Bento #5

breakfast
Peaches and Cream Oatmeal - 240 calories

lunch / dinner
Tamagoyaki (2-eggs, cut into 7 pieces, I took 3, the Mister gets 4) - 100 cal
1/2 cup lightly salted rice - 140 calories
3 meatballs with teriyaki sauce - 65 calories
carrot sticks - 12 calories
creamy cucumber dressing - 50 calories
chopped turkey pepperoni - 35 calories (did not use whole stick)
cheese cubes - 135 calories
(The Mister got almost exactly the same bento, just bigger portions)

Smoothie (banana, chocolate soy milk, raspberry yogurt) -
345 calories

Peach - 40 calories

Peaches in Strawberry Gel fruit cup - 90 calories

Butterscotch Pudding - 120 calories (I might not eat this, I've brought it to work and home a couple of times already (it's the shelf-stable stuff))

Deliciously Red Juice Box - 90 calories

total: 1342 - 1462 calories


I have to talk a bit about the "Deliciously ..." juice boxes I bought. They are a fruit and veggie juice blend (from concentrate), with no sugar added.
It's apparently 2 servings of fruit and veggies per 250ml - of course, the juice box sizes are 200ml. Gotta love it.
The red has beet, carrot, lemon, yumberry, red bell pepper, apple (and/or) grape juices, and cherry and plum purees.
The yellow has pineapple, carrot, passsion fruit, lemon, yellow bell pepper, apple (and/or) grape juices and apple and golden kiwi purees.
They are both really good - I like the yellow better though.
There is also a purple one, which I was hesitant to buy, as I have never really liked the usual purple 'grape juice', but this one looks okay. It's got beet, elderberry, red bell pepper, purple carrot, apple (and/or) grape juices and plum puree.
I'll have to try that one next time.

I need to get out and do a big veggie shop again. We don't buy produce from our regular grocery store, because it never looks appetising, and it's pretty expensive. I usally go to a farm market where I can spend $20 and come out with 2 oversized grocery bags full of fruit and veggies.
As an example, grocery store charges $3-$4 for a package of snow peas, farm market charges $1 - $1.50 for the same one.
Grocery store cherry tomatoes - $5.99 per package, farm market - 2 packs for $4 (including variety packs with fancy tomatoes.)

Bento #4

I haven't forgotten about this!
I've still been making health conscious choices every day, and I've been avoiding fast food and restaurant foods.
Researching food and actually comparing nutritional facts in the grocery store.
Portioning things out (I have actually taken the time to divide some packaged mixes in half, so I won't be tempted to serve the whole thing and won't have that extra to waste), and substituting.

I gained back 3 lbs and I've been hovering at 194.
I have started walking 10k every Saturday morning.

I am working a late shift this week, so my meals are all messed up, I don't get a proper lunch and dinner, but I'm still trying to keep everything balanced.

Breakfast
English Muffin with Egg, Cheese and Turkey Bacon - 393 calories
Chocolate Soy Milk - 140 calories



Lunch/Dinner
Spinach Wrap with Turkey, 1/2 slice Turkey Bacon, Lettuce, Mustard, Creamy Cucumber Dressing and Cheese - 324 calories
Corn Salad (1/3c corn, 1tsp onion, basil, salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar) - 66 calories
Carrot Sticks - 12 calories
Homemade Tortilla Chips (spinach tortilla, olive oil, salt) - 70 calories
Peach Salsa - 7 calories
Turkey Pepperoni Stick - 50 calories
Fruit & Gelatin cup - 90 calories
"Deliciously Red" Fruit and Vegetable Juice - 90 calories

Snack
Banana - 105 calories
Peach - 40 calories

Total: 1387 Calories

blarg

The onigiri turned out well - didn't get a photo of the box, because I was (again) too busy, but I used my Lock & Lock box packed in 3 onigiri (I made them small, totaled out to about 1 cup rice for all 3) a bunch of veggies, and some small cheese cubes. I only ate one of the onigiri, because I got full.

Yesterday, I had a Subway English muffin with egg, ham, cucumber, tomato, green pepper and honey mustard sauce.
For lunch, I packed a Michelina's frozen pasta entree, and for dinner, we had smokies and perogies.

Today, I'm cheating - I'm going out with a friend, so we will have food court food for lunch (though I'll try to make a smart choice) and once the mister and her fiancee get home from work, we are all going out for dinner (again, I'll try to make a smart choice)

I've lost another 3 lbs, so I'm down to 191 lbs.
If I can keep this up, and lose 3 lbs per week, I can be at my goal in another 5 weeks. I think that's really reasonable.

I'm still here ...

okay, I've been bad, and haven't been updating.
I've still been eating right (and cute!).
I've just been so busy at work, that I come home and don't want to do anything. Hopefully that will be fixed after this week.

Tonight, I am preparing onigiri, which will each have a meatball inside.
I hope they survive until lunch tomorrow!


Progress update
I lost 3lbs last week.
Small progress, but it's there.
yay!

Bad lunch!

No picture today, and no official calorie count.

My company had a lunch meeting for my department, and almost everyone voted for Chinese food (there were about 4 of us who didn't want or couldn't eat it). I asked for a vegetarian option to at least pretend I was eating something healthier, but when you get broccoli, mushrooms, baby corn and leeks covered in a delicious creamy curry sauce ... *drool*
ahem.

Breakfast, I had a Subway egg-white omelette sandwich with ham. Toppings were cucumber, green pepper, tomato and honey mustard.

Lunch, was the above mentioned Chinese food (oh, and they ordered steamed rice, just for me!) We also all got ROHO water bottles at the meeting (same idea as the SIGG bottles, but made by Thermos)

Dinner was Hamburger Helper "Stroganoff" with green beans added, salad and home-made garlic spinach tortilla chips.
The Hamburger Helper was served in the recommended portion on the back of the box (1 cup), which totals out to about 300 calories)
The salad was the same kind I've been making (minus the tomatoes and cucumber for the mister, since he doesn't like them - I added tomato to mine) - so around 71 calories, including 1tbsp of calorie-wise Italian dressing.
The chips were made with 1/4 of a tortilla (each, so 1/2 total), cut into wedges, brushed with a small amount of olive oil, sprinkled with garlic plus seasoning and baked until crisp. The Mister really liked them, so I think I will make them with other dinners. Totaled to 45 calories.

416 calories total for dinner (the Mister's was a little less, because he isn't a slave to salad dressings ...)

I'm sure I didn't go too far over the 1700 calories I'm aiming for. And I figure I had a super-low day yesterday, so it'll all balance out.
Does it even work like that?
bah.

Bento #3

Bento# 3
I didn't forget to post yesterday, I was just really busy.
Also, horrible photo for some reason.



Breakfast
I had zoodles for breakfast. I was having a massive craving. 300 cal.

Lunch/Dinner
Turkey and Havarti sandwich on pesto garlic tortilla - 120 cal
2 chicken nuggets with cajun spice - 52 cal
1/8 nectarine - 8 cal
1/8 apple (bunny!) - 9 cal
3 grapes - 4 cal
5 snow peas - 7 cal
2 baby carrots - 8 cal
cucumber - 8 cal
fruit bar - 50 cal
3 cheese flavour rice crackers - 15 cal

salad (same as yesterday, but carrots instead of peas, and a not-so-calorie wise ranch dressing instead of the italian.) - 196 cal

The above only added up to 777 calories total (super low!), so I bought a 12 grain bagel with cream cheese at Tim Hortons when I got to work. - 441 cal
That brought me up to 1218.
When I got home, I was really, really hungry, so I made 2 slices of 'pizza bread' (sunflower flax bread, 2tbsp(each) tomato sauce, 2 slices ham(each), 2tbsp grated cheese) - approximately 368
(I over estimated the cheese, I know I used less, but I didn't specifically measure it at the time)

So, total for the day was 1586.

Skipped the yoga and only did about 3500 steps (2.6km/183cal)

Today
I worked late yesterday, and had to work early today, and I really didn't have time to make lunch. So, no picture today.

Breakfast
Life cereal with skim milk - 280 cal

Lunch
Nong Shim Spicy instant ramen. (Package said 190 calories per 1/2 bowl (WHY?). I discarded half the noodles and made all the broth, so I'm estimating 300 total? I'm sure the noodles amount to more, but whatever.)
7 snow peas - 10 cal
5 baby carrots - 20 cal
5 grape tomatoes - 20 cal
12 grapes - 16 cal
366 total.

Dinner
1 Maple Smokie - 160 cal
3/4 cup spanish rice - 101 cal
261 total

hm. only 907 today.
I didn't think this would be so hard!

Forgot my pedometer this morning, but I walked my butt off - I barely got to sit at work today, walked to and from the train station, and walked to and from the grocery store with my cousin, and now I'm sore. Again, no yoga. I will pick it up tomorrow, I swear!

Bento #2

breakfast
2 egg omelette with havarti, tomato, corned beef and green onion, topped with salsa - 278 cal (cooked in a non-stick pan, so no oil/butter/etc needed)
1/4 pesto garlic tortilla - 50 cal

We had a BBQ at work today that included a burger, samosa, chips and pop.
I packed a salad, carrot sticks and fruit to eat as well.
I brought the fruit bar, but didn't eat it.

lunch / dinner
Salad made with 1c romaine lettuce, 1/2c mixed cabbage, 4 grape tomatoes, 5 snow peas and 1/4c cucumber with 2 tbsp calorie-wise italian dressing - 96 cal

1 large strawberry - 6 cal
8 grapes - 24 cal
4 baby carrots - 16 cal
1 apple - 74 cal

burger with cheese, mustard and relish - 541 cal
Samosa - 156 cal
potato chips - 150 cal
can of grape crush - 160 cal

water.

1551 calories total.
I'm still within that range I'm aiming for - yay!
Tomorrow is the last late day at work this week, so we will see how I do with preparing and portioning dinners at home.

Another 20 minutes of Yoga (I'm easing myself back into it - my left leg is weak - I have a bad knee, and I sprained my ankle earlier this year, which threw everything off)
Did about 5km of walking today. Apparently one should aim for 10,000 steps per day on a pedometer, I was at 7581 today. I need to work 2500 more steps in and I'm set! (according to the pedometer, I burned about 390 calories with that walking ... hm!)

Bento #1

breakfast
Life Cereal with skim milk: 280 cal

lunch
yakisoba: 180 cal (me) / 277 cal (the Mister)
3 meatballs with teriyaki sauce: 60 cal
1-egg tamagoyaki: 105 cal
5 snow peas: 7 cal
4 carrots: 15 cal
1 small strawberry: 3 cal
2 grapes: 6 cal
Fruit bar: 50 cal

Me 380 cal
The Mister 476 cal

I decided to experiment and tried to make yakisoba with no real recipe. I'm sure I could have found real soba noodles if I went to T&T, but I used 'steam noodles' ramen noodles, and it seemed to work. I don't have any mirin, so I'm missing that flavour, but I added soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and sugar - tasted not bad right out of the pan last night, but tasted MUCH better today. Added cabbage and onion. Topped it off with some sliced turkey deli meat lighly fried in a little teriyaki sauce (no oil added) and some sliced green onion.

The meatballs are 'eat right' brand. I compared them to the store brand, and they were 1/2 the calories! I think that's worth the extra dollar or so.

Made tamagoyaki using the 1 egg recipe from justbento.com

The Mister didn't work today, but this was mostly an experiment lunch, so I made one for him too.

I did have a quiznos sub for dinner... around 780 calories. Won't do that again.
An apple juice box - 100 calories, and water.

So, even with the naughty dinner, 1600 calories consumed today - yay!

I did 20 minutes of yoga, and walked somewhere over 6,300 steps - I deleted it before I got the kilometer count.

Getting Started

So, here it is.
I did healthy bento lunches for myself all last week, and I decided to make a blog as some incentive for me to keep it up.
My inspiration for trying this was the Just Bento website (links).

My Bento Box
A two-tier "strawberry candy" bento box from Daiso. I got the matching 'belt' and 18cm chopsticks. I'm thinking of going back and getting the bag, and maybe the other square bento box. The two-tier box holds 510ml.
I will also occasionally be using a square Lock & Lock box that holds 870ml for when I want to bring things such as salads, in larger quantities. At which point, I will likely only use one tier of the bento box to pack extra goodies like fruit.

My Stats (*sadface*)
Weight ... 197lbs (86kg)
Height - 5'9" (175cm)
Waistline is 40" (101cm)

My Goal
To lose a minimum of 22lbs (coming down to at least 175). Not sure how long this will take, but that's okay. Eating healthier has made me feel great, and I'd like to keep doing it.

Calories Per Day
According to walking.about.com (links to the left), to maintain my current weight while being 'lightly active', I have to consume 2186 calories per day.
To lose weight by burning body fat, I am supposed to reduce by 500, so I'm looking at 1686 calories consumed per day. (and, of course increase activity)
It also cautions against going below 1200 calories. So, I will aim between those numbers.
I am counting approximate calories using the nutritional info on packages and using the calorie counter at about.com (links). I tend to round up.

Exercise Plan
Walking every day (for sure 2km of hard walking (1km of which is uphill), and lots of walking at work.
Half an hour or more of yoga at least 3 times per week (hopefully more).

The Mister wants to lose a bit too, so I'm reducing portions for dinner and adding more veggies. He's asked me to make him healthy lunches as well (he makes his own lunches, but he likes mine better ^_^)
I pack his lunch in the Lock & Lock box mentioned above.