Progress report, random ramblings and a recipe

This post is total stream of consciousness. I apologize in advance but it will basically be a week’s worth of posts in one.

First up is my report on my progress. Last week for one sweet day, I was at 210. That marks the 20 pounds lost mark. Since then I have been up but I count that as my weigh-in for last week. My next goal, 209 and being officially overweight instead of obese (based on BMI).  I’m so close I can taste it. It is really driving my motivation right now.

Last week (5/7-5/13) for my Memorial Day Push, I ran 15.9 miles and did 45 push-ups every other day. That running included a 5K race (link to post). It was an awesome week. My eating wasn’t perfect and I have already failed at my 90% in range goal for the push but I will try each week for that 90% goal. It’s hard. I’m such a pick, pick, picker that I frequently end up going over by just a little.

I admit that I am a little frustrated at how slowly the weight is coming off these days. I try not to set deadlines for weight loss but I would think that at my size eating and exercising as I do, it would fall off a little easier. I blame one thing: breastfeeding. I am still nursing my 16 month old 2-3 times a day and I think that is making my body hold on to some fat. I was not one of the lucky ladies for whom breastfeeding was a magic weight drug. All it did was make me that much more ravenous.

It’s time to wean her. Not just because of weight loss but I’ve been ready for a while. I never saw myself as the kind of mother who would nurse past a year but a year came and she just wasn’t ready so we continued. If she had her way it would continue indefinitely but I’m ready and she is between bouts of teething so it is as good a time as any. I just hope I have the strength. It’s hard for me to break her little heart.

Anyway, I rejoined Weight Watchers Online. For some reason I prefer counting points to calories and I prefer their trackers to the Sparkpeople tracker. I’m still an SP girl though. That is where I get all my support and get the social aspect of a weight loss community. I love the teams and the challenges and their activity tracker is much better. I like to be able to track my miles. I see no reason why the two programs can work together, at the end of the day it’s all about eating fewer calories and burning more.

I did WW about a year ago and lost 16 pounds. Then I stopped going and stopped doing what I needed to do and gained some weight back (surprise), Then I had a miscarriage two days before Thanksgiving and the kickoff of the holiday eating season and well you can imagine. When something emotionally devastating happens to an emotional eater right at a time when vast quantities of high calorie foods are always available, bad things happen. So when I finally got back on track in February, I had gained back all but 4 of those WW pounds. I’m a lot more focused and dedicated this year. Last year I wasn’t even exercising at all. My heart really wasn’t in it.

Also, miscarriages really, really suck.

Say (complete topic change), what did you have for lunch today? I have been having the same thing everyday for the last two weeks, because it is simply delicious. Too good not to share.

Chicken and Avocado Wrap

2 oz chicken breast
Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning
1/4 Avocado cubed
1 tsp lime juice
pinch of salt
serrano pepper to taste (optional)
1tbsp chopped onion (optional)
1/4 chopped tomato (optional)
1 tsp cilantro (optional)
1 wedge Laughing Cow Queso Fresco and Chipotle 
1 Flatout flat bread.

Sorry the pictures are upside down. I'm too lazy to go fix them. You'll get the point. 

Mix the avocado, lime, salt, serrano pepper, onion (if desired), tomato (if desired) and cilantro (if desired together.

Lay out your flatbread.

 Smear the Laughing Cow cheese onto a middle section of the flatbread.

 Add your chicken and sprinkle the Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning (If your chicken is already flavored you can skip the Mrs. Dash.)

 Top with the avocado mixture.

Roll up burrito style, enjoy and thank me later. 

Calories: 260
Fat: 12
Carbs: 21
Protein: 26
Points: 8



I started a running blog on Tumblr. You can get to it from my side bar. It is nothing more than a running log but if you are interested in my training, that's where it will be.

Local Food

My husband and I really like to support local business and eat food grown or made in our region. To that end, we took a trip out to our local dairy farm and creamery today for their spring festival. It was a great opportunity to sample their products which includes everything from milk to ice cream to meats. It also featured some other local businesses that sell items made from the products of local farm.
We sampled, goat cheeses, and coffees, and granola, and hummus (Old Bay Hummus, anyone?) and ice cream (still managed to keep in my calorie range). It was all delicious and so fresh!
We came home with a couple of gallons of milk, some hummus and some yummy goat cheese spread. I had been wanting some whole milk that wasn’t ultra-pasteurized like that in the supermarket so that I could make some crockpot yogurt. Now that I have some, the milk is pasteurized just no ultra, I’ll be trying out the yogurt instructions. Lil Lean Green eats yogurt likes it’s going out of style and all that YoBaby is getting expensive.  I’ll do on post on my experience when I do it.
The best part of the day was getting Lil LG up close and personal with all the animals that she sees in her books.
She moo’ed at cows, adored a little lamb, chicks, piglets and bunny rabbits and got really excited when she found some ducks.

In the background, you can see their delivery trucks. They deliver milk to your door! So old school and awesome.

The South Mountain Creamery, where we went to day is a sister organization to the one that does out veggie delivery. Which I discussed in a previous post.
This week, one of the delivered items was kale, something with which I don’t have much experience. So I looked up recipes and settled on Kale Chips, which looked simple and had comments stating how delicious they were.
I washed the kale and and cut it into chip size pieces. Then I put it though the salad spinner several times to get it good and dry.

I coated them with 1 tbsp of olive oil and laid them out flat on a cooking sheet and sprinkle them with salt.

I cooked them for 20 minutes at 250.

And the result? They were AWFUL!!! OMG, all those people who said they were awesome are sooooo off my Christmas card list. Ugh. I ate two and just couldn’t do it anymore. Hubby made it through a few more but he didn’t think much of them either. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe it was bad kale. I don’t know, I won’t be trying them again to find out.
I paired them with a portabella burger, which was delicious. I didn’t document the preparation of this but it basically a portabella cap marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, grilled, put on a bun and topped with some fresh mozzarella and basil. Delicious.