Belly be gone!

so, i think i’m back on track after my chocolate fest today!!!  i had a YUMMY dinner!  tilapia (broiled) w/broccoli.  i felt like it was the healthiest meal i’ve had in 4 days!!!  i just made some quinoa - just need to figure out what i want to put in it…i’m thinking of a mexican theme:  corn, black beans, & salsa.  not sure how it’ll taste, but i think i’ll try it this time…i’ll find out tomorrow during lunch how it tastes…

thanks for all the understanding about my chocolate fest - y’all are the best…i’m over it and a lot less emotional now!!!

yup…succumbed to that this morning. i don’t think i am that much of an emotional eater. but given that i hadn’t had breakfast yet, and had run 30 minutes this morning, and was SOOOOOOOOOOO upset (i shouldn’t have been allowed to drive…i seriously wanted to run over every single IDIOTIC driver!!!!!!!!!!!!), that i ate some hershey’s dark chocolate kisses, as well as some hershey’s dark chocolate kissables!!! and i knew what i was doing as i was eating all that chocolate!!! and i couldn’t finish my nice & healthy breakfast - oatmeal w/applesauce. but then again, i was so bummed b/c i forgot to bring the banana to put in it…and only b/c i feel satisfied right now, i am not eating any more chocolate.

ugh…still a little upset. shouldn’t think about it too much, otherwise the water works will start again…right now, i just feel blah…and so does my stomach!!!

oops…so i found brownies in the breakroom…and you betcha…i ate one!!! ok…enough sniveling and get back on track and let it all go!!!

i made this the other night. it was yummy!!! it was more stew like, than chili…in that there was a lot of liquid (i also put the lid on the pan while cooking, which may have caused condensation / more liquid in the dish). NI is at the bottom - i think i calculated 5 pts / serving. this can easily be modified for core…

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chopped red onion (about 1 medium)
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (about 1 small)
8 ounces extralean ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (19-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14-ounce) can low-sodium beef broth
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer (such as Budweiser)
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Preparation
Combine first 4 ingredients in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook 5 minutes or until beef is browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in chili powder, cumin, sugar, and salt; cook 1 minute. Add oregano and next 4 ingredients (through beer) to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in cornmeal; cook 5 minutes. Stir in juice.
Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 261(20% from fat); FAT 5.7g (sat 2.1g,mono 2g,poly 0.2g); PROTEIN 18.3g; CHOLESTEROL 30mg; CALCIUM 74mg; SODIUM 799mg; FIBER 8.3g; IRON 3.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 30.3g

Jackie Mills, M.S., R.D. , Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2007

yesterday started off pretty well….got my walk in before my meeting.  had a good meeting & a loss.  caught up w/a friend who was at the meeting.  had a core b’fast & lunch.  then things started going down hill a little…when DH was eating his lunch, i decided to try the “poor man turtles”.  not too bad.  DH even ate it, but when i told him what it was (since he always asks) he was saying how rolos were gross.  but he liked it and ate it anyway.  so for dinner, i was starting to crave not so good for you food - possibly a greasy hamburger, french fries, whatever.  i decided to go with it since my WI is on saturday mornings, i had a week to work anything off, and heck, it’s probably not a bad thing to indulge every once in a while.  i even let DH order us an appetizer - spinach dip.  well, the dip kept coming out luke warm, so we nixed that…but i did eat a few chips.  then i had a cheese steak sandwich (seemed a little less greasy than a cheeseburger).  it was ok…i don’t know if it was the cheese they used or what, but something seemed salty.  and i ate only a little bit of the bread.  and i got full really easily.  and i felt UGH afterwards!!!!!!!!!!  i mean…UGH UGH UGH.  i don’t know if the bread just expanded in my stomach or if i ate too many fries or what….

anyhow…today is a new day and i’ll be back OP.  i need to go to the grocery store and come up with some ideas of what to eat this week…it got a little hard towards the end of the week when i didn’t have any idea of what to throw together…right now i’m just catching up on tivo and waiting for it to warm up a little bit so i can go for my run…

i had my first workout last night w/the trainer!!!  it went pretty well…i’m not sore, YET.  but i’m sure i will be later…i felt like jello afterwards, but i felt so good for doing it!!!  i can’t wait until the next time…i just feel good about getting stronger.  it’s the next step of this journey

 my big dilemma is about getting a new car.  DH has wanted me to get one for a while, one that is safer & has more air bags than my current car.  i’ve been putting it off for a while.  my car isn’t that old, but isn’t that new.  i haven’t had any payments for a while, which is nice.  hoewver, i’m sure that some work does need to go into it.  and i don’t know that i want to put any $$$ into it, knowing that we’re getting to the point where it’s of the age where it’s possible that there’s always going to be something wrong w/it.  my change in attitude about possibly getting one now is when we felt some resistance when releasing the brake.  since i’m sure there are things wrong elsewhere, but haven’t been identified, and now this, i may want to cut our losses sooner rather than later.  which unfortunatly didn’t happen w/his car!!!  so maybe by getting rid of my car before we put any $ into it will balance the $ we had to put into the other car before we got a new one….ugh….i just don’t want another car payment!!!

ok…puppy may need to go outside again, and i have to get ready for the day…

hungry girl has a recipe on her site today on how to make your own version of McD’s SW chicken salad

http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/weeklydetails.php?isid=1240

so for breakfast this morning, i had non-fat plain yogurt, mixed with bananas & strawberries.  i normally eat the non-fat flavored yogurt, so i wasn’t sure how i’d like the plain yogurt.  my WW leader said she mixes fruit & splenda in w/the yogurt.  so i thought i’d try that.  i had frozen strawberries, which i had defrosted.  if you’ve ever defrosted strawberries in the microwave, you know they get a little juicy.  so i mixed them (and any juice around) into the yogurt, with the bananas.  YUM!!!  and i really didn’t need the splenda.  i couldn’t eat enough of the yogurt & fruit!  it reminded me of the strawberries, bananas, & cream that my mom used to make for us.  she would take sour cream, strawberries, bananas, & sugar.  i haven’t had that in YEARS, so i was very surprised & excited that the yogurt, strawberries, & bananas tasted very similar!!!

so today i think i realized another challenge for me on core is knowing when to stop eating.  part of it has to do with the fact  i stepped on the scale mid-day and i wasn’t thrilled w/the number, so i don’t know if i’m gaining or not.  it’s still early, i know.  but sometimes, even when i don’t have that much on my plate, i still eat it all w/o knowing if i’m full b/c i feel like i’m eating so healthily (if that’s not a word, i just made it up!)  otherwise, i’m excited about this plan.  we’ll see how long it lasts — the excitement that is.

for dinner tonight, i made Grecian Spaghetti Squash Saute from ww.com.  it’s spaghetti squash (duh), chick peas, diced tomatoes, onion, scallion, & spices.  i wasn’t sure how much i’d like it because i’m sometimes picky about canned tomatoes in what i eat.  tonight, i either didn’t mind it, or my tastes are starting to change.  it was pretty good.  and since i put all the remaining spaghetti squash into the dish, i have leftovers for tomorrow!!!  yeah!!!

ok…starting to fade…and i’m trying hard NOT to have something sweet to eat.  at the moment, i am satisfied.  however, i always like sweets and something sweet (preferably chocolate!) to eat.

so far, so good, i think. being that it’s the weekend, i did eat out quite a bit. but i did my best to eat salads, chicken that is only spiced, baked potato. i made a quinoa salad for lunch tomorrow. i made a spaghetti squash for tonight. these are all new foods for me!!! as i said, i think the biggest challege is going to be prepping.

today’s menu:

b — oatmeal w/SF applesauce, splenda, & cinnamon

l — jason’s deli: baked potato w/chicken & pico (whatever the mexican potato is w/o the sour cream & butter & cheese…) (i probably ate about half of it)
s — ww smoothie (caramel latte) made w/milk — this was YUMMY. this might be my favorite WW shake

d — spaghetti squash w/sauteed onions, mushrooms, bell peppers (red & green), & garlic. seasoned w/red pepper flakes & italian herbs. used a point on parmesan cheese. pretty yummy!!!

oh, the other challenge, i think, is going to be about using points. i want to use them for things that i want as low fat or regular, instead of fat free.

so…why did i switch to core? well…i guess it started when i read the maintenance material and saw that you could switch daily instead of weekly. and i just started thinking about it and thought i could probably do a day or two at a time. so i decided to switch for a week, esp since i’m still trying to lose. i also think i was a little tired of counting points. that, and my points went down to 18 (if i’m still going to lose)!!! and, i don’t know how well i’m losing. and they say to try switching plans if you think you’re in a plateau. so…that’s the basic reason i’m trying core….

so i had a slight gain this week  :(   my first gain since being on WW.  i’d love to attribute it to wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and pants (since the weather is not conducive to me wearing shorts), but i’m sure it’s more b/c i didn’t eat that well this week.  oh well…it was what i needed to get my motivation back!  so i’m now back on track.

i’m going to try core this week.  i don’t think it’ll be that hard.  but, we’ll see.  i think that lunch is going to be the most challenging.  but i was thinking if i can make some salads with whole grains (bulgar, pearl barley, quinoa - haven’t tried this yet but bought some last night), then i might do well.  i’m a little hungry now.  :(  and i’ve had an apple already.  i think we’re eating in a couple of hours, though.  so, we’ll see how it goes…

i’ve been considering trying core. i need to do some more research into it - as far as what to eat, and recipes!!! i think if i had a bunch of recipes to try, i might be able to do it. i don’t mind eating chicken breast & beef (since those are basically the only meats i eat) with vegetables. the big thing is recipes for when i want a change of having a plain grilled meat. that, and eating out. i might be able to do it this week if DH has a trip. but i need to do some major research SOON, since WI is tomorrow morning…