An Evening With Joe

Hey everyone! We got in late last night, so I have been spending the day catching up on housework and blogs. You all have been busy!


I really missed my bike ride this morning. It was so fun to be able to ride around the shore town and it seemed so easy to get in 4 or 5 miles in a day. I may have to look into where bike trails are near my home. A new form of exercise to throw in the mix! As for my exercise this morning, I broke out an "oldie but goodie"- Leslie Sansone's Walk Away The Pounds. Kelly over at Happy Texans had mentioned this a couple days ago and I remembered I had it, so I gave it a whirl this morning. I was able to do the 3 mile (43 min.) with no problems. I have the one for abs that comes with resistance bands, so it was a nice full body workout.

After the workout, it was breakfast time. I decided to try something else new, a wafflewich! I've been salivating over these since seeing them on Danica's blog, so I tried my own version today. I used these Eggo waffles (2 for 2 POINTS) ...



smeared with 1 wedge of Laughing Cow Light Cheese and one egg white. It was delicious and a filling 3 POINT breakfast...



After more blog reading and a trip to Trader Joe's, I was ready for lunch. I was in the mood for a big salad today. I decided on a Turkey Bacon Ranch Salad using romaine lettuce, 2 slices center cut bacon, tomato, 1 tbsp. Kraft Light Three Cheese Dressing topped with my Ranch Turkey Burger for 5 POINTS...

and some beautiful blueberries and watermelon for 1 POINT...

The afternoon munchies came to visit, so I did end up digging into a box of reduced-fat Cheez-Its and a handful of chocolate covered raisins. Later, I was thinking that I should make a serious effort to take pics of these munchies when they occur. It may be a "tool" to help jar me out of that mindless eating mode. Either that or I'll just be extremely mortified to have to show all that junk! Hey, whatever works ;P

And tonight, I had dinner with Joe. No, that is not my husband; just all eats came from my home-away-from- home, Trader Joe's. First, was one of these...

then, 8 of these guys...

and for some veg, 1 cup of this yummy mix...

Altogether, now...

It was an awesome "heat and eat" dinner for only 6 POINTS! Gotta love all the great Weight Watchers-friendly food at TJ's!

And I couldn't resist a little (okay, maybe not so little) piece of organic dark chocolate to finish the night (2 POINTS)...

So, just to update you on some things... I tiptoed to the scale this morning, hoping for a good result considering all the exercise I was getting in at the shore, and thankfully, the scale was nice and slid me a 2.5 lb. loss since my last WI. I'll take it! Nice to see it heading down toward that goal number again! Another thing is that I've decided to stop my "Counting Experiment". If you remember, I was going to try to start my day's POINTS allotment at lunch instead of breakfast in an effort to help me with the afternoon munchies. I can't say that it didn't work. It actually helped pull me out of that funky eating mode I was in, but what I found is that it was too hard to "reset" myself if I fell off the wagon. It just seems easier to start the day fresh, rather than the middle of the day or later in the evening, if that makes sense. And actually, I've stopped being compulsive about counting every POINT, too. Now, hopefully that doesn't bite me in the big rear-end, but I don't want to stress about figuring out how many POINTS is in every little morsel that I eat. Mostly where I'm applying this strategy is going out to eat and eating at someone's house. I will always "mentally" count POINTS for my meals as best as I can. It really is the same thing as calorie counting and I need a general knowledge of how much I am putting in my mouth. But, let's face it, it's difficult to POINT count or calorie count when you are eating out or away from home. I will always do my best to make the healthiest choice possible. That is my lifestyle change. It has to be that way for always.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Just Say No

What a crazy weekend! We've been partying it up with all the graduations, so it's been a whirlwind couple of days. Yesterday worked out o.k. I ate fairly decent and only really caved with some jelly beans and a couple chocolates at the party. Not too horrible, but I did end up eating a bunch of Cheez-Its when we got home. I didn't count POINTS, but I think I may have still been in the ballpark.



Today, I took my time waking up and decided to have breakfast before working out. I was craving a sandwich, so I made an egg and cheese on TJ's Organic Spelt bread for 4 POINTS. It was so good...





After watching some E! True Hollywood Story, I got the urge to run! I headed to the treadmill and pumped out a good 35 minutes. I kept my pace faster today; it was a nice push.





The daughters had some friends over to play and we decided to grill for lunch. They had hot dogs and I went with a Ranch Turkey Burger with a slice of Weight Watchers Pepperjack Cheese. I opted to go "bunless" (oh, how I wish ;) and had a side of the Crunchy Curls, grapes and carrot sticks for 7 POINTS...

Then I headed out to help my friend move some furniture. She rented a UHaul and we cracked up about it the whole time because we are both princesses, yet we were bouncing around in this UHaul determined to show our brawn by moving this heavy furniture into her house. We were grunting and sweating like we were doing some crazy challenge on the Biggest Loser Ranch. It was hilarious. And a nice sweaty, strength training workout!

Since I knew I would be getting home close to dinner, I had prepped ahead with a crockpot dish. I saw a recipe for Pineapple Luau Chicken on Bev's blog, so I thought I would give it a try. The only change I made was to use pork tenderloin instead of chicken since I had some on hand. I threw in some broccoli, green onion and served it over 1/2 c. brown rice for a great 6 POINT dinner...

I ended the night with a serving of Breyers Fat Free Double Churn French Chocolate Ice Cream with a topping of freeze dried blueberries!!! This was a great combo for only 1 POINT...

I found these guys (you know where!) recently and they are unbelievably good! They are crunchy and sweet...

Best of all, look at these facts! The whole bag is only 2 POINTS. There are a TON in there and could keep you munching for hours. Note to self: when feeling munchie, grab the crunchy blueberries!!!

I feel like a wad. A whale -ish wad. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I'm retaining a small pond despite my efforts to drink mass quantities of beverages today. I need to stay home now. No more parties. I need to be in control of what I am eating, "make" what I am eating and not be distracted by parties where I have to keep dodging certain "areas" that contain cake, cookies, chocolate and candy. Yep, stay home. And just say no...

One more thing - some cool news! The nice people at Dominex Eggplant ,who make the delicious eggplant cutlets that I love, have offered to send my readers a dollar off coupon to try out their product. Send an email with your name and address to : sales@dominexeggplant.com and write "Trim The Fat Coupon" in the subject line and they will be glad to send that out to you!

Have a great night!

Minefields All Around

Rain drops keep falling on my head. Lots of them. It has been raining all day, nonstop! And it's chilly. This does not feel like June! But, I'm sure it'll be hot enough before we know it. Since the weather was not cooperating, I decided on some indoor activity this morning. For something different, I popped in the Shred DVD and let Jillian whip my butt for 20 minutes. I haven't done it in a while, but I wasn't as weak as when I first started it back in Feb. Such a great workout in a short amount of time!



Then, I dug into some breakfast. Today was a Banana Nut Vitatop with PB2 for 2 yummy POINTS...





I spent the rest of the morning at little daughter's school for a year end picnic. They held it indoors due to the rain. They had their beach towels set up all over the gym and we served them their lunch on their towels. Oh, the temptation! Fresh, hot soft pretzels! Fresh, hot, cheesy pizza! Thankfully, I was serving the pizza instead of handing out the pretzels. Both are trouble, but the pretzels would have done me in. I was able to dodge them. Funny how I watched all the skinny moms digging into the pizza without a care in the world. Can it really be that easy? Can you just eat a slice or two of pizza and let that be it? No triggering a foodfest of grand proportions? Ah, that is the life! While the kids were having sno-cones scooped out for them, I cleaned up and made a bee line out of there and straight home to make a healthy lunch. I went with a big chicken and white bean salad with tomatoes, basil and a sprinkle of goat cheese...

I dressed it with a homemade light vinagrette, all for 7 POINTS...

I still felt like having some crunch after, so I decided on this new TJ's find...

Isn't that interesting? They are made with lentil flour and potato starch. You get 31 curls for 2 POINTS...

I just had a half serving for 1 POINT...

They are pretty tasty. They have a bit of an aftertaste to them that I can't quite describe. Kinda fishy?? I know that doesn't sound appetizing, but I don't know how else to explain the flavor. Maybe more like some of those fried chinese noodles. Yeah, that's it! I'll try them again to see if I can come up with a better description :)

No afternoon snack. I'm "trying" to modify my behavior, so I just had some iced coffee today with REAL sugar for 1 POINT...

Well, the husband would like me to modify my behavior all right. I was a starving, nasty, huffy banshee by dinner time! I picked up the daughters from an afterschool playdate, came in and got all huffed up because the husband hadn't turned on the grill and gotten the burgers on yet! Poor guy! My head was pounding, so I grabbed a couple carrots while the burgers finished cooking. I started to feel better, then and more like a human instead of an animal! I munched down my Ranch Turkey burger on whole wheat bun with watermelon and carrots for 7 POINTS...

For dessert, I went with 1/2 c. Breyers Fat Free French Chocolate topped with Hershey's Sugar Free Syrup for 1 POINT...

Blech! That sugar free syrup is absolutely gross! It had a strong chemical taste. Yuck. Ruined the ice cream; I had to chuck it :(

Glad I made it through the minefield today! Next up....another graduation party tomorrow!!! Aaaaahhhhh, get me off this party ciruit!!!!

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 =)