Recipe: Crispy Sesame Ginger Turkey Wrap!

Hello hello! I should be at Weight Watchers right now, but I am out of gas *sigh* and I put in my two weeks notice at work. Conservation mode here I come! I look forward to my WW meetings, but I usually go visit my mother right after and tonight she's going fishing. I just can't justify spending $5 on the drive right now. My income is about to drastically changed, so I need to spend the time instead blogging (LOL) then applying to more jobs like a mad lady.

Tonight I want to share something with you that I threw together last week that I believe is...amazing, or at least really good.

Crispy Sesame Ginger Turkey Wrap!

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Ingredients:


1 Flatout light wrap (or other high fiber wrap)

2 ounces Jennie-O lean turkey ham (or other lean turkey cold cut)
cubed

2 T Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger dressing

1/2 -3/4 cup broccoli slaw



Nutrition Facts: 195 calories, 7 grams of fat, and 10.5 grams of fiber for 4 POINTS and 42% of your daily fiber


Drizzle the dressing over the ingredients in the wrap, roll up, and enjoy! I love the crunch factor in this wrap. I found it to be delicious, filling, and satisfying orally and visually.



$$$$$ Saving Tips $$$$$



For crazy people like me who may have just quit a job they hate or like saving money.

1.) I buy the big block of Jennie-O lean turkey ham, weigh out 2 ounce slices/chunks, bag them individually in freezer bags and place in a container in the freezer.

I am not a fan of things going bad before I get to eat them and that's usually what happens when I eat the appropriate portions. You save money by buying in bulk and by not having to throw out old cold cuts. This ham is very versatile as well. I've used it in breakfast omelettes, on salads, and in another recipe of mine, Light Turkey Carbonara.

2.) Broccoli Slaw is much cheaper at WalMart instead of getting the one endorsed by HG at the supermarket. That's the one I buy and I haven't died yet.

WW Topic of the Week: Monitoring Yourself

What a great feeling it was to be back at Weight Watchers this week after missing last week's meeting due to surgery! The support I get there is amazing and I love being surrounded by so many kind people with similar goals.

This week's topic was monitoring yourself. There are many different ways to monitor your progress from day to day. The primary monitoring tool I use is clothing; if I'm dancing into my tightest fitting jeans with a few extra hops, I know I've been a little too relaxed with my food intake and exercise plan.

The goal for this next week is to monitor myself in a couple different ways. I would like to track my intake every day and make sure I'm getting proper nutrition and I would like to continue blogging, paying special attention to emotional triggers.

Controlling the Cost of Snacking

For many people, including me, random compulsive snacking can add up! The cost often ends up being more than you wanted to pay.

Today I had some extra time on my hands and spent approximately 20 minutes making a snack drawer using a pile of snacks, snack bags, and garage sale pricing labels. I labeled each bag or bar with the appropriate POINTS value and put all the remaining boxes and bags of snacks out of my reach.

Not everything in the drawer is a filling food, but at least it's all portion-controlled.

In my snack drawer you will find:

Weight Watchers Bars

Pretzel Snacks

Quaker Delights Bars

Smartfood

Fiber Bars

Pistachios

Almonds

Dark Chocolate covered Espresso Beans

Sugar Free Jelly Belly Beans

Quaker Delights Rice Snacks

Crackers

What's in your drawer?

I'm off to family night at my mother's house! We'll see how I navigate that experience. I'm bringing a snack and a couple 4C's sugar free tea2go packets (I love the Red Peach Tea) because her cooking can often be delicious, yet disasterous.

Re-committment

Hello...hello! My apologies to all. I have been dealing with some medical issues this past month or so. I had a tumor in my salivary gland that had to be removed. It was removed this past Monday and was benign, so now I'm ready to get back in the swing of things.

When I first found out that I had a tumor I was fairly angry. I've done all this work to be healthy and then I found out at my fittest that I had a medical issue! I really was floored. But now I am ready to recommit to my health and fitness. Since making my goal weight it seems that each week I became more and more lax about my eating habits. What I noticed the most was that I stopped paying attention to portions sizes and stopped journaling my food. These two things combined could have really done some damage. When I met made lifetime for Weight Watchers I weighed in 4 pounds below my goal weight at 131, currently I am weighing in at about 135, but before my surgery I was all the way up to 138. They say that a five-pound weight gain after significant loss should be a warning bell, so I consider myself warned. It's time to recommit to this lifestyle. It's obvious that the habits I've learned are not second nature, so I need to keep working at it.

One thing that really helps me stick with it is constantly looking for and finding new healthy foods. Here are some of my most recent finds

Kellogg's Special K Fruit Crisps 2 POINTS
Pros: A great on the go breakfast with a cup of coffee
Cons: Not the most filling, makes a mid-morning snack a must

Imagine Organic Soups 2 POINTS
So far I have only tried the Butternut Squash soup, but it was both delicious and filling

I'll be back soon with more updates

Struggling

Right now I'm struggling.

I have no idea where I am weight-wise. I keep telling myself, I'll track what I eat tomorrow. Pretty soon tomorrow has to turn into TODAY or I am going to spiral out of control. Right now I am even making cookies!

The one thing that I have going well right now is activity. My boyfriend and I have a gym membership and he's been on me to go every free moment we have. On the one hand, I'm grateful for the support and encouragement, but then there are times...when I just want to be in bed! I really haven't been feeling well lately. Lately meaning the last 2 months or so. I've always been a sleeper, but now I can't get enough sleep no matter how long I'm out for. In the past going to the gym has given me bursts of energy that keep me up through the night, but lately when we go, it seems that I come back feeling good momentarily then I crash and burn. I'm just exhausted. I should be in bed right now, but unfortunately, it's not like it's going to matter. I'm still going to be tired in the morning, all day, and all night.

Weigh-In

Wow! I couldn't believe I made my weigh-in. I weighed in at 135.8, only .8 above my goal. Thank goodness I joined the gym and made some healthy substitutions in my meals. I don't usually like salad, but I found a dressing that is absolutely delicious and that is the Newman's Own Light Up! Sun Dried Tomato Italian dressing. One tablespoon is only one point, is very flavorful and goes a long way.

On the not so disciplined side of things, I ate half a pizza tonight. I made a somewhat home-made pizza with reduced fat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and mushrooms on a whole wheat crust. The ingredients sound fine until you factor in portion size. I think that's one thing that gets a lot of us. We end up snacking mindlessly and perhaps we justify it to ourselves by saying, "Well, this was sugar free, and that was reduced fat so how bad could it have been?" But when you don't journal your calories or POINTS and you don't watch portion size, the odds are you're doing a lot more damage than your willing to let yourself think.

After indulging on pizza, I relaxed for quite a while in front of the TV and wanted to blow off the trip to the gym because I was tired. Of course I was tired! I worked a full day, carbo-loaded, and parked my tuchus on the couch. Fortunately, my boyfriend didn't let me get away with it, so I just returned from a late-night gym trip and I feel so much better!

I'm back! Plus, 1st Workout in 1.5 months!

This is my first post since after Thanksgiving. The holidays came and went after I met goal and I have gone off of plan. Maybe it comes from feeling a little too confident and underestimating the power that food has over me, but currently I am weighing in at 4 pounds over goal. I have gone to my Weight Watchers Meeting every week, but so far this month, I have not weighed in. I have hardly weighed myself at home either. Combined with my excessive snacking, this has been a recipe for disaster. I can feel the extra few pounds.

Monday when I weigh-in I am probably not going to be exactly at goal, but maybe I can at least get to 137, so that I can be one month closer to having maintained my goal weight(within two pounds) for a year. Not all is lost because of a few pounds.

What went wrong:

I've been really stressed lately because I HATE my primary job and I'm trying to get find a new job and get into graduate school. I eat and snack more when I am upset and/or on the go and I have not been tracking what I eat.

What I'm going to do about it:

I am going to put my POINTS journal out where I can see it. I spent money on it, so I might as well use it because it's an excellent tool. I'm not going to let a single morsel go untracked. Also, tonight my boyfriend bought us a membership to one of the local gyms. It's actually helpful that he made the purchase in more ways than just the obvious; because he paid for it, I'll be even more motivated to make use of the membership so I don't waste his hard-earned money. I'm hoping that I can use the gym as a stress management tool as well. If I go before I reach for the chips, I'll be less likely to reach for the bag when I get home. Why ruin all my hard work?

Tonight I did 30 minutes of cardio between two machines and also used some of the strength training equipment. I didn't want to push myself on the first day, but we do plan on going back tomorrow afternoon before I go to work at my second job.