Greek Rice

Yesterday I was able to stay on track with my food and not overeat. I made a delicious new meal that Kraft Kitchens sent to my inbox for me: Greek Rice. It was made with the salad dressing that I love so much so I didn’t even have to buy anything out of the ordinary.
It turned out really well and actually tastes like Greek pilaf rice that one would order from a Greek takeout restaurant except this version is much better for you. Kraft stated the calories at approximately 350 calories for ¼ of the meal. I had about a 1/3 last night so it was more like 460 calories, but still pretty good for a meal that fills you up and consists of 3 food groups.

Here’s the recipe for anyone who would like to try it out:
Ingredients: 1lb chicken (cubed), 1/3 cup Kraft Greek Dressing with Feta and Oregano, 2 tsp oregano (I left this out), 2 cups vegetables, 1 ½ cup minute rice, 1 can (10 fl. oz) chicken broth.
Directions: Cooked cubed chicken in skillet until cooked but not browned. Add salad dressing and vegetables and allow to simmer for a few minutes. Add chicken broth and bring near boil. Add Minute Rice and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and let sit until rice is cooked. Enjoy.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Weight loss: 10 lbs lost
Mood: uplifted

This morning on the drive into work I realized my life is pretty good. The few areas in which improvement are really possible at this point are in fact few. One of the major areas though is my weight.

I have stated my reasons for losing weight before and for the most part they are the same now as they were when I started this blog: I want to be healthier, happier and prettier. I realize the latter one isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things, but I am being honest and that is something that is driving all this, though not as much as the other two factors.

Though I was able to eat properly yesterday, I was not able to get in my exercise. One thing hurting me in this area is the fact that I am not getting enough sleep. I don’t go to bed until 11pm and am awake at 5am and out of bed at 5:45am to drive Dave to work. I am a person who needs at least 8 full hours of sleep to be at my best and I am just not getting that right now. So I am going to have to learn how to work our ‘new’ VCR and tape anything that can’t be watched online and get to bed earlier. The other factor in all this is that I have lost my elliptical. We have someone living in our basement which was supposed to be my gym and I just can’t use it right now. This factor will be gone soon though and hopefully then I will be able to get back on track. I am also hoping that, having not been able to use my elliptical for so long now, it will be like I just bought it again – when I couldn’t stop using it, now that would be really advantageous.

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Monday, September 29, 2008

Monday, September 29, 2008
Weight Loss: 10 lbs
Mood: bored and tired

Last week was pretty good - got a lot checked off on my to do list. I also got a bunch of exercise in which made me pretty happy.

The Biggest Loser (BL) back on again and I am even happier about it now then I was before because the other shows that are on at the same time, like Beverly Hills 90210, are available online so I can watch BL without missing my 'stories'. Just like last year, it is nearly impossible to sit there and just watch this show. Watching the contestants exercise and hearing them talk about their immense weight loss, I feel it necessary to do some exercise of my own. I missed the first episode, but while watching the second episode I worked out for over 30 minutes and tomorrow when I watch the next episode I am hoping to do at least 1 hour. Eventually I will be back to working out for the whole 2 hours of the show like I was at the end of last season. I am looking forward to that.

In under two weeks I will have my basement back and will be able to set up the gym. I was talking to C about it last night and she was asking about the equipment I have and whether or not there would be enough for her, myself and her roommate (J), to all workout together. I definitely think there would be as I have the elliptical, step block, weights, yoga mat, yoga balls and of course quite a few DVDs. I am excited about the possibility of setting up a workout session with them maybe once a week or so - that would definitely get me going in the right direction. Not to mention the fact that having a workout session like that with other people would mean that my equipment would really get used and be worth the money I paid for all of it.

I am starting to get the hang of my food again - or rather I am starting to get used to eating smaller portions. The type of food isn't a massive problem with my diet, it is more quantity that is a problem, but I am once again working on that - trying to shrink my stomach, again, to be used to less food. Though the water isn't coming as easily as it did last time.

I finally bit the bullet and updated the tickers on the sidebar - it is a little disappointing to say the least, but it is honest and I am hoping that they will go back down as soon as possible.

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6 am Salad

I have been on a salad kick for over a week now. If you know me at all you will know that I am not a fan of salad dressing or really any sauce or dressing at al. To be quite honest, I am a fan of bland (aka boring) food. But I have always loved the salad dressing at East Side Mario's and about a year ago D decided to try and find me a similar one that I could get at the grocery store. His main purpose for this, I believe, was to try and help me find lower calories meals that I would enjoy to help me with my weight loss. He convinced me to try the Greek with Feta and Oregano from Kraft. It was, and still is, delicious. I absolutely love it. I stopped eating as many salads as often and only recently decided to put them back into my normal food rotation (for lack of a better term). We have gone through about 3 heads of iceberg lettuce, 1 head of romaine lettuce, 1.5 bottles of salad dressing and 2 cucumbers in about a week and a half. It has been really good for me to get my vegetables in (though I have never really had a problem with this - yummy veggies) as well as have larger meals with lower calorie costs.

Well, tragedy struck as we ran out of everything needed for the salads. I meant to stop by the store on my way home from class last night but I forgot and D forgot to remind me when I called home before leaving. I was very upset as I was looking forward to decreasing my lunch for today by adding a salad.

Luckily, I have a genius for a boyfriend and he remembered that Loeb is open 24-hours. He offered to go into work early so I could have a little more time to stop by the grocery store on my way back before heading off to work myself. Although, the Loeb had put a giant, heavy sign in front of the entrance door making so I couldn't get in - not very 24-hour of them. Luckily, and employee was leaving at the same time and I dared to enter through the exit.

So in short, there was a 6am salad run this morning. Yay salad!

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forward and back again

Since I have jumped 100% back on the wagon, I have decided that it is time to come to grips with the failure of my previously set goals and readjust everything. So I will be changing the goals on my sidebar and bringing everything up to date - hopefully this doesn't make me look like too much of a failure. I have backtracked a tiny little bit, I am more or less okay with it and have my drive back again so hopefully this time I will go further than I did last time. I mean, '2 steps forward, 1 step back' is still 1 step forward, right?!

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Trying

I am trying to get back on plan. I have had so much going on lately that I have been allowing myself to not do 100% in terms of my weight loss. A lot of excuses could be typed right now to try and make up for it, but I am not going to do that - I am just going to say that I am TRYING to get back on track again before I gain any weight back as I really hate re-losing.

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