Yesterday was a much better day, my cravings were minimal and I felt good all day. Melissa took the soup drained off some broth added chick peas and it was quite tasty. I’ll post a picture later on today when I go home and have more for lunch.

What is going to be interesting is what I will eat later on in the afternoon while I am at Winstar. Might have to do some looking around, they are bound to have some fruit. That could be interesting because from what I know about their food choices they have nothing that aligns with my menu currently.

I am surprised by how little I miss eating meat, I miss bread and grains WAY more. I would think it was the other wait around. I was originally planning on having a cheat day next Sunday as a celebration meal and eat some meat but instead I might indulge and just eat a loaf of bread.

Pics later.
John

This is dinner from last night. It is lentil artichoke soup. I made it all by myself (under Melissa’s watchful eye of course). I have not ever dabbled in cooking so this was my first attempt and it was good. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Tonight has been pretty tough, dinner was started late and I made it too spicy. It is a chipotle veggie stew, we put a few too many chipotle peppers and I can’t eat it. I’m kind of a pansy when it come to spicy foods.

So now it’s like 9:30 and I am hungry and irritated. Today was an odd day I have had a lot on my mind, making me slightly pissy. It’s too late to really cook anything else and I really just wanna go to Wataburger and get a double. It has been 4 days, not sure how I am going to make it to next Sunday.

I am gonna go eat an apple and get some sleep. Here is to a better mood in the morning.

baldjake:

I am reminded today of the importance to surround myself with nothing but viable options for snack and meals. 

The day started well with my shake and morning snack going as usual. Then we decided to go to Love Shack for lunch at work. Nothing good going on there for health…

While the afterglow of my ridiculously succulent tenderloin nachos was heavenly, it soon wore off. The afternoon is draggy and sleepy and regretful.

The only thing worse is that I followed it with a sugary caramel coffee for dessert. Once again a temporary high that led to a nasty crash. 

So be warned. Carry snacks and stay strong…

This post is spot on from my friend Jake. Surrounding yourself with good snack and eating options is as important as surrounding yourself with good people.

So, this morning I feel pretty tired and I am not in an overly great mood and I feel a lot of fatigue in my shoulders and legs.  I forgot to mention last night that I only did 2350 steps according to me pedometer.  I feel like my mind is over thinking things without me actually willing it to do so, if that makes any sense.  Today’s lunch is going to be the rest of the black bean chili from last night and I brought an apple to snack on along with the Lara bars. 

I spoke with Charles yesterday and we talked at length about the menu and he gave me some really good snack advice, and some really good nuggets of wisdom concerning nutrition in general. The Lara bars are not as good as some of the other alternatives because they have a high sugar content.  It is natural sugar and not refined so its better than a lot of items, but not as good an an apple or natural peanut butter.  We already had apples at home so I bought some natural peanut butter at Target last night.  You can tell it is natural because the oil tends to seperate from the nuts, and the ingredients are just peanuts and salt.  I like the Lara bar a lot and I think its a good product because its offering a good whole food option in a snack bar, I just don’t need to eat 2 a day. 

I am drinking some green tea in the morning and then water for the rest of the day.  I find it interesting that it is easier for me to notice when I am dehydrated.  I got home last night and drank close to 3 glasses before I even changed, this tells me I need to be drinking more water throughout my work day.   I have my big water bottle at work with me and I am going to try to drink two full bottles during work today.  Everyone told me that my digestion routine would be significantly changed during this and I have not found this to be true so far.  I know its still early on, but everyone was essentially telling me that I should stay close to the toilet. Well that is pretty much it for now, have to do some work.

This was dinner tonight and it was quite good.  All the veggies were tossed in extra virgin olive oil and then roasted in the oven.  It is a medley of Cauliflower, Broccoli, Squash, Zucchini, and Carrots and roasting them kind of caramelizes the veggies and totally changes the taste.  I don’t really like veggies but I can eat this medley every night.  The black bean chili is quite filling and very tasty, it was just what I needed.  I was starving and really needed something to curb my appetite.

Well the pictures of lunch and dinner are posted below, what do you think?  For breakfast yesterday I had 2 bananas and my snacks were the Lara bars and some almonds.  I went to kung fu last night pretty much immediately after eating dinner and was hungry by the time I got there.  I actually almost left to go home between second and third hour because I was so hungry but decided to stay at the last minute and I am very glad I did.  I feel like I worked harder and had more energy during the advanced hour than I have in awhile.  My teacher had us doing some new drills that were very tiring but I powered through it and still had energy at the end to do my forms. 

Today I woke up and had 2 bananas for breakfast and have already had a Lara bar as my snack.  I am not as excited about the salad today as I was yesterday.  Tonight for dinner is going to be a black bean chili which I am very excited about.  I feel a little more drained today than I did yesterday and I am starting to think that 2 weeks is a long time.  The original goal was only fruits and vegetables but with Melissa nursing that is tough so we are going have some carbs as well but trying to stay away from white flour and white sugar still.  The goal is to go for a walk tonight after dinner so I can add some steps to my total. 

My work has given us all pedometers and we are tracking how many steps we take every day and they will pay once you hit milestones.  I think this is awesome because our jobs are not very active so this increases every ones drive to work a little harder.  Yesterday I logged 5458 steps which includes my steps at kung fu.  I need to be hitting 7k steps a day so I have some work to do. 

The almonds I soaked in water don’t taste like anything and I have some walnuts for my salad today and tried one this morning and didn’t get any taste out of them.  I guess I am just not much of a nut guy, anyone have any suggestions about how to make them easier to eat?  Growing up I thought I was allergic to nuts for years due to a bad experience at a funeral when I was around 5 years old.  I didn’t eat any nuts until just here recently and they all seem to be kind of the same to me.  I know that they are amazing for you and I am trying to really enjoy them but it is difficult.  Maybe I need to put some sea salt on them, if anyone has any ideas please comment and let me know. Thanks.

This is our dinner from last night and the stir fry was really good.  The soup was a little bland to both of us, but it wasnt bad.

This was my lunch yesterday. Dressing was homemade vinaigrette. Tasty.

Really good mid-morning snack. Check them out at larabar.com

It is 9:30PM and I just finished my last meal before embarking on this huge change in my menu.  It consisted of a fast food burger, fries and a root beer float, I had to indulge with my last bad meal.  This weekend was really busy gearing up for the week, we went to Central Market to get all the hard things and then to Walmart tonight to get the rest of the items.  Total cost of shopping trips was right around $300 dollars, this was a little tough to swallow, but since we won’t be eating out I will save in the long run.

My normal day includes Subway English muffin with egg and ham and some veggies with their Southwest Chipotle Dressing.  For lunch it is usually fast food at one of the places close to work, then on the way home from work I pick up some fast food for dinner for Melissa and I, so daily total is right around $25-$30 a day.  We are still getting adjusted to having Alice so she hasn’t been cooking as much, but that all changes tomorrow.  

The shopping trips were so different than what I am used to, all veggies and some fruits and no meat.  The checker actually asked us how long we had been vegetarians, LOL.  I was very happy to find out that Central Market was very reasonable in their pricing, I have always thought of them as significantly over priced.  We bought lentils, couscous, and so many different kinds of leafy greens I have lost track of them all.

Here after this post I am going to make my salad and my vinagerette for my lunch tomorrow.  I have almonds soaking in water to eat as my snacks tomorrow I will explain more about that in another post.  Melissa is not sure what she is cooking yet, but I will post a picture and a review tomorrow once it is ready.  Breakfast is going to be fruit until I get my more permanent solution which is coming in the mail (more about that later).

So the hard facts, as of right now I weight 222 pounds and stand 6’4” tall.  I don’t have a goal weight in mind, I am not really overweight for my height.  I just taped myself around my stomach at my belly button which came to 42” which I found interesting, and more than a little embarrassing, because I wear a 36” waist in pants.  Melissa told me to measure around the belly button because that is the best indicator of how things are going so that is what I went with.

Before I finish this post I want to say thanks to the two people who I credit this change to, they are the ones who put the idea in my head and have given me the knowledge to do it.  Jake Jordan (www.baldjake.tumblr.com) who is an old co-worker of mine was the first person I saw who as able to make a menu like this work while working a 9-5 job and showed me that it can work.  Charles Robertson (www.fwbest.com) is a friend from Kung Fu and is a best practicioner, our talks will provide a lot of the technical knowledge that I am hoping to share.  I am saying thanks now because I might be a little unappreciative in the morning.

Wish me luck.