Wednesday, September 3, 2008

A quick update: the good, the bad, and the not so bad.

I last posted on Sunday, when I was happy to report that I had lost anywhere from 2.5 to 4 lbs the previous week, allowing for scale variations.

Since that time, I have kept going with my eating plan for the most part.

On Monday, I had:

Breakfast:

Fiber One & a small banana with milk
Coffee

Lunch:

Tomato & basil with olive oil & balsamic vinagrette
Homemade Italian sausage
1/2 cup pasta
Melon

Dinner:

My sister, Shawna, and I tried a new restaurant here in Tulsa called D'Novo Lean Gourmet at 61st & Yale. The great thing about this restaurant is that nothing on the menu is more than 500 calories, and their entire premise is that it is fantastic tasting, yet healthy, food. I liked it.

We shared:

Steamed chicken potstickers. They were good, but personally, I'd skip this in the future. It was $6.95 for three potstickers. Good nutrition, bad price. It would be more reasonably priced at $3.95.

Green salad with pears and pecans, very lightly dressed. It was good because the dressing didn't overpower the salad, which so often happens.

Salmon with wild rice and asparagus. The salmon was perfectly cooked, just slightly underdone and very moist. Wild rice is actually a grass, not a grain, and has a lot of fiber and not a lot of carbs. Very tasty. The asparagus were small, shriveled and not very well cooked, although Shawna liked them.

Rock shrimp and avocado flatbread. This was the best part of the meal. It was a very thin crust - thinner and crispier than a thin pizza crust, topped with some kind of pesto, rock shrimp, fresh mozzarella (very little) and fresh avocado. I loved this and would order it over and over again.

Overall, the portions were very reasonably sized. Enough to not be hungry, but not really enough for leftovers either. I'm not complaining though - I liked it that I was in a restaurant and didn't have to be on guard the whole time for overdoing it or having to cut my meal in two and ask for a to-go box when dinner was brought to the table.

Then, Shawna and I went to see a movie. She had called me in the afternoon and I tried to talk her into going to see a French film at Tulsa's independent theater, the Circle Theater. However, the idea of reading subtitles didn't appeal to Shawna. So, I picked another movie, based on the actors. I haven't watched much TV for about six months now so I don't see previews. I picked Mamma Mia! with Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth. Note to self: When Fandango says, "Based on the musical," the movie, too, probably is a musical. Ugh, fun story, but I really don't like musicals and neither did Shawna. This movie was like an ABBA nightmare where every three seconds in the movie, some character was bursting out and singing an ABBA tune. This was worth missing, although my friend, Rina, really loved it. I don't know why.  (2010 update - I now love watching Mamma Mia.  Somewhere along the way, I started enjoying it a lot.  I think that the reason for my initial dislike may have been (1) I wasn't prepared for a musical; (2) Meryl Streep can't sing; and (3) Meryl Streep was in desperate need of hair mousse during the entire movie.)

On Tuesday, I ate:

Breakfast:

Greek yogurt & honey
Coffee

By the time lunch came around, I was very hungry and had:

Roasted cauliflower soup, which I made this past Sunday
Shredded carrot salad, with olive oil & balsamic vinager
Roast chicken breast
Green beans

Then, midway through the afternoon, I shared a Three Musketeers bar (130 calories for each of us) with the Bailiff. I also snacked on some almonds and pistachios during other parts of the day. I don't know why I was snacking, but I just felt hungry. I did try to keep the snacking to a minimum and probably only ate an ounce of nuts.

For dinner:

Zucchini soup, also made on Sunday (this was just a taste that was left in a small container)
Leftover low sodium ham and feta cheese
Roasted pork loin
Roasted cauliflower
Three tea cookies

Today, I ate:

Breakfast:

Fiber One & a peach with milk
Coffee

Lunch:

Zucchini soup
1/2 homeade lamb sausage. This reconfirmed my belief that I only very rarely like lamb, and usually require mint sauce or something with it.
Spinach souffle. This was Stouffers, although when I get home I am going to try my hand at making souffles. Supposedly they are easy to make, so long as you eat them right away before they fall.
Small slice baguette & brie

I worked all day and am not feeling very well. The left side of my throat and my left ear hurt. So, today for dinner I had chicken soup, with a kaiser roll and butter.

I've now taken two Nyquil geltabs and am heading for bed early. I've got too much work to do between my two jobs in my last ten days in Tulsa (hooray!) to be able to miss any time.

Goodnight.

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