Citizen of the World

Matt has a rule for us when we're away from our "safe eating environment" (which he broke TWICE tonight - NOT HELPFUL!): If he suggests something for us to eat while we're away from home and I counter with a lower calorie option, he has to take the lower caloric option, hands down.  I forget this rule from time to time - like tonight.

Tonight on the way up towards our car parked in the Village, we were talking about having Greek salads at Manatus, which is a good, healthy, low-calorie option. I countered with the option that each of us have one slice of pizza instead, since we don't have a slice of pizza but maybe once every 4-5 months - if even THAT frequently; plus, given our day's light food intake, we could afford it. The Manatus Greek salad with feta, anchovies, and dolmadakias happens to be most likely equal in caloric content to a slice of pizza.

He said, "No, let's go for the salad." 

I reminded him that the last time we went to Manatus late at night, we ended up ordering a 3-egg white omelet, too, and ate some toast with butter, which wasn't that low calorie.

We got to Manatus and I didn't even open the menu, thinking, "I'm just gonna get the salad and be done for the day." 

Matt said, "We could get the broiled scrod, which is really good, along with the salad..."  I agreed, but suggested that we split the scrod order along with the extra veggies - broccoli and steamed green beans - both low calorie and healthy choices. Matt said, "Nah, let's each get a filet - it'll be good."

The scrod came with soup or salad, but we both really wanted the Greek salad, so we both opted for soup: He got chicken soup with low rice and I got the tomato soup (which turned out to have some rice in it - UGH!).  The waiter unexpectedly brought out an AWESOME basket of bread - which we both love ... and ate.

Sooooo, in the end, Matt went against his own rule TWICE (first with the pizza option and second with the scrod-splitting option). Of course, I could have put my foot down. But, I love Greek salads. I love grilled or broiled fish.  I love bread. AND I love tomato soup.  Separately, these things aren't bad. In other combos these things aren't bad.

At the end of a long day at midnight, all these things together on one table with two wide-eyed men who love food?  Not such a good thing and pretty high in calories.  The one-slice pizza option, as it turns out, given our propensity to over-order, would have been the lowest calorie and possibly most satisfying choice of all.

So, back to Matt's rule.  Next time, I'm reminding him of the rule. Next time, I'm putting my foot down and not giving into temptation so quickly.  In fact, the ultimate best option for us would have been to come home and have veggies here with my honey mustard sauce. Next time.

Friends and family have been concerned that Matt and I on our low-calorie diet have not been eating enough or getting enough nutrition. Well, here's a snippet of our diet - an eating day in the life of Matt and Steve's 800-1000 calorie a day diet: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snacks. At the end, you'll see a breakdown of our nutritional intake.

For breakfast, we eat 7-8 oz of blueberries with low-fat yogurt. This ups our anti-oxidants and fiber tremendously and provides digestive enzymes to aid with digestion throughout the morning. This is a big bowl of blueberries and yogurt, which equals about 200 calories.


We love our coffee and have found a tasty alternative to the rich half & half. There are fat-free half & half selections, too, but they are typically about 5-10 calories more per serving and aren't as tasty. Two cups of coffee (20 oz of coffee plus 1/2 cup of skim milk) equals just under 50 calories (yes, we sweeten with Splenda).


For lunch (about 3-4 hours after breakfast), we'll have a 12-15 oz salad of mixed greens, cukes, peppers, and onions. We might throw a tablespoon or two of pickled jalapenos on our individual bowls for more flavor (zero calories), depending on the dressing. we typically use Walden Farms zero calorie dressings (ranch, thousand island, honey mustard, balsamic, or raspberry vinaigrette).

Matt makes homemade dressing from freshly squeezed lemons, olive oil, and spices - primarily to dress our steamed vegetables. With Matt's dressing on the salad, there's an added 40 calories due to the olive oil. If we don't use Matt's dressing for the salad, we always sprinkle on a little sea salt and pepper to increase the flavor of the salad. This salad with Walden Farms dressing is 55-70 calories (12-15 oz). It's TREMENDOUSLY filling!




For dinner, we try to eat mostly fish and steamed veggies. Of course, during the week, we will mix it up with either pork or chicken (Matt de-bones and de-skins the chickens and broils them flat with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika - AMAZINGLY tasty). Here is our dinner from last night of 12.5 oz of tilapia (2 raw filets @ 348 calories) brushed with Dijon mustard and broiled. We also had essentially two servings of steamed veggies (broccoli and carrots) because we had exercised quite a bit, which came to about 130 calories.






For dessert, we most often have a Skinny Cow caramel truffle ice cream bar (100 calories). Our evening snack last night was half of a "bambino" (or baby) watermelon, which is around 16 oz of watermelon for 136 calories.


So, for yesterday, this is our nutritional breakdown:




Oh, and in the last week (since Monday, June 13), I've lost 14 pounds, which pisses Matt off, who's lost about 3 pounds. And we've done the same exercising and eating all week. Well, I might have eaten a few more calories in tomatoes than him, but it's practically equal. I'm feeling GREAT!

If we're feeling peckish, we'll cut up some tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, celery, or raw fennel bulbs for munchies - with a little salt & pepper or zero calorie salad dressing for dipping (we don't tally the celery, cucumbers, or fennel. We consider those veggies "negative calories" since more calories are used during digestion than they actually contain). One other thing is we eliminated alcoholic beverages. We haven't bought any Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi for the house, either; if we're out at a restaurant, Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi is our go-to drink. But at home, we make our own caffeinated and caffeine-free teas, which are refreshing and diverse.


Here's to two more months of strict dieting (except for one dinner out in July and the week of Bear Week). I want to be much more svelte for our European cruise in August - for pictures and general flexibility.

This morning my weight showed 9 pounds fewer than Monday! How's that possible? When I weighed myself on Monday morning, my body was at its emptiest. Then it started to get rid of all the other crap that was in there - dough, chocolate, cookies, etc. My belly this morning was feeling a little tighter than it had in about 3 weeks, so I weighed myself. I couldn't believe my eyes when it was 9 pounds down! Oh, and for the record, we've upped our caloric intake to just over 1000 calories. By the weekend or starting on Monday, we'll up it to 1200-1500.

Matt's jealous because somehow he's lost "only" 3 pounds since beginning. I keep telling him that our bodies are different and they each handle weight and weight loss differently. Plus, when we work out, because I'm at a higher weight than he is to begin with, my calorie burning is much greater than his. He doesn't have as much to push around! lol

But, we're on the road to a thinner us. I'm expecting to be down at least 35-40 pounds by May, which should be reasonable, doable, and healthy (roughly 2 pounds a week).

We were watching BBC America and an ad came on for Flirty Girl Fitness. It showed girls and women dancing with moves from a Britney backup line - around chairs, undulating their hips, and spanking their buttocks. It was a "WOW" moment - as if to say, "During daytime programming they can show that stuff with kids' jaws dropping to the ground, yet god forbid they say 'tit' or 'dick' on TV."

I was thinking of getting their entry DVD pack for friends of mine (as a joke) and us to watch and laugh (like we did with Faster Pussycat - Kill! Kill!). There are even a couple of free gifts with the DVDs that are worth the cost of the DVD set alone $17 total with S&H.

The only hitch here is that we'll be automatically signed up for a month-to-month DVD receipt (@ $19.99 a MONTH!! ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT!!!), and I know we DO NOT want to deal with that! Those "1-800" numbers don't take "NO!" for an answer. They sometimes even disconnect you before you can tell them not to send you their crap anymore.

Not gonna do it. BUT, it would have been seriously funny to watch.

I got up this morning and after a bit weighed myself. My drama last night about not reaching down to 1500 calories was frankly unwarranted: I've lost another 3 pounds!! I had gained about 4 pounds over the vacation with my family, which was disconcerting because I had basically stayed on my diet. For 9 days, I was pretty stringent, although I wasn't really exercising (for which I'm grateful to sparkygearhead for reminding me, and who is totally correct - I need to get back on the treadmill or just back into the gym to workout!). I have a goal of being 10 pounds less than my current weight by the end of the month, which is totally doable and healthy.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement!