Since my last update (11/15 at 127 pounds), we've had the holiday season and traveling and 2011 started off with more travel and many more meetings. Last week for example, nearly every meal was at a restaurant for lunch and dinner meetings on top of which I had a nasty cough so didn't do any cardio work for fear I'd cough up a lung. The scale on Sunday morning was 133. I grumbled about the house for a little while. It is so frustrating to make progress and then go in the opposite direction. Grrrrrr.
Since Sunday evening, I've prepared every meal for myself. The scale this morning? 130. I've lost 1 pound a day for three days in a row. I'm eating whatever I want, including having wine with dinner. Granted, when I made my Move.Eat.Be. plan for the week, the foods I chose were healthy. I concocted kale and white bean casseroles in my new little Le Creuset pots (I love them!) with a side salad and bread (yes, I'm eating bread!). Last night was poached salmon with tomato and green onion sauce (cooked in 2 TBS of butter), side salad, a left-over mini casserole and more bread. Tonight is roast chicken with root vegetables. Lunches are leftovers or salad greens with hummus, mushrooms and avocado. Breakfast is (usually always) banana, blueberries (frozen, wild, organic), other fresh fruit as available, topped with ground flaxseed and accompanied by almonds. I had a cookie last night. And, I've done a workout each morning and am following along to most of our 10-to Workday Workout program.
The moral of this story? Eat at home! It is much less expensive. It is much better for you. And, honest, it does not take that much time to cook dinner. Please don't be freaked out by the cooking shows and the celebrity chefs who use 10 pans, 20 bowls and claim you can cook like them in 30 minutes (sure you can, if there is a crew prepping for you and cleaning up after you).
Take the poached salmon. It literally took me 20 minutes from start to table like so:
- Turn oven to 350⁰
- Put water on to boil
- Slice green onions and salmon filet into 1" wide serving pieces (sprinkle with salt and pepper)
- Put mini-casseroles in oven to reheat
- Make a salad dressing (olive oil, balsamic, dijon mustard, pepper, salt, thyme)
- Stage sauce ingredients (grape tomatos, 2 TBS butter, sliced green onions, salt, pepper) near stovetop
- Put salmon into boiling water (cooks in 10 minutes for 1" inch think slices)
- Slice bread and pour some olive oil into a dish with freshly ground pepper
- Put plates on counter. Set the table. Pour wine.
- Heat butter in skillet
- Poor a wee bit of salad dressing into bag of salad greens. Shake.
- Put tomatoes in skillet with butter, cook for 2 minutes, add green onions. Cook for 2 more minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Take salmon out of water
- Plate (salmon with sauce on top next to salad). Slices of lemon.
- Retrieve casseroles from oven
- Carry to table
- Sit. Eat. Enjoy.
- Cleanup took less than 10 minutes, including hand-washing the cookware.
Going out to eat is one of my very favorite things to do. But, until we can implement The Real Food Label in our restaurants, it is very difficult to understand what is really in the food we eat when we're out. And, I fear the additives and quality of the food when eating out (there are very few organic restaurants) has a negative impact on my ability to avoid weight gain. I'm amazed by how three days of eating at home has made such a big difference. Do yourself, and your scale, a favor.... create a Move.Eat.Be. plan each week and explore the rewards from your own cooking.
No comments:
Post a Comment