How do I love thee, let me count the ways

Pin It I used to detest pineapple.  At least that was my feeling as a child.  Recently I decided to give it another chance and learned that I did, in fact, love it!  It has become my favourite fruit, other than strawberries (which don't count since I'm allergic to strawberries).  I've learned to eat it fresh on its own, chopped up in cottage cheese (another new love) and more recently in Greek yogurt.  Tonight's experiment took it above and beyond anything I could have imagined...

Two slices of fresh pineapple
A splash of lime juice
1 tsp of brown sugar
3/4 cup Greek yogurt

Place pineapple on a baking sheet (I foiled it first), shake juice onto pineapple (just a little) and then take your tsp of brown sugar and divide it between the two slices of pineapple (mine ere about 3/4 inch thick I think (I dunno, I'm a terrible judge...being on WW it doesn't really matter since fruit is FREE!).  Place under broiler for about 10 minutes...you could leave it longer I suppose, but I don't think you need to.  Remove from oven and slice and place on top of your yogurt.  I had also sprinkled a bit of splenda on my yogurt as I find it a bit tart.  THIS IS BY FAR the BEST three point snack (meal?!) I have ever had that wasn't made out of chocolate (PS this is DAY 7 of no chocolate, cake or cookies...and I'm living to tell the tale).  The flavour of the pineapple POPPED when it went under the broiler.  The brown sugar added just a touch more sweetness than the pineapple usually has - next time I may leave the splenda off completely as I think the pineapple/brown sugar is enough on its own.  This might (MIGHT) even be good without the brown sugar...the warm pineapple in the cool yogurt...yum...and SO filling!  OK, done now.  Oh wait!  I forgot to give credit - one of the girls from my step class mentioned last night that she'd seen on Pinterest where someone had done this with grapefruit (another child-hood-hated fruit that I may try soon) and it looked good...this is where I got the idea from :)

Here are some photos (before and after).

ME Day and stepping outside my comfort zone

Pin It I decided today would be ME day.  Took the day off, refused to look at my Blackberry, did whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.  I relaxed this morning with my coffee and Nate Berkus (who wouldn't want a morning with Nate??) and then I knocked something off my bucket list... I went to a movie - ALONE.  I actually thought I would be watching the movie truly alone since I was the only one in the theatre when it began - the theatre employee actually came in and asked me if I wanted them to turn the volume down a bit!!!  A couple came in shortly after the movie began, so I wasn't completely alone.  It was kind of odd seeing a movie by myself.  But not a bad odd.  Just different.  I saw Reese Witherspoon's new movie (I think it's new...it's been a while since I've been to the movies!) - This Means War.  I'd give the movie 4 stars out of 5.  It was good, but not great.  I just didn't feel anything for any of the characters if that makes any sense.  I didn't have an feelings over which way I wanted the movie to end... it ended a certain way and I was like "hmm, Oh, OK".  Not thrilled, but not disappointed.  I would say if you want to see it, wait for the DVD (or PPV for those of you who are more modern). 

I went into Zellers after the movie - I was think that because they are closing out (TARGET IS COMING, TARGET IS COMING!!!), there might be some deals to be had... I got a deal on windshield wiper fluid...woohoo! ;-)  I tried on a few bathing suits...let me tell you folks, if you ever find yourself feeling over confident about your body, just go into a department store and try on a bathing suit...that'll fix yer wagon!  Needless to say, I did not buy a bathing suit...not sure I would have bought one of these ones even if that had been on sale.

Tonight is Step class and I'm debating doing weights before or after Step...but seeing as how it's ME Day, I may not :)  Going to go make myself a nice big spinach salad to have after Step class and a snack to have before. 

ME Day almost over, sadly.  I may have to do this again next month :)

A swing and a miss

Pin It As much as I love my peanut butter and banana oatmeal, lately I find myself seeking a change.  Today I decided to try pineapple, banana, blueberry almond oatmeal.  My usual 1/3 cup large flake rolled oats (2pts+), 1 Tbsp brown sugar (1pt+), one banana (0pts+), about 1/3 cup fresh pineapple (0pts+), 7 whole, unsalted almonds (1pt+) and a handful of blueberries (0pts+) and a smidgen of almond extract.  Overall it was a decent looking breakfast.  In eating it though, I found it lacked something...flavour.  I think I missed my peanut butter - but I don't think old faithful would have tasted very good with pineapple.... maybe I could have used some coconut or maybe some mango...it just didn't wow me.  I was disappointed - it had such potential!

Here is a picture of my pretty, yet flavourless 4pts+ breakfast:

Thankfully I had a very satisfying lunch yesterday - my friend Cheryl gave me some Hormel Turkey Pepperoni from the USA, so I made my tortilla pizza :)  One LaTortilla Factory Tortilla, BBQ sauce, fresh baby spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, diced turkey bacon, turkey pepperoni, red onion and low fat cheese - baked at 450 for about 12 minutes...deeeeelish!

Chocolate, cakes and cookies, oh my!

Pin It Lent officially begins tomorrow.  I don't normally give something up for lent, but this year have decided this year to give up my three biggest temptations...the "three Cs" - chocolate, cakes (including cupcakes) and cookies.  These are definite trigger foods for me - if I have one, I want more. And more. And more... You get the idea.  I have a friend who is also doing something similar and we are going to hold each other accountable, which will help.  I have decided to make my endeavour public so that you all can hold me accountable.

I am going to miss my chocolate.  I think I eat chocolate nearly every day (counting the points for it, of course...well, except last week's slippery slope).  I think the hardest thing will be breaking the habit - my addiction to Coca Cola was the same - I was in the habit of reaching for the vending machine with my dollar everytime I walked into the lunchroom here at work.  Breaking that habit was easier than I thought!  I don't have any chocolate bars (that I know of!) in the house right now and have no intentions of buying any until after Easter (hey, they'll be on sale then!). 

So is anyone else giving anything up for Lent?  Will you keep me accountable?

Friend Makin' Monday - Travel

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If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at Kenlie's blog: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Travel

1. Where did your most recent trip take you?  England in September.
2. Is there a place that you’d like to visit that you haven’t yet?  If so, where?  I'd love to visit Australia and, like Kenlie, I'd also like to try a cruise.
3. Do you travel lightly, or do you cram as much into your luggage as possible?  I usually travel TO my destination reasonably light...but depending on where I go, I've been known to borrow/buy another bag to bring my stuff home (OK, so I like to shop!)
4. Do your eating and exercise habits change when you travel? If so, how? It pretty much goes out the window I'm afraid.  I do try to be careful with the food and sometimes my trip involves a lot of walking, but I'm not really good at making a plan and sticking to it...yet!
5. Tell us about a place you’ve been that you’d like to go back to.  Scotland...would love to make it back there on my next UK trip.
6. Do you prefer to travel at a certain time of year?  Any time of year is a good time to travel!
7. If you had to choose, would you go to the beach or the mountains?  BEACH!
8. Have you ever needed a passport to travel?  Yes - pretty much every trip since they implemented the passport requirement to travel to the US.... USA, Mexico, Dominican, Asia and Europe.
9. Do you collect anything in your travels?  Airmiles.... and I've started collecting magnets (unofficially...and only from places I have been to myself)
10. Where do you plan to go next?  Hoping to head to the US this summer to visit some family if schedules permit and then hoping to head back to the UK in December.

Now it’s your turn! Don’t forget to come back to share a link in the comments!  Happy Monday friends!

Turkey and Broccoli Noodle Casserole

Pin It Made this yesterday and it was delish!  Original recipe called for chicken, but I scored a deal on turkey last week, so I substituted turkey.  I made some minor changes to Gina's recipe and the resulting points+ value is 8 for mine.  Still a great deal!

The Perfect Storm

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As promised on Facebook, I am going to tell you the story of my Perfect Storm of a week, resulting in disaster on the scale this morning at WW.  First of all, let me start by saying that I am completely, totally, 100% responsible for this week's gain.  I own this fact and I am OK with it.  I'm not OK with it in that I agree with my behaviours this week - I'm "OK with it" in that I'm not down today like I would be if the gain were unexplainable.

So here goes...


Sunday/Monday - days were good
Tuesday...V-Day.  Our building management company at work sent us a HUGE box of chocolates. I'm usually OK and can avoid these things in the office...but just when we thought the box was gone, we realized there was a second layer!!!  Oh my... day one of the Perfect Storm...

Wednesday....this day was OK too - more snacks than I should have had (granola bar, chocolate, key lime sorbet)...but I still tracked everything.

Thursday - worked an event for work Thursday night.  Thought I might be out of there by 6:30 or so, putting me home by about 7...ended up stuck there til 8pm...so towards the end of the night I was getting really hungry and started grazing on the food.  Not all bad stuff...turkey, roast beef, ham...on top of little garlic bread baguettes...with cheese.... This was day two of the Perfect Storm and about where I fell off the tracking wagon.

Friday - We had a baby shower for one of my co-workers today.  Initially I was going to stay away from the shower (just to avoid the food)...but I didn't.  Pizza for lunch, followed by cake...and then later in the day, more cake... I shook myself off and came home and had some turkey/barley soup before my two hour Zumbathon...then after the Zumbathon I had my chopped chicken salad at Boston Pizza (7 pts)...and nachos...oh the nachos... I didn't order them, but I sure didn't turn them away when offered either.

Soooooo, this wraps up this week's Perfect Storm:  I had way more sweets than usual (several of which I did not track), I had oodles of sodium late in the week (which I NEVER do), I did a major (almost 2 hour) workout the day before weigh in (which I also never do), I ate out late on a Friday night (again...never do). 

All this resulted in the following shameful result on the scale:

Today: +3.7 pounds (praying a lot of this is water retention due to intense workout and sodium!!!)
Total to date: -117.3 pounds
To goal: 7.3 pounds

Sorry for the long, drawn out post here, but I felt like I had to "confess my sins" to keep myself honest and get back on track.  Sometimes it is so easy to sweep things under the rug and pretend they didn't happen.  I find that blogging these things keeps me honest and helps me to realize what works and what doesn't ;-)

Despite all of the above, I did have a good week.  The chocolates were good on Tuesday, the work event was a success on Thursday (it was an alumni event, so I got to see a ton of folks I hadn't seen in years!) and I had an amazing time with my Zumba friends yesterday...oh, and the Superstore poundcake and I had a great time too!  No regrets...moving on.  Confession over with.

Friend Makin' Monday...a couple of days late

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 This is my first time participating in FMM...sorry it's Wednesday now...I'm only a couple days late!

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at:  www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Before Photos

1. Are you on a weight-loss journey?  Have you lost weight in the past? Are you trying to lose it now?  Yes…I’ve lost 121 pounds and am 3.6 pounds from goal.
2. Do you like being in pictures, or do you shy away from the camera? I used to hide away from the camera...now I don't mind so much :)
3. Does looking at old photos of yourself motivate you?  It sure does.  Looking at old pictures of me makes me wonder why I waited so long to start this journey.
4. Weight-loss bloggers, do you post progress pictures on your blog?  I sure do!
5. Will you share a before photo with us (even if you don’t have an after yet?)  Here you go...

Summer 2009 to Summer 2011

Chicken wing craving officially taken care of!

Pin It I read or heard someone mention recently that they used hot sauce on chicken nuggets and that they tasted like boneless hot wings (if I remember who/where I heard/read this I'll come back and give credit where credit is due!).  What a great idea!  I had some of the PC Blue Menu Chicken Chunks (you can visit my post here for my original review on them) left and I'd picked up some Frank's Hot Sauce at the grocery store last night.  I cut up a red skinned potatoes into french fry shapes, tossed them with some safflower oil, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of chipotle chili powder and baked them with the chicken in the oven for about 25 mins (flipping half way).  After it was all cooked I dipped the chicken tenders in the hot sauce...YUMMY!!!!  Who needs chicken wings at 3 points+ each when you can have a serving of chicken chunks with hot sauce for 5 points+ (or a serving and a half for 8 points+ like I did tonight!)  I will soooo be making these again.  For one serving of the "fries" and one serving of the "wings" it would be a total of 10 points+...a super deal if you ask me.  The fries were way better than anything I'd get at a restaurant.  I added a side of steamed broccoli and carrots (free, of course).  Voila!  Here it is :

New year, new things to try (and Saturday results)

Pin It As I mentioned in a recent post, I've tried to many new foods and food combinations in the past year.  I'm excited to try more this year! 

Some of my new-found likes (aka things I didn't think I liked):

• cottage cheese
• pineapple
• Brussels sprouts (making them with bacon the first time did help!)
• peaches
• oranges
• cauliflower
• RAW broccoli and cauliflower
• guacamole
• skim milk

This is just a sampling of what I've tried this year and discovered I like/love.  There were some things I tried and still don't like - beets (yuck!!) and pears (what kind of texture IS that?!) are two.

What foods should I try next (please keep them healthy...all the bad combos have probably been tried...fries, cheese and gravy; peanut butter with anything...etc.)?

Made stuffed peppers (turkey, quinoa, chipotle peppers, tomatoes, etc) and homemade turkey-barley soup yesterday.  Both were super yummy.  I had a bit of an incident when removing the peppers from the oven after putting the cheese on top for browning...the pan slipped...a couple of my peppers ended up on the oven door :(  I was still able to save them (don't worry, I won't feed you those ones if you come for supper!).  What a mess...the juices dripped down into the bottom drawer of the oven, all over the floor... messy...just glad I didn't drop the soup!  Soup wasn't anything out of the ordinary (other than using barley instead of potatoes or pasta).  Superstore had turkey breast tenderloins on sale for $4.99/lb (for those of you in the US, this is a FANTASTIC deal) - boneless/skinless too!  I bought about four pounds worth and will freeze what I didn't use in the soup for another day when I'm craving turkey.  So much easier than roasting a whole turkey....and a nice change from chicken!


Saturday results:
This week: -0.8
Total: -121lbs
To goal: 3.6lbs

I just realized today that I don't have any more 5lb stars coming to me!  My goal to lose is 124.6lbs.  I may tack on another .4lbs at some point just so I can get me one more star ;-)

Busy week again this week - have two "outtings" to plan for - a work event on Thurs night and the two-hour Zumbathon* on Friday night (going out with the girls afterwards).  Might weigh in on Friday morning as I don't know what sodium-ish things we might have Friday night.  I can certainly plan my points for it...but I almost NEVER eat out on a Thurs/Fri night so close to weigh in...I'm such a sodium-phobe that late in the week!

* The two-hour Zumbathon is in support of the BAM Buster's team for Bust-A-Move - Tickets are $15 for this event, which takes place at the Canada Games Centre on Friday, February 19th, 7-9pm.  Alternately, you can sponsor Cynthia (my Zumba/step instructor) here if you like.

Fruity, cottagy goodness

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So I've learned to love pineapple, peaches and so many other foods this past year.  One thing I've always claimed to dislike was cottage cheese (except in lasagna!).  I decided to take the plunge today and give it a go.  I overdid it a bit with buying fruit today, so I made myself a fruit salad with raspberries, blueberries, watermelon, peaches, bananas, pineapple and clementines.  I calculate it as zero points - I refuse to add it to the recipe builder and have an all fruit salad come out as 4 points or something crazy like that.  I measured out half a cup of fat free cottage cheese and added some splenda, sugar free syrup and cinnamon and topped it off with my fruit salad.  It was a great one point snack!  I actually loved it!  I might have some with my oatmeal tomorrow for breakfast.

Saturday weigh in update:  I am down 0.5 lbs this week.  Disappointing considering the gains I've had recently, but I'll take anything that's not a gain at this point!  I am 4.4 lbs from goal. 

I am going to try and make at least one new recipe this week and one favorite recipe.  I might make Skinny Tuna Noodle casserole.  For my new recipe I think I'll look for a stuffed pepper recipe - Pete's Frootique had yellow and orange peppers on sale for $1.99/lb (amazing!) so I bought half a dozen...stuffed peppers are so yummy and freeze so well.  I also bought some ground turkey, so if you have a stuffed pepper recipe that calls for turkey, send it my way!

We've had a transit strike in my city this week (started Thursday).  I am travelling with a co-worker to and from work (and am SO thankful for her offering to drive me!).  I am getting home earlier than I would normally get home by taking the bus, which is awesome!  If the strike continues, it may actually help me with getting in my workouts - I am always rushed on Mondays to get to Step class for 6pm and there is a 6pm class on Tuesdays that I'd like to go back to (right before Zumba), but I just can't rush to get there for 6:00 two days in a row.  So far the strike has been in my favour!  I know it's not the same for a lot of people in the city, so I do hope that the strike ends very soon.  The last strike we had here was 14 years ago and it went on for 5 or 6 weeks...

I'm off to catch up on Coronation Street...stay tuned for my recipe updates.