Day 31

Still can't believe I've been at this for a whole month!

Breakfast:  Oatmeal cooked w/ water, sweetened w/ agave nectar and topped w/ a teaspoon of light brown sugar (I just couldn't resist that indulgence!)
Snack:  Whole wheat toast w/ pb & banana
Lunch:  Leftover whole wheat lassagna & Green Bean, Tomato & Feta Salad Oreganato from Kalyn's Kitchen (YUM!)
Dinner:  Taco Salad w/ romaine, ground turkey taco meat, tomatoes, guacamole, cheddar cheese & a small amount of Italian dressing ((I didn't have salsa since my blender died :o( )); 1/2 c Mexican rice

Exercise:  3 mile walk. 
I felt so good during the walk I just kept going and going.  Then when I got home I thought I was going to die!  My head was banging and my muscles were aching.  Altho it wasn't 100 degrees it was still over 90 and fairly humid (not as bad as last few weeks/months).  I suppose I'm used to keeping cool in the pool and am not used to working so hard in the hot sun!

Drank 10-11 glasses of water (can't remember exactly).


I'm nervous that it's practically midnight and I'm still awake.  I need to get up at 5:30 and will be working until 7:30 p.m.  It's gonna be a LONG day!  I'm also a bit nervous -- it's my first day subbing.  Thankfully it's for a friend's class at a school I tutored in last semester.  They have a full-time kinder position open, so please pray the day goes well and they see that I'm a good teacher and would want me to work for them!  Lol!  Thanks!

Labor Day Weekend: Days 27-29

Saturday, Day 27
Breakfast:  Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pancakes, scrambled eggs, Hillshire Farms smoked turkey sausage
Snack:  Kiwi
Lunch:  Guacamole, Stacy's Simply Naked Pita Chips, pear
Dinner:  2 Turkey hot dogs on whole wheat buns, chili, cheese, onions, potato chips
Snack:  Cuppa & Black Bean Brownies

Exercise:
1 hr swimming w/ the kiddos

Drank at least 8 glasses of water


Sunday, Day 28
Breakfast:  Jennie-O turkey breakfast sausage links, toast
Lunch:  Turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread w/ mustard; a pear
Snack:  Banana
Dinner:  Ground beef & lentil tacos on whole wheat tortilla with salsa, cheese & sour cream; Mexican rice
Snack:  1 Black Bean Brownie

No exercise

Drank 10 glasses of water


Monday, Day 29
Breakfast:  Cheese toast
Lunch:  Cheese Enchiladas w/ rice & beans; tortilla chips & salsa; guacamole; menudo (Can you tell what we ate for Labor Day lunch?  So bad but so yummy!!!)
Snack:  Small Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard (Can ya guess where where we stopped for our pit stop??)
Snack:  Pear, kiwi
Dinner:  Oatmeal cooked w/ water and sweetened w/ agave
Snack:  1/2 cup grape tomatoes (I needed to get my 5th serving of veggies in.  Lol!)

Exercise: 
SparkPeople 10 min cardio boot camp workout, Day 1
SparkPeople strength training exercises

Drank 12 glasses/3 liters of water

I didn't weigh-in this morning since I was in Waco.  You'd think since I had an extra day before I weighed in I would be extra good so I'd have a big loss.  Nope.  I stuffed my face with Mexican food instead.  And stopped for an oreo blizzard when I started getting sleepy on the road.  But I did forgo the hot dogs my dad made for dinner (I've had WWAAYYYY too many lately!) and opted for oatmeal instead. 
To be honest, I didn't intend to do any exercise tonight, but then I started watching the new Bravo show Thintervention with Jackie Warner and it motivated me to get off my butt and at least do some strength training exercises.  From there I went ahead and did 10 min of cardio while I watched the rest of the show.  I know 10 min isn't much, but it's better than the zero min I had originally planned on doing! 
Hopefully I can get back on track this week since the kiddos are gone.  It's a short week and I have a subbing assignment set up for Thrus & Fri, so that will help get me out of the house and keep from snacking!  Plus help my overall mental well-being.

Day 21

Breakfast:  Whole wheat toast w/ peanut butter & banana
Lunch:  Lentil chili w/ mozzarella on top
Dinner:  Low-fat Eggplant Parmesan w/ whole wheat spaghetti (this was ok -- I had to stack the eggplant to fit it all in the baking dish so the ones on top didn't cook through as much as I like.  Plus it lost it's crispiness after adding the sauce and baking; I even intentionally used as little sauce as possible.  I didn't have the parmesan cheese and I made my own breadcrumbs w/ whole wheat toast.  When I ran the toast through the food processor I added the garlic powder and put some dried basil as well.  It still tasted really good!) & Spinach-Pear Salad w/ Mustard Vinaigrette (this was SO YUMMY!  I didn't realize I had run out of stone-ground mustard but I happened to have some mustard seed powder I've never used so I added a heaping 1/2 t of that instead.  I highly recommend this recipe!)
Snack:  Toast w/ peanut butter & cherry jam
Snack:  Cuppa & blueberry muffin

Exercise:
30 min swim

Felt I did better overall today, but still one too many carbs.  But I'm glad I didn't go way off track today.  Hopefully it'll show in the weigh-in tomorrow...

Strawberry & Banana Muffins

So a few months ago my dear friend, Elaine, posted some pics and a recipe for Strawberry & Banana Muffins.  I followed her link to the original recipe on Words To Eat By (which seems to have some other amazing recipes I need to browse through!).  Since seeing the original recipe I've made the muffins at least twice a month.  I had some bananas to use up, so I made them again today, and oh my are they yummy!  This is my revised recipe.  Hope y'all enjoy!

Strawberry & Banana Muffins 

(revised from recipe at Words To Eat By)

Makes 12

2 large eggs

½ c. Splenda
¼ c. oil
¾ c. mashed fresh strawberries 
1 medium banana, mashed 
½ t. almond extract
1 ½ c. white whole wheat flour

2 t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ c. rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

Preheat oven to 350. Coat two muffin tins with non-stick spray and set aside.

In large mixing bowl whisk eggs until frothy. Whisk in sugar, Splenda, oil, strawberries, banana, and almond extract.

In separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and oats. Stir or whisk until evenly distributed and then add to the wet mixture. Stir gently, just until combined (the advice from WTEB is "with low-fat baking you really don’t want to touch it too much or the finished product will be tough."  However, I didn't make mine low-fat -- meaning I used whole eggs instead of egg whites -- so I'm not sure if this rule completely applies.  Nonetheless, I did stir the mixture as little as possible).  

Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full. 

Bake 20-25 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Turn muffins out onto a wire rack immediately and let cool. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

I have loads more bananas to use up, so once I stock up on eggs (hopefully non-contaminated eggs!)  I'll be making more and freezing them so I'll have a nice sweet snack that's isn't full of preservatives and junk.

To track food on SparkPeople I need to enter the nutrition info as well.  The original recipe says each muffin is worth 4 WW points, but that means nothing to me.  I googled and found a new recipe calories calculator.  I don't know how reliable it is, but I used it anyway.  There's also one on SparkPeople, but you need to enter each ingredient and amount and I'm just too lazy to do that at the moment.  Anywho, below is the nutritional info from Calorie Counter.  Oh, and I added links to both Calorie Counter and SparkPeople's new recipe calorie calculators on the sidebar.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 60 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 175 Calories from Fat 52

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 5.8g 9%

Saturated Fat 0.9g 5%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 35mg 12%

Sodium 162mg 7%

Total Carbohydrates 25.6g 9%

Dietary Fiber 1.2g 5%

Sugars 9.8g

Protein 3.3g

Vitamin A 1% • Vitamin C 10% Calcium 5% • Iron 6%

Nutrition Grade C+

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet