Josephs Lavash Bread

While shopping for some whole wheat tortillas I found these
it was the 50 calories that caught my eye along with the size of these things
they are about ax big as a cookie sheet!
and I can eat half of one
and it is only 50 calories
and they taste good
the only "bad" thing about them is the salt content

now what can you do with these?
wraps
open face sandwiches
wraps!!

Here is one the things I do
I take 3ozs of shredded cooked boneless skinless chicken breast
1oz of goat cheese
1TBS of plain Greek yogurt
I mix that all together
then I spread it out on one half of the Lavash bread
I top it with
diced roma tomato
diced onions
and spinach
sprinkle some Mrs Dash on it
and stick in the oven for a few minutes
pull it out and melt some swiss cheese on top (the 40calorie slices 2 of them)

delicious 

Dieters dilema

One of the biggest complaints of dieters (life style changers whatever) is that logging food and counting calories is tedious
not only is it tedious but your life becomes weighing and measuring food
for many this becomes obsession and one tends to get images of an obsessed teen girl in their head

YES at first it can be like this
you will have to count and measure and weigh every bite
and as you get closer to your goal or as your body gets used to eating the smaller amount you will have to change things up to see more results
the body is a strange and adaptable thing like that

One of my favorite tools for this is
My Fitness Pal
I log everything there
while it has its flaws (I would organize some things differently)
it also has stregnths
the biggest being a database of TONS of foods already entered
all you have to do is find your food on their list say how much of it you ate and it logs it
it automatically subtracts all the things from your daily allotment of nutrients and calories

NOW I know some that are saying
I'm too busy to go searching bla blah blah

I get it I do
I have socks to fold too

the neat tools in my fitness pal means you do not have to search for EVERY meal
we are creatures of habit think about what you eat daily
do you have the same thing for breakfast everymorning?
I do
so I can use the "copy yesterday" tool for most of the week
did you make a huge pot of spaghetti and meatballs?
you can enter YOUR recipe figure out how many servings it is and then
log it
you can take something that you eat often
such a I eat tuna melts a lot
I added it all to my meals
after a while you will find that logging food is not as hard
and the obsession over portions is not as hard because you find with time you an indeed tell what one ounce of cheese really is

Sometimes you just gotta crow !

and this week is one of those weeks !

A month ago I went in for my blood work the numbers were all improving etc the weight was down the doctor was shocked
then she had me take a urine test a specific one testing for protein
protein in the urine is a bad sign it can mean several things
among them kidney failure
which can be caused by diabetes
SO if you are a diabetic it is a damn good reason to keep your sugars under control
no matter how much I like to say it
death by chocolate is not a good thing
kidney failure is a long painful drawn out horrible way to die

my urine had high levels of protein
Docs solution
cut back on the protein you are eating
she talked to the nutritionist and the nutritionist said
cut back to 60grams a day

WHAT??
Protein is one of the things I do not limit
I limit everything else
I limit sugar
I limit salt
I limit carbs
I limit fat
if I limit protein
I am an air fern
last time I checked
I am not an air fern

So aside from a day of stomping around my house and bitching to my ever patient hubby and my traumatized kids
I called my MIL
yes I did it I called her
Along with her many talents my MIL was a nurse in a dialysis unit for many years
her comments were simple
you could have any number of things wrong
ould be your posture putting pressure on your kidneys
could be your body not being used to amount of exercise you are doing
or could be you are really a brittle diabetic whose kidneys are about to fail
OR your body could still be expelling all of the bad stuff since you have been working so hard to overcome the bad habits of a lifetime
Moms advice
keep doing what you are doing
and wait to see if the next test shows a better result

I like that advice she gave me permission to stop questioning what I was doing
yes yes hubs said the same thing but MIL is more of an authority figure
I slowed down on the exercise the week before the test
that was the LONGEST MOST boring week ever!
Im actually starting to enjoy exercise (weird I know)
I took the test on Monday 3/10/14
I got a call about the results on Wednesday
The doc sounded all sad and worried
"you are still spilling protein "
I said how much
normal is 30 or below
I am spilling 33
OK not too horrible
she went on to say how I needed to go on meds to prevent any further damage use my glucometer to check my sugars ..ummm
I do not have a glucometer you never wrote a script for one
OH
SO I ask the BIG question
out of curiosity what were my numbers from the first test
yes we did a first test doc this is the second one
she looks
my number on Feb 10 2014 was 57
so in a month I made the number go from
57 to 33 that is a drop of
a lot of numbers
she then changed her tune
I will not have to have this particular test for another 6 months

YEAH!!!!

crow with me folks
my diet and exercise is fixing my bod
WOOOOOHOOOOOOO

Favorite things

Unlike Oprah my favorite things are affordable
and because this blog is about my weight loss
most of these will be food related

SO lets start with my new favorite Dessert

Dannon Light and Fit Greek Yogurt
Toasted Coconut Vanilla
and then I stir in some

Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder

I like the dark

mix it well and pretend it is pudding

health details on this yogurt

anyone watching their sugars?
I am
check the sugar content!!!

now you see why it is one of my favorite things
most low cal foods have high salt or high sugars
this is fabulous stuff

know what is frustrating?

stalling out
that is frustrating
be it numbers going up on the scale because of salty food or that time of the month
or
being sick and not being able to move
the urge to just chuck it all and drown sorrows in cake and a bucket of chicken are very strong at those times

I will not do this

however death by a bucket of broasted chicken breasts a large mashed potatoes and a couple of pepperidge farm chocolate cakes does not sound too horrible

Weight loss incentives

ASIDE from being healthier living longer and looking fabulous
there are TONS of ways to earn things while you lose weight

I'll name the ones I'm using and if you know of anymore let me know

Earndit

 http://earnd.it/1h1NU2e (that is my referral link if you do not want to use that just google Earndit.com
at earndit I simply link my fitbit tracker to the site and I earn points
that give me discounts on various things mostly to do with healthy living .
I'm eyeing up a very supportive sports bra

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Everymove.org

another connect your device and earn points toward stuff site
however this one you can also add in things you have done like
shoveling snow
cleaning the house
calisthenics
I use Everymove.org points and donate them to charity
last time I checked they had 2 charity options for points donation
the one I chose is the Make a Wish Foundation
for every 2000 points I earn $5 gets donated

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Walgreens
also has a way to earn points for things you already do and you can connect several of the high tech pedometers to the site the points can be used toward purchases

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Diet Bet
now this is a neat idea ! it is a website where you and a group of friends can bet each other if you meet your goal(there are different ones) you get part of the pot of money. What if you do not have a group of friends that want to diet? they have groups that you can join with larger pots of money and other prizes. I joined a group of twitter friends and was able to split the pot with the winners it was loads of fun and good kick in the tush to get moving more.

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Pact 

  I love this one I connected my fitbit to the site so long as I have 30 active minutes per day and reach a minimum of 10,000 steps a day  THEN I have made one of my Pacts
I can hear you "SO WHAT?"
Let me back up a wee bit because I got excited and got ahead of myself

Pact is a site that pays you for doing things you are already doing
WHAT?
yes
I made a Pact saying that I would log my food for for 5 days out of 7
I made another Pact that I would exercise for 5 days out of 7
I said IF I do not make my daily Pact I will pay $5 per day I miss
Because I made 2 Pacts that would be $10 a day
NOW guess what happens if I MAKE my pact?
I get paid for it
Since I already log daily at My Fitness Pal
I already walk over 10,000 steps on my fitbit daily
guess what?
I make money this is so cool
LOVE that site

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I'm sure there are more sites out there these are the ones I use
make sure you check them out if you need another incentive for this trip