World Nutella Day?

I just read today is World Nutella Day

Have you tried Nutella?

Once you sank your spoon into that jar of creamy chocolately hazlenutty goodness, did you stop yourself short of swiping your finger in the corners to get the last little bit?

I have bought Nutella on 3 seperate occasions with the purpose of using it in a recipe, or trying it on a bagel or toast or something.

I have never, not even once, made it to a piece of bread. Much less into a recipe. If I was pressed at gunpoint to give a favorite food in the entire world, Nutella might be it.

If you haven't tried it, and since this is a diet blog, I suggest you don't. If someone hands you a spoonful of Nutella, RUN - do not walk! Immedietly de-friend them and block their number from your phone. They are evil and have nothing but bad intentions for you!

Just one small teaspoon full will cause immediete and intense cravings coupled with over production of saliva, shakes, and acute irritability.

Consider yourself warned.





UGH

Today I could feasibly beat someone to death with a tape dispenser. Know what I'm saying? It's Monday, it's that time of the month, the computers at work are acting up, my boss is asking me to do stupid crap... people's very breath is annoying me. There's really no shortage to the list. I don't know what has set me off..... but man, watch out!

Aside from being generally annoyed, I'm a little disappointed in myself, too. This weekend was pretty bad. I didn't feel good, and basically let that give me permission to eat whatever I wanted.

I've been pretty lax in taking pictures of what I've eaten, too. Here's a recap of the past couple days....
Wednesday:

 

Not so bad...

Not so bad. Notice 1/2 the baked potato...eh? eh??? 

Choc Milk for dessert... I was still hungry.

Thursday:

there's that other 1/2 baked potato and leftover pork chop (baked, not fried!)

bagel thin w/ RF cream cheese when I got home...

uh oh.... carry out! Spicy Thai Basil Chicken. Didn't eat it all though!

Friday (here's where we start going downhill....)

 

a bowl of chili and 3 hot wings.


and cake......

but it's made better by lowfat yogurt later, right?

Dinner Friday? Leftover chili......

Feeling like crap Friday night... lowfat hot choc, Ibuprofen PM, and a heating pad makes it all better....



Saturday:

mid-day snack, and doing ok so far...

uh oh. How did we end up at a Mexican restaurant??? Those chips! That cheese!

Did I mention the cheese??? 

Due to some issues, we ended up getting a free order of Queso. Which is EXACTLY what I needed. *sigh*

 

 *Not actually my fajitas. My fajitas had chorizo and cheese on them.

I'd talk about being proud I didn't eat all of it, but truth be told I couldn't because I had just stuffed my face w/ cheese dip. :/

Super Bowl Sunday:

 oh goody, leftover chili again....

and since it's the Super Bowl - you have to eat the appropriate food, right?

Domino's deep dish pepperoni and mushroom pizza.... (4 slices, I believe)

 and a Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake.

So, I put my sins before you.... admonish at will..........

I know ya'll are too nice. You'll tell me to get back on the wagon. And I have. I've done well today, I took a quick 10 minute walk earlier to get my head back on straight, and I plan on trying to get a little bit of the "E" word in tonight between laundry and house cleaning.

I was feeling crampy and yucky and generally sorry for myself, and I comforted myself as I knew how. I can't say it won't happen again, but I'll try to deal with it better next time.

So here's what I've had today:

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin w/ Promise Spread



A bowl of Fiber One Raisin Bran Crunch + 1% milk for lunch. I'm sure it was more like 2 or 3 servings instead of 1... but it's lunch and hopefully it will keep me full for awhile.

oh yeah, and an orange. BTW. I'm getting sick of peeling oranges. I want someone to peel my oranges for me.



*Update*

I told my husband to get rid of the leftover pizza. Of course, there it sat in the fridge when I got home - waiting for me like a venomous spider.

Is it some kind of internal self -loathing that had a piece in my hand before I even knew it? It wasn't even all that good! But I kept eating it - even while I was thinking What the F@#*! am I doing?!

I threw the rest out, and in the grand scheme of things 1 piece isn't that bad.... but I'm disappointed in myself.

Evil, thy name is cheese. .......or pepperoni. Definitley one of the two.

Anyway, had a decent dinner:

Cheeseburgers and fries - with 96% lean beef, RF cheese, and oven fries. 

and a pudding cup



The "E" Word

*sigh*
Exercise.

There. I said it. Are you happy? Now I feel like I need to take a nap. The problem is that I know I need to do it.

But.....exercise makes me tired... and sweaty....

and did I mention I jiggle?

It's so not cute.

Here's a secret. I have access to two (2) gyms. We have a gym at work - totally free, with a trainer and classes and everything, and I actually belong to a gym. 

As in I pay money.

And I haven't been in close to a year.


Yeah. I know, believe me.... I know.


Well, last night I actually went to the 'Exercise TV' On-Demand station, and scrolled through the rather extensive listings, and started watching some Billy Blanks Hip Hop Cardio thing.

Then I took a nap.


I kid!  I kid!

I stood there, realized this may be a little *ahem* advanced for me... so instead of going back to the regular scheduled programming, I kept scrolling and found a Zumba workout video.

AND I DID IT!

Granted, it was only like 6 minutes - kind of a teaser video. But it got my heart rate up, and breathing hard. When it was over, I tried a couple other videos that I didn't really care for. After a bit, I gave up - but then I ran up and down the stairs a couple times!

ON PURPOSE!

It was only like 15 minutes, and I know that's small potatoes from where I need to be - but it's a definite step in the right direction!

Now I gotta ask the question. Does anyone else ever feel.... weird.... doing these videos in the house by themselves?

I felt like my cats are looking at me and judging me.

Ok, I KNOW they were looking at me and judging me. I could read the surprise, concern, and even a little fear in their furry little faces.

But they lick their butt - so really, who are they to judge?

I guess I just need to get over it, right? If I look like a total moron, it's just me - so why should I care? I shouldn't be embarrassed in front of myself.... right? 

So I'm planning on giving this another shot tonight. If I can preselect a couple videos, then do a few laps on the stairs, maybe I can do a continuous 30 min or so.

Onward and Upward... or Downward..... or...... yeah, something like that.

The Soup

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Work was crazy busy, so it went by fast (which is always a good thing). Unfortunately, I didn't bring my lunch and didn't have time to run out, so I ended up in our Cafeteria downstairs.

Yuck.

Lunch was broccoli, (I'm not sure what they did to it. Roasted maybe? It was ok..... ish)
and then there was the squash/zucchini/tomato... stuff. It was weird. It was ok.....
.....ish.

I also had a Carmel Nut Blast Balance Bar. It was pretty good - kind of like a Snickers, but not as good. But it has less fat and calories, more protein and fiber. It felt like a candy bar. I'd eat it again.

I managed to refrain from snacking the rest of the day (thanks to being so busy), and by the time I left work and finished the grocery shopping, I was pretty famished. (BTW - bad for the wallet when you're hungry. I also had to move away from the strawberry and pineapple samples as people were starting to look at me funny).

  The hubby was going to be pretty late coming home, so I ate a small snack to tide me over, then went ahead and made dinner. 

Ah, dinner.
The Tortellini Soup.

It was good.

First of all, I should learn to follow directions a little better. The recipe calls for 9oz of "Fresh or Frozen" tortellini. I totally blew past that, and dumped in 3/4 of a 12oz bag of dried tortellini.

Holy Tortellini Overload, Batman!
And of course the dried pasta absorbs so much more liquid, so I was adding more chicken stock and water to make it come out right... it was touch and go for awhile!

BUT... extra tortellini aside, the soup was Muy Bueno! I also added a shredded chicken breast - which was good but it totally didn't need.

Because I wanted just a touch of heat, I added about 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes. I also used the canned diced tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes, because that's what I had. I think the bigger chunks of tomato would have been great - but that's totally a chunk preference. (ewww?)

The moral of the story is, the soup is pretty hard to mess up. It would be good w/ some italian turkey sausage, with mushrooms, more tomatoes....

so, here's the link to the recipe. It's quick, tasty, and idiot proof.

and 'scuse my crappy photography. green bowl, dim light, camera phone = funky pictures. Lucky for you I have leftovers for lunch! ;0)

I actually had 2 bowls of this stuff - plus the garlic toast I made using the sandwich thins, 1Tbsp light butter, and garlic powder.

For dessert, approx 1/4 cup of semi sweet choc chips...

And, that's it! My day in food. The good, the bad.... and the "ish".

Giving In

First of all - I'm down another another 2lbs - Yay! The first week of really being at this I dropped 4lbs real quick, then gained about 2lbs back over the next 2 weeks (which may have been some bloating/PMS type stuff) and now I'm heading back in the right direction! 284.4, so a total of 6lbs so far! I'm ready sooo to be out of these 280's.

Now about yesterday. I'm not counting yesterday as a failure, I had a bad meal... not a bad day. Hectic day, lots of running around, stress, etc. Story of everyone's life, eh?

So for breakfast/lunch I had a plain grilled chicken sandwich from Bojangles and a side of their Cajun Pintos.

 





I took pics, then somehow messed up and deleted them... whoops.




The pintos were good. The chicken sandwich? Like a wet paper towel on a mushy flavorless bun. I ate it because I was hungry, and it was the healthiest option. Even with hot sauce, it tasted like a hot wet paper towel.
Next time at Bojangles I'll do pintos, plain mashed potatoes, and green beans or something. Lesson learned.

When we finally got around to dinner we were starving and I wanted something GOOD.  We ended up going to Logan's Steakhouse. I got an 11oz sirloin, baked potato w/ butter and sour cream, and a salad w/ blue cheese dressing. And I ate 1 1/2 yeast rolls.

I'm not counting this as a failure because
a) I hadn't eaten much all day
b) I have been craving a steakhouse meal for a long while. I had one, I enjoyed it, and it's over. It will be awhile before I have one again.
c) I left some on my plate. I left some salad, I didn't use as much dressing, I didn't get the "loaded" baked   potato, and I left about 2-3 oz of steak on my plate.


So it was a bad meal - not a bad day. I satisfied a craving. And I'm ok with it.

 

I tried to take a pic at the restaurant, but the flash was so bright it lit up the entire table and made me feel like a total dork....

Today I'm going to focus on making some better decisions and finally make it to the grocery store. Dinner tonight? Tortellini Soup!