Day 2 - Getting an Education!

Well - yesterday was definitely an episode of concentration - totally changing my eating and lifestyle. I was fortunate to have my housekeeper stop by as usual and I stopped her from the regular housekeeping and we concentrated on the kitchen. I had purchased new pots and pans as well as new eating ware over the holidays and waited until the housekeeper came. She was happy to take all of my old stuff, while I revamped the cabinets with just the new dishes, cookware and getting rid of anything I haven't touched in 6 months. Further, anything with sugar left with housekeeper! Now every time I open a cupboard, the pantry or even my refrigerator, I'll remember my quest to get into those jeans that "I used to wear!".

I did stick to my plan for yesterday, except as I researched some info on diet friendly foods, I changed the lunch from the one piece of toast with tuna salad to whole wheat crackers with tuna salad - and the tuna salad was a bit modified. It was canned tuna in water (drained) and I mixed it with just a teaspoon of mayo, probably a tablespoon of Olive Garden low fat Italian dressing, one small tomato diced, one hard boiled egg chopped and about 1/2 teaspoon of sweet pickle relish. Note a big surprise, sweet pickle relish has minimal calories! Here's the crackers with tuna that I had for lunch, then two crackers with tuna at dinner:

It was really quite good!

So I determined a bit that I like to have a little snack, now and then, So I looked up on Google for Diet Friendly Snacks. Here's some ideas I found that are less than 200 calories each:

Apple with Skim Milk.

Avocado with low fat cottage cheese

Tuna with Wheat Crackers

Avocado with shrimp and Greek yogurt - 129 calories

Frozen Berries and Greek yogurt smoothies - ONLY 139 calories.

Warm pear - halved with ricotta cheese and cinnamon - ONLY 170 calories!

1/2 chicken veggie pita - suggestion - baby spinach and bell pepper with low fat vinagrette - 200 Calories

Cauliflower with White Bean Dip - I'll find the recipe again and will let you all know.

15 asparagus spears with one hard boiled egg.

These are just some ideas and they help with my grocery shopping list for today.

I'll update you on progress tomorrow!

OH, BTW - something that I learned that made me REALLY sad - 1 inch square cube of Tillamook cheese has 110 calories. I think Tillamook (oh, I love you so!) and I are going to part company.

And, geez, I still had my White Zinfandel at night. Heck - I sent out chocolate pretzels, chocolate covered raisins, ginger snaps, and MUCH more left the house today! I'm still way below the 1600 calories for yesterday! FIRST DAY, SUCCESS!

Hint of the Day: When boiling an egg for any meal, boil three or four. Put the extras in the fridge, you can be sure you're going to use them before they spoil.