Pep In My Step

I woke up with such a happy feeling!  I think my “step it up” pep talk really worked!  I can’t describe the feeling;  it’s like something changed in me overnight.  I feel like I have a stronger resolve to stay on the healthy eating track.  I kept saying to myself that I would not let food control me.  I’m not giving it the power.  I have the ability to eat just what I need.  I have the ability.  I make the choice.  It’s up to me to do what’s right for my body.  It deserves it.   I know there are going to be rough times.  Times when food wants me…really badly.  I have to remind myself that I am in control of what I put in my body.  I can be in control.  Even through the holidays…  :)

So, breakfast was one of my favorite Yogurt Bowls topped with strawberries and diced apples…

I cheated on Chobani with this guy…

Chobani will always be my first greek love, but ya gotta get what’s on sale when ya can :)

After breakfast, I got my butt out the door for a peppy 45 minute walk (I’ll fill you in about the running tomorrow) around the neighborhood in the glorious weather.  I love mild November days!  The husband even joined me for the last 20 minutes which was  nice!

My stomach let me know it was lunchtime about 3 hours after eating breakfast.  I tried to cue into that to see how long it takes me to get hungry between meals.  I think knowing that is key to keeping munchies at bay and also, to help understand what types of food stick with me the longest.

Lunch was a Grilled Vegetable Boca Burger on a Pepperidge Farms Deli Flat, piled high with baby spinach and tomato.  Instead of my usual side of chips, I went with a longer lasting choice of fuji apple with 1 tbsp. homemade almond butter…

We spent the afternoon at a Christmas carol sing-a-long at church.  It was a nice time and really got us in the spirit!

Again, around the 3 hour mark, I was hungry for a snack.  I decided to go salty with reduced-fat Triscuits with turkey and a dab of  wasabi mustard…

Yum!

The dinner plan was a new recipe from Amelie for Grandmom’s Macaroni.  It sounded delicious;  sort of a new twist on baked mac n’ cheese.  I changed it up a tiny bit by subbing these for the originals :   Ronzoni Smart Taste elbow macaroni (high fiber), my own marinara sauce (had some left in the fridge to use up), Cracker Barrel 2% white cheddar and whipped light butter.

The result was DELISH and a hit with the husband and daughters…

My dish…served with a side of broccoli…

This will definitely be added into my regular dinner rotation!  Thanks for the great recipe, Amelie!

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I have been thinking a lot lately about the blogworld and about how much encouragement I receive from other bloggers without them knowing it.  I read a lot of blogs.  A lot.  If you have a blog, you can rest assure I am reading it!  LOL!  I guess there are worse addictions :)  Anyway, I got to thinking how many bloggers write things that really strike me.  Really spur me on or cause me to take pause and reflect.  I don’t often take the time to get in touch with each person and tell them how something they wrote affected me, so I had the idea of making an addition to the end of my posts with a reference to a blogger who made an impact on me that day.  I decided to call it Brilliant Blogger because I often think “that’s brilliant” when I’ve read these words of wisdom.  There are also readers that leave me comments that are brilliant words of wisdom and they don’t have blogs, so I’m going to include some of those, too.  Just my small way of saying “thank you” to those bloggers/readers and sharing some great insights from them!

My first Brilliant Blogger is Joanna from Fitness and Spice. 

She wrote:  This year I’ve decided I’m not going to stress out about eating too much and working out too little during the holidays. That’s because I’ve already made up my mind that I won’t be eating too much and I will be making the time to workout.

Love that!

Don’t forget to enter my Campbell’s  Soup Giveaway – there’s a cool pedometer in there!!!

Have a great day, everyone!

A Day To Play

Wow, it's another summer day today! It got to 90 degrees and felt like the middle of July! I think this is just an "appetizer" though; the temps are heading down this week. Again, I was feeling like an outdoor run, but I'm not quite healed, so I will be patient. I was going to head to the basement for an elliptical workout, but got so distracted with doing stuff around the house that I never made it! I guess I will consider it a "day off". I don't do that very often, but I think it won't hurt. I hope :)

I did manage to make time for breakfast. I was in the mood for cereal, so I broke out this oldie but goodie cereal, Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran...


A serving is only 1 POINT -if you can see with my sloppy writing on the box ;)...


I decided to use it as a topping for my Oikos Honey Nonfat Greek Yogurt. I also added some beautiful strawberries for a fiber and protein packed 4 POINT breakfast...


I'm trying to go through some freezer items, so that they don't get lost in the land of freezer burn. I found some leftover pizza that I made just last week, I believe. It was the one made with the spelt pizza dough. I reheated that for lunch and it was just as good as the day I originally made it! That's what happens when you eat something before freezer burn :) I went crazy and had a side of carrots to go with it! I've been avoiding carrots since my oral surgery, but I thought I would try it out today. No probs. Yay! A great 8 POINT repeat...

After lunch, we headed out to a friend's son's 3 year old birthday party. It was set up like a carnival with lots of moonbounces, games, carnival foods and plenty of "grown-up" food, too. Wow, sure glad I ate before I left! How -EVER, I could not, did not...resist...this...

Giant brownie with giant gobs of chocolate icing. You can't tell from this picture, but this thing was about 2 inches high. It stared at me for a long time, calling, beckoning, tempting. I caved. And you know what?? It wasn't THAT good! I think it sat out too long. But, I ate it anyway :) Not sure of the POINTS. Maybe 500??? LOL! Hopefully, I can run later this week :(

I also picked on a soft pretzel before I left the party. Again, not that good. Gotta work on the "don't eat it unless it tastes good" rule. Anyway, it was a fun time of outdoor play in the sun! Hope I sweat off some of those calories...

I wasn't all that hungry for dinner. The husband and daughters decided to eat hot dogs and some fruit. I was thinking of just having cereal or maybe skipping dinner altogether. I did some cleaning and then felt ready to have a little something. I remembered I had some tofu in the fridge, so I decided on a tofu scramble. I used 4 oz. extra firm tofu, roasted peppers, red onion, baby spinach, a slice 2% cheese and salsa. I crumble the tofu and brown it in a nonstick pan sprayed with cooking spray, then add the rest of the ingredients. Simple and absolutely delicious! I could eat this every day! I had a Weight Watchers Petite Bagel with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light on the side. A quick and easy 6 POINT dinner...

Gee, for not being too hungry, I sure ate a lot! And I topped it off with a little "sweet"...

The flavors are so fun and they are only 1 POINT...

I went with the Banana Split...

A nice way to end a HOT day!

Hope the weekend was fun for you, too!!! Have a great night =)

Dentally Challenged

I had my gloomy dentist appointment early this morning. Last night, I read up on the procedure that my dentist was going to perform and I got freaked out. But, I managed to buck up and went anyway. Thankfully, everything went well even though I felt skitzy and super anxious half way through the oral surgery and had to sing songs to myself to distract me from jumping out of the chair and running out of there looking like Dracula with blood dripping down my chin! Such a baby!

Before I went to the dentist, I made a big breakfast just in case I wouldn't be able to eat after the procedure! Lord knows, I wouldn't want to go without food. That would only be adding insult to injury! I had an open-faced omelette with 1 oz. diced ham and chives, a slice of TJ's Sprouted Flourless Wheat Bread and 1/2 banana for 4 POINTS...


Despite the fact that I had facial paralysis on the entire right side of my face for hours, I still managed to get some food in! My thought was to go with softer foods, so that it wouldn't be too rough on my stitches. I decided a big bowl of this soup would fit the bill...


And it was green in honor of Earth Day! I had the whole can of soup for 3 POINTS...


I also made a PB2 and Sugar Free Grape Jelly sammie on an Arnold Sandwich Thin(2 POINTS)with a side of sliced fuji apple(1 POINT)...

The sandwich went down o.k., but the apple was a little too jarring for my mouth, so I skipped eating it and saved it for the daughters' snack.

After running the daughters around to some afterschool activities, I sat down for a soft snack of Oikos Nonfat Greek Yogurt and a BlueBran Vitatop for 3 POINTS...

I finally found the Honey flavor! It was delicious! Probably the sweetest of them all. And the BlueBran Vitatop, well.... it's a Vitatop! How can you go wrong??!!

I had planned ahead for dinner, just in case I was incapacitated somehow from my dentist appointment! Gee, so much for positive thinking, right? Anyway, I yanked out the crockpot this morning and put in 1 lb. frozen chicken breasts, some seasonings - salt,pepper, cumin, garlic and onion powder, chili powder and 1 cup salsa. I cooked it on low until done, then shredded the chicken (didn't need much help -it basically falls apart) and added in 2 tbsp. lite cream cheese. Stir until melted. It is soooo good and 4 POINTS per serving (4 servings total)! I used it to make chicken soft tacos. My plate was 2 soft tacos made with 1 cup shredded chicken, 1 La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Tortilla -cut in half to make 2, half ounce of Cabot's 75% Reduced Fat Cheddar and some lettuce. To go with it, I had some leftover kale with white beans. A fabulous 7 POINT dinner...

I was able to get this down pretty well. Normally, I would have went crazy with the toppings/veggies for the tacos, but I didn't want to push it since the anesthetic was wearing off and I wasn't sure if I would be sore or not. So far so good! Yay!

After dinner, I took the daughters to a Health Fair at their school. It was interesting and fun. I spent quite a bit of time talking to a registered dietitian there. That was cool!

We got home a little too late for dessert. I had planned on some ice cream, but I'm more tired than anything, so I'm gonna let it go for tonight. I'm popping some Advil, antibiotic and I'm off to sleep. Nite :)

Catch Up

It's been a day of playing catch-up. I woke up at my 6:30 a.m. "Florida exercise time" -ugh! I spent a few minutes blog reading(still not caught up - you all have been so busy!!), then geared up for a workout. It never happened though because the rations were low, so I needed to head out to grocery shop instead. My shopping list was a mile long with veggies and fruits. I am craving them like crazy and would have bought every fruit and veg in the store! Who knew a week of staring at chicken nuggets, fries and hot dogs would cause such PMS-ish cravings!

Along with my produce desires, I was really missing Ezekiel english muffins. Thankfully, I had one lonely Cinnamon Raisin guy left in the freezer. I did a quick toast and topped with 1 tbsp. lite cream cheese for a yummy 3 POINT breakfast before the grocery shopping marathon...


Another item on my list was greek yogurt. The lovely folks at Stonyfield Farm sent me some coupons to try out their Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt (thanks, Kristina!) and I was really looking forward to tasting it. I was able to find 2 flavors of nonfat - Vanilla and Blueberry. I decided to have the Vanilla for lunch today...


This 5.3 oz. container has 110 calories, 0 fat and hello--15 gr. protein!!!! The ingredients are all natural, organic and contain no artificial sweeteners. As I was scooping it into a bowl, I noticed it had a rich and creamy consistency unlike the nonfat yogurt that I usually buy. I topped it with some beautiful strawberries and 1/4 c. Grape Nuts cereal for an "unusual-for -me "4 POINT lunch...

This was so rich and filling! I loved the consistency of the yogurt; even though it was nonfat, it had a "full fat" feel to it. It wasn't very sweet tasting and I didn't pick up much of the Vanilla flavor, so this was a very different yogurt experience from the artificially flavored type that I have become accustomed to. Overall, I really liked it! I am excited to try the Blueberry flavor to see if there is a bit more sweetness to that. I don't normally think of yogurt as a "meal", but this was so filling that I was good to go until way late in the afternoon! Can't say that about my other yogurts :)

After lunch, I headed to Trader Joe's for the remainder of my list. I also got a million and one things that weren't on my list! That store is just impossible to get out of without finding a bunch of yummy new items. One thing that caught my eye was this...

I love Tabbouli! My mom first introduced me to it; she used to make it and I always enjoyed it, especially with pitas! I had 2/3 c. (3 POINTS) for a snack today with TJ's flax and honey flatbreads (1 POINT). So delish...

I finally got everything put away and prepped some veggies just in time to make dinner! No Friday night pizza; the husband and daughters ordered it last night when we got home from the airport, so I made Philly Cheesesteaks and Fries. I decided to make mine into a wrap using a La Tortilla Factory Smart and Delicious Tortilla, 1 Landis sliced Beef Sirloin Sandwich Steak, slice 2 % cheese, sauteed mushrooms, onions, a squirt of ketchup and a couple pickles. Instead of regular fries, I nuked a 7 oz. sweet potato for a couple of minutes, then diced and pan-fried them in 1 tsp. olive oil. An awesome 8 POINT dinner...

I did have a couple of chocolate covered almonds for dessert but forgot to take a pic - oops! I am out of practice!!!! A week off will do that to ya!

So glad to be back!