They Call it Puppy Love

So in my last post I mentioned that I stopped at a Panera a few weeks ago.  What it didn't mention were the following facts:

• Panera is located directly next door to a Petsmart
• Petsmart doesn't have dogs at their locations
• We aren't going to get a dog until this summer
• Sometimes I go in there and look at dog items (even thought I don't have a dog) because I'm crazy

Well, two Saturday's ago I was having that crazy urge to go look at things that I can buy for my imaginary dog.  So, I begged my fiance to let us go in there and scope out items (to which he caved).

Upon walking in, I heard dogs barking and saw that they were having an adoption drive.  No big deal, we've handled walking away from plenty of these.  We scanned over the dogs, patted a few heads...and then we saw him. 

Ruh-Roh

We pet him for approximately 1.5 minutes, Adam commented about how mellow he was and was the kind of dog that we should get this summer...and then we both decided that we should leave immediately.  We got to the car, looked at each other, and asked the obvious question "are we going to get that dog?".  We both said "absolutely not" and "we're not ready for a dog" and "we don't even have anything for a dog" and "it's winter!".  Psssshhhh, that's crazy that we even thought that!?

Fast forward 24 hours.  All I can think about is that little dog so I google "petsmart adoption drive minneapolis".  The internet is a beautiful thing...I ended up being led to a shelter's site that had profiles for all of the pets at the drive...and there was his face again.

LD's little doe eyes (Little Dude, or LD, was his old name but that HAD to go for very obvious reasons) haunted my dreams, brought me to tears and I hoped for the next few days that somehow Adam would read my mind and pick up this dog and it would be waiting at home to greet me.  But he can't read minds and finally I let him know that I had been thinking about the dog all week. 

I thought for sure that he would give me the "no go" but when he saw his picture...it was puppy love.  But we realized that before being able to make any decisions we should see if he had been adopted.  I make the phone call and the consensus was that "there is an adoption paper out on him".  I could have cried; they told me that we would have to wait 24 hours to find out if it went through.  Our puppy (that isn't even ours yet), going to someone else's home.  I was heartbroken.

Then I get an email the next day letting me know that he has NOT been adopted and that we can come look at him if we would like.  Well, as my brother-in-law to be, Jay, said about the pup "get the jam cuz' I'm jelly".  After spending about and hour and a half with him at the shelter watching him get his butt kicked by a group of husky/lab puppies and being a complete gentleman with us, we signed the papers, cut the donation check and had a date last Friday to pick up our new family addition.

Our visit to the animal sanctuary

I'm not sure what we were thinking, but, we're not looking back!  We're one week into having Wallace and while this week has been extremely tiring waking up in the middle of the night and coming home when we would have been doing other things, little things like watching him pounce on a ball or sleep on our legs is worth all of the sacrifices.  We've learned so much about being a dog owner and about each other in the last week...and still so many more years of surprises, ripped up items, dumped over trash cans and more fun to come!

If you don't think our dog is the cutest puppy in the world, then you're wrong.  No arguing.  It's just that simple.

Also, while he's very cute...he's a lot of work so don't think that it's all unicorns and rainbows.  If you're thinking about getting a dog you REALLY need to do lots of research and save up a little doggy savings account.  With so many great sites online, I suggest spending lots of time looking up articles about the breed and about overall training in general before even thinking about getting a dog. 

I PROMISE that there are many more of these shots to come...

 

In closing, this last week and a half have been crazy.  Our schedules were completely altered, we've both made time sacrifices...and with those time sacrifices came bad some food decisions but also us running around so much that we didn't have much time to eat.  The good news is that we're getting the hang of things and I have started logging my food again as well as gotten over the guilt and went to work out after making sure that he's all taken care of.  All and all, Adam and I have both lost weight between then and now so we're still on the right track (even though the track has changed slightly since what it was two weeks ago)!

Operation Fridge Weekly Update

So, the plan was to write every week about how things are going with my plan to lose some pounds and get myself that fridge.  Well, needless to say, life happened.  Which I'll write more about in my next post.  But here were my thoughts on summarizing my overall success two week ago:

Goals

• Work Out Five Times a Week
• 1200 Calories a Day
• 500 Calorie Out-to-Eat Meals

Results 
Worked Out: Four Times
I made it a point to get out to the gym (no matter what the weather or parking situation is) this week and get er' done.  I even got up early on Sunday morning to catch my favorite Zumba class before the football games started so that I could indulge a bit while watching my Packers shoot themselves in the foot.  Thank goodness I did because I needed those hard ciders as it came to turn out.

Stayed Within 1200 Net Calories: 4/7 days
Quite honestly, this week was not great for me food-wise (as you will see more about below) and I need to do better this week at planning.  While I was with 40 calories two of the days that I missed my caloric goals, getting on track this week is more important than ever to ensure my success. 

Here's something that did NOT help me:

Yeah, that's a caramel filled center cupcake.

500 Calorie Out-to Eat Meals: Fail
Epic failure on all fronts.  Panera, fail.  Town Hall, fail.  Buffalo Wild Wings, fail.  Pittsburgh Blues, fail.  Rocky Rococco's (yes you heard that right), FAIL.  While at all of these places I tried to make good choices, I need to just say "no" to going out to eat and remember that I can have popcorn and a chickpea patty for dinner and be pretty darn happy...and will feel happy, healthy and guilt-free about it afterwards.

For example, Saturday night was pretty snowy and icky.  Adam was going to go to Pappa Murphy's and I had picked out one of their "DeLite" pizzas to still have something that I wanted but in moderation.  Well, he goes upstairs to grab a coupon and what does he run upon?  A coupon for Rocky Rococco's. 

Those of you that grew up in Wisconsin and moved to Minnesota can feel my pain on this one.  Until last week I didn't even really know that there was a Rocky Rococco's in the Twin Cites.  What was I going to say?  No?  Not a chance in h*ll.

If you're not from Wisconsin...you just can't understand it.

Things to Work 
Well, stuffing my face with Rocky Roccoco's certainly isn't helping my situation and I know that I have LOTS of things to work on in order to get this fridge.  So here's to sticking to my plans above and just saying "no" to going out to eat unless I have a plan around what is going to be good for me.

Greek Girl's Night Dinner: 500 Calorie Challenge

Situation
Monday night was girl's night; where my group of small friends get together to watch the train wreck that is "The Bachelor" every Monday.  "The Bachelor" this year is something for a completely different post since I have a few tidbits on what it has become over the last few seasons (unfortunately) but onto the food.

While there was definitely wine, mocking of catty women and laughing, last night was a little different...the goal was to make a meal under 500 calories that would be good enough for my foodie friends!  Tough challenge.

I had a garlic sauce that I wanted to use as a marinade so I decided to make the whole theme Greek:

• Appetizers: Olives, Feta, Hummus and Pita Chips (these are not part of the 500 calorie meal - are extra)
• Main Course: Garlic Chicken Kabobs (148 Cals) with a Hummus Dressing over Spring Greens (94 Cals), Served with Greek Rice (144 Cals).  Also made some gyro meat available since I wasn't sure how many people were going to come which is not part of the calorie count.
• Dessert: Deconstructed Baklava Yogurt (154 Cals)

The total for the main course and dessert came to 540, so while I failed at hitting under 500 I got pretty darn close and think that I found a balance between healthy and tasty.  By no means as good as the risotto or creme brulee (one of my favorites) that we had last week I tried darn it!

Garlic Chicken Kabobs, Greek Rice and Creamy Hummus Dressing over Spring Greens and Cucumbers

Deconstructed Baklava Yogurt

Garlic Chicken Kabobs
Serves 4
Ingredients

• 2 Chicken breasts, cubed into 1 inch cubes
• 4 cloves of ground garlic
• 2 TBSP of olive oil
• Salt 
• Pepper
• 4 Skewers

Directions

1. Marinade cubed chicken breast overnight with garlic and olive oil in the fridge.
2. Preheat oven to "broil - high".
3. Stab chicken cubes with skewer and place on broiler pan.
4. Cook chicken for 15-20 minutes, watch chicken since you will need to rotate it for even grilling.

_________________________________________________________
Greek Rice
Serves 12
Ingredients

• 2 Cups Uncle Ben's Standard White Rice (NOT Instant)
• 4 Cups Chicken Broth or Chicken Stock
• 6 tsp butter

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in sauce pan and bring to boil.
2. Turn down heat and simmer with the cover on for 20 minutes.
3. Take off heat and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

 ________________________________________________________
Creamy Hummus Dressing (care of Carrie on Vegan)
Serves 10
Ingredients 

• 1 can garbonzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 TBSP tahini
• 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.
2. Serve over spring greens or romaine, great with sliced cucumbers and a lemon wedge.

_________________________________________________________
Baklava is very very naughty.  Like 25 grams of fat per serving naughty.  But who doesn't love it?  The walnuts, the honey, the cinnamon, the phyllo...it's all so tasty and I created this dish to capture all of the flavors while still trying to stick to my 500 calorie challenge.

Deconstructed Baklava Yogurt
Serves 8 
Ingredients

•  2 lb container of 99% Fat Free Vanilla Yoplait Yogurt
• Vanilla extract to taste (start with 1 tsp)
• Cinnamon (start with 1 tsp)
• 1 sheet of puff pastry (Pepperidge Farms)
• 1 egg
• 4 TBSP of honey (or agave)
• 8 TBSP of crushed walnuts

Directions:

1. Thaw puff pastry overnight in your fridge.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  
3. Beat egg with 1 TBSP water to make an egg wash.
4. Cut puff pastry sheet into 1x1 inch squares.  On a greased cookie pan or parchment paper, place the squares and brush with egg wash.  Bake in oven 12-15 minutes until light brown.
5. In a large bowl stir the yogurt, cinnamon and vanilla to taste.
6. Serve in ramekins or bowls putting the yogurt on the bottom, then a few puff pastry squares, 2 TBSP crush walnuts, drizzle over about 1 TBSP of honey (or agave) and then a little bit of cinnamon for decoration.

Check out these little nuggets!

Low Calorie Version of Baklava?  Yes Please.

Search tags: low fat greek dinner, low fat chicken kabobs, low fat baklava, creamy hummus dressing recipe, hummus dressing recipe, unique baklava recipe, greek rice recipe

Chin's Asia Fresh: 500 Calorie Challenge

Situation
While running errands yesterday it got to be pretty late and  I was faced with my first restaurant challenge of keeping my meal under 500 calories.  I'm proud to say that it was a successful day at Chin's Asia Fresh.

And while I realized how many calories are in rice I still had sticker shock about it.  The rice in the dishes alone was 427.5 (2.5 servings of 171 calories), then on average the chicken and sauce on top of that was about 200-250 calories depending on what choices were made so I decided to go another route.

What Did I Have?
For my meal I chose the following dishes that totaled less than 496 calories (since I had the dressing on the side and used hardly any of it).

Chin's Thai Basil Salad with Dressing on the Side (321 calories and $3.75)

 

Chin's Fresh Spring Shrimp Roll (175 calories for 2 and $4.95)

Lessons Learned
After doing this exercise I realized that Americans are IN A RUSH, which is part of our problem.  We are in a rush in the parking lot, we are in a rush to order and we are in a rush to eat...before we take time to actually think about what we are putting into our bodies.

Another part of our problem is that we don't want to inconvenience anyone or be SEEN AS WEIRD.  So instead of asking questions to the server about what is in our food, asking for a nutrition list (which almost all fast food or chain restaurants have), asking for condiments on the side or researching the menu with your smart phone before ordering...we make quick and dumb decisions instead because we don't want to be seen as being "picky", "strange" or inconvenience anyone.

I might have been the person in the entry way searching through Chin's online nutrition menu on my phone that didn't order for 5 minutes but guess what?  I felt great about what I was ordering AND I felt confident about what I had eaten after the fact and about the decisions that I made.

In short, MAKE time to research and make good decisions.

2012: Operation Fridge

While I know that I'm not usually the one that writes about these things, I am finally brave enough to talk about it!  2012 is the year that I will get back down to my 2009 weight!  And if I do it, I get a fridge!


Yes you heard that right people, a new friggin' double door fridge to showcase beautiful fruits and vegetables at eye level! This is a deal that somehow I got my fiance to agree to this after having a conversation about me putting my money where my mouth is when it comes to hitting my goals.

Like this little Ferrari

But the sad part is that while I wish that I was thrilled, the fact of the matter is that I'm pretty upset about it.  Reason being is that I've had this bet in place for about six months and am still only on my way to getting there when I could have had the fridge a LONG time ago.  In short, I'm embarrassed, ashamed and just overall p*ssed at myself about it.

And the reason that I'm talking about this finally is because of one person, Ann, from a blog called Twelve-in-Twelve that started as her goal of doing twelve races in twelve months.  I went to college with this very strong young woman who has has an incredibly tough and fulfilling journey in weight loss, a love/hate relationship with running (glad to say a LOVE one right now!) and figuring out a way to stick to her plan.  The last few months for her at times has been tough but she's so honest that while reading one of her posts it made me think last week "Why can I talk about food all the time in my blog but not the stuff that is really important in my life right now?".  

So the cat is out of the bag, I'm trying to lose about 12 pounds from what I am currently at today.  I have lost about 8 pounds from when I was at the photo below but I still have a long ways to go and the hardest part hasn't even begun.

Having SO much fun at a close friend's wedding but not feeling great about how I'm looking for feeling inside and outside

While I know that some of you are probably rolling your eyes thinking "she's not big so she needs to get a reality check".  Well this isn't some kind of deal where I'm setting unrealistic goals and I want people to see that just because I don't have 50 or 100 pounds to lose, that doesn't mean that my goal of keeping my weight in check before things get out of hand should be any less important.


I want to fit back into my black little shorts by next summer, fit into my favorite faded pair of Guess jeans in the photo below that have been sitting in my closet the last two winters and for my arms to look fabulous in my wedding dress this summer.  These goals shouldn't be any less important than that of a person that wants to lose 100 pounds.  They are goals and I want to meet them!

All and all it's about feeling good about me being comfortable in my skin and it's time to stop making excuses as to why I feel mad at myself every time that I see those jeans in my closet and I want to be successful much like my sisters have been.  All three of my sisters have done extremely well in their weight loss journey and I am hoping that I can find the will power and self discipline that they have over the years.  They are truly an inspiration.


So as Ann from Twelve-in-Twelve quotes on her blog "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".  So what is my plan?  My plan is predetermined decision making.  Making decisions about tough situations before I even get into them.  Here's the run down:


Tracking Foods

My friend Amber told me about a great website, www.myfitnesspal.com.  I have been using this for about a month and it is a free website that helps you to track calories, nutritional value, exercise, journal your thoughts, track your current weight and share as much as little as you want to with friends.


I'm going to keep logging and spilling my guts and am opening up to all of you with the passcode "fridge".  So if you want to see if I'm being lazy, check it out people.  I'm putting this out to the world!  Here is the link to see how I'm doing and I encourage you all to keep me honest! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/AnnMariesCupOfTea

My current flame.  It's a complicated situation.

Planning Meals

Any of you that have moved in with your boyfriend/fiance/husband can probably agree with me on this one.  Cooking for two people with different food preferences is SO tough, even more so than I thought it would be.  It causes uneasiness, sometimes even arguments and it leads to making bad food decisions by caving and eventually saying "yes" to quick fix meals or going out to eat when we can't agree on what to eat.  

So while it will be tough, it's time for me to be selfish and let the fiance fend for himself on meals unless he wants to eat what I am making.  He figured out how to eat for the first 28 years of his life and I need to stop catering and just make myself a weekly menu for lunch and dinner in advance, let him decide if he wants to eat that and stick to it since that is what I used to do and it worked.  This is not me blaming anyone else, it's me admitting that I can't keep doing this and knowing that this is the direction that I need to head in order to be successful.

Here are some sites that I will be pulling healthy meals from:

• My Recipes, Calorie Count Recipes
• Eating Well, Recipes and Menus (lists calories per serving) 
• Food Gawker, Searched by Healthy Foods 
• Best Fast Food Meals Under 500 Calories (just in case) 
• My "Cooking Light" magazine subscription online and in paper

My Blog

I know that you're probably wondering what will happen to my blog.  Yeah, you know, the one about the occasionally unhealthy recipes and naughty things to eat at yummy places.  SIDERANT: Which by the way there will be a VERY naughty restaurant that I went to before Christmas that for all intensive purposes we will coin "the ghost of Christmas past" which is NOT a part of my new lifestyle.

For eating out, I am challenging myself this year to no matter where I go to take a 500 calorie challenge.  I challenge myself to figure out a way to stay under 500 calories for the whole meal.  No matter if it's in my small hometown, the bar down the street from where I work or the nicest restaurant in town.  Let's just say this should be interesting and I'm excited to tell my coworkers or other people that go out to eat with me and make it a challenge for them as well as me.  

For the recipes, I challenge myself to the same standards.  To blog about meals under 500 total calories and snacks to be right around 100.  And for the servings to be reasonable for a human being and not portioned to feed a Polly Pocket.  

The Gym
The gym in the wintertime totally sucks.  There is just no way around it.  I work out at a nice place that gets LOTS of new members that make New Year's resolutions to lose weight and the place turns into a zoo.  So to avoid having to stalk people back to their cars for a parking spot, driving around for 15 minutes looking for parking place and going absolutely bat-sh*t insane...my goal is to go to work a little bit earlier than normal in the morning and then hit up the gym right around 5:00 to avoid the crowd.  Thus far it's been working great and I'm going to continue to do this!


For the number of times per week my goal is to find something to do at least 5 days a week at the gym.  I don't care if it's running, spending time on the elliptical, taking a Zumba or yoga class or even walking for 45 minutes on the treadmill at an incline listening to an audiobook.  It's about getting in there and doing it!


In closing, I know that this isn't usually something that I write about but I'm excited to have everyone there for me through this mini-journey to earn myself a new fridge!  


Would also love to hear your tips or things that have helped you along the way!