Last Week In Review

This past week treated me pretty well in almost all areas. Key word in that sentence, however, is almost. Interestingly enough, the one area that would have been graded with a "Needs for Improvement" mark was my diet. I arrived at Saturday realizing that in the four days prior, dinner consisted of either restaurant or take-out food. By then, my body was screaming at me to get back to my more healthier ways.

Whenever I go out, I do my best to "behave," knowing that restaurant fare has a lot of extras attached to it even if you opt for the "guiltless" or grilled options. I try to portion control as helpings are often too big to justify consuming in one sitting, and I am unafraid to substitute vegetables for french fries or a baked potato in the place of mashed. Not always though, mind you. I enjoy french fries as much as the next person; I just don't always have a hankering for them. So when I don't, I pass. When I do, I gobble them up! :)

What bothered me about my lack of home cooked foods was not so much in the potential calorie or fat content, it was that I knew my body was not getting the best nutritional value from the foods I had chosen to eat. I was not agonizing over this turn of events; simpley, i was eager to regain control of what I was putting in my mouth. So, Saturday night I broke the evil spell I was under and made burritos with ground turkey (instead of beef), saffron rice, red & green peppers, chick peas, re-fried beans, onions, and shredded cheese. They were delicious!

Yesterday, I was still bent on continuing with my healthy food rampage, which was quickly confronted with a potential upset. We were invited over to our pastor's house to fellowship with some old friends and fellow church members, and the meal option of choice was...pizza! Now, pizza is certainly not a terrible food choice. It was just not what I was hoping for. However, upon arrival, I breathed a sigh of relief when among the pepperoni, cheese, and sausage, there was a salad pizza. I had never tried salad pizza; it was pretty good and chocked full of greens. I was a happy camper.

The week will continue with more conscious effort (a little goes a long way). I have determined the "menu" for Jon and I for the next few days. I'll be using 2 recipes from Rocco Dispirito's book, Now Eat This! - a Philly cheese steak recipe for tonight and turkey bolognese over noodles for Wednesday. I'm excited! And I highly recommend this cookbook. It slashes the usual calorie and fat content associated with some of "America's favorite comfort foods" and presents them with an easy to make recipe. I've had good success with any of the recipes I have tried from here.

In terms of exercise this week, I logged 4 sessions of Zumba, 3 20-minute ones and one 45-minute. I love the fact that I can do a simple 20-minute dance workout, work up a good sweat, and just get my body moving without having to spend a ridiculous amount of time. It's like my Wii Balance Board tells me often enough on Wii Fit Plus, "...even 5 minutes a day can make a difference." I am thankful for expedient workouts.

In the fashion realm, I scored off the charts this week. My mother-in-law and I went to Dress Barn Saturday armed with a coupon to save 25% off on items already reduced at least 50% or more. We are bargain shoppers, so there was little discussion when this invitation to savings arrived in the mail. We spent an hour or so looking through all of the racks of discounted merchandise. I was having a little trouble finding anything that was really striking me until I decided to put on a brave face and try some things that had caught my eye but was uncertain how they would look on me. I grabbed about 6 items and headed for the dressing room. I ended up buying 3 things.

My mother-in-law chose two simple but pretty tops for work. Here's where it gets good.  Before we had even applied the extra 25%, we had already saved over $104 on the 6 items we were buying. The coupon knocked off another $17 off the price dropping our total to $52.50 and a grand total savings of $121. We left Dress Barn beaming!! How 'bout them apples!?

So like I said, this past week ended very well for me, and I have high hopes for this one. For now, I'm off to do some yoga. Best of luck to you in the week ahead and feel free to share any recent highlights from the various areas of your life! I'd love to hear about 'em!