I Can Motivate ME

The other night I found myself using my old laptop, it stays up in my office most of the time now because it is big and heavy and gets really hot on my lap #firstworldproblems... I KNOW but still I prefer my tablet for surfing in the living room and general entertainment. But anyways I was on my old laptop which stores my multitudes of old pictures and decided to go back and look at some photos from when I was at my heaviest and then when I was at my lightest...both were EXTREMELY motivating for me, to see myself at how bad I let my weight get, and then to see how hard I worked to lose so much weight and then to realize how I'm standing in a middle ground now, and I have two options. Let myself go back to how large and unhealthy I was (not really an option) or work hard, take control and get back down to where I worked to be, where I felt good, where I was happy and where I was healthy. So I made a couple before/after shots to look at and hopefully I can use my own images to motivate myself and to inspire myself when I'm feeling down. I have decided that I'm brave enough to post some of these so here is one for today. The picture on the left was taken at a family reunion probably around  2007. I basically wore Old Navy ribbed tanks every day thinking they would hide my body (they didn't) and black cotton gaucho pants with elastic waists, thinking they were flattering (they weren't). The picture on the right is from summer of 2009 I went camping with my family. It's just amazing for me to see how a ribbed tank looks so different on a 260+ lb body vs 160 lb body. 

                                                 BEFORE                               AFTER

So I worked from home this morning and used two of my favorite products to make an egg white sandwich. All Whites for 0 points plus and Hormel Turkey Pepperoni, 1/2 a serving is 1 points plus. 

 

For lunch I took some leftover pasta and sauce and mixed it with red peppers and peas. 8 points plus

My afternoon snack was an apple with greek yogurt fruit dip (greek yogurt and PB2)

After work the bf wanted to go look at a snow plow someone had for sale (boys and their toys) so I decided to be a nice gf and go with. It was almost 7pm when we were done and I was a HUNGRY BEAR. So we stopped at Potbelly and got sandwiches. I had a lot of points left for the day so this was acceptable for me. I get the Mediterranean which has hummus, red peppers, cucumbers and feta then I add chicken. With a side of baked kettle chips I was pleased.

Nighttime sweet treat with my remaining 4 points, ice cream!

Plans fall through

My co-workers and I were planning to go to lunch on Friday, so I did not pack a lunch. And I'm the kind of girl who likes to pack and plan and prepare for everything so I know I won't have any surprises (ask me how well this usually works out lol) Well I DOUBLE checked with everyone that we were going to go out. Guess what?!  yeah lunch was cancelled. My one co-worker who initiated the whole thing wasn't even coming in, my other co-worker still had a lunch from the day before in the fridge, and I had nothing. I don't like that feeling. I was busy at work so I decided instead of going out to get something by myself I would just order Jimmy Johns for lunch. Not ideal. I mildly enjoy their sandwiches but I GREATLY enjoy their Thinny Chips. So it all worked out in the end, but I spent more points on lunch then I would have preferred, especially for a Friday.
I guess you can't plan for everything.
Oh well, TGIF


Breakfast, yummy smoothie using my Aria vanilla protein powder and Trader Joe's mixed berries and cherries.

My vegetarian sandwich from JJ with extra lettuce, it felt like it was a lettuce sandwich, but it was still good after I stuffed some crunchy thinny chips in there.

For dinner I made Flat Out Pizzas, one with turkey pepperoni and the other with some of that pulled pork from the other day and red bell peppers. YUM

One treat that got me through the day was this diet Ginger Ale. I try to limit my soda, especially diet soda, but some days you just need something special.

Tired = Hungry

Today I am what I call a "hungry bear"...it's because I'm so tired, I walk around in my tired daze and all my animal instincts can think of is getting food in my body to give me energy. Why am I so tired you ask? Well the bf had a last minute flight for work and his alarm was going off around 3:45am...After that, sleep is kinda half in half out, sort of back to dreaming, sort of feeling awake and hearing him get ready...Needless to say by the time my alarm went off I felt like a college freshmen after a night of crappy vodka drinks and jello shots...you know when your head feels kinda hollow and light, like maybe your brain isn't in there anymore, and your tummy feels weird and your muscles are tired for no reason at all. Yeah that was me. 

But I held my chin high and hoped getting to work would make things better...until I got my invite to the "February Birthday celebration with cupcakes"....seriously?! Well I did what any strong points-counting temptation resisting girl would do. I fled the scene...no for real...I left the office, had to run an errand and then worked from home for the afternoon. I'm strong but not that strong. Peer pressure people "hey come on, lets go get a cupcake, lets celebrate birthdays, lets get a sugar high". NOPE
In your face cupcake!

 Breakfast. I decided to switch things up a bit from my greek yogurt obsession (and I was totally out of fresh berries) so I made a protein smoothie for 2pp. It involves frozen fruit, today mango, pineapple and blueberries and protein powder from Trader Joes.

 

 Lunch was leftover Chili for 5pp plus crushed up baked blue chips from Trader Joes and carrots

Since I was home alone for dinner I decided to use some of this carving board pulled pork I got, because the bf isn't a huge fan of pork and I really wanted to try it. I made buffalo pork tacos with corn, feta cheese and romaine on top. It was very filling and very yummy. 

Image retrieved from Here

Later in the evening I wanted some dessert and we got a few varieties of the Smart Ones desserts, I like ice cream but the bf LOVES ice cream, so luckily these aren't a trigger food for me. I can have one and it's the perfect amount. I forgot to snap a picture but this is what it looks like.

Image retrieved from Here

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.