Let's do This!

For all the wrong reasons!

Wedding is in 17 days. I am in the low 160s or high 150s (i dunno I'm not weighing myself until next wed). I want to drop some crazy weight. Ryan said he will carry me around at the wedding if I weigh in the 140s. I clarified that 149.9 counts as 140s. I didn't clarify the weight of the dress, but I think that doesn't count a how much I weigh. SOOOO, here's the food diary.

Wednesday
Bfast
1c skim milk
1c Kashi go lean crunch
Lunch
1.5 c young tender spinach (i know dirty right?)
1/4 green pepper
1/4 tomato
4 oz balsamic chicken
2 tbsp feta
3 tbsp olice oil and balsamic

Snacks
2 tbsp cashews (I know so not wave one, but 25 cents in the dispenser at work and SO good)
1c cucumber slices

Dinner
Chicken En Papilote w Vegetables
1/2c green beans with 2 tbsp of Feta

Snack
1.5 c skim milk
chai tea (again not wave one bc of the sugar, BUT it's my reward for doing an otherwise on plan day)

Exercise-1 hour of 6 man vball.

Good Sonoma Day, survived a major challenge-going out to PnL and no drinking or eating. Yay me.

Bfast .5c egg whites

Lunch-Steak and Blue Cheese Wrap

Snack-.5c cherry tomatoes, 1 cuke

Dinner-Mediteranean Pork Chops, Quinoa, spinach (out of broccoli)

Snack-string cheese

Exercise-1.5 mi run with Ginger

Mixed

Exercrsing on Wave 1 sure is effective. Too effective? I weighed in at 158.7 on Saturday morning, Today (6 days later) I weighed in at 153.9. Identical weigh in conditions. 4.8 lbs in six days. I feel good, and have not had any dizziness or extreme tiredness. I know what Weight Watchers would tell me. Well, I can only assume this won't keep up, and it's just the 'getting back on the wagon" spurt (was that an appropriate use of quotes?). Ryan says 3-4 lbs fluctuation a week is normal. Meh. Apparently I just can't be happy.

Last night was super productive, de-labeled about 30 bottles! 60 down, 160 to go!

When my alarm went off this morning I was having a dream that I was in the living room, and Ryan was getting up to get a snack out of the kitchen. He asked me if I wanted any Chocolate ice cream. I was about to say yes and then it was time to exercise. L A M E.

Day Off?

I am so pumped for everyone to be in town. But I feel like there is so much stuff I want to do to the house before they get here. I am probably treading down an unwise path and doing the big projects that none are likely to notice, instead of starting with the easy stuff. But oh well, they know I'm messy.

Bfast-.5c egg whites (not until 11am arrgh)

Lunch-Steak and Blue Cheese Wrap-not as good as yesterday, maybe bc i wolfed it down at 2pm

Snack- 1 cuke

Dinner- Mediterranean Pork Chops, Broccoli w Almonds and hot Pepper, Quinoa pilaf, 2 glasses of white wine

Exercise-4 mi jog w Zito (7:30am baby), photo shoot of a 4week old and her 14mo sister, 2.5y sister and 5 y brother, rearranging the garage and bookcases .

Ryan helped me in the kitchen a bit which was very nice, since this is a kinda do a bunch at once meal (especially since I started in the wrong order). I'm also pumped I got the Photo Session done in 1 hour. The garage looks GREAT, just need to get the couch outta there and the bicycles hung. Dinner was good, but the pork was waaaay overcooked. My oven doesn't keep an even temp AND I have now confirmed the meat thermometer is broken :(

I'm off to scrub the labels off at least a dozen wine bottles then my day will be complete!

Blah for Hump Day

Today was a good Sonoma Day. That's about all I can say for it. I am grumpy, disappointed with how work went without me there, which makes me want to just get out on my own, which makes me think about how hard and impossible that's gunna be. Blergh. Shower/B'ette weekend cannot come soon enough.

Bfast 1/2c egg whites

Lunch steak and blue cheese wrap - first time i've ever had this, so delicious, ryan liked it too

Snacks 1 cuke, .5c yellow pepper strips

Dinner Chicken En Papilotte, the best Wednesday night dinner ever-wrapped it up yesterday at lunch and left directions for Ryan to bake so it would be ready when I got home, super nice bc I have 25 min between getting home and leaving for vball. Unfortunately he got stuck at work and vball was canceled, but it works in theory

Exercise Vball was canceled, so none to speak of, I should have just gone running when I was already up at 7am, but instead I turned off the alarm and rolled over to some very creepy dreams

Helpers a dime sized piece of chocolate and advil PM, as well as an ambitious remodel of our filing system which I undertook to solve the crankies. What kind of idiot starts Wave 1 on period week?

Sibling Day

Tons of Fun! Got tons done too-exercise, conf call, dog park, bookstore, washed 1 dog, bought wedding shoes, got draino, finished grocery shopping, cooked two meals, de-labeled 2 dozen bottles w Mike's help!


Bfast- .5c egg whites

Lunch-Chicken en Papilotte With Vegetables, glass of white wine

Snack- 28 peanuts, .5c tomatoes

Dinner-Flank Steak w Broccoli and Feta 3 glass of red wine consumed in the d4 hours around dinner.

Evening Snack- Laughing Cow Cheese Circle.

Exercise-Ran 3 mi with Ging, cold water bath, the knees are doing well

Well Lookie Here

Something new! Me posting.

I have been holding steady weight wise in the high-mid 150s. So that's really nice as I have not at all considered myself to be dieting, watching or anything. In fact I have been just living, drinking more than is probably necessary, and eating out with friends and family frequently. But now the high-mid 150s are feeling chunky to me and I yearn for single digit pants (besides my work pants, which are worn at my belly button, so I feel it doesn't quite count). I did buy a stop gap size 10 jeans.

So last week I went back on Wave 1, but with Ryan's Bday (2 dinners out) and Mother's Day it was a no go. But try, try and try again. Or there is no try only do. So I am trying to recommit myself to the Wave 1 hardcore-ness. To that end I have made the fun, exciting calendar below! FYI, since the last time I did Wave 1 I have been promoted to Managing a Brand New Studio, and it is v e r y s l o w . Therefore lost of free time! Well I can't seem to get a readable copy of my calendar in here, but you can see it's prettiness at least.



So hopefully I can take some of my learnings from last Wave 1 and do it happier, easier, cheaper. Said learnings: don't halve and third recipes, just eat it multiple times. It is not the end of the world when I take a diversion, every day is a clean slate. Buy Minced Garlic! And most importantly, if it is evening time and I am cranky and hungry, just take a Advil PM and get in bed with a book.

Yesterday was good...

Bfast: Glass of FF milk

Lunch: Black Bean Wrap with 2 slices of turkey, 1c of romaine on a whole wheat pita

Snacks: 28 peanuts, 1.5c of roasted veg medley (a little too much portion wise, but meh)

Dinner: Easy Balsamic Chicken, roasted veg medley

Snack: 3 weird crackers-Wheat Thin's new product (I was depressed bc I just paid for the groceries-meh)

Helpers: Advil PM and Sigrid Unsdet's Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wife. Zito in bed cuddling with me (I so got busted by Ryan)

Exercise: I did not, had Left knee Pain though, puzzling.


As you can see by the schedule, today is Sibling Day, so there will be some alcohol consumption. I will enjoy this and just try not to eat because of it.

Spicay!

Dear Junkies,
Today was a totally weird eating day. I slept in until and about 10:30 and wasn't hungry at all when I woke up. So no bfast, a weird lunch-ish thing and a super yummy dinner. More on the Menu below.

Szechuan Shrimp was dinner and is pictured to the side. You might notice a lack of shrimp in my image. That's because they were buried under all the mushrooms I hand picked out of Ryan's plate. What a baby!

Good news on the Ryan front I got him to do almost every dish from tonight's dinner. Thus the me picking out all his mushrooms for him as a reward. Dishes have been a sore spot between Ryan and I since we began living together. And even more so as I have been putting so much more time and effort into cooking I feel like he should do the clean up. He feels more like doing the dishes sometimes, but not ever in a time frame that suits me.

I had my first wedding nightmare last night. You know how I feel about using that word, but this was terrible. Basically, it was the wedding day and I had as much done as I do now. I didn't know what dress I was going to wear, seating charts, flowers, cake, all undone. Ugh, at least I woke up. Funny thing, I saw my Mom today and the first thing she said was that she couldn't sleep last night worrying about wedding stuff. So here we go.

The Day's Menu
Wave 1 Day 12

1 celery stick with 1 tbsp left over yogurt cucumber dip

1 tbsp peanut butter on a slice of whole grain bread

1/2 c grape tomatoes & 1 mini wheel Babybel cheese

Szechuan Shrimp-minus the pea pods, I somehow missed those on the list. I used the water instead of Sherry. This was so good. About the top of the heat level I can do, even hot enough to swell Ryan's lips just a bit. It had a nice sweetness to it, I think possibly from the Sesame Oil. Next time I will use more green onions on the top.

~The Pasta Addicted Bread Junkie

Celebration

Dear Junkies,
So last night I celebrated my end of Wave 1 (although I still have food for two wave 1 dinners, so I might extend it a bit more), my new jobness and my weight loss to date. I fit into a shirt I bought last year, but have never been able to fit in it. It was one of those 'I'm going to loose some weight soon' purchases. The picture is of said shirt of me feeling amazing!

So, for the celebration, we went out to eat with some friends and I picked a restaurant where I knew it would be easy peasy to stick to wave 1. But I forgot about the fresh, warm bread they serve with delicious, soft, butter. Oh friends it was terrible. They brought our drinks, then set down the temptation. I looked at it. The draft in the room was just right and I could smell the butter. I could smell butter! Ryan realized I was staring at the bread Adan moved it away from me. But it was too late. There was one itty bitty piece of the loaf, like literally the diameter of tablespoon and the thickness of a Hallmark envelope with card inside. So I had that piece with butter on it. I made it last almost till the salads came, several bites of heaven.
After that it was pretty easy going. I had the house salad, just avoided the carrots and had oil and balsamic on the side, and only ate about half. Then someone had a piece of bread, but it wasn't cut all the way through and there was a little bit left at the bottom after they got their piece, so I had that piece too. Then Ryan took the bread away. Luckily he and I were sitting diagonal from each other so I really couldn't reach it.
I had an 8 oz top sirloin with steamed vegetables. the steak was delicious, I really love this restaurant because they know medium rare means that no part of the steak (besides outside) should be brown, just pink and red for this girl! The veggies were good, fresh and cooked to proper tender crispness, but I have to say they lacked the seasoning that Sonoma has.
I even made my glass of wine last about 1/3 of the way through the main course. I in no way intend to lead you to believe that I only had one glass of wine. I had 2 at home before we left (over the course of two hours), and three at the restaurant. It was a celebration! But I did really stretch out that one glass!
So after all of that we went home to celebrate some more and at some point the boys ordered cheese sticks and pizza from my favorite place. Luckily, again, I was asleep by this point, the delivery didn't even wake me up.

So today's menu

Wave 1 Day 12

1/2c Egg Whites

Spinach & Lentil Salad-I'm not a huge fan of this, edible for sure

1/2 c grape tomatoes
1/2 cuke sliced

1 Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Cheese round

Salad w oil n vinegar
8 ox top sirloin steak
steamed veggies
3 tablespoons of bread

5 glasses of wine!

So I had a great time, stayed on the plan pretty much food wise, and could have drank more but didn't! And since it is now tomorrow I can tell you that I am holding steady weight wise!

Freestyle

Dear JJs,
What a weird ass day it has been. A super dense fog covered the city for most of the day and I have been in a lackluster mood, despite several good things that have happened today. Lost weight since yesterday, unexpected lunch visit from Mom, a new TShirt and tattoo for the KU game, got a raise, got a promotion, still just feel blah-ish. So it' was clearly dementors. I mean fog in Olathe, the only bodies of water are at the pools at our mega big High Schools.

The good news! All of these causes to commiserate/celebrate only resulted in some extra broccoli and one cheese wheel. Also I went to a dive bar and didn't partake in the deep dish pizza that our table ordered OR let my hunny buy me a drink.

Last night all my dreams were about alcohol. That is to say they were about college/sorority life. Specifically the part that happens in between the learning. That's a tough one. The dreams were really fun though, we played lots of board games.

Today was my first freestyle dinner. I was going to make Szechuan Shrimp tonight, but Ryan at out and I didn't want to make the super spicy dish w/o him there to clean up anything I couldn't handle, and enjoy it. Just worked off the Wave 1 ok list and my 50%/50% plate rule. I hope I did good.

Anyways, here is today's freestyle menu

Wave 1 Day 11
1/2 c egg whites

1 tbsp Peanut Butter w Celery Sticks
1 Babybel mini cheese wheel

Lentil Salad-I substituted chicken with pork, since i had the latter and not the former

a pork chop, salted and peppered then cooked in a pan
Broccoli and Roasted Red Peppers with Goat Cheese-I had to try this again since Ruthie said it's her favorite. I made some changes of course. Last time I made this the broccoli burned and didn't cook enough so I cooked at about 3 or 4 on my stove top dial. I skipped the olives as well. I also added an extra 1/8-1/4c of broccoli, you know, to celebrate. I really liked it much better than last time. Next time I will cut back significantly on the lemon juice.

ANOTHER cheese wheel--party time! And I think I will go have a glass of wine. We only have white and bluch wine in the house (through no fault of my own) and I know red is the best, so I will obviously have two glasses of blush to reach the benefit level of one of red.

~The pasta addicted Bread Junkie.

PS-Also, I got my invite to the 10 year HS reunion today. It's $65 per person AND there's only heavy hours'devours and open bar. First, that's a ton of money for bar food (it's at a local bar), AND it's not technically an open bar if you are paying. It's open if someone else is paying. On the other hand I'm sure it has taken immense effort and time to arrange, and I'm glad that didn't fall on my shoulders.

Hello Junkies!,
To the left you see my favorite pic so far, the food is still cooking, so we will see how that turns out, but it is Sicilian Tuna Steak. I know what you're thinking. Italian food with no pasta OR cheese. Yea that's what I am thinking too. Gutterson! Where's my 20% of the plate of grains? I am very hungry right now, had a late day at work, so having a very late dinner (it's already 8:30p).

The high of yesterday definitely wore off when I stepped on the scale this morning. My first day of weigh gain is upon me. I literally growled when I saw the number-blah for 160.9 lbs. My first thought was that pasta testing and Margarita was catching up with me, it is also possible that my body is preparing me for a moody, uncomfortable week by making me moody about my weight gain. Oh well, at least the period cloud has a silver lining when it's over.

Back from dinner. Very nice. Ryan said it's his favorite so far. I even found myself thinking about the food a little differently. My first bite thought was 'wow that mint is really nice and surprising' I sound like a regular foodie! The next few bites I was really thankful for the mint because I added a little extra chili flakes to suit the fiance. I will not being doing that again, he can get his extra chili on top, I ad to take a break for mouth relaxing from the chili. I was hungry afterward, but I realized this morning that I forgot to eat the side salad.

Speaking of side salad. I object to something being called a side salad if it's just spinach with dressing. That should be called spinach with dressing. My thinking says at least two toppings to be a salad.

Today's Menu Wave 1 Day 9
1/4c egg whites & 1 mushroom chopped

1/2 a whole wheat pita, 4 oz chicken breast, 1 c mixed greens and 1/4c cucumber yogurt

1 cucumber sliced & 1/2c grape tomatoes

Sicilian Tuna Steak

2 cups of tea, mate vana rooibos chai in the morn and white jasmine at night

Hello Junkies,
How do you feel about being JJs? Jessica junkies? There must be all of one other person reading this besides me, so possibly not plural. To the side you see Easy Balsamic Chicken adn my new and improved Roasted Vegetable Medley.

My good mood from this morning has continued throughout the day, there's nothing like a little number on the scale to make me happy. Despite the inital start up costs the Sonoma Diet has been surprisingly easy on the bank account as well, since I'm not going out and eating/drinking with friends.

I have been rethinking my rewards schedule. I really need rewards, as you might have noticed from the puzzle, and massage planing etc. My inital rewards schedule was a reward for the end of each wave and a reward for the the beginning of each new (lower) decade of pounds. But now the rewards are coming too fast. Tomorrow is day 10 of Wave 1, but I am extending it until day 12 to get some more meals in since we have done seconds a couple times. So at any rate, new reward schedule is needed..
End of wave 1/first decade will be a trip to the casino with my cousin for his Bday! Whee, that will be fun and I will def say goodbye to Wave 1 with a glas of vino. We will see what else.

Today was a good day, except I left the stove on from 9:15ish to 2:30ish, Whoops.
I also had another meat finding issue, this time I couldn't find Halibut, it's not a huge deal since I can rearrange the schedule a bit, but any ideas for a Halibut substitute? Is any Basa/Catfish type thing ok?

Wave 1 Day 9
1/2c Egg Whites & glass of tea

4 cuke slices w Laughing Cow Light Herb Cheese SPread

Chicken Pita w Cucumber Yogurt Sauce-is there not end to the delicious Sauces? I left out the mint because I didn't have any.

Easy Balsamic Chicken-this had been marinating for about 48 hours, but tasted the same as the stuff that only marinated for 1 hour
Roasted Vegetable Medley-My best oven roasting experience thus far. I premixed the water, oil and herbs and found the result much more pleasant (no crispy roasted herbs in your mouth poking you) I also did the vegetables a bit different than suggested, extra cauliflower, some broccoli and less green peppers, (I'm kinda sick of this particular super food at the moment). Next time I will put the green beans in a little later, they didn't need as much time as the cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts. BTW how awesomoe are brussel sprouts, they get quite the bad rap.

~The Pasta Addicted Bread Junkie

Dreaming Night 7 & Day 8

Sorry Folks, no picture today!
The night's dream's were basically event less food wise. I was in High School taking pics for the school yearbook of the Plaza lights and the lights were already off and Ruth pricked her finger on a needle. So a little of your basic school struggle dream with Sleeping Beauty thrown in there. Don't worry I warned Ruth.

Today was my first day of Wave 1 where I had a pretty active day at work, 6 sessions in three hours, all 24 months or younger subjects, so lots of chasing, and I only worked a half day. So I was definitely hungry when I got off work, even though I had had my lunch and snack already. I added in some extra peanuts to tide me over. But around 10pm I realized I never ate dinner, so that explains a bit.

I shopped at Whole Foods for the first time for tonight's dinner, mainly to get my meat there and they were out of Pork Tenderloin! Then I went to the Wal Mart grocery across the street and they were out too! Then I called 2 other grocery stores and found a place with it. Who knew it would be so hard. At any rate, I didn't totally buy into Whole Foods in any new way. I think it's a good store for the 'weird stuff' and prepared foods and loose tea, but that's about it.

Then I tried on wedding dresses and had a great time. It was probably a combo of being 7lbs less and at a nice store with better gowns, but what fun!

We also had a little dinner get together with the parents tonight. I had a Margarita and it was delicious. What's that you say? Not on Wave 1? Well very true, but I made the decision at the beginning to go for a lifestyle change, and there is no lifestyle where I'm not having A drink when family comes over, at least not one I want to live. So I feel good about that decision.

Wave 1 day 8 Menu

Whoops! Forgot Bfast

Asparagus Salad-I skipped the lemon this time and liked it better

Pork Tenderloin w Vegetables Ratatouille-really delicious, wasn't very pretty looking though
1/2c Barilla Plus rotini-Yay for pasta, and for my for only having that amount cooked!

11 almonds
1 Babybel cheese round
28 peanuts

One Week Down

Fellow Junkies!
Today is the end of week 1 and I am still on the wagon. As of this morning I am down 5 lbs. Today was my first day off work (besides Day 1) on the plan and it went really well. The hanging out around the house eating has always been an obstacle for me, but I wasn't too hungry and also had a glass of tea.

No exciting dreams last night, but I am having Mom and Dad over for dinner tomorrow night, so there's some fun.

Wave 1 Day 6 Menu

1/2 c Egg Whites, 1/4 c Mushrooms -this is my current fav bfast

Asparagus Salad-again didn't grill, but used a pan, I really liked it, tomorrow I will eat it w/o lemon juice, I know it would be a millions better on the grill.

Easy Balsamic Chicken-even balsamic averse fiance liked this one, although I didn't think it was particularly easy, certainly not hard, but easy is a restaurant or microwave
Roasted Vegetable Medley- Good, I will leave out the peppers next time and just eat them raw as an appetizer, I also think I will combine the water, oil and herbs before drizzling over the veggies, following the instructions left me with crispy herbs

I hope things keep going like today! See you next week,

~The Pasta Addicted Bread Junkie

My Nemesis

Sorry for the visual repetitiveness folks, but last night was leftovers. Here's the Tandoori Chicken and Roasted Eggplant Salad.

Today was hard, due to work constraints I didn't get lunch until about 2 at which point I had a few bites and didn't get to finish it until 5 at which point I had my snack too. The plan had been to save the snack until dinner with the girls (which I missed due to workness) but whatever. So after eating all that I was very hungry and had the snack again, not on the menu. Even after that I was stomach pain-y, headach-y, and overall grouchy and inconsolable. Not only did I go off the plan but I was still starving. We ended up eating dinner at 7:30, and I got halfway through it and was full. This was all especially distressing because this morning I weighed exactly the same amount as I did the day previous. First day without weight loss, fiance keeps pointing out that's better than gaining, does he think he's marrying an idiot, I know that! Sheesh.

So maybe being full was a small success for shrinking the appetite, but eating extra snack wasn't great. The main issue is that this will happen at work again. I think I just need to do a better job of making the time to eat. It's not the best situation to force the issue, but I could have done a better job of grabbing a few bites. At any rate, I probably came out about right calorie and fat wise.

Good news is it's pretty easy not to drink, and trust me today at work would have typically led to more than one glass. I guess it helps to have a greater cause than making up for your day. Although I did get a a puzzle to distract me from my melancholy. It was actually 4 puzzles for $4.99, not only was it a great deal, but Ryan bought it for me.

The Day's Menu

1/2 c Egg Whites and Mushrooms

Salad Nicoisse with Tuna-not a two days in a row kinda thing, which is unfortunate since you can't just buy the ingredients for one serving

Tandoori Chicken-better after marinating for 24 hours even though the recipe says 1-3
Roasted Eggplant Salad-better the first day

ABCs Anchovies, Broiling and Capers

Fellow Junkies,
You are destined to see photos of partially eaten meals from me. That's just the way it's going to be. By the time the food is made (this stuff takes like an hour for dinner!) I just want to eat it. I scarf down several bites and good news friends, I remember I am supposed to take it slow. Like a person after serious surgery, a bad break up, or creeping through a laser filled hallway at a museum, I am to go slowly. Luckily taking photos is a perfect break. So there you are, my Roasted Eggplant Salad sans several bites. It was amazing.

All of the food really has been quite good. I mean seriously restaurant quality stuff folks (without the speed, ease and price). I'm continually impressed that, apparently, I am capable of cooking well. It's still to be determined if I am capable of enjoying and looking forward to cooking, I figure I am currently in the honeymoon stage.


I had a couple firsts today:
1. I ate an anchovy. I have inadvertently had them on Caesar salads before, but this was on purpose AND it did not taste the way the ocean smells like they always do at restaurants. I was surprised by how incredibly salty it was. I think my coworkers were mildly surprised that I brought not only tuna but also anchovies to the break room aroma.
2. I broiled. There was smoke, it required a phone a friend, and I think we lost a brave pan, but the results were very juicy.
3. I ate a caper. I have always just looked at them and knew they were wrong for me in the past, despite the fact they are part of my favorite bfast (bagels and lox). So I bought em, used em and ate em. Again surprisingly salty, better after they were rinsed. Maybe I should have done that with the anchovies. Verdict is OK as long as it makes up a VERY small portion of the overall bite.

Today's men was pretty exciting because I got cheese TWICE!

Today's Menu Wave 1 Day 5 (using Day 4 from the book)

1/2 c Real Eggs scrambled on toast

Salad Nicoise with Tuna-good, the dressing and hard broiled eggs reminded me of Deviled Eggs

Tandoori Chicken-very good, I never realize I could like Indian without the creamy Masala type sauce.
Roasted Eggplant Salad-I love Eggplant this was a no brainer

Laughing Cow Cheese and Herb wedge on green peppers (was out of cukes)
28 peanuts

Was down 5 lbs after 4 days this morning-brilliant! But also odd, I have been this weight frequently before (for most of the past summer) and it looks less skinny right now. I am loosing weight from a different place, generally I loose it first from my spare tire, but it is currently disappearing from somewhere else. I sent out a search party this morning to see from where I have lost it, but could not find a place that looked less. Shrug, anyways I like the number!

Wave 1 Day 4ish

Tah Dah! I have discovered how to put an image in the post. Fantastic.

So you can see my cheese making machine in the Steeler's mug. The book said to use a collander or strainer, but you can see the two I have in back, and they are clearly too big for 1/4c of yougurtsoontobecheese. Especially since my fridge is bursting at the seams in the fridge dept. I looked in the freezer this morn when I got ice out to chill my green beans (what does sitting for up to 28 hours do for them?) and it was so empty and lonely. Not a fudge sicle to be seen, let alone a pre-packaged quick meal to take to work.

Today I was hungryish, but not as bad as Day 2. I have also beeing having the tiredness which I recognize from my jaw wired shut days as a lack of calories. I did some painting on a project I have been working on intermittently for the last several month as a reward to myself. It was nice, but I'm still not totally in the mindset of a reward being non food or alcohol related. At the end of Wave 1 I will cash in my Bday present from fiancee which was an hour long massage, now that's a reward.

Today's Menu
1/2 c Scrambled Real Eggs- still good, but I got hungrier earlier than with the mushrooms

Chicken and Black Bean Wrap with Side Salad & Red Wine Vinaigrette- <3 that Black bean stuff

Dinner from last night-it heated well in the microwave, I think the Pork was actually better tonight

Night 3 Dreams

I had one of those really terrible scary dreams last night, not quite a nightmare because no one I loved died, but very close to the dream 'n' word. But the good news is, before I got to the scary I had to go to the bathroom in a church that was hosting the NCAA Championships and services scary part IS I was at a Mexican restaurant following Sonoma Wave 1 (meaning drinking water and talking a lot and sneaking my snacked that I packed in my purse). SO that's some good news for my upcoming first Wave 1 trial, where I will go to Houlihan's for drinks and appetizers with my girlfriends.

Roller Coaster

Last night I had my dream where I am either a bar or local shipping wench in early 1800s London. We are docked in the dream, so all my time is spent in taverns, but I keep going back to a ship. As you can imagine there's a lot of alcohol in that dream, but good news, no food!

Yesterday's satiety level quickly deteriorated after I left you last night. I went from happy and satisfied to a hungry, angry bear in about 10 minutes. Watching TV didn't help, apparently Arby's, Olive Garden and Apple bee's bought all the spots on all my channels for last night. I suppose that's what you do if you are a restaurant executive getting ready for diet season.

After an hour of complaining I was hungry at every commercial, my fiancee telling me to drink a glass of water, drinking said water, and peeing every 20 minutes, I finally got over it by going to the park with the dogs and having a tablespoon of black bean dip.

So it's almost bedtime and I can safely say today went much better. I pushed lunch back a bit farther and ate it waaaay slower (reading during eating helped me slow down a lot), and saved my snack for after dinner, but ended up not wanting it and just put it in tomorrow's lunch pail.

As you might have noticed I was more than a little stressed about the financial aspect of this endeavor. Today I grocery shopped for the next 4 days and only spent $32, so I am feeling much much better.

Cooking dinner tonight was not too stressful, which is pretty impressive since I was doing 3 different dishes all with varied cook times and more than one step (IE dump pasta in water). I made the full servings of everything so dinner for tomorrow is cooked AND Ryan gets Barley pilaf and grilled chicken for lunch tomorrow! The Barley was really amazing for satisfying my pasta/grain craving.

So tomorrow I am starting some intentional deviations, mostly because all of the recipes are for groups of at least 4, and we are just two here. I'm a little hesitant, I'd feel totally ok if I was replicating a complete day. A couple days I am completely replicating, but tomorrow for instance I am doing day 2 bfast and lunch with day 3 dinner & day 4 snack. But I think it will be ok. Plus with my changes I will actually end up doing 12 days of Wave 1.

Today's Menu
Mushroom Omlette-I was a little too sleepy when I made this and read to use a tbsp instead of a tsp of oil to cook the mushrooms in. At any rate, It was so much food I almost couldn't finish it, luckily by 10 am appointment didn't show up, so I had time to digest.
Steak and Blue Cheese Wrap-AMAZING
Pork Chops-good, I over cooked, the oven temp gauge sucks
Barley Pilaf-GREAT, didn't realize at first it was a recipe for 12 servings not 4, but caught it in time
Broccoli and Red Pepper-My favorite cooked veggie side so far, if only it came with goat cheese

I ended the food portion of today by getting tomorrows lunch packed and starting to make the cheese for a dinner that is TWO NIGHTS away. There's some pretty crazy stuff there. Tomorrow I will post a picture of my cheese making device, since I didn't have any of the stuff the book said to use.

Finally, I have lost 3 lbs as of this morning, evenly split over the two days of the diet. I of course only weigh myself immediately after peeing in the morning, and only completely naked, so I don't have more up to date numbers for you, but I will leave you with that mental picture.

I've been pretty happy with the amount of food I've gotten all day. So that's good because I saw one review dis the amount of food you are given on Wave 1.

I did notice something crazy. As I put down my unfinished dinner plate (to try to take a savoring break) because I was feeling fullish, I found myself thinking of what I wanted to eat next. Even though I had uneaten food in front of me and I was fullish. So clearly I need to beat this mental component.

Also, am I allowed to have tea (unsweetened) or anything? I assume a tic tac is out of the question.

So here's what I had

1/2 Real Eggs scrambled eggs

Romaine w Homemade Red Wine Vinaigrette (not as good as the Greek)
Black Bean Chicken Wrap (the Black Bean dip is amazing, it's really hard for me not to eat it right now, even though I am sated)

Cherry Tomatoes & 28 peanuts

Marinated Grilled Flank Steak (meh, it's snowing so I made it on the stove, seemed a bit over spiced)
Sauteed Broccoli and Roasted Red Peppers with Goat Cheese (1 tbsp didn't seem like enough oil to saute all that food in, maybe it was cooking it too high? Goat Cheese fixes everything)

Not feeling as positive today as I did yesterday. And I think I might have become hungry.
No picture today.