Food Friday!

I am so honored to be asked to participate in my friend Eilyne's "Food Friday" feature!  If you haven't checked out her blog yet, you ABSOLUTELY must.  She has an incredible way with words and inspires me each morning with her posts....please check her out here:  http://www.eilynedavis.com/

So my Food Friday entry is the oh so healthy, "Zero Point Weight Watchers Garden Vegetable Soup"....exciting, no?!  It is, it is!  This is a bit of a twist on the soup that I learned about 5 years ago.  My Mom reintroduced me to it recently and we've been tweaking it to our liking.  The best thing about this soup is that it's low-cal, low-carb, high-fiber and no-fat.  It's also quite filling and keeps me from going crazy at meal times...I have a cup before eating lunch or dinner and find I'm not as hungry and I eat much less.  It's supposedly zero points, even on the new + program, but I still count it as 1 point per cup.  Can't beat that though!

Zero Point Weight Watchers Garden Vegetable Soup

6 cups broth (we actually use water only because of the high content of sodium in broth)
Cooking spray
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic)
1/2 cabbage, chopped (or use a bag of slaw, the biggest chunks you can find vs the fine, don't skip the cabbage for it somehow makes the soup)
1/2 pound frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large zucchini, diced

Spray a Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy!

Different veggies can be added or substituted.  I love adding bell peppers and a dash of hot sauce. This is a good 'clean out the fridge' soup.  Different spices can be added to give it a different taste too.  Be creative and play around with different tastes.  My next batch I'm going to add in some curry for a twist. 

Thank you so much Eilyne for allowing me to join in on the Food Friday feature!  Make sure you check out her blog at www.EilyneDavis.com....she's sharing yummy, beautiful cake pops...you can indulge in them after eating this healthy soup and feel less guilty!

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Since it's Friday, I gotta get my weigh-in in too!  

Starting weight:  172

Last week's weigh in:  169.9

My current weight:  168.7

My goal weight:  154

Gain/Loss this week: -1.2

 

It's a Miracle! (Week 2 - WW)

Given the week I had celebrating mine and my daughter's birthdays, including a trip out of town, I thought for sure I'd have gained weight.  When on day 2 of my week I had already used up all my points for the week, I knew I had done screwed up.  But I managed to lose a little over a pound!

Starting Weight:  172

Last week's weigh in:  171.5

My current weight:  169.9

My goal weight:  154

Gain/Loss this week: -1.6

Looking forward to this next week when I actually fully follow the plan!

WW - Week 1 Weigh In

Ugh.  I didn't get the result I was hoping for.  Not a big loser this first week.  

Starting Weight:  172

My current weight:  171.5

My goal weight:  154

Gain/Loss this week: -.5  

I tracked everything ("If you bite it, write it.") and had over 30 points come the end of the week.  Upon some investigation I think the biggest culprit was salt.  Evil, evil sodium.  I was so set on tracking my points that a great deal of my food intake was Weight Watchers sponsored food and Smart Ones.  You know what that means?  Processed food.  Processed food = excessive amounts of sodium.  Oops.  Guess that's why my rings are tight.  So while I was drinking lots of water, it wasn't enough to counteract all the salt. 

Live and learn.  This next week is going to be a rough one.  It's my daughter's birthday and my birthday and there are lots of opportunities to really, really blow it.  Wish me luck!

 

Week 1

So I did it.  Ran for one week and I'm still alive!  And guess what?  I kinda like it now.  Kinda. One thing is for sure, it has gotten much easier and I also feel like I HAVE to do it.  It feels good, like Debbie wrote in a comment when I started this, something about, "clearing the cobwebs out." Perfect way to describe it.  

I managed to run over 9 miles this past week.  And I'm averaging a 12 minute mile.  Good considering my first run I was running a 14 minute mile.  Bad in that I have yet to run more than a mile and a half at once!  This week my goal is to run no less than 2 miles per day and see if I can keep my average. 

I guess I'll do my weigh-ins on Monday too....today I'm at 166.5. Down 1 pound. 

Day 3 - Still running!

I still hate it but I'm happy to see improvement already!  I'm a gadget girl so being able to track my runs and really see how I'm doing is a HUGE motivator.  This time I ran around my neighborhood and I'm happy to know that if I go around all the cul-de-sacs it is exactly 1.54 miles. 

Also another huge motivator--a friend and I just made a healthy living contract/pact so that when we both make our goals we will have a day at the spa.  A full day-the whole she-bang!  It's a ways down the road, but I can't wait for that.  

My ultimate goal is to HAPPILY run a 10 minute mile.  I'm not big on making weight goals because it can be so misleading.  I'd rather be healthy and feel good at a higher weight then loose 30 pounds and feel like garbage.  With that being said I will track my weekly weight-loss and just see what happens.  Currently I weigh 167.5 pounds and I am 5'10".  According to various websites my ideal weight would be between 132 and 175.  I'm going to go for 148 and see how I feel. 

My ultimate, end all goal is to just feel good.  Physically AND mentally.