Camping Meals

A big part of our summers is camping. Mike and I cemented the commitment to camping last year when we bought this. So, therefore, I must embrace camping and all the calorie laden traditions that come with it. So what's a girl to do? I didn't want to give up the "fun" aspect of food. The chips and ice cream. The big, yummy, pancake breakfasts and the eventful Suppers. So I made substitutions and was careful. I also did lots of biking and walking. I played kickball with the kids and took my brother's dogs for a walk. Anything to keep me moving.

Anyway, I thought I would let you in on my food journal from this last camping trip and see what I did. (Yes, I do keep a food journal. I could do a post entirely on journaling, it's that important.)

Friday ~
5 Oatmeal Apple Pancakes with ICBINB (I Can't Believe it's Not Butter) & 2 T Light Syrup = 5 pts
1 Egg cooked with Pam - 2 pts

Ham Sandwich (2 oz Ham, 45 Calorie Bread, and 1 slice FF Cheese) = 3 pts
Weight Watchers Pasta Salad = 2 pts

I made this yummy recipe from my Weight Watcher's cookbook this time, I will definitely make it again!

• Pasta Salad with Black Beans and Tomatoes
• 4 oz. uncooked Rotini
• 2 C diced plum tomatoes ( I used halved cherry tomatoes, I liked that much better)
• 1/2 C diced cucumber
• 3 T chopped fresh cilantro
• 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3/4 C Fat free balsamic vinaigrette ( I used Fat Free Italian, very yummy also)
• 1/4 t Kosher Salt
• 1/4 c (1 oz) crumbled reduced fat feta
• cook pasta and cool, mix remaining ingredients! 6 serving (3/4 C serving)

Baked Chips = 2 pts

Weight Watchers Ice Cream Bar = 2 pts

Hamburger with light bun (1 pt) = 6 pts
More Pasta Salad - 2 pts
More Baked Chips = 2 pts

Fat Free Pudding w/ Fat Free Whip Topping = 2 pts

Saturday ~
5 Oatmeal Apple Pancakes with ICBINB & 2 T Light Syrup = 5 pts
1 Egg cooked with Pam - 2 pts

Ham Sandwich = 3 pts
Weight Watchers Pasta Salad = 2 pts
Baked Chips = 2 pts

Weight Watchers Ice Cream Bar = 2 pts

Petite Steak = 3 pts
1/2 C Party Potaoes (Frozen hasbrowns, 1 pkg Neufchatel, 1 C Chicken Broth, Salt & Pepper to taste) = 3 pts
Salad with light dressing = 1 pt

1/2 C half fat ice cream = 2 pts

Lastly, we made these!
Instead of s'mores I thought I would try a dessert that still needed to be cooked over a campfire, but not SO caloric. So we made Baked Apples. A cored apple with 2t brown sugar and 2t granola. We double wrapped them in tinfoil and put them in the coals.

Now, admittedly, I then went on a big walk and thought they were being tended to. (which they weren't) so when I got back they were mere charred versions of the real thing. But I know this recipe will work. You just can't let them sit in a searing hot fire for an hour...

This Feels Oddly Familiar

I finally did it!

Arguably, for the 1st time since I have been back to Weight Watchers, I have been successful all week. I didn't snarf down all my extra points with in the 1st few days of my week. I didn't give up and stop counting half way through the week. I kept my head about me and planned for carefully.

My reward? Great weight loss, a "lighter" feeling mentally and physically all week, and the priceless personal satisfaction that, indeed, if I just keep with something, I will begin to succeed.

The extra perk to this fabulous week, is that I did it even though we went camping this weekend. Camping has often been my downfall, but with my parent's help, I was able to track very carefully this weekend. Yeah!!! Praise the Lord!!

Weight Loss this week: -2.6 lbs
Total Weight Loss: -30 lbs
Pounds to reach goal: 27 lbs (THIS feels good! Getting ever so closer)

It Isn't Failure Till You Decide to Quit

You thought I had "fallen off the wagon", didn't ya. :) I actually have been keeping on with my weight loss journey! But what can I tell you, I have 4 kids and all the responsibilities that go with it. Plus, I'm already keeping up another blog about my wonderful kids.

Not to say I haven't "fallen off the wagon" many times, but I continue to drag myself back up on that horse time and time again. I heard a quote (I don't even know who from) that said, " It isn't actually failure till you decide to quit." That is my mantra on a lot of days. I haven't failed just as long as I don't give up.

So I continue to go to my meeting each week. I continue to count my points each day. I continue to workout and eat healthy. I mess up a lot. But, hopefully, the cumulative effect will be a good one.

Tonight was my Weight Watchers meeting. I always here a nugget there that I can take with me. This meeting our leader said:
"People walk in here and they start losing weight the 1st weeks! They are all excited and gung ho. But then something happens. Maybe that it's hard to keep tracking their food. Or maybe they just don't want to do it anymore. Whatever the reason they start thinking about quitting, telling themselves that 'I look good enough'...."
I have been having that very thought here lately. I was even trying to elicit a comment out of my husband along those same lines this weekend! So what was her "fix"? We need more goals than just, "looking good and losing weight. " So then I started thinking, what would those goals be for me? Here's my short list:

1.) I want to run faster! Carrying around these extra 30 lbs make's me a slow runner. I want to feel like I'm floating on air again.

2. ) I finally want to be in control of my impulses. Just because I have a craving for chips does not mean I have to eat them. I want to be able to easily dismiss a food that I don't need.

3.) Frugality. There is a lot of money to be saved in food and in clothes if I can just stay one size and not eat all the yummy snacks 1st thing in the week!

What are your goals? Even if you aren't actively trying to lose weight. What keeps you from face diving into the ice cream, or cramming those crackers? Please leave a comment and let me know. I really hope to be inspired by you!

So this is me, now. I wish it were more. But truly I'm happy I haven't completely messed up!

Total Weight Loss: -27.4 lbs (exactly 10 lbs since the last time I posted)
Pounds to reach goal: 29.6 lbs

Monday Night Weigh in #10

Wasn't it the hare that said, "Slow and steady wins the race?" Well I guess that's me this time. It's a frustrating conclusion to come to. But at least it's coming off at all, huh? And really what's the other option, to quit? To give up? I just can't go there. I was my correct weight such a short time ago. The memory is still too fresh of how good it felt to give up now. All that to say, I only lost 1 lb this week, but I'm feeling good about it and I have been sufficiently pumped up from my meeting last night. :)

This week my non-weight goal is to not eat any BLT's. I am SO guilty of taking a bite off a kid's cookie. Or "sampling" the lunch that I'm making for the kids. Today has been good so far. As with everything in my life, I'm posting it on my refrigerator so that I'm reminded multiple times a day. :)

wk #10:
Weight Loss this week: -1.2 lbs
Total Weight Loss: -17.4 lbs
Pounds to reach goal: 38.8 lbs (THIS feels good! Less than 40 lbs?! That's do-able!)

You May Think I'm Crazy...

I have a tendency to be... detailed oriented. I love my lists, I love checking boxes, I love having things already planned so that there's no thinking involved, just execution. I like to have all my thinking done ahead of time.

Anyway, I was realizing the other day that I am falling into a weight loss trap. Thinking about food has started to consume WAY too much of my day and I'm going to burn out here pretty soon. The burn-out has even already started with the bad habit of counting the points of what I ate AFTER I ate it and not BEFORE. Leading to some supper-less nights and that pendulum swinging that has been happening at the scale.

So this list girl decided to employ my beloved list tendency to decide what I'm going to eat for the whole week all at once, and then to follow it this week. I've done it for a 1 1/2 days now, :) but it's going well. This might become a weekly habit!

Monday Night Weigh in #9

I can't believe that I have been doing this for 9 weeks now! These weeks just seem to have flown by. I'm so thankful that I have been on the Weight Watchers these past months. And even though the progress has at sometimes been frustratingly slow, I'm glad that I don't have those 15 lbs still on my body.

This last week went fairly good. I still found myself indulging when I shouldn't have. But overall I kept my head and didn't fall off any deep ends. And I didn't let the "pendulum" swing in the wrong direction this week. Hopefully this week heralds a better weight loss efforts to come.

Oh, and we had a new leader this week! Finally a good one! She was funny, engaging, relevant. But then she said that she is only going to be here for the next two weeks, and then doesn't know if she is going to be our permanent leader of not. Ugh. I really like her, I hope that she stays.

wk #9:
Weight Loss this week: -1.6 lbs
Total Weight Loss: -16.2 lbs
Pounds to reach goal: 40

On my Refrigerator...

I'm reading this book called Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney. What I read today was so timely and applicable to my current life. I decided to post this on my refrigerator so I am constantly reminded of her words and don't forget as soon as I close the book :)

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"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" Psalm 127:3-5

"May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant." Psalm 119:76

"One of the ways that the Spirit's name is translated in scripture is Comforter. He wants to teach you to comfort yourself not with food, but with His comfort. His comfort is so winsome, so wholesome, so encouraging - why go anywhere else?" Elyse Fitzpatrick

Dear Heavenly Father:

Please forgive me for, once again, trying to take control from you. I forget to rejoice that my children are a reward from you, and instead wallow in the resentment of servant hood. I feel the need to be comforted, yet I do not turn to you, I turn to food. Lord help me to remember that YOU are the source of real, long lasting comfort and to turn away from this food that is empty and meaningless.