Determined To Succeed

Hopefully, you guys are used to my cravings by now. You know I crave good movies and TV shows. My current TV craving is enjoying HBO’s new season of “True Blood.” As for food, you know I crave a good Milky Way bar or an ice-cold Coca-Cola every now and then (even though I have tried to seriously curtail both lately and am making some progress). But every year or so I get an extra weird food craving. Even though I am not pregnant (although that would be a medical miracle) I guess you could say it is my pickles and ice-cream. My craving yesterday was for a tomato juice.

I don’t know why that was, either. I think because I started that once-a-year craving on a plane a long time ago and saw lots of planes recently and the craving was activated. Maybe it was because there was a new episode of “True Blood” on last night and I wanted to join in? I don’t know. I know it sounds weird and it is. But, true to myself and true to my craving I had me a can of “True bl…”, er, I mean tomato juice.

Usually, I go for a can of V8. It has a few more spices and tastes better than regular ol’ tomato juice but I thought I heard once how bad V8 was in its sodium content so I went with a can of regular Mott’s Tomato Juice. Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Before I delved into the nutritional info (which I should have done before drinking the stuff) I tried it in my usual way – with ice. Turns out my taste buds have changed and I prefered it warm. Almost like drinking a can of totato soup. That plus a grilled cheese would have been perfect. Maybe I am turining into a vampire from Bon Temps. Anyway…

While I had a good portion of my daily need for carbs, vitamins A and C, in addition to calcium, iron and protein, one can of Mott’s Tomato Juice has – get this – a whopping 980 mg of sodium and 12 g of sugar! I kid you not. That’s horrible. So I looked up V8 100% vegetable juice and it was way better. One serving has only 8 g of sugar (not great but better than the Mott’s) and about 1/2 the sodium of the Mott’s (480 mg). V8 also has way more daily allotment of vitamin C (120% of your recommended daily helping).

Wow! What a huge difference that is, and a surprising one., Whodathunk a can of 100% tomato juice was worse for you. Well, consider me educated nmow and chalk it up to me taking one for the team, I guess. And now I also get why vampires don’t like to drink “True Blood” cold. It goes down smoother when it’s warm.

I don’t think I need to worry about this craving anymore, though. I should be done with my tomato/veggie jusice craving for at least a year now. That is, until next Sunday night when the vampires in Bon Temps come out to play.

If I get another craving for a warm red drink then you and I can officially start to worry. Although, my name is Bill…

Well, this is it. No, it’s neither the biopic released last year showing and detailing (at least in part) the planned series of fifty concerts by Michael Jackson to be held at The O2 arena in London, nor is it the 80s song by Kenny Loggins. It is, in fact, the day before the auditions for Oprah’s “win your OWN show” contest here in the good ol’ Garden State.

I am not really nervous at all about standing in front of a series of strangers telling them about my ideas for my own OWN show. I am, however, nervous and anxious about the actual process which begins for yours truly at around midnight tonight. That’s when I will be getting up and prepping to drive to the Kohl’s Store in Linden to try to secure my place in line since only the first 500 or so people are guaranteed to be seen by the casting directors for the show.

How does all this relate to weight loss you ask? Simple. Today and tomorrow are taking me out of my normal weight loss and maintenance routines just at the  time I have re-engaged my better exercise and eating routines to shed this last two or so pounds before June 9, the anniversary of my mom’s death. Also, not knowing exactly how this process will work I am not sure about food choices tomorrow.  I think I will be OK, though. I am going to pack drinks, healthy snacks and a sandwich in a cooler to bring with me (this way I am not tempted by the Dark Side of the food Force).

Since I have to be up at the crack of, well, er…since I have to get up in the dead of night (insert cheesy, spooky muah ah ah ah-kind of laugh here) I will not be writing a blog post for tomorrow, Saturday, morning. But you can bet your healthy fruit, egg and coffee breakfast on Sunday I will be telling you all about Bill’s Excellent Adventure including what I ate.

Speaking of which, I did really well yesterday, or at least I thought I did. I had a chicken salad sandwich from Chick-Fil-A yesterday. I usually go for their less than 300-calorie Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich (which only has approximately 3.5 grams of fat) but I wanted something different and, since it was hot outside, the coolness of chicken salad peaked my interest.

Sheesh! What a mistake I made! O.K. I know I’m not new and that chicken salad has mayo in it but I didn’t expect a healthy “looking” sandwich to have 500 CALORIES and 20 GRAMS OF FAT!!! Again, as Stewie Griffin from “Family Guy” would say, “What The Deuce?!” Here I thought I’d be having a light sandwich made with the chicken I think is actually seasoned with crack it’s so good and I ended up eating a sandwich that is worse (WORSE) than their own new (AND FRIED) Spicy Chicken Sandwich!

Let’s compare more apples to apples.

In addition to the 500 calories (180 of which are calories from fat) and 20 grams of fat (3.5 of which saturated), my chicken salad sandwich contained 4 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (!), 52 grams of carbs, 80 grams of cholesterol and 29 grams of protein.

Compare that to their new (and again FRIED) Spicy Chicken Sandwich which has 490 calories (180 of which are calories from fat – same as the chicken salad) and 20 grams of fat (4.0 of which saturated, only 0.5 more), contains 4 grams of fiber, 8 grams of sugar (4 grams less)), 46 grams of carbs (6 grams less), 60 grams of cholesterol (a whole 20 grams less) and 31 grams of protein (2 grams more than the chicken salad).

The only significant way I found my “healthier” chicken salad to win was in the sodium department. The chicken salad has 1240 mg of sodium while the new Spicy Chicken Sandwich has 1730 mg.

Now that I think about it, maybe I am new. Damn! What a difference. Here I thought I healthy-looking sandwich on toasted wheat bread would be better for me than a fried chicken sandwich. HA, I tell you! HA! And even though I only bought the sandwich can you imagine if I had their (delicious) Waffle Fries with that? Without a drink that’s close to 1,000 calories!

(Also, did I mention the chicken sald laid a little heavy in my tummy afterward?)

Damn! Maybe I am new after all. See what extra ingredients, processing and mayo do to ya? Well, consider me “edumacated” (and yes, I did purposely misspell that) and know I will be going back to my grilled chicken sandwich if and when I do eat there again.

In the meantime I will continue getting ready for what will hopefully be a “first step into a larger world,” as Obi-Wan Kenobi says in “Star Wars.” And while I am doing that and prepping for the Oprah thing I will be packin’ a 310-calorie cold Italian Hoagie from Wawa. Not only is it a helluva lot healthier (no mayo, build your own with fresh veggies, etc.) but I know it’s 310 calories before I even order it! Wawa has this cool “Meal Builder” way to calculate calories in your food before you get there! It’s awesome! I love Wawa!

Have a great start to your weekend, my friends and check back in on Sunday morning for all the juicy details of how one man (O.K. probably thousands) is trying to live his dream waiting in a long-ass line dragging his cooler along for the ride. If anything it also makes a great stool on which to sit.

It’s sad, indeed, when you wake up in the morning and the first thing you think about is what you’re going to have for dinner. I think that way sometimes, though. It’s not that I’m purposely starving myself or anything (not that I couldn’t stand to miss a meal, as they say) it’s just that I’m trying to be good and look forward to a healthier meal instead of the prospect of eating junk or ordering out.

When I saw the personal trainer the other day he promised he’d give me a list of suggested foods and meals for me to follow, and those combined with my exercise should help me lose weight. Since I’ll try anything once I said “O.K. lay it on me.” So yesterday I opened up my e-mail and there it was – a list of days with each day broken up into meals and what to have for each meal.

As I was looking over this list there wasn’t anything particularly peculiar about it. You know what I mean. The kind of peculiar that jumps up at ya’ and sends up a red flag and make you go “oh, c’mon! I’m not blending half an orange with grass from my front lawn with a dab of crushed red pepper for a ‘meal’ that’s supposed to fill me for the week.” Ok, maybe there was one thing – something called Metrix (a protein shake kind of thing) which I am replacing with yogurt. Other than that this list contained a good blend of carbs, fats and proteins broken down into meals and snacks that seemed to make sense. So I threw on my clothes and went shopping.

Don’t get me wrong. I have always eaten what I want, do eat what I want and will always eat what I want on my weight loss journey, but if I was going to try this personal trainer exercise routine I had to try his prescribed meal plan, too. So below, here is the plan I will be following (with a grain of salt, of course, and all puns intended) today:

Meal 1 Kashi Cereal or Special K (my preference is the Kashi “Warm Cinnamon” kind – very tasty)

Meal 2 Fruit (I bought strawberries, bananas, seedless oranges and clementines)

Meal 3 Chicken 6 oz., 1 cup rice, 3 cups broccoli

Meal 4 Metrix – Protein Shake (screw that. I’m having yogurt)

Meal 5 Chicken Cesar Salad, Sugar Free Jello with Cool Whip

So there it is. What Bill Ivory Larson is going to eat today. That, combined with my workout, should make me what John Candy was in “Stripes…” a lean, mean, fighting machine.” Well, theoretically, that is. Also, last night I made my lemon chicken recipe again and it was darn tasty. I added in some green pepper and fresh garlic this time for a little different flavor and made three portions so I could have one today for lunch and have another for dinner on the salad (or by itself).

Tomorrow I see the trainer, Jorge, for a second time for what he says will be a workout designed to work different muscles than we did the other day. While I am not in too much pain I certainly still feel Tuesday in my abs and shoulders. I will get to tell him I followed his meal plan and he’s supposed to explain to me other meal/food options, too (which of course I will share with you and hopefully new visitors through Technorati – 95FDGWY5MY9P).

So, I am ready to start my day. I’ve got my cup of Kashi Cereal in hand (which really is very good. I’m not blowing smoke about that) and am ready to learn some new eating tricks today. Hopefully it will help. These last remaining twelve pounds are really starting to annoy the crap out of me.