Planning out my week…

I have quite a busy week coming up so I spent a few hours this morning planning.  I am a list maker.  It helps me to see everything written out.   Most of my activities are with my kids.  My oldest son has 2-A-Day football practices this week and my younger son has band camp this week.  I am volunteering for both!  Both boys have high school registration, at different times of course, not to mention carpool and watering my mother-in-law’s garden while she is on vacation.  Those are just the normal things…

 

What really has me really stressed is planning my order for next month’s Jenny Craig food.  Up until now, I have done the planned menus with a few minor changes and so far it has gone great!  I am 40.5 lbs. down in 15 weeks.  But now that I am half way I have decided to change to planning my own menu and doing some meals on my own (MOMO).  My weigh in day is Thursday so I need to have my menu for the month and my food order ready when my JCC calls.  I spent about an hour looking through the choices and at the price lists making my choices. 

Breakfasts:

I am going to start doing most of my breakfast on my own, that I knew already.  The JC breakfasts are good but expensive.  I am not worried about these.  I plan on making a few egg white omelets, measure out my own cereal and buy a few frozen Lean Cuisine and Weight Watcher breakfasts.

I will order 10 out of the 28 breakfasts for the month.

 

Lunch:

I have gone back and forth on how many lunches to order.  Lunch is the meal I feel most comfortable eating on my own but it is also the one meal I eat on the run most of all.  I am concerned that if I have a day of a lunch OMO and I am short on time that I will not stay on plan.  I don’t mean that I will eat a Whopper, I am committed to eating clean and working this program, what I do mean is that I will have a quick bite of half my normal JC lunch and leave the salad for later,  if ever.  My JC e-mail Buddy told me that under eating is just as bad as over eating!  I also have a few left over JC lunches and dinners from the past few orders to help fill in.

I will order 20 of the 28 lunches for the month.

 

Dinner: 

This is the easiest of them all.  I picked out my favorites and it just happened to workout to 20!  I have been planning my first DOMO since week 3.  It will be Marinated Chicken breast grilled on the BBQ, grilled asparagus and a baked sweet potato!  I am drooling all over my keyboard, sorry!

I will order 20 of the 28 dinners for the month.

 

Snacks:

This one was easy too.  I am going to do most of these OMO subbing the dessert things for Skinny Cow items or Weight Watcher desserts, and I always have 100 calorie snack packs around for the boys lunches.  I also have a free JC Snack Bar coming so I will get it now.

I will order 8 of the 28 snacks plus the free snack bar for the month.

 

 

I also wanted to start posting my meals and my workouts for each day, just to help keep myself on track.  but that might have to wait until the boys are back in school!  That is coming up on August 17th so today we are going to do some school shopping…

Oh yeah, add that to the list!

Pink Grapefruit Rocks!

I have been a lover of Pink Grapefruit since I was a child.  I grew up in Western NY State and every winter my parents would buy a huge box of grapefruit from the church fundraiser.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you there were about 50 grapefruit in this box and nothing tastes more like summer in the deep NY State winter than a sunny grapefruit.  As I grew up and went away to college, anytime I would feel homesick I would do one of two things, either go to the mall and smell the perm solution hanging in the air near the hair salon (you see my mother was a hair dresser with a salon in our home) or I would splurge on a big juicy pink grapefruit from the grocery store.

Okay, before you stop reading because you think grapefruit is too bitter for you to eat, let me tell you that I have a trick that takes the bitter bite out of these power packed beauties!  Most of the bitterness in a grapefruit is in the membranes and the pith, the white portion located between the yellow part of the skin and the fruity center.  If you peel the grapefruit and divide it into sections, you can easily remove the membrane from the inner pink fruit and you will find it sweet and juicy. 
Here’s how:

Start by peeling your grapefruit like this:

This is the pith.  You can remove it or leave it attached to the bottom of each section. 

Next peel away the membrane surrounding each section, like this:

Then peel the section off the bottom where it is attached to the pith or just bite it off the top. 

This is a juicy procedure so be sure to have plenty of towels and napkins nearby!

I have taught my boys and my husband, who swore he did not like grapefruit, to love them like I do.  Now pink grapefruit is a staple in our house.  I try to eat one everyday because they are delicious and grapefruit packs a triple power punch of nutrients and healthy benefits that are hard to beat!

Antioxidants
Studies have shown eating a grapefruit a day supplies your body with the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene.  These antioxidants are known for their ability to protect your body’s cells from free radical damage which have been shown to contribute to disease and premature aging.

Cholesterol
A Hebrew University Study in 2006 showed Pink Grapefruit consumption to lower blood triglycerides, a type of cholesterol know to contribute to cardiovascular disease.  Women with PCOS (like me) are the largest group of women at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.

Weight Loss
A 2004 study by the Metabolic Research Center at Scripps Clinic and a 2006 study in the Journal of Medicinal Food found that eating half of a grapefruit before each meal caused weigh loss in participants.  The researchers found that pink grapefruit contained active compounds that helped maintain reduced insulin levels in their blood following a meal. Having less insulin in the blood following a meal means you are more likely to use the food for energy  and less likely to store it as fat. Not only that but each 230g serving  are low in calories (about 90 Kcals) and packed with dietary fiber (4g) Vitamin A (53%) and Vitamin C (120%)

If you have not tried a pink grapefruit in a while, what are you waiting for?  Go on out and get one!! 

Best Kitchen Tool

I love to cook.  I have been cooking since I was a kid.  My sisters and I would get up early on Saturday mornings and each of us would cook a breakfast and then we would sample each other's creations and judge the best.  In my memory I was always the best!  I guess we were the original Top Chefs.

 Since starting Jenny Craig I have not been cooking that much.  At first it was because I was not strong enough to be in the kitchen preparing my favorite meals but not being able to eat them.  I was very proud of my boys during that time.  They were very patient with me and actually would cook for themselves, asking me how to prepare some of their favorite dishes like Penne Vodka or Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.  My oldest son is becoming quite a cook!  My youngest still likes to be cooked for but he can make several dishes for himself.

One thing I have not been able to stop making though is my doggie's food.  I have been cooking her food for a few years.  She became quite ill a few years ago on Thanksgiving morning and we had to take her to the Pet ER.  After that she would not eat her regular food.  She would push her bowl around the kitchen but would not eat it unless I added something to it.  I went through so many things but have finally found something she will eat every day without complaint.  It is a comination of brown rice, sweet potatoes and ground chicken breast.  Sometimes I put in fresh parsley and sometimes I don't.  I make up a big batch of it once a month and freeze it in small containers. I mix one cup of this mix with her dry dog food.

Today was dog food cooking day.  As I was chopping up the sweet potates I thought how much easier this was with my Favorite Kitchen Tool:  my knife sharpener.  Now you might say "What?  A knife sharpener?"  But just hang with me here.  When your knife is sharp EVERYTHING is easier.  A dull knife is a dangerous knife.  If you are using a knife that is not sharp it can slip off the food you are cutting and easily cut your fingers instead.  I use a steel and a table top sharpener like this one:

When my knives are sharp they quickly bite into the foods I am cutting and I can slice or chop without much force, making the whole process much safer.  The hard sweet potatoes I cut up this morning would have been a workout to cut without a sharp knife, but with it my knife just went right through.  Be sure to read about safe knife skills, and remember to keep your fingers curled under!

Heavenly Citrus Salad Dressing Find

I needed to shop for some new shorts.  I came to this decision after standing in my kitchen sorting silverware and having my shorts fall to the floor. Luckily I was alone in the kitchen when this happened so I did not scar my teenagers for life!   I had said when I started this Jenny Craig journey that I would NOT buy any new clothes until I could walk into a regular (read non-plus size) clothing store and put on something and have it fit.  But I looked at today's shopping experience as a fact finding mission.  I had no idea what size I was.  I started at Old Navy.  I saw that they had TONS of clothes newly place on clearence and since I don't plan on staying my current size I thought that was perfect.  I grabbed a few shirts and shorts in multiple sizes and headed to the fitting room.  To my surprise the smallest size of shorts I grabbed was a 16 and they were actually a bit big.  So I walked all over the store looking for the style shorts I liked in a 14 only to find there were only 2 pairs of shorts in a size 14 in the whole store and one was a bright lime green and the other was a purple, neither of which are my style but I left the store with a huge smile on my face!  Yay for me!

I went over to the Target Super Center to check out their shorts and really did not have much luck but happily their 14s also fit I just did not care for the styles.  So I left the fitting room without shorts again but I was still happy.  I will head over to our local consignment shop tomorrow to look for some  temporary shorts.

I needed a few items from the grocery side and that is where I found my new favorite salad dressing!

Newman's Own Lighten Up Light Lime Vinaigrette

I am a citrus lover so I was excited by this 'new to me' find.  When I got home it was time for my lunch and I opened up this dressing and I was thrilled with the bright lime flavors and that it contains no high fructose corn syrup.  It is not too sweet, not too tart and only 60 calories for 2 Tbsp.  I had it on romaine lettuce from my garden and some baby carrots.  The 2 Tbsp of dressing had a nice thickness too it so it clung to 2 cups of romaine and 1 cup of carrots and I think next time I will only need 1 Tbsp because it is so flavorful.  I think this dressing would also be a great dip for artichokes or as a marinade for chicken.  If you have not tried this yet do so.  It is my new favorite salad dressing!  In fact I might drive back to Target and get the other 2 bottles I left on the shelf!

Today was a great day!  Happy salad eating!

Brown Shriveled Thumbs

Every year since we moved into our home, 8 years ago I have tried putting in a vegetable garden.  I have never been particularly successful.  The first year we had so much rain there were puddles for days and everything drowned.  The following year I had great success early on and then we went on vacation and came home to rows of dry dead plants.  The next year I thought I would try just a few plants my mother told me "everyone" can grow.  I guess she meant everyone but me, because while I had big zucchini plants every blossom fell off and I got exactly ZERO zucchini.

The year  after that I actually ate something I grew.  Dr. D and I decided that the soil here was the problem.  Where we grew up the soil was black and crumbly, here it is red clay.  So we bought bags and bags of soil and compost and added them both in along with some peat moss and fertilizer.  We mixed with pitchforks and shovels until our backs were breaking.  I told Dr. D that I had read somewhere that plants need deep soft soil so we piled up the soil into 4 rows about 2 foot by 6 foot and plunked in our tomatoes and hot peppers then stepped back to admire our hard work.  To our horror we realized that we had made a garden that looked like 4 graves.  Neither of us could speak for a moment.  But it was too late, our baby plants were in and we did not want to disturb their tiny roots any more than necessary so we left our "Grave Garden" to grow us what we hoped would be at least a few tomatoes and peppers.  We did not eat any tomatoes that year but the hot pepper plants did fantastic!  We had Cayenne, Hot Wax, Giant Jalepenos and Red Hot Cherries.  We ate a lot of hot peppers.  I pickled some, dried some and froze 3 gallon bags full of beautiful peppers.  That summer ended with lots of hope for the gardens to come...

We  put in a garden every year after that except one, the year we put in a pool.  That year I decided to focus on an small herb garden in an undisturbed part of the yard.  I fell in love with the easy to grow plants.  Not only were they great for cooking, they were very forgiving of the heat of the South and grew into big beautiful plants.  I will always grow herbs.  They make me happy!

This spring I jumped on the Square Foot Gardening bandwagon and built 2 4' X 8' X 16" raised beds with a drip watering system.  We still have some gardening problems but we have eaten many tomatoes and peppers along with broccoli, peas, onions, eggplants, beans and of course my beloved herbs.  The beans have been the little work horses of the garden this year.  I almost did not put them in because I am the only one in the family that likes them.  But I am so glad I did.  I pick 2-3 handfuls of beans every other day.  I grow purple, yellow and green bush beans and green pole beans and they all taste delicious!  So tender and satisfying.

My thumbs are not green yet but with a little compost, water and TLC they are greening up!  I started planning my fall garden today and it is going to be exciting!!

Half Way!

Well it is official, I am half way to my goal!  It feels kind of weird to say that because when I look in the mirror I still see the same person I was 14 weeks ago, mostly that is.  I have had to take in some of my shorts and I have put away a bunch of my clothes that are too big to wear in public anymore so my body IS changing, I just don't see it.  Kind of makes me sound crazy, a serious mental problem, I hope that is not the case.

So I decided for my half way gift to myself I would get something I have been wanting for a LONG time, laser hair removal!  I know that does not sound so exciting but I have an issue with unwanted hair.  You see about 2 years ago I was diagnosed with PCOS or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.  Basically it is an imbalance of female hormones causing cysts on the ovaries and unfortunately facial hair growth.  I have dealt with it by plucking, waxing, and shaving but it is very embarrassing so I really wanted it permanently removed.

 I have already had my first treatment of about 7 I will need.  I started out by applying a numbing cream to my face.  I am also having my underarms treated but that area is much less sensitive so no numbing cream is necessary.  Then I put on a lovely pair of green glasses to protect my eyes from the laser.  The technician was very nice and explained the procedure, then we got started.  I took a deep breath and she started on my upper lip and it only took a few pulses.  It was hot and stingy but really fast.  I had to ask for a break twice to catch my breath.  The whole thing took about 15 minutes.  After that I went home.  I had to continue shaving  for another week and a half but then the hair fell out.  Now I will wait until I see some hair growth in about 2 or 3 weeks and go back in for my second treatment.  It is not an inexpensive option, by any means, but I felt that it was worth it as a big goal present to myself.  I look at it like a life long gift.   Yay, for me!

Sausage Fingers

  

I eat most of my meals at home from of the Jenny Craig Planned Menu.  But I am realistic and I do allow myself to eat out for a special occasion once a week if it comes up.  Well the other day, something came up.  My oldest son got his AP scores in the mail and he scored a 5 on his AP Bio exam.  Yeah!!  I am a proud Momma!  So of course we wanted to celebrate and we let him choose the restaurant.  He chose his favorite place which is an Irish Pub in town.  Now there is not usually a lot for a Jenny Girl to eat at a place like this, so I went on their web site to check out the menu and I was happily surprised to see a few choices that would work for me.  I chose the grilled summer veggie sandwich on toasted sourdough bread with a side salad.  I asked for the bread to be dry and brought my own dressing and I also asked for the veggies to have no salt.

The sandwich came and the bread was dry but the veggies were salted.  I know this because by the time we got home I could not get my rings off.  Why, Why, Why?  I asked specially for no salt.  I know that the Chef probably thought that it would be tasteless without the salt but when you ask for it a certain way you should be able to get them that way.  It took me several days to rid my body of this salt and the water it helped me to retain.

At home I have been cooking without adding salt.  I actually started this well before joining Jenny.  Dr. D is somewhat of a fanatic about it.  So it is just easier for me to cook for everyone without the salt and then add some on my plate if I need it.  My kids usually do not add salt to their food which is great, but occasionally I still need a bit of salt.  When I do feel like I need  it I use Morton Lite Salt.  It tastes the same to me so no big deal there.  I just wish I could convince all my favorite restaurants to stop using so much!

Closet Moments

Before I started on Jenny Craig, I used to stand in my closet and look through my clothes trying to find something to wear that was not too tight or too revealing or uncomfortable.  It was not an easy task.  I'm not saying I did not have enough to choose from, exactly the opposite in fact.  I have clothes in my closet from my college days.  I was always afraid to get rid of things...in-case!   "In-case they come back in style" was one of my favorites.  "In-case I lose/gain weight" was one I told myself multiple times weekly. "In-case I decide to repaint the inside of the hallway closet." You get the idea.  So anyway, right before I started Jenny, I found myself stretching out my largest tee shirts so they were not clingy and picking out stretchy shorts to wear so I could breath.  It was not a fun day.  I hated everything in the closet that morning.

Then I joined Jenny and really started working out and in a few weeks, even though in my own head when I look in the mirror I saw the same old girl who had to stretch out the largest of tee shirts (I Googled this and apparently it is called Phantom Fat Phenomenon and a fairly common issue when someone is losing or gaining weight), those tee shirts and a few others I would not have dreamed of wearing outside of my closet let alone my house started to fit.  I could take a shirt off a hanger and put it on without stretching out the bottom and sleeves.  It was a good day.

Then a few weeks later I had a morning where I stood looking at my clothes and thought, "It doesn't matter!!"  It doesn't matter which shirt or pair of shorts I choose to put on because they all fit!  That was a great day for me.  Now I am not kidding myself they were still 2X or 3X, not a regular size by any means but for me it was still a great feeling.  It was one way for me to feel the results that the scale told me I was achieving.

Now I have been on Jenny for 13 weeks.  I have consistently lost weight every week. Some weeks were more than others but I have lost at least 1 lb a week for a grand total of 36 lbs. I am proud of my success and the hard work it has taken to get here.  But when I look in the mirror I still see the same girl from 13 weeks ago.  The only thing that seems to be changing is my closet.  Yesterday I was getting dressed to run an errand with Dr. D and I threw on a shirt and caught a glance of myself in the mirror on my way out of the bedroom and stopped.  I could not wear that!  It was not too tight, it was not torn or stained.  It was a tent!  A freekin' tent hanging off me like I draped a bright yellow garbage bag over my shoulders.  I went back into my closet and chose another shirt and this one was also droopy.  I went through 4 wardrobe changes before I found something that was acceptable to wear out in public.  Can you see my eyes popping out of my head?   Well no I guess you can't because you are not sitting here in front of this glowing screen but trust me I am looking quite shocked.  This does not happen to me.  I used to have to make several changes before going out but it was because I was poured into these clothes, not because they were too big!

This morning I went through the museum I had hanging in my closet and tried on almost everything.  I have actually taken those tents off the hangers and folded them into piles for consignment or donation.  I have not actually carried them out of the closet yet but I plan to.  I just need a little mental break to digest this first!  This is a good day!

Here We Go!!

I love reading Blogs.  It is like getting a sneak peak into the lives of people. My own personal reality series, if you will.  I have been wanting to start writing my own for a while now, a little free therapy for myself.  If you are reading these posts I hope you will get something out of it; if only a chuckle.

I am not exactly sure what shape this will take.  My favorite Blogs to read are the diary type.  So I will make mine like that too.  I guess I need to share a little about myself if I am going to do that...

I am a stay-at-home, married, mother of 2. 

I hate that description for 2 reasons: first of all when someone says that you picture them chasing around cute little children, with a nice neat and tidy home.  My children, while cute are not so little.  They are both teenagers, one can drive and the other will be driving in the next few months.  Secondly, my home while not a contender for the frightening show "Hoarders" is not super neat and tidy.  It is lived in and comfy.  My Hubby, I'll call him Dr. D, and I have been married for 18 great years.

I love to cook, and eat.

One thing I do really well is cook.  I love to cook and my family loves to eat my cooking. I read cookbooks for fun.  I record cooking shows on my DVR. I am a fairly adventurous in the kitchen.   My Mother in Law has said that my house is her favorite place to eat!  I am proud of this ability but it has caused me a problem, a big problem.   I am overweight.  Dr. D was overweight, too.   Dr. D recently lost about 80 lbs doing P90X, and Insanity DVDs and being VERY strict in his diet. Weird strict, but that is for another post.

I am on the final weight loss journey of my life.

After turning 40 this past winter I decided it was time for me to get rid of this weight once and for all.  I have been overweight since my sophomore year of college. I have steadily put on lb after lb of the 75lbs I need to lose.  I have lost a few pounds here and there but I managed to put them back on with new friends joining in on the party every time.  Well not this time!
I joined Jenny Craig about 13 weeks ago.  I have done really well on it and will be at my halfway to my goal next week, assuming I don't have a breakdown and go for a midnight donut run!

I have started exercising seriously for the first time ever.

Now I am not going to be one of those hard bodies standing behind Tony Horton but I have been exercising regularly, meaning some sort of activity almost everyday for the last 13 weeks.  This is saying something for me.  I have never really enjoyed exercise, hated it in fact.  But I realize it is part of the journey and I am committed to it.  I started out walking my neighborhood and slowly started adding in a bit of jogging.  I called them my 'wuns' (part walk/part run)  I have recently started incorporating Yoga, Pilates, elliptical and P90X upper body weight lifting.  I like mixing it up.   I have some aches and pains and sometimes I feel like I am 80 years old but I keep coming back every morning.

I am a TV Junkie.

It feels like I should be standing up at a podium with a bunch of anonymous faces in front of me.  "Hello, my name is Mela and I am a TV addict."  I am sure it is part of the reason I am fat but I like watching television and I don't make a big deal about it.  Reality TV is a love of mine and so are drama-dies, comedies  and cop shows. I like cooking shows and documentaries. I am an equal opportunity TV watcher.    It may be easier to say what I don't like to watch.  I hate UFC.  It is one of Dr. D's favorite things to watch and I hate it.  I just don't understand watching two men beat each other to a pulp, and having them bleed all over each other.  I do not get it.

I love photography.

I asked Dr. D for a small, slim, simple camera for Mothers Day about 8 years ago.  I wanted one I could slip into my purse that would be light and easy to carry around.  I told him the exact model and color (pink) I wanted.  And when Mother's Day rolled around I was really excited to see the large box they lugged into the restaurant we were going to for brunch.  I waited patiently until after we had all finished eating and I opened my present.  It was a camera, but not the one I wanted.  It was a point and shoot but it had so many functions and buttons I was afraid to use it.  After a few months of taking blurry pictures with heads cut off I decided to enroll in a local continuing education class to help me figure this thing out.  Well, after that I was hooked.  I upgraded to a dSLR after a few short months and about 2 years later upgraded again.  I have taken many more classes at a larger school of photography and film and I have had a few pieces framed and displayed.  I love giving photographs as gifts and I love the feeling of capturing "the moment"  I would say I am a very happy amateur photographer!

These and a few other things are what I will be writing about.  Come along for the ride and I hope we have fun!

Mela