HOLIDAYS ARE BAD FOR DIETING

The holidays are terrible for diets. Absolutely dreadful. How, pray tell, am I supposed to adhere to my caloric restrictions when there is turkey, amazing stuffing, smashed potatoes, and pecan pie? Tell me!

Pecan pie. My love. My heart. The perfect dessert. My favorite pie. One I have not had in a year and one of the main reasons why I decided not to count calories for two days. I make an incredible pecan pie, if I do say so myself.

For thanksgiving, I was thankful for not counting calories so I could enjoy the amazing food. Then I had leftovers for several days, thus increasing my food consumption. Somehow, that continued after the leftovers were gone too.

Yesterday, I splurged and had a Frappuccino from Starbucks. I cannot recall the last time I had one and it was quite delicious. They screwed up my order, but I still enjoyed it.

Alas, my weight increased several pounds after thanksgiving, as expected. I definitely won’t reach my goal by new year, but it shouldn’t be too terribly long afterward.

I started off really well on the day after thanksgiving, with a slice of toast and tzatziki for breakfast. Then i had leftovers for lunch and again for dinner. That sealed my fate.

I was quite exciting about my weight on thanksgiving day, however: 177.6 pounds. 1776. AMERICA.

The year of the United States’ independence.

I thought it was neat. I’d love to say I planned that, which would have been nearly impossible. It would have been more impressive if that was my weight on the 4th of July, but I was still obese back then and I’m hoping to weigh less next July.

I’m still trying to get back on track with my diet. It’s been difficult lately because I’m not home as often as I was.

When I woke today, I was 178.0 pounds (80.74 kg). I lost 1.3 pounds (0.59 kg) over the last 2 weeks. I can say with confidence that I would have lost more if not for the holiday weekend. I have lost a total of 52 pounds (23.59 kg) thus far, with 8 pounds (3.63 kg) left to go!

I finally lost enough weight to take another before and after comparison photo. I was 230+ pounds (104.33 kg) on the left picture and 178.1 pounds (80.78 kg) on the right one. For some reason, my room was crazy bright when I took this last one, so everything is very white. . . except for my nose, which is sunburnt.

I also attempted to recreate the weird smirk I was doing in the original photo. Nailed it!

I’ve been documenting my shirtless full-body pictures, but I’m still not comfortable sharing those with the world, despite how much I have changed.

Recipe for Simple Fajita-style Chicken

I’m running out of recipe ideas to share, guys! I want to share creative, delicious, unique recipes with you, but now I’m down to boring ones.

Today, I thought I’d tell you about my insanely simple hack for chicken fajitas.

Disclaimer: These aren’t technically fajitas. I just threw it together one day with the ingredients in my apartment because I was bored with everything and I ended up really liking it.

I normally use a taco seasoning packet when I make taco meat because it’s easy, guaranteed to be good, and I don’t have to spend a small fortune on all the spices required to make it from scratch. My favorite is Lawry’s taco seasoning, which is available at most grocery stores.

When I began my diet and was in the mood for Mexican food, which is notoriously high in calories (and delicious), I made a taco salad, sans tortilla chips or cheese. It satisfied my cravings and it’s super low calorie since you use salsa as the salad dressing. I usually have to add sour cream, which isn’t so low in calories, but it’s a necessary addition to most Mexican dishes.

I wanted something different, so I decided to try something new, and my fajita-style meal was born.

Since this is the only Mexican-style meal I can eat that I don’t need cheese or sour cream, I allow myself to splurge with a flour tortilla. Flour tortillas are 200 calories each, which is absolutely ridiculous, and why I very rarely eat them anymore.

Conclusion

Thank you for your support! I need to spend focus on my caloric intake for the next 20 days before all of the holiday food returns and my weight goes back up.

I hope you are all happy and healthy. Take care and I’ll see you in two weeks!

Daily Breakdown of Weight and Caloric Intake

Date	Pounds	Kilograms	Caloric Intake
20 November 2016	179.3 lb	81.33 kg kg	1312 calories
21 November 2016	179.2 lb	81.28 kg kg	1378 calories
22 November 2016	178.1 lb	80.78 kg kg	1412 calories
23 November 2016	177.5 lb	80.51 kg kg	1328 calories
24 November 2016	177.6 lb	80.56 kg kg	??? calories
25 November 2016	178.7 lb	81.06 kg kg	??? calories
26 November 2016	179.6 lb	81.47 kg kg	2076 calories
27 November 2016	178.0 lb	80.74 kg kg	1485 calories
28 November 2016	177.0 lb	80.29 kg kg	1328 calories
29 November 2016	177.6 lb	80.56 kg kg	1630 calories
30 November 2016	178.2 lb	80.83 kg kg	1618 calories
1 December 2016	178.5 lb	80.97 kg kg	1380 calories
2 December 2016	178.2 lb	80.83 kg kg	1415 calories
3 December 2016	178.8 lb	81.10 kg kg	1394 calories
4 December 2016	178.0 lb	80.74 kg	---