It's been almost 6 months since I started my diet, and I'm happy to say: it is working!! I've lost 10% of my starting weight, and my weight loss has been a bit slow but extremely steady. That plateau I thought I'd hit in my first post? When I went back and looked at it in a 3-month context, it was clearly never a plateau at all. Since then, whenever I think I'm hitting a wall, I make a point not to make any changes to my diet or exercise for a whole month. Almost every time, the daily/weekly weigh ins were misleading and my month to month trend is still great. I did truly stall last month, after I got a bit lazy and tried to eat intuitively instead of counting calories. But I still waited about a month just to see what would happen, and I'm glad that I did. Now I know both that I'm able to basically maintain my weight by intuition alone (which is a great sign!) but I'm also confident that the cuts I'm making are truly necessary and making a clear difference.
Anyway, like I said before my main diet is built around having a 300 calorie breakfast and two 500 calorie meals, giving me some wiggle room for my little treats. In reality, I'm actually not often hungry for 3 full meals, so most days I tend to skip either breakfast or lunch, which gives me more allowance for the ✨ treats ✨
But, going back to my 3 big goals:
- I don't want to feel hungry
- I want to continue to enjoy eating
- I don't want to plan my life around it
So somedays I do need all 3 meals, and I just snack a bit less to compensate. It just depends on where my body's at that day!
Monday
1,657 Total Calories
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sweetgreen is one of my go to takeout spots for obvious reason. I pretty much always get the Chicken Pesto Parm because I like how it tastes, it leaves me feeling full, and it's one of the lowest calorie salads on the menu at 530 calories. No need to fix it if it's not broken!
The chicken dinner was an experiment, and I wasn't super happy with how it turned out. I was imagining the chicken recipe would be about 600 calories, but it came out a little over 800 calories in practice. I couldn't figure out how to lower the calories without making it just a really sad meal, so I decided to go a bit over my calories for the day. And I was still hungry afterwards! It tasted good, but not good enough to justify 800 calories that don't even fill me up.
We tried this new boba place this week and went back twice 
They don't have calories listed on the menu, but I guesstimated based on this article, which says about 600 calories for a large 50% sweet milk tea with boba. Okay, that's a lot of calories for one day, but boba makes me super happy so it's worth it for me to budget it in. I really don't need the large, but most boba shops these days (including this one) don't offer a small size. So instead I am working on my willpower and saving the other half for later. Honestly with my diet changes, I can't really drink a full large size without feeling sick anymore anyways, so it's for the best c': All in all, 300 calories and totally worth it.
They don't have calories listed on the menu, but I guesstimated based on this article, which says about 600 calories for a large 50% sweet milk tea with boba. Okay, that's a lot of calories for one day, but boba makes me super happy so it's worth it for me to budget it in. I really don't need the large, but most boba shops these days (including this one) don't offer a small size. So instead I am working on my willpower and saving the other half for later. Honestly with my diet changes, I can't really drink a full large size without feeling sick anymore anyways, so it's for the best c': All in all, 300 calories and totally worth it.Tuesday
1,512 Total Calories
This is my holy grail diet recipe. It's 4 ingredients, takes 5 minutes to make, 500 calories and I feel super full after eating it. I admittedly ate it a bit too much when I first discovered it and kind of burnt myself out on it. But it's still my go-to when I need to eat lunch but don't have much time to eat. It's literally just frozen cauliflower and meatballs, heated in the microwave with some spaghetti sauce and cheese.
After running errands with my mom we had some tea and fruit as a snack. I had earl grey tea with a little milk and about a tbsp of lemon syrup that my mom made from her lemon tree. 200 calories and exactly what I needed!
I went out for sushi with my parents that day, and we got a big feast. I didn't weigh anything or count calories strictly, I just guesstimated what I had on my plate. I'm guessing about 800 calories-ish. I wouldn't be able to drink any boba if I ate this every day, but totally worth it as today's little treat
Wednesday
1,434 Total Calories
I was craving breakfast food (though I think I ate it closer to lunch time LOL) so I had my go-to oatmeal breakfast. One of the only foods I had to cut out entirely when I started dieting was breakfast cereal. I would eat a huge bowl of sugary cereal, probably close to 700 calories for the bowl, and I never felt satisfied eating smaller portions. So instead I basically just eat oatmeal which I find to be much more filling and easier to fit in lower calories. I don't do anything to it to make it healthy, I don't do steel cut oats and I even add sugar so it hits that sweet breakfast food spot that cereal did, just for way less calories. 1/2 cup of dry oats with a banana and a dash of maple syrup for flavor comes out to 350 calories, huge improvement on my old breakfast habits 
Rating: ⭐⭐
I had a tiny amount of rice and crab salad leftover from sushi night. I couldn't figure out how to make it into a whole meal, so I just ate it cold for my afternoon snack. For such a small portion it actually did basically tide me over for dinner time! It was such a small portion I'm guessing only 120 calories or so.
Whatever I was trying to cook tonight didn't pan out, so I made a box of easy mac instead Honestly it tasted good (and my bf's green beans were amaaaaazinggggg) but at 900 calories, the calories were a bit high for a throwaway home cooked meal, and I'm docking a point for all the time I wasted cooking the original, inedible thing LOL
Honestly it tasted good (and my bf's green beans were amaaaaazinggggg) but at 900 calories, the calories were a bit high for a throwaway home cooked meal, and I'm docking a point for all the time I wasted cooking the original, inedible thing LOLThursday
1,785 Total Calories
My boyfriend cooks an amazing beef stew, but it's definitely a high calorie food. I balance it out by mixing it with a bunch of frozen cauliflower. 550 calories for a hearty and satisfying lunch. It wasn't quite as filling for the calories as some of my go to meals, but definitely worth it as a once in a while treat!
I got a little hungry after lunch so I had about a cup of cucumber (such low calorie, it's not really worth tracking) which was way more satisfying than I expected it to and really worked to curb my hunger! However.... my boyfriend then announced that he wanted boba. I ran into some frustrating traffic on the way there, and then got frustrated by my broken A/C because it was super hot that day. Long story short, my willpower failed and I drank the entire 600 calorie cup 
This is the only part of the week that I felt a little bit disappointed by, especially because it meant no boba the next day!! But I know in the long run 1 extra boba in a week that otherwise went pretty well, won't make one speck of difference.
This is the only part of the week that I felt a little bit disappointed by, especially because it meant no boba the next day!! But I know in the long run 1 extra boba in a week that otherwise went pretty well, won't make one speck of difference.
For dinner I made some spaghetti and meat sauce. Pasta is another thing I almost had to cut out entirely just because it's so hard for me to portion control. But when loaded up with otherwise lower calorie, protein-heavy sauce I'm able to eat one serving (1/2 cup dry) and still feel full and happy about it. The meat sauce is SUPER easy to make - I just cook some ground beef on the stove and then add frozen veggies and a jar of store bought pasta sauce. It's a little over 1,000 calories in total, and about 3 servings. With the pasta dinner was only 617 calories and super satisfying. Just make sure you check the pasta sauce and pick a lower calorie option. I find Barilla is super sugary but we got Classico brand this time and it was way more reasonable.
Friday
1,341 Total Calories
Since we had leftover meat sauce I had it over broccoli florets for lunch. I steamed the broccoli in the microwave so there was no cooking involved. Without the pasta it was about 450 calories. Having it with pasta is worth it for a once in a while treat, but it's honestly still really good and maybe even a little more filling over veggies rather than pasta.
We got takeout from Panda Express that night, which sounds like a horrible place for a diet, but they've actually got a pretty great 550 calorie meal! I order their Super Greens for my side (the larger portion on the plate) and then pick grilled teriyaki chicken and white rice as my 2 main dishes. So my plate ends up being 1/2 veggies, 1/4 rice, and 1/4 protein. Ok it's panda so it's not the BEST thing in the world, but it's great for a super lazy night in or if I'm out and about and need to eat something immediately.
I was a little hungry and craving sweets after dinner, so I used my remaining calories on a mug of hot chocolate and a chocolate covered marshmallow (a gift from Switzerland!). About 350 calories of pure pre-meditated worth it.
Saturday
1,115 Total Calories
Oatmeal for brunch again, I forgot to add syrup this time but the bananas were so overripe that I didn't even notice the difference! 300 calories
I tried these chocolate flavored rice cakes for low calorie snack options. They're only 60 calories, so they seemed promising! In reality they're just okay, but they're not sweet enough to scratch my dessert itch, and they also don't really tide me over if I need a snack. Would I buy them again? I give it a solid maybe.
Even though it looks disgusting, y'all gotta trust me that this burrito bowl is delicious. I used cubed chicken cutlet here, but I also use canned chicken sometimes just depending on how much cooking I feel like doing. Season with oregano, garlic powder, turmeric, paprika, salt, and pepper, add some frozen veggies (I used the fajita veggies from costco!), a can of beans, and some Oaxaca cheese, and heat on the stove until it all melts together. Then serve it on lettuce. 570 calories, super filling and super easy to make.
My boyfriend also made some Cheddar Bay Biscuits so I decided to live a little and have one as a little treat for (I think??) 188 calories. I really couldn't tell from the box if those calories included the cheese, butter, etc. But tbh as a one time treat I could not be bothered to figure it out 
Sunday
1,460 Total Calories
Rating: ⭐
Since I enjoyed the crab salad and rice at the sushi restaurant, I started the day trying to make my own version! Unfortunately.... the first attempt went DISASTROUSLY. I uh.... thought I could just use normal mayo instead of kewpie mayo. It was absolutely disgusting. Out of sheer despair and desperation I grabbed one of those rice cakes, and then had an applesauce pouch to tide me over while I thought about what to actually make for lunch. 120 calories
After collecting myself more, I ended up going out and getting the kewpie, and I also picked up some fruit tea from a boba place because I suddenly had to use their bathroom while I was out and felt I had to buy something at that point.... sob I did end up drinking the whole thing, but since I ordered it with no milk and no boba (other than just chunks of fruit that came in it) I'm guessing it was only 200-300 calories, so no big deal. After getting home I took my second attempt at the crab salad, and it went.... okay? this time? The imitation crab I bought was a bit too mushy to be able to shred easy, so the texture was a bit off. I also think the edamame detracted from the bowl too, I made it again today with no edamame and it honestly tasted way better. Anyway with the beans it ended up being about 550 calories.
For dinner, I just had a repeat of my burrito bowl with leftovers from the night before, 570 calories again
---
The only thing on top of this I don't track, after dinner if I'm still craving sweets I'll let myself have one spoon of ice cream. I put the carton away before I eat it, and put the spoon directly into the dishwasher, to avoid temptation. It sounds kind of insane, but if it's good quality, really flavorful icecream, I don't feel like I actually get any more joy out of a whole bowl vs just one bite. As long as everything is put away as soon as I eat the bite, I really feel satisfied and don't feel the need for more. So, as long as I'm honest with my one bite rule, I don't feel a need to track those extra 50 calories or whatever it comes out to be. I didn't track it but I probably had maybe 3 or 4 bites of ice cream during last week lol
I hope this is a good illustration of what a 10k calorie week can look like. I'm really happy with my current diet and the fact that I'm able to feel full, indulge a little, and still lose a little weight each month. So, if you recently gained weight after being skinny all your life like me, maybe these diet tips can help you too!
kk bye~
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