Holy Cow!

I guess a whole weekend of intense housecleaning really does the trick!!!! I lost 2 pounds this week, hooray!!!!!

Part of it was being a little better about food choices, part of it was all that cleaning, and all of it is appreciated!

Doggie Style

No, not that.....! I am so excited to report that I did something very unusual for me not once, but TWICE, this week! Again, not that!

I had dinner plans with friends at 2 different restaurants during the week, and for a nice little change I actually found myself deciding NOT to finish everything and getting leftovers wrapped up to take home. Woohoo! See, normally, I would feel compelled to clean my plate no matter how full I felt. But instead, I got a huge bowl of noodles wrapped up from the Asian place on Tuesday, and so I had another filling meal of soup at home for dinner on Wednesday. And I ordered the chicken skewers with rice at a Greek place on Thursday, and only ate 1 kabob. I had the other and more than 1/2 the rice for dinner at home last night.

Wow -- these choices not only helped prevent me from pigging out, they also helped stretch 2 meals into 4 nights. That saved a pretty penny or two! I may just have to explore the doggie bag option again!

Referral....

This is an awesome post from a woman who's accomplished something amazing, and is very philosophical yet realistic about it. Enjoy.

I ate eel!

I had a great big sushi feast last night! Thank goodness for such a healthy option for restaurant eating, cuz I do love to socialize with friends over meals. So I can do sushi just about anytime.

And, as a coinkydink, HungryGirl's email today was all about sushi... here she gives the scoop:

Sashimi is VERY low in fat and calories (FYI - sashimi is just sushi without the rice). And it's good for you, too. The average 1/2-oz. piece of fish (the standard sushi/sashimi size) has about 15 - 25 calories and a gram or so of fat. Some types of fish, like salmon, are fattier than others -- but fatty fish is healthy. The good news is, you can go out for sushi and eat a LOT of sashimi and not take in too many calories. While you're out, enjoy some miso soup (about 50 calories) and sunomono salad (just some sliced cucumbers and rice vinegar). Both are low in calories and very filling.

Plus, HungryGirl has a a whole sushi guide on her website. Check it out!

Focus on the Good

So I've been feeling like I haven't been paying as much attention to the diet lately, but then I reminded myself of some good habits / choices I've been making. So here's a list that help reminds me to stay motivated:

- Over the last few weeks, I've had *several* nights where I've been craving delivery dinner, whether it's pizza or Indian food or sushi, what have you. In one case, I even started to dial the phone to a pizza place! But I stopped myself each time and found something tasty to eat in my kitchen instead. Hooray!

- You know how ice cream is one of my favorite things? Well, I haven't had any in the house in WEEKS! I'm still enjoying those little Weight Watchers toffee crunch bars, and they're satisfying my ice cream craving. So I haven't even felt the need to buy any Ben & Jerry's!

- No popcorn at the movies this weekend! It helped that we'd just eaten dinner, but that hadn't always stopped me in the past...

Same Old, Same Old

The dial on the scale was wavering again this morning, but it eventually ended up on the same weight as last week. So that's okay, but I don't feel great about it cuz I know I haven't been as good this past week. I haven't made it to the real grocery store, so I'm eating a lot of packaged foods and not a lot of fresh stuff. I think I have to remedy that with lunches this week....

Onward!

Restaurant Eating....

This is one of those news flashes that just confirms the obvious. But the warning is still there... dieters, beware: Chefs are not focusing on your diet when they are making your meals. Caloric content is just about the last darn thing they're thinking about when they put your meal together, according to recent surveys. So that just confirms it's up to all of us to watch what we eat wherever we eat....

Steady Going

This was not a great week overall -- while I was pretty good about getting lots of fresh fruits and veggies, I also splurged on a couple of big meals. (Mmmmmm, pancakes and bacon....) But, good news! I stayed the same on the scale! Hooray!

I definitely want to start paying more attention to sodium intake, though. I know that since I eat a lot of prepackaged foods, I probably take in way more salt than I should. So I've got to work on that. It's good that the weather is getting colder and we're easing into fall, cuz that's when I'm better about cooking at home. I'd welcome any advice on reducing sodium!

Better Than Candy

I totally splurged at the store earlier this week with a produce purchase that almost seemed to cost its weight in gold.... I got a big bag of seedless green California grapes, which weighed in to be $6.22 of my total grocery bill. Yikes, financially. But yum, fruitastically! (Yes, I know I make up words.)

Seriously, these grapes are just delicious. In our industrialized, internet-ized, "get it when you want it" culture and economy, I've somewhat lost track of what produce is actually in season when. So I really have no idea if these grapes are in season or if they are unusually good right now... the latter may explain why they were so darn expensive.

But it's worth every penny, as each individual grape is just bursting with sweet, juicy goodness. It is so darn easy to get 5+ servings a day when the choices taste this good!

Mmmmmmm

I hit the Penn Quarter Farmer's Market today. Yummy-licious, even though the wind was starting to pick up and things were blowing around.

I hit one stand with good zucchini and squash. Three zukes and 1 yellow squash made their way into some pasta sauce over spaghetti for my dinner tonight. Lots and lots of veggie goodness, sauteed in olive oil and minced garlic.

Plus I bought a few fresh apples and a quart of fresh apple cider. Guess what I'm having for dessert tonight? During a Grey's Anatomy commercial break, I'm gonna heat myself up some cider and shake a little cinnamon on top. Can't wait!

I really should try to explore the Farmer's Market more often. What a treat!

Columbus Day at Safeway

I'm so glad to have today off. Sorry for all you non-Federal-related types... but I'm reveling in it!

And there were some good deals at the store this morning:

- Rice-A-Roni mixes - reg price $1.39, sale price $1.00
- San Giorgio boxed pasta - reg price $1.50, sale price $1.00
- Crystal Light lemonade large canisters - reg price $5.05, sale price $4.00
- Lean Cuisine entrees, pizzas - reg price $3.29, sale price $2.00!!!
- Lean Cuisine panini sandwiches - reg price $3.29, sale price $3.00
- Dannon Light & Fit yogurt - reg price 80 cents, sale price 50 cents
- Amy's organic bowls - reg price $4.99, sale price $4.25
- Brown & Serve lite sausage links - reg price $1.66, sale price $1.25
- Perdue fit & easy chicken breasts - reg price $6.19, sale price $3.71

Woohoo! Overall, I saved $11.33 and got a lot of great meal options for all week!

Good Times

I lost another pound this week! Hooray!

That's good news, especially since this week was a mix of good days and days with some bad choices (hello, ice cream and halloween candy). But so far it seems my new strategy is working out okay. I'll work on adding in a little more exercise this week and we'll see how it goes....

More Organized!

You might notice something new on the blog these days... I have switched to Blogger Beta and I'm now addicted to creating the little labels/tags. So at the bottom of my posts, you'll now see that I've labeled them by various categories. Click on a label to see all the other posts I've written on that topic. I hope this blog is now an even better resource for anyone who needs it... most of all me! :-)

Here's What I'm Doing

So I'm trying a new approach here.... Weight Watchers always promotes itself as "it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle..." And over the years of being off and on and off and on of WW, I've learned a lot about what that healthy lifestyle should be. I've also learned a lot about myself and the way I behave naturally.

Putting all this together, what I'm trying now is to use that "lifestyle" approach. I know I'm not good about the discipline of tracking all my points every day. I'll be really good on recording things for like 2 days, then life gets busy and suddenly 2 more days have gone by and I haven't recorded things. But, that should not mean that I'm suddenly "not dieting" just because I'm not tracking the points. Instead, I'm focusing on making actual healthy choices every day - picking healthier, more nutritious food options and learning to incorporate more exercise into my life.

This way, I'm not setting up myself up for being a "bad dieter" just because I'm not tracking the points. Nope, I'm still making the good choices based on all that I've learned. And I'm still focusing on things like fat and sodium intake, as well as the need for fiber and balances meals. And so far it seems to be working... I did a little "sneak peek" step on the scale this morning and it still looks good. :-)

That's What I Like to See

Hooray, hooray! I lost one pound this week! The scale was good to me this morning.

Now let me see if I can figure out how to make the hula girl dance...