Buffalo Chicken Spread

I LOVE LOVE LOVE buffalo wings.  They are so incredibly bad for you though.  Today I made myself some "buffalo chicken spread".

4.3 oz. cooked boneless skinless chicken breast (chopped into chunks)
1 Tbsp buffalo sauce (I use Frank's)
1/8 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt (I use Oikos)
1/2 tsp ranch seasoning and salad dressing mix (Hidden Valley)

I put all of that into my magic bullet and turned it on.  I let it go until it was very well blended.  This made 180g of buffalo chicken spread, which for me is 2 servings.  The nutrition info for 1 90g serving is:

Calories - 112
Fat - 2g
Saturated Fat - 1g
Carbohydrate - 2g
Fiber - 0g
Cholesterol - 52mg
Sodium - 349mg
Calcium - 111mg

This is still not a low sodium item by any means, but it is a lot lower than regular buffalo wings.  Blending the sauce into the meat allows you to get the flavor without using so much sauce.  It is also tons healthier in every other way than having buffalo wings.  I put a serving of it on a whole grain sandwich thing with a slice of cheddar and had a side of broccoli with some ranch flavor Wish Bone salad spray for my lunch today.  It was awesome and my lunch totaled out at a tiny 276 calories.

Weigh In Woes

It's Tuesday, so it is my official Body Bugg Weigh In day.  I'm at 190.2.  That is up 2/10 of a pound from last week.  Grrrrrr Period, Grrrrrr salty steak (though you were awesome and pretty much worth it).

Cake!

I learned a new trick.  This idea originally comes from Hungry Girl.  I learned it on 3FC.  You take cake mix and instead of mixing it with the normal items that the directions call for you mix the box of cake mix with 1 can of diet soda.  You can then bake cupcakes so that you have easy portion division.  I tried this for the first time tonight.  I used Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix and diet Code Red Mountain Dew.  This made enough mix for 16 regular size cupcakes of 135 calories each (I used 54g of batter for each).  I suggest using cupcake papers for these because they are so moist they just fall apart.  This would probably not be a good recipe if you were trying to make a cake to decorate or something since it does fall apart.  However, when judging by taste alone this is the BEST red velvet cake I have EVER had!  I didn't use any icing.  It doesn't need it.  It is amazing!  My husband thinks it needs some berries in it.  I'm thinking they'd be better as a side item than IN it.  They aren't really needed, it is awesome as is, but berries are never a bad thing anyhow.

Weigh In Grrrr

Ok, so last Tuesday I put my body bugg back on.  That means I have official weekly weigh ins again.  Last week when I put it on I was at 191.6.  Today I weighed in at 190.  That's a loss of 1.6 and that's great.  So where's the grrr?  Yesterday I was 188.4, but I had a bad day yesterday.  I will probably be back down there tomorrow because I know this is a water weight thing, but it is still annoying because my official loss for the week should be higher.  That's ok though, it can just add into next week's and all will be well.

Current Official Weight - 190

Frustration and improvement

So, I have this DVD of Leslie Sansone's that is a 5 miles walk.  Back in September before things went south, it had become what I would use if I wanted to do an easy workout.  Completing the entire thing was easy for me and yet still burned a decent amount of calories (typically around 500 for slightly over an hour).  I was giving more than she asked for.  When I do this DVD I always do the arms moves even when she isn't, I always "sit down low" even when she doesn't, and I spend most of the time somewhat "boosted".  So, Monday I decided to get back to working out.  There's snow outside and there are Christmas yard decorations draped all over the room where the treadmill is so that they can dry before being put back into their boxes.  So, I was going to do my 5 mile walk with Leslie.  Or so I thought until I started doing it.  It wasn't easy anymore.  I made it all the way through the first 2 miles and slightly into the 3rd and that was it for me.  My main issue was that my feet were killing me, but I was also very tired.  Ridiculous!  I was so mad and frustrated with myself.  I wanted to cry.  Even worse, I wasn't home alone when this happened to me.  My husband and one of our friends were here.  Lovely!  A few months without exercise had turned me into a failure, as if the regain of over 20 pounds wasn't bad enough.

So, I licked my wounds and put the DVD back in yesterday.  It WAS NOT easy, but I did all 5 miles.  I also did it at the higher level I used to do it at.  I burned 639 calories in 67 minutes.  I still want back to where it was a light, easy workout, but this is improvement and I'll get there.  Then back to the treadmill and running again.

I'm In It To Lose It

So, in September I took over a 5th grade classroom as a long term sub.  The poor things had been through hell for the beginning of the year and in order to try to get everything sorted out and get them back on track I was working 14-16 hours a day.  This led to me not having time to workout.  The stress plus the fact that I was no longer working out led to me slowly straying from healthy food choices.  The situation was very stressful and I am very much a stress eater.  So, between starting in September and Jan. 3, I had put back on a bit more than 20 pounds.  I found out mid-December that the principal decided to hire another woman who was working as a long term sub in another room to take over my room (nevermind the fact that the woman had such trouble handling the 4th graders that she literally broke down almost daily in front of the children but she was the principal's friend and needed insurance so she was hired anyhow, but that's a whole different story).  I had mixed feelings about it because we could certainly use the money that would have come from being hired on full time and I adored the children, but I didn't want to work there because the principal is a moron and the school is run in a seriously idiotic manner not to mention what it was doing to my health.

So, to make a long story not at all short, I'm back in the game now.  I weighed in Jan. 3 at 194.8 and that's the day I got back on track (mostly, I'm working on it).  Today I am down to 192.6.  Considering I have yet to add any exercise back to my routine, I'm happy with that number.  Down 2.2 in a week.

I'm very annoyed with myself for allowing the weight to go back up and for not meeting my fitness goals for 2010.  However, I will complete them for 2011.  I plan to have the goals of 1,000 miles and 10,000 crunches again this year.  I don't really want to set a weight goal for the year because I'm not fond of deadline weight loss.  I will just say that my goal is to make consistent progress.