So much to say!!

Sorry for being MIA for a few days, things have been busy!

On Wednesday my husband & I went to New York City to see a taping of the Wendy Williams show. She used to have a radio show for a long time, which we loved and we tivo her show everyday. We had to wake up at 3:50 to drive an hour to catch the train to be at the studio by 8 am - but it was worth it. We got to sit in the front row, and at the first commercial break she ran over and talked to us! Its hard to see her, but I took a picture of the TV (how corny - haha) and we are above the ms in Williams. She is talking to my husband in that shot. And the second shot is one i took in the studio - that's how close she was to us!!

I was proud of myself because I packed an oatmeal bar and an apple for breakfast, and for lunch we went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., mostly because it has nutritional information on the menu! I got a shrimp and veggie stir fry. It was good, and only about 9 points with a little of the rice.

My husband had to get his favorites to bring home from the city, Crumbs cupcakes and Garretts popcorn. I was a WW allstar all day but, I was hungry and cranky on the train ride home. So dinner was half a cupcake and 2 cups of cheddar and Caramel corn mix popcorn (sounds gross, but is SO good). I had no nutritional info for wither, so I counted it as 30 points, to be on the ultra safe side, tracked it and crashed in bed!

I have a horrible habit of letting one bad meal snowball into weeks of eating like shit. But I have come to realize every meal is a new opportunity, I have the power to make it a negative or positive experience.

I have been eating 100% on 'point' since that craptastic dinner and feel great. I can't wait to weigh in on Monday!

We got a new cable service a month ago and I found out that in addition to the many on demand shows they have available, they also have exercise DVDs! I have been doing the shred, but am going to try a new one every day. Today was Biggest Loser Cardio Max....or something like that. All I know is it kicked my butt and Bob was in it.

Before I pack it up for the night, check out this chick who is having a Jillian-Michaels-tastic give away!

Recipe Review

This is a recipe I have been making for years. I was pleasantly pleased when I put the info in the WW recipe builder.

Sorry for such a craptastic picture, but I was starving and served our meatloaf before I remembered to take a picture. Whoops!

Spinach & Cheese Meatloaf
Points: 4
Servings: 6





Ingredients:


1 lb. Ground Turkey
1 cup (or more) thawed frozen spinach
2 oz 2% cheese
1/2 cup of dried bread crumbs
1/4 cup of eggbeaters
1/3 cup ketchup
Shit-load of spices (I used a meatloaf spice package, but I usually use salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili seasoning, Italian seasoning; really anything your family likes)


Pre-heat oven to 400. Spray a loaf pan with Pam.

Put everything but the ketchup in a bowl and mix well. Form a loaf & make a little slit in the top and top with ketchup. Cook for about 50 minutes.

Sorry for such a quick post but we are going to see a taping of the Wendy Williams Show in New York City tomorrow. The only bad part - we have to be at the studio at 8 am. So I will be waking up around 3:45 am to start getting ready for my close up!

My first weigh in

Let me preface this post by saying I hate when people complain about weight loss. I really do - any loss is a success. But today was my first weigh in and I thought I hit the ball out of the park. I ate like a champ, drank my water and I lost .6 lbs.

I was bummed, I can't lie. I thought about all the food I said no to. All the times I went to the gym. I was pissed, so you know what I did? I went to the basement and did this:

And I realized WW may be on a weekly schedule, but my body isn't. I can't let the scale dictate how I feel about myself. I am eating well, working out and feel great. The weight loss will come with it.

I made a great dinner, which I will post a recipe for tomorrow. As for tonight, I am hitting the hay early, thanks to my pal Jillian!

Busy weekend - and my first recipe review

Sorry for the lack of posting the few days. Friday night we went to my brother in laws house for a get together, Saturday we got to utilize my handy brothers skills and got many to-do items for the house done, at night we went to a friend's new house for dinner and this morning I needed some exercise so we went for a 2 hour hike! That's a lot to cram into a weekend.

I was really nervous about going out both nights, but Friday night I brought a huge veggie platter and some low fat dips. I still had some spinach dip and a few other things, but was able to steer clear of the pizza, cupcakes and Halloween candy that was all out!

Saturday night our friends made wings and baked ziti. I brought shrimp cocktail and another huge veggie plate. I had less then half a cup or baked ziti and 4 buffalo wings in addition to an insane amount of raw veggies, and 2 servings of dip. Woo-Hoo! I am really glad I stayed within a reasonable amount of my flex points (7 & 12, respectively) both nights.

Saturday I made my brothers favorite weight watchers recipe (yes my 120, rail thin brother has sampled many of my WW creations, and loves most of them!). Buffalo Chicken Lasagna. I got this recipe off the message boards a LONG time ago, sorry I can't give someone credit!

Can you spy which piece I had to make special for my husband who doesn't like spicy food and won't eat pepper jack cheese? lol

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

Ingredients:

* 12 whole wheat lasagna noodles
* 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
* 3 cups Spaghetti Sauce
* 1 cup mild buffalo wing sauce
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 15 oz. non-fat ricotta cheese
* 1/2 cup egg substitute
* 9 slices 2% pepperjack cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Cook chicken over medium high heat 4 minutes or until almost done. Stir in sauces and water. In a small bowl, combine ricotta cheese and egg substitute. Spray a 9″ X 13″ pan with non-stick cooking spray. Spread 1 cup of sauce in the bottom of pan. Top with 4 noodles. Spread more sauce then spread ricotta mixture on top of sauce. Arrange 4 noodles on top. Keep repeating process until you end with sauce. Cover and bake 70 minutes. Uncover and place 9 cheese slices on top. Bake additional 15 minutes, uncovered. Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving.

The recipe says for 8 servings its 8 points, but I need to verify that on the recipe builder.

And I realize its kind of pointless for me to take pictures of every meal, because for weeks on end, I repeat breakfast and lunch over and over.

But my new breakfast of choice is oatmeal made with 1/2 cup of milk 1/2 water, a little SF maple syrup and some sort of fruit. And Lunch has seen grilled cheese on ezekiel bread and some Trader Joe's roasted red pepper soup. If you haven't tried that soup yet - RUN to the store and get some. Its great!

Hope you all had a great weekend! I need to sit and the couch, relax and enjoy the few hours left in this weekend.

My little secret...

I am so tired today! I am worried about this weekend. Going to play cards at my brother in laws house tomorrow night, and going to have dinner at a friends house Saturday. Who wanted to try out her new deep fryer. Yikes!

She is an awesome person, but her like, most people in my life, don't know I am doing Weight Watchers. I don't really tell people. I feel like people judge or ask "are you sure you can eat that" and that just pisses me off. So I figure, why bother? Do people know you are trying to lose weight or did you keep it a secret when you started too?

Eats were good today. Breakfast was oatmeal with frozen berries.



No picture of my AM snack - a apple. Lunch was a left over chicken sausage burger on a sandwich thin, baby carrots and some sad look asparagus. Oh, and the LAST chocolate covered rice cake. Thank god they are gone!



I had tons of errands after work, so I was STARVING when I got home. I made a cobb salad from scratch. Well, I hate bleu cheese and don't eat pork, so it was a cobb salad with feta cheese and turkey bacon, so close enough. I even made it look all nice for you!



Ok - after this long day I am off to bed. Have a great night!

Lying to myself

Have you ever looked at the nutritional information on something and knew it was WAY too good to be true - yet still wanted to calculate the points and eat it without guilt? Me too. But I couldn't today.

Lets rewind to yesterday. We went to Stew Leonards, which is a grocery store unlike any other you could imagine - its a huge weird specialty place. They make most of the stuff they sell, mostly right in each store. They make these AMAZING rice cakes from scratch right in front of you. They come out in a machine similar to the thingy that shoots out tennis balls. Very cool.

Anywho, the make ones that are chocolate drizzled. The NI on them indicate they would be one point for two of them. Well last night the 'drizzler' on duty must have been have been hitting the bottle because they weren't drizzled - they were completely covered in chocolate. I ate 3 so far, which isn't bad for a 24 hour period. As much as my hand wanted to write 2 for 1 point in my tracker, I had to guesstimate each one as two. Which stinks. But I had to think - who am I cheating? Myself - and that's what got me to my current weight.

Ok - rant over. Thanks for staying with me. I had a great breakfast, an egg in a basket that got a little messy in the pan, and some pomegranate seeds. Love those things - too bad they are only in season a short time!

I had to have a lower point dinner so I could fit some chocolate covered rice cakes in my day. So i had a chicken sausage burger on a sandwich thin with some 2 % cheese, asparagus and TJ's kick ass one point chips and salsa. That's a lot of food for 8 points!

If you haven't sees this awesome post about Sue, please check it out. She is the shit, and really deserves it. I know I and am new to the blog world, but I am awed by what an amazing community it is and how supportive people are. Its a great feeling.

And with that - I'm out! Have a great night.

Obsession

Do you ever see something on a menu or at a restaurant and then think about it until you get it?

My boss took us out to lunch today at a new restaurant near the office. Its a modern-comfort-food-too-fancy-to-be-a-diner diner. Does that make sense?

Back to the subject at hand, my new obsession. They had a 21+shake section on their menu. Yes, you read that right, SHAKES WITH BOOZE. I can't remember the name of my obsession shake, all you need to know is it was vanilla ice cream, vanilla vodka, and a twinkie. In a blender. Sounds like something angels would sing about.

I ordered the Kitchen Sink Salad - romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, chickpeas, kidney beans, feta and balsamic vinaigrette. Yum!!! While I was eating that great salad I watched a man devour the twinkie shake. How did I know it was the same shake? It comes garnished with a twinkie. Heart-Attack-City. I know.

I thought about the shake all day, that is until my motivational partner, WW College Girl Pointed the fried banana nuggets at Peanut Butter & Jenny out to me! I can't wait to try these. I love all things banana, and at least the point will be reasonable. Shake? What shake?

Since I ate an early, large lunch, I didn't eat any snacks today. Dinner was a Perdue baked chicken patty on a sandwich thin and some butternut squash fries from Hungry-girl.com. They were great.



There are my new cookbooks in the background. Can't wait to look through them and get some good recipes.

Have a great night!

WW meetings

Tonight was my first Weight Watchers meeting in a long time. I don't know how I feel about them. Well - I guess I do. I love the accountability of going there to weigh in, but some times people try to dominate the meeting and not let the leader lead!

But - it was all good and all cookbooks were 50% off at my location. I picked up 3! Can't wait to try some new recipes!

So what did I do with my 5 extra points last night? I had a vitamuffin topped with an Edy's slow churned vanilla single serve ice cream cup. I love the portion control in these. The container is 3 points, and when its gone its gone! No scooping out more from the half gallon!



When I woke up this morning - I wasn't in the mood for breakfast so I had a turkey sandwich and some carrots.



Lunch was some leftover spaghetti squash and my great husband made some grilled shrimp & asparagus for dinner while I was at my meeting. Shrimp is such a points bargain! 2oz for 1 point!

I wanted something sweet, but didn't want to get in the habit of a processed dessert after dinner. So I had some vanilla yogurt with pomegranate seeds. I love that big strange fruit!



My husband is on a crazy junk food bender, after dinner he went to the store for a few things and came home with a slice of pizza and a cranberry almond magic bar. I had a small bite of each, and really regretted it. On one hand, I didn't want or need it, on the second hand I would have NEVER stopped at one bite, tracked it and walked away.

So I guess I am learning and evolving. I am not going to change overnight and these situations that I am presented with in normal life are going to help me be a better Weight Watcher.

Have a great night!!

No pictures today

Bad news: I slacked on the pictures today!

Good news: I didn't slack on weight watchers today!

I met my girls for breakfast, and while they indulged on french toast and huge cheese stuffed omelets, I ate my 2 egg beaters scrambled and home fries for 9 points. I think salivating over their food made me thirsty because I drank 3 huge glasses of water while we gabbed.

I ate breakfast around 11, which kind of messed up my meals for the rest of the day. I ate an apple for lunch, and then an early dinner of spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs.

Great news: I am left with 5 points for a fun dessert.

Not sure what I will be having, but I typically am kind of a points cheapskate, so it HAS to be good.

If you had 5 points to spare this evening, what would you spend it on?

And because I can't leave you without a picture, and because Chloe is just that darn cute - here she is with Santa. Yes - I know I have become 'that' dog person - and no - I don't care.

Nighty night!

I hate leaves

This is going to be a short post as every part of my body hurts from raking leaves or 6 hours. The good news - the backyard is done! The bad news - we only got half way through the front yard. So - a little more raking tomorrow, but it is a lot smaller area then what we did today!

I did manage to sneak a break and grab a new Stevia sweetened soda I found at Whole Foods, Zevia. It was ok - it didn't taste like Coke or Pepsi - more like RC Cola or a generic Cola if that makes sense. Oh and the model posing with the Zevia? My mini-dachshund Chloe. She is the best dog ever, don't let the mugshot-esque picture get you.

And what did I do after raking for an ungodly amount of time? Run to the grocery store to get steamed lobsters for dinner. There was no way I was cooking. I DID steam some asparagus and also eat a mini crab cake (1 point - not too bad!)

I may have also consumed a Milano cookie 100 calorie pack and a mini chocolate chip muffin pack 100 calorie pack. I hate those 100 calorie packs, but the husband begged for some preportioned sweets, and I caved. I hope he gobbles them up soon. I am sure I earned at least 4 activity points today, so I am good but I would rather spend my points budget on something not so processed.

Tomorrow should be interesting. Meeting some friends for breakfast at Friendly's - not sure how large that chain of restaurants is outside of New England, but I went to their website to see the nutritional info and I am left to ask how can a garden omelet have more calories and fat then a Ham and cheese one or a bacon and four cheese one? And how the heck can they cram 860 calories and 55 grams of fat in said garden omelet??

I have two choices, 2 egg beaters and home fries for 9 points, or chicken noodle soup and a dressingless side salad for 8 points. I will more then likely have the first one. But I am proud that I did my research and got the points value in advance instead of going for what sounded healthy which clearly isn't!

Ok kiddos - I am off to get some Advil & go to bed. Have a great night!!

If Variety Is the Spice of Life.....

Then I am a bland eater. I am the kind of person who as my husband puts it "plays things out". I can eat the same breakfast & lunch for 2 weeks and be completely happy. But for some reason I always have to change up dinner! Weird.... I know.

For breakfast, I had eggs in a basket again. Although I did also have an orange and a pumpkin spice coffee with it. So I am living on the edge! :)

Lunch was some leftover chili, which tasted even better today. No chips though - I ran out of those!

Dinner tonight is one of my old favs. Trader Joe's orange chicken - 5 points for 1 cup! I have some brown rice to go with it and will try to raid the fridge for a nice veggie to go with it.

I also came across this puzzling snack - organic dried apples, and I took a picture of the nutritional info - 39 calories, no fat for one and a half gala apples with the water sucked out. Is the juiciness of an apple is where the calories hide?

I was proud of myself this evening. My husband & I went to the movies to see Boondock Saints 2 (which stunk by the way) and I brought my own popcorn. And by brought I mean stuffed in my purse and smuggled in. I also brought in a 60 calorie pack of prunes. I love them, and yes I am aware how lame that sounds, and I don't care.

Have a great night everyone! I am off to bed soon to get ready for a day of raking leaves ALL.DAY.TOMORROW. Wish me luck!

New recipe

Breakfast has to be my favorite meal of the day, but today I felt like eating a non-breakfast. So, I had a Trader Joe's chicken burger on an Arnold's Sandwich Thin with turkey bacon, spinach, tomato and ketchup. An awesome 6 point breakfast.




All day I waited to make dinner. I love when I have a new recipe to try! I made the Big Batch Bulgur chili recipe from Just Sweet Enough (<--- click there for the kick-ass recipe). In the interest of full disclosure I stumbled upon the recipe and Sweetie Pie's blog from Marisa :)

I made a few tweeks - which is rare because I am a very nervous cook and tend to follow recipes to the letter! But my husband begged me to put some ground turkey in the chili, and to omit the jalapeno. He hates spicy food! I also had a zucchini that needed to be used to I tossed that in there. When he saw the recipe has pumpkin in it, he was nervous......




But we both decided this is two thumbs up, and we will be making it on the regular. Thanks Sweetie Pie!!

And here is my dinner. Chili over a few sweet potato fries, a little lf cheese & lf sour cream and on TJ's suggestion, made some chips from the 2 for 1 point corn tortillas! They were amazing.


Thanks to all my new blogger friends for giving me such great, on 'point' (lol) recipes!

I am off to read a new blog, Katie J Is On Her Way, and then heading to bed early so I make my 5:45 Fitness Bootcamp.

Night-Night!

WW 1, Bad Eatings Habits 0

First off I need to say - I have had this blog for less then 24 hours and already have 5 followers - Woo Hoo! Its nice to know someone might read my little musings now and again.

On to business. What type of blogger am I? The one who takes pictures of all her meals? The one who sometimes has pictures? Well I know as a blog reader, and as a person who has the attention span of a 3 year old, I like pictures in blogs. But I also know the people I work with think I am weird enough so I won't be taking pictures of EVERY meal. Which leads me to.....

Blog Lesson Learned numero uno - don't cheap out and use your BlackBerry camera to take said pictures. I will whip out the point and shoot for tomorrows post.

Breakfast today was inspired by Brandi - eggs in a basket with turkey bacon and half an apple.



Very easy to make - and even the husband gave it two thumbs up!

I had some carrots and hummus as a snack, and then moved onto lunch, a chicken burger on an ezekiel sesame seed bun.

Whole Foods was giving these little rock stars out as free samples, which was a small but filling snack at 2 points.



After much searching at the local grocery store - I finally found the 2 for 1 pt corn tortillas TJ told me about! We made some chicken and had tacos for dinner. Ole!

Things just work out sometimes I learned today. I emailed a friend on a whim and asked if she would like to join Weight Watchers with me. She said she was going to call me Monday to ask the very same thing. We are starting meetings Monday! I had to have a conversation with myself today, saying that I started eating right today and there is no reason to eat like crap until Monday, which is what I normally would do before starting a diet.

But I think the difference is, I am not starting a diet. I changed my life today. And I am happy about it.

My First Post

My before

I can't believe I am actually doing this. I read many blogs a day, mostly weight loss/Weight Watchers ones. These 'friends in my head' (Marissa, Ms. Bitch Cakes, Sally, TJ & Brandi to name a few) have inspired me to get off my lazy arse and do something about my weight.

I think I was born overweight. I have never felt normal sized my whole life. Even at my thinnest, I would say i felt kind of overweight, at my heaviest (around 2002) - disgusting. I am teetering at the latter currently.

Almost 9 years ago, I lost almost 50lbs with weight watchers. Then I got cocky - I could do it on my own, why pay the money? Which led to 'points are boring - how about south beach?" which helped me lose about 15 more pounds putting me at my lightest weight as an adult, about 170 lbs. Restricting carbs does not work for the long haul. Restricting anything doesn't work. If you told me not to eat cardboard for a week, on day 3 I would be eating a Wheaties box.

So fast forward to today. I am currently doing a fitness bootcamp where the trainer preaches a no carb diet. And guess what I did? Yep - restricted those carbs, worked out like a MoFo, and lost about 15 lbs. A trip to Vegas for 5 days, and of course a post vacation binge (because why should eating like crap stop as soon as I get home??) made me find all that lost weight, and here I am back at the starting gate.

Lunch in Vegas

So what to do? Here is my plan:

• Weigh myself tomorrow
• Journal my food intake here on this blog
• Join WW (debating between the Thursday night meeting or Saturday morning)
• Go back to boot camp, until it expires 11/31 and then join the gym at work.

If you got this far, thanks! I promise less ramble in my posts from now on.

If any of my 'friends in my head' do read this any suggestions for a new blogger?