Food Recap - Jan. 4th

Monday, January 5, 2009

Breakfast:
My adorable fiance made me breakfast, and it was healthy too! (I feel like having a healthy/fit fiance is nice when you're trying to lose weight, but I really hated it in those times I weighed more than him!)

Omelette w/ Egg Beaters, Red Peppers, Broccoli & Low-fat cheese & veggie sausage - 5 points
2 Pieces Light Toast - 1 point (yes, seriously, I found white bread with only 40 calories per piece!)

Lunch:
Subway Veggie Wrap w/Swiss Cheese & Mustard - 10 points (now, I must say, this was surprisingly high, much higher than I thought, especially since I got mustard instead of southwest sauce or whatever; but apparently the wraps at Subway have 7 points just for the wrap itself, yikes - I won't make that mistake again, I'll get the regular bread!)

Dinner:
Fresh Express Ensalada Supreme (this is quickly becoming my favorite meal!) - 5 points

Snacks:
Cracker Crisps - 3 points

Exercise: I ran again today, and I not only ran a mile again, but I cut my time down by 25 seconds in just one day - yay! I also did strength training after that :)

Food Recap - January 3rd

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Breakfast
Egg White & Vegetable Omelette - 4 points
Home Fries - 5 points

Lunch
Fresh Express Ensalada Supreme - 5 points (this is so so good - it's a healthy version of taco salad, and the pack comes with everything - cheese, sour cream salsa dressing, tortilla strips, etc. - to put on the salad).

Dinner
Boloco Buffalo Burrito (definitely not healthy, but ya gotta cheat sometimes!) - 10 points

Exercise: Running 1 mile!! (this was only like 100 calories of exercise, but I just wanted to see if I could do it, so that was all I did for the day)

One Mile at a Time

On Friday, like I mentioned, I decided to try some running just to switch things up. I generally have always been terrible at running - it makes my heart rate go up really fast, and it gives my stomach cramps, and no matter how much people said I would get used to it if i just did it enough, it didn't happen. I have done the treadmill for like an hour before, but that was like walk 1 minute, run 1 minute - the furthest I had actually consistently run without stopping was like 1/4 mile. So on Friday, I did "run" a mile - but it was a walk/run situation, so I only really ran 1/2 mile, and not all at once either.




Anyways, so I went to the gym yesterday and decided that perhaps the walk/run thing just wasn't helping me at all, and I needed to just go for it. I got on the treadmill, set it at 5 mph, and then, somehow, I just ran a mile. I have no idea how I did it, b/c I have tried this many times before and never gotten even to a 1/2 mile. But somehow it just happened, and I was very proud of myself - no stopping, no walking - I am going to try to see if I can keep increasing this :) I think the whole walk/run thing actually makes it harder for me personally, because once I slow down, it's so hard to get going again.

Food Recap - Jan. 2nd

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Breakfast:
Broccoli, Cheese & Egg White Omelete - 4 points
Home Fries - 6 points

Lunch:
Veggie Maki Roll - 5 points

Dinner:
PF Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps (yumm - I would eat these every night if possible! They are truly delicious and nutritious!) - 5 points

Snacks:
WW Ice Cream Sandwich - 2 points

Activity: (I realized I should add this in too, since WW lets you eat more if you exercise and gain "exercise points) - I actually ran today, shocking I know - I did the elliptical for 30 minutes, and then Andrew pushed me to very slowly run a mile, I am going to try it again today so I can truly run the whole thing eventually at like a 5 mph pace.

Food Recap - Jan. 1st

Friday, January 2, 2009

Ahh, the first day of a new year, perfect time to start being diligent about my diet! (especially since my dress fitting is at the end of January!). I am proud, because I already went shopping and gots lots of healthy food; and I even made a new WW recipe last night :)

Breakfast:
Egg Whites & Tomatoes - 3 points
Roasted Potatoes - 4 points

Lunch
Mediterranean Salad Mix - 3 points

Dinner:
Weight Watchers Vegetable Quesadillas - 3 points
(I can't find this recipe online, but I'll copy if from my book later on today, I promise!)

Snacks:
Lay's Cracker Crisps - 4 points
Weight Watchers Ice Cream Sandwich (so yummy, you can get them in the frozen foods) - 2 points

So, 19 points, pretty good for starting a new year :) I was a bit wary of the quesadilla recipe when I realized that all they had was veggies, flour & milk and no cheese, but I thought they were really good - they have a little kick since they have cayenne and green chilis; and for a whole quesadilla, it's only 3 points!

Lunch in a Bag

Thursday, January 1, 2009

One of the hardest things for me to do diet-wise is to find something to eat for lunch besides frozen meals - while Lean Cuisine & WW meals are low in calories, they often have lots of salt and really not very nutritious or filling (that's not to say I don't eat them, but I am really trying my best to cut down!). I actually like salad, if it has more than just plain lettuce, but I almost always buy it out somewhere, b/c it is way too much trouble to keep enough ingredients for salad at your house, and to use them before they go bad.

So this week I decided to try out the pre-packaged salads from the store that already come with dressing, toppings, etc. (they're made by Fresh Express, you'll find them by the bagged lettuce in the vegetable section). Today I tried the Mediterranean Supreme, which has spinach (much better for you than the iceberg lettuce, which has little nutrition), a 3-cheese blend, foccacia croutons and honey dijon dressing. Since I had them around, and veggies are 0 points on Weight Watchers, I added snow peas and bell pepper as well. The best part is, for an entire 1/2 bag, it's 150 calories - that includes the cheese, dressing, croutons, etc. So even if you ate the whole bag of it, that's 300 calories - and I thought it was really yummy, and cheaper and easier than me going out to buy a salad somewhere.

New Cookbook/Website Find: Hungry Girl

My mom bought me this book for Christmas, and it is based on the popular http://www.hungry-girl.com/, a site that gives out tons of recipes and diet tips totally free. The best thing is, it's written by a lady who is not a doctor, nutritionist, chef, etc. - it's just her own personal super simple recipes for healthy versions of almost anything out there - eggs benedict, pizza, cake, nachos, etc. I especially love it because, although she is not a vegetarian, she is a big proponent of fake meat as a healthy alternative to regular meat, so she uses it in quite a few recipes.




I haven't made anything out of it yet, but my mom has and has loved everything so far. The best thing is, compared to Weight Watchers, you need far less ingredients and cooking skills, so if you just want to make something simple & healthy without going to the store for 10 new spices, this seems great! I am currently writing out my weekly food plan, and am going to be trying some new WW recipes as well as some Hungry Girl recipes this week, so I will report back on all of them! (one of my new years resolutions is to try to stay away from frozen dinners & other processed foods, and make more things myself).