Day 8

And so it re-begins. Sorry that I didn't write anything yesterday, but it was a very busy day and I collapsed shortly after getting home.

Looking at the trip as a whole, I think I'm more proud of what I didn't eat than what I did. For the major meals, I often ate whatever I wanted, and tried to make complimentary choices (apple slices instead of fries keeps sticking out.) But I didn't do a lot of eating between meals. If I needed a quick snack, I grabbed a banana and a bottle of water. I avoided the soft pretzels and candy bars, the ice cream cones and the churros.

As I discussed with my folks last night, it takes an almost concentrated effort to stay this heavy. You really have to not resist a single temptation. I curbed that pretty hard this weekend, and I feel pretty good about what I did. I also kept in mind that I was on vacation, and that doesn't happen all the time.

I won't be weighing in until Friday, I don't think. I'll give my body a few days to clear out all the salt and crap, and then see where we are. For now, back to the process of recording every bite that crosses my lips. After not doing so for a few days, I'm actually kind of comforted by returning to the practice. The accountability is reassuring.

Breakfast:

1 Vanilla Pure Protein Shake

- 160 calories

- 10 from fat

- 35g protein

Morning Snack:

1 EAS Myoplex Lite Chocolate Peanut Butter Crisp Bar

- 190 calories

- 50 from fat

- 15g protein

I think I'll have to order some more of these. Totally edible as protein bars go and acceptable from a nutrition standpoint, although inferior in every way to the shakes I've been drinking. But I'm not going to drink four of those every day.

Lunch:

Potbelly Turkey Breast (Double Meat) on Thin Cut Wheat

- 465 calories

- 111 from fat

- 47g protein

Baked Lays

- 130 calories

- 15 from fat

- 2g protein

This was tasty, but when I reviewed the nutrition facts, the sodium in Potbelly's turkey is off the charts, so that's less than perfect. I went with the double meat to try to keep my protein numbers really high, and it was good, but I'm not sure it was worth the extra sodium.

I also just ordered some of those protein shakes and protein bars from Amazon. I probably need to start making my own protein shakes eventually, but those have a tendency to be really grainy and therefore gross. Not sure how to get around that.

Le Afternoon Snack:

1 Vanilla Pure Protein Shake

- 160 calories

- 10 from fat

- 35g protein

Dinner:

1 Lean Cuisine Asiago Cheese Tortellini

- 280 calories

- 60 from fat

- 14g protein

The tortellini and the sauce were really good, but there was a bunch of zucchini in it which was really bitter. Too bad, because I really like zucchini.

1 Lean Cuisine Chicken Margherita

- 310 calories

- 60 from fat

-22g protein

This one was delicious. I need to stop eating them. They're tasty and low calories and reasonably high in protein, but they're also high in sodium, not particularly cheap, and don't do me a lot of good in the long term. Heating up meals doesn't teach me how to do anything but heat up meals.

Grand Total:

- 1695 calories

- 316 from fat

- 170g protein