Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Think before you bite!

Another typical day at my house - started with one of my usual breakfast treats: a Whole wheat english muffin (3pp), 1 Tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter (3pp) and a split banana ~ assembled like a sandwich.  I came up with the idea for making this some time ago as a 'grab and go' breakfast sandwich, but to be honest...I've always eaten it at home ;0)

Lunch at the office was a Turkey Wrap: Ultra thin Sliced Turkey (6 slices - 2pp), an Ole Extreme Health 8 Grain Tortilla/Wraps (2pp), and 1Tbsp Hellman's Lite Mayo (1pp) and lots of veggies (0pp) - 5pp total.

We also had a mid-day snack:
14 Tostito's Baked Scoops (3pp) with lots of fresh salsa (0pp) and 2Tbsp Wholly Guacamole "Spicy" (2pp)...total pp for snack was 5!  However, I didn't eat the cheeses pictured here (WW wedges for 1pp each) because I realized I was headed for points plus overload! 

This was the subject of our WW meeting two weeks ago.  For anyone not present- here was the lesson: Many of us have the habit of fixing our plates, eating the food, and then going to our trackers and writing down what we had.  BAD IDEA!  In the case of my snack above - it might not have been a deal breaker for Chuck who gets over 40 points per day - but for me with only 29 points per day, it was not so good.  It severely limits the rest of my day.  How much better it would have been to have thought about what I wanted and what would have been sufficient, calculate the points plus ahead of time and decide if it was 'worth it'...then fix the plate and eat what I planned on.  Remind me next time, OK?  Thus the theme of today's post - think before you bite!  Sometimes I find myself reverting to old habits of just "winging it" - but I know that planning is the key to success in both weight loss and in maintaining an ideal weight.

Tonight's dinner plan?  Pepper Steak (6pp), brown rice (5pp) and steamed green beans (0pp).  That puts me at 27 points plus for the day with 2 to spare - I'll have to scramble to figure out how to spend those last two for a late night snack, but likely will break into my weekly allowance points just a wee bit!

Stir fry the beef...

Double the green peppers and onions for "0" pp - we love them!!

Remove the beef and stir fry the veggies in the same pan...

I added a few chilies with the meat, sauce and red pepper flakes to add some extra heat...

1 cup of brown rice and unlimited "0"pp carrots...

Wonderfully satisfying dinner!

Learn from my experience today- Calculate your meals and snacks before you fix your plates!  It is a very good habit that will help you stay on track with no regrets.  I may have to write that on the back of my hand where I see it as a reminder - anyone got a Sharpie?  Have a great rest of your day, everyone!

2 comments:

  1. wow this looks great! I will have to try this soon. I agree with writing the points before you eat it...some times when you see how many point it is and what you have left for the day, you might want to change what you are eatting. I am not sure if you have ever seen my dry erase board on my frig. but it was the days of the week on the bottom and I put down what we are having for dinner in there. I have started to put my points next to it so i know ahead of time what I need for my dinner points. I started this way before WW..when greg was on one of the chemo's that we really had to watch what he ate. and it still helps today!

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  2. It WAS really good. I love onions and peppers anyways, but the beef and soy sauce makes it have an oriental flavor. I double the veggies for bulk without points!

    Good for you with tracking ahead of time...its a habit that I need to work harder on. I do well at times, but still find myself slipping to old habits at times. We're all struggling with something, right? Otherwise none of us would need WW or blogs like this. Hang in there Mimi!! You are doing great!!

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