I also exercised again today — not much — but enough to say I did it.  I did Just Dance 2 for the Wii for about 40 minutes, trying to break the records my daughter took back from me.  I did have the record in all songs except for Tik Tok.  Now she has them for five songs total.  (She’s 12 and has quite a competitive side like me!)

We were indoors all day again today because of the bad weather.  It’s been very cold and dreary.  The weathermen actually predicted snow today, but I don’t think it ever got cold enough.  At the highest, it was 39, but the low must have been higher than 32.

The best accomplishment for me today was the breakdown of foods by percentage.  I only had 45% carbs, and it’s usually 55% on a good day and more regularly about 60-65%.  (I love carbs, unfortunately, and stock up so high on vegetables because of their low calorie nature.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to get enough protein and fats in my diet.)  I also consumed 60g of proteins today, which is good.

I did eat two pieces of chocolate, but again stopped there.  In case you didn’t see the comment on my post from a couple days ago, Mike Navin suggested brushing my teeth after eating my bite of chocolate so I wouldn’t want to eat more after that.  I haven’t actually had to employ that the last three days, but I have used that trick before and it works!

This morning, I weighed 164, so not only did the two pounds come back off quickly, but I must’ve thrown that disc golf frisbee enough times last weekend to kick start my metabolism into burning more!  I was actually at a low of 163 late last week but have held pretty steadily to 164 since then.

I still haven’t adjusted my goals on the Livestrong site, so based on my current weight and age, in order to lose two pounds per week it says I have to limit myself to 1163 calories per day.  And, that estimate has not been scientifically absolutely correct.  On average, I tend to lose about 1.25 or 1.5 pounds per week.  But, I still try to hang as close to that number as possible.  With each pound I lose, that number lowers by four or five calories.  It’s amazing how choosy I can be when I know I can have a 40 calorie snack but an 80 calorie snack would put me over a limit! 

Anyway, I’ll be glad when I get down to 148, my ultimate goal, so that I can adjust my goal to be in a maintenance mode rather than a weight loss mode.  Then my calories allowed will actually be in a more workable range.  Right now, it’s tough trying to find enough variety in my diet in low-cal main meals that will work with my requirements and still be appealing to my kids and filling for my husband, especially since I am trying to consume as little sodium as possible and they all like salty things!  I don’t really like fixing separate entrees for myself than I do for the rest in my family.  When it’s just me and hubby and Sarah for lunches (when the two older kids are in school) I am more likely to fix separate items for myself, but if my two older kids see me catering to myself when they’re also eating, they’re likely to complain that they want something “special” or “separate” themselves.  I’m not going to let them dictate the meals any more than they already do.  As it is, I can’t fix our family anything with onions!

Monday, June 28 — 11o0 calories
Macaroni and cheese (195), Cinnamon Life (120) , S’Mores (130)

Tuesday, June 29 — 1296 calories
Mandarin Orange Cake (287), Tuna Patty (217), Turkey Taco Meat (190)

Wednesday, June 30 — 1149 calories
Tuna Patty (217), Mandarin Orange Cake (191), Thomas Bagel Thin (110)

Thursday, July 1 — 1365 calories
Cube Steak (211), Cinnamon Life (120), Johnsonville Turkey Sausage (110)

Friday, July 2 — 1324 calories
Barbecue Beef sandwich (409), Vanilla Custard (330), Cinnamon Life (120)

Saturday, July 3rd — 1319 calories
Corn Dog (190), Steak Chips (150), Honey Nut Cheerios (110)

Sunday, July 4th — 2214 calories
Cheeseburger (500), Apple Pie (290), Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Extra (190)

Some things you might gather from my log above:

• I don’t deny myself sweets or desserts — although with a holiday and needing to try the (Mandarin Orange Cake, in this example) recipe on my family before I think of passing it off onto others I had much more this week than I usually do.
• When my top three (calorie-wise) items are subtracted from the daily totals it means that I fill the rest of my day with low-calorie options including lots of vegetables!
• It is rare for me to consume any one item that is more than 300 calories by itself. I know that if I do, it will be harder to stay in the 1300 – 1350 calorie target that I set for myself.

The flavor is a bit lacking and any salt or seasonings you add don’t stick well because the popped corn is not moist enough. But, a few suggestions I’ve heard include using a spray to moisten the popcorn and then sprinkling the season on it. I tried spray butter and it allowed the seasoning to stick better.

Here are the basic instructions: put about a third of a cup of popcorn kernels in a brown paper lunch bag and fold the top over a couple of times to seal it. Put it in your microwave with the bag standing up (not laying on its side like you would with packaged microwave popcorn) and then set the microwave to three minutes. (Depending on your wattage, it may take less time than that.) Stop the microwave when the popping slows to about two seconds in between pops. You don’t want the popped corn to burn!

If you’d like, use spray butter to flavor and moisten the popped corn. After that, if you choose, sprinkle salt or a popcorn seasoning. I’ve tried the caramel and kettle corn seasonings from Kernel Seasons but I bought them at my local grocer rather than online so I cannot attest to the online service you might get if you tried ordering from their website. That company also makes a spritzer (which would replace the spray butter in the instructions above) but my grocery store did not carry it hence my need to use spray butter.

These items were next to the bagged and microwave popcorn at the grocery store, but another area you might want to check is in the spice aisle. There, you would find lots of neat things to sprinkle on popcorn — seasoned salt, chili powder, powdered chese, etc. And, don’t forget the parmesan in the aisle with the spaghetti sauces!

Enjoy! Popcorn (especially if you don’t pop it in oil) has very few calories and neither the spray butter or the sprinkled seasonings have any calories, so a great and tasty treat for calorie counters!

We tried the multi-grain sandwich thins with a chicken breast patty for our dinner tonight. Hubby and I, as well as the kids, all liked them.

I’ll share some recipes in the coming days!

Amazingly enough, our bodies actually consume some calories in the process of digesting the foods we eat. For “negative calorie foods“, the energy required to digest them is actually more than the calories the food contains! So, in eating these negative or “zero calorie foods” our bodies can eat into the fat reserves once the initial food is digested, helping us lose weight!

I had heard about the negative calorie effect in the past and have frequently implemented it in my menu selection and meal choices. Luckily for me, I love fruits and vegetables, as these items are most often cited on lists of negative calorie foods. Here’s a list of common negative calorie fruits and vegetables:

Apple
Asparagus
Blueberries
Broccoli
Cabbage
Cantaloupe
Carrot
Cauliflower
Celery
Cranberry
Cucumber
Grapefruit
Green Beans
Honeydew
Lemon
Lettuce
Lime
Mango
Onion
Orange
Papaya
Peach
Pineapple
Radish
Raspberry
Spinach
Strawberry
Tomato
Tangerine
Turnip
Watermelon
Zucchini

Watch my future posts for some creative ways of eating these wonderful negative calorie foods!