Side Dish Emergency!

Good ideas for healthy side dishes

-Quinoa ( Whole Foods has a good recipe for Quinoa, Broccolli & sun dried tomatoes )
-Polenta ( I made some tonight with portobellos, garlic, onions and veggie broth )
-Veggies w/ hummus ( if you don't like hummus, try making your own with your fav. spices )

Update: I've lost 13 pounds!

CUPCAKES!

Copyright Maggie DeRolf

Everyone needs a little indulgence.
I made these cupcakes for LOST night in Chicago & brought them to Tom and Mary's. They are 6 points each. Justin and I did a very good job saving up the points all day for a little bit of sugar. They were well worth it because these are probably the most delicious cupcakes I have ever made, thanks to the Vegan Cupcakes cookbook.



I recommend spending the money for this coobook. There are also some low fat, gluten-free and agave nectar cupcakes in it as well. I took the leftovers to work the next day so we weren't tempted to eat them all at home. Everyone LOVED them and were completely shocked when I told them they were vegan.

I am obsessed....

with the scale.

This really has to stop.

squash=yum!

Justin and I were at the market the other day and picked up a lovely butternut squash.

One night for dinner I sliced it into wedges, roasted it and brushed it lighty with a mixture of low sodium soy salt and pure maple syrup. It was delicious & incredibly healthy.

The next day, I took the left over pieces of roasted squash and dropped them into the food processor with a few cans of chickpeas. I added some yogurt, olive oil, nutmeg, curry, salt and pepper. Then I purred it to delicious hummus perfection. It's really good- I've eaten it for lunch with fresh peppers and for breakfast on top of a whole wheat bagel.

I am just madly in love with squash.

p.s. I lost 7 pounds.

Things that get me through the day...

Kozy Shack Sugar Free Rice Pudding- I add one tsp. of cinnamon to this delicious treat and enjoy. It's only 1 weight watcher point & helps curve my appetite for something sweet.



Pickled Vegetables- I didn't think of pickled veggies originally, but when I laid my eyes on these baby corn (not this brand- I bought the Santa Barbara baby corn) , there was no turning back. I also picked up some pickled cauliflower.



Starbucks Mocha Lite Frappaccino- Holy crap this is yummy & it's only 3 points for a grande! When I'm feeling like having a treat while Justin & I are out shopping, I def. don't feel guilty picking up one of these. I think it actually tastes better then the reg. frap. It tastes a lot more like dark chocolate.



Stretch Island Fruit Leather- Really good & has a variety of flavors (tropical is a bit sour though). It's only 1 point and allows me to munch on something sweet at work when there's donuts everywhere.

I'll update more later once I discover more delicious foods.

The Points System

For the past few days Justin and I have been keeping track of our food intake using the Weight Watchers points system. I remember doing weight watchers a few times in my life- once when I was about 13 & I actually lost a lot of weight doing it. The other time was with my Aunt Bev when I first started college and I didn't lose anything- probably because I was emotionally distraught and didn't have the will power to keep up with it. So far it's been easier with Justin at my side. We keep track of each others points and review them at the end of the day (to make sure neither of us is cheating). It requires a lot of trust because believe me, when you get to be this heavy and food becomes THAT important to your emotional well being (even though it really isn't) you will do anything (even if it means lying to your fiancee) to eat a donut. I've been completely honest with him about everything I eat. If I lie, I feel like I'm not being honest with myself. If I really don't have enough will power to keep myself from eating one stupid donut (that probably doesn't taste THAT good anyway-ecspecially if it's from dunkin' donuts) then why am I attempting to change my life? Eating that donut is only going to hurt myself in the end.

Today I ate:

Breakfast- I woke up at noon because of my long day of work the day before (no breakfast)
Lunch- Veggie Burger w/ my low fat mayo mix (low fat yogurt w/ dill & garlic) sandwich
Snack- Sugar Free Rice Pudding (my new favorite treat- it's only 1 point! and is DELICIOUS)
Snack- Coffee with fat free vanilla creamer
Snack- Broccolli
Dinner- Turkey, Brussel Sprouts & Roasted potatoes w/ garlic and rosemary
Dessert- Frozen Strawberry Bar (yum- 1 fantastic point)

I think we're going out to lunch tomorrow at work- we'll have to be on good watch.

BTW: I lost 5 pounds since 1 week and 1/2 ago when I last weighed myself. Sweet deal.

Who needs cake?

Today was great. I did so well. It's a lot easier to follow this life change when you have someone who is serious about it as well and can keep you on track. He knows what I eat and I know what he eats. We help eachother make decisions about what we're going to eat next. I guess it's kind of like a game. Every time I think about how bad I'd like to eat a piece of cake (which we had in the office today) I try to remind myself how badly I want to be healthy when we decide to have babies in the future. All of the overweight people I know (that have had children) have nothing but terrible experiences with their pregnancies. On the other side of that, all of the healthy people in my life (that have had children) have had fantastic healthy happy pregnancies. I'm not saying I want to have children now, but it is a good idea to start this "getting healthy" thing now, before it's too late.

I'm not losing weight for the wedding. It's a plus, but I think I'll be a beautiful bride no matter what. My grandma is obsessed with me losing weight because I'm going to be a "bride" and I can't be a "fat bride". It's really annoying. I have a lot of problems with how my grandmother feels about image. I'll post about that later.

This Sucks.

All I want is a freakin' Fazoli breadstick and I can't have one because my fiancee won't let me. I'll be happy about this decision later, but right now all I can think of is it's buttery garlicy goodness... all 100 calories of it.