The Unintentional Vegetarian

This past week we ate all vegetarian meals. There was no real plan to do this but it just worked out that way. I loved it. I feel so clean and lean after eating no meat all week. I'm not sure hubby is happy about it or if he has actually noticed. He hasn't said anything.
I hope to incorporate more vegetarian meals into our weekly rotation but need to do some planning ahead of time to get there.
So here were our dinners for the week..
Monday- vegetable soup with rice. (I did hear a lot of complaints about this meal but as time is an issue on Mondays it was "eat it or go hungry" They chose to go hungry.
Tuesday- spaghetti with tomato sauce (sauce has to be smooth with NO lumps or kids won't eat it!)
Wednesday- over easy eggs on English muffins with cheese for the adults and cereal for the kids ( since we need to get out of the house by 6:10 for lessons-this type of meal will likely have to do for most Wednesdays for the next couple of months!)
Thursday- tofu stir with vermicelli noodles (i finally figured out something to do with those noodles!! I was pleasantly surprised that the kids actually ate them!)
Friday- tonight I'm not sure what we'll be eating but I have a feeling it won't be vegetarian- hubby is responsible for dinner Fridays and this usually involves a roasted chicken from Sobey's (okay not usually- ALWAYS) and some kind of side dish. I  also have chicken soup in already made that I'll serve with noodles.
Weekends are never planned ... we'll see what I can come up to continue with the vegetarian trend.

oh zumba...

how i love thee!!! I have been doing the Wii Zumba a couple of times a week and I am loving it. The class i went to a couple of times just wasn't cutting it so I have swapped Thursday night Zumba for 30-40 minutes on the elliptical while watching Grey's Anatomy and will start going Saturday mornings to Zumba at Garnet.I have high hopes for this new instructor and hope she lives up my expectations! Time will have to tell!

How do you wear your jeggings?

I recently aquired a pair of GAP jeggings. When I first tried them on I thought there was no way on earth I would ever wear them and planned to give them back to the donor.... but at the last minute I decided to try them on again and actually really really like them. The only problem is I have no idea how to wear them! Obviously I know how to wear pants or even leggings  but not how to pull off jeggins. I am really not into wearing leggings as pants with a short top and think it looks inappropriate unflattering most of the time.
How do you wear your jeggings ? (And I'm not talking about skinny jeans-those I have no problem wearing the same way I would wear regular jeans- it's leggings or jeggings specifically I am looking for help with!!)

The Past Week

was pretty good on the eating front. I have been tracking all my intake and have been trying really hard not to eat in front of the TV in the evenings. Except for the fact that I have been on anti-biotics this past week, which tend to cause me stomach upset I have been feeling great about my diet. I have also been trying super hard to exercise more often. I have been hopping on the elliptical for at 30 minutes at a time and earning activity points for that. Thanks to FP  and her suggestion of challenging oneself during commercials or for certain time periods, my elliptical workouts have been getting better. I now try to keep my speed to over 13.50 while the commercials are playing and over 11 during the regular shows. This has me breaking a nice sweat, something I hadn't really done before on the elliptical. Also been doing Wii zumba. I absolutely love it!! It is so fun and also a great workout! Once the weather improves I will definitely getting on my running shoes and pounding the pavement once again for evening runs.
Thanks to the convincing FP I will be doing a 5k in May and need to definitely get my game on for this event!!

A typical eating day

At the request of a reader I'll share a typical eating day for me. This is a basic plan with some variations daily.

Breakfast

1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt
1/3 cup bran buds
1 banana

or

1/2 cup oatmeal made with 1 c skim milk and 3 tablespoons sugar free syrup
banana


coffee with 1/4 c skim milk and 1 sweetener

Lunch

2 cups spinach and arugula
1/2 c pepper (either green or orange)
1/2 c cucumber
1 diced tomato or 10 grape cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons low fat blue cheese dressing or Italian herb dressing

and either 1/2 avocado or 3 oz diced chicken or 1 can tuna

Snack

I try to control what I snack on during the day. I am supposed to eat 2 servings of low fat dairy a day so I will often eat 2 triangles of Laughing Cow Light cheese or I eat 6 almonds and 6 dried apricot halves.

Dinner
Here is where the most variations occur. I normally just eat what the family eats as I keep my points low during the day. If I am serving pasta than I substitute it with spaghetti squash and if I'm doing a stir fry I make sure to measure out 1/2 cup rice rather than just piling rice on my plate. I also add vegetables in the form of a salad or steamed if the main dish isn't veg based. If I am giving the kids fish sticks I will make real fish for hubby and me. (usually tilapia or another white fish- although salmon is very healthy it is quite high in points)
I also drink a tonne of water. On WW the recommended water consumption is 6 glasses per day. I try to drink between 10-12 cups per day. It works okay for me as I do have a desk job and can run to the WC whenever I need to go! Not really feasable for a lot of people though.

So far So good

Today is day 4 and I have been doing really well keeping up with the "off the couch" plan. Sunday I was a little active by playing Just Dance with the kids. It was actually quite the workout!
Monday and Tuesday I did Zumba on the Wii and really enjoyed it. The class I'm taking now isn't the greatest and the Wii class is actually significantly better than that instructor.
I finally cracked open my Jillian Michaels Wii game and didn't love it but will need to play with it a bit before making a further judgement on whether or not I'll use it. Not sure what I expected but it's not actually Jillian doing a workout, it's more like a cartoon character version of her with her voice dubbed in.
I am definitely going to take up running again. I really do enjoy it but I am definitely going to wait until the weather warms up before getting out there! No need to freeze my petunia off :)

Eating plan has been ok. Keeping to program for the most part but still craving sugar/cookies- will have to wean myself after all the indulgences over the holidays!