My name is Laura, and I have fallen off the wagon.

As I am catching up on True Blood I figured it was time to admit that I have failed. FAILED! Well, not so much. I lasted a full week on the South Beach Diet and I needed chips and queso. . . and a chicken strip basket. . . a chocolate milkshake. . . sushi. . . .and Whataburger.

I guess to say that I fell off the wagon is an understatement.

Let me tell you how hard the first week was. When you are not use to eating lettuce and cooking everyday it is a severe issue. Besides, there is only so much lettuce one can have. Although I did fall off the wagon I did not overeat when I fell. As a matter of fact, I'm drinking more water and I find myself not to be as hungry as I typically had been. Oh, and between my first weigh in at my doctor's office to this past Sunday, I've lost fifteen pounds!

While it is late in the week, I am starting back up until Saturday when it is UTSA's inaugural football game, and then I'm back on until I finish my two weeks completely. I can feel and see results, and so can my friends and coworkers. So here's to a healthier, happier, and hungrier me!

You know what's not fun? Dieting while you are sick.

Monday evening as I was getting ready to work out I started feeling sick. It was like a slow motion "NOOOOOOOO!" was going through my body. I couldn't sleep, I kept waking up because I was cold and hot and cold and hot. Basically I was hating my life, come Tuesday I had a head cold. It's the worst feeling because there is nothing I can take for it, and all I wanted was chips and queso.

Come Tuesday morning I woke up late for work so I knew breakfast was out of the question, and when you wake up with a headache the last thing you want to hear is the fire alarm go off. So my dearest Windsor House Apartments for not warning me you were testing the system. Me and Pierre (my dog) were not amused. So I waited out breakfast and had lunch at the mall because I didn't have the energy to pack my lunch, therefore there is not a picture of it. I just had grilled chicken  from this great little place at Ingram Park Mall called Gourmet Kabob House. They are great and I highly recommend it. (Almost everything is served with a salad!) I got home and was exhausted from the day. so I immediately went to bed. I woke up later and was starving, but the only thing that looked good was steak, so that was what I made! And it was very delicious!

Wednesday morning I woke up in a better mood and immediately jumped to breakfast. Egg whites are definitely something to get use to, but calorie wise this quick mix is great! Two egg whites and a serving of canadian bacon creates a very yummy breakfast! Adding bell peppers would have been great, but I'm not a big pepper eater so this worked out perfectly. Since I was still not feeling 100% I didn't finish it all, but it was definitely good.

Since I had more energy this morning I "recycled" lunch from Sunday and it was super yummy for the most part. The salad was okay, but the guacamole mix that was created on Sunday was not very good. The pistachio crusted chicken was still amazing! I highly recommend the recipe. I hate reheating food because it never taste as good, but this chicken was perfect cold and probably would have been great warmed up too.

By the time I left work my headache was back and I knew I wouldn't be in the mood for cooking. I stopped by HEB and got a rotisserie chicken and discovered individual cauliflower and cheese dishes from Green Giant. I know, I know it's not like home cooking but dieting and cooking when sick is not ideal AND I'm okay with it because everything was South Beach Diet approved. What is great about the South Beach Diet website is you can type in any kind of food you want and it will tell you at what phase you can introduce that food back into, so my dinner was all Phase One approved.

Now, this has to be the greatest thing about the South Beach Diet. For breakfast Thursday morning I had fat-free yogurt, vanilla extract, sugar substitute, and a dash of cinnamon and it you get the BEST yogurt ever. As a matter of fact, I may have it again tomorrow morning. That's how good it is. It taste just like Christmas, so I was sold!

For lunch we had a Marketing Team outing that has been planned for weeks, so I knew not to bring lunch. Well. Lunch got cancelled and Laura was food-less and hungry! Working at the mall, my food choices are limited. I ended up going to Luby's and getting baked chicken, steamed broccoli, and a side salad. I will never do that again. It was not good by any means, so I was one depressed little lady. Dinner time today was hectic, BUT I did discover I can have beans and fajitas on my diet! SO I picked up dinner again, and it was well worth it.

As day four concludes on this South Beach Diet, I have a lot of respect for people who are very conscious about what they eat. It is so hard! All I want is chips and queso! I live in San Antonio. Chips and queso are everywhere! Hopefully tomorrow I'm back on the right track to cooking and will have some great food stories to share. Until then, stay hungry!

Just when I thought the day wasn't going to get any better. . .I made pork chops.

So today has been a mildly successful day. Let's start with breakfast, ladies and gents. I woke up this morning with full intention of making an egg white, turkey bacon, and cheese omelette. This is what I got . . .

Apparently, I don't know how to make an omelette. Mostly because I've never made one before and it seemed easy enough. I'm wondering if my second try will look prettier, but until then I survived breakfast. Lunch was a Caear's Salad with grilled chicken AND I included my snack of celery and Laughing Cow swiss cheese. 

Looks tasty enough! Well, this girl has never had celery before in her life. Well I've had celery in chicken salad and in soup, but not at this magnitude. I was not impressed with lunch in general! The grilled chicken did nothing for me and I've discovered that I hate celery. PARENTS! FORCE YOUR KIDS TO EAT VEGGIES! FOOOORRRCCEEE! My parents did not force me to eat veggies, and I despise a vast majority of them. (Don't get me started on tomatoes.) Unfortunately I bought a lot of celery so this is going to be difficult. After what felt like the longest day of work ever, I came home to start on dinner, garlic and soy grilled pork chops, grilled zucchini, and a lime zest ricotta creme for dessert. 

BAM! BAM! BAM, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I have never made pork chops before, (my mom never made them) and it was delicious! I'm such a happy camper right now, because after lunch I was pretty sure I was just going to come home and cry. The lime zest ricotta creme dessert is good, but I couldn't eat too much of it because of the acidity and I was pretty full from my delish dinner.

Today was my first day at work and with my "new" diet, so I was very interested to see how lunch would be. To my surprise, I think I've started a trend! Everyone was eating healthy! Salads all around! I love the limit of temptation, so hopefully the support will continue amongst all of us. But if you excuse me, I'm going to muster up the courage to work out. (GASP!) So here's to another day of being hungry!

Day One . . . sort of . . .

So today was the "first day" of my South Beach Diet. Unfortunately, I woke up around noonish and wasn't very hungry. Either way I made these baked egg and canadian bacon cups. One thing you should know about me is I am an EXTREMELY picky eater. The actual recipe calls for some kind of green pepper mix and that definitely wasn't going to happen for me. The baked egg recipe was okay, and it satisfied my hunger, but best of all it took a total of twenty minutes to make! They also look like cupcakes, but don't let that fool you.

I wasn't very hungry come six o'clock, but I figured it was time to eat. So I skipped my snack and went straight to my planned "lunch" that became dinner. I've never had  pistachios before in my life. I've had pistachio flavored cupcakes and that's about it! (I know. Apparently I was deprived as a child.)  Tonight's lunch/dinner was a pistachio crusted chicken, avocado/onion dressing, and salad. First off, do you know how long it takes to remove the shells of a cup of pistachios? FOREVER. Maybe I'm doing it wrong and should have YouTubed a correct way of handling the situation, but it took me forever. I'd like to think that it was worth it! Very yummy. The avocado dressing was also delish! It would have had onion if I had remembered to buy onion, but it was tasty either way. There was a whole lot of green on my plate!

Today's meals were an overall success, and I'm very happy! Nothing feels more satisfying than a relaxing Sunday after an eventful Saturday. I started off the day by having brunch with my sorority sister Allison and her adorable little girl Karlee! It was absolutely lovely and then I went grocery shopping for my adventure into the "new". I labeled this picture in Facebook as "I just bought a whole lot of things I can't pronounce."

Afterward I enjoyed an evening with one of my longest lasting UTSA friends, Genevieve, for the UTSA Alumni Gala at the new JW Marriot in San Antonio. The venue was beautiful and the gala was inspiring. There was so many past alumni and donors that were very passionate about the advancement of the university and all that it can become. It made me very proud to be a UTSA Roadrunner and I'm even debating about going back next year.

Once Gen and I were done with the Gala I headed out to Boerne, TX to visit with my best friend Megan, her husband Josh, and a whole slew of interesting characters! My heart is so happy when I visit with them in Boerne. The cast of characters for the evening included Josh's sister and brother-in-law, Allie and Cody, and their best friends (and couples), Kari & Garret and Kate & Andrew. (Holler to being the single girl out there!) It is NEVER a dull moment with the eight of them, and it is such a blessing to have such wonderful and fun people in my life.

I've grown closer to Megan, Allie, and Kari the past few months, largely due to Megan and Josh's wedding, and they are very supportive of me. So I'd like to say thank you to them for all the love and support. I feel like I don't say it enough. So this one is for you ladies, stay hungry!

I'm hungry!

I've started blogs before without a specific purpose. I believe mostly just to hear myself talk and see if anyone really cares, but this time there's a reason. A little over a year ago I started having health issues which has come to the doctor's  conclusion that it's time to loose weight. (Thanks Doc.) I've always been pretty comfortable with where I'm at in life, but I know that I need to do better for me. Therefore, I've taken a semester off of grad school and I am focusing on me.

I've titled this blog "Hungry Girl Diaries" because I'll be discussing what I've done to work out for the day and what I'm cooking (while taking LOTS of suggestions), but also because "being hungry" is so much more than food. I'm hungry for life! I have a huge, crazy family and even nuttier friends, an obsession for celebrity culture, and an adorable hyper pup that will be getting lots of attention.

This blog is a motivation for me to loose the weight while having fun. I want it to look at it and have a support team when I feel like I can't do thirty more minutes on the elliptical. I also want to show that life is possible when dieting, mostly because I never thought it was possible. So friends, it's time to get hungry.