well hello again!

Two months.  8 weeks.  56 days.  

That's how long it's been since I felt like blogging.  

That's how long it's been since I let myself slide off track.  

That's how long it's taken me to gain 4.8 pounds.  

That's how long it's been since I think I gave a damn.  

Well I'm giving a damn again.  

Not because of the new year's resolutions, because those things are junk and I know it.  

Not because the holidays are over, although I did manage to give myself free reign and it got ugly.  

Not because of anything anyone else said to me.  

I'm giving a damn again because I need to.  

I need to because I miss the way it felt to be getting in better shape.  

I need to because I miss the way people smiled at me when they hadn't seen me for a few months.  

I need to because I miss the way that old clothes became new again.  

I need to because I have invested quite a bit of money in a new bicycle, loads of new workout clothing, and some home exercise gear throughout 2012 and I cannot let that go to waste.  

I need to because I don't feel right without taking care of myself.  

I need to because I need to be in control of something, even if some days I can only control the amount of water I drink or that I ate fruit with every bite of a guilt laden snack option.  

I cannot wait for January 1st to come back and begin taking care of myself.  I especially cannot wait until my meetings resume on January 8th to start acting like a Weight Watcher again.  I cannot delay signing up for my beloved spin classes until after the supposed "New Year's Resolution" rush dies down.  

So I've made a few small changes, but I hope they have a large impact.  Here's where I'm starting:

1.  I logged in to the Weight Watchers main site and I changed my weigh in day to Friday.  

This was completely personal, and I'm not saying everyone has to do it.  I only did it because for the past 14 months I've had my weigh in day on Tuesday which means that I would fall into the following bad habit: I would track on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but on Friday and Saturday I would consume so much junk that I'd give up tracking on Sunday and Monday and just tell myself I'd start over on the following Tuesday.  This did not work well.  Let me rephrase that, this did not work at all.  

2.  I updated my Weight Watchers application on my phone.  

If you haven't done this yet, go do it.  Don't pass go, don't collect two hundred dollars.  Go update your app.  Now.  There are so many more features now on the program and I want to take advantage of every single one of them.  I want you to take advantage of it too!  The points program hasn't changed and neither have the good health guidelines, but the good people of WW have added a ton of new mental diversions and though process changing tools that I am really optimistic about.  I want to see if they work, because I know the points plus already does and anything on top of that is simply a bonus!  

3.  I logged on to my favorite spin studio's website and I signed up for 5 classes in the next three weeks.  

Back to the good old days.  I was cycling outdoors quite a bit over the summer and into the fall, but when the clocks changed and the weather got cooler I found excuse after excuse not to exercise outdoors anymore.  I've removed my excuse for the next three weeks because my beloved Pedal Spin studio is climate controlled and the rain doesn't change the ride at all.  After I signed up for the classes, I put them all on my calendar so I wouldn't have an excuse to forget...again.  

4.  I made sure that all of my exercise clothes are ready to go at a moment's notice in an easily accessible drawer.  

It sounds stupid, but because I'm putting my house back together after an unexpected and lengthy remodel (which I'll explain later, with pictures!) I had clothes all over my bedroom and in piles of disarray.  Just getting all of the necessary items in one place is going to help me, even just a teeny tiny bit.  Another small part of this equation is going to be getting the residual junk food out of my house, but I'm not going to try to tackle that all at once.  I find that getting rid of all the junk food makes me feel deprived, then I just rebel and eat like crap anyway.  It defeats the purpose.  

5.  Last, but not least, I'm back to my good old grocery shopping list.  

For a long time I had a routine of what foods I would buy and the good thing was that I got really comfortable with knowing the points plus values of my usual goodies.  The last couple of months have been a disaster of me grabbing whatever I could find at my local Target and eating junk food and fast food like it was the end of the world.  By adding my old grocery list to the knowledge that my beloved Trader Joe's has partnered with Weight Watchers to add over 1,000 of their food items into the Weight Watchers points plus database and I feel like I'm setting myself up for some baby steps back to success.  

So there you go, I'm going to coming around again.  I appreciate the "are you alive" emails, text messages, and tweets.  In fact, if you're not connected to me online somehow then I really hope you'll take a second to do so.  The easiest way is on Twitter, since I try to keep the health related stuff there.  I'm not shy though, feel free to get in touch with me in other ways such as Facebook.  I can always use another friendly person that is willing to share some accountability and support, and I hope I can provide the same to all you lovely people as well!  

progress update

If you've been a Weight Watcher for any length of time, you remember that at one point they called their plan "Momentum."  I never understood why.  

I do now!  

You see, I'm a numbers based person.  In my life, numbers mean everything!  Numbers like how much money is in my accounts or the numerical value of how much of a chemical is in a sample I'm testing.  You could say that I'm sort of obsessed with numbers.  

So a few weeks back, I decided to explore my eTools page on Weight Watchers.  It tracks my food and keeps track of the number of points that I'm shoveling into my mouth, but it also records my weight every week after I step on that scale at my meeting.  

Let's just say eTools rocks.  You can set it up to only show you points tracking, activity tracking, or weight records for a specific date range!  I had to play around with this feature to truly appreciate how hard I've been working.  

Step 1: I asked eTools to show me results from the last week in 2011 into the first week of 2012, basically my first year back on plan.  This was sort of a disappointing year for me, I spent a lot of time hopping on and off of plan and I spent almost no time exercising.  The results weren't bad, but they weren't all that great either.  In twelve months, I recorded a loss of 11.2 pounds.  Less than one pound per month on average.  Actually it is a loss of 0.93 pounds per month.  Like I said, I like numbers.  

Step 2: Then I started looking at some small life changes.  Like when my mom joined Weight Watchers with me back in the fall of 2011.  She's been on plan with me for approximately six months (I don't remember her exact start date, so I'm estimating) and I managed to lose 8 pounds in that time.  Now that means that my average weight loss jumps up to 1.33 pounds per month since my mother has come into this journey with me!  That's a 40% improvement from 2011, when I was faltering and trying to do it on my own!  Yowsah!  

Now let's look even closer, at some more recent changes.  The last week in 2011, I committed to plan 100% and I started taking control.  At the time of writing this blog post, I am approximately three and a half months into these changes and I've lost a total of 7 pounds.  That is an average loss of 2 pounds per month! It is a 107% improvement from my average weight loss for all of 2011 and it is a 50% improvement from my average over the last 6 months.  

What did I do?  Not a whole lot actually.  I started by attending spin classes twice a week.  It is only about 2 hours of my week, which I manage to fit in, and it makes a big difference in my confidence level.  Then I started taking more control of what I was bringing into my house to eat.  In other words, I became a more careful grocery shopper.  I followed the simple rule that you cannot eat something if you don't have it, and it made a huge difference.  If you don't have healthy food in the house, it is going to prohibit you from making good choices.  If you don't have junk food in the house, it is going to slow you down on bad choices.  

Notice I just said  it will "slow you down on bad choices."  This is because I didn't give up things like going out to dinner.  I can still make bad choices if I go out to dinner with friends and family, but I'm less likely to let them occur.  My mom and I have this saying that we got from a past Weight Watchers leader, "Date the enemy, don't bring him home."  What this means to us is that it is okay to go out to dinner and splurge a little, but you need to leave the bad stuff at the table.  It isn't a huge deal if you split ice cream dessert at a restaurant, but it would be horrible if you brought home a 5 gallon tub of ice cream and started chowing down on it!  Date the ice cream, but don't bring the ice cream home.  

It is for this reason that I don't buy frozen french fries at the grocery store, but I still eat them at a restaurant. I don't keep loads of pre made pizza dough in my fridge any more, but I'm not afraid to buy a cheese pizza at a restaurant.  I have also started (sometimes) asking for a box with my dinner, and in some cases that waitress will box half of my dinner before she even brings it out to me so that I don't have to do it myself.  The reality is that I'm usually satisfied (or even full) after eating half of the dinner, and I can eat the rest of my dinner at a later time.  Saves me money, saves me time, saves me points, what's not to love?  

So there you have it, my numerically motivated and highly personal update!  If you have eTools or another way of tracking, I challenge you to take a look at how you've been doing in the past and present.  It's really eye opening!  

recipe review: banana nut oatmeal

There was once a period in my life that I ate oatmeal every single day: it was when my mom went back to work and my poor father was in charge of feeding his snotty daughter breakfast every day.  I love my father, but the man cannot cook anything that does't come out of the microwave or off of the grill.  You want a steak?  He's your man.  You want mom's cheese eggs or toad-in-a-hole?  Well, good luck with that.  

My father gave me some options for breakfast: cold cereal, packets of oatmeal, or Pop Tarts.  

Alas, my love for Pop Tarts came later.  

But then I grew away from oatmeal, far, far away from it.  I hated it.  Couldn't stand it.  

Then, recently, I've re-discovered my love of oatmeal, but it took a little help from some of my Twitter friends and some well placed oatmeal additions.  

@whitgetsfit mentioned adding banana to oatmeal, then nuts, and all of a sudden I was enjoying BANANA NUT OATMEAL!  Yummy!  So here is my simple take on it, only four ingredients (five if you want to sweeten it up!).  

'Nana Nut Oatmeal

4 servings

5 points plus each if you track individually

7 points plus if you put it into the recipe builder

You pick, but I know what I'm doing!

1 cup steel cut oats (I used the Fresh & Easy store brand)

4 cups of water

2 ripe bananas

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Splenda (optional, to taste)

Bring the water to a boil in a medium sauce pan, then dump in the oats.  Drop the heat to low or medium low.  

Keep checking on it and stirring.  

It should take about 20 minutes to get really good and cooked.  

Dump in the two chopped bananas, chopped pecans, and the optional Splenda.  

Stir it up, check for seasoning, and enjoy!  

By the way, I place this into individual baggies and freeze them laying flat.  Then I can just grab one when I'm on the go and take it to work with me for breakfast.  As an added bonus, it keeps my lunch cold on the way to work!  Score!  

activity review: dusting off my wii & wii fit

I was originally going to just call this post "activity review: wii fit" but then I realized I'd be lying to all of you, and myself.  The truth is that I have had some bad days, just over 1000 of them to be exact.  Let me re-cap.  

Back in 2009, my boyfriend and I decided to move in together.  He was preparing to graduate from college and join me in the working world, so we started looking for apartments.  Whoa, did the Lord have different plans for us.  The places we would have like to live were in the range of about $1500 per month, and when we started to do the math we realized that we could own our own home for that kind of money.  

That's right, we could buy a place to live cheaper than we could rent one.  

So we started looking.  

We made offers.  

And we looked.  

We made more offers.  

And we looked some more.  

This is where it gets ugly for me.  You see, this was all happening at a great time in my life.  I was in the 160 pound range and less than about fifteen pounds away from my goal and becoming a lifetime member at Weight Watchers.  I was eating right, living at home, exercising a lot, and on the road to a great life.  

Then, the stress hit.  I was so worried about finances that I stopped going to Weight Watchers so I could save the extra money every month.  We were house hunting each and every night and weekend, so I stopped meeting friends at the gym and taking classes on my own.  I wasn't happy with my current living situation (living with my parents) so I stopped going home to eat dinner with them and turned to fast food instead.  

Just before all of this, I had bought myself a Wii and my boyfriend had bought me the Wii Fit as a gift.  I apparently set it all up and tested it out a few times, and I will tell you why.  

Fast forward nine months.  We finally moved into our first home.  A two bedroom, one and half bath condo in a gated community and a perfect little yard for me to kill plants in.  It took us nine months and about 30 written offers to find this place, nearly another two months in escrow, and a month of superficial overhaul before we could move in.  Yah, if you did the math, it was nearly an entire year long process.  We started looking for houses in April 2009, we moved into our first home on March 25th, 2010.  

Crap.  

Then we had to put a LOT more work into the house.  

First, we tore apart the kitchen and we lived out of a closet.  Yup, Mike's dorm fridge and a box of pantry items.  Needless to say, we ate out a lot.  

Then we spent our evenings doing things like installing shower curtains (me, not pictured) and new shower heads (courtesy of Big Mike).  

And eventually what you see here, finally became a kitchen again, and someday I'll post pictures of it, but for now, just trust me.  It's better than the crap you see here.  

During that time, I had packed my Wii and Wii Fit away and had forgotten about it.  What a waste of money!  Nearly two years after we moved in, I got it out again, fired it up, stepped on, and it informed me that I had not only neglected it for about 1000 days, I had gained 15 pounds and was now considered obese.  

Thanks Wii, you're telling me like it is.  

The sad part was that I had already lost over fifteen pounds on this round of Weight Watchers before I stepped on the dang thing!  

Then what did my Wii do?  It made my stupid freaking little brown haired avatar on the screen bloat up like a balloon.  A big fat balloon.  

That was horrible.  I felt fat.  My avatar was fat.  At that point I wanted to throw it out the window.  

But I didn't.  I got on it.  I did 10 minutes of advanced step and 10 minutes of various yoga poses.  I earned 2 Activity Points Plus.  

Then I got off of it, exited the Wii Fit program and turned on my Netflix.  I put a couple of workout DVD's in my queue and decided that I wasn't going to be mad.  

After all, it wasn't my Wii's fault that it had to make my avatar fat, right?  

It was myself for making myself fat.  

There, I said it.  I am going to make friend with my Wii and the Wii Fit.  

Anyone have any other suggestions on Wii titles I can use to burn off this pudge?  After all, I wouldn't want that poor little cartoon girl on the screen to stay fat forever.  She deserves a happy, healthy, skinny life and so do I.

activity review: 30 day shred (level 1)

I know we've all seen it in the stores, most of us know people that have tried it.  Heck, if you're like me, you probably bought it in January of 2011 when Target had all of their workout DVDs on sale, but you only tried it once or twice and gave up.  

That's a fact.  Last year, when I was almost 200 pounds, I tried this DVD.  I didn't make it through the second circuit of level one (there are three circuits in each level).  

I digress.  

Let me introduce this workout properly:  This is a DVD created by Jillian Michaels that uses her "3-2-1" form of exercise.  What this means to you is that in her three levels of workouts on the DVD, she cycles through three minutes of  strength training, two minutes of cardio exercises, and one minute of abdominal work.  You complete this six minute cycle three times for a total of 18 minutes, combined with a 3 minute warm up and a 3 minute cool down.  Twenty four minutes total.  

Like I mentioned, I had picked it up last year when Target placed all of their workout gear on sale in January.  Check for it here.  I picked it up for $10 if I remember correctly, and I tried it twice last year and gave up both times. That's right, I stopped less than half way through the workout.  I was a fat ass.  Not only was I almost 200 pounds, I wasn't in any sort of shape at all.  Well, that's not true I guess.  Round is technically a shape.  

After seven weeks of walking and spin classes twice a week, I went back to it.  And I did it!  That's right, I kicked level one in the pants!  

Well not really, but the nice thing is that there is a modified beginner version for most of the exercises.  I can do this level a few more times and improve before I move up to level 2.  That will be a separate review.  

A few of the things you can expect from this DVD are: jumping jacks, jumping rope, squats, light weight arm curls and rows, and crunch abdominal exercises.  

The pro's: 

It's less than thirty minutes!  This is great if I need to get in a bit of activity before work.  

The pace is rather quick, meaning you don't do any exercise for more than one minute.  This keeps you from (a) giving up, (b) getting bored, or (c) getting really exhausted from one single thing.

You only use hand weights and a mat (optional) in this level, and in reality you don't even need the hand weights.  It's completely feasible to use cans or water bottles for the exact same results.  

There are two instructors in the rear of the studio showing you beginners and advanced modifications for most of the exercises.  

The con's:

I'm not exactly a huge Jillian Michaels fan.  I can't explain it, I just get irritated by her every once in a while.  

There aren't really moments to grab a drink of water.  I understand it's only 30 minutes, but I appreciate a brief chatty moment in an exercise DVD so I can slurp some H2O.  

Push up's.  There, I said it.  I hate push up's.  Always have, always will.  There are two sets of push ups in the beginning of circuit 1.  I did them, I lived.  They just bug me for some odd reason.  

So there you have it, take what you will from my review.  I'm going to attack level 1 a few more times and I'll review levels 2 and 3 when I get to them.  For the time being, I rated myself between a medium and a high level of intensity for the workout, so that's somewhere between 3 and 6 Activity Points Plus for me.  It's up to you what you call it for yourself.  

Also worth mentioning is that a friend of mine recommended Collage Video to me a while ago, and while I haven't ordered anything from them as of yet, I know they have this DVD.  Click here for price and availability. They also have a place for you to view part of the DVD to see if you like it.  

did you really miss it?

So often when I'm out at a restaurant or maybe at a friend's house for a party, I am faced with food obstacles.  This would be things like beautiful cupcakes, delicious cookies, spinach dip with bread slices, and cheese filled dips and chips.  

We all battle with this, right?  

Good, I thought so.  

In the past, I might start off with a little of each to satisfy my taste buds.  After that, I would say to myself "Well you've already blown it, go ahead."  So I'd go back and fill up a plate and really  blow it.  

Eventually I learned a saying, "The first bite is often as good as the last."  This enabled me to slow down a little bit, not eat as much, and not try to finish off the bowl of french onion dip in front of me.  

Now I ask myself, "Are you really going to miss this?"  

That's right, if I were to avoid eating something would I (a) go home and get on with my life or (b) go home and be sad that I didn't try that cheesecake with the blueberries on it while dreaming of the buffalo chicken dip?  

I usually answer (a). 

Every once in a while, I decide that the food in front of me is so unique that I should try it and I answer (b).  

Perhaps it is something I've never had before.  Maybe it is something from my childhood that I don't know how to cook or don't know where to buy.  Likely, it is an old favorite from my eat anything days.  Even then, I shouldn't be eating.  

So the next time you're faced with this struggle, ask yourself if you're really going to miss the item of food in front of you.  If you can walk away from it for a few minutes, and forget about it, then you should probably just pass.  But remember, Weight Watchers isn't about deprivation, it's about moderation.  Allow yourself a treat every once in a while.  

points bomb: the patty melt incident

How many of us have ever gone into a restaurant, taken a look around the menu, ordered we something we thought was a good idea and then discovered later it was the complete opposite? 

Well, I have. 

In fact, I'll give you an example.  I went to a restaurant a while ago with my boyfriend and decided to try something new.  You see, I usually get the exact same fifteen Points Plus meal every time.  This time, I ordered a patty melt, hold the cheese, hold the 1000 island dressing, please. 

Bread, meat, onions, fries.  How bad could I have been? 

I'll tell you how bad, thirty four Points Plus bad. That's right, 34.  

It was what I like to call a "points bomb" or something that after you've consumed it, has completely demolished all of your points for the day, week, or even year! 

I only consume twenty eight points per day, and at the time of consuming this patty melt, I had about ten of those left.  I was out of my activity points for the week, and I hadn't dipped into my weekly points (thankfully!). 

But in reality, I don't use those forty nine extra points.  They aren't usually nice to me because when I used to use them they all went to beer, wine, and junk.  So now, I stick to the mantra that you can only eat what you've earned.  That's right, I only eat my twenty eight daily points and whatever weekly activity points that I can earn.  I'm crazy like that. 

So there you have it, lesson learned.  Plan ahead, or stick to the things you know won't hurt you. 

restaurant review: red robin

The boyfriend and I like to go out to eat together, quite often unfortunately.  It has been a big past time with us, almost as big as our expanding waist lines.  

The bigger problem is that he tends to be more picky then I am, and that dictates where we go to eat.  He enjoys Mexican food, burgers, diners, and things of the like.  This can be a diet disaster!  That is, unless you plan ahead.  

I like to keep three or four dinner ideas for each week, and this allows me one night a week to have dinner with my mother, and another two evenings out with the boyfriend or other friends.  Also, once I find something that I consider to be a Points Plus bargain at a restaurant, I usually save it in my online tracker and order it quite often.  It's a good way to prevent a meltdown while I'm out and about.  

One of my favorite things are chains that put their nutrition information online, and even better than that is a chain that has its own recipe builder!  Enter: Red Robin Gourmet Burgers!  

At the bottom of the page is a handy little tool where you can build your meal!  

After plugging in what I ate (I ordered a "Keep It Simple" burger) and adding in my side of steak fries, I was able to very confidently track my fifteen points plus!  They even have an iPhone app, but unfortunately I have an EVO.

All you do is select your burger and customize whatever you added or took off of the burger!

And then hit the button at the bottom-right hand side of the page that says "Calculate Nutrition."

And then take that and plug it into your online points calculator.

It's awesome and easy!  You can pre-track or wait until after you've eaten to discover the damage you may have done.  I recommend the former.  

my first #7daychip

So in early February, I read all about a man named Brad Gansberg and a tool he's added to motivate people online: it's called the "7 day chip" and you can read all about it here.  

Well as soon as I read about it, I had to try it!  It sounded like a great non-scale goal to achieve.  You set your own daily goals, something attainable, and you complete them every day for seven days.  At the end of the week, you shout it out on Twitter or Facebook, or even tell Brad himself so he can recognize you on his blog and Twitter!  Or just congratulate yourself and enjoy it.

Just make sure you are using the hashtag #7daychip so that other people can find you on Twitter and reply to you.  It's a really positive community!  

Then I sat around and thought about it for about four days, talk about procrastination!  What would I set my goals to be?  What if I failed?  What if I forgot completely about my goals and the chip altogether?  

I'm such a worry wort.  

Finally, the day before my Weight Watchers weigh in, I sat down and picked three very simple goals for myself:  

1. I will only use my daily Points Plus target and any activity Points Plus that I earn throughout the week.  
Another way of saying this would be to say that I will not use my 49 weekly Points Plus, but that sounded too negative!  

2.  I will drink eight full glasses (eight ounces each) of water each day for a total of 64 ounces.  
I had been seeing people setting 100 ounce goals each day, but after trying it for a day I decided it was a bit too ambitious for me.

3.  I will eat a minimum of six servings of fruits and vegetables each day.  
I have to admit, number three is a total breeze for me.  I usually eat about eight servings of fruits and veggies each day, so it was a no brainer to put it on my list.  

And then, I started my first 7 day chip.

It was so great!  I had people on Twitter that would see my tag and congratulate me or ask me how my day was going.  I checked in with myself and the Twitter folks at the end of each day and the support was outstanding.  People I didn't know that were on a weight loss journey would throw me the most positive and outstanding messages or notes.  I felt so great.

So great in fact that I ate way more fruits and vegetables and added an addition day of activity to my week, all of this for no reason other than I felt like it.  I would eat four or five pieces of fruit because they sounded good.  I grabbed the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD one morning and did it because I felt like doing it.  

to track, or not to track?

The simple fact is that I try to avoid weighing myself at home, but I simply cannot do it.  My meeting is on Tuesday evening, which means that I become neurotic and starting weighing myself hourly on Sunday evening. 

I don't like surprises.  

But why do I do this?  Why do I ignore the scale and my tracking on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday?  Then I become a super tracker on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  Oh, I'm sure that's a great way to do things.  

NOT!  

I can't do much to change that scale on Monday morning if I've over eaten all weekend long!  So why am I not more aware?  That was a huge problem for me in 2011, and I've struggled with myself for several weeks to break it.  Tracking three days a week isn't the right way to do things, so I forced myself to track more.  The final result?  

I tracked 29 out of 31 days in January!  That's right!  I kicked January's butt!  Tracking forced me to become aware of my weaknesses (bread, chips and salsa, beer) and take a look at my strong weeks (fruit, fruit, and more fruit).  If nothing else, it opened my eyes.  

So take a look at your tracker, dust it off.  Open up that app on your fancy phone, sign in.  Put the excuses down and pick up the pen.  

If you nibble it, then scribble it.  

recipe review: butter chicken

Butter chicken is an Indian dish that I've yet to try at an Indian restaurant because I love my version so much!  I originally read about it on the Pioneer Woman's blog, but it was made with a lot of butter and cream.  It was delicious!  But it wasn't all that good for me, so I put it into my recipe box and forgot about it.  

One day, my boyfriend asked me what had happened to it and why I hadn't made it again.  I told him that it was pretty fattening, but I decided to try to make it healthier with the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder tool.  

So here goes!  

Better Butter Chicken

6 servings

9 points plus

1 pound of chicken cut into small bite size pieces (I use chicken breasts)

5 cloves of garlic, smashed or finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 lime, juiced

Put all of this into a plastic bag and marinate it overnight in the refrigerator.  Please note, I use all of that cayenne pepper and usually some more because I love the heat!  

1/4 cup salted butter

1 diced onion

14 ounce can tomato sauce

14 ounce can diced tomatoes

2 cups fat free milk

1 cup white rice

2 cups water

one bunch cilantro

Saute the onion in the butter until soft. Add marinated chicken and cook about 10 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Cook for 30 minutes over medium-low heat with the lid on. 

Add the rice to the boiling water and cover.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the milk just before serving and heat through.  Top with finely chopped cilantro and serve over the rice.

This recipe packs a lot of flavor and I think that's why I love it so much!  I can get loads of tomatoes and some delicious chicken all on one plate and the spices you use to marinate the chicken absolutely send it over the top.  Try it on your picky eaters, because even my picky eater loves it.

activity review: pedal spin studio

Back in my younger days, I figure skated, danced, did gymnastics, and was a cheerleader.  None of these activities are really viable options for me now as I approach my third decade of life.  I can't afford to head to buy skates and head to an ice rink, I'm way too out of shape to go to a tumbling class, and cheerleading?  Well that ended when high school did.  

So what does a girl do if she's not athletic but wants to work out?  Last year, I tried running.  All that I learned about running was that I am not a runner.  I had all of the gear necessary to try it out, so I wasn't wasting any money and there were no fees to run on my local trail.  However, I hated every second of it.  Before you ask, I tried it all: I made playlists, I brought my dog, and I asked friends that run if they'd run with me.  I am simply not a runner.  

So a few weeks ago, I woke up early on my day off and I did an internet search for this studio that I had driven by a few times.  It was called Pedal Spin Studio.  I found out it is a spin studio and the first class was free to try it out, so I went.  It happened to be a holiday and the class wasn't full, so I was in luck.  

The instructors name was Cheryl and as soon as I said I was new and trying it out, she walked me over to my bike and walked me through the basics.  She helped me set up my bike, told me how to change the bike's resistance, and explained a couple of things we'd be doing on our ride that day.  

The class started, the lights were turned off, and I was hooked.  

It's like a dance party on a stationary bike!  They have black lights, killer music, disco balls, and laser lights moving around the room.  I was told what to expect from the class, but I was also told to "ride my own ride."  

I had no idea what that meant until the end of the class.  It meant that when everyone else cranked up their resistance, I didn't have to.  When other people stood up and started pedaling extremely hard on their imaginary hills, I could stay seated and just push myself in other ways.  

I'm in my sixth week at Pedal Spin Studio and I go to at least two classes each week.  While it isn't extremely cheap, it's one of the best experiences I've had doing any activity in a long time.  I've built up my endurance, my strength, and most of all, my confidence.  Every time I walk in the doors I push my ride a little more than before and leave a little more sweaty and a lot more tough.  

A sixty minute ride earns me 13 Activity Points Plus, and I don't usually include the warm up or cool down time in that.  

Also, I've tried a couple of hybrid classes that the studio offers that incorporate cross training, core work, and weight training.  They are brutal!  But great!  

So if you have a studio near you, or you live near this one, I encourage you to go check it out.  Ask if they have a beginners session or any discounts for new riders.  But most importantly, ride your own ride.  

recipe review: it's THE soup!

The first thing everyone should learn how to cook if they're going to be a Weight Watcher is this soup.  My family and I simply refer to it as "THE SOUP" because we'll all know what we're talking about.  

So here you go, make this.  

Garden Vegetable Soup

6 servings

0 Points Plus

1 spray of cooking spray (like Pam)

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1/4 cup diced onions

2 cloves of minced garlic

3 cups of broth (anything fat free like vegetable, chicken, or beef)

1 cup diced green cabbage (this is a little less than 1/4 of a head of cabbage)

1 cup chopped spinach

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup diced zucchini

Spray a large saucepan with cooking spray; heat.  Saute' carrot, onion, and garlic over low heat until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add broth, cabbage, spinach, tomato paste, basil, oregano, and salt; bring to boil.  Reduce heat; simmer, covered, about 15 minutes.  Stir in zucchini; cook 3-4 minutes more.  Serve hot.  

This recipe is great!  Six servings usually lasts me a week or two, and it's really easy to double the amount of soup you're making if you think you're going to go through it quickly.  You can freeze it also, but it does lose a little crunch in my opinion.  

If you go out on the internet and search "Weight Watchers Zero Point Soup" you will get a bunch of different recipes, this particular one comes from the 2012 guide I got in December 2011 at my meeting.  

If you're looking for something a little bit different, try this one: Mexican Zero Point Soup or look up one of your own.  

My recommendation if you're going to make this soup at home, buy the Pampered Chef 1-cup Prep Bowls and store them in those.  The bowls freeze, microwave, and travel extremely well and best of all they are glass and they don't stain or smell like other cheaper material storage containers.  

Who am I? How did I get here?

In 2006, I was graduating from college and I wasn't happy with my body.  I had recently discovered the joys of alcoholic beverages, and my waistline had steadily risen since my junior year.  I joined Weight Watchers for the first time with my mother in June, 2006.

By March of 2007, I had lost nearly 20 pounds and was feeling great.  I had a steady group of co-workers to work out with and a new outlook on life.  Then, I decided to stop going to meetings and just do the whole weight loss journey on my own.

"Big mistake.  Huge."

If you can name that movie, well you're my hero.

I rejoined online a few times to save money, but in the end it didn't work.  I take that back, I didn't work.

 I dragged my butt in to the La Verne Weight Watchers facility in the last week of December, 2010.  I weighed 199.2 pounds.  This was a low point in my life. 

So here I am, just over a year later.  I've lost fifteen of the sixty or so pounds that I'd like to lose.  That's not bad, but it's not great.  I spent an entire year doing the new Points Plus plan without exercising at all.  And it shows.

Now, I'm doing things differently.  I'm active.  Like really active.  I'm committed to cooking more often, and therefore being in more control of the food I'm putting into my body.  And I'm asking for help from the people around me.  I have been more vocal lately about trying to lose weight and being a Weight Watcher and the results have been phenomenal!  So if you're reading this, welcome to my own personal pep squad, I hope I can help you out too!