The Poor Girl's Diet

I know I've been totally MIA for a little while, but I promise it's all for perfectly good reasons. Reason number 1: I'm moooovvviiiinnng. Yup. Moving back in with Mom for a month or so till my roommates are back in town, out of their current leases, and when we find a place. Thus, I've kinda been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. However, it's been productive!

This picture pretty much sums up where I am in the process.

source

Thus, I've been busy which means I haven't had much time to cook anything worth posting. That brings me to my next point...

Reason number 2: I'm still on the job hunt. For those unaware, joblessness means very very very little fun money. Yes, I consider money for food fun money. Get over it. Anyway, that means that we're definitely getting down with the $0.39 boxes of Fresh & Easy mac and cheese (which is so good with a little lemon pepper and half the price of Kraft!) as well as $0.50 turkey pot pies from the freezer section. That being said, I'm not going to be able to start cooking post-worthy stuff till I get a job again... or until it's on Mom's grocery bill ;)  So you'll all just have to be patient and wait it out with me. I'll definitely post some recipes soon though, whether I'm cookin' them or not.

With all that crap food, you've gotta be wondering how this whole weight loss thing is going, right?

Here's where the good news comes in!

I've lost roughly 7lbs already! Woohoo! Definitely some good encouragement, right?!

One woman that is ruining all chances of me ever getting skinny, however, is the Pioneer Woman. [Thanks to my dear friend and fellow foodie, Summer for introducing us :) ] I mean, really?! Have you seen this woman's recipes? Every single one is to die for.

Sidenote: I highly recommend the lasagna.

Hands down, best lasagna I've ever eaten. Ever.

Off to get some sleep before schlepping more of my ish back to Mom's...

Green beans: Satan's vegetable

My entire life I've always battled the inevitable vegetable. I've never really liked veggies, especially green ones.

As a kid I remember having those seemingly endless arguments and fights at the dinner table with my parents over the fact that I did not and would not eat my green beans. After many nights literally crying about the fact that I was being forced to eat at least 3 beans every time my mom cooked them (which was often because my family loves them), my mom finally began the search for veggies that I would willingly eat. Along with broccoli and peas, I ended up loving salads. This brings me to last night's dinner and yesterday's lunch.

I felt terrible yesterday. Here's where my confession comes in.

I went to lunch with my friends yesterday... to Sonic. Uuggghhhh. Terrible, I know. I knew it was going to be bad as I was ordering, but I came home and looked at all that I had consumed during that one meal and just about keeled over in shock. ::gulp:: So here are the stats for my lunch...

Sonic cheeseburger: 720 cal

Tater Tots: 130cal

Sonic Butterfinger Blast: 580 cal (I'm calling it 290 since I only drank half of it anyway)

The grand total? A heart-wrenching (not to mention gut-busting) 1,140 calories.

Based on the Sonic page in Eat This, Not That, here were my other options so I didn't consume over half of my daily calories in one freaking meal:

Sonic Burger with mustard: 540cal

Grilled Chicken on Ciabatta: 375cal

Grilled Chicken Wrap: 380cal

Junior Banana Split: 200cal

Next time I'll go for the grilled chicken ciabatta with apple slices (only 35cal!) and if I really feel like it, I'll go ahead and get that banana split. Obviously, I felt terrible about lunch so I stuck with a salad for dinner (and lunch today because I liked it that much).

If you've ever been to Corner Bakery, you know what a wonderful and seemingly healthy place it is! However, looks are definitely deceiving. My favorite salad there, the harvest salad with roasted chicken, is a whopping 980cal. I've happened to make a much cheaper and healthier version at home :)

Total calories for this one is... 207!! And that is why it's better to eat at home.

Everything is to taste, so put as much or as little as you want
2c chopped romaine
2T chopped pecans
2T crumbled blue cheese
2T Fresh & Easy raspberry vinaigrette
*Other things I love to put in this one is chicken (didn't have any on hand), dried cranberries, and sliced apples. So good!

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And so it begins...

Blogs don't normally pop up out of thin air and this one happens to be one that popped up out of sheer boredom and a longing for procrastination.

Thus, my little story begins...

For those that don't know, I graduated from college ::does the math:: a whole whoppin' 4 days ago. As I was finishing my last semester, I found myself procrastinating more and more. Graduation was soon approaching and my papers and assignments were piling up to an overwhelming height. I began to have a lot of those I should be doing homework right now moments. However, I continued whatever pointless thing I was already doing simply because even tasks like cleaning the kitchen seemed to entice me more than that 30 page paper on autism spectrum disorders which happened to be sitting there in the corner of the room, staring at me longingly. So what would I do in order to pretend that I was being productive?

I could write a blog!

Great, I was going to write a blog. But what in the world would I write about? There are countless blogs out there about anything and everything. Cute animals, funny videos, fun facts, stuff white people like, and just plain fun. You name it, you can find a blog about it.

I've recently been getting more and more interested in healthy eating, specifically for those of us who enjoy carbs way too much and think just about anything that rhymes with schmegetable is evil. That being said, I came across a book at my mom's place called Eat This, Not That! by David Zinczenko. The book is pretty much a restaurant survival guide so we all don't end up weighing a bajillion pounds (definitely a good book to check out!). Anyway, one thing led to another, and I found Cook This, Not That! which is a chock full of healthier versions of homemade favorites. Needing to lose a bit of weight myself, I decided to start working out and using these two books as my nutrition guides for my weightloss adventure. I'll be posting each recipe (not in full due to copyright blah blah blahs) and my progress with it all.

So, let's get to cooking and see where all of this takes us!