Getting creative

Yep, look at me getting all creative even before my coffee is finished!!!

Here's the scoop.

I gained .6 pounds last week. Pissed me off. Could have of course been worse. So, Pixie needed a plan as usual.

Got up this morning and made a few daily goals for myself. Simple, but hopefully enough to give my day some structure and give me something to shoot for and then a feeling of accomplishment when I'm finished.

They were:
1. Plan my food for the whole day and eat everything I've planned.
2. Decorate the tin box for Christmas.
3. Walk my whole 3K route I mapped out for myself.
4. Make and hang one set of curtains for the living room.
5. Tidy something, anything!

Not too bad really...got all day to do it in. How does the getting creative come in? Well, with my meal planning. Took me over half an hour to figure it all out this morning.

I don't like veg as you all know so I have to find ways to get it in. When I'm planning my meals I usually plan in the veg/fruit/milk & healthy oils first and then build around them. If I don't plan them in, I won't eat them.

I'm over 50 now so need 3 milks a day. That's 6 points if I drink milk which is a freaking lot of my points! I usually opt for Weight Watchers yogurt. It is only 1 point and it fulfills a milk requirement. It's good too...so a win win. I drink powdered milk in my coffee every morning also. As you probably know I've cut hydrogenated oils from my diet as they're bad mojo. All coffee creamer powders have hydrogenated oil. I loved my coffee mate, but I gave it up. I don't like skim milk in my coffee or any fat free liquid creamers. They cool my coffee down and I just don't like them. I found an awesome substitute in plain old powdered milk. Oh, the first time I tried it I wasn't happy. I love it now and it's 1/2 of a milk requirement for me to boot! I use 1/4 cup of the powder in my 4 cups of coffee every morning. Another win win swap for the Pixie...the creative Pixie!

So, today I planned my food. I started with a new recipe for dinner. Put it through the recipe builder and it came to 8 points. A lot really, but I started planning around that anyway. By the time I got everything in, I was well over my daily points. Time to start cutting stuff out.

I went back to the recipe and looked for ways to lighten it up. I did. From 8 points to 5 points! Wow!!!

I was going to have tuna for lunch. That was 3 points. I changed it to 2 ounces of shrimp instead for 1 point. Woohooo that let me add peanut butter to my breakfast. Man this is getting fun now!

I had a whole banana planned with my breakfast. Cut that to half a banana and added some of my awesome FAF for a treat sometime today.

With all my cuts and jiggying around, I went from being 5 points over on the day to 2 points under! I like to leave a few points to play with as I ALWAYS want a treat at night. If I don't allow for that, I'll go over on my points. I can't plan my treat now as I don't know what I want. Usually popcorn or pretzels...but ya never know! So, here it is only 7am and I've got all my food planned. I've got my daily activities planned too.

Now, it's written, just gotta follow through. I think it's easier to follow through when it's written.

I'm going to share my food plan for today as looking at it, it looks like a ton of food and it makes me happy!

Breakfast:
4T powdered milk for coffee -1
1 Weight Watcher yogurt
1/2 banana & 1/2 cup frozen strawberries(0) with Splenda-1
1 whole wheat english muffin-2
1T peanut butter-2
Total: 6 points

Lunch:
lettuce-0
2T Bolthouse blue cheese dressing- 1
shredded carrots-0
2 ounces shrimp- 1
whole wheat pita-2
1 teaspoon olive oil-1 (going to bake the pita with the olive oil and garlic so I have pita chips)
1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese- 1.5
Total points: 6.5

Dinner:
Whole wheat pasta with baby spinach, sausage, and cannellini beans- 5
sugar free jell-o with diced peaches- 0
1/2 cup strawberries with splenda and 1T fat free Reddi Whip-0

Snacks:
FAF- 2
Weight Watchers yogurt with 1/4 cup all bran buds- 1.5
Total: 3.5

How's that for creative????

:-)