I scooped Bella up and ran her ass home. Luckily my Mom got Buster safe too. See, Bella was attacked by our own (rescue, formerly abused) dog this past December and lost an eye. NO WAY am I taking any chances ever again with my baby. The dog seemed friendly, but you never know, so GTF away from my dogs, plz. UGH. I coulda sworn I heard the owner calling the dog Killer too. Not very comforting. I swear I checked Bella's (only) eye/face on that side 10 times before I was sure she was OK. 

Oh yeah. I also lost .2 this week! Normally I'd be like wtf that sucks, but considering I ate 2,000ish cals 2 days, close to 1500 2 days, and anywhere in between I'm surprised I didn't gain. WOOHOO. Just think what my body would do if I actually ate right and exercised *gasp* :-P

Food and (no) Exercise 29

-hemp oatmeal with 1/2 tbsp cashew butter (205 cals)

-small organic apple (75 cals)

-1 cup of organic low sodium chicken broth with 4 small sized matoh balls (110 cals)

-2 chinese 88 martinis (gin, lemon juice, splash of sparkling wine) (500 cals?)

-3 chicken lettuce wraps (225 cals)

-a little less than 1/2 piece of oolong seabass (135 cals)

-samples of: brown rice with chili sauce, spinach, eggplant, garlic noodles, green tea soba noodles, ginger chicken (I'm gonna guess...550 cals?)

-shot glass of chocolate cake (150 cals)

-water (60 oz? not sure) (0 cals)

tentative total: 1950 calories

Yeaaaaaah. Not much to say about that except MMM MMM BAD (errr except..it was really good!) 

I am proud of myself for really cutting back on my drinking. Granted I drink on a semi-more frequent basis than I may have at one point (prob now would be 1-4 days a week, 1-2 on average), BUT instead of drinking 7-15 drinks in a sitting I'm even MORE content with 1-2. I used to keep going until I felt almostdrunk and even then some (and I had a SCARY HIGH tolerance then too), but now I seem to get a little tiny buzz after a couple and am happy with that, and in fact don't want more. If I'm on vaca with a group of friends or with a friend I haven't seen in awhile or some special occassion like that I may overindulge a little (but again, no where NEAR as much as I used to back in the day). Any other family bday celebration and I'd have ordered 3, 4, 5 cocktails and came home and possibly drank even more. And why? What's the point? Sure it feels fun, but it also feels horrible in the morning, it disrupts your sleep, it's full of empty calories, makes your liver work harder than it's programmed to, and so on. I'm also finding myself HATING even slightly sweet drinks. I've never been much of a sweet drink person, despite my sugar addiction, but I was a fan of the pomegranate martini or the like from time to time. Now I can handle about one and then have to switch back to something more plain/strong/neutral. I probably should have done that tonite as well, but the first martini had a nice sour taste to it. The second was a little more sweet. REALLY good martini tho, I def. recommend it. 

Also: Here's hoping my acid reflux stays far, far away. This morning was not very fun...wah. 

Guess the only pics from that nite are of myself, oops!

XO,

Amanda

P.S. Fake lashes are amazing.

Food and (no) Exercise 28

Yes, it looks pretty gross, but it was so good. And yes, that's mayo, which I normally loathe, but I was craving it for some reason. Whatevs. The ton of mustard (mmm mustard) totally cancels it out ;). 

Now without further ado I give you the rest of....

Yesterday: 

-1/2 of a Smoothie King angel food smoothie with multivitamin (185 cals)

-turkey, ham, and cheese sandwich on hemp yeast-free bread (410 cals)

-organic fat free greek yogurt with 1/4 cup tropical granola and pineapple (105 cals)

-10ish tortilla chips with a little guacamole (145 cals)

-large iced tea (o cals)

-water (didn't keep track. not enough. 50 oz?)

-a few bites of sugar-free frozen yogurt (20 cals?)

total: 865 calories

I should have asked for the smoothie to be made skinny, but I wasn't sure if they did that with every smoothie or just some? Guess it never hurts to ask, I was just feeling a little lightheaded and out of it and just kinda..didn't. Next time. Not that it matters this time, if anything I should have just finished the entire thing since I barely could eat anything anyway.

Pretty sure that was all I ate. I felt crappy. I still don't know if it's the medicine or just a coincidence, but waiting it out sucks. 

My purdy bday flowers and vase that my dogs gave me ;)

 Tonite is my official bday celebration dinner and I plan to indulge in a few cocktails and a dark chocolate tort. I had acid reflux this morning for NO reason, so I was worried I'd be out of commission and unable to go, but *knock on wood* I seem to be OK. After tonite my family has officially run out of bdays for the year, so looks like that excuse is no longer valid and it'll then be all up to me :-P. Next week's goal is to eat home more and out less. Wish me luck. 

XO,

Amanda

Food and (no) Exercise 26 & 27

Didn't post here yesterday because I tracked cals on my iPod touch via Lose It! and I was too lazy to post here too. Until now. I've gone over the yellow line 3/3 days so far. Oops. I've only (barely) worked out one of those days anyway, but with Lose It if you exercise it says you can eat more, but I still am trying my hardest to stay around 1400 regardless. But I need to try harder :-P. Still, with all the shit I've been eating, I'm surprised that the calories were only stupid high one of the days. Well and one last week. OK, so that's not good. Alas. 

Yesterday:

-high fiber brown sugar oatmeal with 1 tbsp natural crunchy pb and shredded unsweetened coconut (315 cals)

-1 cut up apple (80 cals)

-1 organic string cheese (80 cals)

-chips & salsa (230 cals)

-grilled snapper with a black bean sauce that I also made an additional sauce out of using sour cream & salsa (250 cals)

-a little bit of spanish rice (100 cals)

-1 small top shelf margarita (170 cals according to lose it! I'd have guessed higher, but it was small)

-grilled veggies (20 cals)

-more of my bday cake (250 cals)

-water (didn't really keep track, prob 50-75 oz) (0 cals)

tentative total: 1495

Normally I don't eat the chips and salsa, but I got really hungry and the salsa was SO. GOOD. Seriously.  As I always say, I wish I had raw veggies to dip with instead of chips *sigh*. I guess it never hurts to ask, but I also feel like they'd be annoyed. IDK. Maybe not. The cake was also a bad choice (I kinda just dove in...I only meant to take a few bites), but whatevs. I need to cut back on my eating out....I was doing so well...for like...a week. LOL :-x. 

I was put on Verapamil this week (I've been taking Atenolol since I was 18 or 19 b/c my pulse/heart rate is inconsistent + my blood pressure sometimes goes borderline high. THANKS GENETICS! Ugh, but my dr wanted to try something new), but man it is making me TIRED. I can barely do ANYTHING, let alone strenuous exercise. BLAH. I'll give it a little longer, but I either need to go down on my dosage or take something else, b/c...no bueno. I even went to bed at 12:30 which is super early for me. And I still woke up (at 10:00) exhausted. Grrr.

Today:

-1 fried chicken breast (315 cals)

-1 fried chicken drumstick (120 cals)

-gravy (60 cals)

-mashed potatoes (120 cals)

-corn (60 cals)

-2 biscuits with 2 types of honey (485 cals)

-green beans (10 cals)

-100 oz iced tea (omg..all at once too....) (0 cals)

-diced watermelon, honey dew, & pineapple (45 cals)

-glass of champagne (90 cals)

-small greek salad (200 cals)

-water (85 oz) (0 cals)

tentative total: 1505 calories

My aunt wanted to take me out for lunch for my bday and my fat ass picked a country-style place that specializes in fried chicken. Normally I hate fried foods, but they have the best chicken and biscuits ever, zomg! I can't believe the biscuits and honey are really that caloric? OUCH. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good tho and I'm also not really a biscuit person. Ridic! She also gave me a sweet card and $25 to Target. Score! 

XO,

Amanda

Food and Exercise(ish) 25

-starbucks chocolate chip cookie (380 cals)

-starbucks venti soy latte (220 cals)

-turkey and ham wrap (250 cals)

-half of a cream cheese danish (150 cals?)

-lobster with a little bit of butter (200 cals)

-a few bites of a baked potato with sour cream (100 cals?)

-a few bites of lobster and crab dip (100 cals?)

-1 steak bite (100 cals?)

-1 medium size of cake (250 cals?)

-organic skim milk (100 cals?)

-pomegranate martini (200ish cals)

-glass of champagne (100 cals?)

tentative total: over 2150 calories

Happy Birthday to me? 

I also had a couple dark chocolate chips and a few bites of unsweetened shredded coconut. I felt SICK all day from the overload of coffee/sugar/fat. Ugh. ALL I could think about, until I had them, was the cookie and coffee. As I was on the way to class I found out my brother ate almost all of the danish and I was PISSED, but are we really surprised given his track record? I'm jumping around here, but along the same lines: I think I'm FINALLY out of leftovers (aside from my baked potato), so I can finally go back to eating predominantly from home. Since we grocery shopped today I have lots of fruits which will be perfect. Yum.  

I wasn't planning on doing any exercise b/c, AGAIN, I am SO FREAKING TIRED I could collapse, but my Mom and I did manage a 15 min walk with the dogs. It's something, at least. 

For my birthday my dogs got me (lol) flowers, a vase, and a bottle of champagne. My family got me a 32gb iPod touch (which I've been messing with all evening) and my Dad surprised my Mom and I (her bday was April 2, but he wanted to wait so it'd still be a surprise for my bday) with a gift card-type thing for spa treatments (an aromatherapy massage, a mini facial, a foot treatment, and a detoxification treatment). One of the detox options is cupping, which you may remember seeing pics of Gwenyth Paltrow doing. It seems kinda scary, but I have always been curious about it! My Mom was planning to take me out to III Forks for a nice (read: $$$$) dinner, but it's really heavy food, plus I wasn't in the mood for steak (and my fave entree there is the filet mignon), so we postponed that. Instead we went to our other fave $$$ restaurant for live piano music & happy hour. She got 2 appetizers and I got their Monday lobster special. I love lobster! All in all a pretty good birthday! My aunt texted me and wants to take me out to lunch Wednesday and we're doing our big family dinner on Saturday, which should be fun. Originally I wanted to go to Roy's, but for the amount of money it costs it didn't seem like a good idea, since there wasn't much on the menu that sounded good to my Mom or brother. My brother told me to go wherever I want (obviously), but I decided it'd prob be more fun just to go to PF Changs and order a buncha stuff, so it looks like that's the plan. I can't wait!

My bday cake was gorgeous, but it was supposed to be chocolate cake with chocolate icing and it was (a slightly dry) chocolate cake with a too-sweet buttercream vanilla icing. Still good, but not great. At least it was aesthetically pleasing and sparkly? :-P 

I was supposed to have a test today, but it was postponed. I also had a major project due today, but luckily I finished it up over the weekend. I hope I did OK, I'm kinda nervous about it. I checked the requirements 1,000 times, but I still feel like I did something wrong. Now I just need to type up a paper I wrote in class over another one of our boring videos and I can go to bed. 

XO,

Amanda

Food and Exercise 24

-eggs benedict (800 cals?)

-breakfast potatoes (150 cals?)

-cottage cheese (120 cals)

-coffee (0 cals)

-water (0 cals)

-1 bite cream cheese danish (40 cals?)

1/4 toasted onion bagel with a tiny bit of cream cheese (120 cals?)

-morningstar farms soy corn dog (170 cals)

-1 small organic grapefruit (65 cals)

-the last of the grilled chicken salad (250 cals?)

tentative total: 1715 calories

I knew eggs benedict was bad for you, but man that is B-A-D. I've been making a lot of bad choices lately. Plus, it's now about 12:45 am and I am suddenly STARVING for some reason. I don't want to eat anything, because I have to go to bed soon, but ugh it sucks being hungry late at nite. 

At breakfast today we ran into Larry North. IDK how well-known he is, but he's a health and fitness guru, I guess you'd say? He has a chain of gyms, has written books, been on the radio, etc. Nice guy. My Dad wouldn't leave him alone while we waited in line for a table haha. I guess when my Dad was the director of counseling at UTD he invited Larry North to speak at some event or something? Random. I wouldn't have even known what he looked like, but my dad sure did :-P. 

exercise: My Mom and I walked the dogs for approx. 45min.  Forgot to check the exact time before we left. We went our longest route yet! Buster got out of his leash tho at a DANGEROUS intersection to go chase some other dogs & I about had a heart attack. Luckily he was OK. 

HM--I guess since it's after midnite it's technically my bday. I am officialy O-L-D. 

XO,

Amanda 

Food and (lots of!) Exercise 23

-leftover pasta marinara (350 cals?)

-leftover salad with a bite of chicken (200 cals?)

-1 small piece of the flatbread and olive tapenade/bruschetta (70 cals?)

-water (over 100 oz) (0 cals)

-pineapple chunks, an organic orange, and a tiny bit of organic cottage cheese with cinnamon (120 cals)

-4 or so of those multigrain chips with queso (ugh it was sitting on the counter and I was starving. Lame!) (120 cals?)

-another orange (60 cals)

-matzoh brie with maple syrup (350 cals?)

-organic skim milk (80 cals)

total: 1400 calories

Good thing grocery Monday is just around the corner, 'cause we sure need it! I let a lot of fruit go bad this week, oops. But now I want more LOL. And we've needed lettuce for days, etc. I'm addicted to salads with feta now! & I still have the ingredients for 2 or so more of these, I think, but I'm kinda missing my daily wraps! And I still have all my morningstar farms deliciousness! OK, so we have more than I thought, but some supplementation is still due :-P. Man, so many exclamation points, haha. 

I walked my dogs for 45 minutes & I went to the gym and did upper body machines for another 45 minutes. WOO! My quads still sorta kill from the 30 Day Shred, I bet tomorrow my entire body will burn. I did some new machines today and I'm not a fan, but it's always nice to have variety to trick your muscles with. Plus, I'm sure with time my bod will get used to them and it won't be so bad. As I always say (but never do...): consistency, consistency, consistency! 

It sucked tho--when I took Bella out for her walk I was in fit flops and they started to hurt my feet. She REALLY wanted to run, but I just couldn't. After I brought her home I changed into sneakers to take Buster out, but he's more of a galloper than a walker or runner haha. Plus he likes to chase the birds and people watch and take in all of his surroundings, so he's slooow. I kept having to tug on the leash to make him move lol. Too bad I didn't have the opposite shoe type on for each dog! Oh well. 

No pictures today. The pasta looked exactly like the pic I posted on Thursday and the rest of the food wasn't very pretty. 

Hmm it's almost 12:30 now and I'm still hungry, I think I'll go have a little more pineapple. 

XO,

Amanda

Food and Exercise 22

For Yesterday:

-16 oz unsweetened green tea bubble tea (200 cals? since the cals are only from the pearls maybe even a lil less)

-beef pho (500 cals?)

-33 oz lemon water (0 cals)

-50 oz regular water (0 cals)

-half serving of whole grain chips w/quinoa/flax seeds/etc in them (55 cals)

-1 fried shrimp (40ish cals?)

-1/2 fried zucchini appetizer with ranch (400 cals?)

-a few bites of a santa fe chicken salad with no cheese and dressing on the side (100 cals?)

-3/4 glass of Chateau St. Michelle Chardonnay (I got acid reflux halfway thru the meal and couldn't finish this grr it was good too) (80 cals?)

-small piece of my brothers ice cream cake (100 cals)

tentative total: 1475 calories

(pics are bad quality b/c they're not only cell-pics, but also from inside a dark restaurant. I need to start bringing my real cam w/ me all the time like I used to!)

Too much restaurant food makes Amanda a sick girl. After the pho (which wasn't spicy at all btw, wtf! Usually by the end of the bowl I feel kinda sick from all the heat, but this time I had to add hot sauce from home!) I felt kinda swollen from all the sodium, so I drank a bunch of water to help flush some of it out + I went for a long walk, which I'll mention below. Then I felt better. My brother picked this steak place, Traildust, for his b-day, but I've had SO MUCH red meat this week and I am not a fan of red meat in general, so I told myself if I got a salad or baked potato instead of steak I could have a glass of wine. My brother ordered the shrimp appetizer, but I remembered this place has the BEST fried zucchini and ranch, so I suggested that to my Dad as well. He LOVES zucchini, so we got that too. Normally it'd be SO worth it, but it was only OK this time. Still good, but not the mouthgasm I remember lol. My salad was pretty much one of the biggest salads I've ever seen (besides maybe from the Cheesecake Factory). But after a few bites of the salad I started to get acid reflux. UGH. A lot of the time when I get it I get it BAD and spend the next 2 hours clutching my chest in horrible pain and puking in the bathroom praying to God to just make it go away. I quit eating and drinking and eventually started to feel a little better, thankfully. Being away from home when I get it is pretty scary, b/c I don't know what to do. I think for the next couple days I'll try and take it easy and stick to mainly fruits, vegetables, and plain things like yogurt. Of course, I have leftovers too I don't want to go to waste, so I'll prob incorporate those in as well, despite not being what my body needs. 

We're going to one of my favorite deli's for an early b-day thing for me on Sunday and I think my Mom is taking me to our fave upscale restaurant one day (though if I still feel like crap I may see if she wants to postpone it a week or two), not to mention the family b-day extravaganza we're doing next Friday, so I can't say I'll entirely avoid restaurants, but I'll do what I can. I refuse to give up the UNBELIEVABLY GOOD cream cheese danish from the deli, but I think I can make dietary tweaks here and there to help my digestive system survive the overkill. 

Exercise: 1 hr walking/jogging my dogs. Bella likes to go fast, while Buster is slower, so it's too hard trying to take them at once. Nobody would go with me, though, so they each got to go on a 30 minute walk lol. My quads hurt SO BADLY from the 30 Day Shred, but I still managed to do pretty well. Mostly it's just hard going down stairs lol. I really don't see how Jillian expects people to do it every day without hurting themselves, especially out of shape people, which probably accounts for at LEAST half of her target audience. 

LOL @ this pic of my Dad with his giant 30 oz beer. He almost NEVER drinks, especially at restaurants. He probably has a couple beers a month at home and maybe 5 a YEAR when we go out. Last nite we were celebrating my brother's bday at this steak place (not a fancy place, kind of a cowboy-type environment lol with a dance floor and live band and stuff...kinda ironic 'cause on the way there we were making fun of a cowboy my brother saw at the mall, but anyway..). My Mom didn't feel well so she stayed home, but I kept texting with her throughout dinner. She told me to tell my Dad their beer is cheap there if he wanted to get one. At first he said maybe, but I didn't think he was going to, but soon after a party of 20 or so people sat in the giant table in front of us and they ALL ordered these giant mugs of beer and my Dad suddenly HAD to have one haha. SO not like him at all.

Food and Exercise 21

-hemp oatmeal with cashew butter (250 cals)

-a few dried apricots and almonds (150ish cals)

-water (0 cals)

-small scoop of reduced-sugar ice cream (100 cals)

-iced tea (0 cals)

-pomegranate martini (150ish cals)

-vodka soda (75 cals)

-part of a fried artichoke appetizer with parmesan cheese and a little aoili (1 million calories? IDK, maybe 400 cals?)

-part of a tapas appetizer with herb flat bread (lol I typed fat bread--freudian slip?) and roasted garlic, olive tapenade, bruschetta, and hummus (400 cals?)

-side salad with lite italian and a mini crossiant (300 cals?)

-some grilled chicken penne pasta with marinara (500 cals?)

-small piece of ice cream cake (gave my brother most of the ice cream out of it) (175 cals?)

total: WAY WAY WAY too many. I really have no idea, but we'll guess a around 2500ish 

:( :( :(

Really Amanda? REALLY? OY. I also had one of my Dad's fried shrimps, 2 sips of my Mom's patron margarita, etc. Not a good day. I had a stressful week and wanted to celebrate it being over with a happy hour, but I should have gone for the blackened ahi tuna appetizer and just stuck to vodka and club soda. I would have liked it better anyway! Stupid happy hour prices excluding the healthy items from the $5 menu :-P. After I ordered the tapas platter I knew it was a bad idea, but of course that's not all that did it. 

Still working on my calorie consistency, obviously. 

Exercise: After calculating this my disgusted self did the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD

The ice cream has pop rocks in it =-o

My Mom's margarita--blech look @ all that salt

Uh-Oh

Happy Hour=Bad News! 

Went to happy hour from 4-5:30. Going out to have a drink or two more + dinner any minute now. Trying to talk myself out of a monte cristo sandwich, but pretty sure it's not going to work. Oy. 

Lots of pretty pics for later tho :-P

It's my brother's b-day, so I can't really pass. Plus, we're going out to a nice(r) place tomorrow. I'm screwed/I suck. 

Good time tho :-x

More later...

Food and (no-ish) Exercise 20

LOL the Stroganoff looks gross. Beige foods never seem to photograph well...

-Dunkin Donuts veggie egg white flat bread (290 cals)

-Medium iced skim latte (was supposed to have blueberry, but I don't think they added it even though they asked me 3 times what flavor...) (70 cals)

-about half of a small baskin robbins reduced-sugar caramel tracks ice cream (the other half spilled grr) (60ish cals)

-water (over 100 oz) (0 cals)

-veggie corn dog (170 cals)

-small portion of the leftover beef stroganoff (100 cals?)

-a few bites of cake my Dad brought home last nite (100 cals?)

-3 spinach and soy cheese munchees (90 cals)

-1/3 of a kashi spinach and mushroom thin crust pizza (250 cals)

-2 bites of plain ff greek yogurt (15 cals?)

-pau de arco tea (0 cals)

-half of a pickle (5 cals)

total: 1150 calories

I ate so much yeast (and sugar, kinda) my tongue already hurts. Eff that. Why can't my body just be normal? Ugh. 

Only exercise I could manage was doing some free weight stuff..nothing big. 

Back to being a sleep deprived walking zombie. Vicious cycle.

Can't wait 'til my tests are over tomorrow. Then FREEDOM. For at least 5 days anyway. 

XO,

Amanda

Food and (no) Exercise 19

The salad dressing wasn't very good, I had to mix in a tiny bit of the greek stuff to make it palatable. Maybe it'll be a better marinade? 

-hemp oatmeal with cashew butter (250 cals)

-water (about 65 oz) (0 cals)

-buffalo flavored pretzel crisps (110 cals)

-organic granny smith apple (80 cals)

-salad I made which had a few almonds and a litttle avocado, but with a lite dressing (200+ cals?)

-small amt of beef stroganoff w/ mushrooms (350 cals?)

total: 990+ calories

My head hurts, my body hurts, and I'm exhausted despite getting almost exactly 8 hrs of sleep. I had school and ran errands all day, didn't get home 'til 7:30pm (left the house a little after 11). It should have been a very easy day regardless of being gone for most of it, but for some reason I felt SO STRESSED. Really random. It just felt like a brick was sitting on top of my heart/chest or something and I couldn't get enough oxygen and I was overwhelmed and a little irritable off and on, but had no reason to feel that way! I also had a small headache off and on all day, but a few minutes ago it turned into more of a mini-mini-migraine and I'm getting a little nauseous and slightly sensitive to light. I really was going to work out until I started getting ill. :(

I did take a 20mg Adderall XR as soon as I woke up. I don't take Adderall very much anymore (last semester was the first time I tried it and I took it for 2-3 months daily, now I take maybe 1 a month?), so I'm wondering if it just stressed out my body? It shouldn't have, but who knows. As it generally does, it did make me lose my appetite a little, but I still could have eaten more than I did during my second class. I brought plenty of healthy snacks, I just didn't feel like eating. I think my first headache may have been caused by that? I had the oatmeal at 11:30 or so and then didn't eat again until 5, which was when I had the pretzels and apple. I wasn't very hungry after that, but I made myself eat the dinner my Mom and I made. The sauce for the stroganoff was really good. Even though I'd been telling her all week, my Mom forgot I wanted to use soy "steak" strips instead of beef for mine and my Dad's portion and went ahead and already mixed the sauce with the real beef. Grr. I was also planning on making a side of quinoa-based pasta instead of the egg noodles she uses, but by then I told her it was already "ruined" (lol) and she could just toss the entire thing together. Like I said, I just had a little, but I completely covered it in sauce. Yummm-y. I don't think I even ate it tho until almost 9 and even then I was eating it just 'cause it was tasty and I'd barely eaten. I probably would have been fine without anything. 

I have 2 tests in a row on Thursday (which also happens to be my brother's 22nd birthday), so I'm thinking about taking another Adderall that day, but not if I'm gonna end the day feeling like this! Ugh. I never used to, so maybe I'm blaming the wrong thing. I have been craving oranges and fruit juice this week, maybe my immune system is just down this week and in dire need of a little extra Vitamin C? Who knows. I think after I post this I'm gonna quickly do my Logic homework and crawl into bed and watch tv 'til I pass out...which will hopefully be pretty soon. 

Oh yeah, I actually bought a pair of shorts today. Yep, me. Crazy. We'll see if I actually wear them. Is it just me or do most people have to buy shorts a size bigger than pants? ANNOYING. They're really short, but I think they look sort of OK? IDK. Also, when I suck in now my stomach looks almost completely flat again. YAY it's been awhile since it looked like that. Thank God. Now I just have to work on it looking like that when I'm not holding my breath ;). 

XO,

Amanda

Food and (no) Exercise 18

-kashi granola bar (120 cals)

-piece of zucchini bread (200 cals?)

-organic skim milk with hazelnut iced coffee mixed in (100 cals)

-about 3/4 of a sweet n sour kashi frozen meal (it was good, but a little too sweet towards the end) (275 cals)

-16 oz herbal water (just plain water with organic orange peel and cinnamon flavoring) (0 cals)

-regular water (65+ oz) (0 cals)

-about a cup and a half or so of pineapple/honey dew/cantaloupe (100 cals)

-soy cheese pizza bites (4) (120 cals)

-1 valencia orange (60 cals)

-greek salad with a little avocado that was about to go bad (250 cals)

-about 2 oz turkey tenderloin with salt-free greek seasoning and a little olive oil to cook (75 cals)

-few bites of instant mashed potatoes (75 cals)

-mashed sweet potates with brown sugar and spices (150 cals)

-steamed brussel sprouts with lemon juice and a spritz of spray butter (50 cals)

total: 1575 calories

Yikes lol that's a long list. I was REALLY hungry today. Aside from the few bad choices (err like perhaps the zucchini bread I stuffed in face while starving), I was mostly trying to keep it healthy, low cal, and fiberous, but I just could not get full at ALL. Ridic. Yet somehow still fairly reasonable calories-wise considering how much it was. I taste-tested everything while I made dinner, so I only took a few bites from my plate and was (finally) stuffed. Not to mention I'm kind of a dumbass and only bought .91 of a lb of turkey for my entire family of 4. For some reason I thought only my Dad and I were sharing it. I kinda forgot my Mom and brother like turkey too. Oops. I think it worked out fine tho, b/c we had sides and salad and all that. I couldn't even finish mine and I gave myself the smallest slice. 

LOL I thought it would have filled up the plate more. 

I ran errands alll day and was EXHAUSTED otherwise (couldn't fall asleep 'til after 4am), so I didn't work out. BOO. I'm going to the gym for SURE tomorrow. Plus I'll be at school all day, so I won't be able to eat everything in sight again LOL. I always make sure to eat before my Tues/Thurs classes, I really should start before M/W/F too. I got in such a habit of going out to eat every day and now I really don't like going out to restaurants, but I haven't planned well for most days. 

Gotta go do my Statistics homework. Gross. 

XO,

Amanda