I Love Burgers!

Oh, how I love summer time and burgers! No defrosting required, score! 13 point dinner.

Okay, lets break down the points/ingredients. 

Kroger (Freddy's brand) Wheat Bun 3 points

 hamburger patty 7 POINTS (Turkey patty is only 4 points)

Grilled onions  FREE

 1 Tablespoon of Barbecue Sauce 1 point 

Lettuce FREE

I get my hamburger patties from Dick Howard's meat market, my local butcher. If you don't buy your meat from your local butcher, I would highly suggest you start. Besides supporting local, they sell better meat for cheaper. Huh... sounds like a no brainer right, it is! The ground chicken at the grocery store is 4-6 dollars per pound, it's $2.60ish per pound. 

Corn on the Cobb 2 points (yep, corn isn't free. I started boiling the corn for less time and it is so sweet and crunchy. I put a little salt, but no butter. I know, I love butter too. )

Not enough food? What about watermelon? Cantaloupe? Strawberries?  FREE

Pickles are 0-1 point depending if you like those nasty things.. which I don't. =) 

This is one of my personal favorite meals, simple and good. Also a kid favorite, which is important. 

Vacation

Fact: You will cheat. The real question is: How will you bounce back? It doesn't mean that your diet is over or that you failed; just a hiccup. Recognize it was a bad choice and move on.

We went to Disneyland in April, while we were in full force with our diet and I had 10 more pounds to lose. I was petrified that I would gain weight while we were there - so many yummy treats. We decided we would do our best to eat well and indulge in some must-have treats. We bought our breakfast sandwiches to eat before we went to the park. We packed Uncrustables (frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches 5 points) or turkey sandwiches with pop chips and a fiber one bar. For most dinners we ate at the hotel, trying to stick with lean and green options - except the nights that were our turn to cook.  We had pizza and In-N-Out Burger. Yeah, don't judge me; we packed twin infants through Disneyland all day, fed them every 3 hours and tried to get some rides in too. =) After the first day I realized my ideas of making a yummy healthy dinner for a group of people was a joke and totally not going to happen. It was quite an accomplishment for us to take the girls to Disneyland; I feel like I can take them anywhere now. I stuck to my 2 slices of pizza rule and just had the burger and ate a few fries.  We ate Churros, Rice Krispy Treats and Ice Cream sandwiches. So the point that I'm trying to get across is: You can have those cheat items if you are good the rest of the day. Before I would have told myself "You're packing a 15 pound baby through Disneyland eat whatever you want". Exercise does burn calories and gives you extra points, but not as much as you would think. When I exercise I think of it more as toning and muscle building, not as a weight loss method. Yes, you can work out and lose weight, but I'm saying don't justify bad decisions because you're working out. I lost 1.5 pounds that week.

My birthday weekend we went to the coast. I made all kinds of bad choices while we were there. I did, however, try to eat my smaller portions. Lots of fried food, chowder, waffles and desserts. I'd tell you the details, but I don't remember what all I ate, but it was bad. We were so happy to get home and get back on the band wagon.  I notice that when I eat poorly I have less energy and feel gross. It feels so good to get your body fueled back up with the good stuff. I gained 2 pounds and was able to get rid of it within 2 weeks.

I also had weeks with no weight loss. This was really frustrating especially when I was really good all week - I hadn't cheated or anything. Your body isn't going to drop 1.5 pounds every week like clockwork. Well, maybe you're lucky and it does; not super likely. I went back and looked at my stats on the Weight Watchers app - about every 3 weeks I would have a poor weight loss, but then the next week I would have a great loss.

No one is PERFECT! To assume that anyone is perfect or even close to being perfect is just absurd. It may seem from the outside that it's perfect, but perhaps what you're noticing is that they are content and happy with what they have. Happiness is what you should shoot for, not perfection. I have let happiness be my guide in life and I'm really happy with where I am. With weight loss it's easy to compare yourself to others; just remember this is your journey and in the end it's all about you. Don't sell yourself short, set that goal and go get it.

Fish Tacos

Easy Fish Tacos is one of my favorite dinners, mainly because it's easy.  About 11 Points

You will need:

Fish Sticks  Costco 4 pieces is  6 points (trident is the brand) / Gordon's 4 pieces is 5 points
Bag of coleslaw without dressing
Hard or soft taco shells both are around 4 points for 3 shells
Olive Oil Mayo
Lemon Juice
pinch of sugar


Gordon's Fish Sticks are lower in points than my Costco fish sticks, but the Costco ones are bigger. For the points I like the Costco ones best. Cook up the fish sticks, I just about burn mine on purpose because they taste better that way to me.  Make up your slaw, by putting about half the bag in a bowl with 2 spoonfuls of Olive Oil Mayo a squirt of lemon juice and a pinch of sugar. I don't count the pinch of sugar against myself. Mix it all up, if it needs a little more mayo I would add it without going overboard. Now that I'm in maintenance mode I buy the kind with dressing, I have no idea how many points it is. Warm up your tortillas two fish sticks per tortilla and add coleslaw. Yummy!

 One night I didn't have coleslaw, but had to have fish tacos. At Fred Meyer's in the frozen food section they sell a corn, black bean, onion and pepper mix. I love the stuff, no idea how many points it is, probably 1-2 per serving. I love to put it on regular tacos so we tried it one night on the fish tacos with a 1/2 greek yogurt 1/2 salsa mix (also a great salad dressing that is cheap on points).. really good! I'm sure there are lots of other toppings you could do!

Picky Kid note: I often get asked if my kids eat our healthy food too. Yes they do! My youngest boy loves to eat what we're eating, but my oldest is pretty picky. I will say he's come a really long way from his yogurt, oatmeal and Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich days. I just make up some tater tots and serve him fish sticks and tots for dinner. If I remember I also hold out some of the coleslaw without sauce for him. Boom, everyone is happy! Including me because I usually have forgoten to de-thaw dinner.

On a side note this could be a really cheap point meal if you used non-breaded fish.

Snacks

Snacks!

The secret to not feeling hungry in between meals is zero point snacks. When we first started out I would eat a banana for my morning snack and an apple and/or carrots for my afternoon snack. The first few days were rough because my stomach was so stretched out from eating way too much food. So I ate as many veggies/fruits as needed to fill the void. If I need to go to the store and only have bananas then I eat bananas for my snacks, no big deal. Some days I don't need my morning snack, which is good because even though it's "free" it's really not. It all makes a difference.

When I was working often there was yummy treats on the back counter, some I could pass up and some I could not. If I had to try something I would still have it, but just have enough for a bite or two, not a whole piece. This is when those Fiber One brownies would have been nice to have in my desk.

FREE STUFF (there are lots more fruits and veggies that are free, this is just what I like to eat)

Apples (no peanut butter, you'd be shocked how many points that stuff is!)
Bananas
Oranges
Peaches
Pears
Snap peas
Purple cabbage (sliced up)
Carrots
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Strawberries
Peppers

No canned or dried it adds points, but if you have to they sell fruit cocktail in juice and it is 1-2 points for the whole can. You can't always have fresh produce so I keep a few cans on hand. I saw on Weight Watchers that they make the mixed fruit in water, but I have yet to find it.

Some days the zero point stuff doesn't hack it and I'm just hungry so here are a few of those ideas.

7 Almonds = 1 point
7-8 small pretzels =1 point
Hot cheese (Weight Watchers jalapeno string cheese) = 1 point
Jerky (depends on the kind that you like and how much)

A few days ago I decided to eat a small handful of chocolate teddy grahams (graham crackers are a weakness of mine). My husband informs me they were 2 points for just a few! What?!?! I could have had a brownie instead, I totally should have. =)  Maybe I should change the title of this blog to my love for Fiber One Brownies.

Happy Snacking!

Lunch time fun

Lunch is pretty boring.. I should probably work on this aspect of my diet.. because it needs some more options. haha.  My go to meal, if I'm on my A game is a turkey sandwich on sandwich thins with honey mustard and lettuce. I buy Fred Meyer brand sandwich thins (2 points) others are 3. Yes, 1 point makes a difference..=) It means I can have chips or a brownie. All good choices lead to dessert!!! Now you're not surprised that I had an extra 35 pounds to lose are you?

The Turkey Sandwich is 3 points.

3 slices of turkey = 1 point
Sandwich thins = 2
Lettuce FREE
Mustard FREE

Tuna Sandwich is 4 points

1 can of Tuna = 1 point (Bryan and I split the can, I used to eat a whole can myself)
1 tablespoon of olive oil mayo = 1 (I can't taste a difference at all! And it saves you 2 points, that's a brownie people!!)
Sandwich thins = 2 points
Lettuce or celery = FREE

I'll be honest, I really don't love the oven roasted turkey very much. I like to order Cajun Chicken at the deli counter, I charge myself the same points as the turkey. Is it the same? I don't know, but I eat it just about every day and I'm losing weight, so it must be pretty close. Ham is a point more I think, but if you like ham better than turkey go for it!

Usually, I have 10 pop chips (1 point) with my sandwich. I love pop chips, they come in 4 or 5 different flavors, all of which are yummy! Special K also makes some and I think you can have 14 for 1 point. We usually can get pop chips on sale for $1.50-$2.50 per bag so that's what we buy, both are good. My favorite are the original and sour cream.

My husband eats the sandwich, chips and a Fiber One brownie.. that is a 6 point lunch.
 I don't usually have a brownie at lunch, because I don't get a bunch of points.. so I save it for after dinner. That's my ideal lunch though, as soon as I lose these last 3 pounds, I'm having a brownie at lunch. =) Once I've lost all the weight I need to lose I will go into maintenance and get 6 more points. YES!

The lemon bar is so yummy! I usually spend a minute just huffing it before I eat it. haha I'd like to tell you that's a joke, but it's the truth it smells so good! =) The brownie ones are really good too. They make all different flavors, chocolate chip tastes like a soft cookie. The peanut butter and chocolate one is alright. Freddy's brand makes chocolate and chocolate chip for much cheaper, I like the chocolate chip, but the other is just ehh. Costco used to sell both in the huge boxes for a great deal, now they don't. BOO! We are currently buying them at Walmart in the mega box, because my boys also really like them. This is a must have for me, I freak out a little if we're out. 

If we're out of town and I have to eat out. I love to go to Olive Garden and have soup, salad and bread sticks. I get the Minestrone (2 points for a bowl), Bryan gets the Suppa Toscana (4 points per bowl). I ask for dressing on the side and dip it. I find this comical, because I used to think it was so dumb when people would do that, like it's going to save you that many calories..... who's the dumb one now. =) haha. I do this method for syrup too, it's epic, tastes the same without using so much. It all adds up really quick. I do have a bread stick (4 points each), I can't help it.  Side Note: The Tour of Italy is 38 points.. WOW! I get 26 points for my day! If you're going out to eat, look at the Weight Watchers app on your phone before you get there and pick out what you're going to eat ahead of time.  When in doubt go lean and green or meat and veggie. 

Also remember this is lunch people, not 1st dinner. I can say that, because it was first dinner for me. =) Lunch doesn't need to be huge, you will get to eat again! If you're worried you'll be hungry later bring a few extra snacks. Apple, Orange, Banana whatever you need to be sure you won't be starving later. It's important not to get to a place where you will eat anything in site, plan ahead.