I know this lunch must have tasted good, but I am so swollen and congested today that I can’t really taste anything. The textures were really great, though – so I guess that’s the best I can do right now. :( I made a sandwich on toasted Euro rye bread with the last black bean burger from Veganomicon; a Light Laughing Cow wedge, some delicious CSA spinach, and some great mustard. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: mustards, sauces, jams and jellies are worth their weight in gold. They’re totally worth the extra $$ for something great. So here’s my sandwich:

I also had a coconut bar:

I took a little bite out of the corner. :)   Lunch was 519 calories, 90g carbs, 6g fat, and 30g protein.

I did end up going up on the roof, but after 15 min, I started feeling really sickly.  Maybe the sun was draining my energy?  Have a great Friday afternoon, guys!

Yikes.  This afternoon was definitely a lesson in the need to plan ahead! Before I left work, I had a Luna Bar:

Snack was 180 calories, 24g carbs, 5g fat, and 10g protein.

I got out of work early and managed to get the laundry and do my chores on time.  I was in my gym clothes about to walk out the door when I decided that, yes, I definitely did want to bake something tonight.  I looked around the kitchen and noticed we only had about 1/4c of sugar left.  So it had to be something that didn’t need a bunch of sugar.  I grabbed Veganomicon and flipped through it, finding a recipe for Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake that used firm tofu.  Well, I knew I had a block of tofu that was on it’s way out  – so even though I can take or leave pound cake, I decided on that.  I was reading through the recipe and saw that you needed to whip the tofu before using it.  And before I knew what I was doing, I was elbow deep in whipped tofu, when I was supposed to be at the gym!  Grr!  So fine, I’m making the recipe, cruising along, and I go to add the next ingredient, I find to my surprise that it’s 1 1/4c sugar!  Grr again!  So in the middle of the recipe (Martha Stewart would be appalled), I had to run next door to the expensive grocery store (Balducci’s) for an extremely overpriced bag of sugar (Grr three times!).  When I finally got it in the oven, it took over an hour to bake, keeping me trapped in the apt all that time.  During the baking, I calculated the recipe and was shocked to find that a thin slice was 207 calories, 30g carbs, 8g fat, 4g protein, and 18g sugar!! Grr, grr, GRR!  After it finally got out of the oven, it occurred to me that most pound cakes are light blond, and mine was dark – because I had used whole wheat flour!!  Oyy.  And although the cake is pretty good (Peter loved it),  there were just too many mistakes involved for me to be happy with it.  (Plus I don’t even love pound cake that much.)  Here’s the cake cooling:

And here’s Peter’s piece, smothered in warm raspberries:

I saved three pieces and am bringing the rest to the office tomorrow.  Between bowl liking and crumble snacking, I’m assuming I ate about 3/4 of a piece.  Snack was 155 calories, 23g carbs, 6g fat, and 3g protein.

While the cake was cooling, I grabbed a Pre Workout Snack of Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel Bread with a tbsp peanut butter:

Pre Workout Snack was 175 calories, 21g carbs, 9g fat, and 7g protein.

I had a great workout at the gym!  I did a Cardio Smorgas: treadmill with weights, Cardio Wave, Step mill, and Elliptical.  The real star of the workout was the Cardio Wave.  I had such a great burn on that guy!  Towards the end, I was really in a great groove on the Elliptical – total workout high!  I was on my last song – one of my favorite cardio jams – when I got a bad case of Elliptical foot.  You know, that painful, twitchy feeling in your feet after too many machines?  Ow!  I worked through it though.  Cardio Smorgas – 506 calories burned.

When I got home, I had minimal appetite, as per usual after a hard workout.  But I needed something, so I grabbed a yogurt and threw in some berries:

I ate about 3/4 of this.  Snack was 90 calories, 17g carbs, 0g fat, 5g protein.

I’m exhausted!  Night guys!

I think one of the biggest reasons why I’ve been successful with weight loss this time around, and not in any of my previous attempts, is my new-found ability to change up my strategies. I used to think that if a certain strategy worked in the past, that’s the only strategy that will ever work for me. I remember for 6 months during Freshman year in college I worked out for 60 min on the elliptical at 6 AM. Not that it’s a bad workout schedule, but there was no room for flexibility. If I was sick, or had a late night studying (or partying) or whatever, it didn’t matter – I had to be at the gym at 6 AM for 60 min on the elliptical. I remember one time the gym was closed unexpectedly and I freaked out. It was that rigidness that made it impossible to keep up. It wasn’t a lifestyle – it was a schedule, and a rigorous one at that.

I bring this up because lately I’ve been getting crazy hungry after work because I’ve been waiting until after I work out to eat dinner. But by the time I get home from the gym, I ’ve lost my appetite and end up eating just to eat, which prevents me from trying new things or having fun with my meals. So I switched things up today in order to stay happy and satisfied all afternoon and evening. I had a small snack at the office, then another snack, dinner, then had my workout snack, then worked out. MUCH better! Here’s the breakdown:

Towards the end of the workday, my stomach began to growl. So I had about 7 raw cashews:

Snack was 55 calories, 3g carbs, 4g fat, and 2g protein.  That held me over.

Once I got out of work, I ran some errands including getting a polish change (to Galapa-ghost, a peachy-white) and hitting the drugstore. I had a new Lunabar along the way: Cookies n’ Cream Delight:

Snack was 180 calories, 26g carbs, 5g fat, and 10g protein.  This was a good flavor!  I am LOVING my quest for Luna bar flavors.  It makes snacking so fun! :)   (Love the deli flowers in the background!)

Once I got back home, I decided to have dinner! And because it was earlier in the evening, I had the energy to try a new recipe! I made black bean burgers from Veganomicon, served on a Ezekiel hamburger bun (seriously the best bun in the history of the world – go and buy some today!  You will not be sorry) alongside some blackberries and ketchup for dipping:

Even though I loved loved loved this burger, I realized after the fact that I messed up the proportions of the recipe.  Oh well.  Mine was still delicious (and actually less caloric!).  Dinner was 428 calories, 79g carbs, 3g fat, and 29g protein.  I have one of these burgers left…this will definitely be a repeat recipe.

So the last part of my switchup was my workout!  A few hrs after dinner I had a slice Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel Bread with a tbsp PB:

Pre Workout Snack was 175 calories, 21g carbs, 9g fat, and 7g protein.

At the gym, I did half my workout on the step mill, but got bored.  So I got off.  Switching it up again!  Who says I can only do the stepmill?  It’s a big gym – I can do whatever I feel like!  So I finished up with treadmill with weights, Cardio Wave, and elliptical.  Cardio Smorgas = 458 calories burned.

So now I’m home and feeling great.  The plan worked!….for today.  Who knows if it will work tomorrow?  But I do know that my ability to adapt to my changing needs that will keep me healthy for years to come. :)

I finally got back in the kitchen tonight to pack my lunch for tomorrow and cook dinner. It felt great! But first, a recap of the afternoon.
I successfully avoided the office goodies, whew! I don’t know why I’ve been having such a rough time with them lately. Some days they’re not even a speck on my radar, others it’s all I can think about. Anyway, I had an iced coffee around 4:30 to perk up.

I wasn’t hungry after my large lunch, so I headed over to the gym without a pre-workout snack. It was okay, but I wish I had gotten one – I was starving by the end of the night. I started out with cardio, and then jumped into a Pilates mat class, where I met CP’s Pilates teacher, Howard, who is the nicest guy ever! I used the pilates ring for the first time – that was interesting, haha! After class, I spoke to Howard about the Pilates Reformer classes that he teaches. He’s so positive and upbeat – I loved having him as a teacher in the large mat class, I can’t wait for a smaller reformer class! After the pilates class I did a bit more cardio, and then went for a swim. Even though I was at CP for close to 2.5 hrs, I loved every second of it. Pilates class and cardio = 450 calories burned.

On my way out of the gym, I realized I was starving and headed to the CP cafe for a snack. The choices were plentiful: anything and everything you could want! I liked how I picked my snack: I thought what have I eaten, what do I need to eat, re: food groups, fat, protein, carbs, etc. I decided on a banana to get some fruit in:

Snack was 94 calories, 24g carbs, 0g fat, and 1g protein.

When I got home I whipped up a new batch of chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. These turned out to be the best of any batch I’ve made! Just incredibly delicious! I made a couple subs based on what I had in house: added fennel seed, extra paprika, left out garlic. Amazing. I had one of an Ezekiel hamburger bun (love) with ketchup for dipping. :)

Dinner was 393 calories, 56g carbs, 10g fat, and 26g protein.

This post has taken MUCH longer than it should have because I had to switch computers (luckily we have FIVE different ones in our small NYC apt – computer nerd bf) and upload pictures twice, boo. So I have to rush off to bed – but to close, here are some BEAUTIFUL flowers I saw today. I’m loving having my camera on me 24/7 because of the blog – I’m able to capture anything on a whim! Night!

After brunch this morning, Peter and I walked around the neighborhood to soak up some of this beautiful day. I managed to drag Peter into the kitchen supply store to pick up some new kitchen tools, yay!  I got a pair of tongs, a Y-peeler, and a mini-muffin pan!  To celebrate, I made Carrot-Pineapple-Sunshine Muffins from Veganomicon.  I followed the recipe basically, but I used hemp milk instead of soy milk, and lemon zest instead of orange zest.  This baking experience was much more normal, with bowl licking and messy kitchen. :) Muffins cooling:

For lunch/dinner, I had a smoked salmon, spinach, capers and Laughing Cow sandwich on Ezekiel Bread, along with one of three mini-muffins I ate during the baking/cooling process, and a small smoothie made from blueberries, banana, pineapple and nonfat vanilla yogurt.

Dinner was 717 calories, 118g carbs, 15g fat, and 31g protein.

P and I are off to a movie – we bought tickets online this time, so we should to be good to go!  Happy Saturday night everyone!

Hey guys! Whew, I’ve had a long evening in the kitchen! I decided to make two types of cookie for my recipients: “You Got Your Peanut Butter in My Chocolate” Cookies from ED&BV, and Chewy Raspberry Cookies from Veganomicon. I used the basic recipes, except I subbed Cashew Macadamia Butter for PB, and Blueberry Preserves for Raspberry Preserves. Here are all the cookies cooling:

PB on the left, Blueberry Chocolate on the right. I have to say, neither of the proportions were correct for me. The PB recipe was supposed to make 12, but I made 18! And the Blueberry Chocolate was supposed to make 12, but only made 10. Go figure. The PB batter was soooo delicate, though. It was impossible to scoop with a spoon! Luckily, before I met Peter, he had a jones for chocolate chip cookies one night and went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond where a saleswoman led him around buying the most random kitchen utensils, including this:

A batter scoop. The first time I saw this, I believe my exact words were, ‘Ah, you got taken for a ride.’ Well, I bite my tounge! This little baby saved these cookies! They would have been a crumbly disaster if not for this guy. Whew!

Two weird things about this baking experience: a) I’ve known for a long time that the best way to cook is to clean as you cook. You use something, you put it away, you use something, you put it away. But I’ve never actually had the maturity to do this. Well, tonight I was positively rigid about it – the kitchen was sparkling the entire time I baked! I even stopped in the middle to sweep. Bizarre…and even more bizarre… 2) I didn’t nibble at the batter AT. ALL. Not once. I knew it was delicious, but I knew it wasn’t for me. So I just didn’t eat it…weird.

Anyway, I’m going to give some of each to Ira and Martha; and also to my friend Ian’s (Hi Ian!!) girlfriend who is a student at the Bumble and Bumble Academy and will be giving me a haircut for free tomorrow as part of her class. Score! I took a ‘before’ picture tonight, so I’ll show you guys the finished product tomorrow!

For dinner, I wasn’t really that hungry (mostly I’m just tired) so I had a TJ’ Chicken Sausage on an Ezekiel Bread ‘Roll’ with about 20g of kale chips.

Well, after I did the math, I realized I was about 200 cals short for the minimum of my calorie range, so I needed more. I made a little parfait: 105g nonfat vanilla yogurt, 67g blueberries, 85g strawberries, and 12g Fiber 1.

Dinner was 347 calories, 56g carbs, 7g fat, and 21g protein.

I feel really proud of myself today. I feel like I made really responsible choices for my life and body. Night all!