We're up.  And we're taking the dogs out today to the park today with our bikes.

But first I want to talk Irvine Boy into taking me to pick up some breakfast.  I'm starving!

The new year has started off so far so good as far as work goes.  And hopefully it stays on the same path for a while.

Went to the gym last night and just did the treadmill.  Stayed there for 60 minutes.  Did 45 minutes of running/jogging about 4 miles.  And then ended the workout out with speed walking for another mile.  So with a total of 5 miles, I ended my workout there.  But boy was I tired!  The heart rate monitor I was wearing strapped around my chest said I burned 566 calories.  My legs were sore the previous days doing 5 miles too.  I’m trying to aim for jogging 25 miles a week.  So far right now, Monday I did 5, yesterday I did five… 15 more to go.  But I’m not going to the gym tonight though.  Too tired.  I spent most the day outside running around on appointments.  My last appointment tonight was at 7 p.m. and that lasted till 11 p.m.  I’m ready to go to bed.  SO tired.

Still eating really good everyday.  For breakfast today I had Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal with high protein and high fiber.  And then for lunch I had mixed greens with grilled tilapia.  Dinner was at my clients place.

On another note, I started keeping an income/budget/expense spreadsheet on Microsoft excel.  I love it.  Makes me NOT want to spend money after I see what’s going out every month. 

I’m not THAT crazy of a workaholic.  See?  I’m not working today.  Going to leave in about an hour for a co-workers potluck.  There’s about 8 – 10 of us going I think.  I was going to cook something, but now I’m too lazy and all morning I just wanted to lounge around.  So I’m going to call in an order nearby and take it over.  Not working when some people are feels great.

So for the past three weeks, I haven’t bought a since pack of cigarettes.  Just trying it out to see how it feels.  I’ve just been bumming cigs when I see friends smoke.  So basically, I’ve cut down my smoking to practically nothing during the weekdays.  And then during the weekends I’ll have a few here and there.  But way better than before.  I feel good, I run faster, run longer.  So, we’ll see where this goes.  I’m not really telling myself that I’m quitting, I just haven’t bought a new pack yet.  So yea, we’ll see.

Okay, gotta run.  Heading out to buy the stuff I’m bringing to the potluck.  Stay there till about 3 p.m., then I gotta meet a client at 4 p.m. to sign a case.  And then after maybe I’ll hit the gym for a couple hours.

I’ve been really good on my 1200 calorie allowance per day.  Even on the weekends.  I must say that this is working out great.  I feel lighter already!   Yeah right.  But I don’t feel better and not like crap like when I tend to over eat.  I LOVE food, and if could get away with it, I’d eat all day nonstop.

I tried out my portable DVD player at the gym and it is great.  It kept me on the treadmill for an hour+ and I did not feel bored at all.  I actually wanted to stay on it and continue running but I had to meet my parents for dinner, so I ended up only watching half my movie.  I’m really excited now getting to work out and catch up on movies at the same time.  Especially my chick flicks.  Can’t wait to go back again.

Tomorrow is ‘clean up day’.  Gotta clean up my place.  Everything is all over the place.  I feel like I haven’t been home for a month.  I get home from work normally around 11:45 p.m.  And right when I get back, I toss everything all over my dining table, on the floor, anywhere… wash up, and go straight to bed.

Irvine Boy came over tonight, he met up with my family and I for dinner at Outback tonight.  Afterwards we went to see a friend’s new baby malamute puppy.  He’s the cutest thing ever!  We stayed about an hour and a half and then came back to my place.  Now he’s passed out on my sofa.  I think I’m going to go wash up and go to bed too.  I’m beat.  Long day.  Went in to the office this morning, met with two clients, then the gym, then dinner, then the puppy.  Need sleep now.

More tomorrow…

I’m getting my dvd player today!  Can’t wait till it gets here!!!!!  When I get something new I want it right away!  NOW!  NOW!  NOW!

It’s almost TTOTM again.  I’m constantly feeling snacky.  But I’m equipped this time.  I’ve stocked up my home and work with healthy and satisfying snacks when crazy food craves attacks.  If I don’t have something on hand and ready to eat, I usually end up terrible things like chocolate, burgers, chips, and etc…       This time I have some light butter popcorn, string cheese, microwave soup, prepared and washed salad, and of course my lean cuisines in the freezer.

I also came across a recipe for pumpkin bran muffins and made those.  They’re SO good and they’re only 150 cals each.  Plus they’re good for you loaded with fiber and such.  I’m going to make some more when I have time to bring them in to work for co-workers.

Hope everyone has a great day. 

***EDIT***

For those of you who want the Pumpkin Spice Bran Muffin

Pumpkin Spice Bran Muffins
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
• 1-1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour (also called whole wheat pastry flour)
• Pinch salt
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, bran, oil, and sugar. Stir in the eggs and buttermilk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, spices, baking soda and baking powder. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just until mixed.
Lightly grease the wells of a muffin pan with cooking spray. Scoop the batter into the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven and allow them to cool in the pan for five minutes before taking them out of the pan to finish cooling on a rack.
Yield: 12 muffins.
Per muffin: 150 calories, 5 grams fiber, 4 grams protein

******I modified the recipe a bit. I actually discovered the white flour I bought yesterday is king arthur white whole wheat flour, so i used that. i only used 1c of bran and it's oat bran and not wheat but in muffin recipes i have found it seems they are almost intercheangeable. 2/3c buttermilk instead of 3/4. 2 egg whites instead of full eggs. instead of sugar i used sweet leaf sugar subsitute and just 2 packets. i added 2 tablespoons of flax seed and used 3 tsp of brown sugar. Only 1 tablespoon of oil (i know oil isn't bad in recipes really but i have such a mental block about pouring any sort of CUP measurement into a recipe, lol), added a dash of vanilla and way more pumpkin spices, lol.

total overall is 1360 cals for 12 muffins so it's about 113 per muffin. i actually have been searching for a muffin under 150 cals. i realized it was kind of like making a pumpkin pie into muffins.  And pureed pumpkin is amazingly healthy for you!

I was out of the office in an all day meeting yesterday so I didn’t get a chance to log on.  But I’m still counting my calories.  And I know a lot of people are shocked and think it’s stupid.  But trust me, it’s not when you want to get in shape and have to keep track of what your eating.  So far this week I’ve maintained my 1200 calorie per day and I feel great.  I’ve also been going to the gym in the morning before work still.  But I CAN’T WAIT TILL I GET MY DVD PLAYER to take to work out with me.  It’s going to make staying on the treadmill or elliptical SO much more enjoyable.  Can’t wait.

For breakfast today I had 1 whole egg with 3 egg whites scrambled with some chopped scallions in a little of EVOO. Also had 1 slice of Eggo whole grain waffles and 2 cups of water.  I love breakfast.  I could have breakfast for all three meals of the day.  Lunch I ate out of a box.  I had the spaghetti and meatballs.  I bought 20 boxes of Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine because they were on sale for $1.50 each!  Can’t get any better than that.  Especially since so far they are the only frozen entrees that tastes pretty good without preservatives and all that junk.  Plus I’m trying to not spend as much this year on things I don’t really need to aka, eating out because I’m trying to pay down debt and save money.

Not too sure what’s dinner going to be yet.  Maybe a salad a grilled chicken salad or something from McDonalds.  I’ll be working till 10 or 11 tonight so I won’t have time to go home and make something to eat.  Whatever’s quick and healthy will have to do.

I’m also looking into my plane ticket to Taiwan these couple weeks.  I plan on going back to Taiwan for a 2.5 to 3 week vacation either end of January or beginning of February.  Can’t wait for that either.  The last time I went back was the end of 2004 with Irvine Boy.  It’s been 2 years since then…

I’m over at my dad’s office right now, I’ll be heading over to my office in about another hour or so.  And I’ll be sure to buy a cheap dinner beforehand so I don’t have to come back out again at dinner time.  I’ll be working late today to do some reviews with clients and doing some preparation for an appointment I have tomorrow night.

Another new week!  Back to work and back to my normal eating habits.  Last night I ordered myself a portable DVD player.  Been getting kind of bored on the treadmill and elliptical machines I think because I’ve been going so much.   I didn’t know they had flat panels instead of the ones where you have to open and close my folding the thing in half.  And these things are so darn cheap now!  Anyway, so since this is just one flat panel, I can just rest it on the ledge in front of me while I’m doing my thing on these machines.  I got it from Amazon.com and I was really really tempted to use the expedited shipping, but later decided against that since it’s just extra money I’m wasting.  So think I think I should get my package maybe some time either early next week or midweek.  Can’t wait!

This week I’m still trying to cook/eat at home more.  And also pack my lunches.  The lasagna last week I absolutely love.  I’m going to make it again soon.  But instead of making the regular 9 serving the recipe comes with, I think if it’s just me eating I’m going to half the recipe.  Or else after eating the same thing for a few days it gets really boring.  This week I’m going to try to make some low cal healthy chicken pot pie.  I love CPP, but probably haven’t had it in years because of how unhealthy it is.  I looked it up on www.calorieking.com and Mimi Café’s CPP is 1403 calories!  And Marie Calendars is 670 calories.  KFC‘s has 770 calories.  And each of those have somewhere between 40 to 50 grams of fat.  Yuck.  So I found this new recipe basically the calories something like 335 for each CCP.  Can’t get much better than that.  So after I try it out, I’ll post up the recipe if anyone is interested.

Last night also made tuna salad mix snack to bring into work with me today.  I used 2 small cans of tuna in water, 1 medium apple chopped, 2 medium stalks of celery chopped, used 2 tablespoons of regular mayo, and used half a lemon for some fresh lemon juice.  I mixed all those together and ended up with about 4 cups of this tuna salad.  I add the lemon juice cause for me it really takes out some of the fishy smell to it.  I also added some grated lemon zest to it and that give it a different tang to it.  But it’s totally up to you.  I’m just experimenting.

So here are the breakdown and how I came up with the calories per serving:

Tuna  -  140 cal

Mayo -  180 cal

Apple  -  61 cal

Celery  -  11 cal

Lemon  -  0 cal

Total – 392 calories

392/4 = 98 calories per serving.

I didn’t list out the fat, but it has about 6 grams of fat per serving.  Not too bad.  If you look at it, 1 cup of this stuff is a pretty good sized portion.  Especially if I’m layering this stuff onto a rice cake.  I found these Quaker rice cakes that are 35 calories each with 0 fat.  So for snack today I’m just eating 2 of these rice cakes with my tuna salad and I’ll be satisfied while completely eating something healthy.  And maybe tomorrow I’ll turn a cup of this into a tuna sandwich on some whole grain bread.  If some people don’t like the full fat version mayo, using the light mayo I’m sure is just as good too.  But for me, 2 tablespoons in a whole 4 cups of tuna salad, I don’t think it’s too bad.  And we need ‘some’ fat in our diet.  It’s good for the body.

Seems like a few people are interested in losing weight or maybe just eating healthier!  So I thought I’d add that if you want to register for www.sparkpeople.com and use their food tracker…  after you register, you must complete your profile questionnaire before the food tracker will show up.  But when you go and search for certain foods, the lists of foods aren’t as up to date and easy to find as www.calorieking.com .  Calorieking has EVERYTHING.  It has most of the restaurants and most things you can find in the grocery store along with the different types of brands.  For example, if you eat McDonalds McMuffin, you might not want cheese in there.  So you can just type in McMuffin, no cheese and it’ll give you the exact calorie count.  I think tracking foods really makes you aware what you’re putting in your mouth.

Also, I’ve started cooking with recipes from the site www.cookinglight.com .  I swear by this site now!  There’s literally a million ways to make great tasting food while watching your calorie and fat intake.  I made my turkey lasagna tonight and it was divine!!  I can’t believe it’s so good.  It has non-fat cottage cheese, and low-fat mozzarella.  That recipe is also on the Cookinglight site.  Once you get into the recipe tab, click ‘pasta’ and you can do a search for turkey lasagna.  All the recipes on there give you nutrition facts for each serving.

Hope this helps for those of you who want to start watching what their eating, but have no idea where to start.

So after work tonight I went to the gym, did 30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes on the elliptical machine.  Going back again tomorrow.

Time for bed now…

Nite…

I never really keep track of what I eat, which means I probably tend to over eat without ever knowing.  So I have decided I’m going to start keeping track of my daily food and calorie intake on www.sparkpeople.com .  They have a really good food tracker that I’m absolutely in love with.  It also tell you what your calorie range should be depending on your weight and fitness goals.  So for me, my range of calories is between 1200 – 1550 to lose weight, along with exercise of minimum of 30 minutes of some sort of cardio or activity.

So for breakfast today I had a 2 oz. New York steak strip with some A1 sause, 1 egg over easy, 2 center cut bacon, and 2 cups of water.  My total calorie count for breakfast was something 332.  Not bad, seeing as I want my first meal of the day to be the biggest meal and then slowly go down from there.

Then for snack, I had a part skim milk string cheese.

Lunch was a pack of Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine Chicken with angel hair pasta with basil cream sauce.  For 280 calories, it’s surprisingly good AND packed with protein.

I’m not sure what dinner will be yet, but I’ve been thinking of trying out this turkey lasagna recipe for a few weeks now.  It’s supposed to taste divine and be super low in cals.  So I think I might whip this up for dinner and have leftovers for lunch tomorrow too.

Hitting the gym before I go home for a 1 hour run on the treadmill and maybe another of weights.  Depending on how I feel, I might not want to do the weights.  We’ll see.

Going to a New Year’s party in downtown tonight.  I can’t believe it’s finally here; 2007!

Happy New Year dear Friends….  Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful night counting down into the 2007.

Right now I’m waiting for Irvine Boy to come by with my dress.  I picked out a dress last night at Nordstrom and I had to have it hemmed.  I’m going to take a shower, put on my make up, and get ready to start my night.