Halfway to My Second Goal

I began this journey of a healthier lifestyle back in early March. I am now down 15 pounds, and I feel so much better! I can breathe better, I have more energy, and I am excited about what's to come. I have enjoyed trying new recipes. That's one of the things that keeps me going. I don't get bored, and I'm learning more about how to feed my body. Love it! 

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite dinners that I've tried lately. Here it is...feel free to drool!

This is the turkey taco salad, another one I got from The Hungry Girl. It's only 354 calories and so much food! It's delish!

Finally, I mentioned in my last post that I would share a couple of my Easter photos. So proud of my little family. As you can see in the photos, I have a long way to go in getting to a healthier me,  but I CAN do this! Slow and steady wins the race, right?  Pressing on.

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

I did not decorate for Easter as I normally do, except for my cute flags outside. I didn't do Easter baskets (just a little candy for the boys), but I have really enjoyed this weekend. The focus has been Jesus...just as it is supposed to be! Yesterday, we went to see the movie God's Not Dead and then out to eat, then straight to church, where we took part in communion. It was an awesome night, and we were reminded of the real reason for this holiday...Jesus paid the price for our sins as he died on a horrible cross in our place! Hallelujah! Tomorrow we top it off by attending my son's girl friend's church, wearing our traditional Easter attire. I'll post photos tomorrow, hopefully, if the wind and rain don't mess with our tresses! 

Switching gears...just another quick update on the weight loss progress. I am hanging in there! I have lost 14 pounds so far! Weekends are harder. We've always had Friday night pizza nights, and I always have at least one slice. Saturday, Ed brought home Chinese food for lunch. The entree from the "Weight Watchers" menu was, well...let's just say it was spit into a napkin. My pit bull mix, Faye, seemed to enjoy it. So I ate the broccoli that came with it, and then had some of Ed's sesame chicken. Nope...not on the plan, but I was not going to fix something else. I was still proud of myself. Normally I could have eaten three times the amount I had for lunch. Just keeping it real for y'all!

Tonight, we made chicken quesadillias on the George Foreman grill. Good stuff! Sunday, I am heating a precooked ham, making deviled eggs with light mayo (my younger son LOVES these), green beans, and potatoes. Hope wherever you are that you can take time out Sunday to reflect on Christ's resurrection! Pressing on!

Weigh-ins, Chocolate Chips and Strawberries!

This morning, I weighed myself again. I know...some folks say don't get obsessed with the scale; don't weigh so often. I've also read that more people have success with maintenance if they put some of those principles into practice from the start. One of those principles is weighing frequently. It's important to know where your weight is, since it is so easy to let things slide, especially for an "avoider" like me!

Anyway....I am happy to say that I have now lost 12 pounds! So happy! Just 4 more, and I'll be in a new "decade" if you know what I mean. Ha Ha! One thing I have noticed about this weight loss is that even though 12 pounds doesn't seem like much, it has drastically increased my energy! 

I am really excited after looking at some of the recipes from week four of the George Foreman Weight Loss Challenge. They sound amazing, and I can't wait to change it up a bit and try new recipes. Today, I wanted to share with you my favorite treat so far! It is a recipe I got from "The Hungry Girl." She made these on Good Morning America last week, and I had to get the recipe. If you like strawberries, and if you like chocolate, you'll LOVE this one!

Chocolate Chip Stuffed Strawberries
5 large strawberries
2 tbsp light/low-fat ricotta cheese
1 no calorie sweetener pack
1 drop of vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Slice the stem ends off strawberries. Use a narrow spoon or knife to remove the whitish flesh inside. (This should leave a significant opening to allow room for filling.)
In a small bowl, mix ricotta, sweetener, and vanilla extract until uniform.
Spoon ricotta mixture into a bottom corner of a plastic bag. Snip off the tip of that corner to create a small hole, and pipe the mixture through into the strawberries. Top with chocolate chips!

This lovely snack/dessert rings in at only 96 calories! Yes....under 100, and oh so yummy!

If you try it, come back here to let me know what you think! Pressing on!

A Quick Update

Had a busy weekend, and an even busier Monday, so this will be a quick post. Even though I am STILL at the 10 lb loss mark, I can't tell you how proud I am of myself for eating so much more healthily. I am trying new foods and finding healthy recipes. This was our dinner tonight. We grilled pork cutlets that I had marinated in a lemon pepper sauce, baked sweet potatoes, lima beans, and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. It was yummy....and more than I could eat.
I made a run to Costco and Publix  today. As you can see, my fridge is stuffed! I even bought some dates today. I've heard them called "nature's candy," and let me tell you, they are! They taste almost like biting into caramel. :)

One thing I definitely need to improve on is getting exercise in. I have a treadmill in the garage that I am dusting off. My sweet husband has connected Roku to the TV out there so I won't get bored as I walk. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Pressing on!

First Goal Met During Spring Break!

This has become my favorite breakfast. It's a whole wheat English muffin, with chive and onion light Laughing Cow Cheese smeared on each side, and filled with an egg, which I have scrambled with salt, pepper, and green onions. As a side, I have a bowl of mixed fruit. This is not only filling and tasty, it has helped me lose my first TEN pounds! Yep...I have hit my first goal of ten pounds. I decided that if I concentrated on the grand total of pounds I need to lose, the task would be too daunting, but ten pounds at a time, I think I can handle! You better believe I am happy! I am branching out a little from the George Foreman diet, not ditching it all together, but adding other healthy recipes I come across, some of which are my own. You know those yogurt parfaits I've made for breakfast in the past? Well, this morning, I switched it up a bit to make my own pina colada parfait! I layered Bare Naked Vanilla fit and free granola with nonfat Greek vanilla yogurt in a parfait glass, alternating granola, fruit, yogurt, and so on. I used strawberries, fresh pineapple, and sprinkled a pinch or two of unsweetened coconut on top of each fruit layer. It was the bomb (in a good way)!

This has been a good week, not just because of my weight loss accomplishment. The weather has been simply amazing, with temps in the seventies and sunshine,  and since it is spring break, I wanted to be sure and take my younger son out to do things together. Yesterday, we decided to go for a picnic and walk around the Brick Pond. If you aren't familiar with it, it is a beautiful park nestled behind the municipal building in North Augusta, SC not too far from the Savannah River. There is lots of wildlife there, picnic tables, and walking trails. We got Chick-fil-a (Matthew had a sandwich, and I got a salad) and ate by the water. We walked around taking pictures of some of the sites.We saw 2 alligators, various birds, fish, and turtles. My favorite discovery was a momma duck with 7 or 8 ducklings in the water. They let me get so close, and I got some pretty good photos. It was great getting out in the sunshine and getting a little exercise to boot!

Got any healthy recipes you are particularly fond of? Do share!

Do anything fun during Master's Week or your spring break? Tell me about it.

Pressing on!

My name is Kim, and I'm an Avoider..

Yesterday, I bought groceries. If you were to look in my cabinets (pantry) and my refrigerator, you'd probably ask why. Truth is we had a lot of food in the house, but since the kids are out for spring break, I needed snacks and lunch food for that extra person at home. (You may recall, Jonathan isn't home much as he is working long hours this week at the Master's Golf Tournament.) So I stocked up on whole wheat breads and lots of fruit and veggies. I stood for quite a while rinsing grapes, and chopping celery, cucumbers, bell peppers, squash, zucchini, and broccoli. It was a lot of work, but if I do these things ahead of time, I am more apt to use them. Tonight we used a lot of celery, along with salsa and tomato sauce and paste, along with lean steak for a Crock Pot Swiss Steak. We enjoyed that with green beans and potatoes.

Today marks week three, and I am still at 8 lbs. lost. I have to admit, that is a little discouraging. Between two and three weeks is when I typically begin to have trouble. I have not walked/exercised at all this week. Definitely need to change that.  I am just being real here people! This weekend I beat myself up so much because I ate two slices of Red Barron pizza, what Ed and the boys were having for dinner one night. I convinced myself I had to have it, and then I beat myself up for having it. But I did not throw up my hands and quit. That's a good sign. I am what Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen (authors of You on a Diet) call an Avoider. I read this little tidbit in their book recently, and it really struck a chord with me.

" Here's how avoiders think. Once you deviate--even slightly--from a diet or healthy eating plan, you figure you might as well drop the whole thing. And this starts a cycle that avoiders can't find a way out of: We're fat, we try to lose weight, we deviate just a little, we fear rejection for the perceived failure, we isolate ourselves from people, we stop talking about it, we stop the diet, we mow through a pound of cheesecake, we get fat, and then we try to lose weight...and the cycle continues."
"Instead of avoiding bad foods, avoiders tend to want to avoid other things--like the people who want to help them and the discipline of trying to eat healthfully. Above all, avoiders try to separate themselves from these two strong emotions associated with dieting."

Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen, you have hit the nail on the head. I have gone through this roller coaster eating lifestyle for as long as I can remember. I sooo want to succeed this time! Back on track today, and pressing on!

Changes

Well, I am noticing some changes. I have lost 8 pounds, but I can't really tell it by looking in the mirror yet. I have too much weight to lose to notice it that quickly. I am, however, noticing that I don't want to eat as much at each meal. That's a good thing, considering how portion control has been such a big issue for me! I also realize that I need variety in my diet. I get bored if I eat the same foods day in and day out. I love you spring strawberries...but I'm afraid we're going to have to part ways, at least for a few days. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, so we'll see.
I wanted to share with you a couple of the quick meals I've made lately. First of all, pictured is the Turkey wrap with apples lunch. It is made with whole wheat tortillas (I was supposed to use 1 ten-inch, but I only had six-inch available). You take a wedge of Laughing Cow Chive and Onion Cheese and spread it down the middle. Layer 2 ounces of lean deli turkey and veggies. I used green leaf lettuce, tomato, cucumber and red onion. Obviously my tortillas were too small to wrap. Had I used the correct size, I would've used only one. For my side, I had a sliced Gala apple with a Tbsp of peanut butter and tea/lemonade sweetened with Stevia to drink. It was delish!

For breakfast this morning, I had my favorite of all the GF breakfast recipes. I scrambled one egg with a little green onion, salt and pepper, and about a Tbsp of 2% cheddar cheese shreds. Then I toasted a whole wheat English muffin. I Smeared some of my chive and onion Laughing Cow Cheese on each half, added 1 ounce of lean deli ham and the scrambled egg, and called it a breakfast sandwich. I ate this with a cup of sliced fruit (strawberries and bananas). My husband was like, "Um...that looks good!" I'm like, "I'll make you one tomorrow!"  I am really enjoying the healthy food. One of the other changes I've noticed is how much better I feel. It's incredible what a week and a half of better eating will do for you.
I've also noticed other changes in my life...namely, my son. My older son will be 18 in October, and he will graduate from high school next spring. I love him to pieces and can't help but get a little teary-eyed knowing that this last year of school will fly by, and then he'll "fly" away to college. My baby is growing up! Here's a photo I took of him this morning. It's his first day of work. He will be working in a kitchen at the Augusta National Golf Course during the Master's Tournament over spring break. Lucky kid! He wants to earn money for spending, and so he can take his girlfriend to the prom. Ain't he handsome? (wink wink)
I couldn't be more proud of him. This week will be a tough one (for him and me), like my new way of eating, but it will be worth it...and something he'll always remember. Pressing on!