Funny

So I get on the scale this morning and I look down and it says 125.0. Seriously. 125.0. Maybe I also won the lottery? No, no such luck. Way to eff with a womans mind scale. At o’dark early, it took me a second to decide that either I needed a new freaking scale (AGAIN) or the last oh, 20 years of my 30 years on this planet were a dream, and I’ve always been way under goal weight. Apparently when I was cleaning the bathroom, I accidentally changed the scale from pounds to kilograms. To make it even more fun, I changed it to Stones without realizing it before I finally got to pounds.

Not really much else to report today. Food has been on plan and I’ve been walking a bit more.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Healthy You Challenge Tuesday and New Recipe

This weeks report for the Healthy You Challenge isn’t entirely great. I haven’t been walking as much as I should be. I need to focus on getting back on the treadmill this week, especially since the Turkey Trot 5k is next week! Besides that, exercise has really been walking the dog and doing everyday life activities have been it. Food has been good though. Not always making the best choices, but I have been staying within my points allowance. This week I’m refocusing on making better food decisions AND staying within my point allowance!

This recipe comes from EatBetterAmerica.com a site that Bella turned me onto. It’s great! They take everyday meals and “Healify” them. I tend to modify them a bit more to suit our tastes and to reduce the point’s value if I can!

This maybe is my favorite dish so far, it’s so freaking good! It’s supposed to make 6 servings (at 7 points each) but it’s so good, that I turned it into 4 servings (at 11 points each). Serve it up with steamed broccoli and you have a very very full meal.

“Healthified” Ham and Potato Casserole

Ingredients
4 Cups cubed (1/2 inch) unpeeled red potatoes (4 med)
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 Cup Chopped Green Bell Pepper (1 Med)
1/4 Cup Chopped Onion
1 1/4 C Fat Free Milk
2 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Reduced Fat Mayo (recipe called for 1/4 cup)
1 Cup Shredded Reduced-Fat Sharp Cheddar (4oz)
2 Cups Cubed Ham (we used ham steaks)
Salt & Pepper to Taste

Instructions
Place potatoes in a saucepan; add enough water to just cover potatoes. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook uncovered for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender.

Drain.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add bell pepper and onion; cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until veggies are tender


In a small bowl, mix milk and flour with wire whisk until well blended.

Stir into veggies in skillet. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat; cook uncovered 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir in mayo, salt, pepper and cheese; stir until cheese is melted


Dice Ham

Mix Ham, Potato and Cheese Mixture.

Pour the above mixture into an ungreased 2-quart casserole (I used a 9x9 pan). Pour milk mixture over ham mixture; stir to mix. Bake uncovered 25 to 30 minutes or until bubble and light golden brown on top.

Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before serving to allow to set.

Makes 6 Servings

Calories 338 Fat 14.4 Fiber 3
WW Points 7

I can’t wait for my lunch today; this is what’s in it! Another thing this recipe made me think about doing was using the Skim Milk, Flour, some Chicken Stock, Light Sour ream and doing maybe a 2% Reduced Fat Mexican Cheese Mix and doing sour cream Enchiladas. I’m going to work on the recipe and put it on the grocery list for next week. This girl loves creamy and cheesy!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Weekend Recap, Weigh In & “Healthified” Lasagna

Lots to cover! Let’s start with the weekend recap. We had the kids this weekend (Fireman has a 10 year old boy and 7 year old girl…they’re great!) so that means we are all over the place. Saturday Fireman took the kids out to play some tennis while I stayed home to watch the VA Tech football game. We won, yay! The game was only on internet feed; whoever thought this was a great idea sucks. I suppose I could hook it up to my TV, but I’m a little lazy, so I just watch it on my laptop. It was nice though because I was able to keep up with the game and get a few things done around the house.

Friday I headed over to one of my girlfriends places so that a couple of friends could help me pick out an outfit for Sunday. Sunday was engagement picture day. Seriously, so much fun! She had us taking off our shoes and walking across rocks, laying in the grass, walking down trails. I really think we are going to get some great pictures out of it. We won’t have them back for a couple of weeks, but my fingers are crossed.

Food this weekend was pretty atrocious. We had pizza Saturday night, while we watched a movie (Kung Fu Panda, cute!) and Sunday we were ravenous before our pictures, so we stopped and had a burger, which I split with Fireman. Although the food choices weren’t the best, I did manage to stay within my points. I ended this week with only two of my weekly points allowance left. I’m going to work on better choices this week!

Onto the Weigh In-

Down 2.2! Seriously? How did that happen? I’ve exercised less this week than the previous couple of weeks, I ate worse (even though it was within my points) and I was a little more stressed than usual (which usually equates to a gain for me.) I’m obviously not going to complain about it! Just goes to show that there are weeks you shouldn’t lose, but you do and there are weeks that you should lose but you don’t. Maybe the MOST frustrating thing about weight loss! Also this means 10.2 lbs to go to reach my Countdown to Christmas goal. Ugh that's so many pounds in such a short time and throw in a major eating holiday. Wow its going to be a close one, that's for sure!

“Healthified” Lasagna-Modified from eatbetteramerica.com

This recipe turned out fantastic. It’s such a great knockoff that if you haven’t had the “real” stuff for a while, it’ll be an amazing replacement! When I first calculated this recipe in Sparkpeople, it came about to 6 points a serving. I just went back and double checked some of the ingredients and the calories for the lasagna noodles were off, drastically. This is actually about 8 points a serving! So this means I really went over my points this week by about 8 

Things I changed: I used more noodles, used ground chicken instead of ground beef, upped the amount of marinara used (the comments on the recipe pointed out that the lasagna is pretty dry if you only use 3 cups of sauce), and I added Salt & Pepper.

Ingredients
1-9 oz Box of Oven Read Lasagna Noodles (I Used Barilla)
1 lb ground chicken breast
2 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
5 Cups Marinara sauce
1 1/2 tsp Dried Basil Leaves
1/8 Tsp Ground Red Pepper
2 Medium Onions-Diced
1 Egg
1-15oz Container Reduced Fat Ricotta Cheese
2 Cups Shredded Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese (8oz)
Salt & Pepper To taste
Directions
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
Spray 13x9 inch baking dish with cooking spray

In a skillet sprayed with cooking spray, sauté the onions until they just start to brown.

Add the ground chicken and garlic to the skillet and brown until the chicken is cooked through.

Stir in the pasta sauce (minus 1/3 cup), ground pepper and 1 tsp basil. Also salt & Pepper to taste.

In a Medium bowl, beat the egg slightly. Stir in the ricotta, 1/2 tsp basil, salt and pepper to taste.

Spread reserved 1/3 cup marinara over the bottom of the casserole dish.

Layer 1/3 of the noodles along the bottom of the casserole dish. Spread 1/3 of the meat sauce, 1/3 of the mozzarella and 1/2 of the cheese mixture over the noodles (in layers.)


Top the first set of layers with the next 1/3 of the noodles, 1/3 of the meat sauce, 1/3 of the mozzarella and the rest of the cheese mixture.

Top the second layer with the rest of the noodles, the rest of the meat sauce and the rest of the mozzarella cheese (cheese on top.)

Spray a large piece of foil with cooking spray, and cover the casserole.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Remove foil, and bake another 10 to 15 minutes until bubble. Let stand 10 minutes before serving

Makes 8 servings
380 Calories 10.4 Fat 5.1 Fiber
8 Points per Serving

I hope that everyone had a great weekend!
Tata for now,
Scale Warfare

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.