Right On Track

So yesterday was fun, but I can never eat again. I officially have a new favorite restaurant! Ah man that place was awesome. I said cheesecake wasn't really my weakness......but now I think Snickers Cheesecake might be!

Anyways, back to the important stuff....here's what was on yesterday's menu:

Breakfast:

2 Egg McMuffins

- light English Muffin X2- 200

- 1/2 cup Egg Beaters- 60

- 1 slice fat free cheese, halved- 30

- 1 tblsp. sugar free jelly- 10

1 cup 1% milk- 100

Total- 400

Took To Work:

Blackened Catfish, 6 oz- 260

Broccoli- 45

Turkey Summer Sausage, 2 oz.- 90

Sauerkraut, 3 tblsp.- 15

Sandwhich (Bread, mustard, meat)- 105

2 jello cups- 20

1 wedge light laughing cow cheese- 35

5 ritz crackers- 70

Total- 640

Dinner-

Turkey Burger

- Meat pattie- 170

- Bread- 80

-1 slice fat free cheese- 30

- 1 tbls light mayo- 25

Salad

- Lettuce/Spinach mix- 2

- 2 tsps. Black Olives- 13

- 1 tblsp. Bacon Bits- 25

- 2 tblsp light Italian- 35

1/2 cup Applesauce- 50

Total- 430

Snack-

1 sugar free Jello Cup- 10

Yesterday's Grand Total= 1480

Yeah! Under 1500! After dinner we all got in the pool for about an hour. So we also got some good excercise.

Robyn gave me an awesome receipe to cook squash. I took a picture of it because it looks like something that dad WOULD NOT be allowed to eat! Jacob loved it, and dad did too! So he got to take a bunch of this to work today. Here it is......

Before I go

Well, I'm about to get ready to go have lunch with family, then we'll probably hit the mall or something. So I'll post today so far and the weigh in results now.

Breakfast-
2 Egg McMuffin Sandwhiches - 300
1 cup milk- 100

And as for weight, this morning it was at 303! That's 8 pounds down from last week, 18 pounds total! GREAT JOB DAD!

As for me, I'm down about 8 pounds total myself.....but I think it's more like a "side effect", because I'm not really counting my calories. But if I'm eating the same thing he is I'm getting low calories too.
Except for today that is.....my Aunt that I don't see hardly at all just called and we're going to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I've never eaten there and I didn't know they served actual FOOD, heck I thought it was just cheesecake! Thank goodness cheesecake isn't exactly my weekness.....now if it had been the Chocolate Factory, or the Possum Pie factory.....I'd be in TROUBLE!

So wish me luck!

OK, let's try this again.

Well, I'm not going to write down everything I did last night, but instead just a brief overview of yesterday. The total calorie count yesterday was 1508. We had said that we were going to back it down to 1500, and I think that's pretty darn close! Given if I have to "guesstimate" something, I always round UP. Dad walked about 1/2 mile too. Not very much, but way better than nothing!

So for today.......
Dad have to have bloodwork done this morning so he couldn't eat before he left. But he stopped by on his way back through to work and I made him an omlette and a bagel.

Omlette-
1/2 Cup Egg Beaters- 6o
Tomatos/Onions/Mushrooms- 15
1/4 cup weight watchers cheese- 60

Alternative Bagel- 110
1 tbls Light Cream Cheese- 20

1 cup 1% milk- 100

Breakfast Total- 365

Lunch-
Fajita (can you tell he really likes these??)
Tortilla- 100
Chicken- 115
1 tbls Pico De Gallo- 5
Jalapenos- 5
1 tbls taco sauce- 5

1 sugar free jello cup- 10

lunch total- 240 For some reason it seems like he had more than this, but my notebook is in the living room. I'll double check when I go back in there.


Dinner-
1 cup Sauerkraut- 40
6 ounces turkey summer sausage-270
2 slices low cal bread-80
1/2 cup Broccoli- 22
total- 412


2 40 calorie fudgesicles- 80
Today's GRAND TOTAL= 1,097 !

And tomorrow's weigh in day. Dad said again tonight that he can really tell a difference in his clothes, especially his belt.
I bought a book tonight called "Eat this, Not that". It is SOOO awesome! I'm definitly taking it with us when we leave for LA on Saturday. Now eating out won't be so complicated!

So, until next time................

Monday Monday Monday

Ok dammit. I wrote a really long post and it was good and at the VERY end I hit something and it all went away. It's not in my "saved" drafts.....it's just gone. And now I don't feel like writing it all again. Maybe I'll feel like it tomorrow.

Busy Busy Busy

So I know I haven't posted in a few days, but we've actually been pretty busy. Dad's kept his calories low and is dong great! We've been out to eat a couple times in the last couple of days, but he's managed to make great choices. (with a little of my help of course!) So I'm just going to log yesterday's menu. But the calorie counts have been as follows:

Thursday- 1,388

Friday- 1, 418

Saturday- 898

So yesterday's menu consisted of this:

Breakfast-

Omlette

1/2 cup egg beaters 60

1/2 tomato 18

2 teaspoons jalapenos 12

1 tbls. chopped onion 5

Alternative English Muffin 100

Spray margarine 0

2 tsp sugar free jelly 10

=205

Lunch-

Deli Turkey Sandwhich

Approx 3 ounces 75

Lettuce 1

Tomato 5

Focaccia 110?? Calorie-count.com says that 1 bread is 110 calories. But I'm not too sure what 1 bread consists of. Is it a roll? A slice? So I think I'm going to round up to 200 just to be SAFE.

Focaccia- 200

1 light and fit yogurt cup 60

= 341

Afternoon Snack

Shrimp Salad- Had nothing on it except for shrimp and lettuce. I guesstimated about 4 oz shrimp.

Shrimp 40

Lettuce 2

= 42

Dinner (Uh OH! We went to Cracker Barrell! But it's ok he did GREAT!)

Grilled Catfish, about 6 ounces- 260

Turnip Greens, not too sure how much it was, but one cup is 57....and it definatly was NOT a whole cup, but we'll say 50 to be safe.

And that's it, that's all he ate!

=310

GRAND TOTAL- 898. Wow. That's a lot of food for 898 calories! Given, we were trying to be a little conservative since I didn't know exact counts, but once I came home and looked everything up this is what it came to!

I'll go ahead and write about today while I'm on here.

When I got up this morning I couldn't find my dad. I thought he went across the street to my brother's house, so I called, no answer. Then I just figured he ran to the store or something. When I got up to make my son breakfast I saw him out back swimming! He also walked on the treadmill for 20 mintues. When he came in I made him breakfast consisting of the following.

Breakfast-

1/2 cup scrambled eggs (egg beaters of course) 60

1 package of light oatmeal 110

1 piece of low cal toast 40

2 tsp sugar free jelly 5

=215

Mid Morning Snack

1 cup of Pinapple 78

So, we're 293 and it's 12:30. I plan on Turkey Burgers for lunch and I haven't even thought about dinner yet. I'm sure it won't be much because he hasn't even been hungry! He did tell me this morning though that he got on and off the scale several times (because he doesn't really trust our scale because it always says something different) but everytime he got on it it never went over 300! But given I do KNOW the scale is 5 pounds light. So we have to add 5 to whatever it says. But WOW! That's still great. I told him to quit doing that though because I don't want to know (and I don't want him to know) what the results are mid-week. I want it to be a bigger surprise by weighing once a week.

He said he has definatly noticed a difference in his clothes. For example he's wearing a shirt today that he said he couldn't fit into last month. So all is going just absolutely wonderful! I'm still excited to see what Wednesday's weigh in will be, I'll be sure to let you know! Have a great day!

Here's where we ate at Friday Night. The Rainforest Cafe. Dad had an AWESOME salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing.

10 lbs Less Joe

So today has been a week since I've been here. Although, I actually didn't get to get him on this diet 100% until friday.....he weighed in today at 311, 10 lbs less than starting weight. Of course we knew the first 10 would just fall off, but it still a great start! I'm really excited to see what the results will be at when I leave.

So, now for yesterday's menu:

Breakfast:
1 cup Life cereal 160
3/4 c Milk 75
Cinnamon Bagle 110
1 tbls light cream chz 30
Low Cal Oatmeal Raisin Granola Bar 90

TOTAL- 465


Took to work:
Leftover Fajitia 264
salad (all the fixins) 120
Chicken meat with Toms, taco sauce, jalapenos- 155
2 sugar free jello cups- 20
Lg Italian Dressing (3 tbls) 52

TOTAL- 611


Dinner -
Grilled Ham and Cheese and Tomato Soup (Dad's favorite!)

2 slices low cal wheat bread- 80
1 slice fat free cheese- 50
1 oz deli shaved ham- 25
He had 2 sandwhiches so times that by 2= 310
(Oh yeah, and I used spray margarine for the butter on the bread)

1/2 can Tomato soup (approx 1 1/8 cup)- 112
10 saltine crackers- 120

TOTAL= 542

Then we walked (very briskly might I add) around the neighborhood for about 30 minutes. We came home and I was pooped! But he jumped on the treadmill for about another 1o minutes, then got in the pool and swam for about 20! After all that exercise, he came in and ate 2 sugar free fudgesicles, 40 calories each.

SNACK- 80 calories.


So, today's GRAND TOTAL is= 1,698 !! With 2 ta spare..........

Another Great Day

So yesterday was another great day! It has to be.....weigh in is tomorrow. We didn't get much exercise, but then again Dad didn't get home from work until 9:30. He said he'd be home "early" tonight, around 6:30. He went in at 6AM! He works too much, that's not good for his heart either, but he doesn't listen. Anyways, here's a breakdown of yesterday's food.

Breakfast:
Cinnamon Spice Bagle 110
1 tbls light Cream Cheese 30
2 cups 1% Milk 200
Large Banana 200

TOTAL= 540

Took to Work with Him:
Sandwhich-
Low Cal Wheat Bread 80
Deli Chicken Meat 50
Mustard 0
1 Slice Fat Free Chz 50
Med Tomato 35
1 1/2 cups Broccoli 30
1 cup Progresso Veg Nood 60
2 Sugar Free Jello cups 20
10 Ranch mini rice cakes 70

TOTAL= 430

Dinner:
Fajita
3 oz cooked Chicken 140
1 Tomato basil tortilla 100
1/2 Tomato 18
2 tbls Jalapenos 10
Onion 10
Taco Sauce 10
1/2 Cup Mixed Veggies 17

TOTAL= 305


GRAND TOTAL FOR TODAY= 1375
Way to go Joe! AKA Daddy-O

So I'm pretty excited about weigh in day tomorrow. I'm also really curious what it's going to come in at. I'll get back on here 1st thing in the morning to let you know! Thanks for reading, have a great day!

Now I'm having to MAKE him eat!

So today was another great day! Except I had to make him eat some things so he could get ENOUGH calories. We both got some swimming in and I played a little Wii. Here's a recap of foods for today-

Breakfast-

1/2 cup egg beaters-60 calories

1/4 tomato- 9 calories

2 slices low cal wheat- 80 calories

1 tbls. light cream cheese- 30 calories

about 1/4 cup chopped onions- 16 calories

1 cup 1% Milk- 100 calories

= 295 calories

Lunch-

Healthy Choice meal- 240 calories

Sandwhich- bread 80, 5 slices deli chicken 50, 1 lettuce leaf 1, tomato 5

Carrots- 35 calories

1 Pickle- 0 calories

= 411 calories

Afternoon Snack-

1/2 cup Asparagus w/olive oil and Mrs Dash- 40 calories

1/2 cup Broccoli- 10 calories

=50 calories

**So we went a little low on the calories throughout the day because we knew he was going to a dinner meeting this evening for work. But he's only had 756 calories at this point, so he had just under 1000 to spare. We knew what they were serving, and thanks to Robyn, he was granted permission to eat it all. None of it was HORRIBLY bad. So this is what we thought was on the menu: Salmon, Mashed Potatoes, and Asparagus.

Turns out it was Salmon, Au Gratin Potatoes, and Green Beans.

Well he didn't eat the potatoes because he thought they would have too many calories. And he didn't eat much of the green beans because they were the hard kind and he really didn't like them anyways. But he did eat all the salmon, which we guesstimated was about 6 ounces. I told him before he went he could eat ONE piece of bread....not four, but he didn't even eat that!

6 oz Salmon- 240 calories

So that put his calorie count at 996 for the whole day. I had to BEG him to eat a 40 calorie fudgecicle when he got home! Ultimatly he did, but that was all I could get him to eat. He just kept saying he wasn't at all hungry. So I made his breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, that stands at about 921 calories if he eats it all, but we'll see. Then he still has 779 calories for dinner, but I'm sure he won't use them all. But that's ok, at least I'll feel a little better about him getting enough calories tomorrow.

Check back to see if we did it! Have a great day!

Oh yeah....today's GRAND TOTAL- 1,036 calories

I definitely recomend these! And I thank Robyn for

recommending them to me!

Day Accomplished

So, it's bedtime and we did EXCELLENT today! Since the last post earlier today, dad had a small snack at the mall and we came home and I made the fajitas. The snack only consisted of a side (or probably about a cup) of mixed vegetables-broccoli, carrots, celery, and mushrooms from a to-go chinesse place in the food court. I counted that as about 100 calories, even though it probably wasn't even that much, but I just wanted to be safe. Now for the fajita count:

2 tomato-basil tortilla shells (the burrito sized ones for that matter!)-200 calories

1/2 Tomato- 18

Onions, this is just a guesstimate- 15 (a whole onion is 64 and I didn't even use 1/4 of it, so that sounds about right)

1 tsp olive oil-30

1 tsp fajita seasoning-10

Chicken-200 (without a scale yet it was hard to count this one, but the whole package was 500, and he proabably had about 1/3 of it, so again, rounding up a little.....just to be safe)

5 tbls. taco sauce-50

Dinner=523

So, today's total-

Breakfast 333

Lunch 285

Snack 100

Dinner 523

For a GRAND TOTAL of: 1,241 calories!!

YEAH! I'm so proud........

............oh yeah, did I also mention that he walked a little over a mile today without stopping? Pretty good for someone who hasn't been exercising like they should!

Now kind of off the subject, but here's two cute pictures I took today, one of my baby on Grandpa's lap, and the other of my dad's newest pets...sugar gliders. I must say, they're pretty darn cute!

Today so far.....

I wanted to type up everything he's had so far today because I have it all written down like chicken scratch on a small piece of paper. I need to blog it now so I don't forget what it all means! So here it is, so far so good.

Breakfast:
Omlette that consisted of-
1 Cup Egg Beaters Eggs- 120 (which actually turned out to be too much, 3/4 would have done just fine)
1/2 Tomato- 18
2 Tbls. Jalepenos- 10
2-3 Tbls. of chopped Onions- approx-15
1/8 Cup of grated cheese- 60
He also had 2 Slices of Low Cal Wheat Bread- 80
with 1/2 tbl. of Light Cream Cheese on each- 30

I know the cheese is usually a big no no, but since the whole breakfast was so low cal I asked him if he wanted a pinch of it. And trust me, a pinch is all he got!

So the breakfast total was 333 calories GO DADDY-O!!



Lunch was great too. He had a sandwhich, soup, left over aspargus, and 2 pickles. Sounds like a lot of food huh? Well it is! But very low calorie, here's the count.

Sandwhich-
2 slices low cal wheat bread-80
4 slices deli shaved chicken-40
1 slice fat free/low cal cheese-50

1 1/2 cups of Progresso Light Vegetable Barley- 90
And I guesstimated that the left over asparagus with the olive oil was about 25 calories, since it was a little less than 1/4 cup, and I also gave a couple pieces of it to Jake.
2 pickles- 0 calories! Free food! Yeah!

TOTAL-285

So right now, at 1:45 PM we are at 618 calories! 1082 calories to go! That's a lot of food. But we probably won't eat all those today, which is ok of course. The less the better right? I just don't want him to feel like he's starving and give up on it. So, I'll post the dinner and snacks sometime tonight hopefully.

Finally, off to a good start

So, yesterday turned out to be really good! I'm so glad he's co-operating! He ate everything I sent to work with him and he swears nothing else. That was 1160 calories. So for dinner, we had: Soup, Salad, and Asparagus. He said, "I get to eat all this?!".....because let me tell ya, it was a lot of food! And it was only 368 calories! So here's the breakdown:

The salad consisted of:
5 Leaves of lettuce-5 calories
1/2 medium tomato- 18 calories
2 tbls of chopped olives- 25 calories
1 hard boiled egg- 70 calories (he wanted an egg instead of chicken or shrimp, so I said "why not?")
TOTAL- 118

The Soup:
Progresso Light Southwesten Style Vegetable- 60 calories per cup
He had 2 cups- 120 calories

Asparagus:
The asparagus itself only had 40 calories per 1/4 cup, but I seasoned it after it was cooked with 2 teaspoons of olive oil (60 calories) and some Mrs. Dash. He actually only ate about 1/3 of what I cooked, so he would only have gotten 20 calories from the olive oil.
TOTAL- 60 calories

The Dressing:
Zesty Italian Light- 35 calories per 2 tablespoons
Since he was having such a big salad I gave him 4 tablespoons of it- 70
So, the GRAND TOTAL FOR DINNER WAS- 368 calories! 172 calories under his 1700/day goal!
WHOLE DAY TOTAL- 1528
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, our power went off last night at about 6:30 until about 10, so when it went off we all just went outside and got in the pool until it was too dark to see. So dad got a little exercise yesterday as well. I made myself swim as many laps as I could at once until I had to take a break, then after I was rested I'd do it again. My arms are really sore today. I also played boxing on the Wii so that may have something to do with it as well.....that game is HARD! And it smooth WORE ME OUT!

Well, today is looking GREAT so far! I'll post the end results of today's intake before I go to bed tonight. Have a great day!

Day one didn't actually turn out to be day one.

But hopefully tomorrow will. My dad left without eating the breakfast I made, then didn't make it home for dinner. But he did give me a list of what all he had to eat today and I've tried my hardest to find the correct calorie counts. Here it is:

Breakfast: Plain bagel with approx. 2 tbls cream cheese. 295 Calories
Lunch: Some kind of Chicken wrap on a spinach tortilla. He didn't know exactly what was in it but we guessed about 3 ounces of chicken, lettuce, salsa, and some kind of creamy/spicy white sauce. So I counted it as ranch, since it probably wouldn't be more calories than that would be! We guessed about 575 calories in that wrap.....I hope it was good!
Snack: a "handful" of pistachios. He guesses about 1/2 a cup. Those things are SOOO bad. 400 Calories
Dinner: Cracker Barrel. This is where I don't know the calorie count, but he had grilled catfish, corn, green beans, fried okra, and cornbread. Anyone know of a website that has the calorie content of restaurant meals? I'm guessing it's a lot of calories considering all the butter and bacon they cook their food in. If I HAD to guess, I'd say at least 1500 calories, probably closer to 2000.
If that's the case, then he had 2970 calories today. That's why he needs me!

So, he didn't exactly co-operate on the eating habits today. Although, we did get in the pool for a while and I had him swim a couple of "laps". Given, it's a small pool, but it's better than nothing at all. I swam a few myself. I swam enough that I could tell I had my heartrate up, and it was a little uncomfortable, but I kept on. Then when we came in we played tennis on the Wii. If you've ever done that....then you know that those games give you a workout! We played 5 games of that.

Here's the pool we swim in.



So, hopefully tomorrow will be better. Here's what's on the menu for everything except dinner.

Breakfast: 1 1/2 cups of Raisin Bran Crunch(285), 1 cup 2% milk(130)- 415 calories
Snack:Carrots(35), Broccoli(20), 2 tbls. Ranch for dipping(110)- 165 calories
Lunch: Healthy Choice Beef Merlot Steamer (220), sugar free pudding cup (60), 10 ranch flavored rice cakes(70)- 350 calories
Snack: 3 oz chicken with 2 tbls italian dressing- 230 calories

So all of that equals 1160 calories. That leaves 540 calories for dinner to stay under 1700. I think we can do it! I'll post tomorrow to see if we did!

I forgot to explain what was in the pictures.......
In the top pic is stuff from the fridge, Mayo, jelly, slim fast (which he tends to drink WITH his meals) and lots of different cheeses.
The bottom two pictures are snack foods that were in his drawers, oreos, chips, cookies, gummie bears, rice crispie treats, and other stuff. Definatly NOT what you would expect to find in the kitchen of a diabetic. And this isn't all I got rid of, just a few of the drawers.

Getting Started

This is me, my dad, and my son, Easter of this year.

Hi everyone, my name is Jeania. I am actually doing this for my father in hopes that you guys can give me support, motivation, and ideas. My dad is in serious need of losing some major weight. He had a quad bypass in Feb. of 2007, 2 heart attacks in Dec of 2007, and a diffibulator placed in his chest at the beginning of the year. My dad is currently 6'5", 321 lbs. He lives alone in Phoenix, AZ. I am out here for a month to visit and hope I can help him lose a few pounds. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to lose a few pounds myself.

So, to start, dad's BMI is at 38.1%!! That is WAY TOO HIGH. Especially for someone who's had so much heart trouble. Oh, and did I mention that he is also diabetic with high blood pressure?

And just to keep record, my BMI is coming in at 25.4%. Normal is 18.4-24.9. So I'm a little overweight.

When I got here last night we went to the grocery store and I bought a lot of low calorie foods. When I got up this morning, I cleaned out his fridge and cabinets. Here's a couple of pictures of what WAS here.

So now all this is gone. And for dinner I'm planning on making some baked or boiled chicken with a bunch of veggies. (He loves veggies but just never cooks for himself) I think we're going to start out by cutting his calories down to 1700 a day. Which I'm sure is down from like, 4-5000. My dad is not at all picky, and that's part of the problem. He'll eat pretty much whatever you put in front of him. He works a lot, usually from about 6 or 7 in the morning until 7 or 8 at night. And they always cater and pot luck. So I'm trusting him to tell me everything he eats, which he said he would because he knows he needs to lose weight. I'll be packing his foods for the day and he can keep them in his fridge. I hope this goes well, I'm really worried about his health.

Well, I guess that's all to get started. Any and all comments and critisisim are welcomed. I'll try to keep this updated daily!