The dreaded weekend.....

I've been doing really well this week using the Flat Belly Diet's detox days a few times.... I started off on Monday and Tuesday eating from the detox plan and it was actually pretty easy. I had no coffee on Monday and Tuesday either. On Wednesday I allowed myself a morning coffee and a girl scout cookie! Forgot what else I actually had but there were a few other 'treats' I allowed myself. I figured I can eat 'normal' for a few days a week and be a bit more strict on some days too. So far it is working as I've already lost just over 2lb.

Now the tricky part.... trying to keep the weight loss off until Monday. Remember the weekends are my down fall :-( I'm determined to be good though. Today I've had my cornflakes for breakfast, but not the applesauce because I've run out. I will have the deli turkey, tomatoes and string cheese for lunch and will then have a smoothie for a snack later, then have something healthy for dinner, probably tilapia and veggies.

I'll check in on Monday and let you know if I managed to keep the weight off or if I am yet again back to square one?!!

Back to square one...

:-( Last week wasn't a good week. This morning I weigh one pound more than I did last Monday, instead of at least one pound less. Seriously, can I not just even lose a pound a week (and keep it off)? Of course I only have myself to blame.... I got off track on Thursday when I went out to book club. The host always puts snacks or finger food out and I wasn't going to deprive myself of any of it. Plus I had a couple of glasses of wine too. The thing is, because I knew I'd be eating at night I didn't even bother eating dinner. Things went down hill the rest of the week and I just didn't feel like watching what I ate. That's not to say I 'pigged-out' because I really don't eat a lot, I guess I just eat the wrong things.

Oh, Friday was a fun night at my neighbors tasting wine and cheese, but again, because I knew I'd be doing that I skipped dinner! So by Saturday and Sunday I just ate what I wanted and I paid the price for it this morning.

I know one pound is nothing really, but in the scheme of things this is my whole point about trying to lose weight.... if I don't lose it I will gain it and I don't want to end up at 50 being 30 lb heavier than I am now!

So, today I'm being strict. I'm trying to do the Flat Belly Detox again, but I doubt I'll do it for 4 days (I tried that a couple of months ago and only made it to day 3) but I think I will do it today and tomorrow then go back to counting points by midweek. You can see my first post when I did this in December HERE, and my second post HERE and my third post HERE.

Eating well, wish I could say the same for blogging!

I did really well last week with my eating, but not so much with the blogging on here. I wanted to add some photos with this update but the camera my pics are on is charging right now so I will try and do that later or tomorrow.

I want to log my weight each Monday morning because I keep forgetting what it is and I'm not making a note of it anywhere. I get on the scale nearly every day, sometimes I miss it but for the most part it's at least 5 times a week. My weight will fluctuate up and down a pound more or less through out the week but when Monday rolls around I feel like I'm back to square one. So for my personal record I'm saying this morning I weighed myself and I was 126lb. Not very encouraging considering that was the weight I was last June when I knew I'd gained the 10lb and was determined to get it off. One day last week though, I weighed 125.8. I had an off day on Saturday when I allowed myself to not count points and just eat what I wanted. I probably went a little crazy, had some chocolates a couple of glasses of wine, some chips etc, but you'd think I could have one day off a week? Obviously not!

So, this week.... another concerted effort at keeping my points at around 20 and not indulging in anything 'bad'. I do have popcorn or WW icecream most nights so I still feel like I'm having treats and 'non-diet' food. We'll see how I do.

I made my own WW 0pt soup this week... those are the pics I've got on my camera. I'll blog about it later.

Update

The week is going so fast and my days are busy (although with what I don't really know). I just know that I can't seem to get on here every day and post, so I will try to update 2 or 3 times a week, more if I can.

I'm still doing good watching my points. Need to drink more water and exercise every day. I didn't do it yesterday cos I had an appointment at the ENT. I was going to do my dvd in the afternoon, but then never got around to it. The key is to get it done in the morning.

A Picture of Health!

Doesn't this look fresh and healthy? I'm lucky that I love fresh fruit and vegetables like I do. They don't appeal at all to my hubby (nor my 9 yr old for that matter) but I get more excited at seeing something like this than I do at seeing a McDonald's quarterpounder - seriously! That's not to say I don't eat the 1/4 pounder (thankfully it's not that often I do). Hubby will eat the fruit, at least the apples and oranges (bananas make his mouth itch) and Kristen will eat a few fruits but not much of them!

I got on the scale this morning and I've really only lost a pound since last Monday, but overall, I'm about 3lb down from what I weighed just before New Years Eve (when I was eating all the junk food we had in the house, and drinking a couple of glasses of wine every night - it was Christmas after all!)

I guess I always want the weight to drop quickly, but I think because there's not much I have to lose it will take time and probably more exercise than I'm currently doing. It's going to warm up this week some, so hopefully I can get out and walk as well as do some Pilates on my dvd? I know I need to 'move' more, so I shall make more of an effort this week. Also got to drink more water.

Here's something we had last Friday.... the skinny pizza's from Heather's blog. Made with Oroweat thin sandwiches. Kristen really liked these!

Take the sandwich and split it in half (it's actually already split for you), I popped these in a hot oven for a few minutes to crisp up a little. Then spoon on a tablespoon of pizza sauce. This sauce worked out at 0pts because it has very little fat in it and 3g of fiber.

Kristen just topped her pizza with reduced fat cheese (because I forgot to buy some pepperoni!) but for mine I sauted some mushrooms, onions and bell pepper) I added a spoonful of this to my pizza and just a small amount of cheese.

There was only the sandwich and cheese to count for points so these turned out at only 1pt each half!(approx). I had mine with a spinach salad for dinner on Friday, and I was pretty full afterwards. We'll be making these again, and no doubt trying different toppings, they were really tasty.

Doing good...

I was good over the weekend, didn't even have a glass of wine. I usually get off track on weekends and end up back at square one on Monday morning. This time I didn't want to spoil the good streak I'd had all week so I counted my points and didn't even bother having a glass of wine.

I'll up date later this week with my progress.

Food Journal for today:

Breakfast:
coffee 2pts
bagel w/cream cheese 3pts

Lunch:
1 cup progresso soup 1pt
1 Oroweat thin sandwich 1pt
Spinach w/1tblsp raspberry dressing 1pt
1/2 large apple 1pt

Snack:
fat free greek yogurt 1pt

Dinner:
Tacos,
2 taco shells 2pts
1/2 cup ground turkey taco 3pts
1/4 cup refried beans 1pt
Spinach w/ 1/2 tblsp dressing 1/2 pt

Evening treat: WW Icecream cone 2pts

Total Points: 18 1/2 :-)

Exercise: Walk away the pounds, 1 mile walk

Hump Day .... week 1

Well today is day 3 and I'm doing great. Yesterday I made the skinny chili cheese fries (you can see part 1 of the recipe HERE on Youtube). Oh my gosh, they were yummy. I would never have thought of having these because, well to be honest it sounds like 'junk food', not something you associate with healthy eating. But when you watch the portion size, and use low fat items like the turkey chili and the cheese, there isn't any reason why you can't have these.

This morning I made Heather's breakfast sandwiches, using Thomas's light English muffins, egg beaters, ww cheese singles and a slice of bacon on each one. I had one for breakfast (4pts) and 4 others are in the fridge for the rest of the week. This is the kind of thing my hubby would pop in the microwave in the evening (he stays up much later than me and gets a little hungry before bed time!) so they are there if he needs them.

I'll definitely be making more of these. I also found some low carb cinnamon bagels that only have 2 pts each so that is another breakfast I like.. I ad one serving of the ww cream cheese, I honestly can't taste any difference in it being low in fat and calories. It's well worth eating this way.

I've added my food journal to yesterday's post, and I'll post below what I've had today as I'm writing this in the evening.

Breakfast:
coffee w/creamer 2 pts
Breakfast sandwich 4 pts

Lunch:(total 5pts)
1 cup progresso soup 1pt
Tuna wrap:
low carb wrap 1pt
1/4 cup tuna 2pts
1tblsp light 1000 island dressing 1pt
spinach 0pts

Snack:
fat free greek yogurt 1pt
carrots 0pts

Dinner:
side salad w/1tblsp dressing 1pt
Jenny O turkey burger on thin sandwich (forgot what they call these!) 5pts total
some left over oven fries from last night,about 1/2 potato worth 1pt

Total Points: 19, so far. I may have a snack tonight!

Great Chicken...

We tried the WW Chick's oven friend chicken last night and I have to tell you it was really good. Hubby and daughter liked it a lot. I have to say it is the crispiest oven chicken I've had. I've used Panko crumbs before but not with cornflakes too.

As you can see from the above picture, I made a whole batch of them. This was a packet of 12 fresh chicken tenders. I froze them on this tray for an hour before putting them in a ziploc bag and putting back in the freezer. The nice thing is I only used 5 tenders last night so I have a few left for another meal, and I also made some chicken pieces like this, so I have 'nuggets' in the freezer too. This is so much nicer than buying the pre-made ones, which make me wonder just what it is they use inside, cos it very rarely looks like 'white chicken'! I love knowing exactly what is in and on these.

For dinner I had 2 tenders on a salad with Asian Sesame Seed light dressing. See yesterday's post for my food journal that day.

Can I just say though, when I first got my Weight Watchers pack I calculated how many points I was allowed based on the questions it asked. I am only allowed 19 points per day! It's really hard to stick to such a low number, so I'm going to be more realistic and set myself a limit between 20-25, hopefully staying nearer the 20 mark.

Today I'm going to try WW Chick's Skinny Chili Cheese Fries ;-)

Food Journal:

Breakfast:
coffee w/creamer 2pts
Bagel w/ ww cream cheese 3 pts

Lunch:
Progresso French Onion soup 2 pts
Light English Muffin 1pt
ww cheese slice 1pt

Snack:
Fat free greek yogurt 1pt

Dinner:
Chili cheese fries 6pts
boiled carrots 0pts (I like boiled carrots, and they were from our garden!)
small salad w/dressing 1pt

Snacks:
Popcorn 1pt
WW Icecream cone 2pts

Total Points: 20

It REALLY starts today....

I got off track a little on Saturday and Sunday because I got in to the mind set that Mondays is always the best day to start something new! Despite the fact I had a yummy healthy meal of baked Tilapia and sauted swiss chard on Saturday night, while the hubby and kids (Kristen had her friend Connor from next door sleeping over) ate greasy Digorno pizza, I still allowed myself a couple of glasses of wine while watching tv later. And on Sunday I let myself have a few chocolates "one last time" and we had spaghetti and meatballs w/garlic bread for dinner (and it wasn't a small portion!).

But with that all said, things REALLY start today... for me anyway. Hubby says he's on board but it's the lunchtimes that are his downfall when he goes out to eat with work colleagues. This blog is all about and for me, so I won't worry too much about what he's doing ;-)

I have been surfing around looking for some good 'diet' blogs or Weight Watcher blogs and came across a great one yesterday - www.thewwchick.com Click on the link and it will take you to Heather's website where you can access her blog AND some great Youtube videos of her recipes.

I'm already trying one of them out tonight....Oven Fried Chicken using Panko and Cornflake crumbs. I've done similar dishes before but I like that I know the ww pts value of her meals. You can CLICK HERE to see her video on how to make them. I'll let you know next time how they turn out.

Also, I think I will use this site as a food journal too and at the end of every day list what I've eaten and how many points it totalled. Heather does that at her blog too and recently completed 365 days of her food journal. She's continuing with it in 2010. I'll be lucky if I journal 36 days, but I hope I can.... and more.

Food Journal:
Breakfast:
Coffee 2pts (I can't give up my creamer!)
Oatmeal 2pts
milk (less than 1/2 cup) 1pt

Snack:
Hummus 2 pts
veggies 0 pts

Lunch:
Smartones Angel Hair pasta 4pts
1/2 an apple 1 pt (? I'm guessing, need to look this up)

Snack: Took my Kristen to the movies and took along healthy pop popcorn
Popcorn 1pt
diet coke!

Dinner:
2 chicken tenders 4pts
salad w/dressing 2pts
Yoplait Parfait 2pts

Bedtime: I was really cold last night and couldn't warm up, so I treated myself to a cup of Horlicks! 2 tbps =2pts and I used 1/2 cup of milk topped up with hot water 1 1/2 pts.

Total Points: 24 1/2

Exercise: Walk Away The Pounds 1 mile walk

Day 2

I did pretty good yesterday with eating better, and this morning when I got on the scale (I can't help sometimes checking every day!) I was 1lb lighter :-)

Yesterday I made some hummus so that I could snack on veggies instead of candy! The recipe is a weight watchers one, and has only 1 pt per 1/4 cup. I'll post the recipe later when I get more organized in here ;-) For dinner last night I made 'WW Skinny Chicken Parmesan' from Gina's wonderful website. If you want to check out some great weight watcher recipes, go visit her site HERE.

I've tried a few of her recipes, and intend to try many more. I loved the zucchini soup!

Today while I was out I picked up some yummy fresh berries at the store, and also some WW yogurts and the new 'Yoplait Delights' to try. I would have liked to try the strawberry or chocolate parfait but they only had the lemon and caramel, so I got the lemon. I'll let you know what I think next time... but for only 100 cals per serving, I'm sure it will make a nice after dinner dessert

I love fresh fruit, berries in particular, so I'll be snacking on these and having them on top of cereal for breakfast too.

Welcome

Hi there, welcome to my new blog, 'The Healthy Den'. It's January 1st 2010 as I type this, the start of a brand new year.... a new decade! I'm creating this blog mainly for motivation for myself, but if you happen to stop by here I hope it may inspire you or help motivate you toward your own 'healthy goals' this year.

So, before I start I need to 'tweak' the look in here and add some cool links etc. Check back soon.