Disneyland – my plan of action

Disneyland is one of my very favorite places and I’m soooo excited that we’re going to be there for the next four days!!  Yahooo!!

I’m not even going to pretend I’m going to eat “on-plan” the whole time, but I am going to at least try to make the best choices I can while I’m there.  There are actually quite a few places to eat that won’t break the bank diet-wise.  My favorite is the Bengal Barbecue in Adventureland, which serves grilled meat on skewers, and my favorite — bacon-wrapped asparagus.  Yum!  I’ll definitely be hitting that place up. There are also lots of places that serve good salads, and snack carts with plenty of fresh fruit… so although I know I’m going to indulge in a churro or two… I’ll try and make up for it with good choices at meal time.  And of course I’ll be walking 10-12 hours a day too. That should help a bit.  🙂

Oh and I always make sure I drink a lot of water while we’re there.  Have you heard of a Bobble? It’s such a great invention and I couldn’t live without it at Disneyland.

Basically, it’s a water bottle that has a filter built in to the cap.  So you can refill it at the drinking fountains and have clean water all day long… FOR FREE!  Love my Bobble!  I can’t imagine how much money we would spend on bottled water if we didn’t bring ours.

Anyway!  I’m going to do my best to stay on track.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Planning, planning and more planning

One of the things that has helped me be successful so far has been planning.  Gone are the days of being able to spontaneously decide when, where and what I’m going to eat… and when, where and how I’m going to exercise.  I have learned when I don’t plan ahead, I get into trouble.

As you know, I’m a Weight Watcher, which means I have to track all my food anyway.  I found very quickly that I needed to change that up a bit and actually PRE-track all of my food.  So before I go to bed every night I go into my Points Plus Tracker and track tomorrow’s food.  It helps so much to wake up and know the exact plan for the day. In the morning I can pack my breakfast and lunch (I eat both at work), and I can make sure everything’s in order for dinner. Then I don’t get caught scrambling for something last-minute, which usually results in bad choices.

But even before that, every Sunday night I plan out all my dinners for the whole week.  I use the Evernote app on my phone to jot them down, and then when I do my grocery shopping on Monday, I know what I need to be shopping for (I have a separate shopping list in Evernote also).  Here’s what my menu looks like this week:

I also cook up a big thing of veggies on Monday, to have on hand for the rest of the week.  My favs are zucchini, green beans, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers and asparagus.  I cook up a giant batch, then put them into serving-size plastic containers and stack them up in my fridge.  Then when I want to add them to my breakfasts and lunches, they are all ready to go.  That helps so much.

I took some pics this week while I made my big batch of zucchini and squash.  I thought I’d share my “recipe.”

First I turned my oven on to 375 degrees.  Then I cut 3 medium zucchini and 3 yellow squash into bite-size pieces.  Then I sprayed a cookie sheet with olive oil and spread them out on the pan.  Next I drizzled a couple teaspoons of EVOO over the top and sprinkled liberally with powdered ranch dressing and cracked black pepper.Then I took a big ol’ spoon and gave the squash a good mix to spread the EVOO and spices evenly over them.  You can kinda tell they’re coated in this picture:

Then I stuck them in the hot oven and let them bake for about 20 minutes.  They come out of the oven slightly browned on one side, which gives them that yummy roasted flavor.   This picture isn’t so great (I really need to stop being lazy and use my actual camera instead of my phone), but trust me …. they’re yummy!  Roasted veggies are the best.

Anyway, like I said…. I pack them up in serving-size containers and now I’m good to go for the week.  I’ll add them to Lean Cuisines or leftovers or sandwiches at lunch time, or egg scrambles and omelets at breakfast time.  Works great!

I have tons more ‘planning’ tricks I’ve picked up along the way, but I need to run for now…  They’ll have to come in a later post.  Meanwhile, I’d love to hear how other people “plan for success.”  Let me know!  I’m all ears!

Why I Weigh Myself Every Day (or why I’m not a fan of the weekly weigh-in)

When you’re in the process of losing weight, almost everyone will tell you “don’t weigh yourself every day!!!”  Especially Weight Watchers people.  They will tell you that because our weight fluctuates so much from day to day, weighing yourself every day is going to make you feel discouraged.

Well, I must disagree.  For the very same reason, I feel you should weigh yourself every day!

My weight fluctuates a lot (I’m convinced it fluctuates even more than a normal human being), and well… here’s my illustration to show you what happens if I weigh myself only once a week:

So although I have lost weight that week, my body decides to pack on 4 random pounds on weigh-in day (and I’m not exaggerating… this happens) and I now think that all the work I’ve put into the week has been for nothing!  Very discouraging.

If I had weighed myself every day, however, I would have known that my +4 weigh-in was just a fluke and I’d know I’d be back to a good weigh-in once my body decided to stop acting freaky and get back on track.

Make sense?