Tag Archives: carbs

Calorie Counting Update

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Hi everybody! Happy Friday! I wanted to give you an update on my new “plan”, which is calorie counting with the MyFitnessPal app. Ok, first of all – how is this app free? It’s freaking awesome, and way more functional, interactive and efficient than the Weight Watchers app. No offense to Weight Watchers, but as somebody in the digital industry, MyFitnessPal blows me away with its functionality. It also flashes this cool little update when you finish counting calories for the day that tells you, “If you ate this way everyday, in five weeks you’d weigh XXX pounds.” Very motivating!

I’m finding calorie counting strangely much easier than tracking points. The only “calculation” required is typing in what I ate – and usually, the exact brands and portions comes right up. I’m also a lot more full, and I think I figured out why. On Weight Watchers, I’d stave off hunger with zero-point fruit. What I’ve realized now is that fruit wasn’t really ever filling me up… in fact, it might have been making me even more hungry. I’m not eating as much fruit, but I’m not eating as much in general now – focusing more on heavier breakfasts and lunch. MyFitnessPal has me at 1,900 calories a day to lose 1 pound a week. I weigh in on Monday morning with my university nutritionist. I’m curious how it’s going to go – it’s been three weeks since I weighed in. It could be really good, really bad, or the same. We’ll see! I’ve also decided not to weigh in weekly. I get a little too focused on the number, and I think it’s better for me to focus less on what the scales says and more on what my body and clothes and FitnessPal say.

Here’s an example of how I’m eating. I’m trying to pack protein and fiber into my mornings, and focus on a slightly larger lunch to keep the snacking at bay. I’m still obsessed with Chobani 2% Mango, and I usually have a small snack at night – in this case, it was a small bowl of raisin bran. I usually don’t drink whole milk but it’s all we had, so it was a nice creamy treat.

I exercised for 40 minutes and ended the night with 262 something calories. Not too shabby. That’s 8 peeps! ;)

What are your thoughts about calorie counting? I initially thought it would be incredibly hard and force me to eat lettuce and water. In fact, it’s much easier than I thought!

Have a wonderful day!

 

 

 

Rockin’ Red Potatoes

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Do you know how much I love potatoes? THIS MUCH *stretches arms out wide* Potatoes are awesome. I think they’re kind of underrated, because admittedly, they’re not the most flavorful thing in the world – but maybe what makes them so great is how they can be dressed up in so many different ways. Recently, I had an influx of red potatoes as Matt and I both bought bags of them without realizing we already had them. I decided to utilize the massive herb garden at our house and make herb potatoes. While the points value isn’t super low (6+ per cup), potatoes are so filling that you don’t need a massive serving, and these kind of feel like junk food because they’re so yummy. Roast them until they’re golden brown and crunchy and you’ll think, “What diet?”.

Crispety Crunchy Golden Deliciousness

You need:
5 Large Red Potatoes, scrubbed,cut into chunks and then rinsed (removes extra starch)
2 Chopped Green Onions
2 TBSP Olive Oil
2 TBSP Water
2 TBSP Fresh Rosemary
2 TBSP Fresh Oregano
2 TBSP Fresh Thyme
2 Garlic cloves
Salt to taste

Green Goodness

Preheat your oven to 400. In a food processor, add all of the washed herbs (stems removed), green onions, 2 tbsp olive oil, garlic cloves, salt and water.

Slime!

Pulse until it’s a paste – it’s ok if it still has some herb texture. In a large mixing bowl, toss the raw potatoes with the herb paste until the chunks are coated.

Spread on a pan so they get nice and tan!

Arrange in a single layer on a baking pan and roast until they’re brown on the sides and easily pierced with a fork.

Finito! Bon Apetit!

Eat one serving, resist seconds, pretend you didn’t eat five more of them off the baking sheet, and enjoy!

Zucchini Killer Recipe #1

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I'm not famous enough yet to blur out the labels. And I'm lazy.

Zucchini are the parasite of the garden, because once you have one… you have 1,000. It’s like having fleas… on crack. I love growing zucchini because they’re easy to grow, but we have SO MANY ZUCCHINI. I have been giving them away to anyone who will take them, but tonight I actually used some and made one of my favorite zucchini recipes – summer squash pasta. It’s relatively simple and easy to make, and apparently, pretty healthy! I also used Orrechiette for the first time (it means “Little Ears” in italian!).

Slicing evenly isn't my forte.

First, you want to chop up your zucchini, mushrooms and onion. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan on medium and add the vegetables. Stir to coat vegetables with olive oil. Crush two big fat cloves of garlic into this. Keep this on medium/low, because the veggies have a high water content and will cook fairly quickly. If you cook too high, the zucchini will burn and get bitter.

Sea Salt and Pepper

Get your pot of water going for your pasta. You can use any pasta you want, I just happened to have Orrechiette on hand since I’d read about it in “Everyday Food”. I usually use something fairly dense like farfalle or rotini for a dish with lots of chunky vegetables in it – gives the oil and cheese something to stick on to. Once the onions are transparent and everything has shrunk down a bit, add 1/2 cup cheese, the frozen peas, and season very liberally with salt and pepper. (Remember: salt enhances vegetables but it’s a fine line between too little and too much. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO TASTE AS YOU GO!!!)

Steaaaaaam

Has it been 11 minutes? Good. Let the pasta keep cooking. (The box lied – these little ears took about 17 minutes to cook instead of 11! Sheesh! The only way to tell if pasta is done is to pluck one out of the scalding water, let it cool for a few seconds on a spatula, and then burn the roof of your mouth as you see if it’s done!) Drain the pasta and shake it a few times to get all that bath water off of it. (Some people rinse, but I don’t. I guess I’m a rebel like that.)

Next, pour all of the pasta into your pan and gently mix to coat the pasta with the vegetables, juice, and cheese. When you’ve mixed it pretty good, add most of the rest of the remaining half cup of shredded cheese. Save some for the top of your dish – it will be worth it.

The Finished Product!

I calculated all of this out in the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder, and it’s coming in at 7 points per serving. The picture shown here is 1.5 cups which cost me 10 points – not bad at all for a delicious, filling, and savory pasta dinner. The picture below has more accurate portions and Weight Watchers listings, if you’re curious! Enjoy – and watch for the next Zucchini Killer recipe coming soon!