Update: Tuesday 9/17/13

Yay!! First day back to normal after the long weekend! It's always good to get back to normal, back to the routines that keep me on a healthy path. 

Being gone all weekend, I didn't get to the grocery store. So, I had to find something to take for lunch or the temptation to have fast food would have been too much. I had some squash that I roasted when we got home (to keep it from going bad), and I dug around and found a can of turkey chili in the cupboard...perfect! 

I made a quick trip to the store after work to get some fresh fruit and salads for lunch. Rather than making my own salads this week, I picked up some ready made salad bowls from Von's. they have several different varieties, they average 5-8 PointsPlus, and cost $2.99 when you buy 3 or more. I find them to be an easy lunch and it saves me the washing, slicing, and assembling on weeks when I'm short on time. 

I'm discovering that these long Disneyland weekends exhaust me and I find it difficult to get back to my exercise routine. I haven't been out running yet this week, and I'm typing this on Wednesday morning...sigh....I might try and get out there tonight after work. If not, then tomorrow morning for sure. 

Here's my tracker for Tuesday. 

Tuesday morning, 9/17/13...home from 

a 4 day weekend, girl's road trip, weekend away with hubby....date night, eating out, on again off again food wise, walked a bazillion steps :) 

Today is back to routines that help me to stay on track, drinking water like it's my job, tracking, counting, planning....

Wednesday 9/11/13

Tuesday 9/10/13

I had a good day. I started the day with the 15 minute express version of the Full Body Cardio Stretch before going out for my walk/run. I'm sore from the stretching and from the planks that are part of the workout. But, it's the kind of sore that tells you're doing good things for those muscles. My run was 3.3 miles. It's getting light later and later and I know the day is coming soon when I'll need to move inside to the treadmill for my weekday runs. I know it's coming but I am not looking forward to it and I'm enjoying being outdoors in the morning while I can. 

I stayed within my points allowance and tracked and drank my water ....Yay me!!

I saw a recipe for chili that was just a bunch of cans of stuff heated together. I made my own version if a similar chili for dinner. It was hearty and tasty. I'm posting the recipe along with this post. 

That's it, nothing really exciting, just me, sticking to my healthy plans and making routines that make this all easier! 

Monday September 9, 2013

I've been achy and sore for a while now and I decided that I need to stretch more. So I pulled out my Weight Watchers PointsPlus DVDs and committed to doing the "Full Body Cardio Stretch" one every day for a while and see how that goes. I'll do the full workout on my non-run days and the shorter, express workout in the days I run. The full workout is 30 minutes of stretching, using basic yoga moves. I like that it's not all spiritual and metaphysical like so many of the yoga DVDs I've tried, but it is rather boring. The fact that it hurts when I stretch confirms to me that I really need it. So I did the 30 minutes to start the day.  (And I'm sore)

After work we went to a pot luck get together. Those can be challenging but this one had some healthy options   

So...just a regular day....working, tracking, drinking water....

There we go...

Oatmeal/Chia Seed Breakfast Bar

2 very ripe medium size bananas

1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

1/4 cup chia seeds

1 cup nonfat  powdered milk, dry

1 tsp baking powder

Mash the bananas and mix everything together. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then spread it on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. I spread it pretty thin. Bake it at 350 for 12-15 minutes until its browned and a little crispy on the edges. Cut into 4 bars at 6 points each. 

Sunday September 8, 2013

This was a pretty good day. It could have been better but it could have been worse. 

I had my Oatmeal/Chia Seed/Banana Bar for breakfast. I love this bar. It's filling and it's like eating cookies for breakfast. I'll post the recipe. 

It's become one of our traditions to have lunch at the San Diego Chicken Pie Shop after church on Sundays. One of these times I really am going to stick to my plan to either order just the pie, or to ask for a to-go box at the start of the meal and put half away. This was not that day.   I did, however, make some small changes. I left food on my plate. I had part of a roll. I ate the filling from the pumpkin pie and left the crust. Not huge changes but small changes that help a little. 

The lunch was so filling that we didn't have dinner. I had some frozen grapes and nibbled on a few bites of roasted veggies when I got them out of the oven. 

So all in all it was an acceptable day. I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon preparing breakfasts, lunches, and salads for the week ahead. I'm ready for a healthy, on plan week!