want versus need

I am facing a major struggle lately.  I was ounces away from getting my fourth 5 pound sticker, then my birthday happened.  The week before my birthday was great, the week after my birthday I was the same weight, and the second week after my birthday I was battling TOM and a whole lot of snacking and up 1.2 pounds.  

If you're on the outside looking in, you might be saying "Gee, 1.2 pounds isn't a lot, get over it" and you're probably right.  But the point is that I need to nip it in the butt.  I need to stop the needless carbohydrate consumption and start getting more serious about the way that I'm training.  I need to ask myself one simple question: Is what I'm about to do something that I want or is it something that I need?  

It's a simple question, right?

But I'm so horrible about answering it.  

Most nights I'd rather stop at Target on my way home from work than the grocery store or the gym.

  

Most nights I'd rather pick up two pizzas than cook a healthy dinner.

Most nights I'd rather curl up with a good book than go to spin or take Maddie for a walk.  

But we all know that I don't need anything from Target, pizza, or to sit my chubby but on the couch.  I only want those things.  

What I need is to make more consistent and healthier choices.  It's not as hard as it sounds.  I don't need to make some stupid statement like "I'm going to go to the gym every single day."  I'd love to pretend I'm that girl, but I'm not that girl.  All I need to say is "I'm going to make healthier choices."

I'll choose an apple over a candy bar more often.  I'll choose one gym trip over nothing sometimes.  I'll make a healthy dinner more often instead of looking for the easiest take out solution.  

Fear not friends, I may have had a mediocre couple of weeks and I'm feeling super bloated, cranky, and irritated but I'm stepping right back on plan.  

My head is screaming "I WANT THAT LEFTOVER PIZZA!" but my body is telling me softly "I need some yogurt and berries."  Funny what we choose to listen to, isn't it?

Note, if you like the illustrations you should head over to Erin Hanson's website.

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: mozza basic tomato sauce

I don't know if you're like me, but I like easy meals.  I also like healthy meals that I have control over.  This poses a problem in a lot of areas of cooking.  For example, spaghetti sauce.  

Sure, I can buy Prego (my favorite) and throw together dinner in just a few minutes with some noodles and ground turkey or beef.  That's a great dinner, and one that my non-Weight Watching boyfriend will enjoy.  To him, this is not diet food.  For me, it's usually a 10 Points Plus dinner, and I usually add a salad or some soup in to round out the vegetables.  

But have you ever scoped out the back of the Prego jar?  Well I have, I'll share.  Prego is made by Campbells, a trusted American brand.  Luckily, they post everything!  So here you go: Ingredients in Prego Traditional Sauce

Tomato puree and diced tomatoes aren't bad, but the sugar and dehydrated onions and garlic slow me down.  I understand that the citric acid and natural flavorings aren't going to kill me, but some times I'd just like the real thing, not a flavoring.  

Just about the time that I was doubting my beloved Prego sauce, I received The Mozza Cookbook as a Christmas gift.  What a treat!  It's the answer to all things Italian!  What's that?  How do I make this?  Where in the world would I find one of those?  

I've sticky tabbed all over this book, and I've tested out a few recipes like their amazing Lemon Vinaigrette!  But now, I have to share their Basic Tomato Sauce.  Prego, meet your nemesis.  

Basic Tomato Sauce

makes 2 quarts, approximately 8 cups

8 servings
3 Points Plus

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, finely diced (about 2 cups)

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or slivered

1/2 medium carrot, peeled and shredded (about 1/2 cup)

3 tablespoons fresh thyme

2 28 ounce cans whole peeled plum tomatoes, and their juices (San Marzano is recommended)

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, 1 tablespoon salt, and pepper; cook, stirring often, until onions are soft, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until softened but not browned, 1-2 minutes. Add carrot and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until carrot is soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often to break up tomatoes, until sauce is thickened, about 30 minutes.  Set a food mill over a large bowl. Pass sauce through food mill for the best texture (or purée sauce in a food processor). Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. 

This sauce can be made 3 days ahead. Let cool completely, cover, and chill (or store airtight and freeze for up to 6 months).

It's that simple!  Most of these ingredients you have at home, I simply had to go purchase two cans of tomatoes.  The sauce tasted extremely bright and fresh to me, no sugar or preservatives here!  The added bonus is that instead of 4 Points Plus per cup of sauce (Prego), it is only 3 Points Plus per cup of sauce.  It isn't a huge difference, but it is full of good stuff.  That's a good reason to use it more often.  I'm not going to get rid of my Prego, believe me, Mr. Full Fat loves it too much.  

I'll just switch it out every once in a while for my Mozza sauce!  

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.