From The Past: May 4, 2007
I have been watching what I eat all this week. Saturday while at The Book Cellar, Kevin and I bought two Weight Watchers recipe books and one from The American Heart Association. We are not members of WeightWatchers, but thought this was an easy group to go with especially since they make microwave dinners. With Weight Watchers, every food is given a POINT value and you are only allowed a certain number of POINTS per day. I don’t know what my magic number would be, for now, I’m just trying to eat the meals and see what happens. Even the Lean Cuisine dinners show the number of Weight Watchers POINTS on each package, so you have a wide variety of foods to choose from.
I am still eating what I always eat at lunch; two tuna fish sandwiches. I know that doesn’t sound that bad, but it is. I want to finish using what white bread we have so it won’t go to waste. The bread alone is 240 calories. The two sandwiches add up to 620 calories. I couldn’t believe it when I first added that up, but with regular white bread and regular mayonnaise, it’s not low fat and the calories are high.
It has helped that we have started eating lighter dinners though. This week by the end of the night I have had right around 1200 calories for the day. I have also been able to curb my nighttime snacking, but we did buy some 100-calorie packs of popcorn if I want something. We stocked up on apples, oranges, and bananas at the beginning of the week. The kids have already consumed the apples and bananas. Kevin has been eating an orange every night instead of a bowl of ice cream.
All that said I do plan to have one “treat” lunch or dinner each week. If I don’t, I’ll fall off the wagon. I don’t plan to go completely overboard, but I don’t think one meal will hurt that bad especially since I have exercised 20 minutes every day all week. Yes, I like the Step Box! Kevin plans to buy additional videos to go with it so that I can change my routine whenever I want. We have also been walking at night whenever possible. This is not only good for us, but it also helps Guido!
Here are the Weight Watchers recipes Kevin has made:
Italian Beef & Potato Casserole
A different view:
Honestly, I did not care for this meal. There wasn’t enough meat for my taste and I’m not a big potato eater. If you really like potatoes, then you may like this.
This is Pork with Sweet Caramelized Onions:
Basically, it’s a thin pork chop with sweet onion and spices. You get ONE pork chop each. We had a very basic salad on the side with a fat free Italian dressing.
I really liked this recipe and will ask Kevin to make it again. I had never had Italian dressing before and it made my lips pucker, but that’s okay. I’m trying new things and that’s a good thing.
So far, I have only tried the Lean Cuisine traditional pizza and the Ravioli, but each one was very good.
I was at the gynecologist’s office last month, so I know how much I weigh on a doctor’s scale, but I wish I had weighed here at home on Sunday when I started. I know our scales are way off what the doctor’s scales are, so I will wait to weigh the next time I am stuck waiting for an hour in one their exam rooms!
UPDATE 5/4/23: Reading how many calories I was eating for lunch before changing my diet – WOW. I can’t believe two tuna sandwiches were so many calories. By changing from tuna in oil to tuna in water and using 1/2 the can, lite mayonnaise, 1/2 egg, a little relish and 35 calorie bread, my tuna sandwich is now only 195 calories. It was 620 for TWO sandwiches, but that’s still 310 calories each. Every little change makes an impact. Don’t think it doesn’t. This is an older video, but I still make my tuna sandwich the same way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmjPdKeUlA