Monday, June 2, 2008

3 Strikes you're out!

I have three things to talk about today!

1. Angel Stadium – I found that this is not the greatest place to plan on eating when on a low fat plan!!! Holy cow almost everything there was out of my point range! But we went to the game for my Son-in-law’s b-day so what do you do! I ate a chicken taco – no cheese, which should have been good but since I don’t know how it was made I’m not sure. Luckily we managed to escape the peanut and ice cream points by taking a bag of popcorn and a bag of vegi’s from home. I really like snap peas and have become obsessed with having them as a snack. I also really like my popcorn….probably too much because I want to eat the whole bag because it tastes so good. I start with the lowest fat microwave popcorn I can find. After I pop it I put it in a big bowl and spray Pam or some other kind of cooking spray, add cayenne pepper, cinnamon and Splenda (or Sweet n Low). Mix it up and you have spicy/sweet popcorn! Watch out though it’s so good you’ll want to eat the whole bag too!

2. California Fish Grill - http://www.cafishgrill.com/home.html It’s a yummy fish restaurant. It’s quick and good, you order as you come in then servers bring it to your table. You better like fish though, they have chicken but for the most part it is fish! We have tried the salmon, halibut, ahi tuna, mahi mahi, and white roughy. We order it Cajun with rice. Hopefully you have someone to share with because it’s pretty big portions – or take home half for later! We order a salad and a side of grilled zucchini. For the salad dressing I sometimes get ranch on the side. They have a salsa bar so I get a little cup of salsa and dip my fork in the ranch (just once), mix with the salsa to make a mostly salsa dressing. The fish comes with cole slaw, rice and bread. I don’t eat the bread or cole slaw (sometimes my hubby does). Two things I haven’t tried but would like to are the tacos and the seared Ahi salad.

3. Super Mex – okay last thing! Lunch at Super Mex on PCH in Huntington Beach. I’ve never been to that one and I really liked the mural on the wall! (Not that that has much to do with WW points!) They have a light menu and it was really good. The entrees include low fat cheese and green rice that’s supposed to be lower calorie. I haven’t found the nutrition information for it yet so I can’t be for sure on the points. We had a chicken taco and a chicken enchilada w/no cheese (even though the cheese is low-fat we are used to not having it so no since adding on the points!), green rice and pinto beans. If you like it spicy be sure and put their salsa! Just be careful about the chips they serve before the meal….my advice don’t eat them – save your points for the good stuff!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Shout out to Del Taco

I can’t possibly talk about places we eat without talking about Del Taco! At lunch you can find me and my husband sitting on the patio at the Del Taco next to our work. I would say we eat there 3 times a week. I’ve been told I should be Del Taco’s “Jared”!

Del Taco has become synonymous with comfort food for me. When I can’t think of what else to eat or don’t want to think too much about figuring out points I go there.
I usually order a big fat chicken taco with no sauce, no cheese; a side of lettuce and tomato. We use hot sauce as dressing for the salad. I like the BF taco because it is tasty and more filling than a regular taco. With the “salad” it makes for a nice lunch that’s not too many points (I count it as 5).

I took this picture at my desk yesterday so I could show you the side of lettuce and tomato. The pic doesn’t look that great (sorry DT, cell phones aren’t really meant to be cameras I guess!) but it is yummy!

When I had more points I would vary the menu more – now I try to stick to 5 pts. Here are some of my other favorites:

* taco – no cheese
* tostada – no cheese add tomatoes (or a side of pico de gallo)
* Caesar side salad – no cheese, dressing on the side
(I use the hot sauce and a tiny bit of the dressing)
If I really want to save points – no tortilla strips too!
* Chicken soft taco – no cheese, no sauce, extra lettuce and tomatoes
* Small bean & cheese burrito – no cheese, add lettuce and tomatoes

These are just the things I have ordered. Lets us know if you have WW friendly favorites we can try!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

What's the point of this blog!

Where should I begin…. That has actually been my problem. Some Weight Watcher (WW) friends gave me the idea to start a blog. I loved the idea and was so excited to get started on it. I immediately talked to my husband and sister about the idea. They were excited too! We spent our camping weekend talking about what kind of things to put on the blog…..that was in March! I’ve been struggling with where to start. What great topic should I start our new blog with! I finally decided (with urging from a lot of people – Maren, Vauri and Shaila!) to just start! So here goes….

My husband and I are big fans of WW. About 5 years ago we were able to lose 50 lbs! As so often happens, those pounds have snuck back on (more on me than on him). I have tried at least 3 times to go back to WW which usually ends up a few weeks of success then for some reason or other we miss a meeting which turns into two. Before you know it we’ve stopped going and went back to old eating habits. Well to cut to the chase, last July my twin sister and I turned 50! (She turned it 5 minutes before me!) Our husband’s had a great birthday party for us! When I looked at the pictures I knew I couldn’t stay this way. Who was that person looking a lot like me only blown up like a balloon! Not to mention the video my daughter took as our family went out for my birthday dinner. At the restaurant the servers dance at least once a night to country music. With the urging of my family I got up and danced with the servers! When I saw the video I couldn’t believe it was me, when did I get that big stomach! Both of these occasions were the motivation I needed to make my thoughts turn to action.

On Monday July 30, 2007 my new life began! I made a spreadsheet to track my points on and wrote down the first thing I ate…a banana. My spreadsheet is the first thing I open (well after my email) every morning and keep it open throughout the day to remind me to track and what I’m eating. I continued this tracking my points and following the WW plan without actually signing up and going to meetings. Embarrassed by all my other attempts, I just didn’t want to face going and signing up AGAIN! In September my husband, Merrill and our co-worker started going to WW meetings. He convinced me that I would have better success if I attended the meetings. So reluctantly I started going Saturday mornings and surprisingly no one pointed and said “you’re back again!!!” In fact I really loved our leader Irma and felt comfort hearing other people’s challenges and successes.

To tell you the truth I’m getting pretty bored with the background story so lets just move ahead to the idea for this blog…. After exposing at a meeting that I don’t cook and that my husband and I eat out every night, except Sunday, two WW friends – Maren and Malisa - came up with the idea for me to put my eating out tips online. To include ordering ideas and variations to menu items of the restaurants we go to. These are just our tips, no official point count or WW information. Just our REAL LIFE tips! Feel free to modify your own tracking if you think points differ from anything stated on this blog. For myself, I make the best effort to count points accurately but as any of you real life WW’s know that that is not always possible and a good guess is sometimes as close as you’ll get. I guess it works for me! As you can see from the previous entry my daughter posted... Last Saturday I met my WW goal!
With all the times I’ve tried in the past I really never met my goal so I’m pretty darn excited that I did!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

GOAL!!!!

Well this morning my mom had some pretty exciting news...she has hit her WW goal!!! For anyone who is a weight watcher they know that this huge! We're so excited and happy for her!
She decided about a year ago she wanted to get healthy and lose some weight so she started to eat better on her own. After losing 9 lbs she started going to weight watcher meetings. Now today, she hit her goal and lost a total of 70 lbs!!!! 61 lbs after joining weight watchers!! Way to go mom! She has been such an inspiration to all of us.
Pretty much everyone who knows her (including me) have never seen her happier! Now even my sisters and I are trying to follow in her footsteps by starting weight watchers! We are all so excited to get healthy and in shape like her. She is the one we go to with our questions about how many points something is or what is a good food choice to make.
The only downside is how frisky it has made my dad and having to hear his little comments is a little gross, but my mom loves it!!!
Just wanted my mom to know how proud I am of her and how much I look up to her and what a good example she is setting for us, even as we are getting older! I know we all see how happy my mom is and how good she feels about herself and we want to be like that!
Awesome job hotty!