Meal Plan, running, etc

etc.
Bfast:
Chobani peach yogurt (3 pts)
apple (1 pt)
half a slice of banana bread (2 pts)
Coffee with a splash of milk (.5 pts)

Total: 6.5 pts

Lunch:
Green peppers (0 pts)
Hummus (2 pts)
Kashi GoLean Cereal (2 pts)
1% milk (2 pts)

Total: 6 pts

Dinner (8.5 pts left):
Ummm I need some time, and I'll figure it out. It all depends on whether or not I want to actually MAKE something, or whether I just want to pick up some sushi or grill a veggie burger and call it a day. I'm thinking the latter. Making stuff takes time and energy, and I am very much ready to relax tonight.

Mmmm.... sushi.

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Yesterday I ran (drum roll please...................)

6.1 miles! In 1:03:16. Freaking awesome. It's the longest I've run in a long time. I felt pretty good for most of it, but slow. Especially towards the end, I was really plodding along. But I have to start somewhere!

I don't want to weigh in on Thursday. I was very much on plan yesterday, and will continue to be today, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but I think my weekend nom sessions really put me back a bit. I'm going to be so discouraged if I see another 141.2 or 140.8 or whatever. I KNOW it's just a number, but it really does affect my outlook for the rest of the week. So I'm tempted to just wait until next Thursday to weigh in, after I've had a good solid week of OPness. But I know I should hold myself accountable, too. It's a conundrum. I think I'll wait to see how I feel on Thursday morning.

I made this apple cake recipe yesterday than turned out tasting like crap. Well - I take that back - it tasted fine, seeing as how it was made of sugar and flour and apples and such. Yum! How can you go wrong! It was the texture that was messed up - it was kind of mushy, like it was underbaked, only it wasn't underbaked, because I did the whole toothpick test and it came out fine. And I cooked it a little hotter than I should have, because my oven is shitty and won't get the temperature right. I put it to 350 degress, and next thing I know, it's up to 410 (I have a separate internal thermometer that I check) so I turn it down to 340 or so, and then next thing I know, it's at 260. Wtf. It's very difficult to bake stuff when the temp keeps fluctuating! Sigh.

Then again, it might have been mushy cause I forgot to put salt in. Whoops. Or maybe it was too many apples? Apples are pretty moist. Maybe they made the cake too moisty. Who knows. I'll post the recipe later on and maybe some of you baking connoisseurs can figure out where I went wrong.

21 days to make a habit

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Meal plan for the day:

Breakfast:
1 apple (1 pt)
South Beach bar (3 pts)
Chobani greek yogurt (3 pts)

7 pts total

Lunch:
Fiber One cereal and 1% milk (5 pts)
Emerald nut pack (2 pts)

7 pts total

Dinner (7 pts left):
Sauteed spinach (0 pts)
Veggie burger (2 pts)
Arnold Thin (1 pt)
Laughing Cow cheese wedge (1 pt)
Salsa (0 pts)
Salad (0 pts)

Dessert:
Half a slice of banana bread (2 pts)

I've got a lot of processed foods in my meal plan today, which isn't ideal, but I'm not going to stress about it too much. I'm just happy to eat within my daily points.

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I've been on and off tracking my points for the past few weeks. They say it takes 21 days to create a good habit, right? I think that's kind of a load of shit in some situations, because I was solidly on plan for way more than 21 days at the beginning of WW, and where am I now? Teetering on and off the tracks. But regardless, I think 21 days is a nice amount of time to be on plan, so there we have it. Today's day one. Holy crap, this could be a new challenge.

I think that tracking out my daily menu will help me a lot. I know it's not very exciting for you readers to see that I've eaten an apple for breakfast and some yogurt for lunch, but I'm going to post it because I think it'll keep me more on plan.

I'm ticked off that suddenly this has become really hard work. The first 20 pounds literally seemed to slide right off. I was excited, I was motivated, I lost a good 2 pounds a week for quite a few weeks with minimal effort.

Now, it's a struggle to just stay within my daily points each day. I know I'm stressed (exhibit A: I just moved and my apartment is a MESS, exhibit B: I'm starting a new job in two weeks, exhibit C: my monthly expenses just skyrocketed), and I know that has a LOT to do with it, and I really wish I didn't equate food with de-stressing.

Has anyone else had a dip in motivation? If so, how did you get it back? I'd love to be able to get on a roll like I was on the first couple months of WW.

Healthy Recipes: Stuffed Shells

After the meal impressions: These were pretty good, but 8 points? I really loved the sharpness of the feta and the shredded cheddar on top - then again, we all know I'm a cheese whore - but maybe next time I'll leave out the feta. *SOB*. Feta, I promise, I'll always love you!

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INGREDIENTS:

20 jumbo pasta shells
1 jar of baking pasta sauce
ricotta cheese (7 oz)
1 large onion (finely chopped)
1 red pepper (finely chopped)
spinach (about 1 cup, finely chopped)
feta cheese (1/4 cup)
50% reduced fat cheddar (1/2 cup, shredded)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the pasta like you normally would.


When it's done, drain it and set it aside. You can spray it with some cooking spray to make sure it doesn't stick to each other.

Spray a pan with some cooking spray and saute the vegetables a bit.

Once they're just a bit soft, turn off the heat, and put the ricotta and feta right into the pan with them and mix it all together. You can mix in some salt and pepper here - oregano works well, too.


Pour 3/4 of the jar of sauce into a casserole dish.

And now you're ready to stuff the shells! Take a shell and plop a spoonful of the veggie-ricotta mix right into it, and put it right in the sauce.

Keep doing this until all 20 are in the casserole dish.

Pour the rest of the sauce on top of the shells, and then sprinkle the 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar on top.

Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes and voila!

Nutritional Info for the whole darn thing:

Sauce: 300 cals, 5g fat, 10g fiber
20 shells: 720 cals, 4g fat, 8g fiber
Ricotta cheese (7 oz): 273 cals, 15.5g fat, 0g fiber
Feta cheese: 70 cals, 4.5g fat, 0g fiber
Shredded cheese: 140 cals, 9g fat, 0g fiber
Onion: 40 cals, 0g fat, 2g fiber
Red pepper: 30 cals, 0g fat, 2g fiber

Total: 1573 cals, 38g fat, 22g fiber

For 5 shells plus sauce:
393 cals
9.5g fat
5.5g fiber
8 points!

Enjoy =)

Healthy Recipes: Banana Bread

After the meal impressions: I LOVE this bread. It's firm, sweet, spicy, banana-y, everything you want in a piece of banana bread. The boyfriend loves it, too. I'll definitely be making this again =)

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INGREDIENTS:

flour (2 cups)
white sugar (1 cup)
baking soda (3/4 tsp)
baking powder (1-3/4 tsp)
cinnamon (1 tsp)
almonds and walnuts (I used two 100 cal-packs of Emerald nuts)

3 egg whites
2 medium-largish ripe bananas (mashed)
unsweetened applesauce (1/3 cup)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease up a bread pan (I think mine is 9 x 5 inches - it's definitely a little bit bigger than an 8 x 4 inch one).

Mash a banana in a small bowl with a fork or, whatever you wanna mash it with.

Then add your egg whites and applesauce, and set it aside.


In another bigger bowl, mix your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together.

Chop up your nuts:

And add them into the dry mixture.

Pour the banana mixture into the dry mixture and mix them together.

Pour it all into the greased loaf pan and put it in the oven for 50 minutes. You can take it out after 50 minutes and stick a toothpick in it - if the toothpick comes out clean, you know it's done. If it comes out a little goopy, you know it needs some more time.

Take it out of the pan and let it cool off for 10-15 minutes.


Nutritional Info for the whole thing:

Flour: 880 cals, 4g fat, 8g fiber
Sugar: 770 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
Egg whites: 50 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
Bananas: 200 cals, 1g fat, 6g fiber
Applesauce: 35 cals, 0g fat, .5g fiber
Nuts: 200 cals, 18g fat, 2g fiber

Total: 2135 cals, 23g fat, 16.5g fiber

Cut it into 10 slices and then cut those in half, and you get:

107 cals
1g fat
.5g fiber
2 points!

OR, alternatively, each slice (1/10th of the loaf) is:

213 cals
2.3g fat
1.5g fiber
4 points!

Or, you know, you can just figure out the nutritional info for your own slice on your own, based on the nutritional info I posted for the whole thing. =)

Enjoy!

Weigh In Day

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So I lost another pound, bringing me down to 140.6. I was hoping for 139.99999 but I was retaining quite a bit of water this morning - I could barely slip one of my rings off my finger (a sure sign). Next week: Goodbye 140s!

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The actual act of moving went VERY smoothly. Turns out I don't actually have all that much stuff =P Only thing is, now I have to unpack it all.... and not only unpack, but also rearrange and organize everything else. Bah. It's going to be a LOT of work.

Buhhhhhhh.

Note: I'm updating the blueberry muffin post with more pics! I made some more today =)

And now, off to organize/unpack/pour myself a glass of wine.

An award?!

It's a major award! Holy crap!

From my fellow kitteh's over at A Tail of Two Kittehs on WW!

Thanks, guys! I feel special!


So I guess I'm supposed to pass this along to some other blogs... only problem is, I don't know if I even KNOW that many blogs! I follow a whole bunch but I haven't read most of them in full yet.... so here are just a few that I've checked out more than a few times and like a whole bunch =)

Eat Oxygen: I love checking out all the nifty things this girl concocts. Keep cooking!
Healthy Tipping Point: The pics on this blog are great, and I love reading about her running stories!
Jack Sh*t, Gettin' Fit: Hilarious. I love this blog, makes me laugh every time.
The WW 5+ Blogroll: I know, not really a BLOG per se, but I go here ALL the time.

Thanks again for the award! <3

Healthy Recipes: Blueberry Muffins

After the meal impressions: OH MY GOD, MAKE THESE AND EAT THEM NOW. This is THE best thing I have ever made based on a healthy recipe, ever. Holy shit. And they're 2 points. I checked and double checked, and yup, 2 points. The fresh blueberries are amazing, they're fluffy and moist, and just overall so, so delicious. They are seriously heavenly.

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I am SO ticked off because I started making these kind of as an afterthought, assumed they would come out tasting like shit, and didn't take any in-the-making photos. Grrrr. So all you get is the end product this time. =(

Although these are so freaking delicious that I'm sure I'll make them again - so I can take pictures later on and add them in.

EDIT: PICS NOW ADDED! =D

Note: this recipe makes 10 muffins, but if you have a large muffin tin, I don't think you'll be able to make ten happen. I used a small muffin/cupcake tray, rather than the really large muffin trays. So if you have a muffin tin that makes what looks like those huge bakery muffins, you might want to try making 8 of them rather than 10 and count them as 3 points each.

INGREDIENTS:
white flour (1 1/4 cup)
baking powder (1 tsp)
salt (1/4 tsp)
cinnamon (1/4 tsp)

1 egg (beaten)
unsweetened applesauce (2 tbsps)
butter (2 tsps, at room temperature)
brown sugar (packed, 3/8 cup) (3/8 cup = 6 tbsps, btw)
half a banana (peeled and mashed)
vanilla extract (1/2 tsp)
blueberries (1 cup)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, sift the first four ingredients together.


Beat the egg, mash up the banana, and mix them together in a separate bowl with the brown sugar, vanilla extract, butter, and applesauce.


Pour the banana/egg/sugar/etc mixture into the flour mixture. Mix well. It'll turn pretty thick at this point, but don't worry about it.

Fold in your blueberries.

Coat a muffin tray with non-stick spray and pour the mixture into ten muffin cups. You should preferably use a muffin tray that makes small muffins rather than the really huge ones. The mixture should be about halfway to 3/4 of the way to the top of the cup. Don't worry about it being perfectly in the cups - the mixture will be pretty thick, and lumpy too, because of the blueberries, so just get it in there as best you can =)

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, take them out and let them cool for ten minutes.


Nutritional info for the entire recipe:

1 egg: 70 cals, 4.5g fat, 0g fiber
flour: 500 cals, 0g fat, 5g fiber
applesauce: 20 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
brown sugar: 311 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
butter: 50 cals, 5g fat, 0g fiber
banana: 50 cals, 0g fat, 1.5g fiber
blueberries: 85 cals, 0g fat, 3.5g fiber

Total: 1085 cals, 14.5g fat, 10g fiber

For one muffin:

109 cals
1.5g fat
1g fiber
2 points!

Enjoy!

Note to self:

.
I always used to think that everything came down to will power. I'd blame myself when I was put in a less than ideal situation and nomed my way out of diet land. Now, don't get me wrong, I pretty much always WAS to blame - I'm the one who put food in my mouth; I wasn't force fed. But I also continually put myself in these situations, because, well - I'm not sure, but here are some theories: maybe I felt like testing my will power was necessary for some reason? Or, maybe I felt like maneuvering my way around these situations to avoid them was cheating of a sort. I guess I felt that I shouldn't outright avoid having, say, walnuts at my desk at work. I know I can't just eat a handful, I'll end up eating way more than that - I KNOW this about myself, it's happened many times, and I kick myself every time. But instead of saying "Well, you gotta throw away those walnuts and not buy them again," I say to myself, "You should learn how to just eat a handful and leave it at that. Keep putting yourself in this situation so that you can eventually learn! Otherwise, you're just taking the easy way out."

Well, that's silly. Sometimes, you have to take the "easy" way out.

Seriously, this is a gigantic epiphany for me here.

So here are some things that I've learned about myself:

1. I cannot, in fact, keep walnuts in my desk at work. "I'll just have a handful -" No. Serious nomage will occur. So no more bags of walnuts. Instead, I bought these single serving almond/walnut packets from Emerald - check them out on the black/orange Kitteh's blog. Happiest nom ever? I agree!

2. It is not a good idea to bake something in the evening when I have very few points left. I can't make something and not try the batter, take a bite of chocolate, etc. And I can't bake something and expect myself to not try what I just made. If I have the points for it, I can go ahead and make whatever it is I want to make, but if I don't have points, I should save the baking for another day. It's sad, but true. Next time I say to myself, "Oh, but you can make it and not eat any of it," I'm lying.

3. I can't wake up early in the morning and workout. No - really. I can't do it. How many times have I set my alarm and then reset it? Too many to count. Now, I haven't tried it in a while, so I thought maybe this time around would be different. Sunday morning I set my alarm to wake up early and go for a run before work - and yeah, not so much. Maybe it's willpower, maybe it's just me being lazy....I don't care, I just can't make it happen. I need to get in my runs AFTER work and stop interrupting my sleep cycle with an alarm that I won't wake up to. From here on out, I'm going to stop trying to wake up before work to run, and I'm not going to feel guilty about it anymore! =)

What about you guys? What have you learned about yourself over the course of doing weight watchers (or any healthy diet for that matter)?

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My meal plan for today:

Bfast:
1 apple (1 pt)
6 dried apricots (1 pt)
pack of walnuts (2 pts)

Lunch:
Hummus and greens on lavash (4 pts)
Yogurt (1 pt)
Orange (1 pt)

Snack (before and after gym):
Sundried tomato crackers (2 pts)

Total before dinner: 12 pts

Leaving me with 9 points for dinner!

Things to remember

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I decided to compile a list of awesome weight-loss related things. Compliments I've received, goals I've met, etc, to just remind myself about how far I've come. Thanks in advance for letting me brag for a bit here....

1) I can no longer work out in the size large workout pants I bought when I first started exercising. They're too big! The only thing they're good for anymore is lounging around the house. I'm thinking about getting them tailored, or using my sewing machine to take them in. Cause I mean, hey, they're comfy around the house, but I didn't pay 50 bucks a pop to just lounge around in them.

2) When I went to the doctor for a random sinus infection about 2 months into doing WW, she weighed me, entered in my weight in the computer, and there's this little noise "baDOOP" and the nurse says: "Um, there's a pop-up message here that says you've lost 11% of your total weight?"
Me: "Yeah, I'm on weight watchers"
Nurse: "Well, you're doing something right - keep it up!"

3) I can run almost 5 miles without stopping for anything.

4) Compliments, compliments, compliments! People from work, my mom, my brother, my roommates, people from my boyfriend's work, friends who I see often, friends who I don't see often, pretty much everyone and their mother has said something about me losing weight.

5) Not being recognized by one of my boyfriend's co-workers.
Me: "Hi Bell!"
Bell: "Hi? Oh, holy shit, hi! You look great!"

6) Clothes that I used to only dream about fitting into now are too big for me. Case in point: the size 6 plaid slacks I'm wearing right now REALLY need a belt. Size 6!! I know!! Crazy!!

7) I eat so much more fruit, it's nuts. Before WW, I just... didn't eat fruit. No joke, I was all about carbs, fat, and protein. Pizza! French fries! Sandwiches with huge slices of bread and lots of cheese! And mayo! Maybe I'd have a salad sometimes for fun. But an apple? banana? berries? what are those? Don't, like, nutrigrain bars count as fruits? They have that fruity..... stuff..... in the middle. Right? Today so far, I've had an apple, dried apricots, grapes, and a small carton of blackberries. And I might have a banana later on, too! Serious yum.

8) All this running has made my legs muscular! A couple weeks ago I was taking a shower and bent down to soap up my feet, so I kind of bent my knees a bit to reach down - and then put my hand on my thigh to straighten up again. And I'm like "WHATS THIS HARD THING IN MY LEG oh wait, that's my quad muscle." I got all excited and started feeling up my legs - no joke. It was freaking hilarious. It sounds super sexy, but it wasn't even, because I was just way too giddy about it. "This! This here, my calf muscle! Holy crap, my hamstrings are HOT! And my quads! *flexflexflex*"

9) I tried on a belt that used to be too small and very much unwearable, and it fits perfectly.

10) I've lost over 20 pounds!

So, whenever I feel blah, I can look over this list and remind myself how awesome I am. =P

You all should make your own lists! Either on your own blog, or in the comments section!

Moving, running, jobs, stress.

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A summary of things, if you will:

This week has been crazy, and I'm really hating it. Between now and early Thursday morning, I have to have everything packed up in my apartment, ready to be moved. At the same time, I'm trying to squeeze in some runs - my foot is feeling better! Hooray! AND I'm trying to keep things together at my new apartment (which is my boyfriend's apartment - I'm basically living there now anyway) - laundry, cleaning, making sure stuff is all cleared out of the way so I can move my things in, etc. On top of all that, it seems like everyone and their mother wants to hang out, which is an awful way to think about it, because hanging out with friends should be detressing and fun! But when I'm so busy like this, it just turns into one more thing to do, which is frustrating. My best friend is moving to DC, so I need to plan some time with her, my brother wants to grab some dinner soon because we haven't hung out in a while, my good college friend just moved in with her girlfriend and wants me to see their apartment this week, and my other two friends wanted to go see a movie a couple days ago, and I had to turn them down (Julie & Julia, no less! Which I want to see so badly) and then there are all of the little things that need to be taken care - contacting the post office to do a change of address, figuring out what apartment stuff I want to get rid of or save, making sure the electric/cable/heat/etc is all taken care of, blah blah blah.

Sigh. I can't wait until September when these things are all done and settled.

So I've been ultra stressed, but I've been sticking like glue to WW. All my weeklies and APs are gone (in fact, yesterday I had to go out on a run and earn 5 APs just to be able to eat dinner - 4.8 miles, baby, woot!) but I still feel like I'm in control and on plan. After my run, I had a veggie burger and some grapes, and then literally passed out in bed. I went to bed around 9 pm, which is unheard of for me. I'm a serious night owl; I rarely get into bed before midnight. I slept so soundly, and when I woke up, I was still tired.

Have I mentioned how I can't wait until September rolls around?

I peeked at the scale this morning (I know, bad) and I'm 140.0! So close to under 140! Makes me even more motivated to stay really on plan for my weigh in Thursday morning.

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On a more awesome note, remember this post where I bitched and moaned about that job? Well - I GOT IT! I'm SO excited. Only thing is, the two managers need to negotiate my start date. Because it's a transfer within the company, it's not like I give my two weeks and then peace out. And because Sept. is a really busy time for the department I'm currently working in, my manager doesn't particularly want to let me go just yet. So I think I'll be starting around late September or so - we'll see. The important thing is, I got the job! It's more related to what I want to be doing, and it's better pay and better hours. *cheer!*

Tonight = more packing, laundry, stressing. Sigh. I'm hoping that I can go home and packpackpack like a mad woman and just finish it up in one shot. I *think* I can. Wish me luck.

Oh, and I'm gonna be baking some 3 point blueberry muffins soon. And yes, they will actually turn out to be 3 points =P

Healthy Recipes: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I made this recipe by piecing together a bunch of different no-flour online recipes for peanut butter cookies.

After the meal impressions: Listen, do I want all of my recipes to turn out super awesome and for you guys to all love them? Yes. But that's not always going to happen. My overall impression of these? Meh, bleh, blah. They came out to be 5 points each, which I wasn't expecting. On the recipe builder point tracker, they say that a cup of reduced fat peanut butter is 18 points. When I enter in the nutritional info for MY cup of reduced fat peanut butter, I come up with 39 points......Uh.....Very. Different.

What I thought was a 3 point cookie turned out to be a 5 point cookie. And so, is it worth 5 points? No. They're really dry, and even the chocolate doesn't compliment it very well. I know, crazy, right? Blasphemy, you say! Choc and PB ALWAYS go well together. But really, it just doesn't sit right. Maybe it was because they were the semi sweet ones? I think that the reduced fat peanut butter is too dry in general, too. So, how would I change it? Well.... I have no idea. This is where the baker-noob in me comes out. I dunno, add some milk? Applesauce? Water? I mean, changing it to regular peanut butter would probably be a start.... other than that, I have no clue. Perhaps you guys have some ideas! Edumacate me on the basics of baking!

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INGREDIENTS:
reduced fat all natural peanut butter (1 cup, creamy or chunky)
white sugar (3/4 cup)
1 egg (beaten)
dark chocolate chips (1/8 cup to put on top)
dash of vanilla extract
2 tbsp sugar (to roll cookies in right before baking)

The HOW-TO:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the egg, and then stir peanut butter, egg, vanilla extract and sugar together.


Lightly grease a cookie sheet (or use baking spray).

Make 12 peanut butter balls.

Put your 2 tbsps of sugar into a small bowl and roll the balls in it, coating them with sugar. You'll probably only use 1 tbsp, in actuality.

Then put them on the greased cookie sheet - leave a bit of space between each one because they'll spread out a little bit as they bake.


Take a fork and make a cross hatch pattern, pushing them down into a cookie shape.

You can then add some chocolate chips on top. I used about 4 for each cookie.

To be totally honest, I meant to take a quarter cup of chocolate chips and mix them INTO the cookie mixture, but I completely forgot. I only remembered after they were in sugar-coated balls on the trays. D'oh!

Into the oven they go, for 10 minutes! 15 minutes! I tried 10 minutes, because that's what everyone recommends for peanut butter cookie bake times online, but uh, yeah, they soooo weren't ready. They were almost crumbly. I think it's because of the reduced fat peanut butter. I left mine in for about a full 20 minutes >.<

Nutrition Info:

For the entire thing:
1 cup peanut butter: 1600 cals, 96g fat, 16g fiber
1/8 cup chocolate chips: 140 cals, 8g fat, 0g fiber
1 egg: 70 cals, 4.5g fat, 0g fiber
3/4 cup sugar: 580 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
1 tbsp sugar: 35 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber

Total: 2425 cals, 104g fat, 16g fiber.... o.O

Don't eat em all in one sitting. >.>

Per cookie:
205 cals
8.5g fat
1g fiber
5 points!

Enjoy....if you can =P

Quick planning

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Quick planning: my meal for the day

Breakfast:
6 dried apricots (1 pt)
1 ricotta cookie (2.5 pts)
1 small nonfat cappuccino (1 pt)
2 walnuts (.5 pts)
total: 5 pts

Lunch:
grapes (2 pts)
small yogurt (1 pt)
hummus and spinach on an arnold thin (3 pts)
total: 6 pts

Dinner:
uhhhh I don't know yet >.<

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So I'm moving soon into an apartment across town. Which means lots of packing. I'm really hoping it'll go quickly and not take a million days - I want to try and do it in one shot. Pack everything up, bam, ready to go. We'll see. Packing always takes so much longer than I anticipate - it's like, ok, I've got all my clothes together. And my desk organized. Ok. Oh, wait, there's the bathroom. Oh, and the kitchen. Awesome. Oh, and the closet in the hallway. Ugh. How do I manage to have so much STUFF? I can't imagine how people who actually HAVE stuff do it. I'm dirt poor and have very little to my name, and it seems like so much. Bah.

It'll be nice once I'm fully moved in and unpacked.

Healthy Recipes: Sweet Baked Ricotta

After the meal impressions: Ok, in my opinion, these are delicious, BUT, they aren't sweet crunchy cookies like they look like in the photo. They're actually quite plain. They're almost more bread-y than sweet cookie-y. Which is why I highly recommend eating these with a tablespoon of fresh jam or some fresh fruit - it really adds the sweet tart flavor that rounds it out - like so:


INGREDIENTS:
1c. flour
1c. part-skim ricotta cheese
1 egg (beaten)
2 tbsp sugar
cooking spray

THE INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

You're gonna want to put everything together in a bowl - the ricotta, the flour, the beaten egg, and the sugar - here's the beaten egg going into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients -


And then you want to mix them all together - super easy!



Take some aluminum foil (a few layers to make a thick platform) or a casserole dish and spray it with cooking spray. Dole out 8 little piles of mixture. They should be around 1/4c each.


Put them in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.

Nutrition info for entire recipe:

1 egg: 70 cals, 4.5g fat, 0g fiber
1 cup flour: 400 cals, 1g fat, 0.5g fiber
1 cup ricotta: 320 cals, 18g fat, 0g fiber
2 tbsp sugar: 90 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber

Total: 880 cals, 23.5g fat, 0.5g fiber

Per one cookie:
110 cals
3g fat
0g fiber
2 points!

Although when I put in these ingredients into the recipe builder, it comes out to 3 points. Hm. So I count mine as 2.5 points =P

Enjoy!

The GYM?!?!

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That's right: the gym.

I've looked all over the place for affordable, nice gym memberships. They are few and far between.

They range from: craptastic smelly old junk equipment messy locker room athlete's foot 3 year contract (WE OWN YOUR LIFE!) for 45 bucks a month plus 100 bucks starter fee and if you want to get yelled at by a personal trainer dripping sweat on you it's free! (FEEL THE BURN!) - to posh spa-like zen pilate yogi talent eucalyptus perfume seriously are they just gonna feed me organic fiji grapes *while* I do downward dog or *after* my yoga workout? Both? Oh the avocado smoothie is after, the grapes are during, got it, for 105 bucks a month plus a $35 locker charge (CLEAN!), $10 towel fee (FLUFFY!) and a $150 starters fee (EXPENSIVE!). Wanna take a special class? Tack on 60 extra bucks (SPECIAL CLASS!).

I gave up the search for a while. There was no need for me to spend my money on an expensive gym - I can always just go for a run. But now since my foot has been acting up with this stupid tendinitis thing (I know it will eventually heal - wow, I am SO TEMPTED to write "heel" but I'll spare you all the pun, bwuahahah), I feel like I haven't gotten any good exercise in, and honestly, it's depressing me. I want to sweat!

I figured that I'd look into the gym at my place of employment. I had looked before, and the membership rates seemed pretty expensive, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check again. Conveniently, I work at a university with a state-of-the-art fitness facility. This place has a freaking rock wall. It's got an Olympic size swimming pool. Yeah. It has a smoothie bar where you can get stuff like grass and wheat germ and shit in your smoothies, and you know when gyms have smoothie bars with grass, they mean business.

The rate for faculty and staff is 44 bucks a month. This really isn't as bad as I thought. They have a plan that will deduct $11 from each of your paychecks automatically. I don't make much, but I'd barely even miss that. But wait, wait - check it out. I'm not even at the good part yet.

With the health plan I'm on (which is a pretty basic health plan), once I pay $150 in gym membership fees, Blue Cross Blue Shield will reimburse ALL of that to me. So I basically get 4 months worth of full gym access for free. Now - wait, get this - I get to do this once per calendar year.

Which means that I will get reimbursed for September, October, November, and December - and THEN! THEN! I get reimbursed for January, February, March, and April once I submit *another* form for the new calendar year.

I essentially get 8 straight months of free gym access at this amazing facility. *drool*

So. awesome.

Needless to say, I'm excited!

Baking? Whoa...

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I posted this on the WW forums, but I figure I'd put it up here too...

I really want to learn how to BAKE!

I'd love to be able to make a cake from scratch, learn how to make my own frosting, and learn how to decorate it... I've toyed with the idea of taking a class or something for the longest time.

The problem is, I've been putting it off - because I'm not sure how to be on weight watchers AND bake desserts at the same time.

There are a few options that I see -

1. I could make healthier recipes, which is a great idea, actually. But I don't want to turn into Hungry Girl, with all of her faux sugar and fat free fake this and that, you know? I want to make the real thing, not the saccharine-ladened, preservative fake junk.

2. I could just eat very small portions of what I make, or, not have any at all, and give it to a friend (or hey, I'm sure my boyfriend will eat whatever I make =P). The problem with this is that I KNOW I'm going to be taking a lick of batter here, a taste of frosting there. How can you not? I just don't trust myself, I guess - it's kind of like a recovering alcoholic going out to a bar and ordering a drink, but telling herself that she won't drink it. Torture!


Anyway, I know there are a few bakers here, and I just wanted to ask how you guys work your baked goods (or other sweets) into the WW plan. Should I just give up this pipe dream? Any thoughts?

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Maybe I've just been watching too many 'Ace of Cakes' episodes on the food network. But seriously, how cool would it be to make your own cake? Screw Betty Crocker! Gimme some flour and sugah!

Too bad broccoli isn't a decoratable dessert *sigh*

On a different note, I haven't made a new recipe in a while, so I'm thinking of making those stuffed shells and posting that later tonight. NOM!

Back on the Horse

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Seriously, here's the horse


and here's me



and here's me being back on the horse:

Bah. I thought I could be all crafty and put the girl on the horse but it's proving harder than I thought! Such is typically the case with me and paint/photoshop/pixlr.com.

Just IMAGINE me on the horse. Cause that's where I am.

No new challenge as of yet, but I'm cooking up some good ones. Get it? COOKING up some good ones? BAHAHAHA I am so clever.

Challenge fail!

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Yup, it happened.

Challenge fail. =(

I hate it when I stop caring, because then when I start caring again, I kick myself in the ass.

Like so:

*KICK*

But stop caring I did, and let's see.... a bag of trail mix, a yogurt parfait with granola, and an avocado veggie wrap and fries later, I was like durrrr.

Granted, my choices overall weren't actually that bad (the fries were, yes. Everything else? Not THAT bad).

Right now I'm incredibly stressed out because I've pretty much been offered a new job - but not quite (an internal transfer within the company). The manager I interviewed with contacted my current manager to get a reference AND to ask when I could start. Then, human resources contacted me to ask if I was still interested in the job (yesyesyes) and to go over some basic benefits information. This was on Friday morning.

So. All day Friday I giddily waited for a phone call to officially offer me the job. None came. So Saturday and Sunday went by (very slowly) and then finally - Monday! I waited anxiously all day. Checked my phone every second. Well, every ten minutes. The day crawled by. No phone call. No e-mail. I nervously nomed on food like it was my job. Like I was some crazed rabbit from Watership Down (remember that book/cartoon movie? Good stuff) noming carrots, except it wasn't carrots, it was trail mix, and not even the healthiest trail mix because this trail mix had M&Ms in it. Yeah. It was THAT kind of trail mix.

GIMME MAH TRAIL MIX OR DIEEEEEEE

Which brings us to today.

In my mind, I think, "Until they call me, I'll be constantly stressed and freaking out. I know there's nothing I can do (short of me calling THEM, which perhaps I'll do, politely) except wait, but until I know whether I got the job or not, there is nothing I can do but stuff my face with food. As such, I'm going to get really annoyed with them, because not only are they making me wait, but they're also dictating my (lack of) diet. Obviously, Human Resources is solely responsible for any and all weight that I gain this week. WAAAAHHHH they made me fail my challenge WAAAHHHH"

Ok - bullshit, Bkitty. Seriously, fuck that shit. What irrational, shitty thinking. I KNOW it's irrational. No one force fed me.

And the longer I put off getting back on track, the longer I'm going to feel all shitty.

Oh, also, some other funny excuses I made yesterday (I'll list them all):

1. Human Resources is solely responsible for fucking up my diet.
2. My foot hurts (sigh), and therefore I can't walk to the grocery store to get food, and therefore I must eat unhealthy things. Lots of them. Plus I can't run (that last part is actually true, not an excuse =/)
3. I've already messed up, I should just keep messing up for the rest of the day/week/whenever because it doesn't matter at this point.
4. I'm tired, and don't want to cook.
5. It's too hot to do anything. Fuck summer.
6. It's too hot to do anything but order food. Bad food.
7. I'm sick of sushi and salads.
8. Fuck this, I want a corona.

So, anyway, it's really time to give myself a kick in the ass and get back on track. The longer I'm off track, the longer I'll feel like crap. I'm definitely going to gain some weight this week, but I'm going to suck it up and start eating right. Besides, if I keep eating like crap every time I'm the littlest bit stressed out, I'm just going to keep that cycle going. I need to train my brain to not immediately head to FOOOOOOOD when I'm tired or stressed out.

Anyone got any book recommendations? I've read The End of Overeating, Master Your Metabolism, Lighten Up, Skinny Bitch - all great books. I need some more though! They always get me in the motivated, eat-right mood.

I might change the challenge in the top right corner. I feel like I should keep in there to remind me, and not brush it under the rug, but I'm sick of seeing red numbers mocking me. I've got red numbers on my WW site, and now my blog, too? Sigh.

Challenge, Day 3

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So, uh, it's 11:47 am and I only have 7.5 points left for the day.

*weep*

I was STARVING and ate my lunch before my actual lunch break. o.O

Seriously though, these walnuts are going to be the death of me.

So for my ACTUAL lunch break, I'ma have 2 points worth of pineapple.

For dinner, I'll have:

progresso soup (3 pts)
1 pita bread (1 pt)
with hummus! (1 pt)
1/2 cup sauteed sugar snap peas (.5 pts)

I'll check back in soon. =)

Challenge, Day 2

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So day one of my challenge (yesterday) went splendidly.

Today poses a bit of a hiccup, however - I'll be going out to dinner with some friends. Appetizers! Beer! Entrees! One of my friends, who is also on weight watchers, and will also be at dinner with us, made a good point a few days ago - we're there for the fun and the company of good friends. It's not always all about the food and drinks.

I looked at the menu and decided on:

Summer Salad: Butter Brook Farms Greens and Tomatoes, Corn, Cucumber, Grilled Onion, Brioche Breadcrumbs, Sweet Basil Vinaigrette.

Most of the menu items I can't eat anyway, because the main ingredient is some type of meat. I'll get the dressing on the side and ask for no breadcrumbs, and I should be good to go - I'm guessing that with the corn and bit of dressing I'll use, the whole thing will be about 6 points, tops. Once breakfast and lunch are eaten, I'll have 10 points left for dinner, which means I can have a glass of wine at the restaurant, too =)

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I discovered the most awesome lunch sandwich.

Joseph's pita bread has 60 calories, 2g fat, and 4g fiber per pita. And they taste really, really good. I took one of these, spread an entire quarter cup of this in it:

(Except I used the garlic kind, not the artichoke spinach). I also threw in some freshly minced garlic (yeah, I'm a garlic fiend), and some fresh, cut up red peppers.

It's a two point sandwich that really fills you up! Craziness. Considering that I was eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which weren't as good at staving away the hunger, yet were SIX points each - this is really awesome. I'm thinking of buying some sprouts soon to add to the sandwich, and using other veggies to throw in there too. Lettuce, tomatoes, onion..... Om nom!

Quick planning

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I'm going to plan out the rest of today, just so I can ensure that day one of my challenge finishes out smoothly.

You see, I had a handful of walnuts - 14 walnut halves total - with my lunch today, and, uh, walnuts are like 325987 points. I thought it would maybe be 2-3 points or so. Nope. FIVE.

So, my day so far:

Breakfast:
Half a peach (.5 pts)
Medium nonfat cappuccino (1.5 pts)
South Beach Living cinnamon bar (3 pts)

Lunch:
Low fat yogurt (3 pts)
1 apple (1 pt)
14 walnut halves (5 pts)

Which brings my total to 14 points for the day, leaving only 7 left for dinner and snacks.

Which makes me a leeeeettle bit nervous.

So here's what I'm gonna do:

Dinner:
1 veggie burger w/ mustard (2 pts)
on a fiberone english muffin (1 pt)
1 bowl Progresso minestrone soup (3 points)

Which leaves me with 1 point for an after dinner snack, which will probably be a WW mini bar. Which is MORE than enough to keep me satisfied. And if I'm hungry before dinner, I can have half of that english muffin when I get home, and then half with the veggie burger.

<3 those veggie burgers and the soup, too.... great choices for quick, healthy, low point dinners.

A new challenge.

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I've been having trouble with my weekly points. The new week comes (starting Thursday) and my weeklies reset. That little number 35 that pops up has been the bane of my existence for the past couple weeks. Because the 35 doesn't stay there for long. It goes from 35, to 22, to 15, to 6, to 3, to 0, and then *gasp* into this weird red negative number? Wtf? How did that happen?

The past couple days I've been all like....


When I SHOULD have been all like....



So I have a new goal for myself.

I've been wanting to get a new ear piercing for a while. I used to have a simple helix ring piercing, but the person who did it didn't do it right and it never healed up all the way. After about 10 months of sleeping on only one side, washing it with that salt solution daily, making sure not to irritate it, etc etc, I got fed up and just took it out. Fortunately, there are no keloids, no marks, nothing that indicates I ever had one (in retrospect, I probably shouldn't blame the piercer. It did take a super long time to (not) heal, but the fact that it left no mark after I took it out really says something, I think. So *maybe* I just didn't take care of it well enough).

Now that I have a lovely piercing and tattoo parlor to go to in Boston (I got my nose stud and my first/only tattoo there - they're extremely professional and clean, safe, all that stuff, plus just wonderful people all around), I'm thinking of trying to get it pierced again. The piercing itself is small enough and mainstream enough to not interfere with my work/career (always an issue to think about, sigh), and it's also less costly than other options I've been thinking about (i.e, another tattoo somewhere).

But instead of just going and getting it done, I'm going to make myself work for it a little bit. =P

My challenge is this: I'm going to eat only my daily points - 21 of them - each day for seven days. Today is day number one! This will keep me on plan for the rest of the week, AND take me through next Thursday and Friday (when my weeklies are reset) on plan.

I know I can do it - I've done it before. It's easy enough for me to stay satisfied on the plan without using those extra weekly points. I rarely use them because I'm hungry or feel I need more nourishment - I almost always use them because they're, well, THERE, and why not, because food makes me feel good, and it tastes good. But lately, that's been landsliding for me, and I use most or even all of them in one shot. Not good!

Hopefully this will keep me on track. Wish me luck. =)

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My foot has been feeling pretty good lately. I've been walking a lot the past few days, always in my running shoes, and it hasn't been hurting really at all. I think I'm going to go on a run today after work and see how it feels. Besides, it'll feel good to earn some APs. I know I've been walking a lot, but not running has made me feel like a lump, pretty much. I can't wait to get out today. Hopefully it won't hurt at all!

Healthy Recipes: Baked Potato Soup

After the meal impression: This picture doesn't do this soup justice. I should have used a colorful dish and put some green scallions on top or something. The presentation is meh. The soup itself, however, is YUM. I was super hungry and had a bunch of weeklies, so I put 2 cups in a bowl. I got through half of it and was like AMIGAWD SO FULL WHOAAAAAA. You start off thinking 1 cup won't be enough, but oh, it is. It is. Overall impression? Really delicious. The making of it is a bit time consuming, so I'm not sure if I'll readily make it again. But if I DO make it again, I'll be at least doubling the recipe - and freezing some for later.

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This recipe was taken from Cookinglight.com, but I added in some "bacon" and corn to make it a more filling meal.

Honestly, the only reason I chose to make this recipe was cause I had some left over sour cream that was gonna go bad soon. I looked up "recipes that use sour cream" or whatever, and this one popped up. So I bought all the ingredients, but NOW I have a little bit of milk and half an onion that I'll have to use soon, lest THOSE go bad. Hm. It's kind of like when you buy something at a small convenience store that's $2.06, and you're paying at the counter and you're like "Wait! I have 6 pennies!" cause you wanna get rid of some coins? And you dig around in your purse and the people behind you start to get antsy cause you're holding up the line and the chick behind you makes a little "hmph" noise and puts her stuff on the counter to kind of crowd you out and hurry you up, and you know she's thinking "bitch I gotta pay for this shit and catch a bus" or something, and even the store owner guy is looking at you disapprovingly, and eventually you start to feel really bad so you just give the guy a dime (even though you KNOW you have those 6 pennies in there somewhere), and then you get 4 pennies back, which is the ultimate irony, because rather than getting rid of 6 coins, you just gained 3.

INGREDIENTS: (serves about 5)

2 large baking potatoes (about 20 oz total)
1/2 c onions (chopped)
1 ear of corn (kernels de-cobbed and put into a bowl)
4 slices vegetarian bacon (cooked and crumbled)
1.5 oz flour
4 cups milk (but we'll separate this into 3 c. and 1 c.)
1/2 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese (shredded)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
Salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper

Ew, so many ingredients. Sorry, I hate it when there are a million ingredients. But here they are in photo form!


How do you prepare all of these ingredients?

For the potatoes: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Stab a fork into the potatoes a few times, and put them right into the oven. Bake them there for about an hour and 10 minutes. Take them out and mash them up in a bowl and set aside (I left the peel on (I cut it up into pieces) to keep all the awesome nutrients in, but you can peel them first if you want and discard it).

For the corn: Take a medium sized ear of corn and de-cobb it. I don't even know if de-cobb is a word, but you basically just want to get the kernels off the cob and into a small bowl. You can hold the cob vertically over a cutting board or bowl and take a sharp knife and run it down to cut the kernels off.

For the bacon: Just follow the directions on the box. Basically you cook it just like real bacon. =)

Note: I did the bacon and corn earlier in the day and mixed them together in a bowl.

For the onions: Chop chop chop.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Bake the potatoes, mash 'em, set them aside.


Put the flour in a big pot. Pour 3 cups of milk gradually into the pot, mixing as you pour. Once it's all poured and mixed, turn on the heat! After about 10 minutes or so, it should be thick and bubbly.


Put in your mashed potatoes and 1/2 cup cheese.


Mix this until the cheese is melted, and then turn off the heat. Then, put in your sour cream and onions, bacon, and corn.


Mix all of this together, and then put in your last cup of milk. Throw in your spices, too. Mix again, and turn the heat back on (low). Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until its all heated through.

For the entire recipe:

Milk: 480 cals, 12.5g fat, 0g fiber
Bacon: 80 cals, 4g fat, 0g fiber
Corn: 155 cals, 3.5g fat, 0g fiber
Potatoes: 410 cals, 2g fat, 8g fiber
Flour: 150 cals, 0.5g fat, 1g fiber
Onion: 30 cals, 0g fat, 1.5g fiber
Cheese: 140 cals, 9g fat, 0g fiber
Sour cream: 140 cals, 8g fat, 0g fiber

Total: 1585 cals, 39.5g fat, 10.5g fiber

Phew!

1/5 of recipe (about 1 cup):
317 cals
8g fat
2g fat
7 points!

Enjoy!