Friday!

Breakfast was a slice of banana bread (I ended up adding a little butter because it was dry), some peaches and a few blueberries. I drank a ton of water this morning because of last night’s supper- I was so thirsty! (4 points)

We were out of milk (time for groceries!) so I had one of these instead of my usual iced coffee. (2 points)

No snacks on my first break today. It’s funny because before I signed in to work, my stomach was growling. But the cappuccino must have taken care of my hunger because I was fine by break time.

I had a little bit of time to read my Fitness magazine because we were slow for a while, but then things picked up again and we were pretty busy!

For lunch, I had a sandwich thin pizza for 5.5 points. I also had more wax beans from the garden. They look like French fries in the picture, don’t they?

For something sweet, I had 15g (1/2 serving) of Trader Joe’s Orange flavored cranberries for 1 point. I LOVE these things!

No snacks again on my last break. But by the time I was done working, I was pretty hungry! But I was trying to save my points for tonight.

We went out to IHop. I was able to plan ahead, which always makes things go a lot better. I ordered off of the Ihop for me menu, which has a lot of great options! I had Whole Wheat French toast that came topped with bananas and along with egg beaters and 2 strips of turkey bacon. I added a little sugar free syrup. They have nutritional information listed, but it does not list fiber. So I counted this as 11 points, but it was probably lower if I had been able to factor in the fiber. Well worth the points and it only cost $4.19.

We went shopping for a wedding gift for a reception for tomorrow- nothing like waiting until the last minute! We also stocked up on groceries. We stopped at Sonic for dessert (this was planned too!).

This sundae is 10 points. For the first time in my life, I ate about half of it and decided not to finish it. This is a huge NSV for me, I don’t know if it will happen again- but I hope it does! I counted it as 6 points.

So that’s it for today! I stayed within my points- so very happy about that! But looking back, I really lacked in the fruits and veggies category. Probably because we didn’t have anything left in the house before we got groceries tonight! Have a great weekend!

I did it! I did it!

This morning I reluctantly climbed out of bed. I’d much rather stay in bed, but what else is new. Once I was up, I felt like I had more energy than usual though.

For breakfast, I had a slice of whole wheat bread w/ peanut butter and 2 small peaches. I loaded up on water as I had a run planned for this morning.

I headed out for my run. Absolutely perfect running weather. Like 63*. Fabulous. Like I said, I felt like I had more energy this morning. My goal was to run 3 miles.

I DID IT!! I ran 3 miles without stopping for the first time in my life. It took me 42:54, my 5k time was 42:21, which is funny because I walked part of it. But oh well, I’ll get better! Today it was all about finishing- not my time. My heart rate monitor wasn’t working at all this morning. It said that I burned 92 calories. lol. I calculated my calorie burn on Daily Mile and it said 833, which seems excessive, so I’m not really sure what I burned. Oh well!

I had 30 minutes to myself before I had to get ready for the day. I read blogs and then whipped up one of these again.

I had a piece of homemade banana bread on my first break.

For lunch I had 1 can of tuna w/ 1 Tbs. light mayo, a tomato, cucumbers, and 1/2 cup of brown rice topped with a little blue cheese dressing.

I was craving something sweet, so I had 1 serving of chocolate chips.

The afternoon flew on by! For my last break I had the last 1/2 cup of bing cherries.

Supper was a pain to cook. I just kind of came up with this idea. So I was cooking zucchini in one pan, tomatoes in another, (after I had chopped the aforementioned produce) boiling whole wheat pasta, and warming alfredo sauce, while Teriyaki chicken was baking in the oven. In the mean time, I whipped up some garlic toast on 1/2 a sandwich thin w/ 1 tsp of butter, garlic salt and a little mozzarella cheese- making sure to add the cheese just before it was done! All of this while setting the table. ;) So you see why I say it was a pain.

But the end result- totally worth my efforts. This sauce was SOOO good. I added the zucchini, tomatoes and chicken to the alfredo sauce. The tomatoes cooked down, adding this wonderful flavor to the sauce. I put this over my whole wheat spaghetti.

For a little something sweet:

I don’t know how it’s possible but I still have 1.5 points left over. I don’t think I’ll be using them- because I am so full right now! But they’re there if I need them.

Question: Would you like me to post the points values of the foods I’m cooking, too?

Question 2: Do you have to blow your nose when running? I seriously have to blow my nose every 1/4 mile or more! Is there a fix for this?

Weigh In Day

Today was rest day for me, so I slept in. It felt great! Lately, I feel like I could sleep all day. I went downstairs to find this on the table. Can you tell my hubby reads my blog? He knows what WI means. lol It’s the little things that make your heart smile. :)

I weighed in at 228.6, so close to 228 (my 60 lb goal). So I have lost a total of 59.4 lbs. That’s a 1 lb loss for the week. I’m a little disappointed because I wanted to meet that goal, but I know that I lose weight very slowly. So I need to be happy with the 1 lb because my goal has always been 1 lb a week.

For breakfast, I had oatmeal topped w/ peaches and a glass of 1% milk.

Before signing in to work, I made an iced coffee. I was really craving this today!

I kept seeing people walking by and riding their bikes outside while I was working. It really made me want to get out there!

For lunch I had 1 1/2 servings of breakfast casserole and a slice of whole wheat toast topped w/ natural peanut butter.

Knowing I was low on fruits and veggies so far, I finished it up w/ 1/2 cup of light vanilla yogurt and 1/2 cup of strawberries.

I was finally able to find a class that will work w/ my schedule, since the one that I needed was dropped. So I will be taking an elective about Hinduism and Buddhism. Should be interesting! I love learning about different cultures.

For my last break I had some bing cherries.

For supper, I made these Tyson chicken patties. There’s actually a story behind these. One night, hubby and I didn’t feel like cooking. So I said I would go up to the grocery store and get a frozen pizza. Well, when I looked at the nutritional information for the pizzas I just couldn’t bring myself to buy them. So I found these instead. They are 4 points a piece and are delicious, quick and easy.

I had one of those with light mayo, ketchup, tomato and lettuce on a sandwich thin. I also had 2 ears of corn. We made it through all of the corn without having to throw any away! But I’m sure we’ll have more coming.

I splurged on dessert tonight and had a monster cookie and a 1/2 serving of light ice cream.

Only went over 2 points! Pretty good, I’d say!

Now for some statistics on Weigh In Day:

Summer Challenge: Total lost 9.4 / 10.6 more to go.

I would have to lose 2.6 lbs. per week to meet the goal.

3 Month Challenge: Total lost 3 / 16.6 more to go.

I would have to lose 1.8 lbs per week to meet goal.

As I’ve said before- these are ways for me to track my weight loss and as long as I am consistently losing, I’m happy with wherever I end up. I’ve already lost 3.8 more lbs this summer than I did last summer and there are still 4 more weeks left!

I’m done eating for the night, just need to drink lots of water! We’re half way through the week!!

A Beautiful, Delicious Salad…etc.

Breakfast this morning was similar to yesterday. cheerios (with dried fruit) that I topped with 1/2 cup of blueberries, 1/2 cup 1% milk and paired it with a cup of orange juice.

This morning I wasn’t craving my usual iced coffee, but instead wanted a little more of this from yesterday, since I enjoyed it so much! Lemons will definitely be on my shopping list from now on. Don’t you love my big cup from the Omaha zoo? ;)

My stomach was growling by the time of my first break. I had a slice of whole wheat toast topped with almond butter.

And now on to the Beautiful Delicious Salad…

*DRUM ROLL PLEASE*

Lunch was inspired by a recipe I found in a Kraft magazine. I had 2 cups of lettuce topped with 2 small peaches, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1.5 oz. chicken, 1 oz. Feta cheese, 1/2 oz. pecans and topped with Trader Joe’s Raspberry Vinaigrette. Yum!

I also had 1/2 serving of Trader Joe’s BBQ pop chips. These are SOOOO good.

A little later, I had this little juice box that I found a few weeks ago. It’s 100% pomegranate juice, not from concentrate. It’s only 27 calories for this little box. It was sweet and tart at the same time- I’d buy it again!

And snacked on some of these:

I was glad when it was time to sign out of work for the day! Lots of angry people being unreasonable today. But that’s my job and that’s why I’m in college- trying to get out of this dead end job!!

For supper I had grilled salmon, cucumbers, whole wheat bread topped with my homemade jam, green beans, and tomatoes. I love the yellow tomatoes- so sweet!

Dessert was light ice cream.

And I am out of points- but I didn’t go over! My salad was more points than I usually eat for lunch. But I don’t like to eat anything after supper on the night before WI anyways- I REALLLY want to meet 228 tomorrow. I was slightly up from last week this morning, but I usually lose on Wednesdays for some reason. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

I really had to push myself to workout tonight. But it makes me feel better about Weigh in tomorrow.

Tonight, I took my workout inside to the treadmill. It was so much cooler and sooo much less humid w/ the AC on. Ultimately, it was more enjoyable. But it’s kind of boring staring at the wall, that’s the only part I hate! I walked 1/4 mile, and then ran 1 full mile and finished it up walking 3/4 mile for a total of 2 miles in 33 minutes. I really want to get this 3 mile run in and I’m either lacking the energy or the motivation- and I’m hoping it’s not the motivation! I feel like a failure for not running the 3 miles- but I’ll get there. Right now, I’m just proud that I did something and burned 329 calories. That counts for something, right?

Is it Friday yet?

It’s so hard to get going on Mondays. But I rolled out of bed and had a light breakfast of 1 cup cheerios, 1/2 cup 1% milk and 1/2 cup blueberries. I have been parched for the last couple of days, despite drinking tons of water. So my goal for the day was to drink lots and lots of water. I had already drank 6 cups of water by 8 AM.

I woke up with a headache, probably related to being so thirsty. So after breakfast I went back to sleep for another hour. I woke up feeling much more refreshed- but still dragging, because after all, it is Monday. :) I whipped up an iced coffee to start my morning off.

Come break time, I was feeling hungry so I had 1/2 cup of cherries and 1 boiled egg. I was craving a boiled egg for some reason- Yum!

With people missing at work today, we were super busy. But it made the time go by fast. For lunch I had 1 serving of whole wheat pasta and 1/2 cup of marinara sauce. I also had about 1/2 cup of green beans. It never ceases to amaze me how much whole wheat pasta you can have for so few points! And it really fills you up.

I was craving something sweet, but was stuffed, so I mixed in a sugar free Orange Fruit Punch in some water.

For my last break I had 7 wheat crackers with 1 Tbs. red pepper hummus for 2 points.

and some of these delights.

Just before I signed back in to work the UPS man delivered my product for my review of CSN Stores! Can’t wait to use it!

I brought back some delicious ice water with lemon.

I save the majority of my points for supper and any snacks I want in the evening. I’m not hungry in the morning and afternoon and I’m eating plenty, but I find that I use more point in the evenings, which is fine.

For supper I had 2.5 oz grilled chicken topped with my homemade peachy mustard sauce, 2 corn on the cobs (we’re trying to eat this stuff before it goes bad, we have so much!), zucchini (ditto), and brown rice. It made for a delicious supper.

And I completely forgot to take a picture of it… and it was so pretty!

For dessert, I had homemade peach cobbler and a serving of vanilla ice cream.

Hubby and I did a strength training workout for 20 minutes. This time I used 10 lb weights and could feel the burn a lot more than with the 8’s. I don’t want to get huge, I just want to tone my arms mostly. How do I know how much to do?

I have 3 points left over- I’ll probably have a little snack before bedtime. I’m glad that Monday is over!

Peaches and Produce, A Concert, and A Run

I spent Saturday morning trying to take care of the 3/4 bushel of Missouri peaches that we have. It literally took me 2 1/2 hours. But, I made 18 cups of jam:

Cut up more fresh peaches for eating:

and made a peach cobbler (3 points per serving):

I still have more in the fridge to eat fresh- WOW! I also froze 4 freezer bags of peaches last week and our in-law's give us canned peaches. I think we’re prepared. lol They’ll be fantastic in the middle of the winter when you can’t find peaches! I also use the jam in my cooking. I love peach with pork and chicken.

Hubby won tickets to a concert with 4 performances- it was so much fun. It was outdoors, so it was perfect. We were there for over 6 hours.

We saw Tyler Dickerson:

The Lost Trailers:

Jimmy Wayne:

And Josh Turner:

We are starting to get some produce from our garden. We had a couple of strawberries, the birds got the majority of them. We also have had a few raspberries and lots of wax beans. But now we’re getting our DELICIOUS pear tomatoes. This year we’re going to weigh them and see how many we get, because last year was just crazy- we had TOO many from the one plant. So far we’ve had 300g. They’re just starting!

We also pulled our onions- this is the first year to grow these.

Sunday night, hubby and I set out for a 3 mile run. The humidity was down, which was nice. I ran 1.5 miles and felt too tired to go on. The sun was absolutely baking me and I was so thirsty and felt sick to my stomach. But I’m glad I got out there anyway. 1.5 miles is much farther than I could do a couple of months ago! :) I burned 382 calories. I’m on the last week of C25K. I’ll try that first 3 mile run again on Tuesday evening!

Don’t forget to check out my post on Banana Soft Serve!