1/17/09 - Saturday

1/17/09 Saturday

*slept in! went to the gym, lifted weights, day time Jacuzzi, drove to studio city for Indian food, and then walked around Universal Studio’s city Walk.

Yogurt

Banana

Mulligatawny soup

1 piece naan

White rice

Baigan Bortha (roasted eggplant simmered in spices with medium curry flavor)

Orange Sherbert (served in an orange rind)

Blended ice green tea from The coffee Bean.

What I did well: spent a long time in the gym, ate out, but did so within reason. Omitted the whipped cream from my green tea smoothie. Took leftovers of my eggplant dish home (hooray, didn’t eat the whole shebang!)

Healthier decisions I could have made: gone lighter with the white rice at Lal Mirch

Activity: 25 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of arm weight machines.

www.lmdining.com

www.citywalkhollywood.com

www.coffeebean.com

1/16/09 Friday

1/16/09 Friday

*work (although a bit of a rough start to the morning, a much better day overall), drove down sunsent blvd, went to yogurtland, and then to the arclight to see “the wrestler.”

Fiber bar

Yogurt

Banana

Salad with tomato, avocado, hard boiled egg, orange bell pepper, lettuce, turkey, thousand island dressing.

Breaded chicken breast

Yogurtland fro-yo: NY cheesecake, strawberry, and mocha with graham cracker crumbs and rainbow sprinkles

Medium popcorn

What I did well: prepared my meals, rewarded myself with fro-yo for a week of good eating.

Healthier decisions I could have made: again I fell victim to the fatty salad dressing in the café, better portion control with the yogurt – it was so delicious though…and it was a reward.

Activity: 12 hour shift.

www.yogurt-land.com

www.arclightcinemas.com

www.foxsearchlight.com/thewrestler

1/15/09 - Thursday

1/15/09 Thursday

*hooray for cable! Cable and hot tubbin’ and more cable.

Egg white burrito with egg white (duh) broccoli and cheese in whole wheat tortilla.

Fiber bar

Banana

Salad with tomato, orange bell pepper, tomato, and TJ’s dressing.

Shrimp, whole wheat pasta with vegetables and mixed with fat free cream of chicken soup – sort of tasted like shrimp pot pie…if there were such a thing.

orange

What I did well: props to me for thinking of the breakfast burrito – is was AWESOME. P.T. and I only had a serving each of the “shrimp pot pie”, unlike the last time I made the dish (although it was teriyaki for the sauce and not the cream of chicken. Hooray for leftovers!

Healthier decisions I could have made: I think I did pretty good today.

Activity: gym, 30 minutes on the elliptical runner!

1/14/09 - Wednesday

1/14/09 Wednesday

*Work day 2, VERY stressful day, hot tub, bed*

Fiber bar

Yogurt

Salad with tomato, avocado, hard boiled egg, orange bell pepper, lettuce, turkey, parmesan peppercorn ranch

Green beans

Turkey, cheese, tomato and mustard sandwich in a whole wheat tortilla.

Steamed carrots and sugar snap peas with olive oil and salt.

Popcorn

What I did well: prepared all my meals, and ate plenty of veggies – had a very stressful day 2 of work, and I managed to keep everything under control.

Healthier decisions I could have made: gone without salad dressing – the parmesan peppercorn I got in the cafeteria, but I should have brought my own low-cal dressing I bought at trader joe’s – if you haven’t tried TJ’s champagne peach vinaigrette with gorgonzola. Delish.

Activity: 12 hour shift. Ugh.

1/13/09 - Tuesday

1/13/09 – Tuesday

*Venice Beach for people watching, survived my first drive in LA rush hour on the way home from the beach, and went to the gym/hot tub, watched “O Brother Where Art Thou” on the laptop*

Slice of provolone cheese, swig of orange juice

Open faced egg white omelet (open faced due to small cheapo-chester frying pan that would not allow for the folding of omelets) with tomato, avocado, broccoli, garlic salt, and provolone cheese. Medium glass of OJ, half a banana, two pieces of whole grain bread (would have been toast, but we don’t have a toaster)

¼ orange bell pepper (while preparing lunch for tomorrow)

1 whole wheat tortilla (to stop the burn in my mouth from the chili pepper I tested out)

2 soft tacos on whole wheat tortillas with lettuce, brown rice, reduced fat cheddar cheese, homemade salsa (tomato, garlic, red onion, medium chili pepper, black pepper, sea salt, splash of EVO and two squeezes of lime juice) and homemade guacamole (avocado, tomato, red onion, garlic, and two squeezes of lime juice.

Note: If one has recently relocated from the northeast of the US to southern California, I do recommend purchasing a “medium” chili pepper unless the kick of a “ultra hot” chili pepper is desired. I do enjoy a good hot pepper, and this was far beyond my tolerance. In the event one do not head this warning, I advise having a tortilla or something on standby to put in your mouth goes up in flames. It helps.

What I did well: prepared both meals with fresh ingredients, experimented with new recipes (salsa and guac), brought lots of water to drink along to the beach, prepared my lunch for work for Wed and Fri (salads, see tomorrow’s post).

Healthier decisions I could have made: only ate 2 meals, no snacks. Could have done without the slice of provolone cheese at 5am, but I woke up and was starving…and that stopped the grumbling of my stomach. Perhaps just one slice of bread with the omelet, but I think that was ok. The extra whole wheat tortilla was a necessity – that “medium” chili pepper was a bitch.

Activity: went to the gym, hooray! The equipment is rather limited, but it works and is free. Did the recumbent bike for 45 minutes. It helped that each cardio machine is hooked up with an invidual TV. Since we still don’t have cable, it was a quick ride watching VH1. Sweet, sweet VH1.

www.venicebeach.com

1/12/09 - Monday

1/12/09 - Monday

*first day of work, dinner with P.T. and Amy.

Hard boiled egg, large glass of orange juice

Caramel fiber bar

Breaded chicken breast with 2 roasted potatoes

Large diet coke from café, extra large diet coke from café

Restaurant “Buddha’s Belly” - hot green tea (no sugar!), diet coke, 1 chicken potsticker with soy sauce, green curried chicken with vegetables and white rice (although I was totally jealous of Amy’s pad thai when our entrées were served – note to self: next time at Buddha’s Belly – get the pad thai!). a few sweet potato fries off of P.T.’s plate

What I did well: prepared my food for work, keeping in mind that old Weight Watchers (and life, at that matter) adage, “if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” Had protein in the morning and a high fiber snack mid morning to help prevent hunger from prevailing.

Healthier decisions I could have made: a medium glass of orange juice instead of large – that’s a lot of sugar (albeit natural) to ingest to start the day off. Trying to limit my soda intake – one is ok, but perhaps I’ll bring a water bottle to work next go round and add some crystal light. Ask for brown rice with my dinner instead of the white rice. Although I ate half of the rice, I had the entire bowl of curried chicken – not an unhealthy selection, but I could have taken home leftovers. And I definitely could have shown more control and not had the sweet potato fries. But I forgive myself.

Activity: I have made the executive decision that when working a 12 hour day shift, I need not push myself in the activity department. Ask any nurse, and she or he shall agree.

www.bbfood.com/index.php

1/11/09 - Sunday

1/11/09 – Sunday

*return trip to Target, tag team cleaned P.T.’s old room at Jessica’s house, went to Ralph’s supermarket and FINALLY found a pitcher suitable for crystal light, chillaxed prior to my first day at work; hot tub = awesome

TJ mixed berry yogurt, slice of provolone cheese

Split fiber bar with P.T.

Turkey and provolone with mustard and tomato on whole wheat pita, tangelo

*hooray for crystal light!*

2 granola balls, homemade by Jessica Koslow

Salad with tomato, orange bell pepper, TJ champagne pear gorgonzola dressing

Breaded chicken breast with 4 roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli and carrots

What I did well: prepared meals again! Taking a lesson from the previous day’s portion issue (and out of necessity for packing lunches for work), went out and bought the Gladware for leftovers. Drank plenty of fluids given the new pitcher for crystal light.

Healthier decisions I could have made: overall, it was a pretty good day. Instead of the slice of provolone with my yogurt, I could have chosen to have a tangelo or banana. One granola ball instead of too (yet another enabling excuse, but they were so delicious – thank you Jess!)

Activity: lame, but we cleaned at Jessica’s place. Definitely broke into a sweat though!