Week 1 Results – Amy’s Challenge

I will take it! The scale is going down and that’s all that matters.  The first week of Amy’s Challenge was really enjoyable, I LOVED the work out and enjoyed re-vamping my recipe!!  It’s pretty easy to stay on track when I’m having fun doing it. :)

My Homemade Cheese Sauce Recipe is here for those interested.

This morning I actually slept in until almost 8:45am! Well I got up around 5:30 am for a bit but then I feel back asleep. This NEVER happens to me, so I feel pretty rested!  Unfortunately I missed my early Saturday morning run, but will try and get it in later this afternoon.  We do have some errands to run with friends – involving one of my favourite activities – Shoe Shopping, specifically buying her wedding shoes!!!   And I’m also going to try and stop by Telus and see about getting a Black Berry. 

Quickly put a pot of oats on the stove this morning while we tided the house.  This turned out to be terrific batch!

My bowl had 1/2 c Unsweetened Almond Breeze, 1/2 chopped organic banana, 1/2 tbsp ground flax, 1 tbsp organic peanut butter, sliced almonds, mini chocolate chips & shredded unsweetened coconut.  Was very coconutty, Yummy!!

I didn’t get a chance to post last night’s Supper so…

We had the fresh sausages and homemade buns that we picked up at the Farmers Market last weekend.  The sausage we SO GOOD – spicy and flavourful.  They were like the Liberte Yogort, once you have them you can’t go back to others!  Plus they were organic and made from grass feed/hormone free pork AND low sodium.  It just can’t get any better. I’m going to pick up more tomorrow.

Topped the bun with fresh onions, baby spinach & a squeeze of mustard.

 

Made a huge side salad to go with the sausages.  The last of the fresh spinach strawberries, feta and sliced almonds.  Drizzled with Poppyseed dressing.

Strawberry Fields Forever….

What a fantastic day for a trip to the valley; gorgeous skies and bright, warm sunshine! Lesley, her little guy, Angie  I, plus a couple of Lesley’s other friends all met up to go berry picking at her family’s farm – Webster’s Farm.  This is how all Summer days should be – having fun and getting out with good friends.  BIG HUGE THANKS to Lesley for taking us all over the valley and making it such a great day. :)

 
This post is going to be long, loads of fun pics though!

I hopped into the car early this morning with Breakfast to go, which was another one of the fresh whole grain rolls smeared with peanut butter and a side of fresh blueberries.

 

Made it out a Lesley’s and we were soon off for our adventure.

Cook Book Heaven!

I found the BEST cookbook EVER yesterday!!! 1000 Low Fat, Salt, Sugar, Cholesterol Healthy Recipes.

Got it from Value Village of all places for only $12.99! Weeee I’m just SUPER excited to try some of the fabulous-looking recipes out!  Look how thick it is:


All the pages are thick glossy color and each recipe includes the nutrition information!!
 

Some other good news, my exciting weigh in…

Current Week:  192.4
Last Week: 195.4
Result: –3.0 lbs

Whoot!!!Who woulda thought that calorie counting actually works?! LOL, yup, since I can’t do much strenuous activity I’ve been really watching my calorie intake.  This is the biggest loss I’ve had in such a long time, I can’t believe how close to the 180's I’m getting!!!!
So back tracking a bit…
I woke up yesterday morning and wanted a blueberry muffin so I opted to whip up a batch since there were some frozen organic berries still in the freezer.  These turned out to be extra special because I also incorporated an ounce of chia seeds into the recipe!  Was my first time using chia seeds and they added a nice little crunch, along with a bazillion health benefits to the muffins. 

Severed hot out of the oven with a smidge of olive oil becel, along with a side of cottage cheese and the last of the fresh berries. Oh and can’t forget the coffee!

 

I finally decided to try a bit of exercise by stretching it out with a yogadownload.com Sun Salutations Flow  session.  This was purchased awhile back but my first time trying it out.  Really liked it a lot, there was a lot of repetition but by the end of it all I felt so much all over!

Post yoga, I munched on one of Jaime’s fantastic Sticky Fruit Seed bars. So delicious!!

Lunch time arrived so I stuck on some english muffin mini pizzas.  Topped with tomato paste, spices, red, green & orange bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, old cheddar & a bit of feta. Mmmm!

  

And a froyo waffle cone for dessert.

We did head out to do a bunch of errands – bottle return, visit with my Dad and our little Value Village excursion. I was EXHAUSTED when we got home and had to lay down for a bit.  Got a late Supper on a bit later… my camera batteries died while taking the pics and I was too lazy to change them, so I have one pic from supper.

Dindin was pork loin with mushrooms & onions, organic carrots with a bit of becel and spicy sweet potato fries. 

 

I did have a bit more froyo later on.  In total my day was 1725 calories, which I am completely happy with because Saturday is always my higher cal day.

No plans for today because I REALLY want to relax and hopefully get back to work for tomorrow, even if just got 1/2 day.  Off to catch up on your blogs now!

Food Health-Natural Routine…

Apparently there are some routines that my body won’t let go of, even on weekends.  The 5:15 internal alarm clock being one of them. Guess it gives me time to blog, get caught up and then prepare for the day.

Today is the big community event my work is co-sponsoring.  I spent a lot of time getting stuff prepped and running around yesterday.  Looks like everything should go off without a hitch.  I’ll let you know how it all goes!

Didn’t do anything too crazy last night, just relaxed.  After hearing about Ang & her hubby hitting up the tennis courts, I thought it might be fun to pick up some gear for J & I.  We went up to the courts around 8pm and played for 45 mins or so. The area was lit up but it was getting pretty dark out.  We had a blast and I was sweating like crazy.  (Probably cuz it was still a zillion degrees out!)  We sucked big time though, LOL.  I think we managed to keep the ball going back and forth about 3 or 4 times in total.  The rest of the time we spent running after (and missing) the ball ;)

After tennis I plunked down in front of the TV and watched the movie One Week.  I really like the it, is totally different then anything else that’s out right now. Plus it’s all set right here in beautiful Canada!

”When confronted with his mortality, Ben Tyler (Joshua Jackson) impulsively buys a vintage motorcycle and sets off on a road trip that starts in Toronto and ends up on Vancouver Island in the town of Tofino. Humourous, profound and extremely moving, One Week uses the great Canadian landscape as the backdrop to the story of a man and his life’s journey. In the search for himself, he finds out what makes this country, and his life, so beautiful.”
My Weigh-In:
I’m just rocking it since signing up for WWs Online again! This morning Mr. Scale shows me down 3.4 lbs to 189.2 lbs.  I’m almost back to my lowest of 188.8 lbs, should be able to pass that next week!  Oh and lost another point, which puts me at 25 points/day.

Food wise, yesterday was pretty fantastic!  Breaky was a Peachy Parfait. (Another Angie-inspired idea, lol!)   


I picked up a tub of Liberte Svelte Peach Yogourt at Planet Organic the other day.  I’d never seen this flavour before and was excited to taste it!  I had a serving topped with a fresh sliced peach, 1/2c Kashi Go Lean Crunch and 2 tsps of hemp seeds.  Delish!  This combo held me over for 5 hours, impressive.

Late morning I pulled out one of my fav treats of all time to snack on – a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar!  These are soooo freaking good, I can’t wait for the new PB & Jelly one to arrive in Halifax.


Along with the salad I had some spicy hummus & Flatbread Factory Organic Black Pepper dippers.

 

The afternoon was hectic and crazy hot… by the time I got off work I drove straight for the ice cream stand to indulge in a small cotton candy cone.  Unfortunately, I was hot and irritated (The AC in my car isn’t working at all. :( Any ideas what this could be?) and couldn’t be bothered to snap a pic. 

Supper was a quick and simple veggie omelette with a side of organic whole wheat toast.  Sorry, these pics are oddly dark, not sure what happened.

 

Omelette was made of free range eggs & whites, organic red, green & yellow peppers, organic onion, old cheddar & a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. 

 
I may have cracked open the bag of Guiltless Gourmet Chipotle Tortillas for an evening munch.  Was my first time having this flavour; I thought they were pretty tasty, quite spicy.  J LOVED em!


Anyways, off to get ready for the day.  COFFEE time. :) Hope all the Halibloggers are enjoying this beautiful sunshine we finally have! Happy weekend everyone!

It’s Only Noon…

and I already have a freezer full of veggie chili, peanut butter oatcakes (recipe here) cooling, rolls fresh out of the oven and curried cauliflower soup all ready for lunch!





Plus the kitchen is in fairly decent shape. Whoot, love it when I have productive days like these! Lunch-wise we are all ready for another work week. Planning/Prepping always making it so much easier to stay on track.

Speaking of staying on track, got in an hour of HI cardio last night as planned. Did 15 mins of incline training on the dreadmill then switched to running for the last 15. I was able to easily run, which is quite a relief. Finished up with another 30 mins on the elliptical.

I’m still going to take the running slow though so that I’m fully prepared for the Half. Registration opens online the day after my b-day so that will be my present to myself.

Unfortunately, even though I was within my points the scale showed me up 0.6 lbs this morning. No biggie really, should just make for a bigger loss next week.

For breaky, I whipped us up some blueberry pancakes. The recipe is pretty basic – 1/2c ww flour, 1/2c flour, 2tsp baking powder, 1tbsp brown sugar, 1c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze, 1 egg white & 1/2c blueberries. Topped with Pure Nova Scotia Maple Syrup and a side of fresh JustUs! Mmm mmm.



Lunch was a bowl of the curried cauliflower with honey soup. I was searching for simple cauliflower recipes yesterday because I had half of one that needed to be used and stumbled upon this FANTASTIC recipe! I literally licked the bowl clean. ;) Perfect Fall meal, will definitely be making this again.


Of course I had to taste the fresh rolls! The soup was really thick so they were perfect for dipping.



Plans for the rest of the day include working out, doing some laundry and then relaxing. J is going to a bachelor party tonight, so the bride-to be & I will be hanging out this evening waiting for the drunken call to go get the boys. ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The Perfect Saturday

Morning Bloggies! Yesterday was GREAT! The perfect Saturday. It was a gorgeous day out, I got in a great work out with some awesome friends, there were good eats, Starbucks and a loss at my WI. Honestly, what more could a girl ask for? :)

First and foremost, I want to say how proud I am of my friend Holly, who came and joined WW Meetings with Ang and I. It’s going to be great to have yet another person there for support. Holly has a blog, “One Day At A Time,” so if you have a moment you should stop by and check her out!

If you follow me on Twitter you already know that I weighed in at 196.0, which is a loss of 3.8 lbs! I’m so addicted to my crackberry and of course, had to tweet my results right away. Tons of wonderful people sent me some love after posting my results. Thanks so much everyone! I’m pretty pleased with the results, not too shabby for my first week at all! As I mentioned yesterday, my goals for this week are to stay focused on the plan, earn at least 20 APs and make sure to get my oils & dairy.


Snagged a 3 Month Planner.


Our meeting was packed! I don’t think there was another seat available. This' week’s discussion was all about sustaining motivation and how to stay on track.


This topic was really fitting for us. We’ve just made the change to meetings and have begun re-focusing on efforts, so the motivation is quite high. There was a lot of talk about how to stay focused long-term, what strategies/tools everyone used etc. Some people made it a game, others just too it one day at a time. Before the meeting started, Terry (our leader) asked both Angie and I , if we wouldn’t mind sharing a bit with the group. I was a bit nervous, you know a room full of 60+ people and all, but just reiterated how motivating it can be to see real changes to your health. I explained about my previous bad health and how I’ve managed to take complete control over the diabetes, blood pressure etc. We both took a moment and explained how we’ve managed to develop the most awesome support system ever, that being the blogs. There were some questions about that and I gave out a quite a few stickies with our blog addresses. If you’re a WW Meeting visitor, hello and thanks for stop by!!

Terry left us with very fitting quote from Deepak Chopra

”The easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.”

That quote sums up exactly what we’re doing here in blogland. We’re out supporting, encouraging others to succeed in hopes of succeeding ourselves.. I don’t think we can go wrong.

After the meeting the three of us headed over to my old gym, where we met Jaime for a work out. I got in a 25 mins run on the hamster wheel (4 warm-up, 20 running, 1 cool down) and some stretching. I miss my gym, I know I’m lucky to have cardio equipment at home but there’s something so inspiring/motivating being around others working out and pushing themselves.

So…. can you take a wild guess at where Ang, Jaime and I ended up afterwards? LOL, I don’t think any G2G is complete without a trip to Starbucks for a good gab session. ;) I was still quite warm from the work out and opted for an Iced SF Vanilla Americano. (I added a splash of non-fat milk afterwards). YUM, it the spot and was 0 Points. Usually I try to stay far away from artificial sweeteners but every once in awhile I make an exception.




It was well past lunch time when we arrived back at Angie’s place, so we immediately set out in the kitchen to whip up some healthy eats. You know there was a bigass salad involved! :) Greens, red onion, pom seeds, honey crisp chunks, carrots and beets. Dressing was a blend of evoo and the BEST BALSAMIC EVER!!!! Check out Little Miss Martha here, hehe:




We also made a tasty curried tuna salad sammie. Easy combo of canned tuner (as I call it) mayo, carrot, onion, garlic powder, pepper & curry powder.


This whole meal was only 8 Points AND It was tasty, healthy & filling! The perfect way to re-fuel. YUM!



We spent the afternoon on the laptops messing around with layouts in hopes of finding the perfect re-design for angiealltheway.com. This is quite the process so there’s nothing to show yet but we’re working on it. The day quickly turned into night without me even really noticing. We did spent a great deal of time laughing. Poor Mr. Angie had to suffer through it all, luckily he’s a pretty good sport about all our crazy blog/weight watchers stuff. :)

For Supper, I was excited to try a few new things!

My first POM Spritzer – yum! This would be excellent with vodka.



The other being our main eats, which were “Calorie Smart” pizza from Pizzatown. (Calorie Smart pizzas are made on ww tortilla shells instead of regular dough.) We ordered two different ones to share:

PT Tex Mex - Salsa Sauce, Grilled Chicken Breast, Banana Peppers, Red Onions, Green Peppers, Shredded Mozzarella and Cheddar Blend.

Western Steak - Famous Pizzatown Sauce, Bull’s-Eye BBQ Sauce, Sirloin Steak, Red Onions, Green Peppers, Sliced Mushrooms, Shredded Mozzarella and Cheddar Blend.


Point-wise we figured 12 in total - 4 for the tortilla, 4 for the meat and 4 for the cheese. These were both fantastic but The Western Steak was my favourite. Yum, yum!


Yup, that wraps up my Saturday. Thanks to everyone who made it so great! :)

This morning I have a few things to take care of for a friend’s blog and then I plan to spend the afternoon in the kitchen….stay tuned!