Progress And Challenge

Earlier this week, I wrote that this week would involve two significant challenge meals that I would have to negotiate.  One of those challenges did not happen and the other changed in a way that made it a different sort of challenge.  As a result, Wednesday was a day of progress (I met my goal of 1200 calories), but yesterday saw my calorie count back up to 1795.  

Wednesday Total Calories:  1228
Breakfast:   1/2 c. granola w/1 c. skim milk, grapefruit
Snack:  1/4 c. cottage cheese, handful sugar snap peas
Lunch:  Chicken Teriyaki, raw veggies, strawberries
Dinner:  Ground Beef Patty (3 oz.), roasted yellow squash and purple potatoes  (YUM!!)
Snack:  1/2 c. yogurt w/1 T. granola

Thursday Total Calories:  1795
Breakfast:  1/2 c. granola w/1 c. skim milk
Lunch:  Chik-Fil-A Chick 'n Strips salad w/lowfat Italian dressing
Snack:  grapefruit, handful almonds
Dinner: Grilled Ribeye Steak, salad w/lowfat ranch dressing

Evaluation:  Wednesday was an excellent day.  I planned well, worked the plan and was satisfied.  Thursday, not so much.  The challenge should have been in making a plan and sticking to it while having dinner in someone else's home.  I volunteered to bring the salad and as you can see, that meal went flawlessly.  I even ate only a small portion (my guess would be 4 oz.) of steak.  Earlier in the day, however, my husband and I found ourselves in a position of needing to eat and no where near home.  Normally, Chik-Fil-A would be a good choice because I love their salads/lowfat Italian dressing and their website meticulously posts nutrition content and a fantastic meal calculator.  However, on this day, with a potentially high calorie dinner in someone's home later, I wish I'd had my lunch with me or chosen the grilled instead of traditional option for my Chik-Fil-A salad.  That gets in to my restaurant eating philosophy and other issues which are for another post.  Soooooooo, although Thursday would have been an excellent day for maintenance, the almost 1800 calories were too many for me while trying to lose.

I have already come to a couple of conclusions this week that will make more sense if you've read my May 16 post on the eating plan I followed while losing 60 pounds in 2006-2007.

1) Yes, I enjoy the challenge of creating menus that meet my 1200 calorie goal and utilizing "real" food.
2)  My other 1200 calorie eating plan is MUCH, MUCH easier to follow and works better for me when in losing mode.

This blog is really helping me work toward a balance between the two conclusions.  I'm leaning toward continuing what I've done this week for the rest of June and then following the other plan for the month of July.  My husband will be teaching a summer school course and the temptation to spend time planning meals we can both enjoy will be much less.  We are planning to travel the 2 1/2 week period between his summer class and the beginning of his fall term and I'd like to have made a dent in this 30 pounds before facing that challenge.  We'll see!!

Today will be a day of preparation for travel again.   We leave early in the morning to travel to Lexington, KY for the week.  My husband will be attending a Choral Conference at UK for three of those days.  Lexington is a very bike friendly town, so we will be taking our bicycles and enjoying some activities we've discovered in the past along with some new places I've found for us to explore.  We really like Lexington, but it does present a couple of major challenges for me. They are Graeter's Ice Cream and Spaulding's Doughnuts.  Several years ago, one of our travel goals became to always discover local favorites in the places we visit.  These two indulgences are a result of that goal.  Unfortunately (lol!!) the house we are renting is within easy biking/walking distance of BOTH of these.  Geez!!

One more thing........since this blog is new and primarily about my weight loss and maintenance journey, I haven't written much about my other passions.  One of those is our efforts to live a simple and frugal lifestyle.  Here is an example of how I try to do that.  A main argument I've heard regarding my successful "eating plan" for the 60 pounds I lost is that it is "too expensive."  I addressed my response to that in the 5/16 post, but this is an example of how that is just so NOT true.  My primary grocery store (Kroger) has Lean Cuisine frozen dinners on sale this week for $1.88.  That is a good price to begin with, however, I have $10 worth of coupons that will expire soon, I will purchase them in KY where there is no sales tax on food (a 5.25% savings over purchasing in TN), and I will pay with rebate checks I receive from Kroger for utilizing their credit card.  Even without the rebate checks, the cost would have been $1.38.  For me, they will be free.   Folks, that is NOT expensive.  BTW, we utilize the credit card for everything to accrue the points, BUT it is paid off IN FULL every month. 

I hope my blog posts are not too long......................sorry!!   I keep reminding myself that I plan for this to be a long process and I don't have too say everything in the first month!!