Clean Eating magazine

John picked up a new (to us) magazine this week called Clean Eating. It has a bunch of good articles about health, kitchen stuff, eating non-processed foods and lots of recipes. Tonight we tried out one of their recipes for pasta alfredo with shrimp & veggies. It was really good, and healthy too. I've added it to my rotation of recipes. I'll also be making one of the desserts this weekend for Thanksgiving, a layered lemon cream tart. I'll post about that after we try it.

Here's the recipe for the Alfredo Cream Sauce

1 cup 2% milk
2 1/2 tsp arrowroot (we didn't have any so we used tapioca instead, you can also use cornstarch)
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk & arrowroot. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring, until mixture comes to a simmer and thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add cheese, whisking until melted. Whisk in yogurt, nutmeg, salt, pepper. Cover and set side. If necessary, re-warm over low heat before serving.

This recipe was tasty, really easy, and fast to make. I prepped my veggies first, then started making the sauce. While I was making the sauce, I started to boil the water for pasta. By the time the water was boiling the sauce was done.Then I started sautéeing my veggies and shrimp and started the pasta. By the time the pasta was done, the veggies & shrimp were done too.

For the veggie/shrimp mixture, I sautéed 2 shallots, 1 package (thawed) frozen cooked shrimp, snap peas (lots), and asparagus (lots) for about 7 minutes while the pasta was cooking.

This made enough for 3 dinners tonight (Holden eats adult portions when he likes what I've made and this recipe had 2 thumbs up from him!) and 2 leftover lunches tomorrow.

Weigh-In Wednesday

It's another weigh-in day, and I'm happy to announce that I have lost 1 lb. OK, it's not perfect, but it's a loss and I'll take it!!

Last week: 168.4
This week: 167.4

McDonald's: 1 — Stephanie: 1

*sigh* I was lazy this morning. I went to McDonald's to get a Bacon 'n Egg McMuffin sandwich and a coffee (both my true McDonald's weaknesses). I actually tricked myself into thinking that sandwich wasn't so bad... I mean, it's just an egg, a bit of bacon, english muffin and 1 slice of (crappy) cheese. Turns out that sandwich is horrible (but delicious)!

Here's the breakdown on the Bacon 'n Egg McMuffin sandwich:
310 calories
14g fat (5g saturated)
30g carbs
2g fibre
2g sugar
16g protein

I think the only good thing in this is the protein.

Otherwise the weekend has gone really well. I haven't pigged out, my choices have been decent. I could definitely do better, but overall I'm happy.

McDonald's: 0 — Stephanie: 1

We've had a stressful busy week at work this week, and I managed to make good choices with food*, which many people know is super hard to do when you're stressed and busy. So for that I'm really happy.

Today was the real showdown though. John just couldn't take it and wanted McDonald's for lunch. He wanted it bad. So, ya know, I encouraged him not to, but there's only so much I can do. I'm his wife, not his mom. So John had McDonald's and I had a big salad. I turned down McDonald's when I had a super easy out on it. I'm really proud of myself! AND it was a delicious salad. I've had this salad everyday this week. It's so damn good.

Here's the recipe to my oh-so-delicious salad:

Vinaigrette (this makes enough for a week's worth of salads)

• 1 small shallot finely chopped or minced
• 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 tsp dijon mustard

Mix those 3 ingredients together.
Whisk in slowly:

• 10 tbsp olive oil

These are the veggies I put in my salad:
Lettuce (d-uh)
Grape tomatoes
Cucumber
Green beans (I use LOTS, so good... steam for 3 minutes, submerge in cold water, add to salad)
Goat cheese (the secret delicious ingredient)

Tomorrow is Saturday. The weekend. I really hope I can pull it off and make healthy food choices!

*I had a take-out coffee every morning with sugar and cream. This was my "bad thing" of the week.

Weigh-In Wednesday

It's completely psychological, but John and I decided to change our weigh-in day to Wednesday. Besides giving me a catchy alliteration title for my weigh-in days, it also gives John and I a couple of days to recover from a potentially bad eating weekend. Which hopefully won't happen every weekend anyway, but you never know. Did I mention how depressed I was from my Monday weigh-in this week? I want to avoid that happening again at all cost.

So here is my Wednesday weigh-in: 168.4 (down .06)

The fight continues

I hate it when I'm doing so well, then the weekend comes along and you have date night (lots of wine), then dinner with family (including dessert), twice, and then it's Monday and you feel like crap.

That happened to me this week.

I was doing sooooo great last week, then Friday rolled around. It was fun, the food was great, but when Monday morning weigh-in happened I had gained back 3 lbs that I had lost. So now I'm still at 169.

On top of that, I'm having a hard time getting back into it. I'm back to drinking coffee with sugar/cream & my lunch is whatever I can scrounge up. Dinner is still good, but I'm also back to snacking after Holden goes down.

I really need to learn to keep my motivation UP and carry it through the weekend. The weekends really do me in. I have such a hard time turning down delicious treats :(

Do you have any tricks for staying motivated? Especially when faced (literally) with a dessert offered to you, under your nose? I'd love to hear any tips you have!

I'm doing good!

Since the last post, I've really been watching what I eat, and it's been paying off already. I'm down 3.5 lbs!! OK, for the sake of full disclosure, I fibbed in my last post... I said I was 169 (which I thought I was) only to weigh myself and see it be 172.5 *ugh ugh ugh*. So now I'm 169 for real *ha*, and that's just in a bit over a week, by only watching what I eat, no exercise!

Next step: get a swim membership. I think it's pretty much the only exercise I enjoy, not to mention it's no impact so good for my knees. I'll be buying myself a 6 month pass to Nepean Sportsplex, which is just down the street from us. I'm sure the first week will be 2 laps and done *ha*, I'm so out of shape, but hopefully it'll pick up with regular visits.

I'm back

I'm back on this journey. It's so hard. I sabotage myself at every turn. It's a horrible feeling. I'm up to 169 pounds the heaviest I have ever ever been. I'm not chubby, I'm not plump, I'm fat.

John and I were eating pretty well for 3 days, then John thought we deserved a treat and bought me a chocolate bar. I can't resist once it's in my hands. I'm totally weak. I'm one of those people that needs to have zero temptation in the house for this to work for me.

So I ate my chocolate bar. Now I'm back to feeling like crap, but today is a new day. Onward we go.