Weight Watchers!

Where To Begin...?

I had about 5 doctors appointments this week, and 3 out of the 5 told me I needed to lose weight and that I had moved from being just overweight to obese. In fact 1 of them stated I was MORBIDLY obese.

This didn't sit too well with me.
After sobbing in my car for a good 5 minutes, I decided to pull myself together and I called my mom.
My mom then told me that I needed to not only lose weight to feel better about my appearance but also because of the health factors, I have some respiratory and cardiac issues and losing the weight will certainly help.
I'm currently on a medication that causes a lot of weight gain, so the idea of trying to lose weight while I'm on something that makes me gain is a bit overwhelming.
However it can be done, I just have to work twice as hard.
The other thing is my doctor didn't clear me for cardio, so at this point I have to lose weight using diet alone for now.
This is where Weight Watchers comes in.
I have family members and friends who have used weight watchers and they have seen great results.
I also like that it allows for me to eat the foods that I want too without feeling guilty or defeated.

So here it is folks.
Day 3 of Weight Watchers:
I can honestly say this diet is very easy to maintain.
I haven't used all my daily points even once let alone my weekly bonus points.
And because I have to track my food, it makes me more aware of what I'm putting into my body.
I don't feel like I'm on a diet, so far I've been able to eat normal foods and enjoy my meals since starting.

Last night I made a delicious meal that was only 7 points!
I made Cajun Blackened Tilapia with Herb Rice.
Delicious
See?:


Quite Easy and Simple.

Today my snacks are as followed:

2 Pts.


sooooo yummy! 4 pts


Super Spicy but delicious. 4pts for about 30almonds.

I'd love to hear what you all are snacking on during the day, and what you find to be challenging or helpful!
Any and all advice is appreciated!

When Pizza Happens To Good People

When Pizza Happens To Good People



So has some of you may know, I am doing The Biggest Loser at my work. Basically we weigh in on Monday and pay $1, at the end of the 15 weeks whoever has lost the most weight gets the pot of money and gets to look all hot.
I'm tryna win that shit, This week when I had my weigh in I had lost 4lbs!
YAY!
Cue Party Music.

HOWEVER.....
My boyfriend likes to sabotage me.
He ordered pizza.
Not only did he order pizza.
He ordered my favorite Philly Cheesesteak Pizza.
ommmmmmmmmmmmmg.
I ate it.
A lot of it.
Womp.
Now at first I felt all awful and depressed and guilty.
And for a split second I even thought about not eating for a day to make up for my bad behavior.
But then I realized.
Pizza Happens.
And Pizza SHOULD happen.




(So Should Cream of Crab soup)
 




90/10 Rule Man.
90% of what goes in my body is good and happy and healthier, and 10% is junkfoody-delicious-crap.



Now...other than that moment of gluttony
I've been quite good!

Here is a round up of some of this weeks healthier choices:


Banana Chips!
So good!
I got this bag at Trader Joe's awhile ago and it's lasted quite a bit.
They are great when I'm needing something to tide me over till lunch.




 
Portion Control!

At least two of my lunches this week have consisted of a half cup of Trader Joe's Chicken Fried Rice.
Its so delicious and actually does a great job of filling me up!
I usually pair it with either hummus and veggies, or cinnamon applesauce.




I've got a new Tilapia Recipe so hopefully I'll be able to post that up here by the end of the week!

Pad Thai Like A Boss

That Time I Made Incredible Pad Thai

Now first things first. I am not claiming to be a master chef, or even properly trained.
Nor am I claiming that my so called Pad Thai is how you are actually supposed to make it...so if you make it and it sucks, I am not responsible, or if you are from Thailand and think I'm an idiot, I apologize.

Step One:
Spend a crap load of money on ingredients that you will only use once a year.
(Just kiddddddding, I plan on using these at least twice a year)

Now...I'm going to make some suggestions, the rice noodles that I got were not ideal, it would be much better to get rice vermicelli noodles.
 

Ingredients:
2 tbl Sesame Oil

1 tsp Fish Sauce
2 tbl Sirracha
1 lb Rice Noodles
1 Can Baby Corn
1 can Water Chestnuts
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 cup Seafood Stock
1 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Ginger

1 tbl Garlic
1 tbl Red Pepper Flakes
1 lb Baby Shrimp

First thing I did was separate all my ingredients into different bowls, when preparing this dish you have to be super organized because the sesame oil does burn more quickly then traditional cooking oil.

(It helps to have as many cute kitchen utensil's as possible)

Basically, you want to soak the noodles in 1 cup of water and 1 cup of seafood stock for about an hour, and then I literally throw them in the pan with the sesame oil, fish sauce, sirracha, and garlic into the pan with the noodles. I let that all simmer together into a nice sauce, and then I slowly add the chili pepper, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and ginger till it's the right taste. Some of you will like it hotter than others, so adjust the amount of spice to suit your own lil tastebuds!

At the very last minute I toss my shrimp, water chestnuts, and baby corn in and let them get warmed up and flavored.

Then you serve and demolish.

Randy had a serious helping of it and said that it was delicious, personally I think next time I'd add some more ginger and less red pepper flake. We shall see!

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the recipe lesson today!

Strokin...and not the sexy kind!

Okay. I Had A TIA.
Essentially a mini-stroke.
Weird. I know.

It was pretty scary though, I couldn't move the left side of my body and more importantly my face looked like a melted candle. Not Happy.
However, after a week in the hospital and a week recovering at home I regained ALL my strength and mobility back!
I'm a fighter.

Anyway, I'm going to make this post nice and sweet:

Randy was pretty much the best boyfriend ever, he got me picture books and even helped me work on them since my arm was all gimpy.

The Hospital Food...was well...Hospital Food.
I was on a thickened liquid diet, which basically means apple juice and milk that has the consistency of syrup.BARF.
When I was finally allowed to eat, I was given Tuna...now I love Tuna.
What I don't like is warm, old, soggy bread tuna.

Once I was discharged and comfy at my grandparents, I was able to start eating healthy again. My mom even got me out of the house one day and treated me to a Maryland Favorite: CRABCAKE:

It was amazing. Seriously.

I also made sure I had lots of yummy things close by so I could try my best to stay on the right track even while healing.

One of my absolute favorite things to eat is prosciutto, mozzarella, fresh tomato, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar....I can't even handle the amount of goodness that was on this plate!

(On a sidenote...I really love my grandparents bowls, they were super nice to let me crash at their pad while I was a gimp)

Last but not least:

I was feeling well enough to go to an O's game with my love <3 It was a great day even though all the walking did exhaust me.
Now...I totally cheated at the game. I had beers and bbq.
BUT...life is for living and if 90% of what I put in my body is healthy, and 10% is crappy then I feel like I'm doing alright.

Boyfriend Approved

COOKING:

It is difficult for me to cook healthy, while also feeding my 240lb, 6'5 Boyfriend.
He is always starving, or feeling like I'm torturing him with lettuce and other rabbit food.

SOOOOOO.
I did some research.
I decided to make a steak and potato meal.
DONE RIGHT.

Here are the results:

 

 I grilled the steaks with just some salt and pepper lovin.

 

The Potatoes though...omg. The Potatoes.
I sliced them all fancy like, and then I seasoned them with sage, thyme, rosemary, and paprika and some olive oil.
Let those suckers bake, and then at the last moment I put some asparagus in the oven as well with sea salt and olive oil.

YUM.
Seriously. YUM.

I know those seasonings are all really strong, but trust me when you're dieting strong flavorful food will keep you from being bored!

This was perfection.

And Look....It was boyfriend approved!

And that girls is how you sneak healthy food onto your table without your manlymen knowing!