Resourceful Tuesday – On Thursday!

HA!!  Maybe I should just do away with the daily themes and just post each of those topics when I can :-)  I think seeing those on the left hand column are what make me feel like a failure more than just not getting to the posts!  So how about that…how about we scrap trying to have a certain theme each day and I just post what is on my heart when it is on my heart??

I have received some encouragement from yall and I thank you!  Thank you Mom and thank you Keri!  It feels good to know yall are liking this site and liking the posts!  I will keep going with it – I promise!  Just have some patience with me when I am running around rugged trying to keep up with 3 little ones!

The only weekly theme we will keep on a certain day is our Weigh In…we will still have Weigh In Monday.  I still want to hear from you on how you are doing (if you want to share!).  Even if you don’t share it is a very good habit to have to weigh yourself once a week at the same time, same day…so you can keep up with your progress.

So – for this resourceful post (that will no longer have to be just on Tuesdays – ha!) I thought I would share step 2 from my Light and Delish magazine (if you need to refresh your memory on step 1 click here for that post).  Side note – I am loving this magazine!!  If you haven’t yet you need to see if you can find a copy of it at the store – it is called Light and Delish.  It is a magazine created from the website delish.com.   The recipes in there are WONDERFUL and very healthy and very diet friendly!  I wish they would make this magazine an on-going subscription!!

Step 2 To Losing Weight Without Even Trying

Pile On The Produce

How It Helps You Lose

To speed up weight loss, consider doubling, if not tripling, your intake of fruits and vegetables every day.  Less than 2 percent of Americans eat the recommended nine daily servings, which is a major missed opportunity for shedding weight.  Produce is made up mostly of water, so it’s low in calories (meaning you can eat a lot without putting on pounds) and high in fiber, which helps curb hunger.  Bonus: Numerous studies have shown that fruits and veggies are also great disease fighters.

I know I am personally trying to do this…making the veggies the biggest portion of our meal – how about you?

In fact Seth and I are making a Broccoli Mac and Cheese tonight!  We got the recipe from Rachel Ray’s show today…but you know me…I am going to make a few changes to make it even more healthy and hopefully very tasty!!  If it is I will make sure to post it to the recipe blog (which I know…I am behind on as well…but I have posted a few recipes this week if you haven’t gotten a chance to check them out!)

Until next time,

Kellie

Resourceful Tuesday

I came across a really good magazine in the check out line at Wal-Mart today.  It is called Light & Delish!  It is FULL of yummy recipes – 138 to be exact – that are 400 calories or less!!!  That even includes some dessert recipes!!! YUM!!! 

But what I thought I would share on here were the 7 tips it gave for losing weight without even trying!  (I KNOW you are on the edge of your seat now!!)  I thought I would share one tip each week for the next 7 weeks.  I think they are all awesome and as I was reading the article was thinking that I so needed to make sure that follow each step in my lifestyle…and that I needed to concentrate on one new one at a time so that I can work them all into my lifestyle with ease…learn one and then add another one.  And then it hit me!  Yall probably would love these tips as well…and if we introduced one a week we could all work on working these into our healthy lifestyle!

So here it goes with Step 1:

Step 1: Build a Better Breakfast

How it helps you lose

A well-balanced meal at the start of the day is a key part of any stay-slim plan.  Research shows that breakfast eaters typically consume about 100 few calories per day and weigh less than those who forgo food in the morning.  This strategy works long-term, too.  Nearly 80 percent of participants in the National Weight Control Registry, which charts dieters who have kept off 30 pounds f

I know that I need to still work on a better breakfast routine.  I am getting a lot better than I used to be.  Reading this today has motivated me to do even better.

How about you?  Are you one that forgos breakfast?  If so, has this motivated you to do better about eating breakfast?  Or are you already good about eating a good breakfast every day?  If so, do you have any tips to share with us people that have stuggled in this area?

Let me hear your comments!  I love your feedback.  And as always be sure to let me know whether to keep it between us or share it with the group :-)

Good luck this week on eating your breakfast!

Oh!  Here is a recipe they gave with this point.  It is a recipe for Granola-Yogurt Parfait (originally from Good Housekeeping).  This recipe is, per serving, 255 calories, 3 grams of fat and 5 grams of fiber (4.35 ww points)

Serves: 1 Yields: 1 parfait Total Time: 5 min Prep Time: 5 min

Ingredients

1/2 cup(s) fresh or frozen (partially thawed) raspberries or other favorite berry

3/4 cup(s) vanilla low-fat yogurt

2 tablespoon(s) low-fat granola

Directions

1. Into parfait glass or wineglass, spoon some raspberries, vanilla yogurt, and granola. Repeat layering until all ingredients are used.

Kellie

Resourceful Tuesday

For today’s resourceful Tuesday post I thought I would inform everyone that I made some adjustments to the recipe calculator.  Click here to access the calculator.  You can also access any time you need to.  There is a permanent link to the calculator in the left hand column of the blog!

What I did was put in the formula the 10 grams of fiber per serving cap.  Remember that you are not suppose to calculate more than 10 grams of fiber per serving when calculating your WW points (and some people don’t calculate more than 4 grams per serving).

I hope you are finding this resource useful!

Kellie

Resourceful Tuesday (on Thursday)

I realized that I forgot to do a Resourceful Tuesday post this week.  I am so sorry!  

For this week’s resourceful Tuesday post I am going to go back to the recipe calculator that I shared a couple of weeks ago.  You can click here to get the calculator.  There is also a link on the left hand column of the blog.

I just posted a recipe today on my recipe blog for Pasta Shells Casserole.  I got this recipe from the Rachel Ray Show!  (I love this show by the way!!)

I thought that I could make a couple of changes to the recipe to make it even healthier and lower the points some more as well.  I changed the pasta to whole wheat pasta, used part skim ricotta cheese, reduced fat parmesan, and egg beaters instead of egg yolks.

For all of the ingredients that were not free (your spices are free) I used the recipe calculator to calculate my points for the recipe (which by the way came out to about 10 points a serving – not bad for a pasta dish!)

I have a print out of the recipe with my ingredient changes and my calculated points value and have put the recipe in my recipe binder (I keep a big binder for print out recipes that I have tried and will definitely want to make again).

It was super yummy!  You have to try it!

Have you used the recipe calculator yet?  Did it work ok for you or did you find it difficult to figure out?  Do you have any questions about it?

Even if you are not following the WW points system the recipe calculator could still work for you if you are counting calories, fat and/or fiber since all 3 of those are included in the calculation. 

Is there anything that the calculator is missing for you that you would like to see added to it…or is there any way that you think the calculator needs to be changed to work better for you?  Let me know and I will see what I can do :-)

Kellie

Resourceful Tuesday

I thought I would share today a website that I have found myself using a lot lately.  The website is www.thedailyplate.com.  I came across it when I was doing a google search to find the nutritional information for certain foods so that I could get my point value.

So far I have NOT found a food that they do not have the nutritional information for!!!  I am to the point now that instead of going to Google to search for the nutritional information I just come here.  They have nutritional information for anything from 1 med sized apple to 1 serving of Kraft shredded non fat cheddar cheese.  If you have a food item that you need the nutritional information for they probably have it.

They also offer a free account that you can set up and track your calorie intake.  If you are one that would rather be a calorie counter than a ww points tracker (or because of physical needs or demands calorie counting would work better for you) then this is a good site to use.  You can set a weight loss goal.  You enter the foods you have eaten and what time of day you have eaten them.  It will show you how many calories you have consumed (it also gives you the fat and fiber you have consumed as well).  You can also enter exercise information and find out how many calories you have burned.  And it is all free! 

So if the ww system is not working for you for one reason or another…you might want to try this out and see how it works for you! 

Kellie

Resourceful Tuesday

I thought we could have a post every week where we could give resources that we have found – whether they be websites, journals, books, etc…anything that we think could help others in their weight loss journey.

And notice that I said “we”.  Please feel free to let me know when you find helpful resources and I will share them with the group.  I like to know of good resources as well :-)  Part of “losing weight together” is sharing our ideas and resources with others.  It is funner if everyone is involved.

I thought the resource I would share today would be my Wal-Mart shopping list since I did have someone specifically ask for it.  Click here to download the list (it is a Microsoft Excel file).  Please note I have a blank column for prices.  On my actual list I have prices so that I can have an estimate of what I am spending.  But I have not done a good job lately of updating the prices so they are a bit behind.  Also the prices vary in different Wal-Mart stores.  But everything is sorted by aisle number (which varies in the different stores as well just so you know). 

When it is time to prepare my shopping list I will print off this list and mark the items that I need.  I personally then go back in Excel and make a list of just the items I need so it is all typed up and pretty.  For some that may be too much of an extra step…you do what works for you. 

For those that may not shop at Wal-Mart you could use this as a template to develop your master shopping list for wherever you do your shopping.  Of course my list is also changing now that I am making some big changes in the way I eat.  Once I get mine updated I will give you a new template with the updated items.

But hopefully you will find this to be helpful in some way for you!

Also – I have also added a section to the left hand column of the blog where I am listing all of the resources.  The link to this shopping list is there, as well as the link to the recipe calculator that I shared yesterday, a link to the Hungry Girl website, Dotti’s weight loss zone (which I mentioned before has a bunch of great information for weight watchers) and a link to Dotti’s comprehensive restaurant list.  As we share resources I will add the links to that list so that you can refer back to them as needed.

Let me know of any resources you have that are helpful for you and could be helpful for others!

Kellie