Easy Weeknight Dinner

So last night was pretty busy. Right after work I raced home to do my Wii Active Sports workout and then I needed to get dinner taken care of before Matt and I had to leave for the Duke basketball game.

I decided to make one of my go to easy weeknight meals Tilapia and veggies. From the Super Target I buy frozen Sea Choice tilapia. I like it because it's very affordable and individually packaged. Below are the easy steps for a quick healthy dinner.

1. In the morning move the fish from the freezer to the fridge. If you haven't planned ahead you can also thaw the fish in a bowl of water.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

3. Put about 1/2 cup of egg beaters in a bowl. You can also use an egg or a little bit of oil.

4. Put bread crumbs onto the plate.

5. Dip the fish in the egg beater and then put it on the plate and make sure the bread crumbs cover the fish.

6. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Put the fish on the cookie sheet, cookie sheet into the oven.

7. Let it cook for 10 minutes and voila you have a delicious piece of fish.

The fish alone is only 100 calories and 1.5 grams of fat. If calculating the nutrition make sure to also add the egg beater and bread crumbs.

To go with the fish I just heated up a package of Green Giant Simply Steam Garden Vegetable Medley. One serving (half the box) is only 50 calories, .5 grams of fat, and 1 gram of fiber. I like to keep a mix of the Green Giant Simply Steam vegetables in the freezer. They are perfect for when you need a quick side item. I usually would add a salad or another vegetable to the meal but we were rushing out the door how it was to get to Cameron in time for the start of the game.

The whole meal is only 5 weight watcher points.



Do other people have easy go to weeknight dinners?

Jenni 2, Dunkin Donuts 0

Seriously Dunkin Donuts what is your deal this week? I come into work today and everyone is telling me the Dean brought in munchkins and they are on the back table and I should go get some. Then skinny coworker who I gave the muffin to earlier this week is saying through our cubicle wall "oh these are delicious you should eat some". Really people? Really?

Luckily I had the B and the J of BAJJ in google chat for support. B of BAJJ says not to go back there. I told her I want to go look at them and say F you munchkins! She then says she is imagining me in a butt slayer (her nick name for me) super hero costume with a whip. I don't know about that all that but I do know that I am not giving into the donut temptation. One munchkin is 1 WW point...not bad but who can stop at just one? Once you eat one it's a slippery slope and I'm not going to do that myself.

So again Dunkin Donuts you can take your munchkins and stuff it!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

Drum roll please...

Date	Change	Total	Work Outs in Week	Total Work Outs
2/24/2010	-1	-1	2	2

I'm excited that I lost 1 lb...that's what I'm telling myself at least. I mean 1 lb is good for when I started 1 day late into the week, I went out of town on the weekend, and I only got 2 work outs in. I know that next week I should be able to loose more and even if it's 1 lb again I should be happy with that. I just have to keep telling myself that's it's not a sprint but slow and steady race. I also know that loosing 1 lb a week is a very healthy weight loss and you are more likely to keep weight off when it's lost slow.

With that being said it's hard work and I wish the scale showed me faster results but I guess that's life. Soon my 1 lbs will add up and that's when I'll be able to see more progress and pay off for the hard work. Until then though I'm holding strong.

Jenni 1, Dunkin Donuts 0

So this morning I decided I would grab Dunkin Donuts for work. What was I thinking you say? Well actually this is a very doable thing. They have their DD Smart menu and just recently they have started to sell egg whites for the breakfast sandwiches. What I normally go for is an english muffin with egg white, bacon, and cheese and an ice coffee with skim milk and sugar. All together the meal is 7 WW pts. Not bad at all and filling. If you do the egg instead of the egg white it's going to cost you 2 more points which is not worth it for me.

But this morning Dukin Donuts thought they were going to throw me a curve ball. After I get through the drive through I notice I had 2 Dunkin bags next to me. You would think I would have noticed this as they handed them to me but I blame it being 7:45 am that I didn't. I peer into the first bag and there is my english muffin and in the second bag I smell something sweet and delicious. It's a coffee cake muffin! I love muffins but was not happy to see this guy show up. Is someone taunting me? When I get to my work parking lot I looked up the nutritional info for the muffin on my iphone. I was not too surprised to see the muffin is 660 calories and 26 grams of that. That's 15 WW points!

I get to work and offer the muffin to my skinny coworker. She was very excited. She actually made coffee cake last night and was sad this morning that she forgot to bring some in. Before you think that I go tempting all skinny people with fatty high calories foods to sabotage them she did ask why I didn't want it and I did tell her the calorie count on it. She was surprised it was so high but that did not stop her from eating it. Can you blame her though? If I could eat the muffin and not pay any consequences then I probably would. At least I'm in a cubicle and in my cubicle world I can't see her smiling and eating that delicious muffin.

So Dunkin Donuts you thought you had me but I can claim victory today.

Monday Morning Rehash

The weekends have always been my pitfall when trying to eat healthy and exercise. There is less structure, more social events, more eating out, and more room to be relaxed. So to hold me accountable on the weekends I decided every Monday morning I'll have a "Monday Morning Rehash" post.

This past weekend I was in Atlanta for a wedding. Friday we left after work and with a 7 1/2 hour drive (which should have been only 6 hours) dinner was on the road. We stopped at a Chick-Fil-A where I got my go to meal of chicken nuggets and a fruit salad. It helps that Matt doesn't order fries that much. It would have been cruel if I had to smell delicious waffle fries in the car as I ate my fruit salad. Luckily he's a good guy and wouldn't do that to me.

Saturday at the wedding they had buffet style cesar salad, lasagna, asparagus, and texas toast. There weren't a lot of options to pick from so I piled on the salad and asparagus and had a serving of lasagna. I wasn't able to resist the cupcakes that they had at the wedding in lieu of wedding cake though. I did stop myself from having mulitple cupcakes. Before I probably would have wanted to try the different kinds. I worked around this by Matt and I splitting 2 different cupcakes. I got to taste a smores and a chocolate goodness one while still eating only 1.






My biggest win on Saturday was in the morning when Matt and I hit the gym at the hotel. It must have been a sign when I realized the hotel gym was 5 rooms down from us. Matt jumped on the tread mill and I did 40 minutes on the elliptical. Having my new iphone was a great distraction as was the personal tv the elliptical had. At 30 minuets I almost put the towel in but I pushed forward to finish my 40 minute goal.

Also on Saturday we went to the Coca Cola musuem store and bought a $2 Coke frisbee and spent some time in Centennial Park throwing around the frisbee. The 60 degree weather got me very excited for Spring and the potential for outdoor exercise.

On the way back to NC yesterday we stopped at Subway for lunch. I love their subs and their low calorie options but not so much that I think I will become Jared. I like a little more variety than that. The weekend ended perfectly by going to the Duke vs. Virginia Tech game and watching Duke win!

Road Trip and a Wedding

So tomorrow Matt and I take off for Atlanta for his friend's wedding. Sounds fun right? Well yes and no. Yes I'm excited to go and meet some of his college friends and to get out of town for the weekend. But I'm not excited for the copious amounts of food that I'm sure will be at the wedding, not to mention the cake, and then the other dinning out.

So I need a plan. A plan that will help me survive the weekend without feeling guilty and defeated. Dinner on the road tomorrow will probably be Subway. Subway is a great healthy and fast option. I usually get their turkey sub on wheat bread. I can eat a 6 inch sub and baked chips for 8 Weight Watchers points. Not bad. Another option is Chick-Fil-a. My go to healthy meal there is their 8 count nuggets and either a side salad or their fruit salad. This meal is also 8 WW points. What do other people eat when they are on the go and want something healthy?

Breakfast both days are going to be at the Embassy Suites. I'm going to go for an egg white omelet and fruit. The more veggies I can get loaded in the omelet the tastier and more filling it will be. If I can I'll also sneak a banana out of there for a snack later on. Also I bet on Saturday I can convince Matt to join me at the hotel gym to get some cardio in.

The wedding itself might be the hardest to tackle because I won't have control over what I'm served. I'm going with a good attitude and a plan to make the smartest choices I can. Getting a work in on Saturday will be key! I'll let you know on Monday how the weekend goes. Anyone have tips for eating healthy while traveling?

Now and Then

My 21st birthday (yes I'm dressed like a hootchie mama)














My heaviest in July of 2008




Me Summer of 2009 and Now

Goals

My Goal

My short term goal is to lose 25 lbs by June 19th. I have 17 weeks to acheive this. That will put me at needing to lose around 1.5 lbs week. I think this is a realistic and obtainable goal.

After June 19th I'll set a new goal. My final goal will be a healthy BMI. Since I'm 5'8" then if I can get to 160lbs I would have achieved that. My final weight goal though will probably change as I get closer to it.

I plan to do a weekly Wednesday weigh in on my blog. Why Wednesday? Because that is my Weight Watchers weekly weigh in day. I weighed myself yesterday so that will be my starting point. I am not brave enough yet to put my weight up here for the world to see but I will post how much I lost that week or gained (but hopefully that won't happen!). I will also post pictures of my progress.

How I Plan to Do it

Since I have been successful with Weight Watchers in the past I'm going to do it again. I'm doing their online program that allows me to log all my food and exercise. I find that the point system works well for me. It is not eliminating any one food and it allows you to be flexible. Weight Watchers realizes that there will be times when you eat a piece of cake and allows you to build that in. It's all about give and take.

For working out I'm going to have a goal of working out 4-5 times a week. I plan to use my new EA Active Wii Sports game and also go to the gym. I have found that going to group work out classes keeps me accountable and pushes me to do a harder work out. Some of my favorites are kick boxing and cardio dance. I go to the gym at my work. Since I work at a local university that means work out classes full of a bunch of skinny peppy undergrad girls. It doesn't bother me that much though. I was once one of them and will be again! Well I won't be an undergrad again but you know what I mean.

How It All Started

I'll start with giving you some background. I have never been a petite girl. I would say in high school I was an average healthy weight. Of course at that time I thought I was overweight and now I would die to go back to my size 8 jeans. I started to gain weight my sophomore year of college and kept gradually putting on weight.

The summer of 2008 when I was living in Boston I reached my heaviest weight and it was a breaking point for me. In September of 2008 I joined Weight Watchers. I was determined to stick to the point system, log everything I ate, and work out religiously. From September 2008 to March 2009 I lost 38lbs! I was psyched but I also gradually started to become a slacker. I continued to work out like crazy but on the eating end I was not doing so well anymore.

In May I moved home to NC and things started to go downhill. I had a car now and picking up fast food was very convenient and tempting. On top of that I didn't have my neighborhood YMCA anymore. I had been a part of boot camp type classes, made friends, and a support system. So from May until now I gained back 20lbs. I'm still 18lbs down from my heaviest but that's not good enough.

Last night I had my good friend Amanda and her fiance Gene over for dinner. During dinner Amanda asked me to be her bridesmaid. I was thrilled and so excited to be a part of her special day. Also I knew this could be the motivation and kick in the butt I needed to get back on track. This morning I looked at a J Crew bridesmaid dress that Amanda was thinking of using and I realized the biggest size they have is a 16. Now a 16 for me would be pushing it, it would be too tight, and not be flattering at all. How embarrassing for me! I am determined that I will look hot in my size 16 bridesmaid dress on June 19th. Amanda's wedding on June 19th will not be the end but a starting point for me to obtain my goal weight.