The last two weeks have sucked...

I fell off the wagon during the last two weeks, mostly due to stress and doggie medical issues that have distracted me. I haven't kept up with recording my daily diary and I haven't been eating very healthy either. I've been doing a lot of high-calorie snacking in between high stress loads.

But, it is a new day and a new week coming up. I'm going to have to get creative with my food budget because it is the end of the month and I've had several "surprise" visits to the vet to contend with. I'm spending my weekend spring cleaning my house which will allow me to start cooking again. I have been meaning to bake my own bread for several weeks now, and try out an egg-less whole wheat cinnamon roll recipe I found on the internet. So, stay tuned for more updates, and I will start my week fresh on Monday with a new set of goals.

Week 2 Goals

Week 2 Goals:

• I will walk the dogs for at least 30 minutes every day this week. If I cannot walk the dogs because of the weather, I will go to the gym and use the treadmill or eliptical for 30 minutes.

• I will keep my daily caloric intake to 1,200-1,400 calories per day.

Week 1 Updates

I didn't meet my goal to walk Lijha every day for 30 minutes.  When I made that goal, I forgot that she was going in for surgery this week. I did walk her 3 days this past week, so that is something. Total calories burned: 417

I did meet my goal to start tracking my calorie intake again. I forgot that I signed up for an account with MyFitnessPal.com. It is a free online calorie and fitness tracker. I have the app on my cell phone, so I can update my diary on the go. Here is my weekly summary:

MONDAY

• Breakfast - Yogurt - 180 calories
• AM Snack - Mandarin Oranges - 80 calories
• Lunch - Potato Soup, Sweet Potato Chips, Crackers - 450 calories
• PM Snack - Diet Coke - 0 calories
• Dinner - Homemade Oatmeal w/ Nuts & Blueberries - 674 calories
• Dessert - 2 Chocolate Pieces - 73 calories
• TOTAL CALORIES - 1,457 calories

TUESDAY

• Breakfast - Yogurt & Coffee - 222 calories
• Lunch - Pasta with Tomatoes - 554 calories
• PM Snack - Mandarin Oranges - 80 calories
• Dinner - Lentil Soup - 200 calories
• Dessert - Fruit & Yogurt Parfait - 328 calories
• TOTAL CALORIES - 1,384 calories

WEDNESDAY

• Breakfast - Yogurt & Coffee - 222 calories
• AM Snack - Cara Cara Orange - 80 calories
• Lunch - Turkey Burger - 558 calories
• Dinner - Lentil Soup - 200 calories
• Dessert - Toast - 342 calories
• TOTAL CALORIES - 1,402 calories

THURSDAY

• AM Snack - Homemade Oatmeal w/ Nuts & Blueberries -  674 calories
• Lunch - Tuna Salad - 214 calories
• PM Snack - Diet Coke & Wheat Thins - 140 calories
• Dinner - Toast - 342 calories
• Dessert - Tropical Fruit Smoothie - 181 calories
• TOTAL CALORIES - 1,551 calories

FRIDAY

• Breakfast - Non-Fat Hazelnut Latte & Oatmeal - 270 calories
• AM Snack - Mandarin Oranges - 140 calories
• Lunch - Toast - 480 calories
• Dinner - Pizza - 1,450 calories
• TOTAL CALORIES - 2,544 calories

SATURDAY

• Breakfast - Tropical Fruit Smoothie - 181 calories
• AM Snack - Banana - 121 calories
• Lunch - Pizza - 870 calories
• PM Snack - Pizza - 580 calories
• Dinner - Pizza - 290 calories
• TOTAL CALORIES - 2,042 calories

SUNDAY

• Breakfast - Banana & Venti Hazelnut Latte - 481 calories
• AM Snack - Cara Cara Orange & Large Diet Coke - 80 calories
• Lunch - Cereal with Milk - 230 calories
• PM Snack - Sweet Potato Chips & Coconut Ice-Cream - 387 calories
• Dinner - Lentil Soup - 200 calories
• TOTAL CALORIES - 1,378 calories

Pizza Binge

In the interest of honesty and full disclosure, I must admit to a pizza binge this weekend. In my defense, I felt it was necessary. My dog, Lijha, was spayed on Friday, and had a few other procedures done at the same time. She reacted poorly to the anesthesia and needed quite a lot of attention. In order to stay in the same room and keep an eye on her, I opted to order pizza for dinner. This way, I could eat picnic style in my bedroom while I watched her, without having to take the time to go get food, or cook something in my kitchen.

In order to qualify for the delivery, I had to order a large pizza. It's not a big deal when my husband is home (as he eats most of it), but it is a big deal when I have to put one away myself. I think I ate about half of it last night and I've been working on the other half today. I'm still trying to keep Lijha resting as much as possible today so she doesn't hurt herself, so we've had a nice, quiet day in the bedroom.

Organic Produce

I recently signed up for Full Circle Farm organic produce. It is delivered to Juneau and I go pick it up. I need to eat more fruits and veggies in my diet, and I think that this is the easiest way for me to get it. I find that I go overboard at the store and spend a good portion of my budget on produce that I don't use. This way, I don't have to think about it. I check the website every other week to see what is in my box of produce and download recipes that I can make that use up the produce.

I picked up my first two boxes today. It would normally be one box, but I added some extra stuff that thought I would eat. Here is what I got today:

The box contains kale, romaine lettuce, arugula, and carrots. I have never eaten kale before and I have a soup recipe that I am going to try it in. But, I need to go to the store to get the rest of the ingredients.

On the counter, I have strawberries, kiwis, potatoes, apples, oranges, a mango, snow peas, spinach, onions, tomatoes, a cucumber, and fresh herbs. What a bounty!

I only had a few casualties... I lost 5 strawberries to mold and one of my kiwis was crushed. But, other than that, all was well!

So, what does someone do when presented with fresh produce? Make soup, of course :) You can find the recipe for Lentil Soup here (my soup choice for the evening because I had all the ingredients in my pantry... well, almost all the ingredients). I didn't have any celery on hand, so I omitted it, and used celery salt to finish the soup. I also omitted the vinegar because I don't care for it with vinegar.

For dessert, I had yogurt with strawberries, kiwi, and a little granola on top for crunch! I didn't take a picture of dessert, I just wanted to eat it.

Another "bummer" moment...

I was thinking about really good breads to use for hamburgers or turkey burgers and my mind drifted to my all time favorite - croissants... I immediately looked up the recipe for croissants, and discovered that unless I make them myself, I cannot guarantee that they will be egg-free. They usually have an egg wash on them. I was so bummed!

So, I started looking online for a good replacement for an egg wash, so I can still get the texture of the croissant (should I choose to make them in the future). I found a great resource that I will probably consult from time to time. It lists all kinds of egg substitutes and ways to use them. Just what I need!

Now I can start altering my favorite dishes to accomodate the egg allergy. I wonder what Tiramisu will taste like when using silken tofu?

Week 1 Goals

To accomodate the time constraints in my life right now, I will post my goals for the week on Mondays. On Sunday, I will add my diary for the week so that I can track my progress.

Week 1 Goals:

• I will walk Lijha (my 5 mo. old German Shepherd puppy) for at least 30 minutes every day this week. I know that this level of activity seems a little low, but I have finals for one of my classes this week, and I may not be able to accomodate more than 30 minutes
• I will return to figuring and cataloging my daily caloric intake. I started doing this several months back for a nutrition class that I took for school, but I haven't kept up with it, especially since the holidays (who wants to look at THOSE numbers?).

Coconut Bliss Ice-Cream

One of the biggest upsets that I have experienced with my new-found allergy is that I am unable to eat ice-cream anymore, because of the eggs. While walking around the health food section of my grocery store, I found Luna & Larry's Organic Coconut Bliss Frozen Dessert. It is made with coconut milk and does not contain eggs. In fact, it is labeled as Vegan. I have my trepidations when it comes to buying anything labeled as Vegan because it usually tastes like crap or grass. However, I was pleasantly surprised with this product!

I first tried the Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge flavor. Texture wise, it was like premium chocolate ice-cream. It has a nice coconut flavor in the background and super luxurious. This one is my favorite!

The next time I wanted ice-cream, I tried the Pineapple-Coconut flavor. Yummy! A decadent pina colada treat! The texture was not as good as the Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge. It was more crystalized and closer in texture to a lemon ice. It needs to sit out for a little bit and soften, and even then, it is not as creamy on the tongue as the chocolate. Flavor-wise, it is quite tasty. I still have some in my freezer and I have some macadamia nuts in my pantry. I'm going to try it with the macadamia nuts next time. It would also be really good as a blended drink, mixed with maybe pineapple juice or some yogurt.

It is a bit more expensive than regular ice-cream, even the premium varieties. My grocery store only carries a few flavors in the pint size, and it is between $5 and $6. For an occasional treat when I crave ice-cream, it is well worth it! I may talk to the store about bringing in more flavor options. By looking at the Coconut Bliss website, they have a lot of different flavors available.

The reasons behind getting healthy...

I have always considered myself to be rather health-conscious. I stay away from McDonald's as much as possible, I gave up drinking Diet Coke, and I have a V-8 instead of a candy bar in the afternoon... But with all of my denial about "it's OK if I have "this" because I haven't had "this" for a while (not remembering that I just had "this" in my denial-induced binge of 2 days ago), I still wasn't fully prepared for the diagnosis that I received recently...

• As a child, I was (as my mom put it) "Disgustingly Healthy." I didn't have any allergies. I didn't have any major illnesses. Outside of a few trips to the emergency room for my broken arm and stitches needed from time to time, I didn't start having problems until my mid teens. When I was 17, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. After trying several medications with no positive results, I chose to treat with ibuprofen as needed and modify my diet.

• Later in life, I found that I was hypoglycemic. I tend to get shaky when I don't eat. When I tried diets that restrict carbs, it was worse. I decided that oatmeal for breakfast was a good thing.

• After I got married, I gradually gained 50 pounds over 10 years. I convinced myself that the weight gain was genetic and that I couldn't really do anything about it.

• I have been told by my doctor that my gall bladder doesn't work the way it should and that I'm not producing enough bile to break down the fats in my diet. I naturally stay away from anything too fatty to compensate for this, but that isn't good for my RA, which is helped by adding Omega-3 fatty acids (and all the other Omega- fats) to my diet. My cholesterol is higher than normal because I'm not digesting the fats properly. There is a suppliment that I get from my doctor to help my gall bladder along, but I am not very consistent with taking it.

• Throughout the years, I have developed several allergies. We had to get rid of our cats and I have a sensitivity to my dogs. I sneeze explosively when exposed to dust, mold, or fragrances.

• This past winter, I was exposed to mold in my kitchen cabinets. That exposure caused bronchitis and asthma. Through my treatment for the bronchitis and asthma, my doctor decided to do blood work to determine what I am allergic to.

• The test results came in... I am allergic to eggs... Research done thus far leads me to believe that I have a mild egg allergy that affects my resperatory system. My doctor believes that my sensitivity to my dogs, dust, and fragrance are a result of the egg allergy leaving my system compromised (basically, my body reacts to everything because it was left susceptible from the egg allergy).

So, now that I've gone through the background, it is time for me to get off my butt and change my lifestyle. I need to come up with a diet plan that takes all of my issues into consideration. I believe that diet can control illnesses when done properly.

So, join me as I try to figure this out. As I try new things, I'll post product reviews and recipes. I'll also catalog a daily diet/activity diary, but this is primarily for my records, to help me keep track of everything. If it is helpful to you, my reader, than great!