Category Archives: calories

What my 1500 calories looks like today

Thanks for the comments on the porch!  I love home improvement.  Helen commented that I should flip houses.  I actually did that and still would be if the market was really viable.  I did 2 houses.  The first one was really a restoration.  I bought bank owned properties and fixed them up.  Lots of work and I really enjoyed it, but then the banking and housing marked crashed.  I held the second property as a rental (not planned) and finally sold it 2 years ago.  I would love to be able to flip again, but it’s too hard to get financing right now.  I could post a few pictures some time of the before and afters – especially the first house.

Anyhoo, I thought I might give a 1500 calorie day example today, since that is my plan for the month.  I seem to get a lot of emails asking me about calories and exactly how many I eat.  This is just what works for me in weight loss mode without being too hungry.  Keep in mind I am 44 and only 5’2″, so what works for me might not work for you (be it more or less).

Breakfast was my protein waffles with blueberries.

With my coffee and almond milk on the side, this breakfast comes to 350 calories.  Normally I eat a bigger breakfast, but I did not work out this morning.

Lunch – Baked potato (5.6 oz) topped with laughing cow and ground turkey (3 oz) with BBQ sauce.

Lunch comes in at 390 calories.

Afternoon snack – you know I love it!  Plus a pluot.

165 calories.  Note to self – buy more pluots.

Dinner – Egg/eggwhite omelet with cheese, broccoli sauteed in coconut oil, pear.

Hot sauce optional, but recommended  :mrgreen:  Calories for dinner – 365

Evening snack – This is being taken with me to tutoring tonight.

Calories – 240

Total for the day = 1510

Of course, this is an estimate because I don’t weigh my produce.  Other stuff yes, but not fruits and veggies.  I do round the numbers as well.  Good enough for government work, though.

Exercise today was walking.  And now, I am off for tutoring tonight (with snack!).

Calories add up

Is it Friday yet?  Okay, I guess not.  I didn’t go lifting this morning so I could take a bike ride.  Gotta get in those 400 miles this month!  I am a little behind due to the hot weather and being busy, but I get so many miles on weekends that it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up.  Jinxie jinx!

It was a bit humid this morning, but I knocked out 10 miles pretty quick.  Then it was breakfast time.  I wanted the banana bread pudding, but didn’t want to wait 20 minutes for it to cook – instant gratification, anyone?? – so I poured the batter in the waffle iron that was still hot from John using it.  The result?

It still has the same soft texture, but took 5 minutes.  Me likey!  It was hard to get out of the waffle iron, though.  It was a 2 spatula job because it was soft.

So John’s old desk was put at the curb yesterday and now it has a new home! Somebody took it this morning.  Good for them.

It was a busy work day today right from the start.  Makes the day go by fast.  I was ready for lunch.  Here’s something different:

Pasta!  Actually cheese tortellini. This was leftover from from a couple days ago and it was fast.  I did flip through a catalog while I was eating:

I have been recycling my flower catalogs as soon as they come because I have absolutely no room for new plants, but then I decided that I am going to  expand the front bed and rework the shade garden.  Now I can look at the catalog again!  Like some people obsess over food or shoes or nail polish, I obsess over flowers.   I’ll have to show you diagrams in Friday’s What’s Blooming post of what I have in mind.

I also was reading an interesting article on diet composition comparisons online from the Nutrition Journal (link is PDF).  It  was basically a study of differing levels of sucrose/fructose and HFCS in diets and how that affected weight loss.  The participants were in an equal caloric deficit no matter what the diet was composed of. Turns out that it doesn’t really matter what the diet is comprised of as long as you stick to the calorie goal.  An interesting quote from the article.

It appears that the critical consideration is adherence to
whichever hypocaloric diet is employed

So, any diet will work as long as you stick to it, right?  Compliance is really the most important thing – and long-term compliance.  Anyway, that was an interesting article.

I had a different snack today as well.

Almond milk and some granola.  Not mixed together, but eaten separately.  I was planning on some iced coffee at tutoring, so I decided to save the coffee for later.  I told John that I jinxed my meeting and I was right.  My learner called and cancelled for the evening  😯

 

It was pretty hot and humid today, so I wasn’t all that hungry for dinner.  I had leftover spinach rice

Plus a protein bar.  It looks like I didn’t eat much today, but my calories are at 1800 already.  Damn things add up quick!

I still have to fit in my latte, though.  I think my day wouldn’t feel complete without it!

“How We Did It”

You just never know what can happen to you when you have a blog.  I get tons of pitches to sell this and that or review this and that.  I am usually pretty picky about that stuff and I don’t do most of them.

Anyway, I received a nice item in the mail this week. How We Did It. Why so special?  I am it it!  😀

I was contacted by Nancy earlier this year.  She was writing a book on weight loss success stories and wanted to talk about me counting calories and logging my food.  I was very honored that she would ask me to take part in this.  The book was just published and she sent me a copy.

A nice inscription.  Thank *you* Nancy; I feel very privileged to be part of this!

 

I like that this book doesn’t prescribe any set diet or plan to follow. What it does is feature people who have lost weight and all the different ways they did it.

My section:

I think this is one of the better representations of my whole story, which is quite nice.

The book is very inspirational and has several big time internet “stars”, such as Roni and Jimmy Moore.

It’s definitely an ispirational book and truly showcases that there is no one single way to lose and keep off weight.  Everyone in this book did it their own way, and they are all different!

I think I will do a giveaway of this book (a new copy) in January to kick off the New Year.

Bagel Wednesday and ride recovery

It’s Bagel Wednesday!  Yesterday was a complete rest day other than some gentle walking. It was a warm and sunny morning and we headed out for a brisk ride to breakfast.  My legs felt pretty good.  Still recovering a bit from the 88 mile ride on Monday, I think.  I felt it a little on the hills, but not too bad.

Saw a friend at the cafe, too, which was a nice surprise!

They were out of wheat bagels, so I had a poppy seed instead.

When we left to go home, the ridiculousness continued:

This is really getting discouraging.  John’s tire, this time the back one – the tube on this was from last year, so at least it wasn’t a new one.  It is getting expensive though.

This week I am getting super puncture resistant tires for my bike.

12 mile ride today. All this, plus a general late start to breakfast put me behind for the day.  I told myself no Tour watching until lunch time so I could get work done.

Then I could watch!  Hooray for eating in front of the TV!!  I’ll admit it.

I mixed up some vanilla greek yogurt with peanut flour to make peanut butter yogurt.  This was really good!  I mixed in a little granola.  Red plum on the side, which I dribbled on my shirt because it was so juicy.

The Tour had a scary stage today with a lot of crashes.  That would be so scary to me, and one reason why I am happy with a 13 mph average speed on my bike.  I don’t need to race.

I got hungry an hour or so after lunch, so I grabbed a granola bar.

All while Pixie napped away in catnip splendor.

Awwww…. she always looks so sweet when she is sleeping.

Then it was time for an iced coffee with almond milk and some cashews.

One thing I really struggle with is eating during these long ride periods.  It’s like being on a big calorie see-saw. I have trouble balancing calories, and the scale jumps all over the place.  Right now my goal is for it to go down, but that is difficult to do with hard training (as anyone who has trained for a half or full marathon can attest).  I have also been upping my carbs a fair amount as of late.  So why is it that I am doing a 100 mile ride again?? :mrgreen:

I made a quick dinner tonight.  The usual salad.

It was dark and stormy during dinner, so funny lighting.  At least I didn’t need to water the garden!

Tonight is more work and a snack:

Question:  Are you watching any of the Tour de France?

Ready for the weekend!

Felt kind of hectic this week, for a short week! Got my investment house rented out, so that is a big relief. As long as they pay the rent, of course LOL!

Upped the weights on some of my bowflex workout today. Upper body. Feeling strong. I could probably push myself harder, but I am pushing the jogging – so I don’t want to burn out, since this is for life.

Today’s stats:
Calorie goal: 1,350 • Consumed: 1,321 • Burned: 365
Net calories: 956
C/P/F ratio: 47/28/25 yay me!!

Doing better at getting my protein up. It’s a little harder, since we aren’t eating much meat anymore, and I don’t like beans. Gotta love the soy LOL!

Gratuitous flower pic from my garden for your enjoyment: