Our Secret Weapon...Power Foods

I have the most amazing blog readers!! I just want to thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, while I’ve been sick. I was actually able to sleep through the night last night, which I haven’t been able to do in days. I’m still not 100 percent, but I am getting better. Please keep praying for me as you think of it!

This morning, I want to give you the meeting summary from my Weight Watchers meeting on Saturday, January 28, 2012.

"Power Foods our weapon of mass reduction!"

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In an article from the Weight Watchers website, Melissa Speri talks about ways that we can, "Pile on the Power Foods".

There's a reason Weight Watchers made all fruits and most veggies Power Foods – and 0 PointsPlus values: They're a fabulous tool for weight loss. Here's how to get them into your meal plan.

If you're like many people, you may find it hard to fit five servings of fruits and vegetables into your menu each day. It makes sense: When you're more used to extra breads, meats and cheeses than veggies and fruits, it's a big adjustment.

But it's an important part of the Plan, so do what you can to make the change. It's worth it. In addition to all fresh fruits and most vegetables having zero PointsPlus values, fruits and veggies offer the following perks:

• They make you feel fuller.
• They're rich sources of disease-fighting antioxidants.
• They reduce the risk of heart disease.
• They provide folic acid, vitamins and minerals.
• They increase energy, fight infection, improve regularity, keep skin healthy, promote normal blood clotting and build bones!

Fitting them in
There are many ways to include more fruits and vegetables into your meals. Variety is key. When you go grocery shopping, pick up a fruit you've never tried before or spice up your green beans with a fiery peanut sauce instead of the usual butter spray.

Here are some tricks to try:

• Add vegetables to frozen entrees, pasta dishes, soups or wraps.
• Use frozen veggies to save time. Add them to recipes or use them on their own.
• Snack on crudités with salsa, hummus, low-fat dip or dressing.
• Buy fresh seasonal, local or organic veggies, which are often more flavorful.
• Mix fruits into salads for a surprising new taste.

Sick and Tired

I just wanted to write a short blog post, to let you know how I am doing.

Today, I'm home from work, because I am both sick. This is the second sinus infection that I've had this month! The weather is Texas has gone from cold to warm and back to cold again. All these changes have driven my sinuses crazy!

Last Thursday, Jon and I both woke up with sore throats and things have gone downhill ever since. I spent the entire weekend laying on the couch trying to rest and get better, but I'm still sick.

Please keep me in your prayers! Pray that I will start feeling better sooner than later!

New Cheerio Flavors

I eat a lot of cereal. That might surprise you, but it is true. Occasionally, I enjoy having milk in my cereal, but most of the time I can get by without it. Each morning when I make my lunch, I will measure out a serving size and put my cereal in a Ziploc bag so that I can take it with me.

My favorite cereal to snack on is Cheerios!! I like all kinds of Cheerios. I enjoy the plain kind, the Honey-Nut kind, and the Cinnamon flavored Cheerios.

You can imagine my excitement when I started hearing about some new flavors of Cheerios. From the beginning, I have heard nothing but good things about the two new Cheerio flavors: Peanut Butter and Dulce de Leche.

Have you tried these yet? I have not had them yet, but I plan on buying them the next time that I go grocery shopping. I will let you know if I like them after I have a chance to try them. For now, I just wanted to make sure you knew that they are out there.

{Multi-Grain Cheerios Peanut Butter}

Serving Size: 3/4 cup
  3 pointsplus+

{Dulce de Leche Cheerios}

Serving Size: 3/4 cup
  3 pointsplus+

Easy Isn’t The New Good

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I will be the first to admit that I wish life came with an easy button. I wish that I had a button in my purse that I could pull out anytime life got too hard for me to handle. However, when I take a moment to really think about it, I begin to realize that with an easy button I would not need God.

Over the last several weeks, I have felt myself slipping farther and farther away from God. This is not something that I want to admit to you, but I believe in being honest and genuine as I blog. Just a few months ago I felt so close to the Lord, but recently I have not been setting aside time to read my Bible or spend time in prayer.

Why have I been slipping? Lots of reasons, however I think the biggest factor has been that I have simply chosen to do what is easy. I am tired and have allowed myself to sleep through my quiet time. I have been so focused on myself and what I think about a situation that I have not taken the time to ask God what He wants me to do or say. I have taken my eyes off of my Lord and focused them on myself.

Last week in Sunday school, our teacher, Ms. Janet, taught a lesson on how easy it is to slip out of an intimate relationship with God and back into our old sinful habits. She said that it is the little choices and decisions that will cause us to grow closer to God or slip farther away. I felt like this Sunday school lesson had been written just for me. In a lot of small ways I have chosen what I want instead of choosing God. However, when you add up all of those small decisions, you end up farther away from God then you even wanted to be in the first place.

So, I am trying to fight against choosing what is easy. All week, I have been getting up early to spend time reading my Bible and in prayer. Is it easy? No, but I am doing it anyway, because I do not want to slip any farther away from God than I already have.

I don’t know where you are at with the Lord; maybe you’ve been slipping or backslidden too. What is it going to take for you to begin to make you relationship with God a priority again?

. . . . . . . . . .
Easy Isn’t the New Good
January 26, 2012
Lysa TerKeurst

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8 (NIV 1984)

It’s good to invest wisely in my relationships. It’s easy to simply coast.

It’s good to go the speed limit. It’s easy to speed a little.

It’s good to make a healthy choice. It’s easy to grab junk.

It’s good to read my Bible. It’s easy to check my phone for texts and emails first.

It’s good to think about others. It’s easy to think about myself.

Several years ago I had a friend who decided to leave her husband for another man. Things were easier with this other man. The feelings were giddy. The fights were few. And they didn’t have years of issues that needed to be dealt with.

So she went with what felt easy over what was good. She divorced. She remarried. She started over with what seemed so much easier.

After all, she’d been slipping into the pattern of easy for years. When we set our heart on the pattern of choosing easy over good in the little things, we run the risk of using the same justifications with the bigger things.

I’m not saying if I don’t read my Bible today, I’m headed for divorce court tomorrow. But setting a pattern of choosing easy over good in my life is a slippery slope.

Easy isn’t the new good.

Just because the world waves a big banner that we deserve easy… do what feels easy… why stress yourself when there’s an easier way… doesn’t mean it’s good.

Eventually, my friend didn’t feel like her new man was so easy. The feelings weren’t so giddy. The fights were many. And over the years they too developed a whole host of issues.

One day she came home and her second husband was gone. He found it easy to leave.

Like the old cliché says, “Easy come, easy go.”

I think about this and I’m challenged. Where are little compromises sneaking into my life? Where am I establishing a pattern of choosing what is easy over what is good? And does it really matter?

I think it does.

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
I so desire this “good” way. To treat others fairly. To love those in my life faithfully. And to live the way God wants me to live- choosing good over easy.

Dear Lord, please help me to see today the times where I may choose the easy way over the good way. My desire is to please You in all that I do. Help me to establish healthy patterns of living according to Your purpose. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Wordless Wednesday: Scale Disclaimer

The Great Labyrinth of Weight Loss

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Here is the meeting summary from Saturday, January 21, 2012.

Have you ever been in a labyrinth? You work it from the outside in, making twists and turns to get to the center. Weight loss is a lot like that. We are trying to get to the center, our goal, and we too have twists and turns along the way with ups and downs. Sometimes we hit a dead end, (have a gain/eating binge) and have to have the confidence to work around them and learn from our mistakes.

For us to make it to our goal we have to be willing to make some changes.

There are four levels of change that will help you reach your goals:
1. Environment
2. Beliefs
3. Capabilities
4. Behavior

This week let’s look at just the first level, environment.

When it comes to your environment, it is important for us to identify our danger zones.

Which areas of your life pose the most temptation? Is it the break room at work, the drive home, or maybe your very own kitchen. Identify the places that you’re most likely to engage in unplanned eating.

Now that you know them what needs to happen in order for you to stay in control at these places? Maybe you can declare a certain space a “no eating” zone, or plan to have your own healthy snacks readily available, or maybe even just moving the most tempting foods out of arms reach.

Now let’s focus on specific foods. Which foods are your red light foods, the ones you just cannot stop eating once you start? Remember that you can’t eat it if you never buy it. If it is a food that can be done without then maybe your best bet is to never bring it in the house. Or, maybe you can find a healthy substitute that is lower in PointsPlus values…for example Peter Pan peanut butter replaced with PB2.

Also remember the phrase out of sight out of mind. If it is a food that must be in the house, move it to a place where it won’t be seen very often. Put it in the back of the tallest cabinet for example. If its sitting on the kitchen counter, and that is the first thing you see when you walk in, then 10-1 its going straight into your tummy.

How could power foods help in these types of situations? What can you do to make these foods more assessable? It could help to buy prepackaged bags of baby carrots, buying sliced apples for convenience, or keeping a stash of snacks at home, in the car, and at the office.

Your best bet is to always be prepared with a healthy snack for when hunger strikes!

To help create a healthy work environment getting off to a good start is imperative:
*Give yourself a healthy breakfast that includes protein and fiber to keep you full until lunch so you won’t be roaming for break room goodies.
(A good example might be scrambled eggs with toast and turkey bacon, or oatmeal with milk blueberries and almonds)

*Instead of choosing those high pp lattes, cappuccinos, and coffee with full fat cream, try herbal or green tea instead.

*Bring healthy munchies such as fruit, nuts, popcorn, or snack bars to satisfy the mid-afternoon hunger pains

*Bring your own lunch to work maybe some leftovers from last night or a great homemade sandwich.

*Keep water bottle on hand. Take it everywhere you go! If you feel hungry, have a bottle of water first. You might just be thirsty.

My Chipotle Dinner

Happy Friday Everyone!!

Is it sad that I am already thinking about and planning what I am going to have for dinner? Let me explain.

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Tonight, Jon and I have plans to go out to eat at Chipotle. We are so excited! I cannot put into words how much my husband enjoys Chipotle. The hardest part is that we live in a town with NO Chipotle! Thankfully, Jon is a pilot and when he goes out of town he can eat at Chipotle. To our surprise, a town about 45 minutes away from us just opened a Chipotle before Christmas of this last year! Tonight, is going to be our first night to eat at this Chipotle that is so close to our home! Yes, I am going to bring my camera to document the occasion.

As you might have guessed, over the years, I have learned to really enjoy eating at Chipotle. Even after I joined Weight Watchers, Chipotle was still a great option for me to choose when we would eat out. Chipotle uses organic and local produce when they can. And they use milk from cows raised without the use of synthetic hormones. If you have never been to Chipotle I would highly recommend that you find one in your area and check it out.

I use the Chipotle Nutrition Calculator 2.0, to figure out the nutritional facts for my burrito bowl. I just check what I am going to add to my burrito bowl and it gives me the nutritional facts. I take those facts and put them into my PointsPlus calculator to figure out how many PointsPlus I need to budget for the evening.

Me with my Chipotle burrito bowl in August 2009.

Tonight I am going to have a burrito bowl that includes the following:

White Rice

Chicken

Fajita Vegetables

Tomato Salsa

Corn Salsa

Cheese

Lettuce

In total, my burrito bowl is going to be 12 PointsPlus, which is not bad at all. I do not know if I will eat the entire burrito bowl, but I am going to budget for it just in case. I feel confident in my ability to stay on plan today, because I have made a plan! I have added my burrito bowl to my Weight Watchers Plan Manager, so I know how many PointsPlus I have left to use throughout the day.

Are you going out to eat tonight or tomorrow? What kind of plan are you going to make to help you stay on plan?