Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Another day in my life...MENU PLAN for today

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 Oat Hull bread (toasted) 2tsp butter, glass of skim milk (9)
Snack: coffee (Coffee Mate and Sugar Twin - life is better with chemicals) (1)
Lunch: Smoked Turkey Sandwich, diet pop (4)
Snack: orange (1)
Supper: grilled chicken breast (love my Cuisinart Griddler!)2 cups of Caesar salad with croutons, potato/vegetable soup for starters (7)
Snack: Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bar (2)

Now, to me that is a full day. But according to WW I need to consume a few more points. So, how to do that without hitting the best food groups? (chips, chocolate, candy) Well, I think I can make a bit of pasta (basil plants need pruning) with tomato sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. Yep. That ought to do it! We are also having a dinner guest that will be very happy with that addition!

Plans are like everything else in my life...subject to change. But this is very likely what will happen today. I need to load up for the day in the morning, it seems. If I have a good protein base, I actually forget to eat sometimes, Hubby is home today from Edmonton, so I doubt that I will be able to forget a meal this day!

And then there is the activity points. How many exactly do you get for racing around like a madwoman trying to make the place look like you have 'live alone' life skills? The last half hour before he opens the door sure gets the heart rate up! LOL

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

All alone am I....

and when the cat is away, the mice will play.

Late for breakfast, I decided it would be a good day to add the Canadian Bacon. WELL! For 2 points you get 19 gms of protein and 2gms of fat PLUS a whole whack of flavour. I made eggs over easy, and toasted some Oat Hull Bread (Safeway) for a really bang up breaky if I ever did see one! The bacon had "browned bits" from being warmed up in a teflon skillet, and although didn't have the familiar crunch of bacon, it hopefully will not react with my skin like bacon does....it is absolute nonsense that what you eat doesn't affect your skin. I am still paying for an indulgence on the cruise...cheescake...within points, but not within my personal limits! Anyway, the Freybe gets a hats off from me this morning, and for quite a long time coming. The Costco packaging was huge! I can see this turning up in all sorts of quick meal ideas, and having good flavour and a good protein content for a fair point value sure works for me! The salt of course, has to be taken into account, so on the day that you have this cured meat, you just have to take it easy on any other packaged foods throughout the day.

I have several projects in mind for today, but whether I will get to them or not is a different story! I am still working on cleaning my closet...it really is the tale that never ends. You get it pared down, and then the seasonal change messes it all up!

Monday, April 28, 2008

Getting back on track...

is so much easier when I am left to fend for myself! It is so good to be back in my own kitchen! Tonight's supper was Cheemo perogies...just had a hankering for them. They are little devils, but quite tasty. Six of these two bite wonders come in at four points, so that is pretty reasonable. Of course, I had twelve of them, with sour cream. All out of onions though, and that was a shame. Didn't realize that until I had myself anticipating starchy goodness!

I have a very loose menu plan this week. A huge Costco bag of spinach will be the basis for most of the meals...tomorrow night I will bake a potato, and serve it up with a mound of wilted spinach with butter. I also bought some Canadian bacon, so that might be good with the spinach and potato...perhaps small dice browned up would be good to sprinkle on top. An extra large egg has 7.3 gms of protein, and the bacon comes in at 11.8 gms of protein for 89 calories. Bonus! There are 5.8 gms of fat in an egg compared to only 4 in the bacon. So, every little thing counts. I could make a modified "egg McMuffin" for breakfast, just to introduce something new to my life!

Spinach pizza made on a "Flat Out" tortilla is also an option. Brushed with a bit of olive oil, sprinkled with seasonings, mounded with spinach and topped with Feta, food doesn't get much better than that! Of course a few mushrooms and thinly sliced onion just makes it better! MMMMMM food!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Friday

One more day left of the trip. I must say, I am looking forward to going home, and getting some work done! We have so much to do before May 4th. We are re-doing both upstairs bathrooms at once, so it will be interesting to see how we manage for a few days using the same little powder room! After that, there will be deck staining, planting and hardscaping to do, and only then will the paint brushes be brandished with wild abandon inside the rest of the house. Still don't know what colours, but I imagine a trip or two to the paint store ought to do the trick....the old 'know when I see it' routine.

Last night we had dinner at Angkor, a Thai restaurant. I am not a noodle person, but my oh my what they do to a rice noodle! Very tasty, very spicy. We avoided the dishes with the sweet sauces that I love, and stuck to the simpler things. They were all done so well, it was a pleasure to eat every bite. I must admit that I have gone over points this week. It is very difficult to be away from home so much and to stay on program. However, that being said, I think I am about five hundred calories over the limit, so in the grand scheme of things, that shouldn't be too detrimental. You just never know, though, do you? Knowing what you are doing and chosing not to do it is one thing but having things sneak up on you is quite another!

Generally, there weren't too many changes I have had to make on program, so few, in fact that I am hard pressed to remember what they could be. I measure everything now, and find that what I thought was half a cup is really a third of a cup...bonus! It takes the same amount of butter to cover a slice of bread whether you count it or not. One of the changes I have made, is the type of bread I choose now. It is all about the calories. I used to get those wonderful, flavourful mixed grain breads, until I found out they were two points a slice! Big difference between a sandwich with 1 point for the bread and 4! And cheese. I used to reach for a slice of good cheese as a snack...no longer. I buy the shredded variety, and seems to me that I dole it out one shred at a time!

On the other hand? There are a lot of additions to my daily diet. Three meals and a snack every day for starters! And sometimes a morning snack, too! I don't think I could go back to skipping meals, and definitely I could not manage to eat once a day, like I did during my younger years, BD (before diabetes). I have discovered that a hearty breakfast is a necessity, a simple lunch of a sandwich, soup or salad, and supper of meat and potatoes, with vegetables works the best for me. Simple, simple, simple. Why didn't I listen to my mother when she told me exactly that? We never listen do we? LOL

I never cared for pasta much, but actually like it now, as I don't eat it with a meat sauce. That always was too rich for my system. A simple tomato sauce is so easy,and is so kind to the digestion! Maybe that is why this journey is taking so long. Although slow? The progress is being made. There won't be a sudden dramatic weight loss for me, I am sure of that, but not gaining and gradual loss is okay too. So even a pound a month is appreciated. No point moaning about not being able to go faster. My body is doing the best it can, so it just may take me 1040 weeks where it takes the average bear 104 to lose what I have to lose. Either way, I am on program...I just won't be 'maintaining' as quickly!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Another lazy day...

and all I had to do was to figure out what to eat at a Thai restaurant tonight. I think I will just play follow the leader and go on instinct, because I really don't have a clue. Breakfast was a scrambled egg sandwich, and lunch was chicken with rice soup and oranges until they are coming out of my ears. MY THEY ARE GOOD!

Spent the day napping...activity points for that would be?????

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Third day out...

living in a hotel suite is do-able, but challenging.

Monday night we had spinach pizza from Houston's, hand delivered delivered by my favourite local resident! Basically, it is pizza crust brushed with olive oil, tons of spinach finished with a topping of feta cheese. Love it! We had it with Caesar salad and light dressing. Yesterday, lunch was a pre-packaged Safeway Oriental salad with precooked chicken breast strips...total for each of us was under five points, including the dressing. Supper? Habitant pea soup and toast. While out shopping, we picked up a KFC chicken breast, and took off all but one tiny bite of skin..mmmm good! The snack of the week? Juicy oranges that on sale at Safeway for 4.99 for a humongous box. And, best of all we have Skinny Cow fudge bars for desserts. MMMM good. Today we are having baked potatoes with cottage cheese for lunch, and an as of yet undetermined supper! A quick shop will take care of that.

There are so many options in the stores, that low cal solutions are just a step and your imagination away. In this hotel, we have the luxury of a little kitchenette that has frig, micro, kettle and toaster. We brought along our own little skillet to make eggs for breakfast so we are very well equipped. I keep all of the kitchen items in a suitcase that is easy to bring along at a moment's notice. The fresh food travels in a lined tote that also keeps our "car food" within easy reach. Subway provides the "mobile" meals that we need to purchase when we are on the go, without pushing me over the edge, points wise. However, a bag of Sun Chips was my undoing this week, as it was a constant beacon to my munchmeter until every bit of crispy goodness was gone! Can't think of a better way to use my Flex points though! They were delish.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Thank goodness!

The scale is moving downward again. Could it be the spring weather? Whatever it is, I welcome the loss with open arms! It is easy to be busy when the sun is shining and you don't have to hold your breath from the house to the car...even when it is an attached garage! I am telling you, it gets cold here that even metabolisms freeze!

So, today was spent running errands and searching for home improvement items. We have two bathrooms to freshen up with new flooring and fixtures - presently, we have those low flush toilets that are oh so energy efficient...until you have to flush them three times! So, out they go. And since we have to remove the vanity to put down new flooring, may as well replace the sinks, too. Of course the mirrors don't match, and the medicine cabinets are out dated...and the lighting fixtures? Passe. I am not decorating, I am making a snowball and rolling it down a mountain! Anyway, there are lots of neat things our there for bathrooms, so finding simple and functional isn't going to be difficult. Finding reasonably priced? Well, that is another question!
What has this got to do with Weight Watchers? Well, anyone with a high fibre consumption KNOWS what this has got to do with Weight Watchers!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Bison, buy some!

Roughly, a bison steak has 50 calories and 1.6 gms of fat per cooked ounce. And tasty? Wow. Tonight's supper was a 3 ounce portion of lean bison steak and a 5 ounce baked potato with sour cream and butter. I had points to burn, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and just indulge. For dessert, I had two pieces of whole wheat toast with peanut butter. Now that, ladies and gents, was a walk on the wild side if I have ever seen one!

This was the highlight of my day. I was able to peak at 'Reuben Sandwich' girl's groceries today. How in the world I can walk the same aisles of the same grocery store and not see all of this good stuff is beyond me. There are a couple of things that I went out and purchased right away before I forgot, so I will have some product reviews for you soon. My big splurge today was Skinny Cow ice cream bars....mmmm good. I have 1.5 points left to munch through, so I think I will go get one now.... well worth using .5 Flex points to round out the day!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Decaf anyone?

Last night I was introduced to Tim's decaf coffee. Much to my surprise, it tasted like real coffee. Last time I drank coffee late at night? I was up till two vacuuming! So, when presented with the option of decaf, I decided to take a walk on the wild side, and try it. SOOOOO glad I did! Great stuff. And I slept like a baby last night!

Sunny days

are a treat. I haven't done a thing in the house as I had planned, but I did get out and about! Today was Costco shopping - eventually everything necessary for life shows up at Costco, you know. But today? It was just the basic. Zip Loc freezer bags, milk and oh, yes...a bath mat and hand towels in taupe. Can't quite decide if they will be in the main bathroom, or the master bath, but the rug is a little strange, and such a pleasant colour! The rug reminds me of earthworms - thick soft strands, in an updated version of shag. Hopefully, it won't crush.

The handtowels in taupe are a real walk on the wild side - my mindset has always been that towels should be white. BUT it is nice to have a bit of variety! Then, of course, there was this set of battery operated spice mills....couldn't pass them up! I am such a gadget hound, it would be unthinkable, even though there were two pepper grinders in the cupboard the moment I bought the new ones. They won't be there tomorrow, so there is one problem solved!

Other than that? Nothing new in the neighbourhood. The good news? I was down another pound this morning. I read an article about why your weight fluctuates, but I prefer to believe that sometimes, life just works in your favour!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Lots accomplished this weekend!

Plus a lot of socializing. That brought it's own culinary perils, but for the most part? All went well. After saying no to sweets all weekend, I fell for a slice of raspberry mousse cake....a person can be too controlled, you know! So, there went my Flex points! We had visitors for brunch on Friday, supper out on Saturday, and today? A "luper" that was sooooo good! But all good home made food, so staying on plan was relatively easy...I chose to fall off the wagon tonight, which is what this "lifestyle" is supposed to be about, isn't it? I showed a tiny loss this week, but after venting a bit at someone that has caused my stress levels to elevate of late, I am expecting a big break through this week. Let's take that theory for a test drive. Wouldn't it be nice if it worked? The cruel facts are, that I really don't have bad eating habits, so this weight loss thing is a real uphill battle against WHAT??? I know I have a tendency to under eat sometimes, but for goodness sakes? It really does not make sense to be this weight with these habits. Sometimes I wish I did eat a lot of Big Macs, and junk food, and sweets....then, it would be relatively easy to change habits, and lose. But fine tuning is the name of my game, and I am constantly looking for where I could be going wrong. So, thought I would give the emotional angle a shot, and try to purge the "holding" vibes that are obviously keeping the belly fueled when the grub isn't! Hey. Talk is low cal so nothing ventured, nothing gained!

So there you have my weekend update. I am on my own for the coming week, as hubby is out of town. I have a ton of housekeeping projects, so I will have more than enough to keep me busy. That is my story, and I am sticking to it...if the rays of sunshine come and beckon me out of the house, who am I to argue?

Friday, April 11, 2008

Oatmeal

I was up very early this morning, and decided to try eating oatmeal for breakfast. It wasn't much of a point saver, as Splenda Brown Sugar Blend is irresistible! Points for skim milk, Splenda and oatmeal from 1/2 cup dry came in at 6.5 points. I wonder if it will keep me going like my usual eggs. There is 13.2 gms of protein in the oatmeal, vs. 14.6 in two eggs, so they come in pretty close...I think the fat in the eggs keeps you going, too, though. And of course, the bread and butter! They say to shake things up a bit, and I really have been quite inflexible when it comes to my breakfast. If nothing else, I will really appreciate tomorrow morning's toast and eggs!

Anyway, life is getting back to normal...sort of! Last night we had a very early night, and this morning, it was quite easy to wake up at five thirty when the neighbours let their hound out for his morning constitutional. If there was a reason to move, it is having our bedroom window too close to the neighbours!

Spring has finally arrived. It is time to have the snow tires removed, and start planning what we need to do in the yard. We are picking up our paintings from the framers today, so hopefully, painting the house will begin sometime soon. We are getting our new tubs installed in May, so we are on a bit of a deadline here. We need to find new fixtures for the upstairs bathrooms, and with my aversion to shopping, that itself is an ordeal of unusual proportions. Hopefully there will be the perfect thing at Rona to save me! So, onward and upward to face another day. The scales are going down, but slowly. I am so far behind on my goals, that I found it best to just delete the column from my spreadsheet and move on. Talk about a plateau! Man, I am struggling uphill with a piano on my back! How can this be a plateau? Doesn't that mean a resting place?

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Simple home, fancy toes....

Has become my new motto. I had a pedicure just before we left, and two manicures in the last ten days...one before leaving, and one on board with Rick, in a spa pamper mission! We also had a couples massage which was interesting to say the least. As one of the activities offered to amuse us, it seemed a lot more pleasant that baking out in the sun! On that note, I managed to get a little colour without a tragic burn. After a few days, I actually bared my back to the sun, and got a wee bit of "too pink" on my "bear hump", but nothing painful or damaging. ITS A MIRACLE!!!

All in all, it was a wonderful experience to live like the rich and famous for a week. Every need was catered to, even before we knew we needed something it was being offered. 24 hour a day room service, and I am sure that the staff outnumbered the 280 people on board the yacht. The suite we had was very spacious, and if it is possible to have too much storage space, well they achieved that! We each had our own bathroom, and there were two closets, two desks with chairs and mirror, and eight drawers each, not to mention cubbies by the bed, and sofa, that remained empty. There were even two televisions, two upholstered chairs and a couch...but here is the amazing part. There was actually room to store all of our baggage! If only home designers would study the techniques of ship builders, we would never have problems with clutter.

I did wear every single thing that I took with me, although it was not as hot as I had feared. There was always a breeze, so you didn't bake like you do on the prairies. As for getting motion sickness, Gravol was a daily experience as even the captain said he had never seen such rough seas at this time of year. That made me mellow to the point of dozy, but the rocking was so pleasant while we were falling asleep, that we really didn't mind if we had to stagger a bit while we were walking! Quite a few people were not as fortunate, as they relied on a bracelet of some sort and a "patch". Good old Gravol didn't let me down, so one more time, real drugs won! LOL

One day I did indulge in seven naps, and if it hadn't been for the air travel home, I am sure I would have come home well rested and glowing. The glow turned into a slow burn, thanks to Air Canada's wonderful baggage handlers that destroyed my new large "Barney" purple suitcase!

I have come to the conclusion that keeping on program is easier if you are a millionaire, because dining in a five star restaurant every night, and being able to specify exactly what you want and when? Well, that is just too easy! I managed to show a gain of only two pounds on my return, which I am hoping is mainly travel "swelling". I just took pictures of my toes, and yep. There is definitely swelling there! Last year it was ten pounds, so I am hoping that this year there was actually a bit of a loss. I am so stuck at this level. I am sticking to the program, and nothing, and I mean nothing is shifting. Grrrrr. But I am determined to stay the course, because this is a healthy way to eat, even if the scale is not cooperating. Sigh. Back to the ashes, Cinderella!