Measurements & New Schedule

Cheryl and I started a new gym workout schedule this weekend. It will last for 6 weeks! Cheryl has gone all out and even done us both a binder (I'll have to take pics and add later). We were at the gym for two hours on Sunday!!! 45 minute cardio workout then we worked on chest (which is always a killer) and new ab moves.

I was supposed to take my measurements that day but forgot, so I took them yesterday. Not much change since last time, but hopefully I'll see some changes as we head in to this new schedule. Here they are:

Bust: 37"

Waist: 32"

Hips: 37"

Right Thigh: 20 1/2"

Right Arm: 10 1/4"

Weight: 126.8 (one day last week I was actually 124.6!!!) :-) but it goes up and down depending on what I eat.

Gym - going strong!

I just wanted to post another update, no pics I'm afraid. This is really just for me as a record of what I'm doing. Cheryl and I are still going to the gym at least 4 times a week, usually 5 or 6 times even. We even went last Thursday morning which was Thanksgiving day!!! 

My diet isn't the greatest, but for the most part I'm watching the things I eat and am maintaining my weight. I can't help but get on the scales some days because even though I'm trying not to focus on my weight but tone up instead, there's always that part of me that is curious, and always that part of me that really still wants to see a few pounds disappear. So, I got on the scale this morning and was shocked to see 126 :-)  Shocked, because I went out last night to see the new Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn (which was the best one so far I think), had two glasses of red wine and more than half of their individual pizzas (artichoke and goats cheese - yum)! That's 2.2lb lost since I last recorded my weight here of 128.2 on Nov 14th. I'm definitely happy with that.

Next week Cheryl and I start a new 6 week gym workout. She's put together a binder for us both, with what cardio and weights we'll do each week. I'll try to take pics of that for next time.  We'll be taking measurements on Sunday (I can compare them with what I took a few weeks ago) and keeping track of those, and setting some individual goals for ourselves too.

Weight:

Nov 14th - 128.2

Nov 30th - 126.0

Quick Update

Just a quick update ...

I've been doing great at going to the gym this past week. I need to start logging here (or somewhere else, usually I add it to my FB status) when I've been and what I worked on. My neighbor Cheryl is really helping to keep me motivated. We are trying to go with each other as much as we can.

Last week I went on Tuesday, twice on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday!!! I'm eating well and have probably lost a pound or two but it just goes back on some days. I'll keep better track of my gym visits, my measurements (from month to month) and weight each Monday (just out of curiosity!)  and try to remember to blog here at least once a week.

Measurements

This past week I went to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, TWICE on Thursday, Friday and Sunday!  I am pretty pleased with myself and I hope I can keep up this good habit for quite some time.... especially over the holidays when it's so easy to not do anything, especially once school is out for Christmas break!

I have to not look at the scale (or so I'm told), because the weight is not coming off. As of this morning I am 128.2. I decided to take my measurements today too. If I am not going to look at the scale then I need to look at the inches ;-)  I'm recording them here so I can look back and see the changes (hopefully) each month. 

So, as of Monday November 14th:

Bust: 37"

Waist: 33"  !!!!! :-o

Hips: 37 1/2"

Right thigh 20 1/2"

Right bicep: 10 1/2"

I plan on eating good this week. AND I must start drinking more water. I've made a menu plan from the Clean Eating website. I will try to post that later.

I'm back!!!

Surprise, it's me, I'm back. Well I haven't been anywhere really, I just stopped posting here for a while because I wasn't really watching what I was eating and I was totally NOT exercising at all. Same old story, I just got out of the habit and got lazy!  Sad to say that my weight has crept back up to 128lb and I just can't seem to lose anything!

Not for the want of trying. . .  I joined my local SNAP gym a few weeks ago. My neighbor/friend Cheryl was going which motivated me to join again. I used to go to Gold's gym but canceled my membership after a year cos I just got sick of going. This Snap gym is much closer to us, just 10 minutes away. SO much better. . . so much so that I even went twice today.  I've been going about 3 times a week for the past few weeks, trying to eat better. Cheryl is trying to follow the Eat Clean Diet, so I'm trying to follow along too. Not being really strict with the diet though, just trying to make 'clean' meals and snack on healthy things like almonds and greek yogurt. 

So, things are going well in the 'look after me' department, but what's bothering me is that I'm not losing weight? Could it be because I'm now gaining muscle? I just really used to like to see the scale show a loss after a few days of eating better, but right now it just seems to be creeping up. I was 123.5 a few weeks ago and slowly it's gone up. Now even eating right it's not going down again :-( 

The holidays are approaching so I don't want to get too strict with my diet, but I'm thinking I might need to go back to WW and actually count my points? Or at least count my calories which I'm not even doing either. 

Anyway, I thought I'd make a quick update in here so that when I browse back through my entries (which I often like to do) I can see where I stand, what I weigh and what I'm doing with regards to exercise.

STS Challenge - Update

I say update because if I'm honest I don't even know what week we're in now! According to Debbie's blog we're starting week 9, so I am usually posting about the week prior, which would be week 8. But I missed posting the weekend before that (which was for week 7), so I'm just gonna call this an overall update!

So, where to start? Well, I haven't gained any weight over the last couple of weeks, BUT I haven't lost any either. I've actually been trying a new diet called Slimming World. Has anyone heard about it/seen it? It was featured in a magazine a couple of weeks ago, and it's from England. My sister has actually done it before but right now she's sticking with WW PointsPlus (or ProPoints as they call it in the UK).  I stopped doing the WW cos I was sick of counting points, then I was just counting calories and to be honest I got rather sick of that too. The SW diet says you don't need to count anything, and it allows you to eat as much pasta, rice, potatoes as you like?!! I know, sounds crazy doesn't it. There's a lot more to it than that, and it's really hard to get all of the information about it right now, even though they've had groups set up and running in TX for the past year. There's no groups near me so I can't even go along to buy the literature. Joining on line is out of the question because based on the exchange rate they want $160 for a 3 month subscription!  

Anyway, all that said, I only stuck with SW for a week. Honestly I don't think it will work for me eating pasta and potatoes all the time, although I didn't put any weight on, I did always feel bloated! Not a good feeling. SO, this week I've decided to re-read my South Beach Diet book!  I probably sound crazy jumping from one diet to another, but it just keeps me motivated to eat healthy. As you probably know, South Beach is all about eating low carb with healthy whole grains etc (after the first two weeks) This week I am doing phase one but I think next week I'll introduce whole wheat bread for breakfast and some fruit. Eating lean protein and salads for dinner is always a good thing, so hubby and I will be trying to stick to that for a while.

Hope everyone else is staying strong on the challenge. I hope to get by and read some blogs this week.

STS Challenge - week 6

I wrote a post mid week below this one, so I won't be doing much of an update tonight. I'm happy to say that after last weekends 'binge' and gain I did lose 2lb this week following the Flat Belly Diet :-) This was one of the lunches I mentioned . . .

 It looks very bland, but surprisingly very filling! My problem is the 2lb I lost doesn't seem to stay gone for long, we went out to a Cuban restaurant with friends last night and I ate 'rubbish' today! So no telling what the scale will say tomorrow. I think at this rate I'll be just glad to not have gained any more weight by the time this challenge is over, because I just can't seem to lose any permanently!

The one thing lacking this past week was exercise. All I did was one day of  Jillian Michaels Shred! So, some new goals are needed I think (realistic ones!):

1. Track calories and keep within 1200 per day

2. Treadmill Mon, Wed, Thurs

3.Drink 640z water each day

4. Take Vitimins

Not so much new goals, but ones I want to hopefully check off a list each day to keep myself accountable. I CAN DO THIS! 

Getting serious!

I'm typing this on my iPad, it's the first time I've tried doing so. Only problem with iPad is I can't upload any photos! But I thought I'd write a quick update (for myself mainly) and I'll post pics next time, probably Sunday when I update for the STS challenge.

So, after gaining 3lb over the 4th July weekend (including a few days before that too), I decided I needed to take drastic measures to get back on track! I started the Flat Belly Diet 4 Day Jumpstart program! I have the Flat Belly Diet book but I've never done the full diet, mainly because their meals seem to be quite large and the main program is based on about 1500 cals a day. I need to stick to just 1200 cals a day if I want to see any loss on the scale, but their 4 day Jumpstart is really good and I've done it before and know it works for me. Basically it helps to eliminate bloat which is probably what I have (I know that's what I have)and it helps me quickly lose the 2 or 3 pounds I've usually gained. The diet is very bland, but the surprising thing is I'm never hungry AND I've already dropped 2lb in two days!

A typical day looks like this:
breakfast,
1 cup of cornflakes
1cup of skim milk
1/2cup of unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup of raw or roasted sunflower seeds (I buy the raw organic ones, then toast them myself, they're much crunchier that way)

Lunch:
4oz deli turkey
1 low fat string cheese
1 pint of cherry tomatoes!

Pretty bland lunch but it really does fill me up.

Snack (I usually have this about 3pm)
1 smoothie, made with 1 cup of skim milk, 1 cup of frozen blueberries and 1 tbsp of flaxseed oil stirred in

Dinner:
4 oz baked tilapia
1/2 cup of brown rice
1 cup of green beans (the frozen kind)

You also drink what they call "sassy water" which is water with lemon, cucumber, ginger and mint infused in it overnight. I usually just put lemon and cucumber in my pitcher and put it
in the fridge.

Lunch yesterday was 3oz canned tuna, 1cup steamed carrots and 1 string cheese! Lol:-) it really does look like diet food, but it works, and I'm not hungry, and I only have two more days left:-) then I'll get back to counting my calories.

Off Track :-(

I didn’t get a chance to post last Sunday because I had friends visiting from outta town (out of country to be exact, my bloggy friend Sue came to visit from Canada – you can read that post on my daily blog if you want to HERE).

The few days after my last post were going really well, then I met Sue at the Outlets in San Marcos on Wednesday ! That day was ok too, I didn’t get on the treadmill but I did get to walk over 11,000 steps, and burn over 300 calories, and I didn’t go crazy at lunch, just a chicken sandwich from Wendy’s (well, ok I had the fries too). The next day wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. I made myself get on the treadmill but my legs were killing me from the day before! Ate well for the first half of the day and then . . . .  you can insert ‘the rest is history’ here!!  I wouldn’t say I’ve been off track since then, I’ll be honest and say I totally derailed! Sue came to stay at ours with her hubby that Saturday and stayed for the 4th July festivities at our neighbors. Honestly, I’ve been eating whatever I like since then, and not surprising have gained 3LB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :-( I only have myself to blame!

I need to get back on track! I’ve put off again this week and have no reason or excuse for doing so. TOMORROW I will be back on track. This is exactly what happened last summer, I got off track, started eating whatever I liked, told myself I wasn’t overweight, so I could eat anything I wanted and didn’t exercise. I gained over 1olb by Thanksgiving.  Ok, so I may not really need to lose much weight, but I do need to stop eating the junk food AND I need to get back to exercising at least 5 times a week.

We are only half way through this 12 week challenge – I am NOT giving up! I’ll be linking up with Debbie this week, and reading other blogs to help me get my motivation back too.

If you’re here reading from the STS challenge, thanks for stopping by. I’m hoping to visit all the link-ups this week.

A much better week – STS Week #3

Hooray, I’m happy to report I had a much better week this week. For starters I lost 1.2lb (I’m currently 123.2lb) :-) Because it’s getting too hot to run/walk outside, I went on the treadmill, and managed to do that 5 times this week. Here’s the run down:

Monday – 30 minutes treadmill (total calories burned all day 140)

Tuesday – 32 minutes treadmill (total calories burned all day 241)

Wednesday – day off! (head was aching from sinus/allergy issues)

Thursday – 35 minutes treadmill (total calories burned all day 326)

Friday – 30 minutes treadmill (total calories burned all day 247)

Saturday – 32 minutes treadmill (total calories burned all day 242)

Sunday – day off! But still burned 111 calories doing 30 minutes of yard work!

The treadmill will tell me how many calories I burned doing the 30 minute walk/jog interval training, but my pedometer also clocks other calories burned from the extra steps I take all day. So the number of cals I’ve been pluggin in to MyFitnessPal.com is the total for both.

These were my 3 goals for last week

1. Measure out 64oz of water and put in the fridge, make sure I drink at least 64oz EVERY DAY!  I did drink more water but wasn’t measuring out the 64 oz, so I want to aim for that again this week.

2. TRACK MY CALORES – 1200 per day. I’ve kept my net calories below 1200 all week (going over just one night by 92 calories) using the MyFitnesspal app on my Ipad.

3. Walk/Run on the treadmill for 30 minutes Mon-Fri. As you can see from my log above, I didn’t do Mon – Fri BUT I did do 5 days this week ;-)

I’m still enjoying an eggwhite omelet with laughing cow cheese in the middle for breakfast. Sometimes I have a Vitatop muffin with it, other times an Eggo low fat waffle. This really keeps me full for a good few hours. I notice if I just have cold cereal and milk, I can be hungry again in just half an hour!

Butternut squash was ready in the garden this week, so I made one of my favorite soups (butternut squash soup, from Paula Deen). I had it a few lunch times with another favorite – spinach salad with goats cheese and berries.  I have more squash this week so I’ll be making more soup.

    Spaghetti squash also from the garden this week, made a lovely alternative for me when we had spaghetti pasta and meatballs! I had the squash with a low calorie cabernet sauce I had made and put in the freezer.

SO, my goals for this week:

1) Measure out 64 oz water/iced tea and keep in the fridge. Drink at least 64oz every day.

2) Do 30 minutes on the treadmill 5 times this week.

3) and a new goal . . .  do upper body toning for 15 minutes (using my Reebok dvd) for 3 days – Mon, Wed, Fri.

4) Still track my calories daily, using MyFitnessPal.com

So, how did you do this week? I’m off to check the Mr Linky on Debbie’s site and make a few visits ;-)

Week 2

Disappointing! Sad to say, that’s the word that sums up this week for my  STS Challenge :-(  It wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t good either. The bad news  is I have gained 2lb!!!!!  The good news is I exercised every day from Mon – Fri (I let myself take the weekends off because I’m usually doing yard work and running up to the grocery store.

I started the week off good (as I always do) and was tracking my calories pretty good, but by Thursday I think I got off track. Tracking my food calories is something I REALLY need to get better at.  Hubby was back from his trip, so first thing Monday morning I got up and went out for a walk/jog. I downloaded some interval training music to my Ipod so it alternates between a brisk walk to a light jog, I did this for 25 minutes around the neighborhood.

Tues – I did an upper body workout using my Reebok bench and weights (using the dvd that came with it).

Wed – I went out again at 7.30am and did a 30 min walk/jog.

Thur – I managed to clear up my guest room (put all my craft stuff away) so I could put the treadmill down, so I didn’t have to go out so early. If I don’t go out by 8am it’s Waaaay too hot out there (we’ve had triple digits all this week).  So I did 30 mins doing the same interval walk/run. I’m starting to like this now too, and much easier to do in the a/c AND with a fan blowing on me ;-)

Fri – on the treadmill again for 30 minutes.

Week 3 Goals.

1. Measure out 64oz of water and put in the fridge, make sure I drink at least 64oz EVERY DAY!

2. TRACK MY CALORES – 1200 per day.

3. Walk/Run on the treadmill for 30 minutes Mon-Fri.

One of the breakfasts I am starting to enjoy is a simple egg white omelet with a laughing cow cheese inside, and a slice of toast. I’ve noticed since I stopped following WW pts, that I’m not eating as much fruit! I need to buy more berries and oranges this week.

I also made a herb roasted chicken this week, using herbs from my garden. . . .

Not sure if  I’ve shared pictures of our garden on here for  a while, so for my new STS bloggy friends, here it is.

 

Slimmer for Summer - week 1

I wanted to make a quick post tonight and link up with everyone on the challenge, because tomorrow is the dead line to do it and I might not get the chance to blog.

This first week went ok, but I know I can do much better. Hubby was working away in Denver this past week (we live in TX), so a lot of my meals were frozen ones. I think they are full of sodium and I really shouldn't have had as many as I did. I wasn't able to get out in the mornings to walk/jog because I don't like leaving my daughter home alone, so I did do weights for 4 days, I missed Tues and Friday. I also did weights yesterday and today.

I canceled my WW online subscription this week because I hadn't logged in for a few days. I've decided to count my calories instead and am trying to stick to 1200 per day.

Starting tomorrow I am going to go out walking at least 3 times per week. If I do more, all the better. On the alternate days I will do body toning with my weights.

My weight on Friday was 122.4. A couple of weeks ago I was 121, so it's been going up and down (I was 124 one day last week) for the past few weeks. If I could lose just one pound per week and keep it off, I'd be happy!

Here's hoping for a much better week.

Slimmer This Summer

Slimmer This Summer is a 12 week challenge that’s just starting today over at Debbie’s Blog ‘Debbie Does Dieting’.

As you can tell from my blog posts (or lack thereof) I’ve been getting a bit lax in my diet and exercise. And as usual it’s often during the weekend that it happens. I was doing ok during the week but last weekend and this weekend I have totally over-indulged in cocktails, margaritas, pizza’s burgers  - I know, it’s disappointing to say the least.

I’m rather mad at myself too. It’s like all my hard work just went down the drain when I got on the scale this morning and saw I’d gained about 4lb!  Debbie’s challenge seems just what I need to get back on track. That and the fact I just bought a bikini while out shopping with my BFF yesterday. We had a great day at the mall, I bought a new dress and some gorgeous shoes, AND found a new swim suit, which was the whole point of the trip. 

Here’s me in the dress last night at my neighbors house next door (where we always hang out and have cocktails or wine at the weekend) :-) 

And here’s my lovely new shoes – I just love em!!

I love hanging out with my neighbs, I just need to not over-indulge in the food and drink when I do. It’s still something I just can’t seem to get the hang of, but I will continue to try.  I look ok in my new swim suit but I want to look GREAT, so I hae to work out more!

I think I’m going to try something new…. instead of counting WW points, I’m going to just track the calories I eat. I’m also going to try and workout each day, using my weights to tone up, and going for a walk/jog in the morning before it gets too hot (the walk will have to wait til hubby gets back from a work trip next week cos I don’t like leaving my dd alone in the house.)

I think I’ll also find it motivating to read other bloggers joining in with Debbie.

So, my goals for this 12 week challenge are :

1) To get down to my goal weight of 117lb

2) Track my food and drinks using my new Ipad App.

3) Stick to 1300 calories a day (or less!)

4) Drink at least 8 cups of water/tea per day

5) To workout each day using weights, and go walking/jogging every other day.

Not too many goals but hopefully I can meet them! We’ll see.

I haven’t taken measurements today other than my waist – 34 1/2 “ (around my belly button)!!!!

Friday Weigh-In

It’s Friday, so I weighed in today (even though I’ve been weighing myself nearly every day since I ‘piled on the pounds’ after last weekend!) But today is the day that counts. I’m happy to say I’ve lost the 3lb I gained since last Friday morning, but it means the scale is exactly as it was last Friday morning! I didn’t lose any. Can’t complain at that, I really shouldn’t go so overboard over the weekends, if I expect to see any loss. Maintaining is good too I guess (well not really, cos I’d still like to lose about 5lbs).

So, here’s the weekend again, but I’m determined to watch what I eat and try to still count my points too if I can. 

Here’s a few pics of what I’ve been eating this week… still forgetting to take pics of every meal, but ‘a few pics’ are better than ‘no pics at all’ !

Breakfast on Wednesday, All bran and banana with Almond Breeze milk. For lunch, tuna on a sandwich thin, and a cup of tomato soup.

Another breakfast, bagel thin, scrambled egg and blackberries!

I REALLY hope I can be good this weekend. Wish me luck!!!

I did good, then not so good!

I did really well counting my points last week, but then the weekend came and ruined it!!! As usual. I got off track with exercising too :( Only did Jillian Michaels last Monday then just got busy (and had an emotional upset, which I won’t talk about here) and my heart just wasn’t in it.

I weighed in on Friday morning and was down .2lb. Not much at all but I’ll take it.  Friday I drank a few glasses of wine! Saturday I tried to be good with food, then Sunday…. Mother’s Day, and I drank Mimosa’s AND white wine most of the day!!!!!!!! Didn’t count points AT ALL! Had these . . . .

. . . . and lots of this . . . .

salmon and asparagus quiche, roasted potatoes (in butter), salad and green beans with almonds (in butter!) And it didn’t stop there! Later in the evening I popped over to my neighbor’s. She’d been to a wine tasting weekend with her mom and sis, so I had more wine, and for some unknown reason a few servings of potato salad – just cos it was there. I wasn’t hungry in the least !!!

Why can’t I be more disciplined at the weekend? Why do I cave so easily and eat ALL the wrong things? I wish I knew. On Monday morning I nearly freaked out when I got on the scale – I’d gained 3lb since Friday morning!!!  I ate really well yesterday and thankfully I’ve already lost 2lb of the 3! My aim this week is to stay on track with points AND get through the weekend counting them too.

How do you do at the weekends? Do you still count points? Is it easy or hard for you not to over-indulge? What works for you when you’re staying OP? I’d love to know.

Weigh-in Day – and proud of myself!

I last posted about my weigh-in on April 23rd (which was a Saturday, and my WI day is usually Friday). I need to get in to the habit of making a Friday post so I can look back and see my progress.  I weighed yesterday and the scale has gone up .4lb since last week.  Strange in a way because I feel like I lost rather than gained, and that is because after my WI day last week I gained about a pound and a half after having too much food and wine (for Easter). So my weight on Friday was actually a pound lighter than I weighed on Monday!!  I know, I really should stop weighing myself so much, but I can’t help it. I always want to know what ‘the damage’ is after a weekend of not tracking and drinking wine!

This weekend I am determined to stay on track and count my points, dipping in to my weeklies if I need to.  I was really proud of myself last night. I ate well all day and come the evening when I would usually throw tracking out the window and indulge in wine and cheese and have no idea how many points I’d had, I actually weighed out a piece of aged Gouda (one of my fav cheeses) 2pp, counted out 7 Triscuits. 3pp AND I measured out every glass of wine I had;-) (which was 3 by the way).  I also had some celery and carrots and measured out 2 tblsp of lite blue cheese dressing, 2pp.

I was reading Danica’s blog this morning, and look at the surprise I got . . . .

The Winner of this pretty cool Wine Tasting Kit drawn using random.org is…

#13 Denise on Tue, 26th Apr 2011 8:33 pm……Congrats Denise!  Please email me your full name, mailing address and phone number to danicasdaily at gmail.com and I will have your kit sent out ASAP. You bet I’ve already emailed Danica :-) Thanks Danica, your blog is awesome and you have the best giveaways. Here’s the goodies I get . . . .

* Stainless Steel Wine Aerator

* Rebate for a Bottle of Cavit Italian Wine

* Wine Bottle Opener and Foil Cutter

* Tasting certificate for your favorite Bertolli Frozen Meal

* Coupon for a free Bertolli Sauce

What a great way to start my weekend :-) Along with this . . .

1 egg and eggwhite scrabled, Morning star veggie sausage patty, low fat waffle, squirt of cream and strawberries…. all for just 6pp :-)

Mixin it up a bit!

OK, so I’m rethinking this 30 Day Shred thing! I’ve only done two days and I’m exhausted! I don’t want to not do it, what I think would work better for me is if I set a goal to do the Shred just 3 days a week – Mon, Wed, Fri – and on Tues and Thur use a different dvd. For one reason I don’t want to bore myself with the same 20 minute workout every day for the next 6 weeks, and another thing, my muscles are very sore after the workout so I’d like a day doing something else (probably the Leslie Sansone Walk Away The Pounds dvds) to kinda give me a ‘rest’. 

So, although a Wednesday would normally be a ‘Shred’ day, I did it yesterday so today I will do WATP for Abs :-)

I’m doing well this week sticking to my points, I hope I can continue to do that well in to the weekend.

Breakfast yesterday was 2 slices of toast(2pp), laughing cow cheese(1pp), Jenny-O extra lean turkey bacon, 3 slices (1pp) – there’s only 2 on the plate cos I’d already eaten one ;-) mushrooms and tomato (free). Total 4pp

Lunch was a ‘seaside sarnie’! My sister will know exactly what this is! When I talked on the phone to her yesterday I mentioned we had eggs left over from coloring them for Easter and that I would make a nice egg salad sandwich for lunch. She was the one that said “make the seaside sarnie!”, which I had not thought of in a very long time. A seaside sarnie (sarnie being the slang word we use in England for a sandwich) is egg and tomato mixed with Salad Cream (another English thing, but rather like Miracle Whip). I like my egg and tom sandwiches with mayo, so I used Hellmans’ Reduced Fat, 1 egg and 1 egg white and half a fresh tomato. I must say it was delicious…. took me back a few years too :-)

Yummy close-up shot for Nenna!

For dinner I finally tried my homemade stuffed shells that I’d made a couple of weeks ago and put in the freezer. I just stuffed the shells with rf ricotta cheese, 1 egg and some frozen spinach and parmesan. Then I froze them. I defrosted them yesterday and added the marinara sauce and cheese on top and baked for 30 minutes. Yummy-licious!

Not sure about the points for this but I’m guessing 8. There’s a recipe online for the same points for 3 shells but that has a meat suace, mine has no meat at all, but I’ll still say 8 rather then be under.

Had a SmartOnes Dessert after dinner – 4pp.

Did Day 2 of the Shred, AND walked over 7000 steps (that did include doing the workout, but I’m just adding it for reference).

Let’s try this again!

I’ve decided to try Jillian’s 30 Day Shred again! My first attempt was back in September of 2010. You can CLICK HERE for my first post on Sept 15, and I tried to post every day after I did the workout but  by day 10 I started missing days of the workout. By day 20 I admitted defeat and never finished the program. 

This time I’m going to aim for just Mon-Fri to do the workouts and take the weekends off (I’m usually working in the yard then, so I’m still getting some exercise!). It’s really hard (imo) and right now I have to modify some of it, especially the cardio – I am so out of breath when she does that part! Hopefully I will feel an improvement by the end of the week.

This morning my legs are aching, and usually when they feel like that after a workout I will miss doing the next day, but I’m going to push through and still do it. Like Jillian says, if you want to see results you must work hard!  Wish me luck!!!

Yesterday I had scrambled egg for breakfast with a slice of toast and a Morning Star breakfast ‘sausage’ patty. Total 5pp.

I’m trying to not eat too many frozen meals (or buy them for that matter), but I have some still in the freezer so I had a Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli, for 7pp and some sautéed baby portabella mushrooms.   

An afternoon Latte, 2pp.

I forgot to take a pic of dinner, just a couple of ounces of roasted chicken with a side salad and steamed broccoli. Had a glass of wine with Cheryl last night, and still had two points left over which I didn’t use. Had plenty of water yesterday too (but I could still drink more, just need to start earlier in the day). It was a good day, OH! AND I walked over 9000 steps total (according to my pedometer) :-)

Friday Weigh-In

Fridays are usually my ‘at home’ weigh in day (I don’t go to WW meetings). Since hitting my goal weight a few weeks ago I’ve gone up and down by 2 or 3 pounds. This week I’m happy to say I’m a pound less than last week :-)  But the weekend as usual is really hard for me. I just never want to track points, and I think I will just start accepting that. I mean, I don’t really need to lose any more weight at this point, I just need to maintain and get in to a good exercise routine, so splurging on the weekend (not going crazy but eating the things I like in moderation) is something I should allow myself to do.

So, if I want to have a glass of wine or two with my girlfriend on a Friday night and nibble on yummy cheese and crackers, then I should be able to do so, without always worrying about not tracking the points – I just don’t know how I can track points without standing there measuring out a 1oz piece of cheese or counting out crackers?!! It’s ok doing that during the week, but I really don’t want to do that in front of people, they will just think I’m weird, or obsessed with food and weight!

Food in the past few days consisted of  . . . .

Lunch on Wednesday, half a baked potato with 1 cup of tuna (not a cup size but the little cups it comes in!) and a side of leftover mixed veggie. I added a tablespoon of light mayo to the veg! Total 6pp. Dinner on Wednesday night was 3oz grilled chicken with 1tblsp of hummus on top, salad and green beans and almonds. Total 8pp.

Breakfast on Thursday, 1 ‘alternative’ blueberry bagel. I found these in Walmart! The nice thing is they aren’t ‘skinny’ bagels, it’s as thick and dense as a normal bagel, a little smaller and only 3pp each. Topped with a tblsp of whipped cream cheese and some bananas and grapes on the side. Just 4pp.

Lunch was turkey and bacon/salad sandwich on light bread. 10 popchips and a pickle. Total 5pp.

Later in the afternoon I made another latte :-) Bought the fat free caramel sauce to drizzle on top too – I’m liking these a lot.

I went out on Thursday night to Book Club so didn’t eat dinner but had some wine and nibbles at the meeting!

Thank you Roz!

A couple of days ago I was reading Roz’s blog over at Weighting for 50’s! When I first found her blog a few months ago, I was drawn to the fact she’s like me, headed toward 50 but wanting to stay as fit and healthy as she can for when she gets there (and the many years thereafter!). I also love how she adds little animals/characters to her food shots, they always put a smile on my face.

So I was reading THIS POST from her this week where I saw her mention an Almond Milk Latte that she had made her self. I’d just been given a box of almond milk from my friend Cindy last week to try so I was intrigued and asked Roz how she had made it. She uses an espresso machine and just froths her milk like you would for cappuccino. Hmmm? An espresso machine like this perhaps?

  Believe it or not, I have one of these sitting in a box in the dining room along with other things, waiting to go to . . . . GOODWILL!!! It has sat in my cupboards for months, years actually since I bought it and I’ve used it about twice! I originally bought it because I used to have one years ago in England and loved making Cappuccinos on a weekend. I can’t believe I was about to get rid of it. After Roz emailed me about how she made her latte I resurrected Mr. Krups AND I just made this. . . . .

I’m enjoying it as I type :-) It’s good but what it needs is some caramel syrup, I think I’ll pick up some ‘sugar-free’ next time I’m at the store. THANKS ROZ, you’ve made a ‘nearly 50 yr old’ very happy :-)

This was breakfast this morning (5pp) egg and cheese sandwich on Sara Lee light bread, a banana and 5 grapes and a cuppa coffee. Right now I have a baked potato in the oven that I’ll have for lunch with tuna on top. I’m trying to plan my meals ahead of time AND take pics of them so I can put a weekly menu together for myself. I’ll share when I have them done ;)

Yummy Muffins!

I made some muffins last week when I had two ripe bananas left in the fruit bowl. They were pretty good and I froze the rest so I can just take one out and pop it in the microwave for a few seconds.  

I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com, you can CLICK HERE for it. It doesn’t use any oil/fat but has reduced fat sour cream in it instead. The only thing I changed is the flour, instead of white I used whole wheat, and I also added about 1/4 cup of pecans. I calculated the pts from the recipe (without the pecans) and it was only 2 per muffin :) After recalculating with the added pecans it comes out as 3pts per muffin! Which still isn’t bad.  It would be kinda like having this for breakfast. . . .

but instead of the Vitatop muffin top I’d have my own homemade muffin. I’m trying to make a lot more of what we eat instead of keep buying frozen stuff (plus I find Vitatop muffins rather pricey!).

Dinner one night last week was roasted chicken breast (which I’d cooked myself):-) along with a spinach saladw/Newmans Own raspberry and walnut dressing, and Green Giant frozen sprouts in butter sauce (only 1pp per serving).

On Friday night last week we made our own pizzas (using whole wheat pizza dough from Whole Foods Market).

I posted about this over on my DAILY BLOG! It was super yummy and I plan on making  pizza night a regular thing around here. Next time though I’ll calculate the points for it. I was slacking as usual and not tracking that day! This pizza (for me) was topped with red onions, yellow bell pepper and fresh mozzarella with some fresh basil from my garden.  I’ll be trying to make my own pizza dough next time we make them.  If anyone has a good whole wheat pizza dough recipe, please share :-)

A Good Day!

Yesterday was a good day eating wise, but I could do better. I did get lots of fruit and veg in, but I was in a snacky kinda mood so I might have had a little more fruit than necessary!

I forgot to take pictures of lunch and dinner! But I did snap a pic of my snack. . . .

Usually I would just have the hummus and crudités, but as I mentioned I was in a real snacky mood and I had already opened a bag of WW Ranch Multigrain Crisps (3pp). So this tray was a total of 5pp. I’ve been making my own hummus (ww recipe) but I had ran out of tahini paste, so this one was store bought – the Sabra brand.

I love this stuff!

For dinner last night I made a simple breaded chicken breast. I guess you could call it ‘Chicken Picatta’, kinda like Gina’s recipe. I didn’t follow her recipe but it’s really just the same thing.

(picture from Skinnytaste.com)

All I did for mine was pound chicken breasts flat, dip in flour then egg and then Progresso breadcrums, fry/brown in a little olive oil then pop in the oven for 10 minutes to finish cooking. Kristen and I made chicken nuggets this exact same way last week and they were great too. Hubby commented that '”this one’s a keeper”!  I served a spinach salad with it and some frozen mixed veg. Next time I’ll take a picture.

For breakfast this morning I fancied an egg sandwich!  2 slices of Sara Lee lite bread, 1 egg, total 4pp. I also used the rest of the tomatoes from yesterday and added a little fresh basil from my garden. Along with a ‘cutie’ orange and some blackberries. (both free points).

Here’s to another great day ‘on plan’!