Monday was a good day. I wish all Mondays were like this one. It was Memorial Day and we had the day off. We started the morning with our daily turkey, egg, and four cheese Mexican blend scramble.
You can save calories by using Pam instead of butter. If you have a digital kitchen scale, use it for this until you can recognize an ounce of each on sight.
1 small pat unsalted butter (less than ¼” thick)
1 oz lean thin sliced deli turkey breast (I use Hillshire Farm oven baked), roughly chopped
1 oz shredded 4 cheese Mexican blend
1 large egg
Melt the butter in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Toss in the turkey breast and cook, stirring occasionally just until the edges start to turn a light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Crack the egg directly in the pan and begin stirring immediately. Stir constantly until the egg is cooked through but not dry. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese. Allow scramble to sit in the pan, off the heat, until the cheese is completely melted. Serve immediately or pack to stay warm. (I increase the eggs to 3 and the turkey to 2 oz during the week and we split it between us. We pack this every morning and eat them when we get to work.)
Nutrition:
Calories: 240
Total Fat: 16.3 g
Saturated Fat: 8.6 g
Cholesterol: 241 mg
Carbohydrates: 3.1 g
Sodium: 840 mg
Sugars: 1.4 g
Protein: 19.8 g
I know it’s a lot of fat, cholesterol, and sodium. I’m looking for a good quality reduced sodium turkey and cheese but I can only find reduced fat. We’ve been eating 2 eggs every morning for several years and our cholesterol hovers around 140. I’m ok with the nutritional information here.
After breakfast we went outside, worked in one of the flower/herb beds, mowed the yard, and grilled enough meat for a few days. This stupor that I’ve been stuck in has kept us inside the past couple of summers. It felt great to be in the sun, digging in the dirt, and working together to actually accomplish a goal. It was a really good day.
We finally grilled for the first time this season. We grilled (4) Hebrew National Jumbo Beef Franks, (2) Hamburgers made out fresh ground chuck from a local butcher, Guinness Extra Stout, and Low Sodium Worcestershire, (4) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and (4) boneless pork loin chops, both marinated in Lowry’s Tuscan Sundried Tomato 30 minute marinade, over night of course, and both also from our local butcher. Throw in a pound of asparagus tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a head of garlic, and white onion wedges. I go into that much detail because quality has become a major factor in our food choices. One of the early post op habits that we continue today is chewing each bite until it’s mush. You become very aware of and develop an appreciation for texture. If food has random crunchy or rubbery bits, you know like bone, cartilage, silver skin, fibrous tissue, egg shells, unidentifiable debris, we notice it immediately and it completely ruins the meal. After trying multiple brands we found that higher quality, fresher foods have little if any grit to destroy a beautiful dish. I admit it is more expensive but we don’t throw away near as much food as we did on lesser quality products. Watch for sales, coupons, and The Choppin Block, our local butcher who only sells All Natural meats in Choice grade or higher, runs specials on Tuesdays. The final price ends up being close to that of cheaper quality meats at the grocery.
(Disclaimer: I notice I’m using “we” a lot when this blog is supposed to be about me. My husband is my best friend. And even though I am the only one experiencing excessive weight gain, our surgeries were only 14 months apart and we still share every aspect of our lives, including this adventure.)
We snacked on hot dogs (1 for each of us) while the other meat cooked and we continued to clean out the flower/herb bed. Dinner was a burger, 1/2 cup asparagus, a few cloves of garlic, and a TBSP of roasted onions. Throw in a couple of South Beach Meal Replacement Bars throughout the day and a handful of berries and I was 83 calories over where WebMD wants me to be. That’s when the day went downhill.
A few weeks ago we discovered mini cupcakes made with Pillsbury Sugar Free Yellow Cake Mix. My darling husband has been asking me for Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins for months so I made them tonight. It was really simple; just add a small packet of Sugar Free Lemon Instant Pudding and 1/4 cup poppy seeds to the cake mix before adding the ingredients on the box. Even though it’s sugar free, each mini muffin is 62.5 calories. Before I was done, I had popped 3 in my mouth, along with a handful of blueberries and blackberries tossed with Splenda and Sumner Crest Tennessee Blackberry wine. I overestimated the amount of berries to account for the tablespoon of wine but WebMD now has my calories for the day at 1625, 324 calories above their goal of 1301 and a whopping 425 calories above my personal goal of 1200. That’s 128 calories more than I ate yesterday. The goal was to reduce my calories while maintaining the protein, not the other way around. I’m only 2 days into this but that 1200 calories is being elusive.
So here are my stats for today:
Open RNY Gastric Bypass: 10/22/2002
Highest Weight: 356
Weight at Surgery: 306
Lowest Weight: 156
Highest Recorded Weight Gain: 238
Weight on 05/29/2011: 224
Weight on 05/30/2011: 221.8
Weight on 05/31/2011: 221.4 (Total loss since 05/29/11 - 2.6 lbs)
WebMD Personal Actual
Calories: 1301 1200 1625 (Are you kidding me?)
Protein: 46 grams 100 grams 95.2 grams (Less than Sunday)
Total Carbs: 130 grams 50 grams 111.3 grams (A little less than Sunday)
Sugars: 25 grams 20 grams 27 grams (Almost the same as Sunday)
So with less protein and less carbs, where are the calories coming from? I still lost .4 lb which is good for one day but it also tells me that 1625 is too high. The Hebrew National Beef Frank is 275 calories and the hamburger is 345 calories. Those two items also account for 43 grams of protein. The South Beach
So what have I learned so far after day 2?
- Protein = calories. If I’m going to watch my calories, I need to find alternative, lower calorie sources of protein.
- I now understand what the disclaimer “not a reduced calorie food” really means.
- Making a treat for the husband is not always the best idea
- Be conscious of the food on my plate, concentrate on what I’m eating, and chew gum while cooking. Grazing is always a bad idea.
I’m really getting excited about what the week has in store. “Information is the mortar that builds and destroys empires” (Tobsha Learner, The Witch of Cologne
Until tomorrow...
Angie
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