Pepper Review

I have failed you AGAIN on the picture taking. It doesn't help that people think it's totally weird to take pictures of my food. Haha but I also just usually completely forget. So this is a picture from the site where I found the recipe, which was adapted from Homemade in a Hurry by Andrew Schloss. I modified the recipe and just used garlic in place of the spices and feta in place of the goat cheese. It was pretty straight forward and super delishious. I only used 2 oz of feta to make them 5 pts each. It may have even been less because it made too much stuffing!

Today has been a very relaxing "me" day. Went to the spa and got a pedicure, ran some errands and chilled out watching some tv. Then I had dinner with my dad and brother (macaroni and cheese...not great but I measured it, had tons of water and a salad with it and stayed OP today otherwise...besides it was delish!) then watched a movie with my dad.

That's about it. Hope you're having a nice weekend and enjoying the beautiful weather!!

WI and Contest!

Weighed in on Friday again because I wasn't by my scale yesterday. Down 0.4. A little discouraging because I'm losing so slow but I can't complain I guess after the Monday I had! Now I'm finally all done school for this term :) Went for a loooong walk today in the beautiful weather. Now I have four days to relax and pack for my trip on Tuesday!

Tonight I'm making couscous, chickpea and feta stuffed peppers for dinner. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures and post a review. I'm pretty excited about them :) Yum!

Also just quickly wanted to tell you about Amy's Tommy Europe contest! It's very cool so check it out!

Have a great weekend!

Not doing so hot!

Where do the 18 points go? I had been doing okay this week, tracking everything and making pretty good choices. I was using about 5 WPs a day which was okay (I usually use them all otherwise I would be starving alll the time) but then I fell off track a little. Today was pretty bad. I even planned my day in my tracker but didn't stick to it. I was studying for my last exam today so that didn't help but that wasn't even the biggest problem. Normal habits that are second nature to me (like alwyas drinking water) I didn't even do. And I kept justifying the food somehow.... I keep telling myself I'm happy the way I am so I can eat what I want. Here's what's wrong with that:

• I am *not* yet happy with myself....I'm not finished with this journey and going bathing suit shopping for my trip on the weekend confirmed this!
• Even if I was happy with myself just as I am now and didn't want to lose any more weight, I still don't want to fill my body with snacks instead of nutritious meals
  

Long story short I'm out of WPs until Thursday...only two days. I think I can do it. I'm tracking diligently this week to try and get back on track and I'm going to try and get some exercise in too (although all the rain just makes me want to crawl into bed!)

Anywho, just posting this to be accountable for my not so stellar day. The good news is I stopped eating after a small dinner and don't intend to start again tonight. So at least I have limited the damage. I guess you might call that a NSV.

Monday is almost over! Good night :)

Weigh In!

Another week down. I couldn't WI yesterday because I wasn't by a scale so I weighed this morning and I stayed the same. Which is just dandy :) Better than I expected after Easter and not tracking at all this week. So that is a great way to kick off my new week AND my fresh new 12 week tracker, my last one was full! So I have a new start.

I really need to do very well this week because I'm going on vacation at the end of April to Myrtle Beach :) So I know I won't do super well that week, I want to enjoy my vacation!! I'll do my best but I want to give myself a good start going in. My original goal was to be at 115 when I came back from Myrtle Beach. With the STS I am currently 115.8. Which means I need to lose .8 next week and then maintain while I'm in Myrtle Beach. I think it's doable but I'm not going to beat myself up if it doesn't work out. I'll just get right back to it when I get back!

Other than that I have been enjoying a bit of a break and upping my exercise as I promised myself I would. The beautiful weather makes that sooo much easier!

Today's Menu Plan (haven't done this in a while)

B: Cheerios with 6 almonds and skim milk
L: Leftover whole wheat pasta made in to pasta salad - tossed with sweet peppers, cucumbers, light feta and oil and balsamic, topped with a few sun dried tomatoes.
D: Pita pizza with sauted veggies, goat cheese and balsamic reduction
S: Maybe some frozen yogurt...

Have a great weekend!

Easter Review

It's been a pretty good Easter weekend. Yesterday was a nice time with family. Here's my review of the menu I posted:

Spinach Dip - I've had this before but it was really good as always. It better the next day so I made it on Saturday.

I also added Stuffed Mushrooms as an app. I didn't calculate calories but they don't have much in them so they couldn't be very high and they were a hit! I'm thinking they might even be zerio points for one... I will run them through the Spark People recipe calculator and update when I have a sec.
*edit - 2 mushrooms for 1 pt :) very good choice as an appetizer

Candied Sweet Potatoes - They were no sweet potato supreme but they were very good and easy to do! Had a nice flavour without being rich. I would make these again on any night.

Green Beans - Simple but so good. Cooking anything in broth adds so much flavour.

I didn't make the Quinoa because I made a test run Friday night and it was really good but we didn't really have room on the stove to make it yesterday lol But it was delish, just onions and garlic, then quinoa cooked in broth with some chopped spinach added at the end.

Suprisingly I did FAR better at eating yesterday than today. Today, I have eaten through a substantial amount of chocolate. So I'm trying to focus on water and get back on plan tomorrow. It still could well mean a gain on Thursday but it's one week, I will deal with it and move on :) Might need to go back to strict tracking for next week just to get back on track. But it's all good. Happy new week and getting back on track if your in the same boat (I have been reading that many people are :)

Easter Dinner Makeover

So Easter Dinner is usually at my house...well my parents house, but I still call it home :) Anyway, my mom and I for the last few years have had the same stand by Eater dinner. And let me tell you it isn't pretty! We've both been on WW to some degree for the past 6 years (my mom even a bit longer) but we've never bothered to worry about Easter. There's always a million reasons to make unhealthy food....people like it, it's easy, it's a holiday...etc etc etc but this year we decided enough is enough so now I'm going to share with you our Easter Dinner Makeover!

Appetizer:
My all time favorite appetizer in the spring or summer is something my aunt taught me how to make. You take a pizza crust warm it up, add some cream cheese mixed with ranch dressing and top with loads of veggies (peppers, onions, broccoli...) It's amazing but hard for me to resist! So this year we chose Weight Watchers 1 pt Spinach Dip (from the 12 week journal) with lots of veggies and wheat thins and also some fresh pineapple.

Protein:
Alright meat isn't a big one for me as a vegetarian but it's pretty important for my family and also my boyfriend :P Instead of ham we chose pork tenderloin. It's just as easy to cook and has less salt than the ham we usually buy.
I'm also going to make some quinoa with spinach cooked in vegetable broth for me and I'll share with anyone who is interested :)

Potatoes:
Possibly one of my favourite foods of all time is Schwarties Hashbrowns from the Best of Bridge. What's not to like? It's hashbrowns mixed with butter, mushroom soup, sour cream and cheddar cheese. They are amazing. The biggest problem is having a whole bunch left over that I just can't resist for the next few days! So this year we're going with garlic mashed - just your standard mashed potatoes with some garlic, low fat sour cream and skim milk. Not as exciting but I think they will be pretty good too!

Veggies:
Another favourite from best of bridge is Sweet Potato Supreme - mashed sweet potatoes covered in sauce made of brown sugar and butter and topped with pecans. I might have even made this one again and tried to cut down the sauce a bit but I found a recipe for Candied Sweet Potatoes on the Weight Watcher site and decided to give that one a go instead. I'll post reviews next week and hopefully pictures if I remember!

When I found the sweet potaote recipe, I also came across this recipe for green beans that I thought we should try. We've bought pine nuts instead of almonds for something a little different!

Dessert:
Well last year we started with the best intentions. We made angel food cake and proceeded to cover it in real cream we whipped outselves and mixed with chocolate pieces. It was good but not the best way to end a big dinner (tooo heavy) and I didn't feel so great afterward. This year we're going back to basics and having angel food cake again but with some frozen yogurt and fresh strawberries.

I'm also doing a little bit of baking. My dad's mom was a huge baker and she passed away 7 years ago. So I always try and make one of her recipes during the holidays. So hopefully I can keep the tasting under control!!

Well this was a long post! I'm pretty excited about dinner but it also means a lot of work in the kitchen! I know I still won't be perfect this weekend and I'm even planning for a few treats (Peanut buter egss!!) but I'm hoping to keep portions in check and really watch the mindless snacking.

I hope everyone enjoys whatever they are up to this weekend, even if it's just enjoying the extra day off. If you are having an Easter dinner I hope you enjoy it and don't worry too much about the food! If you don't do as well as you'd hoped just move on and get right back to it first think Monday morning. The beautiful weather is coming back so it's the perfect opportunity to get outside and enjoy the weather!

Happy Easter!

Long Weekend Weigh In

Is it Thursday already?

So my experiment went pretty well. I stressed a little less about food this week which I think was really good. That being said, I could have made better choices. I don't have much food in my apartment because I'm heading home for a week! So that made life a little difficult. None the less, I managed to lose 0.6 so I'm not complaining! Still no gains since 2008 - slow and steady is just fine with me!

I pretty excited and confident about this week coming up. Being home can be a bit of a challenge but it also gives me more opportunity to cook and try new things which is always fun. Plus the weather is getting nicer and I have less work so I have no excuse not to up my exercise!

Happy Long Weekend!

WI and general thoughts

Alrighty another weigh in come and gone. This week I was down 0.2. A small amount but I'm still avoiding gaining so I'll take it.

After doing some thinking and also lots of reading of the WW message boards and lots of wonderful blogs, I've been trying to be a little less obsessed with food and so the small loss could be a factor of that. While I want to be healthy and committed to the program I started to feel a little out of control, like the program was consuming my life. Like last week, my mom happened to be in town and asked if I wanted to get some dinner. My first reaction was to be worried about it because I hadn't planned for it and didn't have many points left.

When I did WW the first time I only tracked in my head, never on paper. And I refused to count milk or fruit because I felt like I should be entitled to them. And you know what - I still lost 20 lbs. Maybe it was slower than some people but I got there.

And now since I only have 7 or so pounds left anyway I feel like I shouldn't rush at the cost of being compulsive. I didn't track the last two days but I started again today. I don't want to stop tracking but I'm glad I feel okay about having gone those two days without tracking (on paper that is). Because there was a time where I wouldn't feel I could go to bed without writing it all down.

I'm not knocking what anyone else is doing. I guess my point of all this is you need to find what works for you. But it's worth taking a second to think about it, and not just following what is working for other people. Weighing and measuring and tracking is really important and I plan on keeping it up. But it isn't worth beating myself up over on the days that I can't.

This is a lifestyle....and I can't live my whole life so obsessed. So I'm going to try and be more relaxed for the next little while and if it goes horribly wrong with the scale then I'll reevaluate. I'm actually hoping focusing more on other things and taking the pressure off might have really good results.

I'll keep you posted :)