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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!