Sweet Tomatoes

Thought for the day:

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.
~Lewis Grizzard


Last week was way to hot for my lunch hour stroll, but I was still able to loose one pound, Thank You Zumba!


I did a little shopping over the weekend, needed a few things in a smaller size. Yippee! Yippee! Yahoo!
I've been shopping the back of my closet, but I'm running out of smaller sizes. At least with all of the end of season sales, I'm not spending a fortune.

For me there is nothing else that tastes more like Summer than a sweet, juicy, fresh, homegrown tomato. I absolutely love Gazpacho, marinated tomato salad, sliced tomatoes, BLTs,stuffed tomatoes, baked, broiled and fire roasted tomatoes; honestly, I don't think I've met a tomato I didn't like. Lucky for me, they're in season and they are a good for you "SUPER" food. Packed with lycopene, potassium, vitamins A and C and really low in calories. Whoo! Hoo!

Does it get any better?


Last week in review:


What I did right-


a. Ate Breakfast daily.

b. Kept a diary of every bite that crossed my lips.

c. Drank extra water due to the heat and my increase in activity.

d. Created a new recipe substituting healthier ingredients to put the skinny on a favorite dish.

e. Took up a new activity twice a week.


What I can do better-
a. Get a little more sleep, and make some time for meditation.

b. Manage to get my walks in at least 3 days this week.

c. Treat myself to a non-food splurge.

Big Easy

I have been absolutely craving Popeye's "Cajun Popcorn", but that deep fried stuff is sure to trigger what I call my "Fat Tooth" and result in a binge of eating fatty junk food. This swap that made me feel like I took a river boat cruse directly into the "Big Easy", and the serving size is generous.

That Zumba class has me thinking "Hot! Hot! Hot!


Kicked Up Cajun Popcorn Shrimp

Ingredients


1 pound(s) shrimp, medium peeled, tails removed

3/4 cup(s) General Mills Fiber One, ground into a bread-crumb like consistency (use a

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 cup(s) Egg Beaters Egg Beaters

1/4 cup(s) hot pepper sauce

10 spray(s) cooking spray

1 cup(s) store-bought cocktail sauce

1/2 tsp table salt

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Spray a large baking sheet well with the cooking spray.
In a food storage bag mix together Fiber One crumbs with the salt, garlic powder and onion powder. Set aside.
Drain all liquid off of the shrimp then pat the shrimp dry . Set aside.
In a shallow bowl combine the Egg Beaters and the hot pepper sauce.
Drench the shrimp in the shaking a little to remove any excess drench mixture and shake to coat a few shrimp at a time in the bag with Fiber One crumb mixture . Place the shrimp in a single layer on the baking sheet and spray over the top with the cooking spray. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until crispy turning once during the baking time. Serve with the cocktail sauce.

Weight Watchers Points Value: 4


Servings: 4

Zum-Zum-Zumba!

Thought for the day:

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."



-Andy Warhol
 
 
Well I tried my first Zumba class yesterday, and I survived!!!
 
A friend asked me to attend a Zumba class with her, I was hesitant at first, I didn't think I could keep up, but decided to check it out anyway. Hey, it was just one class, only one hour. Boy! Am I glad I went! It was very intense but also fun, it seems to combine Latin dance moves with aerobics and some belly dancing moves.  You sure do "Shake what your Momma gave you", and get full body workout to boot!
 
It kicked my butt!
 
When I got home afterward and checked to see how many activity points I'd earned I was very pleased to see that someone of my current size could earn 10 activity points for one hour of Zumba. Yippee!!!
 
You can bet I'll be back!
 
I thought I would be sore as hell this morning but I wasn't, so I guess the Yoga and Pilates  DVDs I've borrowed from the Library, and practiced, have payed off too. 
 
Can't beat that with a stick!
 
 
 

Another Week Shot to Hell

Thought for the day:

"In the Middle Ages, they had guillotines, stretch racks, whips and cahins. Nowadays, we have a much more effective torture device called the bathroom scale." -Stephen Phillips


Last week ended in a big stink. Things at work have been horrible and I can't seem to see any light at the end of the tunnel. Things have pretty much sucked for the last 6 months and now I'm having a real problem keeping my attitude from stinking as well. I can't seem to work fast enough or smart enough to do much but tread water, and it feels like I'm treading quicksand.

I felt so weighed down at the end of the week I made some really poor choices in what I ate and drank. I caved and went on a junk food binge with a chocolate malt chaser.

Boy! did I feel bad Saturday.

First I overslept and missed my weigh in, I felt fat, bloated and lethargic. I'm glad I didn't stand on the scale, it would have just added more weight to my negative feeling.

Once I got myself going I went for a hair cut and then met a former co-worker for lunch at St Louis Bread Company. My lunch choices were not too bad. A salad and sandwich with green tea to drink. We had a nice lunch and it was really good to see her, she gave me a pep talk and I started feeling better.

I just know she went home and said a prayer for me.

I followed the lunch with a long walk in a local park trying to get my frame of mind in order, it was dusk when I finally went home. Physical exhaustion does wonders for putting your priorities in perspective, at least it assures a good nights sleep.

I don't want to review last week it was too painful by the end of the work week and I just want to let it go!

This is a new week and I've set some new priorities.

1. Exercise at least twice this week. Walk at least 3 days.



2. Do something nice for myself, make some time for meditation.

3. Quit allowing what is eating me to make me eat the wrong foods.

Fat Momma Meets Hungry Girl

Thought for the day:

"You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be." -David Viscott


Yesterday my friend Mary and I attended a "Happy Hour Party" given by "Hungry Girl", Lisa Lillien. We had a awesome time! It's been quite a long time since I've been out to a "Happy Hour" and an even longer time since I've enjoyed myself so much at one. The crowd was huge, mostly female, and either trying to lose weight or maintaining a weight loss. I met women barely old enough to consume adult beverages and women possibly as much as 20 years older than me, all having a good time, and all of us united in our struggle to fit into our unforgiving jeans.

I tried some party foods and cocktails that were amazingly low in calories, fat and carbs. Can you believe it, a Margarita for only 115 calories! I'm impressed, Now, I had already figured out most of the calories in cocktails are from the sugary mixers. I've also made my own simple syrup and sour mix substituting Splenda for the sugar. "Hungry Girl" swaps flavored versions of rum and vodka or uses sugar free Torani syrup for the liquors in favorite cocktails, which makes a lot of sense, because a liquor is just a grain alcohol with sugar and flavor from either fruit, herbs or spices. I have also noticed that her recipes gain flavor from powdered drink mixes like Crystal Lite. How clever!

Now, for the food. The recipes are YUMMY!  Especially the "Devilish Eggs" which were absolutely delicious and difficult for me who loves deviled eggs, to detect the swap of mashed cooked orange cauliflower and "Laughing Cow" cheese for the egg yolks.

Meeting Lisa and chatting for a few minutes was great, she was very gracious and we had her sign our copies of "Happy Hour".

I really like the "Hungry Girl" cookbooks, "200 Under 200" is my favorite and I've found some really great swaps on the web site http://www.hungry-girl.com/.

Two of the ladies we met were using a method of weight loss I found quite surprising. They stated they were participating in a medical study at Washington University. They have a G-tube(a tube that is surgically placed through the abdominal wall into the stomach); they eat whatever they want and then they attach a small machine to the G-tube and evacuate the contents of their stomach. Thankfully the procedure was not demonstrated. One of the women proudly stated she had lost 40 pounds in the past year of participation in this study. I didn't have the heart to tell her I had lost 36 pounds in less than 4 months eating and following the Weight Watchers program.

My friend Mary, who is also a nurse, admitted to being shocked by the idea of what we both thought was medically supervised Bulimia. While not shocked, I was surprised that a Medical School would trial this method for weight loss and also rather curious about the psyche of someone who would participate. Although medically supervised, I can't imagine how it could possibly be healthy, or teach a person how to maintain their weight loss. For me it screams desperation.

A Girl's Just Got to Have Fun

Thought for the day:

"The future depends on what we do in the present." - Mahatma Gandhi Eleanor


Boy did I have a busy weekend, two of my Granddaughters are staying at my house while their Mother is out of town. We had a lot of fun and I was able to get in a lot of activity. Whoo! Hoo!

Saturday was weigh-in day and I did lose 0.4 pounds, a little disappointing, but due last weeks hot weather I didn't get in as much exercise as I would have liked. And I was hungry all week. Those Flex points were gone by Thursday night.

This weekend, however, was a different story. We walked, we played and we got in the swimming pool and played some more. The weather was beautiful. Sunday afternoon I cut grass and weed-whacked for a couple of hours, then got in the pool and did my 30 minute pool work out with the noodles, and I'm up to using two noodles for resistance now.

When I sat down and figured my activity up all of Sunday's activity points I was pleasantly surprised to learn I had 10 points in activity! I was feeling so good about that I had a cold frosty one and lolled on the pool raft to celebrate. I love to get a cold drink and loll around, an old friend of mine used to call the activity, or lack of it, "Not doing Jack Shit".

Well, "Not doing Jack Shit" sure did feel good after all of the weekend's activities.



The week in review:



What I did right-

a. Ate Breakfast daily.

b. Kept a diary of every bite that crossed my lips.

c. Drank a minimum of 6 glasses of good old H2O daily.

d. Created a couple of new recipes substituting healthier ingredients to skinny down some favorite foods.


What I can do better-


a. Try a couple of new recipes so I don't get bored.

b. Manage to get my walks in at least 3 days this week. (I walked at lunch today)
c. Treat myself to a non-food splurge.

No Excuse

Thought for the day:

"And oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse."



 -William Shakespeare


With the recent hot weather, getting my walk in has been a challenge because it's too easy to make an excuse not to do it. I don't want to get up earlier, I like to sleep too much. It's too hot to walk at lunch and even hot in the evening. I walked the mall yesterday and today just skipped it. Not Good! I am doing the pool exercise routine, hope that is enough to get the weight off this week because the walks have just not been happening.

Here is a recipe I came up with for Perch Amandine. I'd been wanting Sole Amandine but only had Perch in the freezer and "Necessity is the Mother of Invention". The potato recipe is a great side with the fish or just about anything else.

Perch Amandine

1 Lb of Perch fillets
juice of 2 lemons about 1/4 cup
1 lemon sliced
1/4 cup of sliced blanched almonds, toasted
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
1/2 cup of dry vermouth or other dry white wine

To prepare, use a covered skillet over medium heat.

Bring the lemon juice, vermouth, parsley, thyme, slat and pepper to a boil. Add the Perch fillets and half of the lemon slices, cover and reduce heat. Poach at a gentle boil until the fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork. Transfer the fish to a platter and top with the toasted almonds. Reduce the poaching liquid by 1/2 and pour over the fillets. Serve and enjoy
Makes 4 servings at 5 weight watchers points each.

Roasted Potatoes Asiago

4 small potatoes about 3-4 ounces each quartered
1 small onion thinly sliced and broken up into rings
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place the potatoes and onions in a baking dish, drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until just tender enough to pierce with a fork. Top the potatoes with the Asiago cheese and return to the oven to melt and slightly brown the cheese, about 7-10 minutes.
Makes 4 servings at 3 points each

Happy Independence Day

Thought for the day:


"Albert Einstein, who discovered that a tiny amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy, which explains why, as Einstein himself so eloquently put it in a famous 1939 speech to the Physics Department at Princeton, You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers." ~Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 50



Yesterday was weigh in day and this week the scale was my really good friend, I lost 4.8 pounds!

But I have worked out pretty hard for the past four weeks, maybe a little too hard at first. At this point I'm just happy to see the numbers on the scale go down.

Being independent of another 4.8 pounds is a great feeling and it puts me at 1/3 of the way to my 100 pound weight loss goal. Yippee!!!

My pool noodle water workout is going well and I can already tell that my body is changing by the way my clothing are fitting. I am also very happy to report that due to those changes, I can now solidly shop for clothes in the Misses Department and be independent of the Big Girls Clothes.

Today is Independence Day and while I celebrate American Independence, I'll also be celebrating Independence from 1/3 of my excess body fat.

The week in review:

What I did right-


a. Ate Breakfast daily.

b. Kept a diary of every bite that crossed my lips.

c. Drank a minimum of 6 glasses of good old H2O daily.

d. Walked 30 minutes each day. Did a Pool Noodle Work Out three times this week

e. Use a few flex points each day, especially when I'm more active.

f. I've let go of the problems I had the last few weeks.


What I can do better-

a. Try a couple of new recipes so I don't get bored.

b. Drink extra water during outdoor activities.

c. Find some additional ways to unwind and reduce stress.

d. Find another resistance Work Out for two or three days a week.

Back on Track

Thought for the day:

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."

-Benjamin Franklin
 
 
Wow! Another week is ending and a Holiday weekend approaching.
 
Tomorrow is Weigh-in day again and I think I've had a fairly good week this week. I have managed to walk every day and did some pool exercises on 3 out of 5 days. I've drank plenty of water and stayed on point all week.
 
I went out to lunch again today but this time to Subway. I had a 6" Sweet Onion Chicken Teryaki sandwich on whole wheat, an apple and Ice Tea to drink, about 8 points in all. Much better choices than last Friday. I really miss going out to lunch, but not only is it expensive, it's also difficult to stay within my points budget when I'm not preparing the food myself.
 
After last week I have come up with some strategies to stay in control when I eat a meal out:
 
I AVOID BUFFET AND SMORGASBORD TYPE RESTAURANTS!!!
 
I go on-line to check out the menu and nutritional info, and decide what I'm ordering.
 
I call my order in ahead of time to be ready when I arrive so I don't change my mind.
 
I drink a large glass of water before I go out.
 
Can't wait to weigh-in!