Saturday, February 24, 2024

Hello!

 I'm still here.

Had a bad week but am still pushing forward.  Still off track most days, but not all.

Let's talk eating out shall we?

I think it's important to know what to order eating out,  because you can't avoid eating out (though if prices keep increasing, I won't be eating out much).

Like for instant....I had lunch from Chick Fil A :  

12 grilled nuggets (0 pt)  with a side of fruit (1 pt) and diet lemonade (0 pt).  I had ordered the Zesty Buffalo Sauce (1 pt) for the nuggets but they accidentally gave me BBQ sauce (3 pts); but the lunch was still only 4 pts total.  Back when Chick Fil A first started offering grilled nuggets, it was just that - grilled nuggets.  Now they marinate them and I really hate the taste, however, adding sauce over them really makes them taste better.  Chick Fil A is very expensive and I'm thinking to keep things cheaper, I need to keep fruit at work and only purchase the nuggets.

Some more eat out meals:

KFC:  Original chicken breast with skin removed (2 pts) and mashed potatoes with gravy (4 pts)

Applebee's:  Blackened Cajun Salmon (1 pt); 6 oz. Top Sirloin (4 pts); 8 oz. Top Sirloin (5 pts); Grilled Chicken Breast (0 pt); Garlicky Green Beans (3 pts); Steamed Broccoli (3 pts)

Chipotle:  This is how I build my bowl:  Brown Rice (6 pts); Steak (3 pts); Chili-Corn Salsa (0 pt); Tomato Salsa (0 pt); Lettuce (0 pt).   I keep fat free sour cream (up to 5 tbsp for 1 pt) and reduced fat cheese (1/4 cup for 3 pts) at work to top it off...but if I'm not at work; I get both of those items on the side to control it a little.  I also like to keep baked tortilla chips on hand so I don't buy theirs.  This is a more pointy meal; but if you have the points worth it.

I like to mess around with the WW app in the restaurant section and look for point worthy food.  It helps to prepare.  About every 4 to 6 weeks I have a night out with the girls; on that day I do mostly zero foods and not in large amounts.  I want those points for the evening.

Another option is to go to the websites of the chain restaurants and figure out points; remember their nutritional information doesn't take into count the zero foods list.


If you end up somewhere that isn't a chain, you have to play the guessing game when it comes to points.  I always try to find something similar in the app.

I know this post is all over the place....  I've been dealing with a lot.  My mother isn't well and isn't going to get better and I just lost one of my dogs due to illness.  So yeah, I'm stressed!



Friday, February 2, 2024

Let's Review Those Tries

I'm going to try to walk a mile each day.  (I have my walking pad to help)

I'm going to try to drink 48 oz of plain water a day. (This is what WW use to recommend)

I'm going to try to stick to the WW program. (Just rejoined in-person meetings)

I'm going to try to read one chapter of a book per day. (starting today)


Other than the last one....LOL!!  Actually this is the start of my week.  I almost have all the water in already!  I drink 8 oz. first thing in the morning; 8 oz. while I'm making my coffee; 8 oz. before I leave for work and 8 oz. on my way to work.  Yep, I have to pee when I get to work!  I'll have the other 2 in by noon.  Then I drink whatever I want or add a flavor pack to my water.

I'll start my walking today and I am tracking!  Gotta get to a book though.

Anyway, I weighed in at a meeting last night for the first time in FOREVER and at the highest weight I ever weighed in at.  Not good; but I'm there and on track and hopefully I can get some of this weight off.  We always aim for that first 5 pounds....but I'm aiming for the first 15 pounds.  I really need to get the much off and yes, I know, it's not going to happen in a week.




Wednesday, January 31, 2024

The Big 6 - 0

 So I turned 60 yesterday and it was pretty uneventful.  My one co-worker took me to lunch and then CC took me to dinner and movie with popcorn!  We always do that for each other on our birthdays - dinner and a movie.

CC and I had been talking about doing small trips on occasion; and since this was a big birthday for me...she gifted me a weekend trip!  We're going to Evans City, PA!!  LOL!  That may not mean anything to many of you; but it's where the movie Night of the Living Dead was filmed and we've always talked about driving up to see the cemetery, museum and the mall where Dawn of the Dead was filmed.  We'll also be close to Pittsburgh plus roadside attractions along the way.  No date planned yet, we will go when it's warmer.

On the Weight Watchers front....  as I mentioned, I rejoined and will be heading to my first meeting tomorrow night.  Hubby told me just to skip coming home from work and just go straight there.  He'll handle all the pets at home.  It'll put me there early, but there's plenty of shopping all around!

I actually got my six servings of water in today!  I tracked also.

Another thing....I bought this:


It's a walking pad; basically a treadmill without the holding bars.  Now I have no weather excuse for walking!  In case you're interested:  Deer Run Treadmill.

So I'm off to a pretty good start!

Friday, January 26, 2024

A Quick Update

 I haven't done well this week.  Eating wise was okay, and I managed to maintain; but everything else went wrong.

As I've mentioned, this hasn't been a good month (or year) so far for my family.  First we had issues getting my Mom placed in a nursing facility (one side was saying she was too bad for assisted living and the other side was saying she wasn't bad enough for a nursing home).  That got worked out but in the middle of that, my brother-in-law suddenly needed open heart surgery.  We had snow....and then my one cousin's husband passed away and now my one aunt just passed.  Not a good start to the year.  On the 30th I'll be 60.  I was expecting to start some celebrating, but I was hit with a head cold this morning...just hoping to feel better in the morning or the birthday is a bust.

On another note, I've decided to go back to Weight Watchers meetings; I'll just have to leave work a little earlier to make it.  Though I was stuck in a contract for the app; because I was upgrading they were really nice about it, they cancelled that one (and refunded some money) and then I was able to sign up under one of the deals for the meeting.  So we'll see how that goes.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

It's Been Rough But Moving Forward

We've had quite a week family wise, but things have settled down a little bit.  It always seems to be something.

I've been moving forward though.  Over the weekend I finally made the Cream of Wheat Mini Bread Loaf.  There's different types of flavors; but I just went with a basic one:

1 very ripe mashed banana (or 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce or 1/2 cup pumpkin)
1 egg
4 tbsp Cream of Wheat ( I used the regular)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
2 packets of sweetener of choice
Lily's Chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips well.  Pour into mini loaf pan sprayed with oil spray.  Put chocolate chips on top (press in a little).  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

You get this:

They are so good!!  The two I made this weekend I did with bananas as I had some that were very ripe...I decided to make them for breakfast this week, so today I made 5 using unsweetened applesauce.  Though mini loafs, they are a big serving and very filling.  Point value will depend on which plan you're doing and how many chocolate chips you plan on using.  In my case I'm using Healthi's Carb Conscious plan (similar to WW Point Plus) and it came to 4 bites (Healthi's version of points).

I'm making meatloaf tonight, so that will also become tomorrow's lunch.  Tomorrow night is pork & sauerkraut, which will become Tuesday's lunch, and Tuesday night is Slow Cooker Three Bean & Chicken Chili, which, of course, is Wednesday's lunch.  Still working on Thursday and Friday!  I have a hard time meal planning lunches - I can't eat the same thing over and over.  For breakfast yes, lunch no.  I do better if leftovers from dinner become my lunches.








Tuesday, January 16, 2024

A Product You Should Look For

If I order a sandwich out...I like a crusty hard roll.  I don't want it on bread or a hamburger roll.  I want a sub.

I always look for the little club rolls at stores.  They use to be so easy to find and now seem non-existent.  Sometimes I will buy the large sub/steak rolls and cut them in half and just use half.  Another option is to pick your roll and pull out the bread on the inside to get the roll to the weight you want in order to have the points you want.  I always consider rolls should be 3-4 pts.

I was in Walmart and found these in the bakery section (not the bread aisle):



Crusty like I like and only 3 WW points!! (I've included the nutrition label so you can check what they are on your plan, if you do another).  They actually weren't very expensive either!  However, I will advise that you should freeze them and take out as you need them - they'll mold fast otherwise.

I'll add 1-1/2 oz. Virginia Ham and a half a slice of Sargento's Thin Sliced Swiss and 1/2 a tbsp of light mayo for a total of 6 points!  

I actually had this sandwich today along with a mini cucumber and chicken corn soup.  This bread makes you feel like you're cheating, lol!

I've seen others post about these rolls and someone mentioned they make french bread pizza with them!  We have a local sub shop that makes awesome steamers (you may know them as sloppy joe's); I prefer them on a mini sub roll rather than the hamburger but don't like the upcharge to a sub price (even though the mini sub uses no more steamer than the regular).  Next time I know that we're going there, I'll just order the regular and switch it to one of these when I'm back in the office!

I'm also going to start using the Healthi app more with the Better Balance plan.  When WW runs out, I just can't see continuing with them...unless they bring back in person meeting times that I can get to.


Sunday, January 14, 2024

A Quick Update!!

I've been all over the place since starting......  my parents are elderly and live with my one sister.  At the moment my mom is in a rehab facility and not doing well.  In the middle of all this my sister's brother had to have unexpected open heart surgery.  

It hasn't been a good start for the year, my response was "This is the worst year ever and we're only 5 days in."   So weight loss went down the list as well as my posting here.

I'll admit, when things get rough...I go off course.  I need to work harder at that and come up with a solution.

I belong to a WW FB group that posts recipes and such.  There are several of these groups that are very similar.  The recipes they post are actually stolen from other websites.  I wouldn't mind this if they've give credit to the website, but someone always posts it as their own (even the photos are stolen); they also do the same thing with products found to be low points.  Be aware of these groups, because many times the recipes posted can be from older WW plans; that means the points aren't accurate.

Anyway, this particular group posted something about Rao's Soups.  You may be familiar with their sauces but now they make soups.  I did a search and found this:

The Kitchn Rao Soup Reviews

I'm going to hunt these down.  Winter months, cold.....I can eat soup for lunch!  My hubby works at a diner and I had him bring me a quart of their chicken corn soup home.  Sure theirs is better than what comes out of a jar or can..but Rao's would keep better at work.  I used to have what I called an "oops" drawer; an emergency drawer at work filled with point friendly products, in case my breakfast or lunch were accidentally left on the kitchen counter.  I need to start that again; sometimes I just don't want what I'm packing for lunch.

And isn't that the point, wanting to eat what is in front of you?  We need to learn how to turn our favorites into point friendly meals.  Don't force yourself to eat things you don't like!  You'll never stick to the plan!