Recipe - for Two Servings

I called this Chicken Pomodoro-ish Stuff. I sort of made it up as I went last night. It made two servings for me - one for dinner last night and one for lunch today. It would have been lovely served with a side salad with a vinaigrette of some sort (though I didn't do the salad thing last night). Here it is:

Chicken Pomodoro-ish Stuff
Serves: 2
PointsPlus: 8

1 approx 6 oz chicken breast (more will up the pts - I used one of the individ. frozen dealies)
2-3 Roma tomatoes (or any fleshy tom without many seeds)
2 tsp EVOO
splash to 2 Tbsp white wine (eyeball it as you go)
splash to 2 Tbsp water (eyeball it as you go)
1 small clove of garlic
crushed red pepper
salt
basil
grill seasoning
2 servings of a brown and wild rice blend

Put on your rice - cook as directed. When there is about 10-15 mins left to go, start this part:

Spray a skillet with cooking spray. If using stainless steel also add 1 tsp of EVOO (I used SS). Cut chicken into bite sized pieces, sprinkle with grill seasoning (and salt & pepper if you like) and brown slightly on medium to medium high heat - about 2 mins or so. While the chicken is cooking seed and dice the tomatoes, and chop the garlic.

Pull chicken out of pan, and then add the other tsp of EVOO.

Add the garlic and saute briefly. Then add the tomatoes, and spices. I can't say how much because I just sort of throw in whatever makes me happy. Cook the tomato and garlic mixture for another minute or two, and then add the white wine. Cook some more - another five mins or so, stirring occasionally. This makes a thick and chunky sort of sauce - not a lot of liquid. Once the tomatoes start to get softer, add the chicken back in. If it's looking too dry add more water. Cook another two minutes or so, warming the chicken back up.

Cover half of the rice with half of the chicken mixture. Put the other halves in a container for lunch the next day.

You could also toss this with pasta instead of rice. OR you could dump it into a roll and top with some cheese...

After eating go outside and then come back in so you can smell how yummilicious the house smells.

The end.

Rebound Struggle

So I've been talking to myself about how I know it's water weight (or food weight, or whatever) and that there's no way I gained (and I was off by a digit) two pounds of fat over the course of the week... particularly not since I did Zumba five days!!! Normally I would have expected to have dumped the water weight by this morning, but I've only dumped about .6 of it - leaving me still up .4 from the last weigh in.

I'm not sure why, exactly, but I'm feeling frustrated over it. Not "quit" frustrated, but certainly "eat a bunch of Easter candy" frustrated.

The Easter Bunny came to see me on Sunday. It brought many lots of bunches of candy. I ate a few pieces (truly, really, genuinely only a few) and brought the rest to work. Now it's sitting here on the edge of my desk and it's calling my name. I think it's calling my name harder because of the frustration.

In my head it goes, "Oh, well, I'm up this week anyway, why not?". It's not even that I'm thinking that I might want a few pieces more... it's a craving for an all out down and dirty binge.

I don't feel very good this week - emotionally or physically. I think this is a contributing factor. It's been a while since I've felt like I was out of control. I'm not ACTING out of control, but I feel like it. I feel like at this exact moment one step in the wrong direction would send me careening down a path that I don't want to be on.

So I guess this is a good moment to draw on those militant reserves. I've been cruising along sort of giving myself some leeway, but I think this is a moment for staying the course carefully... at least until this passes.

Say What?

Up a pound this week? Three or four days ago I was down two pounds, so this is up three pounds from a few days ago. I've been on plan... so the only thing I can come up with is a normal sort of fluctuation. I don't have many of these, though I know most people do. I *do* feel like I've got some bloat going on.

I almost waited to weigh in again tomorrow, but then it didn't seem fair to make up my own rules as I go along. So I'm putting on my big girl panties and taking the gain this week. Darnit.

Rolling Along

This week's WI has me down 1.4 lbs. That makes a total loss of 19 lbs so far, and I'm 5 lbs away from 10%.

I managed to get myself to Zumba 3 times last week. I was afraid that by the third class I'd be all ricketty, but in actuality I felt pretty darned good. I'm going to try to try different classes and find the ones that I like best to go to. I'm somewhat limited by the fact that I can't make a class before 6.30, but I'm managing.

It is interesting to me (though probably not terribly surprising to my friends) that I am finding that I tend to have relatively strong preferences about Zumba so far. I find that I prefer classes that focus more on the latin style moves, and less on the hip hop stuff. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some hip hop, but really prefer some salsa in my step. I like clear and sharp choreography, and rather dislike wandering around up there.

It almost makes me wish I had a man around to take some ballroom dancing lessons with. You know, a man to dance with, not a man to date. It would strictly be a using him for my own purposes sort of arrangement (dancing, of course).

Anyway. I'm gearing up for the spring and summer - I just cut open my first cantaloupe last night. Yum! Every time I eat cantaloupe it reminds me of my Papaw. When I was a kid he and I would sit up there at his bar, and between the two of us we could wipe out an entire cantaloupe. I probably still could. Particularly when they're teenie tiny (grumble grumble) like the one last night. Anyway, for dinner last night I had:

Citrus Marinated Lamb Chops
Brown and Wild Rice blend
cantaloupe
two dove miniatures

I was going to have a spinach salad too, but had already had quite a hefty salad at lunch, and there is such a thing as too much roughage, IMO.

I am reminded that it's been a long time since I've posted a recipe. Hm. I may do that this week. Until then, my one major goal for this week is to keep moving!

Triple Threat Tuesday

Alliterate much? Hah! I weighed in this morning to find a 3.0 lb loss this week (triple threat... 3.0 lbs... get it?). Actually, it was more like a 3 lb loss last week, but I was holding on to pizza induced water weight. Either way, though, these things usually sort themselves out. So that puts me at 17.6 lbs lost.

I feel so much better. I'm sleeping better, my pieces parts ache less, and I have a lot more energy. Emotionally I feel better, even in the midst of trying times at work. I feel like this is a gift for myself.

I'm totally having a ball doing Zumba, and if I keep enjoying it I'm tossing around the idea of following in my little sister's footsteps and going for my instructor certification. But that's a ways off. I'll probably need another 17 or so pounds gone before my body will be in good enough shape to stand up to the rigors of being an instructor.... or even stand up to the rigors of the instructor class.

I have, however, figured out that for some reason steps just wreck my knees. I can Zumba, I can walk, I can hike... but take the stairs and I'm in pain. For now I'm going to continue to give the stairs a rest.

Until next time.... rock on!

Snack Time!

I almost always eat a snack in the afternoons. For me this is a holdover from when I was a kid. We *always* had a snack around 3pm, and I still do it.

Today's snack is a handfull of grape tomatoes (ok, maybe two handfulls), along with multigrain crackers (I like the Wheat Thins Great Plains Multi-Grain ones) and roasted red pepper hummus. Total points = 4. Very satisfying. This is my fuel up before Zumba in 2.5 hours. Can't wait to go sweat it out!

Tuesday - Weigh In - anyone want to jump in??

Weigh in again. Just opening the floor for any other fatgirlz who'd like to post. :)

I lost another 1.2 this week, making that 14.6 total. I am still up about 1.5 lbs from before the weekend, but I suspect I'll unload the rest of that water weight today.

Unfortunately for me I unloaded a bunch of the water weight in the middle of the night, involving a multitude of potty trips during the night. Feeling a bit bedraggled this morning. But I'm happy with my progress. There is a cut off, so to speak, where I'm happy with myself at any weight below that. I'm 20.4 lbs away. That's my first BIG goal. Other than 10%, obviously, and I'm close to it too.

Happy somewhat rainy Tuesday!

Internal Debate

Today I'm having a bit of an internal debate I thought I'd share. I took a trip this past weekend, and had lots of manual labor going on. I picked up a small pizza Saturday night, and this morning I'm up approximately 3 lbs from the weight I was at prior to leaving on Friday.

Intellectually I know this is typical for me - I can usually expect 2-3 lbs of water weight after eating pizza - especially if I've not drunk enough water. I didn't drink a whole lot of water yesterday knowing I'd be driving.

So normally prior to a weigh in if I was holding water weight I would drink copious amounts of water (to flush out the bloat) and if I had any flexies or APs left over I wouldn't use them - and I'd certainly not eat anything heavy prior to bed knowing I plan to weigh in tomorrow morning.

I'm tossing around the idea of just treating today like a normal day and letting the chips fall where they may tomorrow. I have eaten all of my APs but I still have my 49 flexies left. I also have a regular #8 from Jersey Mike's that I was planning to eat for dinner tonight. Hmmm... what to do.

Can I deal with being (most likely) up tomorrow even though I know it's water weight?

I'm not sure. I think so though.