Friday, May 27, 2011

Food Week in Pictures: Thursday

I've gotta confess...I ROCKED Thursday. I don't really know what the change was, but something kicked in and I wasn't crazy hungry today.
We bought some VitaTops at the store. They only have 100 calories and they're really good. In fact, with my coffee and the VitaTop, I was full enough that I didn't need to eat this banana at breakfast. I had it later as a snack before dinner. Breakfast was only 3 points. That started my day off well.

For some reason--well I know the reason--I was too busy to take a picture of my lunch. I had leftovers from the shrimp pesto saute from last night. It was only 3 points because I didn't have any rice or pasta. I should have had the grains, but I just didn't have time.


For a snack I had one Dove dark chocolate and a piece of beef jerky. It actually held me over. HMMM, maybe it was the protein. I'd been having just fruit or something. May have found something good here. Total snack points: 3

But alas, I did have one handful of the fruit and nut mix when I got home for 4 points. That's ok. I was doing well with my points. (no image)

I had leftovers for dinner. I mixed the last of the steak with some of the veggies from the pesto saute. I also had some brown rice too. Total dinner (no wine tonight) was 10 points.
I even had enough points for a dessert!!! So I had a glass of skim milk and four gingersnaps for 5 points.

My total for the day was only 28. Go me!!!!

Food Week in Pictures: Wednesday

Wednesday was another busy day, but I was working from home so I had healthy food right at hand. That made it easier for me to make sure I didn't get too hungry. Whew.
Breakfast was a cinnamon raisin bagel with reduced fat cream cheese. Yes, the bagel was high in points, but I felt like I could counter-balance that throughout the day. I used skim milk in my coffee today because I noticed I wasn't getting enough milk/dairy this week. Total breakfast was 9 points.
I had a banana at 10:00 for zero points.
Lunch was leftovers from last night. About 3/4 cup of brown rice and 3 ounces of Tri-Tip (lean beef cut, by the way). Total lunch was 7 points.

 
I got hungry around 3:30 so I had about 1/4 cup of fruit and nut mix and a cup of coffee with a splash of skim milk. Total snack was 4 points.
For dinner I made some whole wheat pasta. I also made a Shrimp Pesto Saute. It was really low in points because it used shrimp but it was mostly veggies. YUM! Total point value was 10 points with my glass of wine.
  
Around 9:00 I had a fiber one bar and a glass of skim milk for 6 points. Then Brent and I went to get some gas and run a couple errands. I'd like to say this was an accident, but I bought a pack of Reese's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. We each had one. So my share was another 3 points. I didn't get a picture but I am confessing it here. :)

My total for the day was 39. YIKES. But again, This is what the weekly allotment is for and I still have some banked. I'm still doing ok.

Food Week in Pictures: Tuesday

I ate a lot on Tuesday. It was a very busy day at work, so was starving again in the afternoon. I need to figure out better snacks or a more filling lunch.
My breakfast included my normal coffee with 1 Splenda and some almond milk. I also had the last leftover Bisquick Heart Healthy banana pancake. I topped it with 1 Tbsp reduced fat peanut butter and some low calorie syrup. Total of 9 points.

For lunch I had the leftover chicken breast and Mexican couscous from last night. I couldn't eat all the couscous. I gave myself too much here. I consider that a good thing! Total of 10 points.
I got home and had to wait for Brent to get home for a late softball game. I knew I needed something fairly substantial to hold me over. I had a cup of cherries and 1/4 cup of nut and dried fruit mix. Total of 4 points. It filled me up and I didn't need any more snack until our late dinner.
This may have been one of the most delicious dinners I have ever made. We bought some Tri-Tip Steaks at CostCo and I froze them into serving sizes that we needed. See the Thai Sesame Beef in another post (coming soon). Served with brown rice and an asparagus stir fry. YUM. Total of 13 points with my glass of white wine.

Papaya for dessert. 0 points!

Total of 36 for the day, when I'm supposed to have 29. I knew I went over. That's what the weekly allotment is for! Thank goodness.


Monday, May 23, 2011

Food Week in Pictures-Monday

I got to work and realized I'd volunteered to judge a recipe contest. So my plans for lunch were changed. I didn't take pictures of any of the samples, but I estimated 10 points for the small tastings.

Breakfast started with Dannon Greek yogurt, bananas and some generic Grape Nuts and my usual coffee. The Dannon Greek is awesome! It was only 2 points!

During a very busy afternoon at work, I enjoyed a Dove dark chocolate mini. Sorry for the crappy picture. I was in a hurry.

Then I got into a meeting where our leader had made homemade chocolate chip cookies. They were reasonably sized and everyone was raving so I had one. This picture shows the box, but I only took one.

I got home and had to wait for Brent...this is usually when I snack and today was no different. I thought I was starving. But I tried to choose wisely. So I had about a cup of the beautiful cherries I just purchased last night.
I gave myself 30 minutes and I was still hungry. So I took one small handful of some fruit and nut mix we had in the pantry. This seemed to hold me over better.

For dinner, I grilled two chicken breasts (cut into four servings). I sprinkled them with chipotle, garlic pepper and salt. When I served them, I put some pineapple chipotle salsa on top. Inside, I made a quick Mexican couscous with whole wheat couscous, a frozen veggie mix (for point free bulk/filler), salsa and an avocado. I also put in some olive oil. Just the couscous serving ended up being 10 points. Sigh.


After dinner we ran some errands which lead us to CostCo. On our way out, I convinced Brent we needed to split a cup (which was filled with about 2 cups) of their nonfat swirl frozen yogurt. One cup was 3 points.


My total for the day was 33 even with the perfect dessert. I don't feel too bad about that! As I'm sitting here typing, my fingers feel swollen. So either I didn't drink enough water today or I had something with too much sodium in it. :(

Starting Something New: Food Week in Pictures-Sunday

I challenged myself to take pictures and post every meal, snack, bite and drink I consumed this week. I decided to do this for two reasons known to me at this time. There may be another reason once the week is complete. Like any good experiment, we shall see what the end results tell us. First of all, I needed to get back into the swing of posting on here more regularly. I love doing this, but time has been hard to come by lately. If I'm going to blog, it needs to be a priority in order to really be anything.

Secondly, I wanted to really see what I was eating...not just on paper (or computer log) like I do with Weight Watchers now. I wanted to see my portion sizes and really get a feel for my week in food.

So here goes.

I started Sunday with a pancake that was leftover from Saturday. I put 1 Tbsp of reduced fat peanut butter and 1 Tbsp of low calorie maple syrup on top. Like every morning I had coffee with 2 Tbsp almond milk and 1 packet of Splenda. Thanks to the small amount of protein from the peanut butter this held me over until lunch time without much hunger. I also took the Lord's Supper but, as I'm sure you can understand, I didn't capture a picture of that.

For lunch, we stopped at Panera Bread. I ordered the Thai Chopped Chicken Salad, which I've had before, thinking it was healthy. Now, while it was healthy and had great flavor, it was higher in points than I thought. It was 10 points and I had half the whole grain baguette so that added another 4 points. 14 points just for lunch. My total count for the day will make sense taking this into account. PS--I drink water with most every meal throughout the day as I've stopped drinking soda.


Per usual, I needed an afternoon "sweet." Brent and I split a chocolate chip cookie from Panera Bread. My half was 6 points.


Sunday was a gorgeous day so we decided to grill some burgers. I made them with 95% lean ground beef, an egg for binding and a sprinkle of panko bread crumbs. We also grilled some onions. Our other toppings included avocado, lettuce, tomato and 1/2 of a slice of 2% Swiss cheese. I also used mustard all atop a Sara Lee whole wheat bun. I cut some potatoes into "planks" and drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled with garlic pepper, salt and a ca jun seasoning. We also grilled those. This dinner was a little high in points, but we felt great afterwards. We ended up eating up all the extra veggie toppings too! Dinner was 17 points plus my glass of wine, so a total of 20!
Overall I felt good about my day, however I used 49 points. For those that aren't familiar with Weight Watchers, I get 29 each day. There are extra points you can earn and/or use up. So I'm not fretting too much...YET.