Summer Solstice

I got a decent night of sleep last night.  It's going to be another early night tonight.  I am hoping I have officially reset my circadian rhythm!  I am going to try out that zumba class tomorrow...so long as I don't back down. I'm pretty apprehensive about going to a new gym for the first time.  I take comfort in familiarity.  I need to just force myself to go...it will be fun!  And I need the exercise.

I attempted a Pillsbury Monte Cristo Sandwich recipe but didn't read the recipes when I grabbed a few things from the commissary last week.  It called for two Pillsbury crescent rolls and I only grabbed one.  So my sandwich is a little smaller.  I also didn't get ham because my husband won't eat it.  I make this food but he usually eats breakfast, lunch and dinner on the ship.  When he comes home, he's not hungry.  So I guess I need to start cooking for one.  That raspberry-lemon no-bake cheesecake I made a couple days ago still has two pieces left...I've been trying to eat it, but I just wish my husband would scarf down the rest.

I also hate my oven.  When directions call for 15-20 minutes of baking time, mine cooks in like 8-10 minutes.  The edges of this sandwich on the bottom are slightly burnt.  I checked it a minute before I took it out and it was still a light golden brown.  One minute later and it got pretty dark.  It was good. I really like the raspberry preserves on top.


I obviously haven't been doing well in terms of meal planning.  I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow but still don't have recipes in mind.  I'm getting tired and will probably get to it tomorrow morning.

June 19

I didn't sleep at all last night.  My husband had to wake up at 3am for an early day of work, so I figured I would stay up until he left...then I caught my fourth or fifth wind and somehow managed to stay up until 9:30am.  Napped for only 3 hours so that I would be tired and able to go to bed early again.

When I woke up, I found out from a friend that Sallie Mae has changed their policies on private student loan forbearance.  It used to be up to 2 years and now it's only 12 months.  So in the 10-30 years of repayment one has on their private loans, they only get 12 months of forbearance.  It's ridiculous!  She was told she had three months left of forbearances and now, because of the policy change, she has none left!  I was pretty enraged.  They can just change the terms and not notify borrowers until it's too late.  More borrowers will be forced to default.  Sallie Mae benefits more when people default, so I'm not surprised in their evil policy-changing tactics.  It just pisses me off!

June 18

It's a Pie Day

I watched Forks Over Knives on Netflix last night while trying to relax after stressing out over my difficult homework.  After having difficulty falling asleep, as usual, I watched Burzynski, followed by The Gerson Miracle.  I recommend all three of these videos to everyone.

Being a brain tumor survivor, the way the FDA and the Texas Medical Board were treating Burzynski really pissed me off.  The guy was saving lives and using a treatment that doesn't poison the cancer patients.  What is so wrong with using a better alternative?  Why is the government so resistant to change if they won't profit from it?  I couldn't sleep after Burzynski.  I especially couldn't sleep after spotting this guy crawling around my bedroom door and probably all over the sweaters I had hanging on the knob (I washed them before I wore them again).  Not sure if you can see him on top of the door to the right, but he was huge...over an inch long!  I really hate living here because of these damn roaches (they're so huge!).  I am hoping that we are able to afford to move to a nicer neighborhood that is roach free at the beginning of next year.

After watching all three of these videos, I have come to the conclusion that if I ever get cancer again, eating healthy would be my first attempt at treatment.  I am trying to eat healthy now, but after watching these videos, I realize that I don't need as much meat, egg, and dairy as I am getting each day.  I could eat a lot healthier.  I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead a couple months ago and would love to try a juiced diet to see what kind of effects it would have on me.  Having a juicer would be helpful.  I have a blender, but it's still a pain in the butt.  If I still weren't better from just eating plant-based foods, I would try to seek out Burzynski's treatment.

I didn't do very well with sticking to my meal planning for today.  When I woke up, I was going to make eggs, but didn't feel like it.  I made some oatmeal and followed the directions on the package.  2/3 cup is A LOT!  It spilled over the edge of my bowl in the microwave and I still have a bunch left for breakfast tomorrow.

I didn't make a smoothie.  I have a tendency to skip eating when I'm busy.  I was busy doing laundry all day.  I found out that if I just add minutes to the dryer time, I can save about .50 per load.  In order to do that, I had to wash a load, and while that load was drying, wash another load, and while that load was drying, wash another load...I ended up saving $1.00 today.  It costs $1.25 each to wash/dry.  It's kind of time consuming, having to go back and forth to the laundry building and up and down the stairs.  In between I would either be folding clothes or doing dishes/preparing to make dinner.

When the laundry was done, I began preparing dinner.  I made the cheddary chicken pie.

I swear my oven is messed up.  The recipe called for 35 minutes of baking total.  I had this in for 20-25 minutes and it got pretty dark.  I had forgotten to get a pie pan when I went grocery shopping last week, so when Eric had to go to the NEX to get his hair cut on Friday, I quickly ran into the commissary to grab a tin one.  All they had was an 8 inch cake pan.  The recipe called for a 9 inch pie pan, so this has a bit of extra crust around the edges.  It's still good.  Should I make this again, I need a pie pan and one of those pie servers.  I would use less chicken (I like the veggies better), include potatoes, and have more gravy/creamy filling.  I bet I could use cream of chicken soup with this instead?  Maybe I will experiment sometime.  The cheese is nice in this and I liked it a lot.

While dinner was cooking, I gathered all the ingredients I would need for this no-bake raspberry-lemon cheesecake.  While it cooled, I began preparing it.  If I ever make real cheesecake, I need to get a hand mixer!  My arm will probably be sore tomorrow from mixing up the ingredients!  I didn't want to wait 3 hours for this to cool, so I definitely licked up any remaining batter before I rinsed the bowl out and the spatula off.  It was very yummy!  It's very creamy, not like normal cheesecake, but I guess that's to be expected as it's a no-bake.  It has fresh raspberries in it and I like it.

I drank over 5 cups of water today.  Good for me, as I've been averaging four.  Five is what I should be getting in a day, at minimum.  Since I skipped out on lunch (I did eat half an Atkins bar), I'm pretty short on my calorie intake.  No wonder I was so tired and exhausted all day!  Only 29g of sugar for today...not bad.  Oh crap, I forgot to log that I had added brown sugar and honey to my oatmeal.  I'm sure it's waay over that, lol.

Tomorrow (is today)'s meal planning...leftovers!  Leftover oatmeal for breakfast, leftover cheddary chicken pie for lunch and dinner, leftover cheesecake for a snack/dessert and hopefully I will have energy to throw in a smoothie somewhere!

Meal Planning

Based on my height, weight and age, I should be consuming daily 5 ounces of grains and things from the protein group.  I should be consuming 2 cups of veggies, 1.5 cups of fruit and 3 cups of dairy each day.  I figure once I can do this on a daily basis, I can up the ante to the recommended food pyramid guide.  1 ounce of grains is one serving.  A piece of bread is one ounce, so is 1/2 cup of rice or pasta.  I've been counting 1 cup of pasta as one serving, oops!  3 ounces of meat is about the size of the palm of my hand.  2 tablespoons of peanut butter is one serving of the protein group.  I took all this information and tried to do some meal planning for today.  After a while of trying to figure out where I can add things to get the RDA, I was starving and opted for a quick fix of carnation breakfast essentials...the stuff I'm trying to cut out of my diet.

I figure I really need to start having a real breakfast in the morning.  Not just carnation or just a smoothie.  I need to make eggs or pancakes or french toast; something to get more grains and proteins in.  Smoothies are my best option for getting my fruit intake since I don't eat a lot of fruits.  I snack too much on chocolatey things throughout the day and it would be nice to eventually snack on fruits instead.  I should try making smoothies as a mid-day snack.  Especially if when I start working out, it'd be a good boost to have afterwards.

Here's what I should be striving for when meal planning:

Breakfast:  1 serving proteins, 1 serving grains, 1 serving dairy.
Lunch:  1 serving veggies, 1-2 serving grains, 1 serving protein, 1 serving dairy
Snack (post-workout smoothie):  All the fruit I need in a day, 1 serving dairy, 1-2 servings protein
Dinner:  Remainder of proteins, veggies and grains (should be about 1-2 servings each)

With that in mind, here's what I hope to eat tomorrow:

Breakfast:  2 scrambled eggs with cheese  (I really need a toaster, and some bread...not sure how else to throw grains in here for now)
Lunch:  1/2 to 1 cup of creamy garlic pasta (whatever is leftover from today's leftovers), 1 cup mixed veggies with some grilled chicken.
Snack:  Smoothie, be sure to add 2 tbsp peanut butter (or snack on a handful of nuts)
Dinner:  One piece of cheddary chicken pie (with veggies)
Dessert:  One piece no bake raspberry-lemon cheesecake

I am missing about one serving of grains.  I really do need to get a toaster.  Having some toast with the eggs for breakfast would be nice.  Maybe I can try throwing some oatmeal into my smoothie.  My blender doesn't grind it up very well but I guess I'll let it run for a few minutes before I add any other ingredients.

update:  Ate horribly today.  I spent most of my day finishing up a chapter for an online JavaScript class I'm taking.  I tried to follow along with the book example but it just wouldn't work for me.  I truly want to understand what I'm doing, so I went back and tried it two more times and it still wouldn't work.  So I continued ahead with the homework assignments.  I get two case projects to do; usually have to make a mock website and it ends up taking over 3 hours to do one of the case projects.  Of course the ones my instructor assigns are ones that the book doesn't really cover.  Like in this first one that I'm still stuck on, it requires you to validate a check box (user has to select a check box before they can press the enter site button).  Well, the book says that since the example they use is optional, they skip over the validation code...the code that I need to complete this project!  It was really stressing me out yesterday.  I searched google and finally found one code that works but I spent hours trying to understand why it worked and got no where (the code is more advanced and doesn't reflect what I should know so far in the book).  It's frustrating.  I think I am just going to stop stressing over this homework so much and just find code that works and use it.  Since I'm learning entirely from the book, I will go back when the course is over and try again from the beginning.  JavaScript just hasn't clicked for me yet.

I didn't eat much yesterday, but what I did, was crap.  :/

No Mas Pimiento!

It's 6:30pm and I'm typing this while I'm eating the sauteed chicken with olives, capers and roasted lemon dinner I made.  Yeah, I'm supposed to be fasting right now.  I needed parchment paper for the recipe I cooked and had to wait for Eric to get home from work before I could go to the store.  It was already 5:30pm when I started cooking.  Oh well, I still hope I can go to sleep somewhat earlier this evening, maybe around 8pm.  Anyway, here's my dinner.

It's missing the spinach.  I only have a tiny and medium sauce pan (my one skillet would be used for the chicken) to use for the spinach.  I filled it as full as I could with the baby spinach so that I could still toss it to mix it up.  Holy moley does that stuff reduce once it starts to cook!  By the time it was done, I had about a cup of spinach.  I messed it up by burning the breadcrumbs because I confused the kitchen timer for the time I needed to cook the chicken, when it was meant for the lemons roasting in the oven.  I had to spend time trying to flip the chicken breasts when I caught the time error and left the breadcrumbs to burn on accident.  Need to invest in tongs.  Trying to flip chicken breasts with a cheap, flimsy spatula is too time consuming.  I also added waaay too many breadcrumbs.  So when I mixed the breadcrumbs with the spinach, it was more like having spinach with my breadcrumbs instead of the other way around.  Add to that burnt breadcrumbs...it wasn't good.  I will have to give the spinach another go.

As for the rest of the meal...well, I was supposed to add the chicken stock, capers and olives long before I actually did.  The olives are rather over-powering.  I used slightly more than the recipe suggested.  Maybe if it got to simmer long enough it would have lessened the effect?  Will definitely stick to recommended amount next time!  I also didn't realize the olives were stuffed with pimiento.  Maybe that is what is over-powering?

For lunch I tried another batch of that creamy garlic pasta, only I improvised a bit.  I know the grated parmesan cheese I have is loaded with sodium.  It's the stuff you buy dried that you shake on spaghetti.  I figure I would try just one serving of that (2 tbsp) and make up the rest of the cheese with mozzarella.  Didn't turn out too well.  It turned into a gooey, sticky ball of pasta.  I need to try that recipe again with a block of grated parmesan.

I started logging my food using the food diary on myfitnesspal when I couldn't sleep early this morning (see previous post).  I had a cup of carnation breakfast essentials then and once more for real breakfast this morning (after sleeping).  I'm already way over on sugar, I know.  I will update later with today's totals.

I did work on some homework today, but not much.  I slept until about 8:40am.  When I woke up, I saw the maintenance men heading over to fix the air conditioner.  Yikes!  I had sleep wrinkles on my face and was wearing my bright pink Betty Boop pajamas when I let them in.  My eyes were puffy from just waking up, but I at least had time to comb my bed head.  They had to keep turning the power on/off, so I couldn't use my computer while they worked.

Sometimes, when we turn the AC off from the thermostat, it continues to run and has to be shut off by flipping the breaker switch.  The maintenance men ran into this problem quite a bit today.  The first time, the unit outside even ran for over 5 minutes after they switched the circuit breaker.  What is up with that, I'm not sure...but I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons why the AC likes to randomly stop working.  They fixed the freon gauge and the AC is working again.  Hopefully it lasts the rest of summer!

 

My numbers for today are decent.  Fiber is low, as usual as is sugar very high.  No real fruit, except the juices of the lemons and less than one serving of veggies.  Four servings of fruit.  One serving meat and grains.

Insomniac

I haven't been able to sleep.  It's nearly 3:30am.  I am so tired but I was hungry and it was keeping me awake.  My middle of the night snack was carnation and while I was drinking it, I figured I would start today with logging my food over at myfitnesspal.com.  They only give you the option to track six things, so since I figure my fat and cholesterol are always low since I began logging, I will track calories, carbs, sugar, fiber, protein and sodium.  Myfitnesspal's recommended daily intake of each thing I'll be tracking:

Cups of water: 8 (Based on my petite size, I'm going to stick with aiming for 5)
Calories: 1280  (in the mid-range of what I was logging before)
Carbs: 126g (on the low end of what I had)
Sugar: 26g (I was aiming for less than 40g and that was hard...this will be impossible!)
Fiber: 15g (I was aiming for 20-35g)
Protein: 48g (lower/mid range of what I had)
Sodium:  2500mg!!

I don't know where I was getting my <1,100mg figure from.  I just looked it up again and they say it was once at 2500 but they lowered it to 1500.  Now they say the maximum intake is 2300 but it's not recommended to exceed 1500.  I will shoot for 1500.  Myfitnesspal subtracts the goal amount from your total amount to let you know how many are remaining for you to meet your goal.  I'll just have to consciously try to pick out low sodium things when I go shopping from now on.

I really need to attempt to reset my sleep schedule.  I read a while back that the easiest way to do that is by fasting 12-16 hours before the desired time you want to wake up.  I want to wake up at 6am, so tomorrow (it's really later today, I just say tomorrow because I haven't slept yet), I should stop eating between 2pm and 6pm.  My stomach usually growls and gets very gassy when I don't eat, so we'll see how this goes!

I think it's time to try this sleep thing.  I imagine the maintenance men will be here not long after 8am to fix my AC, so I better try to get what little sleep I can!  Tomorrow's goal:  HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK.  NO PINTEREST!

Crafty

I took Eric to that far away base again today and was able to browse around a couple stores and not buy anything...until I made it to Michael's again.  I went back with a list of things I needed for certain projects I wanted to try.  Mostly projects that include making jewelry to match my bridesmaid dress and my friend's wedding colors.  I am going to attempt to make a ribbon bracelet (may turn it into a necklace), a corded necklace (that is much like the friendship bracelets I used to make when I was a kid), and this cute bowtie necklace.  I also picked up a $2 clearance box that I can use for photo storage (or something else).  I was disappointed when I came home and found these upcycled cardboard boxes on Pinterest.  Oh well, $2.  Will  have to remember to upcycle boxes like that in the future!

So here's what I've bought from Michael's this week.  I have got so many more creative ideas pinned on pinterest, but this stuff should last me a while!  I bought the 4 tshirts (the royal blue one is missing...can you tell my favorite color is blue?).  I plan on doing some tutorials I found to gather fabric at the neckline and at the sides to make these large tshirts fitted and more my style.  I am also going to learn how to knit, with the ultimate goal of being able to knit several things: scarf, blanket, sweater, slippers, long fingerless gloves, and a winter hat.  Gotta get working on those bracelets and necklace sooner than later.  I also bought one bottle of airbrush paint.

About two years ago, my father bought me an airbrush because the one I had used while in high school no longer worked, and because he wanted me to be able to make money at street fairs and festivals in Wisconsin by doing these types of airbrushing, lol!  I never got the new one to work properly, couldn't even get water to run through it.  Hopefully the hubby can help me get it working, because I am inspired again to create all sorts of art.

I know I didn't do too well with meals today.  It was mostly grab and go...pinterest, again.  I also had to clean up the living and dining areas because the AC is broken again.  Can't have maintenance see the state the living area was in...that is, hubby came home from work and dumped his bag out on the floor.  Clothes, papers and miscellaneous stuff he had in his locker on the ship, all over the floor.  It had also been a while since I dusted and swept.  I would love to do a good thorough cleaning job on the whole apartment and then stick to a daily cleaning schedule...I just have to get caught up on the homework before I can do that, or before I can start any of these craft projects!

Daily Consumption

Servings of grains:  1
Servings of meats:  2
Servings of dairy:  3
Servings of fruit:  <1
Servings of vegetables: 2-3

(Red = Bad, Need to Improve!  Pink/purple = OK, Room for Improvement  Green = Good!)

Cups of Water (5 cups) :   4
Total Calorie Intake (1000-1500):   1125
Total Fat Intake (<30% of TCI):  33g  about 2.9% of TCI
Total Carbohydrates (125-230g):  187.5g
Total Carbs from Sugars (<40g):  92.5g
Total Carbs from Dietary Fiber (20-35g):  18g
Total Cholesterol (<300mg):  49mg
Total Protein (44-60g):  53.5g
Total Sodium (<1,100mg):  2313mg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Breakfast:  Ensure - 350 calories, 11g fat, 10mg cholesterol, 230mg sodium, 49g carbohydrates, 1g dietary fiber, 18g sugar, 13g protein
Snack:  1/2 cup beans - 170 calories, .5g fat, 480mg sodium, 35g carbohydrates, 6g fiber, 15g sugar, 7g protein
Lunch:  2 cups of spinach salad (cheese, croutons, blackberries, bacon bits) - 163.5 calories, 15.5g fat, 24.5mg carbohydrates, 10.5g sugar, 5g dietary fiber, 35mg cholesterol, 13.5g protein, 828mg sodium
Snack:  Three petite sweet pickles - 20 calories, 5mg carbohydrates, 4g sugar, 85mg sodium
Dinner:   1/2 cup beans - 170 calories, .5g fat, 480mg sodium, 35g carbohydrates, 6g fiber, 15g sugar, 7g protein
Snack:  Carnation with a cup of 2% milk - 250 calories, 5.5g fat, 39mg carbohydrates, 30g sugar, 4mg cholesterol, 13g protein, 210mg sodium

Too Thymey

A couple days ago, I had joined the Atkins community to get some healthy recipes and got a free quick start kit for joining.  It came in the mail today.  I tried out the caramel nut chew bar...it's exactly like a snickers!  I want more!  It only has 1g of sugar!  I  noticed that I really need to cut back on my sugar intake.  My usual carnation breakfast has 30g of sugar...that's 75% of my daily intake right there!  Sadly, I should really try to cut carnation out of my diet completely.  That's hard for me, as I've been drinking the stuff for over 5 years almost every day for breakfast.  I also need to not buy those fruit flavored yogurts for smoothies...too much sugar, 26g sugar...over half my daily intake right there!

I recently signed up for the MyFitnessPal website.  It has a food diary that I am hoping I can utilize and it will make calculating all this nutritional information a little bit easier.  It also has an exercise calculator, which I am hoping will help me get my butt moving because I need the exercise.  I especially need to build muscle.  I am no where near as in shape as I was a couple years ago.  I want to get in on that zumba class that is on Thursdays but I guess it will have to wait another week.  I am going to drive the hubby to work again tomorrow as he has to go to that base that is far away.  It's nice to get out of the house and I have a few more crafty things I want to shop for at Michael's.

I am pretty disappointed with how I spent most of my day today.  I did change the catbox, take out the garbage, unload/load the dishwasher, and make dinner, but aside from those few things, I've pretty much been on the computer all day.  I've been spending a  lot of my time these past few months promoting and helping members in the ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com group on FB.  A petition that was started just 3 months ago in support of H.R.4170 - Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 surpassed one million signatures late last night.  There was an influx of new members asking to join the group so I spent a lot of time this morning adding members, bumping important posts and answering questions.  The rest of my day was spent calculating past days' nutritional intake, but mostly on Pinterest and a random tutorial generator.  I should have been catching up on homework for my online javascript class.  I fell behind on the weekly homework assignments while I had my gallbladder removed a month ago.  I get two problems, usually having to create some sort of mock website for each.  It ends up taking me anywhere from 4-10 hours to complete.  I've been working on last week's homework but I still need to finish this week's homework by Sunday or I'll still be a week behind.  I really need to devote one entire day to just doing homework to catch up.  Could have happened today, but it didn't, sadly.  Won't happen tomorrow, but hopefully I can force myself to at least do a few hours when I get back from my day-long adventure out in Virginia Beach.   Really need to get my butt in gear though!  There is so much I want to do and need to get done, but I waste so much time online!  Damn you Pinterest!

For dinner, I attempted this oven crisp chicken recipe.  Mine didn't turn out so well.  I used a ranch vinaigrette dressing that I had at home already and the cracker crumbs just didn't stick to the chicken very well.  Most of the crumbs fell off while it was in the oven.  Also, I checked the chicken after 25 minutes and the tips were starting to burn.  I stuck my meat thermometer in one of the breasts and it only reached 130 degrees.  I put the chicken back in for 5 minutes and checked the temperature again and it was the same.  Maybe I need a new meat thermometer, but isn't chicken supposed to get up to 165 or so?  I cut one of them open and it looked thoroughly cooked.  It wasn't too bad, but it was too thymey, I accidentally spilled a bit extra in the cracker crumbs.  It was edible though.  May try it again with real ranch dressing and different crackers.

Daily Consumption

Servings of grains:  1-2
Servings of meats:  2
Servings of dairy:  1
Servings of fruit:  2
Servings of vegetables:  1

(Red = Bad, Need to Improve!  Pink/purple = OK, Room for Improvement  Green = Good!)

Cups of Water (5 cups) :   4
Total Calorie Intake (1000-1500):   1003
Total Fat Intake (<30% of TCI):  30g  about 3% of daily caloric intake
Total Carbs from Sugars (<40g):  80g
Total Carbs from Dietary Fiber (20-35g):  14.5g
Total Cholesterol (<300mg):  92mg
Total Protein (44-60g):  48.5g
Total Sodium (<1,100mg):  1369.5mg
Total Carbohydrates (125-230g):  155g 


Breakfast: Banana, berry smoothie - 333 calories, 2g fat, 74g carbohydrates, 9g fiber, 49g sugar, 10mg cholesterol, 7.5g protein, 87mg sodium
Lunch: Spinach salad - 80 calories, 6g fat, 11g carbohydrates, 4g sugar, 2g dietary fiber, 15mg cholesterol, 5g protein, 410mg sodium
Snack: Atkins Caramel Nut Chew Bar - 130 calories, 8g fat, 4.5mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 17g carbohydrates, 6g dietary fiber, 1g sugar, 5g protein
Dinner: Chicken breast, beans - 365 calories, 7.5g fat, 41.5g carbohydrates, 17.5g sugar, 6g fiber, 60mg cholesterol, 29.5g protein, 795mg sodium
Snack: 2 pieces orange chocolate - 95 Calories, 6.5g Fat, 2.5mg Cholesterol, 7.5mg Sodium, 11.5g Carbohydrates, <1g dietary fiber, 8.5g Sugar, 1.5g protein