Recipe: Carrot Fries

I love starches.. I mean REALLY love starches.  When it comes to dinner, I always feel like I must have a starch wether its a side of rice, potatoes or pasta.  Recently due to life being crazy I found myself coming home at night and making a bowl of spaghetti and that’s it.  This happened 3 times last week.  This is when I decided that I would see if I could last 1 week without any major starches.

Last night was my first dinner on this challenge and as I was mentally preparing my meal in my head (chicken and peas) I felt like I was missing something.  Cant make potatoes.. no rice.. damnit! What was I going to have?  Nothing seemed to fill that 1/3 void on my plate in my mind so I thought I would try something.. different.

In the past I have made roast root vegetables and quite enjoy them.  Usually its carrots, parsnips.. etc.  So I figured, maybe I could pull off roasted carrots.. but roasted enough that they are almost french fry like?  So I gave it a shot and they turned out awesome!  They definitely filled that void and almost tricked my brain into thinking I was eating sweet potato fries… and they were so easy!

Carrot Fries

Ingredients

- Carrots (as much as you want) cut into sticks, approx 2.5″ x 1.4″ x 1/4″

- Pam/Low fat Cooking Spray or Olive oil, enough to lightly cover the fries.

- Salt, Pepper, Garlic (minced or powder) and Thyme – To taste.

Or any other herbs you wish. It’s all up to you but these are the seasonings I used.

**To help them cook faster, I suggest steaming the carrots for 5 minutes before hand to par cook them.  This way they wont take an hour in the oven to soften up.

Method:

1) Mix all ingredients together and spread out onto a baking sheet.

2) Place tray into a preheated oven set to 400 degrees.

3) flip the carrots every 10 minutes (or when you see them start to brown).  Cook until they are the desired crispness.

Timing really depends on your oven and how thick you cut the carrot sticks.  I have a convection oven and cut my carrots as measured above as well as steamed them first.  They took about 30 minutes in my own.

 

Weight Watchers Points Plus:

Using Pam these are only approx. 1 point per cup.  If you use olive oil, bump it up accordingly (and hey! You get your daily oils in too).  Not bad as a fry substitute in my opinion.

Recipe: Fyn’s Chil’Eh

One of my friends and fellow blogger, fellow Weight Watcher and fellow gamer had told me about a recipe for chili that was 4 points plus per cup and well.. awesome.

Now, I’m not one for tomato’ey things and initially as I looked at the ingredients I thought “Damn! That’s a lot of tomatoes!” but I was told that many non-tomato type people have tried this recipe and loved it, so I gave it a chance.  Unfortunately, due to her living in a different country (USA and I am in Canada), I found some of the ingredients I couldn’t find so I had to try my best to make it, as I say.. Canadian style!

The Original recipe for Fyn’s Chili can be found here and here is my version:

Fyn’s Chil’Eh!

Vacations and Losing Weight

My first week back on program and I wasn’t able to make my second meeting.  It’s rough having 2-3 hours of commute time a day for work and trying to rush home for 6:15pm for my meetings some weeks but I did manage to step on my scale last thursday and my (lovely) scale told me I was down around 3 pounds.  Yes, I did the happy dance all by myself in my bathroom and then went out for a Steak Dinner.  Ok – not the best reward, but it was my mother’s Birthday and we went to a restaurant that has been a family favorite for at least 29 yrs… it was a good reason to be bad using my weekly points.

I made a new recipe this week which was absolutely delicious! So much so that my mother has told me on 4 separate occasions how much she likes it and to remind me to get it into our cook book.  Unfortunately,a coupe of the ingredients from the original recipe I couldn’t find here (seems Pinto beans and Mexican Stewed tomatoes arent popular around these parts) but I think I found enough similar substitutions to make it taste similar and end up with similar points (4 WWPP for 1 cup).  The Original recipe can be found over at The Chubby Couple and hopefully when I am back from my vacation, I will post my version.  And for those of you who might be thinking “Wow, that’s a lot of tomatoes! I really don’t like tomatoes” trust me.. it’s delicious.  I am not a fan of tomato based soups/stews/sauces but this is awesome!

I mentioned a Vacation

In a couple of days I will be packing up and leaving Canada for Prague for a friend’s wedding.  A week away from work, family and hopefully stress.  Unlike the past couple European trips I have taken, my meals aren’t included and this is a good thing.  Sure, it will cost me more than I am use to but this will give me a chance to actually think before I order.  Before when my meals were included I would close my eyes and just eat whatever my finger pointed at.  No thought of how it will affect me (or my wallet) because I didn’t have to pay for it.  Every meal was appetizer, entrée and desert.  Now I will be looking at that menu for the cost and if I really want to deal with the consequences of that cream sauce on top of the beef with bacon.  Dont’ get me wrong, I will be enjoying myself.. and eating enough to keep up my energy but I know I don’t need that appetizer.. and some nights, I (may) skip that dessert.

No vacation for me is complete with out a lot of walking.  I will admit, I’m a bit cheap when it comes to being on vacation.  If I can walk some place I will.  I’m not a fan of subway systems or buses so if it’s within an hour walk, I will strap on my runners and go.. even with my bad lag at the moment.  Not only do you see a lot more of the city you are visiting, you get some much needed exercise to burn off that dessert you had the night before (or that beer or 4 you had with lunch dinner).

My Goal

I’m making a conscious effort to make it home in time to make it to my WW meeting this thursday.  It will be my last chance to weigh in before I leave on my trip and I need record of where I currently am at.  Why? I am determined to lose weight on my trip.  Again, I am not doing to deprive myself of a good trip.  I love food, my boyfriend loves food… I will be eating a lot, but I am hoping that if I listen to my body and eat only when I am hungry and get enough walking in that I can have a wonderful trip and still be successful in losing some weight.

If I don’t lose, well at least I know I will still have a good trip

 

One Year Later

It’s been one year since I started this blog and seeing only 15 posts makes me pretty disappointed in myself.  Not because of lack of posting but because it reminds me how terrible I was at my weight loss goal for last year.

I came back to weight watchers at least 3 times last year.  Each time ending back up where I started the last time I said I was going to be good.  Last night, I decided it was time to get my S**t together and even turned down a dinner date with my boyfriend to go to my weight watchers meeting.  I stepped on the scale and saw a gain of 4.4 pounds since my last weigh-in in October.  Truth be told, I really thought I was going to be up 10 pounds, so I definitely had a smile on my face when I only saw a gain of 4.4 pounds.

2011 didn’t happen

It was a bad year for me for many different reasons.  Between injuries (thrown out back, falling down the stairs, etc) and a some rough months in my relationship (and some awesome ones at the end), my mind wasn’t in it to be good all the time.  As the scale showed me last night, I am back at the same weight I was January 6, 2011.  I had some good weeks of weight loss.. i had some bad ones and in the end I am just back where I started… so starting fresh.

Adjusting My Goal Weight

As a lifetime member I get free meetings as long as I am no more than two pounds over my goal weight and this is something that has been haunting me for the past 2 yrs.  My goal weight was 150 pounds.. about 12 pounds under the high point of my healthy BMI range. If there is any advice I could give to people on the program, it is this:  Set your goal to the top of your healthy BMI range.  There is nothing wrong with this. You have nothing to prove to anyone having a lower goal weight.  There is nothing wrong with continuing your weight loss journey after you hit that goal.  My biggest struggle the past year was that I was OBSESSED with getting back to that goal weight.  I would step on that scale and get depressed that I still wasnt at that point which was silly since I wasnt over weight or anything (and damnit.. I look good!) but I wasnt that silly number. As soon as I adjusted that goal weight, I felt a HUGE weight fall off of my shoulders.  I’m not 2 pounds away from that new goal weight and I’m not stopping there,  at least I know I can still go to as many meeting as I was and not pay once I reach that goal.

Getting back into the swing of things

Now with a new out look and less stress I can make little goals and work towards them.

The first goal: Reach that new goal weight before my trip at the end of the month.  This might be rough since I leave in 16 days.. and have 4.2 pounds to lose but I am hoping that mythical ‘water weight first week’ is good to me.  Once I react that goal (or try my best to react it) I will be aiming for a HUGE 0.5 pound loss a week!  Small goals people.  Being a lifetime member, I don’t have a lot to lose and honestly, my body is pretty set in my low-fat eating habits.  I can’t expect huge loses each week.  I’ve never had those loses and don’t expect them this time around.  Those 0.5 pound loses will get me to goal by the end of the year though, with some room to spare for bad weeks and awesome weeks. My final goal is to get moving.  I’ve only recently gotten to a point where I can walk to work with little to no pain after my little tumble-down the stairs but unfortunately I know my body needs more than a simple 4km walk  to/from work each day.  What will I do? I’m not quite sure at the moment.  I’m not a fan of the cold and with winter here, I need to find things to do at home and don’t cost me too much.  Suggestions are welcome.

Support

Another thing which cursed me last year but after ditching him dinner invitation to go to Weight Watchers last night, my boyfriend told me he would truly be supportive this time.  This means a lot to me since we both LOVE food and we are each others worse enemy when it comes to eating out.  Not that eating out is bad.. but the places we tend to go to are not Weight Watcher friendly in any way. Also, my twitter feed has currently exploded with people who are either on program or eating healthy and talking about it.  It’s a great support system and definitely recommend joining twitter and following some of these great people (and their blogs). Without that group of people I wouldn’t have gone back last night to weight watchers or even started up this post, so thank you! You probably know who you are.

One item down.. more to go

No surprises..

I have said it in the past: The program works… If you do it. This week I didn’t do it and the scale showed it. And if it wasn’t for the 4-5km I walk each day to and from work the scale would have shown an even worse gain. This week it was up 0.6 pounds.

I’m not happy about gaining but who am I kidding? I didnt have a good week. I went out fir dinner 3-4 times and each time I did t take onto consideration healthy choices or my points. To be honest, each time was more like, “how bad can I be, because I don’t care.”. If you haven’t guessed I had a rough week outside of WW. So much so that I didn’t even track all week which I am usually very good at doing. The scale definitely showed me (and my leader) that I had a bad week. My leader was also present when went overboard ordering wings and fries one night out.. She’s my friend first.. My WW leader second so when I said I needed to go out and not go home, she put on the friend hat and supported me in the decision. But I know she will be there this week to get my ass back on track and overcome the hurdles I am wrestling with.

You cant be good everyday.. Or every week. The important part is getting back on the horse when you fall off it. I need to get back onto mine…

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

I use to think this when Weight watchers rolled out their new program, points plus.  Sure, they have had new programs in the past but this was the first time where they changed how points were calculated and I honestly felt that there was no point.  It was working so why change a good thing?

I lost 30+ pounds on the “old” program.  No, it wasn’t easy but I did it eventually (30 weeks later).  Yes, a pound a week on average is what I lost which is a nice amount of weight to  lose per week.  So when I came back this year to lose my “freshman 5″ which was actually a freshman 10 I was skeptical.  Part of me wanted to stick to the old program since that is what I knew and what I was comfortable with but I gave the new program a shot because my friend (and also my WW Leader) had been on it and said it was good and to try it and I’m glad I did as I stepped on the scale this week being down 1.8 pounds!  That is the third big loss in 5 weeks for me and something I never did on the old program… but really, point plus isnt all that different…

You have more points a day then before, but you also have to remember that majority of the foods you eat are worth more which is where the added daily allowance comes from.  Sure, fruits and (some) vegetables are zero points but as my friend says, “We didn’t get to weight watchers eating too many fruits and vegetables”.  I will admit, I avoid fruits and vegetables aside from some veggies with my dinner only because they fill me up, and when I have a hard time getting in all my points, I don’t want to waste precious stomach space on something worth zero points.

There are many non-believers of the new program and fine, think what you want but I have yet to find someone who doesn’t like the new program who has actually tried the new program… and by “try” I mean actually do the program properly.  Don’t sit there and say it doesn’t work when you don’t track.  Don’t say the old program is better when you don’t weight/measure your food.  And don’t’ say that you don’t lose weight when you don’t get your healthy guidelines in… like anything in life, it takes effort to lose weight.  It’s not an easy thing to do, and the weight isn’t going to magically drop off just because you say “I am doing weight watchers.”  To do it, you need to take all the parts and use them properly… you can’t hit a ball without a bat. you can’t lose weight without the proper tools. So please don’t knock it until you truly try it.

So thanks to the new program, I’m down 1.8 pounds this week, 6.2 pounds in the past 5 weeks.  The best part?  5 pounds away from my lifetime goal, and not having to pay! YAY! and from there.. another 5-10 pounds.  I can’t wait!

Bad Blogger is Bad.. but doing good!

It’s funny how when I’m a loser (teehee) I can’t wait to get home and blog about it and share it with everyone.  And in saying that, you can guess why I havent blogged this week, that’s right  was up.  I gained 0.6 pounds last week and I am coming clean before tonight’s weigh-in.

I knew going in last week that I didn’t lose and if my some miracle I did.. I would have fallen over, so when I say I was up 0.6 I wasn’t surprised.  I knew I wasn’t good everyday. I still can’t do my walks because of my back . And that one time I ate out, I was away over my points.  The funny thing? After my weigh-in, I sat down and started to recall my week and you know what? I was a lot worse then I thought.  I some how “forgot” that I was out 4 times for dinner, didnt track any of those meals and well.. forgot about WW.   Damn right I deserved to gain that weight and to be honest, probably more.  I felt like a light went on in my head when my “semi good week” suddenly was a “very very bad week” and how my brian managed to block out those other evenings out in my mind.  That being said, I really need to write down when I eat out, and the points as best as possible… I have never

Some days, Mama needs Queso!

done that and I should start.  Just saying “This meal will be my weekly points” and leaving it at that isn’t good as that week showed me.

This post was in my mind for the past couple of days but as much as I wanted to avoid writing it and admitting I was a bad girl, this week has been crazy and sitting down to put my thoughts down has been rough.  Some days time just gets the best of you and this week I haven’t had much “me” time and that is something I need to work on.

Now off to weigh-in.