Food

I actually ate breakfast - not something I do very often. I'm a coffee drinker, and by the time I'm done drinking coffee, it's time for lunch. But today, since I was celebrating my crush Ed Sheeran performing on the Today Show, I made an effort and whipped up one of my favorite smoothies.

It's made with 1 c. soy milk, strawberry yogurt, frozen strawberries and a dash of vanilla. So! Yummy! In! My! Tummy!

I also had some gross watermelon. I still have 3 containers that I'm not sure I'll eat. I did go buy some new grapes because the others were just awful.



Lunch looks boring, but was delicious! Turkey sandwich and veggie chips.

Dumb idea

Blogging what I eat may turn into the dumbest idea ever. Because as a single person, I cook once, then eat the same damn thing all week. Case in point, here's what I ate yesterday. Look familiar? That's because it's exactly what I ate on Thursday. And I will probably eat the same thing on Friday. I may have to go to the store for grapes, as the grapes I bought are supposed to be seedless, but have tiny little seeds in them - SO ANNOYING!! I'm also not digging the watermelon - it's not as sweet as the last one I had. I know - picky, picky. But I've learned over the years if I have to force myself to eat something, I'm not going to eat it no matter how good it is for me. This is why you will never see me eat a green vegetable. They make me gag. They taste bitter. Blech.

Accountability

I thought this would be fun (insert sarcasm font here) - I'm going to snap pics of everything I eat in the next week and post them here on my blog. Why? A couple of reasons - I'm hoping it will make me think about what I'm eating, and will also give me a better overall picture of the balance of food that I'm eating. So, let's start!!

This was breakfast:

I've been prescribed an iron supplement because my iron levels are crap. I was told to try and take it on an empty stomach . . . so this was breakfast.

Then I got busy with errands and didn't eat lunch until 12:30. Lunch was much yummier!

That's an almond butter & grape jelly sandwich on white bread. My favorite sandwich in the whole entire world. I didn't eat all the grapes because some of them were mushy - and I hate mushy grapes! I washed everything down with some crystal light lemonade, which I'm addicted to!

Snack:

Chocolate covered marshmallow dipped in crushed graham crackers. A S'more Pop - YUM! (Home-made by me!)

Supper:

Bubble-up enchiladas. One of my favorite recipes!!! I also had dessert:

Mint Chocolate Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich - so good!

This evenings snack:

Yes. I instagrammed Watermelon, because the food pics were getting a bit boring. That's the end of this watermelon . . . I have another one to cut up tomorrow :-) I have to say, I've gotten pretty good at picking watermelon that will be sweet and juicy but not "mealy" - I hate that!

On MFP, I have a daily calorie target of 1500-1600 calories a day. I usually aim for a couple hundred under that, as I don' count calories of any fruit or non-starchy veggies I eat. I also don't count my powdered coffee creamer because that's just a pain in the ass. Today, my total is 1184 calories. Pretty satisfied with my choices, and actually quite proud that I only ate one of the S'more Pops I made!

And of course, the snack monster often makes an evening appearance. Here's what I ate over the course of a couple of hours:

 <---That's the last bite of a Fiber One bar, which I almost forgot to take a picture of! These snacks bring by daily calorie total to 1454, which I'm pretty happy with. Drank a lot of coffee/iced tea and lemonade throughout the day. I really am addicted to Crystal Light Lemonade. So refreshing!! I need to work on more dairy tomorrow!

 

List

Things I am in love with right now:
1. Watermelon
2. Crystal Light Lemonade
3. Arnie Palmer's made w/ Crystal Light Lemonade
4. Air Conditioning
5. The orange with white polka-dot jeans I got on sale at Shopko for $7.
6. My ice cube trays that make teensy itty bitty ice cubes
7. My super comfy bed

Things I am not in love with right now:
1. My joints, which are going bonkers with the barometric pressure changes.
2. The iron I now have to take. It does very bad things to my digestive system. Not happy.
3. Christopher on The Sopranos. I want to smack him and tell him to grow the hell up.
4. This humidity. I have permanent pseudo-afro hair, and it's not a good look on me.
5. Alarm clocks. I keep turning mine off and going back to sleep, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Diet Bet

Have you heard of Diet Bet? You bet a set amount of money that you can lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. If you don't lose the weight, you forfeit the money you bet and it's put in the pot with the money from all the other losers. That money is then divided between those who lost their 4%.

Well, I bet $25 I could do this. There are almost 500 people in the group and the pot is over $12,000. I really want to be the only one who wins. I figure even if I break even (meaning everyone loses their weight) I'll still be down a few pounds. It's motivating me. I'm logging food and planning meals on My Fitness Pal and trying to be more active.

Eating healthy is a challenge for me. I hate most green vegetables (and there is actually a scientific reason!) and have weird texture issues with fruit. I love the flavor of peaches, pineapple and mangoes - but the texture freaks me the freak out and I can't eat them. My favorite fruit? Strawberries, grapes, watermelon and Bing cherries - WHICH ARE ALL IN SEASON!!! This is what my fridge looks like:

Strawberries are in the cool whip containers and I ate the last of the grapes while cutting up the watermelon. And yes, that's a mason-jar salad in the back-ground. If I pre-plan meals (like the salads & pre-portioned fruit) I make better choices.

I have several days off from work starting Monday, and along with a major closet clean-out I want to get some baking/cooking done so I have meals ready to grab and go. I make a mean potato salad that I'm really looking forward to!

Now I'm hungry. Think I'll grab some watermelon. Or cherries. Or strawberries . . .

Not what I thought . . .

When I started this blog, I really thought it would be a year of chronicling my dating adventures. . . then I got tired of dating. I've written about other stuff, but feel like a poser because I keep ignoring the dating stuff. It prevents me from writing posts. And I don't think I like that.

So . . . I'm officially embracing the title of this blog. I'm going to attempt to EXPLAIN IT ALL!! At least, from my perspective. There may eventually be more dating stuff, but not right now.

So, what's on my mind this moment? Strawberries. We have these little blue strawberry shacks that spring up around Eau Claire during strawberry season. We had such a late spring that the strawberries are just now getting picked and I am buying them so often I'm going to have to take out a loan to continue with my obsession.

I like my strawberries simple. Sprinkled with a bit of sugar and a bit of balsamic vinegar. Sweet, strawberrylicious bites of heaven! I also love strawberries dipped in chocolate. So yummy!

In personal news, I became an official member of First Congregational United Church of Christ. I really, really love this church. UCC has a philosophy of open love and acceptance of anyone at any place in their own spiritual journey. As an LGBTQ ally, I am so happy to have found a church that reflects my beliefs. The pastor is very laid back and his sermons make me think. I'm hoping to get more involved in some of the groups this fall.

Proof that I can't take a good selfie to save my life!

I've been trying to get more stuff done around the house, but get tired pretty easily. For months I've thought this was because I'm a lazy-ass, but I do wonder if my anemia has something to do with this. I have a doctor's appointment next week to figure out what to do with this anemia business. Until then, I've spent lots of time here:

Yes, that's Harry Potter on my lap. I'm re-reading the series this summer!

Which is incredibly relaxing, especially when this is my view:

The most exciting moment of my week? Learning that Santa shops at Mega Foods.