Three snacks in one photo

Overall, for the first day I've counted Points in a while, I'll count this one as a victory. I ate 28 total — 23 plus my 5 FPs. But I also got in a 16-minute walk, so I earned 1 AP. I'll take it!

This afternoon while working at my desk, I had some WW cheddar twists, then 2 clementines and a Quaker Chewy Granola bar. Impressively, I got all three snacks in just one picture!

After indulging in curly fries for lunch, I ended up with 6 Points left for dinner. I ate a serving of cider stew (pictured in the post below, with the recipe) with half a Sandwich Thin to soak up the extra cider-sauce. That was exactly 6 Points, so the pumpkin fluff I ate for dessert was the start of the FPs.

I also had an apple with peanut butter and then a WW peanut butter cookie. So I snacked a bit more than I might like, but overall remained in control.

Let's see if I can go for two days in a row, especially seeing as how I'll be at the Boyfriend's tomorrow and Wednesday.

Food	Units
svg. pumpkin fluff w/ ff cool whip	1
arby's jr. roast beef sandwich	6
arby's kids meal curly fries - should have gotten the applesauce instead	5
ww cheddar twists	2
2 clementines	1
chewy granola bar	2
cider stew	5
1/2 sandwich thin	1
1/2 c pumpkin fluff w/ ff cool whip	1
honeycrisp apple w/ 1 t rf pb	3
ww pb cookie	1
Total:	28

Table provided by Roni's Food Tweet, Eat, Post Generator.

P.S. I included a gratuitous shot of my Christmas tree for all you holiday lovers out there. The roommate and I put it up Sunday morning, before I headed off to my write-in.

One thing I ate right this weekend

I dusted off an old idea: Cider Stew. My mom made this when I was younger, and it was delicious.

But instead of making it on the stovetop, I decided to do it in the Crock Pot. The result was just as delicious as I remember ... and fairly healthy, too. It was the one decent thing I ate all weekend! :D

I hope you like it as much as I do. Here's the recipe:

1 cup onion
2 cups carrot
3 cups potato
2 apples
3/4 pound stew beef
1 Tablespoon thyme
2 cups apple cider
salt, pepper to taste

Chop veggies and apple into smallish pieces of approximately the same size to ensure even cooking. Put all in a lined slow cooker. Stir to mix well. Put beef on top. Sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper. Pour in cider.

Cook at least 8 hours, until beef is fall-apart tender.

Makes 6 servings of about 1 1/2 cups each.

On the nutritional front, it stacks up pretty well: 268 calories, 5.1 g fat (1.8 sat.), 36.8 g carb (5 g fiber, 17.4 sugars) and 19.5 g pro. That gives it a WW Points value of 5.

P.S. I'll try to add a picture later, after I heat some up for dinner.

Battling "What the hell" weekend-itis

Yes, I've been struggling the last few days (since Thanksgiving late-night, actually). However, that did not keep me from seeing the scale go in the right direction at today's WI.

I was down 2.8 pounds, for a total of 56.6 since starting WW. And that puts me at 14.4 pounds left to go to hit my WW goal, meaning I'm almost as low as I was back in October.

It's about time! I've been bouncing in the 180s for much, much too long.

Anyway, back to my weekend problem. I stayed pretty much OP through the week, even with Thanksgiving. I didn't pig out at the big feast, and I only had ONE piece of pumpkin pie. But when Friday evening rolled around, I for some reason decided to chuck it ... I ate pretty badly all weekend long.

I need to figure out why that happens. This time, I can't blame it on the Boyfriend, because I was on my own (and at work and writing on my novel, which hit the NaNoWriMo halfway point of 25K ... unfortunately, it's supposed to be at the finish line of 50K by Nov. 30.)

So today, I'm getting back in the food journal habit, starting with the afternoon snacks. (Breakfast and lunch are already over, and not snapped.) And right now, it's off for a quick walk before I head in to work.

Off to a healthy start (11/26 breakfast)

So far, my Thanksgiving is going great.

I woke up early and got about 600 words written on my novel (not a huge amount, but there's still a chance for me to do more before the Boyfriend gets back home).

While I was writing, I ate my healthy breakfast: 2 clementines and a Nutri-grain cherry cereal bar (my favorite flavor). That's just 3 Points, so I have plenty left for later! Yes, I'm aware that I should eat some lunch, too. I'll try to keep it to about the same number of Points, leaving me with plenty for the big turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

I still have most of my FPs for the week, seeing as how it's only Day 3 for me. I'm thankful for a Tuesday start to my WW week! :D

Seriously, I have a lot to be thankful for. Roni's question of the week asked exactly that, and though I haven't answered yet, I've been thinking about it.

Here's a quick rundown. I'm thankful for:

• Friends and family, especially a new nephew born healthy and happy.
• The chance to share my weight struggles with you all, my Weight Watchers friends and the Blog to Lose community.
• A job that I enjoy (most of the time).
• My writer friends in Northern Arizona Romance Writers of America, who inspire me to set goals and keep going. I'm going to start looking for an agent soon, I think.
• My RWA Golden Heart entry is complete, and has been received at RWA HQ.
• Whatever meager following my blog(s) may have. Someday, it'll grow.

I'm also planning a walk before dinner. In fact, I may take it right after I finish this post.

Here's a photo of last night's dinner, too. I had a baked sweet potato with salad and a turkey burger (7 Points total). Dessert was a bowl of Special K

chocolaty delight with skim milk (3 more), and later I had a 100-calorie Reese's PB cookie bar (another 3). The day's total was 27, so I used 4 FPs.

Anybody out there? (11/25 Lunch)

It feels like I'm talking to myself. I guess that's OK, because I do that quite often. Sometimes I even answer myself, which I know is a sign of insanity ... or maybe it's just a good imagination. I can carry on conversations in my head.

Of course, it'd be nice to know someone else is listening. So if you want to drop me a comment, I'd be much obliged.

After being sick yesterday, I feel pretty good today. I slept in until about 11 a.m. and then had a WW 2-Point Fruit & Nut bar (not pictured). After doing a bit of cleaning for my roommate's guests Thursday, I whipped up a delicious healthy lunch.

Using leftover tomato paste from last week's Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers, I made myself some meat sauce with 3 oz. lean ground beef, 1/4 cup onions, 1/4 cup chopped mushroom and basil, oregano, garlic powder and onion powder (3 Points). I put it over a serving of whole wheat pasta (another 3 Points) and topped it with 2 T reduced fat mozzarella and a grilled zucchini.

It was delicious ... and it took care of the craving I had for something gooey and cheesy. (Last night, had I had the money and anyone else would have been interested, I would have called out for pizza at work. I'm glad I didn't, though. I ended up having a 25-Point day ... forgot to add in the teryaki tuna and crackers I ate at my desk last night when I said I'd only eaten 16. I'd actually had 21, and then went home and fixed myself a can of Eating Right spaghettios, bringing the total to 25. Still a pretty good day, considering most of what I ate was junk food.)

Counting it as a victory

I had my WI Monday, but went to the evening meeting in Cottonwood instead of my regular morning one in Flagstaff. Their scale said I weighed exactly the same as last Monday.

Since I weigh heavier in the afternoon, I'm going to take that as a sign that I actually was down a bit from last week. Even if not, I should count myself lucky after the not-great weekend I had. The food journal fell by the wayside, and I ate several things I shouldn't have — starting with a delicious (but not-so-nutritious) barbecue bacon burger at my writer's group meeting Saturday.

The scale should be down now. I've been battling a 36-hour bug, and spent last night throwing up and doing other unsavory things. Today, I've eaten very little: A junior burger from Sonic, a small cone from McDonald's and (the worst offender) a 6-Point bag of Doritos from the vending machine at work. Why is it that the bags you get in multi-packs are only 3 Points, but the vending machine bags are double that? Not fair!

So I've only eaten 16 Points for the day. Guess I should go home and make myself a healthy 7-Point snack. Perhaps part of the reason I feel like crap right now is because I haven't eaten enough — or enough of the right things — today.

I hope so. I told the Boyfriend, who gave me whatever I had (he had it Sunday night; I had it Monday), that if that's what it's like to be pregnant, I don't want to be pregnant. I hate puking. :P

Thursday: A mixed bag

Woke up and the home scale told me I weighed 182.4 — down 3 pounds from Tuesday! I also put my Golden Heart entry in the mail, so I was feeling pretty fine this morning.

I treated myself to my favorite salad/pizza lunch from Picazzo's to celebrate, but then took a 20-minute walk afterward. During the walk, I even did a few minutes of jogging — about 5, I think. I lost track.

It was all downhill from there. I overindulged in the tortilla chips that were hanging out in the break room at work ... I shouldn't have eaten even one, because I know I have a hard time stopping. But I ate one ... and then another one ... and then I lost count. I probably used at least 10 FPs tonight, and I'm still hungry.

I'm thinking about eating more of the pork I had for dinner when I leave work. But being ribs cooked in the slow cooker with green salsa, it's not the healthiest meal I've ever made. It was, however, delicious. A coworker gave me the recipe when he moved to Hawaii and gave me his Crock Pot.

Then again, I don't need pork at 2 a.m. I should just go home and go to sleep. The pork will be there in the morning (and healthier, because I'll be able to skim off some of the fat once it's chilled).

I think I just successfully talked myself out of snacking on pork! Let's hope so. I'd like to see the scale continue to drop.