Exciting News!

Today, my mom who has been recommitted to Weight Watchers for just over a year hit goal! I am so excited for her :) This time around she's lost around 25 pounds! I'm so proud of her and happy for her!

Me on the other hand....struggling still a bit. Last week my anticipated STS turned into a 0.4 gain...and I'm still hovering in this region so this week will probably not be a loss again. I did however just realize that WW prefers that you have a BMI of 20 (many sources say 18.5 is fine) so I can only go as low as 109. I'm only 4 lbs away so I'm not going to stress about how qucikly I get there. I'll probably discuss my best weight with my doctor when I see her in Aug.

My challenge for this week: Anniversary party. I'm throwing a party for my parents 25th Anniversary. I know I'm in charge so really I should have all WW friendly food. But since we are having 30+ people I just didn't feel like making ONLY WW food was going to work. I am making WW guacamole, hummus and having lots of veggies and fruit. I'm also making a light version of a taco dip, it's a family favourite and no one misses the sour cream or the cream cheese.

Here's our recipe:
1 container cottage cheese
1 packet of taco seasoning
chopped lettuce and tomato
shredded light cheddar

Blend the cottage cheese with the taco mix and top with veggies and cheese. Very low pts if you dip veggies or baked chips.

So hopefully I wil be too busy hosting to munch on the spinach dip, cheese ball or other unhealthy treats and won't taste too much when I'm cooking.

Hope you have a great Canada Day everyone!!

Updates and Ice Cream!

Admittedly, I have been slacking at updating this blog in the last few weeks. My weigh in is tomorrow so let me get you up to speed:
- Two weeks ago I had a pretty exciting loss of 1.8
- Last week I gained 0.6 for a two week loss of 1.2...not too bad
- I am on track this week to STS...so that's not great but it isn't horrible either
- Tracking is not perfect...but it's not totally off the table either and for the time being, that's fine with me. I'm just doing my best I can while still living my life
- In terms of upcomming challenges, I'm heading home both of the next two weekends - this weekend for a belated father's day and next weekend to throw my parent's a 25th anniversary party! So should be fun although maybe tough at times - I'll have to make sure I boost up the exercise these next two weeks.

Ok on to the fun stuff... I was recently taught that you can very easily make your own ice cream! Jeff and I were skeptical so we decided to try it out - and it worked well :) And I'm told it works with any kind of milk/juice making it pretty point friendly.

Here's how we did it:

Mix the ingredients in a small ziploc bag:
1 cup of skim milk
2 tbsps of sugar or sweetener
1/2 tsp of vanilla
*this is for 2 servings 1/2 c. servings, you can easily half it to just make one

Fill a large ziploc bag with ice and 5 tbps of salt (table salt works fine), then add the small ziploc bag and shake, shake shake! It takes about 15 minutes so you'll get some exercise!Note the oven mits...it gets super cold so you'll need something to protect your hands. It tatsed great! It's not the consictency of ice cream, since it's made with mik it's icier but still really good, I'd definatly like to try it with other ingridients...we were thinking maybe chocolate milk next time.

That's it for now, I'll update soon with this weeks weigh in and maybe some menus :)

Happy Wednesday!

Weekend Update

Down 0.4 this morning! Which is soo slow and painful but it's the right direction. I guess even if I maintain for a while that wouldn't be the worst thing I could do. But ideally I want to keep losing!

I know what I need to do....I NEED to exercise more. But everyone says you need to find what you love or you won't stick to it. And that is completely true for me! I'm not a gym person - way too intimidated! I started the 30 day shred and C25K but I struggle to keep them up.

I love to walk and I walk as many places as possible so it isn't like I don't get any exercise but I need to get more intense cardio and some strength training.

So I'm throwing it out there - help me! What do you do for exercise?

ALSO I am going to give myself a tracking challenge. I used to be so good at tracking and now I am doing it a few days a week and then not doing it the rest. So I'm challenging myself to track everyday ALL week. I challenge YOU too....let me know how it goes and I'll update next week :)

This Week's Update

Well as you may have read I have been in a bit of a slump lately and have seen a plateau. Let me tell you, it is still going strong. Last week I was up the 0.2 which I had been down the week before...hence, plateau. However, I refuse to be discouraged and here is why:

1) I was home this weekend and despite a lack of tracking and a couple pieces of a fantastic coffee cake from the bakery around the corner (no, not in the same day) I feel like I made good decisions. I know I eat healthy but it just feels like making good decisions are ingrained in me now...well most of the time :)

2) I cleaned up my life today! Cleaned out my closet and threw out some old clothes to make room for the new things I bought. Despite spending more than I intended on my weekend shopping trip, it was so nice to get some new clothes I'm exited about wearing (including size FOUR jeans!!) I also cleaned out my kitchen cupboard and found I have a ton of granola bars and ww 1 pt bars. Why is this a good thing? Because it means I am eating them sparingly. I'm happy to have them because I don't want to cut them out entirely - they are just too handy when I'm running out the door for school some days - but knowing that I move through slowly means I'm not relying on them for most of my sustinance, which I think is a pretty good thing.

3) On that note I had an amazing shopping trip today at the grocery store. You know those days where you put all your stuff on the checkout counter and think "damn, look at all this wonderful, healthy food"? And then beam with pride? It was one of those. Or maybe that's just me...

4) Finally, I was at church today and as I only get there every couple months when I'm home visiting, I get so many compliments on how much weight I've lost. Which is always motivating, despite being a little bit concerning (if you think I'm so thin now, how fat was I before??).

Alright, I ramble but the long and the short of it is I'm here and I am determined to not let a few weeks of (minor, really) set back knock me off track.

Hopefully I can try some new recipes this week and post for you - pictures included, I promise :)

Have a great week xo

P.S. Check out Ashley's Blog and the contest she's running!

Life Updates

Alright I didn't post after WI this week so here's the update: Thursday I was down 0.2. Which was fine considering it was the week after the long weekend. Truthfully, I have to confess that I am really struggling with the start of summer. I am consistently doing poorly on Thurs, Fri and Sat - not tracking or even really trying. Then I pull it together the rest of the week and control the damage. It could be worse but I don't think it's a very good way to treat my body and I also know if I tried harder all week I would see better results.

Summer is doubly hard because there is so much social stuff going on and so many opportunities to go out and eat and drink. But for me this difficulty is compacted by the stress of seeing everyone else in summer clothes. You think it would be motivating but mostly it's just the opposite.

I think it's because I don't feel 114 lbs. I still feel like 140. I don't think I look any different or can dress any differently. It's frustrating. I look at the number and think how much lower could I possibly go? But I still feel like I look as though I have another 30 lbs or more left.

I haven't been formally exercising either. I've done a ton of walking and play softball twice a week but I know I should kick it into high gear.

I realize I am not struggling with anything special and it's hard for lots of people - I just wish it was easier! lol

Alright - on a positive note I am far from giving up and have had a good day so far and planned out the rest. Here's today's menu:

1/2c Kashi Go Lean
1c mixed berries
1/2c skim milk

1 whole grain wrap with:
1/2c chick peas
15g skim mozzarealla
chopped peppers, carrots and mushrooms

1 pt of 70% dark chocolate

1egg + 1 white omlette
1 oz goat cheese
sauteed mushrooms, onions and peppers

1 piece whole grain bread with 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp vinegar

hopefully some exercise and lots of water!!

Hope you are all doing better than me and enjoying the beautiful weather coming our way!!

Pampered Chef!

Just wanted to let you know about a contest Amy is running over at Amy's Quest To Skinny! She'd giving away a pampered chef cook book and some yummy looking spices. I have to say I LOVE Pampered Chef so I am pretty excited about her give away, make sure to check it out :)

That's it for today, WI tomorrow, I'll post further about my week then :)

WI!

Weighed in this morning and I was down 1.4 :) Of which only 0.6 of it was "real" since a lot of my weight last week was water...but on the books -1.4 so wheeeeee!

I am suffering a bit in the motivation department. There's a lot going on with school starting and meeting new people and being out and thus I have been slacking a bit on writing things down (although I've still been tracking in my head). And since its the start of a new week I did track today :) I'll do my best to keep it up!

I know your sick of hearing this but I tried a great recipe tonight and didn't take pictures! HAHA when will I learn? I'm too intent on eating my dinner.

Well it wasn't rocket science but I adapted it from a recipe in my tracker and it was simple and yummy!

Vegetarian Soft Tacos

1/2 an onion
1/2 cup of black beans, rinsed well
taco sauce or salsa to taste (1-3 tbsp)
1/4 cup cooked brown rice
2 small tortillas
1/2 cup diced tomato
lime juice
roasted & salted pumpkin seeds, lettuce, cheddar and sour cream to top as desired

Chop tomato and mix with some lime juice, cover and set aside. Chop and fry the onion in a bit of oil. Add the black beans and warm. Add the taco sauce, mash about half the black beans with a fork and continue to warm for 5 min. Mix in brown rice. Spread 1/2 the mix on a tortilla and top with some tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, lettuce, cheddar and sour cream.

The pumpkin seed addition was something I learned at a cooking class and love! Adds really nice texture and flavour.

Since it's made of mostly ingredients I typically keep on hand, I think I will keep this one in my rotation. (And possibly convince the meatatarian boyfriend to try it...;)

Almost the long weekend! Enjoy!