The Challenge: Week 1

So the first week has been a mixed bag... I made improvements to my diet, but I also went to the youth retreat, where food was provided by Chef Ted (very good in all respects... unless you are trying to cut calories!) I was also ambushed by the fabuloso Mother's Day Buffet. Oh well. I got over my Slimfast snobbery to give it a try, based on the Consumer Reports Review. I was surprised to find that I enjoy the milk chocolate shake mix. This provides the dual benefit of giving me the fast breakfast that I need and the chocolate fix that I want! It also keeps me from being hungry until lunchtime. I tried one of their meal replacement bars and it was pretty yucky, so the shake is probably as far as I'm going with Slimfast.

Some of the articles I've read said that those who do best with weight loss are those who eat a fairly monotonous diet. I can see that. I've been on a search for a few things I really like to eat, and lunch has become turkey on whole grain toast with FF mayo, lettuce and pickle...mmmm. Still working on dinner, but I tried a recipe out of Volumetrics that John and I both really liked:

Stir-Fried Green Beans

1 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
1 1/2 tsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large skillet or wok. Add green beans and stir-fry 3 minutes. Add the soy sauce and stir-fry 1 minute. Add the sugar and stir-fry 30 seconds.

Yield: 4 servings of 1 1/4 cups each.
Per serving: 65 calories, 12 g Carbohydrate, 2 g fat, 3 g Protein, 5 g Fiber

You can also substitute asparagus for the green beans. I'm going to work on tweaking this a little because we like our beans a little softer than this... maybe steaming them in the microwave for a couple of minutes before stir-frying.

As far as weight loss, no buttons this week! I forgot to weigh myself at the beginning and finally did it half-way through the week. Then I was ambushed by Chef Ted and the Buffet. I finally made it back to the gym yesterday though, so I've still made good forward progress. Maybe next week.

I still cannot believe I am blogging about this.