On Monday of this week, I decided to try to make a pact with myself not to eat any food at work that I didn’t prepare or bring in. I’m sure most of you who work in office can attest that trying to lose weight in an office setting is HARD! There are luncheons, lunch with friends, people bring in donuts, someone has a candy dish, and the list goes on!

So, on Monday I was faced with these fancy cupcakes that a rep brought in. Mind you these cost @ $50 a dozen, so it’s not likely I’ll try them any other way. But, I waited, and waited until they were all gone! Score! I made it.

Now comes Tuesday and wouldn’t you know it another client of ours brought in Gourmet cupcakes for almost everyone. There were at least 40 cupcakes, it was insane. How can this be happening the WEEK I decide not to eat food at work!?

But when I think about the hundreds of extra calories I could consume every day eating extras like that, no wonder I haven’t been losing any more weight, it’s the food at work!

Then today, boxed lunches left over from a luncheon. The person running the meeting came out to my desk afterwards and gave me a boxed lunch that was left over. You know whats in a boxed lunch..a huge sandwich, a HUGER cookie and chips… It sat on my desk for a good 15 minutes. I actually opened it up contemplating just eating the cookie and that was it… But another co-worker didn’t have time for lunch and was running into a meeting and I gladly handed him my lunch.

I was getting ready for other clients to come in and was straightening up the conference room when I spied the last boxed lunch that no one had taken. I walked over to it, opened the lid and sure enough it was intact…the cookie, the sandwich and the chips….I thought about eating the cookie again!! WTF? But, I walked it around my office and asked if someone wanted it and I gave it away.

So as Bob Harper on the Biggest Loser has talked about before. “There are always going to be temptations EVERY SINGLE DAY, it’s what you decide that will get you to where you want to be.” I’ve been reading this poem which is keeping me motivated, it’s called “The Journey” by Mary Oliver.

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.

~ Mary Oliver ~

What does that poem mean to you? I’m taking it as I know what to do to lose weight, and I can’t be swayed by what other people say, or what goes on in my head and that in the end I am the only one who is accountable for losing weight.

I’ve read different opinions on what this poem means, and it seems to mean whatever is going on in your life you can relate to it.

So, 3 days down – of course Halloween in coming and of course the Holidays where we get TONS of food at work, but I will try my hardest to make it through. I’m hoping doing that long enough I won’t even want the junk they put out!!

Also, check out my brother’s latest post, he’s back on his healthy eating/weight loss kick, he even kept the first 3 weeks a secret!

Have a great day everyone!

Do you have a ton of zucchini in your garden and you are running out of ideas of what to make with them? Make these muffins – you won’t be disappointed! I haven’t made these in a long time I forgot how good they are.

This recipe is my adaptation of Heidi from 101 Cookbooks. I printed out the recipe, but then gasped when I saw it called for 1/4 cup melted butter + 3/4 cup of oil! Not figure friendly! So I decided to tweak the recipe to make it healthier. This is my version I made 6 Giant muffins + 24 mini muffins. Each giant muffin is only 217 calories!

Chocolate zucchini muffins by Jenn/Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/4 cup Canola oil
1 egg + 2 egg whites
1 banana, mashed
1 container yogurt (the one I used was vanilla at 90 calories)
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini (squeezed of excess moisture)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. banking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon

In a mixer, mix together the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl add the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet batter and mix until incorporated.

For the mini muffins, I baked those at 375 for about 10 minutes.

For the Jumbo muffins, also bake them at 375 for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

These muffins taste like chocolate cake!

Things I did to make them healthier:

Lessened the brown sugar by 1/2 a cup and did not pack down the brown sugar
Used only 1/4 cup canola oil vs. butter and 3/4 cup oil
Used 1 egg + 2 egg whites instead of 3 eggs
Used skim milk in place of whole milk
Cut the chocolate chips in half
Added the banana
Added yogurt
Added ground flax seed
Cut the cocoa in half

You won’t miss the changes at all!

Are you growing zucchini? What is your favorite thing to make with it?

I normally don’t make pancakes during the week, but I didn’t have a ton of stuff by the end of the week to make something deluxe. I had a package of pancake mix, and according to the box 1/4 cup of the pancake mix was only 180 calories. I was wondering what I could add to it to make it a little healthier.

One thing I thought of was pearl barley, but instead of making the pearl barley, I wondered if I could grind it up in my blender to make it into flour and add it into the pancake batter. 1/4 cup of pearl barley is 100 calories, but has a good amount of protein and 6 grams of fiber. I put the pearl barley in my blender and whirred away. I guess I didn’t really realize how hard those grains are! I was running out of time, so I just added the “flour” to the batter, added a little skim milk to make it the consistencey of pancake batter (a little over 1/4 of a cup). I also added a teaspoon of Nutella!

This made 3 HUGE pancakes for around 300 calories!

The result? I did like them, but all of the pearl barley didn’t quite get chopped up, so it had a little crunchy consistency, but to be honest, that didn’t turn me off at all, I actually liked the texture of it! I think next time I’ll blend it longer to make sure it all gets ground up.

My next experiment with pearl barley is to grind it up and add it to muffins for half the flour and see how that turns out.

Right now I am attempting to make “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes”. I belong to the Cooking Club of America and the latest magazine had the recipe in it. It makes 4 loaves, so right now its rising – we’ll see how it turns out.

The other day I clicked on an ad for The Chicago French Pastry School artisan bread making course. I thougth how awesome would that be? Ummm.. turns out the “Artisan Bread Making Course” is an 8 week, 5 day a week class and costs $10,500! I think for now, I’ll try it on my own!! Unless I win the lottery any time soon!!

And a few new blogs I found that I like:

Skinny Taste
Laylita
Circle-B-Kitchen

Have a good weekend! Check back to see if I mastered the Artisan Bread making!!!

I had some really ripe bananas that needed to be used up and believe it or not I didn’t make muffins with them!

I decided to make pancakes. I used an ingredient I just tried for the first time: Almond Milk!

There are lots of different brands and calories. The one I picked was 60 calories per cup. It’s high in calcium, vitamin A, D & E, cholesterol free and dairy free and of course made from almonds. I loved the taste, so I decided to use that instead of milk in my pancakes.

Ingredients – Makes 12 pancakes, each pancake is 85 calories, 1 gram of fat and 1.5 grams of fiber.

1 cup old fashioned Oats (I used Quaker)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups almond milk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
2 small ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 serving dried cranberries (20 grams)

Mix all ingredients together, let batter sit for 5 minutes.

In a skillet or griddle, use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure out each pancake. I made 12 big pancakes out of this recipe.

The one thing I was going to put in, but forgot was eggs! I was going to put an egg or 2 in it, but they turned out fine without them!

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Now onto week 4 weigh in already!!! January was a great month for me. I faithfully logged every calorie I ate in www.myfitnesspal.com.

So, for the month of January…… -10 pounds!!!! Wahoo!!!

That’s me doing the HAPPY DANCE!

I hope I can keep it going for February!!!

AND, another day sticking to my calories!!! Wahoo!!!!!

I decided to walk to Whole Foods to use yet another gift card I got for Christmas there. It was a $20.00 gift card. I thought I would get something from the salad bar, some chia seeds, and a bag of quinoa. Guess what the total was for just those 3 items: $16.99!!!

But once I got back to my office, I decided to eat half of the salad I made and save the rest for today.

I got red quinoa, some farro, shredded carrots, green onions, edamame, peas, garbanzo beans, cauliflower and celery. I had my favorite Thai peanut sauce at work, so I add the sauce and then cooked it in the microwave for a few minutes to warm everything up. It was awesome!

And, I had some more of the Oatmeal for breakfast. This time I put a banana and dried cranberries in it. I let it sit for a while, and the cranberries really plumped up. They were so good!

So, my goal for today? No food from a luncheon at work today. I don’t go to the luncheon, but there will be leftovers I’m sure. I ordered the food for the rep, so it’s pizza, pasta, garlic bread and pop. Wish me luck!

Have a fantastic day – make it count