Pepperidge Farm Cherry Pomegranate Bagel Review

When I went grocery shopping on Sunday, it wasn’t at my usual grocery store. It was the same chain, but in a different town. I came across a new line of Pepperidge Farm products; Fruit & Grain breads and bagels. There were 2 new flavors of bagels; Cherry Pomegranate and Cranberry Blueberry. These bagels are a bit smaller than the regular ginormous bagels that you usually see, but they are still good size and are much larger than the mini bagels that I’d been buying. I decided to give the Cherry Pomegranate a try and I’m glad I did. The nutritional stats are 160 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, and 3 grams of fiber (3 WW points). I have been eating them untoasted, with just a dab of light butter on them. Very satisfying. I’d like to try the Cranberry Blueberry bagel next or perhaps one of the new breads which include Cranberry Orange, Blueberry Acai, and Apple Pomegranate.

It’s been a while. I went to my meeting last week after not being able to attend the week before. I gained 2.6 pounds! Not good. I’m back on track so I at least feel good about that. A girlfriend in my WW group has asked to swap points trackers and I believe this will help keep me a bit more honest and be the push I need to actually track. It’s working so far and I tracked religiously over the weekend and was able to stay away from many, many temptations. I also went grocery shopping yesterday to the tune of $331 so I have no excuses about not having the appropriate foods to eat.

T.G.I.F.

I’m exhausted and I’m not really sure why. All I know is that it was a true feat of determination to get myself to work today and that’s after having yesterday off. Not that I lounged the day away yesterday, watching TV and eating bonbons (although too much trail mix was consumed), but I was running around with my daughter for a dentist appointment and Halloween costume hunting. I know that yesterday’s rain and cold made for a deep chill permeating my body which I can’t seem to get rid of. Today was supposed to be much better; it’s not raining, but it’s still too chilly for me. Honestly, I’d just like to be in bed with the covers yanked over my head.

I am looking forward to this weekend. I have a “date” with my sister-in-law, one of my all time favorite people. It’s been entirely too long since we’ve gotten time together so I’m really excited. We’re going to our favorite Italian restaurant and I’m sure there will be some meatball consumption involved. We will be partaking in some competitive bowling thereafter so hopefully I’ll burn some of those calories by doing that. I’m not going to stress too much about the meal, I will just be conscious of my choices and enjoy myself without going overboard.

Off to get some more coffee *yawn*.

Today is Love Your Body Day 2008

“Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror? Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts — lips, legs, breasts — airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance? Women and girls spend billions of dollars every year on cosmetics, fashion, magazines and diet aids. These industries can't use negative images to sell their products without our assistance. Together, we can fight back.”

National Love Your Body Day 2008

Check out the site link above. I'm already seeing the effects of this type of advertising on my 10 year old daughter. I try hard to instill self-love and the importance of being healthy above all else. It's troubling to me how much these 4th grade girls have already been brainwashed. So ladies... love your bodies, flaws and all, and teach your daughters the same.

Salmon Burger Review

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon some salmon burgers in the frozen fish market section of my grocery store. They’ve remained a staple in my diet since that day. I adore them. They are somewhat processed salmon meat with herbs and spices, coated in a breaded concoction. They’re quick and delicious either just by themselves or on a light bun. One day I saw a different brand of them that drew my attention. They seemed to be a bit less processed and had great nutritional info to boot so I bought them to try. Huge mistake. As soon as I started microwaving the first burger (at work no less…) I could tell by the pungently nasty odor that was quickly filling the kitchen that it wasn’t going to be pretty. I don’t quite know how to describe it but it definitely wasn’t the usual salmon-y smell from my usual burger. It was more of a putrid, greasy fish smell. Honestly, it was revolting. The amount of grease that had oozed out of that thing while it was nuking was remarkable! Gross. It was lumpy and chunky which, you would assume meant nice big chunks of salmon, but not so much. There were fatty chunks… ew; I’m getting nauseated just remembering it. I actually did get the courage to pinch off the tiniest of pieces and put it in my mouth, just so I could be sure that my initial reaction was correct. It barely made it past my lips when I was spitting it in the trash. OMG, it was most disgusting thing I’ve had in my mouth in a long time.

Excellent Brand (Sea Choice):

Appalling Brand (Trident):

No stars!

Scurvy Anyone?

Today’s food log:

Oatmeal/brown sugar/milk
Salmon burger/light bun
Veggie egg roll
WW cookie
Egg/light eng muffin/cheese/turkey bacon
Hostess 1 pt. cupcake/ ½ cup milk

What is lacking? Hmm, maybe something green? Not much dairy either. Very little water. I seem to be doing great points-wise the last couple of days, but I am having a problem getting in all of the notional requirements. Lately it seems that the occasional apple (usually smothered in Nutella… see below) is the only fruit or veggie that I’ve been consuming.

I’m vowing right here and now that from this moment until my next official weigh-in on the 23rd, I will concentrate on getting in more fruits and vegetables. I will also try my best to chug the H2O and drink fewer diet sodas. I think I’ve been relying on them a bit too much lately for a caffeine boost.

Well, I’ve got a few points left for the day; I guess I’ll go see what I can scrounge up for vegetation. My fresh fruit supply is completely depleted. I think I have one lonely can of mandarin oranges in the cupboard. That’ll have to do until I can get to the grocery store tomorrow.

Nik + Nutella ≠ Good Weigh In

I had a less-than-stellar weekend; food-wise anyway. I’m going to miss my WW meeting and weigh-in this week because my youngest daughter has a dentist appointment. I still think I’ll be able to recover from the weekend in the next couple of days, but I guess this means that I’ll have another week before having to “officially” weigh in. So, what did I trip up on this weekend? Let’s make a list; shall we?

Gill’s Hot Italian Sub (at least it was a “mini”)
Several large bites of my husband's leftover sub
Chips
Frozen Yogurt (from the carton)
WAY too much Nutella (the nectar of the Gods!)

I did a little shopping by myself on Saturday while my parents took my daughter’s to my niece’s birthday party. It was nice; I haven’t had a chance to do that in a very long time. I wasn’t seriously tempted by anything at the food court; I even stopped at the grocery store to get some fresh sushi for lunch instead of doing fast food. But then, my husband put in his request for a sub from the most incredible sub shop on the planet. There is nothing that compares to these sandwiches; nothing. I actually worked there during high school. Let’s just say that what they didn’t pay me in wages, I ate in subs. I was good and only got myself a mini, which is probably about 6 inches long. I didn’t forego the cheese (1 slice of provolone) or the Italian oil. After all, it’s the oil that makes the sandwich so incredible. I did stay away from their amazing macaroni salad, even though I got some for my husband. I’m usually able to eat ½ of the sandwich and then save the other ½ for the next day but I didn’t do that this time. Nope, the entire thing was down my gullet in record time. Damn, it was good!

I also had a few of nice crisp apples this weekend. Yummy macintoshes… only problem is that they were slathered with copious amounts of Nutella. Although the stuff has approximately the same nutritional properties as peanut butter (pb has a bit more protein), the amount of it that I ate was completely unnecessary. My girls do adore it, but I’ll either have to get better at rationing myself around it, or not get it anymore. That stuff is dangerous!

Week 2 Results

Another 1.6 down for a total of 6.4. I received my 5 pound sticker; I just love those little golden stars. I had loads of them on my WW “score card” the first time around. 130 pounds worth is a lot of stars. So I’ve now got the first of about 10 that I hope to be getting. I'm such a sticker whore. I am a little bummed because I know that if I’d had a better weekend food-wise, I would have lost even more; but I really did get my shit together starting Monday and at least it came in as a loss. I really would have flipped if I hadn’t lost anything or… Heaven forbid… GAINED!

Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli Review

I will openly admit that, before restarting WW, it had been a long while since a Lean Cuisine had seen the inside of my microwave. Now that I’m not buying lunch out, I’ve resorted to throwing a LC or can of soup into my bag to bring to work for lunch. I had a few left in the freezer to finish up; some of my old faithful flavors such as Margarita Pizza and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. After several days of that, my stash was depleted and I needed to replenish it. I stood in awe in front of the LC display at my grocery store. When had they come out with so many new varieties? It also seemed that they were now making a conscious effort to include more vegetables in their product; something that was sorely lacking before. I took a few minutes to scan my selections and decided that one that I wanted to try was called Butternut Squash Ravioli. This was a little out of my comfort zone. I love me some ravioli… but butternut squash ravioli? The picture on the front of the package was so attractive, and the veggies looked incredibly tempting.

I brought it with me yesterday to heat up for dinner before leaving my office to meet my girlfriend for a drink before our event. I didn’t want to go hungry, lose my willpower, and end up ordering a huge order of sweet potato fries. I was very, very pleased with this meal. It smelled delicious, looked delicious (very similar to the box photo), and was a pretty healthy portion as well. There were lots of nice veggies including snap peas and carrots. The sauce was tasty and not too salty; which can sometimes be the case with these products. There were 7 ravioli in amongst the vegetables and they were sizable; definitely 2 bites/piece size.

I chomped into the first ravioli and OMG… it was Heaven. I was unprepared for it to be that good. I’d expected something perhaps a little bland, but it had a delicious buttery flavor that was slightly sweet. After that, I ate all of my veggies before concentrating on the rest of those little buggers. I didn’t want to muddy the flavor of them by mixing them with anything else. They truly were incredible.

The nutritional information is 350 cals, 9 gm of fat, and 6 gm of fiber (7 WW points). This is a bit more than I usually like in my frozen meals, but it was worth it in this case. I did happen upon this strange nugget of something or other in there and it turns out to be walnut pieces. They didn’t have a taste and added nothing to the meal. I can’t help but wonder if they could have saved some calories and fat if they’d left them out. I don’t think anybody would have noticed or missed them.

This will absolutely be something I stock in vast quantities in my freezer!

Pros vs. Cons

Why do I always look at the negatives and not the positives? I, without a doubt, tend to be a “cup is half empty” kind of person. Take my eating over the past 3 days. There were bad points… but there were also some good points and some really smart decisions. Often, the only way for me to sort this stuff out and see it more clearly is to do a pros/cons list.

FRIDAY (funeral/reception)
Pros
1. Ate something healthy before the funeral so I wasn’t starving for the reception
2. Skipped the entire section of desserts which included pie, cake, cookies, etc.
3. Didn’t eat any more once I got home
Cons
1. Indulged in small portions of less-than-WW friendly foods including homemade mac & cheese, meatballs, and sandwich with white roll and mayo
2. Swiped one (incredibly delicious) chocolate chip cookie from my husband’s plate

SATURDAY (birthday party)
Pros
1. Went a little late and had some soup for lunch before going
2. Skipped the ice cream birthday cake
Cons
1. Skipped the bbq portion of the party therefore passing up burgers/hotdogs/potato salad, & chips
2. Ate approx. 5 pieces of chocolate from my kids’ piñata booty.

SUNDAY (kids’ play date)
Pros
1. Did not get the Big Mac I was really craving
2. Skipped any popcorn or snacks at the movie theatre
Cons
1. Had 4 piece McNugget and ½ large fries instead of the salad I’d intended
2. Had a 6” meatball sub for dinner (oh, and a margarita)

So basically I ate all of my flex points by Friday and then continued to eat over my daily points allowance for two days thereafter. I was able to not go completely hog wild, which has always been my style. I’m starting out today with a good breakfast and a healthy lunch that I brought from home. I have an event to attend tonight and am meeting a friend for a drink before hand. I brought a Lean Cuisine to eat in my office before meeting her at 5:30 and plan on having 1 glass of wine. I’ve got to get a better handle on taking my bumps, picking myself up, and not throwing in the towel completely. I think that is a big part of why I’m back here, losing 45 pounds again. I’m working on seeing the positive along with the negative.

Week 1 Results

4.8 pounds. Not too shabby! Just .2 more and I would have gotten my first 5 pounds star. I’m off to a good start. I have an extremely busy next few days that include a funeral and a couple of birthday parties/cookouts. I hope this decent loss will keep me motivated enough throughout the weekend to continue with my good eating habits. The weather isn’t supposed to be very good so exercising won’t be very likely (like it would be anyway…).

The Back Story Part I

I wasn’t heavy as a child so I can't say I've had a problem with my weight all of my life. As a matter of fact, I was incredibly scrawny. I know I’ve said before that I’m an all-or-nothing kind of person. I took it to the extreme my sophomore year of high school. I wasn’t over weight by any stretch of the imagination. I played three sports per year and ate like a normal teenager; probably didn’t make all of the best nutritional choices, but I had a youthful metabolism on my side. That was the year I lost my beloved grandmother. This woman had practically raised me since my mom was a teenage mother. She was a very central part of my life. She died at the age of 55 of a massive heart attack that came out of the blue. I was devastated to say the least. I didn’t know how to handle my grief and I felt like everything in my life was spinning out of control. At that age, the only thing I had full power over, was what I put into my mouth. I began to restrict my food intake drastically… and it felt good. I actually grew to like the feeling of being hungry and the reassurance of my stomach growling. As I started dropping weight, I continued to limit my intake more and more. Eventually, I was down to a swig of orange juice and half a saltine in the morning, some grapefruit juice at lunch, and not very much else throughout the day. I had practice every night after school and this helped with avoiding the dinner table at home and keeping the full truth about my eating habits away from my parents. My stepfather had always been a dictator when it came to food (and pretty much everything else as well). He filled your plate and you didn’t get up from the table until you finished. It didn’t matter if you were full or not; you did not waste food…the end, no compromise. When my weight loss started to become an issue at home, as it eventually had to be since it was dropping it so quickly, his solution was to force me to eat. Not a very bright move; he thought once he started making me eat, I’d just start eating regularly again. This is when I began purging. I wasn’t a binger, I didn’t like the feeling of being full, and I had to take the control back that I felt I’d lost at the hands of my stepfather. I think eventually he thought that he’d “cured” me and started leaving me alone a little bit more. I was able to go back to my usual restrictive eating, which pretty much put an end to purging.

I also started exercising excessively. On top of the sports practices, I would run for long periods of time with unnecessary amounts of clothes on. My parents worked 11pm-7am so I would wait for them to leave for work and take off for a run. This also led, of course, to a massive amount of sleep deprivation. The combination was making me a pretty sick and unhealthy young lady.

What strikes me as most unsettling is how little the adults in my life took notice, or should I say, took action about my eating disorder. There was another girl in my class who had to be hospitalized for an eating disorder during the time that I was dealing with my anorexia. Eventually, the principal of my high school called me into his office. Our school was a very small, rural high school and the principal was like a father-figure to the majority of the students. He questioned me very gently about my weight loss, and if I was having some trouble that I wanted to talk about. I don’t remember what I said, but that was the first time somebody directly called me on my behavior. It’s downright scary how insane eating disorder behavior was ignored in my case. I was a chronic weigh-er. I would to go the nurse's office when I got into school and weigh myself. Then I’d weigh myself again just before lunch. Then again after I had drank my lunch (grapefruit juice), and again at the end of the day. I was in that office four times a day on that scale and she NEVER confronted me… never raised the alarm to anybody. In hindsight it’s unfathomable how this could have happened.

Months later I went to the local Planned Parenthood to get put on the pill. The testing that they did showed that my electrolytes were extremely messed up and I weighed in at 105 pounds full-clothed (I still wore my old clothes so they were huge and hung off of me) and I was 5'6". The nurse practitioner confronted me and I broken down, telling her all about my issues with eating. She told me how badly I was jeopardizing my health and about the damage that I’d already done to my body. She also refused to put me on the pill until I had dealt with my issues and gained some weight. I’m not sure how, but shortly after that appointment I began to eat a little more. I started out really slowly, going from a half of a saltine to a whole one at breakfast. I missed the empty feeling, but I had to get my health back. I had gotten to a place where I could barely make a sufficient pass on the basketball court. I was weak and sick, and I was ready to get better.

I fully realize that mine was a very mild case of anorexia and there are millions of gals out there who are literally dying from eating disorders. Obviously, I hit the other end of the spectrum eventually. I’ll post about that at a later date. I think that most people who know me now are unaware of the trouble I had with anorexia. Gosh, I haven’t really thought about this is a long time.