Tilapia for Lunch

I found another great food in Sam's Club. Just like the Tuna Steaks they sell all types of frozen fish individually shrink wrapped into portion sizes and frozen. The Treasures of the Sea Tilapia fillets are 110 calories each for 4 oz. I cooked up some garlic and fresh baby spinach in 1 teaspoon of olive oil and then put the fish sprinkled with a little salmon seasoning blend in the same pan, covered it, let it cook for about 1-2 minutes on medium, flipped it for another minute and had a beautiful lunch. I am home most afternoons since I work mornings and evenings, so if you can't do this for lunch it would make a beautiful dinner.

On the side I had some little grape tomatoes and the awesome Sunset Gourmet Cucumbers, also from Sam's Club. I cannot rave about these little sweeties enough. I love cucumbers but they do not love me! If I ever ordered a salad out and it came with cucumbers I would pick them off because they give me the burps! These little guys do not do that. I am so excited to eat cucumbers with no stomach problems again. I plated them and put the water bottle cap in the shot to show the actual size.

For those Weight Watchers out there this meal was 3 points and I am stuffed from all those vegies.

Blizzard Day

I made a very interesting discovery about my fruit filled greek yogurt the other day. It is so delicious, I love it so much and I was thinking how great it is because it is all natural and has double the protein of regular yogurt. Although that is true I've decided that the fruited yogurt will now be treated as a snack or a dessert as opposed the yogurt I eat every day to get my dairy requirement in, and here is why. There is 20 grams of sugar in the 6 oz. container. There is 14 grams of protein. There are 4 calories in each gram of both carbs and proteins. (9 in fats). 14x4=56 calories from protein. 20x4=80 calories form sugar. The total calories listed on the container are 140 so it is probably rounded up since 80+30 = 136.

Of course some of this sugar count comes from the fructose in the berries but if you read the label there is sugar added. I will stick with the plain greek yogurt with no sugar, add a little stevia ( a natural sweetener) and some fresh fruit. Anyone trying to lose weight knows that too much sugar (carbs) in the diet that are not being burned off will be stored as fat. The picture illustrates just how much sugar 20 grams is.

2/3/10 continued.......

Woopsie, I hit enter and my blog posted but I wasn't done.

Lunch was a Tuna Steak which I bought a huge bag of individually portioned frozen steaks from Sams Club. Each one is 3 points. I encrusted it Flaxseed (14 grams) and grilled it on my George Foreman. I microwaved a pile of frozen broccoli and Viola' a beautiful,scrumptious, healthy lunch in 3 minutes flat for a total of 4 points.





Now compare that to the chocolate covered coconut candies I was speaking about the other day. (yes, there are some left!) 2 pieces are borderline between 4 and 5 points, so call it 5 points, compared to a whole lunch for 4 points/




Today's snack was blueberries and yogurt. I buy a big bag of frozen blueberries and big tubs of yogurt. I mixed 1 cup (170 grams) of blueberries with 1/2 cup (113 grams) of Fat Free Vanilla Yogurt for a total of 2 points.





Compare that to container of blueberry yogurt (170 grams) for 3 points. I guess it doesn't take a math wizard to figure this one out. 253 grams for 2 points or 170 grams for 3 points. hmmmmmm.....


Oh, and Louie, my adorable, precious, loving kitty cat also loved the tuna :)

How much can I eat for how litte?

March 3, 2010 A great food day. Lots of food (quantity) and lots of flavor (quality). I thought I would do a photo track of some of my foods today. It really helps put things in perspective when you can compare how much you can have when eating the Healthy Filling Foods, compared to, well, let's just say the other foods.
So breakfast started with my favorite. A Thomas' Double Fiber Honey Wheat English muffin lightly toasted with 1 tsp of Safflower oil, 1/4 Southwestern Eggbeaters, cooked omelette style and a slice of WW Pepper Jack Cheese. (4pts)

Groundhog Day 2010

Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010 Fell off the proverbial wagon over the weekend. My friend Denise came to visit Thursday and everything was under control until Saturday night. We stopped at the supermarket to pick up dessert to bring home to have with my husband and ordered a pizza. I was so hungry (first mistake) that I couldn't wait to get home and dove into the bakery container of rainbow cookies. (Those red, white and green layered cake type marzipan cookies covered in dark chocolate, yeah those!) I had 4, then went home and had 2 slices of pizza and then had a chunk (not a slice) of raspberry crumb cake. You would think the heartburn and GERD attack would have taught me my lesson, but Sunday was a repeat performance of poor choices and in large quantities. Oh, and I almost forgot. Denise brought me a box of dark chocolate covered coconut candies, my favorite. So I made a good dent in that too over the weekend.

Monday morning I woke up and felt like a freight train had run over me. I literally had a junk food hangover. I was sluggish, grumpy, depressed and on top of that feeling guilty for my downward spiral. Proving once again that you are what you eat. Eat crap and feel like crap, eat healthy and feel healthy.

Ok, so the good news is every day is a new day and a fresh start if you let it be. I lost Sunday but I can't go back, so Monday got a fresh page in the food tracker and a fresh attitude and today, the end of Tuesday, gratefully, my energy level and happy demeanor has returned. YAY :) I even took a 50 minute Cardio Kick class at the gym and yesterday I struggled through a 20 minute video workout that I forced myself to do.

It could have been better. I could have reeeled myself in on Sunday and stopped the insanity sooner, but it sure could have been worse. I could still be falling into the abyss. All I can do is forgive myself and forge ahead. That's all any of us can do.