Hey Rain…I HATE YOU!

So it’s cold and rainy and windy in the Nations Capital…it’s been raining for a couple of days now and it just doesn’t make for a happy Scale Warfare! The last two days, I’ve stayed within my points (with a few flex points required) but haven’t been making the best choices on how to spend my points. French Fries from Wendy’s; I’m looking directly at you for costing me 12 points! Today has been much better; I’m getting in my fruits, veggies and dairy. It’s amazing how far your points can go if you use them on the “right” things!

Tonight I am making another recipe off of EatBetterAmerica.com, the Lasagna! I will make sure to take pictures of the process and include the recipe in tomorrows posting. I’ve modified it even more than they did on the website, so a serving is 6 points (a 13x9 pan will produce 8 servings, so they are a really good size!)

The rest of this post, completely stream of consciousness lol.

Today was the semi annual visit to the dentist, no cavities, yay! Actually I’ve only had one cavity in my life. I was 8 and it’s a tooth that I wound up losing, so I suppose technically I have no cavities. I’m trying to be better about flossing everyday after hearing a bunch from Dr. Oz about how important flossing is for your over all health. I’m still not 100% but at least 4 or 5 times a week I’m getting my floss on.

Walking on the treadmill, well, I haven’t done it in a few days. Tuesday night we had friends over, so it was a late night. Last night, I was just plain old lazy. Since I had the fries at lunch time, I had a fairly small dinner of leftovers, and between the rain and the day off for the holiday, I was just blah.

I am really excited for tomorrow night. I’m getting together with a few of my girlfriends (and maybe a couple of those girlfriends are named WINE) to pick out a picture for Sunday’s Engagement Pictures!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

“Healthified” Chicken Tortilla Casserole

Bella was kind enough to send this recipe my way from EatBetterAmerica. I modified it a bit to fit our tastes and reduce the fat a little, so the below recipe is my own version of the dish. The recipe turned out really well. It tastes almost exactly like Lean Cuisines Chicken Enchilada Suiza entrée! Seriously, I’m wondering if this is what they use in that entrée?

Ingredients

1 Can 98% Fat Free Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Can Rotel-Drained
1 8oz Container Fat Free Sour Cream
1/4 Cup Skim Milk
1 1/2 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Cumin Powder
2 baked chicken breasts shredded (remove skin)
8 Yellow Corn Tortillas cut into bite size pieces
1 medium green bell pepper chopped
1 1/2 cups reduced fat mexican cheese blend
1 Can Corn-Drained


Preheat oven to 350; Spray a 13x9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix soup, rotel, sour cream, milk, chili powder and cumin until blended.

Stir in chicken, tortillas, bell pepper and corn.

Stir in 1 cup of cheese. Mix well

Spoon and spread mixture into baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.

Uncover and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese over casserole.

Bake uncovered 5-10 minutes longer until cheese is melted.

Let stand 5 minutes.

Makes 8 servings

5 WW Points per serving

Number of Servings: 8

Calories 269 Fat 5.8 Fiber 3

Fireman thought this was good, I agreed. My feeling is that this needs more seasoning than the recipe calls for, as it’s a big bland. I also would probably cut the chicken differently than I did (I chopped it fairly finely) so the chicken just blended in.

Today is also Healthy You Challenge check in day. I’ve been walking everyday (ok I didn’t Thursday or Friday) and am on target to reach my steps goal for this week of averaging greater than 10,000 steps per day. Thursday and Friday I was seriously lazy besides walking the dog. I just wasn’t feeling the exercise. Saturday I did make up for it though!

I’m now on my fourth week of being back on track. Seriously, wow, the weeks have flown by. This is the longest I’ve been back on track since my marathon from January-mid June! I just need to keep up the momentum now folks!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Great Weekend & Weigh In

Down 1.0 lbs

I’ll start with the Weigh In. I’m sort of disappointed, but a loss is a loss. I wish I were one of those people who could knock out 2+ lb losses each week, but I’m just not. I have small ones, and then a random big one. I had a pretty high points day on Saturday, prior to that the scale hadn’t moved at all and then today BAM down a pound. Perhaps there is something to the idea of tricking your body by having one higher points day a week?? This brings me to 5.6 lbs down for the Countdown to Christmas Challenge hosted by Bella. My goal is 18, which would get me back to 265, my all time low for this year. I’m wondering if I can really do another 12.4 lbs in the next 6.5 weeks. Weeks that I lose more than a pound and a half are rare. I’m going to keep working at it though!

Saturday I headed out to find a few outfit options for the engagement pictures that we are having taken next weekend. I stupidly decided to wear 4” boots to shop in and holy shit batman, my feet were killing me. I walked all over the place. Good news is I found three pairs of jeans (super dark wash, you know, cause that makes you look slimmer lol) and 5 tops. I was in real need of new jeans. I haven’t bought any new ones since I started this journey at 305, and have been getting tired of being called saggy ass.

After shopping on Saturday I went out with a couple of girlfriends and we did a practice 5k walk. We finished in about 55 minutes. I’m not too entirely worried now about being the slow one when we walk. I realized that everyone else’s legs are way shorter than mine, so while I felt like I was walking briskly, they felt like they were speed walking! Yay for long legs!

Sunday the weather was AMAZING in the DC area. We went out and ran some errands in the morning and then headed to Great Falls to take a hike. It was nuts trying to get into the park, and we were told by a few people that the parking lot was full so to not even bother. We stopped at Scotts Run instead. We did about 1.2 miles. There was one hill that I thought was going to kill me, but I made it to the top…only stopping twice.

I’ve neglected my blog reading this weekend, so I am going to try to get caught up tonight. Can’t wait to see how everyone is doing!

Tomorrow I’ll post the pictures and recipe for “Healthified” Tortilla Chicken Casserole!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Walking Wednesdays!

My goal last week, and the week before was to get to 58,000 steps or 29 miles (includes daily life activities and walking for exercise) this week. Guess what? I blew that goal out of the water!

Wednesday 10/28: 11,135
Thursday 10/29: 10,011
Friday 10/30: 10,994
Saturday 10/31 (Day off from walking): 7,231
Sunday 11/1: 9,076 (only walked 30 minutes on the treadmill)
Monday 11/2: 11,481
Tuesday 11/3: 10,896

Total: 70,824
Average Per Day: 10,227.71
Steps to Miles (Average 2,000 steps per mile): 35.41 miles for the week!

I think reaching this goal has a lot to do with changing the amount of time that I’m walking on the treadmill from 30 to 40 minutes, and doing that 6 days a week. The goal for next Wednesdays update is to average 10,000 steps a day again and to hit 35 miles again. I want to stay at this level consistently for a few weeks before I try to up the stakes. The reality is, there are going to be weeks when I can only walk 4 or 5 days instead of 6.

Yesterday I stayed right at my points target of 33 points and just at my calorie limit for the day. Today I’m going to wind up eating pretty much the exact same things that I ate yesterday because I’m working at getting better at eating leftovers at dinner, instead of throwing away food. I love a casserole or a soup/chili, but dinner leftovers I’m horrible at eating. Bella sent me a great link to some recipes on EatBetterAmerica.com and I added the ingredients to my grocery list for this weekend. I will do my best to take pictures for the blog. I am going to try the Tortilla Chicken Casserole and the Lasagna! I’m going to modify them a little more to make them just a touch more point and calorie friendly, even though they are already exceptionally healthier than their full calorie/fat counterparts!

Hope everyone enjoys their Wednesday! Tonight is walking on the treadmill again. I really need to work on getting my walking mile under what it is now (3.1 mph). On Sunday I upped the speed from 3.0 to 3.1, so I think I’ll stick to 3.1 for the rest of this week and up it to 3.2 next Sunday. I know that probably sounds slow to a lot of people, but I’m working on doing things gradually!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

PS-Completely non-weight loss blog related, but I am OBSESSED with changing/updating things on our wedding registry. It’s like an addiction. I check ours, I check my friends, I check random people that I know are getting married (co-workers, friends of friends, etc.) I need to cut it out. Starting today, I’m not allowed to look at the blasted things for 5 days! The good thing is, I know I’m not the only one that does it  My friend that’s getting married in May does the exact same thing, friend that got married two weeks ago does it. Ahhh to be not alone in my psychosis is nice lol.

Points VS. Calories

As of yesterday I had two solid weeks worth of data where I counted both points and calories. Honestly, I don’t think one is better than the other. There were days when I was 4-5 below my points count, but I was at the top of my calorie range. There were days that I was 4-5 points above my calorie range, but was still within my calorie range. What does it all come down to? Fat and Fiber, but mostly fiber. When I was low on my points, but at the high end of my calorie range, I had significantly more fiber that day. If I was high on both points and calories, I had a lower amount of fiber. This information might be a bit boring, so I apologize in advance. It just helps me to see it out in print and think about how I should be tweaking what I am doing.

Here is the breakdown for the last two weeks. Please note that I was set at 34 points for each of these two weeks and that the fiber counts are lower than what I actually ate since I didn’t count calories or points for the 0 point veggies:

Yeah, Halloween sort of sticks out like a sore thumb. Viewing the data this way is really helping me to see where I have strengths and weaknesses. I love Weight Watchers; it’ll always be like that boy that you always check back on that you had a crush on. It’s a great program. Will I continue to count both calories and points? At least for the time being. I think eventually though, I’ll probably drop back to just one or the other. My plan is to count both at least through the end of the year. As I’ve said before, it’s the same action but a different motion. Either way you’re counting something, a point just includes more information than just a calorie. None of the above information takes into account my activity points that I would earn on Weight Watchers or how many calories I burn through out the day from daily life and from exercising.

What else I’ve noticed is that there are days that I wake up really hungry and days that I’m fairly hungry through out the day. I’m eating the right things, plenty of fruits and veggies and lean proteins along with whole grains. I’ve decided to up my calorie limit a bit to a point that should be equal to about a 2 lbs loss per week instead of what I’ve had it set at, which was 2.5 lbs per week. I’ve been exercising over my calorie target (sparkpeople sets a calories burned through exercise each week goal) and I think that I just need more calories. It’s not a substantial number, only about a 70 calorie increase on the top a day. Hopefully those extra calories will help me not feel as hungry AND help me from running off the deep end and eating something really bad :D My food for the next two days fall at exactly 33 points, which is where I should be with Weight Watchers.

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Wow Ya’ll are Awesome! Weekend Recap and Monday Weigh In!

Wanted to say thank you to everyone who commented or emailed about my last post. You really are such an amazingly supportive group of people. I honestly don’t think I’d be doing as well on my journey with out your support and comments!

Monday Weigh In Results-Down 1.6! That means I’m 4.6 into my 18 lb goal for Bella’s Countdown to Christmas Challenge. There are about 7 weeks left in the challenge, which means I have 7 weeks to lose another 13.4 lbs. That’s a pretty lofty goal for me. I’m a fairly slow loser, even when I am doing everything right. I’m going to push for it no matter how daunting the task might seem. That will get me back to my lowest for the year and let me end 2009 a total of about 41 lbs down! I’m happy with that. Sure it could have been more, but at the rate I was going in 2008, it could have been 41 lbs in the other direction.

Halloween; Wow I ate candy (8 pieces) and wow I got sick afterwards. We probably had 75 kids come through our door. I actually wound up running out of candy! Had I not eaten those 8 pieces, I would have been able to get 4 more kids candy! Oh well, I wrote it down. I did go over my calorie goals for the day, fairly significantly, but I still had a deficit of consumed vs. burned, so I felt ok about it. I didn’t feel ok about getting such an upset stomach though, that was seriously not fun.

Besides that, this weekend was pretty relaxing. Saturday I had lunch with my Dad. He hadn’t had breakfast yet so wanted to go to IHOP. I had the 2 x 2 x 2 and got 2 pancakes, 2 slices of bacon and 2 eggs. I used Sugar Free Syrup. The entire meal set me back 462 calories or 11 points. A little more than I usually have for lunch, but still not too shabby for such a sugar laden establishment.

I took Saturday off from walking on the treadmill. One day off in 7 seems awesome in my book. I got back on it again yesterday. Yesterday was supposed to be a walk outside with one of the girls that I’m doing the Turkey Trot 5k with on Thanksgiving, but it was 45 degrees and raining, so I vetoed the walk. I don’t do cold AND wet. YUCK.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Thanks again for all of the awesome comments and emails after the last post; they are more appreciated than I could ever put into words!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Happy Thursday

Wow this can get boring when things are going well. Walked for 40 miles (update...40 MINUTES not miles lol) on the treadmill last night, ate exactly what I had planned in my food journal, and got a full nights sleep. Life is good. I wish it was always this easy!

Tonight’s plans? Rinse and repeat. I’ll walk on the treadmill for 40 minutes (I’ve upped it 10 minutes this week, yay!) I’ll eat the dinner that I have planned. I’ll do what I am trying to turn into a lifestyle. We’re working on the second good week of being on track and it really does feel good. I wish I could bottle this feeling and bottle this mentality so that I can use it when a cupcake (ok more than A cupcake….4 cupcakes) comes my way and threatens to break me when I’m not feeling this strong.

Below is a rant, it’s something that has been on my mind for a while now and I just want to get it off my chest:

I read a lot of weight loss blogs, and there is a theme going on with a very small number of them. Hopefully I won’t offend anyone with my opinion on this common theme. The theme? You’re not doing it right unless you’re doing it 100% of the right way, 100% of the time, no excuses. EVER.

The reality, sure I’d love to be on plan 100% of the time. I’d love to drop all of my weight in 8 months and feel like I never have to look back. Unfortunately, I’m flawed. This is a life long journey for me. It’s going to take me as long as it takes me. Am I bad because I don’t have the same ability to run on all 8 weight loss cylinders 24/7 everyday of the year? Maybe it’s guilt, but reading some of the things on a few of the blogs (I’m not going to name names, I’d get weight loss blog bullied if I did), they make me feel like I’m a failure.

I know I’m not a failure. I’m down 25 lbs so far this year. Sure if I was on plan everyday and never made any mistakes, I’d be down twice that. I go in spurts it seems. Months on plan, months off of plan. My goal is just to figure out how to do this for the rest of my life. If it takes me 5 years to reach my goal, I’ll keep putting along, but I will get there.

Hopefully that wasn’t too “Debbie Downer”, but it’s just something I wanted to mention. Now back to my regularly scheduled perkiness and my next liter of water!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare