Mmmmmm.. that was a tasty dinner!   Maybe it’s because I was so disappointed with lunch that dinner just tastes that much better.  *laugh*  Tonight, I grilled up two chicken breasts with some garlic cauliflower on the side.  Compared to the marinated chicken breast, these were absolutely amazing.  That could be because I did allow them to thaw out a bit, but overall, they had none of the “aftertaste” I was experiencing with the other ones.  I also tried a new seasoning for them: Roasted Garlic and Herb.  This was a welcomed change, and brought an entirely new flavor to the same old dish.   The cauliflower was the Steamfresh variety so it was quick and simple to make.  I usually season the vegetables, but this was Garlic flavored in the bag.  After taking a single bite, I was sold.  No other spices were required!  If you look carefully in the picture, you migh notice something new.  I’ve secretly replaced the pudding with a Weight Watchers Ice Cream Sandwich!   I’ve had these in the past and they were as good as I remembered.  They’re a bit heavier than the pudding, but it’s good to switch up every so often.

Dinner:

• 2 – Grilled Chicken Breasts – 280 calories
• 1 bag – Steamfresh Garlic Cauliflower – 160 calories
• 1 – Weight Watchers Ice Cream Sandwich – 145 calories
• 12oz – Minute Maid Light Lemonade – 5 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 590 calories!

Pretty good for a dinner!  That brings my total for the day up to a whopping 1270 calories. Okay, it’s a bit on the low end, but I simply can’t eat anymore!!  It was good though… very good!

On a special note… this is post #100!   That’s a very big milestone for me as this is now the largest blog that I’ve got running.

Today was one of my chances to have lunch alone, so I wanted to do something different that I usually can’t convince others to go to.  I first thought about going to Crazy Bowls and Wraps, but on the way, I then reconsidered to Chevy’s.   I remember at one point when I was dieting that Chevy’s wasn’t a bad choice overall… I decided to make my way there and was quickly seated.  I asked the waiter if there was any nutritional information available and/or a “Healthy Options” menu.  I was told neither existed, so I  just used the information I could find on my phone, which was pretty limited.   I found that the “Santa Fe Chopped Salad” with all of the fixings was 682 calories… not too bad at all.  I placed my order and when it arrived, I was less than impressed overall..

I began working my way through it and found the chicken to be pretty tasty, and everything else to be not worth the calories.  In the end, I ate pretty much just the chicken and romain lettuce.   Everything else stayed behind on the plate.  I also had about 1/2 an order of the chips and some of the salsa.  I’m not sure what the calories are for the Chips and Salsa, but I’ll put my guess in at about 200.  Using the information from CalorieLab.com, the “Santa Fe Salad” with no Avacado, Bacon, or Blue Cheese comes to 258 calories.  I did have a taste of the blue cheese and the bacon, but did leave the roasted corn salsa behind…. I’m going to go with about 300 calories total.   Here’s my best guestimate of lunch:

Lunch:

• Chevy’s Santa Fe Chopped Salad – No Corn, Bacon, Avacado, or Cheese – ~300 calories
• Chevy’s Chips and Salsa – ~200 calories
• Iced Tea – 0 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: ~500 calories

Overall, the dining experince at Chevy’s for the person on a diet is less than stellar.  I’d much rather spend my calories elsewhere.

Once again, I was up all night fuddling with my phone… it just never wants to sync up anymore, and it’s really getting frustrating.  I’m actually starting to consider going back to my iPod and using the phone as just a phone!!  I’ve also considered going from MacOS to WindowsXP… just to see if that resolves the issues.

Nonetheless, I was up until almost 1, so I woke up late once again.  I fixed up something in a rush and just went for Cheerios in milk.  No banana… no fruit.. nothing else… just plain.  Not bad, though I really didn’t have time to savor the meal.  I pretty much drank it down as I was walking out of the door this morning.  I really need to get my schedule straightened out…

Breakfast:

• 1 Cup – Cheerios – 100 calories
• 1 Cup – Skim Milk – 80 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 180 calories

This evening, I knew I was going to be having the leftover turkey burgers for dinner, so that was pretty much a given.  One thing to note, I think they tasted even better today!!!!   No kidding!   Anyway, I brought up some cauliflower to have on the side, but the roomie had already made up some brocolli, cauliflower, and carrots in this cheese sauce.  He said it was about 50 calories a serving, so I decided to give it a try.  I scooped up about 2 cups of it into my plate.  I then warmed up the leftover burgers and got them ready.   The veggies and cheese was pretty awesome.  I might look into picking that up myself, and even though I only had two cups, it was well more than enough.  I might actually look into other veggie dishes, but just do a single serving rather than the entire bag or can like I’ve been doing.

Dinner:

• 8oz Ground Turkey – 340 calories
• 2 slices – Fat Free American Cheese – 50 calories
• 2 – Low Calories Hamburger Buns – 160 calories
• 2 cups – Vegtables and Cheese – 100 calories
• 2 tsp – Worstcheshire – 10 calories
• 1 cup – Jello Sugar Free Pudding – 60 calories
• 8oz – Minute Maid Diet Lemonade – 5 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 725 calories

Not bad at all!  I’m impressed overall.  Add that to today’s total and I’ve got 1495 calories!  Not a bad day at all, and I enjoyed every bite that I had! Tomorrow starts month 2, though I might not actually start until the 1st.  I’m going to mix things up a bit and go in a little different direction.  Instead of relying ONLY on calories, I’m going to an old familiar system for me… Weight Watchers!  Don’t worry.. still going to count calories too… I just want to start seeing a comparison to what I’ve been doing and apply some of the same meals and things to the Weight Watchers system.  Then I’ll see if I’ve been doing good… going way overboard… or eating way too little.   More on that once i start, 8/1/2008!   Stay tuned!

All this week, I’ve been crazy busy at the office and I’ve been putting off having lunch with a close friend of mine.  Today I finally agreed to get away from work for a bit and have a decent meal.  We decided to have Chili’s.   I’ve been impressed with the Guiltless Grill from Chili’s and was looking forward to trying something else than the Salmon.   This time, I decided to have the Guiltless Chicken Sandwich.

While it wasn’t as awesome as the Salmon had been, I was still very impressed overall.  It was still heads and tales better than the comparable sandwich off the Weight Watchers menu at Applebee’s.  I just wish I had a Chili’s closer to work, since it forces me to have a bit longer to drive back and forth… pushing the length of my lunch just a bit.   My one negative for the dish was that the veggies could have been steamed just a bit more, however, the flavor was dead on perfect.  The chicken sandwich also had what tasted like sweet relish that I might choose to hold the next time I get the dish.  Overall, I was very happy with the selection and taste.  I’ll definately get this one again in the future.

Lunch:

• Guiltless Chicken Sandwich – 490 calories
• Iced Tea – 0 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 490 calories

That brings the total for today up to 770 calories… I’ve got some ways to go to make that up.  I might have some extra vegetables to go with my turkey burger leftovers this evening.

I woke up way too late this morning.  Usually I’m out of the shower by 7:10 or so, but I was still asleep by 7:15!!   I need to make sure to start getting to sleep for about 10PM at the latest.  I’ve been having quite a bit going on in the evenings lately, so this has proven to be pretty difficult to accomplish.

I quickly showered and grabbed something quick and simple…. Cheerios with milk and a banana.  Overall, it was good… and I’m really enjoying actually seeing a full bowl over what I was previously having.  Though, strangely, I’m missing the rich flavor that Grape Nuts has.

Breakfast:

• 1 Cup – Cheerios – 100 calories
• 1 Cup – Skim Milk – 80 calories
• 1 – Banana – 100 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 280 calories

Last night, I picked up a pack of ground turkey at the grocery store.  This pack was even healhier, at only 170 calories per patty!   That’s amazingly low.   Another bonus was that these were already in patty form, so I didn’t have to worry about mixing and dividing them up.  It made preparation pretty simple overall.  I just coated each in a mixture of chili powder, cajun seasoning, mesquite seasoning, black pepper, and burger seasoning.   Then then put a few drops of worstcheshire on the bun to kick up the flavor just a bit more.   These weren’t as good as the last set I made, but that’s probably because I didn’t mix the ingredients inside, and some probably came out on the grill.  Overall, they were still better than most of the burgers I’ve had in recent history.   About 9PM or so, I started getting a little hungry and decided to have myself a snack.  I decided to try one of the “granola bar” things that I picked up at the grocery.  It was a tossup between the peanut butter and oatmeal raisin, but the oatmeal raisin won in the end.   Overall, the bar was pretty tasty.. just like an oatmeal cookie.  Overall, I was still looking for something else afterwards, but I kept my cool and didn’t go after something else to munch on.

Dinner:

• 8 oz – 5% Ground Turkey – 340 calories
• 2 – Low Calorie Hamburger Buns – 160 calories
• 2 slices – Fat Free American Cheese – 50 calories
• 2 tsp – Worstcheshire Sauce – 10 calories
• 1 cup – Jello Sugar Free Pudding – 60 calories
• 1 bar – Chewy Low Fat Oatmeal Raisin Bar – 90 calories
• 1 can – Diet Lemonade – 5 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 715 calories

That brings my total for the day up to 1555 calories.  Not bad at all… though I need to find time to start exercising again!

No photo!   Yes, there’s no photo to go with lunch today.  I restored my phone and forgot to grab the photo off of it before beginning.  Since I’ve had this meal many times before, I’d considered using one of the old photos, but that would be decietful… and I’m not about that.   So, no photo for lunch.   What did I have?  Well, none other than a Chicken Ceasar Salad from BreadCo.  It’s always a healthy and amazingly awesome choice.  One thing to note, one of my coworkers got a Smoothie with his meal… it was only 230 calories for a regular.  That might be an interesting option for a treat in the future.

Lunch:

• St. Louis Bread Company – Chicken Ceasar Salad – 510 calories
• Whole Grain Baguet – 150 calories
• Iced Tea – 0 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 660 calories

That brings the total for today up to 840 calories.  Not too bad so far… just gotta keep it up.  I’ve got a special treat that I picked up at the grocery last night set aside for dinner!!

When I was at the grocery last night, I looked for other alternatives for breakfast.  I wanted to keep things interesting, and having just grape nuts, yogurt, and bananas to choose from will soon get boring.  I picked up some granola bar type things and also a box of Cheerios!    They aren’t as dense as the Grape Nuts, but visually, there’s just a lot more to see, and for MUCH less cost in calories.   I’ve been doing 1/2 cup of Grape Nuts for 200 calories.   An entire cup of Cheerios is 100 calories!  I could have 4 times the volume of cereal as I did with the grape nuts for the same price in calories.   That would be 2 cups for 200 calories!  Not bad at all.  The downside is I’ve had to increase the amount of milk to go with it.   I’ve gone with a full cup a milk to go with my cup of Cheerios.  If I doubled the Cheerios to 2 cups, I’d also have to double the milk as well.  For now, I’ll stick with the single serving.  That would bring it up to 180 calories for a single bowl… still 20 calories less than I was taking in with a complete serving of dairy!  Not bad at all!!

Breakfast:

• 1 Cup – Cheerios – 100 calories
• 1 Cup – Skim Milk – 80 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 180 calories

I had some calories to go for the rest of the day and knew I needed to make it to the grocery.  I decided to look for some dinner options while I was there.  Based upon a previous conversation with a coworker, the Voila dinners I used to have weren’t extremely bad for you.  I picked up a bag and noticed they were marked as a “Discontinued Item” which was a bit disapointing.  The “Garlic Shrimp” was only 230 calories for 3.5 servings.   That gave me a total of 805 calories.  I’m sure I burned a little going up and down the aisles at the grocery, but not enough to really matter.

The Garlic Shrimp voila was good, but not as good as my alltime favorite “Garlic Chicken”.  It was a pretty decent meal overall, and I later followed that with a Jello Sugar Free Pudding.

Dinner:

• 1 bag  – Voila – Garlic Shrimp – 805 calories
• 1 – Jello Sugar Free Pudding – 60 calories
• 20oz – Diet Iced Tea – 0 calories
• GRAND TOTAL: 865 calories

That brings my total for the day up to 1720 calories. Not bad at all…. not bad at all…..