Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Week 3- Making it Routine


Week 3- Making it Routine

Week 3
1/21/13-1/27/13

Week three already and it is starting to fell easier to track, count, budget and eat according to the points system and not the "I eat whatever I want" system. I am feeling a lot better, I don't ever have that guilty feeling for binge eating and I don't have that icky full feeling from eating too much. My second official weigh in is Tuesday of this week, the first week I lost 2lbs, which is WW standard 1-2lb a week loss, so we shall see what this second week did for me. The first time I did WW, albeit I was a bit heavier, I lost 17lbs in the first month. I'm not hoping for those kind of results but I'm still hoping for something to boost my spirits and help keep me going. Results really make a difference in reminding you why you are doing this, everyone has weeks where they don't lose, or even gain a bit, and those are the hardest to keep going because you wonder why even bother with all this work if it's not even going to produce results. But sticking to it is what eventually makes the difference. 



Monday
9pp
Tonight I needed to make something quick and filling because I was headed to a concert and the bf was headed to the airport. I decided on pasta with red sauce, one of our faves! I make regular meatballs for him and veg meatballs for me from Trader Joe's. You cant really see my meat balls though because they kind of fell apart when the sauce started to boil- oops! I also made a side of peas for some green.















Tuesday
10pp
This weekend I picked up a bottle of Frank's hot sauce, I've never had it before but I love buffalo sauce on wings and the commercial for Frank's makes me laugh...plus its low on points and high on flavor. I was excited to make myself some buffalo chicken wraps (yes I eat tortillas a lot...) with cucumber, bell pepper, lettuce, cheese, and ff ranch dressing. YUM







Wednesday
10pp
As much as I wanted more buffalo flavored food, or tacos, I knew I should probably add some variety to my meals. Tonight I decided to try black bean spaghetti noodles I had picked up at the co-op a while back. I figured a spicy peanut sauce would be the best flavor for these so I started with THIS RECIPE for PB2 peanut sauce, and based on what I had in my house, made my own version. I did not have coconut milk so I used water, I also did not have any spicy chili sauce so I used red pepper flakes. I cooked up the noodles, sauteed some veggies and after a sprinkling of sesame seeds I had a filling and delicious 10 point dinner.










Thursday
13pp
After my workout tonight I wanted something for dinner that was filling, high in protein..and easy. So I remembered seeing Hungry Girl's Egg Pizza Recipe once and thought that might be a good idea. But I expanded it a little and made it more filling, but adding a crust of high fiber tortillas (what else), spinach and green peppers for veggies, then topped with pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni and some freshly shredded white cheddar cheese. I had two little egg pizzas and they were very filling, high in protein AND easy. I WIN

Before going under the broiler:




 After:

















Friday
Tonight the bf and I decided we should get some Chipotle, my favorite "fast food" mmmm















Saturday
7pp per pizza
Tonight was our standard pizza night on flatouts, I had one with cheese, spinach and peppers and another with turkey pepperoni and peppers. For dessert I made Baked Apple Pie Egg Rolls, although mine were not as pretty as hers...they were yummy!








Sunday

Breakfast

I have been working on perfecting my pancake recipe, this week I added some vanilla protein powder, PB2 and half whole wheat flour, half buckwheat flour. I am really starting to enjoy these pancakes and they are so filling. They freeze well and I can eat them during the week...however the bf thinks they are nasty...oh well.














Dinner
Dinner tonight was our taco night! I even made fresh pico de gallo, it is soooo much better than regular. I just combine tomato, red onion, jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, lime and salt. Eaten with black bean chips it is fabulous!












Monday, January 21, 2013

Week 2- Keep it Going


Week 2- Keep it Going

Week 2
1/14/13-1/20/13

Week two, I am feeling very good and am extremely excited from my total commitment last week to menu planning, following Weight Watchers and in general caring about what I put in my body. I know so many people come off the holidays with ambition to eat healthy, lose weight, workout, whatever and the running gag is that by February everyone is back on the couch with chips. I do not want that to be me, THAT WILL NOT BE ME.

I will force myself to track and blog and list, whatever it takes to keep going, I know WW works, I just have to stick to it and be honest with myself. Just like that goofy Sandra Bullock movie that always got that quote in my head "it works if you work it, so work it you're worth it". Although I'm fairly certain that is a motto or chant for recovering alcoholics, it's essentially the same idea of valuing self and giving up bad choices/habits, so I will go with it.



Monday
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
1/4 of recipe 7pp (about 2 full cups)
I also added some of Annie's cheddar bunnies, because YUM.
I love chili, and I love this recipe, I double it so I can have leftovers. I always use fire roasted diced tomatoes for a little extra zing, pulsing them in my magic bullet just a bit. The only other thing I add is smoked paprika from Trader Joe's. 
















Tuesday
BBQ chicken Flat Outs
13PP
I didn't have any recipe for tonight's dinner, I just knew I had some chicken to use and wanted to try these new flat out sandwich things that I got. Ended up being DELISH. I took two Flatout "Foldits", some spicy BBQ sauce from Trader Joe's and some broccoli slaw. I mixed it with the chicken and divided it evenly between two warmed up Foldits. This paired with some white cheddar cheese pieces and yummy fruit was a great dinner!















Wednesday
Chipotle Dinner
19pp
Tonight my friend is coming over for dinner and we are getting Chipotle, aka my favorite fast food! I am going to get a burrito bowl with barbacoa  meat, brown rice, black beans, fajita veggies, salsa and lettuce. With a side of guac and baked blue tortilla chips from Trader Joe's it should be fabulous! Even though its a bit high in points it is well worth it, I will have a smoothie for breakfast and salad for lunch just to even things out.
Sorry forgot to take a picture, but it was something like this:


Image from www.chipotle.com 



Image from www.goodhousekeeping.com
















Image from www.chipotle.com



Thursday
Chipotle Leftovers!
10pp
I had some grilled chicken that needed to get eaten, and i had a little brown rice and black beans still from Chipotle the night before, so I made some tacos. (If you can't tell I could eat Mexican food everyday). I took some high fiber tortillas and then mixed the chicken, rice, beans, bell peppers and salsa and divided it between the shells, top with FF sour cream. Delicious and filling. 















Friday
12pp
Tonight I was tired from a long week at work, I wanted to watch some TV I had missed during the week, and the bf didn't fly back from working in CA until 9pm. So I had a dinner that sounded good to me...apple, cheese and popcorn, hey it hit some of the major food groups! :)
I had been wanting to try this snack recipe so I finally did:

POPCORN!












Saturday

Breakfast: 
4pp
Woke up well before the BF today who had some jet lag hehe, I made myself some yummy egg beaters omelets in fiber tortillas and headed out to the store to get groceries for the week. I like to shop on a full stomach.















Lunch: 
We spent the afternoon running around to hardware stores getting supplies to make pull out drawers for our pantry (I've been dreaming of these for a while now) so my lunch was some fruit and some high fiber crackers, it was an on the go afternoon.


Dinner: 
1 Pizza=9pp
Saturday nights were traditionally pizza nights for us...a huge contributing factor to why I am where I am, but I didn't want to completely cut out a food that we really enjoy, instead last week I found a way to make our own version of pizza that is both tasty and smart points wise. We had Flatout Pizzas again, this time I made mine with spinach, garlic, bell peppers and feta. mmm















Sunday

Breakfast

I made my Pancakes again today, this time I doubled the batch so I could have some left over for the week, and used half whole wheat flour and half buckwheat flour. I also added some tiny frozen blueberries to half the batch.

Dinner
We are people who like routine and we also love tacos, so we had Sunday night taco dinner again. filling, delicious and whole ingredients, who can really complain. I also made dessert using my new food processor I got for Christmas this year.

Tacos= 18pp



Chocolate Zucchini Brownies 
3pp
I froze a bunch of these, partially so I don't eat them all, and partly because I don't want them to spoil before we can eat them all. But they are moist, sweet, and filling. I will totally make these again...Also don't look at my poor job of "lightly dusting" powdered sugar. 





















Monday, January 14, 2013

Week 1- Starting Over

Week 1 
1/7/13-1/13/13

Here I am five years later and starting over...again...luckily I'm not starting ALL the way back where I was then, but starting over is still hard and disappointing, and frustrating...but I am using all the motivation and excitement I can possible wrangle to get off on the right foot and make this happen.

Turns out, eating addiction is pretty much like any alcohol or drug addiction, you may THINK you are all better because you stopped drinking or reached a healthy weight, but as soon as you stop putting the work into it, you will fall off the wagon. I was tired of counting points, I felt good, looked good and thought I could just manage life in a healthy way on my own. Maybe I can someday, but it just might have been a tad too soon. 

So here we are again, on this journey. This time I am going to track it online and check it frequently to make sure I stay focused and on track. I will post my dinner meals on here, with links, pictures and pp values. I am not including my breakfasts which are usually fruit/protein powder smoothies, lunches which are usually leftovers of dinners which I freeze and rotate or salad, or snacks which range from fruit to nuts to bars to popcorn etc.




Monday

Black Bean Enchiladas
6pp per enchilada

For the sauce I used hot sauce and salsa and a little FF sour cream and I used black beans in sauce(from a pouch), Spanish rice (from a pouch), I also added corn
brown rice and black bean vegetarian enchiladas
Image from  http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/03/01/vegetarian-black-bean-enchiladas-2/  



Tuesday

Chicken and Rice Casserole
1/4 of recipe 9pp
I did not put the cheese on top, the cheese mixed in was enough, I added two cups of wilted spinach, used frozen broccoli chopped up, and brown rice and quinoa mix
Brown Rice Casserole with Leftover Turkey (or chicken), Mushrooms, Sour Cream, Cheese, and Thyme
Image from http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/11/brown-rice-casserole-recipe-with.html


Wednesday

Beef Stroganoff
1/4 of recipe 12pp
I did not totally follow this recipe, as I was inspired to be lazy from Progresso recipe starters, I used the creamy portabella mushroom sauce (mushrooms filtered out of course) and kept the steak meat separate from the noodles/sauce.

Image from http://www.heathersbytes.com/beef-stroganoff/


Thursday

Baked Ranch Chicken
7pp for 1/2 recipe
15pp for the whole meal
I took two 6 pp servings of chicken breast no skin, no bone, dipped them in egg white, then coated them in whole wheat bread crumbs mixed with powdered ranch dressing mix, bake at 425* for 30-35 minutes
I also made a pack of instant mashed potatoes and frozen green beans, along with salad it was a delish meal





Friday

Tonight was date night with bf, I took a night off of cooking and we also had to run to the hardware store, oh the joys of being a homeowner. He got a Chipotle burrito bowl and I got a chicken gyro and greek side salad. Yay for not having to cook or clean :D I forgot to take a picture of dinner but it tasted better than it looked anyways. 




Saturday

Breakfast: Pancakes!
6pp
I found a recipe online for pancakes that are 5pp. You get six fluffy and filling pancakes for 5 points plus 1 point of lite syrup, not too shabby. Although they aren't AMAZING they are good enough and I like the ingredients and stats.















Lunch: Tortilla Pinwheels
5pp
I don't have a link for these, we just saw pinwheels at Costco one day and the nutrition stats were horrible, so I thought I could make a better version and I did! I got whole wheat tortillas at Trader Joe's, with light laughing cow herb and garlic cheese, turkey, lettuce and cucumber. All for 5pp, that is a nice little lunch, even though they weren't as pretty as Costco's. Pair it with a clementine orange and I'm sold.














Dinner: Flatout Pizzas
16pp
This is another meal I didn't have any recipe for, I read online you can buy these Flatout tortilla type things and use them for crispy thin pizza crust. Since the bf and I *love* pizza and are sad it doesn't work well with being healthy and losing weight, we were thrilled at the idea. For 2pp per "crust" with a little sauce, mozzarella, turkey pepperoni and green peppers, I got to eat two whole pizzas for 16pp. Lucky I had a light breakfast and lunch but these were totally worth every point. 














I still have some points left and I should eat more fruit so I will likely have a honeycrisp and peanut butter for my evening snack. :D good day!





Sunday

Breakfast

3pp
Last day of the week and I knew it would be a busy project day. I started out with a fiber bran muffin from Trader Joe's and a banana for 3pp total. The muffins are better if you microwave them for about 30 seconds, otherwise they are sort of chewy.




















Lunch
5pp
I made the mistake of not having a substantial snack before we headed out to the hardware store, thinking it would be a "quick" trip...well two hours later, three stores I was VERY hungry, we got home and I heated up a cup of Trader Joe's chicken fried rice mix, it is a decent quick meal. I forgot to take a picture but here is the bag.



















Dinner
20 pp

So I had a LOT of points left to eat after my small breakfast and lunch and spending most of the day doing projects and chores around the house. BF requested taco dinner so I knew it would be a great chance to get in wholesome real ingredients but still high in points. I got three tacos on high fiber/low carb 1pp tortillas, plus a little extra lean meat on the side. I also had some re-fried vegetarian beans and some baked blue chips from Trader Joe's with smokey salsa. (Yes I did thoroughly enjoy 6pp of cheddar cheese with this meal.) Great end to a full week of cooking and following WW PP. How was your week? 


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Starting Over

In April of 2008 I started my first weight loss journey. It had been a year since I graduated college with my B.A., I was living alone in an apartment, working as a preschool teacher and my life was just sort of standing still. I decided, after being shocked and disgusted by too many photos of myself, that I would make a big change and commit to it for real.

I was a shocking 262lbs and 5'4'', at 22 years old this was not a good place to be.

So I started using the Weight Watchers original Points system that my best friend always talked about, her mom had done it for years to help herself stay healthy and keep on track if her weight ever started creeping up and they both swore by it. I did not attend meetings and I don't think the online program was really popular at the time, I simply bought the slider calculator from the WW store and kept a small notebook recording everything. The first month I lost 17lbs! that was HUGE for me, like amazing super huge. I was very motivated to keep going, unfortunately all my months were not 17lb losses, but I kept a thermometer tracking my weekly loss and celebrated small and large goals. The during is kind of a blur, but by spring of 2010 I was down to 162, a 100lb weight loss!! I was happy, I actively played sports, I was meeting new friends, I had a new job, lived in a new place and even toyed with eating vegan which helped me lose more without even tracking points.

Then, in May of 2010 I met my soul-mate and I could not even believe that I had found even MORE happiness, life was so good.

I enrolled in grad school to start fall of 2010.

I was so happy I became complacent.

I stopped counting and wanted to just "enjoy" life....


In late winder of 2011 my nephew who was due to be delivered March 11 was born sleeping on March 3
The most tragic thing I had ever experienced
In the summer of 2011 the bf and I moved into together and bought a house
In the fall of 2011 I started a new job with a BIG pay increase
Two months later I was laid off
I had started to gain weight back, but I wasn't too worried because I was happy
I tried "eating clean"
I tried WW PP for like a week...then quit
I tried going vegan again for like a week...then quit
I started running again for two months and my weight did not change an ounce, that was frustrating...so I quit
I was unemployed for 4 months
I finally got a new job in April 2012
The day I graduated college with my Master's degree, my grandmother unexpectedly passed away
I spent the summer doing projects on my house and finishing my thesis
Fall of 2012 I finished my thesis

Now, January of 2013 I realized how much has happened in my life over the last 2.5 years, the ups and the downs, and how much I have changed, the good and the bad

I am lucky to have a house, a job, two wonderful chocolate labs, and the most amazing boyfriend in the entire world, the perfect match to me, I have a masters degree and life is finally slowed down a little
I'm seeing the sunshine through the clouds, but I let myself gain 60 of my 100lb loss back...that's like 25lbs a year! seriously!?

WTF

That's not even like "oh i was fat all my life and now i want to be healthy"


That is: I worked SO HARD for two years to get to that  point and two more years later let it all go
I was Rose on the board and instead of fighting to save Jack I just freakin' let him go down into the water, like dang I seriously JUST GOT TO THAT POINT, and now I have to do it all again....

So, life is hard, bad things happen to good people, disappointments are hard, but nothing is impossible
and I am planning to do it all again, for me, for my future. I loved being that 162lb girl, in fact I desired to lose even more but for some reason had settled there for a while, either way I want that back, I want to wear those clothes again, I want that energy and drive again, I want to be that sassy sexy girl for my bf again, I want a lot

Plea to myself: DON'T GO ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING