March 10, 2010 - Day 65

Wow, another hungry day for me. I tried to make smart choices and eat healthy through out the day. I wonder if my increase in working out and activity in general has something to do with it. Hopefully it's that and not that I'm just needlessly eating.

For breakfast

1/2 cup of coffee w/vanilla creamer (35 calories; 1 point)

1 trail mix bar (140 calories; 2 points)

Maple and brown sugar oatmeal (160 calories; 3 points)

1/2 a banana (45 calories; 0.5 points)

For lunch

Water

1 turkey ham wrap w/cheddar cheese, mixed greens, fat-free mayo, and alfalfa sprouts (215 calories; 3.5 points)

1/2 cup of green seedless grapes (55 calories; 1 point)

A handful of mixed nuts (85 calories; 2 points)

For dinner

Water

1 serving of angel hair w/shrimp and asparagus (390 calories; 7 points)

Snacks

A handful of Kashi Crunch! cereal (50 calories; 1 point)

1 Special K strawberry cereal bar (90 calories; 2 points)

Diet hot chocolate (25 calories; 0 points)

1 dark chocolate/oatmeal cookie (100 calories; 2.5 points)

Total Calories: 1325

Total WW Points: 25.5

Total flex points left: 30.5 of 35

Days left in flex points week: 5

Exercise

Zumba!

150 ab crunches

March 7, 2010 - Day 63

Traveling day. This one's going to be tough. Sitting on the airplane all day after going out to breakfast w/my parents, who I know will not understand when I want to eat "lightly." At least tomorrow's back to normal - Zumba, healthier eating. Phew.

For breakfast

1 cup of coffee w/non-fat dairy creamer & minimal sugar

1 Kashi trail mix bar (140 calories; 2 points)

1 pancake w/sugar-free syrup

Various fruits (cantaloupe; grapes; orange)

1 sausage link

For dinner

Water

1 piece of lasagna

Mixed greens salad w/balsamic vinagrette

Snacks

Diet hot chocolate

Peanuts

Wheat thins

Oatmeal/dark chocolate cookies (2)

Exercise
Nothing

March 6, 2010 - Day 62

Conference day 3. Man they sure do pile on the food here. My weigh-in tomorrow is not going to go well I think. :D

For breakfast

1/2 cup of coffee w/non-fat dairy creamer & minimal sugar

1 Kashi trail mix bar (140 calories; 2 points)

1 clementine (40 calories; 0 points)

For lunch

3/4 of a turkey, cheese, and guacamole wrap
* I was so proud of myself - I ate most of it with the onions and tomatoes that came inside of it. For those who know me well, that's HUGE!
* I also skipped the apple pie for dessert.

Water

For dinner

1/2 of steak and black beans.

All of my rice and peppers

1/2 of flan

1/2 cup of decaf with just cream... no sugar!

Water

Snacks

1/2 of chocolate chip cookie

1 small bran muffin

1 kahluha and milk

1 Special K cereal bar

Exercise

About 35 minutes on a stationary bike

50 ab crunches

March 2, 2010 - Day 58

They say sodium is the silent killer. So, ideally I should be watching out for that too (as well as the numerous other things like balancing out sugar, protein, fat, fruit/vegs, and grains). I think a person would go nuts if they tried to keep track of all of this stuff all the time. But just for today I wanted to see how much sodium I'm intaking while I watch my caloric intake. I'm not going to do this after today because I'll lose my mind if I do.

After doing some reading, it seems that we should absolutely not get more than 2400 mg of sodium per day (although there is some debate on that number). For those that have high blood pressure, it is recommended to be less than 1500 mg. For comparison, they say that average sodium consumption per person per day in the US is 3375 mg of sodium, with 75% of this coming from pre-packaged foods. So almost 1000 mg over the maximum. Yikes!

Oh, and one last thing on this subject. Table salt is not equal to sodium. Table salt is 40% sodium and 60% chloride. I should have paid more attention in chemistry class, since I had no idea!

For breakfast

1/2 cup of coffee w/vanilla creamer (35 calories; 1 point; 50 mg)

High fiber oatmeal (160 calories; 2.5 points; 290 mg)
* I decided to use half WW points. I've seen many other people do it, so I guess it's okay. I don't think I'll do it all the time, but this is so close to 2.5 (it was like 2.57) that it seemed silly to round all the way up to 3 like I have been.

For lunch

Water

Leftover penne w/peppers and sausage (250 calories; 5 points; 400 mg)
* It was the sausage in this meal that really upped the sodium. It contributed 375 mg of the 400!

For dinner

Water

1 Subway Roast Beef on 9-grain bread (310 calories; 5.5 points; 840 mg)
* #1, O_o on the sodium! Crazy!
* #2, I was so proud of myself for this dinner. We decided to go to the mall and then check out the food court. All of my favorites were there. Orange chicken, baked ziti, pretzels... but I resisted and just had a few bites of Cam's sesame chicken and rice and instead opted for the much healthier sub. I gotta give it up to Subway. Not only is their nutritional information for each sub listed prominently right as you order (which I verified on-line when I got home), they also provide you with options if you are on a low-fat, low-calorie, or low-sodium diet. Guess which one I didn't look at? :)

A couple of bites of sesame chicken and rice (125 calories; 2 points; 350 mg)
* A guess based on what I read on-line.

Snacks

Some cantaloupe (30 calories; 0 points; 14 mg)

Kashi trail mix bar (140 calories; 2 points; 105 mg)
* These are super low in sodium! Yay, because I love these soooo much! I think I'm going to have to try the cereal soon.

1/2 of WW strawberry yogurt (50 calories; 0.5 points; 55 mg)
* I didn't plan on having this, but Riley wanted yogurt sooooo badly and this was all we had in the house. She never finishes a whole yogurt, so I got half.

Diet hot chocolate (25 calories; 0 points; 140 mg)

1 oatmeal/dark chocolate cookie (100 calories; 2.5 points; 80 mg)

So for today it's roughly:

Total Sodium: 2344
* Wow, this would have been so much lower if I had cooked at home tonight as was the original plan. So, I guess that's the moral of the story. At least I'm under the 2400 maximum, albeit just barely. :/

Total Calories: 1205

Total WW Points: 21

Total flex points left for week: 35 of 35

Days left in flex points week (after today) : 6

Exercise

150 ab crunches
* This was all I could handle as my legs were like jelly today!

February 27, 2010 - Day 55

It's interesting how different instructors approach the same class. I took a pilates class at the YMCA earlier this week, which was definitely more like a yoga class. Today at the university I took a pilates/yoga fusion class and it was way more pilates than yoga. Man, those pilates push-ups are killer!

Also, since I am starting to exercise more and have lost some weight, I went and recalculated the target number of WW points that I get each day. Good thing I did, since as it seems, I am now allowed 21 points per day before going into my flex points. This is important for me to keep on checking, since as I've read, if you start exercising more and more but don't adjust points (i.e. you don't eat enough to replenish yourself) you'll actually be doing more harm than good. Not only will you not lose weight, more importantly you'll be depriving your body of the nutrition it needs to stay healthy.

For breakfast

High fiber oatmeal (160 calories; 3 points)

1/2 cup of coffee w/vanilla creamer (35 calories; 1 point)

For lunch

1 spinach lasagna roll (200 calories; 4 points)

Water

For dinner

Santa Fe chicken (300 calories; 5 points)
* I hate it when I only have the # of WW points per serving and not the # of calories as well as I did for this recipe. Then I just have to totally guess. Well, I guess I could've figured it out if I was careful, but seriously. That's too much work.

Brown rice (85 calories; 2 points)

Water

Snacks

1/2 an oatmeal/dark chocolate cookie (50 calories; 1 point)

Soy chocolate milk (150 calories; 3 points)
* I gotta say, this was really tasty! I bought a little 8 1/4 oz serving of it while shopping the other day on a whim. (I'm feeling like I'm not getting enough calcium each day. Anyway...) Wow! I was pleasantly surprised! Cam drinks the vanilla soy milk since he is lactose intolerant. I just may have to give that a try. Who knows? Maybe we'll all switch over? (That's funny for me to think about, since I have FINALLY made the switch over to fat-free milk.)

1 Skinny Cow low-fat fudge bar (100 calories; 1 point)

At Riley's day care open house tonight:

Bites of apple pie and vanilla ice cream (175 calories; 4 points)
* Another guess

1 cup of coffee w/vanilla creamer (35 calories; 1 point)

So for today it's roughly:

Total Calories: 1290 - I did a lot of reading yesterday that said everyone needs to get a minimum of 1200 calories. It's interesting that on some days I find that extremely difficult to accomplish and on others it's no problem.

Total WW Points: 25

Total flex points left for week: 22.5 of 35

Days left in flex points week (after today) : 2

Exercise

Pilates/Yoga class

100 ab crunches

February 26, 2010 - Day 54

So, I was originally going to share with you the news that I ate egg yolks today for the first time in forever. Which is really exciting, because I've missed eggs! Stupid egg intolerance due to my over-indulgence while pregnant and nursing Riley. Seriously, I ate eggs every day for abut 5 months. Now while I didn't eat the egg whites (which is where I suspect I have most of my stomach problems), I was super excited that the egg yolks seemed to agree with me.

But, the bigger news is that today I went shopping and, get this, bought a pair of 6 jeans! Yep, you read it correctly! Size 6 jeans!!!!! Granted, I'm sporting a little bit of a muffin top, but they look awesome on me. I also bought a pair of size 8 jeans that went on super comfortably and also look fabulous. Rounding out the purchase with 2 new tops, and I feel awesome! What a way to keep me motivated to do more!

For breakfast

3/4 of a multi-grain english muffin w/margarine (120 calories; 2 points)

1/2 cup of coffee w/vanilla creamer (35 calories; 1 point)

For lunch

1 peanut butter and jelly on multi-grain bread (215 calories; 4 points)

Water

For dinner

1 ground turkey enchilada (345 calories; 7 points)

Water

Snacks

2 scrambled egg yolks (108 calories; 3 points)

1 piece of dark chocolate (50 calories; 1 point)

1/2 cup of coffee w/vanilla creamer (35 calories; 1 point)

1 oatmeal/dark chocolate cookie (100 calories; 2 points)

So for today it's roughly:

Total Calories: 908

Total WW Points: 21

Total flex points left for week: 26.5 of 35

Days left in flex points week (after today) : 3

Exercise

Zumba!

100 ab crunches