No More Chicken! Does that mean I cheated?!?!

NO!!!




I had three hard boiled eggs for breakfast.

It was actually really nice to have something other than a brotein shake for breakfast. Like seriously.

The next thing I ate was a Jimmy John's Turkey Tom Unwich. This was essentially deli turkey, mayo, and some kind of cheese wrapped in lettuce.

It was interesting, but it was actually really good. It may just be that anything other than brotein shakes and plain chicken would taste fantastic, but whatever. This thing tasted good, and it wasn't a whole lot of calories. My best guess (via MyFitnessPal) places it at 285 calories. If that's right, cool. If not, oh well. I'm sure it's close enough.

For dinner, I had some pan-fried burgers. Three to be exact. Each with cheese. And a little bit of onions. Two on a couple pieces of toasted bread and the other one plain.

Again, these tasted exceptionally good. Maybe because they weren't chicken, by maybe because they were just good.

I had a salad to accompany these burgers. It consisted of spinach, a hard boiled egg, and one serving of shredded Parmesan cheese.

I had a couple of butter roasted peanuts and another chocolate covered almond, and that was all for the day.

Still More Chicken (But wait, there's more!)

But I have a surprise plot twist! For breakfast, I had a brotein shake. Wait, that's not a plot twist. Here, l-let me try again. After the gym I had a brotein bar. Shoot, that's not really a plot twist either.

Alright alright, one last try. 

For lunch, I had a CRUNCHY CHICKEN CHEDDAR WRAP!

Yes! That's a proper plot twist! I ventured into the newly-opened DeBruce center to acquire this gem. And while I didn't see any Original Rules of Basketball, I did follow my own Original Rules of Crunchy Chicken Cheddar Wrap ordering. I had nearly flawless technique.

Let's go through a rundown of how to order the best Crunchy Chicken Cheddar Wrap from Brella's at KU.

1. Cheddar Jalapeno Tortilla
2. Crunchy Chicken
3. Shredded Cheese
4. Pepper Jack Cheese
5. Bacon (if available)
6. Spinach
7. Red Onions
8. Chipotle Ranch Dressing
9. Splash of Hot Sauce

And that't it. That's the secret formula. 

Now, before my regular readers (you know who you are) start squawking about me cheating yet again, think again. I only ate half of this thing (read: the most difficult thing I've ever done). Doing so was actually a win-win for me. Sidney had mentioned a few days ago that she was in the mood for a Crunchy Chicken Cheddar Wrap (made to my specifications), so I surprised her with the other half of this one. She was happy. But also, this allowed me to stay within my calorie limit for the day.

So, with this in mind, for dinner I had a bag o' chicken. Plain chicken. Cold chicken. 0.9 pounds of the stuff.

It was a real struggle to get through this chicken. While on the way to my parents' house from Sidney's, I sat in the passenger seat and ate chicken. It's a 45 minute drive. I started before we left Sidney's house, and I finished about 5 minutes before we got to my parents' house. Like I said, it was a struggle.

When we got to my parents' house, I needed some salvation from the depths of chicken. I saw some freshly cleaned blackberries, and I started sprinting.

I ate a few of them, and then I saw the chocolate covered almonds.

Again, I ate several. That was it. That was the end of a day that included a highest high and a lowest low regarding food.

Yet More Chicken

There's an extremely non-diverse pattern establishing in my diet. Let's see if you can spot it.

For breakfast, I had my brotein/BCAA mixture.

For lunch, I had my brotein bar.

For dinner, I had 1.5 pounds of chicken, this time with hot sauce instead of ketchup.

Now, nowhere on this bottle of hot sauce does it say that it's spicy. And I'm sure this is because it's not spicy. It's actually "wing sauce." But that sure didn't stop me from sweating profusely throughout my meal!

Other than the chicken, my lack of willpower today led me to eat several other things.

Let's start with this goulash soup.

This was made from leftover goulash. Having carbs, I attempted to limit myself as much as possible. I feel as though I was pretty successful.

Second, we have zucchini noodle peanut sauce stuff.

It was delicious, but, lacking much brotein, I again limited myself.

I was also, at the behest of the people in my environment, eventually persuaded to try a brownie made from a "gourmet" brownie mix. The general consensus, and one shared by me, was that it probably wasn't better than much cheaper boxed mixes and definitely not as good as scratch brownies.

Confession No. 1: I had a chocolate covered peanut while waiting for my chicken to thaw in the microwave. Well, it took awhile to thaw, so I had another one. Unfortunately, it took quite awhile, so I had a third. That's where it stopped.

Confession No. 2: On the way home from school today, I had several Sour Skittles. These are the same Skittles that are leftover from several weeks ago from the movies, and I keep the bag in my car door. Not too much damage done, but still.

Fettuccine Alfredo

After my morning brotein shake, my brotein bar, the gym, and my brotein/BCAA mixaroo, I figured it was time for a temporary change of pace.

I had the leftover chicken from the previous two nights, which didn't really amount to much.

But it would do.

I was again bombarded with chocolatey confections by Sidney, and I was forced to capitulate. This was the result:

I savored every second of it, believe me.

And finally, I decided that today would be a prime day to finally enjoy my Fettuccine Alfredo from Sunday's dinner at Anthony's.

It was so, so, so good. I really think that it's just as good if not better than the Alfredo I had in North Carolina. I'm not quite ready to definitively call this the winner, but dang it was good! Given, however, that this was a side, and given that I had indeed eaten a portion, however small, at the restaurant, this wasn't that much food. Which also means that it wasn't that many carbs.

And that was all I ate today. But since I had the various brotein supplements throughout the day, along with the chicken, I still ended up with about 140 grams of brotein for the day. Not bad for a day involving a peanut butter cup and pasta.

More Chicken

Albeit not a whole chicken, I ate what may have well been a whole chicken. But more on this in a minute.

I started out with a brotein/BCAA combo shake.

Then I had a brotein bar for lunch.

When I got home, I started on dinner. I pulled out one of those packages of chicken breasts, defrosted it in the microwave, sliced them up into strips, put some seasoning on them, and grilled them on the George Foreman.

I calculated that, after the brotein shakes and bars I'd consumed earlier in the day, I'd need about 24 ounces of chicken to reach my daily brotein total of 185 grams. So be it.

After all the strips were done, I measured out exactly 24 ounces of chicken. Here's what that looks like.

This is literally just 1.5 pounds of chicken on a plate. I knew this would get hard to eat near the end, so I loaded up a bowl of ketchup. I love chicken and ketchup together, so I was excited.

As you can see, I got around 100 grams of ketchup. I was aiming for 102 grams since that would be 6 servings and 120 calories of this particular ketchup, but this scale only goes in increments of 5 grams. So I did my best to BroScience it.

I ended up using every last bit of ketchup, and to be honest I probably could've used a bit more. This was not only because it tasted good, but because after about a pound of grilled chicken, it's just hard to keep eating it. It's funny how something that tastes so good at first can taste so bad after 1.5 pounds...

Anyway, after this chicken and ketchup, I still had over 700 calories to spare, so I indulged in a sweet treat.

Ridicule me all you want, but at 90 calories, Nerds Ropes are one of the best treats you can get. Plus, I just love them anyway. They're just so good, and I can't explain why. I mean, it's just a bunch of Nerds stuck to a squishy rope-like thingy. Whatever it is, it's delicious!

Chicken

I ate a chicken.

Literally.

I also had a slice of pizza.

And I had a brotein shake for breakfast, a brotein bar for lunch/pre-workout, and a brotein/BCAA mixer for post-workout.

Highlights: I ate a chicken. I did save half of the breast as leftovers. I mean, come on. I ate a chicken.

04.24.2016 Symphonious Magic

In light of yesterday's extreme cheat, I went light today. This was truly one of the more difficult days, food-wise, that I've had in a while.

I started my day right, with a scoop of OG Metabolic Drive Chocolate brotein, generously provided by Scott.

In the time between this brotein shake and leaving for the symphony, I broke down and had a dark chocolate covered almond.

But it's dark chocolate, so it's good for me. And it's an almond, so it's good for me.

Then we left for the symphony. We got there and got our seats.

If you're keeping a running total, I'm running on 120 calories of brotein and a dark chocolate almond. But that didn't matter yet. I actually really love classical music. But today, the Kansas City Symphony played no ordinary classical music. In fact, it wasn't even true classical music. They played music from John Williams's score for the Harry Potter movies. Having grown up with these movies, especially the early ones, the music really stood out to me and has become so iconic that it was truly an awesome experience hearing it live.

After this concert, my parents suggested we try Anthony's Restaurant and Lounge. It's an Italian restaurant, which I love. The problem is that I just had an extreme cheat day yesterday, and I didn't want to completely destroy my cut.

Being a really good Italian restaurant, they brought out fresh and warm Italian bread and butter.

I had one piece with butter and then one more bite of a second piece.

Now, I've been wanting to try this place's Fettuccine Alfredo for around 9 months, ever since I found the best Alfredo in the mountains of North Carolina last summer. But now that I'm cutting, and since I just had a huge cheat day yesterday, I didn't want all the carbs. So I ordered "Pollo Provolone" aka Chicken Parmesan.

It was really good, so I don't regret ordering it. It came with a side: either Eggplant Parmesan, baked potato, or pasta. After much deliberation, I chose the pasta option upgraded to include Alfredo sauce.

This is where the extremely difficult part comes in. I took a bite of it, and it was the best Alfredo I've had since the magical Alfredo I had in North Carolina. But I didn't eat it all. I restrained myself. I ended up taking most of it home. This is what I ended up with after probably 3 or 4 bites.

Then the waiter suggested a new dessert that wasn't yet on the menu. It was eclair cake. Of course, we had to try it. We got one small piece to share between Sidney and I and my parents.

I had two small bites, they were delicious, and then I was done eating for the day.