A Week in the Meals of Feaux – Day 7, and End-of-Week Tally!

SUNDAY.  We slept in til 8am (magical, I tell you) and then woke up & got ready for church.

 

Breakfast (8:30am):

Not surprisingly, after the Tailgating Gluttony of yesterday, I was not terribly hungry.

8 oz coffee w/Splenda & fat free vanilla creamer – 20 cal

1 bacon cookie – 91 cal, 2 g fat, 2.3 g protein

 

 

Lunch (11:30am):

Grilled Romaine Salad w/parmesan, Walden Farms Calorie Free Bacon Ranch, and 1/2 piece crumbled bacon (recipe coming soon) – 74 calories, 6 g fat, 3 g protein

Diet Root Beer – 0/0/0

1/4 cup homemade salsa (recipe also coming soon!) – 36 calories, 0 fat/protein

5 tortilla chips – 78 calories, 3 g fat, 1.2 g protein

 

We spent most of the early afternoon cleaning the house: mowing the lawn, laundry, dishes, cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, mopping the kitchen, etc.  I only did half of these things, because my Hubs is an amazing man & we split all the chores.  I am very blessed, I know!

 

Afternoon snacks (1:30p, 3:30p)

1 bacon cookie (I promise, they’re nearly gone) - 91 cal, 2 g fat, 2.3 g protein

1 Fun Size Reese’s PB cup – 80 cal, 4.5 g fat, 1 g protein

1/2 light beer (shared with The Hubs) – 55 cal

 

 

Dinner (6pm)

Homemade white bean chili (recipe soon!) – 223 calories, 4.7 g fat, 15 g protein

Diet Sierra Mist – 0/0/0

 

Dessert (9pm)

1 bacon cookie (the last one for me…until I try another batch) - 91 cal, 2 g fat, 2.3 g protein

1/2 cup red grapes – 52 calories, 0 fat/protein

Unsweet tea

Total for day: 891 calories, 24.2 g fat, 27.1 g protein

 

WAY under target.  I really just WASN’T that hungry after tailgating the day before.  However, I was also feeling pretty sluggish & lazy, aside from the cleaning we did.  I’m sure part of that was from being tired (Saturday was a really long day—we got up at 5:40am & didn’t get home until 11pm), but part was also probably from not eating much.  Like I said earlier in the week—gotta put fuel in the car for it to go. 

 

So at the end of the week, what’s the general overview of this experiment?

						Calories (1400)*	Fat (47g)*	Protein (53g)*
	Calories In	Fat In	Protein In	Est. Calories Burned	Caloric Deficit	Over/Under Target	Over/Under Target	Over/Under Target
Monday	1478	31	76	1900	-422	78	-16	23
Tuesday	1240	36	59	1900	-660	-160	-11	6
Wednesday	1836	66.4	105	1900	-64	436	19.4	52
Thursday	1383	29	67	1900	-517	-17	-18	14
Friday	1713	55.7	73.9	1900	-187	313	8.7	20.9
Saturday	2203	75.5	84.4	1900	303	803	28.5	31.4
Sunday	891	24.4	27.1	1900	-1009	-509	-22.6	-25.9
				Total Deficit/Week	-2556	+944

(*Targets provided by MyFitnessPal.com for a 31 year old female, 5’6” with lightly active lifestyle.)

For the week, I ate a total of 900+ calories more than the target…but my caloric deficit was about 2500, so I didn’t gain any weight…and if the estimated calories burned is accurate, I should actually be down about 0.75 lb from where I started.  (I don’t regularly weigh myself, so I can neither confirm nor deny this.)

I came in Under Target for Fat grams four of the seven days, but ate more than the “goal” for Protein every day except the last.  I’m not terribly concerned about that since I prefer a protein-heavy diet, as protein is a more efficient energy source than carbs.

My conclusions?  Eating out is my weak area.  On days when I cooked all my meals (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday) there were no major issues.  In fact, those are the same four days that I was significantly below the Fat Target.

Under normal circumstances, if I know I’m going out, I typically look at a restaurant’s nutritional info BEFORE I go, so that I can make a reasonable choice.  However, for the sake of this experiment, I DIDN’T do that as a control, and tried to operate based purely on reading the descriptions of menu items.

 

So there you go.  A peek into the life (and diet) of me.  Hopefully you got something out of it, and even if you didn’t, it was an educational experience for me!

We can now resume with the delicious (and healthy) recipe posts. ;-D

A Week in the Meals of Feaux: Day Six

HELLOOOOOO SATURDAY!!!  I’m so happy to see you again!  How’s ya mom ‘n them?

As I mentioned yesterday, we’d be driving up to Kansas City to watch the Cardinals (ahem) stop the Royals.  It was a 1:10p game, and we planned to tailgate before the game…and we live 3 hours away…which means we had to wake up at 5:40am.  UGH.  I know some of you readers are moms and have to get up at the butt-crack o’ dawn on a regular basis and have no sympathy for me, but I typically sleep in until at LEAST 8am on weekends. 

 

Breakfast (6am)

We ate light, since we knew there would be gluttony later in the day.

1 bacon cookie (they’ve got to disappear somehow) –91 calories 2.2 g fat, 2.3 g protein

2 oz leftover pork tenderloin – 60 calories, 2 g fat, 9 g protein

8 oz coffee w/Splenda & fat free creamer – 20 cal, 0 fat/protein

 

MidMorning Snack (9am)

1/2 Great Value chocolate chip chewy granola bar – 45 calories, 1 g fat, 0.5 g protein

 

Lunch – TAILGATING! (10:30a-12:30p)

Everyone brought something to contribute, so we had quite the spread:  Nathan’s hot dogs, pre-made hamburger patties, pasta salad, baked beans, chips, garden fresh tomatoes & cucumbers, cookies, condiments…and of course, rum-soaked pineapple chunks.

 

(I apparently suck at taking pics sometimes, so these were taken by my cousins.)

Over the course of the two hour period before the game, we all munched & snacked & chowed down & snacked some more.  This represents the dent I put in our stockpile:

1 Nathan dog w/ ketchup & mustard – 300 cal, 10 g fat, 10.6 g protein
1/2 fresh tomato – 12 calories, 0 fat/protein
8 cucumber slices – 7 calories, 0 fat/protein
1/2 cup pasta salad – 102 calories, 1 g fat, 3 g protein
1/2 cup baked beans – 140 calories ,  1g fat,  6g protein
3 pineapple chunks w/rum – 70 calories, 0 fat/protein
3 mini choc chip cookies – 90 calories, 4.2 g fat, 0.6 g fat
1 3 oz burger w/ketchup & mustard (I probably didn’t need this burger, but the BBQ sauce on it was beckoning me) on high-fiber whole wheat bun w/ketchup & mustard – 343 calories, 17 g fat, 16 g protein
2 light beers – 220 calories
1 bottle water – 0 calories

1 Pepsi Max – 0 calories

Tailgating Total: 1284 calories, 33.2 g fat, 36.2 g protein (OUCH.)

 

Dinner (7pm) – Buffalo Wild Wings

We had originally intended to go to Stroud’s post-game; however, there was an hour wait & I don’t think any of us had enough room in our stomachs for the onslaught of foods at Stroud’s (a family style restaurant w/fried chicken and all the sides).  BWW was convenient & quick.

1 fried pickle slice (stolen from my cousin) – 25 cal, 0.6 g fat, 0.4 g protein

6 traditional wings w/Honey BBQ sauce & ranch – 528 calories, 36 g fat, 36 g protein

16 oz Leinenkugel Summer Shandy – 150 calories

16 oz water – 0 cal

 

Total for Day: 2203 calories, 75 g fat, 84.4 g protein

UGH.  Yeah.  I overdid it.  But I knew that I had, & I felt it.  As you may have noticed from my previous posts, I typically eat about 5-6 times a day, small portions.  I technically wasn’t even hungry when we went to BWW, and probably would have been better off not eating.  Normally a midday meal would not carry with me that long.  Could I have made smarter decisions?  Absolutely.  If I had a do-over, I wouldn’t have eaten that burger during tailgating (that I didn’t even need) and I wouldn’t have ordered that beer with dinner.  Those two small changes alone would have saved me about 500 calories.  And since I wasn’t really all that hungry at dinner, I could have also skipped the wings altogether & just ordered a side of chips & salsa or potato wedges (about 280 calories, which would have been a savings of another 250 calories).

 

However, all in all I had a great day with family, and of course, the Cards demolished the Royals, so it was still a great day.

 

Tomorrow’s Day 7…let’s see how this experiment wraps up, shall we?

 

To Be Continued…

A Week in The Meals of Feaux – Day Five

Hooray for almost the freakin’ weekend!

 

Day Five: Friday!

Last work day of the week.  Since I cooked last night, I was able to bring leftovers for lunch.  Tonight, I have a Girls Night planned to meet my friends for tapas & cocktails, and then we’re headed to watch Rock of Ages, which we really hope doesn’t completely suck.  We are a bandy gang of former theater & choir gals, so musicals have a big appeal.

 

Breakfast (9am)

1 cup coffee w/ 1 Splenda packet & 1 tbsp Peppermint Mocha creamer – 35 calories

1 oatmeal, chocolate chip, & bacon cookie (WHAT???  Bacon…oatmeal…it’s pretty well a breakfast cookie.)– 91 calories, 2.2 g fat, 2.3 g protein

1 serving Oikos Key Lime Greek yogurt – 160 calories, 4.5 g fat, 11 g protein

 

No Mid-Morning Snack – I was in a meeting.

 

Lunch (1pm)

20 oz unsweet tea – 0/0/0

1 serving homemade pasta w/turkey meat marinara – 378 calories, 4 g fat, 19 g protein

1 small cucumber, raw, sliced – 35 calories, 0 fat, 2 g protein

 

Afternoon Snack (4pm)

1 oz Frigo light string cheese – 60 calories, 2.5 g fat, 8 g protein

1/2 cup red grapes – 52 calories 0 fat, .5 g protein

 

Dinner w/Friends  (6:30pm)

Somehow I managed to NOT take a photo of our awesome spread of food.  My apologies. So here’s a photo of someone else’s delicious spread of tapas.

In case you’re not familiar, tapas are “small plates” or snacks—small orders of appetizers or finger foods.  They’re intended for sharing, or so that you can order small bits of many different things to try.  We ordered a small cheese & meat tray, a variety of dips & spreads w/crackers, a grilled cheese & pesto sandwich, and one of their daily specials.  There were five of us, so I’m estimating 1/5 of each item for the most part, except for the items I know I had a larger portion of.  For the spreads/dips, we were given about 1/2 cup of each and I took about a tablespoon of each of them.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love Ophelia’s infused vodkas.  So for my cocktail, I ordered the citrus version this time.

Cocktail – 150 calories

1/4 cup Garbanzos Fritos (chickpeas, chorizo, and tomatoes) – 94 cal, 6 g fat, 3.2 g protein

1/2 pita – 83 calories, 0.4 g fat, 2.7 g protein

1/5 oz parmesan (22 cal, 1.5 g fat, 2 g protein), cheddar (24/2/1.2), gouda (22/1.8/1.4), & salami (104/8/6.3)
1/4 grilled cheese – 130 cal, 6.5 fat, 3 g protein

1 oz artichoke dip - 50 cal,  4.5 g fat, 2 g protein
1/4 oz boursin – 24 calories, 2.4 g fat, 0.4 g protein
1/4 smoked trout dip – 79 cal / 5.5 g fat / 5 g protein

1/5 hummus – 15 cal, 1.2 g fat, 1.4 g protein
1/5 red pepper spread - 15 cal, 1.2 g fat, 0.2 g protein
7 water crackers – 90 cal, 1.5 g fat, 2.3 g protein

Dinner Total – 902 cal, 42.5 g fat, 31.1 g protein

 

Total for Day: 1713 calories, 55.7 g fat, 73.9 g protein

Another overage from the “target”, but still under the typical caloric requirement for my day, so not horrible.  Girls’ Nights are not a regular occurrence; we’re lucky if we can arrange to get together once a month.  However, Friday nights are typically Date Night for me & The Hubs, so I would normally be eating out on Friday night anyway…though it likely wouldn’t be quite the onslaught of calories we see here.

This is also a good example of how a “little” of a lot of things still adds up to a lot.  Because you’re only taking a small portion of each thing, it FEELS like it’s not a lot of food, and you FEEL like you’re being fairly good.  But it all adds up to quite a bit, especially when cheese is involved. :D

So tomorrow is Saturday! Hooray for the weekend!  However, tomorrow I’ll be out of town, as we’re taking my dad to see a St. Louis Cardinals game* as a belated Father’s Day gift.  I’m really looking forward to it because we’ll be meeting my cousins and my aunt up there as well.  And we’ll be tailgating, which could spell utter disaster for this experiment!  Let’s see how it turns out!!!!

 

…to be continued…

 

(*Bloggers Note: if you haven’t realized, this “week in the meals” is actually the foods I ate LAST week, so that I could post in a timely manner each morning.  And The Cards crushed the Royals.  Go Redbirds!!!)

A Week in the Meals of Feaux – Day Four.

And the experiment continues yet again!

Day Four: Thursday. 

More work.  I’m groggy from staying up later than usual the night before (pretty typical for trivia nights).  But it looks to be a fairly easy work day…*knocks on wood*…

 

 

Breakfast (9am)

COOOOOFFFFEEEEE (w/Peppermint Mocha coffeemate) – 35 calories

Microwave Oatmeal, Strawberry, & Chocolate Muffin – 164  calories, 2 g fat, 10 g protein

 

Mid-Morning Snack (10:30am)

1 cup fresh pineapple chunks – 82 calories, 0 fat, 1 g protein

 

Lunch (1pm)

1 can Diet Sierra Mist – 0 calories

3 oz roasted BBQ pork tenderloin – 120 calories, 4 g fat, 19 g protein

1 cup baby carrots, raw – 70 calories, 0 fat, 1 g protein

1/2 cucumber, raw – 23 calories, 0 fat, 1 g protein

 

Afternoon Snack (4pm)

20 oz water

1 oz Frigo light mozzarella string cheese – 60 calories, 2.5 g fat, 8 g protein

1/2 cup mixed pecans & walnuts – 150 calories, 10 g fat, 3 g protein

 

 

Dinner (8pm)

Homemade pasta w/semi-homemade turkey meat marinara  – 378 calories, 4 g fat, 22 g protein

1 slice garlic bread – 100 calories

1 glass white wine – 110 calories

 

Dessert (10pm)

1 homemade oatmeal, chocolate chip & bacon cookie (recipe coming soon) – 91 calories, 2.2 g fat, 2.3 g protein

 

Total for the Day: 1383 calories, 29 g fat, 67 g protein

 

Back under target. Good thing, because tomorrow night I have a Girls Night Out planned, and we’ll be starting the evening at Ophelia’s for cocktails & tapas!  Two of the friends I’ll be dining with are also on a My Fitness Pal diet.  Can we all make good choices?  Stay tuned!

A Week in the Meals of Feaux – Day Three.

And the experiment continues!

Day Three – Wednesday.
Still a work day, but also Trivia Night!  Which means I’ll be having a drink in the evening, so I try to eat well throughout the day to allow myself those extra empty calories.  Wednesdays are also a day that I go to the gym, because of the large time slot between “end of work day” and “start of trivia”.  We live about 30 minutes outside of town, so it just doesn’t make sense for me to go home before trivia.  So, I go to the gym, sweat a lil’ bit, rock out to some tunes, and/or read my Nook (while I’m doing cardio).  This also means I don’t eat dinner at home.  So I either a) bring food from home to eat at the office, b) pick up something quick to eat (usually to-go sushi from the nearby suprmarket), or c) meet the Hubs & Friends for dinner.

Breakfast (7am)
2 slices bacon, cooked in the microwave & blotted – 69 calories, 5 g fat, 5 g protein

Breakfast Part Deux (at the office, 9am)
Coffee w/1 Splenda & 1 tbsp Peppermint Mocha coffeemate – 35 calories
1 serving Oikos Black Cherry Greek Yogurt – 130 cal, 0 g fat, 12 g protein
1.5 graham crackers – 89 calories, 2 g fat, 1.5 g protein
(I dipped the grahams in the yogurt & it’s like having cherry cheesecake for breakfast!  YUM!)


Lunch (1pm)
1 can Diet Mug Root Beer – 0 calories
Leftover pan fried fish (2 small crappie filets) – 277 calories, 16 g fat, 20 g protein
1 serving steamable veggie medley – 80 calories, 1 g fat, 2 g protein
Cinnamon applesauce – 80 calories, 0 fat/protein

Afternoon Snack (4pm)
6 oz Spicy V8 – 30 calories, 0 fat, 2 g protein
1 oz light mozzarella string cheese – 60 calories, 2.4 g fat, 8 g protein


Dinner (7pm)
Note: I had planned to bring some leftover pork tenderloin for dinner…but my brain wasn’t quite engaged yet when I left the house. So instead, the Hubs decided to meet me for dinner.  We had a Groupon for Houlihan’s and they run “Savour” Specials on Wednesday evenings—this day it was $7 burgers/sandwiches.  I ordered the Farmhouse Club w/fries, Hubs ordered the Brentwood Chicken sandwich w/steamed broccoli, and then we divided our meals in half & shared.
1/2 Farmhouse Club – 270 calories, 12.5 g fat, 19 g protein
1/2 Brentwood Chicken sandwich – 434 calories, 21.5 g fat, 32 g protein
1/2 order fries – 135 calories, 6 g fat, 1.5 g protein
1/2 order broccoli – 27 calories, 0 g fat, 2 g protein
20 oz unsweet tea – 0 calories
16 oz half & half tea – 60 calories, 0 g fat/protein

 At Trivia (9pm)
 I typically go for beer at trivia (200 calories per pint)…however, since dinner was so monolithic, I ordered a Diet Coke w/ vanilla vodka.  That only has 60 calories, although it’s twice the price.

Total for Day: 1836 calories, 66.4 g fat, 105 g protein

Ouch. Higher than I would have liked--but still lower than my daily caloric need of 1900, so at least I'm not gaining anything.  We would have been much better off just packing up our other half-sandwich from dinner & having it for breakfast or lunch.  But as a control for this experiment, I am purposely not looking up nutritional information before I go out to eat—I just try to make good decisions, and then see how “good” or not good they were afterward.

A Week in the Meals of Feaux: Day Two.

The experiment continues!

Day 2: Tuesday 
Another work day, but this time I had to go in the field, which means eating out, since I’m frequently too lazy to make myself a sandwich before I leave my house at 6-7am.  Our project site has an onsite restaurant, which is a mix of good & bad.  Good, because it’s convenient, but bad because it’s a diner full of delicious fried things.

 
Breakfast (7am)
3/4 c (1 serving) Lucky Charms w/1/4 cup skim milk: 130 calories, 1 g fat, 4 g protein (I went with a light breakfast since I knew I’d have to eat out for lunch)
12 oz Diet Mt. Dew (I need my caffeine in the morning!)

Mid-Morning Snack (10am)
1 apple: 95 calories, 0 fat/protein



Lunch (1pm)
Water with Lemon; Half-size tenderloin sandwich w/lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, ketchup & mustard: estimate of 600 calories, 14 g fat, 26 g protein, based on various websites (since it’s a diner type place, there’s obviously not nutritional info on the menu). 

This was a judgment call, based on cash & flavor.  This diner is well-known for their pork tenderloin sandwiches, and they are QUITE delicious.  Breaded pork tenderloin is something I love, but not something I eat frequently—maybe 4x a year.  So I considered this a treat. But like all treats, one has to use moderation.  I knew their “whole size” sandwich was monolithic, so I ordered a half-size, and I opted for no side item, and just a water for my drink, and I was plenty full when I left.  This diner DOES have a wide variety of salads available, but they charge $9-10 for a salad, whereas the half-size sandwich with no fries is only $5.65.

Afternoon snack (4:30pm)
2 oz mixed nuts (pecans, almonds, walnuts) & raisins – 200 calories, 16 g fat (monounsaturated), 8 g protein



Dinner (8pm)
Iced tea – 0 calories
3 oz roasted BBQ pork tenderloin – 120 calories, 4 g fat, 19 g protein
1/2 tomato w/salt & pepper – 15 calories, 0 fat/protein
1 serving of Steamable veggie medley – 80 calories, 1 g fat, 2 g protein

Total for the Day: 1240 calories, 36 g fat, 59 g protein

Woohoo!  Under target, even with that pork tenderloin sandwich!  And I never felt hungry (though I did feel a little sleepy after that sandwich).  It's all a matter of balance.