Day Nineteen: JK I'm hungry

As soon as I typed "day nineteen" this popped into my head, of course.

Now that I've relieved my attention deficit, if today's food consumption was ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being filet mignon, lobster tail, and sour cream and chive mashed potatoes and 1 being a rice cake, I'd say it was a bland 3 (rice cake with a schmear of peanut butter?).

I got to sleep in a little today. We had a two hour delay because it's so cold, the salt couldn't even melt the ice in the school parking lot. For breakfast I reheated a serving of pumpkin spice oatmeal - I didn't add anything this time. I remembered to eat before I left for work and took my standard coffee to go.

I had lunch at a normal-ish time (11:27 as opposed to 10:27) and I had my leftover vegetable stir fry from last night's dinner. See what I mean? Ho hum.

For my snack I had three celery stalks and some white bean hummus. That was the high point of the day. Celery! The high point! Pre-lunch I had had 3-4 kernels of caramel popcorn that Erika brought in from her cousin's popcorn company in Chicago, Let's Get Poppin. It was hands-down the best popcorn and quite possibly the best caramel anything I've ever had, but then I started to worry that it might have butter in it. OMG I want more NOWNOWNOW. Oh crap, I looked online. There is butter in it. Now I have to add another day to this experiment. Now I smell caramel in my apartment. I'm suffering from the "am I hungry or am I bored?" dilemma - especially because I'm watching a movie. I have no calories left for snacks. This is how I feel:

I went to Trader Joe's after work to pick up some stuff for this week (I realize that it's Thursday and didn't I just go shopping?). I have a few recipes I want to try from Vegetarian Times: vegan burgers and satay noodle salad (why does everything have to be called a salad?). I was really looking forward to making vegan burgers for dinner.

Well, all of the "soy cheese" at TJ's had casein in it. I was on my way home thinking "where the hell can I buy some Daiya?! Do I have to stop at Stop & Shop on my way home too?! What is a burger without cheese?!" when it hit me: I have to have a friggin' smoothie for dinner.

Nooooooooooooooo. Today was one of those days when all I can think about is dinner. I actually haven't had a day like that in a long time. I really, really, really wanted a cheeseburger.

Well, when I got home, I realized that my Ninja was in the dishwasher...no biggie, right? I opened the dishwasher and then realized that the stuff in the dishwasher was dirty and it wasn't even half full. Being lazy, I decided to run the dishwasher rather than wash the pitcher by hand, which I knew would take at least an hour (we're on, like, almost hour 2 now).

I decided to have a salad to hold me over before dinner. This wouldn't really count as dinner, since the smoothie is supposed to be a meal replacement. I put together 3 cups of baby arugula blend, a half cup of shredded red cabbage, a half cup of shredded carrots, a half cup of cooked whole wheat couscous (big mistake there at 110 calories), a quarter cup of pea shoots, 2 chopped green onions, 5 sliced Cherub (grape) tomatoes, and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (perfect ratio). I wolfed this down ravenously. Still hungry. I ate a vegan cookie. Still hungry. I preemptively logged in my smoothie (with no extra ingredients) and I have 101 calories left. I'm sitting here trying to watch a movie over the roar of the dishwasher, pondering what I can add to my smoothie to make it tolerable. I did stock up on 19 cent bananas at TJ's, but those have a lot of calories.

I'm also going to make a smoothie for breakfast tomorrow for three reasons: 1) Then I can actually enjoy my dinner tomorrow night, 2) I am proctoring the SAT on Saturday morning and I don't really want Friday night's dinner to "take effect" while I'm there, and 3) I have one midterm exam first thing tomorrow and there are 2 other teachers with me so if this happens, I should be safe:

Sorry for being gross.

Pink cup, pink robe, blue smoothie

Anyway, my smoothie is ready! I don't know if it's because I was super hungry or if it's just that good, but IT'S GOOD! Blueberries are clearly key. This time I mixed the protein, super greens, almond milk AND a teaspoon of imitation vanilla extract, a teaspoon of (real!) almond extract (another factor in this smoothie's awesomeness - I freakin' looooove almond), 3/4 cup of ice and a cup of frozen blueberries (hoping the ice would add extra volume). 

So this is where I am today:

Totals	1,161	200	21	52	1,398	50
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	39	-50	19	8	902	-5
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Not too shabby. I guess it's healthier than eating 750 calories. Well, I'd better go get ready for tomorrow...meaning I'd better get horizontal on the couch and finish this movie that's way too long for a school night.