Next Month's Challenge

Next month my fiance and I are going to try to eat on $4 per day. Since I have started making everything from scratch this won't be too difficult but there will be some difficult things. When something goes wrong with my lunch (which seems to happen with some regularity unfortunately) I won't be able to go out and just buy a fast food replacement. I will have to subsist on free food from the office snack cabinet until I get home. We have apple chips and 100 calorie packs in the office for everyone so I won't be unfed, just not eating what I want. Those things will not count towards my $4 since they are free. The other problem is that my fiance is convinced that this will leave him starving to death by the end of the month. I explained that lots of people on the internet are managing to live on $1 per day but I upped our daily budget because we are not vegetarians and we are living in NYC so things tend to be more expensive for us. He still thinks this will leave him desperate for food but I am going to aim to keep him on about a 2500 calorie per day diet which isn't enough to starve anyone. I am going to aim to keep myself on a 1900 calorie per day diet which is less than I am eating now but plenty for a 27 year old woman.

As for today I think I am going to make rice and something else for dinner. We are going to walk to Zabars so we will get plenty of cheese and some of my favorite sodas (they are super low sugar) and some coffee for Ben. It is about a 70 block walk so it will take a while but we need the exercise so we are happy to do it. And because it is sunny out I have an excuse to wear my new hat with the wide brim! Hooray!

Leftovers

Today was leftovers day. I had leftover brisket with some BBQ sauce on a bun for lunch, a bagel for breakfast and leftover home made pizza for dinner. Everything (except the bagel) was home made and low sodium. I had some bread dough left over from the pizza so I made some rolls that will be super tasty tomorrow. Yum!

I'm Back

Wow...I have been gone for a while! My computer was being repaired so I couldn't really update the blog but I didn't abandon my goal. So far in the past week I made goulash, brownies, cornbread, pizza dough, dinner rolls, and pasta sauce from scratch. I am not going to post recipes because I am a lazy, lazy person but rest assured it was fairly simple and tasty!

I have decided that this is a change that will be a forever thing, not just a month long goal. I feel so much better! My blood pressure has gone down and my weight has dropped a bit since making my own food, not to mention the peace of mind that comes from knowing exactly what I am putting in my body.

Tacos

Last night I made tacos...yum! I made the taco seasoning myself with sodium-free boullion and I cut the salt amount in half. It was really tasty and made perfect tacos. You use 2 tablespoons of the following mixture:


1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon salt
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS:
1 pound ground beef
1/3 cup water

Chicken

I have defrosted a chicken in the fridge and tonight we are baking it. I will stuff it so that my fiance can enjoy the stuffing but since it is coming out of a box I won't be having any of it. I figure we can get at least 4 meals a piece out of this bird and then I can boil down the extra bits to make stock out of it. Chicken stock is an important part of my baked potato soup recipe so I need to have some before I can make it again.

I took leftover steak and rice for lunch today. It was tasty! Right now I am eating grapes at my desk. I like fruit but it doesn't satisfy me the way a snickers bar would and that makes dieting and cooking from scratch very difficult.

Pizza

2 days ago I made a tasty pizza all from scratch! Well, I didn't make the pepperoni or cheese but I made the rest of it myself. I made the following dough:

2.5 c flour
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp honey
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt (this is the halved amount because I am trying to keep my salt intake low)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp basil

Mix the water, honey, oil and yeast in a big bowl. Let sit for about 10 minutes to activate the yeast. Mix salt, flour and other seasonings together and then add half a cup at a time to the water, mixing between half cups. Knead and leave in oiled bowl to rise for about 90 minutes. Spread on pizza pan and cover in sauce (see sauce recipe earlier) and other tastiness and bake for 13-15 minutes.

Because this came out so good I made a double batch of the dough yesterday and made tasty italian rolls out of it and then saved half to make another pizza tonight! Last night we did steak and mashed potatoes for dinner with a side of veggies and we took the rolls to much on today at work. Tasty!

Sneaky Fiance

For the past 2 days I haven't stuck to my goal because my fiance encourages me to eat out or eat prepackaged things. He finally made a huge deal out of this yesterday because he wanted to let me know he isn't happy with this choice of goal. He does the dishes in our house and thinks that this puts undue strain on him. I made a deal with him that I will help with dishes if he will just shut up about my dietary choices this month so it all works out for the best. I am making my own pizza with the leftover sauce from spaghetti a few days ago. Yum!

Spaghetti Sauce

Today I had leftover pancakes for breakfast and I am going to make my own spaghetti sauce for spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. I haven't decided on lunch yet.

My fiance thinks that making everything from as close to scratch as possible is a little nuts. He doesn't trust that I will be able to make decent versions of food (which, granted, is probably a little accurate since I've never done this kind of thing before) and that he will be forced to eat horrible food that he doesn't like for 3 weeks while I get the hang of this. I hope to prove him wrong!

Here is my spaghetti sauce recipe:

5 cloves minced garlic
1/2 an onion, sliced
1/4 c. olive oil
2 28 oz cans of peeled tomatoes
1 tsp salt (the recipe calls for 2 tsp salt but I am trying to watch my salt intake so I halved the amount)
1 tsp sugar
1 bay leaf
1 can tomato paste
3/4 tsp basil
1/2 tsp pepper

Saute garlic and onion over medium heat until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer 90 minutes. Stir in paste, basil and pepper. Add meatballs and simmer 30 minutes more.

I got this at Allrecipes.com so my hope is that it tastes as good as it sounds!

From April into May

Last month sucked. Last month really, really sucked actually. I wasn't able to keep up with much of anything so my goal for April went out the window. I have a new goal for May though! My goal for the month of May is to only eat foods that I make myself. No more canned soups, no more store-bought bread, no more microwave dinners. This morning I made pancakes from scratch and for dinner we will have beef pot pie! I do have a couple of exceptions to my rule though:

-Store bought jelly and peanut butter are fine
-I will make my own chicken broth but beef broth will still be purchased from the store
-Canned vegetables are fine as long as they are the no sodium kind
-Anything I buy must be as close to its natural state as possible and there can be NO HFCS or MSG in any of it
-Premade pasta is fine
-I will use up the pie crust mix we have in the house before I make my own pie crust from scratch

Here is my pancake recipe from this morning:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Directions
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

4/3 through 4/6

On Saturday our ceiling above our washer and dryer collapsed. Specifically it collapsed while I was under it and poured plaster and crap all over me. Now it is dripping water slowly into a bucket while we try to convince our landlord to let us out of our lease since this is the 7th flood in 12 months. Then Sunday was my future grandmother-in-law's 95th birthday so we were in CT all day Sunday.

Because of all of this I have not been on top of the working out like I should be and I feel horrible about it. I went for a half hour walk on my lunch break but that is still 15 minutes short of my goal. :(

April 2

I spent 46 minutes on the Wii Fit today. I actually cried while working out because my weight shot up like 10 lbs in 2 days. Logically I know that is because I always weigh myself in the morning and for the past 2 days I've ended up weighing myself after dinner but I still felt like a failure at life looking at those numbers. When I wake up in the morning I will weigh myself then and the numbers should drop back to normal. Otherwise it looks like I have a month worth of crying while I exercise every day and that sounds less than pleasant.

April 1

Yay for April! I ate chocolate cupcakes, thin mints and tagalongs today. Oh they were good!

I also started my April challenge: 45 minutes of exercise every day no matter what. Today I spent 45 minutes on the Wii Fit. I feel good about that time, though I could have put in more effort and burned more calories. I am starting slow though and building to a crazy endurance. I think at the end of the month I am going to try to do a 30 minute run! To understand how impressive this is you need to understand I wouldn't normally run if you chased me with flaming chainsaws. If I can do that I will be super impressed with myself!

Day 29 and 30

I am starting to gear up towards choosing a new goal for next month. I think I am going to put in 45 minutes per day of exercise (yay Wii Fit!) for the month of April. Now I put in very little time except for the walking to and from the train. I am starting to think about what I will do for the month of May too. If I can keep picking new goals for each month and see how much I can learn about myself this could be an interesting way to spend a year!

Day 28

I cheated today. I ate 3 thin mint cookies. My fiance has gone to his mother's for Passover so I'm kind of lonely and doing lots of chores and I opened the fridge to find that he had already opened a box. They were sitting there calling to me and I just couldn't resist. I did, however, limit myself to 3 cookies and I have resolved not to touch another one until the 1st. I am super excited about the impending chocolate smorgasboard. I have decided that rather than giving something up for April I am going to put in 45 minutes of working out every day and see what I learn from that experience. My fiance is getting in on it too and has decided to give up Facebook games (of which he plays many) or diet soda. He is going to wait until the 31st to pick one.

Day 24-27

I haven't been here in a couple of days. I have been busy but I've managed to avoid chocolate during that time. I am so glad the 1st is only a couple days away! I have girl scout cookies in the fridge just waiting for the 1st and I will do my best not to eat a whole box in one sitting.

Day 23

Today my order of girl scout cookies came in at the office. I have 2 boxes of thin mints and 2 boxes of tagalongs on my kitchen table right now. Only a few days left before I can inhale an entire sleeve of thin mints the way the universe intended! We had brisket and mashed potatoes for dinner tonight and it was delicious but I was so tempted by cookies I could barely focus. How many days left now?

Day 22

There were free chocolate chip granola bars at work today. I didn't have any. I am counting down the days until the 1st. 8 more days to go!

Day 20 and 21

Yesterday we went to Zabars and picked up some things but I was very well behaved and only bought some lemon cake and steered clear of the chocolate. Today I made spaghetti and meatballs and I ate a bagel with some peanut butter for breakfast. I am now counting down the days to April 1st so I can have chocolate again!

The other big thing is that today I managed to fit into a pair of pants I hadn't worn in almost a year. They were simply too small to button last time I put them on but today they fit just fine. I am astounded by the impact this is having on me. I think I will limit myself to chocolate one day per week from now on and see if that helps me keep losing weight.

Day 18 and 19

Yesterday I accidentally ate some pseudo-chocolate. I picked up what I thought was a 100-calorie bag of cheese nips from the pantry here at work and bit in to find that it was actually 100-calorie chips ahoy. Luckily I think those are just dark spots and not actually chocolate. Today I ate pizza and oatmeal so far but nothing chocolate. I have an orange on my desk for when my sweet tooth kicks in this afternoon. I am doing so much better at this than I thought I would be! I am now at a point where I am getting a little cranky about my lack of chocolate but I have learned so much I am willing to deal with that. I am starting to realize that a huge part of why our nation is so heavy is the constant presence of sweets and fats. I knew that we had a lot of candy and fast food in our country but I had no idea how pervasive it is in our society. I have yet to go more than 2 days without being offered/having access to free chocolate by someone, whether it is chocolate cake in the break room or free samples at the grocery store. It is a low level hum in my day to day life that I am absolutely surrounded by almost at all times and only when I actively fight against it do I even notice that it is there. I'm suprised I am not about 100 lbs heavier than I am, quite frankly.

Day 17

Today was the hardest day so far. Chocolate cake available at work and an intense desire to suck chocolate frosting through a straw. I had really vivid fantasies about just walking out of work and going downtown to buy every piece of chocolate cake for sale in the city. I just had another slice of apple pie though. We made chicken pot pie for dinner and are making corn beef brisket tomorrow. We were going to make it tonight but it hadn't thawed when I got home from work so that wasn't an option.

Day 16

Today I had another slice of apple pie in lieu of chocolatey goodness. We walked by Central Park and there are lots of gorgeous bakeries in that area with beautiful chocolate cakes, eclairs, and other delicious goodness in the window so I got my food porn fix for the day but we didn't buy anything. I should work out today but I'm not going to because I am exhausted. This stupid daylight savings thing is ticking me off royally.

Day 15

Today I got a catalog in the mail from Godiva. The bastards are taunting me through the mail now. I'm being good though and baking an apple pie instead of eating chocolate. I weighed myself today and I am now officially the lightest I have been since New Years. I have a sinking suspicion that this is because of the lack of chocolate and that ticks me off because now I have proof that my love of sweets is slowly expanding my rear end. Stupid delicious chocolate!

Day 14

Today we bought chocolate cookies at the store in CT and brought them back with us to NYC. We are leaving them in the pantry until April 1st though. They are the fudge grasshoppers and peanut butter and chocolate cookies from Keebler (they are apparently almost exactly the same as girl scout cookies) and we wanted to have some in the house to stop us from buying 80 boxes of cookies when the girl scouts set up shop at the store.

Today was my fiance's aunt's birthday and we went out to her place to celebrate with her. There were chocolate covered strawberries but I didn't eat any. I just had plain fruit and a piece of a breakfast egg casserole. We were out late last night and then we lost an hour due to the time change so we are more than a little exhausted at this point. This makes me want chocolate even worse but I still haven't touched it.

Day 13

The weather today is awful! Horrible wind and rain pouring out of the skies that literally knocked me down at one point today made it seem like a perfect day to make s'mores or fondue. I resisted though. I have a chicken in the oven and it should be super tasty but it won't be the same as chocolate!

Day 12

Today is the monthly birthday celebration in the office. They have the world's largest chocolate cake in the conference room. I have never wanted anything so badly in my life! It is taking every ounce of willpower I have to stay at my desk and not go join in on the chocolatey celebration. I'm learning this month that chocolate tends to show up for free all over the damn place. I can't imagine why I bought so much of it when it seems to practically rain down from heaven for free! I think the universe is starting to consipre against me and one day next week I will wake up to find my refrigerator has emptied itself of milk and vegetables and replaced them with blocks of fudge.

Day 11

I didn't eat any chocolate today but I've noticed a weird phenomenon beginning to develop in my head. I will on random occasions get flashes of chocolate. I will be sitting there, minding my own business, when all of the sudden *BAM* I get a mental image of a piece of cake sitting on a pretty white plate on the table in front of me. I shake it off and then later I get an image of a snickers bar being pulled apart slowly like in the commercials. I think that might be a sign of insanity actually.

Day 10

I made an interesting discovery today. I always have really bad PMS. Like, having to talk myself out of stabbing people on the subway bad. Sobbing incoherently into my hands while working out bad. Not allowing myself to make any large decisions because if I do I will leave my wonderful fiance, quit my fabulous job, and end up homeless in some ghost town out west in a fit of pique kind of bad.

I started my period today and didn't even realize it was coming because there was no flair of PMS to warn me. My emotions were so level I couldn't believe it! I have to wonder if this is a side effect of the lack of chocolate or if it is a fluke. My logical side says it is probably a side effect of the removal of chocolate from my daily life. My emotional side hopes it is a fluke because I can't imagine something I love so much causing such a large problem in my life. I knew that a healthy diet was supposed to make you feel better but this kind of thing never would have occurred to me when I thought of that.

Day 8 and 9

The 8th and 9th were difficult days for chocolate avoidance. I got a raise at work and wanted to celebrate with candy. Someone brought in one of those giant chocolate chip cookies like you get at the mall and left it in the break room. I went to Zabar's and their bakery section makes such tasty chocolate treats. Sigh.

I didn't give in to the desire for chocolate though. The worst I did was eat a piece of crumb cake. I really, really wanted chocolate but I abstained. I had better see some real weight loss result from this!

Day 7

Today I had a brisket sandwich for brunch and I am currently making beef and barley stew for dinner and baking a loaf of bread. No chocolate though. I did fantasize about Junior's chocolate/chocolate cake for a bit today but I didn't give in! God, that cake is so good though. I highly recommend it to people who haven't given up chocolate for March.

I actually went to the grocery store today to pick up a few items that we need for the household and spent $13 on really healthy foods. Milk, eggs, celery, mushrooms, yogurt and apples. I've already got vanilla ice cream at home so I didn't feel the need to buy anything sweet. I was really proud of myself and I wanted to point out to the cashier just how healthy I was being in my purchases today but I didn't because I didn't want her to think I was nuts.

Day 6

Today has been surprisingly easy. I had oatmeal for breakfast and I have a brisket in the crock pot for dinner and that makes me happy. I don't feel like I need to go lick the windows at the Godiva store or root around on the floor at the M&M store like a pig looking for truffles in the woods. I just feel normal. If I can do this for a month and come out on the other side unscathed I think I might just try giving up something a bit more complicated next month and see how that goes!

Day 4 and 5

So far for the past 2 days I have had no chocolate at all. My appetite has leveled off a bit so I am not feeling the need to stuff myself stupid. I really want chocolate but I am doing a fantastic job of refraining. I have yet to see any weight loss because of it but I am still in early days yet. Wish me luck!

Day 3

Yesterday was really, really difficult. Not because I had a general craving for chocolate but because my fiance was informed that he may be losing his job 6 weeks from now. I wanted to turn to chocolate for coping but that wasn't an option this time. Instead we put together a budget and figured out how to save as much money as possible over these next 6 weeks. We are also going to do some cleaning and find things we don't have any need for and put them up for sale on craigslist and ebay. Here's hoping we don't lose 50% of our household income next month, but if we do I hope we will be ready.

Day 2

Yesterday was more difficult. We went to the movies and I got Sour Patch Kids instead of chocolate and they weren't as satisfying as peanut M&Ms would have been.

Day 1

Today wasn't too bad. I had a lemon cupcake but no chocolate of any kind. I feel like I could do this forever but I know by Wednesday I will be searching through my coworkers trash cans looking for Reese's wrappers I can lick furiously in the bathroom. I can tell that my body doesn't feel like I'm done eating. It thinks that because I haven't put any chocolate in my system I'm not done with dinner despite having a full plate followed by a sandwich. I still feel like I'm super hungry. In my mind dinner hasn't ended yet and I could probably eat until I explode without feeling any different. In a couple of days that should stop and my brain should catch up to itself.

The Challenge

I love chocolate. I mean I really, really love it. Yummy, gooey, rich and chewy chocolate is my Achilles Heel. My one weakness, as it were. You know that episode of The Simpsons where Homer drifts off into a dream about The Land of Chocolate? That is my every fantasy come true.

I am also morbidly obese. I know that these two things are connected but bon bons, candy bars, fondue, and other forms of chocolate call to me like the Sirens leading me into the sea of badonkadonk. I have been working out every day and trying to watch what I eat but it is a struggle and the hardest part of that struggle is the chocolate. February was especially bad because of my favorite holiday: Half Priced Chocolate Day. Yes, every February 15th my favorite holiday comes around like clockwork to taunt me with tasty, tasty treats.

Knowing what I know about how bad it is for me to eat this way I have decided to challenge myself to be completely chocolate free for the month of March. It will be hard but I know I can do it! I had my last piece of chocolate until April 1st today and I am feeling strong. Come on March, bring it!