Learning to Run!

Original Post: http://sweettoothblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/learning-to-run/

While many had the day off to recognize Remembrance Day/Veterans Day – I was at work.  I quietly observed my own moment of silence at 11am.  To all of the heroes who have served/are serving for our country and our families – we thank you.

Today my WW progress was pretty on par.  By the end of the night I still had 1/2 a point remaining.  Nice!  It is definitely coming down to my lunches it seems.  My lean cuisine’s aren’t too high in points but when you compare them to a salad (which is what I had today) it definitely makes a difference.

Breakfast: 6.5 Points

• Raisin Bran (3) + Milk (2) = 5 Points
• Coffee w/ Cream + sugar = 1.5 Points

Snack: 2 Points

• 1 Cup Pomegranates – 1 Point
• 1/2 Medium Banana – 1 Point

Lunch: 3 Points

• Yummy Spinach salad w/ cucumbers, cherry tomatoes & 1 slice of laughing cow cheese – 2 Points
• 1 Serving Kraft Olive Oil Vinaigrette – 1 Point

Snack: 1.5 Points

• 2 Peak Freans Lifestyle cookies – 1.5 Points

Supper: 4.5 Points

• Asparagus – 0 Points
• Sliced beets – 0 Points
• 1 Serving Chicken Breast – 3 Points
• 1 Serving Campbells Soup – 1 Point
• 1 Cup Chopped Peppers – 0.5 Points
• 3 Tsp Honey Mustard – 0.5 Points

Snack : 3.5 Points

• 1 Cup Pomegranates – 1 Point
• 1/4 Molasses Cookie – 0.5 Points
• Small amount of Dill pickle chips – 2 Points

Here’s a pic of yesterday’s Tomato & Mozzarella salad.  I know this sucker has a name, I just have no idea what it is called!

Tonight’s dinner was freaking amazing.  I ended up following one of the Campbell’s recipes on the side of a can but made some minor alterations.

I browned my chicken in a pan then added 1 Cup of chopped peppers (red/orange/yellow). 

I sautéed those for a while then added a can of cream of chicken soup with 1 Cup water. 

Added in 3 Tsp Honey mustard and let it all simmer for a while until the sauce thickened.

Mmmm mmm – delish!  The honey mustard was a nice addition!

My sides were a bit of asparagus and some beets.  I freaking love beets but for some reason I never buy any!  I am so glad I picked some up the last time I picked up groceries!

After dinner I had to bake some cakes for Dave’s grandmother’s 69th birthday.  I tried a new frosting which tastes pretty good to me, so hopefully it works in the cake!

I was feeling adventurous (and envious of all of the Haliblogger’s talks of running) so I went down to my mini gym at home to go on the treadmill.

Call me weird but here’s how it went:

Dave took me down to the gym.  As soon as the elevator door opened and I saw the gym light on which meant someone was in there.  Immediately, I changed my mind and came back home.

See.. My gym is teeny weeny – and I have a thing about being in a closed area with a stranger… not sure why but it’s just a thing I have!  There is no way I could exercise in my home gym if someone else was in there.  That’s just weird me! :)

Luckily I still felt adventurous, so about an hour later I went back down and low and behold the light was off so I was clear to go!

Ok peeps – I do not run.  At all.  I had to take it easy so here’s what I did for 20min.

2minutes walk – 1 minute run.

It ended up being 1.5 miles which was pretty hectic for my noobie  (<--I just wrote boobie there) self!

All in all I am pretty happy that I did it.  Hopefully I can turn this into some sort of routine so I don’t end up passing out during our Santa Shuffle in December!

Earlier today I considered moving back to Blogger.  Wordpress is nice and all but I really like playing around with Themes etc and I am restricted in a lot that I want to do in terms of editing.  Poopy.  I think I may move back to Blogger, but I want to redo the site and make it all purrdy first.  :)

Anyway, Off to catch up on some blogs and I’ll be laptop-less since Dave is installing Windows 7.

:)

 

Caffeine High!

Original Post: http://sweettoothblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/caffeine-high/

I want to first extend a huge thanks to everyone who offered suggestions with my WW woes as mentioned in yesterday’s post.  After several revisions I went from using 41 points down to 30.5 Points!  I had not been calculating my food properly – and I am sure I will make mistakes here and there,  but I have a better idea of exactly what I am tracking and how much of it.

Today was much better – except for the evening.  From breakfast to dinner I had used my daily allotment…but in the evening Dave & I decided to go for a drive and I got a Starbucks Caramel Brulee Late (eww.. I did not like this!) and munched on some Dill Pickle chips when I got home.  That pushed my over my points and put me in the negative since I tapped out my Activity Points.

**Smacks hands**

Funny story about our trip to Starbucks:

Dave is not a coffee drinker… at-all.  He dislikes the coffee taste and, well, caffeine does a number on him the same way a chocolate bar does to a toddler.

Today he surprisingly ordered the eggnog latte.  I thought after the first sip he’d make his scrunchy face and not want to drink anymore, but he kind of liked it!   He is a very analytical person and started to analyze the drink he was consuming.  He mentioned to me that he doesn’t ‘understand’ coffee because it is not refreshing.  I told him that it’s not a ‘refreshing’ kind of drink… that it is more of a ‘comfort’ drink to savor.  As we were discussing this I noticed him tap-tap-tapping his cup and the table, so I knew the caffine was kicking in!

At this point he’s talking a mile a minute and acting like a kid who just ate a bag of candies from the candy store.  I was loving it!  It was hilarious to see him like this! 

Needless to say – I took over the car keys and started to drive.  We don’t need any Gran Turismo action with Sophie (my car).

Moving on to today’s eats:

Breakfast: 6.5 Points

- Raisin Bran (3) + milk (2) = 5 points

- Coffee 1.5 Points

Snack: 2 Points

- Source Yogurt – 1 point

- 1/2 medium banana – 1 point

Lunch: 5 Points

- Lean Cuisine Sweet & Sour Chicken – 5 points

Snack: 1.5 Points

- 1/2 cup pomegranates – 1 Point

- 2 small clementines – 0.5 Points

Dinner: 7 Points

- Spaghetti & Turkey meat sauce – 4 Points

- Mozza & Tomato + balsamic vinaigrette salad (not sure what this dish is called) 3 points

Snack: 9 Points

- 1/2 Tall Starbucks Caramel Brule Latte (no fat, no whip)– 2 points

- Dill Pickle Chips – 7 points

Total – 31/22 – Honestly those dill pickle chips were really not necessary. Grr!

Hopefully I did a better job tracking today!  I felt good about my meals.  I took Lynn’s advice and saved the pomegranates for a snack later.  I had them in the afternoon at my desk and pretty much ate them one by one.  I wasn’t hungry, but needed to munch so it did the trick!

I think I am going to purchase one of the Starbucks To Go reusable cold cup:

My water consumption is much less than what it should be.  I think if I have a cup like this at my desk, especially equipped with a straw that I would totally be more driven to:

a) fill’er up

b) Drink the water from the straw!

Also, I want to add more ‘spice’ to my water so I was thinking of buying some lemons to add to my water.  We shall see!

It is Remembrance Day tomorrow – a lot of people are excited for the day off, however I will be working.  I hope everyone sits back and takes a moment to really think about the importance of Remembrance Day.

Daily point struggles

Original Post: http://sweettoothblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/daily-point-struggles/

This morning I had to wake up super early (6am – that is early for me!) because I had to do another 2hrs of driving for my drivers training.  Gahh!  This has been such a long process but I only have one more class to go!  Then I can take my certificate to the insurance peoples and they can ever so kindly reduce my insurance rate by over $1000/year!

I had recommitted myself to tracking my meals on WW online and as much as I love keeping track of everything – I am finding it very hard to stay within my daily points: 22.  By lunchtime I have about 6-7 or less points left which makes it seriously difficult to have a filling dinner. 

Heck – my points just began on Friday – today is Monday and I have used all of my weekly point allowances, including activity points that I earned.

What the heck?!

I really don’t think I am eating horribly bad!?  Maybe I am counting my points wrong?  I could probably start posting my daily eats and see what you all think. 

I have been wanting to go to the WW meetings with Lynn & Angie since they started going but something has always come up.  As much as I do want to go and check them out, I am not sure if I can each week.  It’s $25 to pay for the registration plus $15/meeting I believe.  At this time of year, my wallet is getting stretched incredibly thin – even after the initial week it’d only be $15/week but it all adds up, right?  With me & Dave becoming more budget-conscious it has opened our eyes to things we really need to be concentrating on more seriously …  ok ok ok enough with the dramatics!

Anyway – I am going to try this menu thing out:

Breakfast – (8 Points)

1 banana – 1.5Points

1/2 cup pomegranates – 2 Points 1 points (thx Jaime)

Source yogurt – 1 point

Flax Granola – 3 Points

Coffee w/ Cream & sugar – 1.5 Points

Lunch - (9.5 Points)

Lean Cuisine – 6 points

2 small clementines – 0.5 points

Nature Valley Apple Cobbler Granola bar – 2 points

1 measly miniature Dove Caramel – 5 points?   1 point (I put in the link to the NI - it seems this is for 5 pieces - Thanks everyone - this is definitely 1 Point!)

Dinner – 19 Points 13 Points

Spaghetti & Lean Turkey sauce – 10 points 4 points - thanks to Les I realized I wasn't doing the recipes properly - I forgot to calculate the total serving size.  I stil think this may be off but it is closer to the actual points than 10 was

Large Fruit cup – 5 points

2 Hard Boiled Eggs – 4 points

Daily used – 41.5??!?!?!?!?!?!!?  <------ Seriously… THIS IS SAD!  35.5 - still NOT GOOD but 'better' 1 more time: 30.5

I honestly don’t think I can eat any less than what I am!  I am shocked at the 9 8 points for breakfast – the fruit is really seeming to add up!

*sigh*

Frustrating!

In happier news – Les and I headed out to FitKick at Nubodys.  It was an awesome kickboxing type class and we killed it!  I started to get the chills and my ears were like ice so I was worried I was going to pass out – I really hate that feeling!  Hopefully I can get better!

Anyway – time to catch up on some of the boobtube!