"Drop a Jeans Size" Meal Plan: Day 3

Up early for today's 5-mile run, I used a banana and string cheese as my rocket fuel this morning.

Breakfast

Potato Hash & Cheddar Omelet (6 PPV): Mist small frying pan with cooking spray and heat pan over medium high heat. Add 1/2 c frozen shredded potatoes and cook for 5 mins, turning once. Whisk together 1 egg and 2 egg whites and pour over potatoes in pan. Add 1 c baby spinach, S&P. Cook for an additional 4 mins, or until egg is done and spinach is wilted. Top with 4 T shredded 2% cheddar cheese.

This was really good and really substantial. Of course DH and I both added hot sauce. The potato really helped bulk up the omelet and give it a little more staying power. I could see adding a few thin tomato slices under the spinach next time. This is definitely a Keeper!

Interestingly, this is the first time in almost two weeks that I ran in the morning and was not super hungry in the afternoon. I think this breakfast just might be the key.

Lunch:

Cuban Sandwich (6 PPV): Grill 2 oz. low-fat sliced deli ham in a small frying pan for 4 mins, turning once. Spread 2 tsp. yellow mustard on  whole-grain hamburger bun and top with ham and 1 slice reduced fat Swiss cheese. Slice 2 dill pickles lengthwise and stack pickle slices on top of cheese. Top with other half of bun. Serve with apple.

This was a really nice surprise. I originally thought, "Oh. It's a dressed-up ham and cheese sandwich. Boring!" But it's amazing what a difference "grilling" the ham makes! This was a great sandwich, although TWO pickles is, well, A LOT of pickle! I stacked a few slices on my sandwich and ate the rest of the slices on the side. Incidentally, slicing the pickles made them more fun to eat. Sandwich, pickles and apple made  nice combination and very filling lunch.

Some late afternoon fruit and a mini ice cream cone (because I had the PPVs) got me through to dinner.

Dinner

Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks & Classic Ranch Salad (12 PPV): Bake, broil or grill 3 skinless chicken drumsticks until they reach 165* internal temperature. Mix 3 T hot sauce and 2 T trans fat-free margarine (melted). Coat drumsticks in hot sauce mixture. In separate bowl, toss 1 c chopped romaine lettuce, 1/2 c chopped celery, 1/2 c shredded carrot, 1/2 c grape tomatoes and 1 1/2 T light ranch dressing.

To quote Food Network Star, Guy Fieri: Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Okay, please listen to me. Do I have your attention? If you like Buffalo wings at all, this dinner will be your new best friend. Seriously! This is a genius idea that will satisfy any wing craving without all that nasty fat. The thing about wings (well, one of the things about wings) is that they're generally small and go down way too easily. But with this recipe, you get lots of good, meaty, satisfying spicy goodness. I just might make this dinner once a week for the rest of my life.

First of all: THREE drumsticks! When was the last time you got THREE pieces of chicken in a serving? If you're like me, quantity is just as important as quality. Second: GRILL the drumsticks. It gives them a nice, rich flavor and even makes them a little crispy like good Buffalo wings would be. Third: Do you NEED a third? It's wing sauce, my friends!

DH, who is a bit of a Buffalo wing connoisseur and has eaten wings at 233 different establishments in his life (yes, he keeps track!), thoroughly enjoyed this dinner. Now, that's an endorsement! I will now keep a pack of chicken legs in the freezer for this exact recipe. And I will make it again and again. It's just that good.

Was it filling? I probably would have liked a bigger salad. Because, after all, I am Seinfeld's Elaine who thoroughly enjoys salads "as big as my head." It's 9 p.m. and I am a bit hungry. I'll be diving into a cup of raspberries shortly.

"Drop a Jeans Size" Meal Plan: Day 2

Breakfast

Honey-Coconut Oatmeal (6 PPV): Mix 1/2 c rolled oats with 1/2 c skim or almond milk and microwave 1 min. Top with 2 tsp. honey and 1 T shredded coconut and serve with 1/2 c berries.

I am in love with this breakfast!! It was SO surprisingly good, so easy and just overall a great experience. I am a die-hard oatmeal-with-brown-sugar-and-raisins girl. I recently changed that to brown-sugar-and-blueberries because fruit is PPV-free but raisins aren't. But, man! HONEY in oatmeal? Fantastic! Coconut? Adds a perfect little subtle crunch with just a touch of necessary fat. I mixed my full cup of raspberries into it all and it was like eating a warm, satisfying, comforting raspberry-coconut muffin. (FYI, there's no real coconut flavor - you really just get the texture, which is nice. If you want coconut flavor, add a drop of coconut extract.) DH doesn't really do coconut, so I substituted 1 T sliced almonds for him so he could get his crunchy fat too. Mmmmmm....crunchy fat.

Lunch

Pizza Portobello (8 ppv): Turn 2 portobello mushroom caps (stems removed) upside down, spread each with 3 T spaghetti sauce, and top each with 1/2 oz. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese. Place on a baking sheet and broil for 10 mins. Sprinkle each with 1/2 tsp. oregano. Cut 1 whole-grain roll in half and toast it. Drizzle each half with 1/2 tsp. olive oil.

Unfortunately, my schedule today required a late breakfast and early lunch.  I was in such a good place from this morning's Honey-Coconut Oatmeal, that I wasn't even hungry when I ate lunch. Had this been a different week, I would have popped an apple and a Kashi bar into my purse and gone on my way till I was hungry.

This meal was a little...odd. I'm normally a big fan of portobello mushrooms and also a big fan of pizza. However, a spooning a little spaghetti sauce and few shreds of cheese on a mushroom cap does not a pizza make. It really was just a mushroom with some sauce and cheese on it. Instead of a roll, I just toasted a slice of 3 PPV whole-grain bread. It was odd to drizzle olive oil on a slice of bread. Now, granted, this was the regular, every day EVOO from my pantry, not the oil of delicately-pressed olives from some small, exotic Italian village. But still...it was odd. Bread is to be dipped in flavored oil, so you might want to forgo this if A) you don't splurge on EVOO or B) you think 1 tsp is enough oil to dip bread in! I ended up sprinkling the EVOO-drizzled toast with garlic powder to add some flavor.

 By late-afternoon, I was trolling the kitchen, but that may have been partly because of when I ate this lunch (too early). I had a few servings of fruit...a few whole wheat crackers...a string cheese...my new standby of the half toasted English muffin, Better 'n' PB, and 1/4 sliced pear...and even tried something new and baked up a batch of "radish chips." (Don't ask - it's sadly not even worth repeating the recipe I found on-line.) This resulted in a 3 PPV dip into my Weekly Points Allowance. I'm okay with that I guess but wish the circumstances would have been different.


Dinner

Turkey Burger & Oven Fries (11 PPV): Cut 1 medium potato into slices; toss with 1 T chili powder, S&P. Mist a baking sheet with tops of potatoes with cooking spray. Broil potatoes and 1 lean 4 oz. turkey burger on sheet for 20 mins, turning once. (The burger should reach 165*.) Put burger on a whole-grain hamburger bun and top with 2 tsp. ketchup, lettuce and tomato. Serve with fries.

Turkey burgers, ho hum. Been there, done that. No big whooptie-do. I normally add a bunch of flavor to them but did not tonight so I could give an accurate review. (I did use 1 PPV for a piece of cheese because there's no reason to eat a burger - turkey or otherwise - if it doesn't have cheese.) I made the burgers on the grill and would have also cooked the potatoes that way as well. However, I wanted to see if they'd get crispy in the oven. They didn't. However, the generous 1 T of chili powder did give a robust flavor, so I'll repeat that. In the future, I'd put them in a foil packet, spritz with spray butter, seal up and throw on the grill.

Interesting note: Unlike the US Government, I do not consider the ketchup, lettuce and tomato that accessorize my burger to be a complete vegetable serving like they do in our schools. So I just HAD to throw a bunch of my gorgeous Costco and CSA veggies on the grill as well. I don't know how to eat dinner without a serious serving of vegetables anymore. Plus, I figured, a burger and some potato slices would simply not be enough.

While I'm glad I had the veggies, here's the thing with the potato: I typically choose the smallest potato available. After all, a SMALL potato is 3 PPV, a MEDIUM potato is 4 PPV and a LARGE potato is 5 PPVs. That's a wide spread. However, since tonight's recipe specifically designated a MEDIUM potato, I weighed several until I found one in my bin that came closest to Weight Watchers' definition of a MEDIUM potato: 213 g. And guess what? That's a lot of potato! It's certainly not mutant-restaurant-size, but most things in our home kitchens aren't. So, again, while I'm glad I had the nutrients the veggies provided, I probably would not have needed that bulk to feel satisfied, given the quantity of potato. This is just another one of those little discoveries I would never had made without a project like this: when it comes to potatoes, size does matter.

On that note, I'm off to bed. It's another 5 a.m. wake-up call tomorrow for a 5 mile run before the day's heat grips us all.

"Drop a Jeans Size" Menu Plan: Day 1

I'm ba-ack!

Bowing to overwhelming demand ("overwhelming" is in the eye of the beholder), I have resumed blogging about what I'm eating. This week, it's Fitness Magazine's "Drop a Jeans Size" meal plan. Same deal: After losing 139 lbs through Weight Watchers and working out, I'm ThisClose to hitting my weight goal and need a little push to make it across the finish line. Instead of the magazine's suggested "workout on p. 108" or whatever, I'm continuing with my current routine: running every other day and 30-min circuit training on the alternate days, with one day "off" a week.

I'm continuing to follow the WW PointsPlus plan as well to ensure that I get the appropriate nourishment. Here we go! Wheeeeee!

This was my "long run" day as I continue to train for my first 10-Mile race in two weeks. Today was my first-ever 9-mile run, which was pretty cool! Wanting to avoid a repeat of last week's 18-PPV-afternoon debacle, I decided to fuel up a little before-hand. I had 1 hard boiled egg and a banana and then hit the pavement at 8 a.m.

When I got back, it was time for a shower and breakfast.

Breakfast

Power Breakfast Plate (4 PPVs): Assemble 1 hard-boiled egg, 1/2 oz. cheddar cheese, 6 whole-grain crackers, 1/2 c grapes on a plate. Serve.

Hmmm....not the most culinarily challenging "recipe," but that's okay. I deliberately chose this recipe for today because I knew I'd need the protein boost. I used Cabot 75% fat free cheese because that's what I buy. And I had a whole cup of grapes because that's an actual serving of fruit which is 0 PPVs. This was a nice breakfast and I could definitely see it becoming a standard - quick, easy and filling. I have to admit though, after last week's shift to higher PPV meals, I was a bit skeptical that this would sustain me through lunch. It did a decent job...until I hit 11 a.m, at which point, it felt like the wheels were about to come off the bus. I quickly called one of last week's discoveries: the 2 PPV toasted whole wheat English muffin half with 2 tsp Better 'n' Peanut Butter and 1/4 thinly sliced pear on top. I enjoyed the snack and looked ahead to lunch.

Lunch

Chicken Chimichurri Wraps (10 PPV): Mix 1/2 c fresh chopped parsley, 1 minced garlic clove, 2 tsp EVOO, 1 T red wine vinegar, 1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes and a dash of salt. Spread 1 1/2 oz. cooked chicken and 1/4 c sliced red bell pepper on each of 2 small whole-grain tortillas. Drizzle half of parsley mixture on each and roll up.

I was really skeptical about this meal. Yes, it's a hearty 10 PPV, but it just seemed like it didn't have enough bulk - needed more veggies or something. However, DH and I both agreed that this, along with a serving of fruit, was surprisingly filling and got both of us through most of the afternoon with just a small snack. (I had some late-afternoon fruit and a 3 PPV mini ice cream cone which is my current indulgence.) It was tastier than I expected as well. An overall nice surprise.

Dinner

Moroccan Vegetable Stew with Cilantro-Yogurt Sauce (10 PPV): Saute 1/2 c diced onion, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/8 tsp each of cumin, cinnamon and curry powder in 1 T oil for 1-2 mins. Add 1/2 c cauliflower florets, 1/2 c chopped carrot and 2 c vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 mins. Add 1/2 canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed and 2 T raisins and simmer for 5 more mins. Ladle stew into a bowl; mix 1/4 c plain low-fat yogurt and 1 T chopped cilantro and place a dollop on top of stew.

Here's what each of us said after our first tastes:
Me: Well, it's not awful... (now there's a ringing endorsement!)
DH: It's edible...with hot sauce.
Squiddy: "Can I please just have cantaloupe for dinner?"

I did make a few substitutions, but nothing that would have really changed the flavor.
1) I realized mid-prep that we're out of raisins. I substituted Craisins. 2) I used homemade f/f chicken stock instead of vegetable stock. 3) I did not realize until writing this that I missed sauteing the onions, etc. in oil. I accidentally omitted the oil altogether, which I now realize brings the PPV value down to a mere SIX! Okay, that could explain why I got agonizingly hungry during Squiddy's band concert tonight. I sat through the last hour mightily distracted by the fact that I had one serving of fruit left for the day and had to decide which variety I was going to make a beeline for when I got home.

Using the oil may have made the stew more flavorful, and it definitely would have made it more filling. So now I have to attribute this recipe's epic FAIL to regrettable cook's error. Maybe I'll re-try it another day...but it's doubtful. If you decide to try it, leave a comment and let us all know how it turns out.

BTW, Squiddy is just about at the end of her rope with these crazy dinners she's had to endure (a few haven't even had meat!), and I can feel DH's patience is waning too. I get the feeling that the only way there will be a Week 3 is if I go it alone...so Week 2 had better work!

"Eat Up, Slim Down:" What I learned...and Where to Go from Here

I've spent the last few days plodding around the house, agonizing about this, my final post in my "Eat Up, Slim Down" experiment. I kept asking myself, "What did I learn and where do I go from here?"

It was fairly easy to list what I learned. Not so easy to answer the second question. After all, my Saturday weigh-in proved my monthly-water-weight theory and I was back down to where I expected to be: My total weight loss for the week on this meal plan was an impressive 4.6 lbs! In addition to following the menu plan, I ran a total of 21 miles and did 3 days of 30-minute circuit training (47 WW Activity Points if you're counting).

So, the menu plan and workout routine definitely worked. They worked so well that it's tempting to do it for a second week. But first, here's what I learned:

• Semantics: I never called this a "diet." It was a "meal plan." I know that it would have been much more difficult to stick to if I thought of it as a diet. In the emotional world of food words, DIET is a four-letter word, something that is very difficult to follow and easier to abandon. A "meal plan" is just that - a plan. And a plan is a road map to success, for people who meet goals. 
• Accountability: I definitely stuck with this meal plan much more religiously than I would have if I hadn't been blogging about it. Knowing I'd have to report it here prevented a stop at the concession stand when we went to the movies as well as a few other temptations along the way. Accountability is key.
• Choices Part I: On one hand, I really liked that this plan virtually eliminated the need for me to make choices about my food. I made the commitment to follow the plan, for better or worse, so there was no agonizing about what to eat. For an entire week! It may be counter-intuitive, but that was very liberating.
• Choices Part II: On the other hand, late in the week, I was missing choices! (Sometimes, I'm such a girl.) I went grocery shopping on Friday and was a little annoyed that I couldn't make a great grilled seafood feast that night with the scallops and shrimp I bought on sale. Fortunately, it was the last day of he Experiment, so I put them in the fridge and we enjoyed the fantastic dinner the following night.
• Tastes change: I am still blown away by how much I liked the Spinach Salad with Chicken, Strawberries, Walnuts and (Gorgonzola) on Day 3. Two key elements have prevented me from trying this type of salad in the past: I don't like raw spinach, and I don't like the combination of sweet and savory tastes. Or so I thought! This salad definitely changed my mind. This is a nice reminder to keep trying new foods, and even foods that we long ago decided we don't like.
• Sometimes, preparation is key: Take the Day 2 "Grape Salad," for example. Very simple. Grapes. And almonds. These are two foods that generally go down very easily and that I have mindlessly eaten (too much of!) in the past. But slice them both and mix them together, and they magically become a more satisfying "salad" to be eaten with a fork.
• All ppvs are not created equal: The Pear/PB/English Muffin is better than a mini ice cream sandwich? Who'd have thunk it??! They're both 2 ppvs, but not only is the fruit snack more tasty, it also has more fiber and protein which makes it more sustaining.
• Bread: I really miss bread.

Okay, so where to go from here? After enjoying a great, PPV-friendly grilled seafood feast Saturday night, I was really considering repeating the plan this week. However, I just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm, and I knew I'd be pretty much on my own. DH was a good sport about this Experiment for one week. I didn't have the heart to ask him to join me for a second go.

And then, this morning, there was the answer in my Email In-Box: "The Drop a Jeans Size In 4 Weeks" Menu Plan from Fitness Magazine! I have to admit, I got a little giddy.

I don't need to drop another whole jeans size, but hey, I'll take one more week of a pre-planned, healthy, well-balanced menu that I don't have to think about. Just another 5 lbs or so, that's all I need. I can do this for another week. And it's a new menu, so I forwarded it to DH and he's IN! ... well, with the appropriate disclaimers about not following the plan when we go away this weekend to celebrate our 13th Wedding Anniversary.

So, there you have it. One more week, one last meal plan. The question is: should I blog about it? Do you care? Are you interested? Let me know.