Inspiration can come from all places...Thank you Walk MS.

Inspiration can come from all places, but no matter where it comes from, it's always so amazing.  This weekend was the Walk MS 5 mile walk in Manchester, NH.  A very good friend of mine, Casie, requested that all her friends and family do this walk with her for her 30th birthday, which was the same day as the walk.  She doesn't have MS, but someone close to her does, much like many others.  Kristi and I signed up to do the walk, along with a good group of our friends.  We did a little fundraising (thank you to those who donated!), and we did a (VERY) little bit of walking to prepare. Sunday was the day of the walk and it was a hot (80 degrees) and very sunny day.  The walk started at noon, and we started our 5 mile walk around Manchester.  The route was mostly scenic, but quite hilly.  The walk started downhill, which unfortunately meant the end was up (quite a big) hill.  We walked a bit along the canals, which gave off a very nice breeze, and then headed up to downtown, walking by all the delicious restaurants and awesome bars...what a tease!!  The walk then wound up through neighborhoods and up a nice big hill just before the finish.

At the beginning of the walk, I was worried about finishing, but as we continued walking, we saw people of all ages, from babies to grandparents, with varying disabilities.  If they could do this 5 mile walk, so could I.  I sometimes think that being so overweight is a disability in itself at times, but even if it is, at least I have the option to make a change.  I don't have to be this overweight. I don't have to worry about fitting in an airplane seat, or worry about weight restrictions for different activities.  There is no reason that I should be limited to where I buy clothes, or how I look in them. The people with MS have no choice, they cannot change their diagnosis, much like people with other disabilities and illnesses.  Why should I live with a "disability" that I created for myself?   Time to make a change.  Thank you Walk MS for continued inspiration to continue on my path to a healthier and better life.

So, yes, I finished the walk.  I completed 5 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Yes, 8 minutes longer than it took the winner of the Boston Marathon to complete 26.2 miles today.  But you know what? That's okay, because every mile I walk is a step closer to getting my health, weight, and life under control.

Yesterday's Walk MS event was very inspirational, and I'd like to thank my friend Casie for putting her team together as her birthday wish.  What a great idea. Thank you Casie. :)

I did it!

"Join The Movement" as it says on my bracelet.

Yesterday after the walk we came home, had some lunch, rested for a bit and then decided to go out to dinner in Nashua with some friends.  I picked Shorty's in Nashua, NH because Kristi really wanted a burrito.  Unfortunately our meals were less than great, but it was still a fun dinner with some friends that were able to meet us there! I love when we randomly want to be social and are able to make it happen within an hour. Thanks for joining us friends! :)

Today was very hot and humid and we stayed inside for most of it.  I woke up very sore from the walk yesterday, but by early evening I was feeling good and so I decided to go for a little walk around the neighborhood.  Kristi and our pup, Samson, came too.  A nice family walk. We went about 1.4 miles, in about 30 minutes.  And it was crazy hot.  Then I made dinner on the BBQ grill that Heidi has on the back porch, and it was delicious!

14 Points for dinner, using low fat hot dogs, light buns, fat-free feta, and fat-free dressing to save points!

Saturday night was our friend Jess' birthday party. and we went candlepin bowling and then to the bar at the bowling alley, where some of the party people entered a karaoke contest.  It was a good time, aside from not getting to sleep until about 2am, which was not the amount of sleep I wanted to get before walking 5 miles. Oh well!  Overall, it was a very successful and enjoyable long weekend with lots of activity, friends, and successes.  

This is a picture of me and Kristi, my wonderful fiancee, before our bowling birthday party outing on Saturday! :) 

Have a great week everyone, and don't let anything hold you back from doing what you want to do! 

Good Meals and a Good Week

It's been a great week so far.  Nothing really special or remarkable, but any week that I do well with staying on track and eating right, according to the Weight Watchers guidelines, I feel great.  It's Friday which means it's the last day of my week, before my 10am weigh-in tomorrow. I've made a lot of good, healthy, balanced meals this week and I wanted to share some more with you!  I know it's tough to think of healthy things to eat sometimes, especially if you get bored of eating the same thing over and over again. I know a lot of people eat the same meals all week so they know they're staying on track etc, but I just can't do that. I do like leftovers, for a day. But I can't seem to get excited about something after the 2nd time, sometimes I can do 3 meals if it's really good.

This morning I made a brunch like meal for a late breakfast, pictured below.

Brunch (Weight Watchers Points Plus Values in brackets): 9pts


Orange wedges - (0)
Grapes - (0)
100 Calorie English Muffin - (3)
Thin n' Trim Oven Roasted Turkey 2oz - (1)
Weight Watchers spreadable garlic & herb cheese (1 wedge, on english muffin) - (1)
Nonfat store brand mixed berry yogurt - (2)
Fiber One Cereal, 1/2 cup or 30g - (2)

Breakfast/Brunch was filling, balanced, and delicious.  As I said in a previous post, fiber was the focus of last week's meeting, so I tried to think about that while meal planning this week.  The 1/2 cup of Fiber One cereal as 14g of fiber, which is a really great amount to start the day! I had some extra orange wedges, not pictured, as well.

Hamburgers were on last night's menu.  Kristi said she was craving a McDonald's hamburger, so rather than give into the craving, I told her I'd made hamburgers one night this week.  I decided to make them on the grill outside, and I put corn on the cob on the grill too! I had to ask Heidi for some grill instruction since I've never owned a grill and therefore have never had to start a grill up. It was pretty easy, but thanks Heidi for the help! :) 

Dinner  (Weight Watchers Points Plus Values in brackets): 21 pts

Fresh cut veggies (cucumber, celery, red pepper, carrots, dill pickles) - (0)

Red pepper hummus (1.5oz) - (3)

Corn on the cob, made on the grill with some seasonings in tin foil - (2)

Sweet Potato Fries (homemade, cut up sweet potato, a little oil and seasonings) - (4)

Hamburger, 1/3 pound patty - (5)

Wheat hamburger bun - (3)

Lettuce, tomato, ketchup (1tsp) - (0)

American cheese - (2)

2 small slices of center-cut bacon - (2)

So, that was dinner. Dinner was amazing. The corn was possibly the best corn I've ever had.  I used about 1/4 teaspoon olive oil, over 2 ears of corn, then added small amounts of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and vegetable seasoning then wrapped them individually in tin foil about 2 hours before cooking.  They were seasoned perfectly.  They were on the grill for about 15 minutes and that was a perfect amount of time.  The burgers were preformed store-bought 90% lean ground beef, and I added some pepper, Montreal burger seasoning, and Worcestershire sauce, also about 2 hours before cooking. They were perfect.  I was very pleased with the meal.  The sweet potato fries were a little crisp on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside.  I'd like them to be a bit more fry like, but these were pretty darn good!

Yesterday afternoon I decided to try a Weight Watchers recipe that was suggested in the Weight Watchers weekly for this week. Kale and Bacon and Cannellini beans. This proved a little more difficult than I expected, with a few changes and set backs.  The recipe is below the pictures, so you can see where I subbed thins from the original list.  I ended up using dried minced garlic instead of fresh.  While the taste was just as good, I forgot that it wouldn't need to simmer as long since it isn't fresh.  I let it simmer in the bacon grease, as directed, for under a minute, but when I turned around, it was very dark , which ended up meaning it was burnt to a crisp.  Unfortunately I didn't really realize it was burnt until I added the fresh onions, so then I had to throw out everything through that step.  I ended up cooking another 3 slices of bacon, so that I still had bacon grease to cook in, per the recipe.  I used some of the extra bacon for dinner, on my burger, so that worked out.  I didn't want to chop another onion, so I ended up using onion powder.  The taste, again, is pretty much the same, but it creates less food for the recipe.  The rest of the meal I proceeded as per the recipe, but I realized I didn't have 1lb of kale, instead I probably only had 1/2 that.  Oh well.  The dish turned out pretty well, and I think I'll try again, but this time use everything fresh and follow the recipe exactly.  I think it'd be better that way.  With no onions, and not enough kale, it only came out to about 2 servings, and the recipe says each serving is 5pts, but I know each of these is more since the ingredients are only split between 2 dishes.  I don't think each one is 10 though, so I called it 7 points per serving.  I could be off, but since I haven't used my weekly points, that's fine. I've only used 8 out of 49 and today is the last day of the week, so a few extra points from varying recipes is fine to not be sure about.  I also have activity points I gained this week so I know there is no way I'm over my points.

Pictures are below of the ingredients, and then the finished dish.  It was very flavorful, maybe a little too salty, but I think using fresh onion would make that better, as the salt and balsamic vinegar would have more to mix into.

Kale with Bacon and Cannellini Beans: 7pts per serving, served 2, recipe at the bottom of blog

 

I ate this yesterday for lunch, along with a 6in Subway sandwich that Kristi brought home for me.  Heidi had some BOGO coupons that expired yesterday so Kristi got us each a 6in sub for lunch on her way home from her class at UML.  I forgot how much I loved Subway! I worked there for awhile, when I was 19, at Plymouth State College. It was a fun, and easy, job, and the perk of free subs was pretty decent!

So, a few great meals. A pretty great week.  A weigh-in tomorrow that I'm feeling good about, and not stressing like I normally do, so that's good.  I need to run to the grocery store to stock up on some fruits and veggies for the weekend, and for my salad that I'm having for dinner tonight.  I try to always eat a light meal, low on salt and heavy meats, the night before a weigh-in, so that I'm not "weighed down" when I get on the scale.  Tonight's salad will likely be with either tuna or shrimp on top. I haven't decided yet.

I hope all of you reading this have a fantastic day, and if you're doing Weight Watchers, or any other "diet", I hope your results this week are where you wanted them to be.  I'm hoping for minimally 0.4lbs lost, so I hit that 10lb goal I wanted to meet last week, but I really want it to be more than that of course. I usually feel good as long as I'm losing 2lbs per week, but we all know that just doesn't happen every week.

Happy Friday friends, family, and supporters. Have a great day, and a fun-filled holiday weekend, whatever you may be celebrating! :)  I'll be sure to post tomorrow about my weigh-in results!

Kale with Bacon and Cannellini Beans Prep time:  10 min Cook time:  32 min Serves: 4, Points Plus Value: 5 3 slice(s) uncooked reduced-fat bacon    3 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), minced    1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes    1 cup(s) (chopped) uncooked onion(s), diced    1 pound(s) uncooked kale, stemmed, roughly chopped    1 cup(s) canned chicken broth, or beef broth    15 oz canned cannellini beans, rinsed and drained    1 tsp kosher salt    1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar    1 tsp sugar, in the raw    Instructions ·         Set a large, heavy pot or skillet over medium heat; add bacon and cook to desired crispness. Remove bacon from pot and set aside; leave bacon drippings in pot.  ·         Add garlic and red pepper flakes to bacon drippings; cook, stirring, until garlic becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes. Add kale; cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to wilt, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add broth; cover and simmer over low heat until kale is just tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add beans; simmer, uncovered, until liquid is almost evaporated, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in salt, vinegar and sugar; sprinkle with crumbled bacon and serve immediately. Yields about 1 1/4 cups per serving.

Success!

Today was a very good day.  I woke up on the right side of the bed I guess! I had 2 successes today. I made 3 delicious balanced meals...and I got out for some exercise!  I took pictures of breakfast and lunch, but I forgot to snap one of dinner before I got most of the way through it. Oh well!

Since my first 2 meals were so good, I wanted to share, and I'll include points after each food item.

Breakfast (English muffin, yogurt, fresh fruit, sausages, and coffee):


Banana - 0
Grapes - 0
Nonfat mixed berry yogurt - 2
English Muffin with apple butter - 3*
Chipotle and Peach Thin n' Trim Sausage (2) - 3
Coffee with Truvia and a splash of skim milk - 1

* Apple butter is less than a point per serving, and only a splash of skim milk was in the coffee so I counted that for a point, to even out the apple butter.

Total Points for the below meal: 9

Lunch (Roast Beef open faced sandwiches, veggies with hummus, pistachios, and rice cakes):

Carrots - 0

Celery - 0

Red Pepper Hummus (1.5 servings) - 3

Light wheat bread, 2 slices - 2

3oz Roast Beef - 3

Thin sliced cheese, 2 slices - 2

1/2 cup Pistachios - 5

Ranch Rice Cakes* - 2

* I ended up eating the rice cakes about 90min later as a snack instead of with lunch.

Total points for the below meal: 17 (Sorry for the sideways picture, I couldn't get it to turn!)

Today was sort of a lazy day, aside from cooking. I decided that we should go for a walk so my fiancee and I took our dog, Samson, for a 1.1 mile walk around the neighborhood. A little back story on this...a few weeks ago I decided to go for a walk and I got about 1/4 mile up the hill down the street and had to turn around and come home.  I went alone the first time, which doesn't help my motivation, and I guess I didn't realize how out of shape I was.  This time around I brought support, in my fiancee and our dog.  I was determined to go past where I did last time.  We walked out of our street and decided to take a left at the next street, which ended up being a dead-end, so we walked it and then walked back, then started The Hill.  This time I got to the top of the hill, and continued even further! Last time my walk was just under 1/2 mile. This time we were just over 1.1 miles.  It's not a long distance, but considering the hill, and how out of shape I am, I feel like I had a good "NSV", or non-scale victory today.  I forgot how energized it makes you feel when you exercise, I had all this energy while making dinner, and was in a great mood.

So, dinner...

Dinner was a taco salad, with all the delicious fixings. I used ground turkey instead of beef, and I used fat free sour cream, salsa, and Mexican cheese as toppers.  The salad included lettuce, red pepper, cherry tomatoes and cucumber.  This was all fantastically mixed together on top of some tortilla chips.    The meal totaled 22 points for my plate.  As a reminder, I have 55 points per day so my meals are going to be higher point values than most of yours, if you're on Weight Watchers.  I used extra chips and cheese to bulk up the meal, since I had 28 points left for the day as of dinner time, which is a lot.

No picture because I was too excited to eat it and forgot to set it up for a picture! Oh well, I think everyone knows what a taco salad looks like! :)

So, all in all I had a great day.  And I wanted to share that with you; my support system.

Thanks for reading, and I hope y'all had a great day too! Now we're watching A Fish Called Wanda, and then we're going to check out Betty White's new show, Off Their Rockers. Good night all!

Hungry Girl!

So a couple of weeks ago my roommate, Heidi, and I were watching Dr. Oz and his guest that day was Hungry Girl.  She made several dishes on his show but the one that stood out to me was a healthy version of chicken parm.  I knew I should try it since one of my fiancee's favorite meals is chicken parm, but it can be so awful for you, especially when you order it at a restaurant. I decided to try this recipe tonight and it came out deliciously.

I cooked it with a mix of whole grain and Smart Taste penne pasta, as I'm not 100% on board with fully whole grain pasta yet.  Each serving of pasta was 6pts (about 2.5oz dry pasta).  The only change I think I'll make to the below recipe is forgoing the tomato sauce part and just do my own sauce, because the one I make is better than using just a can of sauce.  Oh well, it was worth a try.  The actual chicken cutlet was fantastic though and the cereal I used was Fiber One Bran Cereal which is actually pretty good by itself, and very high in fiber (which was this week's focus in our Weight Watchers meeting - so this recipe was perfect...as a reminder - 25g of fiber for women, and 38g of fiber for men, is the advised daily intake).

To go with the pasta and chicken parm I decided to cut up 2 fresh zucchinis and let them marinate for about an hour in a little oil drizzle with some vegetable seasoning I like to use. I then steamed the zucchini for 2 minutes in a tupperware steamer that my roommate has for the microwave, and then I put them in the oven to bake for about 10 minutes.  They came out the perfect texture and taste.  See below for a picture of our final meal!  The point total for the whole meal is 13, which is 6 for pasta, 6 for chicken, and 1 for the small amount of oil on the zucchini.

After dinner I had some Newtons Chocolate Fruit Thin Cookies which are absolutely delicious, and you can have 3 for 4pts, or 6 for 7pts. I had 13 points left for the day so I had 6 of them, along with one of the small 2pt banana pudding chocolate cupcakes from last week, and then split both an apple and a pear with Kristi. Lots of variety and a delicious, semi-healthy dessert.

To go back in time a bit, I wanted to share my delicious 14 point lunch that I had today too.  Today was a good food day, 3 good meals, 1 snack, and dessert. I ended the day with 3 points left over but I just wasn't hungry and with 55 points a day, sometimes I just can't fill them.  I also had 10 glasses of water today (80oz) so I feel really good about how I did today.  Anyway, for lunch I made a huge salad, with about 4 cups of salad (lettuce, carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery, cucumber, red pepper), 2oz of fat free feta cheese, 4oz of grilled chicken, and a delicious basil parmesean light dressing.  I topped the salad with about 10grams of sliced almonds, for a little extra crunch.  The entire salad was 10 points, so to bulk it up a bit I added 1oz (30g or 15 crackers) Sundried Tomato and Basil Wheat Thins, which are 4pts per serving.  So I had the below lunch, which was filling, nutritious, and delicious, for 14 points!

Overall, I think today was a very successful food day, and I'm feeling good about this week so far.  Tomorrow I am determined to go for a walk in the mid-afternoon.  I hope I can convince Kristi to go too but she is getting up for work at 5:30am, working all morning then she has class in the afternoon, so by the time she gets home she may be exhausted.  Either way, I will be going for a walk tomorrow at some point, at least with Samson, our 9yr old yellow lab and shar pei mix.  It's supposed to be 59-60 tomorrow which is plenty warm, and perfectly cool, for a nice walk!  I am doing a 5 mile "Walk MS" walk on 4/15 for one of my Bridesmaid's birthdays, so I need to get myself moving if I'm going to make it through that!

I hope everyone reading this had a great day and if you're interested, you can follow the recipe below, or tweak it however you want!  I made it with the egg substitute, and not the regular egg, just FYI. I've added some comments where I made changes to try make it easier.

Hungry Girl's Pan Fried Chicken Parm

Ingredients

Makes 2 servings

1/2 cup bran cereal (Fiber One Bran)

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, or more to taste

1/8 tsp salt, or more to taste

1/2 tsp garlic powder, or more to taste

1/2 tsp onion powder, or more to taste

1/4 cup canned tomato sauce with Italian seasonings

1/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute or 1 large egg 

2 (4 oz) raw boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness

1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Optional seasoning: black pepper

Directions 

In a blender or food processor, grind cereal into crumbs. Transfer to a wide bowl and mix in Italian seasoning, salt, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/4 teaspoon onion powder.  (I put the cereal in a sandwich bag and just pounded it until it was ground down into fine crumbs, and then I put the seasonings into that to save a dish.)

In a small bowl, mix tomato sauce with remaining 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and remaining 1/4 teaspoon onion powder. 

Place egg substitute in another wide bowl (or beat egg in the bowl). One at a time, using tongs, coat chicken cutlets with egg, shake to remove excess, and coat with crumbs. (I used another sandwich bag for this, put each cutlet into the bag, made sure each one was coated and then put them into the crumb/seasoning bag to coat with crumbs, no need to use bowls.)

Bring an extra-large skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat. Lay coated cutlets in the skillet and cook for about 4 minutes per side, until chicken is cooked through.

Evenly spread sauce over chicken cutlets, still in the skillet. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Reduce heat to low and cover skillet. Cook until cheese has melted, 2 to 3 minutes. Enjoy!

Nutrition Information

Per serving:

1 cutlet (made with egg substitute) - 6 Weight Watchers Points Plus

258 calories, 6g fat, 684mg sodium, 16.5g carbs, 7g fiber, 1g sugars, 38.5g protein

1 cutlet (made with egg)

279 calories, 8.5g fat, 663mg sodium, 16g carbs, 7g fiber, 1g sugars, 38.5g protein

Dedicated to Heidi, for being awesome!

I wanted to share with all of you what I was surprised with this morning on my way out the door to the Weight Watchers meeting.  Kristi, my fiancee, and I live with our friend Heidi in her house. Heidi is also one of my bridesmaids. As I said in a previous post, Heidi is also doing Weight Watchers, and is very supportive and a great inspiration for me, especially with her fancy cooking ideas sometimes! This morning she surprised me by leaving a great big inspirational message on a wall of her kitchen that she made into a chalk board.  This psyched me up for the meeting and certainly started my day off well.  She knew my goal today was to hit 10 pounds and while I didn't do it, seeing this really made my day! I wanted to share with everyone, and to say THANK YOU HEIDI for your friendship and your support! I should mention that she also put a piece of Press n' Seal on the glass slider door to the porch that said "Good Luck Sarah". So awesome. :) Below is a picture of the chalkboard surprise from this morning, sorry for the "inside jokes" but you get the idea! Pretty awesome huh?

I couldn't help but share it with you all! :) So as you saw in my last post, I had sort of a rough morning, which could easily start my downward spiral for the week. Instead of allowing that, I took a little nap to reset myself, and spent some nice quiet time with Kristi.  Once we were hungry, I went and made us a delicious healthy lunch.  Very simple: A sandwich (turkey deli meat, cheese, light mayo and lettuce), fresh fruit (apple and pear) and veggies (cucumber and carrots), light ranch dip, and a sweet ending with a 2pt chocolate cupcake (made with club soda) that had sugar free banana pudding in the center, made by Heidi.  See below for a picture of our yummy lunch!

Not sure what the rest of the day will hold, but I'm feel much better than I was earlier. A loss is a loss and 1.6lbs is nothing to be ashamed of!