Trials of a Long Haired Girl

I will again apologize for not checking in last week. When I went to weigh in, I was down a pound making me 196.  My eating was not 100% this week, I was in the negative on my Weeklies and hadn't walked as much as I normally do.  I decided not to go to weigh in last night as I wasn't feeling well.  To make sure that I didn't go too far astray or blindly not make changes because I didn't go to my official weigh in, I stepped on my scale last night.  My scale said I was up a little over 2 pounds.  I figured I'd be up, so it was not unexpected. I have been visiting the chiropractor recently so I'm hoping that I will be back up to 10,000 steps a day soon.  I generally only really focus on hitting that goal during the weekdays.  I hope to get to the gym/Rec Center soon, and perhaps even as early as this weekend.     I will see how I feel after all of the things we have going on.  I have Monday off so I'm hoping to get a few things done....

As I was reading through my bloglovin list earlier this week, I ran across a blog entitled  After Reaching 79.5 Pounds, Jessica Knew It Was Time to Get Help .  This honestly reminded me of a time in my life that I had forgotten about.  I can relate to Jessica's story.  I went through a period in my life where I would starve myself or only eat maybe once a day or so some crazy diet that was popular at the time or I would take a laxative after I would binge.  Looking back on it now, I can see how easily a person can fall into that trap.  I had success with Weight Watchers in the 90's after my son was born and again shortly before my grandmother passed away.  If I'm honest, while I had success, I really didn't make those lifestyle changes that are necessary to have lasting weight loss.  I am really focusing on making lifestyle changes this time.  This time it's different for me.  I focusing on making choices that I can live with forever. ...

As I indicated yesterday, we tried to stick with no meat last week.  I have to admit that I struggled a bit.  I didn't want to fix the same things over and over so I tried several different recipes.  One I had found in this book: I tried the Baked Spaghetti, which is really very tasty and super easy.  I will share this super easy recipe: 12 oz. of spaghetti (cooked) 1.5 cups of onion 2 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese 3 Tbsp of Parmesan cheese 1 Tbsp of Italian Seasoning (please note that the recipe shows 2 t, but I didn't think it would be enough). Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray the bottom of a 9 X 13 inch casserole pan.  Place the cooked spaghetti at the bottom of the pan, top with the onion, diced tomatoes and then top with Italian Seasoning and then top with cheddar and Parmesan. I have to admit that I felt like I was being super repetitive.  It seemed so easy to pick an Italian style dish or a Mexican sty...

My apologies for not keeping up with my posts, but I never found the time.  Last week, we decided to try going meatless all week at dinnertime.  I tried several recipes last week, but I wound up letting my husband handle this one.  We used this recipe as our "base":   Black Beans and Rice .   We truly took the recipe's suggestion to "use what you have on hand" to heart.  We used brown rice and omitted the corn as we have a family member that is allergic.  We replaced this with some riced broccoli.  Have you tried this?  I love mixing it in to things for an added veggie boost.  I have also used the Cauliflower rice to make some of my recipes lower in Smart Points in place of regular rice.  How do you bulk up your recipes? Here's a picture of the broccoli rice: 

To recap what I said last week, Halo Top has been recommended by multiple Weight Watcher friends.  This is my review of their Sea Salt Caramel: Honestly, this was not as creamy as what I would get from Baskin Robbins or even Blue Bell.  It was very sweet and it definitely helped curb my sweet tooth.   While it isn't what I would have every day, it is nice for a change of pace when my sweet tooth hits!  Again, this flavor is 3 SmartPoints per serving, based on putting the information in the Weight Watchers calculator.  I have included the picture of the container and Nutrition Facts from their webpage.   If you want to check out their other flavors and the specifics for each one, you can find it  here .  I have heard good things about most flavors.  I would definitely have them as well.   INGREDIENTS: Milk and cream, eggs, erythritol, prebiotic fiber, milk protein concentrate, sugar, buttermilk, butter, honey, vegetable glycerin...

As I stated yesterday, I am really trying to set small goals for myself to enable me to hit my goal.  I am proud that while I haven't hit the rec center to work out, I've been hitting my step goals each weekday and sometimes exceed.  I have been tracking what I eat, even if it isn't always the lowest in SmartPoints and that's big for me.  In the past, I have thought that if I didn't track it, it would be like I didn't eat it.  I know that the only person that I hurt by doing that was myself.  I have cheated myself out of being healthier because I was lying to myself.   In January, I lost a total of 4.0 pounds.  That's about a pound a week on average.  Could I have done better?  Possibly, but this time I want this to stick.  If that means that I'm going slower, then so be it.  Tonight I weighed in at 197.  That means I have gained 0.8 pounds this week and have lost 3.2 so far this year.  I could focus on the scale ...

Honestly, with the new month starting yesterday, I have been thinking about my weight loss journey.  I have been successful with certain aspects of my journey in the past, but this time I feel like it's all coming together this time.  I am almost afraid to say that for fear I will jinx myself.  However, as long as this journey is taking me, I do feel like I have made multiple strides this time in the right direction.  I am focusing on smaller goals for a week or so before I add additional goals to it.  While me losing 4 pounds in January may not seem like a big deal to some people, but I have to start somewhere, right?   Beginning January 9th, I decided that I was going to get back to hitting 10,000 steps or the equivalent for each work week.  I hit that goal but then on January 16th, our office was closed and I had Rush therapy for my allergies.  Needless to say that I was not feeling like doing much that day after getting 10 shots.  I d...

Awhile back, when I was buying lots of shredded cheese when it was on sale, I saw this recipe on the back of my package of KRAFT Mexican Style Shredded Four Cheese with a Touch of Philadelphia.  I decided to try it.  I generally try to use the cheese sparingly.  Since I don't necessarily buy Taco Bell brand products, I used Pace salsa and whatever taco seasoning I had on hand (or made my own) and I used corn tortillas.  To be honest, I've used refried beans to make it or black beans or tri-colored beans, it just depends on what I had on hand.  I have to tell you that this was a definite favorite of my family.  I'm hoping that we can add this, or one of it's variations to our meal plan again soon.  Have you tried a recipe that you have found on a package and had luck with it?  How do you change recipes that you find to fit your healthy lifestyle?