Day Three – Temptation is a cruel mistress

Today starts the first day of working while dieting, which I anticipated would be a challenge and so far, I was right.

For example, breakfast this morning was supposed to be Berry Power Oatmeal, which I was excited for because it sounded delicious (note: all the breakfast food on the meal plan sounds delicious. Is it acceptable to have a breakfast food for every meal?). However, hitting the snooze button one time too many proved to sound even more delicious and instead I opted for a CLIF Builder’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar, which was on the list as an acceptable substitute.

I know what you’re thinking – chocolate and peanut butter, that does not sound like it should be a healthy thing to eat. I didn’t think so either, especially when upon opening the bar it was straight up draped in chocolate. However, the ingredients are all pretty good for you, almost everything is organic and it’s only 270 calories. Not to mention all the protein you’re getting.

Beware: Although it may sound sweet, this bar is really not all that sweet. Which I was not expecting upon taking my first bite. I only ended up eating about 2/3 of the bar, but I haven’t given up on it yet. Definitely will be trying this again (mostly because I still have four more in my pantry) but also because it’s great on-the-go when I oversleep and am running out the door. Normally I would just skip breakfast but that’s bad for you!

I must confess that I did slip a little bit today: I had a cup of coffee. And not even real coffee, an iced latte with chocolate and caramel syrup pumped into it. From our local coffee house who know my order as soon as I pull up to the drive-thru window. My excuse? I have a gift card I want to use up.

It’s shameful I know, but there IS a way to drink coffee like that in a healthier way, per an article I found at Examiner.com called “Healthy frozen drinks from the coffee shop?” It offers a couple tips to cut down on the calories going into the fancy drinks I like, such as:

• Skip the whipped cream and save up to 70 calories and 7 grams of fat.
• Order skim milk instead of whole and save up to 90 calories and 10 grams of fat.
• Ask for half the syrup, it will still taste good but will have half the sugar, which means half the crash later.
• Many shops sell fruit, ask to have a banana mixed into your smoothie instead of most of the syrup, it will add taste, nutrients and satiation.
• Order the next smaller size than you normally do, you will be surprised at how satisfied you still are.

I already go sans-whipped cream with my order, but I think from now on I’ll ask for skim milk and half the pumps and see how that goes. Obviously it would be ideal to cut out the coffee altogether – for now I’ll set my goal as going there every other day as opposed to every day.

After work I was heading out of the office when I come face-to-face with TWO HUGE MARBLED CAKES with that thick sugary icing everyone loves – one cake for each of the ladies soon to be retiring. And I thought to myself, SERIOUSLY. OF ALL TIMES TO HAVE CAKE IN THE OFFICE YOU CHOOSE THE TIME WHEN I’M ON A DIET. It probably would’ve been okay to have a small piece – one piece of cake wouldn’t totally ruin my progress – but instead I looked at the cakes, sighed, and continued out of the building. Hooray for being mentally strong!

Lunch today is supposed to be a Pineapple-banana smoothie (water based) which does sound delicious but again, I don’t have the proper ingredients. My prepared grocery list for the week did not include pineapple. I’m getting pretty frustrated with this. For now I think I’m just going to look ahead to what meals I want and hit the grocery store accordingly, but I really don’t want to be going to the grocery store and spending money EVERY day. Frankly, I can’t afford it. I’m only a journalist, after all!

Instead, I’m going with the aforementioned fruit and cottage cheese medley, except this time eating the ingredients separately (hey, it all ends up the same place), and a snack of my mother’s creation, oven roasted turkey slices on Triscuits with spicy brown mustard. Pretty much no recipe for this, just put the toppings on the Triscuits per your own personal taste.

I love the crunchy and spicy combination of the turkey and Triscuits, and it’s pretty good for you too. Six Triscuits make one serving so that’s how many I had, which was 120 calories. The brown spicy mustard is 5 calories per tablespoon, and the turkey slices are only 50 calories. Not so bad. And then the berries and cottage cheese of course, which made for a very good combination, especially the blueberries. I almost felt TOO full after this meal. I really have to watch my portion control.

I feel empowered being able to eat healthy without strictly following the dieting rules. I mean, I’m following the rules, but I guess they can be more like guidelines sometimes? And they’re great for recipe suggestions because cooking and especially cooking healthy is quite the challenge for me.

Although today is my rest day for working out,  I had every intention of doing Zumba in my living room for a while, particularly the core workout. However, after being gone for a while this evening because of work I was too hungry when I got back. Not feeling too guilty about it though since it was a rest day anyway.

I ran to the store to buy a loaf of wheat bread since a lot of my recipes call for it, and tonight dinner is Chicken Pizza Bread. 

Ingredients:

• Two slices whole wheat bread 
• Two and a half ounces of chicken breast
• Two ounces lowfat mozzarella cheese (I used regular Kraft parmesan cheese)
• Three tablespoons pizza sauce (I used tomato basil pasta sauce)
• One and a half teaspoons of olive oil
• One teaspoon of garlic powder (which I didn’t use)
• Turn the oven onto broil. Get out cookie sheet and distribute the olive oil into two places where you will set the bread. Place two pieces of whole wheat toast on your cookie sheet. Then add the pizza sauce; spread evenly between the two pieces. Add the pre-cooked chicken breast. Sprinkle garlic powder on both pieces and add grated mozzarella cheese on top.
• 400 calories

Since I wasn’t really keen on buying more groceries tonight for the sole purpose of matching the brands listed, I just used what I could find in my refrigerator, hence the ingredient substitutes.

Guys. This was SO delicious. And SO easy. I’m really glad I bought the wheat bread. Just make sure not to broil it for too long, the edges of my bread were a little burnt. And I’m betting mozzarella cheese would definitely work better but parmesan cheese wasn’t a bad substitute. It’s definitely a healthy way to satisfy a pizza craving.

Thoughts after day three:

1. Besides feeling hungry right around mealtimes, my hunger was really not that bad today. I see it as a sign my body is getting used to all this healthy eating, which is exciting!

2. I’m actually looking forward to making new things every day, it’s pretty exciting trying all these new recipes and stretching my legs as a cook…sort of.

3. Turns out this whole working while dieting thing might not be so bad, besides breakfast. I just like my sleep too much to get up earlier in the morning. Although we’ll see how tomorrow goes when I also have to integrate a workout routine into my work day.