Craving high point foods??

Hey folks--well this week's weigh in was a little disappointing. I went up again. I blame it on Mondays, jeans, eating before my meeting and being dehydrated.

Of course I really should blame it on using most of my weekly points and not getting enough exercise...but I won't. It wasn't a bad week food-wise, and I had hoped that it would show on the scale, but towards the end of the week I could have done better.

This week has been just as bad so far. I'm not necessarily over-indulging, but I am eating meals that use up a lot of points. For instance...I've been craving bagels lately. So instead of doing the 6pt bagel, I went to the store and got Peppridge Farm's whole grain bagels. They are 4 pts. And I got Philly reduced fat cream cheese in Onion & Chive. It was delicious. But it was 6pts. For breakfast. And on top of that I had an apple for another point. That didn't leave me much for the rest of the day--and although my lunch wasn't that bad, things kept adding up. And I brought an afternoon snack of yogurt & another apple. And dinner was homemade soup.

By the way I made soup. It was fun. But I'll get back to that in a bit.

And by the time I went through dinner, I was so far beyond my daily points, but everything I ate was healthy! I wasn't snacking on potato chips and chocolate. And today was no better. Breakfast was yogurt, flax seed & banana. Fine. But lunch was soup (3pts), and a darned greek salad. That stuff adds up. And now I only have 7pts left for the rest of the day. I mean, yes, I can have a meal for that, but I have to be careful (especially since I have barely any weeklies left and it's only Wednesday!!)

It's not like I'm not trying, but everything just keeps adding up. I'm not eating large portions, I'm for the most part staying away from junk, but somehow those points just multiply. It's frustrating because I thought I finally on the right track. I have to combat it with exercise I guess.

I did go swing dancing Monday and I finally felt like I was getting a workout! It was fun. Things are picking up :)

Oh right, the soup. I joined my friend in some soupmaking fun last night & we made this fantastic and technically simple root vegetable soup. Potatoes, turnips, yucca, squash...I have no idea what else, but it was really good. And very filling. We also made a Portuguese Cocina which turned out basically like a chicken noodle soup--with chorizo and meatballs (turkey). It was good--felt like it was missing something, but it was pretty simple anyway.

So I'm continuing with my cooking experiments and enjoying every minute of it. I hope to bake another banana bread and maybe a pumpkin bread this weekend in between painting my kitchen. Actually, maybe not such a brilliant idea. Maybe I'll use mom's kitchen :)

Still trying to fit in more exercise...as usual. And I've been feeling very drained. I have been letting these gorgeous fall mornings pass me by without taking advantage of it to be able to sleep in, and when I get home at night, I crash. I did go for a walk today... and added some dancing to that walk, which I'm sure was quite entertaining to passers by. And I'm a little inspired by Rebecca who has been working so hard and got noticed by a Personal Trainer at the gym who was impressed by her progress! Her reaction to her workout being interrupted was priceless. :)

Alright--enough Julia. Let's get to it!

Until next time

Just call me Julia Child

Okay, maybe not quite Julia Child, but I am Julia and I'm cooking...and I like children? Not to eat of course. By the way have any of you seen the film Julie & Julia? It's cute & it makes you want to cook...or just extremely hungry.

Anyway--last night I decided to have some culinary adventures of my own. I had a head of cauliflower that I bought last week for the purpose of making fake mashed potatoes. I had the night free so I figured it would be the perfect opportunity. With a basic idea of how to make them, I set forth.

I broke the head of cauliflower into small sections and put it in a dish covered with saran wrap. I microwaved it for about 9 minutes (testing how tender they were after 5 and 8 minutes). Then I transferred them to a larger bowl and commenced the mashing. Now it might have been easier with an actual potato masher...however due to my limited kitchen accessories, I started with a fork and then ended up using a small whisk which ended up working fine. I probably could have also put it through a food processor, but who has that kind of time?

After getting the cauliflower into a mushy state, I proceeded to add ingredients. Milk, butter, reduced fat cheese, salt, pepper. I wasn't sure exactly what to put in, but I wanted them to be flavorful. I didn't have any chives or anything like I'd seen recommended in other recipes, so I was improvising. I probably put in more butter than I should have (and I chose real butter over Smart Balance, but I might try them another time using SB) and the cheese made no difference. They were kind of bland until I decided to add some Fig flavored balsamic vinegar, which made a huge difference. The texture was close to mashed potatoes but certainly not the same. But they were tasty and I enjoyed them. I would probably make them again. I was thinking I could possibly add some butternut squash or some kind of flavorful fall root vegetable to change things up. Maybe beets? Yams are good too. I saw recipes that included potatoes with the cauliflower--maybe to add more of that real mashed potato texture.


After spending far too much time on my fake mashed potatoes, I realized I had nothing else prepared for dinner, so I decided to pull out some chicken from the freezer. Again, I was kind of going blindly into this, so I tried to figure out how I wanted to cook the chicken. I cut it up into small chunks so it would cook faster. And then I decided I wanted to try something different. And what, out of all things, did I pick to cook the chicken in? Peanut butter. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

I had no idea how it would turn out, but I just went with it. I spooned about 1Tbs of peanut butter (chunky style) into the pan, and then decided that it needed to be more of a sauce, so I threw some yogurt into the pan as well (about 2Tbs vanilla). I whisked it together right in the pan and then threw the chicken chunks in there to cook. They cooked pretty quickly considering they were frozen an seemed to work nicely in the yogurt/PB sauce. It got a little thicker with the heat, and was done in about 10 minutes.

Let me tell you--I am a cooking genius. This chicken was absolutely delicious, and if any of you are fans of Thai food, was basically a chicken sate flavor. I might add some kind of spice to it next time for something different, but it had more than enough flavor as it was. YUM.


So I put my fake mashed potatoes and peanut butter chicken on a plate, added some sliced cucumbers, and sat to consume my culinary masterpiece. Color wise it was very bland, but the taste more than made up for the lack of hue.

Julia Child I may not be, but I'm still proud of my meal & can't wait to try some other recipes and spontaneous food-ventures.

Until next time

Boot Camp Day Twelve

It's a slow day. Slooooooooooooooow Day.

I should have gone out for a walk since it's sort of sunny but I have to leave early today and felt bad. That's okay because tonight I'll be running around with my nephins!

I'll keep this short and sweet, but there's a couple of things...
1) I finally cooked last night! I made the Pork Chops & Cucumber Salad recipe and it was yummy. And super easy. I had wicked onion breath and the dill is all over my kitchen, but YUM. I went over my points with this, but not by much. The pork was 3pts for 3 oz and the cucumber salad was maybe .5 from the oil. So 1.5 over for the day wasn't bad. Until however...

2) I had another late night eating catastrophe! I don't even want to list it because I ashamed. I knew better. There was no reason for it. But I did it anyway. Sgt Fyt is gonna kill me. I've already heard I'll be doing a lot of running tomorrow.

3) Kiwis are amazing. I haven't had fresh kiwi in so long & I had one yesterday, and just cutting into it and seeing the amazing bright green color made me smile. They're sugary so you don't get a lot for your points, but they are SO good.

4) This weekend I'm determined to make Sgt Fyt proud. I don't know what this weigh in on Monday is going to be like because of my points usage this week, but I'm going to try to make up for it. I seriously want to earn like 8-10 points this weekend. Average at least 4pts/day? I can totally do that. And I just have to focus on eating smart so to stay within my daily points for the rest of the weekend. I can do this! NO EXCUSES!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend

Until next time

Boot Camp Day Nine

Wow--the hard work pays off--Sgt Fyt is happy with my progress I hear...now it's full speed ahead to make him and myself proud!

Last night I went food shopping with this whole meal plan in mind: cook once, eat all week. I got some recipes from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine which I have a subscription to but haven't really used since I got it.

Well by the time I got home I didn't have any energy for cooking so I had some cereal and cherries which weren't as sweet as they should have been.

But here are the meals I planned on cooking this week and now have almost all the food for:

• Grilled steak with cherry tomatoes & scallions
• Gemelli pasta with goat cheese & arugula
• Pork chops with cucumber & dill salad

Oh I'm getting hungry just looking at those photos...

Except now I won't be home to cook tonight and now it looks like I won't be cooking tomorrow, Thursday OR Friday. I hope all that food doesn't go to waste (especially based on how much it all cost!!!).

Anyway--Today I'm pretty much on plan, though I haven't had an opportunity to take a walk since the weather's been crummy.

Breakfast: Cereal & milk
Lunch: 1/2 tuna sandwich from yesterday, carrots, cherries, some tortillas
Snack: A few animal crackers may have crossed my path
Dinner: TBD...I'm thinking pizza with lots of veggies

Mondays should be outlawed

Especially Mondays after three-and a half-day weekends. I feel like lead right now.

It was totally worth it though :) A great 4th of July weekend with lots of walking, lots of shopping, lots of good friends, and lots of good food. Oh--and far too much alcohol. At least Saturday night. I must have had a whole bottle of wine by myself with friends. That may not bode well for tonight's weigh in.

However, I look at the picture that I posted on Friday of my fabulously slimmer figure and I smile, because I know despite some downs, this journey is mostly ups and it's working to my advantage-however slowly.

I have been holding off on clothes shopping for two reasons--one being lack of funds, two being the desire to hold out for smaller sizes & to use it to reward myself for my 10% progress. But this weekend, I couldn't wait any longer. Even though I haven't hit my 10%, I couldn't resist going shopping.

My first two purchases were at Target. I got a dress I've been eying for a while and I wanted to wear it in the city on the 4th. It was an adorable summer dress & with a wide bronze woven belt, it looked fabulous on me.

And at first there was only one left in a size too large, but I wanted it bad enough that I was thinking of taking it home & just temporarily altering it. But then I found a smaller size and I was so excited.


I also picked up a pair of really cute berry colored shorts.

I got them in a size that fit well & looked really good. But after wearing them all day on Saturday, they must have stretched because they are suddenly really big on me & I have to pull the drawstring tight for them to not ride really low. I probably won't bother getting them in a smaller size, but it was kind of cool that I am even having this issue.

The best part of the whole weekend was when my friend and I hit up the outlets up in the Poconos. My whole saving money thing went out the window & I got a ton of new shirts---and the best part was I was fitting into the smaller sizes! In a regular (not plus sized) store!!

In the Ann Taylor outlet, I tried on a bunch of skirts which looked great--all in a smaller size than I usually can wear & they weren't even tight! I couldn't decide on the skirts & ended up only buying a top & a dress from them (the dress looks awesome! and even though was more expensive, is multi-functional). I can't find a photo, but it's very flattering.

The other big purchase was at Calvin Klein. I've never gone into a CK store, I've never had the desire, I've never even thought of trying their clothes. $120 later, I walked out with a full bag from Calvin Klein. They don't go up to extra large, but all the large tops I got fit perfectly fine and they really looked good.

I even tried on some bikinis. And although i didn't get any, they didn't look as hideous as I thought they might. I'm not quite there yet, but on my way! :)

So even though it was a financial nightmare, my trip was quite a success. And now I'm more determined than ever to keep up the exercise to look good in my new outfits and to continue having these "amazing shopping" moments. I went for an invigorating 1 hr walk last night to kick that off.

Plus I cooked dinner for my friends last night & was a cooking genius! Especially with a recipe from the Hungry Girl Cookbook for these chocolate brownie muffins that were obscenely easy & soooooo yummy!!!! Paired them with some fruit & fat free cool whip & VOILA! Instant domestic goddess :)

Until next time!