Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Calories In/Meals

Breakfast (360 calories):

Kashi Organic Cinnamon Harvest Cereal (180 calories)
Starbucks Tall Skinny Caramel Macchiato (100 calories)
Medium Organic Banana (80 calories)

Lunch (480 calories):

California Pizza Kitchen
-Cup of Dakota Smashed Pea & Barley Soup (180 calories)
-Half Portion Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad (300 calories)
*Chicken (200 calories)
*Lettuce (20 calories)
*Dressing on the Side (80 calories)
*
Shaved Parmesan Cheese (Removed from Salad)
*
Garlic-Herb Croutons (Removed from Salad)

Snack (80 calories):
Santa Barbara Organic Pistachios (80 calories)

Dinner (300 calories):
Native Foods Greek Gyro (300 calories)
-Quinoa (120 calories)
-Steamed Vegetables (50 calories)
-Black Beans (80 calories)
-Flatbread (50 calories)





Dessert/Snack (170 calories):
Organic Strawberries (20 calories)
So Delicious Chocolate Coconut Frozen Dessert (150 calories)

Daily Total: 1390

Our Student Services team went to lunch today at CPK (minus my two coworkers who are at a conference in Palm Springs). I of course studied the menu before hand. I was the only person that ordered individually. The rest of the group split four different pizzas. I had to turn down offers for a slice three times. Oh, and that bread in front of me on the table? I didn't touch it. I have to give credit to my coworkers though, because only one of them had any of it. I ordered a cup of soup and the Classic Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken. I got the dressing on the side, and only used about 1/4 of the small container (I just dip my fork). I also took off all the croutons and shaved parmesan cheese.

At Native Foods for dinner I ordered one of my new favorites. The Greek Gyro normally comes with peppered seitan, but I got black beans (on the side!) instead. I also asked for the hummus on the side, which I didn't end up using. I really wanted to have the flatbread, so I opted to not eat all of the quinoa. It feels SO good to eat a healthy meal. I was full afterwards, but I had only eaten great stuff. YAY!

4 comments:

  1. You did amazing yesterday! Especially for eating out twice!

    I hate to admit this, but when I am actively trying to loose weight (like right now), I get anxious about eating out. Not anxious so much about eating at chain restaurants because I can look up all their nutrition facts ahead of time and know exactly what I should/shouldn't eat, but at smaller places I have issues. Take for example Veggie Grill. They don't post their nutrition facts (and say soy is in almost everything on their website). How do you eat at places with no nutrition facts with confidence? You alluded to this issue about your BF's BBQ the other day where you said you probably overestimated calories because you wanted to be on the safe side.
    At home, I weigh/measure everything, so I'm pretty darn good at estimating calories and portions (I'm awesome at those challenges on BL where they have to estimate calories). So, its not that I feel incapable of guessing how many calories are in 5oz of chicken or something. It's not that I completely lack the skills to estimate, I just get really anxious that I'm going to mess it up and derail my progress.
    LOL Do I sound crazy? Do you ever feel this way?

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  2. You do not sound crazy! :)

    My boyfriend and I are SO eager for Veggie Grill and Native Foods to have nutrition facts. We keep asking Native Foods and the answer keeps changing. I know that the menu at Native Foods changes every four months or so (each 'season'), but I wish they at least had the calorie counts for the items that never change.

    Most of the food I eat at home is in a package (310 in an Amy's burrito), something I can count (180 in 29 biscuits of the Kashi cereal) or measure in a measuring cup (130 in 2 cups of Trader Joe's Organic Popcorn). I do weight some things, usually the So Delicious desserts so I am sure to get four servings out of one pint! ;0)

    Now, on to your question! I guess I just know that I am estimating to the best of my ability, and that if I am 'off' it won't be by enough to make a big difference. My boyfriend is REALLY good at estimating because he eats so many different things. I'll often ask him, "How many calories do you think were in what I just ate?" haha. You just have to break down what you eat. If you get a salad at Veggie Grill, write down every ingredient (when you get home) and how many calories you think were in it. Then add it up. There is this other place we go to in The Camp called Valhalla Table. Side Note: I think you both would LOVE it. They have a 'make your own salad' option. If I get avocado as one of my toppings, I look at it and ask myself, "Does this look like half a medium avocado? Quarter of a large avocado?" And I do my best to estimate.

    Hope that helps! I think it is normal to feel anxious, since you are usually totally in control of how many calories you are eating. I would approach it like you do with the soy! haha. If you know exactly what you are eating 90-95% of the time, if you are 'off' a bit the other 5-10% you'll be okay. ;0)

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  3. I think this is a very good outlook! I do tend to break things down by ingredient, but sometimes "mystery" items (like that tiki sauce you encountered the other day) frighten me! lol I guess I need to give myself more credit in regards to my estimation skills. I think you are right about it being a control issue. But you know what I just thought of...The news is always doing these exposes on how the nutrition facts of packaged goods are sometimes off by like 10-20%. I guess our estimates would probably fall into that range, huh? Thanks for calming me down! Now I want to eat out :)

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  4. Exactly! There is NO way I would know what to estimate for a random sauce on my chicken. I guess it is my need for "control" that made me skip it altogether! :) As long as you are ordering items you can identify, you should be good. You definitely don't want to be anxious about eating out. It's fun and tasty. ;0)

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