Stir Fry Beef and Asparagus

This is not our first attempt at meal planning our meals for a week and grocery shopping for only those items.  It is, however, going to stick this time and become a habit.  So, as my earlier post indicated I went grocery shopping last night and got a lot of good food.  I looked on our handy chart to see what delicious creation was slated for tonight and was happy to see that it was Stir Fry Beef and Asparagus.  I was already craving chinese food, so this was a step in that direction.

Our handy meal planning dry erase board

The recipe is from the Weight Watchers Momentum Cookbook.  I know that WW is doing Points Plus now, but there are still alot of great recipes in it and I got it at a garage sale for .25 cents. 

Here is the handy cookbook.  If you don't have it you should get it.  I really like it!

I can't tell you the recipe, because you should buy the book, but here are the ingredients.

Here is the end result.  It was pretty good.  Not as salty as regular chinese food, but still good.  Ron and I are rating each of the recipes and we both gave it a 3 out of 5.  It may have more to do with the fact that we were craving wontons and sweet and sour chicken than the recipe not being good.    

Happy Friday Everyone!  What are you doing this weekend?  Celebrating Father's Day?

Weekend Posts: House Decorating Updates and Lawn and Garden Landscaping

Salads and two mini NSV's

I am obsessing over salads lately.  Something has me craving them non stop, which is a good thing of course!  I have been buying a lot of different salad toppings so that I can always be adding variety into my life.  Last night I made a Crunchy Garlic Sausage Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing.


Key players:


Garlic Sausage Links (Trader Joe's)
Romaine Lettuce
Baby Tomatoes
Broccoli Slaw
Green Onion
1 Tbs Boathouse Yogurt Honey Mustard Dressing

Some delish sauteed mushrooms

Trader Joe's Garlic Chicken Sausage Goodness

Yummy dressing!  (The best part is that is healthier for you and the flavor is intense in a good way so you only need a little bit of it!)

My beautiful creation!  It was so good I am having it again for lunch!

So, onto my NSV!  I have two of them to share and I am really excited about both of them.  The first one is that I walked to the bus yesterday past this restaurant that serves up hamburgers, french fries and other fried foods and for the first time this year (because it has been so cold)  I was able to smell the food cooking inside.  I can say for the first time in my life I was grossed out by the smell of greasy fried food being cooked.  I started to speed up my walking just to get away from the odor.  It is sort of a silly NSV, but it is meaningful for me because when I would smell food in the past it would trigger a craving and the next thing you know is that I am in the drive through or at a restaurant induldging my craving.  So, this was definitely a win for me since I went home and ate a salad.

The next little NSV is relating to riding the bus.  I am probably the only person in the world who has anxiety riding the bus because of her size/weight, but it's true... I don't like to ride the bus.  I always feel like people are looking at me strange or judging me (who knows, it might just be in my head).  Usually when I ride the bus I find this small chair that is by itself and doesn't require you to have someone sit next to you.  I was always so paranoid about encrouching on someone else's space or being squished next to someone.  Well, twice this week I decided to sit in a chair that has two very close seats next to each other.  I chose the window seat both times and waited to see if someone would come sit next to me.  It is not that I smell or that I am strange or scary that would make people chose another seat, but rather that I was bigger and there were other seats open that would allow them more space.  I had someone choose to sit next to me immediately both days and there was plenty of room for both of us.  It may be a small silly NSV, but it is something that has made me confident that I am not only doing that right thing, but that it is working.  I am losing weight and looking and feeling better already!

Farmer's Market and Dinner Plans

So, it is gloomy here in Minnesota today and there is a rumor of snow coming on Sunday, but somehow it just can't bring me down from my spring has sprung mentality (I think it is because I can't see out the window right now).  Spring makes me excited to clean and to get outside and work out.  It also makes me excited about the beginning of Farmer's market season.  We have markets all over the place in the Twin Cities, but I love to walk down to Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday's and pretend like I am in the open air market's in Europe again.

Look at all of that healthy deliciousness!

I started to think about how great Farmer's markets are for my wallet an my waistline and my community and I decided that I wanted to make something new for dinner tonight.  I started to look online and came across something that looks super yummy and healthy.  My fiance Ron is a pizza-holic and he is always wanting to order a box of the greasy, cheesy goodness.  He knows that I have been working so hard with eating well and exercising that he would never suggest sabotaging my lifestyle to indulge in some traditional pizza, but I figured I would try and make something pizza-esque with a healthy twist that won't leave either one of us with a belly ache later.  So, I am making a Southwestern Pizza tonight courtesy of Fitness Magazine.

Southwestern pizza deliciousness that I will accompany with a side salad and a side of fruit for dessert.

What are you Making for Dinner?

Go to the Fitness Magazine website and check out their featured article about healthy meals in under 20 minutes!

For some reason I can only type in the middle of the page now (yes, I have tried to change the alignment).  So, tonight's post will be pictures from dinner, pictures of the house we're buying and some pictures of my chaotic spring cleaning and packing life.

Meal Planning and Disney World

I love to plan out my meals for the week because it saves me money and time that I would otherwise spend thinking about what to make (and in the past finding myself grabbing something qucik and not healthy).  So, this weekend when we went grocery shopping all of the meals for the week were planned out.  We're having some new things and some good old standby's.  This is the last week before our trip to Florida since we leave on Saturday morning.  I am beyond excited to get out of this freezing cold, snowy tundra that I have been living in for the past 6 months!

So, thinking about Disney World has me excited and a little anxious about some things.  I don't love flying, so I always worry about that a little bit, but once the plane takes off I am usually okay. I am also a little worried about the food situation while we are there.  My fiance's parents have bought us a very generous meal plan that includes three meals a day and two snacks.  That is generally what I usually eat, however I like being in control of my options.  I have looked a little bit at some of the restaurants available and it seems like there will be some healthier options available.  I am planning on starting out with a nice healthy breakfast every morning to get me going and that shouldn't be too hard to find.

All in all this week feels much better than last week.  I am starting to feel more relaxed and ready to take on the week in a healthy way and and I am preparing for my vacation as best as I can.  I want to really relax and enjoy myself while I am there and take advantage of all of the activities going on.  I am hoping that just being active will help me to not have a gain next week.

Last year when we went to Hawaii I bought a whole bunch of new outfits and this year (being in between sizes) I decided not to buy too much because I am hoping to buy summer clothes in a few months when I have lost more weight.  I feel like if I buy them now and I spend a week wearing them and then have to put them away until May or June they will hopefully be way too big and thus a waste of money.  So, I am wearing what I have and I feel okay about it.  I am going to get a few new shirts and a pair of shorts and other than that I shouls be set.

I made the most amazing veggie omelete this morning.  I will post pictures later.  I also had a piece of whole grain toast with it and an apple.  Unfortunately, the apple was mealy and not crisp like I like them to be, but nothing is stopping my good mood today.  This evening I have a date with the gym and a delicious dinner which will be honey dijon grilled chicken with brown rice and asparagus.  Dessert will be the always delicious clementine.  I hope you all have a healthy and productive Monday! :)

Talkative Tuesday

Hello all.  Happy Tuesday.  Must-Have Monday is being moved to Wednesday this week and it is Christmas/Holiday themed so be on the look out.  Today is all about things that are on my mind and that I feel like sharing.

1. I love Tuesday evenings because I am all by myself :)  My boyfriend is at work and therefore I come home, I make whatever I want to eat, go work out, come home, watch my shows, etc. I love my bf, but some personal time is great!

2. I love making a meal that is just for me and not having to worry about what he will like for one day.  Today I made a delicious, nutritious meal that was made in 3 minutes using leftovers and I LOVED IT.

Delicious organic leafy greens with my new spaghetti squash creation.

A close up of the goods.  It is NOT pasta, it is spaghetti squash and it is delicious.  I made grilled chicken breasts with chile sauce last night, so I threw some of that on top of diced tomatoes, red onion and a sprinkle of reduced fat feta-cheese. YUM!!!!

3.  Is anyone else trying to drink have of their body weight in water a day and finding it really difficult when you almost pee your pants running to your apartment?  I drank 24 oz of water from the last hour of work through my bus ride home.  When I stepped out of my car at my apt and into the cold air I thought I was going to pee on the spot.  I ran up the stairs and down the hall thinking to myself, "PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't be the neighbor that pees her pants in the hallway in front of your neighbors!!!"  I made it into my apt JUST in time, but WOW that was close.

4. Does anyone else watch Glee and love it as much as I do?  I almost don't want to go work out tonight because I am so excited to watch it, but I know that I need to and I know that it will be nice to fast forward through the commercials.  Wow, I really am a Gleek.

5. Anyone know any good routines to lose the arm flab?  I know mine will get smaller as I lose weight, but there must be something I can do now to tone it up before I get to that point. 

6.  Alright, enough about me.  What is something that you are looking forward to this week that is healthy living related!?

Saturday Sessions

Update from Last week...


1. I need to work out everyday this week for at least 30 minutes.  I know that this may seem like small potatoes to you, but some days I have no motivation to do this. 
Mission accomplished!! I had a personal training session, attended two group fitness classes and cardio one day at Lifetime Fitness and 3 days at home doing the Biggest Loser 30-Day Jumpstart.  This is really an accomplishment for me because I can eat healthy everyday, but working out everyday is just as important for weight loss and I need to make working out a priority everyday. 

2. I need to eat dinner on my own before 7:00.  My boyfriend works long hours and I love to eat dinner with him when he comes home, so I usually try to wait.  Some days he isn't home until 7:30 or 8:00 and one day this week I didn't eat until almost 9:00 and I try to go to bed at 10:00.  That is not working for me. I need to just eat on my own.
This went pretty good, but there is room for improvement.  I ate almost everyday before 7:00, but two days it was about 7:30, so I need to continue to work on this goal.
3. I just got my three Hungry Girl books in the mail and I am very excited to start cooking with them.  Once I get my camera back from my friend I will work on getting more photos posted and also my experience with the HG recipes.
Love this!!!  If you remember my post a few weeks ago about breaking down bawling because my boyfriend didn't like what I cooked, well I have found a solution and it is Hungry Girl!  I gave my boyfriend the cookbooks and he wrote down all of the recipes he would eat, which was at least 50+ recipes!!  Wahoo!  I was so excited that he found so many things that he liked that were still healthy options for me.  We have only made one recipe, but I am going to post pictures from now on of the meals that I make, so be on the look out for that.


New Goals...


1. Try a 2 new fruits and 2 new vegetables this week.
I feel like I always eat the same vegetables and fruit every week, so I am going to step out of the box and out of my comfort zone and try new vegetables and fruits this week and see if I find new things that I like.  I also really like buying what is in season and local produce if I can, so that is another one of my goals that I am trying really hard to adhere to. 


2. Move my body as much as I can throughout the day. 
This seems obvious, but when you really think about it we probably don't move as much as we can throughout the day and we often take the easy way out.  What I mean by this is that we park as close to the store as we can, take the elevator, take the bus all the way to our destination and so on.   I am going to take the spot at the back of the lot, take the stairs and get off my bus a few stops early every day this week.  I want to push myself to be active as much as I can since my job requires so much sitting.  I heard a story a few weeks ago about an older man who owned a shop right down from hill from his house (about a half a mile or less) that he used to drive to everyday.  He started to walk because the weather was nice and at his next check up his blood pressure was dramatically lower, he had lost 25 pounds and was no longer pre-diabetic.  So, some small changes can make a BIG difference. 


I will post more later today or tomorrow.  I will also update some of my pages, add new recipes and some new photos of me at my worst and best.

Saturday Sessions

I am going to start a new feature on my blog called Saturday Sessions which outlines my goals or plans for the week.  There are some things that are working for me on this journey right now and some things that are not, so this is my attempt to make a weekly plan and hold myself accountable every saturday to see how I did.

1. I need to work out everyday this week for at least 30 minutes.  I know that this may seem like small potatoes to you, but some days I have no motivation to do this.

2. I need to eat dinner on my own before 7:00.  My boyfriend works long hours and I love to eat dinner with him when he comes home, so I usually try to wait.  Some days he isn't home until 7:30 or 8:00 and one day this week I didn't eat until almost 9:00 and I try to go to bed at 10:00.  That is not working for me. I need to just eat on my own.

3. I just got my three Hungry Girl books in the mail and I am very excited to start cooking with them.  Once I get my camera back from my friend I will work on getting more photos posted and also my experience with the HG recipes.

I am growing increasingly frustrated with my job lately in the sense that I am not up moving around.  I sit for the majority of my day and it just kills my energy.  My question to anyone who reads this is what do you do when you are at work to try and stay fit?  Does anyone have any tips or ideas to keep moving at work?  I try and take the stairs, get up and move around when I can, but it seems like sitting at work is hampering my lifestyle change.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

I am off to visit with my boyfriends family today (she is making a delicious balsamic chicken and asparagus salad today, YUM! Tomorrow I am heading north to visit my Mom with some of my siblings and nephews/niece for Halloween.  It is a fun-filled family weekend and I am very excited about it!  Have a good weekend everyone, make it positive and healthy!

Things I have learned this weekend

1. When going out to lunch with friends one must ask the server about 10 questions about how a dish is prepared before ordering.  Case in point I ordered a bruschetta chicken salad this weekend and the ingredients were: romaine lettuce, spinach, rotisserie chicken, diced tomatoes with a light balsamic glaze and bread.  I asked for the dressing on the side, no bread and wanted to make sure the tomatoes were not drizzled with butter or salt.  The dish came out and it was COVERED in parmesan cheese.  The bread was there, but I gave it to my friends immediately.  It took me about 10 minutes to get the majority of the parmesan cheese off of the dish before I could start eating it. It was very good, but I have learned my lesson that I need to ask more questions about the food that I am ordering.

2. I need to have a better plan in tact for weekends when I have a jam packed schedule.  I am trying to eat every 3 hours or so to keep my metabolism going.  This is generally breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and occasionally a snack after dinner if I have worked out.  Well this weekend I had a lot going on and I didn't enough snacks with me, so I found myself very hungry and slightly crabby.  I didn't make poor choices, but I need to work on being more prepared and having my snacks on hand at all times.

3. Having support is extremely helpful to lose weight.  I feel like I am standing on the rooftops telling everyone what I am doing and what my plan is so that the people around me understand how important this is to me and so that they can hold me accountable.  Ultimately, I am accountable to myself as this is my journey, but it is nice to let people know so that I don't find myself thinking it is okay to have a cheat day every weekend.

4. I need to re-train myself to cook.  I grew up eating comfort foods. We ate a diet of meat, potatoes and a vegetable, which wasn't totally un-healthy, but it could have been a lot more healthy.  I love to cook and I need to get some new recipes in my collection so that I feel like I have options and am not just eating the same thing over and over again.

5. I need to keep my purse closed at all times.  I lost my digital camera for about a half a day, but it has been found and I am beyond thankful.  I guess Ron was right when he told me about 50 times that I need to start closing my purse, so I don't lose things.

6. I attended an EXCELLENT weight loss seminar and I learned for every 6 grams of carbohydrates you consume it is the equal of 1 tsp of sugar as far as your body is concerned.  YIKES!  So at the beginning of this journey I bought some frozen meals that we all know about and think isn't too bad for us, and while it isn't worse than getting fast food it is still not the best option.  Two of the three that I chose had 71 grams of carbohydrates in them.  That is a lot of sugar!  I will be donating those to someone at work.  I also learned that eating whole foods is better than boxed, processed crap (okay, I already knew that, but I learned just how bad it is for us and I am trying to do everything I can to buy all natural, organic and whole foods when I can.

7.  I learned that I am not alone in this journey.  Almost everyone who I spoke this weekend about my weight loss journey told me something that they have been working on as well or things that are difficult for them.  This is everyone from my very thin friends to people who also attended the seminar.  It is nice to know that other people are struggling with their weight and body images as well and that I am not alone.

8.  I learned the importance of being more positive and less negative towards myself.  I consider myself a pretty positive person and I think that I come off that way to my family and friends.  I am not so kind to myself and need to work on my relationship with myself a little more during this journey.  As one of the speakers this weekend said, I am so sick of people saying, "I hate my body.  I hate everything about it.  Why is it that you HATE your body?  Does it not function for you?  Does it not let you live another day?  Does it not let you enjoy your senses and breath in and out?  Don't hate your body.  Just have certain things that you want to work on."  So, I am going to try and be my biggest cheerleader.  I am the only one who can control my weight loss journey and it won't help to beat myself up the entire way.

It won't always be easy...

So, today I tried Zumba for the first time and I loved it!  I went right after work and felt amazing after I worked out.  I came home after work and thought about what to make for dinner.  I have been craving pasta all week, so I figured I would make a pomodoro pasta using the delicious tomatoes that I bought at the store the other day.  I also had about 2 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken leftover and some asparagus that I needed to use up.  I made a pasta dish incorporating all of these ingredients as well as garlic and onion.  I used whole grain spaghetti and portioned my noodles out to about 3/4 cup and topped it with about a cup of the sauce mixture (entire recipe is found in the new recipes tab at the top of the blog).

Delicious chicken and veggies simmering.

Hello portion control! It's nice to meet you, my name is Shannon lets be friends forever!

This was my plate.  Holy moly that is a lot of food.  More than I was planning on eating AND more than I did eat!  It was awesome to eat until I was full and not over-indulge. I saved almost half of it for lunch.

Okay, so you're probably wondering why this post is titled what it is if my day seemed so great right?  Well it was great, don't get me wrong, but I made this meal because it was healthy and because I was craving pasta and because I wanted to try and make something that both Ron and I could enjoy.  WELL, let's just say that my boyfriend is NOT a fan of this meal.  He hated the noodles and thought it was too much tomato.  So, what happens when he says this?  I start bawling like a total freak show.  He has been home for all of five minutes and I am now crying.  He looks at me and is like, "it's okay, I like it, i'll eat it, it's great."  I try to explain in between blubbering that it is not that he doesn't like it, it is just that this is HARD.  It is hard to tell my friends that I don't want to go get pizza for lunch today and sit at my desk alone and eat.  It is hard to come home from a long day at work and try to figure out a healthy option to make for yourself for dinner that your significant other can enjoy.  Ron is amazing and he told me that I was doing a great job and to keep going along and that he will try ANYTHING that I make.  He also said that he will always keep an open mind and that he supports what I am doing 100% and is open to the changes that I am making and willing to try and make some of them with me. 

So, not this isn't always easy, but so far it has been worth it.  I feel some of the changes already and am anticipating the ones that will come.  I know somedays I will not always be cheery about my commitment to eat healthy and some days I will want to just cry and that is okay.  It is okay so long as I keep going and that is what I am going to do. 

Happy Hour is about the people you're with NOT the food and drinks

So, another challenge under my belt.  Today I had a happy hour with co-workers and usually we get a bunch of appetizers and drinks and share them.  Since I am three weeks into this lifestyle change I was a little nervous to see how it would all go.  I ordered a water (i'm not drinking soda anymore) and I ordered a side salad with no croutons and balsamic dressing on the side.   It was super good and I didn't even miss the fried food and cocktails that I used to drink.

On another note I said I would start posting photos of myself, food that I am eating and daily life experiences, so as promised I have some photos to share with you.

This is an example of my homemade 100 calorie packs.  Reduced fat cheese-its, reduced fat wheat thins, animal crackers, goldfish and pretzel gold fish.

Another example of my organizational skills.  1/3 cup dry oatmeal for breakfast or 1 cup of whole grain cheerios.

I like to cut up my fruit and portion it out right away so that I can grab it on the go and can never use the excuse that I don't have anything good to eat.  On Sunday's I usually wash and chop my fruit and veggies in put them in containers.  It is so helpful!

This is an example of a salad that I would eat before eating my grains and meat for dinner.  The salad has romaine lettuce, red onion, red peppers and yellow peppers.  I usually drizzle about 1 Tbs or less of light balsamic dressing to this.

This is an example of the toppings that I would put on my flatbread pizza for dinner.  This is about 3/4 cup rotisserie chicken with the skin removed.  1/4 cup of red onion, 1/2 cup of peppers and a small amount of olive oil and 2 heaping tsp of garlic and 2 tsp of the salt free taco seasoning below.

I am really trying to watch my sodium intake, so I decided to make my own salt-free taco seasoning.  It was from Food.com and it was super good!  I also learned that not all chili powder is created equal.  Some chili powder contains salt, so it is important to look at the ingredients!  Use 1 to 2 tsp on meat for seasoning.

Sorry that this is sideways!  I absolutely LOVE Flatout Flatbread.  Love, love, love!  I make all kinds of sandwiches, wraps and pizza with these.  You need to go to the grocery store and get these now (this is not a paid endorsement I just really love them and think you will too).

All of the toppings on top of the faltbread with 1/4 cup of low-moisture part skim mozzarella cheese. I bake mine in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes on a pizza tray.

 This is the end result!  So delicious and honestly you wont even miss "real" fattening pizza.  It is very satisfying and filling.

So, this is my boyfriend and me about a year ago.  When I started this lifestyle change I was about 25 pounds heavier than this photo.  I am almost back to this size and is something I look at when I need a little motivation.

Have a great weekend everyone!  It is another busy one for me and Sunday is my second weigh-in.  Hoping for some more great results!

Food journal

I use The Daily Plate to track all of my food to make sure that I stay within the same caloric, carbohydrate, protein, sodium and fiber levels throughout the week.  I love using it, it is super easy and convenient for me.  I track every single thing that enters my body and it is like a habit now.  I am not sure if I will always use it, because I have already gotten pretty good at number crunching, but right now it is holding me accountable and I like that.  So, some people have asked me what kind of things I eat and so I was going to write down my food intake for the day to give people an idea.

Breakfast
1/3 cup (dry) oatmeal
1 medium banana

Morning Snack
Apple
Sliced Cucumbers

Lunch
2 cups romaine lettuce
4 oz grilled chicken breast
1 Tbs Newman's own Lighten Up dressing
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup chopped peppers
10 reduced-fat wheat thins crackers
14 carrots
1 cup strawberries

Afternoon snack
Dannon Light and Fit Banana yogurt
20 reduced fat cheese-its

Dinner
Light Flat Out Wrap
1 Tbs Encino's all natural pizza sauce
1/2 cup rotisserie chicken
1/4 cup low moisture part skim mozzarella cheese
Mrs. Dash hot and spicy seasoning
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup diced peppers

Evening snack
1 medium orange
1/2 cup sugar snap peas

I stay really full and satisfied from these food items and I eat every few hours to keep my metabolism going.  I will try and post some pictures of my delicious dinner tonight once I make it.  Keep up the great work everyone!