Thursday, May 28, 2009

WANT Power

I'm driven by WANT power today! Well, that and all of your amazing encouraging comments! Thank you so much for your kind words; it really does keep me going :) I hope that article gave some of you an extra boost, too and insight into, perhaps, a missing piece of this weight loss journey that we are on.

I'm excited about trying out this new POINT tracking experiment. It was strange, though, to put this morning's breakfast on last night's tracking day! I woke up hungry, too, which doesn't normally happen, but I decided to push off breakfast until I got in my workout. I did a 35 minute weighted stint on the elliptical, then got to making some eats. I went with 3 scrambled egg whites with a slice of 2% cheese and 1 tbsp. salsa and a half serving of TJ's Multigrain Savory Thins for 3 POINTS...


I don't think I've mentioned these before. They are a tasty cracker! Basically a rice chip with added grains and seeds....


A full serving is 17 crackers and only 2 POINTS! I just went with 8 crackers this morning, which was plenty...


A little later, I fed my Frap addiction with a homemade Caramel Lite Frap made with coffee. 3 tbsp. fat free half and half, 2 tbsp. sugar free caramel syrup and lots of ice. Good stuff and this one's only 1 POINT...


For lunch, I made another version of turkey burgers - Ranch Turkey Burgers! For these, I used
  • 20 oz. ground turkey breast
  • 4 tbsp. Light Ranch Dressing (I use Kraft Light Three Cheese Dressing)
  • 1 tsp. Hidden Valley Ranch Dry Mix ( packet)
  • 1/4 c. chopped scallions
  1. Mix ingredients and shape into 6 burgers.
  2. Cook about 4 minutes per side.

I ran this through the Etools Recipe Builder and came up with 3 POINTS per burger. I grilled mine and served it on a honey wheat bun with lettuce and pickles. It was great! The key to turkey burgers is to NOT overcook them; otherwise they get all dried out. But, these were cooked just right and had a nice flavor to them. I served it with 1 cup cherries and 1/2 c. leftover barbecue bean salad. A filling 8 POINT lunch...


Later in the afternoon, I felt like having a snack. I decided on a filling snack of High Fiber O's, 1/2 c. nonfat greek yogurt and 1 tbsp. dried cranberries for 3 POINTS...


Dinner was heat and eat. I'm trying to dwindle down the freezer stash! I decided on 2 TJ's stirfry veggie eggrolls and a bowl of Tabatchnick Vegetable Soup for 5 POINTS...


It was just right! I WANTed to fit in dessert :) It's okay; I had the POINTS, but I kept it simple. Just a plain, old Deep Chocolate Vitatop with no accoutrements for 1 POINT...

And it was just fine and hit the spot ;)
Now, I still have 4 POINTS left for breakfast tomorrow! For some reason this little mind game/tweaking helped out today. It's new and different. Also, I like the fact that I feel like I am eating quite a bit of food, yet I go to bed knowing that I still have POINTS left for the morning. It's all robbing peter to pay paul, so to speak, but hey, it's something different. When I look at my day, I'm just tacking on a couple more POINTS to lunch and taking them away from dinner. But, I think it may be a better way to eat overall anyway. Many Europeans eat this way, too with their largest meals being eaten midday and lighter in the a.m. and late evening. My parents eat that way when they visit Italy every year and come home having lost weight despite large multicourse midday meals. And you know, French women don't get fat ;P Well, until they come to America and eat at Mickey D's.
So, the experiment continues! But, danger lurkes at my nephew's graduation party tomorrow evening :0
I will keep reminding myself : I'VE GOT THE POWER!!!
Have a great night =)

12 comments:

LK- Healthy Delicious said...

omg that frap looks so good!!!

Sarah said...

Agree with LK, frap looks yummy!

Great job, keep it up!

Andrea@WellnessNotes said...

Good job! I'm glad the point adjusting is working out! :)

Kathi said...

Marissa,

Looks like the new plan is going well!!

But one thing to remember in this journey this journey does not end when you get to goal. It is for life. I some times tend to forget that small detail and it is really a big one to remember.

I am going to make your barbecue beans this weekend for my sons graduation. I am really looking forward to trying it.

If you want the tofu moussee recipe give me a holler and I will send it your way.

Kathi

Anonymous said...

The food looks wonderful. And I don't know if it's me or what but it looks like you have more of a volume of food compared to when you did it the "old way" which may help in battling the snack attacks, which we know we all get! Great job today!

And Kathi= you are so right. I have to remind myself of that all the time.

Wendy said...

i have to go to a graduation party today too....danger ganger danger!!! i will think of you and i will be good!!

Amanda said...

Marisa- I copied the turkey burger recipe and will have to make that sometime. Sounds so easy!!

A Daunting Tale of Scale Warfare said...

The frap looks like it has a smiley face on it :)

The turkey burgers are going on my to try list!

Anonymous said...

Great job! When I first lost 70 pounds I did the "Wendy" plan where you took all your points and then some days eat 18 points, other days 28 points, but it all ended up being the same points for the week.

My body never got "used" to a certain amount of calories.

All your eats look delicious!!

katecooks said...

it's great to hear you sounding so happy & upbeat! you're rockin it!!!

Connie B said...

OMGosh! The caramel frapp and the ranch burger!!!!!!!! I will be making both of these, tks for posting!

Danica's Daily said...

I think I just drooled on my computer looking at all your great eats!

I LOVE that you found your want power - it was there, you just had to dig deep and you did! Keep up the great work!