Tag Archives: Planning Ahead

Perfectly Productive Sundays #WLS #VSG

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95 Days until my 1 Year Surgiversary!

Today I woke up early after a late, late night celebrating at our neighborhood block party.  It was a huge success, and everyone enjoyed all of the activities that we set up and the raffles that we had.  Food was extremely hard to track from Saturdays festivities, but luckily I can only have a bite or two of things anyways.  Thank you sleeve!

I started my day in one of my favorite weekend ways, with breakfast and Pinterest!  Today I spent some time looking up Gluten Free recipes while preparing my grocery list.

After breakfast was done, I headed out to Target, Wegmans, and Ross to pick up a few needed items and this weeks groceries.  Once I got home I got to work.  As much as I wanted the full 100 days prior to my 1 Year Surgiversary to go perfectly, food hasn’t been 100% on point.  I wanted to get that nipped in the bud ASAP, so I decided to get my kitchen super organized and prepared for the week ahead.  No excuses, 95 days left, I need to get my ‘ish together.

I made a pot of the Black Bean Soup with Chicken Sausage from Fitness Magazine that is a staple for me.  I LOVE this soup.  I will be posting the recipe for it later in the week.  I also made a pot of the old stand by Taco Soup.  I cooked up a batch of Quinoa to prepare for one of the Gluten Free recipes that I am trying later in the week that I found on Pinterest.  I prepared a dinner menu for each day of the week, taking into account which nights I have later classes at the gym.

I feel so organized and productive!  I love Sundays like this.  Off to work on the laundry and to take a bike ride to enjoy the amazing weather that we are having!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Vitamins, Minerals, Protein-Oh My. #WLS #VSG

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One of the things I always wondered about pre-op was all of the supplementation that you have to do post op.  Is it forever?  Is it a lot?  What do people take?  Etc.  So I thought I’d do a post about what vitamin/supplement schedule and my protein intake.

Vitamins/Supplements

This is what I take on a daily basis, many by choice

I’ll start at the top, going clockwise:

  • 2 Centrum Multi-Vitamins
  • 2 Colace (keep things moving)
  • 1 Probiotic (keep my gut in check)
  • 1 Zyrtec (allergies)
  • 1 Iron pill (every other day)
  • 1 MegaRed (fish oil for a healthy heart)
  • 1 B-12 (every other day)
  • Pepcid OTC (Costco brand)
  • 4 Calcium petities w/ vitamin D (Calcium Citrate)
  • 3 Biotin (for healthy hair and nails…this one is from Costco…I’m going back to the tiny gel cap version from Amazon as soon as I’m done with these horse pills!)

What I have to Take

As you can see a LOT fewer are required.

  • 1 Iron pill (every other day)
  • 1 B-12 pill (every other day)
  • 4 Calcium petites w/ vitamin D
  • 2 Centrum Multi Vitamins

How do I keep these organized?

I have a 7 day pill case, a big one, that I fill up every week.  Then each night when putting my lunch box away I throw everything in this little guy:

I go ahead and throw this back in my lunch box for the next day.

What order do I take them in?

I have reminders in my phone that go off every 3 hours or so throughout the day reminding me to take my supplements.  This picture is actually backwards, so I’ll start from the right, and work my way left.

  • With my AM protein shake, on the way to work I take 2 of the Biotins, the probiotic, the B-12, the iron, the Colace, the Zyrtec, the Pepcid, and a multi-vitamin.
  • Around 10, I take 2 calcium and the last Biotin
  • Around 1 I take the last 2 calcium
  • Around 4 I take the last multi-vitamin.

Because Iron blocks the absorption of calcium, you have to spread the two out by at least 2 hours (different doctors have different rules.)  So that is why everything is separated out.  Is this a pain in the ass?  Yes, sometimes.  But most days its just a routine.  The hardest part was when I was on travel and was completely out of my schedule.  I play a bit of a game with myself.  When I’m filling up the smaller daily pill case for the next day, I take out any of the ones that I missed and put it back in the weekly pill separator.  My goal is to not have ANY left in the weekly box at the end of the week.

Protein Supplements

The ultimate goal is to get all of your protein through food.  Theoretically I could do that, but it’d be really hard, and I would wind up getting less protein in (even though I’d still hit my goal number.)

I have a protein shake every single morning to start my day.  I drink it in the car while taking my vitamins.  Two birds, one stone.  Lately I’ve been on a cycle of 1 Scoop Jay Robb Whey Vanilla (25 grams of protein) mixed with 2 scoops of Click Latte (15 grams of protein.) That knocks out 40 grams and I havent even gotten to work yet.  Some days I hate them and want to throw them out the car window, but I suck it up.  I have to do it.

Protein supplements are a very personal thing.  It’s great to get recommendations, but you are going to have to find what works for you.  DO NOT buy a ton pre-op.  Your tastes for first 6-8 weeks after surgery are nothing short of strange.  I thought cauliflower smelled like skunks that first month or two, and milk, ugh, the odor of cow pastures is all I smelled when I drank them.  Over time your tastes will settle back down, and you’ll slowly learn which protein shakes you can tolerate and which you can’t.  I bought a TON of stuff from Unjury because I found so many recommendations for it, it still to this day makes my stomach a bit nauseous, but other people love it.  Some people hate the Jay Robb products, I love them.  You just have to try, try, and try some more.

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

 

A Mini-Vacay and No Longer Sick!

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I’m not even sure where to start.  I didn’t blog during my trip, which was by design.  My Mom doesn’t have wireless internet at her house and I didn’t want to spend a ton of time online and miss out on family time since one of my cousins and her family were visiting from Alaska!  It was such a great and relaxing trip but wowza’s did it every fly by.  I feel like I’m still recovering from the first 8+ hour drive (getting there) that the second 8+ hour drive (getting home) is just a blur. 

I was originally going to try to catch up on the posts that I missed, but that is a bit over whelming, so I figured I’d just start with today, a new day, a fresh clean slate and get back into my regular blogging schedule.  I am finally not sick (it took almost a week to get better!) the snow is almost all gone, the sun is out and it’s finally above freezing!

The things that haven’t happened in the last week:

  1. I missed all RLR Runs last week because I was sick.  It was my first week of 2010 missing them.
  2. I didn’t get a new recipe done.  Between being sick and then being out of town, it just didn’t happen.  I plan on making two new recipes next week to make up for the missed one.
  3. I was up and down with food choices.  I ate fast food on both the trip down AND the trip back up.  I ate several snack packs of Oreo Cookies.  What is it about going home that you immediately revert back into childhood habits?

 The things that did happen in the last week/starting this week:

  1.  The meals that we ate in and ate out during my trip were fairly smart choices.  The night that we ate out I got broiled scallops and shrimp with asparagus and a baked potato.  Seriously, had I not eaten approximately 11 million hushpuppies, I would have considered that meal a win, ha!
  2. I did my first outdoor RLR run on Friday (RLR weeks run Friday-Thursday.)  There will be more about this on Fridays post.  Let’s just say that after a week off, me and the outdoor running are NOT buddy-buddy.
  3. The weather was in the 60’s everyday that we were down there so I got in some fantastic walks with my dog and then also with family members.
  4. I spent a lot of time out in the sun, which did wonders for making my cold go away.
  5. The scale is up by almost 3 pounds L

I feel completely out of whack right now, I need things to be back to their regularly organized ways.  I spent a lot of time last night and this morning working on a plan, trying to figure out what I can do to motivate myself for the next movement to drop some weight.  I am determined to lose more weight; I just need to work on my focus.  So here is the plan:

Scale Warfare’s Next 30 Days (which will temporarily replace my 2-3 weekly goals)

  1. Do the Strength Training 10-15 minute sessions that are created by Sparkpeople.com 3 times per week (I’ve never done these before and I’m really excited to give them a try!
  2. Get back on track with my RLR Running.  By the end of these 30 days, I WILL be up to 2:30 intervals.
  3. Get out 1 day a week for an outdoor walk (besides dog walks).  Hopefully this can be on the weekends, but you never know what the rain will do!
  4. Get back to basics: measure, write it before I bite it, 5 fruits/veggies a day, 2 dairy servings a day, whole grains, multi-vitamin everyday, healthy oil everyday (the Weight Watchers Healthy Guidelines.)
  5. Wear my GoWear Fit regularly (not while sleeping, my arm needs a rest lol)
  6. Get my steps in.  Days 1-7: 6,000 per day; Day 8-14: 6,500 per day; Days 15-21: 7,000 per day; Days 22-30: 7,500 per day
  7. Have a calorie deficit of approximately 7,000 calories per week (which equates to 2 lbs)
  8. 30 Minutes of Cardio 5 days per week.  So in addition to my 3 RLR Runs, I will need to do 2 more days of cardio.

There it is, 30 days of getting my focus back.  I already have my GoWear Fit on, and it’s all charged up.  I no longer walk the dog twice a day due to a change in my work schedule (don’t worry, he still gets walked twice a day, just now once by Fireman) so getting these steps in will be tough, but I am focused on doing it.  It will likely mean lots of walking around the office through out the day.  If I find that the goals are too big or too small (regarding steps) I will modify this list a bit (today will be a test day to see how many steps I’m naturally getting.)

Please know that I am not quitting, but this losing weight thing is a constant battle, it is taking me constant modifications to get to where I want to be.  I sometimes wonder if it is easier for people who are not “professional dieters” to lose weight.  If it is easier when you don’t know the in’s and out’s of what it takes to diet.  Sort of like dancing, if you have been doing it for years you’ve gained bad habits that are hard to correct, but if you are new to dancing you are a fresh slate.  If that makes any sense lol.

Can’t wait to get caught up on everyone’s blogs, I feel like I’m so behind!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

PS-I just reset everything in Sparkpeople.com so it’s like I’m starting with a fresh slate.  It’s one of the recommendations that goes along with the Spark book.  It feels so new and clean :)

New Years Promises Week 8 Update

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Weekly check-in on my New Years Promises.  Can you believe that we are already done with the 8th week of 2010?  This year is just flying by!

  1. Jog an entire 5k (See the tab Rubenesque Ladies Running aka RLR)-Finished up week 8 and have started on week 9.  Couldnt be happier with the changes that we made starting in Week 8 :)
  2. Lose 60 pounds in 2010 (would love to see 40 gone by the wedding!)-I’ve lost 7.2 so far in 2010, that is 12% of the way to my goal!  I really wish I was further along in this goal, considering that we are a little over 15% of the way through the year, but I will get there.
  3. Focus on not binge eating.  Binge Free 62 of 64 days in 2010
  4. Try one new recipe each week, and do my best to post photo’s of it on the blog, at a minimum share the recipe with you!  8 for 8, see yesterdays recipe for Chicken Parmesan!
  5. Give myself 2-3 goals for each week.  8 for 8 on this one!
  6. Go vegetarian 1 day each week. 8 for 8!  Tuesday was my vegetarian day this week.
  7. Continue to blog throughout 2010.  I think I’m doing well on this one!  After having a couple of bumps in posting, Im back to posting regularly.
  8. Pack my lunch 4 out of 5 days every week that I am working.  7 of 8 on this one.  I packed EVERYDAY this week.
  9. Journal my food EVERYDAY, regardless of how good or bad the day was.  Everyday but 2 in 2010!
  10. Make 2010 healthier than 2009 was; just as 2009 was healthier than 2008!  Doing the best I can!

Hope that you’re enjoying your Sunday!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Bloggy Beck Book Club Winner! (and this weeks goals)

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And the winner of this:

is….

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!  Congratulations Kimmi from Fit, Fat, and Back Again!  Please send me your full name and mailing address to scalewarfare@gmail.com.  I will get your book shipped out via Amazon Prime, so pending any weather delays, you should have the book in 2-3 days!  I’m excited that we have another person to take part in the book club with us!

I am well into the first Book Club Assignment of reading pages 1-49 and doing the assignments required in the book.  Remember the first “official” Bloggy Beck Book Club meeting will take place on Thursday February 25th over on Seattle Runner Girls blog.  We will rotate between Seattle, Bella and myself for various portions of the book.

So my goals for this week are a little bit late, but I’ve actually been working on them for a few days!

First we will review the goals from last week:

  1. Take a multi-vitamin everyday, including the weekends! Success!
  2. Exercise 5 days this week, and earn at least 15 activity points.-Success!  Actually I earned 47 activity points, so I sort of blew this one out of the water.  Granted a chunk of those were from shoveling snow, but still, I reached the goal!
  3. Pack my lunch everyday before I go to bed. Success!  Ok, I’m not sure if this is success or not.  I’ve worked from home a LOT recently due to Snowmagedon on the east coast, but the days that I did go in for a full day, I packed!

Goals for this week:

  1. Post my food journal each day on Scale Warfare Eats.
  2. Stay within my calorie range of 1480-1830 everyday.
  3. Excercise at least 5 times this week.

That’s all I’ve got for today folks!  Head over tomorrow for the Week 6 Recap of Rubenesque Ladies Running!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Weekend Recap and a Change!

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This weekend has been a doozie!  We were pummled by about 30 inches of snow in the DC Metro area, and we are still digging out.  Guess what?  Another 5-10 inches are coming Tuesday/Wednesday.  As much as I love snow, this is just out of control.  We are 35″ above our annual average, and its only the beginning of February.  This is going to be a long long winter.  Fireman was out with the kids all weekend so I had a lot of alone time, which is both fabulous and not so great all at the same time.

The good news is that I’ve been racking up the activity points with shoveling.  Did you know that 3 hours of shoveling when you weight approximately 275 pounds is 16 activity points?  Yeah that pretty much rocks.  I’ve been keeping up with Rubenesque Ladies Running and am on track to finish up Week 6 on Thursday of this week.  The bad news?  I’ve been making horrendous eating decisions most days.  Being stuck inside has weakened my resolve, I have been tracking, but the scale is up.  I am out of Flex Points and have dipped into my activity points, which I try to not to do.  I havent been making smart choices, I’ve been making really bad choices.  I have earned a record number of activity points this week (47!) but I don’t think thats going to make up for the bad food choices I’ve been making.  I’m a bit worried that the scale is going to be up this week due to my poor choices, because that’s what happens folks.  You eat poorly, you gain weight.

One of the big plusses of having this much snow and being stuck inside are the number of wedding projects that I’ve been able to work on!  I’m about 75% done with our invitation assembly, I spent almost 10 hours cutting tissues paper for the tissue pomanders (ugh, it was a LOT of cutting!)  All of these things were nice to work on!  Puts me a little ahead of schedule, which is nice.

So what is the change?  I can feel myself pulling away from Weight Watchers, which I do whenever I start to get bored and unfocused.  I’ve decided to switch over to Sparkpeople.com for a while to track my calories.  I’m hoping changing how I am tracking will help me to regain my focus.  Between that and starting the Beck Diet book this week, I am making some smart changes.  I will continue to email my journal daily to Bella to help keep me accountable, it will just be in a different format (calories instead of points.) 

I’ve also started a new page, which you can link to over on the right (see the chick eating the apple), called Scale Warfare Eats where I will post my daily food journals.  Feel free to check it out starting on Wednesday February 10th, since that is when I am making my switch to Sparkpeople.com  I will continue tracking my Weight Watchers points until then.

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

A Giveaway-A Book Club-A Chance to Participate

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What’s not to like about that title?  All three have one thing in common, and that’s this:

There has been a lot of discussion about this book in the Weight loss Blogosphere and I was incredibly interested in learning more about.  What do you know, two of my blogger “buddies” are also interested (one is well on her way through the book actually!) so we figured there are probably oodles of you who are interested in it as well.  So we’ve decided to start a book club (aka The Bloggy Beck Book Club), that will start with reading “The Complete Beck Diet for Life” book.  (I should probably preface this by saying that we are doing this on our own, we were in no way contacted by either the Author or the Publisher, or given free copies of the book!)  For those of you who know nothing about the book, here is the description from Amazon.com:

“Product Description

Bestselling author and weight-loss expert Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., has inspired thousands of dieters to lose excess weight and keep it off using the power of Cognitive Therapy to prepare the mind and alter habits before starting any diet. Now, for the first time, Dr. Beck outlines the next step: a specific, balanced diet plan that teaches you how to EAT THIN and keep excess weight off for life.

Based on the eating choices of Dr. Becks most successful dieters and maintainers, The Complete Beck Diet for Life includes comprehensive suggestions for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and bonus foods including 150- or 200-calorie treats such as sweets, alcohol, bread, and fries–and a Think Thin menu formula that allows you to easily adapt to any situation. Everything you need to stay on track is provided, including a sample strength-training plan and interactive elements such as Response Cards, daily eating logs, and charts and graphs to track your progress.

The Complete Beck Diet for Life also features Dr. Becks signature Cognitive Therapy tools, organized in a 5-stage program designed to teach you how to EAT THIN. The program details precisely what to do to stay motivated, overcome emotional eating, eliminate bingeing, and immediately get back on track when youve made a mistake. If youve struggled with dieting in the past, its only because you never acquired these essential skills. Once you learn to master these skills, you will be able to successfully maintain your new weight for life.

About the Author

Dr. Judith Beck is the daughter of the influential founder of Cognitive Therapy, Aaron T. Beck, M.D. She received her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania where she is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry. Director of the Beck Institute of Cognitive Therapy, she is also past president of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.”

Without further ado let me introduce you to Seattle Runner Girl and Bella on the Beach (I do the Rubenesque Ladies Running with Bella each week) who will be co-hosts of the Bloggy Beck Book Club with me!  Go ahead, take a minute and pop up their sites so that you can get to know them more if you don’t already keep up with them.  It’s a bit amazing how much all three of us have in common even though we are on different sides of the country.  Per her blog name, Seattle is a runner, who happens to also be plus size…fluffier…etc, just like Bella and myself, she has had great success losing weight and started off her running journey at approximately the same weights as Bella and I are currently at.  Folks, she’s a real live actual runner and a true inspiration to me.  Reading her blog reminds me that I too can be a runner.  Bella and I seem to live somewhat parallel lives!  We are doing our modified Couch 2 5K together (RLR) from opposite sides of the country and are also food journal buddies, each night we email our food journals to each other to help hold us accountable.  I probably would have quit RLR after the first day if it wasnt for Bella!

The book gives you assignments during each section or chapter, so Bloggy Beck Book Club will be about performing those assignments and keeping up with the book.  The first book club assignment is two fold:

  1. Obtain a copy of the book
  2. Read pages 1-49 by February 25th and do the assignment included in the book.

Seattle, Bella and myself will take turns hosting a weekly meeting starting February 25th where we will open comments for discussion on that section of the book.  There will be a new part of the book covered each Thursday until we all complete the book.  We’d love for you to join us in reading the book, completing the assignments and weekly discussion!

Now for the part that really got your attention…..THE GIVEAWAY!

Each of us (Seattle, Bella and myself) are giving away a copy of “The Complete Beck Diet for Life.”  How do you win your copy?  You can comment on this post for one entry and link back to this posting for a second entry (make sure you let me know you linked!)  The drawing will occur on Wednesday February 10th, 2010 at 8PM EST and the winner will be announced on Thursday February 11th, 2010. 

I look forward to your thoughts and comments as we work through the book!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

PS-I will continue to follow Weight Watchers through this journey, but will work on the assignments from the book and focus on the tools that it teaches!

Healthy You Challenge Update

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Healthy You Challenge-This weekend was tough, I didn’t track my food, I made some poor choices and I drank like a college kid.  Ugh its way hard to recover at 30 than it is at 21!  My body was still hating me two days later between the bad food choices and bad drinking choices.  I’m glad to be back on track though, everything just feels better! 

This is the first week of 2010 that I didnt reach all of my prior weeks goals: 

  1. Take a multi-vitamin everyday, including the weekends!  I am really good about taking them on weekdays, since there is a bottle on my desk at work.  Home is a completely different story, I forget to take them on the weekends all of the time!-Failed!  I didnt take a multi-vitamin at all this weekend.
  2. Exercise 5 days this week, and earn at least 15 activity points.-Success!  I am also going to start counting the activity points that I earn during the time that I walk my dog.  Usually I don’t count those points, but why shouldnt I?  In earlier Weight Watchers attempts, I always counted those points.
  3. Pack my lunch everyday before I go to bed.-Major FAIL.  I packed my lunch in the morning almost everyday last week :(

Because I did such a poor job on my goals last week, I am going to reset those goals as this weeks goals.  The different will be, that this time, I will be successful! 

  1. Take a multi-vitamin everyday, including the weekends!  I am really good about taking them on weekdays, since there is a bottle on my desk at work.  Home is a completely different story, I forget to take them on the weekends all of the time!
  2. Exercise 5 days this week, and earn at least 15 activity points.
  3. Pack my lunch everyday before I go to bed.

 Tomorrow is Weigh In Day.  I know that the scale is going to be up, likely by a few pounds.  On Monday the scale was up over 6 pounds.  I know that what I saw on the scale on Monday was a lot of water weight from not so smart choices, so I am glad to be seeing it going in the right direction.  I need to take ownership of my choices and face the scale.  So you’ll see my weight posted tomorrow, no matter how ugly it is! 

Tata for now, 

Scale Warfare 

Vegetarian Shepherds Pie & New Years Promises Week 4-Update

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We are just about done with the first month of 2010!  This year is flying by, at least so far.  I am still focused on my New Years Promises, which I feel fantastic about.  With the exception of 2009, I would have lost focus on my goals, just a few years into the year!  2009 was a great year for me.  I didn’t lose as much weight as I had hoped, and I did wind up losing focus about six months into the year.  I will not lose focus in 2010.  I will reach my goals.

So how did I do in week 4 of 2010?

  1. Jog an entire 5k (See the tab Rubenesque Ladies Running aka RLR)-Completed Week 4 of RLR  yesterday!  See tomorrows post for my Week 4 Recap.  Also, week 5 starts tomorrow!
  2. Lose 60 pounds in 2010 (would love to see 40 gone by the wedding!) -So far in 2010, I have lost 5.8 lbs, which is 9.6% of my goal for 2010.
  3. Focus on not binge eating. - Binge FREE in 2010!
  4. Try one new recipe each week, and do my best to post photo’s of it on the blog, at a minimum share the recipe with you! -4 for 4! See yesterdays post for Zesty Chicken with Corn Salsa!  A very easy and very tasty recipe!
  5. Give myself 2-3 goals for each week. - 4 for 4 on this one!
  6. Go vegetarian 1 day each week. - 4 for 4!  Tuesday was my vegetarian day this week.
  7. Continue to blog throughout 2010. -4 for 4!  I’ve been blogging 5-6 days each week.  I blogged more in 2009 than years prior, but I’m on track to make 2010 my best year yet!
  8. Pack my lunch 4 out of 5 days every week that I am working. -4 for 4!  Not only is this helping me to be healthier, but it’s also doing great things for my bank account :)
  9. Journal my food EVERYDAY, regardless of how good or bad the day was. - 4 for 4.  Another thing that I do, is I have a food journal buddy.  Everyday, Bella and I email each other our food journals.  This helps to keep each of us accountable to more than ourselves.  We’ve been doing this for some time now, and it is such a huge help to me!
  10. Make 2010 healthier than 2009 was; just as 2009 was healthier than 2008!-I’m feeling amazing, 2010 is going to be the best year yet!

Here is an extra recipe for this week!  I wanted to move outside of my comfort zone with going vegetarian one day each week, and decided to create my own points friendly vegetarian recipe.  I had never used Quorn “Beef” Crumbles before, and was really nervous that I would hate the flavor, they are both meat and soy free.  This recipe was AMAZING.  I froze the leftovers so that I can eat it for lunch for future vegetarian days!  I put it into Weight Watchers Recipes Builder and it comes out to 5 points per very generous serving.

Vegetarian Shepherds Pie
 
 
POINTS® Value:    5
Servings:  4Preparation Time:  0 min
Cooking Time:  0 min
Level of Difficulty:  Easy
Course: main meals

  

Ingredients

 
1/2 cup(s) onion(s), diced   
  1/2 serving(s) red wine  (2.5 oz)
1 medium zucchini, diced
  2 wedge(s) The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss Original Flavor   
  1/4 cup(s) light sour cream   
  2 tsp olive oil   
  1/4 cup(s) grated Parmesan cheese   
  1/2 cup(s) water   
  1 Tbsp all-purpose flour   
1 pound(s) uncooked new potatoes   
  1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce   
2 cup(s) Quorn Grounds   

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F
Skin and halve the new potatoes.
Add to a pot of salted water and set over high heat to bring to a boil.
Boil for 12-14 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
Mash the potatoes with the Laughing Cow Cheese and the Light Sour Cream until desired consistency.
In a large skillet over medium heat, add the 2 tsp of Olive oil and sautee the onions for 4-5 minutes until they are completely translucent and begin to soften.
Add the diced zucchini to the skillet and cook 2-3 minutes.
Add the soy crumbles to the onions. Salt and Pepper to taste. Heat through for 4-5 minutes.
In a 9×9″ pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray, pour the onion/zucchini and “meat” mixture.
Put the pan back over the heat, and add the red wine, water and flour (I shake the water with the flour to avoid lumps) and reduce by about 1/2 or until the sauce begins to thicken. Salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the wine sauce over the onion and “meat” mixture.
Spread the mashed potatoes over the “meat” mixture evenly.
Sprinkle the Parmesean Cheese over the potatoes.
Back at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Serves 4.

So far so good!  Hope you’re having a great Thursday!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare

Healthy You Challenge Update

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Week four of 2010 was another healthy one for me!  I’m thinking we are getting at the point where a lot of people start falling into old habits and start losing focus on what they wanted to make 2010.  I’ve been that person so many times.  I can so easily lose site of my goals when faced with yummy food, or a girls night out for wine and dinner, etc.  I am trying with everything in me to not lose focus this year.  I know there are going to be speed bumps, I know there will be days and weeks where it’s harder to stay focused, but for now, I’m loving how well things are going.

Rubenesque Ladies Running is moving to the next level this Friday.  I will be running longer than I have since I was in High School playing sports (ok so starting week 1, I’ve been running more since High School sports lol.)  I’m pretty sure I enjoy the running more now than I ever did then.  I hated our warm up runs in field hockey and soccer.  Hated them with a passion, couldn’t wait for them to be over with and I didn’t really feel very good once they were done.  Now, I’m actually looking forward to each training session.  I’m enjoying realizing how much I can do.  Sure it’s not easy, and sure during the actual training session I feel a bit exhausted, and feel every bit of the 270+ pounds that I weigh, but I’m appreciating  every minute of it.  The fact that Bella and I are doing this at the weights that we are, makes me feel so great.  We really can do ANYTHING.

Last weeks goals, all met!

  1. Pack my lunch before going to bed (this one is staying until it’s truly a habit!)-Goal Accomplished!  I did eat lunch out one day this week, but this was planned.  I let my “lunch buddies” know that I’d probably eat out with them once every other week. 
  2. Eat my Activity Points everyday that I excercise, just to mix things up. -I didn’t necessarily eat them on the day that I earned them, but I ended the week with 22.5 points left from my weekly flex allowance, so I ate 12.5 of them, and I earned 12 activity points.  Right on track with this one!
  3. I am going to track 100% online this week.  Bella reminded me that I can also track from my smartphone.  Currently I’m tracking both online and on paper and it gets a bit redundant!-Might never go back to my paper journal lol.  I felt like tracking was so much easier this week.  As long as I have cell service or access to a laptop, I’m easily able to track! 

This weeks goals:

  1. Take a multi-vitamin everyday, including the weekends!  I am really good about taking them on weekdays, since there is a bottle on my desk at work.  Home is a completely different story, I forget to take them on the weekends all of the time!
  2. Exercise 5 days this week, and earn at least 15 activity points.
  3. Pack my lunch everyday before I go to bed.

Tonight is Biggest Loser, can’t wait to watch!

Tata for now,

Scale Warfare