Raw fooding it...Day 1

Yesterday I used up all my points in my raw food diet!! Seriously, the use of nuts and oils definitely takes a toll on your points. Atleast this is balanced out with eating a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. I started my day off with breakfast, which consisted of raisins, groats, chopped almonds, flax seeds and almond mylk - all for 5.5 points.

This actually held me over til lunch time, where I prepared a salad of chopped butternut squash, cranberries, onions, almonds and jalapeno pepper. I seasoned this with cumin seeds and coriander powder. All of this had a points value of 4, but seriously, I couldn't help but think how this would have been much better with some crumbled goat cheese! I got hungry about an hour later and had a snack of an apple and some almonds. This little snack was 4points!!! I do think I'm getting almonded out though.

By the time I made it home for dinner, I was starving. Thanks to my quick, handy dandy vidalia chopper, I made myself a quick mexican mix which consisted of diced avocado, mushrooms, celery, onion and corn. I mixed all of this up with taco seasoning(I'm guessing this is raw?!?). Now this was delicious and filling and worth 7 points!

Ill be honest, in between meals I was a bit hungry, but not starving. I was good enough to just make it to my next meal.

All in all, I made it through my first day, and I'm now onto day 2!

How did your day go?

Day 1: Raw fooding it...

So last month I went on a raw food diet for a week, this time I am attempting to go on a raw food diet for a month. Well, I'll be honest, a slightly raw food diet. Yes, I will eliminate coffee, but I am still staying with my green tea. Now, why am I doing this for a month? Well, this is sort of my way of detoxing my body. Trying to eliminate all the processed food and toxins from my body.

Now, I am not abandoning WW by an means. In fact, I am incorporating my raw food diet within my points system. Just because you are eating healthy, raw food, too much of this can cause weight gain as most raw foods have a lot of nuts incorporated into them. Lots of nuts = lots of fat and calories!

So, I thought I would document my raw food experience with you all. Some of the recipes I have are from raw food books, others are from myself. They are all tasty and I will share as much as I can with you, so lets begin!

Breakfast -My Muesli
1/4c groats, soaked over night and drained the next day
1TB of raisins
1TB of chopped almonds
1TB of cinnamon
1TB of flax seed
1/4c. of almond mylk (recipe from Ani Phyo's raw food book)

Mix all of this in a bowl and enjoy!

Total points: 5.5

Now, I know this is more points than usual for my breakfast, but lets see if I will need a snack later on!
PS: Ill post a pic tonight!

***Recipe Alert: Spicy Vegetarian Tacos***

Hello Everyone,

Lately, I've been on a soft taco kick. Not only are they so fast to make, but with just a few ingredients, these tacos are low in points and yet, oh so delicious! Enjoy one of my most favorite soft taco recipes below:

Ingredients:

4 corn tortillas, toasted on an open flame on your stove

2TB of shredded romano cheese

1/2c of shredded cabbage

1c of small white beans

1/2c of salsa of your choice

1/2c of chopped cilantro

1 packet of taco seasoning mix

Preparation:

Heat the beans on your stove and mix in the taco seasoning mix.

Evenly divide each ingredient into fourths.

Lay the tortilla's on a flat surface and top them with each of the remaining inredients.

Enjoy!!

Servings: 2, each serving has 4 WW points!!!!

For another variation of this recipe using black beans, go to www. theajnabee.com!

Hello there...

Hello Everyone,

We have officially completed one whole month of the new year! How have you guys been doing so far? I hope you are all planning your meals well and trying to get some sort of physical activity in your day.

January was alright for me. I only had a total weight loss of 3lbs. (I did gain a pound, so I went from 4 to 3). One thing that has helped me out a lot is making sure I have my breakfast ready in a fast way (thank goodness for instant oatmeal), and planning out my lunches during the week. I have some great recipes which I will share with you in a later post :-)

How have you guys been doing? What do you find to be your biggest challenge?

And the results are in....

Good morning!
This week has certainly been interesting. I managed to eat mostly raw foods atleast 85% of the week. It was so interesting to see how easy and flavorful raw meals can be. I definitely felt 'cleaner' and lighter througout this week. I also noticed I was eating as we should all be eating, in the sense, do not stuff yourself silly. Instead, take your time and enjoy your food and take pleasure on how such simple flavors can be put together to make such a fresh delicious meal. It is not my goal what so ever to do completely raw. I still love my meat, and the great flavors you get out of veggies when you roast them, but I have to say, I will make more of an effort to eat more raw foods.

Maybe it was the raw foods, or the fact that I've been keeping up with my running but I am down another two pounds this week!!!!! I am happy and of course excited. I'm also a bit worried though, will going back to my regular eating habits result in weight gain? I guess we will find out next week. Right now, yes, I am really happy about the 2 pound weight loss!

How are you guys doing?

Week Two...Tryin Somethin New...

Good Morning Everyone,

We are now into week 2 of the New Year. This week I've decided to try something different, something that I've been wanting to do for a while, and that is a raw foods diet. At work, I found Ani Phyo's book: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. I LOVE this book because number one, most of the recipes are very simple, number two the fancy schmancy equipment that other raw foods recipes ask for, are optional in this book! Surprisingly, being on the raw foods diet has worked out well in conjuntion to weight watchers. Although there are a lot of nuts and EVOO used in recipes, with proper portion control I stay within my points. So, what have I noticed thus far being on a raw foods diet? Well, I do have more energy. I've also realized that a raw food diet does not mean eating bland fruits and veggies. When the right foods are combined, this is really delicious! You can make everything from burgers to wraps, to decadent desserts!! Ani is amazing when it comes to this!!

Last night I made a whole 3 course raw food meal which consisted of:
Lemon Fennel EVOO soup
Cabbage slaw with thyme and apple cider vinegar
Delicious Dolmas stuffed with dill, raisins, pine nuts and sun dried tomatos!!!

Yum..all this was around 9 points!!! So good and delicious!!!

Go ahead and try something new and healthy this week!!!
How have you guys been doing this week?

Week One of the New Year...

Hello Everyone! So, week one of the new year is coming to a close. Were you able to keep up with your healthy lifestyle this week? This week has been a good week for me. My breakfasts have been almond butter with agave nectar on an Arnold's Whole Wheat thins, except for one day where I made myself non fat greek yogurt with a teaspoon of slivered almonds and a weak drizzle of agave nectar...mmm..delicious :-)

Lunch this week has consistenly been lean proteins with veggies. I even had KFC, GRILLED chicken (a drumstick and thigh), I did not eat the skin and it was so juicy and delicious and definitely a light option!

My snacks have been 1/4 avocados, almonds and grapefruits...not bad.

Lastly, dinner has been seafood or chicken with a veggie of some sort.

Now, I've also had the occasional sweet tooth and I've been calming this by having a MINI chocolate, not more than 2 a day.

My exercise has also been good this week. I've managed to log in about 13 miles of running!!! Not bad!!!

All in all, a very good week and down 2 pounds...now to just get through the weekend :-p

How did you guys do?