Mark: Day 3

Planning is the key for these crazy diets - and, I think, for keeping weight off for me.



So last night I prepared a raisin molasses wheat bread



so that I would have something ready to go to take to work for breakfast.



This was a wonderful loaf. I ate about 3.5 oz of it this morning - about 320 calories worth, which is admittedly a lot of bread, though not that much more than a typical bagel (about 280 calories).

The recipe is super simple:

2 C white flour
1 C wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1/4 molasses
raisins
1 1/4 C warm water

mix all the ingredients together, let rise covered for about an hour.

mix again (this will be quite wet dough, so best if you have an upright mixer - otherwise you'll get quite a work out with a wooden spoon)

pour into a greased (I used cooking spray) loaf pan and let rise again for another 30-45 minutes

cook 30 minutes at 350.

Later in the morning I had a banana (105 cal).

For lunch I had packed another serving of the sesame peanut noodles, and a bowl of cole slaw I also had made yesterday. I make a very simple oil and vinegar cole slaw (95 cal) - I use the food processor to chop the cabbage, then add a mixture of red wine vinegar, olive oil, and a tsp of sugar. Best to let it soak for a while before you eat. Even better over night. What's nice is even though this is 95 cal, it's a lot of bulk. Most of the calories comes from the tsp of oil.

In the afternoon I had a pear (103 cal) as a snack.

For dinner I made sweet and sour beans.









This recipe is adapted from the American Heart Association Cookbook from some time in the 90's.

roughly it's:

2 cans of pinto beans, rinsed
1 can of no syrup added pineapple
1/2 an onion
1 green bell pepper
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C cider vinegar
1 tbsp soy
1/2 tsp ginger
2 tbsp sherry
1 tbsp corn starch

I lightly fry the onions and peppers in a big wok, then set them aside and mix the juice from the pineapple, the brown sugar, vinegar, soy, ginger, sherry, and corn starch in the pan. Heat that until bubbling, then let cook down till slightly thickened. At that point, add the peppers and onions back, as well as the beans. Let cook until the beans are heated through. I estimate the serving I had at about 360 cal.

I served it with jasmine rice (160 cal).

This evening I had some white wine (145 cal) and a bit more of the raisin bread (160 cal) for an evening snack.

Day summary -

Calories: 1,734

Exercise: looks like 510 right now. I took the dog for a 4.5 mile walk this morning.

Weight back down to 170.2. I'm pretty excited about that - I think this focus is just what I needed to get to my goal of 166. Hoping I might do that by the end of our month.

Now to go make my preparations for tomorrow...