Sunday, February 28, 2010

Day 48: 2/27/2010

48 days down- going on 50! Crazy- it doesn't seem like I've been doing this for that long.

Saturday morning- I was a little fragile after the night before. I spent most of the morning whining from the couch. For lunch, I had my traditional comfort food of 18 baked organic fries 4pts with 2 Tbsp. honey mustard 2pts, and a bite of matt's mac n cheese 1pt.
 
  
(Just had a bite of this.)
After lunch, Matt and I watched Lost and cleaned house for a pretty lazy Saturday. I answered some emails from the class I TA, but it was very low key. For dinner, I convinced Matt to take me to Chic Fil A. I was in serious need of more comfort food. I had an 8 count chicken nugget, and a LARGE fry- something to regret later. 17pts of awesome.

 
  

I cleaned house for the rest of the night before going to bed.
SATURDAY STATS:
Points: 24/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 14 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 0 today/3 week
Exercise: Couch Potato!
Weekly Weight Loss: -.4 lbs / -12.4 lbs total

Day 47: 2/27/2010

Two days behind, but catching up now!

Friday, Matt and I got a little bit of a late start which was really nice and went to work after grabbing a Smart Ones English Muffin Sandwich for 4pts. (Can you tell I was in a hurry? I ate in the car)
 
At work, I did a little work in the aerogel lab and spent the rest of the time working out of design lab on my advisor's presentation for the upcoming conference. I went home around 2 and worked from home for the rest of the day when I found out that I wasn't going to get some samples in. I had a Smart Ones Teriaki chicken and veggies for lunch for 4pts.

 
After work, Matt and I decided to eat dinner out at Baja Bean and then go to the grad school bar night at Trinity. We ended up meeting up with a lot of friends and staying out waaaay past my bed time. At dinner I had ~18 tortilla chips 5pts with some pico de gallo 0pts and 1 slice of a tuscany quesadilla (wheat tortilla, tomatos, artichoke, spinach, grilled chicken, sour cream, and cheese) 3-4pts. (Counting 4). I also had a Sam Adams pils 4pts.

 
  

After dinner, we went to Trinity and had a few drinks. I had about 18pts

After hanging out for a while, our group decided to head to St. Maartins to wrap up the night. We got nachos and cajun fries!! Definitely not part of a weight loss plan. I didn't eat nachos- I pretty much just dominated the fries 7pts.
 


FRIDAY STATS:
Points: 46/25......wow
Weekly Allowance Points: 14 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 0 today/3 week
Exercise: does shooting tequilla count?
Weekly Weight Loss: -.4 lbs / -12.4 lbs total

Friday, February 26, 2010

Day 46: 2/25/2010

Good morning, everyone! Thursday was a bit of a downer. I felt under the weather most of the day. I think its because I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I had a slim fast 4pts for breakfast before heading to class.

 
After my first class, I called Jamie to see if she wanted to get coffee, but when I didn't get a hold of her, I changed my plans to NAPTIME! I went home and took an hr nap and then Jamie and Chris came over for lunch. I had 2 cups of Brazillian Shrimp Soup 5pts as well as ~1/4 of Jamie and Chris's awesome guacamole 3pts with between 20-30 baked tortilla chips 3pts. Yum. Turns out, I have been under-counting guacamole unfortunately.


I had more guacamole than what is pictured here!
After lunch, I went back up to school and worked out of the aerogels lab for a while. Matt and I went home together when I finished and watched an episode of lost. I had a WW string cheese while watching 1pt.



After that, I caught up on the Biggest Loser episode I missed. I really really REALLY don't want Darrell to leave. He is my favorite on the show!! And its to be continued! When are the olympics going to be over so I can know?? 

So after the show, I was feeling a little inspired so I went to the gym and ran a mile! Not C25K jogged and walked, I ran a mile! I started with a 5 min warm up walk at 4 mph and then ran 1 mile at 5 mph and ended the 25 mins with alternating jogging and walking. Go me! I would have stayed and done more, but since one of the treadmills at our gym is out, there were 4 people waiting like vultures for mine. I only got +3 activity points for this.

I wasn't feeling that great when I finished so I skipped dinner and watched The Deep end before matt got home and we watched the season finale of Lost season 5 before going to bed.

THURSDAY STATS:
Points: 16/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 35 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 3 today/3 week
Exercise: treadmill
Weekly Weight Loss: -.4 lbs / -12.4 lbs total

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Day 45: 2/24/2010

Wednesday was a long day homework wise. I spent nearly the entire day on a project that was due at midnight last night. Matt and I got up early so that I could get a few hours of programming done in the design lab before everyone got there. I had a WW maple and brown sugar oatmeal cup for 2pts.

 
After breakfast, I holed up in the MAE design lab for the rest of the day to work on a program to solve energy, momentum, and mass equations for flow over a flat plate (it sounds cool at least). I breaked for lunch around 11:30 and had home made low calorie chicken salad sandwich (I used light mayonnaise which is unfortunately not worth your time or money.); it had light mayo, cucumber, celery, red onion, green onion, celery salt, dill, and salt on an english muffin with a slice of swiss cheese. It was super bland, but only 5pts. A little later, I ate the 2pts of pretzels I packed for lunch.


After lunch, I met up with Brad and worked on the program for the rest of the day. We finished the programming portion just after 4 and I dropped Matt off at home before going to Anthropologie with CJ! I didn't buy anything, but I wanted everything!! I had never been in one before. After that, I went home and had dinner with Matt. I had a huuuuuuge dinner, but stuffed it down because it was POTATOES! I had a chili potato 8pts and organic baked french fries (16) 4pts and 1 Tbsp honeymustard 1pt and a diet sunkist 0pts
 
During dinner, we watched 2 episodes of Lost (I blame Cait, she is an enabler). And then I got back to cleaning up my program and doctoring the loops and outputting some nice graphs. By the time I finished, it was 11:20 and Matt wanted to go to bed (Bear and I were all for watching another episode of Lost!), but we went to bed instead.

As an aside- I moved my goal weight down another 10 lbs on my weight tracker at weightwatchers.com


WEDNESDAY STATS:
Points: 23/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 35 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 0 today/0 week
Exercise: 0
Weekly Weight Loss: -.4 lbs this week / -12.4 lbs total

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Day 44: 2/23/2010 Weigh in Day

We forgot to set the alarm last night so we got a little bit of a late start this morning. I grabbed a slim fast for 4pts before heading to school.
 
During CFD, when I turned the page I found this! I drew it a few weeks ago as a doodle in my notebook. I named him Whimsey the fish. hehe

Yep, it says "So Bored" on his belly.
After class, I talked to Jes for a little bit and did some work in the aerogels lab. I had lunch in CJ's lab- a smart ones angel hair marinara for 4pts with 2 Tbsp ww mozzarella cheese for 1pt and a diet sunkist 0pts. I forgot to take a picture, so here's one from last week of the same thing. :)


After lunch, I mainly talked to CJ until my next class. Our vibes sub was pretty boring. After Vibes, Matt and I went to the grocery and picked up ingredients to make Brazillian Shrimp Soup which I did before my WW meeting when I got home. I went to my WW meeting at 5 and I'm down another -.4 lbs this week! Not great, but any loss is good. :)

At the meeting we went over how to prepare your environment for successful weight loss. I think of it as similar to baby-proofing a house. :) The people in the Tuesday meetings are so so so much more boring than the Monday night ones so I'm going to try and avoid that group in the future if possible! 

When I got home, we had the brazillian shrimp soup. 2 cups for 5pts. It was delish!




While studying and watching Lost I had 9 Triscuits and 1 ww cream cheese spread for 4pts.
 

TUESDAY STATS:
Points: 18/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 35 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 0 today/0 week
Exercise: 0
Weekly Weight Loss: -4.2 lbs / -12 lbs total

Brazillian Shrimp Soup

This soup is pretty straightforward to make but it looks and tastes gourmet. My slightly modified version is only 5pts per 2 cups! Stats (per cup): 126 calories, 5.4 g fat, 1.5 g fiber.

In order to give credit all the places its due for this, I'll start with Christina Haden which is where I found the recipe, but CJ is the originial recipe finder. The recipe itself is from Annie's Eats with only a few modifications (edits in italics). (If you re-post this, please reference Annie!)

What you need:

 
"2 tbsp. olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped (I used 1/2 large white onion)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup long-grain rice (I used long grain brown rice)
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 ¾ tsp. salt
1 ¾ cups canned crushed tomatoes
5 cups water
1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (I used light coconut milk- 69% less fat)
1 ½ lbs. medium shrimp, peeled and cut in half horizontally
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup cilantro, chopped"

What to do:
 
Sautee the garlic, red peppers, and onions in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium high heat.

 
Sautee until tender ~7mins.

 
"Add the rice, red pepper flakes, salt, crushed tomatoes, and water to the pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for 10 minutes or until the rice is almost tender."

 
"Stir in the coconut milk.  Return the mixture to a simmer, then stir in the shrimp.  Simmer just until the shrimp cooked through, about 3-5 minutes."

  
"Stir in the pepper, lemon juice and cilantro.  Serve immediately."

And then you're done!

Hope to see less of each other next time!
Casey

Monday, February 22, 2010

Day 43: 2/22/2010

Matt and I had WW english muffins with ww cream cheese spread and 2 tsp of grape jelly for 3pts for breakfast, put bear in the kitchen and then went to work.
 
I knew before going to school I was going to be busy. I needed to finish all of my hw for the week today and get my students' papers graded and back to them. All morning I worked on Vibes homework and met with Mike's little brother to go over it around 11. I had a Smart Ones Chicken Teriaki for 4pts in the microscale lab for lunch. And- per Matt's mom's request- Matt working hard at his desk. I caught him off guard :)

  
(Unfortunately for Matt, I'm going to be camera stalking him for a while.)

Is seeing pictures of Smart Ones Entrees getting old? I'm going to work on it and make real food this week! I promise.

After lunch, I worked on homework for the rest of the work day. On the way home from work I had 6 triscuits for 2pts, a WW cream cheese packet 1pt, and about 4 grapes 0pts.

 
I didn't have many of them because some of them were a little old.
 

After we got home, I wrote up my final version of my Vibes hw and then made a chili potato for 8pts and watched 2 episodes of Lost before turning it in.
 
After this, I'm going to scan my hw and send it in before heading to bed!

MONDAY STATS:
Points: 18/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 2 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 0 today/11 week
Exercise: 0
Weekly Weight Loss: -4.2 lbs / -12 lbs total


Hope to see less of each other next time!

Casey

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Day 42: 2/21/2010

Woke up late again this morning. This time, I let my phone serenade Matt. I had a chocolate slim fast for breakfast for 4pts.
 
After breakfast, we watched an episode of Lost from season 5 before church. I had some (13) sun chips for a snack for 3pts.

 
I still wasn't satisfied so I had a diet sunkist 0pts too (all artificially orange food...that can't be good).

Later, I took a 30 minute nap while Matt vacuumed before starting my Vibes homework. I didn't end up eating lunch until 3ish since we had gotten such a late start today. I had an angel hair marinara smart ones w/ 1 Tbsp WW mozzerella for 5pts.
 
 

After lunch, I started back on Vibes homework. Today went by so slowly. I was exhausted all day! Matt went grocery shopping for me so that I could get more work done. When Matt got home with the groceries, I made some low points chili soup for the week. Matt and I watched Lost during dinner. I had a chili potato with WW cheese for 8pts and 1/2 cup velveeta shells and cheese 2pts with- my trademark- diet sunkist.


 
After dinner, we continued watching Lost and browsing homework.  

SUNDAY STATS:
Points: 22/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 2 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 0 today/11 week
Exercise: 0
Weekly Weight Loss: -4.2 lbs / -12 lbs total

Hope to see less of each other next time!
Casey

Low Points Chili!!

I made this soup a few weeks ago and here's the recipe finally. I've read recipe's for weight watchers meatless chili that is more points than this soup AND it has meat so I think its a pretty good deal. I modified it a little from my dad's recipe that I've loved forever. Its 3pts per cup of soup.

Ingredients:

 
3 cans Kidney Beans
1 can Tomato Soup
1 can Rotel Tomatoes and Green Chili
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 lb 96% Lean Ground Beef
1/2 large Onion, chopped
4-5 cups water
1 can Tomato Paste
1-2 Tbsp Chili Powder
2 tsp. Sugar

What to do:
 
 
  
Brown onions and ground beef in large skillet together.

 
Add all the ingredients to a large pot.

 
Bring to a rolling boil and reduce heat. Simmer for 25-30 minutes, and then you're done!
Hope to see less of each other next time!

Casey

Day 41: 2/20/2010 Wine Tastings

I woke up pretty late- around 9:45 and serenaded Matt (to his dismay) with a loud, off key rendition of Eye of the Tiger (leftover enthusiasm from Rock Band). Early off key singing is a clear indicator of the start of a good day. After I got out of the shower, I started getting organized for my day. Cait and I had been planning to go wine tasting for a while, so I started getting plans and people together of that. I was a little nervous about going and spending so much of my day at vineyards instead of doing homework and grading. I really need to get ahead because this week is going to be a beast! I ate a large breakfast/lunch by my standards to prepare. I had 18 baked tortilla chips and guac for 3pts, and a smart ones breakfast quesadilla for 4pts.
 
After brunch, Matt and I tidied up the house a little since everyone was meeting there before heading out. Chris, Cait, and Stephanie caravaned with Matt and I up to Barboursville Vineyard and met Mary and Dee there. We tried about 20 wines there (I am guessing ~6 tastes makes a glass) ~6pts. Then we went to Horton Vineyard down the road and tried about 15-16 more wines ~5pts. I had a 5 small cubes of cheese and 2 saltines while tasting 2pts.

After the wine tasting adventures, we came back to our place and had stir fry (1 cup) 2pts and fried rice 3pts (1/2 cup), with some multigrain french bead (2 peices) w/ 2 tsp olive oil and a glass of wine 2pts. After dinner, we played wii and made chocolate chip cookies (I had 1 1/3) 5pts


 
Chris and Cait playing wii. Harvey, Chris's dog chillin' out.

Good Lord that was a lot of points today. After everyone left, I went to bed pretty much immediately. I am going to be hurting in the weigh in this week.


SATURDAY STATS:
Points: 32/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 2 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 0 today/11 week
Exercise: 0
Weekly Weight Loss: -4.2 lbs / -12 lbs total

Hope to see less of each other next time!
Casey



Day 40: 2/19/2010

TGIF! So today included a lot of running around. I got up, grabbed a granola bar 2pts, and took Matt to school.

After that, I went shopping for panties because Bear has torn up a lot of my favs. Unfortunately, I got to the Barracks shopping center so early that the only things open were Kroger and Barnes and Nobel. I went to B&N to kill time and got this awesome book- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Healing Remedies. Its all about Chinese medicine and herbal remedies. I was really excited because I've been wanting to learn more about this for a while and it was on sale- definitely not knocking traditional medicine- it always does the trick, but I want to look for alternatives.
 
 After B&N when stores finally opened, I hit Old Navy, Banana Republic, and the Loft and came out with zip. Literally nothing I wanted. So I headed home to see Bear, Hammy, and Jamie. I then went back to school and went to Panera Bread with CJ. I had unsweet iced tea w/ lemon 0pts, a whole grain baguette 3pts, and a bowl of creamy tomato soup without croutons 7pts. Yum.
  
I left my phone in the car so Christina took this for me with her mad photo skills.

After Panera, I went back home (I had the horribly inefficient planning today) and worked out with Jamie. 45 mins on the elliptical between 6 and 11 resistance for +5 activity pts. Jamie, however, ran 3 miles in 30 minutes!!! She's a baller.

 
My elliptical shot after 12 mins.
After working out, I came home, showered and got ready for going out for drinks with the lab. Our advisor took everyone out for finishing the project. We went to Michael's Bistro for good times all around. I wasn't expecting giving a toast so I gave a pretty weak one saying, "Here's to being done." At least it fully captured my feelings on the matter- could have been more eloquent! I had ~11 french fries 5pts, a small slice of pita and a cucumber slice with humus 1pt, and 2 1/2 beers 8pts.

 

I used that as my dinner and decided to see what Cait was up to. I ended up going over to Mary and Dee's for some rockband with them, Cait, and Stephanie- so fun. I am definitely the worst out of the group at the game, but oddly enough, it doesn't stop me from bellowing lyrics I hardly know. I had a glass of wine 2pts and 2 of Mary and Dee's double chocolate chip cookies 6pts they had just made. So good. On the way home, I had a third one 3pts!


FRIDAY STATS:
Points: 37/25
Weekly Allowance Points: 7 remaining/35 weekly
Activity Points Earned: 5 today/11 week
Exercise: elliptical
Weekly Weight Loss: -4.2 lbs / -12 lbs total

Hope to see less of each other next time!
Casey