Part 2 Day 2

Well... big shocker. I gained 1.5lbs. After yesterday I really am not surprised. I have been playing this dieting game for over 10 years now and I have a pretty good idea of how my body responds to certain foods. I think the 2 guilty culprits from yesterday were the 711 sushi (i still love you though) and the chicken. While you would think the chicken was the most innocent thing on my menu I used a lot of salty seasoning for it. So with the high sodium from that and the high sodium soy sauce i just HAVE to pour all over my sushi - the 1.5lbs makes sense. Glad I figured that one out! Now I'm off to go find Carmen San Diego.
Game plan for today: eat very little and drink TONS of water.

9:00am: Tuna & Garbanzo Beans Salad (kind of)
** So I'm getting ready to move out of my apt in a few days which means no grocery shopping. This was a haphazard meal put together with whatever I could find. In case this sounds good to any of you - although I'm almost sure it doesn't - here's what I used for this one:
1 Can of Tuna
1/2 Cup of Garbanzo Beans
Pickle Relish
Splash of Light Rice Vinegar
Dijonnaise
Light Miracle Whip
Dash of S&P

5:00pm: Lean Cuisine

There you have my day. I know it sounds a little minimal but let's be honest here, I'm not wasting away or anything.
And btw, I did violently search through my purse at work for some extra change to get a bag of chips or something but I had no luck. Relax... they would have obvi been Baked Lays.

*** Since I am posting this on Friday morning I can happily report that 1.5lbs is now gone. Yay!! Mission accomplished. =)

Part 2, Day 1

Part 2 started off for me in kind of a less exciting way than Part 1. I sorta forgot all about it until later in the day. I guess this is why long term dieting is so hard. We, well I, get bored. I get the instant gratification from losing the first few pounds and then it just starts to get kind of... blah. Need to figure out a way to get past that phase and keep pushing forward. Sigh....

I decided on a goal weight for the next 2 weeks. As of this morning I am 2 lbs away from that goal weight (I was 3 lbs away last Friday.) I kind of have a feeling though that I may be back to being 3 lbs away after my poor performance today. =/

9:00am: WW Blueberry Muffin

1:30pm: Half Chicken Salad & Half Greek Chicken Wrap - St. Tropez Bakery
** Yum. This was a great lunch after a very nice walk along Hwy 101 with my diet/exercise partner extraordinaire. For anyone in San Diego I highly recommend this spot for breakfast and/or lunch. http://www.sttropezbistro.com/
Although a warning to anyone on a diet with a sweet tooth - try to avoid going near the bakery case. You will be very tempted with the delicious looking pastries and things in there. I am proud to say that today we resisted the temptation =)

5:00pm: Yogurtland Frozen Yogurt
** After a somewhat rough day (not including the walk) I decided that I needed some fro yo to make me feel better. Sprinkes are like therapy. What? It's better than going to get blacked out or something! Geez.

6:30pm: 711 Sushi
** So this is when things start to get a bit out of control. I was forced to go to 711 because SOMEONE (not me) had to have mac & cheese for dinner and we were out of milk. So once I was there I spotted my favorite quickie sushi on the shelf and I just could not resist. I'm weak, I know.

7:30pm: Fiber Gourmet Mac & Cheese and Chicken
** I told you I was out of control. I was pretty full at this point and really didn't need to eat anything else for the night. But once again SOMEONE was hungry and had to have it. So I slaved over the stove like I was some sort of 1950's housewife and made that someone his dinner. Once it was all done I had to have at least some. I didn't take a huge portion or anything but I just didn't need to have it in the first place. Oh well.

So that was Day 1 of Part 2 of my diet, challenge, whatever. Not great by any means. But life goes on. Tomorrow will definitely be a good day. Gotta stay positive, right?

**BTW that someone up there goes by the name of Tim. And I was totally kidding. I can't blame him for my bad decisions. Although I can definitely blame him for those cheese fries a few days ago. C'mon pal.

Hello I'm Still Here!!

Hi Again!
I decided to give myself a little break from the diet and from having to report everything I eat. It was nice but I'm ready to get back. With the great results of my first challenge I've decided to keep it going. Not to downplay my success or anything but anyone who is a regular dieter like I am knows that the first few pounds you lose are always the easiest. As long as you do a diet right you'll always drop something right away. It's the next part that is the hardest. So to keep up with a realistic weight loss plan I have decided to make my next goal 3 lbs in 2 weeks - starting tomorrow. Well actually the goal is to lose 3 lbs from where I was at on Friday. So if I start tomorrow 1 lb up then I have to lose 4 lbs. Make sense? Aside from an unfortunate incident with some cheese fries a few days ago I've managed to avoid any major disasters during my break so hopefully I'll be in good shape tomorrow.

Back to business....

9:30am: Scrambled Eggs w/ Fat Free Cheese
** Blah blah boring. Had to use real eggs cause I haven't been able to go grocery shopping lately and it's all I had. Turns out I'm much better at cooking with Egg Beaters than I am with real eggs. Kinda sad huh?

11:00am: V8
** I have a slight obsession with V8. It's like if I see it in front of me I have to drink it. Like it's out of my control. I kind of feel the same way about tomato juice but I think I like V8 better. Unless I'm on a plane - then it's tomato juice all the way.

3:30pm: Lean Cuisine Pizza
** I came home absolutely starving. My lame 2 scrambled eggs breakfast didn't do too much for me. So I picked the biggest Lean Cuisine I could find in my freezer. I love these pizzas. They're also pretty great for late night drunk eating.

4:00pm: Bush's Veggie Baked Beans
** Soooo I was still hungry after the pizza. Geez. These beans are pretty good. High in fiber, etc. Probably should've waited a little while for that pizza to kick in but oh well.

7:30pm: Half of a Chicken Salad from Baja Fresh
** Pretty light. Lettuce, chicken, salsa, and tortilla strips.

So that's it for today. Hopefully my little midday binge doesn't hurt me too much on the scale tomorrow. We'll see.

The Results

6 pounds lost in 2 weeks.
Done and done.
My next challenge will officially begin next Wed....

Day 14!!

This is it. Today is the final day of my 5 lb challenge. My official weight today is X-6lbs!! Yahoo! If I can keep this up for one more day it will be a great start for my soon to come next challenge.

11:30am: Homemade Cottage Cheese with an Apple
** YUM. One of my most favorite snacks/meals ever. I have this with regular low fat cottage cheese too. 1 apple, cottage cheese, and splenda.

2:30pm: Fiber Gourmet Pasta & Chicken Salad
** Canned chicken, Fettuccine, Miracle Whip, Relish, S&P....

8:30pm: TJ's Chicken Wontons & Brown Rice
** Another success from TJ's frozen food aisle

I'm a little bit worried about my final weigh in tomorrow. I know that even if it goes up a bit it's still ok. I didn't eat badly today but I feel like just to ensure a good result tomorrow I should've stayed away from the carbs and sodium a little bit more. BUT like I said, I will be totally ok no matter what it says tomorrow. I feel good about my progress and I'm excited to keep it going.

There will certainly be quite a few obstacles coming up for me over the next few weeks. First and foremost is money. Having none is an obstacle on it's own but having none while you're trying to eat healthy is a whole different story. I easily drop over $200 every time I go grocery shopping. Well at least every time I go grocery shopping my way. There are ways around spending a fortune on food and even though I hate doing it I'll figure it out.
My next obstacle is called March Madness. Don't ask me how I ever got involved with anything sports related but turns out it's so much fun! I think it has to do with being able to print out my bracket and carry it around with me at all times. And even though for the 2nd year in a row I had nothing to do with filling out my own bracket I still take full pride in "my" picks. And I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win. Ok so anyway... the obstacle here is that watching basketball pretty much always equals sitting at a bar and drinking like a thousand beers. Not so diet friendly. But on the bright (kinda) side, with my TWO new jobs I wont be able to watch all the games. So even though it wont be as much fun as last year, at least I wont totally screw up the diet.
Well there are a few more changes coming up for me that could make this tough but nothing I can't handle.

Thanks for reading. See you soon! =)

I am Jessie Spano

I'm super behind on posting. Turns out you have a lot less time to do stuff you like once you get a job. Especially one where you don't get to play on the internet all day. Sigh.....

Well just to keep all of you up to date... I am officially down 5 lbs! Yay yay yay!! My 5 lb challenge ends on Friday so the goal for the next 4 days is to keep it off.

I should be able to post for real by Thursday, maybe tonight, I don't know. There's just NO TIME! There's never any time!! I tried looking for that video btw but I didn't really have time. See... there's no time! Ok you get it. See you soon!!!!

Day 8

Day 8 Weight: X-4.5 lbs

I made it through the first week of my 5 lb challenge. Yay! Seeing that I was down 4.5 lbs this morning was a great feeling. I know some people think it's crazy to weigh yourself everyday. Most trainers/nutritionists/etc don't think it's a good idea either. For me, especially when I'm trying to lose weight, I think it helps. When I start my day off with a good number on the scale (like today) it motivates me to keep going! Like why would I screw it all up today with a bad day when I'm doing so well? On the other hand when I start my day off with not such a good number on the scale it motivates me to keep going too! It's a good kick in the ass reminder that maybe I wasn't so good the day before and now is the time to get back on track before I ruin it all.

So another Friday is upon me. I think today will be a good day. No plans for happy hours or any other major obstacles that could get in my way. I am scheduled to work all weekend so that will help out as well. It also happens to be St. Patty's Day weekend and I think I owe to myself to celebrate a little as well. We'll see what happens.

10:00am: 1 piece of toast (Sara Lee) with Trader Joe's Egg White Salad
** This is a really good option for a quick and light breakfast. The Egg White Salad from TJ's is another one of my faves. It comes in 2 flavors - Egg White & Chive and Ranchero. Both are delicious. The Ranchero has a little bit more flavor so I usually eat that one first. You can always add some more seasoning to them if you find them bland. The entire container has only 100 calories in it and is super high in protein. I would highly recommend buying one or both of these if you are looking for a good low cal snack. There's nothing better than being able to eat an entire container of something and still know you only had 100 calories max.

12:00pm: Cobb Salad w/balsamic vinaigrette dressing
** Chicken, eggs, avocado, tomatoes, carrots, mozzarella cheese.
I made sure not to eat the entire salad so I could leave room for some fro yo. I didn't get any yesterday so I'm craving it more than ever right now.

3:30pm: FRO YO!!
** It was even better than I thought it was going to be. I am quite happy right now. And for the record I made sure to pick the lowest calorie flavors. I did break down and add some chocolate and rainbow sprinkles to it BUT I looked it up and it turns out sprinkles are not really that bad! Only around 35 calories for a tablespoon. They do have a lot of sugar which isn't too good but who cares - it was delicious.

7:30pm: Broccoli & Chicken Pasta in a Mozzarella Cheese Sauce
** This was a meal put together by only using ingredients I already had in the kitchen. I borrowed some ideas from other recipes I had and just gave it a shot. Turned out to be quite good I think! Here's what I used:
Fiber Gourmet Fettuccine
Broccoli
Chicken Breast
Cherry Tomatoes
Fat Free Mozzarella Cheese/Parmesan/Feta
Half & Half
Garlic, Garlic Powder, Vegeta, EVOO, S&P, Cayenne Pepper
For a meal that sounds like it should be super high in calories but isn't, I think it was quite a success. I will definitely make it again. Possibly using Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze instead of half and half. That will save a lot on the calories and will still taste great. I think any cheese would work for this recipe. I just happened to have a bunch of fat free mozzarella. Goat cheese (my fave), blue cheese, gorgonzola, etc... would all probably be just as good.

I had a pretty good Friday I think. I ate good food without ruining my diet. I do sometimes worry when I have a heavy-ish meal for dinner that it will lead to a gain on the scale the next day. I tried to make sure I didn't eat too too much for that reason. Either way I'll be ok. No diet panic attacks for this girl.