Tuesday Weigh-In and a Myriad of Pictures to Boot!

Today's weigh-in was a good thing.

Breakfast was a Egg and Veggie Bagel with a Clementine.

Delish, with a cup of decaf Pumpkin Spice Tea.

Lunch was a Roast Beef and and Cheese Sandwich
with grapes and pretzels. Mmmm

Last night I decided to do myself a favor by prepping my veggies for the week. A great idea, but how to you keep cucumbers fresh? You don't. So, I "pickled" them. This was a great success, and if you aren't worried about salt, I suggest you try it. I also boiled a half dozen eggs to make my life easier. It's hard to eat the bad things when the good things are an easy choice, right?

I did not get down the gym today because of unforeseen Sprout circumstances, but tomorrow is another day, right? No one said that Operation Healthy Initiative was going to yield quick and easy results. I am happy that I haven't binged in over a week, although today was really hard. I felt like I was starving. I have no idea what that was about. I'm sure that some exercise would help with that. 

Meanwhile, here's my super easy recipe for the "pickled" cucumbers. 

1 cucumber - peeled and sliced in thin rounds

1 cup distilled vinegar

1 cup water

1 cup ice cubes

1/4 cup Kosher Salt

Combine vinegar, water, ice cubes and salt in a 4 cup container with a lid. Add cucumbers. Refrigerate overnight. Eat and enjoy. 

See, I told you it was easy.

The Salad Dressing Solution

I have made a fantastic discovery! I like salad, right? The problem is that most salad dressings have stupid amounts of fat and calories. Sometimes I like the whole oil and vinegar routine, but other times I want a little more flavor. When you add dressing, you have to cut out some of the other good tasting incidentals in your salad, like cheese and cranberries. All those calories tend to add up. What's a person to do?

Enter: BBQ Sauce! I had some lettuce and some chicken. I added some BBQ sauce and voila! Good eats. I highly recommend using BBQ sauce for your salads. Depending on what kind you use, you could easily cut 100 calories and lots of fat as well. While there may be a fair amount of salt and sugar in BBQ sauce, if you aren't using the whole bottle, it's really not so bad. If you're worried about it though, I suggest looking for a sauce with a vinegar base - like an East Carolina Style. If you pick a sauce you already like, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Discovering Lox

I'm not sure if it's because I've been taking my medication like a champ or that I have kicked the sugar habit, but I have had a streak of good eating and weight loss this week. I was able to eat some Twizzlers, and not all in one go, and I was satisfied with a reasonable serving of frozen yogurt. Also, I didn't get into an "I must eat ALL the things" mania, so I'm pretty happy. While my commitment to the gym could use some work, my eating habits seem to be moving away from Scary Land and toward Healthville.

This week has been full of mini bagels and home-cooked meals. I think we ate out once. I hope this streak continues, although I am jonesing for some really good Pad Thai. Maybe I'll figure out how to make it for myself. On Monday, I made a big pan of Beef Stir Fry and Rice, which lasted until Thursday. Then we had an evening of "fend for yourself" followed by a big pot of chicken curry which should last until at least Monday. Since I am the queen of cooking too much anyway, these large dishes have been serving quite well.

After my mini break last weekend, I came home with a new love affair: lox. This healthy and delish little fishy food was just what the doctor ordered to get me out of my oat breakfast slump. One mini bagel, some reduced fat cream cheese, enough lox to cover one side, and a generous helping of onion, tomato, and cucumber was my breakfast of choice all week. Paired with some sort of fresh fruit, of course.

If you are interested in eating lox, but think it's too expensive, consider this: I made 2 serving last 6 days, and was more than satisfied. No one needs to be eating a full size bagel in the first place, so if you are using mini bagels, stretching your lox out for a week would be easy. The only problem might be if you don't want to eat lox everyday. It will eventually go bad. If this is the case, I suggest you divide up the servings and freeze all but one. Then, when you want a smoky salmon breakfast, all you have to do it stick a serving in the fridge the night before. Even if you forget, not to worry. Lox is thin. I bet you could put it in some water to thaw while your bagel was toasting and it would be just right by the time you needed it.

The best thing about my tasty bagel breakfasts is this: they satisfy! This allows me to forget about food until snack time, which has been some protein pared with a fruit. I find that as long as I eat get some protein in every snack and meal that I don't wind up back on the binge train to Scary Land. This is good.