I have done okay this week. I am trying to write down what I am eating daily. Since I dropped my Weight Watchers membership, I have been looking for alternate means to keep track.

I used a Pocket Mod first to keep in my purse. I also was working on a WW pts. system still, since most of the frozen entrees have WW points values on them.  But then I remembered that I signed up for The Daily Plate, which is now part of LiveStrong.com.   It’s a really handy tool, so I am going to try to keep it up.

When I signed up, I did a little survey to see how many calories I needed to take in per day to achieve my “weight goal.” So now, when I add in my foods, it keeps track and lets me know how many more calories I can eat that day.
It’s free, but of course there is an upgrade with more bells and whistles.

Check it out.  It has virtually every food you could want to search.  Members have the ability to add products if they are not already on the site.  This is mostly good, but it does make for a lot of unnecessary repeats to wade through.  Not only does your page keep track of the calories you take in, it breaks it all down into a pie chart showing carbs, proteins, and fats.

The exercise options to log are also extensive.  I don’t think that I am going to take credit for every little move I make – like brushing my teeth.  But it’s fun to look at.  Check it out!

I am trying to get back on the wagon (again!), but before I go to the store and fill my freezer with frozen, convenient goodies, I am trying to use the foods that I have. I also need to take the brownies and cupcakes I made for Easter to school to be eaten by others!

While I was on Spring Break, I made a pass through Costco. If you are looking for inexpensive frozen meals, they usually have at least two bulk items of four. Mostly, it’s Lean Cuisine, but I have also seen Kashi meals there – a really good deal!

Here is what was there last week:

Package 1 -
Lean Cuisine Spa Classics Ginger Garlic Stir Fry with Chicken – 5 pts.
Lean Cuisine Spa Classics Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken – 6 pts.
Lean Cuisine Spa Classics Grilled Chicken Primavera – 5 pts.
Lean Cuisine Spa Classics Butternut Squash Ravioli – 7 pts.

Package 2 -
Lean Cuisine Comfort Classics Roasted Turkey Breast – 5 pts.
Lean Cuisine Cafe Classics Sesame Chicken – 7 pts.
Lean Cuisine Comfort Classics Sweet & Sour Chicken – 8 pts.
Lean Cuisine Cafe Classics Glazed Chicken – 5 pts.

Package 3 -
2 Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Chicken Margherita – 5 pts.
2 Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Grilled Chicken Marinara – 5 pts.

This time, they didn’t have the panini, but often they do. All three of the above were around $8 or $9, making them between $2 and $2.25 apiece. The plus side is that most of them are 5 Weight Watcher points each. The downside is that there is not too much variety – most of it is chicken-based. Also, I have actually scored cheaper Lean Cuisines and Smart Ones meals at Walmart and Publix.

In the canned goods aisle, they also carry the Progresso and Healthy Choice low calorie soups, but I am not a big fan of canned soup. I usually have to doctor up canned soups, so I might as well make my own.

Other convenience foods I was looking at were frozen fruits and vegetables. There were two interesting fruit blends:

Spectrum Blend – 6 colorful fruits: yellow peach slices, pineapple chunks, red whole strawberries, white peach slices, green honeydew chunks 10 svgs (1 cup each)- I don’t recall the price – probably $7-$9.

Kirkland’s Trader Farms Triple Berry – Raspberry, Blueberry, Marionberry (Blackberry)

There are also many vegetable blends, including Asian Stir Fry and Normandy Blend (carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli). Right now, I am really into the steam in the bag blends, but I might need to check those out, too.

Chobani Nonfat flavored Greek yogurt – 12 – 4 each of blueberry, peach, and strawberry. Now, I bought these, and they are fine. Greek yogurt is all the rage right now, but it is not as sweet as regular yogurt. And, although it is 0% fat, it must contain sugar, because it is 3 WW pts. per serving.

Other things I saw were fruit cups (pkg. of 12 tropical blend), Weight Watchers Oreo Cookie popsicles, individual portions of hummus, individual portions of apples, and probably the Healthy Choice Fudgesicles. Those are great, if you don’t mind eating the same thing over and over.

I haven’t even mentioned the produce – salad greens and all. Maybe I will plan a one week Costco menu next.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I am currently paying for Weight Watchers.  I am paying the $39.99 per month fee that includes unlimited meetings and access to eTools, which is WW diet recording software.  Lately I have been very frustrated with the online tools – there are so many glitches in the FlashPlayer Diet Planner/Activity Planner that it often takes several tries to get my entries to post.

I am, for the most part, sticking to frozen entrees – especially for breakfast and lunch.  Sometimes, for dinner, I will make something in a large quantity – like a soup or stew in the crockpot.  Then I freeze the remainder so that my husband has meals when I am not cooking.

I was looking up the nutritional information for a Healthy Choice entree when I noticed that they have expanded their site to include a diet and exercise planner called Start Making Choices.  I have not signed up yet, but I may.

Other sites that have diet plans are Amy’s Kitchen and Lean Cuisine.  Of course, Smart Ones has a site:  It’s called WeightWatchers, but they also have a community message board on their frozen entree site.  Kashi also has a community message board as well as coupons for free entrees.

The Amy’s Kitchen website has a pretty extensive section on what they call the Amy’s Diet Plan.  There are 14 days worth of menus and shopping lists as well.  I might try that sometime, but it has usually been difficult for me to plan ahead when I am eating or dieting.  I guess I got that from my parents.  I am a very impulsive eater.

Lean Cuisine’s website offers Wellness Tools, and you must also sign up for that.  It is supposed to include a meal planner and a fitness planner, with pre-planned menus.  I will check it out later.

I am trying to get back on the wagon again and am going to eat mainly portion-controlled meals for a while.  I am trying to balance the expensive Amy’s Organic and Kashi Entrees with Michelina’s and Smart Ones on sale.  It’s more complicated than that, though.  The Amy’s are organic – not necessarily low fat and calorie.  So, if I get am entree that is high in WW Points, I have to have one that day with lower points!

I stopped by Aldi first, because I hadn’t been there in a while.  I bought one each of their Fiber One Bars knock offs.  I had tried the Peanut Butter ones in Asheville last week and thought they were pretty good.  I got one box of the Millville Fiber NOW chewy bars in Oats and Chocolate and one in Oats and Caramel.  I had one in the car before I went to WalMart so that I would not “hunger shop” and it was fantastic!  Really chocolate-y and rich and only 2 WW Pts per bar.  I am going to keep them at school in case I have a craving for a candy bar.

At WalMart, I bought a couple of Amy’s Organic Dinners.  WalMart has them for only $3.14 to $3.28 each.  I bought two packages each of the Cheese Enchiladas and the Cheese Tamale Verde, because they are gluten-free and will make an easy dinner for my hubby as well.  I also bought one package of the Indian Mattar Paneer and the Tortilla Casserole and Black Beans Bowl.  That last one was a stretch, at 9 WW Pts. per dinner.  I will have to eat really light on my other meals that day.

After that, I headed for the Michelina’s Lean Gourmet section.  Those are really cheap.  I bought one entree with the old packaging – you cook it in the box.  It was Chicken Alfredo Florentine, and cost $1.18.  The new packaging looks like it has a baking dish enclosed and costs $1.68 per entree.  I cannot find information yet on the new ones, but I think I got Curry Chicken, Mandarin Chicken and Pad Thai Chicken.   There are coupons on the back to get the 50 cents you paid extra off on another purchase.  We’ll see.

I bought only three Kashi entrees this time:  Sweet and Sour Chicken (my favorite – I had it for lunch when I got home), Lemon Coconut Chicken, and the Tuscan Veggie Bake.   I then went to the Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones aisle, because the WW Points are prominently displayed on the box.  I got Smart Ones Fettuccine Alfredo Smart Ones Lemon Chicken, and Lean Cuisine Pasta Romano with Bacon (It’s also new -I ate it yesterday and loved it!).   I also bought Lean Cuisine Santa Fe Rice and Beans, and two Healthy Choice French Bread Pizzas:  one cheese and one pepperoni.  The total came to about $45, but if you subtract the two entrees I bought for my husband, it was only $37 for 17 meals.

I didn’t buy any breakfasts:  I already had some.  I have two servings of Trader Joe’s Steel Cut Oatmeal and a package of Kashi Heart to Heart Waffles – I think that’s 3 servings of 2 waffles each.  I’ll lay out my daily menus in my Weight Watchers food diary.  It’s a start.

As I mentioned in my Maison Celeste blog, I joined Weight Watchers yesterday.  I still plan on using frozen entrees, but I figured I need moral support.  I went ahead and signed up for the monthly pass, and I think it’s the best deal.  In the past, I had to pay extra for the E-Tools anyway, so now I am supposedly only paying on average $10 a week with the E-Tools included.

After a bit of back and forth with tech support, I was able to regain access to the account I set up LAST time I was on Weight Watchers – maybe 3 years ago?  All of the recipes I had saved in the Recipe Builder were still there – amazing!  I think that it will make it easier to keep track of my intake, using WW Points instead of calorie counts.

Now the only caveat about using the Weight Watchers site on frozen entree Points is that not all companies are created equal.  ESPECIALLY if that company is Lean Cuisine.  Those items are not included in the database, which I find kind of mean.  Luckily for us, the Lean Cuisine website has a search engine where you can look for meals of specific “pointage”.  The Points are also on each box, but that doesn’t help if you are trying to plan a shopping list ahead of time.  Another good resource is HeatEatReview, that has its reviews classified by manufacturer AND WW Points.  Hungry Girl.com includes the Points values for any food they review, as well as for their original recipes.

I did 30 minutes of Mall walking today, and now I think I will clean house a little.  Apparently NO ONE ELSE is going to do it!

Yesterday, I went mall-walking.  I really need to exercise, but I don’t want to join a gym again nor is it practical right now to buy a treadmill.  I know that I could walk outside, and I will at some time.  But right now I think I need an even surface and temperature control.  Don’t worry, I will still be sweating, even if I walk indoors!

Yesterday I went to Discover Mills, which is a few minutes north of my home in Norcross.  I walked 3 times around in about 45 minutes.  I went in the afternoon on a Sunday, so I did some weaving in and out of the crowd.  I reckoned it to be about 1 mile around, but decided to go online to make sure.  You know, it was not easy to find out.  I did find this walking guide provided by Southern Regional Health System, but there were some malls missing – most of them in Gwinnett County.

So here is the added information that I found today (I just called Guest Services – not difficult!):

• Discover Mills: 1 lap = 1.2 miles

Open for walking at 8 a.m Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. Sunday. Accessible through main mall entrances. Mall Walkers Club offers store discounts and monthly prizes.

• Gwinnett Place Mall: Upper Level – .89 miles Lower Level – .85 miles Total –  1.74 miles

Walkers – Gwinnett Place has established early morning hours specifically for your convenience. The hours are Monday – Saturday, 8:30am – 10:00am, and Sunday, 10:00am – 12:00pm.

• Mall of Georgia:  3 levels – each level is 1 mile Total – 3 miles!

Walking – Mall of Georgia’s Main Entrance is open for mall walkers Monday through Saturday at 8:00 am and Sunday at 10:00 am.

• Phipps Plaza – One lap around Level 1 and Level 2 is 1 mile.

Walking: The AMC/Niketown entrance at Phipps Plaza is open from 8:00am – 10:00am for mall walkers.

• North Pointe Mall: 2 levels – each level is 1 mile if you go in all nooks and crannies. Total: 2 miles.

Walkers may enter through Service Court No. 2 at 8:30am Monday through Saturday and at 10:00am Sunday for your walking convenience. Be sure to stop by the Customer Service Center to register and receive your mall walker’s I.D.

I haven’t gotten the stats for the outdoor malls like Atlantic Station and the Avenues. Hey, maybe I will come up with cute little decals or patches to designate each mall visited and walked.  Sort of like the State Park badges…

While I was trying to figure out the distance around Atlantic Station, I found a neat website called MapMyWalk.com.  Check it out!  It’s associated with Prevention magazine, I think.

Note:  Today, I tried walking around my school.  It is a wierdly laid out place, however, and it would be difficult to lay out a walking path.  Still, I walked 20 minutes, and I could do that during my planning.

Breakfast:

• Small box Kellogg’s Rice Krispies – 90 calories
• 3/4 canned peaches – 75 calories

Total: 165 calories

Snack:

• 4-5 Triscuit Crackers Whole Grain Original – 120 calories
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow Light French Onion Flavor wedges – 35 calories a wedge

Total: 190 calories

Lunch:

• Lean Cuisine Pesto Chicken Flatbread Melt – 330 calories

Breakfast (7:30)

• Mini box of Raisin Bran – 140 calories
• Mini box of Special K – 90 calories
• 8 ounces of 2% milk – 120 calories
• 1 large banana – 120 calories

Total calories – 470 calories

• Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Roasted Chicken Masala – 240 calories – only okay tasting…
• 1 Devil’s Food fat free pudding cup – 100 calories
• 4 Graham Crackers – 120 calories

Total calories – 460 calories

Snack: 1 can Slimfast Chocolate Royale – 190 calories

Dinner:

• 3 slices medium Pizza Hut Meatlover’s Pizza (Pan crust) – OUCH! 320 calories per slice
• 1 cup Edy’s Slow Churned French Silk Ice Cream – 130 calories per 1/2 cup

I really liked the Edy’s Slow Churned ice cream – it will be a pretty good substitute for the DQ French Silk Pie Blizzard, I think!  Check out the flavors!

Breakfast (7:30 AM):

• 1 mini box Crispix cereal – 100 calories
• 1 mini box Special K cereal – 60 calories
• 1 large banana – 120 calories

Total= 280 calories

Lunch (11:30 AM)

• Lean Cuisine Chop House Steak Flatbread Melt  – it is awesome! – 330 Calories

Alas, after that, things all went to hell – I had Cheetos and a sugary orange soda, then, for some reason I ordered Pizza Hut…

Oh, well, tomorrow’s another day!

Last night, I went to a concert at a club and ate out – I don’t think I totally overdid it, but I don’t know the calorie counts.

Today – Breakfast (7:30)

• 1 mini box of Kellogg’s Corn Pops – 100 calories
• 8 oz. 2% fat milk – 130 calories

Snack (around 10:30)

• large banana – 120 calories
• 4 graham crackers – 120 calories

Total for AM= 470 calories

Lunch (12:10)

• Lean Cuisine Chicken Tuscan Panini (340 calories, 4 g fiber)
• 3/4 cup canned peaches (75 calories)

Total = 415 calories

4:00 PM

• Dairy Queen French Silk Pie Blizzard (small) – 690 calories (!!!!!!)

7:30 PM

• Catfish Courtbouillon on Rice
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1 piece French bread with butter

I think we can see at the moment that the afternoon is a problem…