Time for an update . . .

Well I'm obviously not getting on here on a weekly basis despite still wanting to, it's just hard to get motivated some days. But I'm here today and am happy to share with you a little update of how well I'm doing on my healthy eating plan (and losing a few pounds).

When I started this blog I weighed 126lb and I know that isn't heavy at all. Many of you have asked (or mentioned) that I don't look overweight and I don't need to lose any weight, to which I would reply "I know, you are totally right" ;-) BUT, it all boils down to the fact that I WANT to lose weight. At 126lb my jeans and capris I wore last year were uncomfortable tight and I know the weight that I lose will come straight off my belly and no where else, so that is why I chose to lose a few pounds. Of course the main part is I want to eat healthy. I really do enjoy fresh fruit, salads and veg more than fried foods. I've been trying to get back to counting Weight Watcher points and walking more each day. It's working ..... as of this morning I weight 120lb :-) Last week I was actually 119.8 - the weekends are still my downfall and although I was happy to see 119.8 on Friday morning, I was not happy to see 122.8 on Monday morning! It's my goal this week to try and eat good over the weekend too so I don't gain 2 or 3 pound again. It's not like I over eat, but I just don't watch my points and I have a few glasses of wine too.

I've started planning out some daily meal plans for myself. Rather than try to follow examples of meal plans in the Weight Watcher magazines (which always have things I wouldn't bother cooking) I've written out 7 days of 'daily eating', keeping my points below 19 as best I can and making simple meals where I don't usually have to even follow a recipe. Here's a sample of one of my days:

You can click on the menu to make it bigger if it's too small for you to read. It's much easier seeing in advance what you will eat each day rather than trying to think of things for mealtimes every few hours! Some days my snack is a smoothie made with fresh or frozen berries and a fat free yogurt, and my night time snack is often a 1pt bag of popcorn .

My sister recently sent me her WW magazine from England (which I must say is much better than the one we get here in the US). It has so many more recipes and they have a lot more ww ready meals and chips and cookies and even wine, that I wish I could get my hands on! I made a 0pt vegetable curry from the magazine, so this dish above was a total of 3pts (for the 1/2 cup of brown rice). A few have asked for the recipe so I will try to share that in the next day or so, giving you my US version.

and here's on e of my simple low point lunches. A 0 pt salad! I make it 0 points by just having lettuce, tomoatoes, cucumber and a little bell pepper and a few sprays of 'salad spritzer' instead of light ranch dressing. Then I pair it with a cup of Progresso soup that is just 1 point. If I'm still hungry (which often I'm not) I will have a fat free greek yogurt for another 1 point.

I am wearing my pedometer every day now too and trying to get in 10,000 steps per day. I go walking for half an hour most mornings with my neighbor Cheryl. If I do that then I usually can manage 10,000 steps or more. If I don't do my morning walk I average only about 6 or 7k.

So, how are you doing with your eating habits? Are they healthy, could you do better... do you want to do better? I'd love to hear from you :-)