Mark: Day 5

Friday was a "training holiday" - a free day the Army gives active duty soldiers in addition to an official holiday - meant to recognize the crazy hours we sometimes have to put in - like taking physical fitness tests at 4:30 AM - so I was home and able to do a little cooking at the house. But before breakfast, I had a slice of my homemade white bread (54 cal) and went to the YMCA to work out. I did about 50 minutes on the treadmill. I like to set the treadmill to its maximum incline - 15 degrees - and then walk at about 3.5 MPH. If you haven't tried it, it's pretty demanding. I actually did the incline for about 35 minutes, then lowered it down flat and raised the speed to 4 MPH and cooled down for about 15 more minutes.

I had a half serving of the left over vegetable chili (200 cal) I had made a couple of days ago, and then fried (just with cooking spray) some sliced potatoes with some canned Hatch chilis as a side (193 cal).

Even thought it was a training holiday, I actually spent the whole day reading residency portfolios. So I ate lunch at my desk - my last serving of sesame peanut noodles (383 cal) and my last serving of Sicilian Tomato Salad (76 cal).

I did sneak in a Black Butte Porter at some point (that's a dark beer, 160 cal) because it was a holiday, after all.



I had planned on making Indian food for dinner - I even had a couple of recipes picked out - but I was going to have to improvise several of the ingredients, so I decided to make hummus instead.

Hummus recipe was roughly

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp crushed garlic
1/4 C lemon juice
salt
pepper

I estimated the hummus at 163 cal/100 g. The recipe made about 650 g.

Adapted from this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/real-hummus/



Kandie and I split the last of the white bread (190 cal) I had made, toasted it, and spread the hummus (163 cal) on it, and a spinach salad with raspberry vinaigrette. I had a glass of red wine with dinner (150 cal).

In a quest to find the missing Indian ingredients, Kandie and I decided to drive down to San Antonio and visit Trader Joe's. We used to go there all the time in Virginia, but since this new one was built here in San Antonio, we just hadn't taken the time.

Unfortunately, they didn't have what I needed. But they did have some dried sugared ginger. I love ginger. So I indulged in this treat (140 cal) as a dessert with a small glass of white wine (100 cal).



Kandie and I watched an episode of "Game of Thrones" last night after we washed dishes, and I enjoyed a second Black Butte Porter (160 cal).

Day summary -

Calories consumed: 2,092
Exercise calories: 709
Weight: 168.8!! Very excited - this diet seems to be just the thing I needed to do to get past my weight loss plateau.

I don't really feel deprived at this point. A little annoyed at times because of all the restrictions, but not really deprived. Certainly not in the way I did on the $3 Diet. So far, so good.