Sweet Treats

Happy Valentine's Day! A day of love, romance and.....CHOCOLATE! The husband was so sweet to give me these beauties instead ...

So lovely and will last much longer than chocolate would ;) The daughters got some goodies and lots of chocolate, but *eyes closed* I have no idea where that chocolate is!

Well, today I decided to not do my 5K Saturday. I wrestled with myself on this, but I have been having issues with my right foot (planter fasciitis is acting up) and I thought it would be better to give it a rest. I still did the Shred - only 14 days left! I hope to make up the run tomorrow - it'll be 5 K Sunday instead! A question for all you runners out there: how often do you run? Is it bad to run everyday? Do you vary the duration of your runs? Okay, that was 3 questions! I'd appreciate any feedback on that since I'm new at this!

After shredding, I made a Thomas' Light English Muffin with PB2 and a tsp. Smucker's Sugar Free Grape Jam. I had a bowl of sweet strawberries to go with it. A satisfying 3 POINT breakfast...
For lunch, I went with some leftovers. A little different from my normal lunches. I thought I'd see if this was any more satisfying for me than my traditional lunch. I had a serving of leftover turkey meatloaf, asparagus and 1/3 c. of israeli couscous for 8 POINTS...

Like dinner for lunch! What do I call that...dunch or dinch??!! I don't know, I'll just call it good -even the second time around!

Now, I have been thinking about trying to eliminate my afternoon snack. If I try to eat according to my body's needs, then most days I notice I don't really "need" a snack, but I eat one for fear that I will be ravenous by dinner and eat the house down. So, the past couple days, I haven't felt hungry in the afternoon and I have been foregoing the snack. It was okay. I was able to wait for dinner and didn't feel the need to overeat. However, today I became hungry around 4 p.m. and since we had big daughter's basketball game late, I knew I wouldn't make it until dinner which would be around 6:30-6:45. I decided to have 2 hardboiled egg whites and a lite string cheese for 2 POINTS...

Guess what? Then this triggered the munchies! I had a handful of pretzel sticks...

and a handful of TJ's Sour Cream and Onion Rice Chips, 3 small chocolates (I opened my eyes!) and a handful of M&M's. I used my Weekly Allowance POINTS for all that, so I'm o.k., but that was an interesting experiment! I think it may be better for me to avoid an afternoon snack because it seems like when I do lately, it's a snowball effect. I think I will make a goal this week to not snack in the afternoon and see how that works out. I will make sure I eat a bigger breakfast and lunch to get the calories I need. I'm keeping dessert though! We'll see how this goes...


When we got home from big daughter's game (they won - YAY!), I rushed to get dinner on the table. I made the husband and daughters some gnocchi with marinara sauce and a side of broccoli. I decided to have a Salmon Roulette and a side of broccoli for 4 POINTS...

I also made another fancy drink with the POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice.

This time, I mixed 2 oz. juice with some Sprite Zero. Very refreshing!

Valentine's Day would not be complete without these decadent chocolate covered strawberries. I decided to count them as 3 POINTS since one was a bit bigger than last night's...

I'm off to snuggle with my honeys tonight! Hope everyone had a sweet day!!!!!!

Good To Be Back

Hey, everyone! Just want to say thank you for your support the past couple of days. My superfunk has lifted; I feel a lot better and ready to continue on with this crazy journey.

My morning was a little screwy. Big daughter called saying she forgot her writing assignment and I had to rush to get it there by 7:30 a.m., so I couldn't workout my normal time. Then after getting little daughter to school, there was a bit of family drama going on that needed my attention, so I had to nix my workout altogether for the morning. I was scheduled to meet Mom and Gram for lunch and shopping, so I had to get going. In the midst of all this, I realized that I never got a chance to eat breakfast! Gee, that wasn't how I planned on starting my "funk free" day, but life got in the way! So, I headed out to meet the ladies. We shopped a little for big daughter's upcoming birthday gifts and then decided we needed nourishment! Mom treated us to lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. They have an awesome salad bar, so I knew that was going to be part of my lunch. I made a terrific salad with spring greens, shredded carrots, grape tomatoes, a spoonful of edamame (soybeans), a spoonful of chick peas, zucchini sticks and some red grapes drizzled with lite ranch dressing, all for 3 POINTS...



I also had a bowl of white bean chicken chili for 5 POINTS...

Delicious and filling! We had a nice time chatting, then moved ahead to do some more shopping. The mall was emmmmpty; a real sign of these tough economic times :(

The afternoon was very busy and I didn't have much time to think about a snack. I decided to try and listen to my body a little more and if I wasn't hungry then I wasn't going to eat something just for the sake of eating. Well, that's a new idea, now isn't it??? I can't believe how often I do eat just to eat or because it's "time". I think I would like to explore the topic of intuitive eating. I know there's lots of info out there, so it may be something you will see me experimenting with in the upcoming months.

So, I ditched the snack and prepped for dinner before running to get little daughter from dance. Dinner was turkey meatloaf, asparagus and whole wheat bread made by Gram! I make turkey meatloaf often and generally use the same basic recipe, but I change it around sometimes by adding barbeque sauce or tomato sauce instead of ketchup. Tonight, I used my standard recipe which is the same as Gina's of Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes! So I don't have to type out my recipe, I'll link you to hers. Her pictures are incredible and you'll love her other recipes too! My portion of dinner was a serving of turkey meatloaf, asparagus with a bit of grated parmesan and a 3 oz. slice of whole wheat baguette. A wonderful 10 POINT dinner...

After dinner, I made sure to Shred! Only 16 days left! I really feel some muscles building in my arms; must be those push-ups!

I didn't snack, but I did dessert!! You know it! I'm crazy for toppings to my Vitatops now and keep trying to come up with different ones to keep the Vitatops interesting! Tonight, I decided on a cream cheese icing! I softened 2 tbsp. fat free cream cheese in the micro for a few seconds, added 1 tsp. powdered sugar and mixed well. I also added a teensy drop of vanilla extract. I used it to frost a Double Chocolate Dream Vitatop. Oh my greatness! This would have been awesome with the lite cherry pie filling added over the icing, too! Darn, I didn't think of that until the plate/spoon licking!! Still, a decadent 2 POINT dessert...

It was good to be back today. I feel more relaxed about things, even though I did get on the scale this morning and I have to report a 3.2 lb. gain to my A-Teamers. I know it's not a "real gain" and I'll probably be down from that tomorrow, but it just sucks that I have to bring you guys down that way. Next week is gonna be better, peeps! But, in the spirit of the "rules" of the game, feel free to attach your foot to my backside =)