Cold Week = Warm Meals

Even though the groundhog didn't see his shadow (which, you know, is totally the most accurate way to get your weather forecast), it's still winter here in Northern Virginia. The predicted storms for the week look like they might miss us again (we've been in the "snow hole" all winter - everyone north and south gets snow while we get nothing), but it's going to be a cold week ahead. So warm dinners - like soup - are a must.

A quick follow-up from last week. I posted that we were going to try Rachael Ray's spinach, artichoke, & chicken penne. I made it. I hated it. I don't know why. I usually love Rachael Ray recipes, and she has another version of this in her Express Lane cook book that we love. But this one? This one we didn't like at all. I picked at mine a little, my husband said it was edible so he finished his plate, and my daughter threw hers on the floor (and demanded to be served oranges for dinner instead). We compared the two recipes, and there are only a few differences, but the few ingredients we added made a huge difference. Might be making the other version soon, but this recipe went right in the trash. Bummer.

SO...our meal plan for this week:
Monday: mushroom strudel (Let's Dish dinner), salad, early bedtime. :) My husband is from Wisconsin, so we were up late celebrating the Packers' Super Bowl win, so it's a quick dinner and early bed time for us tonight. That, and the fact that my daughter has suddenly decided that sleeping is optional. Lovely. This is also why our menu is very heavy on Let's Dish dinners this week - neither of us is really awake enough to cook from scratch
Tuesday: prosciutto-wrapped chicken, egg noodles, green beans
Wednesday: Tuscan herb chicken soup (Let's Dish), rolls
Thursday: beef roulade (Let's Dish), baked potatoes, some sort of green veggies
Friday: baked potato soup. This sounds fancy, but it's not. It's from a mix. We have found that Bear Creek soup mixes are really quite tasty, and they're good for a fast dinner on night's like tonight when we will be running around.
Saturday: baked ziti. Finally, a night where we'll be cooking from scratch. We're going to give this recipe from Food Network a try; I'm going to use Italian turkey sausage to make it a little healthier. I find that turkey sausage and regular Italian sausage are NOT interchangeable when you're eating them plain, but when they're baked into something they are. So there you go.
Sunday: Peruvian chicken, potatoes, green beans. This is such an easy recipe, my husband and daughter both like it, and it's super healthy since the marinade has no oil in it and there's no sauce or gravy on the chicken. It's just super flavorful chicken (and I'll eat the leftovers all week - YUM).

For more menu planning ideas, check out Menu Plan Mondays at orgjunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday

I am a huge fan of planning my meals for the week. I am also a huge fan of being flexible with your plan. Here in Northern VA we got hit with a nasty winter storm on Wednesday afternoon. Started as a wintry mix (ugh) and soon changed to snow at the rate of 1-2 inches an hour. So beautiful (and, my first time experiencing THUNDER SNOW!) but a total mess. It started right around 3:30, and even though schools were already closed (there was an icy mess in the morning from the first wave of the storm) and the Federal Government closed early, everyone hit the road around 4 - just when the heavy snow started. You may have seen the monster commutes on the news - I hear that we made national headlines with the 10+ hour commutes that my friends suffered through. Some were smart to leave early - thank goodness my husband came home at lunch - and others saw the mess and got a hotel room close to their offices. But most were just stuck. My friends with four hour commutes were lucky. One friend left his office at 4:15 and got home after 1:30. His commute back the next day? 14 minutes. And then there were the power outages. Again, we were lucky (especially since I don't know what we would have done with a cold toddler) but my parents weren't, and headed over here (and we promptly ordered pizza). And last night? We had my entire family here for lunch, and both of us were too stuffed to eat anything. My daughter ate 3 clementines for dinner (this is her thing lately - all she wants to eat are noodles and clementines) and we just had a snack. So there are some repeats on our menu from last week.

They're predicting two more storms this week, but hopefully our meal plan for the week is:
Monday: spinach, artichoke, & penne pasta - was going to make this over the weekend, but it's now for Monday. Not a horribly bad idea, since there will be enough leftovers for us all to have for lunch on Tuesday.
Tuesday: chicken and dumplings (a Let's Dish dinner, and another hold over from last week)
Wednesday: meatloaf muffins and green beans. I love making meatloaf like this. It's yummy, it's portion controlled, and it cooks so much faster than a regular meatloaf. And, again, there will be enough for leftovers for lunch.
Thursday: shrimp scampi with linguine (Let's Dish), salad, rolls
Friday: spaghetti (did I share my "secret" sauce recipe last week?), salad, rolls
Saturday: chicken picatta, noodles, salad. The recipe for chicken picatta is from the Dinner Doctor cookbook by Ann Byrne. We've made several recipes from her book (and she is a go-to with her cake doctor recipes), but this is really one of our favorites.
Sunday: Super Bowl Sunday! We'll be ordering a pizza in between rooting for the Packers!

For more menu planning ideas, check out Menu Plan Mondays at orgjunkie.com

Basket (of fruit) Cases

One of the biggest differences between the new Weight Watchers program and the old one is fruit. Fruit is now a "free food" - it's zero points. This is huge. It used to be that you could eat all the green veggies you wanted, but if you wanted a banana, you would have to fork over (ha!) two of your precious points. I never thought this made sense. And apparently neither does Weight Watchers. I still don't understand where that leaves corn and peas (two of my favorite vegetables that do still have points...come on Weight Watchers, help me out with this one...), but it's great that I can have an orange with breakfast. Super.

Except for the debate that is raging over fruit on the Weight Watchers message boards. There are lots of people who blame the fact that they are no longer losing weight on the sudden addition of fruit to their diets. Um...really? Fruit? Fruit is why you're not losing weight? Come on. Was fruit a huge part of your diet before? You know, when you were eating McDonalds value meals and donuts? Some of these people are pushing 300 pounds. I am sure they got that way from too many apples.

See, it all goes back to my big problem with the program. It's focused on a low-carb, low-calorie lifestyle. The fact that these fruit haters are not losing as much weight is more due to the fact that they're not eating enough calories, not that they're eating fruit. It's all about math - if you eat fewer calories than you consume then you will lose weight. But if you don't eat enough, then your metabolism slows down. You have to find a balance. There are lots of equations out there about how many calories you need a day - the easiest one is to take your weight and add a zero to the end. That's how many calories you need to maintain your weight. Eat fewer and you'll lose. Exercise and you'll lose. To give you an example - I spent a summer working out with a trainer with all sorts of advanced degrees in this stuff. (I know, very technical) At the time, I weighed about 185 pounds. She recommended I eat around 1600 calories a day. Combined with exercising 5-6 days a week, that gave me enough of a calorie deficit to lose weight at a steady rate. She told me not to dip below 1400-1500 - as an active person, I needed that many to keep my metabolism up.

So, what does Weight Watchers recommend? It's a little bit harder, because 100 calories of lean protein has fewer points then 100 calories of cookies. But my healthy lunch today - sushi (1 tuna roll and 1 salmon roll) and seaweed salad - had 400 calories. It was 10 points - more than 1/3 of my points for the day. Weight Watchers wants you to eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day - which could add another 200 calories or so. There's no way that adding even three or four pieces of fruit gets me over 1500 calories. Fruit is making you not lose weight? No way.

Menu Planning

I hate planning out what we're going to eat. Almost as much as I hate grocery shopping with a toddler. But since we have to eat, I plan out our dinners for the week. It has more to do with my belief that I might actually cry if I have to grocery shop more than once or twice a week than an attempt to be organized. But it doesn't hurt. And since I'm trying to stick to this whole healthy eating thing, planning in advance is a must.

So, my plan for our dinners this week...
Monday: spaghetti with meat sauce (Want my secret recipe? Pay attention...brown about 1/3 a pound of lean ground beef...add a jar of sauce...simmer until kiddos are ready to eat), salad, rolls (I like to buy the Alexia frozen ciabatta rolls so we can have hot rolls and only make a couple at a time).
Tuesday: beef roulade, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli. The beef roulade is from Let's Dish, a meal prep place near my house. I adore Let's Dish. You go, they have everything chopped and portioned for you, you make your dinners, and in 2 hours you a have a freezer full of healthy meals. There are lots of places like this around us - we love Let's Dish for many reasons - most importantly the meals are yummy. They also give you all the nutritional info AND Weight Watchers points. Fantastic. (and a little plug that I am in no way being compensated for - if you live in an area with a Let's Dish and want to try it, drop me a note and I will send you referral email with a coupon code!)
Wednesday: Olive Garden Pasta Fagioli soup. This is the best knock-off recipe I have ever tried. It tastes just like the stuff at the restaurant, yet I can eat it in my pajamas.
Thursday: country style chicken with herb dumplings (Let's Dish meal), salad
Friday: chicken and wild rice casserole, salad. This is a super easy meal to make - I usually make it with a package of Perdue shortcuts (sometimes I use turkey, sometimes chicken) and I use the Campbell's Healthy Request cream of mushroom soup to make it even healthier.
Saturday: a new recipe for us - spinach, artichoke, and chicken penne. It's not the healthiest ever. But it's Saturday. And that's ok.
Sunday: Rachael Ray's turkey noodle casserole. We love this version - even my 18 month old loves this. Again, not the healthiest ever. But a lot of the calories come from the cheese on the top which you can use half of and not ever miss. I also use half and half instead of heavy cream and you can't tell the difference (FYI - once I made it with fat free half and half and there was a definite difference. Don't try it. Trust me.)

Not a bad week of meals, especially for such a cold week ahead.

For more menu planning ideas, check out Menu Plan Mondays at orgjunkie.com

Cauliflower vs. Potatoes

So, I'm sure you have heard it too - you can cut down on calories and carbs by making mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. The so-called "experts" claim that they taste the same. And every weight loss/healthy eating site has their own version. So, I figured I would make them. Who am I to argue with the experts, right?

I now seriously question the taste buds and abilities of these "experts". I followed a recipe with about 100 comments about how great they were and how thankful the posters were for the amazing recipe. I steamed the cauliflower with garlic. I doctored them up with real butter instead of that spray-stuff (yuck) and even put real bacon bits on top. What did I get? A bowl of mashed cauliflower. If you think they taste like potatoes, you have never tasted potatoes. Don't get me wrong - I like cauliflower, and I would have been happy to eat the steamed-with-garlic cauliflower on it's own. But mashed? It was like I was insulting the entire state of Idaho.

The clear upside? My daughter napped for 3 full hours after we ate them for lunch. I think she was concerned that if she woke up too early I might try to feed them to her again.

The Good News and Bad News

Well, I didn't see that coming. I took the weekend off of counting points. I ate healthy until Sunday night, when the husband and I split an entire Meat Magnifico pizza as we watched football. I don't generally like meat on my pizza, but man...they don't call it Meat Magnifico for nothing. Monday and Tuesday? I sort of counted points. And I sort of finished a bag of tortilla chips after my meeting Tuesday night.

So, I was not expecting much when I stepped on the scale on Wednesday morning. But there it was. Down 2.4 pounds. This is not good.

Why wouldn't I celebrate a 2.4 pound weight loss? Because I lost it while cheating. And cheating via half a pizza. Who knows how much I would have lost if I had just stuck to the plan.

There is part of me that now thinks that I can follow the plan most days and lose weight. And I would probably be right. There was an article years ago that talked about just this thing. That if you change your eating habits 5 days a week, you're still making enough of a change to see results on the scale. Which is probably what happened. And it's probably what I'm going to try again for this week. I want to lose weight and I want to be healthier. But I also want to live my life, which includes having a piece of my dad's birthday cake on Saturday. Guess we'll see how it ends up on the scale.

A Weekend Off

Don't tell anybody, but I am taking the weekend off from Weight Watchers. It's been a grueling three days, and I deserve it.

In all seriousness, I really am not worrying about points this weekend. It's all I've thought about for the last three days, and it's not healthy. At all. I'm not going crazy - I'm just stepping back for a few days. I have no idea what I am going to do. Quitting isn't really an option. Like I said before, I've paid for three months, and we're not so lucky as to be able to just throw that money away. I have thought about writing to Weight Watchers and asking for my money back, but I can't imagine they would. So I'm sort of stuck.

The nice people over at the Weight Watchers message board suggested that I post a list of what I ate for the day so they could help me figure out where I was going wrong. So I did. And when I said that my healthy menu had me 13 points over my target for the day? They didn't really have any answers. Well, that's not entirely true. Two more people suggested I eat eggs (seriously, is the phrase "I don't eat eggs" invisible when typed on a message board?). Two more suggested I make tweaks to the already made dinner that I prepared. (again, does the phrase "I have a freezer full of dinners that I already prepared so I will be eating" not show up?) And the rest just said I should eat more veggies and protein. Perfect.

Day 2: The Hatred Continues

So after yesterday's debacle, I woke up this morning with a renewed energy. I can do this. Right? Or not.

I made what I thought was a better breakfast. Still had the coffee and creamer (again, I'm a mom), but toasted a bagel thin and made a sandwich with a piece of breakfast ham. Nothing fancy, more protein, fewer carbs. Should be good to go. Nope. Same 9 points for breakfast. Great. And went with a lower point lunch - one of those frozen Kashi meals that everyone talks about as being so healthy. Really, just an emergency "I need to eat something in the 5 minute window that my daughter is content" lunches, but still, a healthy choice. 110 calories less than yesterday for whopping a points saving of 2. This just isn't right.

So, what did I do? Other than blow the rest of my points for the day on a bag of microwave popcorn? I went to the Weight Watchers message boards. Apparently if you are an online member, you get access to pretty much nothing. I have the calculator and the online journal, and then I am on my own. Though they do have message boards for all of the support and answers a girl could ever want. Except that Weight Watchers is fiercely protective of anything that they could charge someone for, and since their message boards are free to use, you aren't allowed to post any actual points information on them. And questions are not answered by Weight Watchers staffers; you are at the mercy of the other members who happen to be hanging out on the message boards. So what happens? I posted some questions, and watched as people just posted what they wanted to. I asked for breakfast ideas that didn't involve eggs (since, again, I don't eat them). What did I get? Six ways to cook eggs. I asked about the fact that it didn't seem like I was eating enough calories; I got lots of people telling me how great Weight Watchers is. And when I posted that I was planning on eating the dinner I had already made - spinach lasagna rollups - but was concerned that a 360 calorie dinner had so many points, more than one person told me to make it with fat free ricotta and add more veggies. Perfect information to use once my time machine starts working again. You have got to be kidding me. THIS is the most popular weight loss plan in the country? Maybe this is why we're all so fat.

Day 1, or, why I hate Weight Watchers

Be warned. I have been on Weight Watchers for less than 8 hours and I am hungry and cranky. Really cranky. Probably because I am hungry. But I feel like I have made a horrible mistake. Either that, or I have bigger food issues than I thought I did.

So, like I said before, this is not my first time with Weight Watchers. Or diets in general. I have a good sense of what to eat and I thought I had a good sense of how to estimate my points. For those of you who aren't familiar with points, Weight Watchers assigns every food a number of points. You get a certain number of points to "spend" each day, and you just subtract as you go along your day. Fruits and veggies are "free" foods - you can eat as much as you want. Everything else will cost you. I have no idea how they figure the points. You put info into a calculator and it spits out what seems to now be a totally arbitrary number. Under the old system, points were loosely tied to calories; the points were based on calories, fat, and fiber in a food. Not a bad system. Now? Now you put fat, fiber, carbs, and protein into the magical calculator and it spits out a number that seems to punish people who like to eat.

Anyways, back to my day. So, I started my day with coffee (I am, of course, a Mom...what mom DOESN'T start her day with coffee?) and because I don't like breakfast foods (I don't eat eggs...it's a whole different story for a different time) a cup of Easy Mac. Yes, I eat those little cups of instant mac & cheese for breakfast. Don't judge me. They're only 220 calories, they're filling, and it's a nice mix of warm breakfast, carbs, protein, and easiness for my morning. I put my sugar free creamer in my coffee as usual (I use a lot of the stuff, but I measure it out so I do know exactly how much I use) and sat down to enter it all in my little online journal. Keep in mind, that my breakfast was exactly 310 calories. It's right around where you should be for breakfast - 300-400 calories is what most experts recommend - even though a chunk of them were for my coffee. Anyways, because I know that I should probably be eating 1500-1600 calories a day to lose weight, I figured that this would be about 1/5 of my points for the day. That makes sense, right? To a normal person. To the person who designed this program? This was nearly one THIRD of my points. Yes, you read that right. My measly little 310 calorie breakfast burned 9 points - ONE THIRD of my total for the day.

My first thought? "Well, that can't be right." So I soldiered on with my day. I went grocery shopping, celebrated because my daughter was remarkably well behaved (even in the produce department, which is usually the site of our meltdowns...way too much to try to touch...), and came home to make a salad for lunch. Not a crazy salad; a 400 calorie salad. And when I put her down for a nap, I went back to enter the points. 12 points. Apparently zero point vegetables aren't such a great deal if everything you put with them eats at your point budget like a hungry crocodile. This is ridiculous. How could I already have eaten 21 points? I did have two zero point snacks - a banana and a few handfuls of sugar snap peas - but I have still eaten barely 850 calories, and have 8 points left for the day. If you recall, my Easy Mac & coffee was 9 points. This does not bode well.

I am hungry. Probably because I have barely eaten anything today. And I am feeling some serious buyers remorse about this whole Weight Watchers thing. But I'm signed up for 3 months. I wonder how many points my furniture has in it.

The Great Weight Watchers Experiment

So, after writing last week about how I don't need a fancy weight loss program, I went ahead and joined Weight Watchers this week. Perhaps I was wrong about being able to make healthy choices; self control is not a strength I posses.

You should know that I am no stranger to Weight Watchers. It ranks not just among the diets I have tried in the past, but among the diets I have tried MULTIPLE times. The first time was the best - I went with a friend, and she totally kept me accountable. We did it over the summer (I was teaching full time at the time), paid for the entire summer in advance (so we had no excuses), and it was a mild success. I didn't lose a LOT of weight - just under 10 pounds for the summer - but it was nice to go back to school in the fall with pants that fit. I didn't keep it up. It was too hard to count points while I was working, and getting to a meeting after a full day at school was just not happening. I attempted on my own for awhile but I couldn't do it. So I went back, though to a different meeting. I don't know why - I just didn't think it was right to go back without my friend to the first one. And I did it more than a few times. Every time I would see one of those "no registration fees" ads, I would give it another go. Three or four times with meetings, another couple of times doing the online program. The program worked, but I just couldn't stick with it. I don't know why.

So why would I plunk down money to try it again? I honestly can't even tell you. I think that I thought that spending the money would hold me accountable. I hate to spend money - I am not one of those girls who thrives on shopping. I love a good bargain, and I am very careful to not spend money on "extras." If I spent the money on Weight Watchers, I would have no choice but to follow the plan. Right? I had also heard good things about the new program. One of the things I liked about the old program was that you basically ate healthy food in moderation, and you could work the occasional Starbucks or ice cream cone in. The new program supposedly uses all the new science about weight loss, and, as many are excited for, features zero point fruit. That's right, if you want a banana, you can have a banana. Good enough. I need to lose weight, and perhaps this will hold me accountable.

Lessons from Day 1, or, Me vs. the Taco Dip

I started the day with the best of intentions. I had a plan of what I was going to eat all day in my head and I went grocery shopping to make sure I had everything on hand. But that's not how life works. Ever.

I started the day weighing myself. I did this, of course, to the melodic sounds of my daughter's first temper tantrum of the day. You know, because Daddy is so mean because he makes her keep her oatmeal in the bowl. Mean mean Daddy. Anyways, I was sort of surprised by my weight. I have eaten crap for the last two weeks. Mass quantities of crap. Bacon cheeseburger with extra fries? Not my finest moment. And my jeans? Well, I've been wearing my "fat" pairs. I figured I was at least 10 pounds up from where I was before Thanksgiving. But this morning? I weighed the exact same amount I did before. When my other pants fit. What?? My only explanation is that my bad eating combined with my total sloth to replace what was left of my muscle mass with fat. Which, of course, takes up much more space. Ugh.

And my plan of healthy food? Well, I stuck with it until about 4. That's when I realized that I just didn't eat enough. It's so counter-intuitive sometimes, but I tried so hard to eat small amounts that by 4 I was ravenous. Combined with the stress of parenting Princess Crankypants (or, "Master Class in Tantrums") and all I wanted was that taco dip. You know, the leftover dip from New Year's Eve. The dip that was going to stop me from even getting started today. I resisted it at first. Sure, I ate an entire bag of microwave popcorn instead (and not the low fat kind...ew....). Then I ate an orange. And then I caved. By 6:30 I was scooping up the last of the taco dip. I did use baked chips. That counts for something, right? Sigh...

The good news is that I am out of taco dip. Or, more accurately, I threw the rest of it away. And that all is not lost. I ate the healthy dinner I had planned, and stuck with my plan of a mug of hot chocolate for dessert. (again, regular, not lite...ew...) And the truth is that had I not started my healthy plan today, I would have eaten a lot worse. I'm not going to throw in the towel. I'll start tomorrow with a healthy breakfast again, and this time be sure to have a few protein-rich snacks as I go through my day to keep hunger at bay. And as for Princess Crankypants? Maybe an extra Elmo video tomorrow too.

So...What's the Plan?

I wish I knew. Ok, that might be exaggerating a little bit. But this isn't my first rodeo boys and girls. I have been on more than a few diets. Some of them have worked. Some of them haven't. And none of them have stuck. So it's important to me to change my life, not follow a specific plan.

That doesn't mean that I don't have a plan. The most successful I have ever been on a diet was not really a diet at all. It was an exercise plan. I worked out with a personal trainer twice a week, did cardio on my own five days a week, and religiously recorded everything I ate. My trainer, a fabulous though ridiculously skinny woman, gave me calorie guidelines but really told me to make healthy choices. She encouraged me to eat lots of veggies, a few servings of fruit, and lots more protein then I was eating before. One of the things I really appreciated about her was that she understood that wiggle room was necessary. I went out to lunch with a friend who was moving out of the country; she didn't tell me to order a salad, but just "please don't order anything fried." This is my approach this time around as well.

So my plan, while not really a plan, is to make good choices. To write down everything I eat. To try to keep my calories each day around 1700-1800 (for now - once I lose a little bit of weight I will drop that number). To actually eat five servings of fruits and veggies each day. And to drink more water than coffee. Nothing fancy; just smart choices.

It's not a perfect plan. I know there will be days when it doesn't work. But it's a start.

Changing Your Mindset

So, now that I have made this big decision about being a healthy and fit Mommy, I, of course, set a date for myself to get started. Not an arbitrary date, mind you. I gave it a lot of thought. It would be silly to start during the holidays, what with parties and food everywhere. And the week between Christmas and New Year's was out because my husband took a few days off from work and we had a little mini vacation at home, complete with eating out (and making some pretty crazy dinners ourselves). And this weekend wouldn't work because who starts a new diet on a weekend? So my date to start? Tomorrow. January 4. A Tuesday. Close enough to January 1 that it's still sort of a New Year's Resolution, but giving me enough time to finish off my long weekend in style. See? Not so arbitrary.

I was really resolute in this date. All weekend I thought "I better enjoy this junk now, because I'm not going to eat it next week." Which I know is sort of insane. Only sort of insane. Because this afternoon I started to seriously consider moving my start date for my big transformation. Why would I do such a thing? Because I still have 7-layer taco dip leftover from New Year's Eve. Even as I type it I know how insane that is. Aside from the very real fact that by January 4 I should throw leftovers from New Year's Eve out, I love 7-layer taco dip. And there is a very real part of me that would rather eat leftover (and potentially spoiled) taco dip instead of eating healthy. I would be lying if I thought this wasn't why I'm fat.

The thing about it is, I know it's not really even about the taco dip. If it wasn't the taco dip, it would be the last piece of chicken pot pie in the fridge, or the fact that my daughter and I have a lunch date on Thursday, or that she has a doctor's appointment this week a block away from Chick-fil-A. There is always a reason. And it's always about food. I would say that it's not normal, but I am sure that I'm not alone. Most of my friends plan their weeks around that random effort that takes them near a good place for lunch. Or use food as a reward. Or deal with the stress of every day life by indulging in an extra piece of pie or a venti Starbucks (ok, I self-medicate with a large Starbucks...I would get an extra large if they made them). And it's not good.

I can change my eating habits. I can even make time to exercise. But the thing I really need to do is to change my mindset. To make it ok to not eat the rest of that taco dip. Or to even eat a little of it as part of my calories for the day. But it's not going to happen overnight. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't eat it for breakfast tomorrow morning.