Black Kitten Gets Healthy

Balance in Bites - NEW BLOG ADDRESS!

2009-09-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

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I HAVE A NEW BLOG ADDRESS. *gasp*

Guys, check it out. I've been considering moving my blog over to wordpress - there's a lot more customization there, and I can have stand-alone pages, too.

And so I did it!

And I have a new URL!

Balanceinbites.wordpress.com

It's not 100% organized and done (I still need a header pic, for instance), but it's getting there.

Please, please, please go bookmark it. The worst thing about switching blog hosting sites is that you lose a lot of your readership, and that's the last thing I want. =(

<3 all of you!

From now on, I'll be updated soley on that website, so you probably won't find any updates here. In fact, I'll most likely be shutting this blog down in a little bit once everything is shifted over and secure on wordpress.

Again, the website is balanceinbites.wordpress.com.

Woohoo!!!

Need points?

2009-09-10T18:40:00.001-07:00

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When I logged into my Xbox360 account yesterday, here's what I saw:

Thanks for rubbing it in, McDonalds.

Hungry Girl's 200 Under 200!

2009-09-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

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Thanks to Helen over at A Healthy Life Ahead, I won Hungry Girl's 200 Under 200 recipe book!

Thanks for the giveaway! It just came in the mail today =D

I'm pretty pumped about it. Some of the recipes are very typical Hungry-Girl (meaning, lots of fake subsitutes), but some look pretty awesome. And they're all under 200 calories!

An example of a not so great recipe: The Green Tea Creme Swappuccino. I don't want to get into any copyright trouble or anything, so I won't get into specifics, but some of the main ingredients in this are:

1. Ice
2. Sugar-free calorie-free syrup
3. Sugar-free creamer
4. No-calorie sweetener packets
5. Fat free whipped cream

Buh.

But! Here's an example of an awesome recipe: Hungry, Hungry Artichoke Hummus, which includes:

1. Chick peas
2. Artichoke hearts
3. Greek yogurt
4. Lots of different spices
5. Vegetable broth
6. Lemon juice

YUM!

I can't wait to look through it all.

Go check out Helen's blog, A Healthy Life Ahead. Who knows, maybe you can win a giveaway too!

Ingredient of the Week: Leeks

2009-09-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

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Leeks!

I always love leeks when I get some type of thai stir fry dish. Inevitably, there is always some leeks mixed in. I always want to ask for extras, they're so delicious =)

I've never cooked with leeks before, though. They look pretty formidable, to be honest. That whole section of produce is pretty scary. You've got Bok Choy, Choy Sum, Leeks, Swiss Chard... scary stuff.

Some info about leeks (gogo Wikipedia!):

-They're related to onions and garlic.
-Typically the white part and light green parts are eaten, although if you cook the dark parts long enough, you can eat those as well.
-They're not as bitter as scallions or other onions.

So what am I going to make with these?

After a lot of searching, I've decided on two things:

Leek, onion, and couscous salad

Minestrone soup with leeks

The minestrone scares the crap out of me. Look at all those ingredients!

The soup (if it turns out yummy) will be great for have some low cal, fill-me-up leftovers.

Now, time to make a grocery store list =)

I'm planning on making this tonight... be prepared for a flurry of pics!

Weigh in, running, snacks

2009-09-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

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First off: My weigh in.

Uh.

*ahem*

My question: How do I gain 6.6 pounds in one week?

How?

I know I wasn't perfectly on my diet BUT HOLY SHIT 6.6 POUNDS?!??!?!

So now I weigh 146.0. Wow.

I'm praying that most of that 6.6 pounds is made up of salt, water, and poo. Cross your fingers. It's gotta be, right?

Or else my scale is wacked.

Secondly: Like I said before, I AM pretty sick of counting points. Calories, fat, fiber, calories, fiber, calories, fiber, fat, fiber, calories, fat, calories, fat, fiber. Calories. Fiber. Bah.

I've paid for weightwatchers through the end of November, so I'm somewhat stuck with it til then (which is fine. I do like the WW website, info, forums, etc). However, I'm going to try out Sparkpeople.com. I've heard a TON of good things about it from various people, and it's free, so, no harm no foul. I'll let you know how I like it. =)

Thirdly: Because I have a new plan and am totally excited about it, I'm really back on track here, and I love it. I'm measuring stuff, tracking what I eat, etc. It's a good thing. No more "oh just a handful of this" or "this looks like 1/4 cup, right? Eh, a little more won't hurt," etc.

Anyway, I'm sticking on plan (Sparkpeople has a target cal/fat/protein/whatever else that I should be shooting for each day) for a week and then we'll see where I'm at.

Now it's time for a run!

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One run later.....

I did 7.6 miles!!!

Before my run (while I was typing out the above bit, and shooting death glares at my scale), I had one of these PURE bars (the chocolate brownie one) and a glass of water:

It tasted kind of odd. It smelled kind of funky, too. I mean, obviously it hadn't gone bad or anything, it was just kind of weird. Meh. I mean it wasn't AWFUL or anything. Just kind of different.

The run went pretty well. I ran it in 1:17:02, which is a 10:08 mile pace. I definitely started out under 10 min/mile I think, and slowed down considerably towards the middle/end. On the way back, it was SO WINDY. The Charles River practically had white peaks going on. It was nuts. I could barely hear the music from my headphones.

As for the distance.....I'm so excited. This is really boding well for me.

See.... I got the marathon itch again. I know, I know. Call me crazy. But I'm really craving some long runs. Weird, huh.

Here is me rocking the NYC marathon in 2005 (during and after):

Do not be led astray by my cheerful disposition in these pictures. The camera just happened to catch me at the two very rare moments that I was smiling. =P It didn't happen to catch me crying, swearing, making mean faces, and overall being grumpy/exhausted/in pain/emotional.

I always swore I'd never do another marathon..... but.....

We'll see. =)

After my run, I had a chocolate banana smoothie:

And then snacked on some Kix!

More to come later today =)

Baking books!

2009-09-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

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No, I'm not actually baking the books themselves, but they *do* happen to be books about baking! By now, most of you know how much I love to bake. I love making delicious, healthy treats that I can enjoy - yet still lose weight.

So imagine my delight when I found "Healthful Quantity Baking" by Maureen Egan and Susan Davis Allen in my local library.

Here's an excerpt from the very first page:

"The purpose of this book is to promote healthy and delicious alternatives to traditional 'made-from-scratch' baked products without utilizing expensive fat and sugar substitutes or other artificial ingredients."

Holy crap. Yes!

Maureen! Susan! Be my friends!

I'm looking through this - we've got Sponge Cake, Chocolate Pudding Cake, Chocolate Chiffon Pie, Cherry Turnovers, Peach Cobbler, Gingersnaps, Pound Cake, and that's just the beginning. And the ingredients! There's no "granulated Sweet n Low" or "fat-free egg substitute" or any crap like that. The only offending ingredient I see in these recipes is margarine, which I could probably replace with a mix of applesauce and butter in most cases. Seeing as how this was written in 1992, it makes sense - information about trans fats didn't become mainstream until later on. In '92, margarine was a godsend. It was much lower in fat and tasted fairly similar to butter. Now, though, we've learned that the trans fats in margarine are actually worse for you than butter itself. I know that personally, I'd rather have a very small pat of real butter than a slathering of trans-fatty margarine on my bread.

In addition to this book, I also found "Understanding Baking" by Joseph Amendola, which is a really great starter's book.

It explains the differences between various flours, sugars, chocolates, etc, and methods of storage, and how temperature is important, and how all of these things play a different role in baking. The information is juuuust borderline too-complicated for me, but I think I'll be able to get through it. I'm excited!

Complacency? Wait! No! Not yet!

2009-09-08T19:51:00.001-07:00

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So for the past few days, I've been kind of complacent with my diet.

It stems from a few reasons, I believe:

1. I'm already very much at a healthy weight. In fact, I'm a good 15 pounds under the maximum "healthy weight" for my height. Granted, I'm not at the minimum, but still - if I was losing weight solely to get into a healthy weight range, I'm certainly there already.

2. (Warning, conceitedness coming) I look hot! I can't stop checking myself out in store windows. It's actually pretty embarrassing, no joke. Remember when I was like "Whaaa my stomach is big!" a few posts ago? Yeah, so I was bloated for a day. Whatever. In reality, when I'm not acting like a complete crazy person, I look lean and mean. I wear mostly size 6s at this point (a few size 8s here and there). Sure, I have a pair of really hot size 4 jeans that I reeeeally want to fit into, but size 6 is freaking awesome!

3. I want to be able to eat real food, and make real recipes, be able to eat a decent sized portion of it, and not feel incredibly guilty about it. I'm having trouble reconciling trying to make and eat classic recipes with weight watchers. Yes, I know I can make the "healthy version" of most recipes by changing up a few things, and I do that quite a lot (see "healthy recipes, right side =P). But sometimes I don't WANT to use butter spray - sometimes I want to use a bit of actual butter. And I think it would be a lot easier to work these things into my daily menu if I was on maintenance, and had a few more points per day, rather than in losing-weight-mode.

Eh.

Am I just making excuses? I am, aren't I.

4. I'm also sick of counting points -

Ok, I was gonna go on about how sick of counting points I am, but now I really AM making excuses. I seriously sound like one of those people who's like "Wha, weight loss is hard, I'm giving up."

I don't want to be that person!

It's just frustrating for me when my mind has kind of settled into this weight. I keep trying to jump start my thinking. "Ok! Come on now, you can do it!" and I just seem to be having none of it.

I'm tempted to try the "Simply Filling" plan, rather than the "Count Your Damn Points" plan. This involves eating more filling foods (veggies, whole grains, etc) - which I do a lot of anyway - and then really listening to your hunger signals to figure out when you should eat (and when you shouldn't). The reasoning is that if you only eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, and only eat foods that will keep you full for a long time, then you'll lose weight.

It's tempting, but I don't trust myself enough. Knowing me, I'd be like "Oh, whole grain granola is a filling food! POUND OF GRANOLA IN MAH MOUTHHOLE PLZ KTHX."

Meh.

Any suggestions? Advice?

I think I might just need a swift kick in the ass.

Baking: check. Cooking? ....needs work.

2009-09-08T10:05:00.001-07:00

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I finally feel like I've got baking under control. I can look at a recipe and not be overwhelmed by the ingredients. What I've made:

Sugar-rum banana pastries (kind of a disaster. Phyllo dough is tough)
Apple cake (a little mushy, but pretty delicious)
Blueberry muffins (totally awesome)
Maple-Cinammon cake (my chocolate chips sunk to the bottom, but it was yummy)
Ricotta cookies (not too bad)
Peanut butter cookies (dry but yummy)
Brown sugar brownies (yum!)
Banana bread (totally awesome)
Regular white bread (100% handmade and 100% edible =P)

I'm sure I'll be making more desserts as time goes on, but for the moment, I definitely feel like I can look at a basic baking recipe and rock it out.

Excellent!

Now, it's time to work on cooking real food. Dinners, etc.

Here are some things I want to learn how to make:

Risotto
Potato Gratin
Eggplant Parmesan
Anything with tofu
Anything with polenta
Dinner crepes
Really delicious meatballs (yeah, I know I'm veg. More on this later)
Baklava (for.... dinner? Um. What!)
Sushi
Any kind of curry
Any kind of pot stickers or dumplings (I think they're the same thing?)

I think I can do it. It might take me a while, but I'll make them all. Eventually. >.>

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I also think I'm going to have a weekly article, where I buy some new weird ingredient and make something with it. I was in the grocery store a while ago, and was buying spinach because I always make sauteed spinach with everything, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw some kale just chillin there. Oh hey kale, what's up.

So I bought said kale, made sauteed kale (it wasn't that good - not the kale's fault, it was my own), and anyway, despite it being kind of raw, I was super excited that I had bought and made something totally new.

And when I'm watching the food network, they're always using weird ingredients like starfruit, or bulgur, or pine nuts, or something else that I've never thought of using in my cooking.

I go to the grocery store at least a few times a week (I don't have a car, so I make several small trips throughout the week, only buying as much as I can carry home with my own hands), so that will give me ample time to browse around and find something totally off the wall to cook with. =)

Dear phyllo dough: You suck. Love, Me.

2009-09-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

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Phyllo dough is really freaking hard to work with. Pastry chefs around the world: I salute you.

1. If you get it wet, it's all over. It essentially "melts."
2. Each piece of phyllo is incredibly thin. Good luck getting one sheet off. *snort*
3. If it becomes too dry, it will break into no less than a thousand pieces.
4. So, you need to keep it moist. But, see (1).
5. If you end up getting pissed off and throwing out most of the phyllo dough in a blind rage, I won't blame you.

That is all.

The Food Network: Chopped - literally.

2009-09-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

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I love the Food Network. If you don't know this about me yet, you will. Oh, you will. I was watching it tonight while enjoying a nice glass of red wine (gogo APs!) and Chopped was on.

The premise of Chopped is this (and I take this directly from the Food Network website):

Hosted by Ted Allen (Food Detectives), the series challenges four up-and-coming chefs to turn a selection of everyday ingredients into an extraordinary three-course meal. After each course, a contestant gets "chopped" until the last man or woman left standing claims victory. Each week, a rotating panel of culinary elite judges including Alex Guarnaschelli, Aaron Sanchez, and Geoffrey Zakarian will decide whose dishes shine the brightest and award the winner $10,000.

Personally, I love Alex. She's one of those people who's totally dead pan. It's hilarious. And she gives credit where credit is due, but also brings the smackdown when it's needed. I like her as a judge.

But I digress. Basically, the show is exactly like every other competition food show on the Food Network. They run around, make delicious food in a certain time period, have the food eaten and judged, and then find out whether they win. Simple! Entertaining!

On this particular episode, the first round involved tuna, which one of the contestants, Mor, made into tuna cakes. As he's using the food processor, he cuts his hand.

On the Food Network, seeing a chef accidentally cut themselves is akin to seeing an Olympic skater fall on a triple axel jump. You know that slight intake of breath/holding your breath thing that you do when you see a skater start going backwards in preparation for a huge jump? I do the same thing when I see a chef chop up vegetables with a large knife.

When I see a chef cut themselves, these are the thoughts that go through my mind:

1. First and foremost, how bad is it? Are they going to be ok?
2. How will they bandage it? Do they have time to truly take care of it?
3. Will this hinder their ability to finish the food they're making?
4. OR MAYBE THEY'LL JUST BLEED ALL OVER THE FOOD. OH, NO BIGGIE.

This guy reaches into his blender to get out his tuna-patty-mixture, cuts himself, and WHILE BLEEDING INTO THE FOOD, continues to shape his tuna patties. With his bloody hands. Blood is dripping down his wrist. It's on his fingers. It's on the wooden spoon. It's in the food. FOOD THAT PEOPLE ARE GOING TO EAT.

Someone from the sidelines of the show - like a producer or something - actually has to page him or whatever (you know how they all have those little ear pieces in) and say "Um, sir, we see that you're bleeding, and you really need to go and take care of that, bandage it up." He says: "I don't really have time."

YOU DON'T HAVE TIME?!?!

He did finally go and bandage it up and put a glove on.

However, the thing that really blew me away was that when it came time to judge the food, he wasn't eliminated. Um. What? They mentioned, "Oh, maybe you shouldn't, you know, bleed into your food, for, you know, sanitation reasons." But he wasn't eliminated.

If I were a judge on that show, I would absolutely refuse to eat that food. There is no way it would touch my lips. Yes, I know that a lot of nasty things go on behind the scenes in the back of restaurants. I've worked in food before, and believe me, not everything is picture perfect sanitation. People don't always wash their hands, for one. Hell, one of the restaurants I worked in didn't have running water for a good four hours due to a water line problem. We couldn't serve ice water, or make pasta, or anything that required a large amount of water. We also couldn't wash our hands. I had a little thing of hand sanitizer in my purse, but it wasn't like I could share that with the entire kitchen staff. And the restaurant didn't close - it stayed open. At a different restaurant, a co-worker of mine once told me he saw a prep cook hock a loogie onto a burger before serving it. No, I'm not kidding. The guy who ordered the burger had been a little snappy with the waitress, who happened to be the prep cook's girlfriend.

So yes, when you go out and have food prepared for you by someone else, you obviously run the risk of having things be less than sanitary. But that doesn't mean you can BLEED INTO YOUR FOOD. I'm still absolutely stunned that the judges even ate the food. And didn't eliminate him!!!

(EDIT: I watched the episode clip again - they reaired it a couple hours later late at night - and he does, in fact, remake the tuna after his hand is bandaged. So they didn't actually have to eat contaminated food. But he certainly had to be badgered into it).

Oh, it gets better. Well, worse. You know what I mean.

The next round, he double dips his spoon. He takes a spoon, tries a bit of his puree, and then stirs the puree with the same spoon.

Have I done this before? Yes, all the time. Especially when I'm making food just for my boyfriend and me, or for a friend who I know isn't a germaphobe. But I never assume that it's okay. If I'm out at a restaurant and dipping bread into olive oil, and then take a bit and want to dip again, I'll ask my friend "Hey, can I double dip?" It's just common sense to ask. Some people don't care. Some people do. When in doubt, don't do it.

So yes, I've done it before. It doesn't make it okay, especially when you're on camera, being judged, and going for a $10,000 prize.

The judges remind him not to double dip (what is he, 5 years old? "Now honey, your mouth has bad germs that can make other people verrryyyy sick if you lick the spoon and then put the spoon back in! No double dipping, sweetie!") but he STILL isn't eliminated.

o.O

On the last round, it's just him and this other chick (Diane, who, in my opinion, is pretty annoying. She has really long hair and just lets it fly all around. No ponytail, no hair net. If there's no hair in the food, then it doesn't really matter, but it just looks very unprofessional).

And he double dips again!!! Licks the spoon TWICE, and puts it back in the sauce to serve it up on the plates.

And then he denies it!!!

And they're like "Um, we have it on camera? We're, like, on a taped and televised show here." And finally he's like "Ok, well, if you say so." I loled a wee bit here.

Finally, he's eliminated.

Disgusting. I can't believe they let him get so far into the show without getting more outraged and eliminating him.

Next time I'm in New York, remind me not to go to his place, the Ink48 restaurant (formerly VU hotel). Poor, poor form - on both the contestant's account, and the judge's account.

What do you guys think? Am I overreacting? Underreacting?

Planning out points, death by jalapenos

2009-09-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

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I'm thinking about making nachos tonight, with some refried beans, salsa, and sour cream. It'll be 8 points though, which is quite a lot, and it wouldn't actually be all that much food, so I'm still not 100% sure. There's also some leftover pasta from a couple days ago that should get eaten soon, which would be 5 points.

I remember back when I used to get 24 points a day.... *wistful sigh*. Now I only get 20, and sticking to only 20 is really tough. I think I need to pare down my breakfast and lunch. I've been finding that I typically get home from work with 7 or 8 points left, and then after a 2 point snack (which is especially important if I've just gotten home from a run) and some dinner, I'm done with my daily points or even over sometimes. And I've found that planning for an after dinner snack is really important for me, because I always want something to look forward to after dinner - but I hate having to use weeklies or APs for that post-dinner snack all the time, because I can't seem to fit into my daily points. When I had 22+ points a day, it was simple. Now, not so much.

I keep trying to plan certain dinners, but I can't bring myself to make anything that's 6 points or over. Which essentially means making nothing with cheese. *weep* I LOVE cheese, but even the low fat cheese is so high in points when you add it to stuff. I keep wanting to make a vegetable lasagna but I know it's going to be like 8 points a serving (I just can't bring myself to use non-fat cheese... I might as well eat plastic. I mean cheese is inherently made of fat. If it's non-fat, is it still even considered cheese? What's it even made of? Ick.), and I just don't have enough points in the day for an 8 point dinner. Sure, I could eat a smaller portion, but then I know I'll be hungry later. Sigh. CONUNDRUM.

The other frustrating thing is that I never seem to be able to find a good baking night. I like to bake stuff when I have a good 4 points left for the day - so I have 2-3 points for trying whatever it is that I made, and 1-2 points for tasting batter, licking spoons, etc. Lately though, it seems that every single night I have to put it off yet again, because I don't have any dailies left (this week I ate a lot of my weekly points early on, too, so I only have one left plus APs).

I think I need to reorganize my daily points, and utilize my weekly points better.

Anyway, along with the lasagna, I've also been meaning to make nachos (as said above). I think I'm gonna suck it up and make a refried bean dip with lots of veggies - tomatoes, salsa, peppers, onions, jalapenos, etc. I love jalapenos. Plus, boosting veggie content always helps me stay full for longer.

How do those people who only get 18 points a day DO it? Major props to them. I wait in terror for the day when my 20 points a day drops to 19....

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Speaking of jalapenos:

First note to self: When making a sandwich at night for the next day's lunch, don't expect to be able to chop up jalapenos for it and then a little while later, take out your contact lens.

Second note to self: When one eye is burning in excruciating pain, don't expect to be able to wash off said jalapeno residue from your hand with just water and then be able to take out the other contact. You will, in fact, end up with both eyes in severe pain. You need to scrub your hands with soap and water.

Third note to self: When you wake up the next morning, don't stumble into the bathroom all sleepily and forget that your contacts are probably still contaminated with jalapeno juice, despite rinsing them and putting them in fresh contact solution. Do NOT attempt to put them back into your eyes.

After all is said and done, 1. I'm not blind (phew), 2. I need a new pair of contact lenses, and 3. My boyfriend is awesome, because he fashioned a little eye-rinse station out of a shot glass for me. How freaking cute it that.

Me: "OH MY GOD IT BURNS"
Pete: "Here, take this"
Me: "NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR VODKA SHOTS, PETE"
Pete: "Rinse your eyes with it!"
Me: "WITH VODKA?!?!"
Pete: "It's water!"

Ahem. What. I was a little out of it.

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I updated my photos! I know there's only a 3 pound difference from the last photo I posted, but I don't care, I like pictures =D Check it out on the sidebar to the right!

Oh, and my meal plan for the day:

Breakfast:
peach (1 pt)
Oikos yogurt (2 pts)
1 Weetabix biscuit (1 pt)

Lunch:
Hummus on an arnold thin with cucumbers, lettuce, and dreaded jalapenos (2 pts)
Progresso minestrone soup (3 pts)

Total: 9 points so far

If I get hungry later on at work:
100 cal pack of nuts (2 pts)

Dinner:
Maybe nachos! (8 pts)
Or leftover pasta? (5 pts)
Or something completely different (? pts)

Any of you guys have good, low point dinner ideas?

Healthy Recipes: Spinach Ricotta Pie

2009-09-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

After the meal impressions: Both Pete and I enjoyed this a lot. I was pretty skeptical about how the eggs and ricotta would go together, but they really did mesh well. The three cheeses tasted delicious. I served it with a salad, and I put a little hot sauce on the pie.... serious yum.

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INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs
2 egg whites
spinach (a few big handfuls, chopped)
crumbled feta (2 ounces)
part-skim ricotta cheese (1-1/2 cups)
reduced-fat Parmesan cheese (2 tbsp)
salt and pepper (to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and egg whites together.

Add in the ricotta and feta and mix well - then put in the spinach and salt & pepper (I beat the eggs in a small bowl to begin with and had to transfer everything over to this bigger, red bowl).

Spray a 9" pie pan with cooking spray and pour the mixture into it. Then sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.

Put it in the oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes.

Voila!

Nutritional Info:

2 eggs: 140 cals, 9g fat, 0g fiber
2 egg whites: 30 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
Ricotta: 600 cals, 42g fat, og fiber
Feta cheese: 140 cals, 12g fat, 0g fiber
Parmesan cheese: 60 cals, 3g fat, 0g fiber
Spinach: 20 cals, 0g fat, 1.5g fiber

Total: 990 cals, 66g fat, 1.5g fiber

For one quarter of the pie:
250 cals
16.5g fat
0g fiber
6 pts!

Enjoy!

Things I am doing well

2009-09-04T19:22:00.001-07:00

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I was looking in the mirror today, and I thought "Man. What's with my stomach? It's all jutty-outty. Dammit. I look fat."

SAY WHA?!?!?!

Hell no. I do NOT look fat! I look awesome! Snap out of it!

So I decided to make a list chronicling my awesomeness. ;)

In all seriousness, I think it's really important that we don't forget or underestimate our achievements. A lot of us have come *so* far, and we should remember that! And remember how awesome we are! I already made a similar post a while ago her e, but hell, let's make another.

Various ways I have become more healthy over the past year:

1.) I floss more. I had never had a cavity in my entire life, and then about a month ago, they found one. =O Having no cavities was like, my claim to fame.

Me: "Hi there, I'm Allison, how's it going?"
Person: "Oh, hey, I'm -"
Me: "I've never had a cavity. Ever."
Person: "I - wait, huh?"
Me: *pulls out pen* "If you don't have paper, I can autograph your hand or something, it's cool. I'm flexible."

And then, boom, cavity. Right in the molar. I actually had to go in and get a filling. A huge blow to my identity and ego, obviously.

And now I floss more. Every night! Sometimes in the morning, too! Flossing is awesome.

2.) I quit smoking. I smoked for about 3 years, give or take. It started socially, like how most people start. I remember the first time I stopped bumming them from people at parties and just bought my own pack. I was really nervous because I was afraid I wouldn't pronounce "Marlboro" correctly. It's an easy one to garble. I went to the store, pronounced it correctly, gave them money, they gave me a pack, and I "officially" became a smoker.

Then a couple cigs a week became a couple cigs a day, which became 8 cigs a day, which became 12 cigs a day. Which, at the beginning of 2009, became very close to a pack a day.

A few reasons that made me quit:

1. Cigarettes are like, 8 bucks a pack. EIGHT. It's absolutely insane. A pack a day = $56.00 a week. That is money I don't have.
2. I felt like shit. I couldn't breathe in the morning when I woke up.
3. I was always very nervous around my family. My family is very healthy (my parents and brother all are runners, eat well, etc), and while they knew that I smoked, they never really brought it up much (unless to say sort of off-hand, "You know, you should quit"), and I definitely never felt comfortable smoking around them. So it would always make me anxious when I visited them - would I be able to go that long without smoking? When would I be able to sneak a cigarette? It was a huge source of stress.
4. My boyfriend decided to quit - and I knew that this was my chance. If I didn't quit with him, then I knew that I would need to quit later on, by myself, and I honestly didn't think I could do it on my own. Besides, smoking around my boyfriend when he JUST quit is a pretty douche-baggy thing to do.

I bought a ton of nicorette gum, but really only needed to chew a few pieces total. Weirdly enough, quitting was quite easy, which was entirely unexpected. I have a pretty addictive personality (see: food).

So now I've been smoke-free for about 5 months. =D

3. I started running. I started out and could barely run for 3 minutes straight. Now, I run for 6 miles straight. My muscles are more defined - my legs look HOT. Screw that "oh my stomach looks big" crap, because, for one, it DOESN'T, and for two, check out my LEGS. I could kick some serious ass with these legs. It's awesome.

4.) I eat healthier foods. I still have slip ups from time to time (I AM human, after all), but for the most part, I eat real whole foods. Foods that aren't processed up the wazoo, foods that are natural and good for you. All different kinds of fruits and veggies, whole grains, natural protein, etc. Very little sugar-free fat-free crap. I mean, sure, I'm still known to *occasionally* eat some light laughing cow cheese, diet pepsi, WW mini bars, and, well, Cool Whip from time to time. But I'm trying my hardest to get away from all that.

Good food choices I've made:
A. Instead of sugar-free non-fat yogurt (sweetened with aspartame), I eat non-fat greek yogurt, usually Chobani, sometimes Oikas. Chobani's ingredients: Cultured pasteurized nonfat milk, strawberries, sugar, natural flavor, beet juice concentrate (for color). So simple!

B. I just discovered this Weetabix cereal/biscuit thing. Have you heard of this? I hadn't! Holy crap. I love this stuff. The ingredients? Organic whole wheat, organic dehydrated cane juice, organic barley malt extract, sea salt.

I put two of these biscuits in a bowl with a cup of chocolate soy milk - it is seriously good stuff. I really recommend it.

As opposed to what I used to eat, say, Cocoa Puffs, which have (among other things): Sugar, corn meal, cocoa, canola and/or rice bran oil, corn syrup, corn starch, modified corn starch, cocoa processed with alkali, salt, calcium carbonate, fructose, beet powder and caramel color, trisodium phosphate, artificial flavor. Bah.

C. Instead of a pop-tart for breakfast (that's got fruit in it, right? >.>), I eat an apple.

Guess what ingredients are in an apple?

Apple.

Bahahahah.

I always get a kick out of that. =P

5.) I drink less. I still enjoy a couple glasses of wine here and there, maybe once every couple weeks, and very occasionally will go out and actually get drunk - but those times are extremely few and far between. Last year, I'd go out and drink quite a bit every weekend, and I would have a few beers during the week as well. Alcoholism runs rampant on both sides of my family, so it's definitely something that concerns me. I feel much better now that I don't drink as much. I'm hungover less, I'm not consuming crap for calories, and I feel more in control overall. It's a good thing.

What about you guys? How have you gotten more healthy?

Cool Whip

2009-09-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

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Look at it. So innocent.

Why did I buy it to begin with?

I mean, look at the ingredients:

Water, corn syrup, hydrogentaed vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, and then less than 2% of blah blah blah for color, etc.

*shudder*

Cool Whip is like crack cocaine for me. It's so fluffy and innocent. It boasts that it has 0g trans fat. It's so light - it CAN'T be that bad, can it? Well, two measly tablespoons are 25 calories, 1.5g fat, and 0g fiber. It adds up. Two tablespoons is nothing. And I could eat, like, 9384503 tablespoons straight from the container.

I estimate that I had about 4 points worth of cool whip today after my run.... bah! Say wha?

I'm not even sure that I enjoy it all that much. I mean, I do, obviously, but it's so not worth it. It tastes kind of fake. It has no nutritional value whatsoever. It does nothing to help my body.

It all started with raspberries. Fresh raspberries are great for you! Fresh raspberries also taste awesome with Cool Whip! Yes, it might have been a thinly veiled excuse to be able to nom said cool whip, but hey, it would be a nice treat, right? Check it out:

Looks soooo yummy.

Right before I took a bite, I decided to add a few more raspberries.

So I rummaged through the little plastic container, trying to find the best ones. Oh wait, what's this? Oh. HAI, LOTS OF MOLD. HOW'S IT GOIN.

WTF Shaws!? I bought these YESTERDAY. Why all moldy?? No wonder they were freakin on sale. Sigh. And here I was, so excited to get two for $4.00.

So I had to throw out my raspberries. *weep*

This didn't, however, stop me from eating my cool whip. And then a little more cool whip. Sigh a second time.

Regardless! Despite the cool whip incident, I have 8.5 points left for the day which I'm going to use wisely, plus, I went for a run tonight, PLUS, I'm throwing the rest of the cool whip out!

Mwuahaha! Take THAT, Cool Whip!

PS: Yes, I know I should recycle bottles. And I DO recycle my bottles! (Woohoo!) This one, for some reason, snuck its way into the trash, and into this photo. Bad bottle!

Weigh in

2009-09-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

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Woohoo!

Yeah, that's right! It was so awesome that I had to take a picture of it =D

NOW I CAN FINALLY GET A HAIR CUT.

No, seriously, I've needed one for like 3 months, but in all my sage wisdom, I said "Oh hey, I know, I'll use that as a reward for getting under 140!" Oh yeah, great, little did I know that that would mean waiting A LONG TIME.

Anyway.

I'm looking up short hair cuts... if I do something drastic, I'll post some pics =P

EDIT (yay for walk-in appts!):

Weeeeeee!

BREAD!!!

2009-09-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

HOLY CRAP, BREAD. See that photo of glorious breadiness? I MADE that. I did! *cheer*

Ingredients:

warm water (1 cup)
sugar (2 tbsp)
active dry yeast (3/4 tbsp)

vegetable oil (2 tbsps)
salt (1 tsp)
bread flour (3 cups)

Warm up a large bowl with some hot water; pour the hot water out and then put in your measured cup of warm water. It shouldn't be scalding hot, but it definitely should be quite warm. (I had to pour out my initial yeast mixture because the water wasn't warm enough and didn't activate the yeast very well). Put the yeast and the sugar in the bowl with the warm water, stir a little bit. Then just let it sit.

After about 5-10 minutes, the yeast should be bubbling a bit.

In a separate bowl, mix your flour and salt together. Slowly add this dry mixture into the wet mixture bowl. This is where you get your hands all gooey. It's awesome. You'll love it.

Now you get to knead the dough! I kneaded it right there in the bowl. I didn't really know how to knead it, to be honest. Do I use my thumbs? My knuckles? It was like trying to give a massage to a very particular, yet mute client. I practically started talking to the dough, "Do you like it like that? I can dig in a little more if you want. Or maybe a little lighter? .....any feedback would be nice, here. Hello? Hellooooo -" I did this for about 10 minutes and nary a peep.

Note: I'm not actually insane. *cough*

I kneaded it as best as I could, and eventually THIS formed (which I put in a bowl and covered with saran wrap):

I let that sit for about an hour, and sure enough, it rose! Check it out:

It's at least double in size, which is what they recommend.

Then I got to punch the dough. It was awesome. "Think you can get away without talking to me during that massage? *BAM* Not so fast! *WHACK* What now! *PUNCH* Talk! *WHAM*"

It all deflated fairly quickly, actually, and, in fact, did not start to talk. I decided that that was pretty okay, seeing as how it's a doughy loaf of bread. I kneaded it for about 3 more minutes. Then! I formed it into semi-rectangular shape, and put it in a greased (with cooking spray) 9x5" loaf pan.

I then covered it with saran wrap again and let it rise a second time, for about 45 minutes.

Er, wait.

There we go.

INTO THE OVEN IT GOES (350 degrees!)

And then, after 30 minutes....

BEHOLD:

Doesn't it LOOK edible? It certainly looks edible.

Guess what:

It IS edible!!!!

It's pretty bland, to be honest, but it definitely tastes like bread! Holy crap! I'm going to make a sammich with it tomorrow!!!

Nutrition Info for the whole loaf:

Flour: 1320 cals, 7g fat, 10.5g fiber
Oil: 240 cals, 28g fat, 0g fiber
Yeast: 35 cals, 0g fat, 2.5g fiber
Sugar: 45 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber

Total: 1640 cals, 35g fat, 13g fiber

For a slice (1/16th):
103 cals
2g fat
1g fiber
2 points!

Weighing in, bread making, meal plan

2009-09-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

.
Meal plan for the day:

Breakfast:
apple (1 pt)
greek yogurt (3 pts)
1/4 cup fresh strawberries (0 pts)
homemade blueberry muffin (2 pts)
coffee with a little bit of milk (.5 pts)

Total: 6.5 pts

Lunch:
green peppers (0 pts)
raw green beans (0 pts)
garlic hummus (2 pts)
half a PB & J sammich (3.5 pts)

Total: 5.5 pts

Dinner (9 pts left):
As usual, I'm not sure yet. I might make some veggie lasagna. I keep saying that, but when I get home I never want to put that much effort into cooking.

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Speaking of effort and cooking, I DO want to make some homemade bread really soon.

Like, maybe tonight.

However. I have a strong feeling my bread is going to fail.

Indeed, Skeptical Cat. I agree. I keep reading different articles about how to make homemade bread (with no bread machine thingy) and they're all like "MANY THINGS CAN GO WRONG AT EVERY STAGE OF MAKING BREAD AND BELIEVE ME THERE ARE MANY STAGES SO HOLY CRAP YOUR BREAD IS GONNA SUCK" and I'm like "Yes, I believe you."

Regardless, bread making (or some type of semblance of it) shall occur. Don't worry, I'll document each step along the way so when I'm a super awesome bread maker in the future we can all look back and laugh. =)

Hm. If I make homemade bread, maybe I'll skip making the lasagna and instead have a veggie burger ON the homemade bread. Holy crap, I'm a genius. I can actually make like a little sandwich. If the bread is edible, that is.

Cross your fingers. =P

On a separate note, I sneaked a peek at the scale this morning, even though my weigh in isn't until tomorrow morning.

139.8!!!

So I just have to make sure that holds til tomorrow when my weigh in is official =P But wow, was it nice seeing 13-something on the scale. Baking bread will be good for tonight, I think. It's time consuming but also not something where I'm going to be licking the batter left and right.

Healthy Recipes: Chocolate Banana Smoothie

2009-09-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

This isn't so much a recipe really - it's pretty basic. But I make it for myself all the time and it's so delicious, so I figure I'd share it with you all. I love the light chocolate soy milk because it's really refreshing, and it isn't "light" in the sense that it has aspartame or anything. All they do is cut out a little bit of the fat from the chocolate.

INGREDIENTS:
1 medium banana (chopped and frozen)
Light chocolate soy milk (1 cup)
cayenne pepper (a VERY small dash, powdered)
This makes one serving. You can nom the whole thing!

Hungry says: "Remember to chop up and freeze this banana beforehand!"

HOW TO DO IT:

Pour the chocolate soy milk into the blender.

Put the banana in the blender.

Put the tiiiiny dash of cayenne in the blender.

Blend it!

Drink it! Love it!

Mmmmm. Yummy post-run smoothie.

Nutrition information:

Soy milk: 120 cals, 1.5g fat, 2g fiber
Med. banana: 105 cals, .5g fat, 3g fiber

Total:
225 cals
2g fat
5g fiber
4 points!

Enjoy!

Food....porn? (yes, this post is safe for work.)

2009-09-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

.
So yesterday I made some blueberry muffins (yeah, I know, again). They were just as delicious as the first two batches.

Unfortunately, I was out of points for the day, so I couldn't nom any right then and there. I didn't really want to, though, because I had already made them twice. So I didn't feel the need to taste or try them right then and there.

My boyfriend, on the other hand, who is not on weight watchers, and therefore has infinite points per day, DID try them.

Me: "The blueberry muffins are done, you want one?"
Pete: "YES, NOM"
Me: "You know what would be totally delicious? Cut one in half and put a pat of butter in there"
Pete: "Holy crap, you're right"

It was kind of like the below photo except with hotter, softer, more together muffins, and more butter. The pic is from the blog Closet Cooking, by the way - neat blog!

Pete took a butter knife and slowly slid it down the middle of the blueberry muffin. It steamed slightly with the warmth of the oven. The aroma of hot baked flour and sugar filled the room. He didn't cut it completely into two pieces, but left a bit uncut at the bottom, so to create an envelope of muffin. He placed the pat of butter right between the halves. It immediately started to become soft with the heat. The muffin began to absorb the sweet butter as it slid slowly into the warm depths of the baked good. Pete brought it up to his mouth, and with his eyes closed, took a large bite of the sweet and savory goodness. He chewed slowly, letting the creamy butter melt on his tongue, tasting the tart blueberries and the soft muffin crumbs, savoring each bite.

I seriously could write erotic fiction, don't you think?

No but really, watching him eat this was like directing porn. Not that I know first-hand, but.... you know. One can imagine. =P

Me: "Wait, don't eat it yet! Let me sit down and get comfy here. Ok, I'm good. Go ahead. Oh - oh yeah, that's it. A little slower, oh yeah. Oh it's good, isn't it. The butter makes it totally awesome, doesn't it. Oh, take another bite. Oh yeah"
Pete: "Um - hon?"
Me: "Mmmm, yeah, what's up"
Pete: "Um. I'm trying to eat my muffin here."
Me: "Oh. Right. Carry on."

>.>

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I looked up "living vicariously through someone" on the internet. I know what it means, but it's one of those words I have trouble with. I consider myself to be fairly smart, and I'm a pretty big word nerd (I love crosswords and Scrabble) but for some reason I always want to say "living precariously though" instead of "vicariously." I know what precariously means, too. So I don't know why I mix them up. It's silly. But I went ahead and looked it up just to double check, because I was going to use it in a sentence here on my blog - and if I'm publishing something in post-form, I don't want to have any grammar/spelling mistakes.

Some example sentences I found:

"He enjoyed his friend's vacation vicariously through his friend's detailed description".
"I wish I had the guts to skydive, but I can just live vicariously through you when you go. Tell me all about it."
"For example, say you are married and can't go out and party anymore, but you have a bachelor friend that goes out clubbing, meets women, and has crazy times. You can experience those things (live vicariously) second-hand by listening to your friend tell you all about his experiences"

Or, you know, you can live vicariously through your boyfriend by watching him eat muffins hot from the oven with pats of butter on them.

Healthy Recipes: Apple Cake

2009-09-01T05:20:00.000-07:00

After the meal impressions: Ehhhh. The taste was great, but it was slightly mushy. Either from all the apples, OR, it might have been because I forgot to put in the salt - or maybe it needed more time in the oven. D'oh! However, once they sort of firmed up in the fridge a bit (I always keep my baked goods in the fridge so they stay good for longer), the texture improved a bit. Either way, I don't think I'll be making this again.

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INGREDIENTS:
all-purpose white flour (1 cup)
baking soda (1 tsp)
cinnamon (1 tsp)
salt (1/2 tsp)

sugar (1/2 cup)
brown sugar (1/4 cup)
1 egg (beaten)
vanilla extract (1 tsp)
unsweetened applesauce (1/4 cup)
2 medium apples (cored, chopped, peeled)

THE HOW TO:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In a larger bowl, mix your beaten egg, applesauce, all the sugar, and vanilla.

Stir in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture bowl until it's almost all mixed, and then fold in the chopped apples.

Put it in a loaf pan (sprayed with baking PAM, or something similar) and cook for 55-60 minutes!

When you take it out, let it cool for a few.

Then cut it into 12 slices and nom!

Nutritional Info for the whole thing:

Flour: 450 cals, 1g fat, 3.5g fiber
Sugar: 720 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
Applesauce: 25 cals, 0g fat, .5g fiber
Apples: 150 cals, .5g fat, 4g fiber
Egg: 70 cals, 5g fat, 0g fiber

Total: 1415 cals, 6.5g fat, 8g fiber

For a slice that's 1/12th of the loaf:
118 cals
.5g fat
.5g fiber
2 points!

Enjoy =)

Meal Plan, running, etc

2009-08-31T05:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-30T04:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

.
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?!

2009-08-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

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:

2009-08-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-24T10:25:00.001-07:00

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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.

2009-08-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-20T07:54:00.001-07:00

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?!?!

2009-08-19T12:10:00.001-07:00

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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...

2009-08-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

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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!

2009-08-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-17T08:42:00.001-07:00

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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

2009-08-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

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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.

2009-08-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

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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

2009-08-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

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!

Weighing in and walking

2009-08-13T14:20:00.001-07:00

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Weigh in results:

140.6!

Which means that my 0.8 gain last week is totally nullified by my 2 pound loss today. BAM!

Making some baked potato soup - potatoes are baking in the oven as we speak. I'm gonna take some pictures and put the recipe up tonight =)

AND my foot is feeling better today. I've been walking around in my running shoes all day, which are way more supportive than any other shoe. I was able to walk about...

...holy crap, 7.1 miles. Just metered it out on gmap-pedometer. I walked to the dentist and back, and then to the grocery store and back, and then to the coffee shop and back. OH SNAP! And my foot was FINE! I wore my running shoes, which are super supportive. Woohoo!

Wow, that's pretty amazing. Walking has become second nature to me - I walk to and from work, I walk to go grocery shopping, I walk downtown, etc. I pretty much walk everywhere. It's gotten to the point where I feel guilt taking public transit. Over 7 miles.... wow. And it didn't even seem like all that much! *swells with pride*

Ok, time to check up on those potatoes. Keep your eye out for the new recipe going up soon =)

I really want a cupcake.

2009-08-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

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It's odd, how much I want one. I don't usually crave stuff like cake, or chocolate, or frosting. I'm more of a fat/salt/simple carb craver. Gimme some nachos, bitch! With extra cheese and extra sour cream and extra guac. With a side of french fries (extra salt) and pancakes (extra syrup).

But oddly enough, I'm really just craving one simple thing.

A cupcake. A simple one - nothing fancy. Just white cake with white frosting.

Look:

So innocent.

So moist.

So seductive.

So here's what I'm going to do.

FIRST: Let it be known: no cupcake today! I don't need it, I have no weeklies left, PLUS I weigh in tomorrow morning.

SECOND: Might I begin to think that I DO need a cupcake, that I can use some APs for it, and that my weigh in is not in fact as important as I think it is - well, I would be wise to remember that any cupcakes I consider eating today are poisonous. August 12th, 2009 has long been known to be the day of the poisonous-cupcake-conspiracy. Stores around America - bakeries, pastry shops, grocery stores - all have prepared for this day. Poison has been baked into any cupcake that I might even begin to consider eating. Any cupcakes that OTHER people may consider buying and eating, however, are fine. So, you know, don't stress. This is obviously only targeted at me. Unless you, too, on this particular day, want a cupcake, but know that you, too, on this particular day, shouldn't have one. Then in that case, all of your cupcakes are poisoned, just like mine. Watch out.

Don't believe me? Natalie Dee does.

THIRD: If I still want one tomorrow, I'm going to go out and buy some ingredients and make a really yummy healthy cupcakey dessert. I haven't baked anything since I was like 14 with my mom. It'll be fun. ^.^

Mmmmm... fat-free cool whip frosting.... =P

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I sneaked a peek at the scale a day or so ago and I'm just under 141! Which means I'm well on my way to being in the 130s next Thursday. *happy dance*

On a more annoying note, the bottom side of my left foot is all borked out. Two days ago, I wore these flats that have no support (which SHOULD have been fine, seeing as how 1. I wear shoes like that all the time, and 2. they are very broken in. I used to waitress in them all the time - double shifts! - with no problem) and by the end of a long day of walking, my foot was really hurting. I got home, took the shoes off, figured that taking them off had fixed the problem, and proceeded to go out for a 3.3 mile run.

Not only was my foot killing me, but I also died from heat exhaustion (note: that's an exaggeration). Stupid summer. Seriously, it sucked. I felt cold, stopped sweating for a bit, and felt like all my insides had melted, and that I was going to vomit them up. *shudder*

I got home, drank a lot of water, took a shower, ate dinner, went promptly to bed, and felt WAY better the next morning.

My foot, however - not so much.

I tried to walk to work yesterday morning, got halfway there, and had to take a cab the rest of the way. On the way home, I was able to walk the whole way, but it was hurting towards the end.

I've been icing it like crazy for the past two days, and it seems to be helping a little bit - I was able to walk the whole way to work this morning with minimal pain. But I'm really frustrated. This means no running for me for at LEAST another few days, and I was getting really excited about my running! And it's so annoying that this isn't even a running injury. It only started to hurt when I wore walking shoes that should have been fine! Grrrrrr. From what I can tell, it's peroneal tendonitis (no, I'm not a foot doctor, but the internet is. =P). Wish me luck on getting it healed up.

And remember - no cupcakes! LEST I DIE A SLOW AND POISONY DEATH.

Healthy Recipes: Cajun Haddock with Spicy Pineapple Salsa

2009-08-11T11:06:00.001-07:00

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After the meal impressions: Holy SHIT, this is spicy. Dunecat wasn't kidding. (Speaking of which, I should reread that book soon.) Seriously, guys - go easy on the rub. It's absolutely delicious, but I really wish I had put a little less on. See how much is on the haddock in the below photo? That's too much. And I LOVE spicy food. It was just too overpowering.

But the actual fish itself and the salsa - so. freaking. good. Will I cook this again? Hell yes. Will I use less spices next time? Oh, hell yes.

I also cooked up some sauteed kale on the side but forgot that you have to put water in it and saute it covered. Literally, I looked up how to saute kale, and was like "Ok, water in the pan, cover pan. Got it." And then walked the 10 steps from my computer to my kitchen and was like "OK KALE YOU'RE JUST LIKE SPINACH, RIGHT? RIGHT!" Lolsigh. Short term memory FTL. So the kale was too dry. The more you know!

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This recipe was inspired from a salmon dish I saw at Cookinglight.com a while ago. Haddock is less flavorful than other types of fish (like salmon), and it also has less calories and fat. Note that you could easily make a spicy mango salsa by replacing the pineapple with - surprise! - mango. =) And yes - at the moment, I still eat fish. Eventually I'll (maybe) go full time vegetarian, but for now, let's rock some haddock. This recipe serves 2.

I always thought that fish was really difficult to cook. That cooking fish was something that only the PROFESSIONALS did. Then I did some research, and it turns out that if you do it in a skillet, it's just as easy as a frozen veggie burger, if not easier! And it's probably yummier! Hot damn.

INGREDIENTS:
wild haddock (2 fillets, 6 oz each). The photo here shows one 6 oz piece, cut in half. I cut each fillet in half so it would fit in the pan better.

The rub:
salt and pepper (1/2 tsp)
cayenne (1/4 tsp)
paprika (1/4 tsp)
garlic powder (1/2 tsp)
chili powder (1 tsp)
All mixed together!!

NOTE: If you don't have one (or more) of these spices, don't stress out. The most important one is the chili powder, in my opinion. If all you've got is some chili powder and S&P, then go ahead and use those. You don't have to get super fancy. For instance, I *thought* I had paprika. Turns out I totally don't! See?

The relish:
1 c. pineapple (chopped)
1/4 c. onion (chopped)
1/4 c. red pepper (chopped)
1/4 c. green pepper (chopped)
1 jalapeno pepper (you guessed it - chopped)
a good squirt of unsweetened lemon or lime juice (about a tsp - from a fresh lime/lemon, or from a bottle)

And similarly, the two most important ingredients here are the pineapple and jalapeno. Red pepper is next, I think, followed by onion and then green pepper. I'd recommend including all of the veggies here, because it really helps flesh out the salsa, but again, don't stress if you're missing one ingredient.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Chop up all the fruit and veggies for the relish and combine in a bowl. Pour in the lemon/lime juice. Toss it around a bit, and set it aside to marinate.

Combine spices for rub in a small bowl.

Sprinkle the haddock with the rub (both sides).

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, and place spiced haddock in the pan over medium heat. Heat one side for about 4 minutes, then flip and heat the other side for the same. It might look brown and almost burnt, but that's just the spice being awesome. Also, it'll start to flake a bit as it cooks, because haddock is a pretty flakey fish, so watch that it doesn't totally fall apart on you.

Nutrition info for 6 oz. of haddock plus salsa:

3/4 c. salsa: 80 cals, 0g fat, 4g fiber
1 (6 oz) haddock fillet: 180 cals, 2g fat, 0g fiber

Total:
260 cals
2g fat
4g fiber
5 points!

Enjoy =)

Kitchen Essentials

2009-08-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

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Things that I find essential in my kitchen:

1. A good chef's knife.
In the world of WeightWatchers, you're (hopefully) going to be eating a lot of vegetables. Chopping them with a less than stellar knife can be frustrating! A good chef's knife should cut through most veggies very easily.

2. A good cutting board or prep table.
The last thing you want is nowhere to cut up your vegetables or prepare your food. I personally have two cutting boards - one large wooden one, and a smaller, plastic one. Both come in handy, especially in a kitchen like mine (aka, VERY TINY).

3. PAM Olive Oil cooking spray
I use this stuff for almost everything. Nearly everything that I cook in a skillet gets a spray of this beforehand. Not only is it (close to) zero calories, it also gives you a nice even coating of olive oil. PAM also makes sprays for grilling and baking, too.

4. A food scale.
I measure EVERYTHING. In my experience, the moment you start to estimate is the moment you start eating extra points. Even if you're actually underestimating, is it worth the stress of not knowing for sure? I don't think so (and yeah, maybe I'm crazy, but I DO stress about that stuff =P). I love my WW scale. It's $40 from the online WW store and worth every penny. Not only does it measure grams and ounces, but it stores basic foods in it's memory bank. I can put a bowl on the scale, zero the scale, type in "grapes" and then start putting my grapes in the bowl. One point..... two points..... three points! Stop! It will know how many ounces of grapes are how many points, so you can easily see how many points you're eating. REALLY convenient.

5. Other measuring essentials!
I'm talking about tablespoons, teaspoons, liquid measuring cups, dry measuring cups - all of the above. When in doubt, measure!

What about you guys - what essentials do you have in your kitchen?

Healthy Recipes: Vegetable Frittata

2009-08-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

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After the meal impressions: This is delicious and filling - two wedges is more than enough food for a solid dinner. Personally, I'm not wild about the green peppers, however. I think that sticking with just spinach is going to be how I'll do it from now on. However, the peppers do add a nice crunch. It's your call! Really any veggies will do. Be creative!

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I think I originally got this from a WW recipe online, but I'm not sure. I've modified it a little bit to include some different veggies. When I first saw the word "frittata" I was like "Oh shit, no. This is going to be way too complicated for me." In actuality, this is one of the easiest recipes I've made.

RANDOM THINGS YOU WILL NEED:
Cooking spray
An oven-safe skillet - A cast iron skillet works well for this.

INGREDIENTS:
4 eggs
2 egg whites
lots of veggies! I use mushrooms, spinach, and green peppers, all chopped, all raw, maybe a half cup of each.
1.5 oz. part-skim mozzarella or really any reduced fat cheese. Reduced fat feta would probably be awesome for this recipe, but you can use whatever you have around the house (I happened to have some mozz).
Salt and pepper, or any other spices to taste. Throw in a dash of chili powder if you want, or some garlic powder.

I totally forgot to take a picture of my cut up veggies (d'oh!), but rest assured, they are included in this recipe. Also, I'm a sucker for cage free eggs. I know that it's pretty much impossible to ensure that my eggs came from healthy, happy chickens (lest I raise my own or personally know someone who does), but I try to get as close to it as possible while still keeping my budget in mind. If you guys can find and afford Animal Welfare Approved eggs in your area, I strongly urge you to buy them. It's the highest standard of non-cruelty to animals. I've had trouble finding them in Boston, even at places like Whole Foods, but I'm keeping my eye out for them. Ok - getting off track. Back to the recipe!

THE HOW-TO:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk your eggs and egg whites - you can use either a whisk, or a fork (how do you separate egg whites from egg yolks? You basically just break the egg and then juggle the yolk between the two shell-halves while the white part falls into your bowl. It sounds complicated, but it's not - check out a guide here and a video here).

Stir in all your chopped up veggies.

Stir in your spices.

Liberally coat your oven-safe skillet with some cooking spray, and pour in your egg-veggie mixture. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. You'll eventually see the edges become solid rather than liquid as it cooks - at this point (and I do the same for omelets), I take a spatula and lift up the edges, and tilt the pan to let some of the still-liquid egg mixture spill over into/under the lifted up edge. This will form a nice even edge.

Now, once you have your egg mixture cooking, the bottom layer will become solid. Once it's set (note that the top layer should still be fairly liquidy), sprinkle on the cheese.

Transfer the entire skillet into the oven and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Careful when you take it out - use an oven mitt, the skillet will be hot! I burned myself on the skillet handle after I took it out with the mitt because I wasn't thinking (I'm fine, it wasn't bad, but still! Ow!) - so make sure you're careful.

Cut into quarters, lift out of the skillet with a metal spatula, and eat!

Nutrition info for 2 wedges (i.e, one half of the frittata)

2 eggs: 160 cals, 9g fat, 0g fiber
1 egg white: 16 cals, 0g fat, 0g fiber
.75 oz cheese: 66 cals, 4.5g fat, 0g fiber
vegetables: ~60 cals, 0g fat, 4g fiber

Total:
302 cals
13.5g fat
4g fiber
6 points!

Enjoy =)

Proud!

2009-08-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

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So yesterday felt great! I stuck exactly to my plan, ate 21 daily points, went for a run, and felt really good overall.

Also, check it out: I think I'm a graduate of C25K.

I finished week five a couple days ago. Week five entails 3 days: The first two you run 8 min, walk 3 min, run 5 min, walk 3 min, repeat. The third day, you run for 20 minutes straight. I was able to do this and more - I ran for 26 minutes. And it really wasn't so bad.

And afterwards I wasn't even sore. o.O

So yesterday I decided to map out a longer route. I want to feel my muscles ache! You know that awesome "oh god, I definitely worked out" feeling that you get the day after? I WANT that. And I haven't been getting it. So instead of my usual 3.3 mile loop, I tracked out an entirely different one on Gmaps Pedometer that was 4.8 miles. I set out, thinking "Eh, I'll just see how long I can go."

And, uh, I ran the whole thing. I stopped twice for traffic (about 10 seconds of not-running each stop) but other than that I just cruised. My total time? 48:31. That's just over a 10 minute pace. WOOT! I feel like a REAL RUNNER!

And today? I'm not sore. Dubbs tee eff, mate.

So I'm thinking my next run, I'm going to do my 3.3 mile loop, but work in some speed sessions. Like a mini fartlek run, if you will. Hell, before we know it, I'll be racing 5ks!

As for eating, here's today's plan (to keep myself accountable)

Breakfast:
1 small peach (.5 pts)
1 regular WW bar (2 pts)
1 coffee with skim milk (.5 pts)

Lunch:
PB&J on a whole wheat english muffin (5 pts)
Yogurt (3 pts)

Snack:
1 pear (1.5 pts)

Dinner:
Vegetable Frittata (6 pts)
Sauteed veggies (0 pts)

Snack:
Something for 2 pts

Hope you all have a wonderful day =)

Aaaaand no more weeklies.

2009-08-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

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Yeah, I don't know WHAT happened. Ok, no - I take that back. I know what happened. I wanted to eat, and so I did. But the question is, WHY?

I wouldn't call it an all-out binge. I didn't go over my weekly points. And the food I ate wasn't *that* bad. After eating that delicious stuffed potato (see below post), I had:

1 mini WW bar (1 pt)
1 regular WW bar (2 pts)
2 crab rangoons - yeah, the BF ordered late night chinese (9 pts)
dry noodles that came with said chinese (2 pts)
chocolate soy milk (4 pts)
peanut butter and jelly - literally, straight out of the jar. Wtf. I was making a pb and j sammich to bring to work the next day and just started noming FROM THE JAR. I *never* do that. I'm like, the queen of measuring stuff. (4 pts)

What gives? That's 22 points that I DIDN'T need. That's an entire days worth of points (more than, even) crammed into one night.

So, today is a new day, back on track, drink a lot of water, I didn't really even "mess up" because I didn't go over my weekly points, blah blah blah. That's all fine and well, but I want to have a PLAN. I don't want this to happen again. I want to have a little bit more control over what I'm eating. So the questions I need to ask myself are:

1. Why did I feel the need to cram food into my mouth, and
2. What are different things that I can do OTHER than cram food into my mouth when said "need" comes back?

To answer number one, it certainly wasn't because I was hungry. I wasn't hungry at all. So let's look at the typical emotional reasons. Am I stressed? A bit, yeah. Money is tight - really tight. I'm moving all of my stuff into my BF's apartment in a scant few weeks, which is exciting but nerve-wracking. I get anxious whenever I have to move. I have a couple doctors appointments next week that I'm a little nervous about as well. And my job has been a source of stress for a number of reasons. Am I lonely? No. Am I tired? Yes, although I'm not sure why. I slept in til 10:30 am. But I was quite exhausted. Am I bored? Eh, I was a little bored last night. But the eating wasn't mindless bored eating - I've done that before. This was way more calculated. There was definitely a mental struggle of "I shouldn't eat this, but I want to." I wanted the food to have a calming effect on me. I think I was a little anxious about a few things and wanted to relax. I had had a stressful week, and I deserved it. Besides, I had weeklies to use! Excuses.

Halfway through my spoonfuls of peanut butter, it was like this huge buzzer and red light went off in my head that said "STOP NOW" or something - I literally had a spoonful of peanut butter halfway to my mouth, and then I just stopped. I immediately scraped it off back into the jar. I was like, this is it, I'm done. No more. Put the cap on the jar and put it away. And I did.

How do I feel now? Crappy. First of all, all that food (despite being WAY less food than a typical binge episode for me five or so years ago) put me in a near comatose state. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I did crawl into bed with a book and then fall asleep. This was around 10pm or so - usually I go to bed around midnight. I ended up waking up at 2:30 am and not being able to go back to sleep. What was running through my mind? The food I had eaten. WTF. Seriously messed up! I haven't thought about food in this way (i.e, continuously and negatively) since I was a freshman in college. I thought I was OVER this stuff. I guess the fact that I thought I was over it makes it all the more dismaying. And now, today, I'm still feeling guilty.

On the WW forums, people will talk about how they ate 20 weekly points and now they feel awful, guilty, too full. People inevitably respond with "You're fine, that's what weeklies are there for! You totally can use them! Stop freaking out about it, for crying out loud." Which is true, you CAN use your weeklies - but I don't think the original posters are appalled by the fact that they used their weekly points. They're appalled because they lost control. And unfortunately, I think that that's still an issue I have to wrestle with.

So, to answer number two from up above: How can I help myself? What are different things I can do?

First of all, I proactively planned today's breakfast and lunch. Planning out anything always makes me feel like I have more control over it. It's a good strategy.

Breakfast:
1 large banana (2 pts)
1 mini WW bar (1 pt)
1 coffee with skim milk (0.5 pts)

Lunch:
Fruit (2 pts)
PB&J sammich (6 pts)

Total: 11.5 pts

This leaves me with 9.5 points for dinner. I haven't planned dinner yet, but I will soon. So far breakfast was a success. =) I've got my lunch in the fridge just waiting for 1pm to come along. I feel good about that.

Second of all, I need to follow the advice I gave myself earlier: Listen to my body and mind. Ask myself if I'm hungry. If I'm not hungry but still want to eat, then there is probably an emotional reason for why I still want to eat (of course, I might want to eat simply because food tastes good. But overcoming "I want this because it tastes good" is easy as pie (ha!) compared to "I want this because it tastes good and it will conveniently fill an emotional void"). Try to figure out what that reason is. And then see if I can do something else to mitigate that feeling, OTHER than eating food.

Thirdly, I need to keep my long term goals in mind. Eventually I want to be able to not have to wrestle with these types of issues - or rather, if I DO have to wrestle with them, I want to be able to easily overcome them. And practice makes perfect. The more I keep trying to understand myself and my thoughts and feelings, the more I can get to the bottom of why I want to eat a jar of peanut butter despite knowing that it won't help my diet. On a more basic level, I also really want to stick with this weight watchers plan and reach my goal weight. It would be a HUGE accomplishment for me.

Now, let's focus on some positive things:

1. I tracked everything that I ate last night.
2. I'm solidly on plan today. I also know that I can keep this up through dinner, and past dinner. After-dinner/pre-bedtime is always a tricky time for me, but I'll be prepared - I plan on buying a big bottle of soda water to sip on after dinner. It will give me something to do with my mouth that doesn't involve chinese food or peanut butter, haha.
3. My co-worker brought in a box of cookies today and I didn't even consider indulging.

Damn, this is a long post.

So, my goal for the next few days is to get back on a roll and eat only my daily points. I know I can do it - I've done it before. I just need to listen to my body and mind.

Wish me luck. =)

Edit: Here's the rest of my meal plan for the day:

Snack:
1 FiberOne english muffin (1 pt)

Dinner:
Pita Pizza: (7 pts)
Sauteed spinach (0 pts)

After dinner snack:
Something for 1 point
Lots of soda water =)

Healthy Recipes: Stuffed Baked Potatoes

2009-08-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

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After the meal impressions: This is really delicious and really filling. However, next time I might add a little bit more sour cream - it was just a TAD dry. It might increase the points value, but it will be worth it. Or - maybe even put a small dollop of sour cream right on the top before eating. Overall though, a solid recipe - one that I'll definitely make again.

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I got this recipe originally from an old Prevention cookbook, but edited it a bit. It goes great with some sauteed spinach and onions - convenient, too, if you have some of those veggies left over from the main dish!

What you will need to serve 2:

MAIN INGREDIENTS:
2 large baking potatoes
1/4c low fat sharp cheese (feta, blue, cheddar, etc)
1/2c low fat sour cream

VEGGIES, ETC:
1/2c onion (chopped)
1/4c spinach (chopped)
1/4c mushrooms (chopped)
minced garlic, if you want
Note that you can really use any vegetables you want. The recipe originally called for green peppers, but I didn't have any, and spinach made a wonderful substitute!

Here are my ingredients in photo form. Hungry totally approves. *nod*

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash your taters, pierce them a few times with a fork, spray them with some cooking spray (I used PAM olive oil spray), shake a little salt on them, and throw them in the oven for about 50 minutes to an hour (placing them gently in the oven also seems to work just fine=P). You don't even need aluminum foil! However, you CAN wrap them in foil if you like your potato skins a little less crispy. I like mine crispy, so I just put them right on the oven rack. See this guide to learn more about baking potatoes.

Once the potatoes are soft in the middle (stick a knife in them to see), you can take them out. Let them cool - they will be hot!!!

As the potato lays on its side, slice the top off and scoop out the inside flesh.

In a bowl, mix the inside flesh of both potatoes with the onions, spinach, mushrooms, sour cream, and cheese. You can use a potato masher to mix everything up. Don't worry if it's still a bit chunky, though.

Then, put the mixture back into the potato. I threw a little salt and pepper on top, too.

Put them back in the oven and cook for another 10 - 15 minutes!

Nutrition info for ONE potato:

large potato (about 11 oz raw): 220 cal, 0.5g fat, 4g fiber
1/8c low fat cheese: 35 cal, 2.5g fat, 0g fiber
1/4c low fat sour cream: 70 cal, 4g fat, 0g fiber

Total:
325 cal
7g fat
4g fiber
6 points!

And look - even my boyfriend likes them!

Enjoy!

Natural Flavor.

2009-08-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

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Now, with MORE natural flavor!

I woke up late for work a few days ago and flew out the door without stopping to think about what I had on me. I walk to work (it's about 35 minutes), and halfway there, I realized I hadn't grabbed my Fiber One bar. "Meh," I thought, "I'll just pick one up on the way." (Now, I know I said earlier that I'm trying to get away from processed, "less whole" foods, which I am, but sometimes I'm tired in the morning and didn't buy fruit the day before and just want to grab something and go. I am human, after all. =P)

So I stopped quick in the convenience store, and they have a giant rack of them. Every single energy/meal replacement/granola/chewy/fiber/protein bar you could ever wish for. Of course, the ONE they're missing is Fiber One. But the South Beach Living peanut butter bar seemed pretty comparable - same calories, good fiber and protein, vits and mins, all that stuff.

I got to work, unwrapped my bar, and nomed it up. It was actually quite delicious. Moreso than my old ones! So, on my lunch break, I went to buy a box at CVS.

Today, I checked out the box. South Beach Living. "A Nutritious Way To Help Satisfy Hunger," it said. It's obvious that they mean business here, what with the capitalization of every word. "Changing the Way America Eats™" They're taking the entire country of America and CHANGING it. This is big, guys.

It's even got natural flavor! This means that it's good for me, right? This isn't a processed protein bar, it's a NATURAL protein bar!! Dictionary.com tells me that these flavors are existing in or formed by nature, and also have undergone little or no processing and contain no chemical additives. Woohoo!

But what are "natural flavors," really? Honestly, look at anything in your cabinet and chances are you have quite a few items that contain these natural flavors.

The FDA defines "Natural Flavors":

The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Natural flavors, include the natural essence or extractives obtained from plants listed in subpart A of part 582 of this chapter, and the substances listed in 172.510 of this chapter.

Protein hydrolysate? Enzymolysis?

o.O

Robert L. Wolke from the Washington Post puts it a little more simply:

In simple terms, a natural flavor is defined as a substance extracted, distilled or otherwise derived from plant or animal matter, either directly from the matter itself or after it has been roasted, heated or fermented. Note the inclusion of "animal matter" in this definition, an important revelation to vegetarians and those who adhere to the kosher segregation of meat from dairy products. But animals are just as natural as plants, are they not? Note also that a natural flavor need not come from the very food it is flavoring. For example, a flavor chemical derived from chicken -- and it need not taste like chicken -- can be used to flavor a can of beef ravioli.

Ok, so one thing we've learned: If you see "natural flavors" in a vegetarian dish, it might not be so vegetarian anymore. Hm.

For me, I don't think I'm hard core enough of a vegetarian to throw everything that has natural flavors in the ingredients into the trash. If I'm going to avoid a by-product of an animal, then I should be avoiding eggs and cheese, too - and I definitely eat those. Maybe if I go vegan at some point, I'll start to pay attention to these things a bit more. But the whole vegetarian thing is for a different post at a different time. =)

So what about our South Beach Living High Protein Cereal Bars?

Natural Flavor. WITH OTHER NATURAL FLAVOR.

Huh.

It's like they packed it so chock full of natural flavor, that they couldn't just say 'Made with natural flavor' anymore. It's like that were at the board meeting and the CEO was like, "Guys, if we say this has natural flavor, it doesn't even BEGIN to do justice to JUST HOW MUCH natural flavor is IN this. We need to give that phrase some OOMPH. Maybe something like... 'super extra natural flavor!' with some kind of natural flavor super hero on the box. With like - like, some kind of big yellow writing with fireworks around the words and-" and while he's going on and on, some quiet intern in the back is just like, "Why don't we add on 'with other natural flavor'?" And somehow, it stuck.

I still don't get it.

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On a totally separate note, I gained 0.8 pounds when I weighed in this morning, so I'm back up to 142.6... Meh. I had a feeling that was going to happen. I ate all of my weekly points and all of my APs, which typically should be fine, because you're supposed to be able to eat them and still lose weight. But for me, I was eating them even when I wasn't hungry. In fact, there were some days when I'd be full, but just wanted to stress-munch on something, would see that I had a couple APs to eat, and went ahead and ate them anyway - despite my body telling me I didn't need more food.

This week, I'm going to be more in tune with my body, and not eat when I'm not hungry! I'm hoping for a really good weigh in next week. Once I get under 140, I'm getting myself a hair cut... which I really need. So hopefully in two weeks, I'll be there!

Healthy Recipes: Pita Pizza

2009-08-05T12:37:00.000-07:00

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After the meal impressions: I LOVE this pizza. It's quick and easy and delicious - very filling, too! A great way to stay on plan but still get your pizza fix.

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OMG MY FIRST RECIPE!

I, for one, am sick of reading cookbooks and seeing 329423 ingredients and 3 pages worth of instructions. I want simplicity! And you probably do too! So I tried to make this as simple and easy as possible.

Here's what you'll need to serve two:

2 medium whole wheat pitas
Pizza sauce, any kind (I like a lot, so usually I put at least 1/2 cup on each pita). You might be able to use marinara or pasta sauce if you're in a pinch.
50% reduced fat cheese, shredded - 1.5 ounces PER pita, so 3 oz. total.
ANY toppings! (I use mushrooms, onions, and spinach seen in the pic here, all 0 point veggies)

So many different things you can put on your pita pizza:

Mushrooms
Spinach
Garlic
Tomatoes
Onions
Non-vegetarian options are bacon, hamburger, sausage, pepperoni, ham, chicken, etc - although these tend to be high in calories and fat, 'cept the chicken. Use at your own discretion!

Here are my ingredients:

I used cheddar cheese, but if you're partial to a different type of reduced fat cheese, feel free to use it! And note that that WW food scale says 1.5 ounces, not 15 ounces!!! =P One more thing: this particular brand of pizza sauce was delicious, but could have been slightly less salty.

Ok, get ready for some instructions:

Put your oven at 400 degrees!
Put the plain pitas in the oven, right on the rack. You can do this right away, as the oven is warming up. No need for a cookie sheet or anything. We're going to keep them in there for about 5-10 minutes to get them a bit crispy.
While the pitas are warming up, chop up your veggies and toppings.

Using tongs, take the pitas out of the oven.

Pour on the pizza sauce, using a ladle or spatula to spread it. Leave a 1/2" area around the edge "un-sauced" for a nice crust.

Put on your toppings. No need to saute any of the veggies before hand - you can just load them right on, raw. Sprinkle your cheese on as well.

Put them back in the oven, right on the rack in the middle (you can use a big metal spatula at this point to transport them from your table into your oven. They should be crispy enough to not fold or anything).
Keep them there for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Remove from oven, cut into fourths, and enjoy!!

Some basic nutritional info (yours may vary slightly, depending on brand, and any other variations)

PER PITA:
50% reduced fat cheddar (1.5 oz): 105 cals, 7.0g fat, 0g fiber
Pita (medium): 140 cals, 2.0g fat, 10g fiber
Pizza sauce (1/2 cup): 60 cals, 2.5g fat, 1g fiber

In total, that's:
305 cals
11.5g fat
11g fiber
6 points!

I don't count vegetables because 1. I'm not eating 38 cups of them or anything, and 2. vegetables are awesome and good for you. I saw some quote on the forums once that was like "You can't eat too many vegetables. We didn't get fat from eating too much lettuce." Lol.

Enjoy!

When people start to notice

2009-08-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

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A few weeks ago, my workplace exploded with compliments about my weight. I had been on the plan for about 6 weeks or so, and then went on vacation for a week (I didn't actually GO anywhere due to lack of funds, but just spent a relaxing week at home sans work). When I came back, my weight loss was significantly noticeable. Praise, compliments and disbelief abounded. "Did you lose weight?? You look so skinny!" "You look so great, what plan are you following? What's your secret?" "You have seriously lost some weight."

Now, two weeks later, I'm pretty much the same weight (maybe a couple pounds lighter, nothing major), and all I hear is "You look so great. You really shouldn't lose anymore weight." "You are so thin, don't lose any more.... you are good where you are!" and then of course, the condescending look, along with the blunt "You *don't* need to lose any more weight."

Ok, guys, I appreciate your "concern" here, but I absolutely can lose more weight if I want to. I'm FAR from being on the verge of underweight, I'm NOT undernourished, and I can certainly keep losing weight and still be extremely healthy. In fact, with my (very) small bone structure, being at the lower end of my healthy range is probably HEALTHIER for me. Hell, according to some charts, I could lose another whole 20+ pounds and still be within my healthy weight range.

And what about the two part time students who work here, who are my height and easily wearing size 2s, if not size 0s? Why aren't you telling them to gain some weight? If *I* shouldn't lose more, than surely they shouldn't weigh less than *me.* Go on, tell them to gain some weight.

So. You can keep telling me I'm "too thin." I'll smile and nod and eat my veggies and hummus, and leftover whole wheat pasta, and just stick to my plan like normal.

Have you guys had people notice your weight loss? Or tell you you shouldn't lose more weight?

Cooking

2009-08-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been a good cook. Baking especially has given me a lot of trouble. It’s one of those things where you follow the recipe exactly, but then realize that 1. You didn’t preheat the oven, and now whatever’s on the stove is burning, 2. You didn’t defrost x y and z and there’s no way to do that now, and 3. You use baking soda instead of flour or something. Ugh. This type of thing has happened to me way too many times. I have trouble thinking ahead to the next step.

Anyway, now that I’m living with my awesome boyfriend (so, cooking for two – always a liiittle bit easier than cooking for one, IMO) and now that I’m on WW (meaning cooking my own food is healthier than eating out or ordering in), I’ve been cooking a LOT more.

My repertoire of dinners consists of:

1. Pasta with marinara sauce. One big pot, one small pot, boil water in the big one, heat up sauce in the small one. Cook pasta. Drain. Pour pasta back into pot. Pour sauce into pot. Eat.

2. Veggie burgers. Spray sauce pan with PAM. Take frozen veggie burger. Put frozen veggie burger in pan. Turn on stove. Wait. Flip veggie burger. Wait. Eat. Add salsa on top if desired (nom)

3. Go to Foodler.com. Go to any place that delivers sushi. Order sushi. Wait. Get the door. Get sushi. Eat.

And…. that’s it.

So as you can see. I need some more standbys.

SO! I’m going through a lot of the WW recipes online, some healthy vegetarian cookbooks, allrecipes.com, etc, to try to get some good healthy NEW meals going!

Check it out – yesterday I made a little pizza pita and it was freakin GOOD. So in a couple days, I’m going to make them again, and post a little “how-to” with photos, nutrition info, everything! Keep an eye out for it!

Quick weight update: I’m now down to 142 pounds! I started at 165, so I’m a good 20 pounds lighter. SO many people at work have noticed – it’s pretty awesome =D

This week I’ve been a little bit off track, though. I had a pretty stressful week at work, followed by a party at our apartment (which means food and alcohol – plus, hosting always stresses me out a little bit, and stress = wanting to eat food), and then we’ve had company for the past few days. So overall, the week has been pretty crazy. I think that on Thursday morning when I weigh in I’ll gain a tiny bit, but I’m just going to stick with the plan until then and afterwards, too.

Food.

2009-07-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

When I started Weight Watchers about 6 weeks ago, I made a trip to the grocery store. I stocked up on Lean Cuisines, low fat cheese, fat-free sweets, all that stuff.

Then I read three books: 1. Master Your Metabolism, 2. Skinny Bitch, and 3. Diet for a New America.

MyM was a really interesting read, and it got me thinking about eating less processed foods and more whole foods, and why these interact better with your body and your hormones. Skinny Bitch was an annoying book – the authors’ tough love attitude was way too much to swallow. Seriously, tough love != calling me a fat moron. If I ever meet those two chicks on the street, I swear I’m gonna wanna punch them in the face. How dare they call me that. However, they did have some good points about eating healthy, whole foods. They advocate a vegan diet, which is cool for a lot of people, but for me, I stick to pescetarianism. Baby steps. Diet for a New America was also promoting a vegan lifestyle, and opened my eyes to a lot of the lies that the beef and dairy industry feed us. Also an interesting read.

After reading these books, I looked at the ingredients on my Lean Cuisine meal (note: this is before I went veg):

“Cooked chicken tenderloins (chicken tenderloins, high fructose corn syrup, water, corn oil, modified cornstarch, lemon juice concentrate, sodium phosphates, salt, caramel color, potassium chloride, garlic, onion, paprika, spice)…”

Ok, that’s just the chicken – not even counting all the rest of the ingredients. But why can’t it just be…. chicken?
Nope, it’s got all this other stuff in it. Why do you have to put HFCS in chicken? Why all the salt? “Caramel color” what the heck is that?

Would your great grandmother have eaten this? Should WE be eating it? Personally, I would rather have less processed foods in my body. All this man made food-stuffs doesn’t feel right, you know?

So now I’m following a more natural, whole foods diet. Instead of a apple flavored snack bar, I’ll have an apple for breakfast. Instead of a Lean Cuisine meal, I’ll chop up my own organic veggies and saute them with potatoes. I stay away from aspartame and other artificial sweeteners as often as possible.

And you know what? I feel fantastic. I feel better than I have in a long time. My body just seems to work better.

I’m really liking it. =)

It's a first post!

2009-07-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

So here’s the start of my new blog!

Some things about me:

1. I’m using the Weight Watchers program to help me lose weight.

2. I have about 20 pounds to lose, and have already lost about 10 (weight loss chart will come soon).

3. I don’t belong to a gym, but I do do some sit ups and push ups regularly (ok, maybe not so regularly. It’s something I have to work on), and I go out and run/walk about 4 days a week. I’m doing the C25K program.

4. I’m a vegetarian that still eats fish, so I suppose that makes me a pescetarian.

Why am I writing this blog? Well, there are a number of reasons. I’m interested in keeping myself accountable and following through with this new healthy lifestyle. I also want to explore issues with culture, society, media, and weight loss. I’d also love to share some healthy recipes with you all, and maybe look at various new health studies that come out and figure out how their findings impact us.

I’ve always been interested in really picking apart all those health studies. Everytime you turn around, there’s something new. “Alcohol has little nutritional value! No, red wine is good for you! Wait, but only in moderation! Also, dark chocolate does wonders for your health! But it’s loaded with fat and sugar! But you need certain fats in your diet to be healthy! But – ” etc etc. What’s really true? Who and what can we trust?

I hope that you’ll join me on this journey, and maybe come away with some interesting advice or knowledge yourself!

My weight loss progress!

2009-06-05T07:06:00.000-07:00

Date	Weight	Loss	Total loss
May 21	162.0
May 28	157.8	(-4.2)	(-4.2)
June 4	156.8	(-1.0)	(-5.2)
June 11	153.0	(-3.8)	(-9.0)
June 18	151.8	(-1.2)	(-10.2)
June 25	150.2	(-1.6)	(-11.8)
July 2	148.6	(-1.6)	(-13.4)
July 9	146.4	(-2.2)	(-15.6)
July 16	145.8	(-0.6)	(-16.2)
July 23	143.6	(-2.2)	(-18.4)
July 30	141.8	(-1.8)	(-20.2)
August 6	142.6	(+0.8)	(-19.4)
August 13	140.6	(-2.0)	(-21.4)
August 20	141.6	(+1.0)	(-20.4)
August 27	140.6	(-1.0)	(-21.4)
September 3	139.4	(-1.2)	(-22.6)
September 10
September 17
September 24

Table Tutorial

Pictures

2009-06-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

August 2008:
May 2009 (160ish pounds):

Early August 2009 (142 lbs):

Early September 2009 (139 lbs):