It's Saturday!

We haven't been eating out a lot lately. Trying to save up for my daughter's softball tournaments. I cook at home but it's nothing special at all. Just whatever I can throw together so I haven't been posting much of anything. I have my magazine's out today so I can get some inspiration for healthy meals for the family. Hopefully they'll work out and I can take some pics of the food and share the recipes with you. I'll also add the weight watcher points for those interested.

I saved my points yesterday because I knew that we would be eating out after my daughter's games. We chose to eat at Taziki's in Hoover off of Hwy 31 mainly because it's right next door to Gigi's cupcakes and I wanted to treat the kids to a cupcake. I planned to try a few bites of the cupcakes but count a whole so I wouldn't mess up and eat too much.

Taziki's has other options other than gyros so I wanted to try something that didn't have feta in it.

My daughter ordered the hot beef tenderloin sandwich with fruit and chips. She wanted the sandwich without the horseradish sauce. Every single bit of the sandwich was gone so I would venture out and say that she loved it. Oh and another clue? Was the mmmmm momma mmmm this is so good. You should try it!

Nick ordered the pork tenderloin with grilled asparagus and roasted potatoes. He commented that the pork was cooked very well and was seasoned perfectly. So A+ on his lunch too. He didn't finish all the asparagus so I took it off of his plate to try it - YUM! Tonight I'm going to buy some asparagus to grill.

Stephie ordered the pasta special. It was grilled chicken and penne pasta on top of a salad with basil and balsamic vinegar dressing. I had that exact salad when I went to lunch with Kristy in Tuscaloosa and enjoyed it.
My youngest daughter ordered the grilled chicken on a bed of rice with fruit. She ate the chicken but didn't like the way the rice tasted. They added lemon I believe and some parsley and she's not too fond of anything green. I ended up eating her rice (traded her my potato chips for the rice). I liked it but I could see why she wouldn't eat it. She likes her food to be simple - rice with a bit of butter and that's it.

I ordered the pork tenderloin sandwich with veggies. It was very good. I ended up eating my sandwich, fruit and Noelle's rice. Counted all of it and it was well within my range. So I could sit back and enjoy my lunch without any feelings of failure - HAHAHA! But the pork was tender, the veggies were fresh, and I believe the bun was a potato bun. Not too sure though. Could have done without the sauce they put on it. It was some type of aioli but it just tasted like honey mustard - and I'm not a huge fan of honey mustard.
The pictures are kinda dark but you can see what kind of cupcakes we ordered. Nick ordered the Boston Creme (our favorite! VERY good!) and my youngest daughter chose the red velvet (best I've ever eaten).
My oldest daughter ordered the chocolate with vanilla frosting and chocolate chips (I could pass that one up) and the kentucky bourbon (liked it but I'm not a huge fan of all the nuts). My girls can't wait to try some more. I told them we would go every now and then on different days so they can try different flavors.

Lost!

3.2 pounds! Doesn't seem like a lot but I'm excited it's going in the right direction. I wish I had lost at least 5 but that doesn't seem like it would be a reality without some strenuous exercise - in which I haven't even attempted at this point. My joints are squeaky and cry out in misery if I do anything but walk (excuses excuses!). I will start some movement soon though because I know I need to. But as I am trying to change the way I eat, I need all my motivation to be focused in that for now - for at least 2-3 weeks that is. I'll start my workout planning soon!

Work has been stressful for the past few days. I'm surprised that the stress hasn't caused me to black out and hit the chocolate but it hasn't.... yet. I keep fruit in the fridge at work and a small weight watcher chocolate bar in my drawer. So far so good! I still have those thoughts... go get a juicy delicious cheeseburger with all the goodies mmmmmm or what about those doughy kolaches in the kitchen mmmmmm. But I'm able to push on through and decide not to eat them. Now I'm not in a fantasy world where I'll never touch the food again but I know that if I don't really want them, pass them by. If there comes an instance where I'll have additional stress or irritation from not having one, then I'll eat half of one. I'm on a roll people!

Speaking of which, I'd like to let you know what a kolache is! You can get them at Shipley's Donuts off of Lorna Road. They bake ham, pepperoni, turkey, sausage and sausage with fresh jalapenos in a potato dough (not sweet) with some cheese. So what comes out is a roll of fresh bread with cheesy hot meaty goodness inside. They are delicious but very heavy so eat with caution!

Next weight update will be next Tuesday. Let's see how I do!

Tomorrow is the day!

To get nervous and run away because it's weigh in day! Nah, I'm not nervous but am interested to see how well I did. Well, I'm not going to judge on how "well" I did by the weight I lost because they may not be directly related. I'm just happy that I made great choices in what I ate. We'll see!

We stopped at Western to get our groceries this weekend and I found this wine. HAHA! I am a middle child and can be smarty pants. LOL! Too funny - I should have bought it and tried it out.

This morning I tried oatmeal. I cooked it with skim milk and added fresh blueberries and Splenda. Can I say YUCK? I would rather have wheat bread or a boiled egg. I didn't like it at all. What am I doing wrong? I guess I need to look up a recipe to see if I can improve some oatmeal. The thing is that I need to find a quick meal that I can make.... that tastes good... that will sustain me through lunch. Any ideas?
I wish I had a better picture of the dinner I made tonight. Very tasty and filling. I made wheat rotini and paired it with pork loin, eggplant, onion and romaine. I sauted the onion and garlic, added the cut up pork loin (slivers) and browned the meat. Then I added the egglant and cooked it with a bit of chicken stock. Add the romaine last to keep the crunch. The sauce was a chinese - chinese 5 spice, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Delish.

Urban Standard

Saturday was date night! Me and Nick went with Steph and Devin to watch our friend Jon David Wise play the violin with some local musicians at Urban Standard. I've been to Urban Standard before but it was just a quick stop in to grab a drink after the loft tour in Birmingham. I'm just super glad that we didn't go eat somewhere before stopping in.

Their entire menu looked great. I did what I usually do and look at every plate that passed by. I would have loved to try a little of everything. I'll just come back to eat. I am on weight watchers so I had to be smart with my selection but to tell you the truth, everything that went by looked to be a sensible portion of a variety of fresh vegetables and lean meats. I love hummus so I chose the hummus, pita, olives, cucumber and salad plate. I didn't eat all of the pita and shared with my honey.

Steph decided to try the grilled cheese. Their grilled cheese had a side of jelly - I believe it was grape jelly or was it balsamic jelly. I'm not 100% sure but I tried it. I tried a couple of bites of the the sandwich dipped in the jelly. Mmmm can't get over that salty sweet taste. It was delicious.
And as always, Nick ordered my favorite meal. Their steak was cooked perfectly - tender and perfectly medium rare. I can't wait to go back and order it again. It was served with roasted eggplant, squash, tomatoes and fingerling potatoes. Very simply served and you could taste the great roasted veggies. He cleaned up his plate.

Devin ordered the chicken salad over their spring salad mix with strawberries and blueberries. Delicious chicken chunks with just enough mayonnaise. They give you a lot of salad and chicken salad so be prepared if you order it.

We are going back for dinner very soon. Our first dinner experience was excellent. Great company, great music and delicious food. Our night was perfect.

Next time we are ordering the grilled tofu and the lamb. See you soon at Urban!

Food choices

I'm proud of my food choices and love the new Weight Watchers program. I love it because fruits and veggies are free foods. Well some veggies are! I go straight for the apple, pear, celery, spinach or peach when I need a pick me up snack. And it doesn't take any points from my total so that makes me incredibly happy! Here are some of my choices from the week:

-coffee with splenda with 2 tbsp of creamer measured

-wheat toast with a slice of cheese

-apples, pears, a banana (eat in moderation), plums and peach

-sandwiches rolled in a wheat pita, lettuce, lean turkey, mustard and cheese slice

-lots of water and coke zeros every now and then

I went to Jim and Nick's for lunch and had turkey brisket, collard greens and a cucumber/tomato/onion salad and ate one cheese biscuit (found the smallest in the basket).

We also went to Cheesecake Factory where I opted for the grilled salmon with salt and pepper, brown rice (ate half), and broccoli. We ordered steamed edamame for appetizer (which was excellent!). I was so super stuffed and satisfied. Great lunch and only used about a third of my allotted points for the day. I didn't want any cheesecake or bread.

I made sloppy joe's for family dinner night and used plenty of red peppers and onions. I plugged it into the recipe builder on weight watchers and found out that a serving was only 7 points. So I ate my sloppy joe on slim wheat sandwich bread and measured out a serving of fries (5). As I cooked, I made sure I had some black olives available to snack on so I wouldn't go for chips or extra sloppy joe right out of the pan. That worked wonders!

I also bought some Weight Watcher bars at my meeting so if I wanted something sweet, I could eat a bar. I got the toasted coconut and chocolate bar (YUM!), the lemon bars (okay), and the chocolate caramel bar (haven't tried) and they are only 2 points a bar. So far it's taken the place of the candy bars I head for around 3:00 every afternoon at work. It's been a great for me.

And last but not least, I cooked breakfast this morning. My daughters wanted an omelet and I wasn't sure I wanted that. I ended up frying two eggs in olive oil, then threw in some spinach and lean turkey breast. It was so good! I didn't use fresh garlic so I threw in some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Delish!

I'm going to look through some recipes and see what I can make for them family. I'll blog about my findings soon.

Cupcakes!

HaHa! Right after my losing weight blog comes a blog about cupcakes. Too funny.

I've been hearing great things about Gigi's cupcakes. Imagine my surprise when I drove by the new Chase mall and saw that they are readying a Gigi's cupcakes right next to Baha Burger. Now that is WAY to close to where I live. Of course, I looked up the website and thoroughly enjoyed reading her story. What an inspiration! And then to hear everyone in Tuscaloosa singing Gigi's praises - I had to go check them out when I went to Tuscaloosa last week.

It did not disappoint at all! We ordered the orange creamsicle, pink lemonade, red velvet and summer fun. They were all so good, but my fav was the red velvet. I could only eat bites of the cupcakes because they were so rich and I wanted to try all of them :) I can't wait for them to come into Hoover - it's going to be my treat on good days. Wonder if I can find the nutritional values on these goodies.

Yum!

Losing weight

I have been trying to shed these pounds for years! It took me fifteen years to get this way and I need to realize it will take a while to shed them. It's weird - I want to lose the weight but when the tough gets going, I just sit down and quit. Yep - I'm a quitter when it comes to losing weight. Granted the last few times I tried, I lost weight and then got pregnant... gained the weight back, and then quit the dieting. Oh and this isn't Nick blogging - it's Jenny. It's been a hard road - it totally stresses me out to not be able to eat what I want but what I need to understand is that what I want is so bad for me. If I keep continuing the way that I am going, it will only be harder on me, my family and my attitude.

I decided that I am sick and tired of being this way. I have to be honest - yes, I love food. And yes, I hate planning ahead - I'm more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. But look where it has gotten me and my family. I am way overweight, my husband could stand to lose some weight, my daughter is telling me that she would like to eat healthier and overall we don't eat enough fruits and vegetables.

I took the first step on Tuesday and joined Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers has always been a plan that I can work with and lose weight. I called my mother-in-law because she wanted to attend the meetings with me. I changed the start date about four times because I had my kids with me and I didn't think I could bring them with me. I went anyways - I went in, weighed in and asked about bringing the kids to the meeting. I was told that if they made any noise that I would have to leave. I totally understood since I wouldn't want to sit through a meeting with fussy kids. But lucky for me and thanking God, they didn't fuss at all - they sat and played quietly.

I feel great about starting the program and am ready to make the right choices. I'm including the kids in my journey and cooking well for my family. This is a great start for them and an even better life change for me!

I HATE taking pictures of myself because I see what other people see. I cannot believe that I've gained so much weight. But I am going to face it now, be in photographs, and start taking care of myself. Here's to losing weight!

This is me after having my third child. I keep telling people - I'm going to lose weight but I just had my third child. Let me tell you - I can use this exact excuse for YEARS. I've proven it too - I used that excuse after my first turned four. The girl I was talking to said, "Oh my goodness, you just had a baby? How old is she." I was totally embarrassed that I had to admit that she was four years old.

The bottom pic is me at 19 or 20 years old. I was in college at the time and dating Nick. This is where all the weight gain began. I remember days of eating at McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Chinese Buffets and Auntie Anne's just came to Bham so we ate a ton of pretzels. Being a broke college student, we ate at a burger joint right down from campus that sold incredibly cheap burgers. I can imagine that they were incredibly fattening.

It's not easy to admit to all of this but I wanted to. I wanted to blog about it so I can look back and see my journey! We're still going to look for great places to eat in Birmingham but I'm going to make wiser choices and if there are times that I don't, I want to blog about it too so I can learn from my choices.