Favorite Foods: Mott's Granny Smith Apple Sauce

I have fallen in love with the Mott's Granny Smith Apple Sauce. Each cup is 1 WW point each and only 15 grams of carbs because there is no sugar. Plus, it is sweet enough naturally to not need any sweetener added. It's yummy.

It's been a while

It's been a while- a year and a half since I last posted here. I have been around and I have been working on loosing weight. I came back because I saw some comments from my last post and it inspired me to come back. Hopefully I can keep this up.

In two years, what has happened: diabetes.

This is possibly the best thing that has happened to me because it made me really take responsibility for the food I choose to eat. It has been almost a year since my diagnosis and it has done wonders for my weight. It has not been easy, but I have taken off almost 20 pounds in the past 9 months because of the changes I have made to my diet. Between cutting sugars and sticking with Weight Watchers I have been more successful in these 9 months than I have ever been in my life.

The first thing I did was cut out high fructose corn syrup. It's was in virtually everything I ate. It's actually not in candy, but it is in ketchup, bread, canned soups, cookies, yogurt and more. I cut out soda entirely and went to seltzer water for the fizz. I have been making more of my own meals rather than buying frozen meals because of this. I have I have done nothing more than cut out the high fructose corn syrup right now and it has made the 20 pound difference.

The high fructose corn syrup problem has been one I love to talk to my family about. My parents have been watching the labels and choosing better foods and my extended family, even though they are not aware of my health issues, have heard my rant about them and keep it away from me. The last time I went to visit my parents my mother displayed her food purchases with pride so I could see how important this was to her.

I have also been working on eating until I am satisfied. I have been a fast eater for years and I tend to want to sample everything and then have more of what I really liked. I would also walk away from the table feeling like I was ready to split in half. Now I stop eating as soon as I stop feeling hungry. I am working on slowing down when I eat so I can be truly satisfied when my mind tells me I am.

Now that I know I can loose this weight I need to take more control over my diet. This is easy in winter. Cooking bring much needed heat to my apartment. I need to cut my cholesterol as well. Less carbs and sugars has meant more fat so I have to watch that as well. I also need to figure out the exercise thing. A friend suggested dance classes to get me back in shape. I know I would do better if I had someone to workout with, but most people are in much better shape than I am.

All in all, I am on track for success this time. I hope I can do it and I hope I can keep this blog updated with my efforts.

Best Intentions

I had the best intentions of going to the meetings and sticking to the program after I signed up for Weight Watchers again. I have been very bad for the past two weeks. It has been a lack of desire to say no to myself. I decided to crack down on myself this week and I went out and bought all my lunches ahead of time and left them at work so I only have to pull one our to have lunch. I purchased snacks to keep at work - sweets that are not horrible for me. I also started taking the stairs again. I keep forgetting my pedometer, but I am working on it. When it warms up again I am back in the water and swimming or I will be riding the bikes. I am going to buy myself a bike with my tax refund so I can bike around. I am going to stick to the plan this time and take this seriously.
Meanwhile, rumor has it that there is finally a decent low-fat brownie mix out there and it's by Betty Crocker. Anyone out there know about it?

The Great Brownie Hunt

One of my biggest weight loss struggles is finding junk food that will allow me to enjoy the food I love, but also prevent me from eating all my Weight Watcher Points in one bite. The leading issue is finding an enjoyable brownie recipe. Nothing is as delicious as a box-mix brownie. I grew up on them and their perfection. From the crispy outer edges to the still gooey middle. I have to stop now and drool over the mere thought of one.

I will now share with you what I call the Great Brownie Hunt. I need to find a better way to make the brownies I love. Something that will be better for me than the oil and egg concoction that helped make me what I am today (120 lbs over weight). Please feel free to share your experiences with the recipe's I mention or to suggest your own. I wish I could let you all taste what I make, but some of these I would not wish on my mother and she has been the one to give me many of these.

For starters, one she gave me I call the diet coke brownie. I was never able to get use to the taste of diet soda. I can't even drink diet Dr. Pepper without cringing a bit. Nothing tastes the same as the original recipe syrup or any soda. Also, most diet soda leave rancid aftertastes sitting in my mouth. So, when she gave me this recipe I hesitated to try it out of fear that this taste would be in my beloved brownie. Eventually, desperate for a healtier brownie, I caved in and made the recipe.

Here it is:
- Take one box of brownie mix (preferably just traditional brownie mix without nuts or caramel or anything like that)
- 2 bottle of diet coke (20 oz bottle, not a can or 2 liter bottle)
Mix the two together slowly as there will be fizz and brownie mix everywhere.
When they are mix together, take a miffin tin and 1/2 fill each cup.
Bake for about 20 minutes at 350.
What you will get is a pudding like substance on the bottom and a fluffy fizzed out substance on the top.

At first this may seem great. I ate two before I realized that they were beyond messy and did not firm up like normal brownies do. After that they just sat there and got moldy. Everyone who saw them gave them the same look they give mystery freezer items. It was a sad existance for those brownies.

I'm Back

It's been a good 6 months or more, but I am back on program and going to meetings. It's not a new years thing, its a new raise thing. It's amazing what some money in the wallet will motivate me to do... well other than go shopping.

What has been happening? I have managed to maintain weight. I stood on my scale this morning to get an idea of where I was and it seems that I may have gained a pound or 2 the past 6 months. I am impressed it wasn't more like 10 -15 lbs.

As I said, I got a raise at work which is a significant one. It was suppose to come through over the summer, but since it was almost a year ago I get paid retroactively and got a nice bonus with this last pay check. It's allowing me to pay ahead for my meetings and giving me one less excuse to not make Weight Watchers meeting.

For the holidays I got a Palm Pilot as a gift and someone gave me the Weight Watcher journal software so I have been playing with keeping track with it. I have to jounal on paper for a while just to make sure I keep up.

I have stopped swimming, but it's winter. I did go to Miami in early fall last year and I am still in decent shape for swimming. I plan on picking it up again as soon as it warms up. I haven't started doing anything else though. I did pick up my pedometer the other day so I have been counting steps this week. I am going to try and just make sure I walk the required number of steps a day.

I am no longer working at the gas station. I won't need to do it again this year. It had made me really good about cutting donuts out of my diet.

Anyway, I am off to my first Weight Watchers meeting since July. WIsh me luck!

I'm back on program

My friend Mandy has decided to start weight watchers. Neither of us can afford meetings, but we are going to do it together and Firday mornings is our "weigh in" day. I have a scale of my own as does she so I have been giving her some of my material since I have some extra stuff.
Its difficult to do weight watchers without support... no, it's nearly impossible. I can't afford meetings and that just screws me up. Hopefully having a friend to talk to about it will help me.

As for swimming - I went on vacation and it threw me off. I have to get moving again and get back in the water.

I can do it - I just have to remember what I am doing it for.

Being Accountable for My Choices

I am learning that it is important that one be accountable for their choices. It is important to be able to justify why we made the choices we made. I have been contacted by someone I havent spoken to in 10 years. I happen to remember why we stopped speaking, but she does not. She also still thinks of me as the girl I was 10 years ago. I have responded to her emails and I feel that it is important for her to understand who I am vs. who I was. Part of what I have left out is the one thing I am ashamed of: my weight.
She already wants to see me when I go home for Thanksgiving. I have until then to loose some weight. I have been very lax these past few weeks. I have had other things on my mind. I have gained a good 50 lbs in the 10 years. I don't intend to try and loose all of that, but 10 or 15 would be nice. I will need to swim when I get back from my vacation and get back on the WW plan even if I am not going to meetings.

It's hard

Seasons effect me in different ways. In the summer it is really easy for me to go swimming because it is so hot out. Just being in the water is a nice change. At the same time, the last thing I want to do is cook during a heat wave. It just makes it hotter to have the stove or oven on. This past week has been a good example of this, the last thing I wanted to do was cook. I ate out two nights in a row because I was so hot. Also, being in the car means being in the AC. The winter will be the exact opposite. I won't want to swim because it will be so cold and dark when I get to swim and I will want to cook because the heat from the over and stove warms up the kitchen. It's just the way it is.
Today will be an interesting test though, it's cold out. It's only cold by summer standards - low 70s. After mid-90s all week, the drop is a shock to my system. Will I be tempted to head home and into my bed to snuggle or will I get my butt to the pool and suffer the chill that comes with wet hair? I have a little over an hour to decide...

It's over - I sang

I no longer have a weekend job. I am so happy to be able to say that, so happy to have that stress removed from my life, just so happy. As a result of this change, my whole routine has changed. Now that I can go out again I am. I can go out to eat with friends, go see movies with friends, etc. For example, on Saturday night when my last shift ended, I met some friends for a night of trivia at a local restaurant. They love to do trivia and took me with them this time. We ate dinner and sat at the bar for the night as the trivia games were played. It was fun, but I ate pizza and drank soda all night (which is better than alcoholic beverages, but still not as good as water). I realized this week that I am going to have to alter my eating again.
1) I have to take my swimming into account. As I said before, I am very hungry after I swim. Debra reminded me that I need to be prepared for the hunger. Since I am swimming every day I think I can use those activity points to add some food back into my diet (thank you weight watchers for allowing us to list activity points and then use them to eat more). I have hesitated to do this before, hoping I would loose weight faster, but I think it's more important to fit swimming into my routine properly. I am in week 4 and this is the critical week where I usually start cutting back on how often I work out until i am not working out at all.
2) I have to take movies and dinners out into account. I can not socialize and not eat. I want food when I see a movie, I want to enjoy myself when I go out with friends. I did this last year without a problem so I should be able to find a place for these activities now.
3) Having weekends free in general will effect my eating. I will not have the temptation and easy access of donuts, but I will have other things like boredom. I must return to counting points and keeping track of things.

Now that I have less stress I can also go back to my blog reading, something I have been very bad about over the past few weeks. It's catchup and comment time!

I just want to eat

I have not been very mature this week, I just keep eating. I am eating proper foods, but I am not controling it. I think it has to do with my frustration with time not passing fast enough. I have one more shift at my weekend job and these past few shifts, since I gave my notice, have been more stressful than any other shift. They changed my schedule at the last minute on last Saturday, the guy who covers me when I am on my break allowed someone to pump after their credit card was not read. I had to stop that drive off and then I had another one because he wasn't around to help me watch during a busy period. I just don't understand why they dont require prepaying pumps. I think it solves so many problems! Anyway, I am so excited about the last shift. I can ignore Dunkin Dognuts when I am not there all weekend.
I am still swimming. If I can get past the one month mark I will be very happy. I usually do not stick with workouts for more than a month. I think the key is to get obsessed with it - well for me it probably is. I have had to order a new bathing suit. The one I have been wearing is tearing at the bra lining. Its a brand new suit so I called Lane Bryant's Catalog (I will deal with that issue another day) and they are sending me a whole new suit. I selected a totally different suit, something with a higher neck. I am not use to a low neck line so I constantly feel like my boobs are popping out - it's not comfortable at all. The new one looked like it had a higher neck line so let's cross our fingers that it does. I am also getting better with my swimming. First, I am swimming 1200 meters in a little over a half hour now. My father swims about twice as much in 45 minutes so I want to be able to do 45 minute workouts and maybe do that many laps - especially by the time I go home to visit them again. I am also doing flip turns! This has been very difficult because it requires a certain level of stamina that I barely have. I am not struggling for breath like I was when I first started, but I am still not at my ideal stamina. As a reward for being so dedicated my parents have sent me some water gloves with webbing between the fingers. This will help me with my strokes, it will pull them through the water faster.
My swimming has also effected my eating and I realized that it was always like this. I leave my workout exhausted and starving. Making up for this has also caused the above problem. I just eat when I get home. Today is the first day I haven't brought food into the den after my work out. Maybe I can act mature for the rest of the week and not gorge after workouts.