The Blonde Diaries

Had you offered me lamb 2 years ago I would have ran away. I just couldn’t imagine eating poor little Lamb Chop though it is only a sock puppet. Curiosity got the best of me though and I haven’t looked back since. I just love lamb as it is very similar to beef but so much more tender. Unfortunately, most restaurants charge $30 or more for an entree. Not very affordable if you want to enjoy it on a regular basis. :’(

This week that changed. My mother was in town and we went to meet her friend for lunch at Fadi’s Mediterranean Buffet here in Houston and it was lamb day (no lamb on Thursdays and Saturdays)! What makes it even sweeter is that it is an option on the 1 meat, 1 side plate so I had a huge plate filled with lentil salad (yum!) and then lamb shank with more vegetables all for under $10. I was not planning on gorging myself on lamb and vegetables but I did and oh it was so good.

I think this is going to quickly become a Sunday afternoon destination for Mike and myself after we hit the gym and the treadmill. Even though there are lots of veggies, the gravy, the pitas, and the hummus will tack on calories fast and lord knows I don’t need any more calories in my life unless I decide to try out the Mediterranean diet which might not be a bad idea if I can eat fabulous foods like this day in and day out.

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I’ve written a few times in the past about my job.  I am a financial statement auditor and I just finished my 5th busy season as an auditor.  I never thought I’d make it this far.  It has taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears so to speak to get here.  With that said, it has also led to a 30 pound weight gain over those 5 years.  I stepped on my Wii Fit that I drug out of hibernation last night and I was greeted with a message telling me it had been over 200 days since I last used the Wii Fit program and in that time I’d gained 15.5 pounds.  Talk about a shocker!

Losing weight use to be fairly easy for me.  I’d just cut my calories and go to the gym.  I was also in college with quite a bit more time and less stress.  Now I barely make it home at a decent hour where I can cook and go to the gym.  It is quite frustrating and I need to find a more streamlined method.

Tonight, I did find a new website, www.wellnessdaily.com, that I believe will be beneficial to me and to any of my readers who are looking for some motivation.  This website includes healthy living blogs, quick and easy recipes, and videos on topics such as weight loss and exercising.   Quick and easy recipes are right up my alley especially if they are healthy and can help me cut my calories and cravings.  I am also excited about videos on exercising.  I am so tired of just riding an exercise bike or using the elliptical at the gym.  Though I am reading my books, it gets dull and boring.  I would love to be able to incorporate some new exercises into my routine.  I thing the videos will be able to help me do that without injuring myself.

This website is 100% free to join and you have access to all of the information.  If you sign up soon, you can download a rebate from from Jennie-O for $5 off your next turkey product.  I love ground turkey so I am going to search for a recipe that I can make in the crockpot with ground turkey and then send in my UPC for my $5 off.

I hate how I just cannot commit to a diet plan. It is driving me crazy. I start out doing really well in the day and then I get home and the snack attack hits. Or I’ll go all week doing well and boom! the weekend hits and I’m pigging out on junk I don’t need because I’m at home and bored.

I thought maybe the answer would be to change up my diet plan – Weight Watchers works but I am having a consistent carb overload each day so maybe I cut the junky carbs and replace that with healthy carbs (more fruits and veggies) and add in more protein. Great idea right?

Yeah not so much. I lasted a day and boy was I crabby and unpleasant to be around. I think my problem was that I was being cheap with the grocery shopping so I was left with this menu for that day:
Breakfast:
1/2 cup egg beaters with 1 laughing cow wedge and sugar free koolaid
Lunch:
1 Salad (lettuce, carrots, diced turkey pepperoni, shredded cheese, salsa, spray ranch dressing)
1 yoplait yogurt
1 cup of grapes?
Snack:
1 fat free hot dog (no bun no condiments) with pickles
Dinner:
2 fat free hot dogs, 1 slice of bread, 1/2 cup of beans

Looked ok on paper right but then I started adding up the calories and I think I hit around 700 that day. Not a good thing. So I’m back to toying around with what I need to change up to help me stick to a plan and follow it though. Atkins definitely isn’t in the playbook.

Happy Think Thin Thursday!  I am so excited about this week because it is the week after busy season ended and I’m eating healthily and exercising.  I finally feel like I’m back to my routine after an off and on February.  I didn’t participate last week because I just was too tired since Thursday was filing day and I barely made it to work in time and I left pretty late.  I did hop on Monday morning for one of my forum challenges and weighed in at 152.9 per the Wii Fit so I will use that as last Thursday’s weight.  This morning I weighed in at 151.8 so that is a 1.1 pound loss!  Counting points and exercising is working for me!

I am excited. I finally have a few minutes to sit down and participate in Think Thin Thursday. The past few weeks have been a struggle with work because for some reason things heat up at the end of the week and I miss out on my end of the week memes.  So, I haven’t officially stepped on the scale for this week.  I did pop on this morning but since I am using my Wii Fit as the offical scale and weighing in at 10pm each week I will have to update later.  From what I could see this morning, I am still at 153.  That isn’t terrible considering it is busy season and I am only able to Wii Fit for 30 minutes a day Monday – Thursday and hit the actual gym on the weekends.  So I can’t complain too much.  I have been bringing lunch and dinner instead of ordering out and that has helped too.

So my goal for this week is to try 1 new recipe.  I haven’t been able to cook lately and I am getting bored with Lean Cuisine on a daily basis and some of my older recipes like crawfish etouffee.  I’m not sure what exactly I will make but I want to try 1 totally new recipe that is healthy and will keep me on my weight loss journey.

Now Bridgette wants us to visit Tyson.com and pick one item that we would use to incorporate into a healthy and quick meal for our family.  Luckily, I discovered Tyson refrigerated meals a few months ago so this one will be easy for me.  My family favorite is the Beef Steak Tips in Bourbon Sauce served over brown rice.  The whole thing with the rice is about 6 Weight Watcher points.  Not too shabby and it tastes really good.  The whole thing takes about 15 minutes to make – 8 minutes for the meat to reheat and then 7 minutes to cook your brown rice.  Talk about quick and easy!