Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

Date	Change	Total	Work Outs in Week
2/24/2010	-1	-1	2
3/3/2010	0	-1	4
3/10/2010	-3.6	-4.6	5
3/17/2010	-1.8	-6.4	4
3/24/2010	1.4	-5	5
3/31/2010	-1.8	-6.8	5

This week I lost 1.8 lbs! :) As much as I am happy I can't help but still be frustrated since that means in the last two weeks I have lost 0.4 lbs.  This week is my dreaded week of the month so I really should be ecstatic for any loss. And I am I really am. I just have to keep reminding myself that it is going to be a slow process.  They say when you loose a lot of weight fast it's not healthy and you are likely to gain it back. I'll take slow if it means it's healthy and if it means I won't gain it back.

I worked out 5 times this week. I did 3 Couch to 5k workouts, 1 Cardio Dance workout, and 1 Wii Active Sports workout. I know you are thinking my goal was to workout 6 times right? Well that was the plan but then last night some family stuff came up and family comes first. So even though I did not get my 6th workout in I did get to see my adorable niece and my self proclaimed jokester of a nephew.  My 2 year old nephew's best joke is "I ate a garbage truck for dinner" and then he cracks up.  I wonder how many WW points a garbage truck would be?

Monday Night Check In

I had a major case of the Mondays today.  Last night I had a hard time falling asleep with the threat of tornados headed my way.  It did not help that just as I was about to fall asleep the TV's emergency boardcast system went off.  It definently alerted me as I flew up in the bed to see if I needed to head to the basement.  Luckily it was not my county that needed "to seek shelter immediately".  Waking up to the rain did not help my case of the Mondays either.  I had a nice little surprise though at lunch time when the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day.  It really is silly that being Monday and bad weather can make me grumpy.   Next Monday I'm going to stare the morning in the face and tell it to bring it!

This past weekend was really good overall.  Saturday Matt and I went to my sister's and spent some time with her, my brother in law, nephew, and niece.  We had a full day of an Easter Egg Hunt, 2 trips to 2 different playgrounds, and out to dinner.  Also while my nephew napped my sister and I went for workout #1 of the 5th week of the Couch to 5k Program. As usual the workout was hard but it helped that the sun was shinning, there was a breeze, and I had my sister by my side.  Last week we registered for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure 5k that is in June. I am super excited but also a tiny bit nervous to be honest. I'll power through it though.

Yesterday I ran errands, cleaned up around the house some, did a Wii Active Sports wokout, and I went to a friend's house to watch the NCAA tournament. The Duke game was a little nerve wrecking at times but that's okay because my Blue Devils won and are going to the Final Four! Not only are they going to the Final Four but Matt and I are going to be there cheering them on!  So this weekend is going to be another weekend of eating out. My plan is to make good choices, eat smart, and to workout extra hard. 

Cardio Dance and Turkey Meatballs

I belong to the gym at the local university where I work. It's super convenient because I can just walk over after work. Today I decided I was going to go to the Cardio Dance class. The class is really popular and you have to get there early to get a spot. I barely made it in time. Well I actually didn't make it in time but the instructor was nice and let me in anyway. There are spots for 50 people and I was the 51st person to arrive and I got there at a 5:05 for a 5:30 class!

The reason the class is so hard to get into is because the undergrads love it, especially the sorority girls. I mean I can see why. You get to listen to upbeat music, shake your butt, and get a workout at the same time. Did I mention that I probably have the same amount as rhythm as Steve Urkel? Okay so maybe I'm a tiny bit better than him but not by much. The thing is I just don't care. I keep up with the dance moves as much as I can, laugh at myself, and just make sure that I keep moving. It's a really good workout. I was disgustingly sweaty after the workout and completly exhausted.

I came home from work to find Matt in the kitchen making me dinner. I could really get use to that sight. Matt was making one of our favorite healthy meals of turkey meatballs with pasta. All you have to do is heat up precooked frozen turkey meatballs (Trader Joe's are my favorite), cook some whole wheat pasta, and add some spaghetti sauce (I use Barilla Mushroom and Garlic). It's a total of 7 WW pts and very filling. The WW points is based on using 1 cup of pasta, 3 meatballs (I cut them up to make them go further), and 1/4 a cup of spaghetti sauce. Bon Appetit!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

Date	Change	Total	Work Outs in Week
2/24/2010	-1	-1	2
3/3/2010	0	-1	4
3/10/2010	-3.6	-4.6	5
3/17/2010	-1.8	-6.4	4
3/24/2010	+1.4	-5	5

Grrr! I am really frustrated. I gained 1.4lbs this week and I do not understand why. I stayed on points and I worked out 5 times. My dreaded week of the month isn't until next week. So I'm a little puzzled at why I gained. Maybe my bad weekend that was 2 weekends ago took longer to catch up with me? I should definitely be doing measurements to see if I'm loosing inches but I'm not so tonight I will take my measurements.

I guess all I can is not over think it and stay on track this week so I will hopefully see better results next week. My workouts this week were 3 Couch to 5k workouts, 30 Day Shred DVD, and a crazy aerobics show that I DVRed off of FitTv. It was crazy because this women was bouncing all over the place and I could barely get the steps down to keep up. I have never seen someone with so much pep and energy. My goal for this coming week is to workout 6 days a week and to stay on track with WW points.

I am still really frustrated!!!

JMJE's Mini Meatloaves

So my good friend asked if she could do a guest blog on here about her recipe for Mini Meatloaves. I told her she definitely could if she came and and cooked it for me. Well, she didn't cook it for me but she did make it for her and her husband. Even though I didn't get to taste these yummy looking delights, I decided to still let her do the guest post because that's the kind of friend I am.

Hi! I'm JMJE from Making Stuff is Fun. Since I like to make things and Jenni likes to eat healthy, I decided to try to take a stab at a decently healthy meal. Back in the day, (like when I was trying to lose a couple pounds before my wedding) I used to try to make 400-600 calorie meals for dinner. So I got kind of good at coming up with low-cal stuff. So here is a recipe that I "invented" last week. By invented, I really mean stole different parts of other recipes I had made before and mixed them together. So now I present to you...mini meatloaves.

Mini Meatloaves
spray butter
1/3 cup diced green peppers
1/3 cup diced mushrooms
1/3 cup diced onions
1 lb lean ground beef (93% lean)
1/2 of a 6 oz can of tomato paste
1 egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard
2 teaspoons brown sugar

1-Chop up your veggies and saute them in a little butter spray until they get tender. You can add in or sub veggies however you want to.
2-Let the veggies cool a little bit and mix the beef, tomato paste, egg and breadcrumbs together, and then eventually add the veggies in to that. You don't want to put them in too hot b/c you will burn yourself (like I did) and possible start accidentally cooking the egg.
3-Spray the muffin tin with Pam
4-Divide this mixture evenly into a muffin tin so you have 12 individual meat loaves.
5-Mix the ketchup, mustard and sugar together in a bowl and brush/spoon a little on top of each loaf for a glaze.
6-Bake this for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. Or until done.

Ok I thought this tasted pretty good. We ate 3 apiece and served them with some of those frozen veggies that Jenni talked about in one of her other posts. Overall it was a pretty good meal. The next day my husband used the leftovers to make a meat loaf wrap, which he also said was pretty good. Now I will let Jenni give you the weight watchers specs on this recipe.


Thanks JMJE! From my calculations 3 of the mini meatloaves would be 5 WW pts. Those look really good and now you really should come make them for the boyfriend and me. I'll buy the ingredients, provide the kitchen, do the dishes, and you cook? I also obviously need to take food photography lessons from JMJE. It would probably also help if I took my food pictures with my digital camera instead of my iPhone.

Weekend Fun

The boyfriend has been out of town since Tuesday traveling for business. Being home alone definitely has it ups and downs. I get to watch all the bad tv I want without feeling guilty for subjecting him to shows like 16 and Pregnant. For meals I just have to worry about myself and I can do laps around the kitchen table when I'm doing the Wii Active Sports workouts without getting weird looks. On the other hand coming home to an empty house and eating dinner by myself is lonely and boring.

This weekend has been one of the first in months that was not planned from start to finish before it began. And so far it has been great full of family and friends. The beautiful Spring weather has been the icing on the cake. Last night my friend Amanda came over and we went to Local Yogurt where I got a small chocolate low fat frozen yogurt (3 WW pts). They have delicious yogurt made with natural foods from local farms.

Saturday I went to see my sister and her family. I played trucks, dinosaurs, and ran around a tennis court chasing balls with my 2 1/2 year nephew. I also got some good snuggles and smiles from my 4 month old niece. My sister's mother in law made yummy mango salsa chicken tacos for lunch (7 WW pts).

While the kids napped my sister Kelly and I also did the first workout of Week 4 of the Couch to 5k program. It was nice having her there for support and it worked out well since we run at a similar pace (ie slow). Week 4 of the program definitely is a lot harder. The week 4 workouts look like this:

5 minute brisk warm up walk
3 minute jog
90 second walk
5 minute jog
2 1/2 minute walk
Repeat the whole cycle again without the warm up walk and then end with a 5 minute cool down brisk walk.

The 5 minute jogs were the hardest part. I have a problem of looking down at how much time I have left too often. It's mentally psyching me out. I try hard to not think about the running and focus on something else but my mind always comes back to the running. I think because I am trying so hard not think about it that it's the only thing I can think about. I also run slow very slow. I don't care that I run slow though. Right now I'm just focused on finishing the workouts and later the speed will come.

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

Date	Change	Total	Work Outs in Week
2/24/2010	-1	-1	2
3/3/2010	0	-1	4
3/10/2010	-3.6	-4.6	5
3/17/2010	-1.8	-6.4	4

Yay! I'm so excited that I lost 1.8 lbs. That puts me at an average of 1.6 lbs a week which is right on target. I must admit I was nervous about getting on the scale this morning after this weekend, but I guess I didn't need to worry. So now when I stay on track next weekend I hope I can see even better results. I worked out 4 times last week which included 3 Couch to 5k workouts and pilates. My goal for this coming week is to workout at least 5 times.

Chicken Pot Pie

Growing up I would always go to K&W with my Granny and one of my favorite things to get there is Chicken Pot Pie. So naturally when I saw Weight Watcher's recipe for Old Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie I had to try it. Have I mentioned before that I'm a novice chef? Okay using the word chef is probably pushing it.

Weight Watchers list this recipe as a "Easy Difficulty" so I figured it would be a good one to start with. Cooking it actually was pretty easy. The only glitch was that I didn't have the required flour but I used Bisquick instead and that seemed to work okay.

Matt said he liked it too and that I should make it again. Of course he's going to say that right?

Monday Night Check In

So this weekend was crazy busy but also a lot of fun. Matt and I went to the ACC basketball tournament. I enjoyed the games, quality time with Matt and his family and the best part was that Duke won the ACC championship!

Going to 6 basketball games in one weekend is pretty intense and not very conducive to eating healthy. I knew going to the games that it would be a challenge. I brought granola bars to snack on but still had to buy food and eat meals there. I ate a turkey sandwich one day and a BBQ sandwich another. I feel like I did not eat healthy as I should have but it is what it is. When I am at home and in a routine it's a lot easier to stay on track.

On Saturday I did wake up and do my first workout of week 3 of the Couch to 5k program. Matt even did it with me. He runs 3-4 times a week and can run a 5k no problem but he stayed with me and my slow pace during the workout. The workout was a lot tougher than I thought it would be but I finished it and it helped to have Matt by my side. I know the workouts are just going to get harder as the weeks go by so that is making me a little nervous but I'll power through.

I'm looking forward to things slowing down here. For the last few months there has been something going on every weekend. Either we are going out of town or people are here in town visiting. It is a lot easier to stay on track when you aren't traveling or hosting visitors.

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

	Change	Total	Work Outs in Week
2/24/2010	-1	-1	2
3/3/2010	0	-1	4
3/10/2010	-3.6	-4.6	5

Yay! I'm so excited that I lost 3.6 lbs. It's good to see that the work from the last 2 weeks has paid off. I feel pretty good about this week overall. Over the weekend there was more eating out than I would have liked but I feel like I made good choices when I did eat out.

Also I worked out 5 times (19 WW activity points) which included 3 Couch 2 5k work outs, 1 Wii Active Sports workout, and yesterday me and the bride to be had a brisk 3 mile walk in the Duke Forest. The weather is beautiful and it has been so nice to work out outside.

Monday Night Check In

This weekend was a lot of fun. The boyfriend's dad, sister, and sister's friend were in town for the Duke vs. Carolina game. There was a decent amount of eating out like I knew there would be, but I feel like I made good choices.

Friday night we went to a local BBQ joint called Bullock's BBQ. The food is basically southern deliciousness. The old me would have ordered fried chicken, french fries, and hush puppies. The french fries alone would have been 10 WW pts--definitely not worth it. The new me ordered chopped BBQ, corn, and green beans. I'm sure the green beans were cooked southern style with fat, but it was definitely the lesser of two evils. Their hush puppies are delicious, and they just plop a whole basket down in front of you. I had a few and then moved the basket so I wouldn't be tempted to keep eating them.

Saturday for lunch I ate a chicken wrap at home instead of getting take out with the boyfriend and his dad. Also on Saturday I did my first Week 2 Couch to 5k workout. It definitely kicked my butt but I finished it. My running is pretty slow but right now I am focusing on just getting through each work out. My goal is to run a 5k, not finish under a certain time.

The Duke vs Carolina game was definitely the highlight of my weekend.



Duke 82, UNC 50! Lets hope Duke can continue playing like that during the ACC Tournament. Go Duke!

Snacky Snacks

During the work week 2pm - 4pm is a dangerous time for me. I get the munchies and no I'm not using illegal substances during lunch to cause this. I actually don't think "munchies" is the best way to describe it. It's not just psychological either or boredom hunger. My stomach growls and is screaming for me to feed it. We fight every day about what and how much it's going to get to eat.

I usually have a banana every morning after breakfast and before lunch. Sometimes I have a granola or fiber bar too depending on how early my breakfast was. I am really loving the new Fiber One 90 Calorie bars. I have had the chocolate and the chocolate peanut butter ones so far and they are delicious and the best part is that they are only 1 WW point.

In the afternoon I use my handy dandy apple cutter and have a red delicious apple. The apple cutter is an easy mess free way to eat an apple at work.

Some of my other go to to snacks are Light String Cheese, 100 calorie bags of popcorn (they usually end up being a little burnt though, I actually like it a little burnt, but I don't think my coworkers are thrilled when they get to smell it), and when I need something sweet I eat the 100 Calorie Chocolate Hostess Cupcakes. These cupcakes are one of my favorite finds. They are small but because there are 3 little cakes it makes it seem like more. Also because they have 5 grams of fiber they are only 1 WW point. Be careful though and read the nutritional information because not all of the varieties are 1 point some are 2. The best way to eat these are very slowly making sure to enjoy each bite. It's kind of ridiculous how I focus on enjoying chocolate when I have it. But whatever works right?

Oh remember my skinny coworker who can eat anything? Well she snacks all day long. Good snacks too like real cheese, peanut butter filled pretzels, cookies, and muffins. You might think I don't like my cubicle neighbor but I do really. I am just envious of her and her "I can eat anything and be still be stick skinny metabolism". I am sure I have more character and personality for my "if you eat that it will show metabolism"...right...right? She jokes about how much she snacks too and I joke back about it. Ha ha right because it's funny? Just hilarious! Ok kidding I'm really not that upset about it. It's how life works but I am glad for my cubicle wall that allows me to just hear the snacks instead of being able to see them too. I know her snack sounds very well. I'll hear a packet make noise and I say oh it's time for oatmeal and she laughs and says yes. It's a fun game that we play to make the time go by.

So I need more snack ideas that are not cookies, muffins, and peanut butter filled pretzels. Help! What are your go to snacks?

Wedding Woes

My good friend and bride to be Amanda called me last week after reading my blog and told me that if I didn't think the J Crew dress would work that we would just look somewhere else. I looked online at their size charts and compared my measurements. From the measurements I knew it was going to be a tight fit but not out of the question.

We decided it was worth ordering a couple of them to give it a try. I was surprised that everything I saw said that a strapless style would be the most flattering for my body type. This sounded promising though since the one Amanda liked the best was strapless.

Amanda called me today to tell me that 2 of the 3 dresses that we ordered were in. I must admit I was very nervous going to try the dresses on. I'm just not a size 16 right now. I knew that going into this but I also was hopeful because I have heard that J Crew dresses can run big. The two dresses were too small but not ridiculously so. They weren't close enough though to order knowing I'm loosing weight. The biggest bummer is that the strapless one (the one I had been most hopeful for) is on back order until May. The wedding is in June so that will not work.

I just feel awful that I'm causing problems. Amanda kept telling me over and over to not feel bad and that she didn't care. I am so grateful that my friend is not a bridezilla!

I am disappointed though. I'm disappointed that I left myself get to this point. I am embarrassed that I can't just order a dress from any store. I am mad at myself but I'm also mad at J Crew. Why don't they go to a size 18 like other stores? Most places go to size 18!

Feeling bad for myself though is not going to get me anywhere. All I can do is work to make changes and to become healthier and a smaller size. And speaking of changes I am excited that as of yesterday I have finished my first week of the Couch to 5k program. I am nervous of the running ramping up in the weeks to come but I am also really excited. Running a 5k is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I am not really sure why I have wanted to because I hate running. I think because I hate it and have always feared it is exactly the reason why I want to do it. I want to conquer running. Also you can run anywhere. It's an easy thing to do and by easy I mean you don't need a gym membership or fancy equipment to do it.

I am alternating using the Wii Active Sports workouts and running as my exercise. You would think that the Wii is just a video game and couldn't be that much of a workout right? Wrong! The exercises are hard and leave me sore the next day. It's a good sore though. A sore that lets me know I accomplished something.

I have been blabbering and going on while I was waiting for the boyfriend to get home from work so we can watch the special 1 hour of The Office. And he's finally here so it's time to find out if Jam is having a boy or girl!



Special Note to the bride to be---Amanda when and if you read this you should not feel bad at all! I know you are so concerned about all of us being happy. You did not make me feel bad in anyway. I can't wait to be your bridesmaid!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

Date	Change	Total	Work Outs in Week	Total Work Outs
2/24/2010	-1	-1	2	2
3/3/2010	0	-1	4	6

So I maintained this week. I did not gain nor did I loose. I worked my butt off this week. I stayed on points, logged everything I ate, and worked out. 2 of my 4 workouts were running. I don't run! Well now I do and it kicks my butt. So what gives? I knew at the beginning of this week that I would probably maintain or even gain. I am just going to have to be okay with 1 week of every month being that way. I was trying to figure out how to spell out my reason for maintaining this week without people being like ewww too much info. So I'll just leave it at that. All I can do now is stay focused and hope that my hard work this past week will show on the scale next week.

This coming week is going to be one that I really need to buckle down and focus on. Matt's dad is coming into town on Friday for probably a week for the Duke vs UNC game and the ACC tournament. When his dad is here it means lots of eating out. That just won't be possible for a week for me. I'll offer to cook and even stay home some nights if needed. His dad loves fish (he's a pescetarian) and brussels sprouts so I'll have to put that on the menu. I think I'll head over to JM's blog and use her recipe for roasted brussels sprouts. Now Matt's dad is use to eating delicious fish from fancy restaurants. So I need a easy, healthy, delicious fish recipe. Anyone? When I do eat out with them I'll just make sure to make healthy choices and stay away from fancy cocktails, appetizers, and desserts.

Exploding Chicken Taquitos

So last night for dinner I made Hungry Girl's Exploding Chicken Taquitos. Since the boyfriend is out of town I figured it was a good time to try a new recipe. If it turns out awful I'm the only one that has to know. I'm not a huge cook but am trying to change that. I am always on the lookout for an easy healthy recipe. When I saw the recipes for these I knew I had to try them. Healthy, easy, and Mexican what could be better? For the recipe just go here .

Here is the mix after I refrigerated it



The final product



So I didn't add the ingredients for these to my grocery list. I figured I'm so high tech I could just open the recipe up on the web on my iphone. Well I completely overlooked the part about needing tooth picks. I had to improvise and break off the ends of plastic forks to keep the taquitos from exploding before they were baked.

I love refried beans so having them as a side was a no brainer for me. I used Old El Paso fat free refried beans (1 WW pt). I also had some Tostito Baked Scoops with it (2 WW pts). So with 2 taquitos being 4 WW pts it put me at a total for 7 pts for dinner. They turned out pretty yummy I must say. Next time I might try it with flour tortillas as I like those better than corn. I think the corn ones almost have a sweeter taste to them. These will definently be made again and next time the for me and the boyfriend.

Blog Award

My good friend JM (aka the other J in BAJJ) gave me this blog award and she is also the author of Making Stuff is Fun.
You should check her blog out if you haven't already. Here are the rules of the award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog
2. Copy the award and paste it onto your blog
3. Let us know 7 interesting things about you
4. Nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers.



Okay so since I'm pretty new to this I am not going to be able to follow rule #4. I need more blogger friends I guess.

7 Interesting Things About Me

1. I have many nicknames including Brayer, Curly J, and Nini
2. In college I was an extra on Dawson's Creek
3. I have spent the night in a cave
4. My name is just Jenni not Jennifer, people like to argue with me about this, but seriously it's just Jenni
5. I love Duke Basketball and my boyfriend is turning me into a Gators fan
6. I have fallen into a poisonous cactus, had poison ivy in my eye, had carpel tunnel in both wrist, stitches in my chin (jungle gym accident in 5th grade) and a stress fracture, but never have broken a bone
7. I served in AmeriCorps*NCCC where I did everything from working on trails in Big Bend National Park in Texas, disaster recovery work in Louisiana after Katrina and Rita, tutoring kids in Colorado, and cleaning up a park in Oklahoma

And the People I nominate are:

KKSC2NC

Shana

I have enjoyed reading their blogs and you should check them out too!

Monday Morning Rehash

Monday morning's are rough! It was so hard to get out of bed this morning but I didn't have much of a choice. This past weekend was too full and went by too fast. Matt left early Monday morning for Colorado to go skiing. I filled up my weekend with 4 babysitting jobs. It's great extra money but 4 jobs in one weekend is a lot!

I did make good eating choices and worked out both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning I was running some errands when I decided to look on my iphone to see if they had an app for the Couch- to-5k program and sure enough they did.

This is a program that I have been looking to do for a while but have never gotten the motivation to actually go through with it. Basically it's a 9 week program where you do their running/ walking work out 3 times a week. After 9 weeks you are able to run a 5k. I decided this would be the perfect time to start with my weight loss efforts and it would put the 9 week end at the beginning of May which will be a good time of year for my first 5k!

I called my sister and she also got on board. So now I'm excited that we both get to run our first 5k together! I did my first workout Saturday afternoon. I headed over to Duke's campus to run. The first work out was a 5 minute brisk run, followed by 20 minutes of alternating walking 90 seconds and running for 60, and then a 5 minute brisk walk cool down. It was a great workout. The running was hard at times but I pushed through. The only thing I'm a a little concerned about is that after my run I had to use my inhaler for the first time in months. I am going to have to see how running outside goes and might have to do some of my workouts on the treadmill depending on how it goes with my asthma.

So now I just need to sign up for a 5k in May. Anyone know of a good race in the Raleigh/ Durham area in May?