Health Check-In 12.01.19

08/2019 loss:  11.2             (TOTAL -11.2)

09/2019 loss:   9.1              (TOTAL -20.3)

10/2019 loss:   6.8              (TOTAL -27.1)

11/2019 loss:   6.9              (TOTAL -34.0)

This past week I lost 1.1 pounds.  I included it in my November weight loss, even though I weighed in on December 1st.  

I am going to stick with the Purple plan.  I really like a little bit more freedom and my body likes the carbs!

Things I enjoyed this week:
2 mixed drinks
Chocolate every night
Pasta (once)
Potatoes almost every morning (1/2 cup serving)
Burrito from Del Taco

Non-scale victories:
I bought some new clothes on black Friday.  I am now wearing size 8 jeans.  !!!  They are slightly snug, but I don't even care.  And I bought 4 sweaters, all Medium.

Things to work on:
*More Pure Barre!  Sigh.  I need to stop making excuses.
*More vegetables!!  

Health Check In

Here's an overview of where I started and where I am now:


Friday, 8/2/19   Start Date

Sunday, 8/4/19     -2.3        (TOTAL -2.3)

Sunday, 8/11/19   -4.7        (TOTAL -7)

Sunday, 8/18/19   -2.9        (TOTAL -9.9)

Sunday, 8/25/19   -1.3        (TOTAL -11.2)



THOUGHTS:

I weigh every day (which I intend to keep doing), but I plan to only blog about it every Sunday and review my week.

It's been relatively easy.  I've stuck with the fasting, with the exception of usually one weekend day.  I'll be a little more 'relaxed' with my fasting times on the weekend, and be strict Monday - Friday.  

Misc. things I have eaten in the past 23 days (and still lost 11.2 pounds!):

-a large piece of white cake from Costco 
-one beer
-2 mixed drinks
-3 fried flautas (YUM)
-an ice cream cone from dairy queen
-MULTIPLE avocados

I'm sure I'm forgetting some treats, but I like to remember these just because with WW you can still lose weight and have treats.  It's all about the planning!

Like I said above, it's been pretty easy.  I eat a LOT of yogurt and a LOT of eggs.  I eat loads of vegetables with lunch (kind of to get them out of the way).  I also eat lots of avocados.  They are point-y, but I don't care.  I LOVE them.  Tonight I peeled two more, added some salsa and some garlic salt and now have a nice guacamole to eat on for the next few days.   I would say all week, but it won't last that long ha ha.  I have no guilt.

There was probably 4 or 5 days that I didn't get my gallon of water in and I could really tell a difference in how I felt.  I feel better with a gallon of water for sure.

So I'm very pleased with my progress so far.  :)

Fruit Smoothie

I made this super easy smoothie today.  I wanted to get some fruit in but also needed protein.

It's a whopping 2 ingredients:

(from Costco)

The fruit is frozen, but (long story) it was thawed in the fridge when I used it today.  So I threw some ice in the blender, added 1 cup of the fruit mix, and one vanilla Oikos Triple Zero Greek Yogurt.  I blended until completely smooth.  It was delicious!

Only 3 points.

On Health

I'm back on the WW bandwagon.

Again.  Ha ha.  I have stopped and started so many times.  But for some reason it feels different this time.  AND I've said that before too.

But I think what is making it a bit different this time is that I'm pairing WW with intermittent fasting.  So basically, I only eat between 8:30 - 4:30 every day and then fast for the 16 hours after that.

So because I don't eat after 4:30, lunch is my (our) 'big' meal of the day.  When I get our box from Home Chef, I make it all up and we have those meals for lunch.

I thought the fasting would be super difficult, but it hasn't been.  The first couple of days I was pretty hungry after 4:30 but I just drank a bunch of water and that helped.  I've been drinking a gallon of water each day.  I feel way less bloated and just feel better all around.  

Here's what a typical day of eating looks like for me:

8:30: scrambled eggs, beans, cheese, red chile (all in one bowl)  I get this at work in the cafeteria.  Only in New Mexico do they have beans and red chile on the cafeteria hotline every morning for breakfast ha ha.  It's delicious and SUPER filling. 

1:00:  a Home Chef meal, which is usually chicken and vegetables or pork and vegetables (usually with cheese or some kind of other delicious sauce).  If I don't have a Home Chef meal, my lunch usually consists of a chicken salad cup (from Costco), 2 hard boiled eggs, a yogurt and a piece of fruit and/or a string cheese.

4:00:  Premier Protein shake with 2 tspb of powdered peanut butter.  I LOVE this shake.  It's loaded with protein and usually keeps me satisfied until bedtime.  The Premier Protein can be found at Costco and the PB2 can be found at Target or Amazon (cheaper on Amazon).  If I have points left around 4:00 then I may have another yogurt or something if I'm still hungry.  I usually have points left.

I don't snack in between meals.  I think the gallon of water per day is why.  I'm either constantly drinking water or I'm in the bathroom ha ha.

It's working.  I've lost 10 pounds since August 2nd.  

My plan is to log my progress here once a week to keep myself accountable.  I may post meal plans/favorite WW point friendly foods/etc. also.  I got this!

9 Years

On April 24th, we celebrated 9 years of marriage.  

We kept our celebrating pretty low-key because it was a particularly busy time of year.  We had company beforehand and were taking a trip to D.C. right afterwards.

So we opted for our usual traditions:  husband got me flowers, I brought home cupcakes, and we went out for a nice dinner.

The dinner was good, but the view was even better.

I can't believe it's been 9 years already!

Home Chef

A few years ago, I got a meal-box subscription to Blue Apron.  Meal-box subscriptions were a new thing at the time, and Blue Apron was the one that started it all.  Once a week, I would receive one box full of all the ingredients to make dinner for the week.  The box came with everything needed and detailed recipe cards.

I LOVED it.

But eventually we reevaluated our budget and decided to let it go.  And I started meal planning our dinners again for a few years.  Meal planning is necessary, unless you are one of these people that don’t mind going to the store every single day.  It’s nice to have a plan for the week so you can go to the store, get your ingredients, etc.

BUT.  There are sooooo many things I dislike about the whole process.  Figuring out what to make.  Actually shopping for the ingredients.  Not finding what I need while I’m shopping and having to go to TWO (or more) stores.  Buying an entire bottle of a certain spice for $6 when all I need is ½ teaspoon.  Not making good use of the ingredients and throwing out stuff every single week because it goes bad.  Busy stores with clueless people who leave their cart in the middle of the aisle while they browse elsewhere.  I could go on and on.

Work is busy.  Life is busy.  On a typical day, I leave the house at 5:40 a.m. armed with at least 3, sometimes 4 bags (gym bag, purse, lunch bag, and my computer bag if I’ve brought work home the night before).  I then go to Barre, then shower at work (hauling all the bags inside), work for 8-9 hours, and then leave (hauling all the bags back out to the car) around 4:00 or 4:30.  Sometimes, if I’m really ambitious I will take the 4:30 Barre class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  So I get home anytime between 4:30 – 5:45.  And then even later if I have to go to the store. 

There was a day back in February when I left Barre at 5:30 p.m. and then went to get groceries and bought maybe 8 bags worth?  When I got home (around 6:30 or 7:00) and opened my trunk and saw my grocery bags and all of my other bags that had to be hauled inside and unpacked and dealt with and THEN knowing I had to make dinner on top of that I literally started crying.  And yes….I realize these are not first-world problems.  But I was so incredibly overwhelmed with it all the time. 

So I first looked at our budget and looked what we were spending each month on groceries.  I talked to husband.  He said if I can make it work with our current grocery budget, then to go for it. 

I started researching.  There are probably 15 companies out there (Blue Apron, Freshly, Plated, Home Chef, etc.) and I did a comparison of ALL of them.  I initially thought of going with Blue Apron again, but some of the Blue Apron meals were VERY time consuming.  Like more than an hour for one meal, which is just too long.  While I was doing my comparison, I was looking for freshest ingredients, tastiest recipes, EASIEST recipes (aka less time-consuming), and flexibility with meal choices.  

I checked multiple websites, food bloggers, etc. and hands down the winner was Home Chef.  So that’s the one I signed up for.  The recipes take anywhere from 15 – 45 minutes (30 minutes  usually) to prepare from start to finish.  The ingredients are fresh.  There is minimal prep work.  You do have to chop all of the vegetables, but that’s not an issue.  The meat comes uncooked obviously, but there is no chopping of meat.  If the recipe calls for diced chicken, they send you fresh uncooked diced chicken (be still my heart!).  You can also choose what type of plan you want.  I chose the ‘mostly low-carb’ meal plans.

I signed up for the 2 person, 3 dinners a week plan (6 meals).  Each week you can go into the app and select your dinners.  This is the best part…there are 14 different meals to choose from.  I LOVE that.  Also, you can skip weeks if needed.  When my sister-in-law was visiting, I skipped my delivery that week.  And we’re traveling in a few weeks, so I skipped that week as well (and will obviously not be charged).  They charge by the week.  You can also skip meals…like if you only want 2 dinners that week instead of 3, you can adjust that as well.

As you can imagine, these meal boxes are not cheap:  9.99 per meal.  $60 per week.  $240 per month.  Yes, it’s a lot.  But I don’t care.  I worked it into our current grocery budget.  And here’s why:

1.       Portion sizes.  All of the reviews I read said that Home Chef’s portion sizes were generous.  And they were right.  We always get at LEAST 3 meals out of a 2-meal dinner, and sometimes even 4.  So we’re guaranteed at least 3 extra meals per week (9 meals instead of 6).  This brings the price down to $6.66 per meal (not bad for a generous portion of food that tastes like it came from a good restaurant!).

2.       They have taken the stress out of figuring out that horrible question ‘what’s for dinner’ completely.  And yes…I realize that the box is only 3 dinners and there are 7 days of the week.  But we usually go out once a week, and then for the other 3 nights we do leftovers of some sort or something easy (like tacos or spaghetti or grill out or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on meeting nights ha ha).  I made a list of ‘go-to’ easy dinners for our in-between nights. 

3.       They have done all of your shopping.  I hardly ever go to Target anymore (which is a big money saver especially with impulse purchases). 

4.       They send you things in individual containers that are the perfect portions.  There is no measuring.  EVER.  The only thing I had to do one time was cut a pat of butter in half ha ha. 

5.       I actually enjoy cooking now.  This is HUGE!  This is what I remember the most about Blue Apron.  It made me enjoy cooking and I felt like a fancy chef.

6.       The food is GOOD.  We have yet to have a ‘stinker’ meal.  And here’s what we’ve made so far:

Marsala mushroom chicken skillet with broccoli and peas

Korean pork noodle bowl and green beans and Fresno chile

Sirloin steak with balsamic sauce and fingerling potatoes and Brussels sprouts

Steak with garlic-herb butter and buttermilk-cheddar mashed potatoes and zucchini

Cajun chicken thigh & Italian sausage dirty rice with poblano pepper

One-pot creamy chicken chowder

Everything has been delicious!  My stress level regarding ‘what’s for dinner’ is completely non-existent now.  I’m going to continue with Home Chef for as long as I can!

Huit

Eight (huit...in French pronounced 'wheat').  We celebrated our 8th anniversary last week.

We kept it pretty low key because of our trip next week, but we still went to dinner (Cheesecake Factory!) and had our anniversary cupcakes (and flowers!)

(peanut butter, strawberry vanilla, raspberry lemonade, and cake)

This guy makes life better.  Funnier.  Easier.  Happier.  I heart him!

Sundays

Sundays are sure busy around here, but it's also my favorite day of the week.  I love to see how much I can get done quickly.

Today I was out of the house by 8:30 and on my way to Wal-Mart to get groceries.  I had written out my list Saturday night (going off of my meal calendar).

Today was a somewhat easy meal plan/prep day.  I only made one thing in my Instant Pot.  The other dinners for the week weren't really the type that could be made ahead.

I made potato soup out of a new cookbook I found at Costco:

We had it for dinner tonight and it was really, really good.

That was the only dinner prep I did.  The rest of the week we are having hamburgers, chicken marsala, a chicken pasta freezer meal that I made a few weeks ago, and leftovers.  I almost made the chicken marsala, but I thought it would be best to be made fresh as chicken tends to dry out when you reheat it.

As you can see from my messy menu calendar....I make a lot of changes.  The highlighted stuff is what I actually made.  

It's messy.  But it works.  I spilled some water on it today too, but that's okay.  It still works.  So today I bought groceries for the current week, and wrote out the menu for next week.  Again...I'm sure there will be changes.

Then I did breakfast and lunch prep.  Since we did salads last week, this week I made freezer sandwiches.  I follow a handful of 'frugal' instagrammers, and they all do this.  So then I Googled, and apparently it's a thing.  You can do it with PB & J, and also meat sandwiches.  I made turkey and cheese sandwiches. The trick is to put the condiments in the middle of the cheese and meat so that the bread doesn't get soggy (from the condiments).  In the morning, (according to the online folks) you just pull one out, stick it in your lunch bag and it's thawed by the time you eat lunch.  So I made 10 sandwiches, 5 for him, 5 for me.  They're different though of course, so they are in separate bags.  Hopefully they work out!  Because, boy was it easy.

I also bought a bag of Cara Cara oranges and peeled them.  If I pack an orange in my lunch bag unpeeled there is NO WAY I will eat it at work.  I don't have time to peel an orange.  Well, I DO have time, but I don't want the mess and the sticky fingers.  But if they are pre-peeled?  It will definitely get eaten.

The last thing I did was prepare our eggs for breakfast.  Did you know eggs can be scrambled in the microwave?  I've been doing this for a while.  I crack two eggs each into little glass jars.  I add cheese, salt and pepper.  In the morning, I take my jar and stick it in my lunch bag.  I don't eat breakfast until I'm at work.

Hubby eats breakfast at home though.  He can just take the jar, dump it in a bowl (NEVER microwave it in the jar...it will overflow) and microwave it for about 90 seconds or so.  Stir it up and you have nice, cheesy scrambled eggs with no mess.

Again, ours are different because I use different cheese (stinking' Weight Watchers!).

All of this took maybe 2 hours after I got home?  I kind of lost track of time.  I was playing my music from my Iceland playlist in the kitchen (we have a bluetooth speaker in there).  I discovered a new Iceland artist that I LOVE....Ólafur Arnalds.

Laundry got done, sheets got changed, hockey got watched.....and now it's 7:38 and I am going to shower and go to bed so I can read.  

Sundays are busy in the morning/early afternoon, but I have such peace of mind knowing that we're ready for the week.  :)

Random

*I go back to work tomorrow.  I am READY!!  I'm actually kind of excited.  I like my routines, what can I say.  

*I got one of those letter boards that are everywhere.  I got a small one though and put it on our cork board in the kitchen below our family calendar.  Clearly, I'm having fun with it (and I might have too much time on my hands ha ha)

All quotes from TV shows ha ha.  Some of them won't make sense especially if you don't watch the TV shows (Bob's Burgers, Scrubs, Parks & Rec, Friends, etc.).  But it makes me smile. 

*Have you ever tried baked tacos?  If you haven't, please try baked tacos.  Basically, you put the meat (already cooked) and cheese in the shell, pop them in the oven for 10 minutes or so, then they come out and the meat and cheese stays put and is all melty and delicious.  Then you can top with your other cold toppings.  They are really good!

*A couple weeks ago, we went to a store here called 'Pen and Pad'.  My husband has been getting his fountain pens at this store for years.  Anyways, I noticed that the only journal type books they carried were Paperchase and Rhodia.  I asked the owner if they carried Leuchtturm journals and she said 'nope and I never will'.  So of course I asked why and she said out of Moleskins, Leuchtturms, and Rhodias, the Rhodias are by far the best when it comes to binding and paper.  So of course I had to try it out.  And then I promptly moved my bullet journal over to the Rhodia book.  The paper is great and the cover is super soft (although I put my bullet journal into another cover type thing).

I also tried out a couple of 'disposable' fountain pens.  I'm liking those too.  

*We booked a rental car in Iceland.  A Toyota something or other.  It was interesting.  We did a bunch of research on rental car companies and insurance. It is still up in the air whether or not we need to purchase 'sand and ash' insurance (from volcanoes of course).  Fun!

*I also emailed the hosts of our Air B&B about bedding (you bring your own sheets, or they charge you for use of linens).  Anyways, I was wondering about the size and she emailed me back in meters.  So I had to figure that out, but of course there was no real answers online (for real) so I'm just going to bring a set of King sheets and we'll tuck if we have to.  Then I can use them at home too.

That's all!

Meal Planning

Let's talk meal planning!  I have discovered that meal planning--grocery shopping--budgeting--all while trying to eat healthy-- can almost be a full-time job.  I'm going to share what has been working for me.

Meal planning is kind of like laundry.  It never goes away.  It's ALWAYS something that will need to be done.  

Here is my process.

I plan meals 2 weeks at a time (I'm talking dinner here).  I plan 4-5 meals each week (we eat leftovers and usually go out once a week).  I first look at my 'Freezer Inventory' book to see what we have in our freezers.

I try to buy meat on sale and stock up.  And occasionally we will get large bags of meatballs or other things at Costco that take us a while to use up.

So first I see if there's anything in our freezer that I can use (and there always is).

Then I build the rest of the meal around it.  Tonight, for example, we are having spaghetti and meatballs, because we have a partial bag of frozen meatballs leftover from our Superbowl gathering.  

If I can't think of anything off the top of my head to make with what we have, then I use my cookbooks and the Internet.  This takes maybe 30 minutes IF you don't get distracted.

Once I have my two weeks planned, I write it all down on my monthly calendar (just a cheap one I found at Target):

On the far right hand side of the calendar, I write what I need to get at the store to complete the meals.

I shop on Friday for the week.  I meal plan for TWO weeks, but I shop just one week at a time.  And Sunday is my meal prep/batch cooking day.

For breakfast, I make either overnight oats or make sure to stick an oatmeal packet in my lunch box.  My husband usually eats instant grits (he eats breakfast at home).  Breakfast is easy.

For lunches, I try to do EVERYTHING I possibly can to make it as easy as possible to pack lunches in the morning.

This week, I made salads.  I chopped romaine hearts (the 3-pack from Trader Joe's), then added a veggie mix of kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage (also from Trader Joe's).  I cooked up a pound of ground turkey seasoned with taco seasoning.  Then chopped some green peppers.  I then added dressing and shredded cheese.  And that was our 'main course' for lunches for the week.

Sometimes I'll do sandwiches.  Other times it's leftovers.  I try to do it all the night before though so that I'm not scrambling around in the morning.  

I also de-package all yogurts, cheese, etc. so they are easy to grab and add to our lunch boxes.

But that's just for lunch.

For dinners, it's a bit different.  I try to prep everything I can for each meal on Sunday, including chopping veggies, defrosting the appropriate meat, etc.  And anything that I can prep ahead of time (like a casserole or something), I will do that also.  I also will make some shredded chicken if we're out and usually some hard boiled eggs.  I make a huge mess and it takes anywhere from 1-3 hours, but I'm usually done by noon and have the rest of the day to relax and not have to worry about what we're going to eat for the week.

I write down what we're having for the week on our menu board:

Here's a few other tips:

*get some food prep containers.  I got the ones in the picture above from Wal-Mart.  They are decent in size, and are microwave and dishwasher safe.  They are lightweight.  And it's not a tragedy if they get lost or accidentally thrown out.  We use glass containers too, but I like to use those for leftovers that we are eating at home.

*After you make your grocery list, number it.  So anything that's refrigerated I put a '1' by.  All produce is '2'.  All frozen '3'.  Canned goods '4'.  Snacks '5'.  Etc.  It sounds crazy, but this saves SO MUCH TIME at the grocery store.  There's no more wondering way back to the frozen section because you've forgotten something.  I suppose you could write your list in order by category, but I never do that.  I scribble it all down as I'm deciding on recipes, then number it.

*If you use coupons, pull out the appropriate ones and put them in your wallet before you go to the store.  I also look at my Target Cartwheel and see if there's anything on my list that I can save on.  This also saves me time in the store.

*Go to the store as early as possible.  Sunday mornings at Target are wonderful.  :)  Sometimes I will also have to go to Smith's (which is only 5 blocks from us) to pick up something that Target doesn't have, and it is also super quiet in the mornings.  The aisles are clear and there's no lines.  It just makes it a more pleasant experience.

So that's how I do it.  It might sound complicated, but I prefer to do as much batch cooking/meal prepping as I can.  We eat out WAY less when I plan and prepare.  It saves money and time!