July/August - Weight Loss Challenge

[five one]

Hey, Five One,
135-ish has been my sticking point for a few months now . I just want to break into the 20s ....129 3/4 would be success! Let's push this one together.
PJ

Hey, you bet! I know I can do it if I can just get past my "bad" time of day. That time is when I get home from work and head to the kitchen for dinner prep. I have a healthy snack in the late afternoon at work, so I know I'm not hungry, but I will start grazing anyway. It's not unhealthy food, but it's calories I don't need to consume right before dinner. I'm trying to drink a big glass of iced tea while in the kitchen hoping that will keep me from eating while cooking.

On the plus side, There are home-made chocolate chip cookies in the house and I have not eaten a single one. Yay me.

Jobob, your blog is great. I have the SB book, but never jumped on the bandwagon - yet. I'll be watching your progress and cheering your success.

Good luck to everyone in this challenge.

[teigyr]

Tabby, way to go with the weight loss I do think the small and gradual changes are best so there's time to get used to each step instead of being inundated all at once.

ibcycling, I did look at the Savingdinner site. I signed up for the free recipes and it looks pretty good.

jobob, it's great that your husband cooks. Mine does too...he tends to add cheese and butter though he's really trying to watch to curtail that. As far as South Beach taking more time, I know my mother said that it tended to take fresh ingredients (meaning more trips to the store) and cooking.

I'm not an emotional eater. I DO tend to eat what's convenient and fast. I tend to get overwhelmed by the various types of carbs and what's needed. I tend to eat whole grain over white, low fat over fat, and while we've been known to cook rib eye steaks, we eat more chicken or fish than red meat.

Here's my challenge though. I am busy. Just as an example, last night I got home at 3am (home from work), unwound and went to bed and woke up at 11:30am. I ate a bowl of cereal (bad, I know, but fast) and went to the gym to swim for an hour. I got home and rode my bike for 1/2 hour, got home and had to be in the shower in minus 20 minutes. I grabbed a handful of pistachios because I was starving. I brought a frozen low fat burrito and a frozen low fat chicken/veggie bowl to work. I do things like this four times a week. During my work week, I have little time to do much beyond exercise, sleep, and go to work. I do have more time on the weekend but with us, fresh food tends to go bad. If we can freeze it, it's all good. I also have little time to do frequent trips to the store.

For a snack, I'll tend to do things like eat a whole wheat english muffin with honey and cinnamon. I have chocolate milk after exercise, usually. My workouts are 6 times a week and range from about 45 minutes to several hours. Some of them are fairly high intensity so "dieting" worries me because my calorie expenditure is fairly high.

My long winded question is....what is fast, good for you, and doesn't go bad quickly? There are days I don't even have time to make scrambled eggs (go figure!) so those are cereal days. I don't like skimping on sleep either.

I try to stock our kitchen with things that aren't bad for you but then again I tend to get a lot of processed things just due to time constraints.

Whew, that was long-winded

[jobob]

As far as South Beach taking more time, I know my mother said that it tended to take fresh ingredients (meaning more trips to the store) and cooking.

I see what you mean. There's definitely more advance planning needed than for our normal way of eating - we'd have meals like soup & tuna sandwiches, chili and rice, or pasta fairly regularly since it involved zero planning and we could get the ingredients out of our cupboard.

I'm trying to find items that can be made ahead of time & frozen, & popped into the microwave.

My long winded question is....what is fast, good for you, and doesn't go bad quickly? There are days I don't even have time to make scrambled eggs (go figure!) so those are cereal days. I don't like skimping on sleep either.

Here's something that I plan to try - mini vegetable quiches that can be frozen & reheated in the microwave. They'd work well at any meal or as a snack. The recipe is in the SB Diet book, and I also found it in this journal:

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Vegetable Quiche Cups

Need: Foil baking cups, muffin tin, cooking spray, oven

Ingredients:
3/4 cup liquid egg substitute - I used Nulaid ReddiEgg real egg product which is produced with egg whites and is pasteurized so there is no salmonella risk. It is cholesterol and fat free. You could also use 3 large whole eggs or 3/4 cup egg whites.
1 package frozen chopped spinach (10 oz.)
3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheese - any kind of your choice. I used some cheddar and some mozzerella.
1/4 cup diced red or green peppers or mixture of both
1/4 cup diced onions
A couple shots of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce, if desired, to taste.
Salt to taste - with the cheese, these don't need much added salt, but I like things salty and so I added a half teaspoon of salt.

Heat oven to 350F
Line 12 cup muffin pan with foil baking cups, spray the cups with the cooking spray.
Thaw and drain spinach - I wring it out well in my hand.
Mix the spinach, egg substitute, cheese, peppers, onions, hot pepper sauce, salt in a bowl.
Fill the foil cups with the mixture.
Bake at 350F or 20 minutes, testing so that a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from cups to serve.

Nutrition:
77 calories
5 grams fat - which includes 2 g. saturated, 3 g mono
10 mg cholesterol
3 grams carbohydrate
9 grams protein
2 grams fiber
160 mg sodium (more if you add salt as I did)

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HTH, - Jo.

[teigyr]

The quiche cups looks fantastic Thank you so much and I even have the ingredients. I guess I'm not the only one with time management problems.

I was looking through the journal and some of the food looked really good. I will have to read up on this a bit more.

I think maybe I'll make a double batch of the quiche cups this weekend. We always keep frozen spinach around, I tend to throw it into my scrambled eggs.

[jobob]

Excellent! I'm not fond of peppers so I'm going to use mushrooms or sundried tomatoes (or both!) instead.

[Possegal]

oh, thanks for that recipe, that would be a nice thing to make ahead and have for breakfast. i'm soooo not a morning person and so i find it hard to eat things, even though i know i need to.

i do fairly well with lunch provided i take the time the night before to make things to take to work. a nice salad with a little chicken that you buy already cooked, and a light dressing. then lots of fruit.

my dinners right now i'm doing well with, i have been going to one of those make your own prepared meals places, let's dish. i make sure to make the ones lower in calories/fat. but they really help with the whole portion control issue, which is always a big one.

[GLC1968]

Those quiche cups are GOOD! I've made them before and they freeze well.

If any of you have any of the south beach diet cookbooks - I highly recommend them. Every single, solitary thing we've tried from them has been really, really good. Seriously. And one of them is all 'quick' and 'easy' recipes...which I really like.

If you need fast food, the best option is to take a few hours on a weekend, do your shopping, prepping and cooking...and stash everything away for the week in pre-measured sizes. Cut up fresh veggies and put them in baggies in the fridge - they'll keep for a week and it's easy to grab and go. Same for cold chicken (we used to grill a few breasts on Sundays and then I'd pack them into small tupperwares for the week). Whole wheat tortillas stuffed with scrambled egss, veggies and low fat cheese (or a tiny amount of feta - you don't need much) or cooked chicken, beans, and salsa, freeze in individual portions well, too. Healthy casserole type dishes, cooked and then cut into individual portions works great too. I used to do this and put half the servings in the fridge and half in the freezer to keep longer.

Basically, anything you buy as 'fast food' you can try to make a healthy version and freeze it yourself. It really works if you are careful to set aside the time on the weekends! (This all falls apart when your weekends are dominated by 5-6 hour rides each day or trips out of town, though )

[han-grrl]

I've been reading the posts ladies - not always posting - but i am here cheering you on

This week - weather and work and prepping for the vacation kind of screwed things up a bit riding wise...but i did try to go for walks, and move lots

This mornings weight was 105 lbs...we shall see for next week if this is a real loss of a fluctuation...

I won't be posting my weight next friday cuz i am still away, but i will post it saturday or sunday when i am back (which might be scary since i am with the inlaws at a cottage all week!)

HAPPPYYYYY FRIDAAAAY!