On the Hunt

Does anyone besides me ever get sick of their food?  Not too long ago I thought to myself, "this whole eating thing is going to be a piece of cake!  I will just eat a healthy turkey sandwich with fruit, veggies and some whole wheat chips EVERY DAY!"  Well, I am sure you can guess how that went.  Epic fail.  Nothing should be eaten over and over again, except maybe cake or chocolate :)  So, I have been really trying to break out of the box and try new things.  I love finding new "healthy" products and mixing them in with some staples that I already eat.

I must say that I am sort of a brand loyalist.  I find something I like and I stick to it.  For example you will catch me only buying Jif Peanut Butter, Heinz Ketchup, French's Mustard and Miracle Whip.  I grew up eating these items and I will not buy another brand of this product no matter what.  Having said that, I do have certain "healthy" items that I really like, but for the most part I am willing to stray if I find something intriguing once in awhile.

I was shopping around  the other day and I found a "healthy" fruit snack.  I know what you're thinking, "that doesn't exist."  I swear though that these fruit snacks ARE different and they taste really, really good.  The brand is called Buddy Fruits and the type of snack is called Pure Fruit Bites.  They are 100% real fruit and in fact the orange flavor had a full serving of fruit in it.  I brought a package in to work so that my co-workers could try them and everyone loved them.  Several of my co-workers said they would ditch their kids old fruit snacks and would be picking up some of these instead.  I am not eating the fruit snacks to replace eating real fruit, but sometimes you just want a snack and this is something that I don't feel guilty grabbing on the go to tide me over*.






* Buddy Fruits didn't pay me to write this post, I just really like their product and wanted to share it with all of you. :)

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.

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!