Being accountable....

I am not one for dieting, never have been, but I am one for trying to live healthy and maintain a healthy weight.
I am lucky, I have 'thin-ness' in my genes, so all my life I have never had to worry about what, or how much, I eat... Until now!!
My brother always joked that once I moved away from home (in 1998), I would inevitably gain the 'freshman 20' but it never happened, and I worked in bars and pubs where deep-fried was not only a food group, it was a meal staple for me.
I'd have to say I looked and felt my best between ages 24-26, when I got engaged and married my wonderful husband. After the first year of marriage, things for me started going downhill. It isn't like I became complacent and didn't feel like I needed to "look good" anymore, I didn't get lazy, I maintained the exact same lifestyle I had for the past 8 years. In fact, my lifestyle probably improved because I stopped working in the restaurant industry and stopped eating fried foods every meal. ALSO, I quit smoking in July 2006. Until that point I was smoking half to a full pack a day.
The reason I am splaying this on my blog is because I think I should be accountable if I say I am going to change and live a healthier lifestyle. I think that if I say I am going to do something, then by writing it on here I need to be accountable to myself, not let myself down.
So, yesterday I bought myself a scale, a dreaded scale!! I stepped on it when I got home and am (sadly) reporting I am the heaviest I have EVER been in my entire life. 155 pounds.
Now, I am not one for new years resolutions so I am not saying that is what I am doing here, but I realized right before Christmas it was time to change some things in my life, time to turn the page and start a new chapter. I realized this when I had to go and buy new jeans because none of my pants fit me anymore. I realized this when I looked at recent pictures of myself and saw chubby cheeks, plumpy arms, and a flabby belly (especially when I compared it to my honeymoon picture 5 years ago!) I bought the January Shape issue and on the cover they say I can drop 10 pounds in 1 month, so I am going to accept that challenge!
In the magazine, they give recipes for 20 meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks) that I can mix and match daily. I read through each recipe and I have to say that they all look extremely tasty, no bland diet food here! My next thought was, ya, but I am going to STARVE because portions are usually tiny. Not true here either! So, I went through the recipes and made my grocery list.....

Day 1
breakfast
I made my own recipe of a scrambled egg omelet with veggies (approx. 300 calories)
- 1 whole egg, 2 egg whites
- few splashes of red hot sauce
- tomato, green onion, mushroom, red pepper
- jarlsberg cheese
- whole grain tortilla wrap
- 1 tbsp ranch + 1 tsp red hot sauce

lunch
I made a spinach salad with fruit (approx. 200 calories)
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1 tbsp sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup fig-balsamic dressing (YUM!)
and I had a snack of honeyed popcorn (100 cal) and vanilla Activia Dessert yogurt (100 cal)

snack
the meal-plan says you should have a snack if you're getting hungry, so I made their  Sonoma Snack (approx. 175 cal)
- 10 black olives
- 1 cup red seedless grapes
- 1 serving of wheat thins (11 crackers)
- 4 cubes laughing cow spreadable cheese

dinner
I made the recipe Turkey Mock Tacos from the meal plan (approx. 300 calories)
- 3 oz extra lean ground turkey, 'fried' in water
- 1/4 cup salsa
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro
-1/4 cup red pepper
- 1/4 cup red onion
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 1/4 fresh avocado
- 1/4 cup corn
- 4 large romaine lettuce leaves

I was looking at this recipe thinking '3 oz. of turkey?! This will be like an appetizer! I couldn't have been more wrong! My plate was heaping when I made the 4 tacos with the romaine leaves and I was stuffed when I finished eating!

So that was day 1. Let's see if I can continue another day.....