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The rest of my day went relatively well. I wound up buying roughly 40 lbs of groceries, which I then had to carry half a mile home. I did buy some cookies and cream frozen yogurt, and I did taste the yogurt before putting it away, but at least it wasn't a whole bowlful or anything. Baby steps.

Dinner was really good and quite satisfying for something lowish in carbs. Let me get something out there. I am not a fan of low carb diets. Not because I think they are bad for you or don't work. I think the human body can adapt to a wide variety of eating styles and low carb can be quite healthy, plus it also works much better for many people. I am not a fan because I am not really a meat eater in general, and I rarely eat red meat or pork products. Chicken, fish, low carb vegetarian sources and veggies do not make for a very satisfying meal for me.

The reason I make low carb dinners is for my boyfriend. He insists that he bloats up from eating carbs. He does. Because when he eats carbs it is in the form of an entire large bag of potato chips and a giant thick-breaded deli sandwich, or a value pack of pizza rolls and a box of Reese's Puff cereal. I wish I was kidding. I got tired of him bringing that stuff into the house nearly every night because having to see it and smell it for the 3-4 hours it took him to eat it (slowest eater ever too) drove me insane. I told him I'd be happy to make him dinner as it takes no more effort to make two portions than it does to make one. He said he would be ok with that except the dinners I make are "too carby" (my head almost imploded when he said that). We finally came upon the agreement that I would make dinner, and that I would not have to adhere to any strict carb limits or provide him a carb count for it so long as I did not include any fruits, starches or overly carby sauces in it. He still buys some junk food, but the frequency has been greatly reduced and I am much happier.

About half the time I will make myself a half cup of rice, pasta, or corn to mix in to whatever we are having, but I didn't do that for tonight's dinner because it was fairly pointy already. I sliced up a small zucchini, two Tofurkey Italian sausages, and about a cup of white mushrooms and sauteed them for a few minutes in 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Then I mixed in a cup of a marinara sauce from Trader Joe's with only 1 pt per serving, and a half cup of part skim shredded mozzarella. I transferred it into a loaf pan, sprinkled the top with another 1/4 cup of mozzarella and about a half tablespoon of parm. I threw it in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Half of the pan came out to 13 pts. It also provided one healthy oil, 1 serving of dairy, and 3 servings of vegetables. It was really hearty and yummy. I didn't even miss the fact that it didn't have pasta in it.

After dinner I decided to finally use that box of brownie mix I had had for six months and try out some pumpkin brownies. I could only find the large cans of pumpkin at the store. I didn't know how much I was supposed to use, but I think I may have used too much. They are sort of cakey and fudgey at the same time, and taste quite strongly of pumpkin. It's more of a vegetable-y taste than a pumpkin pie taste, but I've decided that's ok. The mix made 20 servings at 3 pts each, so I measured the batter into 20 cupcake liners and baked them for half an hour.

I ate the first one right out of the oven with a half cup of cookies and cream low fat frozen yogurt, and I have no complaints on how it tasted at all. But it was really crumbly and sort of stuck to the liner a bit. So after they cooled off all the way I had another one to make sure the liner came off cleanly. It did. Crisis averted. I saw one more that was quite a bit smaller than the others, so I ate that one too and I counted 2 points for it. Now I am satisfied that the wrappers come off easily and they are all about the same size, so I can freeze the rest and enjoy them in much smaller quantities in the future. Preferably re-heated with frozen yogurt, because that really hit the spot.

Tomorrow I work from 10am to 2pm. I have about an hour commute each way so I'm going to bring my lunch to eat after work on the bus. I'm going to try very hard to stick to 29-31 points for the next three days because I have found it to work better if I don't eat a bunch of weeklies at least a day or two before weigh in. I only have like 17 left anyway. Here's my meal plan for tomorrow:

Breakfast-
Smoothie made with light soy milk, 1 banana and 1 cup frozen mango chunks = 1 pt
Low carb yogurt (I like them better than the fat free light ones and they have the same points) = 2 pts
4 childrens' gummy vitamins shaped like dinosaurs = 1 pt

Lunch-
Chicken salad sandwich made with light whole wheat bread, 2 oz canned chicken, 1 T light mayo, 1 t dijon mustard, 1 t olive oil, romaine lettuce = 6 pts
1 C strawberries = 0 pts
1 oz. reduced fat smoked gouda = 2 pts
1 baby lemon pie = 4 pts

Dinner-
1 C steamed cauliflower = 0 pts
3 oz. cooked shrimp = 2 pts
1/2 C corn = 2 pts
1/4 C Philly Cooking Cream Santa Fe flavor = 3 pts
1 t canola oil = 1 pt


After Dinner-
1 pumpkin brownie = 3 pts
1/2 C cookies and cream frozen yogurt = 3 pts
1 T sugar free chocolate syrup = 0 pts

This come out to 29 points and includes just over 2 servings of dairy, 2 tsp healthy oils, 1 multivitamin, 9 servings of fruits and vegetables, 5 oz. of lean protein, 2 servings of whole grains (3 if you count the corn), and 10 points worth of desserts. I think I did ok. Now I just have to stick to it.