Setting New Goals!

Since I have now passed my 30th birthday, it is time to reset some goals. I think that I accomplished a lot in the past 6 months but I think there is more that I can accomplish. I am going to spend this week reflecting on new goals.

I felt a renewed sense of excitement after my meeting on Saturday. I was ready to start tracking again and doing everything you do at Weight Watchers on Day 1. Andy had given me the America's Test Kitchen Ultimate Guide to Vegetarian cooking for my birthday. He thought this would be a great way for us to try some new vegetables and expand our cooking. I decided to choose two recipes from the book to try this week. Te first recipe is for stir-fried asparagus and shitake mushrooms. The second recipe is for roasted artichokes. I have never made artichokes, but luckily the book tells me a step by step guide to prepare them. I also chose a skinnytaste.com recipe to try.

Sunday- For breakfast I ate a banana before I went to the Farmers Market. At the Farmers market i got an iced coffee with no sugar and milk. I got all the produce that I needed for the week and a couple of extras so Andy would have some after I flew to Chicago. I had decided I would so some big meal prep on Sunday. I found a recipe that was crockpot and would allow me to use my new vegetable spiralizer. The vegetable spiralizer makes long "noodles" with fruits or vegetables. I love spaghetti squash so I thought this would be good to change it up and have an alternative noodle. I decided I would make zoodles, or zucchini noodles.

Zoodles and Meatballs
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 3 Points+: 8 pts

Ingredients:

• 12 leftover crock pot turkey meatballs and sauce (1/2 batch)
• 1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 (8 oz each) zucchinis, cut into long julienne strips (with a mandolin or spiralizer)
• salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Make the meatballs in the crock pot. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. When hot add the oil, onions and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 to 2 minutes.Increase heat to medium-high and add the zucchini, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook about 1 minute. Give it a stir to mix everything around and cook another 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked through yet firm.

Divide the zucchini between 3 bowls and top with 4 meatballs and sauce, add some grated cheese and enjoy!

I ended up going out to eat with Allie, but had plenty of food ready for the week ahead. 

Monday- For breakfast I made a quick egg white wrap. Lunch was zoodles and meatballs which were delicious! For dinner Andy and I kept it simple with leftovers. I had the potato leek soup I had made on Friday night and Andy had meatballs and pasta. 

Tuesday- Breakfast was yogurt at the office. It was 6 pp and totally not worth it! Lunch was zoodles and meatballs. For dinner Andy made salmon and I made stir-fry asparagus and shitakes from the America's test kitchen book. Everything was delicious!

Wednesday- Breakfast was a spinach and egg white wrap. Lunch was the last batch of zoodles and meatballs. For dinner we made a rotisserie chicken with roasted artichokes and butternut squash fries. 

Thursday I left for Chicago for my Bridal shower. The weekend involved choosing flowers for the boquets, deciding everything at the venue and doing a tasting and all the other tiny details! My next post will include Wedding updates!!!

The Big Birthday!!

So last September I made my goal to get healthier by 30. On April 30th, I turned 30. Someone before my birthday asked me if I had reached my goal, so I started thinking about what my goals were, and realized they were pretty general. Healthier by 30, how am I going to quantify that? Maybe the whole story will help explain how I was planning on quantifying success.

In July I started a new job and decided that my weight had gotten out of control again. So I decided that I would start trying to lose weight. I had done Weight Watchers before but was embarrassed that I had gained weight back. I weighed myself after returning from Ireland and weighed 178, which was the highest I had been in years. So I decided on my own I would lose the weight. I started watching what I was eating and running after or before work. As time progressed I realized this wasn't really working and decided to go back to Weight Watchers and start working out. I also decided to start documenting my journey in a blog. Joining Weight Watchers and LA Fitness near work. By September I knew that I was not going back to teaching and fortunately there was an LA fitness right around the corner from work. And the journey began.

It wasn't easy at first. I started by getting into a gym routine and then decided there was no better time to rejoin Weight Watchers. I also decided for the first time to not just do cardio for exercise, but to actually incorporate strength training. Since I had never done this I decided to hire a personal trainer. It was a slow journey that required me to focus on the food I was eating and quality time in the gym. I got into a great routine at the gym and the food part was easy, just more focused than it had been. I slowly started to notice my body changing but the scale was moving very slowly. Which was frustrating at times. I started thinking more about my goals as my journey progressed and started to focus more on how I felt. I wanted to feel comfortable in my clothes. I wanted to feel comfortable with my body. One goal that I made was to post before and after pictures. I have never been very comfortable in my own skin in a bikini. I will wear one but I never want pictures taken in one. I thought this would be a great way to stretch myself. So in September I took two pictures in a bikini. One that was straight-on and one that was from the side. My real goal was to be able to compare those pictures to pictures taken around my 30th birthday.  I took the pictures on September 7, 2014 before I had joined weight watchers again and before I had joined a gym.

Before and after front view

Before and after side view

I love that I can see differences in the pictures. In places that I hadn't even realized. 

Today is when I weighed in for the month of May. I was nervous because it has been a couple of weeks of celebrating my birthday and although I have been paying attention to what I have been eating...It wasn't my best work. I was pleased that I was still within my 2 pound range!

Inching closer to 30...celebrating with friends!

This week the focus has been on preparing for the party on April 25th for my 30th birthday! Andy and I have been working very hard to get the house ready which has included hanging posters finally, cleaning, finishing touch up paint etc. As we were discussing posters, Andy was surprised that I am allowing posters in as many rooms of the house as I did. I will post some pictures of our posters :)

Wednesday- For breakfast I made a peanut butter banana smoothie. For lunch we had a team lunch planned at work. We ordered Indian food and played a team game. Both the food and the game was a huge hit. I tried to eat little bites of everything so that I would not be too stuffed! Since I ate such a big lunch, I decided that we needed to keep the dinner simple. First Andy and I met with the priest for the final time. We reviewed the results of our Focus Survey...shocker we are compatible! When we got home we worked on touch up paint and putting stuff away. For dinner I roasted some broccoli and reheated some grilled chicken we had. It was a simple yet delicious dinner. After that we worked on touch up paint throughout the house.

Thursday- I made an egg white wrap for breakfast. Lunch was another ordered lunch at work. This time it was PDQ. I had ordered two types of salad, grilled and crispy chicken and coleslaw as a side. For dinner we decided crock pot was the best idea because we still had a lot to work on.  I looked up a recipe for cranberry slow cooker chicken because we had leftover cranberry sauce.  We had roasted brussel sprouts, pulled chicken and coleslaw for dinner.

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Makes 6 servings Points: 6 PP

4 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless

1/2 c of cranberry sauce

1/2 c chili sauce

hot sauce

Place in slow cooker on a bed of onions and cook on low for 6 hours. Shred chicken and serve.

Friday- Breakfast was a banana almond protein shake. For lunch I brought some chicken, coleslaw and apple and celery. After work I went to the gym to do some strength training then headed home to get ready for a concert. I couldn't find anyone to go to the concert with me, so I flew solo. After the concert, I headed home and worked on cleaning the house for the Party!!

Saturday - The day of the party! The party was great. Lots of friends came to celebrate with us!
We made a huge veggie tray, buffalo chicken bites, bacon wrapped, dates taco bites and a couple of other things.

Celebrating the big 3-0!

Sunday- I mainly spent the day being a bum on the couch. I wanted to recover and be well rested going into the week. 

Monday- Back to focus on Monday. I made a berry banana smoothie to start the day. For lunch I had a salad with grilled chicken. Dinner was leftover chicken, sauteed spinach and green beans. Before heading home for dinner I went to the gym. I feel like I have plateaued with my weight loss, I have been at a stand still for a while, so I decided to change up my workout routine. Instead of my usual weight days and cardio days on the treadmill, I am going to throw some classes in there. So yesterday it was back to step plus abs. 

Tuesday- I made another berry and banana smoothie for breakfast. Lunch was out with a friend for my birthday. I got corned beef hash with poached eggs and tomato slices. After work I headed to the gym to do some strength training. I then headed home to cook dinner. I made a ham wrap and ate some veggies and guacamole.

Wednesday- Breakfast was a berry green smoothie. Lunch was leftover spinach, green beans and chicken. I also brought some veggies and hummus and cantaloupe. For dinner I went out to eat with a friend to celebrate my birthday. We went to this great place called the Farmers Table. They are known for not using butter, oil, salt etc. I love going into a meal knowing that I can make good choices. It was one of the best discoveries I have made in South Florida! I got a delicious meal of spaghetti squash and chicken meatballs. It was super delicious!!