Absence Followed by a Good Day

I apologize for disappearing for quite a few days. My life has encountered a few crises/tragedies/events which have prevented me from writing much of anything. I've only just been able to keep up with the writing that pays my bills, so my non-paying/joyful writing in my blogs and novels has taken a bit of a back seat for a bit.

I'm back now, though, and should be for some time.

So, I've received a request from one of my friends. I've managed to drop over 10 but less than 20 pounds in two months. This is a great record, and I'm proud of it. But just sharing my favorite recipes doesn't share much in the way of my mistakes, missteps, failures, and cheats... of which there are many. So, I'm going to start laying it bare. You're going to be able to call me out when I stop at Burger King for a Whopper because I'm lazy or cave and get a 700 calorie chicken quesadilla because I just want it!

So, gods help me, I'm going to attempt to be honest online in front of everyone...

Today's menu:

Lunch:

So, it's the weekend, and breakfast is rarely something I do anyway. At most, I have a glass of water and wait until I'm hungry around noon. Maybe it's not healthy, but I really don't like to eat when I'm not hungry. So I eat when I feel like it. And at 1:45, after waking up at 10:30, I was starving. So I made an epic sandwich.

Turkey Sandwich:

2 slice whole wheat bread

4 slices honey smoked turkey breast

1 slice provolone

1 cup spinach

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp light mayoniase

I toasted the bread to give it better texture. there's nothing I hate more than a mealy, soft sandwich. If I can't get a hard roll of bakery bread, I'm toasting the crap out of my bread to come somewhere near the texture. Adding the spinach gave it a touch more of crunch to my sandwich. I probably could have skipped the cheese, but, um, yum. Screw a few calories. :)

I washed the monstrous thing down with some sparkling and calorie-free flavored water. Perfect.

Nutritional Info on Lunch:

Calories: 315

Carb: 29g

Protein: 22g

Fat: 12g

Saturated Fat: 4.9g

Cholesterol: 30mg

Sodium: 1103 mg (not the best)

Fiber: 4.5g

Sugars: 5.2g

Vitamin A: 3,015 IU

Vitamin C: 8.4 mg

Calcium: 240 mg

Iron: mg: 2.6mg

Potassium: 306mg

Dinner was an extravagant affair, to say the least. Many Sundays (and Saturdays, and Wednesdays), especially ones in which the weather cooperates so incredibly as it did today, my friends and I get together to cook a communal dinner. Oh, who am I kidding? We do it as often as we possibly can. Nothing beats getting together with your favorite people, sharing food and drinks, and generally enjoying a wonderful evening together. Any excuse to get together? We'll take it.

So tonight was one of our "Please let it be officially spring so we can grill out more" dinners. We chose steaks and veggies for dinner, and I was in charge of a healthy dessert. I got about a bite into my own steak before stealing my husband's far bloodier steak (my steak had better be bleeding and mooing to be worth it!), so I only got a small portion of a steak, which was actually perfect for me. Here's my results for the night:

Steak/Top Sirloin (mostly sure that's what we were eating, but cooked rare for me over the grill)

Grilled Thick Stalk Asparagus, marinated in a seasoned salt, olive oil mixture

Full cap mushrooms

Tomatoes

Fresh Basil

Asiago Cheese Loaf in olive oil and pepper (or whatever juices available)

While the nutritional facts differ depending on if you added balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes topped with fresh basil or ate your whole slice of Asiago loaf and dipped it in the olive oil or vinegar, and whether you ate the whole steak or a quarter of a slab like I did, these are the approximations:

Calories: 374 (Again, ate only a little steak. I credited it as half a steak, but I imagine it was a quarter of a serving.)

Carbs: 42g

Protein: 31g
Fat: 11.8g

Saturated Fat: 3.9g

Cholesterol: 61mg

Sodium: 1566mg

Fiber: 6.8g

Sugars: 7g

Vitamin A: 1590 IU

Vitamin C: 56 mg

Calcium: 43mg

Iron: 4.4mg

Potassium: 769mg

On top of all of that, I had dessert and at least 20 fl oz of wine! And I still did fairly okay with my stats.

My desserts were largely fruit based with a little bit of sweets. I gave everyone my favorite dessert of angel food cake with whipped cream and berries. Usually, my mother serves it with ice cream rather than whipped cream, but I chose to substitute a light whipped cream and no one complained! The fact that the berries were amazingly delicious probably helped.

Angel Food cake (divided into 12/ths)

Strawberries (at least 1 cup per person)

Blackberries (about 1/4 cup per person)

Raspberries (about 1/4 cup per person) --in my defense, these berries are off season so they're a bit more expensive than other fruits available right now

Cool Whipped Topping Lite (4Tbsp-1/4cup)

Calories: 192

Carbs: 41g

Protein: 3.6g
Fat: 3.1g

Saturated Fat: 2g

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium: 212mg

Fiber: 7.3g

Sugars: 12.6g

Vitamin A: 105 IU

Vitamin C: 105 mg

Calcium: 82 mg

Iron: 1.2 mg

Potassium: 363 mg

In addition to all of this (I know... I'm such a glutton on the weekends!), I had about a bottle of wine across a few bottles in the night. I'm estimating this at about a full bottle of red (One, because it has more calories, so it makes me harsher on myself. Two, because I had one more glass of red than I did of white, and it's too much work to calculate the many different types of wine. If I had to calculate all: riesling, half a glass of cab sav, and two and a half reds.)

Wine:

Calories: 451

Carbs: 13.9 g

Protein: 0.4 g
Fat: 0 g

Saturated Fat: 0 g

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Sodium: 21 mg

Fiber: 0 g

Sugars: 3.3 g

Vitamin A: 10.6IU

Vitamin C: 0 mg

Calcium: 43mg

Iron: 2.4mg

Potassium: 674mg

At the end of the day, I went a bit overboard with calories (1,333 instead of 1200). If I had cut out the wine, it probably would have been a picture perfect day. I'm a bit too high on the sodium, didn't hit my fiber or iron or potassium goals (though I never do!), and was slightly too high on the calorie count. Frankly, though, I feel it was a perfect nutritional day, despite those lapses. I had a good mix of veggies, protein, carbs, and nutrients. I could have done better on some, and I could have abstained from drinking and done MUCH better on my calorie count.

And yet, these sorts of evenings make everything worthwhile. Eating is not a matter of consuming nutrients or earning energy or making good choices. It's about the experience of being with my friends and really experiencing a wide range of tastes and experiences. Tonight was perfect, and though I went slightly over, no regrets.

More like this, please!