Fast Food

Yay for Friday! Where did the week go?? Time is really flying. Unfortunately, my weight is not "flying off" as I had hoped. I took a peek at the scale this morning and it looks the same. I guess, I can't expect much since I had a pretty good loss last week. Besides, I haven't been perfectly staying within my POINTS. Too many BLT's. Not the sandwiches, more like the chocolate. We'll see what the scale says for my last BLBE weigh-in tomorrow.

No time to work out this morning. I had a coffee date with my pregger friend, Rosemary (who is due this month!), so I had to get out the door early. Before I left, I had a quick bowl of Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran (3/4 c.) with 1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze and strawberries for 2 POINTS...


While coffee talking, I had a tall nonfat iced latte with sugar-free white chocolate syrup for 2 POINTS...

Our morning coffee ran into lunch time (we're so chatty!). I had to stop at the store on the way home and by the time I made it home, I was so hungry and shaky! I grabbed the quickest thing I could find in the fridge - salmon salad. I spread it on an Ezekiel Bun and had a side of TJ's Sour Cream and Onion Rice Chips and carrots for a body fueling 7 POINTS...

Then I did the happy dance because my shipment of Vitatops arrived!!!! I was down to my last one. I ordered these the other day and chose the Mother's Day Pack which allowed you to choose from a list of your favorites. I chose Deep Chocolate (my #1 fave), Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip and a new one to try - Banana Nut! I am soooo excited to try that one! Mmmm... a box of goodies....

With this Mother's Day promotion, I got this "Gift of Health" for free...

A box of 12 heart shaped chocolate muffins! How cute...

I couldn't contain myself. I had to try one right away....

I feel sad. I didn't like it that much. I KNOW!!!! Can you believe I just said that about my beloved Vitas! Well, I think the issue with these hearts is that they are pretty thick, therefore a bit on the dry-dense side. I like "dense" if it's moist, but not "dry dense". Dry cake sucks :P However, Vitatops are not as thick, so that's why I haven't had the dry issue with those guys. They are the best! I think I'll pawn these hearts off on the daughters. I'll ice them up with a frosting of their choice and they'll love them. No, they will HEART them. Sorry, it's Friday and I'm tired ;)

Dinner was homemade calzones for the husband and daughters. I didn't have time to make whole wheat dough for myself, so I went for some leftover pizza that I had in the freezer. This pizza was made with spelt pizza dough which is awesome! I had this veggie pizza and 2 super sweet clementines for another quick meal of the day. Delicious for 9 POINTS...

I was tempted to have another Vitatop for dessert, but I felt pretty full. A little later, I had a spoonful of the daughters' Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. No chocolates followed. That's progress!

Have a great night =)

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 =)

I'm Just Not Getting It

Everyday I wake up with all good intentions of being on track. I know what to do. I know what it takes to lose weight. I have been doing this since July 29, 2007. I haven't been perfect. I have had detours, but this particular detour that I am taking is especially long, winding and moves treacherously close to a cliff with a steep drop to fatdom come. I don't know why this is happening. Not sure why I can't wrap my brain around getting these last pounds off. I want to. I want to be a Lifetime member. But, apparently I want BROWNIES a lot more...


I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning! So terrific! I wanted to go on an outdoor run this morning, but ended up getting sidetracked with housework, so I headed to the elliptical for a weighted (18 lbs.) 30 minutes and then did 10 minutes of weights and tricep dips. Before my workout, I had a breakfast from the freezer. I found some whole wheat pumpkin blueberry pancakes that I had made a while back. Luckily, I wrapped them well, so they were in perfect eating condition. I had 2 with some low cal syrup for 2 POINTS...



Then I nibbled on some chocolate covered almonds (no pic). Mistake #1 !

Even though it was such a beautiful day, I ended up spending most of it inside :( Hate that! Did some more house cleaning, then made some lunch. I have been craving salmon again. Last time I was at the grocery store, I picked up this...

The nutritionals are great: 60 cal. and 1.5 gr. fat per serving which is 1 POINT. The bag serves 2, so even if you ate the whole thing, it's only 3 POINTS. A healthy bargain! I decided to make this into salmon salad. I mixed in a bit of onion, chopped celery, dijon mustard, 1 tbsp. lite mayo, fresh parsley and a squirt of lemon. I wish I had fresh dill - it would have been perfect in here! I served the salad on an Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Bun with a side of cantaloupe and 1 oz. Penny Sticks Honey Wheat Pretzels for an AMAZING 8 POINT lunch...

I heart salmon salad...

I spent the rest of the afternoon prepping for pizza night and hanging outside with the daughters. Oh, and snacking. I kept moving back and forth from pantry to fridge. The damage was deep. Pretzel sticks, more chocolate covered almonds, lite string cheese, pepperoni. The stuff cellulite is made of. I felt my hips widening with every bite. Mistake #2.

I made a healthy pizza for dinner. Why, you say? Beats me. Dare I say, to "try to get back on the wagon"??? Yes, I will say it. Not buyin it? Yeah, me neither.

I bought some spelt flour a while ago and thought I would make pizza dough with it. Here's the recipe I used (adapted from www.recipezaar.com):

• 2 c. spelt flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. yeast
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. honey
• 2/3 c. warm water

I mixed all the ingredients in my stand mixer until a dough formed. I did need to add a bit more water to have it all come together. I thought the baking powder was a strange addition , but I did read that wheat -free crusts have a tendency to not rise very much, so I believe this may have helped along with the yeast in that department. I left the dough to rise, which it did quite a bit, then spread it into a well greased (with cooking spray) pizza pan. I always pre-bake my crusts before topping and I did with this one also. I put it in a 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Then, I topped it with my homemade pizza sauce, fresh baby spinach, fresh mushrooms and about 1/2 c. part skim mozzarella. I ran the pizza dough ingredients through the Recipe Builder and came up with 4 POINTS per serving (4 servings). With my toppings, 2 slices came to 8 POINTS. I served it with some salad dressed with Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch for another 1 POINT...

Very filling and very delicious. I really liked the way this crust came out. It was light in texture, yet hearty enough to hold up the toppings. It had a mellow taste; lighter and a bit less bitter than whole wheat crusts come out sometimes. If you're looking for a new pizza dough recipe, give this a try! And if you're gluten-free, this is your dough!


To end my evening, I had this...

Plus another few bites of the "hard, crunchy edges" that no one wants to eat. I totally talked little daughter into making these with me. Mistake #3. I labeled it "an experiment" as I wanted to try to use up some plain nonfat yogurt in the fridge that was on it's last legs (plus I'm not a fan of plain yogurt anyway)and thought I would mix it with a box of regular brownie mix that I just happened to have lying around. This is the way to make No Pudge brownies, but I wondered if it would work for a regular brownie mix. Well, it works. They are good and fudgy. I will call them Fat Ass Brownies. I have no idea of the POINTS; I was too lazy to calculate and not inclined to think that it even mattered at this point. The husband and daughters liked them and wolfed down quite a few which is good for me. Less to look at tomorrow when I "begin again".

This up and down is exhausting me mentally. I'm not sure what to do to get my fires burning again for more than a day or two. I am heading to my WW meeting tomorrow morning; maybe that will do it. I'm hoping after I see the number from the scale on my member book, in black and white, that it will give me the wake up call I need. I peeked on my own scale today and it's not looking good. At all.

Sorry to be such a downer tonight. I know I just have to keep trying. I know I say it over and over, but I don't seem to be getting it. But, I'm going to keep doing it. Keep trying. Keep starting everyday with resolve to stay on program. Fake it til I make it =)