The Lightest I've Been In 15 Years or More

Thursday October 6, 2016 MENU

Well today marks the first day in probably over 15 years that I have weighed less than 200 pounds.  I know if you have counted calories now or in the past that it can be hard.  You probably have said I'm tired of tracking, I'm tired of watching what I eat, I'm tired of trying and tired of gaining weight.  Well I am here to tell you that your weight did not come on overnight.  It will not come off overnight.  See as my blog started, this day is the first time in 15 years or more I weighed under 200!  You have to work at it, you have to change the firing pins in your brain and unlearn all those years of BAD eating habits.  You have to learn how to eat.  If you don't learn how to eat  you will never keep off the weight.  To learn you have to count calories, watch what you eat and track your food.  Then use what you have learned during your weight loss to keep the weight off for a lifetime.  See I have tried many many many ways to lose weight.  But as I have found out it DOES matter what you eat, how you eat and how much of it you eat, that really counts.  You can take your diet pills, do your Atkins diet, buy your expensive prepackaged meals, etc.....  Well once you stop those things the weight WILL COME BACK.  That is because you haven't really learned to eat with the foods that are available to you.  See like in my area of the world, smoked meats are plentiful and flavorful.  You can't buy that in Arizona.  I am learning how to eat.  I have eaten several foods many times now and I can tell you right off my brain how many calories it has and what the portion size looks like.  I have in my brain that I am going to learn how to eat for a lifetime and keep it off.  Well for my meal on this day I winged it.  I wanted to see how well I could do without using my food diary to keep track of my calories until the end of the day.  I still measured and weighed my food.  For breakfast I had an egg with a piece of toast and butter.  For lunch I ate some leftover white beans and ham.  For a snack I ate 9 of my Pringles chips (which I'm never buying again) and for supper I ate 2 cups of gumbo with 1/3 cup of rice.  At the end of the day I put all my meals in the My Fitness Pal app.  I had only eaten 887 calories for the day.  I did great! My calories were a little low so I treated myself to a glass of cold milk.  I was still under my calories by 323.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Meal Snacking

Wednesday October 5, 2016 MENU

My morning started with breakfast of course.  I didn't know what I wanted.  I knew I didn't want breakfast food.  I also looked in the fridge at work to see what I had for lunch.  I had a pretty high in calorie lunch waiting for me.  So I opted to do meal snacking.  Well as you may have read a few days back that I had purchased some 1/2 cup portion containers.  These little cups are making it easy to adjust my sides to fit my meal, it's easier to heat for my meal snacking and to measure my portions.  Meal sides should almost be 1/2 cup or less.  Unless you eat some baked veggies like I make.  If you eat that, a portion size is 1 cup.  I put my leftovers in many small containers, as you see in the photo.  I had one for the rice dressing, one for the baked beans, one for coleslaw and I had one a little larger for the chicken.  My meal snacking began with the rice dressing.  Then for a snack I ate the baked beans.  Then for lunch time I ate the chicken.  Each meal was eaten when I felt hungry.  For the afternoon around 3 I felt hungry.  I didn't want the coleslaw.   I ate some of my homemade sugar coated popcorn instead.  I did plenty of cardio today.  I went walk around the trail at work and I went to the gym for 30 minutes.  For supper I was not that hungry so I baked some Parmesan crusted talapia.  If I felt hungry before bed, I would get me a snack or something.  Well I was full for the rest of the evening.  I finished the day with a total of 829 calories for the day.  I was under my calories by 501.   My calories should not have been that low.  But I did eat 5 times and I felt full.  I will maybe treat myself to a glass of tea or something if that happens again.  If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Chocolate Milk Shake

Tuesday October 4, 2016 MENU

Most of my meals are leftover's.  I really hate for leftovers to go to waste.  For breakfast I had 1 cup of cooked grits with butter.  Yummy......  It held me through my snack time.  I actually forgot to eat my snack.   Around 11:00 I was hungry so I opted to eat my beans and have an early lunch.  I knew I would have a busy evening and I went take a 1.9 mile walk at work.  I usually can do 1.3 miles on the treadmill in 20 minutes.  Well this hilly walk took me 40 minutes to walk the 1.9 miles.  Oh this is so different than working out at the gym.  I think I will make this at least once a week exercise.  For supper my mom had made a crock pot roast and gravy.  I measured out my meat and gave myself 1/3 cup serving of rice to go with it.  It was early in the evening.  I sat down to figure out my calories.  I saw that I still had 400 calories left.  Well I had something I've been salivating for.  lol Yep a homemade chocolate milk shake.  I put on the app I wanted 2 cup of ice cream, the mild and chocolate.  It was over a few calories.  I changed it to 1 1/2 cups and I was good to go.   I finished the day with a total of 1301 calories for the day.  I was under my calories by 29.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.


It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Monday October 3, 2016 MENU

 Well my day started with some leftover breakfast from Saturday.  I had a sausage patty, eggs with one slice of toast.  Logging my meal on Saturday I didn't realize that just the sausage alone was 200 calories.  Dang that is a lot.  But too late I already ate it at before I entered into my food diary.  I was careful the rest of the day.  I was not hungry for a snack.  Around 11:00 I was a little hungry.  Option was to eat a snack or go ahead and eat lunch.  I picked lunch.  I ate a bowl of my low calorie white bean soup.  Since I ate early I was hungry for a snack.  I finished up the leftover cool whip cake since I had a few extra calories to allow for it.  I got home to do my 20 minutes of cardio and weight training.  When I got home my mother had made crock pot chicken vegetable soup.  I so forgot to take a picture of my meals.  But I think the vegetable chicken soup was just as good at beef vegetable.  I had some calories left, oh heck I had 379 calories left.  So I had what was left of the cornbread the other day with some butter.  I finished the day with a total of 1104 calories for the day.  I was still under my calories by 226.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.
It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Louisiana Southern French Toast

Sunday October 2, 2016 MENU

Sorry I am a little behind on the diary.  Well Sunday I splurged and had me some good ole Louisiana southern style french toast.  This is nothing like what you get at the restaurants nor Mc Donald's. It is very delicious and as you can see very fattening.  I made 6 pieces of french toast for me and my mother.  I usually split that between 3 people.  I wanted a southern breakfast treat.  Well that breakfast treat was only 788 calories! What? I should have put that in my diary before I ate.  OMG...  788 calories.  Ok that is a breakfast meal that is way over.  I will stick to my 2 slices in the future when I do have this.  For lunch we had some BBQ chicken dinners.  The plate you see here I ate half the coleslaw, half the rice dressing and half the chicken.  I put the rest away including the pork and beans for me to eat at one of my lunches for work.  I fed the bread to the dog. lol.  I knew I would be over today but with putting half my lunch away before I began actually helped.  I still had 48 calories left.  So I could actually keep myself from going to much over.  For supper we decided to use up leftovers in a new way.   We had leftover biscuits from the fundraiser, the rotisserie chicken from sam's and some leftover mixed vegetables in a container in the freezer.  We mixed all that together with a can of cream of mushroom soup and volia we have supper.  It's like a lazy version of chicken pot pie.  I cut one biscuit in half and poured  a little over a half a cup on top.   I finished the day with a total of 1502 calories for the day.  I was over by calories 172.   I feel confident that I still did good for the day.  I did do housework for 4 hours.  I am sure I burned those extra calories.  If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Scout Day Fundraisers

Saturday October 1, 2016 MENU

Today was an exhausting day.  We had 2 fundraisers going on at the same time for our Venturing Crew.  We are raising money to go to the National Jamboree in West Virginia.  Since it was a long day I didn't not keep track of my calories, but did keep track of portions.  Our first fundraiser began at 5:30 am by cooking breakfast for a side car bike group.  Since I knew it was so early in the morning and we wouldn't get to eat till around 9 I made me a southern grilled cheese.  Wow grill cheese was 240 calories.  Breakfast fundraiser was a hit.  Before we cleaned up the second fundraiser crew came in and we all ate together.  this was about 9:30 by this time.  I needed a snack.  I got a sausage with some jelly and a scrambled egg.  That was a big snack with 310 calories.  But I wasn't sure when I would eat again.  The second fundraiser crew helped clean up and we loaded the popcorn to go sell at the local grocery store.  A third crew came and some of the morning crew stayed.   We went make potato salad and several other things for the evening fundraiser with the bike people.  The others were still selling popcorn.  All crews took a break around 1 and we had Pizza Hut meal.  I ate just one slice of pizza, one bread stick and I really felt like I needed an orange Fanta.  Oh wow that was bad, 560 calories in that little bit of food and drink.  I went back with the popcorn crew after and we worked till 5pm.  We all went to the bike event and served supper.  One of our scouts also did an eagle dance and hoops for them.  We ate supper after everyone was served, which was 8pm.  We were starving.  Out of all the things they had, I skipped on most of them.  I settled for a huge serving of beef brisket and a helping of peach cobbler.   That big hunk of meat was nearly 600 calories.  I knew I shouldn't have, but I was so tired and hungry at this point.  We cleaned up and went home finally at 9:30 pm.  Summary is, I worked with scout group from 5 am to 9:30 pm. I borrowed my daughters Fitbit this week and I wore it today.   When I did have Fitbit on, it said I walked 13,500+ steps. I actually walked more because part of the day it fell off my arm and I had to find it.  I also took it off to wash dishes for 2 hours.   I finished the day with a total of 1837 calories for the day.  I was way over my calories by 507.   I did not log my exercise.  Because I don't really know what calories I actually burned.  I do know, I sat down when I ate and when I was in the car.  The rest of the day I either stood or walked.  I am sure I burned that extra calories I ate.  It was a rough day.   Moral of today's blog, don't starve if you are doing a lot in one day.  You may need those extra calories to keep you going.  I wasn't tired and I wasn't hungry.  The meals were spread far enough apart to not make a real big impact.  My home scale showed that my weight did not change from Friday.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.

It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell

Pringles grab & Go Stack Dissapointment

Friday September 30, 2016 MENU

My day started with me taking about 6 bites of my daughters homemade cheese grits.  Yummy,  I would have eaten more but I was on a mission to do some early morning shopping to miss the first of the month shoppers.  I was hungry before lunch and grazed on some yogurt.  Lunch I had one leftover item in the refrigerator, which was my veggies with the pork patty.  I had to go to the post office and I felt like I needed a chip snack.  I stopped at the dollar store and looked at the many options.  There were these small bags of Frito's and such with 150 calories and I saw this Pringles Grab & Go pack for 150 calories.  I was like wow!  I could eat half for only 75 calories.  So I bought the Pringles and sat in my truck and opened up the food diary on My Fitness Pal.  I scanned the barcode.  It came up as 23g.  I'm like I don't know what is 23g.  So I changed the measurement to the package and was going to put 1/2 serving.  When I put it on the package it said there was like 380 calories.  I'm like what? This must have scanned wrong.  Then I checked the details.  Yep it's the right one.  Then I looked harder at the nutritional label.  Crap I forgot to look at serving sizes per container.  This damn can had almost 3 servings.  So I did the math and portioned out 9 chips instead of 15 ugh,.... Those damn 9 chips were still 125 calories.  Anything less than 9 chips is not worthy.  So I stuck with the 9.  That was a real big disappointment for me.  I got off work and went did my exercise of 20 minutes of cardio and the rest weight training.  For supper we scoured the fridge for leftovers.  I found another pizza my daughter came home with this week.  So I sat down with the food diary to figure out how much pizza I could have.  I did 2 slices, nope to much.  I did 1 1/2 slices.  Yay I had 3 calories left.  I reheated me 1 1/2 slices and I was ready for the night.  I finished the day with a total of 1327 calories for the day.  I was under my calories by 3.   If you like my meal ideas just check out my diary for a list of ingredients for that meal.  And yes! I measured and weighed everything.  A crucial part of everyone's dieting is will power. The second part is portion control with good choices and third is physical activity.


It's how southern women diet!

Happy Eating
Angell