Snowtorious BIG - and Carb Cravings

So I'm sitting here on the couch with the Ginger Midget (my 7 month old Pembroke Welsh Corgi), and the hubby watching Intervention on TV and keeping an eye on the live weather blog in another browser.  The locals have dubbed this impending blizzard "Snowtorious BIG".  We've had freezing mist all day today and our front walk and driveway is a sheet of ice.  Depending on which news station you listen to we are supposed to get anywhere between 6 and 18 inches in downtown (about 5 minutes north of my house).  Then we're supposed to have 30-40 mile an hour winds and bitterly cold temperatures to go with it.  I'm looking forward to the 6 activity points I'll earn from shoveling the driveway, but I'm not looking forward to getting out in it tomorrow.  The department of transportation is recommending that if you don't have to get out in the next 48 hours to just stay at home.  I'm planning on going into work tomorrow morning, but we'll see how it is when I get up in the morning.

Tonight I made the Weight Watcher's chicken pot pies.  They turned out really, really good!!!  For anyone on WW, they are 7 points per serving, for anyone else, sorry, I do not have the nutritional value, but we estimated them to be about 350 calories. 

Individual Chicken Pot Pies - 4 servings

• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 canned buttermilk biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a saute pan, melt butter over medium high heat.  Add onion, and cook for 3-4 minutes, until they start to become translucent.  Add chicken and veggies and cook until chicken is no longer pink.  Add flour and stir until it mixes in completely.
3. Add wine and chicken broth slowly, stirring constantly so you don't get lumps.  Add rosemary, salt, and pepper.  Bring to a boil and boil until thick, or about 15 minutes.
4. Coat 4 10 ounce ramekins with non-stick cooking spray.  Spoon mixture evenly into the ramekins. 
5. Cut each biscuit in half and put half a biscuit on each ramekin.  Place ramekins on a baking sheet and put in oven.  Cook about 15 minutes, or until biscuits are brown and mix is bubbling.

This dinner was perfect for tonight because I have been craving carbs today.  I had rice at lunch, the pot pie for dinner, and then I ate an extra biscuit for desert.  I also had a Kit Kat at lunch.  I know you may think that falls into the chocolate category, but for me, it's about the sugar and the carbs.  I still want more.  I've eaten 36 points today (5 over my daily alottment) and I'm still hungry.  I want to eat that other left over biscuit and I want a Mountain Dew.  A bloody mary sounds fantastic as does some chips and salsa.  Oh, and now I saw an add for Denny's and I want pancakes.  Darn you carb cravings!!!  I think I'm just going to have to dip into some of those bonus points for the week and find something to get me over this craving. 

Get Moving!

I'm stuck on the whole activity thing for some reason.  I've never been one to enjoy exercise.  That's not to say I don't like physical activity, I just hate doing things with the sole purpose of "working out".  I was always into sports when I was younger.  I figure skated competitively for years, and I played volleyball in high school.  I love to go out and play catch with my husband or take the dogs for a walk.  But I have to psych myself up to get to the gym or pop in a workout DVD.  Thank goodness I can earn activity points by other means.

For those who may not know, Weight Watchers revolves around a points system.  Every serving of food and beverage has a point value.  This point value is made up of a formula that takes into account fat, carbs, protein, and fiber.  The higher the fat and carbs, the higher the points value.  High fiber will actually credit back points.  I get 31 points a day that I need/get to eat, with a weekly bonus of 49 points to use however I want.  Let me put this in perspective.  A one ounce serving of chips is 4 points.  A 12 ounce light beer is 3 points.  Boneless, skinless chicken is about a point per ounce.  When you start looking at restaurant food it gets ridiculous.  A hamburger and small fry from McDonald's is 15 points.  Buffalo wings are 2 points EACH, and that side of ranch will set you back 8 points.  Even a 6 inch ham sub from Subway with no cheese is 8 points.  Soda is roughly 4 points for every 8 ounces.  Trying to eat foods that are nutritionally satisfying as well as satisfying to the palette can be tough.  That's where activity comes in.

The wonderful thing about Weight Watchers is that you can earn activity points that you can then trade in for more food points!  What's awesome is that you can earn activity points for just about anything that requires you to be up and moving.  Take today for instance.  I spent about 3 hours organizing my pantry, putting away groceries, doing dishes, cooking lunches and dinner for this week, folding laundry, scrubbing the kitchen, and putting stuff away.  That 3 hours of housework earned me 12 activity points!  I didn't break a sweat.  My heart rate was not elevated.  But I wasn't sitting on the couch, and that's what matters.  To me, that was more fun than going to the gym and going all out for an hour.

There are days when I purposefully set out to earn activity points so I can eat them.  But just because you've earned them doesn't mean you have to eat them.  I've found that when I eat my activity points, I lose, but lose a lot slower.  When I earn them, but don't touch them, I lose weight and inches faster. 

Moving more also gives me more energy.   I know that sounds like a bit of a oxy-moron, but it's true.  The more I work out, the more energy I have, which makes me want to work out more, which makes me feel even better.  So if you're tired, and have no energy, get up and move around, I promise it will help!

Making It Work

What an awesome weigh in...5.2 pounds gone, 74.8 pounds go to.  I got my first 5 pound sticker at meeting this morning.  This really does seem doable!  I was down 2 pounds this week.  Not too shabby for it being my birthday week, and all of the food that went along with it.  I swear it was Wednesday night at water aerobics that did the trick.  It makes it kind of ironic that we talked about getting in more activity today at meeting.

The challenge issued for this week is to move for at least 10 minutes every day in whatever way feels fun.  I definitely think that will go on the hot pink goal chart for this week.  I know I'm going to get a lot of activity in tomorrow. My house needs cleaned desperately! I can't wait until spring when I can start taking the dogs for walks again. Our puppy definitely needs the exercise. It's been hard for her to be couped up this winter, but with all the snow and ice on the sidewalks it's hard to get out.  I've resorted to chasing her around the first floor of the house. :)

I am determined this week to not let the snow derail me from getting to the gym.  We are supposed to get a bunch of crappy weather from Monday through Wednesday.  I'm sure I'll be shoveling at least one of those nights, depending on when it changes over from rain to snow.  I don't care if it takes me over an hour to get there, I am going to water aerobics this Wednesday.  I'm absolutely hooked!

The two other things going on my goal chart for this week is taking all of my meds and getting all of my water in every day.  I didn't do so well on either front last week and I really noticed a difference in how I felt.  I've been tired, sluggish, and just generally not feeling well. 

It constantly amazes me how energized I am after going to meeting on Saturdays.  I've finally realized that I have a completely dysfunctional relationship with food.  Weight Watchers is my therapy and I'm thankful every day that I decided to go back!  I can't wait to make this week work :)

Three Weeks Down, A Lifetime To Go!

Well, I've completed 3 weeks of my new lifestyle. I think it's starting to stick...somewhat. I've noticed that I haven't been craving the really bad, fatty foods quite as much anymore, but at the same time I'm finding my current diet a little bland. I've been eating a lot of the same foods every day and I'm kind of getting sick of it. I need to mix things up a bit.

I did find some new recipes to try out for dinner so I'm excited about that. First up on the menu is individual chicken pot pies. I will report back on how it tastes after I make them next week. I also found recipes for potato chowder, spaghetti with meat sauce, and a citrus-garlic marinated pork loin. If I find something really good I will definately share.

Meanwhile, I really need to come up with some new breakfast and lunch ideas.  Almost every morning I eat turkey sausage links.  I'm pretty much ok with breakfast.  Lunches vary, but I've been eating out a lot. While I've managed to stay within my points doing this, I know I could be making better food choices.  Lunch is tough.  I've eaten so many frozen diet meals in my life that there are very few that I can stand any more.  I'm not a big fan of canned soup either, and sandwiches get really old, really quick.  Leftovers from the night before aren't an option either, because we make a big batch of whatever for dinner and then eat the left overs the next few days for dinner.  Maybe we should rethink the way we do dinner.  I just don't want our food costs to go up astronomically.  Food is getting more expensive anyway, I really don't want to have to buy more. 

In addition to finding new things to eat, I need to find new things to do for work-outs.  I went to water aerobics on Wednesday night for the first time in probably 10 years and had an absolute blast!  I am really sore today from it, but I like this kind of pain.  Unfortunately, I can only make it to 1 class a week.  I wish there was a way that I could make it to the Tuesday and Thursday classes at 9am, but with work, that's out of the question.  I need to find another class or something.  Just going to the gym and doing cardio and/or weights is really boring.  I have decided that I'm going to start doing my Couch to 5k program again.  It'll be awesome once I get done with that and can actually run for 45 minutes at a time.  But I need something fun to build some muscle.  I miss my personal trainer.

One small victory to note this week. Shortly after I started Weight Watcher's I had Kevin take my measuerments, arms, chest, waist, and legs. I am happy to report that since the first measuerments were taken I've lost a total of 5 and a half inches!

Tomorrow morning is weigh-in.  I know I'm going to be down, but I'm not making any predictions as to how much.  We'll just all have to be surprised!

I Got Nothin

Sorry folks, I've got a complete mental block tonight.  I've been trying to think all evening of what to write about, but I've got nothing.  I've been working the plan, trying to do the best I can, getting in some movement, nothing new.  I asked Kevin what I should write about and he suggested I write about the future.  The only thing that comes to mind at present when I think about the future is how awesome I'm going to look laying on the beach in Jamaica on Christmas Day 2012.  :)

G'nite folks!

Too Much Weigh, Too Little Time

So here it is, Wednesday night, and the scale has hardly moved this week.  I've only got 2 days before weigh-in and I'm not expecting it to be a good one. 

A few weeks ago I made a goal chart for myself.  Yes, I went back to kindergarten.  It's hot pink, and for each goal I hit every day I get a silver star sticker.  Last week out of a possible 28 starts, I got 20.  This week, out of 20 available stars so far, I have 5.  Ugh. 

My downfall this week has been lack of planning.  I know you'd probably think it was my birthday, and all the eating-out, but really, I haven't planned things this week.  Normally, I know before I go to bed at night what I'm going to be eating the next day.  I know exactly what I need to grab out of the fridge in the morning, and 9 times out of 10, I stick to that eating plan.  Now, if I'm craving sushi or something, sometimes I will leave my packed lunch in the fridge and go get what I really want, but that tends to be more of the exception than the norm. 

I haven't had anything planned for lunches this week.  I didn't have any food logged into my tracker prior to eating breakfast.  I've just been kind of winging it.  And it's not working.  Last week I planned my day to get all of my fruits/veggies in.  I planned my day to get my dairy in.  I have done none of that this week. 

More than noticing the scale isn't moving, I've noticed how awful I feel since I'm not getting all of my water in.  I have the biggest headache tonight and I know it's because I only had half of my water. 

Well, what's done is done, or not done in this case.  Tomorrow is a new day, and a chance to make better decisions.  Time to put food in my tracker for tomorrow. :)

Today I'm 30

A quick housekeeping note...I added a title to yesterday's blog, compliments of my FB friend Norman.  Along with a happy birthday note, he wrote that birthday cake counts as a salad if you put a crouton on top.  I wish I would have had that quote yesterday because it went so well with yesterday's blog.  Thanks Norman!

Now, onto business...

Today I turned 30.  A year ago I was saying that it was the last birthday I was having.  I was going to be 29 forever.  Now that the big 3-0 has come and almost gone, I'm ok with it.  I'm actually excited to see what my 30's bring.  My early 20's were some what of a tragedy and I wouldn't want to relive them on a bet.  The later have of my 20's had their ups and downs, but were over-all pretty good.  I was finally starting to figure some things out; figure out who I was.  I also met my wonderful husband.  Now, today, I look at what my life has become and it's pretty fabulous!  I have the most adoring husband I could ever hope for, a great job, great friends, 2 wonderful dogs (ok, one wonderful dog and one spit-fire that I love dearly), a great house, a car that runs, family close by...I really couldln't ask for more!  Well, except to be skinny...and maybe have a maid. :)  My life is good!

It would appear as though most of my life is in order, now I've just got to get the weight thing under control.  This week has been a bit of a struggle.  I was expecting it to be rough with my big birthday thrown into the mix.  But this is real-life, and I'm making a life-style change.  That doesn't mean denying myself special occasions and indulgences.  I really should have gone to the gym today, but I decided that it was my birthday and I didn't want to.  I should have ordered something other than the fish and chips at lunch, or at the very least not have eaten it all, but it's my birthday and that's what I wanted.  Tomorrow starts a new day, a new set of points, and not only new decisions to make, but new challenges to deal with. 

Last Saturday in our Weight Watcher's meeting, we talked about eating in the real world.  Little did I know how much I would relate this week.  Some people go on a very strict, very regimented diet and/or exercise program in an effort to try to lose weight.  That may work phenomenally well in the short run.  Had I been trying to lose weight like that, I would have completely blown it this week.  As my leader said this week, "I got to have my cake, and eat it to!" - and no Norman, I didn't put a crouton on it!

Tomorrow - my first day back at water aerobics in about 10 years.  I'm a little scared!