Current weight: 309.4
Difference from last entry: +0.2
Difference from 2009 starting weight (316.6): -7.2
Bad food choices counteract good portion control.
Up a minimal amount of weight.
Remembering the basics, including drinking lotsa water.
A new anchor! And worry about my next vacation
This has definitely been a weird week. Most of it was because of schedule changes. I was off on Monday and Tuesday for spring cleaning and a birth within the family. I worked in the office on Wednesday and Thursday, but then worked from home Friday. My wife got off work four hours early on Saturday, so we went out to eat then.
It’s been wacky, for certain. And I haven’t been sticking 100% to the Weight Watchers plan. But I have been making at least some better choices, and I’ve been trying to watch my portion sizes. And so far, this is paying off: according to my scale, I am about a half-pound lower than I was at my weigh-in on Wednesday.
I learn and relearn some lessons, but some I take to heart: if you are going to splurge, make your self stick to good foods while you do so. Have a box of WW 2 Pt. Bars instead of a box of Twinkies. Have a glass of strawberry milk instead of a milkshake. Have a yummy, yummy tangelo instead of a pb & honey sandwich.
Splurge, sure, absolutely if you can’t help it. But minimize the impact.
Of course, one should also avoid Red Lobster’s Alotta Colada. But we won’t talk about that one….
I decided that the best way to get back on track is to start cooking healthy. I have a ton of Weight Watchers and Eating Healthy recipes, so I dug in and found the recipe below. It was actually very yummy, and clocks in at 9 points per serving. I substituted ground turkey and left out the oil, so mine was even fewer Points. The only other alteration I would make to this recipe is to add more water. It was very dry by the time it finished cooking.
Beef & Macaroni Casserole
12 ounces Healthy Harvest elbow macaroni — Cooked and drained
2 tablespoons Oil
1 1/2 pounds Ground beef 4% Fat — browned and drained
dash Salt and pepper
1 large Onion — chopped
2 Stalks celery — chopped
1 can Tomato paste
3/4 cup Water
2 tablespoons Sherry
10 3/4 ounces 98% Fat Free Tomato Soup
1/4 cup low-fat Cheddar cheese — grated, or Parmesan
1 teaspoon Leaf oregano
- Toss cooked noodles in oil.
- Place in greased CROCK-POT.
- Add all remaining ingredients, except grated cheese.
- Stir thoroughly.
- Sprinkle cheese over top.
- Cover and cook on Low 4 to 8 hours. (High: 2 to 3 hours)
It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am still toying around with a Mediterranean diet.I love the idea of the Mediterranean diet, especially for its supposed benefits for a person’s heart. I am still very concerned about my heart health. So anything that can help keep my heart healthy is going to serioulsy get my attention. Green tea is a recurring one, the Mediterranean diet is another.
The idea behind the diet is pretty straight-forward: eat like people along the Mediterranean always have. That means a whole lot of whole-grain breads and pastas, fruits and veggies, and olive oil. Daily yogurt and cheese. Smaller portions of fish and skinless poultry. And very little of other types of meats, sweets, etc. It makes a lot of sense, and should be easy to follow. Especially for someone addicted to breads and pastas like me.
My problem is visualizing what I should eat frequently versus what I should try to avoid all together. Fortunately, I was able to track down an awesome food pyramid tailored for the mediterranean diet (oldwayspt.org). There are actually two pyramids available for download/printing; one for adults (includes wine) and one for children (no wine). This makes a very easy-to-read guide to foods that are okay. Theoretically, that’ll make it much easier to create food plans. And to put lunches together.
My favorite part of this: since nuts are one of the Daily foods, it means I have (get) to eat a lot of peanut butter. YUMMY!
Hello everyone. I know I have been away for a while. Don’t worry, I haven’t gone off the deep end or anything. My weight has actually been failry stable lately. I just haven’t had much time to write, well, anywhere actually. All of my blogs and journals (for a list, see the Links section in the sidebar) have been neglected over the last month or so. I’ll get back to posting at least weekly here soon.
I have been keeping my eye out for interesting nutrition/health/weight loss articles, which is how I stumbled on a great article giving suggestions to make healthier foods breakfast. I have to admit that eating breakfast has never been a problem for me. I adore breakfast. I am sure to eat it every day, and I sometimes have breakfast foods for lunch or dinner. However, I know that a lot of people don’t. Many of my friends never eat breakfast at all, because they figure all of the breakfast foods are too fatty, or too calorie packed. I figured that at least some of you Loyal Readers will have the same problem.
The article on About.com has some very good tips, IMHO, including my favorite: “f you normally use eggs to prepare an omelet, consider changing to egg whites or egg substitute. All of the fat (and cholesterol) in eggs are found in the yolk. Egg substitutes and egg whites are fat free.”
Current weight: 292.5
Difference from last entry: +6
Difference from 2008 starting weight (290.5): +2
Yeah, this is bad. There’s no way for me to even try to hint that there’s good news here. This is bad, very bad. I’ve lost track of my goals, and that has made it easy for me to lose track of my habits. I am obviously eating way too much. And the bad thing is that I am not eating good things. Good as in tastes good. Obviously I am also not eating healthy stuff. Or at least not enough of those.
Like I mentioned in my last entry, I joined Weight Watchers again three weeks ago. And proceeded to gain 3.2 pounds in my second week. That was very impressive, in a bad way, considering I am walking anywhere from 40 to 65 minutes every workday. My exercise is up, but my calories are up even more. Way, way more.
I am trying to re-convince myself that I can do this. I can get back on track. I just need to pull myself out of this stupid-ass laziness that I’ve slipped in to. Losing weight is hard work. Learning new, healthy habits is hard work. But it is something I can do. I just need to stop being lazy.
