Losing Fat Friday

     Well I am not sure this title is any better than last week's. What do you think?  I am sure that there are going to be weeks that the scale is not always going to be headed in the right direction and boy would that title hurt then... moving on.

     Amazingly I actually lost 1.2 pounds this week. Old habits die hard and I'm a stress eater. This week was absolute proof that this is something I am going to struggle with for a long time to truly get under control.  Monday I ate not only my allotted daily points (43) and all of the 49 extra points we get every week but also the 3 activity points I earned and beyond.... think I was stressed?  It isn't as if we can plan on when we are going to stress eat and Monday proves just that. I had scheduled a roasted veggie salad for dinner ~ very low in points.  So before I even walked through the door at Chili's half of my daily allotted points were gone between breakfast, lunch and a snack. Despite drinking most of the points that night (dang those Long Island Iced Teas will get you one way or another) I was a bit proud of how I handled the food.  We didn't take the free unlimited chips and salsa, as I knew that would just add to my being even more out of control with the food.  Even though Chili's does offer a couple of entrees under 750 calories I did NOT want salad or grilled chicken.  We started off with our favorite Appetizer, their Triple Dipper, which came with 2 sliders, 3 loaded potato skins and 8 boneless buffalo wings.  That dish, including the three dipping sauces that come with it, is over 60 Points and for those unfamiliar with Weight Watchers over 2500 calories!! I'll admit that in the past we would have that and then split an entree.  Monday was no different. We ordered the Fajitas for our entree and when it came I didn't even want it.  Michael, who wasn't drinking one for one with me as someone had to be the designated driver, could barely finish the small one he made.  The kids were certainly happy when we brought home, which was almost a complete Triple fajita dinner that they gladly consumed quite quickly despite having eaten dinner, ah to be a teenager  So despite my completely blowing the day it wasn't as bad as it could have been,
     I wouldn't recommend anyone to eat like this on a regular basis and expect to lose weight weekly.  What I do believe is that this proves even when you do have an absolutely horrible, throw the plan out the window, points who cares about points day, the week is not a total loss.  The important thing is to get back on track the next day you can and will be successful.  That's the wonderful thing I am loving about Weight Watchers~ every day is a fresh start.

     This week's food find was a personal creation.  I absolutely loved the Strawberry Poppy Seed Chicken Salad that Panera had this summer and with it being only 6 points (w/o dressing) I ate it at least twice a week. I was recently crushed to learn that it is seasonal and no longer being offered :( Their fall offering is a Roasted Turkey Harvest Salad. I have now eaten this twice and just can't embrace it.  To start off with I'm not a huge Turkey person.  I dislike turkey so much that the only day I cook one is on Thanksgiving and then it's usually the smallest I can find.  Secondly the salad is 14 points!!! HOLY SHAMBOLI!!  The reason being they've added cheese and dried fruits to this salad which are high in points.  However it was not a complete  loss as I absolutely loved the dressing they used ~ cherry balsamic vinaigrette.
     I recently learned that Target carries Panera dressings, however this flavor I couldn't find.  FYI you'll find the dressings in the refrigerated section.  Not to be dismayed I was determined to create a version of the harvest salad at home for dinner.   Thinking that this was probably no different than the raspberry vinaigrette we all love I went to the frozen food section and grabbed a small bag of frozen pitted cherries.  Once home I made my basic balsamic vinaigrette, OK it is actually Emeril's. I then added half the bag of cherries and placed it in the microwave for 5 minutes @ 50%.  I removed the dressing and smashed the cherries a bit and cooked it for another 5 minutes @ 50%.  I'm a big low and slow cooker even with my microwave.  I then placed the dressing in the blender and blended until smooth.  This yielded almost 2 cups of dressing.  Knowing we wouldn't eat it all and not sure how well it would keep I used 1 1/2 cups as a marinade on the chicken.  I prefer to cook with skinless chicken thighs and this was more than enough to cover the 6 pieces I had.  I'm proud to announce this was very successful, so much in fact the family would like it to be a weekly salad night offering (woo-hoo).
     I also wanted to mention my new fascination with froze as a whole.  Like many households I usually have some frozen fruit on hand for smoothies and other various (possibly alcoholic) drinks.  These last few weeks I've been using them regularly for my morning yogurt and granola breakfast.  Chances are many of you are shaking you heads thinking DUH where have you been and I totally agree it was a duh moment when I realized what I was missing out on.  Instead of putting the fruit in the freezer when I get home it goes straight into the fridge.  Over the next couple of mornings I get to spoon juicy, glorious berries into my bowl!  After my success with the Cherry Dressing I am considering playing with other frozen fruits and seeing what I can come up with.

   So all in all a pretty good week.  I'll admit to being a bit disappointed when my loss was 1.2 but that's only because if it had been 1.4 that would have meant I hit the 30 pound mark!!! Here's to getting another 5 pound star next week :)