Holy fat content Batman!

Well the pasta salad was a huge hit. My parents enjoyed it, I loved it, and even Boyfriend liked it! He'd never had it before, not that it's some special dish, but since I rarely cook, it was definitely a nice surprise for him (I think). :)

And so starts my first week of being more conscious about what I'm eating (and when, and how much, etc. etc. etc.) and finding more time to work out (much easier this month, at least until school starts again). I've noticed that I have a tendency to "graze" a lot of the time: some veggies while making the pasta salad, some pasta salad here and there and here and there, some gelato (purchased from the farmers market), some croutons (because they're tasty), the list goes on and on. I'm a fan of small things that are simple to eat and don't have to be doctored, hence the croutons and gelato.

So, Monday I started tracking what I eat every day at Spark People. And holy crap I need to change my eating habits! Currently for lunches at work I'm having a mix of whole wheat pasta, frozen mixed vegetables (obviously cooked prior), extra virgin olive oil and feta cheese. Whoa ... major fat content (and calories!) in the olive oil and feta! Not that I didn't already know that, I just didn't realize it until I saw the numbers. And when I have a salad for dinner (with, amongst other salad-y items, olive oil and feta), I'm consuming almost 500 calories and 50 grams of fat just from olive oil! Gross! Time to cut out the olive oil and feta cheese I think. Bummer. I do love them both. But I can mix my vegetables and my salad with salad dressing and that will cut back significantly on the calories and fat, and sprinkle grated Parmesan on my veggies instead of the feta for more reduction in calories and fat. I'll finish out the container of feta I have at home, but after this I think my feta cheese purchases will have to go on hiatus. *sigh*

Suck it up, Liz.

I'm looking forward to the Anderson Farmers' Market this Saturday ... as well as some much needed (by my definition) sun bathing. :)