Dessert Without Disaster!

Posted on June 22, 2012 by

When I was young, I could easily resist dessert.  Every Sunday the whole family would pile into the car after church for a lunch at Friendly’s, Howard Johnson’s or LUMS!  After a hearty Sunday dinner, every member of my family would order a big ice cream sundae or some sort of pie or cake.  Me?  Nah!  But I did have a penchant for Reeses Peanut Butter cups and while everyone else was diving into a chocolate covered something, I was content with 2 regular size peanut butter cups.  The restaurants usually charged us 50 cents for my mini dessert.

More than 20 years later, I find it harder to resist sweet treats.  If it’s not an option at all, I won’t go out of my way to find dessert.  But I have a harder time saying ‘no’ when it IS put on the table!

After a great meal, especially a celebratory kind, its hard to fit in dessert.  The last two holidays have been Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.  And what mom or dad doesn’t want a tasty treat on their special day?

I’d like to share with you our new favorite dessert.  It’s so easy and perhaps many of you have had this or something like it before, but I didn’t realize how WW friendly this was until I started calculating all the ingredients.  As you know, I like “easy” and this is no-brainer!

No baking required!

At your local store, buy either pre-sliced or frozen pound cake.  The pre-sliced ones I have bought (three times already) are typically 4 points per slice.  Then buy your favorite chocolate sauce.  I bought Marzetti which is only 1 point for TWO tablespoons!  Spread 1 TB of the chocolate sauce on the pound cake and then add your favorite berries; mine are strawberries and raspberries, drizzle another TB of chocolate sauce on top of the berries and then top with whipped cream.  Did you know that Original Reddi Whip and Fat Free Reddi Whip are both ZERO points?

A FIVE point dessert that is incredibly tasty and satisfying!  If you are counting calories, this dessert as I’ve presented it here is 348 calories.  The pound cake runs about 150 calories per slice, the 2 TB of Marzetti chocolate sauce is 110 calories, half a cup of strawberries (and I don’t think there’s actually a half cup on here at all) is 26 calories and raspberries are 32 calories (half cup).  The Reddi Whipped cream is 30 calories for 2 TB.  If you want to lighten the calorie count even more, you can only have 1 TB of chocolate sauce, which we have done before and it still works.  But I like that chocolate drizzle on all sides of my berries, don’t you?!

Only 5 WW Points Plus or 348 calories!

Cake, chocolate, berries, cream!  What’s not to like?!  A very easy dessert to make that doesn’t require the oven to be on in this sizzling heat and super easy to make when having guests over.  Enjoy the weekend!

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Today’s Q&A: How to get over the Hump!

Posted on June 19, 2012 by

I received a great question online from one of my local friends who has also been losing quite a bit of weight!  She looks wonderful and sent me this note yesterday:  “Seeing how the first few pounds are the easiest to lose, what do you do to continue losing the last pounds since they are the hardest?”

It’s typical that the first months of losing weight are the easiest.  Your body is experiencing new and sometimes, radical changes and it’s much easier to get a favorable response on the scale.  Many people will lose 3 or more pounds on a program like Weight Watchers the first week because it’s such a jolt to their system!  I lost 3 pounds my first week on the program…and that was the LAST time I saw a loss like that for the rest of my weight loss journey.

At about Week 10, my body started to stall out.  I had gotten to that “set point.”  That place where if I didn’t try any more or any less, my body would probably just dwell in.  What really stunk is that I was trying really hard!  I was doing everything “right” and it was the same 1.8 pounds of loss and gain for almost a month!

Here are a few things to evaluate if you think you’ve stalled out and need to get over that hump:

1)  Review and evaluate your food log.  What?  No food log?  If you’re not writing down in some way, shape or form, what you are eating, you really should.  Weight Watchers is the “king” of this concept, but if you’re doing another program, keep your own food journal of calories or even just a list of the foods you’re eating daily.  Look for patterns of eating that have worked for you on weeks that you lost weight successfully and try to replicate that.  If you are already doing that and the weight is still sticking, look for things that could be shaken up a bit!  Try cutting out the sugary treat in the evening for a week and see what happens.  If you eat the same thing everyday for breakfast, mix it up.  Are you ending your day with too many carbohydrates and not enough protein and veggies?  Are you drinking enough water?  Any or all of these could be the culprit for not getting over the hump!  Our bodies acclimate to the patterns we give them, so step out of your box and try something new.

2)  Step it up!  Now that I’m moving more, I really should put on my pedometer and see what my daily steps look like.  Did you know we’re supposed to average 10,000 steps a day?!  Holy cow!  A few months back I thought I was doing well at 7,000 – and I walked a LOT that day.  What level of activity are you at right now?  My husband lost 35 pounds on Weight Watchers without ever stepping foot in a gym and I know others who have had similar results as well.  Unfortunately, most of us can’t avoid exercise forever to have continued results, and it’s not good for us anyway.  Exercise gives us so many health benefits that it should be a matter of when we start, not if.  This was where I had to shake things up to further my weight loss.  When I began, I was doing 2 day as week of Body Transformer, a high intensity interval training class.  This brought me incredibly far in many respects!  But once I hit that mid way point of my journey, I needed more.  Shortly after the new year, I bought my membership to Planet Fitness and started adding two more days of cardio machine work to my week.  I eventually added a third day of cardio and I now exercise 5 to 6 times a week.  So if your work out is no longer helping your weight loss, it might be time to increase your time or intensity, mix up the machines, or even try a new class!

3)  Sleep or Stress?  Two things that can prevent weight loss and keep you off track are sleep deprivation and a high level of stress.  Assess if either of these areas are a trouble spot for you right now.  Hopefully both of these issues are temporary setbacks that you can overcome in a reasonable amount of time.  If not, you should definitely see your health care professional for help.

Even if you’re not at a stall or plateau, it’s always a good idea to challenge yourself by changing your food and your activity.  It can take a long time to drop the pounds and get to your final goal and you want to keep it interesting and fun along the way.  Have you hit a plateau before?  What have you done to get over that hump successfully?  Share your best ideas!

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Oven Fried Chicken from Weight Watchers

Posted on June 18, 2012 by

This weekend’s recipe was much less time consuming – Yay!  Chicken is one of those weight-loss staples that can get really boring after awhile.  We turned to Weight Watchers

“Best Darn Food Ever” cookbook to help spice things up.  Prior to this recipe, my husband Josh had been making his own version of breading to put on our chicken breasts which actually is very similar to this recipe, but the spices in this give it extra flavor and boldness that make it stand out.

Since we’ve been building our pantry over the last month to experiment and bring you some reviews, we only needed a few things from the store to get started!  Here are all the ingredients you’ll need for this 7 point per serving chicken breast:

Low fat buttermilk

Black pepper

4 (7oz) skinless chicken breasts

Whole wheat Panko crumbs

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Paprika

Dried Sage

Dried Rosemary

You don’t need many ingredients for this simple and flavorful dish!

We really like this recipe!  Josh was surprised how little rosemary was needed to make the flavors come through.  The chicken was moist, even though we weren’t able to let it sit in the buttermilk for as long as the recipe indicates can be done.  In full disclosure, we did not use the whole wheat Panko crumbs.  We glanced over the recipe quickly while making our list and didn’t notice it called for whole wheat.  But if you’ve cooked with Panko crumbs before, you will know that they are very point friendly and I think the difference is negligible.

We paired our chicken with a medium corn on the cob (2 points without butter) and a half cup of a Summer Slaw I bought at Price Chopper (4 points). This was a recipe we will definitely try again.  Copyright prohibits me from posting the instructions and details, but I have heard many other people in my Weight Watchers room rave about the recipes in this book.  Do you have a favorite chicken recipe from Weight Watchers or another cook book that you could tell us about?  Or do you have another favorite dish that you have found a way to make more exciting or more healthy?  I’d love to hear about it!

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You’re Beautiful!

Posted on June 13, 2012 by

Today’s guest post comes from my dear friend and fitness mentor, Candice Allembert, of Body Transformer Fitness.  It’s easy to look at people like Candice and assume that they never knew what it was like to struggle with weight or body image.  Read her testimony today as more proof that you, too, can overcome the mental and physical strongholds in your life.  Candice has chosen the song “You’re Beautiful” by Mercy Me as her inspirational message for our Wednesday’s in the Word song.  

I had been active in sports and exercise since elementary school, but always held on to about 20 extra pounds.  As far back as sixth grade, I would correlate the sound of my rumbling stomach as the only way to lose weight. The more my stomach growled, the more I would lose –or so I thought.  That was not the case. By ninth grade I was binge eating, but I wouldn’t purge. I didn’t know at the time that it was still categorized as Bulimia. I deliberately didn’t purge for two reasons; I hate throwing up and I really like my teeth.  Anyone who is a binge eater (and I don’t mean the mindless stuffing of the face on rare occasions) feels extreme shame and they keep it private. My binges would cause me to stay home from places because I was either too full or full of self -loathing.  Because I didn’t purge or take laxatives, I would have to lie on my side and wait out the pain. I would try and stop myself from finishing the last of something by putting it in the garbage can, and sometimes that would work, BUT if the garbage wasn’t too gross, I would sometimes take back out what I had put in the garbage and then eat it.

I’m sure you know the saying, “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.” That couldn’t be more wrong. Names hurt worse than anything. There were small things said throughout my life that I internalized and really took to heart. I can honestly say that my parents never said anything to me about my size. I would just hear things around. When I was in junior high, my friends and I were coming up with fun nicknames for each other. When it was time for me to get my name, one girl said I should

Candice Allembert, creator of Body Transformer Fitness

be called Plumper.

Another time, I was 15 years old and I had gone on a family trip. We rented a cabin on the lake, and there were boys about my age. We hung out a bit and then later that day, I was sitting outside on the porch and I overheard them say that I was nice but kind of chunky.  For the rest of the trip, I pretended that I got sunburned and wore a t shirt over my bathing suit.

Five years later, at the age of 20,  I was watching a tv show on Binge eating and there was a checklist to see if you may have Bulimia and purging didn’t solely qualify you. I realized that I did have that problem and I wasn’t alone. I prayed for wisdom and help and God was faithful to deliver me from this bondage. It was an immediate knowing, but the process took time. I spent years studying health, nutrition, and exercise. When I would have a lapse in judgment and have a binge, I didn’t stay in my shame. I forgave myself because I knew God wasn’t condemning me but transforming me day by day. His children fall down but He will always help us back up.  He helps us trade our ashes for beauty and wear forgiveness like a crown.

My healthy eating habits had now been on track for several years, but due to falling down the stairs backwards and having 4 car accidents in 3 years, receiving severe whiplash in 3 of the accidents, I was in constant pain in my neck and lower back.  I was always going to the physical therapist and chiropractor. X-rays showed severe degeneration in my neck, and the normal neck curve was completely gone. It would take several minutes to get out of bed each day because my lower back had a deep pain.

I decided it was time to get my health back. I wasn’t going to put up with this pain. I left my teaching position of 14 years and created Body Transformer Fitness. This is specifically designed to help strengthen every muscle from shoulders to calves, and build your core. I was going to be my own guinea pig. Within weeks, my pain was lessening as my muscles gained strength in the right way.  Now, three years later, I truly am pain free.

Throughout my ordeal, my husband, who was also my high school sweetheart, saw me heavier then, and 60 pounds heavier with the pregnancy of my first son, and has never once said that I was anything but beautiful.  That is how our Creator sees us. You are beautiful.  You are treasured. You are sacred. You are His.

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Mirror, Mirror!

Posted on June 11, 2012 by

When is the last time you looked at yourself in a mirror for more than just applying eye makeup?  I think a large or full length mirror is a lot like a scale.  You either own one or you don’t.  You’re either a slave to it, or you don’t dare use it.  While I don’t have a full length mirror, my bathroom mirror is very large and I can easily see well below my waistline in it.

I realized something over the last few months since I reached my lifetime WW goal.  Even though I went from a size 16 to a 6, losing nearly 30 pounds and 2o inches off my entire body, I was still in the habit of not daring to look at myself in the mirror.

When I was overweight, I purposely avoided not only my bathroom mirror, but store window reflections and being photographed below my chest.  The latter two are easier to accomplish.  When a 4 X 3 large piece of glass hung above my bathroom sink, not seeing myself was a much harder feat.  But I managed to do it.

Everything I did in the bathroom I did away from the mirror.  I’d get out of the shower, dry off, sit on the lid of the toilet and dry my hair – away from the mirror.  When I brushed my teeth, I began the entire process with my head down and then while brushing turned away from the mirror.  To spit my toothpaste out, I get in front of the sink (never looking up of course!) and then turn away from the mirror to wipe my mouth on a hand towel.  But stand in front of the mirror, naked?  NEVER!

The few times I was bold enough to do that, it just made me more mad and frustrated.  I’d turn from side to side, realizing that the love handles were not disappearing with my meager efforts to suck it all in!  It made me crazy!  What was more disheartening was the wrinkles in the skin of my lower abdomen from all the times I’d lost and gained the same weight.

One day, shortly after I made goal, I was using our first floor half bathroom, where the toilet faces the mirror (Eeeks!).  When I finished washing my hands, I happened to look up and I realized that the face I expected to look back at me wasn’t there anymore!  It was like I saw a different person and did a double take!  I was so caught off guard.  So I looked at myself some more.  Then I stepped back so I could see most of me and did the same side to side turn I’d done before.  I had clothes on, but so what?  For the first time in a long time, I was not depressed, repulsed or frustrated.

I started to realize just how ingrained this habit of avoiding the mirror was because I would still catch myself turning away.  I would actually “forget” that I liked the way I looked!  It reminds me of the verse in the Bible from James 1:23 “For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in the mirror.  You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.”

I’ve made it a point now to dry my hair in front of the mirror, to dress in front of the mirror, to brush my hair or my teeth while looking full on at myself.  And sometimes I still have the bad habit of picking apart how I look.  I know.  Totally ridiculous when I consider how far I’ve come.  What is there to complain about now?

In this month’s Weight Watchers magazine, one of the “Storybook” success gals shared one of her mantras – “Progress, not perfection.” It’s true!  What is “perfect” anyway?  We’re all different and meant to be that way!  We should strive for progress each week in moving toward the body weight and image that makes each of us feel our very best; physically, mentally and emotionally.  What that actually translates to is, and should be, different for every person.

You may not like looking in the mirror right now, but I promise if you keep marching toward the goal, one day you too will be pleasantly surprised!  You will be the fairest of them all – even if it is only between your tiny bathroom walls!

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The Weight of God’s Love

Posted on June 6, 2012 by

As I’ve told you before, God speaks to me through music.  In 2011, His clear message to me as evidenced by my 2011 mix tape was the realization of how much He loves me.  Almost every song I had chosen reflected God’s incredible love for His children.  Before becoming a believer, I fell into the world’s cliche of “You can’t love others until you love yourself.”  While on its face, this sounds totally logical, as my faith in Jesus increased, I realized how flawed this is.  Think about it.  We are human and therefore flawed in many ways.  Our love is so conditional, even for the people we claim to have “unconditional” love for.  If that wasn’t true, parents would never disown their children.  But we know that there are plenty of parents who have completely walked away and washed their hands of their precious little ones.

When we realize that God never leaves us – EVER! – we finally have the model for which truly unconditional love is.  And as we know Jesus better, the one who gave everything for us, and model His love, we then can love not just ourselves, but others because we have Him as our perfect example of love.

What does this have to do with weight loss?  Everything.  When we are weighed down by our physical stature, we naturally shrink back from the world in various ways and begin to believe that either no one really does love us or can love us because of our weight.  Every time we try to lose the weight and fail, we feel disappointed in ourselves and believe that we’ve not only disappointed those around us, but that we’re a disappointment to God.

The reality is that while we may have disappointed ourselves or let others down, we are never a failure in God’s eyes.  Remember what His word says, that His mercies are new every day!  But how many times have we wrongly believed the lie in our heads…”I’ve messed up. How can God love me?  He only loves perfect people.  I’ve failed.  God can’t use my life” and so on.

You know what?  God loves you anyway.  I love today’s song, “You Love Me Anyway” from Sidewalk Prophets.  It reminds us that from the beginning of time we have rejected God with our words, our lives, our thoughts, our actions….just being the imperfect people that we are in this fallen world.  BUT, He loves us anyway.

Maybe your weight isn’t the only place you feel like you’ve failed yourself.  I know for me, there are many other areas in my past that I have been ashamed for God to see and know.

My favorite line of this song that resonates with me so much is, “Still you call me to walk, on the edge of this world.  To spread my dreams and fly!  But the future’s so far, my heart is so frail, I think I’d rather stay inside….”

Do you feel like that sometimes?  Sometimes our end goal seems so far away and we barely have enough strength for the next step.  Wouldn’t it just be easier if I hid inside and didn’t even try?  Then I wouldn’t have to be disappointed or feel pain?

That would be true and I know what its like to just sit and hide from my failures and mistakes, pretending they are not there.  But then we don’t get to taste victory!  We don’t get to walk into the fullness of what God has for us.  And God promises to deliver us from our strongholds – when we rely on Him.

If you haven’t truly realized just how much God loves you, don’t waste another minute not learning about it!  Get around other believers, open your bible, find a local church that you can be part of and start growing!  Just like you take baby steps with your weight loss, take baby steps with your faith.

There is nothing like the love of Jesus and our Heavenly Father!  He loves us overweight, underweight and everything in between.  But if your weight is where you struggle, I can promise you that He wants freedom for you.  When family, friends, co-workers and others dessert you, He is always there.  Whether you are in the valley or on the mountain top, He loves you anyway!  Listen to today’s song, think about your own “stuff” that you have believed God can’t love you because of, and see God in a whole new way today!

 

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Totally worth it Turkey Chili – from Weight Watchers

Posted on June 4, 2012 by

Yes!  Though it took my husband ALL day, this turkey chili was worth all the work!  And if you’re wondering, that is his opinion also, not just mine :)  So, as promised, our first venture into trying new recipes after cleaning and stocking the pantry.  Our goal is to try one new healthy recipe each week and then blab all about it to you here on the blog.

First, you may be wondering how to get your husband or wife to jump on this “weekly recipe” cooking adventure?  As you know, the deal Josh and I have is that he cooks, I shop and do dishes.  But more importantly, Josh was not really that excited about cooking Weight Watchers meals until I bought him this book for his birthday…

This book is available at Weight Watchers Meetings Rooms. It is not available on their website or in stores.

Now THIS is our kind of cookbook!  We were both brought up on comfort foods and who ever thought you could eat them AND have them fit into your plan?!  When he saw the recipes in this book with categories such as “crunchy”, “cheesy”, “savory” and “creamy,” I knew he was hooked!  I have seen a lot of Weight Watchers cookbooks over the years and this one has to be the most enticing and interesting one!

For our first recipe adventure, we decided to try the Hearty Turkey Chili from WW online.  This sounds like a winter idea though, right?  Well, it started with Josh really wanting to use his new cast iron skillet and thus trying the Cast Iron Skillet Corn Bread from this new cookbook.  And you can’t have cornbread without chili, right?  Well, I guess you can…but you know what I mean.  Seemingly out of season at first considering last week it was 75+ degrees all week, the weather turned and this past weekend has been nothing but rain, gray skies and temps in the 50′s – perfect for this hearty home cooked favorite!

This recipe is chock full of veggie goodness and the spices are killer, so if you’d like to open

All our spices and turkey meat were bought at Costco. Veggies and kidney beans were bought at Price Chopper.

up your sinuses, keep the recipe “as is” or if you want to tone it down a bit, go lighter on the chili powder.  I’m a bit of wimp when it comes to spices, so maybe you guys like it super spicy?!  In any case, here are some things for you to know about this recipe.  Total prep time is NOT 25 minutes.  The beans had to be soaked overnight, then cooked for an hour and a half.  Then the veggies have to be chopped which is usually my job, but I wasn’t around, so Josh thinks it definitely took longer.  Otherwise, this is not difficult, just time consuming.  But the outcome?  As stated, totally worth it!  From the minute I walked in the door, I could smell the spices and home cooked goodness!  We had a lot of beans left over and Josh does recommend that if you spend the time making this recipe, that you double or even triple the recipe to make this great dish worth your time and efforts with lots of leftovers!

Absolutely delicious and only 6 WW Points per cup!

Now, the Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread, from the “Best Darn Food Ever” Weight Watchers cookbook was a different story.  It was very easy and required little effort.  This recipe is prepared more like Southern style cornbread, with little sugar and very little flour, versus Northern Style which has a high ratio of flour to cornmeal in it.  Just call me a Northern girl then, because I did not care for this corn bread.  It was just OK.  There was not much flavor to it and even though cut in 12 pieces, is only 4 points per slice, I would rather just splurge the extra points on a box of Jiffy.  All in all, this was a delicious meal and we highly recommend the Hearty Turkey Chili from Weight Watchers.  Stay tuned for more delicious recipes and adventures from our kitchen!

Because our skillet was round, we cut the cornbread in 8 slices, making each slice 6 points for a total 12 point meal.

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