My thoughts about WW

Hello everyone, it's been a busy one around here lately. The in-law's didn't say much about the chili except my FIL said thanks for the meal, so who knows what they thought about it. I gave some to a friend at work who is also doing WW and she loved it, I thought it was good so I'm not stressing about whether they liked it or not. I don't think I'm gonna make them a meal this week because my FIL is out of town and my SIL who doesn't work  is staying with the MIL.

Since several of you have asked me about what I think about WW vs. the BFC I put a little thought into it and here are my thoughts:

• On WW some things can be high in sugar but low is points, I find this strange and  I always try to chose natural products when I can, and I am always mindful on the sugar content.
• Hubby and I are doing WW online which I love, the website is super easy to use and it has a lot of helpful tips, success stories and links to blogs. When I track my food and activity for the day I feel good like I've earned a gold star for the day.
• I still love and use the products I tried while doing the bfc: Jay Robb protein powder, unsweetened almond mild,  and smart and delicious low carb tortillas.
• Even though we are eating yogurt again I prefer the plain greek yogurt because it is low in sugar and very satisfying and filling.
• I do partake in a little of fake sugar in the light yogurts, but other than an occasional diet coke I stay away from the fake sugar, and I still use stevia to sweeten things.
• It is really nice to be eating fruit again I especially missed having apples, but from what I learned on the BFC I limit the amount and portion size because even though the sugar in fruit is natural we still don't need to go gung ho on it.
• I have not gone back to drinking or using milk, I think it's gross and unhealthy, and whenever a recipe calls for low-fat milk I always use the unsweetened almond milk and I can't even tell the difference.
• I have found I need to  be careful in some of the WW recipes I try many of them rely heavily on fake sugar or other low-fat products with creepy ingredients. Basically I try to stick to my food philosophy even when it's hard. (especially cool whip)
• If I can think of anything else I'll try to write it down so I remember to share, half the time my good ideas are long gone by the time I sit down to post :)

On other non-diet news last weekend hubby put down our dining room carpet that my in-laws gave us, it's the perfect size for the space, and now that we have that down we can start looking for fabric to recover the dining room set. Hubby also set up the our guest bed, my in-laws have given us so much of their time and stuff that I think we should have a plack  to commemorate their generosity. Slowly very slowly this house is coming together.

This week I made hubby buffalo chicken in the crock pot from inspiration from the skinnytaste site. I put two frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot on low with a cup of franks buffalo sauce and let it cook all day, when I got home I took it out shredded it and added the rest of the buffalo sauce. Hubby loved it! I put the chicken on a skinnybun with a little light blue cheese for a quick tasty dinner. I didn't make any for myself because I don't usually care for anything buffalo due to the tabasco. Instead I cooked a spaghetti squash, I added veggies, low sugar spaghetti sauce from Trader Joe's, several chicken meatballs also from Trader Joe's, fresh basil, and moz....Yummm. Tomorrow's lunch is zucchini, broccoli, chicken meatball, TJ spaghetti sauce, ricotta, fresh basil and Italian parsley, ricotta and parm.



I guess that's all for now, the moral of this story is life is good over here at the McCoy house, have a wonderful day :)

Down 8 lbs :)

This is the picture from pinterest, my frosting was not this perfect.

Hello everyone, things are good over here hubby and I are still doing WW I am down 8 lbs :) I have been really good with exception to the holiday weekend. Fridays are a day that hubby and I seem to be able to cheat a bit with a couple extra drinks and still lose but last Friday we had our cheat day, that we followed up with a cheat Saturday, and a cheat Monday when our neighbors invited us over for fajitas. The good news is we were much better this weekend.

Yesterday I helped host a bridal shower for one of the girls at work, man I never realized how much work goes into a shower. I was responsible for a chicken salad and croissants, cupcakes, and a cracker appetizer with bacon. My first thought was to buy cupcakes from a bakery, but when I looked into the cost I almost had a small heart attack when I realized I would be paying $ 36 for a dozen. I don't like to bake and I am not very confident in my baking abilities but I made a batch of wedding cake cupcakes from a recipe on pinterest. They were not diet friendly by any means but they were good, I made sure to give them all away and I didn't save any for hubby and myself. I also made some stuffed strawberries I also saw on pinterest, again this is the picture from pinterest mine were not this perfect looking but they were easy and worth making again. The recipe I chose for the strawberries was cream cheese, powdered sugar, and almond extract. I bet it would work just as well with stevia instead of powdered sugar.

Tonight I have been prepping the turkey pumpkin chili from skinnytaste to put in the crock pot tomorrow. I am making a double recipe because I am taking some to my in-laws. Almost a month ago my MIL fell and broke her left ankle and left wrist. She doesn't like things that seem weird or out of the box so I am only telling her that it is turkey chili and not pumpkin chili :) Have a wonderful week everyone.

Happy Mother's Day

Hello everyone and Happy Mother's Day to all those that are Mamma's out there. Today we had the clan over to our house for Mother's Day. The food was delicious and my Mom, MIL and sister-in-law  received lavender plants as presents. Our weather has been absolutely beautiful around here, we have some lilac's in our backyard that are amazing. The pollen was crazy today yesterday as we were cleaning getting ready for the fam to come over we dusted, right now it doesn't even look like we dusted at all.

Anyway, things are really good I love weight watchers online, I am down 7 lbs now. Seven pounds is the difference between being able to button up the jeans I want and having them fit in a flattering way. I was having a hard time before, I felt like my muffin top was more like a busted can of biscuits, it probably wasn't that bad but that's how I felt. Besides doing ww I have been getting strength training in at body conditioning class, zumba and pilates.

Something that feels strange is that I am eating fruit and still losing weight. The bfc basically says that most fruit is too high in sugar for weight loss. We are also eating yogurt again and loving it go figure. Doing weight watchers feels so natural and it's nice to be able to talk to people about ww and have them know what I am talking about.  Well, I guess that's all for now :)

Pluggin away

Hello sister friends, I am happy to share that I am down another 1.5 lbs for a total of 4.5 lbs so far and I feel good. Hubby did not get an accurate weigh in on Saturday because he drank several beers on Friday, and beer seems to pack a lot of bloat the next day. Hubby is the kind of guy that will often find himself too busy to take the time to eat, lately I have been making him  turkey wraps with the smart and delicious low carb tortilla, laughing cow cheese, baby spinach and sprouts. I wrap it up in parchment paper and then saran wrap and everything stays nicely together and its easy to unwrap and eat on the go. I have also started making him some hearty protein shakes to eat on the go. I have been using Jay Robb chocolate protein powder, PB2 peanut butter, unsweetened almond milk, oatmeal, plain greek yogurt and berries or banana. A shake like this really has enough protein and carb to keep you feeling full and satisfied as if you had eaten a meal.

That's about all I have to say right now, nothing too exciting is happening over here. I have been good about getting up early and getting my butt to the gym, recently I have started going to spinning and pilates. They are both kicking my butt I feel sore and tired all the time. I hope everyone is having a good week :)

Back at it, but trying a different approach

At Pikes Market on our Anniversary Trip.

Hi girls, it's been awhile since I posted to be honest I was feeling very discouraged. In March after hubby's bday I gained three lbs :( and I thought yikes I better get on top of this fast. Hubby and I were so far off the wagon it wasn't even funny, and we were in denial over the whole thing. Several of the girls at work are doing weight watchers online, I asked hubby if he would want to sign up for a three month special they were offering. He said yes with the exception that when we took our 5 year anniversary trip to Seattle he was going to eat whatever he wanted.

It feels weird to be sharing about doing WW since the title of my blog is Katies-bfc, but it's helping us to get back on track. The changes that we are making are pretty much common sense diet/health stuff for whatever diet/lifestyle plan. I had gotten away from portion control and keeping track of what I was really eating and drinking. I think it's easier to lie to yourself about what you are really up to if you don't keep track. I am really finding that using my kitchen scale to be helpful in measuring out cheese and wine. A five ounce glass of wine in much different than when I just pour it on my own.

I am down 3 lbs and hubby is down 13, I'm sure we would be down even more if we had been more strict on our anniversary trip to Seattle, but we have made peace with that. I know some of you watch Top Chef do you remember when they cooked at SkyCity the restaurant on top of the space needle? Hubby and I had lunch up there and it was AMAZING and so much fun.

Lunch at SkyCity

We are trying to apply what we learned from when we were really doing good on the bfc by eating better carbs and staying low sugar and being careful about fake sugar. In June we are taking a trip down to  Texas to see friends from the Military in the Dallas  Fort Worth and Austin areas so we are feeling very motivated to be looking good in our summer clothes. We are also talking about starting to try to get pregnant and everything I have read about pregnancy says to try to be at a good healthy weight before getting pregnant. They also say that if a man is in good health and at a good weight he is more likely to produce healthy sperm. To me it doesn't feel like a  good time to try to get pregnant, but it's finally clicked that if we wait until "the right time" it will never come or it will pass us by.

In other news hubby and I have been busy spring cleaning. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day at the laundry mat washing blankets and our comforter. It feels sooo good to have that done because I had been putting it off for awhile. Hubby and his boss spent yesterday tearing out bushes from the yard. I have also been trying hard to get more exercise in. Yesterday I took my first spinning class with some girls from work, I have been wanting to do that for awhile but I was afraid to go by myself. I gotta tell ya it feels good to really be working on the things I need to and not just talking about what I know I need to do. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend everyone :)

From the Space Needle

Hi girls, I wish I knew why I am having such a hard time posting lately. I have several rough drafts that just never seem to feel right. Things over here in my neck of the woods are good. Last Saturday was an amazing beautiful sunny day, hubby and I got in an amazing walk. We walked to a surprise 30th bday party while we drank coffee, we saw a golden retriever puppy at the coffee shop and a older golden on our walk. Golden's are my absolute favorite dog and now that we have a house we are planning on getting one soon :) :)

Food has been good, I made the cheesecake muffins from Rosalie's blog for the first time last Monday and they are amazing. I am thinking of getting some of the flavored stevia drops for a different flavor. I have learned that hubby is really struggling with sweets, if there are cookies   or other sweets at work he can't seem to stay away. So I am trying to make bfc friendly treats more often to help us with the sugary temptations out there. This quarter at school has been challenging for hubby, he has a lot of busy work and  it's hard for him to find enough time for work, school and everything else. Doing the bfc is not just something that I try to do for myself I also try to help hubby eat the best carbs and very low sugar.

Friday was hubby's 33rd bday and we celebrated with having family over for a casual Mexican themed dinner. As another option to chips for salsa and guacamole we had celery and daikon radish, which really helped me to stay away from the chips. We had a party platter from Azteca, which was a good idea so no one had to cook, but I don't think we would order it again it was very greasy. My Mom is amazing she brought me some vanilla clemmy's ice cream because she knew I wouldn't eat any of the mountain dew lemon cake that she made for hubby.

I guess that's all for now, I hope everyone has a great Monday tomorrow :)

Hello everyone, happy Sunday :) This past week hubby and I have been very good on the food side of things. We decided that after super bowl we were going to be more disciplined and stop making so many excuses for what we do. I have found that the weekends can do more damage to me than the week, because on the weekends we often go out for dinner or just drinks and appetizers. Have you ever noticed that often appetizers are pretty carby? It seems that flat breads, or toasts for dip or fried things are popular. This weekend hubby and I stayed home and drank tea instead of wine while we caught up on  Top Chef and Dexter. I love this season of Top Chef  this season they are in Seattle and it's fun to see them go places that hubby and I have been. My only complaint about Top Chef is Padma, I can't stand her I find her condescending and annoying. I am pulling for Brooke to win it all.

I am afraid my computer might be dead (right now I'm on hubbys) I asked hubby to take it to a computer wiz at work to see if he can fix it, but hubby thinks the hard drive is fried :( Very frustrating, but it might be good for me to have limited computer access for awhile I know I waste a lot of time just playing around.

Well, I guess that's all for now it's time to get up and be productive.  Have a wonderful Sunday :)

Hello girls, sorry I haven't written in awhile I have tried several times to post but I kept hitting a wall. First of all is everyone excited for super bowl tomorrow? My hubby is and he is pulling for the Ravens I hope they win so he wins some money from his office football pool. One of my co-workers is having a party which is perfect because she lives three houses down from us. I am going to try a  recipe I saw on Ree Drummond's Pioneer Woman during the holiday season. You take a club cracker top it with a spoon full of parmesan, and then wrap it with half a slice of bacon and bake it on a low temp for about two hours. I know it's not very bfc friendly but it looks like a great dish to take to a party.

During last years super bowl hubby and I put in an offer on our house. The house was in short sale so it felt like it took forever but now that we are here it was worth the wait. Our first house is in a better neighborhood than we thought for our price range, we are super blessed. Hubby is still in school and working part time. I am so thankful that I have a husband who is such a hard worker, I have to remind myself of that when I am feeling sorry for myself for having to do pretty much all the house chores by myself.

This February marks the second year of doing the bfc and having this blog. In the past two years hubby and I have gone through phases of being really good and not very good with the bfc. I can honestly tell you that we both feel and look much better when we are being really good. The bfc has changed how I look and think about carbs and sugar and fake sugar. Starting Monday hubby and I are going to be a little more strict with our diet we are going to do the fast track awhile. We have found that after the holidays we like to shake things up and for us after the super bowl is just the best time to cut back. I personally have found it helpful to be realistic about when is a good time to shake things up.

About a week and a half ago I celebrated my 30th birthday, it was a great day my Mom and I got pedicures together, I had a massage and the family came over to my folks house for some Mexican food. Hubby made a huge bowl of guacamole and I pretty ate as much of it as I could shove in my mouth. We also had margaritas made with refine margarita mix that I got at world market for $8.99. I remember Amber had a post awhile back about the refine mojito mix. The refine mixes are made with stevia instead of sugar, everyone thought it was good and I think it would be worth buying again. Last week my weight was up due to the combination of too many chips and margaritas, but I'm not worried. We got back on the wagon of being good and hubby took the rest of the chips to work.



I guess that is pretty much all for now I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend :)

Happy New Year

Hello girls, Happy New Year! I love the fresh start feeling of the new year this weekend I finally took down all my Christmas decorations now the house looks a little naked, thankfully I have several cute valentines day decorations that I bought on sale last year. I don't know how the time got away from me, it feels like forever since I posted last. I don't know about everyone else but the longer I go in between posting the harder it is and I find myself feeling like I don't have anything to say...and I even consider stopping all together. But then something hits me and I miss blogging and staying connected with all my blog buddies.

Christmas was nice we had all the family over on Christmas day for dinner and presents. I made a lotion I saw on pinterest made with baby lotion, vitamin e oil, and vaseline, I put it into cute jars from hobby lobby and paired it with snuggle socks for the girls, that was a big hit. My nephew also received a present that was inspired from pinterest, we took fifty one dollar bills and taped them together end to end and stuffed them into a kleenex box, so when he opened it he pulled out a big long string of money similar to pulling scarfs out of a hat. That was super fun to gift to give.


Hubby and I didn't do too badly this holiday season, I only ate several of my very favorite cookies my godmother makes and just left the rest alone. We have a tradition of getting together the week before Christmas and making and exchanging cookies, I like the tradition of getting together but I could really do without all the cookies. This year my Mom was trying to talk to my godmother about scaling back the amount and variety of cookies but there didn't seem to be any interest in that...basically the attitude of everyone else involved is 'this is what we have always done, and we will keep doing it this way. I didn't really want any cookies to take home with me because the two of us don't need to be eating any cookies, but my Mom sent me home with some anyway so I shuffled them off to hubby's work.

Any way, hubby and I started off the new year by getting back to eating more salads and veggie stir fry's. We ate a lot of cheese between Christmas and New Years. Christmas Eve we had quiche, with Christmas day dinner we had cheese potatoes, and last week before New Years my Mom invited us over for fondue for one last indulgence before the getting back to healthy eating in the new year. After a week of eating lots of green veggies I feel better, the amount of cheese and salt we consumed was a little overwhelming.

I hope everyone has a good start to the week. Hubby and I woke up to six inches of fresh snow simply beautiful! We had a joint task force and we shoveled our driveway, our patio on top of the garage and our front. The joys of being a new homeowner :)

Happy December

Hello everyone and Happy December! I am so happy to share that I am feeling much better, last Tuesday I bought a neti pot to help flush our my sinuses, wow I wish I had bought one when I first felt like crap. I was skeptical and unsure of how it would feel, and it just feels strange. The key is using a saline solution or else it will burn like it did when you were a kid and got water up your nose. I am so grateful that I didn't have to call the Dr. for a course of antibiotics like many of my co-workers, all I could think was I didn't want to destroy my good gut bacteria. I like to think that my sinus cold wasn't as severe and didn't hang on as long because I have been good about low sugar, who knows if I'm right but it's something that makes me feel good. In case you missed it last time this is what I did to help with my cold symptoms: I made a ginger lemon tea by placing peeled and sliced ginger and sliced lemons and water in my crock pot on low all day, I highly recommend that. Advil cold and sinus allowed me to function during the day and get good rest at night. I also made low salt turkey and chicken soup and tried to rest as much as possible.

I have been doing great on the bfc my jeans are fitting much better and I am sooo happy! I have been staying away from work food and also doing great on drinking less. Basically I've been doing the things that I know I need to be doing. I am confident that I can make it though the rest of the holiday season successfully and it feels realistic to be at 135 by the time my birthday rolls around at the end of January.

Have a wonderful week, I will try to post more so I can stay connected and I will work on getting some cute pics of our house posted :)

Thankful Thanksgiving is Over

Hello everyone, I am having a hard time getting this post out this is my third time sitting down to write :) Wow it's been a busy one since I last posted. Monday I got the crud that has been going around. I  put some peeled and sliced ginger and lemons in water and left it on low all night. The result was a very gingery lemon tea which helped me feel a ton better at work on along with advil cold and sinus. From what I can gather any kind of cold or cough syrup contains an absurd amount of sugar but cold/flu tablets may only contain a small amount of sugar if they have a coating around them. I also made chicken and turkey soup.

I am so thankful that Thanksgiving is over! Even though it went smoothly it was a lot of work since I didn't feel 100% and hubby was busy with school and work. Our folks helped us out a ton getting ready, my Mom came over and helped me clean and last minute decorate, my FIL came over and helped finish painting our upstairs bathroom and installing a vanity. Long story short everything turned out nicely and with all our help I was able to stay out of the kitchen with my cold.

We had a pretty traditional meal: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn casserole, rolls and gravy. I think I did pretty good I filled up half my plate with turkey, and only had a dollop of mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry and green beans. It was just the right amount of all the carby side dishes I had several good bites of each thing without going overboard. I completely stayed away from the sweet potatoes since the bfc all that added sugar just tastes gross, and I've never liked gravy.

All in all I'm sure I had more carbs than I needed for the whole day, but I feel good about it. I didn't go crazy with appetizers before dinner like I have in the past, I didn't drink too much wine I only had two glasses after everyone left and we watched a Christmas movie and looked at the black Friday ads. Another thing I did which has helped us not to pig out in the days after Thanksgiving was to send our guests home with generous plates of leftovers...all these things paid off because my weight was 139.5 on my Sunday morning weigh in :) Have a wonderful week everyone :)

Good things

Hello everyone, I must be doing something right because the scale was down to 140.5 this morning!!! I feel good and super encouraged to keep it up and stay on track. Yesterday I went to the mall and I found a cute sweater and fleece at Old Navy which surprised me because I haven't found anything there in forever. Even better news is that I didn't hate the way I looked in the dressing room mirror. :)

It's amazing what can happen when I just stick to what I know works. For me that includes drinking very little, this weekend I had one beer on Saturday, last weekend I had 1 glass of wine with dinner and the  weekend before that I didn't drink at all. And for the past month hubby and I have been good about not drinking during the week. I have managed to stay away from the work sweets, and if I ate any snacky carbs I counted them out....55 goldfish crackers is a satisfying amount of crackers. I have been getting whole grain carbs in with the ezekiel bread and lots of veggies. I have also been drinking lots of the celestial seasoning holiday teas with whipped cream.

Next on our agenda is hosting Thanksgiving. I feel good about that because I think it will be easier to sneak belly friendly options in along with the usual sugary carby fare. Have a great night :)

Portion Controll

Hello everyone, it's a rainy weekend up here in my neck of the woods perfect for house projects, meal planning and cooking. Our first Halloween in our house was fun for me hubby missed it because he was at school studying. He is such a good man and a hard worker. He works full time and goes to school full time, which is hard for me sometimes because I hardly ever see him.  On Halloween I took a page out of Rosalie's play book and handed out bags of chips instead of candy. I wanted to hand out bags of pirate booty but I couldn't find any at costco or the grocery store, next year if I think of it in enough time I'm sure I could order them off amazon. The parents of a super cute little chick gave me the thumbs up on bags of chips instead of candy :)

Yesterday I started reading the original bfc again, and wow there was a ton of stuff that I had forgot, or that I have been pushing the line on. I think that is part of the problem too often we eye ball it or think that what we are doing is the right thing when it comes to weight loss and maintenance.

Another really simple and common sense thing I have been overlooking is lately is portion size of what we take to work everyday. When I make food and put it away in the fridge hubby takes whatever container it is in so if I put something away in a larger container he will take that container and eat it. I find that I have been taking a larger container with the thought that I will eat some at lunch and some at break, but I often eat too much at a time. Yesterday I talked to hubby about this and he agreed that sometimes we are just eating too much food even though it's not sugary or carby.

I guess that's all for now, I hope everyone is having a great weekend :)

Bfc friendly chocolate peanut butter pudding cake

Hello everyone, today was a beautiful fall day  I had coffee with a friend and we took a walk around a beautiful park. It was a cold damp rainy day but fortunately we didn't get rained on. It wasn't as cold as it was during the rest of the week so it was a great day to get out and enjoy the fall leaves. We might get an early snow this year (yikes) I always hope that it doesn't snow until the end of November or the first part of December.

Something that has been on my mind this week is how easy it is for me to think of the work week and the weekend as being separate.  It's so easy to think that after we have been good during the work week we can relax on the weekend. This way of thinking has really slowed my progress and I'm ready to acknowledge that when I am trying to lose weight I need to be extra good on the weekend as well as the week.

I am loving my crock pot so much and I really want to build my collection of recipes apart from stew, soup and chili. Last year for Christmas I asked for "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufman. I made my first recipe this week, which seems crazy since I wanted it so bad and then never made anything until now....go figure. The recipe I tried is "chocolate peanut butter pudding cake" although I altered it to be bfc friendly.

Here is the original recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake:
1c flour
2T unsweetened coco powder
1/2c sugar
1, 1/2t baking powder
1/2c whole milk or chocolate milk
2T peanut oil, canola or walnut
1 T vanilla
1/2c peanut butter
1/2c semisweet chocolate chips

Topping:
3T unsweetened coco powder
3/4c sugar
1,1/2c boiling water

BFC Friendly Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake:
1c  almond flour
2T unsweetened coco powder
several packets of stevia (I think I used 5 or so)
1,1/2t baking powder
1/2c half-n-half
2T walnut oil
1T vanilla
1/2c peanut butter
1/2 dark chocolate bark cut up

Topping:
3T unsweetned coco powder
several packets stevia
1.1/2c boiling water


Cover the bottom of your slow cooker with butter, oil or spray and spread out the cake batter. Add the topping and cook on HIGH for 2-2.5 hrs. After it has finished cooking let it sit for at least a half an hour. I found that it was 10x's better after sitting overnight.

Hello everyone, slowly we are getting our bfc groove back. I tried a delicious new recipe from pinterest in my crock pot.This morning I also started re-reading the original bfc and bfc ft...very helpful. I was surprised that there were a lot of things that I had forgot. I'm really committed to doing this thing and getting back on track. This week at work I have been very disciplined and I haven't gotten into the crackers and other carby things that get me off track...it was especially hard to stay out of the goldfish crackers today. I have learned that being good in these things that seem small is what counts for me. Have a wonderful rest of your week :)

Thai-Style Pork Stew 
www.myrecipes.com/recipe/thai-style-pork-stew-10000000354826/

• 2 pounds boned pork loin, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 cups (1 x 1/4-inch) julienne-cut red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce    
• 2 tablespoons rice or white wine vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter 
• 6 cups hot cooked basmati rice
• 1/2 cup diagonally cut green onions
• 2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts

How I adapted it...I was inspired by Jorge's "Sumptuous Pork Stir-Fry" in the original BFC pg. 229. For a sweet and sour sauce I used one part balsamic vinegar, one part low sodium soy sauce, two packets of stevia, and one tsp. ginger instead of teriyaki sauce. And instead of rice I used quinoa, and added broccoli. 

Still trying to find my bfc groove

Hello everyone, what a week. First of all we found out that someone had gotten hold of my husband's credit card number and probably had a new credit card made with out number. We were alerted by the credit card company when they had used the wrong zip code while getting gas. Crazy huh, when I told my folks about it they said the same thing happened to them last month.

Food wise I did great this week, I did not cheat at work even though there was a ton of bad stuff to eat there. My work place loves to have potlucks for any occasion, we have had two in a row. It is so easy for me to mindlessly eat while at work. It is especially hard for me to stay away from chips and salsa. I had learned during my time doing the bfc that chips are my downfall. Once I start I can just eat and eat and eat. I have counted them out before and just ate one serving, but that is really hard one serving is usually 14-17 chips.

I also did not have any candy from the candy drawer. It is so easy to tell myself that the bite size candy bars are so low in sugar or calories that I can have several and it won't hurt me...I just googled bite size butterfinger and they have 3.67g sugar and 33 calories. Which is not super bad, but not helpful if you are trying to lose weight. Plus it's hard for me to have just one, once I start I want at least a couple more. Another thing that I did great in this week was not drinking more than two glasses of wine at a time, which is big progress for me because I LOVE red wine.

I feel like I am still trying to find my groove in several areas especially getting back into the bfc groove. I had been in denial so long about how I was doing that it is taking a lot of effort to get my mind back in the game. I guess it will come with hard work and time. I guess that's all for now have a great weekend everyone.

Random things

I remembered what I wanted to say before, I love fall foods especially squash here is my tip: don't throw away the seeds. I know it is a hassle but just toss them in the strainer and separate them from the stringy squash, add a splash of olive oil or grapeseed salt and pepper. Put them in the oven on 400, make sure to stir them often to prevent burning and cook until they are a nice golden brown.

Roasted veggies are my favorite thing to make right now, I've truly been making them a ton but hubby hasn't complained yet :) Roasted veggies also make wonderful fall soups. I love to make soup, but lately I've decided that I don't like using pre-made chicken or veggie stalks because they are usually full of salt. I would rather be in control of how much salt I put in my soups.

Have a wonderful Monday :)

Hello everyone, thanks for the great comments. Thank you Amy your comment made me feel really special and good, so thank you for brightening my day :) Last Saturday was a great day my Mom and I found some items for my mantle from Pier 1 and Hobby Lobby slowly very slowly I feel like this house is ours.

Hubby is back in school which is great but it's an adjustment on both of us to get used to him being busy all the time. Last week I spent a lot of time at the gym which I feel really good about because I want a strong, fit body. I wore jeans this weekend that I haven't worn in three weeks and they fit better! I love that feeling when your jeans fit better, they still don't fit the way I want but I know it will take more time and hard work to get there. Today the scale was up a pound but I'm not worried because my jeans fitting better shows progress that the scale doesn't show.

I know I had more on my mind to share but I can't seem to think of it at the moment....so I guess it will come to me at some random time :)

Checkin in

Hello everyone, I've been playing around on pinterest and catching up on the blogs...Ashley Mae have you decided not to blog any longer? If so I wish you the best on your weight loss journey.

I'm sure hubby and I look pretty amusing we are in the basement in our beach chairs with a rubbermaid as our end table watching football, I mean hubby is watching football and I've been on pinterest. I love love love pinterest.

I have been a very good girl lately, I've been eating right and working out hard this week I am down .5 lb my tummy looks smaller to me and I have tightened my belt buckle...I feel so encouraged. I can do this!

I don't have a ton left to say not much has been happening, we are still getting settled in putting things and doing lots of yard work. Things are coming along nicely, today my Mom and I went and started getting fall decorations for my mantle.

Would you like to know what I have been eating this week? Roasted veggies and baked meatballs, tri-tip roast with butternut squash, breakfast burritos with low carb tortillas, turkey breakfast sausage, eggs and cheese. Snacks: 1/4c Thai curry cashews, and avocados.

3rd day in a row blogging, go figure

Hello everyone, I don't even remember the last time I blogged three days in a row. Thanks for all the great comments yesterday. Welcome Debbie what is your blog address? I googled Debbie's Journey and several blogs came up but it didn't seem that any were yours.

Yesterday was weigh in day and whooo hooo down 1 lb to 142. It's progress and it shows that I was good with food and exercise last week. I feel encouraged that I can exercise and eat good and get back into good shape. 

The roasted veggie soup I made Saturday turned out great and it was so simple. I roasted zucchini summer squash, butternut squash and a medium slice of onion in grapseed oil salt and pepper for an hour on 400. I then sauteed a bunch of kale and celery and then added the  roasted veggies, water parsley and a little more salt and pepper. It was delicious and I didn't even have to add any more chicken or veggie stalk for flavor. I LOVE LOVE fall soups.

Have a wonderful day :)