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’!

Must get back on track

I haven’t posted in here for a very long time… a whole month to be exact! That’s not to say I haven’t been ‘on plan’ (well, some days I have been, some days I haven’t!) but more for the reason I was having my daily blog redesigned and my intention was to post my ‘healthy posts’ over there too, along with knitting related posts. Basically, keep all my journals centered on just one site.

That sounds like a good plan, but to be honest what I like about this blog is coming back to it time and time again to read it, look at the pictures I’ve posted and visit the blogs on my sidebar …. it really does motivate me. SO, here I am back again, if for no one else but myself ;-)

For the record (cos I never posted about it when it happened) I actually got down to my goal weight a couple of weeks ago. The goal weight that WW set for me that is.  I’d personally like to be 3lbs less than the ‘healthy weight’ WW said I should be, so I was trying my best to still stick to the plan. But, I must confess I’ve gotten off track since I hit that lovely ‘goal weight’ number.  AND I’ve gained about 3lb back in those two weeks!!!  How easily it all goes back on.

This week I am getting back on plan. I think journaling in here more often will help. My aim today is to take a picture of every meal and snack I have so I can blog about it later.

Today I took a picture of this . . .

A yummylicious 5pp breakfast.  I’ve been having a waffle with BetterNButter spread and some fruit most mornings along with a scrambled egg, but today I felt like having bacon and eggs :-)

1 slice of Sara Lee light bread – 1pp

1 egg – 2pp

4 rashers Oscar Meyer bacon – 2pp

mushrooms and tomatoes – free

I didn’t eat all of the bacon, only 2 rashers!  The coffee w/creamer is extra points (which I do count).  This will keep me going well up to lunchtime. Not sure what I’ll be having today . . . I need to start thinking about it now ;)