Tuesday Dinners and Workout Buddies

Bah! I forgot to take a picture of dinner tonight and it was fabulous!! For the past few months, on Tuesday, my friend, Amanda, and I get together and cooked dinner and watched Big Love. Now that this season of Big Love is over, we are catching up on True Blood, Season 2. For tonight’s dinner we decided to go with a “Cajun” theme this week since True Blood is set in Louisiana. I prepared Cajun Chicken Breasts and Amanda made Creole-Stuffed Mushrooms (recipe courtesy of Weight Watchers). And dessert was fresh strawberries topped with fat free cool whip. Grand total of 4.5 points. Quite possibly one of the lowest point dinners, but completely filling.

Our initial goal when we started making dinner each week was to also go on walks. Which never really happened because I was full of excuses. I’m too hungry, I’m tired, blah blah blah. But now that I’m into my new habit of working out then having dinner, Amanda and I are going to fit in working out as well. Tonight we both did the 30 Day Workout and it fully kicked our asses. It’s a workout that is better to do with someone because I have someone else keeping me in check and also correcting by bad form. Yay for more workout buddies!

I'm Halfway There!

Whewwwwww! I made it through another weekly weigh in and I lost another 1.5 pounds!! I’ve reached two goals with Weight Watchers, 5 pounds last week and 5% weight loss this week. Making it a total weight loss of 7.4 pounds in 24 days. I’m halfway to my target weight!

Every week I’m completely nervous that the scale won’t budge. This week I felt less motivated and splurged more than I should over the weekend so I was afraid I wasn’t going to lose any weight. When I was sharing my anxiety with a friend earlier today, he asked, “Can't you tell you're losing weight even before you weigh in?” My reply back was “No, not really, because 1-2 pounds isn't a noticeable difference.” Only this last week, I was able to tell a difference overall. My clothes are fitting a little looser and my love handles are almost all gone....now if only that beer belly would flatten out....

Please Stop The Hunger!

I was hungry all week, which makes dieting THAT much harder. I’d eat and about an hour or two later, I felt hungry again. After dinner it was easy to ignore - I would just go to bed. But, in the middle of the day the hunger would kick in and I would want to eat whatever was around me. Most days I tried to stick with strawberries or an orange to hold me over. One day after a going away party at work, the ginormous Costco muffins were staring at me until I realized one muffin was 600 calories. That’s easy enough to pass up. However, one day I had a See’s truffle and on another day a mini Hershey bar. I somehow managed to walk away after one. This must mean I’m crazy.

Prime example of my ridiculous hunger issue - Last night I had leftover turkey ziti with spinach and roasted broccoli. I was nice and full. We went out to celebrate my weight loss and as soon as I walked in the bar, I felt hungry again. What the hell. The poor guy who was eating his chicken wings probably thought I was crazy, drooling after his food. I wanted those wings, but damn it, I can’t have them!! I waited it out and ended up splitting a dessert, which I’m sure was equally as bad for me. Oh and the 1.5 beers I drank. (Yes, I realize that it’s a bit contradictory to celebrate weight loss with food and drinks. When I reach the actual goal, I’ll celebrate by buying a new pair of jeans.)

I’m not sure why this never ending hunger started this week. I don’t feel like my food intake changed. I try to incorporate “filling foods” into my meals. I eat slow. I think I’m doing everything right. What is it!? Help!


And for good measure to make me hungry again, pictures of food!

Guinataang Kalabasa at Sitaw
(squash and yard-long beans in light coconut milk) with brown rice, 6 points


Roasted broccoli with garlic, 2 points


reheated baked ziti with spinach, 5 points

A Day Off! Or not.

Yesterday I was a little excited that I didn't have to workout, and then I remembered it was Wednesday and I have Pilates. No day of rest for this girl!  Most days I see Pilates as an opportunity to escape from my crazy job and relax for one hour.  I free my  mind of stress, I stretch, I laugh, I half-ass the exercises, and I come back to my desk refreshed.   Since I knew ahead of time that I couldn't work out after work, I pushed myself extra hard in class.  I completed almost all of exercises and felt stronger throughout the session.  I wondered if my dedication to a healthier lifestyle is finally paying off...or did I just feel guilty that I couldn't workout after work?  Definitely a combination of both, but I'm glad I pushed myself to maximize the hour long class. 

"Why are you on a diet?"

I get this question often when I talk about my diet at work. One person said, “You are my goal weight. Why are you trying to lose weight?” Which was flattering, but the fact is, this is the heaviest, wait...WAS, the heaviest I’ve been my whole life. Even in college, the ‘Freshman 15’ was more like -15 because I accidentally lost a lot of weight from having tonsillitis twice in one semester. After college, if I wanted to lose weight I would cut back for one or two days and would lose 5 pounds overnight. And, in my late 20s I went on a low carb diet and the pounds melted off. Now that I’ve reached my 30s, the weight comes a little easier and goes off a little harder. I tried cutting carbs and that didn’t work. I started exercising and that didn’t work. All I could do was maintain, which wasn’t making me happy.

I talked to a friend a few weeks ago who had tried Weight Watchers and what sold me was “I could have my glass of wine each night on Weight Watchers.” It probably should have been, “I lost 6 pounds in the first month.” But let’s be serious here..what diet can you be on and still have a drink each night? I thought to myself, now this is a diet I can do. And, here I am almost 3 weeks later and not having a drink each night but saving the drinks for when I really want them. I have replaced my winding down drink with working out. I have substituted happy hour and burritos for cooking at home. I have 9 more pounds to go until my goal weight and will continue on this path until I reach my goal. It will be challenging and some days are harder to stay focused (like today) but the hard work and dedication will pay off.

Tonight’s dinner was a bit of a splurge, totaling 9 points. Carnitas recipe courtesy of http://www.skinnytaste.com/ with homemade pinto beans. I could have shaved 2 points off if I didn’t add a few small slivers of pepper jack cheese and guacamole but it was well worth it!




(photo by Nico)

I Am The Biggest Loser

This was my third weigh in and I have lost almost 6 pounds! 5.9 to be exact! I was shocked actually because this week I lost 2.2 pounds which is more than I did in week one or two. Yay!! I’m pretty excited to be on a healthy diet instead of a fad diet and just end up gaining all of the weight back. I feel confident that once I reach my goal weight I’ll be able to maintain. And, by that time all of my bad habits will be gone and replaced by good habits...such as working out instead of going to happy hour.

Tonights dinner was baked ziti with ground turkey, roasted vegetables and fresh tomatoes. I used spray olive oil when sautéing the onions and garlic for the ground turkey and also for the roasted vegetables. You’d never know the difference! Grand total of 5 points!



taken by melinda


photo by nico

No More Hangovers

I have been quite the party pooper lately due to my diet. I work hard all week by eating healthy, working out, and saving my extra points so that I can drink a few pints on the weekend. Because what is a weekend without a few pints of beer? Even with waiting all week to have a drink, I’ve become slightly obsessed with counting points. I am constantly keeping the point count in the back of my mind and then talking myself out of drinking more. Which means I haven’t had a hangover in weeks!! Score one for the diet!!

I’m really hopeful that I still lose weight this week. It was a tough week full of temptations: birthday happy hour, birthday team lunch, March Madness, home-brewed beer, brownie bites...the list goes on and on. I maxed out on my point allowance both Friday and Saturday, fully dipped into the weekly extra points and have a mere 4 extra points for the week. I worked out almost every day this week and I started the 30 Day Shred workout on Thursday. That should help with balancing out some of the indulgences I had this week. It may seem that working out at home isn’t as hard as working in a gym, but for me this workout makes me sweat more than I EVER have in the gym. I can’t rest, I can’t take a break, I just have to keep going. Jumping jacks, lunges, one full minute of abs and repeat! And that’s just level one. I did both level 2 and 3 to see what each entailed and all three equally kicked my butt.

I have graduated from using cans of kidney beans to 2 pound hand weights and repeated level one tonight. I’m sure I’ll be able to feel that tomorrow! One more day of the dvd and then it’s back to the gym for a few days. Fingers crossed for the weigh in tomorrow night!!

Tonight’s dinner: Chicken Tinola made with chicken breasts instead of chicken parts, approximately 6 points.