It’s Monday!

I didn’t mention last Friday that I had changed my weigh in day! It was actually Friday AND I’m happy to say I lost 2lb! :-)  Super happy about that. I think Monday is a bad day to weigh for me because often times the weekend is when I splurge and use up extra points, have a few glasses of wine, nibble chips etc… and when I weigh on Monday morning I see no difference on the scale because any weight I lost from Monday to Friday just seems to go straight back on again over the weekend.

I felt really good last week for eating right and tracking daily and working out for 4 consecutive days, that by Friday I decided to get on the scale and see if there was any difference from Monday, and yes, the difference was a whole 2lbs.

I did have a martini over the weekend, and nibbled some chips on Saturday night, but no damage done and I’m back to good eating today.

I made the Cabernet Meat Sauce over the weekend and had some with my spaghetti squash. It was really nice, the red wine gives the flavor a lot of depth! I’ll be having some for dinner again tonight, while hubs and dd have the ‘real deal… spaghetti pasta and meatballs w/garlic bread. No bread for me, I’ll probably do some brocolli on the side for dd and me (it’s her fav vegetable, actually only one she’ll eat).

Here’s a few other things I ate over the weekend. . .

Sunday morning breakfast with hubby. . . Jenni-o turkey sausage, fried egg, tomatoes and a slice of toast, 5pp.

Smart Ones oriental chicken (5 or 6 pp, can’t remember) and a salad with 1 tblsp of light sesame dressing.

      I totally splurged yesterday and ate a whole SNICKER bar!!! 8pp.

I only had 4 pp left for dinner so I had a big salad with cottage cheese and a 1/4 cup of imitation crab. This stuff is so dry over here, much nicer back in England, as is a lot of things. My sister can get some really yummy WW products over there!

Anyway, that’s a recap of the weekend. I’ll try to stick with taking pics of my food and post daily. Did a 20min toning work-out today :-)

It’s Friday!

I missed posting yesterday, so I’ll catch up a little today before I jump off here and catch up with laundry and housework! Yesterday I went to a friend’s for coffee at 9.30am. We used to meet regularly but over the past year we kinda got out of the habit and went months without getting together. Not that I didn’t see my friend at all, we are in the same book club so we’d sometimes catch up at the monthly meetings. But it was nice to finely make an effort to set a date and have a cuppa and a chat.

Before I went out I still wanted to have breakfast after dropping Kristen off at school. I thought I would try pumpkin oatmeal! I don’t know why but I just kept wa nting to try it. I checked recipes online and it seems you can just add pumpkin to your oatmeal and voila! Hmm, well, this is not a keeper that’s for sure. To be honest I’m not really an oatmeal kinda gal. I’ve never really liked it, I just try to eat it cos it’s good for me. What I usually eat is instant packet stuff, the healthy kind that isn’t full of sugar. I would still eat those packets now and then, but THIS! homemade oatmeal with pumpkin – not so much!  I didn’t like the texture at all and didn’t even eat half of this bowl (which would have been about 4pp)!

Not to worry, my sweet friend knew I was following weightwatchers and offered me a Vitamuffin Top with my coffee :-)  I’ve never had one before, mainly because I never see them in my local grocery store (she got her supply from Costco). I had the dark chocolate one and really liked it. Cindy (my friend) gave me another to bring home with me and a Banana Nut one to try too . . . guess what was for breakfast this morning ;-)

Vitatop Banana Nut muffin, 3pp – 1 egg +eggwhite, 2pp and fruit.

Lunch yesterday was something else new . . Healthy Choice Honey Balsamic Chicken. I took my ww calculator along to the grocery store so I could check the points of other healthy microwave meals (to be honest some of those SmartOnes are just not that appetizing!) I have to say, this meal was one of the best frozen ones I’ve had in a long time. That balsamic dressing was really tasty, tangy and sweet! I liked that there were a lot of potato pieces in it too.

I had it with a little 0pp side salad (just a few spritz of ranch dressing) and a small navel orange.

Now, I must confess, I was a little naughty last night (no I didn’t eat something I shouldn’t) I actually didn’t eat something I should have! DINNER! I had no dinner! Not a healthy thing to do but I just wasn’t hungry and couldn’t decide on what to eat.

Hubby had left of Mexican food from his fav restaurant (he brought it home with him from work), I gave dd the split pea soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. I was going to have this myself but I just didn’t feel hungry for it and didn’t want to waste my points! Ended up not using my points at all :-/   The spaghetti squash above was also a possibility for dinner but I hadn’t made  any tomato sauce to go with it. I’ll be doing that today. Found this recipe for Cabernet Meat Sauce that was linked up at Danica’s blog. It sounds delicious and I have to make it today :) I’ll let you know what it turns out like – how could it not be good with a cup of red wine in it?!!

So, it’s Friday – it’s the weekend! Wish me luck that I don’t ‘cave’ and eat (or drink) all the wrong things!  I’ll be back on Monday.

Sunny but cold…

I wish the weather would warm up, or at least I wish I COULD warm up! It’s not really that cold outside this week. This morning was very frosty but it was forecast to get up to 61 today and it’s very sunny out.  I just can’t seem to warm up! It doesn’t help that I’m indoors most days not being very active (except when I do my dvd workouts, then I’m hot for about 15 minutes!). I’m looking forward to Spring so I can go outside without shivering, work in the yard a little and plant spring flowers – but we’re not quite there yet.  Still, most of the country is still under snow so I should count myself lucky. I love the snow but would only want it around Christmas time. Now that the holidays are over I would much prefer to feel the sun on my face and see the daffodils flowering!

Breakfast today was 1 nutrigrain waffle, 1 egg + 1eggwhite, and some fruit –total 4pp. Plus my coffee of course!

I decided to make some of Gina’s Split Pea Soup today. I often make my own but usually use the ham bone after Thanksgiving or Easter (but I find that the soup has a lot of fat in when I do that, not very ww friendly I don’t think)… so I used Gina’s recipe HERE. I had one cup at lunch time with a romaine salad – forgot to take pics cos my camera was upstairs. The above picture is the ham and pea soup I’ve made in the past. Gina’s was just as good and not greasy at all.  Total for soup and salad, 5pp.

AND because I couldn’t warm up this afternoon, I took Richella’s idea of making your own hot cocoa and got my two servings of dairy in at the same time.

1 cup fat free milk, 2pp 3 tsp cocoa, 0pp and a little splenda, then a tblsp free cool whip on top! It’s a great way to get my dairy, unfortunately I don’t always feel like drinking hot chocolate – but today I did!

A hearty taco salad for dinner tonight – total 8pp.

Just Do It!

That’s my motto this week when it comes to exercising!! Too many times I find an excuse not to get active. It’s not even that cold outside this week but I still put off going for a walk. No more! This week I’m telling myself to ‘just do it’! And so far that’s what I’ve done.  Well, not the walking outside part.

On Sunday I actually did the 20 minute body toning workout on my Reebok bench. Yesterday I did the Leslie Sansone Walk Away The Pounds 2 mile walk :-) And today, I did the weights again – that’s 3 days in a row! I must admit I’m rather pleased with myself.

Last night I had ‘white chicken chili’ for dinner. The recipe came from the Bush’s can of Northern Beans. I won’t be making it again :-/ Hubby didn’t like it much and although the taste was ok to  me, the texture was not – rather ‘slimey’ for want of a better word! I discovered ‘Baked Tostitos’ this week after reading Marisa’s blog. Well I know about baked chips and I have tried some, but not these. They are 3pp for 14 chips. The chili was 5pp for a cup.

I tried something new for breakfast today – dark chocolate oatmeal! It looks a lot better on the box! I made mine with 1/2 cup of ff milk so I could get some dairy in! If I don’t have cereal I only get it from a greek yogurt, and I don’t have one of those every day. This was ok, kinda chewy, but I think I can get used to that. 4pp for 1 serving. I had a banana too, a few slices on top.

I just discovered Flat Out wraps this week too. Only 2pp each!

This is Hungry Girl’s Crispy White Pizza. I saw it on her first tv show last week and this is the third one I’ve made :) Love it! She actually used a whole wheat tortilla but this works just as good. Total is just 4pp (2pp for the ff ricotta cheese, onions and tomatoes 0pp).

Dinner tonight (for me, I made hubby enchiladas) cos I just HAD to try Marisa’s Black Bean Chili Dip. Total about 12pp. 8 for the dip, 3 for the brown rice and I have only 4 chips there, barely a point!

Kristen’s friend called over tonight selling Girl Scout Cookies! First thing I do is check the points :) Thin Mint 1pp, Lemonades 2pp! I had to have one of each :-/

Weigh In Day

Monday is my weigh in day.  I wasn’t expecting a loss this week (sometimes you can just tell!) and I was right, in fact I went up just slightly by .2lb!!

Oh well, not gonna beat myself up about that. It just proves to me that it’s not all diet alone that will make me lose weight, I need to get active too. Yesterday I did a 20 minute workout on my trusty Reebok bench. Actually, hubby wanted to buy this a couple of years ago, but I don’t think he’s ever used it! I found the dvd for it last week so I’m starting to do the 20 minute full body toning workout. Hopefully I can do it every other day and on alternate days I’ll do my Walk Away The Pounds dvds.

Breakfast this morning was 2 Nutrigrain waffles with 1 tbsp Better than PB – 5pp

Then off I headed to the store. Got groceries in, came home, put them all away and was ready for lunch at 11.3oam!

A can of Campbell’s ‘Soup to Go’ for just 3pp and a salad wrap using 1 tbsp low fat mayo, salad fixins and a Flatout wrap 2pp.

Dinner tonight will be White Chicken Chili. I got the recipe from a can of Bush’s beans. I plugged the recipe in to the recipe tracker at ww online and it’s only 5pp per cup! I’ll post a pic later tonight.

By the end of this week I will have been on WW for 4 weeks. I think I will take measurements again at the weekend and see if I can see any difference!

It’s the weekend

I want to start posting in here on a more regular basis (not sure how long it will last) and even post pictures of my meals if I can. I’ve been taking photos over the past couple of days . . . now it’s just a matter of putting them on to the computer and adding them to my posts!

I’ve done well this week other than Thursday! Thursday was our book club monthly meeting. I hosted at my house and put nibbles out like cheese and crackers, carrots, dip, fruit and a few mini profiteroles to name a few.  I skipped dinner, didn’t really nibble on that much BUT I had 3 glasses of wine. Usually I’d think that wasn’t too bad, I mean I have the points for times like this but I never can tell how many points I used when I snacked on the cheese etc.  I just put it down to a ‘not so good day’ and get back on the wagon the next day. 

In future though I should still try to gauge what points I’ve used when I eat things.  And drinking the wine wasn’t such a great idea… I honestly think I’m becoming seriously allergic to wine. It may be the sulphites  in it. After the first glass I started to get really stuffy in my nose, and I couldn’t taste anything. Why I bothered to have the other two I just don’t know! I’ve always enjoyed a glass of wine and lately a cocktail now and then, but I’ve not been drinking during the week and I think having 3 glasses all together just made me realize how ‘stuffed up’ I can get when drinking it. Anyway, that’s not to say I won’t ever drink wine again, it just wasn’t much fun this week.

This is one of the breakfasts I’ve had this week, actually I’ve had a few mornings start like this. Either two Eggo Multigrain low fat waffles with Better N’ Peanut Butter spread and lots of fruit (total 5pp), or just one waffle and pb, and a scrambled egg with fruit(still 5pp).  Other mornings I’ll have eggs and turkey bacon but I haven’t take a picture of that yet!

I started this post earlier and have since downloaded some of my pics from the camera. Here’s the breakfast I had yesterday along with my coffee, (I have International Delight creamer in my coffee, I just can’t drink it black, so there’s always two pp’s counted for 2 coffees). . .

I watched Hungry Girl on tv for the first time last week. She was making pizzas. She made one with Ricotta cheese, it looked so good I had to try it.  You can CLICK HERE for the recipe from her site.

Instead of the tortilla she used, I used a ‘Flatout’ light wrap, only 2pp.  Total (pointsplus) for this whole pizza is 5pp, this inc. 1 tsp of olive oil drizzled on top for 1pp.

I made this on Thursday for lunch, it was delicious. I loved it so much I made another one last night for my dinner.

This is a turkey and turkey bacon wrap I had for lunch today, with some cherry tomatoes. I’ve had popcorn for a snack this afternoon  - doing good!

New PointsPlus

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I thought I'd make a quick entry (I do want to get back to posting here regularly, but that will have to be later this week) to say that I'm doing WW again. Their points system totally changed back in November, so all the books I'd bought and the calculator I had last year was, to put it bluntly 'rubbish'! The cookbooks are ok because you can still recalculate the points but everything else is now obsolete. I did order a new calculator from WW, AND I joined their 'online' program. It hopefully will keep me accountable as I try to lose the 13lb I've gained since last summer! And I won't quit til I do it!! And once I've done it, I hopefully will keep it off this time. Seriously . . . . 13lb!!!!! What was I thinking?

So, since the week after Christmas I've been eating a lot more fruit and veg and I've been tracking my points since Jan 1st. So far I'm down about 4lb from what I was over Christmas, which is good. I hope to keep myself motivated by using WW online, their message boards (I joined a group of knitters on there) :) and blogging here about my progress.

Later I'll post more about what I've been eating, but right now I need to go put away laundry!