Biggest salad ever!

I'm still here! I haven't quit yet. I've been tracking (albeit slightly creatively on occasion) and exercising consistently.

Today I'm feeling very motivated. The past two days, I went a bit overboard with my eating. I kept thinking that little things here and there wouldn't make a difference (like a muffin with my coffee, some wine with dinner, an impromptu bagel as a morning snack...), but when I sat down and tracked everything, I discovered I had used up ALL of my weekly Weight Watchers points (which don't reset until next Monday). Instead of giving up for the week (or longer), I planned out my meals for today and made a huge salad to bring for lunch. I also brought my french press to work to brew my own coffee instead of buying it. I tend to buy treats whenever I'm at a coffee shop, so I think this will be a big help (and more economical!).

This morning, I talked to my trainer about my nutrition and it made me think more about exactly which foods I'm choosing to eat. On Weight Watchers, you can pretty much eat whatever you want as long as it fits your points. That's what makes the program easy to follow - but it's also one of the potential problems with the program (depending on how you look at it). I'm very proud of the changes I've made to my eating habits over the past few weeks (just the fact that I have been preparing most of my meals, rather than eating out constantly, is huge), but I still have lots of room for improvement. If choosing healthy, filling, whole foods becomes automatic for me, then this lifestyle will truly become sustainable... I hope. :)

Anyway! I have a couple of snazzy lunches to share with you.

From last week:

Red peppers and a wrap! There's hummus in the tiny container.

Today I brought a HUGE lunch to work in my Aladdin collapsible salad set (I know I've mentioned my addiction to fun lunch containers before). I bought it months ago, but didn't use it until today for some strange reason. Here it is all closed up:

And here's what's inside:

I had lots of greens and some broccoli coleslaw with chicken, cheddar cheese, corn chips, salsa, and some guacamole. This salad was SUPER filling. The container was a bit cumbersome to carry TO work, but after lunch all the containers collapsed to a very manageable size.

I am exhausted so I think I will head to bed. I have plans for an early-morning workout! Ta!

Bentobsessed.

I have a problem.

I suffer from a major weakness for fun lunch containers.

On Saturday, I was at one of my favourite stores, Fenigo, "just browsing." Lately I've been looking at lots of pictures (and some youtube videos) of bento-style lunches, and when I saw some cute Japanese bento boxes at Fenigo, I just couldn't resist. I bought one for myself, and one to give my sister as a thank-you for all of the times she's taken me out to practice my driving.

On Sunday, we met for one last practice session before my road test on Thursday (yes, THURSDAY! Aaaahhhhh). I decided to pack us a fun picnic lunch in our new bento boxes. First, I set out all of my bento ingredients:

I followed this tutorial on Youtube to make hatching chicks from hardboiled eggs. Look, I know they're deformed, but it was my first attempt:

Lettuce for the eyes and carrot for the lips!

In the boxes were pinwheel sandwiches, carrot and cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, the hardboiled eggs/hatching chicks, grapes, strawberries cut to look like hearts, and mini cinnamon buns in silicone baking cups. Oh, and cheesestrings to really bring things to the next level. (And some fun animal toothpick things that I had lying around in a cupcake-making kit.)

 Here are the boxes all closed up:

Mine is the yellow one!

 I packed the bentos (and some extra food...) in my big cooler bag, and was on my way.

I'm pleased to say the bento boxes were a hit! My sister was very impressed. We've since decided that everything we eat from now on has to be out of a bento.

In other food news, a few weeks ago I discovered a really cool meal delivery service here in Waterloo called Food Naturally. It's run by holistic nutritionist Dana Rourke. You have the option of ordering one or two portions of three different meals. The meals are vegetarian and gluten-, sugar-, and dairy-free (not to mention made from scratch with whole foods!). As you know, I often find it EXTREMELY difficult to garner the motivation to do as much cooking as I should. Sometimes, I also have trouble thinking of interesting, healthy meals to cook. So, this meal service sounded like the perfect occasional treat.

I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it. When I saw the meal plan for this coming week, I knew I had to order again. I picked up my meals for the week this evening:

I received two big, delicious salads; two servings of falafels with brown rice, millet tabbouleh, hummus, and tahini sauce; and lots of tomato soup. She also included some complimentary granola! I had the falafel meal for dinner tonight and it was FANTASTIC.

Ordering the meals is obviously more expensive than making the food myself, but it's no more expensive than buying my lunch everyday (which I was doing just a few weeks ago... as well as buying many unhealthy breakfasts and dinners). I think it's definitely worth it to give myself a break once in awhile and still enjoy lots of super-healthy food. :)

Well, it's almost my bedtime! I'm meeting my trainer at 7:00 am tomorrow - which is better than our usual time of 6:45, but not by much... Toodles!

Adventures with Wheat Meat

I can't believe it's Thursday! The Summer of Katie is just zooming by (fabulously, of course).

I mentioned on Sunday that I was attempting to make seitan (a fake meat made from wheat gluten). I've never had seitan before, so I don't know if mine turned out "correctly," but I was pretty pleased with it.

Here are two seitan lumps after simmering in broth for awhile:

I grilled slices on my George Foreman grill:

I put the seitan on top of Isa Chandra Mokowitz's Dragon Noodle Salad.

I know this isn't all THAT impressive-looking, but it looks much nicer than the meals I usually eat.

It was delicious! I brought some leftovers with carrot sticks to work the next day in this awesome lunch container. I bought it awhile ago but for some reason hadn't gotten around to using it yet... I suppose until this week, I didn't have a lunch worthy of it!

Love the colours!

Yesterday was a long day for me. I went to the gym before work, worked until 7, and then rushed home for a driving lesson at 8 (my G2 road test is next week! ack!). I managed to prep a bunch of food the night before to bring to work. Even though I was exhausted, it didn't feel like a big chore... what a change from just a few weeks ago!

I brought a huge salad with goat cheese and a small can of lemon pepper tuna, carrots and hummus, plain yogurt with frozen mango pieces, brown rice pasta with meat sauce (which I made awhile ago and froze), an apple and banana, some crackers, and a granola bar. I barely had time to eat it all before it was time to go home!

This morning I met with my trainer. We spent some time with the foam roller. At first I was psyched that we were doing that instead of the usual torture lunges and such. But my muscles are so tight, it turned out to be pretty painful, especially when I was rolling over my IT band. And then I had to do a million lunges anyway. I have a foam roller, so I am determined to start using it regularly to loosen up a bit. I've been having some foot pain and I think it will help a lot.

That's all to report for now! I'm sure I'll be back soon with more random lunch pictures and gym updates. :)

Eat to Live Day 15

It's late, so I'm going to make it snappy.

I was excited to step on the scale this morning to see my Week 2 results. I wasn't disappointed:

Starting Weight: 262.7 pounds
Week 1 Weight: 255.9 pounds
Current Weight: 251.0 pounds

I lost 4.9 pounds since last week, and I've lost 11.7 pounds in total! Not too shabby! :D

I was in a big hurry this morning, so I took my breakfast green smoothie to go:

I brought a delicious lunch to work--leftover chili pinto beans on brown rice, along with my homemade salsa from yesterday:

I also had a juicy nectarine and some strawberries for dessert.

I threw dinner together quickly, but it worked out well. I tried to include LOTS of veggies, and I think I was successful!

I made a salad using the leftover dressing I had from my Whole Foods salad on Saturday, along with some raw green pepper, carrots, and baked zucchini. I also ate some leftover chili with the last two No-Meat Balls from last week. Very filling!

Of course, I couldn't eat dinner without dessert...

Have a good night, all!

Easter Run

Last week, I made my first ever purchase from lululemon: the Run To Work backpack. It was on sale, and I'd been looking for a way to carry things while running... and I figured, if it was too uncomfortable to wear while running, I could use it for biking or walking instead.

I live near Taylor Creek Park, and for awhile I've been wanting to run there. I hadn't gone yet, though, because it's far enough away that I wanted to be able to bring my wallet, cell phone, and some food with me (always be prepared!). With my new backpack in hand (er, on back?), I set out on Sunday. I took the bus there (I didn't want to wear myself out walking over) and packed a lunch for afterwards.

I'm not gonna lie -- the backpack was pretty annoying to run with. But I persevered and made it through a full half hour. Some pictures:

I tried to sit at these empty benches, but discovered (too late) they were surrounded by super-marshy grass!

Stairs up to Stan Wadlow Park

Funny-looking hair!

Then, I ate my lunch in the "Big Park" (my family lived in this neighbourhood until I was 7... we had a Big Park and a Little Park nearby), better known as Stan Wadlow Park: egg white & cheese wrap, carrots, and chocolate pudding (which I didn't end up eating).

Rather than take the bus again, I walked allllll the way home (past my family's old house!). It took me a good 40 minutes!

Lots of activity points to TRY and balance out some Easter goodies later that day:

I hope you all had a nice Easter!

Cookin' (and Lookin') Good!

I am a proud Weight Watcher! I wore my name tag from Saturday's meeting all the way home (under my jacket...):

Do you ever forget that you live alone and buy enough groceries throughout the week to feed a small army? I do. Often. So I've been doing some cooking & baking (which means I pick recipes that necessitate me picking up a few MORE groceries, and the cycle continues...). Here are some of my eats from the past couple of days:

Loaf Potion # 9 from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry! It has cranberries, walnuts, carrots, and zucchini in it. SO DELICIOUS!

I made it a double-loaf day with some banana bread.

(I know, I know... it doesn't really look like banana bread. It's a weird recipe, I think). The recipe is from The Duke Diet. I think the best part is the brown sugar and walnuts on top.

I brought some of each loaf to my parents & my sister and froze some more. As I mentioned above, I live alone (and as much as I'd like to, I probably shouldn't eat vast quantities of baked goods in short periods of time).

One of my impulse grocery buys was some fat-free ham. I hemmed and hawed over the high sodium content, but decided to treat myself (in small portions). And so the past couple of mornings I've been enjoying a healthified egg mcmuffin for breakie (with egg whites, light cheddar cheese, and a whole wheat english muffin! And the ham, of course).

And today's lunch creation:

My first time making cream of broccoli soup! It was pretty good. I got to use my immersion blender, which is always a good time. :)

I had it with some black beans, corn, and cheese on a tortilla (with greek yogourt)!

Tonight: pad thai! Seriously! More cooking!

I've also already gotten TWO workouts out of the way this week! Yesterday I went for an awesome treadmill run. I reached NEW SPEEDS (I think). I definitely had some (short) intervals that were around level 6.5. I covered 2.75 miles in 30 minutes. I don't think I've ever run that much before in that time period! It felt great!

This morning I started my day with the Intermediate workout from my Booty Camp dvd. Does anyone else find it easier than the Beginner workout, or am I just getting stronger? ;)

In other news, apparently I look great:

• Last week, one of my students from last semester noticed I'd lost weight.
• Today, I went to a coffee shop where I like to work sometimes, and the girl working there said I look really good and I should keep doing whatever I'm doing! I didn't even know she knew who I was!

I'm used to people who haven't seen me in a couple of years telling me I look different, but I'm not used to people who only know the "new me" noticing new changes (does that sentence make sense?).

I haven't lost much weight in the past couple of months, but I think my body composition has changed (thanks to Booty Camp!) and that must be what they're noticing. Yay! My clothes are fitting pretty well.

I have a cockeyed idea that I'm going to get up at 5 am tomorrow to squeeze a workout in before work... yeah, wish me luck with that. (Don't worry, if I can't do it, I'll work out sometime in the afternoon instead).

Have a nice night, all!

I love the smell of chlorine in the morning.

Don't hate me. I currently have Mondays off. It's pretty great.

As of this morning, I had not worked out since last Tuesday. That's 6 days off, people!! Almost a week!! My Thursday Booty Camp class was cancelled because our instructor was sick. Instead of doing another workout in its place, I... didn't. And I didn't exercise all weekend (unless you can call eating multiple heaping bowls of cereal exercise).

Yeah, did I mention that I went way over my points this weekend, too? I really struggled yesterday. But, I'm very relieved to find out that my lack of desire to eat well OR work out was short-lived, and today I was feeling like myself again.

I decided to work up the nerve to go swimming at a nearby community centre. I've felt an urge to go swimming for WEEKS, but never managed to drag my butt to the pool. But today was different! I found the pool without any trouble, and made my way to the slow lane. I stayed there for a little while, but then brazenly moved over to the medium lane! I did about 20 (slow, lazy) lengths after a brief warm-up. I didn't try to get an intense workout, I just treated it as a nice, relaxing, enjoyable swim.

After my swim, I went to the grocery store right by the pool (it's fancier than the one I usually go to). I found some steel cut oats, which they didn't have at my grocery store yesterday, and a few other things. I also saw a product that was a mixture of peanut butter and white chocolate, from Peanut Butter & Co!! I really really wanted to buy it, but I gave up junk food for Lent and decided that qualified. But come Easter, watch out!!

I ALSO saw a coupon for this Liberte Greek Yogurt that everyone is blogging about lately--but could not find the actual yogurt!! In my zeal to find it, I managed to knock over a stack of yogurt and split open a container, spilling yogurt everywhere. Oops. Luckily, the man who had to clean it up didn't seem too angry, and told me the greek yogurt would be in on Wednesday.

I came home and made a delicious lunch! I bought some salmon yesterday that I wanted to try:

While it was cooking, I ate a huge salad. It had cucumbers, grape tomatoes, avocado, mixed greens, spinach, and feta cheese. I'm not usually a salad person, so when I do have one, I need a lot of "extras." In retrospect, I think this one had too much going on, though!

Then, the salmon was ready! I had it with broccoli and cheese sauce. Delicious!

Pilates tonight! My workout break is definitely over!

New Lunch Bag Debut!

A few months ago I decided it was time to buy a lunch bag. I was bringing my lunch to work everyday, and I wanted my food to have a nice home.

I opted for a cheap, functional lunch bag without too many frills. But my lunches are quite large (and this bag was quite cheap), so within a few days, it developed a hole (which, I can only assume, negatively affected the insulation).

I kept using it for a couple of months, but on Friday, I finally upgraded to a more fashionable model:

Today, my lovely new bag made its debut! Yesterday I did a lot of food preparation because I knew I would be eating lunch AND dinner in a hurry. I needed to bring a substantial lunch to work, and also have dinner ready to scarf down during the 15 minutes or so at home between work and Booty Camp. (This isn't my regular Booty Camp night, but I can't make it to my usual Thursday session this week).

I swear, my lunches aren't usually this colour-coordinated! I brought plain yogurt with frozen peaches in it, some leftover curry with brown rice, a granola bar, and my bottle of water to work with me. I also had leftover (healthy!) pizza from last night and an apple prepared to grab for dinner. (The pizza had a whole-wheat crust that I bought, and I put kale and onion and green pepper and soy pepperoni and cheese on it! DELICIOUS!)

Yay! My lunch finally has a new home! Honestly, I know it's dorky, but things like this make me excited (and more motivated to pack a good lunch).

What's in your lunch bag?