The Fresh Diet - Day 6

Breakfast: Multi-Grain Pancakes with Fresh Pear & Mango Ricotta Cheese
The mango ricotta cheese was so delicious! Cheesecake in a tub! I wish I could eat this every morning (well of different fruit varieties). Pear was a little brown around the edges but to slightly be expected and the pancakes were... eh? I stuck them in the toaster oven but since the pieces were small it was impossible to get them out and if I hadn't toasted them, they seemed kind of styrofoamy (yes I'm making up words again)? However, I've noticed that I am the least hungry when I have one of these breakfast options, dairy and some carbs (especially bread and some fruit). I've tried to stick with these sort of options as I've planned my menu for future days. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Dinner (lunch):Roasted Pork Loin with Apricot Curry Sauce with Farro Grain Pilaf and Sauteed Mushroom Medley
I've had good luck switching out my lunch and dinner portion. The dinner meals tend to be more microwave friendly and keep me full a bit longer (well aside from the massive wraps). Anyway, this was really nice but the curry had absolutely no spiciness to it so I was a little disappointed. The grain pilaf and mushrooms were absolutely delicious and the pork was tender. Just wish the sweet sauce had a little kick!

Snack: Whole Wheat Chicken Quesadilla with Pepper-Jack Cheese & Mango Salsa

These were adorable and super yummy! I stuck them in the toaster oven at home for a few minutes so they could get slightly crispy and warm. Mm. Again, salsa with some kick, please?

Lunch (dinner): Reuben Style Deli Wrap with Smoked Turkey Breast, Swiss Cheese, Baby Lettuce & Thousand Island Dressing

Enormous and super filling! I stuck this in the microwave for about 30 seconds and did the rest of the time in the toaster oven. Yum! Was tempted to add some sauerkraut but it was already huge!

Dessert: Papaya Cheese Cake
Another shocker, I'm Sure. Haven't eaten yet though. Still stuffed from dinner!

Just Sharing Good News

So, I've recently become active on The Fresh Diet facebook page. That's how I won an additional 3 days onto the 5 I purchased through groupon. And today I just found out I've won another 7 days! I'm fairly sure their marketing technique is to get people hooked with all these free days so you'll pay, but if you are curious about the plan, I'd "Like" their facebook page. You could win 3 days free (US/Toronto area only afaik and only to certain zip codes).

 After all is said and done, I'll be paying $145 for 15 days worth of food or 3 complete work weeks.

The Fresh Diet - Day 5

Well crud, I forgot to copy and paste my meal descriptions before they disappeared from the Fresh Diet website. No matter, pictures and my descriptions will have to do.

Breakfast: fruit salad and blueberry yogurt 
This was pretty good, although the kiwis weren't completely ripe.

Lunch (aka Dinner): Chicken with some sort of wine sauce, wheat angel hair and broccoli mash
My favorite part of this meals was the broccoli mash. I am going to try and recreate this! It was kind of like creamed spinach but obviously healthier and unlike many other sides had a healthy dose of garlic, yum! Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the rest of the meal. The chicken was dry and the pasta was that typical whole grain slightly gritty kind. I don't know why the first chicken was so great but the subsequent ones have been sub par?

Snack: Cod Cake
Pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of these kind of cakes (my mom used to make salmon cakes and I hated them - she baked them and they had no flavor and were mushy - sorry mom!) but I figured I could use the protein before physical therapy, boy was I right as I was there for nearly 2 hours.

Dinner (aka Lunch): Turkey burger on ciabatta with bok choy and peanut sauce
This was absolutely delicious. The peanut sauce had a bit of a kick (something that seems to be missing on TFD though I understand as the majority of Americans probably season their food less than I do!). I stuck the sandwich in the toaster oven to get the bun nice and crispy. Quite delicious!

Dessert: Pineapple Cheesecake
I don't know how tonight's cheesecake tasted richer than previous nights, but it was yummy. And yes, more cheesecake tomorrow.

Oops

Yesterday was so good in theory. I started my day eating healthy. I had prepared something the night before for lunch as I mentioned in my post on Thursday. I brought healthy snacks to... snack on. But I had also bought my husband some candy corn at CVS on sale and on my way home I opened it for 'just a bite' and ate half the bag. And I stopped by Whole Foods for some healthy provisions and walked by the bakery and well. The only redeeming point was picking up some healthy things for the weekend and coming home to play my new Wii Just Dance 2 for about a half hour.

Today has been much better so far as I made yummy oatmeal for breakfast (just the regular whipped banana one plain with about a teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter). I've also convinced my husband to eat some tomorrow morning (this is amazing as he's so anti-healthy food). I snacked on some multigrain tortilla chips with my coffee mid-afternoon and I'm not hungry for more though I have been nursing a couple cups of coffee throughout the day.

Monday restarts my Fresh Diet. So far I've lost weight but I haven't gotten over the hump yet so we'll see. I'm excited to start eating more natural good for you foods and I'm going to try to do that over the obsessive calorie counting and try to get more exercise in that I hope won't set off back problems. I realized that when I was counting calories I wasn't eating healthy. Sure, I was eating fruits and vegetables but I would eat a bag of light chips and chocolate and then eat a lighter dinner to stay within my limit. Just looking at calories isn't enough. I've been hooked lately on reading health blogs so I hope they have a good influence. I may look into therapy again too to curb the binge.

The Fresh Diet - Day 4

Even though I had quite the work out yesterday (for me anyway, can't do cardio thanks to my back), I wasn't really hungry this morning. So I didn't cram breakfast into my mouth the minute I got settled at work.

Breakfast: Peanut Butter Chip Muffin with Fresh Papaya & Banana Cottage Cheese

Doesn't the cottage cheese look disgusting? I was a little hesitant to try it, but I did. Well I figured out the reason the cottage looked gross, the banana, they mashed fresh banana in the cottage cheese. It was delicious and would be super easy to make at home. The papaya was slightly bitter which I wasn't a fan of but that muffin. Oh my gosh that was delicious. I think I'm more impressed with things that I'm not sure I could figure out the recipe for since other than an apple sauce sub for butter, I don't know how they made the bread part of that healthy, maybe protein powder?

Lunch: Grilled Steak Salad with Romaine Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion & Horseradish Dressing 
This was delicious and huge. The horseradish dressing was a little thick but was really tasty. The steak was slightly red in the center (as you can see) and was tender and juicy. My only complaint is I personally would have added more vegetables and several types of lettuce. Yes, I realize it's listed as Romaine and said veggies but it could have used a variety.

Snack: Crab Cake with Horseradish Dressing
I was smart today and brought my "snack" to work. I ate this around 3pm and it was rather tasty and left shortly thereafter to finalize the paperwork on our refinance for our house. My only disappointment was how teeny tiny these were but I guess to be expected as they weren't a meal. I'm so glad I ate these before we left as the signings took over an hour. I also stopped by Starbucks on the way and grabbed a skinny latte for myself and a hot chocolate for DH. I didn't even sip as it was full fat, victory!

Dinner: Grilled Chicken Breast with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto with Grilled Portabella Mushrooms and Roasted Cauliflower
You know how I said I should order more chicken entrees on the plan? I take that back. This grilled chicken was a little dry. The sun-dried pesto was flavorful and I love the sides but it was just OK.

Dessert: Cinnamon Pear Cheese Cake
Cheesecake again?

Tomorrow I'm on my own. I was supposed to go for another epidural injection tomorrow but as I'm doing very well since my last shot, we're pushing it back a bit. I figured with the nerves and the numbness and sleepiness afterward, I'd never get in my 3 meals and 2 snacks anyway. Well, now I'm in for a full day at the office so I've done something I've never done, pre-prepare my meals the night before. I cooked up a tin of albacore tuna with some edamame, green beans and mushrooms with a little orange sauce, soy sauce and a dash of olive oil and garlic. And well, you'll see pictures tomorrow either way. We'll see how I hold up. It's a lot easier to diet when you are thinking, "I paid X amount for this, it would be stupid to 'cheat'!" so we'll see!

The Fresh Diet - Day 3

I went to bed and woke up starving this morning so I was anxious to heat up my breakfast.

Breakfast: Whole Wheat Blueberry Waffles with Strawberries & Blueberry Vanilla Ricotta Cheese
Yum! I was a little worried about picking the waffles since my only remembrance of diet waffles are the Kashi variety which taste like cardboard unless you burn them or cover them in something which kind of defeats the purpose. These were dense, crispy on the outside (thanks to the office toaster) and slightly chewy on the inside but not in a bad way (though they wouldn't have been good without the toasters help I'm sure)? And I love the ricotta cheese cup! It tastes exactly like their cheesecake except a little more gritty. I think this would be really easy to replicate (I even found recipes online for a similar ricotta based cheesecake so once I manage not to eat the whole pie I'm good to go! Although, I did figure out how to keep that from happening, mini pie tins!). I think I may pick up some little reusable cups for future non-Fresh Diet meals. Oh, right, the cheese cup was delicious in case you were wondering. It had fresh blueberries in the mix, and the fresh strawberries tasted so good after not having fresh fruit for days but there could have been a few more slices.

Lunch (Dinner): Tender Beef Fillet with BBQ Bourbon Sauce with Red Bell Pepper Orzo and Steamed Broccoli Rapini
You know of what I thought of when I looked at this meal? This:

 I was quite dubious that what I was about to eat wasn't some meat-like creation like those steaks. Thank goodness I was wrong. I ate an honest to goodness steak, with slight grizzle around the edges and all! For food that hasn't been seasoned very much, the BBQ sauce had a kick! My only complaint is I wish there was more broccoli. What is wrong with me requesting more fruits and veggies?!

Hors D'Oeuvres: Mini Sweet Potato & Turkey Sheppards Pie
This was so freaking cute. The smell kind of turned me off when I heated it but it was very tasty, though a little dense. It was the perfect thing to get me going for an hour of stretching and resistance training.

I cheated a little on my way to physical therapy. I stopped by Starbucks and grabbed a grande decaf skinny vanilla latte. I drink coffee with skim milk in the morning but I try not to deviate from the program too much. I was very tempted to have an apple too, maybe tomorrow.

Dinner: Grilled Lamb Burger on Whole Wheat Bun with Yellow Tomato & Mint Aioli
Oh my gosh, this was so freaking yummy. And finally something with some kick! The aioli (which by the way is one of my favorite scrabble words ever) had plenty of garlic and just a hint of mintiness. And now I know why they chose a yellow tomato. Between the creamy aioli and the yellow bit sticking out from the burger, you almost think you're eating cheese and not a tomato. The lamb wasn't too gamy and I toasted the bun so it was slightly crispy on the outside, yumm!

Dessert: Peach Cheese Cake
Yes I had cheesecake again tonight. What can I say, I'm a fan. But now I know how to recreate this (testing out a few recipes this weekend when I'm off the program till Monday).

Not only are these pictures and review entries a great way too make this particular blog more colorful but now I'll have an easier time guessing portion sizes and recipes when I'm on my own!

The Fresh Diet - Day 2

Day two...


Breakfast: Wild Mushroom Omelet with Whole Wheat Toast
I'll be honest, I put off breakfast as long as I could this morning. The thought of the rubbery microwaved eggs was not appealing. The eggs were slightly better today (I cooked them for about half the time I did yesterday) but not by much. The mushrooms were great and the toast was yummy. I ate the egg part of the omelet as fast as I could without choking hence no photo! I may have held my nose too. Tomorrow's breakfast menu is blueberry waffles and ricotta cheese, thank god!

Lunch: Crab Salad Sandwich on Nine Grain Bread with Celery, Tomato & Lettuce

I didn't taste any celery in my sandwich but that doesn't mean it wasn't in there as small sliced celery is fairly innocuous. I really enjoyed this sandwich. It didn't seem they cut corners, there was plenty of juicy crab inside the bread which was delicious as well. Now I know why there's a "snack" planned for later in the day because while I'm full, I'm used to having other things with lunch, yes I am craving yet another apple. At least there's some fruit with breakfast tomorrow.

Snack: Buffalo Style Chicken Strips with Roasted Pearl Onion

I was absolutely famished when I finally got home this evening. I started feeling hungry around 4pm when I left the office (even more so planning my office's holiday luncheon) and then by the time I got home around 4:45pm my stomach was grumbling, I was shaking a little and was in a foul mood, snapped at my husband, snapped this picture after several tries as my hands were shaking and devoured it. I think I only cooked it for 10 seconds and the chicken wasn't super hot but I didn't care. I'm still a little shaky so I will be eating my dinner soon. I think I'll start bringing the snack to work just in case and go back to eating dinner at lunch and vice versa. Not buffalo style but it was chicken and it sated my hunger.

Dinner: Pork Medallions with Provencal Sauce with Roasted Green Asparagus and Sauteed Button Mushrooms
I was surprised with this as the pork looked like it was in danger of being overcooked. It wasn't the most tender pork I've had but it was still soft and wasn't chewy. I think I was surprised with the whole meal. The sauce was really delicious, the asparagus were slightly crispy on the outside and not overcooked, my least favorite part were the button mushrooms. They needed more garlic and pepper. I guess I have a tendency of over seasoning things (and I don't use a ton of salt in my cooking either).

Dessert: Blueberry Cheese Cake
Are you surprised I chose cheesecake again? It's probably my 2nd favorite dessert after tiramisu.I'm usually not a fan of blueberry cheescake as it tends to get too sweet for me, this lighter version was perfect! No gluey blueberry syrup toppings, just a light cheesecake with a hint of blueberry and a crispy shell. This was fab!

The Fresh Diet - Day 1 (Snack Dinner Dessert)

Ok, end of day one for The Fresh Diet, though I still haven't eaten dessert yet since I'm so stuffed from dinner! One thing I want to comment on is while the food is substantial (I haven't been hungry once), I have noticed a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables. For instance, instead of the half piece of wheat toast, I would have preferred something else like pineapple. I even started craving an apple and baby carrots when I was driving home. I've been eating an apple everyday for months now to help try to lower my cholesterol (not flagged as high but my "bad" cholesterol is a little high and my "good" cholesterol is a little low) and I missed the fresh fruit and veggies I've been eating though I did have some vegetables in all the meal meals today (not the snacks).

Snack #1 aka Hors D'Oeuvre: mini whole wheat sweet & sloppy joe
This was really good but the last thing I wanted at this point was more meat even if lunch was poultry and not beef - see why I tend to eat a vegetarian (more or less) diet? It was tasty. My husband said it looked like dog food but it tasted like a real sloppy joe. It was served on a small little pita and was quite tasty. Also filling even for such a small item.

Dinner (aka lunch): Philly cheese steak whole wheat wrap with sauteed bell pepper and mozzarella cheese
Oh my gosh! This was delicious! The cheese melted (I did a little time in the microwave and then a couple minutes under the broiler) which rarely happens with diet food cheese. This was heavy! There were actual pieces of steak and red and green pepper and oh my gosh, it was delicious. Did I mention this was yummy? It didn't taste like diet food and I nearly licked my plate! Also now I'm absolutely stuffed.

Snack #2 aka dessert: white chocolate chip cappuccino cheesecake
(note that is a smaller appetizer fork not a full sized one)
(a few hours later)Yummy! The cheesecake was light, and tasted like it had a bit of ricotta cheese and was teeny tiny (though the crust was lovely and crispy and something you tend to lose when you get "diet" cheesecake though is there really such a thing?), but it's probably how much cheesecake you should actually eat not the massive slices they serve in restaurants! This was a satisfying ending to the day and I'm still stuffed! 


So I'm stuffed. I'm slightly paranoid that they gave me the mens portions. How can all of this be 1200-1400 calories?! Even though I wasn't a fan of breakfast (after tomorrow I'll be electing the waffle/pancake options or fruit salad) I was really pleased. However, the cost. I told DH how much this was costing me (with the discount) and then shared the full price. He was like, "people actually pay for that?!". I've heard they have some kind of retention rate offered to get you to stay on after the discounted rate, which btw is $29 a day through the groupon deal I got which was still ridiculous. For someone that doesn't cook I can see that being ok (if you're used to going out for all your meals) but I'm one of those people who prepares lunch at home for all but maybe 1 day every 2 weeks when I lunch at work and then eats in for dinner. Even if I buy the most expensive latte at Starbucks and their oatmeal or even one of the healthier egg sandwiches, I'd be spending less than $10! So for me, I would never be able to go on this plan long term.


But the intent of this for me was to help get me over the hump. And have someone making my lunches, breakfast and dinner and making sure I eat something for each of these meals because I've excelled at the crazy unhealthy dieting and I'd like to maintain whatever metabolism I've got left! Maybe they'll have another similar deal through groupon and I can do a few days a month if I feel I'm blah about dieting and about to fall off the bandwagon.

The Fresh Diet - Day 1 (Lunch aka Dinner)

Turkey Breast Scalopini with White Wine & Shallots with Whole Wheat Linguine Pasta and Saueteed Spinach

Oh my gosh, that was delicious. What I saw looked like your typical frozen dinner but the chicken was so fresh and juicy! And it was enormous! I'd say a good 5 inches long and 3 inches wide at the widest part - a full breast of meat. The spinach was your typical sautee spinach but it did have a healthy dose of garlic (yum!) and although the whole wheat pasta was decent, it did taste kind of strange - slightly grainy (but all the "healthy" varieties taste a bit odd). I ate the enormous chicken breast with my fork - no knife so it wasn't very lady like and mixed the spinach and pasta together with the leftover sauce. I'm absolutely stuffed.

I clearly need to include chicken dishes with some of my later meals and remember to bring a knife to work!

Oh and I decided to replace my lunch portion with my dinner portion as I indicated in my last post. This meal was much more microwave friendly and I think the wrap will be a nice lighter post work out meal.

Have no idea how I'm going to manage to eat the mini sloppy joe later, dinner (lunch) and dessert, cheesecake!

Now if only my sinus headache would go away.

The Fresh Diet - Day 1 (Breakfast & Other Ramblings)

This morning I hit snooze more than I'd like to admit, so I completely forgot to bring my camera along for the day. Thankfully, you'll only miss photos of breakfast and lunch.

I happily discovered the enormous Fresh Diet bag exactly where I had asked them to leave it this morning. I hope the people at work aren't mad at me since I'm taking up the majority of the fridge. Maybe tomorrow I'll only bring the meals I know I will eat at work in a smaller bag!

I'll admit that my issue isn't portion control. It's day portion control! When I diet it seems I eat as few calories as possible during the day and then I'm absolutely famished by the evening, especially if that's a PT day (which involves over an hour of stretching and strength training). So I either go back to the days when I used to try to starve myself and ignore it (leading to a "bad" day the day after) or eat a ton (aka binge) in a short amount of time in the evening. Probably the absolute worst idea from a dieting standpoint. I also have a tendency of having a "good" day followed by an "oops" and basically throw in the towel. Then I figured if I've cheated once, I've already screwed myself over and eat poorly the rest of the day. As a recovered bulimic, I'm also terrified to revert back to that period of my life so I try (poorly) to not become too obsessed.

I'm in for 1200-1400 calories per day with 3 solid meals and 2 snacks.

Today's menu is:
Breakfast: egg white omelet with cucumber, dill, smoked salmon & whole wheat toast
Lunch: Philly cheese steak whole wheat wrap with sauteed bell pepper and mozzarella cheese
Hors D'Oeuvre: mini whole wheat sweet & sloppy joe
Dinner: turkey breast scalopini with white wine & shallots with whole wheat linguine pasta and sauteed spinach
Dessert: white chocolate chip cappuccino cheesecake

I woke up a bit nauseated due to allergies but grabbed some water on the way out of the house and got to work. I know I'm only supposed to drink water, but I couldn't help having my morning coffee with a dash of skim milk and the ZSweet. You get a half a slice of whole wheat toast but it's very dense. It arrived a little wet, but I heated it up in the office toaster oven (thank goodness or I'm not sure I would be able to stomach it - can you tell I'm not a breakfast person?!). Looking over my menu I feel a bit sick, sloppy joe? I tried to choose entrees with more meat than I usually eat since I am anemic and even though I'm not a vegetarian, I generally don't eat meat more than once a week. I bet I'll feel a lot better this week.

The omelet is ok but I love the smoked salmon and the cucumbers pick up a hint of the smoky saltiness! I'm not the biggest fan of the slightly fluffy yet also slightly rubbery texture of the omelet and it needs more garlic (though in my household we add copious amounts of garlic to everything). I bet it would have tasted better had it not been chilled and then reheated in the microwave.

I really hope the office microwave doesn't murder my lunch.
Slight edit, I've decided to switch dinner with lunch as the dinner meal seems more microwave friendly (the wrap will probably be better in my toaster oven at home. And other than tomorrow, as I've signed up for an omelete at breakfast again, I'm going to opt for slightly lighter options as it looks like my microwave at work destroys eggs. No more eggs for me!

And one last thing, I'll probably be posting one Fresh Diet entry per day instead of.... who knows how many today. Shorter hopefully too!

So I Married A Librarian...

My husband pushes literacy on me almost daily as a replacement for my internet, blog, youtube and makeup addiction. The problem isn't that I dislike reading, it's that I become so completely engrossed in any book I read (well ones I like anyway) and do things like stay up till 3am to finish said book when I have to be up at 5am.

Anyway, I recently started reading a new series and I love it! I prefer series as all books (no matter how long) seem too short and I really enjoy character development, which you can delve more into with a longer series.

The author is Laurie R. King and the first book in the series is called The Beekeeper's Apprentice. It follows a girl who become apprenticed to Sherlock Holmes in the most peculiar way and they develop an interesting almost father-daughter relationship. Anymore and I'd be giving away the plot! The series has gotten rave reviews and I can see why. I stayed up till lord knows what hour finishing the first in the series last night and I now have my paws on the 2nd, A Monstrous Regiment of Women. Very excited.

A bit more about my literary loves, my favorite book of all time is the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I also like Ken Follet books, though they tend to be a little naughty. I recently finished a series on the art world in Italy which is also fab by Iain Pears (don't remember the first book in the series, but the two main characters are Jonathan Argyll & Flavia di Stefano). I tend to gravitate towards historical fiction (shocker I'm sure).

What kind of books do you like? Any recommendations for me?

Stuff & Or Things

Not that I don't love my beauty blog, but sometimes I want to talk about other stuff. For instance, I'm trying to lose weight and on Monday I'm starting The Fresh Diet after a groupon deal they had over the weekend (and I also won 3 free days on their facebook page). Still prohibitively expensive, but maybe it will get me over the hump. I've been losing and gaining the same 5 pounds for nearly 2 months now after my larger 20 pound loss. So I wanted a place to chronicle that and photograph and kind of review the food.

I'm also a part of a community called Influenster and recently they sent me a box of stuff to trial and review. Well, among the things I'm really loving, is a natural sweetener called ZSweet. I am an Equal or Sweet n Low girl. I generally dislike the "natural" ones. I really disliked Truvia and I'm not a big fan of Spenda either. But ZSweet is actually decent. I've used it in my coffee for the past couple weeks at work in lieu of Equal or the pink stuff.

Oh, and speaking of groupon, a few months ago they had a deal at the GAP and I stopped in there tonight after work (I also stopped by Victoria's Secret since they sent me a coupon for a free pair of undies and $10 off any purchase - hooray for 3 pairs of undies $6). So at the GAP I totally scored. So first of all the groupon was $25 and was good for $50 of GAP items (so everything was basically already 50% off already). My local GAP had tons of stuff on clearance and it looked like there was some sort of additional discount, maybe 10 or 15%.

I hauled:

Bootcut Denim by Gap

$19.97 + ?% off

Plus Tops by Gap

$14.97 + ?% off (to wear with skinny jeans open (covers the bum)

Something similar to this for $8.97 plus the discount.

Clothing by Gap

Two pairs of leggings (gray and black) $5.97 each

Well, and I paid $6 or so out of pocket. Still awesome though.

So welcome to random land. My semi-frequent ramblings.

Disclosure: This post includes shopsense affiliate links and groupon referral links.