Elimination diet, day six

A new day, new things! Woo!

This morning, I had red quinoa for breakfast with some dried currants. Loved loved loved the currants - tasted like candy after so little sugar for the past few days. The quinoa was okay - I could see making this again with a recipe of things to add to it.

Lunch was halibut and sweet potato - sauteed the fish and sliced the sweet potato into fries and baked those off. Halibut was good but would've been better with lemon. ;) Enjoyed the sweet potato fries so much that I bought another sweet potato and made more of the fries for dinner. ;) Dinner was fresh tuna and the sweet potato fries. I also had some watermelon earlier.

Interestingly, my pilates class tonight kicked my butt more than usual - I think the incomplete diet isn't ideal when working out hard. Eep! Muscle cramps and twitches are not ideal. I'm off my multivitamin while doing this elimination diet, but by the time I have my next class in a week, I'll have a more balanced diet.

Didn't see much intolerance today, which is good. Had an odd half-hour of intestinal cramping but it went away when I ate the halibut. I'm used to having more protein with my breakfast and I think that might be messing with my body a bit.

Yet more things to try tomorrow!

Elimination diet, day five

Woo, new things! I am excited to be moving along in this diet and getting to add new things. Today: the mustard family, kiwi fruit and flaxseed. I'm trying to hit two items in each "family" when I add one, so today it's kale and cauliflower. Had kiwi with breakfast and it was very tasty as usual - tasted extra sweet to me.

Tried kale with lunch - lamb and lentils in kale cups (like lettuce cups). Can't say that I like kale raw. Maybe it's better in a chicken-broth application, but this was just ick. Lunch today was definitely my least favorite meal so far.

Dinner was yet more lamb and brown rice pasta, with roasted cauliflower. I really don't like the smell of cauliflower - and I kept burping it up for an hour or two afterwards. Ew. Maybe it would've been better with some garlic or something, but just plain roasted (with a touch of olive oil) was meh. Roasted the rest of my pears for dessert - not bad, but would've been miles better with a touch of brown sugar or maple syrup. ;)

Tomorrow, I'm off the lamb/rice/pear/lentils for a few days to later test them to see if I react to them. But new proteins and my life goes wild! ;)

Elimination diet, day four

My last day with just pear, rice, lamb and lentils! Woohoo! Tonight I tried some ground lamb with the brown rice pasta and it was almost tasty. ;) With any sort of seasoning, I'm sure it would be good. Tried baking some pears tonight but didn't bake them long enough. ;) Also would've been improved with some cinnamon and perhaps a smidge of sugar or butter.

I did have more brown rice today and I'm having a little intestinal grumbling but not as bad as day one. Odd!

Anyway... tomorrow I get to introduce kiwi, cauliflower, kale and flaxseed. Exciting! And things only look up from there - new proteins on Wednesday! Whee!

Elimination diet, day three

Today hasn't been too bad. I started off with a rice porridge recipe from the elimination diet - essentially long-grain white rice cooked in quadruple the amount of water for an hour. It definitely was pudding-like - actually reminded me of mochi (which is pounded rice and I love it on my froyo!). Anyway, I had some with diced pear for breakfast. More of the same for lunch with a few ounces of lamb on the side. Dinner was brown rice pasta with diced lamb. I'd never cooked brown rice pasta before, and it definitely was al dente to the core. Worked out well after I cooked it for an extra two minutes, and then tossed that with the diced lamb. Would've been better with some seasonings, but hey... ;)

I've been a bit more grouchy than normal today - especially when my husband microwaved a Lean Cuisine French bread pizza and it smelled up the house with fabulousness. Blargh. My cravings are high, that's for sure. Spices! Tomatoes! Bread! CHOCOLATE! ;)

I'm really hoping that this will help me stay on the straight and narrow once I'm finished with the elimination diet - I've learned these past few days that I can handle sacrificing many things in order to lose the darned weight. With the weight I've gained in the past few months, I now need to lose 40 pounds to get to "normal" weight (according to my BMI). If I can average 1.25 pounds a week, I can hit my goal by the end of the year. I so very, very much want to do that.

One more day of lamb/pear/lentils/rice, and then I get to add in kiwi and kale and cauliflower! Woo! And new proteins on the next day! What a wild life! ;)

Elimination diet, day two (evening)

I am so sick of lentils. ;) Three meals with lentils will do that to you. I think I like the green lentils more, but either the green or red are probably actually tasty when you use some herbs, which I'm not allowed for awhile. Doh. ;)

I forced myself to avoid the rice all day, and my intestines thanked me. I've had a little bit of stomach pain today but nothing as bad as last night. So tomorrow, I think I'll try some rice again but carefully. Perhaps brown rice pasta for breakfast, as I need a change of textures. I'll try to find some ground lamb tomorrow too. I miss seasonings and textures! Oh yeah, and sweets too.

I'm still really tired, but so far that's about it - tired and some stomach pain. Yesterday, tired and lots of stomach/intestine pain. It'll be interesting to see how things go when I start adding in other items on Tuesday.

Elimination diet, day two (morning)

Interesting! I had some serious stomach and intestinal cramping and bloating yesterday afternoon/evening, and I'm wondering if I really do have some sort of rice issue - since all I had eaten that day was pears, lamb and brown rice. I did not have rice with dinner and the cramping calmed down a bit. Still feel bloated in the belly today though.

Oddly, I lost 3.2 pounds yesterday. I had gained two pounds the day before though, but seriously, I don't think I've ever lost 3 pounds in a day. Not realistic, but hey, I can't lie and say I wouldn't be delighted to lose a ton of weight in this thing. :D

So today, for breakfast I had red lentils and a pear. Red lentils with no seasoning is not exactly the tastiest breakfast food. ;) Or any food for that matter. Blargh. Red lentils are super-mushy, which is why they're not often served on their own but more in soups and stews. I think my exciting lunch will be... wait for it... lamb and perhaps GREEN lentils! Woo! I might have some brown rice pasta for dinner though, but trying to hold off on the rice and see how things go.

I miss sweets. ;) I'm just trying to keep looking forward to day 5 when I get a couple new foods, but day 6 is all kinds of good things - like basil and tuna and cucumber and melon! Woo!

Elimination diet, day one

Did someone say this was going to be easy? Not me... aie.

First lesson, if you're going to have rice for breakfast, cook it the night before. ;)

The first four days are super-basic: pears, rice, lamb and lentils. Had a pear while cooking the brown rice for breakfast. The lamb took a long time to cook, but I eventually had some with more brown rice. A pear for a snack later. And of course, I'm hungry and really want something sweet. ;) I don't want to overdo on the pears, but I'll probably have another one after dinner (perhaps lamb?). I'll try cooking some lentils with dinner too.

I'm missing spices a lot too - would be nice to add some flavor to these rather bland foods. And really missing sweets. I love sweets, but I know I need to scale back, so this is ultimately a good thing but it's annoying. ;)

My stomach and intestines have been making all kinds of grumbly sounds this afternoon, but I went too long without eating (the lamb took almost two hours!). Hopefully this evening will go okay, and tomorrow will go even better.

Elimination diet prep

I'm getting very frustrated with my body - the overnight two pound weight gains that take a week to reverse... it's insane. I think I have some food intolerances, so I'm going to take the plunge and do an elimination diet to figure this all out. It's not going to be easy, but I found a 28 day plan that looks do-able. Easier said than done, of course. The first four days are essentially a fast but with some food. ;) Four foods, to be exact - pears, rice, lamb and lentils. They're the four least-likely-intolerant foods, and I do go off of them completely a few days later to test them later as well, which is good (I sense I might have an issue with white rice).

I really hope to figure out some of my food issues - and boy, I would love to have some weight loss with this. I don't have any sugar at all for the first six days, and on the 7th I can test maple syrup. No cane sugar until day 21. The hardest for me - no cocoa until day 26.

I'll try to update this as I'm going through it, because I'll be curious to go back and look at my opinions later. ;)

Hope you all are well!

Progress update

Sooooo... progress. Well, I'm really demonstrating that maintenance is very difficult thing. I hit my lowest weight in December, and then bought a house and moved in, and stopped moving. My diet went out the window as well, and unfortunately I've put on about 15 pounds from that low point. This sucks!

I've still been battling with some lingering issues from my surgery in late November, which has kept me from exercising as much as I have in the past. Lame excuse. That certainly doesn't mean I need to eat more calories than a year ago. I have no good excuse here, and I need to lose this weight for good now. Hopefully I can get back on track now - I *can* do this, technically but hopefully in reality as well. :)

Safeway & Betty Crocker winner!

Lucky #8!
Congrats to

Nikki

for winning the Safeway & Betty Crocker giveaway! Your prize will be sent out shortly!

Thanks for entering, folks - hope to see you again soon! :)

Safeway & Betty Crocker Giveaway!

My friends over at MyBlogSpark have another giveaway for us! Safeway is doing this crazy deal right now where all their Betty Crocker cake mixes and brownie mixes are on sale for 69 cents each if you buy four through April 6.

There's an old dieter's trick of taking a box of cake mix and adding a can of diet soda - nothing else - and baking the cake like this. No added eggs or oil or butter. I'm not a huge fan of diet sodas, but this works well with soda water! I've heard folks like a chocolate cake mix with Diet Dr. Pepper, or yellow cake with Diet 7-UP. So many things to try! :)

Now for the giveaway! I've got a "Spring Sweet Treats" prize pack that includes a silicon baking pan, stainless steel mixing bowl, oven mitt, Betty Crocker mixing spoon, and a $25 Safeway gift card. Comment on this post with your favorite variety of cake and I'll pick a random winner on March 31st.

Good luck!

Safeway and Betty Crocker provided my gift card and the prize pack through MyBlogSpark.

Progresso Traditional Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

It's surprisingly cold out these days, so soup was on the menu today. I cracked into a can of Progresso from the cupboard - Chicken & Wild Rice today. In January, Progresso provided me with some free cans of soup but I don't remember if this was one of them.

The wild rice was too crunchy for my taste. I don't usually eat much wild rice, so maybe it's not the rice but it's me. I just prefer the long-grained rice that's in the other soups. I was also surprised by the slightly odd tomato chunks in the soup - they were kinda stringy (like sun-dried tomatoes that were re-constituted).

Anyway, the soup was better with the addition of lemon juice. Overall though, I'd go with a regular chicken & rice (not wild rice) soup and kick in that lemon juice. Though I'm tagging this as "not-recommended", it's not a strong not-recommendation - I just would prefer a different soup but wouldn't scream if I was served this one. ;)

Nutrition Facts (per cup, about two cups per can)
Calories 100
Total Fat 1.5g
Saturated Fat 0.5g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.5g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 15mg
Sodium 650mg
Total Carbohydrate 15g
Dietary Fiber 1g
Sugars 1g
Protein 6g

La Tortilla Smart & Delicious high fiber tortillas

I love burritos. So tasty. You can, in theory, do them on a healthier side - but the tortillas are the downfall here. Your typical flour tortilla is all kinds of fat and little to no fiber. Tasty, yes, but not too healthy. ;)

I found these at my local Costco in a huge pack (24!) for a great price, and these are the huge burrito-sized tortillas. I learned to cut them in half because otherwise you have too much tortilla for the fillings. Too much of the tortilla is a bad thing - they're a little dry, but honestly, as long as you're not eating a ton of the tortilla plain (or having it wrapped completely around your filling twice), you're good to go. Make sure to eat them at room temperature or they'll crack when you try to roll them.

The nutrition stats are incredible here. SO MUCH FIBER! Ahem.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 80
Total Fat 3g
Saturated Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 300mg
Total Carb. 18g
Fiber 12g
Sugars 1g
Protein 8g

More on the Godiva Chocolate Cupcakes

I posted last week when I received the Godiva Chocolate Cupcakes as a gift from my family for my birthday. Since they arrived frozen, I just put them directly into my freezer and then thawed them last night. Finally just tried one, and... absolutely totally not worth the $28 cost, and then you add the absurd shipping charges - over $50 for the 6 cupcakes, and they are *not* worth it.

Godiva's web site describes them as:

"These sublime little cakes conceal an irresistible surprise inside – a luscious center of Godiva chocolate ganache. Our rich, moist, chocolate cupcakes are offered by the half dozen, all iced in pink vanilla buttercream especially for Valentine’s Day, or three each in chocolate and vanilla buttercream for a romantic weekend’s worth of indulgent nibbling."

Uh, that surprise was so well-hidden that we didn't see any sign of it. Even cut a cupcake in half, and no ganache in there. Seriously, what the heck? Completely and ridiculously overpriced, and not at all sublime or indulgent - or moist even. Sad.

and I'm still irritated by their web site description:

"We take as much care in shipping your Godiva order as we do in making our delicious confections. This product requires the overnight delivery method to ensure freshness."

Yes, so very fresh that they are *frozen*. Shame on you, Godiva.

Godiva Chocolate Cupcakes

Today is my birthday. Anyone who knows me knows that I love cake. Despite this blog being mostly about weight loss, I am a huge fan of cake. ;)

My family lives 2000 miles away, so my stepmom so generously ordered cupcakes for me from Godiva!

She sent the "Limited Edition Chocolate Cupcakes" pictured here. From Godiva's web site:

"These sublime little cakes conceal an irresistible surprise inside – a luscious center of Godiva chocolate ganache. Our rich, moist, chocolate cupcakes are offered by the half dozen, all iced in pink vanilla buttercream especially for Valentine’s Day, or three each in chocolate and vanilla buttercream for a romantic weekend’s worth of indulgent nibbling."

For the six cupcakes, Godiva charges $28. Ouch, but c'mon, they're adorable. However, they also require overnight shipping ($23) - "This product requires the overnight delivery method to ensure freshness." So, over $50 for 6 cupcakes. But if they're tasty and fresh, perhaps worth it?

Well... they arrived today, and they're completely frozen. The card inside the box says "For best thawing results, place the Godiva Cupcakes in the refrigerator overnight." Are you kidding me? They spent over $50 on cupcakes, and they're frozen and I can't even enjoy one on my birthday today?!

*Nothing* on the Godiva web site indicates that they're shipping a frozen product. I called Godiva to express my disappointment, and the gentleman tells me "they're fresh-frozen", as though that's going to make a difference here. I am certain no one would spend $50 to send frozen cupcakes to a loved one.

The box was wrapped with a card that has the pretty picture on the front and the ingredients & nutritional info on the back (I'll post the nutritional info at the bottom here like my regular food posts). It also includes a lot number (34891), which I would give anything to be able to translate into an actual production date. Many companies start with the day of the year in their lot codes, and "348" would translate to December 14 - over two months ago.

Extremely disappointed by Godiva here. Disclose that you're shipping a frozen product baked who knows when and don't force the customer to pay a $15 overnight shipping surcharge for a product that won't even arrive fresh-baked.

Nutrition Facts (per cupcake)
Calories 430
Total Fat 23g (35% daily value)
Saturated Fat 11g (55% daily value)
Cholesterol 70mg (23% daily value)
Sodium 150mg (6% daily value)
Total Carbohydrates 52g (17% daily value)
Dietary Fiber 2g (8% daily value)
Sugars 43g
Protein 3g

Sweethearts disappointment

I love February 15 - the day after Valentine's day, when all the candy goes on sale. ;) Yesterday I was delighted to pick up a bag of NECCO's Sweetheart candies - the cute little conversation hearts. My favorites are the white (mint) and yellow (banana).

Well... I forgot that I had heard that they changed their formulas. From their web site:
"All new flavors for 2010 Sweethearts® include Strawberry, Green Apple, Lemon, Grape, Orange and Blue Raspberry. The new Sweethearts® have been re-formulated to be softer and more fun to eat."

No more white mint hearts.

No more yellow banana hearts.

My heart... it is breaking.

The new flavors, quite honestly, suck. I love lemon candies, and this lemon is awful - way too tart and... just tart. Blecgh. No lemon flavor at all. The grape was decent, and the strawberry was tolerable, but overall, it was a bag filled of disappointment.

Bring back the old flavors, please! :)

Safeway / Fiber One giveaway winner!

Congrats to

Doreen

for winning the Safeway/Fiber One giveaway! Your prize will be sent out shortly!

Fiber One Yogurt giveaway

Howdy folks!

I posted last year about the Fiber One 50 Calorie Yogurts and I wasn't really impressed with the strawberry flavor I tried. However, the folks over at MyBlogSpark sent me a coupon to go try it again, along with a Safeway gift card for $50, so I'm going to give it another shot. Through Tuesday, February 9th, you can take advantage of a special Safeway deal where you can purchase two 4-packs of Fiber One yogurt for only $4, so I just picked up the Peach flavor and will see how it goes.

The good news for you is that Safeway and Fiber One are going to give another $50 Safeway gift card to one of my lucky readers! (Safeway also owns Dominick’s, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Vons, and Genuardi’s, if one of those stores is local to you.) Just comment on this post before February 14 and let me know your favorite yogurt flavor. I'll pick a lucky winner on February 15. Safeway and Fiber One provided my gift card and the giveaway card through MyBlogSpark.

Soup giveaway winner!

Congrats to

Laume976

for winning the Progresso soup giveaway! Your prize will be sent out shortly!

Keep an eye out for another giveaway this afternoon! :)

Last day before soup giveaway!

Last chance to enter the Progresso soup giveaway! Just comment on this post or the original post, and you're entered.

Check out my previous reviews of their Light Beef Pot Roast Soup and Light Santa Fe Chicken Soup (although I just had the Santa Fed Chicken again and it was extremely salty - so I might need to amend that review sometime...)

Another giveaway is coming soon! :D