March Weeks 1 & 2 Recap: Chili, Old Clothes & a Bravo!

HOWDY Friends!!!

As usual, lots has been going on- lots of healthy new eats, new thought patterns, new goals, new accomplishments, & the new me is slowly emerging!

I seem to think more clearly in organized bullet points (go figure!) so here's what's new:

Yumminess:

As I've shared before, I always spend my Sunday afternoons doing my prep cooking for the week (read: I would be doing fast food runs every night if I didn't) and last week I enjoyed my most delicious pot of chili yet! What's in it? Well: lean ground turkey, black beans, light red kidney beans, garlic, 2 cans crushed tomatoes, some chili seasoning, topped off with some sharp cheddar cheese and BAM deliciousness for 450 calories a bowl (if you take the cheese out you'll save yourself approx 90 calories but since lunch is my biggest meal of the day I went for it!). I just put all the ingredients in my crock pot, forget about it for 5 hours, and viola all my lunches for the week are made!

Happy Trails, My Friend, Because NOW we say GOODBYE!

Saturday I found myself in a cleaning/organizing frenzy and decided to go through my dresser drawers and pitch anything that I don't/can't wear anymore- the result is the picture you see above (MINUS the few biggest pair of pants I kept as a memory- something I'll be able to take pics w/ after I hit my goal weight!). Yes, I've seen the #'s on the scale go down and have felt my pants get baggier but it was truly SO crazy to put on my biggest pair of pants (size 28's) that I used to wear ALL the time and now look just absolutely ridiculous on me. Wanna see?

Although this may not be the most flattering picture, the saggy bum, extra tummy room, and the fact that my pants are now dragging on the floor show some sign of progress right?? In fact, I am now comfortably in a size 22- this is seriously a size I haven't been in since I was like 16 years old- truthfully, I don't even know if I believe I can really be a size 20 it's that far removed from how I've been the last 8 years. I know it will happen, but I'll be standing there with my jaw on the floor when it does :)

Speaking of, check out my size LARGE cardigan that I got from Old Navy a few weeks ago! I kind of feel bad for being so excited about such vain things but while these may not seem like a big deal or accomplishment to many people- it is HUGE to me because it is thing I never thought would happen. Yay!

BRAVO Panera!!!

I have been hearing some rave reviews about Panera's new Thai Chopped Chicken Salad that clocks in at only 390 calories for a whole serving so I decided to check it out for myself- my review- pretty darn decent. It is definitely filling, flavorful, and tasty! I would like to put a warning out there though- it is pretty spicy- not unbearrable, but it definitely has a kick.

I would like to hand out my first official BRAVO to Panera Bread for their new addition of calorie amounts to their in-store menu! Panera has always been good about providing the nutritional information of their food online, but when I stopped in to get my yummy salad and saw that they are now posting the calorie info for each item right on the menu I WAS ECSTATIC! Call me crazy but I firmly believe that all restaurants should be required to post at least the calorie amounts to all their foods on their menus. Sure, people are still going to make unhealthy choices but I would feel better knowing that people CHOSE to make the decision to eat a 1200 calorie meal b/c they knew and understood how bad it was & just didn't care and not because they truly didn't know & don't understand nutrition. Yes, I know people can go online and look up all the nutritional info but we all know that that isn't always a realistic option.

For example, just from looking on the wall menu at Panera I was able to compare my old favorite meal (You pick 2 potato soup & caesar salad) vs. the new meal I had (Thai Chopped Chicken Salad) and just with some quick math make a decision that saved me 250 calories!

There's plenty more I have to share but I'm running low on time SO I'll leave you with a quick picture clue as to what's been going on and what the topic of my next post will be... BYE YA'LL!