Diet Wars: Finally! A little breakthrough

In Search of..... Fun Foods to Eat Under 300 Calories

Pizza - Who would have thought that you could still eat pizza on a diet? A normal slice of pizza (1/8 of the whole pizza) is roughly 140 to 196 calories, depending on the size of the pizza and what other stuff will on there. I would stick to the thin crust cheese pizza, with maybe one additional topping of mushrooms, chicken, veggies, maybe pepperoni. A slice of pizza and a small tossed salad with fat free dressing can make a great meal.

Grilled Chicken Salads - The BK Garden Salad with Tendergrilled Chicken is your best bet. The whole salad along with the packet of Fat Free Ranch Dressing is exactly 300 calories. A perfect lunch. I never add the croutons to the salad and they probably add a little more. Shoney's has a similar salad along with a side of fruit. A cursory look at several regular restaurants and fast food restaurants shows that in many places you have to be REALLY careful with the salads. You can easily be fooled into thinking you're eating healthfully (which in theory you are) but especially the restaurant salads like you get at O'Charleys, Logans, etc., are going to be anywhere from 500 to 1,000 calories! Yikes! (Thanks to Hungry Girl for that tip)

A Filling Breakfast - I've never been a good breakfast eater and tend to wait until late in the morning, and then stop off at McDonald's for a sausage and biscuit. I've discovered a very filling breakfast for just below 300 calories is a toasted English Muffin with a tbsp. of jam (preferably sugar free), and two boiled eggs. That's more that I would ordinarily eat, but since I'm having to make do until lunch, I figure I should get that protein from the eggs. You could also make your own Egg McMuffins and stay well within range.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Finally! A little breakthrough

Thanks to everyone who was so encouraging and supportive when I whined about not having lost any weight the last couple of weeks. As Susan, the Weight Watchers Queen, pointed out, sometimes you'll go without losing then drop several pounds. So I can proudly post a new weight on the blog (see the left of this posting) as I dropped 3.5 more pounds! That makes a total of 9 pounds in 4 weeks - which I can't complain about. I'll feel even happier when I can tell I'm losing weight from my clothes feeling more loose.

The irony of it is that Weight Watchers is "worried" about my fast weight loss! I was so proud to record my new weight on the WW website and darned if they didn't pop up with a little message about how I was losing more weight than was healthy - 2 lbs a week is optimum and citing all the dangers of fast weight loss! Geesh....talk about mixed messages!

However, regardless of that - I've also discovered some WW Smart Ones products that are both tasty and low points value. Since I never get up in time to eat breakfast before going to work, I'm usually bringing something with me - such as cereal and yogurt. I discoved WW has some breakfast items that are tasty and only 4 points. They have an egg muffin (a la McD's egg mcmuffin) and what I had this morning which was really good - a breakfast quesadilla.

But my favorite find so far is a Smart Ones meal that is only 2 points! And it is by far the most favorful and filling frozen meal I've ever had - it's called Chicken Santa Fe and is white chicken chunks with black beans, a full serving of vegetables and a tangy texmex flavoring. Man is it good! I was eating it by itself last week and with it only being two points was having to scramble to find more food to eat to keep my points going. But it occured to me as well that this was a great meal to add rice or pasta to - to bump up the bulk and the points and add some variety. Last night I took two of them and cooked them together and then made angel hair pasta and that's what little Hayden and I had for dinner. Very tasty - I'm having it for lunch again today!

So with all these plugs for Weight Watchers - do you think I qualify as a sales rep? Maybe I should send this blog to them and see if they'll pay me!