Food Tracker for 2/13/2012

Week 2

Breakfast

For breakfast I had 2 eggs poached on a piece of toast (6 pts)  on the side i had some applesauce and a glass of tea.

Lunch

For lunch I met my Mom and we decided to go to Runza.  Due to a misunderstanding I actually ordered a regular Runza sandwich.  I ordered the meal deal and got a salad (0pts) instead of fries, and a diet coke.  My salad had fat free Italian (0pts).  My Runza tasted a little too good to be true.  I looked up the points on it and realized it was a whopping 13 points!

So, my day already was at 19 points...oh boy.

As I was kind of freaking out about my monstrous lunch, I snacked on some carrot sticks. 

I also had a laughing cow cheese round for a late afternoon snack (1pt)

I only had 8 points left for the day and I knew I was going to Applebee's for dinner.  They have Weight Watchers in their menu, so I figured it'd be easy to figure out something.

They may be 550 calories, but this menu didn't have ANY mention of how many POINTS any of these items were.  So I got out my helpful points calculator.  I ordered the Sirloin with Shrimp.  It actually was on the drop down menu of the Restaurants tracker on my phone under Applebee's listed at 13 points, grrr!  I figured I'd have to use some of my flex points, but once it was in front of me, I realized that I could easily cut this meal in half and have the rest at a later time!  So under portions, I put down 1/2 instead of 1, and my points value dropped down to 6!  YAY, I managed to make my day with 2 points to spare!  Go me!!

Tomorrow is Valentines... time to see how good my will power is when my daughter comes home with her valentine box :(

Food Post for 2/12/2012

Week 2

Breakfast

I had a half bagel (3pts) with 1tbsp butter (1pt)  and 1 1/2 cups of fresh pineapple.(0pt)

Lunch 

I had 3 oz. of beef ribeye (5pts) along with salad and raspberry vinigerette dressing (2pt)

With the leftover steak, I made sure to portion everything into 3 oz.  That way I can just grab the right portion right out of the freezer!

Dinner

For dinner, my Mom made a pork chop casserole.  The cornbread stuffing was 5 points for 1/2 cup, the pork chop was 3 points, all the veggies were free.

Food Tracker for 2/11/2012

Week 1

Breakfast

For Breakfast, I had two poached eggs (4pts), a piece of toast (2pts), and a grapefruit.  I also made my zero point coffee with artificial sweetener and fat free creamer.  Don't forget the daily multivitamin!

Breakfast total points = 6

Lunch

Since there's bacon and almond slivers in the broccoli salad, I decided to make it my lunch, after all, it does have 5 power foods in it and it's only 3 points!

I had one of the Weight Watchers chocolate creme cakes for 2 points as my afternoon snack.

Dinner



I had the Smart Ones Chicken Enchilada dinner for only 7 points, followed down with a glass of 1% milk for 3 points.  Total dinner was 10 points.

My day only added up to 21 points, so I decided on having a fudge pop for only 1 point!

Have a good day!



Broccoli Salad 3 Points!

This was a recipe my Mother-in-law taught to me.  I entered it in to the Weight Watchers recipe builder.  With 7 servings, this ended up to be 3 points per 1 cup of salad!

* adjustment:  Make 1 cup of celery instead of 5 oz.  roughly 5-6 sticks.


Instructions

• Mix the yogurt, miracle whip, lemon juice, and sweetener together
• use a food chopper to chop up the onion, celery, broccoli, and grapes.  Add to yogurt mixure.
• toast the slivered almonds in oven (these are the highest point value in the salad- if you desire to have a less point salad, perhaps omit these or switch out for a different nut)
• fry up the bacon (if bacon is fatty, just peel off the lean parts to use in the salad)
• add almonds and bacon to mixture
• if mixture looks too dry, add by teaspoonfuls of skim milk till glossy and smooth.

This is insanely delicious and makes enough to bring to a family function, or simply to have as leftovers for future meals.  If you decide to try this recipe out, make sure to leave a comment to let me know what you think! :-) 

BONUS:  This salad has 5 of the Weight Watchers power foods in it!!

Food Tracker for 2/10/2012

Week 1

This day ended up being a pretty good day! 

Breakfast

I had two poached eggs (2pts each)  and my multivitamins.  Not a huge breakfast, but eggs are one of the Weight Watchers power foods, so I figured it was better than a bagel.

Total breakfast points = 4

Lunch

For lunch, I met my parents at Wendy's.  I ordered the Cobb BLT salad without the bacon.  I didn't know that even with the bacon, this salad is only worth 3 points according to Weight Watchers.  It also came with feta cheese and eggs lol- I was trying to eat around them b/c I thought they'd be extra points.   So I counted the whole 3 points anyway b/c I also had fat free french dressing with it.  I also ate my Son's apple slices.  I also had 1 baby bel light cheese round when I got home (if you've never tried them, they are SOOOO good!)

 

Total lunch points = 4

Staying Active

During my first week of Weight Watchers I've been trying to avoid being a couch potato because I knew as soon as I got all comfy, I wouldn't want to get up or do anything.  Instead, Ive been doing more laundry, vacuuming, washing windows, cleaning out the fridge, organizing my cupboards, and leaving the radio on instead of turning on the big screen.  As a matter of fact, the most I sit down during the day is when I write this blog!  As many beginning dieters, I don't quite feel like I can conquer running or busting out 45 minutes of cardio, but a little here and there is a start.  I must say, now that it's been a week, I can start seeing a difference in my energy level and my focus on things.  My appetite doesn't crave so much between meals.  I have had NO stomach aches or pains the entire week (and I have a real sensitive tummy), and, even though there can't be any visual difference in my body this early on, I feel more confident when I look in the mirror.  Maybe it's just a proud feeling rather than such confidence, either way, I love the feeling.

Dinner

Ah, Dinner!!!  Ok, with a measly 8 points used today, I was ready for my epically awesome meal!!

My Mother-in-law brought over some rib eye steak which weighed in at 14 oz a piece and ingredients to make her amazing broccoli salad (recipe on the following post).  We also threw in some mushrooms with the steak as it cooked, they soaked up all the seasoning and spices which made them absolutely mouth watering!  We just used the McCormick steakhouse seasoning. 

I used the recipe builder on the online Weight Watchers site to configure the points for the broccoli salad, it turned out for an entire cup of salad, it was only 3 points!  I have to admit to, I HATE broccoli!  Just ask my husband!  But the way this salad is used with a food chopped, everything is minced up and deceivingly healthy, you'd think you were eating a dessert!

I love this feeling, but I was TOO FULL to eat the whole steak.  I was planning on using my flex points due to the fact my week is almost up and I haven't used but 1 of the 49 I'm allowed. This steak in it's entirety would've been 28 points Y..U..M!  But since I only had half, that made it 14, and with the broccoli salad being 3 and the mushrooms are free..

Dinner total points = 17

...I still had 3 points to use :) 

Thanks to another treat my Mother-in-law brought, we had a delightful dessert!  A fresh pineapple ring with about 1/4c of frozen yogurt dropped right in the middle of it.

Perfect! 

Sunday is when I weigh in!!  Cross your fingers that I might miraculously see results in one week lol!  Have a good weekend!



food tracker for 2/9/10

Week 1

Breakfast

1 special K granola bar 3pts

1 muscle milk light 100 calories 3 pts

Total pts = 6

Lunch

If you go to Subway.com you can customize your sandwich to know the nutritional value.

I had one of Subway's 450 calories or less sandwiches.  The 6" turkey and ham on wheat with veggies and honey mustard was 8 points .  I had the Fuze green tea with honey for my drink which cost me 2pts.  Total points for lunch 10.

 In the afternoon, I got the munchies, so I had a banana 0pts.

Dinner

For dinner I had soup and sandwich.  The soup was campbell's harvest select Italian Vegtable soup (2pts).   The sandwich was whole grain white Sara Lee bread which is 4 points per two slices.  Turkey was 1pt for 4 slices, American cheese was 1 point and mustard was free.  Total points for dinner 8

photo of same point soup but diff flavor

4 points remaining for the day

Goodnight to all!

Food Tracker for 2/8/2012

Day 4

I think this will more than likely become a journal for myself as I don't know but maybe one person who reads it.  so here are my pictures for yesterday...Iris lol.

For Breakfast, I had 2 servings (3/4c=1svg at 3 pts each) of Special K Chocolate Delight cereal (6 pts), a half cup of  1% milk (1 1/2 pts that I rounded up to 2 pts)   my multivitimins, a bottle of water and 1/2 of a grapefruit (0 pts)  Breakfast = 8pts

My lunch was small, I warmed up one of these Campbels Select Harvest LIGHT soups which I thought were only  1 point, but I read more carefully after pouring into my bowl, that it was two servings... so, ok, 2 POINTS.  Then another 2 pts for my 5 crackers.  This soup was soooo good too!  It had huge chunks of vegtables and whole wheat noodles.

Total lunch points = 4 pts

I had the munchies in the afternoon, so I had one of my free Applesauces.  To put a little extra into it, I added some cinnamin and some splenda.

For dinner, I went out to my folks.  My Mom knows I'm dieting, so she made sure to be very courteous to my point system :)   I had a cup of pasta (5pts), some marinara sauce with no meat (2) and some steamed frozen vegtables.  She said she put a tiny bit of butter on the vegtables, so I'll count that as 1 pt.  And a hot tea with splenda in it (0pt).  We watched a movie afterwards and I was getting the munchies, so my brother suggested chewing a piece of gum.  Great advice!!!!

Total Dinner points = 8 pts

This totalled my day at only 20 points, so I rewarded myself with some yummy frozen yogurt at 3 points. 

And, as I forgot to blog last night, please forgive me for saying  Good Morning and have a lovely day!

Food Tracker for 2/7/2012

Day 3

So, yesterday's breakfast was so good, I thought I'd have a do-over today.  Half a bagel with a tablespoon of butter (4pts).  I also maneuvered a way to have my morning coffee be zero points.  I have sugar free coffee mate creamer, and I used splenda.  No, it's not the exact same thing, but it satisfied me through my 9am tax appointment

I forgot to mention, it's always important to have a multivitamin whether or not you plan to diet.  I add to mine with a dropping of Vitamin B-12.

For lunch I was quite hungry because, well, two and a half hours of going through tax paperwork really made me wish I had a bigger breakfast.

I looked in my freezer and found a Weight Watchers Smart Ones package.  It's one of the newer meals where you get 30% more in your meal.  It was a whopping 9 points but it was well worth it!

I chose the Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry, it was so delicious.  I am definitely one to hate frozen dinners, but I must admit, this was sooooo good.  The second I smelled it from the microwave, I couldn't wait to rip open the bag.  Everything thoroughly cooked and no veggies tasted like plastic (a common complaint I have with frozen dinners).  Along with it I had a handful of celery and, what I thought, was a clever dipping sauce that cost me no points, honey mustard... it was not a good match.

I figured I should share the link where you can see all of the Smart Ones products.

http://www.eatyourbest.com/products/all-products.aspx

here you can view every single item they carry, although, I can only find a fraction of these items in my local market.

I'm still hoping to find out how to transfer my bar code scanner items over to my blog.  Again, if you haven't tried it yet, there is a really helpful bar code scanner app for your smart phone that will make keeping track of your points a whole lot easier.

For dinner, I had 1 cup of spaghetti, only enough sugar free light marinara sauce to tint the noodles red, 1/2 of a chicken breast, 2 cups of salad and fat free Italian dressing.  I chose a water for a drink because I knew I was going to enjoy a relaxing dessert later.

At 20 points and 8 left to go, now comes dessert.

I love this diet.  The wine is 4 points, and the 1/2 cup of fat free frozen yogurt is 3.

Finished off my day with 1 point to spare.

Off to bed- on to day 4! Yay me!



Food Tracker for 2/6/2012

Day 2

Well, I'm still here, and so are you!  Not scared away yet? YAY!

Today my breakfast was delayed because I wanted to see what "diamonds in the rough" I could find at Walmart with my cool bar code scanner on my phone.  Hopefully I can find a way to transfer all the items I've scanned and share the point info with you, but that will all have to be on a later day.  On to the tracking...  remember, I only have 28 points for the day.

My favorite bagel is the Cinnamon Raisin from Sara Lee.  Unfortunately, it maxes out at 7 points just for ONE bagel.  This is a prime example of why I love Weight Watchers as opposed to the other diets.  You can still manage to have the foods you love... just be prepared to adjust the portions.  I solved this minor setback by only having HALF of the bagel, which only cost me a simple 3 1/2 points, and I was satisfied! 



Until I get some 0 point spray butter or powder butter for my cravings, this will have to do.  This butter is only 1 point for every Tablespoon used.  I actually thought this was alot of butter just for a half of a bagel, but it tasted sooooo good!

So my morning only consisted of 4 1/2 points.  That was ok, because, like I said, I had a late breakfast and lunch was right around the corner. 

For lunch I decided to get a little experimental.  I used my Fat Free Italian dressing which is 0 points, marinaded my chicken breast (3pts) in it, and baked it for 25 min at 350 degrees.  Meanwhile, I threw a baked potato, measuring at 3 points, into the microwave for 4 min.  Topped the potato with another spot of Lite butter (1pt).   As for my fruit, I had a 0 point applesauce along with some grapes (also 0 points).  As I did yesterday, I followed that all down with my daily Coke Zero Cherry soda (0 points)

So after lunch, I have used a total of 11 1/2 points for the day.  A whopping  16.5 left for my snack, dinner and dessert.

Okay, these were a mean, teasing treat.  These little brownie snacks were only 2 points.  The SIZE, however, is about the size of a credit card.  I took .... my..... sweet.......chocolate craving... time eating it. 

14.5 left.  On to dinner at my folks.



My Mom made homemade chili that is very similar to Wendy's Chili.  On the weight watchers site, it tells me that 1 serving (1 cup) of Chili is 5 points.  I usually LOVE piling shredded cheese, sour cream and tons of crackers in my chili with a HEFTY glass of ice cold milk, but, as I stated above, portion control is the key.


One cup of chili (5 pts), 1 cup of 1% Milk (3pts), 5 saltine crackers (2pts) and a handful of carrot sticks (0 pts)

Totaling my dinner at 10 points

That leaves me 4.5 left!  And, as I hate to waste points, it is now 9:45 pm.  Laundry is to be cleared off the bed (in a fashionable manner), blog is complete, dishes are done, and I am spent. 

Goodnight to all.  Thanks for reading :)

Oh! and just in case you missed it Sunday night, this was a very inspirational and motivating commercial that applies very well to my journey ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-9EYFJ4Clo

Food Tracker for 2/5/2012

Ok, day ONE!!

I'm allowed 28 points per day and 49 flex points for the week

I knew the first day was going to be hard.  I also knew I had a package of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls calling to me from inside the fridge...with cream cheese icing....mmmmm.  Ok, stay strong!  Let's just see how bad ONE roll is.. I used the bar code scanner on my phone..





ok, so 4 points for 1 roll with icing... I can do that, and 1 cup of OJ was 3 points, so I had a heavy point breakfast topping out at 7 points- this tells me that I need to be frugal with my remaining meals for the day.

For my mid morning snack, I decided on a banana.  In my search bar, I typed in bananas and found them to be ZERO points!!!  Woo hoo!

 

4 POINTS used for this entire lunch!!!  And perfect on a cold snowy day!

  2 cups of leafy greens with 4 slices of Roasted Turkey lunch meat, 1 cup of Progresso chicken dumpling soup, 2 Tbsp of Fat Free Raspberry Pecan Vinaigrette dressing, and a Cherry Coke Zero.

Halfway through day 1 .. uh oh, here come my snack cravings .... and SUPER BOWL!

For 4 CUPS of the kind of popcorn I have is only 3 points, I have two kids, so I only got to have about 1 1/2 cups of this and it came out to 1 point.

It's right before dinner and I still have 16 points remaining- pretty good for my first day! AND for the fact I had a Cinnamon roll for breakfast lol!

I'm watching my neighbors kids this evening and she offered to make us dinner.  Ok here's the pressure, I might have to use some of my flex points b/c I have NO idea what she's bringing.  I'll have to break it down when she gets here..

Okay, Chicken Parmesean, not too bad. I only took a cup of the spaghetti (5 points), marinara was 2 points, chicken (I scraped the breading and cheese off) was 3 points.  Then again, as I had at lunch,  2 cups of leafy greens (zero points) with 2 tbsp FF Ras vinigarette 1 point. My cup of milk was 3 points. Total for Dinner 14 points. 



So 2 points left.... hmm.

So okay, it's 3 points for half a cup, but that's what my flex points are for!

That's today everyone!  See ya tomorrow!

Success, thy name is Weight Watchers

So have you ever had one of those days where you think "Man! I must be losing weight, my jeans aren't pinching at all today!" .. just to find out at the end of the day.. you were wearing your "fat" jeans. 
                                                                     OR
Have you ever told yourself, I'll buy this size "one last time" because I know I'll never let myself get bigger than this.
                                                                     OR
Have you resorted to wearing jeans ONLY when you leave the house because ultimate comfort is wearing your big saggy sweat pants.

I tell myself everyday, "this is the day I will start exercising" .. and then I get out of bed. 

Well I'm pushing myself now, I made a commitment, forced myself, if you will.  I finally forked out the 56.85 for three months of Weight Watchers Online. 

   

        Take a couple minutes just to see what kind of awesome tools this site has, it allows you so many points a day depending on your weight and age.  You're also given an additional allotment of points for the week just in case you go over, or if you have a holiday or special occasion.  You can even download apps onto your smart phone that scans the bar codes of most foods and spits out the point value!  I tried Weight Watchers a few years ago, but they never had the cool tools they have now.  As this blog continues, I'll share how I use each tool - I've already spent half an hour "registering" my kitchen cupboards lol!