Lessons Learned

Last night I started to work on a plan to take my girls out to breakfast. Our school district had a a two hour delay today. This means teachers (me) have to report to school on time and the kids don't. To help kill a little time I take the girls out for breakfast to kill a little time before I officially have to clock in. 

OMG! It was so hard to find anything to eat that was healthy and didn't kill my point values. I have gotten use to my juices and smoothies and even though they are range from 6-11 pts I know they will keep me full until lunch. 

This morning I made the mistake of looking again to see what I could find to eat and ended up wasting time. Also due to thinking I would eat out, I did not make the juice I had planned even though I wanted to. Lesson learned, go ahead and make the juice. Or in my case, thaw the fruit. Last minute I decided I would make my juice. How hard could it be to blend some strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. HARD! They kept freezing into one chunk. I microwaved it three times before I was able to get it all juicing. I know the lime juice and water I added help cause this problem but it was really thick. Next time, defrost the fruit so that it is not one solid chunk when blending. 

I still took my girls out for breakfast. Not as planned though for this morning my car was making a lot of racket. This caused a quick trip to my mother-in-laws to get her car so my husband and I could go to work. Breakfast was provided by McDonalds. I stayed true to my juice but did get a small diet coke. Let me tell you, that was the worst diet coke. I haven't had one in awhile and new it would taste different but this one was horrible. I ended up throwing it out once I finally got to school.

This afternoon my husband was able to get my car checked out. What was the issue? A rock. Yes a rock from a gravel road. When visiting my family in Illinois (rural Illinois) we managed to get a rock up in the tire well that didn't want to leave. Even after getting a full monty car wash it still hung out in there. Yesterday it made its way into an area that started making lots of noise, I mean wake the neighbors noise, every so often. The shop thought my husband was crazy when he told him the noises we heard this morning but sure enough where he told them to look was the rock. Great thing about knowing people and going to small mom and pop locations, they didn't charge us a thing! Hallalejua!

So now, we are home. Kids are working on their homework, hubby is playing with his trains and I await chicken nuggets and fries to get done in the oven. Didn't plan on this meal and worry what the points are going to turn out on. Unfortunately the chili I put in the fridge to defrost is still a frozen brick as of tonight. :( Here is to hoping I stay with in my points value. 

Okay. So 4 chicken nuggets are 4 points. 20 crispers french fries are 6 pts. And it is not fullfilling. I am still hungry. :( Not really wanting veggies or fruit but going to turn to it. Ohh, apples with peanut butter that would be yummy. Then some Just Dance with my girls. 

Very Annoyed @ Etools

Today was my first official day of weight watchers. I was tickled I lost 3 lbs this last week. WooHoo for me! I am back in the 250's. Makes me so happy.

The meeting, it was okay. Nothing major about it. Just another generic meeting of we are getting started.  What I was really excited about was my etools voucher. I was looking forward to setting up my account and get cracking at logging my food, building recipes and adding my vivofit to my account. Unfortunately, when I went to set up my account I had some computer error and now waiting on their customer support to get back with me. Unfortunately, I am very impatient and want to get going on setting up my etools. So annoyed about it all that I want to cry and feel my body tensing up. Have I ever mentioned I suffer from depression. Yeah, it is kicking in right now.

I hate feeling this way. I am letting my frustration take out the joy of, I lost 3 lbs. I shouldn't let it get me upset, I should do some Just Dance with my daughters or something to get me moving.

Night Before

Tomorrow is the first official day that my weight watchers journey will begin. I was pleasantly surprised to find fellow employees I knew from other schools attending the meeting last week. It will be nice to go through the process with friends who will help encourage me along the journey. I have learned one of them is very competitive and may end up in some helpful challenges. 

Even though weight watchers does not officially begin until tomorrow I have started my journey with juicing and getting some exercise in. I have been wearing my vivofit by Garmin and its increased my average steps per day from 7,000 to 8,000. 

My goal is to get it up to 10,000 steps per day. To help get me there I have been doing Just Dance with my girls and today got a walk in with one of my daughters. And yes, I have danced to this song below. 

Besides the exercise I have started to incorporate my juices and smoothies. I made another one from my new blenders manual. Chocolate Banana Super Smoothie and its delicious!

Yum Yum! Tastes like chocolate and bananas but full of good nutrients.

Ingredients:

1 tablesppon flax seeds, ground

1 cup chocolate almond milk

1 tablespoon agave nectoar

1 handful organic baby spinach

1 frozen banna

1/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 pitted dates

2 ice cubes

Directions:

1. Ground the flax seeds. I use my Power Pro Personal Blender (like a nutri bullet) and it works great!

2. Mix all ingredients until nice and smooth.

3. Enjoy..  

Weight Watchers Journey Begins

As you can tell from my prior post I do not have the best track record. I start, something gets me off track and I find it hard to get back on. Due to this and the school district I work for, I have decided to 

aasdoijoin Weight Watchers. 

I have obviously known of Weight Watchers for a long time, even have followed it on my own as well as using their online program. I never joined in the past due to its cost, time and meeting with strangers. What finally got me to join is, I feel like it is a worthwhile investment (helps we are on Baby Step 3 of our financial journey), I know I have to start taking care of myself so I have to make the time, and I have a group I know I can go to that involves people I know (well didn't know that for sure but was hoping). 

Today was our first unofficial meeting. It was where we all signed up. Personally I am a little sad because I was hoping to get my online code and other material so I could track it. I did get a free candy bar sample and a weekly flyer. The candy bar was okay. The flyer came with some helpful information and a recipe. I look forward to trying the recipe. 

Our leader also brought different Weight Watcher cooking items. I spied a serving spoon set. These things are cool for they also measure. I am highly thinking about this for that is one thing I hate to do, meausre my food. If you have ever used these spoons before please let me know!

Now even though I am joining weight watchers I am not giving up on juicing. In fact, I can't wait to access to my WW online account to build how much a juice is. Today, I tried my new juicing machine. After Christmas I scored a great deal on JC Pennies Cooks Power Pro. This is very similiar to a Nutri Bullet. Check out the price below if I was to buy online today. I go it for only $40. Merry Christmas to me.

It worked like a dream and love it. So easy to use and clean up is a breeze. The only thing that I am dissapointed about is recipes. It only came with two! I was hoping for more but I will turn to the internet and Pinterest for yummy recipes. I did try one of the recipes today and it was delicious! So good, that I made up another one for tomorrow. 

Sweet Apple-Acai Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients:

1 frozen banana, peeled and chunked

1/2 cup acai berry juice

1/2 cup apple juice

1 handful of baby spinach

1 tablespoon agave nectar

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to the tall tumbler.

2. Add the blending (cross) blade and blend for 15 seconds, remove tumber and shake well. Continue blending until smooth and creamy.

If I remember I will take a picture of its yummy goodness.

I guess, I should own up and state where I am at weight wise. Today I weighed in at 262.6 lbs. I am not surprised but yet I am. I am sadden that my weight is this high. I know it will take a lot of work. My group will be meeting for the next 17 weeks. My goal is to loose 34 lbs. I think this is reasonable at 2lbs per week. 

Even though my group doesn't officially begin until next week, I plan to start making changes. I am starting to get my food in order but the biggest key is to start exercising more. Tonight I will join one of my daughters in playing Just Dance on the Wii. It will be fun and a work out all in one. Love it!

Day 3 - The Change

I will not lie, Monday and Tuesday was rough. First I think it was the lack of caffeine. I haven't gone caffeine free but I am also not drinking it if not readily available to me. Second, I think my body was detoxing. Today was the first day I woke up not exhausted or with a headache. Of course as I type this my body is crashing and I may be going to bed early.

Overall I think I have had a great start. I have had two juices each day and drink water between each one. I do end up snacking on a mini bagel through the morning and snack on something in the afternoon (what ever is available). I did have one bad night and that was last night. We went to a restaurant do to me getting home later than normal. I order pretty good but I ate the appetizer of cheese fries, ate all my dinner (planned to only eat half due to the appetizer) and had 3 large sweet teas. I will not lie, those sweet teas were yummy and a turning point with my headache last night.

Since juicing on Monday, I have made 5 juices. Some recipes make more than others and that is always nice. The last one was a freezer surprise and very yummy at that.

3-2-1 Juice - Made 2x's and made three servings for this week.
Banana Orange Juice - Made 2x's this week.
Blue-Black-Strawberry and Lime Juice - Made only one serving
Can't Beet It Juice - Made 2 servings for this week.
Freezer Surprise - Made 2 servings for this week.

Besides drinking juices again, I have made my family some healthy meals. As you may remember we get a CSA basket each week. To help use up my goodies I have made some new dishes and amazingly my family has enjoyed them.

Collard Leaf Dolmades with Pork and Sweet Potato Yogurt - This yummy recipe comes from our new favorite PBS show, A Chef's Life. Through out this show, Vivian (the chef) highlights local foods from the North Carolina area. My husband and I love the show as well as one of our daughters. I made this for my family on Sunday and I won over my husband who is a picky eater. I then shared my leftover with my CSA Farmers and they loved it as well. I will admit it took me over an hour to cook it up but it was worth it!

To help showcase my other CSA goodies I went searching on the internet and came across WholeLiving.com. This is one of those sites that looks are deceiving, but in a good way. It is a really nice website with a great search engine that brings up multiple recipes for one ingredient. By the looks of the website I thought the recipes would be to fancy for my ordinary casual family but they are not. And the crazy part the last (well first) two recipes I have made from this site were a hit again with my family. I highly suggest your try Perciatelli Roasted Tomatoes and Eggplant and Roasted Radishes and Greens. Both recipes were surprising (well not the pasta) really good and made our family cookbook.

So tomorrow is another day. I have my juices made and my goal is to stay on target for tomorrow. Make it a great day everyone!

Fried Green Tomatoes

So I know this blog is more about juicing but I had to share this recipes I made on the fly for my family tonight. Even my picky husband and one of my daughters enjoyed them.

Ingredients:

• green tomato 
• italian bread crumbs
• cajun shake
• milk
• egg
• vegetable oil

1. Pour some oil in a pan and turn heat to medium.
2. Slice your green tomato. I used a mandolin for perfect slices.
3. Pour your italian bread crumbs in a bowl and seasoning. I added cajun shake to ours.
4. In another bowl, scramble an egg and add some milk.
5. Dip tomato in egg wash and then in bread crumbs. 
6. Add to oil and cook.

For those of you who like exact measurements. Well, that is not my thing. I follow recipes for awhile and then start making it as I want at that particular time. This does mean that my recipes are never exactly the same each time they are made but that bring about the variety of life. 

Freezer Surprise

As you may guess, this is what ever fruits you find in your freezer.

I have this tendency to throw fruit in a freezer bag in my freezer. Tonight I went looking to see if I could make another Banana and Orange Juice and found half of a banana and random fruit. I beleive most of it was raspberries with a few strawberries for good measure.

Even though I had some bananas on my counter I decided to put all the fruit from the bag in the freezer and add around 3/4 cup of orange juice. I started with a 1/2 c. of juice but added more as I tried to blend all the frozen goodness.

Besides it being yummy, it turned out to be like a sorbet. Thick and nice refreshing taste. I filled up one cup to drink for tomorrow (figure it will defrost more in the fridge) and eating some now. The only issue I have is the blackberry seeds. I am not a fan of all the seeds when juicing blackberries in the blender. I am thinking a NutriBullet would be good for blackberries but that is not in my future right now.