Day 19

Lunch was salmon on rice with broccoli.  Nothing special.  I am getting sick of salmon...and rice...and broccoli...and any food in a black plastic container.  Snack was a protein drink and a whole, big, juicy, delicious Fuji apple :)  And for dinner?  Something new, Gumbo!  It's not bad.  Pretty hot.  Chicken, shrimp, and lots of okra.  I prefer my okra fried (who doesn't?!), but this is good.  It makes the broth kinda "snotty" but I'm trying not to look at that.  Honest, it looks better than the picture.

This concludes Day 19.  I can't believe just 2 more days to go.

Day 19

I didn't finish writing up my review of Day 18.  It was unspectacular.  Snack of chicken/walnuts/fruit (more fruit please!!!), and dinner was salmon on veggies.  Ate both too early so I was plenty hungry at bedtime.  Extra tough because I KNEW there were oatmeal raisin cookies in the freezer that I had made earlier in the day for TJ to take to the pool.  They are still there.  I might have taken a good whiff of them, but I did not so much as lick my fingers when I finished making them.

Today is a new day!  Breakfast was the Rise & Shine which is scrambled eggs, cinnamon coated sweet potatoes, and turkey sausage.  Mixed it all up and put it in a bowl.  The theory was that maybe it would taste better if it wasn't in the black MFF container.  Nope.  Left a spoonful in the bowl and called it quits.  The good news for this morning is that I swapped today's trail mix snack for yesterday's Picnic Time, so I have that to look forward to at 11 :)

Of course I did not even THINK about weighing this morning.  I plan on staying away from the scale until Tues morning.

Morning Day 18

This morning I am enjoying the fact that someone prepared my breakfast for me.  It's breakfast tacos, one of MFF's finest breakfasts.  Next week it will probably be oatmeal...and I will have to slave over a hot stove to fix it!

Decided to check my progress on the scale this morning.  Almost 3 weeks of around 1200 quality calories a day with no sugar, artificial sweeteners, bad fats, heavily processed, fast food, etc., should be worth something wouldn'tcha think?  Three pounds.  Yup, that's it.  I was pretty sure I'd at least hit the minimum 6 in their range of average weight loss.  Unless my body has some serious plans for the next 4 days, I'm not even going to make that.  I WILL see it through--have come to far not to--but I'm disappointed.  I will use these next 4 days to evaluate where I want to go from here.  More fruits and veggies for sure.

Snack this morning is my favorite Picnic Time.  Because I will be out with friends, I think I'll swap it for tomorrow's Trail Mix because it travels better.  I sure hope that doesn't mess up my weight loss!  :)

Day 17 Dinner

Strawberry greek yogurt for a snack.  One hour later I was ready for dinner but I waited the minimum 2-1/2 hours, passing the time reading to try to keep my mind off food.  It was a new one, Beef Broccoli.  It had a sauce with it.  Some of the sauces seem like they should be served cold, but this one seemed like it should be warmed with the dish, so I poured it on and warmed it up.  Took a bite of beef.  It was pretty good.  Took a bite of broccoli and it was bad!  As in spoiled bad.  Dang it!  No worries.  I put the beef aside for Tom, pitched the broccoli, and moved on to the next meal (fish sticks with creamy dipping sauce, cinnamon carrots, and green beans)...which is actually the meal I SHOULD be eating tonight.  I was a meal behind because of the wonderful cheat meal last Saturday.  So, now I'm right where I should be :)

I don't know if my appetite is greater today, or if I just feel like eating.  Maybe it's that I'm realizing that the MFF experience wasn't as amazing as I had hoped and so now I feel like I HAVE to finish and not that I WANT to finish.  If I was staring a 10# weight loss in the face, I would probably be more enthused.  If I finish at the pace I've started, I can "only" expect 6...and who knows if that will stick around after it's over.

I am so enjoying the Olympic Trials for swimming.  Never thought I would miss swim meets.  Granted, the trials aren't exactly like the swim meets I attended.  Although, some of the same people are there!

Day 17

And now for something entirely different...

I bring you Chicken Fettucini Alfredo, MFF-style.  It's not bad.  I would have gladly traded some sauce for more peas and/or noodles, but it's a nice change from some of the meals that all kind of taste the same.

Breakfast was the third repeat of the H-Town Breakfast--scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes, and fake bacon.  It has gotten better each time I've had it.  Getting used to it, or lowered expectations?

Morning snack was Trail Mix, which was a good complement to the research I was doing for hiking.

Harley & Andie have invited me to go see Madagascar3 with them.  How can I resist???

Day 16 Dinner

Ooops, I was wrong.  Dinner was Fit Nuggets, another winner.  Healthy crumb-coated chicken with broccoli and cinnamon carrots...and mustard!  Do you know how much I love mustard???  Yep, I ate every bit.

Gym this evening.  Another mile...and some incline walking and ellipticaling (is that a word?  guess it is now!).

Day 16 !!!

I can't believe I am sitting down to eat my 4th meal/snack of the day and am just now getting to the computer to talk about it!  Let's see how good my memory is today...

Sunshine breakfast--eggs and stuff--they all taste the same
Chicken/walnut/fruit snack
Flat Iron Tacos--a new one!
Fit 2 Go snack--hardboiled egg, grapes, apple slices, and peanut butter!

You will have to take my word for it, but I promise I didn't have to cheat and look at the menu chart.  I had to think a little bit about the first snack, but I got it without any help.

I am appreciating the organic peanut butter in this snack, but can any peanut butter compare with Jiff???

Here's a very poor pic of the tacos I had for lunch.  Steak chunks, black beans, and salsa on corn tortillas.  It was alright.  Especially enjoyed the corn tortillas.

Dinner brings the return of a favorite, "fish sticks" with a really great sauce.  In between now and then will be some time at the gym, a little house cleaning, and hopefully some quilting!

Day 15 Wrap Up

Ugh...

Waited too long to eat dinner because we got a late start to the gym.  The good news is that I ran a mile!  First mile since I pulled out of the marathon in February.  It's true what they say that the first mile is the hardest.  The bad news is that I think the mashed cauliflower in my dinner had gone bad at some point before I warmed it up.  I tried to eat it, thinking it was just a mental thing, but in the end I just couldn't do it.  It smelled like a dirty, wet tennis shoe.  The chicken was alright, but I had already ate some of the cauliflower and lost my taste for anything in the container.

Here's the infamous meal (with very bad lighting)...

Oh, got my favorite Picnic Time snack this afternoon.  Wish I would have saved a few of the grapes to eat now to change the taste in my mouth.  I know, I'll go brush my teeth and all will be forgotten.  Just don't try to serve me mashed cauliflower anytime soon!

Day 15 ???

Two weeks down with one to go.  I'm down 5- pounds (sounds better than 4+).  My scale is old and not very accurate, but I'm between 4 and 5 pounds lighter than I was 15 days ago.  A very good result so far.  Of course I was hoping to be a little closer to the upper range of expected weight loss on the 21-Day Challenge, but hey, it took me awhile to put them on and I can't expect them to go away overnight.

This morning started with Migas, which was followed with some blueberry Fage yogurt for my mid-morning snack.  As you know, I appreciate the cool meals/snacks, so this was a good one.  Simple Chicken Lunch (rice, chiciken, and broccoli) round out the first part of the day.

Harley watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" last night and talked me into watching it with him today.  Great movie.  I've read one of Dr Furman's books (he is featured in the movie), Eat to Live.  The movie stresses the importance of micro-nutrients and how to get a lot of them through juicing.  Now Harley wants a juicer...

Day 14 Dinner

Thanks to my cheat dinner on Saturday, I am a day behind on my dinners.  So, I ended up with back to back salmon meals today for lunch and dinner.  Dinner was definitely the winner.  I have to admit, I wasn't that excited about Pear Salmon, but it was pretty good.  Well-spiced salmon on a bed of spinach and a pear relish type thing on top.  I was really hungry.  Went to the gym about the time I should be eating, so I didn't waste any time after I got home to warm up my dinner.  Ooops...more than halfway through and no picture!  Here's what's left:

Snack this afternoon was cottage cheese and fruit.  Heavy on the blueberries in this batch.

Had the privilege of watching the women's 400 IM Olympic trial swim this evening.  Haley Anderson swam in lane 8.  She swam with the girls when we lived in Granite Bay.  She missed qualifying for the Olympics in that event, but had qualified earlier in open water swimming.  Woohoo!  Now it's on to the College World Series--game 2 tonight.  Go Gamecocks!

Tomorrow morning I have a date with the scale...

Day 14 Lunch

Well, this should be a very happy day.  Something new for lunch.  However, it is Salmon Stir Fry, and nothing new except for the name.  It's not really much of a stir-fry--just steamed mixed veggies and some seasoned salmon on rice.  (Hey, at least there's seasoning on something!)  Unfortunately salmon just does not sound good today.  Oh, hold on!  There is a slice of water chestnut in my steamed veggies.  Apparently that makes it a stir fry.

The ease of not having to cook is losing its appeal, and the food has become boring and mostly predictable.  Now, lest it sound as if I am discouraged or wishing I had not started this 21-day challenge, that is not so.  It has been a great experience for me and I am glad to have had the opportunity to try it.  Some meals have been more about eating to live than living to eat.  Hopefully when this challenge is over, I can find a balance between the two.

Just another MFF Monday

Rise and Shine Breakfast--same ol' scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and sweet potatoes with cinnamon.  My strategy is still to mix all the parts together.  They taste better that way.  Mid-morning snack is trail mix.  I took a peek at the afternoon snack, cottage cheese with fruit, and considered swapping it, but think I'll do it by the book today and keep things in order.

I'm going to weigh tomorrow after 2 weeks on the plan.  I feel lighter inside, I'm assuming because less food is going in.  It certainly isn't because much is exiting--pretty constipated in spite of the 2 fiber pills and 80+ ounces of water I'm taking every day.  I'm wondering if more fruit/veggies and some whole grains may be beneficial for me?  Some more exercise may be in order as well.  My clothes are not fitting noticeably different.  Maybe my expectations need to be adjusted?

Remainder of Sunday, Day 13

Well, much of the novelty of the MFF program has gone away now that most of my meals are repeats.  There are no meal photos to share, and not a lot of interesting comments about the food.

Lunch was turkey pasta.  The rice pasta was undercooked, and the turkey was spicy, as expected.  Snack was Egg-O-Licious.  The names are kind of silly, but the Egg-O-Licious really is pretty good.  It's egg salad, 2 sticks of celery, and some nut crackers.  Nice to have a cool snack.  The hot breakfast, hot lunch, and hot dinner is a bit much in summer.  Dinner was the Caprese salad that got bumped the night before in favor of the cheat meal at Chuy's :)

Day 13, Back on the Plan

Thirty minutes at the gym this morning and then home for my liver cleanse, vitamins, and the Americano Breakfast--red potatoes, steak chunks, and eggs.

I have strayed from the gym and from running.  So much harder to get started than to stick with it!  I will not run again until I've lost some weight.  The extra weight is too hard on my knees.  I'm hoping my time in the gym will help work with the eating plan to increase my weight loss.

Snack this morning is a crunch bar (same brand as the fish oil bars) and a whole apple :)

Day 12 Cheat Meal !!!

I forgot to share exciting news.  After one week on the MFF plan I earned a cheat meal.  Now, there are rules that go with the cheat meal (drink water with lemon, eat protein first, keep portion size similar...), but hey, a meal that didn't come out of a black plastic container?  And a meal that I get to choose?  I didn't really feel a need to partake of this cheat meal until yesterday.  I was bored with my meals, hungry, and my legs felt weak.  I needed a treat.  So we went to Chuy's (local mexican place) and I got my usual, the Mexi-Cobb Salad.  It was so amazingly delicious.  Don't think I even ate half of it, but it was so good, and such a nice break from the plan.  I realized this morning that I should have taken a picture of it.  Guess I'll have to go back when I earn a second cheat meal :)

Day 12, Saturday

Ahhhhhh...Saturday.  Slept in and got a slow start to the day.  Bought a book for the kindle on the Continental Divide Trail and started reading.  I'm running out of Pacific Crest Trail books.

Breakfast was tacos.  Better this time around, and not as spicy...although the single jalapeno slice was still a welcome addition.  One slice for 2 tacos.  Hmmmm...maybe it's supposed to be a garnish?  Like all the other MFF garnishes, if I can eat 'em, I do.

My morning snack was to be edamame.  Just wasn't feelin' it so early in the day.  So, out of curiosity, I checked my afternoon snack and it was Trail Mix.  The rebel in me gave me permission to switch the snacks.  Much better.  The pack of trail mix has 210 calories, but just doesn't seem to have that much staying power.  Because I got a late start, my meals are a little closer today and that's good because I'm ready for lunch!

Lunch is called Simple Chicken Meal.  I'm guessing "simple" is a code word for "bland".  Looks like chicken, broccoli, and rice.  No seasonings to speak of other than on the chicken.  Oh well, it'll do.

And, no surprises for my snack this afternoon...edamame.

Day 11 Done

Hey, at some point today I crossed the halfway point!  I've got a headache and don't feel much like celebrating, but still good news.

Dinner was not a favorite.  It was a salmon cake on asparagus.  The asparagus was very, very good.  I saved it for last and it still didn't get the salmon cake taste out of my mouth.  The salmon cake was made with salmon (at least that's what the ingredients list said), yellow and red bell peppers, celery, eggs, almond flour, and flax meal.  The peppers and celery didn't appear to be cooked at all, so the crunch they added made me keep thinking there was a salmon bone (or two of three) in the mix.  It was a very dry and tasteless thing.  No thank you, MFF.

Yes, that is a bite taken out of the salmon cake.  I started eating before I remembered the photo session.  There is also a piece of asparagus missing...oh, and the little lemon wedge added to dress things up, and to add some moisture and taste to the salmon cake.  It would have needed a whole lemon to do that!

I picked up a full menu at MFF this morning when I was picking up my next few days' worth of food.  Turns out almost all their meals are gluten-free.  I have only had 2 non-gluten-free meals the last 10 days.

Breakfast on Day 11

I woke up hungry this morning.  I drank my liver cleanse first thing.  Can you believe it's beginning to almost taste sweet to me?  Then I proceeded to line up my pills in preparation for breakfast.  My plan was to warm up breakfast in the microwave while I took my pills.  I opened the door in the fridge where I keep my meals and it was completely empty!  What happened to my breakfast?!?!  Panic ensued for a few seconds before I realized it was Friday morning and I was supposed to pick up more meals last night!  Uh oh.  So, off to My Fit Foods I went first thing this morning.  Needless to say, I really appreciated my breakfast by the time I got home!

Breakfast was Mix N Mash, a combo of rice, chicken, a little egg, red & yellow peppers, and cheese.  It was alright.  Filled the hole in my belly.  I was thankful it wasn't a super spicy one.  A creamy bowl of oatmeal with some fruit, nuts, and cinnamon would have been nice...but I know better.

Breakfast was a repeat, so no need for a picture.  My snack however, is new!  It's called Fit 2 Go and includes 3 apple slices, red grapes, a hard-boiled egg...and, could it be?, yes!...peanut butter!  Oh how I've missed you, peanut butter!

Met a friend at Starbucks this morning.  I checked with my nutrition counselor at MFF yesterday to find out if I had any options to order other than water.  Yes I did...green tea.  This is new territory for me because normally a trip to Starbucks involves a lot of cream and sugar in the form of a caramel frappacino.  This is obviously not a good choice on so many levels, but when your taste buds are left in charge, things like that happen.  So, green tea it was, and there were 3 flavors to choose from.  I asked what was most popular and went that route.  It was Zen, and I don't recommend it.  I can't imagine the other flavors being worse.  It tasted a lot like hot water steeped in grass, hay, and weeds.  All for the low price of $2.33.  Somebody is laughing somewhere.

Late with breakfast, late with snack.  Looks like the rest of my meals today may be just 2 hours apart.

Day 10 MFF Dinner

Dinner was all about the pesto.  Yum, yum.  The rest was not terribly exciting...chicken on top of zucchini, summer squash, onions, red pepper, and one lonely slice of mushroom.  But, oh, the pesto :)  Boy I love that stuff.  When most of the meals are seasoned with heat or cinnamon, a new flavor is very welcome.  Yesterday I got mustard, and today, pesto.  I don't think they can top that tomorrow.

Harley and his phone are at work so the photo quality is back to poor.

This completes Day 10.

Good Day and Welcome to Day 10 MFF

Today is an almost all repeat day.  I figure there is no need to repost pictures...although I'm happy to do it.  Don't MAKE me buy a new iphone so I can take and post more beautiful pictures of meals you've already seen at least once!

It has been interesting to me to judge the differences in the same meals from one time to another, as well as my enjoyment of said meals.  At my "get started meeting" I didn't eliminate any foods as dislikes.  And then early on I decided not to make any decisions based on one meal...unless it was truly awful.  So far this has been a good strategy.  There can be quite a bit of difference between the same meal on two occasions.  The first "Fit Cottage" had barely enough cottage cheese to stand up to the cinnamon sprinkled on top.  The second time, the container was full of cottage cheese and barely any cinnamon.  Sometimes the sweet potatoes are perfectly cooked and taste good with the cinnamon on top.  This morning's sweet potatoes were so hard I could barely stab them with a fork.

Thoughts and opinions at the almost-halfway-point...  The breakfasts are not like what I am used to.  Most taste better all mixed up.  Some snacks are large and very satisfying (Picnic Time) and some are small and would be better with even a slice or two of fruit (bars and trail mix).  Breakfasts and lunches are almost all hot meals.  I enjoyed the cool chicken wrap and fruit yesterday.  Maybe it's just because it's summer.  Why no soup?  Seems like the content of most meals would lend themselves very well to soup.  Maybe it's hard to pack as a take-out meal?  Maybe it's because it's summer?

Breakfast today consisted of scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes, and turkey sausage.  Snack was a bar.  Lunch is spicy ground turkey, rice, and asparagus.  Afternoon snack is chicken chunks, walnuts, grapes, apple slice, orange slice, grapefruit chunk.  Dinner is something new, so I will post a picture when I get there.  Hint:  there is a small tub of pesto :)

Day 9 Dinner

Chicken Nuggets, My Fit Foods style.  Another picture with nice color, courtesy of Harley's iphone.  Steamed broccoli, cinnamon carrots (really getting tired of these), and mustard for the chicken.  Yes, I used every bit of it!  I even found a leaf of parsley that was presumably added as a garnish.  Yep, ate that too.  The chicken was alright.  To be honest, the mustard was my favorite part of the meal.  I LOVE mustard though and it's a flavor I haven't had in awhile.

Little bit of a frustrating afternoon.  It was interesting that I thought of food a few times.  Nothing really came to mind as far as a craving, and I didn't even consider the possibility of eating something not on my list, but still makes me wonder how many times I've had something to eat when things weren't going well.  Like any food can fix anything other than hunger.

Day 9 MFF

Hey, wait a minute?!?!  That's not a MFF meal!  Nope, it's the deer who braved the barking dogs to come check out my front yard.  And yes, I know it's June and there is no patriotic holiday in June.  However, once you reach the midway point between Memorial Day and the 4th of July, it's OK to leave the bunting on the railing.  I think it's a State law or something.

H-Town breakfast this morning.  It was a repeat.  Eggs, potatoes, and fake bacon (facon?)  It was better this time around.  I didn't check my snack ahead of time, but boy was I happy when I found out it was a Picnic Time snack!  Think I did a happy dance right then and there in front of my chart of meals.  It can be very easy to make me happy  :)

Lunch was something new.  It was a chicken wrap with a couple slices each of apple and orange.  Lots of dried cranberries in the chicken salad.  It was plenty sweet, but good, and a nice change of pace.  Harley took the pic for me.  His iphone works much better than my dumb phone.  Faster too.  I'm still waiting for the pic from my phone to make it to my inbox.  Not really, but it's almost that bad.

A small bag of trail mix is my snack this afternoon.  I need to get some water--think I've fallen a little behind today.  No worries because I'm usually way ahead of schedule on my 80 oz.

Day 8 Wrap Up

Quilt bee today and everyone decided to go to Pot Belly for sandwiches.  No problem.  I packed my MFF chicken enchiladas and off we went.  My discipline was rewarded with one of the best MFF meals I've had on the program.  Yum, yum!  My expectations were a little off.  I was guessing red sauce and spicy.  Instead it was a creamy (yogurt-based) cilantro/jalapeno sauce over the enchiladas...and there were real black beans with salsa.  It was very delicious.

Snack #2 today was my first EAS protein drink and a whole apple!  Originally they had given me a chocolate drink.  I exchanged that for vanilla before I left the store.  I will try strawberry next time.  It was tolerable, but I wouldn't want to make a habit out of drinking them.  The apple on the other hand was so great.  It was huge--bigger than my fist.  A very sweet, crunchy Fuji apple.  Thank you, may I have another???

Dinner was pepper steak.  Yes, there was pepper, and yes, there was steak.  I would have preferred green peppers instead of yellow, but not a big deal.  It was served on a bed of finely shredded carrots--didn't really go with it.  And then, the mashed potatoes I was hoping for?  Nope, mashed cauliflower.  I have heard that mashed cauliflower can be substituted for mashed potatoes, but I've never tried it.  Now I can say with confidence that it is a substitute in appearance only!  It should always come with a warning label.

Welcome to Day 8 MFF

One full week complete!  This has been a very simple eating plan to follow.  What some of the meals may lack in "wow" is more than made up for with the ease of planning and preparation.  It's almost like having a personal chef...actually it's exactly like having a personal chef--one who cooks whatever he wants to cook for you!

The liver cleanse is no big deal by now.  And, even the vitamins aren't such a huge, overwhelming task.  The biggest hurdle I anticipate is going to be dealing with the monotony of the food.  There really is quite a bit of variety, but the similarities in most of the meals are hard to miss.

Today starts with two repeat meals, migas for breakfast and the cottage cheese + fruit (the one in the round bowl!) as a snack.  The next three meals are all new--enchiladas (sight unseen I'm going to guess they are chicken and fairly spicy), a protein drink & apple for a snack, and pepper steak for dinner (lots of pepper, bland veggies underneath, maybe rice but hopefully potatoes--just a guess).

It's a quilt bee day so I get to spend the day sewing with my friends.  I'll need to pack a meal or two.

Pictures to follow this evening...

Back to Day 7

Ahhhh, back to Day 7.  I feel better.  No fun to have to catch up.  You know when they joke about old people not remembering what they had for lunch yesterday?  Well, it's no joke.  I had to refer to the chart of my meals to recreate yesterday.

Another slow day for me.  I did manage to squeeze in a yoga class this afternoon at 4:30.  Lousy time to exercise, but it was in the general direction of My Fit Foods and I needed to pick up my next batch of food this evening :)

My snack this morning was a favorite.  It was my second time for this snack, Picnic Time.  I neglected to get a picture last time, so here ya' go:

What's not to love with this snack?  It's got a little bit of everything.  I really appreciated the fruit.  Never thought I'd get so excited over a handful of grapes and 3 slices of an apple!

Lunch was another chicken selection dubbed "Crazy Chicken".  I don't know where the crazy was.  It was chicken on green beans and some mashed sweet potatoes.  There was one piece of walnut in the sweet potatoes.  I was expecting it because I saw it listed in the ingredients.  Maybe that was the "crazy"?!  Ha, sneaky MFF food preparer--found it!

This afternoon I had a snack of one of the "fish oil" bars.  Back to chocolate mint this time.  Much better.

Dinner tonight was chili.  Wouldn't have been my first choice.  I think my stomach is a little irritated from all the excedrin I've consumed the last 3 days.  So far, so good.  I've had the MFF chili before, at a tour of the MFF facility.  This batch wasn't as spicy and today that was a welcome thing.  Did ya' catch the little green garnish?  Cute  :)

Day 6 Catch Up

I kind of ran out of steam yesterday and forgot to post some pictures and meal reviews. So, here it is in a nutshell...

Lunch was a chicken taco bowl.  Alright.  Tasted a lot like a lot of other things.  Would have been better with a tortilla, or corn chips, or refried beans :)

Snack of edamame.  Yummy sweet/salty dip.

Worst dinner to date.  Tilapia and veggies.  The tilapia tasted dirty.  I'm blaming the mushrooms.  The carrots were hard.  And the mushroom/caper "relish"???  Ewwww...it went in the trash.

Day 7 MFF Breakfast

I could go for a grapefruit and some steel-cut oats this morning...but that's not what's on my schedule.  Part of what the 21-Day Challenge tries to accomplish is a change in habits.  Cereal or oatmeal is definitely a habit of mine, and the nutritional make up of the MFF breakfasts is very different from cereal.  Will I be able to make a permanent change from what I want to what I need?

My MFF breakfast looks pretty good today.  It tastes much like all the other variations of rice, spicy ground turkey, eggs, and salsa.  But hey, gotta give 'em credit for trying to mix it up.

My snack at 10:30 this morning is "Picnic Time".  This was the snack I enjoyed so much a few days ago--nut crackers, almonds, dried cranberries, chunks of cheese, apples and grapes :)

Welcome to Day 6 MFF

Slow start to the day.  Added to my long list of pills this morning were a couple extra-strength Excedrin to hopefully dull the pain of a second round of cramps.  I can promise you that the show tune "I Enjoy Being a Girl" was not written by a girl on her period!

Food was the furthest thing from my mind this morning, but breakfast must go on.  I had to chuckle this morning when there was beef tenderloin with my breakfast.  It was like leftovers from dinner last night!  Not a problem because it was good, and it was served with the creamy red potatoes that were present with the BBQ earlier in the week.  Nice.  Tasteless scrambled eggs rounded out the meal.  I used my usual method of mixing the eggs with whatever else was part of the meal.

Craving a cold glass of Tropicana lots-of-pulp OJ this morning.  A snack with fruit would have been appreciated this morning, but alas, it was a bar.  Yes, one of those "fish oil" bars.  It was dark chocolate peanut flavored.  Chocolate is not a favorite, and the dark variety doesn't help.  It was edible though and I really don't care much about flavor today.

Planning on taking it easy on the couch today, and accepting offers from Tom to bring me water.  Happy Father's Day.

Day 5 MFF complete

Ahhhhh, red meat.  It's been awhile!  After 5 days of only chicken and fish, some red meat was a very nice change of pace.  And it was good!  It was served on a bed of spinach, mushrooms, carrots and onions.  However, the beef tenderloin was definitely the star of the show.

I haven't peeked ahead to see what tomorrow's menu holds.  We will both be in suspense until then!

MFF Mid Day 5

Well, today started off on the wrong foot.  I was supposed to weigh, but forgot about it until after I'd taken the liver cleanse, drank 12 oz of water, consumed all my many pills, and was halfway through breakfast.  In addition, today is not a day of the month that is traditionally a "light" day :(

Lunch was a very spicy Cajun Shrimp.  Yes, I am close enough to Louisiana that I know very well what the "cajun" in the title means.  And, with a company who can make breakfast spicy, I pretty much knew what to expect with this meal.  Once again, 2 carefully placed spears of asparagus.  When it is obvious in my meals that things have been counted out, I always think about the guy in the kitchen whose job it is to count out "5 almonds" or whatever in each container.  I'm sure it's a job assigned to the guy who draws the short straw...or maybe the guy who shows up late.  Or maybe I'm all wrong and it's the favorite job!  Either way, I'm thinking of you, my MFF food-counting-guy!

Now, someone was thinking when they put together my meal plan.  My snack this afternoon is blueberry Greek yogurt.  Some of that cool, creaminess would be good right about now to tone down the heat in my mouth.  Too bad I have to wait 2-1/2 to 3 hrs for it.

TJ & I went to a Yin Yoga class this morning.  Very relaxing.  Leave it to TJ though to be frustrated with other drivers though before we had left our parking spot!  I guess what happens at yoga stays at yoga.

Since Tuesday when I started with MFF, I have not had any fatigue issues.  I have also been sleeping...a LOT.  Part of me is very optimistic that losing weight and eating so healthy will help my chronic fatigue.  So, I can't help but feel a little disappointed this afternoon because my legs are very weak :(  I'm trying to keep a positive attitude and am blaming hormones.  Yeah!  That's the ticket!

Good Morning, Day 5 :)

A funny thing happened this morning.  I was laying in bed this morning, enjoying a quiet Saturday morning, and my stomach growled!  First time since I've started the MFF program.

This morning's feature presentation is a bland little number called "Mix-N-Mash".  I started stirring it a bit before I remembered its photo op.

 

Now, I am all for spicy foods, but some breakfasts have been too much on the spicy side for me.  This one, which looks great, is very blah.  I think some balancing out of the spices would be a good call.

This breakfast mix includes eggs, parboiled rice, chicken, red and yellow peppers, and cheese.  The last ingredient listed is:  natural spices.  I think I see some flecks of something spice-like on the chicken, not sure anything resembling a spice made it anywhere else in the container.  Still, a nice solid breakfast.  Fills the empty spot in my stomach but doesn't leave me wanting more.  Nope, one small container is enough.

Mid-morning snack is a pack of trail mix including almonds, blueberries, tart cherries, carob chips, cashews, cranberries, and walnuts.  Yum.  Looking forward to this one!

Day 4 MFF--Snack, Dinner, First Impressions

I really enjoyed my afternoon snack.  It was called "Picnic Time".  Apples, grapes, cheese chunks, nut crackers, dried cranberries, and almonds.  Lots of food, lots of variety.  It was all good :)

I have been looking forward to this Cobb salad since I put it in my refrigerator yesterday evening.  Huge disappointment.  How can that be?  It looks so good, right?  So much lettuce that I really didn't taste anything else.  But the biggest problem was the dressing.  Not good.  Try again, MFF.

Best way to mix all the salad ingredients that are jammed into the package?  Put it all in a gallon-sized ziploc bag and shake.  With such limited dressing, this way it has a chance of touching most of the ingredients.

I've talked a lot about the food part of this 21-Day Challenge, but not a lot about how I've been feeling.  I was told the first 4 days are the worst and my energy levels should begin to improve after that.  I haven't thought these days were bad, so I'm anxious for the next 17 days!  The worst part, as I'm sure you know by now is the pills.  I recognize that is a personal problem though.  The daily calories average 1200 which is not much.  I expected hunger all the time but that hasn't been the case at all.  Sometimes I haven't even thought about the next meal/snack when it's time to eat.  Sometimes I think I'd like to eat when I'm 30-45 min away from a meal/snack, but my stomach isn't growling and I'm not hungry in the way that I've felt before MFF.  Day 2 was tough only because I felt kinda woozy and cotton-headed.  All I can guess is that it had something to do with detoxing--probably from the influence of the artificial sweeteners in my body...and who knows what else!  I am not on a gluten-free plan, but I don't think there's been any obvious gluten in the food I've been given.  The 80 oz of water was a big concern, however, I find myself easily drinking about 100 oz a day.  My MFF nutritionist wants a weight tomorrow to make sure my body is responding as it should.  I'm curious to see what the scale says.

Day 4 MFF Snack and Lunch

I was late with my snack today.  Running around this morning and my snack needed to be refrigerated, so I just left without it.  If I would have thought about it, I probably could have substituted a more travel-friendly snack, but I didn't.  MFF wants each meal to be separated by no more than 3 hours.  Ooops...today was 4.  Funny because I felt like I needed to eat, but I didn't feel hungry.  Strange.  Picked up Chick Fil A for TJ on the way home.  He's working a 10-hr shift at the pool today.  Wasn't even tempted to sneak a waffle fry.  As for my snack, it was a repeat from one I've had before.  It was chunks of chicken, walnuts, grapes, and slices of apple, orange, and grapefruit.  By the time I ate it, I wasn't that picky.  The fresh fruit was great.

Today's lunch entree was BBQ chicken on green beans with a sort of mashed potato thing.  The potatoes were my favorite part of this dish.  Beans were boring.  I'm assuming they have tried cayenne and cinnamon on them and that didn't work, so they are plain.  The chicken tasted like chicken.  Calling it BBQ is a stretch.  But the potatoes were creamy and delicious.

It's Day 4 Already!!!

I had a bit of a staring contest with my vitamins this morning.  It took awhile to work up the willpower to get them down, but they are all nestled snugly in my stomach right now, doing whatever it is they are supposed to do.

The liver cleanse, on the other hand, is getting much easier.  This morning I was drinking it thinking I had forgotten one of the ingredients because it just didn't taste as sour as I remembered.  Nope, they were all there.  Hmmmm...maybe I should just open up all the capsules and grind up the pills and add them to the liver cleanse???  The fish oil may be a deal breaker with that plan.

Can't say I was very excited about breakfast this morning.  It was dubbed "Rise and Shine" which is a silly name for a meal.  It consisted of eggs (again, underseasoned), turkey sausage (again, overseasoned), and chunks of sweet potato (again, with cinnamon).  I'm already thinking I could cook for these people--put very spicy seasonings in anything that will support it, cinnamon on others, and if no spice will work just leave it plain.

Sorry the picture isn't better.  The sun was "rising and shining" in the window.

Day 3 MFF--Snack and Dinner

No snack pic today.  I grabbed it to go and ate it at Toyota while they changed my oil--and washed my car :)  The snack was interesting.  A scoop of egg salad and 3 celery sticks along with some "nut crackers".  I hadn't expected much, but it was pretty good.  Very excited for dinner tonight.  So excited that I dumped it out of the container into a big ziploc bag to distribute the dressing and ingredients, put it on a plate, and started eating before I took a picture!  They call it a caprese salad, but it only barely resembles that.  It was a LOT of arugula, halved cherry tomatoes, 2 small fresh mozzerella balls, and shrimp.  It was OK.  Would have benefitted from more mozzerella.  BTW, the plate is very large.  It was a lot of food.

This evening I picked up my food for the next 4 days.  I walked in, gave them my name, and they go to the back and come back with 2 bags of food.  I was out in just a minute or two.  Pretty slick,  There is some good lookin' food coming up!

MFF Day 3 Lunch...and Yoga???

Well, here is a sentence I thought I would never type...  "So, TJ & I just got back from yoga."  What?!?!  The dad of one of TJ's friends is paying for yoga for the boys for the summer.  His theory being that his son wouldn't go alone, but if they could go together he just might do it.  They are both baseball pitchers and yoga is supposed to be beneficial for them.  TJ's been bugging me to go, and today was the day.  Not only was it yoga, but it was HOT yoga, which doesn't make a lick of sense in Houston.  A rational person in this climate would be seeking out cool places to exercise--a gym with a/c, a pool, ice skating, etc.  But go to yoga we did.  I survived.  I think my face is still red.  I signed up for a month.  We'll see how it goes.

On to more important things, like sustenance for the next yoga session.  Today's lunch was a bit of a disappointment.  It was salmon on quinoa with broccoli.  It was nice and colorful, but can't say quinoa is that great, at least without a lot of seasoning which this did not have.  Ditto with the broccoli.  The salmon was probably OK.  I mixed it with the quinoa to make the quinoa taste better.  I'm wondering how many times I can type quinoa in one paragraph?  I probably ate pretty fast because I was really hungry after yoga, so maybe didn't give it a fair shot.  It will probably show up again next week.

Day 3 MFF--Liver Cleanse and Breakfast

The thought of waking up to the liver cleanse is bad enough.  It's really quite a jolt to the taste buds.  But it's the thought of needing to take the vitamins that is enough to keep me in bed.  Changed my tactic this morning and didn't even try swallowing them--just shoved them down my throat one at a time.  Yuck!

After all that I wasn't even rewarded with a good breakfast.  The eggs weren't really tolerable on their own--but OK mixed with the very spicy potatoes.  The turkey bacon?  Now that's just weird.  Didn't taste too bad, but didn't taste like bacon either.

I'm still congested and still feeling funny in my head.  I'm thinking an ice-cold Coke would probably help both, but I'm determined to see this through.

After 5 this evening I can pick up my next 4 days of food.  So far the only repeat has been the 2 bars I've had as snacks.  Near as I can tell from my master plan, there is about a week's worth of meals without a repeat, so I can plan on having each meal 3x in the 21 days.  That's more variety than I'm used to.  I think lunch today is salmon on quinoa.  Stay tuned.

Day 2 MFF Dinner...and Fabric?!?!

Can I just say that I'm glad I don't have to take vitamins before dinner???  Whew--I feel better getting that off my chest.  They are definitely the hardest part of this eating plan for me

I needed to meet a friend at the quilt shop today.  (Yes, needed is the correct word in this instance.)  While I was there, I picked up some fabric I needed...honest!  I had planned on squelching my hunger pains with the all-consuming excitement of starting a new quilt, but I haven't really needed to do that.  Actually I'm feeling too fuzzy right now to concentrate on a new project.  However, buying fabric is easy!  This way it's ready when I am :)

Dinner tonight is fish sticks on a bed of green beans and carrots.  The green beans are nice and bright.  The carrots look as if they have been soaked in soy sauce and partially dehydrated.  Just my first impression.

OK, here goes for the review...  It's cinnamon on the carrots, not soy sauce--well of course it is!  Spice is the MFF way.  Sounds weird, but it's kind of good.  The green beans are the weak link here.  They're not bad, just boring.  I will admit that I was nervous for the fish.  I don't mind fish, but don't go out of my way for it.  The fish sticks are made from tilapia.  Cooking in the oven may have made them a little crispier.  Microwaves aren't so good at making things crispy.  It doesn't matter though because I'm hungry and they are actually very good.  The winner of the evening is the sauce for the fish.  It is very tasty and there's plenty of it.  Well done, MFF, well done.

Day 2 MFF Lunch & Snack

It has been brought to my attention that my photography doesn't do anything to enhance the attractiveness of the food in the MFF plan.  Thank you, Cate!  I am trying a new tactic with lunch and taking it outside for its photo shoot.  Now, please take notice that MFF really pulled out all the stops on this meal by adding a green leaf as an embellishment or garnish--hey, call it what you want, I'm calling it lunch!

This dish is called Turkey Pasta, however a more appropriate title might be Spicy Mushroom Pasta.  Bear in mind that I am not a big fan of mushrooms, so I notice every one.  I did have the option to declare any dislikes ahead of time and my meals would be adjusted accordingly.  Instead I opted to be open-minded and eat my mushrooms.  The pasta is a brown rice spaghetti.  Never heard of it before, but it tastes (and looks) like regular pasta.  The spiciness has become familiar and expected...although it does kind of make things all taste the same.

Bella is whining for a taste.  It must smell like food to her.  Although no one would describe her as a picky eater, so take her opinions with a grain of salt.  Speaking of, this dish was not lacking in salt.  Maybe it's just the egg dishes that I feel could use a little more.

My snack this afternoon is another bar.  I am optimistic that the chocolate peanut butter will be even better than the chocolate mint.  Although this time I have the knowledge that it is "The sweetest way to get fish oil".  Ewwww...

Day 2 Breakfast and Snack

 Breakfast Tacos, a la My Fit Foods.  These were alright--tasted a lot like the Migas yesterday, but with more tortilla and that's a good thing.  See the single slice of jalapeno?  Would hate to overdo that!

And now for something entirely different...

A round container!!!  Big surprise!  Small serving of cottage cheese with a dash of cinnamon (MFF LOVES cinnamon...and spice).  If I had been dishing this up, I would have deemed it too small of an amount of cottage cheese to even dirty a spoon...which I guess is in part why I need this eating adjustment!  Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and pineapple round out this morning snack.

I feel stuffy this morning.  Yes, I'm congested--it hit the first night I got home from the quilt retreat (5 days ago).  But, it's more than that.  I feel like my head is stuffed with cotton and I'm kinda loopy.  I don't know if it is the result of the congestion, or some kind of withdrawal from some of the things I regularly fed by body in the name of food.  I'm sure it has something to do with the vitamins.  Yeah, that's it, I'm sure!  (Vitamins which, by the way, I managed to ingest without tears this morning.  I was quite certain the little gel caplets attached along the way to my stomach because by the time I eventually swallowed them they were a little sticky.  I'm sure they eventually made it there.  I did my best to drown them.  Only 48 oz more to go today!)

MFF Day 1 Success

Pictured is my afternoon snack yesterday--chunks of seasoned chicken, walnuts, grapes, and a slice each of apple, orange, and grapefruit.  This was pretty good.  The fruit especially was very good.  I was wondering just how good prepackaged fruit would be, but it was sweet and fresh.

Dinner--spinach salad with chicken, feta cheese, red onion, and blueberries.  Also a very runny balsamic vinaigrette.  This meal was also a winner.  The dressing wasn't great, but once I took it out of the package and mixed it all up, there was a lot of food and it kept me full a long time.

We had a storm blow in last night.  Lost power and my phone died.  It brought some rain, so no need to water the garden today!  It also dropped the temperature by about 20 degrees.  We went up to the local sports bar to watch OKC beat the Heat (YES!) and it was 70 degrees on the way home.  So nice.  It actually felt cool.  Can't say that very often in Houston in June!

Day 1 MFF Lunch and Snack

This is My Fit Foods' Lemon Turkey lunch.  The ingredients list shows:  ground turkey, parboiled rice, asparagus, lemon, lemon juice, butter (cream), natural spices.  As you can see, the asparagus was carefully counted out.  I don't know if it's supposed to be part of the meal or a garnish.  Ditto with the lemon.  The only thing I didn't eat was the lemon peel.  These containers are barely an inch tall, so it's not a lot of food.  This container claims to have 220 calories--the food contained in it, that is.  It was another very spicy meal.  And, it was surprisingly salty--didn't expect that.  Breakfast would have benefitted from a little more salt, lunch a little less.

My morning snack was a bar, Oatmega 3 Wellness Bar by Boundless Nutrition (Austin TX).  The package claims it is "The "Sweetest" way to get fish oil!"  Good thing I read that now and not before I ate it!  Snack this afternoon appears to be chunked chicken, red grapes, walnuts, apple slice, orange slice, and grapefruit chunk.  Gotta wait 2-1/2 hrs for that one.

I'm making good progress on my water consumption.  Over halfway.  At the grocery store today they had Sparkling Ice on sale and in flavors I hadn't seen before.  Grapefruit?!?!  Are you kidding me?  First small dose of willpower to pass on that.  I was a little hungry before my lunch, but not for long.  Had another dose of tears getting down my vitamins.  Will it ever get easier???  Thankfully there have been no fish burps.  I have avoided fish oil for that reason alone.  Maybe all the spicy food is to cover them up?

Day 1 MFF 21-Day Challenge

Woke up this morning for my date with the bathroom scale.  It had been awhile and let's just say I was not pleasantly surprised.  My first task of the day was to drink the liver cleanse.  It is not something to look forward to, but easy enough.  The recipe used to include 12 oz of water which just prolonged the misery.  Better to just keep the amount to a minimum and get it down.  The vitamins were next.  Nine big, smelly pills.  Swallowing pills does not come natural to me and the biggest of the bunch needed some assistance in the form of my finger shoving it down my throat.  By the time I was finished my eyes were watering and I had consumed 12 of the 80 oz of required daily water.  I get to do it all over again at lunch.  Oh joy.  Sorry, don't know how to turn the picture.  A little help, Lauren?  On to breakfast...

This morning's first meal of the day was Migas.  It bore no resemblance to the fluffy egg, potato, cheese, tortilla strip Migas I'd had in the past.  I'm hoping my little container was the last one they filled and all that was left in the serving bowl was onions and spices.  If not, I can't say this is a meal I'd order again.  The onions and red peppers could have used a little more cooking as they were pretty crunchy.  Lots of spice--that's my overwhelming opinion of this dish.  The good news is that when I was done I didn't want to keep eating.

Part of this plan is you eat every 2-1/2 to 3 hours.  I'm getting close to my next "meal" which is considered a snack and I'm not hungry.  More than anything I feel water-logged from my attempt to stay on top of my daily requirement of 80 oz.  Maybe that's part of the plan?  I'm already dreading the pills at lunch...

My Fit Foods

Tomorrow starts the beginning of the My Fit Foods 21-Day Challenge.  I am so ready for something to reverse my current eating trend.  Tomorrow's menu:  Migas, a bar, Lemon Turkey, Chicken Fruit Bowl, and Chicken Berry Salad.  Menus and nutrition info can be found at www.myfitfoods.com.  All meals/snacks are 3 hrs apart.  80 oz of water per day.  Oh, and how can I forget the liver cleanse first thing in the morning:  1/2 c unsweetened cranberry juice, 1 T apple cider vinegar, 1/2 lemon squeezed, and 1 oz liquid B-12.  I've done that part before.  It really wakes you up!  Ewwww...I'm making faces while I'm typing just thinking about it.  If you're not familiar with My Fit Foods, all the food is pre-cooked and pre-portioned.  I can already tell that's part of my problem--I would have been a little more generous with portions if I were the one dishing them up!  Daily calories are approximately 1200 calories.  There are vitamins as well.  I will report back tomorrow with my meal reviews.