Week One

First, I start off with a confession...

I've gained so much weight that my current scale won't even acknowledge my weight.  So, I'll keep stepping on it every damn day until a number shows up instead of that elusive "E" for "Error".  I would guess that my weight is anywhere between 355 and 360, though.  I honestly never thought I'd be this heavy.

Meanwhile, I'm feeling very in control and very positive.  Days One through Five went off without a hitch. The weekend is where I hit some slight snafus, but all is well again.

This week's plan is based very heavily on the first week plan found here at the Can You Stay For Dinner blog.  I made a few adjustments.  Instead of counting calories, I'm counting Weight Watchers Points Plus. At my current estimated weight, I get 53 Points Plus each day.  Also, Andi's mom, Mary Ellen started out at 210 pounds.  I'm starting out at over 350 pounds, so my body requires more calories.  I'm adding in a few healthy snacks to make up the difference.  I thought I would be very uncomfortable straying from this plan at all, but I'm not.  I'm already seeing that this is going to happen and I feel confident that I can make good choices.  However, for the first several weeks, anyway, I want to stick as closely to it as possible.

There are several meals that  Mary Ellen ate out at restaurants, so I'm substituting other recipes and things for those meals.

Here's what I ate my first week:

Monday

Breakfast

2 cups Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cereal
1 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup fat free Coffeemate Creamer
1 cup coffee

Snack

1 box (1 oz.) raisins
1/4 cup mixed nuts

Lunch

Chicken, Cranberry, Feta Salad
3 tbsp Great Value Light Honey Dijon Dressing
Fage Greek Yogurt with Honey

Snack

1 cup grapes
1 cup baby carrots
1/4 garlic hummus

Dinner

4 oz. marinaded pork tenderloin - marinade recipe here
6 oz sweet potato
1 tbsp Earth Balance margarine
1 cup green beans - steamed with lemon juice, garlic, 1 tbsp sliced almonds

POINTS PLUS TOTAL 55

Tuesday

Breakfast

1 serving Frosted Mini Wheats
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup fat free Coffeemate Creamer
1 cup coffee

Snack

1 oz raisins
1/4 cup mixed nuts

Lunch

Tuna Salad
2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup grapes

Snack

1 Sargento Cheddar Cheese Stick

Dinner

Stir-Fry using 6 oz leftover pork tenderloin

Snack

Skinny Cow Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Sandwich

POINTS PLUS TOTAL 44

Wednesday

Breakfast

1 serving Frosted Mini Wheats
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup fat free Coffeemate Creamer
1 cup coffee

Snack

1 cup grapes
1 Sargento Cheddar Cheese Stick

Lunch

3 cups salad greens
1 oz feta cheese
3 oz turkey lunch meat
3 tbsp Great Value Light Honey Dijon Dressing
1 container Fage Total 0% Greek Yogurt with Strawberry

Snack

1/4 cup mixed nuts

Dinner

Turkey Avocado Bacon Wrap

Snack

Skinny Cow Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Sandwich
Pop Chips

POINTS PLUS TOTAL 53

Thursday (HALLOWEEN!)

Breakfast

1 serving Frosted Mini Wheats
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup fat free Coffeemate Creamer
1 cup coffee

Snack

Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate KIND Bar

Lunch - Halloween Luncheon at Work

2 cups Chicken Tortilla Soup
About 10 tortilla chips
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1 fancy Nutterbutter

Dinner

2 servings Crockpot Cheese Tortellini Soup (I adapted this slightly, adding some celery for more veg and using low fat cream cheese, instead of whole fat.  I also used fresh carrot slices instead of frozen.)

Snack

1 regular-sized (as opposed to King Size) pack of Peanut M&Ms

POINTS PLUS TOTAL 61

Friday

Breakfast

1 serving Frosted Mini Wheats
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup fat free Coffeemate Creamer
1 cup coffee

Snack

1 Fuji Apple
2 tbsp Earth Balance Creamy Peanut Butter

Lunch

Fage Yogurt with Honey
3 cups salad greens
3 oz ham luncheon meat
1/8 cup Craisins
1 oz feta
3 tbsp Great Value Light Honey Dijon Dressing

Snack

1/4 cup mixed nuts

Dinner

Jason's Deli - Chicken Salad Wrap and steamed veggies

Snack

Deep Chocolate Vita Top

POINTS PLUS TOTAL 50

Saturday

Breakfast

1 Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin
1 tbsp. Whole Foods Strawberry Fruit Spread
1 tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 egg scrambled in 1 tsp butter (couldn't eat the whole thing.  I truly hate eggs.  Especially eggs that are cooked poorly and as I am an egg hater, I don't really know how to cook eggs properly!)
1 cup coffee
1/3 cup Coffeemate Hazelnut creamer (all we had at my gf's)

Lunch

1/2 medium thin crust pizza loaded with veggies
about 10 Parmesan bread bites

Dinner

Didn't happen....

Snack

Deep Chocolate Vita Top

POINTS PLUS TOTAL 72

Sunday

Breakfast

1 serving Frosted Mini Wheats
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/3 cup fat free Coffeemate Creamer
1 cup coffee

Snack

Dark Chocolate Chili KIND Bar
1 Blow Pop

Lunch - Family Birthday Party @ my Grandparents' House

Chicken with Rice Casserole
Tomato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
***My family CLEARLY loves a good casserole
Green salad with dressing
1 roll with 1/2 tbsp margarine
1 slice chocolate mousse cake
1 small Blue Bell Ice Cream cup

Dinner

leftover Chicken Alfredo from Pizza Hut

Snack

Vita Top Banana Nut Muffin
Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks - a grande, I think...my sister ordered it for me.  I'd requested a tall, but she admittedly messed up on ordering, not being the coffee drinker that I am.

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Something AWESOME I did this week:  I received a package of peanut M&Ms at work when I was BOOed by a co-worker on Tuesday.  I saved them for Thursday night for my already planned Halloween treat!

Something I would do differently in the future:   Controlled my portion considerably better at the family birthday party on Sunday.  Possibly even measuring them out.  I attacked that food with wild abandon and didn't like that out of control feeling.  And what's worse is that I let it continue to spiral out of control more than I like as the evening went on.

My official weigh-in day is Friday, so I will post my results then.  Meanwhile, after a rocky start on Monday, this week has picked back up!  I'll be back next week with what I ate this week.

Thanks for reading!

The Lure of the Cookie

I love chocolate chip cookies.  If I could eat only one food for the rest of my life, that would probably be it.  I mean...really.  I really, really love them.  Maybe someday human-cookie marriage will be legalized and I'll be at the front of that line - a homemade chocolate chip cookie in hand, it's chocolate chips melting into the warmth of my palm.

Okay, perhaps that's taking it a bit too far....

So last night, after having planned my whole day (and having thrown in a couple of snacks too, that I did track, thank you very much), I decided I NEEDED...needed...a Diet Coke from McDonalds.  Off I went to collect it, thinking to myself that some McDonald's chocolate chip cookies sounded MIGHTY tasty and that all my hard work for the day be damned, that's what I was going to eat.

Well to make a long, semi-complicated story short - I did not get the cookies.  I talked myself off that ledge and finished strong yesterday.  I stayed under my points with 2 to spare.  I sat down and planned today out just like I did the night before and I went to bed.

It's just good to know that I have that strength deep down inside...that the will to do this is still pretty damn strong.

Just have to take it all as it comes, one day at a time.

Day 8

It's Day 8 already???  Wow...I'm kinda impressed with myself.

So, yesterday was pretty good!  I didn't workout, but I'm not stressed over that at all.  I had to go to the grocery store and on my way there I started feeling kind of anxious like "can I do this without doing something stupid?"  Because old me would have thought I "deserved" a treat of some sort.  You know...just a little something for the car ride home....but once I got there, I honestly didn't even give it much thought.  It flashed through my mind quickly a couple of times, but I didn't even care to dwell on it.  So, I got what I went for, left and came home.

I rented some movies last night and started watching one of them:  Mama.  Ugh.  I cannot.  I repeat, CANNOT...watch scary movies by myself late at night.  I enjoyed some popcorn while I watched it and my niece kept coming in the room, so luckily, I was forced to give the movie up for the evening.  I'll finish it later today...during daylight hours!  I had intended to start it earlier, but my sister invited me to go hang out with some friends poolside, so I did that for a bit first.

This was dinner:

AMAZING green beans, mashed potatoes, and...sausage.

The sausage was what we had in the fridge...the mashed potatoes I mashed with a tbsp of Brummel & Brown (1 PP), and 1/4 cup of light sour cream.  I've found I really enjoy using yellow potatoes lately.  They taste much better than russets and these made awesome mash.  The green beans, though...they were the piece de resistance (I have no idea if I spelled any of that correclty...it's been almost 20 years since my French-taking days).

I steamed the beans, then sauteed them with some onions and garlic and topped that off with a drizzle of lemon juice.  Lots of love from the fam on these.

I made these muffins last night:  Healthy Banana Nut Muffins  Someday, I'll learn to read a recipe fully before committing to it.  It says to soak the yogurt (or water/vinegar) and the whole wheat flour for 12-24 hours first...to aid with digestion, I think.  I was all...screw that!  And let it sit there for about 1 1/2 hours.  Also, I didn't buy enough yogurt.  I only ended up having a cup, so I added 1/3 cup of water for moisture.  Well...when all was said and done, I had playdough sitting there in that bowl.  A wiser me would have said, "I'm going to scrap this recipe and find another" since I hadn't actually put anything else in there yet.  But...oh, no...that thought didn't occur to me until much later. 

So once I added the other ingredients, I had big balls of flour chunkage in the batter.  What's a girl to do?  Oh, I know...let's gift a sifter and a ladle and try and sift it through but using the ladle to push the batter through the sifter holes so that maybe the flour chunks will break up and actually incorporate into the mix...for the next hour or two.  I strained that stuff for that long.  I refused to give in!  Well, it worked, but my legs, arms, neck and shoulders were killing from standing there over the bowl for so long. 

I fully expected these to taste like crap, but they were okay.  Not sweet at all.  I don't think I'll make them again.....or if I do, maybe I'll actually follow the recipe next time.  The muffins should have been 4 Points Plus, but I ended up adding in 1/2 cup of pecans instead of 1/3 cup, so these came in at 5 Points Plus.    I had one last night.  And one this morning.  I'm so disciplined!  Of course, I also stopped by McDonald's for a Diet Coke after dropping my niece off at the babysitter's and had a Sausage McGriddle.  11 Points Plus.  I still have over 30 PP left for the day and over 30 PP left in my weekly points.  I've been under or at my points everyday since Sunday, so if I end up having to dip into my weekly points, I'm totally okay with that.

Have a great day!

Day 6

So I had my first really big cravings today.  Pretty early on, in fact.  Taco Bell.  Ugh.  I hate and love that crap place so damn much. 

I had cereal with a banana for breakfast and did a bunch of reading.  In fact, I finished Designated Fat Girl by Jennifer Joyner this morning.  I just started it yesterday.  Yeah, that's how hard I couldn't put it down.  I could have written that book.  Especially the beginning where she describes the food addiction attack she had where she lies to her husband to leave the house so she can go eat.  I highly recommend it.  I could relate to so much of her struggle.

So, after my reading jag, I came in and it was around noon.  I pushed thoughts of Taco Bell from my mind and made my salad and a tuna fish sandwich.  My salad was exactly the same as yesterday: a mess of romaine, shredded carrots, tomatoes, olives, vinagrette, and chow mein noodles for fun. 

Blogger still hates me and thus, will not allow me to upload photos today.  I've taken so many food pictures too!

I also went on a 36 minute walk today.  My left foot feels weird when I start walking for any length of time.  I don't know if it's my Nikes or what, but it feels tight. 

Saturday, my sister and I are having a joint birthday party.  A few weeks late for her, a few weeks early for me.  Additionally, my niece's 3rd birthday is Sunday and we're having her birthday party that morning.  So, it is a busy birthday filled weekend.  I will be having cake at her party for sure.  I'm planning for it and not even slightly worried about it.  The problem will be if there is any cake leftover that comes back to the house.  I plan to laugh in its face. 

I've noticed I'm very cranky and impatient lately. Okay, who am I fooling?  I'm always cranky and impatient, but it's at an all time high the past few days.  My living situation is complicated as I live with not only my sister and my niece, but also my parents.  Definitely not ideal at almost 38, but it's temporary.  However, everything everyone does is getting on my ever-loving nerves!  Perhaps it stems from not constantly drugging myself with sugar and fat? 

I really haven't had any sweet treats.  The cereal I eat certainly has sugar in it, as does the peanut butter I have for a snack with my apple..but candy bars, cakes, cookies, pastries, etc...I haven't touched any of those since the cookout on Thursday.  And that's highly unusual.  I haven't really missed it!

I know I'm doing so well and I'm so proud of myself, but I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of a precipice and will fall over it at any given moment.  Having a binge episode and throwing in the towel all over again scares me to death.  I'm hanging on for dear life.  One little misstep is all takes to send me into chaos.  I'm dealing with so much doubt today.

I find reading blogs (I finished 111 Pounds yesterday) and weight loss related books really is helping keep my motivated.  I also listened to part of an episode of the Half Size Me podcast on my walk today.  I'm going to launch into this blog: Runs For Cookies and this book: Weight Loss Boss now. 

Day 5

I have so much I want to say!  I need to keep a notepad next to me at all times to make notes.  Almost everytime I write a post, 30 minutes later I remember something else I wanted to mention.

Firstly, I was just talking to my mom and saying how I was proud of myself that I was on Day 5 and she gave me a hug and told me she was proud of me too.  I also am noticing I'm eating a lot more "real" food as opposed to processed crap.  Just eating all those fresh fruits and vegetables has made me feel more energetic today.

Secondly, I did my first of the three workouts last night.  I invited my little niece along to workout to Leslie Sansonne and she was so cute!  She totally got those sidesteps and kicks down in a hurry.  I told myself I was going to do as much as I could and guess what?  I made it through the whole 30 minutes of the video.  After about the first 10 minutes, I seemed to really get energized and just kept going.  And I've already thrown the workout clothes on for today too, so will be doing another workout today.  Then just one more to go to meet my goal (but I have a sneaking suspicion I'll do more than that. 

I'm feeling so motivated and positive right now.  I know I can do this!  I have almost zero cravings for junk food lately, I keep thinking about how every movement I make is going to add up to feeling fitter and healthier.  I'm thinking ahead to my goals, while really enjoying this journey so far. 

I've been reading a blog from start to finish the past few days...not finished yet, but this girl is amazing and a huge motivation!  111 Pounds  She's lost around 100 pounds and runs all the time and eats healthy vegetarian (mostly from what I've read so far)  food.  She's my inspiration.

Reading blogs of other people who've been through this and succeeded is so helpful!  I am going to catch up with hers, then find another one to read from start to finish, then another...and meanwhile, keep up with the current posts.  There's so much information out there and so many amazing blogs that I get overwhelmed sometimes, so I decided this will be my method.

This morning I made REAL oatmeal on the stovetop, threw in 1/2 tbsp of honey, mashed up a banana in there and threw some strawberries on top.  It was beautiful!  I wish I'd taken a picture!

This afternoon, I'm currently enjoying a salad and  vegetable samosas from Trader Joe's.

My salad:  romaine lettuce, black olives, cherry tomatoes, chow mein noodles, sun-dried tomato basil vinigrette, green hearts, yellow stars....oh, wait...

Trader Joe's Veggie Samosas.  Love this things!

Tonight, I'm making sausage, baked potatoes and fresh green beans with lemon and garlic.  Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture!

Weigh In Week One

I got my butt out of bed at 5 AM this morning and drove it an hour to go to the nearest 6:30 AM Weight Watchers meeting.  I chose this meeting specifically because I had a sneaking suspicion it was the same leader as a meeting I attended last year.  She'd only been the leader for my first two meetings, so I don't know if she was just filling in or what, but she was a big motivating factor for me, as she's close to my age, appears to be single and without kids, so I can relate.  Most leaders are married with grown children...I don't have any children yet, so....  Plus this leader lost 130 lbs and looks great.  Big motivator.  

So I get there and lo and behold, it is her!  I was very excited.  I also quickly realized I was the youngest person in the meeting.  Impressive, since I'm only a couple of years away from 40!

I got all signed up and weighed in and was relieved to see that my 3 days of focus have paid off to the tune of almost 6 pounds.  I was at 344.4.  

I'm probably going to head to the movies soon and see World War Z.  I may even get a small popcorn.  Though right now I'm not feeling the popcorn, as I ate lunch early (due to that 5 AM wake up time) and am pretty full!

As promised, pictures of some of my food from yesterday:

My crazy potato, bread & butter pickle, and sun-dried tomato vinagrette green salad that I enjoyed for lunch yesterday.

A pretty blurry picture of the squash and orange bell pepper I chopped up prior to sauteeing them up with some onions and garlic to be used in my barbeque chicken & veg quesadillas that we dined on for dinner last night.

I'm so, so bad at remembering to take food photos, that I took this one halfway through eating my dinner last night.  I apologize for the lack of photo gloriousness.  These quesadillas were delish, though!

I just used the leftover chicken and vegetables from last night on top of another salad today.  It was an interesting combo...tonight will be a pretty boring dinner...some sausage, baked (or mashed) potatoes and some kind of veg....tbd.

Day Three!

So a couple of things tonight.  I decided to restart Weight Watchers meetings, which I will be attending early tomorrow morning.  That said, I decided it would be better to post my food tracker thingy on Saturdays, so here it is (even though it's still technically Friday)!

Also, today was a really good day!  I had a delicious salad for lunch and made barbeque chicken & veggie quesadillas for dinner.  I also took pictures, so I will be posting those tomorrow.  I'm still 5 points under with 31 weekly points in tact. 

So, I've stuck with it for 3 days, no binging, no out of control thoughts even, really.  I also managed to make it through the whole day today without any soda.  Totally crazy!

Post-Vacation Ramblings

Hi to anyone who might actually be reading this little blog of mine!  A warning in advance, this will be very rambly!

I just back from Florida where I visited the Mouse and hit the beach with my parents, sister, and almost 3 year old niece.  We had a great time.

While I was there, I realized that I am capable of far more physically than I thought.  I walked tons and swam.  I didn't swim as much as I might have in the past just because when you are well over 300 pounds, you don't feel comfortable in a bathing suit.  No...it's more like you don't feel ENTITLED to wear a bathing suit.  So, I was pretty active, but I would also feel that activity in the morning pretty hard.  I was so sore...especially my feet.

Well, I knew it was time to get back ontrack when I got home.  I knew, because all that activity was a great jumping off point to keeping up the activity back home AND because I can literally feel my body disintegrating.  I'm tired of that.

I was going through our photos yesterday and my sister, niece, and I had one taken with Mickey and Minnie.  I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor at how HUGE I am.  I'm seriously just HUGE.  I knew I was really big, but something about seeing it documented in a photograph is quite the wake up call.  My initial instinct was to delete it, but then I started thinking, I need to see that.  Maybe I should make it the wallpaper on my computer screen.  A constant reminder of what I am doing and what needs to be done.

I also had to buy a new scale yesterday, because my old one decided to just completely stop working.  I changed the batteries twice and nothing.  So, I weighed myself on this new scale thinking I'd be back around 340.  No.  350.2. I mean...really??? 

I feel so frustrated, because I know I make these commitments to myself and declare them here and then time and time again, I fail, only to gain back what I've lost and then some.  350.2.  I never thought I would see that number.  That is my highest weight ever.  That's halfway between 300 and 400 pounds.  And it makes me physically ill.  How did this happen?  How did I let this happen?

I went grocery shopping yesterday and did very well.  I had a cart full of produce and chicken and some marinades to keep things changed up.  I have to keep it simple for now.  I was super proud of myself, as I didn't buy anything sugary (other than my all natural peanut butter with honey - there's a confession)...the only snacks I bought were fruit and little Babybel cheeses and the aforementioned peanut butter.  Oh...I did get a bag of those baked Snackum things from Trader Joe's.  They are kind of like Funyons.  I already know that one serving is 4 PP.

I came home and portioned off the chicken and froze it, washed and chopped a GIANT thing of strawberries, and prepared a big bag of salad for lunches.  I had a bunch of errands yesterday, but was still able to make Hawaiian chicken with broccoli.  Of course, I didn't remember to take pictures.  But all I did was marinate a couple of chicken breasts in Lawry's Hawaiian marinade along with a chunkily chopped onion, some garlic, and a can of pineapple in juice.  I cooked it at 375 for about an hour, adding in a bag of prewashed and chopped broccoli at the end.  I served it with some Jasmine rice and it was really very good.  I think the Points Plus value was 12, including a serving of rice.

Right now, I'm trying to create a spreadsheet so I can post my food journals each Friday, so look for that tomorrow.  It will only include W-F of this week.  I'm also giving serious thought to going back to my Weight Watchers meetings.  If I do that, it will happen either tomorrow or Saturday. 

Thanks for reading!

Agave Nectar Glazed Garlic Carrots

I am hopelessly forgetful when it comes to taking pictures of my food.  This is something that needs to be remedied!

But in the meantime, I bring you...

Agave Nectar Glazed Garlic Carrots

1 lb baby carrots
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 tbsp trans-fat free margarine (I LOVE Earth Balance and Brummel & Brown)
1 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp cinnamon

Cook carrots to your liking.  I generally boil or steam them.  Once they are done, add remaining ingredients, stirring to ensure everything is evenly coating those little critters.

I've made these twice in the past two weeks. 

Weigh In

Hi everyone!  While I wasn't super successful stuffing my face with veggies and making sure that I didn't weigh myself 10,000 times a day, I did get my water in everyday since I set that goal.

And I'm down exactly 1 pound this week!  Last week I was 334.8, yesterday I was at 333.8.  I'm thrilled.  My goal is to lose 1 pound a week and I accomplished that.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I downloaded a free weight tracker from Half-Size Me a few weeks ago and having that visual reminder has been very helpful.  If you go to the website and sign up for her email updates, she sends you the tracker for free, so something to keep in mind.

Today, I've been busy meal planning for the upcoming week.  Payday is monthly for me and it is this upcoming Friday, so I'm going to have to make due with pretty much whatever is in the pantry for the time being.

Tonight, I'm making veggie pizza and cauliflower poppers.  I found the cauliflower popper recipe here:  Baked Cauliflower Poppers.  She claims they taste like french fries, so I'm going to give them a whirl.  We'll also have a green salad to round things out.

Pinterest has revolutionized the way I plan meals.  I have things categorized by cuisine and decided today to assign a meal-type to every day of the week.  This is what I'm trying:

Monday - Veggie Night
Tuesday - Crockpot Night
Wednesday - Chicken Night
Thursday - Salad Night
Friday - Sandwich Night
Saturday - Pasta Night
Sunday - Sunday Dinner with dessert.  Ooooooo!

I get very overwhelmed with all the amazing dessert choices out there, so I figure this will be a great way to have my cake and eat it too.  I have a month's worth of menus planned out, so on Sundays, I'll go through and put any recipes into my Weight Watchers tracker so I can plan out my lunches, breakfasts, and snacks accordingly for the upcoming week. 

Additionally, I plan out my grocery lists this way:

1 big master list for all non-perishables and freezer items for the month.
Weekly lists for produce and any other perishables pertaining to that week's menu.

Here's a peek at this week (and links to any recipes I'll be using).  Keep in mind, that I have a total of 51 daily points, so a lot of these recipes aren't particularly "Weight Watchers-minded".  Also, since I'm using up what we have on hand through Friday, I'm not sticking exactly to the afore-mentioned schedule. 

Monday - Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken with brown rice; asparagus
Tuesday - Crockpot Chicken Ranch Tacos (see recipe below) with all the fixin's; carrots
Wednesday - Hot dogs; green beans; garlic oven fries
Thursday - turkey sausage; mashed potatoes; salad
Friday - turkey burgers; roasted zucchini sticks
Saturday - meatloaf; Garlic Grilled Tomatoes; Fresno Potatoes
Sunday - Beef Stroganoff; salad; Incredible Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

SUPER EASY Crockpot Chicken Ranch Tacos
Serves 4
4 Points Plus per serving - chicken only

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes (or you can use fresh if you are feeling really productive)
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix
1 packet reduced sodium taco mix

Mix all ingredients in crockpot.  Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  Shred chicken using a fork.  Fill up taco shells and top with whatever you like.  We used shredded iceberg lettuce, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream, tomatoes, and olives.  If you have leftovers, they make a great salad topping for lunch the next day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Today's Weigh In

So, I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I'd been feeling very discouraged this past week because my weight was up over my first week weight loss and I just didn't feel like anything was ever going to come off.

But I actually lost .6 and am down to 334.8.  I'm very happy with that considering I didn't think I was going to lose anything!  It's not quite the 1 lb I was hoping for, but that happens.

I did exceptionally well all week, staying in my points and exercising for at least 11 minutes a day...

Yes, 11 minutes. 

The first week, I promised myself I would do 10 minutes a day and this past week, I added a minute.  Guess what?  This week, I'm adding another minute, bringing it to a total of 12 minutes a day.  And I'll keep doing that everyday until I'm up to 30 minutes.  That's my goal for now (and I should reach that sometime this fall, I do believe).  After I hit 30, I'll adjust my goal accordingly.  I think my aim will be anywhere from 30-45 minutes daily.

Lastly, I have a quick and easy salad recipe to share.

I've been doing a lot of indoor grilling lately and marinating boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a homemade southwest marinade.  After marinating for a few hours (or overnight), I throw those puppies on the stove top grill.

Chop the chicken up, throw it on a bed of lettuce with some tomatoes, salsa, guacamole, and a little light sour cream and you've got dinner.  You could also add some cheese in there too, but I chose to forego it.

 

Southwest Marinated Chicken

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 cloves crushed garlic
2 tbsp lime juice (lemon would work as well)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried minced onion
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp corriander
salt & pepper to taste

I throw this marinade together with the chicken in a big zip lock bag.  The last time I made it, in fact, I used frozen chicken and just allowed it to thaw in the marinade on the counter during the day and it was perfect.

Thanks for stopping by!