What was the problem?

All the disposables are gone - well, all but 2, but they are backup for Matthew, so we are back in full swing CD mode. As I change each diaper I think, what was so hard about this? Why do I become so lazy? It's really not that big of a deal!

Last night Aaron didn't want a diaper on. At least, not Buzz Lightyear (pullup), not jungle (CD cover), not turtle (sposie), not blue or white or yellow or penguins. Finally he pulled out Jared's night diaper - a polka dot one, that's what he wanted. We were like, fine. whatever. So, he wore Jared's size 6 diaper until he fell asleep. Then I changed him into a whale :)

Resisting Temptation and starting anew!

I guess I'll start with the new - weight loss contests are starting again. Both the Biggest Loser challenge with my SIL and the Lettuceeatcake challenge with my friend J. This will be good for me. I don't really plan on doing anything different than I have been doing because I'm not, but it is nice to have someone tangible to be accountable to. Or maybe because I like the attention. Either way, I'm going for round 2 starting May 1st (inconvenient that happens to fall on a Saturday and not my Sunday weigh in day). Oh well.

And on to the old....

Even though my bathroom scale has issues, I still habitually get on it every day after getting out of the shower. It is off by a few pounds, but while I've been stuck in my plateau it's been pretty consistently at about 160.4 or .8. The last few days I've seen 158.4 and 159. something. Although it is not reliable, it is giving me hope that maybe my efforts at curbing the late night eating is paying off. Last night was bookclub and I miraculously still had 7.5 points left after dinner, so I did end up eating after 9 pm - but not past 9:45! :)

Today I am on an eating binge - or at least trying to manage not to be. Unfortunately all my snacks like carrots and fresh green beans are gone, so my easy out is missing. I am trying really hard to talk myself out of eating through my weeklies. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have a Mexican cultural night at the church plus a friend's birthday party (catered from Salsalito's YUM) AND a taco dinner fundraiser at the church tomorrow night. Hello food, bye bye points!!

I ought to be doing something productive like cleaning the house or updating my piano lesson records, but I'm having a hard time focusing on that. *sigh*

Diaper news

In diaper news.....

I got lazy with the cloth diapers. And with potty training. I knew it would happen. We budgeted $20 in order to buy a big box of wipes, but after talking about it we decided to divie up the money between diapers and wipes. So, I bought a $6 pkg of diapers last Monday because I had a coupon and figured they'd last us the last two weeks of April - until we budget for May. uh, NOT. They lasted a WEEK!!! So, Aaron is back in cloth.

I did hate how quickly we went through the sposies. It felt like such a waste of money, but boy are they convenient!! Maybe Aaron will care about potty training again. Maybe we'll win the lottery. ha!

Checking in

I thought I'd report back on how my goal is going. Today is day three and I am pleased to report that I have managed to not eat passed 9 for the last two days. On the flip side, I've been hungry by the time I go to bed. Of course, if I went to bed before 1 am that might help a bit with that :p lol

Tonight I had 4 points after dinner. I should have used them more wisely, but I spent them on a brownie. I was a bit shocked and disappointed to see the brownie would be 4 pts, but I ate it anyway. After it was gone I thought of a lot of other things I could have eaten for 4 pts that would have been more satisfying for hunger pains. Oh well.

Mexican Spaghetti Sauce

Mexican Spaghetti Sauce 4 pts 10 servings (3/4 c. sauce)

Made April 27th. I was afraid this sauce would end up being too spicey for the children, but they actually liked it and there wasn't too much of a bite. I did hold back on the salsa and only put like 1/4 c. in (I ran out). I think that some grated cheddar cheese on top would make a really great addition to the flavor and help tone down the spice if one thought it had too much bite.

Other variation from the recipe - I didn't rinse the meat with the hot water. I have never even heard of doing that before, plus there was so little grease that I didn't even need to drain it (I happened to use venison).

While putting the sauce together, I was a little concerned about how far the sauce would stretch. The recipe says it would yield 10 servings (which is why I made it), but I wasn't convinced. Once I added the meat though I was glad I reused the big pot I cooked the noodles in. There is no doubt it would serve a large group.

I am curious how the flavors will set over night and look forward to the leftovers!

Fruited Chicken Salad

Fruited Chicken Salad 7 pts for 1 cup

Made April 26th. We really enjoyed this recipe!! I was really surprised when I inputted the recipe to see it total 7 points. The nutritional info as written is only 4 points. I'm not sure where the 3 extra points came from, but my guess is that it is because I used 5 of the Tyson teriyaki chicken filets. The other change I made to the recipe was using 1 c. of raisins instead of 1/2 cup of raisins and 1/2 cup of dates. Whatever the cause, it was worth the 7 points!!

This salad was really good on a bed of lettuce (like a lettuce wrap), as an open face sandwich, and also in a pita. In fact, I went to the store today just to buy pita bread to finish off the leftovers!

Aaron refused to eat it last night, but he tried my pita sandwich and liked it. He asked for his own and suprised me when he was able to pick out all the ingredients, well all the fruit ingredients at least. While I went to take a nap, Aaron made his own snack size version of his sandwich:

Pineapple Salad

Pineapple Salad 1 pt for 1 cup

Made April 26th. The salad was pretty good. Next time I'd choose to either cut the pineapple into chunks or just buy the chunks or tidbits. The slices made it more uneven in the getting.

I served this as a side to the very yummy Fruited Chicken Salad.

Crepes

Crepes 1 pt each

Made April 25th. This recipe is for strawberry crepes, but we're out of strawberries and Jared wanted crepes. This recipe is slightly different than the other crepe recipe so I figured I'd try it just to see the difference.

The recipe calls for 3/4 egg substitute, but I don't have egg substitute. 1/4 egg substitute = 1 egg. So, basically it calls for 3 eggs. I planned on using 1 egg and 4 egg whites, but I only managed to get two egg whites in. When I went to do the third one the yolk plopped in so I ended up using 2 eggs and 2 egg whites. It all works out.

The crepes were good. We used homemade Greek yogurt, raspberry freezer jam, frozen blueberries and powdered sugar as filling/topping. YUM!

Cheesy Broccoli Casserole

Cheesy Broccoli Casserole 4 pts for 1 cup

Made April 24th. This poor casserole. I had been planning on making this for three days. I started putting the ingredients together on Wed, but didn't get it finished before piano lessons started. Since it takes an hour to cook, I made the chicken sandwiches instead. Then Wednesday we tried again and Matthew finished putting it together but through a miscommunication didn't put it in the oven to cook. So, I made the pancakes. Then Friday I'd planned to get it in the oven, but I was gone all day and we didn't have the hour to cook it so we had Papa Johns. FINALLY Saturday it made it to the oven. Unfortunately it had had all the wet ingredients mixed in so the stuffing was pretty soggy. We really liked the flavor, but the texture left something to be desired. Oh yeah, I burned the bacon on top too. Oops.

I may try it again without all the oops. It has great potential.

Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes

Hearty Oatmeal Pancakes 1 pt each

Made April 22nd. I'm not sure how accurate the points are. I've been making yogurt and strained the whey out of it. I substituted the whey for the buttermilk and I can NOT find nutritional info for whey. So, there's a possibility that these are really 2 points a piece, but oh well. They whey worked really well. The pancakes were a little runnier, but this recipe is one that is a bit touchy anyway. I used to make these pancakes almost every day, but it's been a while. If you use buttermilk, these are very thick and require heating for longer at a lower temperature. With the whey they cooked pretty quickly. Still a pretty yummy variation on the traditional pancake.

Hot Swiss Chicken Sandwiches

Hot Swiss Chicken Sandwiches 6 pts

Three Step Taco Salad

Three Step Taco Salad 4 pts for 1 1/2 c.

Made April 19th

FAIL

ok, so I've already failed on my goal on the first day :p BUT, I did have to rush through dinner before calculating points because of a meeting. AND, once I figured out I was missing 3 points I quickly picked something and ate it. This may be harder than I thought....

Plateau

161.6 - same as last week's weigh in. I have a touch of 'indigestion' that I think if resolved would lower the number a few ounces at least. But, it's there and that's what I've got. And even so, it shows I haven't lost enough to make a difference.

Jared and Aaron weighed themselves before me, and Aaron got a message about food eaten late at night not getting digested as efficiently as food eaten earlier in the day. I think that may be a key for me. I tend to use my points sparingly throughout the day so that when Matthew and I have our evenings together I can snack right along with him without overdoing my points. I guess this week I will experiment with curbing the late night snacks. Ok, so here's the goal: All points must be consumed by 9 pm. I know it's not very early, but there have been days when I'm finishing my points up at 11 at night.