Weight Watchers Wednesday!

As most of you know, I started Weight Watchers this past Saturday. Since I will be going back to AR on Thursday, I decided I should go ahead and weigh in today and try to get in the routine of a Tuesday night weigh in.

First off, I can tell WW is working. I have done so much research and studying the new points plus system and realized that they have put a lot of work into the new program. It just makes sense. (Does that make sense???)

If you are not familiar with WW, the program is based on a set of points. You are allowed so many points per day (based on height, weight, and age) and the foods you eat have their own points. (They go off of fat grams, carbohydrates, protein, and dietary fiber.) The idea is not exceed your points for the day, but each week you are allotted 49 extra points to use whenever. You definitely don't have to use your extra points, either. Just there if you need to! :)

I am enjoying this. I love keeping my food journal because it keeps me accountable for everything that goes into my mouth. The only part that I really need to work on is to exercise at least 30 minutes a day minimum.

So onto the weigh in...

Since Saturday, I have lost 2.2 lbs! Very excited. I weighed in at the morning time for my initial weigh in, and then did my weigh today in the evening. I was nervous wondering if it would even show a loss. (Because we all know that we all are a few pounds heavier by the end of the day! ;) ) So I feel like I am off to a good start. I have really kicked up my water intake too, which I feel always helps.

So my next weigh in will be next Tuesday night.

So, I thought it would be neat to share a recipe that I made during the week. I have been taking advantage of the Recipe Builder that WW online has. You input all of the ingredients and then the servings and it tells you how many points per serving the meal is.

I made Shepherd's Pie using ground turkey. It turned out really good! I had actually planned on eating it tonight for dinner and went to go warm it up and apparently Robert thought he would take the entire pan with him to work! Oh, I was so mad! ;)

Shepherd's Pie

Serves6

8 Points Plus per serving

1.25 lbs Ground Turkey (93% lean)

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup frozen carrots

1/2 cup frozen corn kernels

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 can low sodium beef broth

2 tbsp flour

2 bay leaves

 2 large potatoes

1/2 cup skim milk

1 wedge of laughing cow light cheese

2 tbsp light butter

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Brown turkey meat until done then drain out the excess grease. Add onions and continue to cook. Sprinkle flour over mixture and saute for about a minute. Add beef broth and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer. Add carrots and corn, then salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let simmer for atleast 30 minutes or until sauce is reduced and thickened. While the meat mixture is cooking, you can start your potatoes. Peel potatoes and dice into chunk size pieces. (It is important not to put potatoes into boiling water, but to add them to cool water and turn on the heat once the potatoes are in to ensure the potatoes cook evenly.) Cook potatoes until tender. Mix in butter, milk, and cheese and whip with a mixer until creamy. (You can use 2 tbsp fat free sour cream in place of laughing cow if you prefer.) Once meat mixture is thickened. Put into a baking dish (Be sure to remove bay leaves). Sprinkle the frozen peas on top. Smooth mashed potatoes on top. Then top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until bubbly and the cheese has melted. Serve and enjoy!

*All I had on hand was full fat cheddar cheese. If you use fat free cheese, you can reduce the points value to 7 per serving!

How could you not...

Love these two faces! :)

My babies are growing up so fast! I keep thinking that Brycen should still be a baby, not a toddler. And the fact that Thompson will be FOUR this year makes me want to cry.

Seriously... where does the time go???

This Week!!!

We are headed to Arkansas! I love, love, LOVE visiting my family. I look forward to these visits and hope T & B make memories that they will one day look back on. I know fishing at the river will definitely be on the agenda! :)

We don't like to leave Robert at all, but with him working 7 days a week, we hardly see him as it is. So, Thursday we leave. Praying for a quiet flight, of course.

Today, I attended my first Weight Watchers meeting. It was a little nuts. The meeting was fine, but the boys were not. Thompson didn't want to sit in the stroller, so therefor Brycne didn't either. Ugh. After a few stares from the WW leader, I decided it was best to leave. As I was leaving, a guy Robert worked with saw us and offered to watch the boys while I listened to the meeting. So nice of him! So I was able to learn what I need to, and the boys were able to roam and be loud. Let's just hope this isn't a preview for our trip Thursday...

Tomorrow night is my favorite TV watching show night. Army Wives is back on, as well as a new show I like Coming Home. Both are supposed to be very emotional episodes dealing with losing loved ones in the military. I don't like to watch shows that deal with death, but sometimes we all need a reminder that everyday, people are losing their loved ones. I know I always come away with a sense of pride and gratefulness that Robert is safe and at home.

So, Robert is on duty tonight and I had both the boys asleep and in bed by 8:15. (Shocker, I know!!) Guess what?! I am sooooo bored! Haha.

I guess I will call it an early night too!

Oh, I am so excited to get a new video of Brycen. Let's just say that the child knows the most important thing ever! How to 'Call the HOGS' of course!!! Definitely one proud Momma!

New plan??

So, I debated about writing this post, but felt I need all the information I could get. As you know, I have been dieting for about 3 weeks now. I have lost a little weight, but not as much as I would like. I have been sticking to roughly 1200 calories a day. i have been tracking my meals into one of my phone apps, which I love! But, I have not lost anything in 2 weeks. There is no way I could plateau already. I have been also trying to fit in some exercise and lots of water.

It's frustrating to say the least. After I had Thompson, I lost the baby weight plus about 25 pounds. It took me about 6 months to lose about 80 pounds. And now almost 16 months after having Brycen, I am still have 35 pounds of the 50 I gained to lose.

AND IT WON'T COME OFF!!!!

I am only 25, so I don't see why I should be hanging onto this weiht.

So last night I started researching different diets. Jenny Craig diets aren't feasible for me or my family. I looked up a few diet books and quickly found flaws. Then I was watching American Idol and saw Jennifer Hudson. So... I started thinking about Weight Watchers. I had previously did Weight Watchers after I had Thompson and was successful. But I got off of it and quickly gained the 20 pounds I had lost back. But in 2011, they came out with a new Points Plus program. It sounds more up-to-date. So today I signed up. I am cautiously optimistic. I hope that this is what will work.

But one problem so far is I feel like I am allotted way too many points. The new program gives you more because of the point value changes on the food. But today, I still have roughly 18 points left.

So, if any of my readers are familiar with WW, please feel free to give me suggestions. I have my first meeting tomorrow morning.

I am also going to do a 'Weight Watchers Wednesday' where I will update with my weekly (hopeful) weightloss. My normal meeting day will be Tuesday night. I am just going tomorrow for some information and my fiirst initial weigh-in.

Please let me know if any of you are doing a diet and are successful! Would love to hear about it!

Wish me luck!! :)

Recipe Time!

Thought I would share a quick, yummy recipe with you.

I don't have pictures, but it is really so easy.

Mexican Chicken in Foil Packet

2 chicken breasts-- butterflied
1 can of black beans
Frozen corn
Salsa
Shredded Cheese
Foil


Take 4 long strips of foil. I double my foil (hence the 4 strips) and spray the top non-stick spray. Lay the butterflied chicken on foil. Pour some salsa inside chicken. Add some black beans (rinsed), frozen corn, and cheese. Close up chicken and do the same on top. Wrap the foil to make a packet. Do the same for the other chicken breast. Lay on a baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees for about 25 minutes or until done. This is how long it usually takes my oven, so it could vary. Be careful when you open the packet, there will be lots of steam. Top it with a little sour cream. I serve mine with Mexican rice.

I am telling you, this is so good. Try it out!

Pictures from January

So, if Blogger will work, I will try to post some pictures that I had on my camera. 

Let's see what we can get!

{This was from Christmas}

{Thompson finally starting to eat!}

{Loving the yogurt and attention from Nana}

{Leaving the hospital!!}

{Had to stop at Laguna Beach to play in the sand}

 

{A double rainbow I saw by our house}

 

Ok, so poor Brycen got the shaft on the pictures this time. I will do better next time!

Foods I am loving!

Since I have been dieting (eh, changing my lifestyle), I have also hade to make some changes in the food department. Surprisingly, I am loving it all and don't miss anything too bad.

What I have done is I have thought about some of my favorite foods and found different ways to make them healthier.

One of my favorite swaps has been from the Hungry Girl. I signed up for their emails awhile back and they have some pretty good tips. As most everyone is aware, it has been Girl Scout cookie time. My personal faves are the Samoas! Well, low and behold there is a fiber (YES, fiber!) bar swap that tastes just like it. Not even kidding. Kellogg's makes a Caramel Coconut Fudge Fiber bar that tastes so so soooo good and also has 35% of your daily fiber. Awesome, huh?!

One of my staples for breakfast is oatmeal. I am kinda addicted. And this is coming from a girl who would never touch oatmeal... ever! But, thanks to Oprah, I found out a great way to make it and it tastes so good. I love the apples and cinnamon flavor. But, I can never just mix it with water and when I did all milk, it just wasn't right. So, they suggested putting half milk, half apple juice. I gives it more of an apple flavor and I just love it. Plus, it helps fill me up too!

For lunch, I have been eating these new things called Bagel Thins (Brittany introduced me to!) and Sandwhich Thins. I lightly toast them, then put a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese on it along with some turkey or chicken that has been warmed up. It is such a good sandwhich.

I have found a new favorite option at Chick-fil-A-- the Southwest Chargrilled Chicken Salad. Yummy! And it only has 240 calories. I used half a packet of the Spicy dressing, so my whole salad was under 400 calories. Add a half sweet/half unsweet tea and you have yourself a perfect little meal!

For dinner, we have been cooking quite a bit of chicken breasts. We all love chicken, so it works for us. But, we also like ground turkey options too. I made a turkey breast roast in the crockpot the other day that was so good! It shredded like a beef pot roast, but definitely healthier. I put it along with some carrots, onions, and a potato in the crockpot then mixed up a french onion soup mix with water and poured over it. Talk about flavor!

Another ground turkey that is really good is to make meatloaf. I know some of you will be skeptical, but trust me. I buy the Ground Turkey, not the ground turkey breast. There isn't enough fat (or flavor) to work with. It 93/7 fat and a perfect ground beef alternative. Use this recipe for your meatloaf:

1 pkg ground turkey
1 pkg onion soup mix
1 egg
1 cup quick cook oats
1 can tomato sauce
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to season

Mix gently with a fork, put into pan, bake at 350 about 30-40 minutes. Take out, add ketchup to the top, bake for another 15 minutes. Your meatloaf should be about 160 degrees internal temperature. I serve mine with some green beans and mashed potatoes.

As you can see, I still eat normal foods. If it isn't such a healthy food, I cut back on my portion. It really is all about portion control. Hope you all like some of the options I have mentioned today.

Edited to Add my favorite dessert! How could I forget dessert?!

Anyways, these Fudgesicles are amazing! They are only 40 calories too! So... if I have the extra calories and am wanting another one, I don't feel so guilty. ;)

Blog Hiatus....

So there are some pictures off my phone.

I try not to let too much time go by between posts, but I have been having troubles with my internet here at the house and Blogger not letting me upload photos. So...out of frustration I have kind of just took a little break.

What has been going on with the Riedel family lately???

Brycen is growing more and more each day. He acts as big as Thompson. And he is talking more and more each day. Robert and I were just talking about how his communication skills have gone way up! Along with that, he has been getting into trouble. Uh oh. Today, we were at the grocery store and the boys have to ride in this car cart. Of course there was only 1 available and it had to have broken seatbelts. That child would not sit down. He could care less to get out, he just wanted to see me get onto him. Stinker!! He looks at me and just waits for it. This child is smart. The other day he did the sign language for "more" and I have onlyshowed it to him a couple of times a while back. Along with signing it, he started saying it too. It was adorable!

Thompson is still my wild child. We have our good days and our bad days. I told Robert that eventually what we are saying/teaching him will have to sink in. He reassured me that it would... in about twenty years. ;) Thompson is also in this phase where he tells you he loves you every minute. And you have to say it back of course. But sometimes there isn't 5 seconds between. It reminds of my little sister, Brooklyn who used to do that to my mom. She made you say "I love you too, Brooklyn". If you said "Love you too", it wasn't good enough. And she made you say it over and over til you got it right. Well Thompson definitely picked that up. (oh, and she still does it!) Other than that we have just been spending our time playing outside with the neighborhood kids and spending the weekend visiting cousin, Haili.

Robert has been working hard on his off cycle. This is his first cycle as platoon commander. Seems like he likes it so far. He starts back his next cycle this coming Tuesday. So we will enjoy this weekend together before he is gone again.

Me... hmmm... I have just been here. Robert got my elliptical put together and I have used it a couple times. And let me tell you... I am WAY out of shape. Pretty embarrasing to be honest. But that is why I have it and I have been dieting and so far, I have been doing good. Just one day at a time. I am hoping to be to my goal weight by July. If it takes a little bit longer than that's ok too. I just need to keep working at it.