Meal Plan for the Week of 2/8/10

Here is my meal plan for this week. I eat pretty much the same meals everyday except for dinner, just because this is easier on the grocery shopping and on the wallet. I don't mind eating the same things everyday for a week. I am a routine kind of girl and I like it. I tried to work in as many metabolism boosting foods as I could. This week I am supposed to eat 1750 calories. I can never seem to make it that high but with these meal plans I should be pretty close.

Breakfast:

• 1/2 Grapefruit
• 1/2 c Oatmeal w/ Equal
• 1 Natures Own Thin sandwich w/ 1 tablepsoon natural peanut butter
• Fruit Smoothie: 1 c blueberries, 1/2 c sugar free vanilla ice cream, 1 c fat free milk

Total Calories for Breakfast: 630

Lunch:

• 1 sweet potato with laughing cow garlic wedge cheese
• Spinach salad: 2 c spinach, 1/4 red pepper, 6 grape tomatoes, 2 tblsp fat free italian dressing

Total Calories for Lunch: 194

Dinner:

• 12 oz frozen Broccoli
• 1 apple baked with cinammon and equal
• Monday Night: Pizza Burger, Tuesday night: Teryaki Porkchops. Wednesday night: Grilled Chicken, Thursday Night: Szechuan Beef and Broccoli, Friday Night: Grilled chicken

Total calories for Dinner: Around 450 depending on the night

Morning Snack:

• Light Yogurt
• Emeralds 100 calorie count almonds

Total Calories for Morning Snack: 200 Calories

Afternoon Snack:

• 5 Strawberries
• 2 squares Sugar Free Hersheys Dark Chocolate

Total Calories for Afternoon Snack: 80 calories

Total Daily Calories: 1550

My calorie count is still low so I may try to work in an extra small snack somewhere. I am also still drinking 15 cups (120 oz) of water today and taking 2 mega Green tea pills per day.

Foods That Boost Metabolism

The past few weeks I felt like my metabolism needed a boost. You know how some people have natural high metabolisms and they can burn fat easier? Well that is not me! I need all the help in that department that I can get! So I decided to do some research on foods that boost your metabolism and I put a list together of the top 15 foods that boost metabolism. Most of these were taken from the ecosalon.com website. I put as many of these into my meal plan that I could this week. They are:

1) Grapefruit
2) Green Tea
3) Yogurt
4) Almonds
5) Coffee
6) Turkey
7) Apples
8) Spinach
9) Beans
10) Jalapenos
11) Broccoli
12) Oatmeal
13) Soy Milk
14) Curry
15) Cinnamon

Temptations...

Just like on the Biggest Loser, this weekend has been 2 days of temptations. I had a crazy schedule. Friday a baby shower and a movie, then Saturday, Olive Garden with my niece and another movie for her birthday. A year ago this would have meant finger foods, cake, ice cream, buttery popcorn, bread sticks, cheese, pasta, and probably more popcorn. It literally makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it!

This was my first big test and I'm happy to say I passed with flying colors. I didn't eat anything at the baby shower or the movies. I researched the Olive Garden menu like crazy before we went. I discovered you can order your own salad with fat free Italian dressing and they have a whole selection of what they call "Garden Fare" entrees that are more healthy. I chose the "Venetian Apricot Chicken" which consists of grilled chicken with apricot sauce, broccoli, tomatoes, and asparagus. The chicken and broccoli was very good. I loved the apricot sauce. The tomatoes and asparagus were not good. I think next time I will order this again with all broccoli. The whole thing was 280 calories, 3 grams of fat, and 32 carbs. It was very good and it looked exactly like the picture above.

I was a little worried getting on the scale this morning. My schedule has been really off this weekend due to so many things going on. I stayed up really late Friday night, and I ate at all weird times yesterday. I ended up walking 5 miles last night before I went to bed just in case. I was very excited when I got on the scale this morning and I had lost another pound! My weight has decreased every single day this week, that has never happened before so it's exciting! I think it means I am doing something right.

Today is Sunday so it is rest day. I will stay on my eating schedule but no exercise. I hope all this pays off tomorrow night at the weigh in.......

New Year

So I have been using this blog just to blog about couponing but now I'm going to start blogging about how my lifestyle has changed since the beginning of the year.

Jan 4th we started a Biggest Loser competition at the church. I was so excited about it and hoped I would do well but I wasn't sure. I have tried diets in the past, but honestly they never lasted more than a couple of weeks before I was quitting. I don't think I ever even made it 7 days without cheating. I was determined to stick with it and now I can't believe it is day 33 and I have not cheated once!! I have not even had any kind of fast food in 33 days. It is like my body and mind has been on auto pilot and before I knew it, I'm on week 5 and doing good! All the cravings for junk food is gone. I now crave broccoli and water! I cannot go a day without eating my big 12oz bag of broccoli. It has certainly not been easy but it has not been as hard as I expected. I have taken on the challenge of not eating any fast food for as long as I can. We have several trips coming up in Feb & March but I am determined to pack as much food as possible and not eat any fast food.

This week I have learned that putting my body on a regular normal schedule, like you would do with an infant, is the best way to curve cravings and lose weight. The amazing thing is I can now eat dinner at 6pm and I have no cravings to eat before I go to bed. Once you get your body on the schedule, it is like 2nd nature and you won't even think about it. Here is my daily schedule which I never deviate from unless I absolutely have to. I also take Wednesday & Sunday as rest days and I do no exercise on these days to help my body recover.

Candice's Daily Schedule:

6am Wake Up

7:30am Jog a 12/min Mile

8:00am Breakfast

10:00am Jog a 12/min Mile

10:30am Snack

12:30pm Jog a 12/min Mile

1:00pm Lunch

3:00pm Jog a 12/min Mile

3:30pm Snack

5:30pm Jog a 12/min Mile

6:00pm Dinner

10:00pm Bedtime

YTD Weight Loss: 22lbs

CVS

I got 2 Breeze II gluscose monitoring systems for free! They had them marked down to $29.99 and there was a $30 off coupon in the Sunday paper. I got them and gave them to a diabetic lady at church.

Then CVS had Soy Joy bars 4/$4. I had a -$3 Q for 5 bars. I bought 5 bars which totaled $5. Used my -$3 Q which made it $2 and then I got $4 back in ECB for a profit of $2!!!!

Interesting Saturday

Decided to do some shopping today and good some pretty good deals:

WAGS = 10 bags of halloween candy $21.78 = $10 ESR = $11.78

WALMART = Febreeze Noticeables starter kit $5.97 = -$5 MQ = $.97

PUBLIX = 4 boxes General Mills Cereal = $13.96 = BOGO - $3.49 and -$1 MQ = $5.98
3 bottles French Worcheshire = $4.47 = Had coupons to get all 3 free!!! = $0

TARGET = 2 bottle Herbal Essence = $5.78 - $3 MQ = $2.78

BI-LO = Meritta Bread BOGO - 1 loaf = $1.04
3 Boxes Whole Graint Pop Tarts = $5 - $1 Q = $4

KMART = 4 Men's Polo Shirts at $.99 each!!! = $3.96
2 Mr Clean $7.00 - $1 MQ & BOGO MQ = $2.50

And found a pair of Mudd black heel shoes at the Shoe Dept for $9.97!!!!


Was having a fantastic day when at the red light at Bi-Lo, was hit from behind by another car. There was no damage to my car but my back and neck are extremely sore =(

Looking foward to the papers coming out tomorrow!!!!

The Loot from Kmart

The Kmart on Signal Mtn Road is doubling coupons!!!! Here is what I got:

2 Dove Body Wash $8.98
1 Old Spice Body Wash $3.00
1 RightGuard Deo $2.49
Large bottle Dove Shampoo $5.49
Large bottle Dove Conditioner $5.49
Dove Spray Body Mist $3.50
Dove Deoderant $2.49
2 Suave Body Wash $3.58
1 Aussie Shampoo $3.79
3 Resolve Carpet Cleaners $14.97
2 Huge bottles of Purex Fabric Softener $6.98
2 Ziplock Freezer Bags $4.38
Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foam Cleaner $3.50
Febreeze Air Effects $2.99
3 Glade Fabric Refreshers $11.37
2 bottles Fantastik $5.38
Curves Strawberry Bars $2.50
2 packs Sunmaid Raisens $3.58
4 cans Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup $5.36

My total was $106.78 and after my coupons and doubling I paid $54.00 Yahoo!!!!!