Get Me Off This Ride

Sorry for being MIA yesterday.  I had a horrible dizzy spell in the morning that left me in bed for most of the morning and early afternoon.  It’s been going on for a while, but yesterday was the worst ever.  I’m not one for spinning amusement park rides, yet I felt like I was on one the whole morning.  It made me pretty sick and I felt washed out from the whole experience.  I did get to a specialist later in the day who diagnosed it as benign positional vertigo.  I have a few more tests to undergo, but in the meantime, have some medicine to take in case it gets the degree it did yesterday.  Today, I’m feeling better and not as ‘tilt a whirl’, so I should be back in action! 

Needless to say, when you’re feeling dizzy, food is not the first priority.  My eats were pretty random yesterday and I just picked here and there when my stomach could handle it, so I didn’t take any pics.  But, I’ll catch you up with the day before and a nice surprise from yesterday…

Tuesday

I was looking forward to getting back to the gym since it had been a few days and I was actually excited to run!  I hit the treadmill for 20 minutes at a decent pace (trying to work on that!), then continued for another 15 minutes walking at a 10% incline.  I moved on to weights – chest, shoulders and abs for another 15 minutes.  It felt like a decent workout, but in record time :)

Once in the car, I was ready for breakfast- a Cherry Pie Larabar and 2 clementines…

Then, it was errand time;  it never ends :)

Lunch was pushed back to later than I liked.  When I come in starved, I want to just grab the easiest thing.  Today it was an Applegate Farms Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dog on a whole wheat bun, Tabatchnick Vegetable Soup and carrots.  All ready, thanks to the microwave, in under 5 minutes!

The daughters had a doctor’s visit in the afternoon, then we did some shoe shopping.  So sad to be leaving the flip flops behind and get into some real shoes :(  While we were out, I did cave into some more coffee (I’m glad my doctor doesn’t read this blog), a tall decaf nonfat latte from Starbucks which held me over nicely until dinner.

I was lacking a dinner plan tonight, but thankfully pasta always goes over well!  My brand of choice is Barilla Plus.  It’s a multigrain blend of oats, spelt, barley along with the addition of  lentil and chickpea flour.  Be not afraid!  It tastes terrific and the husband and daughters are none the wiser.  It really does resemble regular white pasta in both taste and texture.  Now, I do have to make it plain for them with either sauce or butter and cheese, but I decided to jazz mine up with some pesto!  I know I’ve been kinda hooked on that lately:)  Since pesto is pretty caloric, I only used 1 heaping tsp. to dress the pasta, along with some of the pasta water and added it 1/2 cup chickpeas and shredded baby spinach.  I topped it with some grated parmesan and couldn’t wait to dig in…

I puffy heart pasta!  And it was surprisingly filling due to the extra protein punch of the chickpeas.  Yum!

Then, it was off to bed only to be awakened by the dizziness in the early morning.  I felt badly because it was our 14th wedding anniversary and I wanted to make a nice dinner for the husband.  But, that didn’t work out.  We did get a special treat from my parents, though…

A gift basket filled with wonderful Italian-inspired treats.  Even though my stomach wasn’t quite up to it, I couldn’t help trying out one of the treats…

Who could resist that?!  Not me.  Dizzy or not!

So worth it :)  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Have a great day, everyone!!

Question of the Day:  Do you like amusement park rides that spin and twirl? Aaaaaahhhhh!

Morning Breakdowns + A New Recipe

Sorry I missed you all this morning.  My laptop screen went kaput, so no blogging was happening til I hooked up my old computer monitor to the laptop so I can see!!!   Time for a new computer;  ka-ching, ka-ching :(   I had to spend the morning at the car dealership, too.  Thankfully, that didn’t cost much.  It’s funny how everything seems to go all at once!

Monday

I’m still surprised in the morning when I come down to the kitchen.  After so many years of the same look, it’s different to see a new look.  I really like it!

I was ready to break out the pans for breakfast.  I decided on eggs again.  This time, I sauteed sliced mushrooms in nonstick spray, added egg whites and a slice of asiago cheese.  Very tasty…

The rest of the morning was spent in clean-up mode.  Still catching up on cleaning after the painting.  Lunch time came quickly, so I made up some fast food.  I decided on another Lavash Pizza, this time topped with some leftover mushrooms from breakfast.  So easy to make;  spray Lavash bread with cooking spray, spread on sauce, top with light cheese and bake at 400 for about 10 minutes…

It makes a huge serving and I ate the whole thing along with a bowl of Tabatchnick Vegetable Soup …

 

I tried to get myself organized for the week during the remainder of the afternoon.  I had a billion school papers to read through, sign, send in money for, etc.  Whew!  And schools say they’re trying to go “green”!  I also worked on some homework with little daughter while munching on a snack of Trader Joe’s Chipotle Pepper Hummus and carrots…

Dinner was easy.  The husband and daughters were jealous of my pizza lunch, well, with the exception of the mushrooms, so I told them they could have quick pizzas for dinner.  I used Trader Joe’s Naan Bread as the dough.  They loved it!  Good for me;  no complaining :)

I dug around the freezer and found a few pieces of my Gram’s zucchini quiche, so I heated that and made a side salad with evoo for us all…

Love it, Gram!!

 

Tuesday

As I said, this morning started off a little rough with the computer glitch.  I had planned on blogging at the dealership, but since that was not to be, I gathered up a bunch of reading material to bring to my Car Dealership Camp Out.  I was rushed, but hungry, so I heated up a Blueberry Apricot Oat Bran Muffin and gobbled that up along with a Chobani nonfat strawberry yogurt before I left…

Turned out I only had to wait 2 1/2 hours instead of the 3-4 hours that I thought!  And the "damage” was minimum.  Hey, this day is turning around!

Breakfast did not hold me over very long at all.  I’m finding that the 6 oz. cups are not enough for me;  I really need 8 oz. to hold me over.  And the muffin, although delicious and healthy, doesn’t have enough staying power either.  I’m noticing, breakfast is turning out to be the most important meal of the day for me.  If I don’t eat enough at breakfast, I feel like eating more later in the day.

Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for lunch!  My stomach was growling  by 11:30 , but I managed to hold off until 12:30.  I dug around in the freezer again and found some homemade turkey meatballs that I completely forgot about!  I made a Turkey Meatball Stuffed Pita using 3 turkey meatballs (sliced to fit), baby spinach, a Weight Watchers Whole Wheat Pita and a drizzle of marinara…

Along with a fuji apple, it was a great lunch…

Little daughter had dance this afternoon, which means that we do not get home until dinner time.  I planned in advance and decided to make a Vegetable Lasagna so that it would be ready when we got home.  Now, I pretty much knew this was going to get some “eeewwws and blaaaahs” because no one but me ,will eat vegetables mixed in with something else.  But, I had this lasagna idea and I really wanted to try it out, so I said tough noogies ;P

These are the items I used for the Vegetable Lasagna…

The star ingredient was the Green Giant Immunity Blend Veggies.  I like these because they are a premium blend;  the vegetables are good quality (no broccoli stalks!) and it is flavored with extra virgin olive oil and seasoning which takes the work out of chopping, cooking and flavoring the veggies before adding them to the dish…

Vegetable Lasagna

• 3 boxes Green Giant Immunity Blend frozen veggies, defrosted
• 2 1/2 cups fat free milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 6 oz. block Cabot 50 % reduced fat cheddar cheese, grated(or other lowfat white cheese such as swiss or mozzarella)
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
• 3 tbsp. parmesan cheese

Prepare an 11 x 7 baking dish by spraying with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine flour and milk.  Stir continuously over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes…

Remove from heat and stir in grated cheese until melted and sauce is smooth….

Add the vegetables and stir until mixed in.  *note – I think next time, I would save a bit of the plain cheese sauce to pour over the top layer of the lasagna (maybe about 1/3 cup)…

Place 3 noodles on the bottom of the sprayed dish and top with 1/3 of the sauce…

Add spinach…

Continue with 2 more layers of noodles and sauce.  Top with remaining 3 noodles and sprinkle with parmesan cheese (I added about 1/8 c. shredded mozzarella, too – again, a bit of the plain cheese sauce would have gone nicely as a topper, then additional cheese could be omitted…

Cover with foil and bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes…

Dinner done!  While little daughter was at dance, I was able to run over to the gym for a 30 minute beat session on The Arc Trainer.  Boy, I have missed the gym these past few days!  I worked so hard that I was actually shaky when I left.  I remembered to bring a snack in the car, so I dug into some Cocoa Roasted Almonds and felt a lot better…

Dinner was waiting when we got home!  I thought it was delish and so did the husband and daughters after they scraped all the vegetables out of it.  Grrrrrr.

I served it with some of Gram’s green beans to round out the meal…

According to the ingredients I used, this lasagna came in at 330 calories and 10 grams fat per serving  (for 6 servings).  I have a couple pieces leftover that will make a great “frozen dinner” for another night.

I’m hoping to get my new computer tomorrow and get back to my morning blogging on Thursday!  Looking forward to catching up on all your blogs, too.  It’s been a couple days and I miss seeing what you’re all up to!

ONE GOOD THING:  I was able to fit in a workout and it felt great!

Question of the Day:  What kind of computer do you use?

Red Superfoods

I'm seeing red today! There is so much beautiful summer produce available. I am loving all the red fruits and indulged in them at every meal. Deep red fruits contain phytochemicals such as lycopene and anthocyanins which are not only heart-healthy and cancer-fighting, but also help boost the immune system. I made sure to get my antioxidants today!



I started off with a breakfast of 3/4 c. Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran, 1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze and 1/2 c. sliced strawberries for 2 POINTS...




Then, I got in a great 35 minute treadmill run despite being a tad bit sore from moving furniture yesterday. My friend and I were two tough chicks yesterday; we have the bruises to prove it!



I got cleaned up and headed out for some errands. I'm trying to get in as much as possible before the daughters are finished with school this Friday. I stopped home for some lunch. I made a turkey and hummus sammie with baby spinach on organic spelt bread. Delish! I had a cup of Tabatchnick Barley Mushroom soup and some red grapes to round out this filling 6 POINT lunch...

More errands after the daughters came home from school, which included a stop at Trader Joe's ( my home away from home :) I managed to get through the afternoon without a snack! Miracles can happen :)

Since the husband was away for work this evening (we miss you!!), the daughters requested hoagies and I pulled out my favorite Lean Cuisine dinner - Parmesan Crusted Fish. This is the best frozen dinner! I added more red - watermelon. It was a great quick 7 POINT meal...

Doesn't the fish really "look" like a fish???

I ended with a serving of Breyers Fat Free French Chocolate topped with 1/4 c. freeze dried strawberries (yum-more red!) for 1 POINT...

I did pretty well overall today! I did nibble a little on big daughter's hoagie and had a bite of little daughter's ice cream dessert. So, maybe a couple extra POINTS tacked on to the day. Not too bad!

Hope you all had an easy Monday! Have a great night :)

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 =)

Hmm...That's Different

That was the theme of my food today! I think I said that phrase at every meal. It was a dual purpose saying that could have meant good or bad! Let's start with the good...

For breakfast, I wanted to eat the leftover baked tofu. Weird, right??!! I decided to make a tofu scramble using the leftover baked tofu chopped, 1 c. frozen shredded hash brown potatoes with onion and peppers, 1 egg white and 1 oz. Cabot's 75% Reduced Fat Cheddar. I doesn't look pretty, but it tasted great! A different 3 POINT breakfast...



For lunch, I had white bean bruschetta "crostini". I toasted an Arnold Sandwich Thin, topped it with 2 tbsp. white bean hummus and 1/2 c. tomato bruschetta. Hmmm... different and delicious! I also had 1 c. Tabatchnick Minestrone Soup and an apple for a filling 6 POINT lunch...


Now, here's where the not so good "different" comes in...

I was really looking forward to dinner. I was going to have pizza on PIZZA NIGHT! I picked this up when I was grocery shopping the other day...

It sounded good and nutritious. The entire pizza was 7 POINTS and I planned on eating it all! Well, what a disappointment :( This wasn't really "pizza". It was a tortilla with some weensy toppings and a ton of overpowering spice (oregano, I think) disguised as a pizza. Now, it did say Ultra Thin on the box, but it still looked as if it would be more of a dough crust than just a stinkin tortilla! I cut it into quarters and had a side of carrots. I took a few bites of the "pizza" and thought....ICK! I don't dislike much in the way of food, but I have to say in little daughter style, "eeewwww, that's gross". I choked down half and threw the rest away. Just not worth the 7 POINTS. I could've just had the regular pizza for that many points. Here was my plate before it hit the trash...

Sometimes "nutritious" isn't always good. This carried over into dessert. Yes, my precious dessert time has been tarnished with yuckiness! I attempted to make a "healthy" peanut butter cookie using PB2, whole wheat and other healthier ingredients. Most traditional peanut butter cookie recipes call for shortening, so I tried to omit that and substitute something else. The result was...

hmmm.....different. Not the traditional taste and texture of a peanut butter cookie like I was looking for. These came to 1 POINT each. I wouldn't make these again as is; they need more tweaking. These unsatisfactory eats lead to an after dinner munch session. Ugh, why does that always happen??!!!! Didn't I just say YESTERDAY that I lost 3.4 lbs.???!!! And I am close to the 150's??!!! And I am only 6 lbs. from my "Weight Watchers Goal"??!!! Yes, that is all true. Yes, I slipped into self-sabotage mode. Yes, I am a swinger. Not THAT kind; ) The" scale "kind - up and down or back and forth, however you want to look at it :) But, what's done is done, so I have to pick up and move on from it. I know I can do this! Tomorrow is another day :)

Off to have some cuddle time with little daughter. Have a great night, everyone!!!

What A Girl Wants

I started off my morning with a strength training workout; today's routine was lower body and abs. I notice I'm not very good at the 1 -2 minute rest between sets; that "patience thing" I need to work on ;) So, I kind of flew through the whole thing in about 20 min. It feels strange to not be doing some type of cardio on these days. I'm second guessing whether I should be getting in a little since I'm still in the weight loss mode, but the things that I've read say to weight train 3 times a week and do the cardio the other days. I don't know; anyone wanna shed some light on the sitch??



I was so excited for breakfast! I picked up these Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins after seeing them on Angie's blog ...

What's neat about these is that they are a flourless sprouted whole grain english muffin and the mix of grains form a complete protein containing all essential amino acids. The nutritionals for 1 english muffin is 160 cal., 1 fat, 6 gr. protein and 4 fiber which comes to 2 POINTS. It's such a nice hearty-tasting muffin and was delicious topped with some I Can"t Believe It's Not Butter Spray and a tsp. of Smucker's Sugar Free Grape Jam. A sliced orange and hot cuppa joe made it a perfect 3 POINT breakfast...

After the Boca Bruschetta veggie burger yesterday, I got bruschetta stuck on the brain! I decided to listen to my body and give it what it wants! That's part of the Intuitive Eating way! I made the bruschetta topping- fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, fresh basil, salt and pepper. I toasted 2 slices of whole wheat tuscan pane and topped it with 1/2 c. bruschetta and a bit of shaved parmesan. To go with it, I had a bowl of Tabatchnick Minestrone Soup. A spectacular 6 POINT lunch...

I was so happy with that lunch!!! I think I could eat that every day! I love bread, tomatoes and cheese!! This elation lead to ..... a My House Chocolate Chip Cookie (1 POINT).....

Thankfully, I had to leave the house after that otherwise I may have continued my happy cookie dance with the rest of the batch =)

For dinner, I planned a spice rubbed pork tenderloin. I made a rub with a variety of spices - garlic, chili powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, cumin, salt and pepper, then baked the 1lb. tenderloin for about 25 min. at 375. It was moist and delish to me and big daughter (have I said she is my favorite daughter ;) The husband and little daughter would care to not ever have that again. Oh well. At least they liked the beans! I served the pork with a side of (canned) reduced sugar baked beans and a salad with Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch. My portion was 4 oz. pork, 1/2 c. baked beans and side salad for 8 POINTS...

I have been missing my Vitatop and craving peanut butter, so you know, I gotta give my body what it wants! The usual.... Deep Chocolate Vitatop with PB2 icing ...

A well spent 2 POINTS!

I'm holding my breath for tomorrow's weigh in. Not quite sure what to expect with this new workout routine, but regardless of what the scale says to me, I'm feeling good about being on track this week and I have enjoyed a week of eating healthfully and on program! Feel free to remind me of this statement tomorrow, just in case..... ;)

A Valentine's Treat

I missed you all last night, but the husband and I had a date night and got home a little too late for me to blog! Well, actually we had a date "day and night" since the daughters are sleeping at the grandparents! So, here's a quick update on my day....


It was beautiful in the morning, so I decided to get in my 5K Sunday(making up for Saturday!) in the great outdoors. It was a nice run and my foot felt fine during it, so I'm glad I gave it a rest. When I came in, I settled into a bowl of 1/2 c. quinoa granola, 1/2 c. blueberries and 1/2 c. unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze for 4 POINTS...



Lunch was a bowl of Tabatchnik vegetable soup and leftover whole wheat veggie pizza for 8 POINTS...


A little while after lunch, I did Level 1 Shred. I noticed my foot acting up part way through. I toughed it out because I knew I was going out to eat with the husband and I wanted to make sure I burned those calories!!!

And here those calories are...

We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. They make their own chips and salsa - to die for!!! I had planned to only eat 4, but the restaurant was packed and we had to wait a bit for our dinner, so I ended up eating more like 12! They were delish! I have no idea how to count them; they aren't greasy, but they are fried, so I don't know - maybe 6 POINTS?? I'm not gonna get too crazy about it - they were good!

For dinner, I chose the vegetarian fajitas which were made up of peppers, onions , mushrooms and tomatoes...

Since there wasn't that much to these, I counted them as 3 POINTS mainly for the oil that they use to make them. They were served with small corn tortillas of which I only ate 1 for an additional 1 POINT. For a side, they give you a salad of shredded iceburg lettuce, tomato, 1 tbsp. guacamole and sour cream -the real kind! I took off the sour cream and added a little of the salsa to my salad instead.

Very tasty, although I only ended up eating about half of it. I also left about 1/4 of the fajita dish, too. So, I'm guessing I didn't do too badly...

After dinner, we went to the movies to see the Oscar-nominated, Slumdog Millionaire. It was an amazing movie. I don't usually go for oscar-type movies; they are generally hyped up, but this one deserves the hype. An interesting story of survival, love and destiny.

The husband and I came home to our quiet home and snuggled in for a great night of......

UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP!!! Whooo hooo! Any of you that have kids that don't sleep through the night KNOW how important and special this is!!!!! LOL!!

All in all, a great night with the husband and a good night's sleep! A wonderful Valentine's treat!