Monthly Archives: February 2011

Good Monday afternoon to you! How’s your day going? I was anticipating a rather busy one but so far it has been pretty low key. I do have to go into work for the evening but that’s about it.

So, as promised I’m here to give you an update on my weight loss efforts. I wanted to wait until today because as of today it has officially been 3 months since I rejoined Weight Watchers to check out their new Points Plus program. Actually, it is also officially been 6 months since I recommitted myself to getting back to a healthy weight.

Here are the nitty gritty details. Since September I have lost 12.8lbs. I lost 9.6 of those pounds in the last three months since rejoining Weight Watchers and following the Points Plus plan. Yeah, I’d say the program is working! So, what is different this time? How come I am being so successful? I really really really like the Points Plus program. It feels so much more livable to me than the old program did. I can eat real foods like fruits and vegetables without feeling guilty that they will add to my daily Points Plus (from now on PP) target. I have more PP to use daily and weekly. I don’t feel like I am going to run out of PP like I did on the old plan AND if I do use some all of my extra weekly PP allowance for the week I feel like my daily PP target is high enough where I will still feel satisfied. The addition of making fruits 0 PP has really helped me and I also think encourages eating whole foods rather than processed crap. A big turning point for me in the program was when I took home our meeting’s traveling journal. A member takes home the tracker for a week and then brings it back to share with another member. The week I had it I was more diligent about writing down what I ate EVERY DAY (not just Monday-Thursdayish) since I knew someone else would read it. I also wrote down how I felt about the day and what I ate. The week I took it home I lost 5lbs! Unheard of for me! This has helped me to implement this practice even when I know I won’t be sharing it with others. Yet, I don’t feel obsessed about what I am eating which is a very good think. I KNOW I can fit treats in, or eat out and still lose weight. It really has been a total mental shift for me. I feel that tracking what I eat has brought more awareness to my brain about how much I should be eating.

I didn’t really  think that losing this amount of weight would have an effect on how I feel but it really does. My clothes that were too tight at the end of the summer fit great! I even bought a size smaller jean than I had been wearing. I just feel more comfortable in my own skin. Nobody has really noticed my weight loss and I am ok with that. It’s more about being healthy than looking a certain way.

So, where am I going from here? Well, I do have a goal weight set through Weight Watchers and when I meet that I won’t have to pay any more. I’m about 9lbs away from reaching that goal. It is at the high end of the range as far as my BMI goes and I was actually at one time in my life 10lbs less than that. I guess my next goal is to get to that Weight Watcher goal weight and see how I feel. The program has been so, dare I say, easy this time around that depending on how the next few pounds go I might try and go lower…we’ll see I’m really trying not to focus on the numbers. A goal I would really like to achieve is to fit into this suit again.

A friend of mine gave this to me the last time I lost weight on WW. I can’t remember how much I weighed when I last fit into it but I really love it and it would be perfect for our church’s Confirmation celebration in May.

Honestly I thought I was destined to be a bigger athlete and even though I think I would have been okay with that it feels so much better to know that I am on track for getting my body to a healthy weight which can only help me to enjoy all the activities I love to do.

Please comment or email  me  if you have any questions. I would love to talk about the new WW program or healthy eating/life style in general!

Have a good day, I have to get to work!

Good Sunday morning to you! Guess what? It’s almost 11am and I’m still in my jammies I have to go into work/church later tonight so I decided to stay home, skipping the early Masses and get stuff done around here lie laundry and prepping lunches for the week. We might go to a hockey game (for our friend’s little girl) and I might even sneak in an outside run if it warms up enough.

In case you are wondering my dinner party turned out well last night. I actually burnt some of the noodles (didn’t know you could do that) and messed up my back up dessert plan but the college kids ate EVERYTHING including the failed cheesecakes. They said it was all better than anything they would eat on campus.

So, this had been going around the blog world for awhile. I thought I’d play along. Tomorrow I plan on posting a weight loss update so stay tuned!

(A) Age:  30 and it’s been a great year! Can’t believe 31 is just around the corner!   

(B) Bed Size: Queen. Wouldn’t want anything bigger, I like to snuggle.

(C) Chore You Hate: Cleaning the bathroom!

(D) Dogs? You know I love my 100lb yellow lab Izzy!

(E) Essential Start Your Day Item:Not sure if this counts but making the bed. I feel like my whole day if off if I don’t.

(F) Favorite Color: Purple or pink.

(G) Gold or Silver?  Gold

(H) Height: 5′ 5’’

(I) Instruments You Play:  Piano, but not very well

(J) Job Title: Coordinator of Youth Ministry, Associate Campus Minister, Fitness instructor, grad student

(K) Kids: None yet.

(L) Live: Wisconsin my whole life.

(M) Mom’s Name: Charlene

(N) Nicknames: Kee Kee.

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? Nope!

(P) Pet Peeve: When people are late or don’t show up for something without calling

(Q) Quote from a Movie:  “TAWANDA!” From Fried Green Tomatoes

(R) Right or Left Handed? Lefty and proud of it!

(S) Siblings: One brother 4 years younger

(T) Time You Wake Up?  Between 5:30am and 7:00am

(U) Underwear: Pretty boring, Vitoria’s Secret, body by Victoria, nude.

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: Radishes!

(W) What Makes You Run Late:  Trying to watch a show I DVRed in the morning.

(X) X-Rays You’ve Had Done:  My teeth. My ankle when I sprained it and my finger when it got slammed in a car door. Neither were broken

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Pizza Bread!

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Monkeys for sure!

Hey there! How’s your Saturday treating you? Mine has been pretty good so far with the exception of a major dessert fail I had!

Remember yesterday when I mentioned that I tend to mess up recipes and therefore don’t usually attempt to make up my own? Well today’s experiment in the kitchen was just one of those times. I set out to make these adorable mini cheesecakes I saw on the Weight Watcher web-site for a dinner I am hosting for some college students.

To begin with you place a chocolate wafer in the bottom of lined muffin tin. I had a hard time finding chocolate wafers but I did and they were expensive (glad work was compensating me for these).

If they’re so famous why were they so hard to find? The recipe specifically said that if the wafers were too large to break them so they cover the bottom of the muffin liner, so I did just that.

You set those aside and get ready to make the filling. I thought it best to double the recipe since college kids like to eat a lot. Next the recipe said to process a block (in my case 2) of cream cheese in the food processor.

Then you slowly add 1 cup (2 in my case) of milk through the food processor tube. It was at this point  I realized I made and epic mistake! My food processor was WAY too full! There is a line on the food processor bowl that you are not suppose to go past! I should have done these in two separate batches. Pretty soon a cream cheese/milk like liquid was leaking all over the counter and the food processor!

At this point I stopped taking pictures things were just way to messy. Thinking I could salvage this mess I got out my Kitchen Aide stand mixer. I poured what I could into the bowl, plugged it in, and turned it on. Only it didn’t turn on. I thought, “Oh no! How can this be broken?!!” Then I thought maybe it was the outlet. I tried plugging in my blender and that too wouldn’t turn on! I looked over at the crock pot where I had the meatballs and spaghetti sauce for tonight simmering away and saw that it had turned off! Another outlet in my kitchen was still working so I moved the crock pot over there and got an extension cord for my mixer. At least I averted one cooking crisis today, I wouldn’t want my meatballs not to get done!

Back to the cheese cakes. I continued following the directions which had me mixt sugar, cocoa powder, and gelatin together and then add boiling water until dissolved. At this point I thought the cheese cakes were going to work out so I snapped a photo.

I added this to the cream cheese/milk mixture. It all seemed so watery but the recipe didn’t say what it should look like. Then I was suppose to fill each muffin tin with this mixture.

Do you see what happened?! The chocolate wafer pieces floated to the top! And there are little chunks of cream cheese floating around too! Ugh! I’m pretty sure the mixture wasn’t suppose to be that watery. I put them in the fridge where they are “suppose to” set up for 2 and half hours. Still not sure if they’ll turn out.

Oh well, I have another dessert idea up my sleeve and hopefully the rest of the dinner party will go smoothly. Speaking of,I better get back to preparing for it!

Hope all your weekend kitchen experiments are going better than mine!

Good Friday evening! I hope that your weekend is off to a good start. I am so excited to share with you this fabulous recipe I came up with tonight!

Now, if you know me or if you’ve followed my blog for awhile you know that I like to cook new and healthy recipes but as far as coming up with my own recipes it doesn’t happen very often. I am very prone to screwing up recipes that someone else has written so I’m very hesitant to try something on my own. S, tonight was a special experiment. We had some left over sea scallops and shrimp from our stay at home Valentine’s Day dinner. Brian mentioned that it would be fun to make sea food enchiladas just like the ones at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Manny’s (remember we visited there for our first Valentine’s Day dinner). I started searching for recipes online but didn’t find any that I really liked, so I kind of combined a couple and add my own flare to the recipe. I’m happy to say it turned out fabulously! Since I was pretty much using up left over frozen sea food I don’t have exact measurements for that but here is the recipe to the best of my knowledge.

Ingredients

• 1/2 a bag of small frozen sea scallops defrosted
• 1/2 bag of small pre cooked, frozen, deveined, shrimp, tales removed defrosted
• 8 perch fillets boiled and then chopped into small pieces*
• 1 C shredded cheese
• Paprika
• Garlic salt
• Cumin
• 1 small onion diced
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 C fat free half and half
• 1/2 C light sour cream
• 1/4 C Earth Balance (you could use real butter if you would like)
• 2 tsp. chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, pureed
• 10 whole wheat tortilla shells

Directions

• Sauté garlic and onion in a little olive oil just until onion is translucent
• Add scallops and sauté until just barely cooked
• Add shrimp and perch. Sprinkle with paprika, cumin, and garlic salt and heat through. Sprinkle with cheese, remove from heat.
• In a medium sized pot mix the sour cream, half and half, Earth Balance, and pureed chipotle peppers. Keep the heat on medium and stir constantly until well combined. Remove from heat.
• Fill the tortilla shells with the seafood mixtures. Roll  up and place in a casserole dish.
• Once all the shells are filled and in the dish pour the cream mixture over the tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350* for 30 minutes

*You can pretty much use any seafood you have on hand. Brian thought we should “beef it up” with the perch and it was a great idea!

Sautéing the onion and garlic

Adding the scallops

Adding the shrimp and perch.

I did drain off some of that liquid. I forgot to take a shot with the cheese sprinkled on top.

Next up mixing the ingredients for the cream sauce.

I had never used chipotle peppers before. They had such a wonderful smoky smell and were very spicy. I have quite a few left over and need to figure out how to use them. They really added something special to the recipe.

Filling the tortilla shells was a little tricky at first, I realized I had to heat the shells first in order to soften them up or they would break.

All lined up and ready to go into the oven.

Melty goodness right out of the oven.

I can’t believe how well these turned out. Brian and I both really liked them. I think these are semi healthy since I used whole wheat tortillas and light cream and butter but they are a bit indulgent. Not to mention sea food isn’t cheap. Maybe we can check out the sales and add the fresh fish Brian catches to them like we did tonight. They also create a lot of dishes to wash!

These weren’t all from dinner tonight. Some where from last night, breakfast, and empty left over containers from lunch.

Not much  planned for the evening. Tomorrow I’m teaching Zumba in the morning and hosting a thank you dinner for some of my college students. Hope you are having a good start to your weekend!

Hi there! How are you this fabulous day before Friday? I am doing quite fine if I do say so myself and I have so much to write about! Making up for my lack of posting this week I guess

So, on Tuesday night I taught Zumba at the Y. I was super excited about my class because I had worked really hard to learn some new choreography and add in some fun songs to my regular mix. I thought I taught the class pretty well, sometimes when I introduce new songs I get really nervous and mess up. I did however, get told that my music was too loud and I was disrupting a little kid’s dance class next store. That kind of bothered me since I really need to hear the music in order to know what choreography to do. At the end of the class one of the participants came up to me and said,

“Do you ever mix it up?” I asked her what she meant and she said,

“You know, like add more modern songs.” I told her  the second to last song, “Club Can’t Handle Me” is modern and the warm up (which she missed) was also modern (DJ Got Us Falling in Love). But in our training we are told that in order to make it a true Zumba formatted class you should use a mix of different types of songs (salsa, merengue, regaetton, Cumbia) and mainly focus on Zumba songs (which I actually pay to receive every month). Her response was,

“Well, another instructor uses more modern songs like from Fame and Dirty Dancing (really? you think those are modern songs?) so could you just try and mix it up a little?”

I really didn’t know how to respond to this person but her comment really upset me. Mainly it upset me because I didn’t like being compared to another instructor, especially one who I feel doesn’t teach Zumba the way we were trained to do so. I tried to let the comment go but still kept nagging on me. Then today a gal in my cycling class said,

“I wish we could cycle to Zumba music. I really like the music you play in your Zumba classes!” Well of course that turned my attitude right around. Even now as I type this story out I realize how silly I was for letting that comment bug me.

Now, on to more delicious things! FOOD GLORRIOUS FOOD! I’ve been busy in the kitchen today. First up this HUGE bowl of deliciousness I had as snack today in between teaching classes.

In my bowl was 1/2 C plain non-fat yogurt, 1 kiwi, a drizzle of honey, a sprinkle of coconut, and some of Barbara’s Shredded Oats cereal (which should be outlawed at my house…way too addicting) hidden on the bottom.

So delicious, keeps me going through my noon cycling class without giving me a stomach ache. Doesn’t look too pretty all mixed up though!

Then I made some home made granola bars that were in my latest issue of Weight Watchers Magazine.

I can’t really repost it but it was pretty easy to make and had a simple ingredient list. First I beat together eggs, honey, and  little salt.

In the food processor you put oats, dried milk, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, chopped apricots, and craisins and chop until fine.

Then you add the wet ingredients and process until evenly moistened. This is where I thought the recipe went wrong. It made the mixture kind of like bread dough. I was hoping it be more chunky. Then you bake, let cool, and cut. It also gave some additional suggestions like sprinkling with chocolate chips. We didn’t have too many chocolate chips so I melted what we did have along with some other chocolate and spread it over the top.

So essentially I made something healthy into something semi unhealthy.

They tasted good but next time I would not process the dry ingredients so fine and I definitely would not process the wet and dry and ingredients together I would hand mix them so there were bigger chunks of dried fruit and oats.

Right now I have this little baby in the oven.

It’s a Mexican casserole, also a Weight Watcher’s recipe. Basically it is brown rice mixed with salsa layered with refried beans and cheese. Also very simple. You were also suppose to add corn but I forgot to buy some. Actually I had both recipes done in less than an hour. Hope the casserole tastes good too! Just wait until you see what I’m going to try and experiment with tomorrow for dinner!

And one more thing…I finished the Indoor Ironman today! You can see my full stats here.  I had 4 days left to spare! Even though I teach cycling twice a week I still had to go to an extra class to get in the bike miles. The running was a lot easier than I thought it would be. If we hadn’t had those nice days it might not have been so easy. It’s so much more fun to run outside than on the treadmill! The swim, as always, was a piece of cake!

I’ve had to work the last two nights so I am looking forward to hanging out with Brian and watching some Thursday night shows!

Hope you have a good night!

***Update*** Didn’t have a chance to post before I actually ate dinner and the Mexican Casserole was delicious! Like eating the inside of burrito!

Hello! It’s a busy week for me around here. Sorry for the brief post. I’ll be back tomorrow with some fun recipes I’ll be cooking up in the kitchen!

So today when I was at yoga the girl next to me was dressed kind of like this:

(Source)

Really? Why would you wear jeans to a yoga class? I felt kind of bad for her. She looked really uncomfortable and also like she was new to yoga. Kind of makes you wonder.

Have you ever seen someone wearing something unusual to a fitness class?

Good evening! Hope you had a great weekend. Remember last Sunday when it was almost 50* and I went for a long run outside? I guess it really was only a glimpse of spring since since so far today we’ve already gotten 5 inches of snow and more on the way. Actually right now it is raining with plans to change to freezing rain.  Oh well, the joys of living in Wisconsin!

Despite the bad weather I was out and about hanging out with my future sister-in-law and two of the other bridesmaids in the wedding party. We met at a restaurant downtown called Fayze’s. I had a pretty amazing sandwich that was on their “special” menu. It was a Greek styled sandwich with grilled chicken, feta cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions. I also upgraded my side to sweet potato tots! They were like tater tots made with sweet potatoes!

It probably wasn’t the healthiest of choices but I had planned to a little treat today and boy was it delicious!

Then we headed to the bridal shop to try on brides maid dresses! We tried on tons of beautiful dresses, so much fun. Best part is we helped the bride pick one out! I really like it too! Here’s a picture of it and yes it will be in black.

( Source )

The actual colors for the wedding are “peacock” colors, so teals and purples. Raina is going to make us head pieces using those colors and peacock feathers so we wanted to keep the dress simple and flattering for everyone. We’ll also dress it up with jewelry. I think it will be so pretty and fun!

Other than that I’ve been playing “barber” at home with Brian. He had a pretty drastic “makeover” today.

                     Before                                                                                                After

He said that the next time I cut his hair he was going to shave his beard off. His poor chin is all read because he didn’t have a good razor and it hasn’t seen the light of day since August! I actually prefer it when he has at least a goatee going on. He’s only ever been clean shaven once since we’ve been together and that was way back when we were first dating! I’m sure he’ll grow it back in full force until the next time he decides to shave.

Also made some Back on Track Wheat Berry Salad for my lunches this week but other than that not much new with me.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend and are ready for the last full week of February!

Good afternoon everyone! I sure hope you are having a good weekend so far. I feel like I have had the perfect day. Productive and restful at the same time! I went to bed pretty early last night and didn’t set an alarm with hopes of sleeping in or at least letting my body tell me when it was time to wake up. I guess my body thought it was time to wake up at 6am along with Brian who was off to go fishing! It was okay though. I lounged in bed for awhile reading magazines!

After eating a hearty breakfast of steel cut oats and walking the dog I headed to the YMCA for a workout. I did the exercises featured in Gina’s Winter Shape Up Week 3. My arms and legs were still a little sore from teaching on Thursday so I only made it through 2 sets. Then I hopped on the treadmill and did a speedy 20 minutes of intervals which gave me more than enough miles to finish off the run portion of the Indoor Ironman. You check out my full progress here. I will definitely finish up the bike portion this week when I teach my two classes.

Other than that nothing too exciting has been going on around here. Unless you count this beautiful salad I made for lunch.

All that’s missing is a home made Black Bean Burger.

There it is! They were baking while I assembled my salad. With a side of my new favorite “treat”

Diced kiwi with a drizzle of honey and sprinkled with shredded coconut. Very tropical!

I’ve just been hanging out with this goofy creature.

I think she is actually sleeping with her head up! I also did some reading for school and maybe even took a little nap!

Hope you’re having a great Saturday too!

Well hi there! How are you this fine day? I am pretty good. Sorry for not posting yesterday. I worked a 12 hour day and was pretty beat when I got home so there was no posting for this gal.

Today was my day off from my church job but I did teach two classes at the YMCA. I was suppose to teach a third class to a group of middle school students but school was canceled today due to all the protests going on in Wisconsin. I had Izzy scheduled for a grooming session out near the mall and decided to do some shopping while I waited for her to get done. Let me tell you, three hours, with a credit card, and numerous stores is not good for my budget .

I came to a conclusion while I was out shopping, I have no fashion sense. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not a case for the show What Not To Wear. I know what a looks good on me, I can tell when something doesn’t fit right, and I don’t think what I wear is outdated. I’m just not very creative when it comes to my clothes. I wear jeans a lot of the time and if I’m not wearing jeans I wear pretty casual pants, usually with a lot of pockets. I wear mostly solid colored short or long sleeved shirts, vests, solid colored sweaters, and if I’m really dressing up a blazer. I see all these cute tops and sweaters not to mention the huge trend in skinny jeans and I just can’t seem to find something I think looks nice on me, that I would feel comfortable in, or that I would wear doing the type of work I do. I guess I just like to stick to the basics when it comes to clothes.

My credit card may have taken a beating today but I did by some things that I needed…for the most part. I’ve been looking for a new purse for awhile now and actually went to 4 stores before I found one I liked.

I was looking for a purse that could carry my camera easily. This one has a huge pocket that zips shut in the middle and two other pockets on either side that hold all my other “junk”.” I also like that it is silver so it can got with black or brown jackets.

I also bought 2 pairs of jeans in a size smaller than I’ve been wearing! I plan on doing a weight loss update post soon so stayed tuned.

My current pair of favorite jeans are getting a little worn and faded so I thought I needed some new ones. I also bought some socks.

Exciting, I know. Seriously every time I put on a pair of socks this winter one of them had a hole in it. So annoying!

But by far the best find of the day was this

This is a long hooded trench I got at Old Navy for only $25 (50% off)! I can’t wait until it’s a little warmer out so I can wear it. In all honesty I didn’t NEED another jacket  but in a effort to be more fashionable and not wear a wind breaker or a fleece this spring I thought I would get something a little more in style and versatile.

And here’s my little baby nice and clean from her day at the spa.

Right now she’s sound asleep next to me on the couch. She gets pretty tired when we interrupt her 18 hour nap day!

So that was my day! Sure I could have done some cleaning, worked on home work or done something else productive but I’m glad I treated myself to an afternoon of retail therapy a skinny cinnamon dulce latter from Starbucks included!

Good morning!! I hope you had a lovely Monday and if you celebrated Valentine’s day that it was delightful!

I totally had a post all ready to write last night but I got all snuggly with the husband watching Season 2 of 30 Rock on Netflix and didn’t feel like blogging after that.

Yesterday was our third celebration of Valentine’s day! We went out for Mexican appetizers and margaritas a few Friday’s ago, last Friday I cooked dinner for Brian, and last night Brian cooked for me. I picked up some pretty reasonably priced scallops at Aldi last week and Brian incorporated them along with some shrimp in this delightful pasta dish.

He kind of winged it so I’m not really sure of the recipe. I know he sautéed the scallops and shrimp in a little Earth Balance butter, garlic, and some non-alcoholic white wine, then added tomatoes. Not to mention one of my favorite vegetables, asparagus! It was very nice treat!

Other than that my day was filled with chores and appointments. I cleaned the house, had a dental appointment (2 fillings needed repair), went to a Weight Watchers meeting, took the dog for a check up at the vet, and did homework. You can see why I chose to relax rather than blog!

The weather is still creeping towards spring. I plan on a short run after work today.

Have a good one!