Anne is LOSING it!

This is an adaptation of a recipe from the South Beach Diet Cookbook.  It’s my new favorite thing!

Tuna Bean Salad
1.5 cups fresh spinach
1/2 can white albacore tuna (packed in water, drained)
1/2 cup cannellini beans (also called white kidney)
red or orange bell pepper (seeded, cut in chunks)

Dressing
1 tbsp real mayonaise
1/2 tbsp fat free sour cream
1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp chopped white onion
Salt and pepper to taste (I prefer sea salt)

Mix dressing ingredients and refrigerate (the longer they sit the better).  Throw spinach, beans, tuna, and peppers into a big bowl and toss with the dressing.  Next time, I’d probably cut back a tad bit on the beans to save carbs and calories and reduce the mayo to half a tbsp (and up the fat free sour cream to a whole tbsp).  Still, look at all of that lovely fiber and protein!

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 serving
Amount Per Serving
Calories from Fat 75 Calories 365
% Daily Values*
Total Fat 8.33g		13%
	Saturated Fat 1.595g	8%
	Polyunsaturated Fat 3.989g
	Monounsaturated Fat 2.049g
Cholesterol 41mg		14%
Sodium 740mg		31%
Potassium 1250mg
Total Carbohydrate 42.06g		14%
	Dietary Fiber 9.4g	38%
	Sugars 5.19g
Protein 32.61g
Vitamin A 85% Vitamin C 260%
Calcium 16% Iron 37%

I took a can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), put them on a cookie sheet, gave them a light spray of EVOO, a dash of sea salt, turned on the oven to 350, and baked the bejesus out of them for 20 minutes.  The result?  Crispy, salty little nuggets packed with tons of fiber and protein.  1/2 cup is 110 calories and they are FILLING!

So, the second family party wasn’t such a success in terms of my eating.  The menu was planned by a 7 year old, so I think that tells you something about what the selections were.  Thankfully, my cousin made a salad.  Three hot wings, a hot link, salad, the top of a pizza (no crust) = not bad.  A slice of cheesecake = not so hot.  Oh well, at least there was fat and protein in it (bright side, people!)

Week 1 on South Beach: -3.8

Now, I know some have had losses during week 1 that were astronomical, but I feel good about this.  First of all, I have been on a low calorie diet (1200-1500) for over a year.  There was no more water to lose.  Secondly, I have already lost 50 lbs so of course, my body is fighting me every step of the way at this point.  Lastly, this is more weight than I ever lost on Jenny Craig in a week.  EVER. Not even my first week.  So yeah, I feel GREAT about being down 3.8!  Woo hoo!

We had a birthday celebration at a nice seafood joint last night.  It was an interesting crowd as five out of the six of us were on some sort of dietary restriction.  My mom and husband are doing Jenny Craig, my mother-in-law had gastric bypass and can’t eat more than three oz of food at a time or she pukes, and my dad is a diabetic.

Obviously there are great options for SBD’ers at a seafood restaurant, however, everything seemed to have a sweet sauce or glaze on it.  There was also a lot fried stuff and sides involving rice, risotto or potatoes.  I opted for a seafood saute - clams, mussels, salmon, halibut, oysters, and cod in (wait for it…) crab butter.  Yeah, the butter wasn’t the best thing I could have picked, but it was delicious. :)  I told them to substitute the fingerling potatoes for zucchini and spinach.  I also had a garden salad with dressing on the side and about four glasses of iced tea.   I refused desert - that was actually pretty easy as I knew I had my delicious peanut butter cup concoction waiting for me at home.

All in all, a nice evening with family and a good meal.  Weighed again this morning to be sure I could see my week one results and I was down .4 lbs from yesterday!

Now, on with family celebration #2 this afternoon… Geez, we have a lot of October birthdays.

Last weigh-in: October 7 - 196.0
Today’s weight: 195.2
Change: -0.8

Almost three pounds gone in a little less than a week?  I’ll take it!  And almost in the low 190’s too.  I am not quite sure what I will do with myself when I get to the 180’s!

Last weigh-in: October 3 - 198.0
Today’s weight: 196.0
Change: -2.0

196.  196! That is two pounds in three days.  My first week of Jenny I didn’t even lose that much.

Last time I weighed this little was over 10 years ago.

I did want to talk a bit about Jenny Craig as I don’t want people to think it’s not a good way to lose weight. Though not on the plan any longer, had it not been for the support and convenience of the program, I would have NEVER gotten to where I am today. Laura, my consultant, was awesome. She was still pretty new when I started the program and it’s been fun to watch her grow into her role as I lost weight. I will miss our Saturday morning sessions!

Who the plan is good for:

• People who hate to cook or don’t know how. If you can’t make healthy food you enjoy eating, this is a great option. However, at some point, you will need to leave the program and if you aren’t prepared to shop, read labels, and cook your own food, the weight will come back.
• BUSY people. No time to cook? No problem. Again, you will, at some point, need to figure out how to schedule time in to prepare your own food once you have hit your goal.
• Junk food/Fast food junkies. The program allows you to have pizza, fish & chips, burgers (turkey, but they are yummy), chocolate cheesecake, cheese curls, brownies, Chinese food, chocolate chip cookies…
• Anyone who is sick of obsessing over what they should and shouldn’t be eating. This plan figures it all out for you. Nothing to think about whatsoever.

The food is very good. The first night on the plan, I had chicken fettuccine Alfredo and was sure it would taste like every other watery low-fat frozen meal I’d ever eaten (or God forbid, NutriSystem). This is VERY high quality food. The chicken is real chicken. It’s not that cubed, mashed nonsense you see in fast food. The desserts are rich and (for the most part) satisfying. The portions are small, but Americans typically eat WAY too much food anyway and your stomach eventually adjusts.

On my first day of South Beach, I blogged about the fear of not having my little frozen boxes to lean on. After all, it has been more than a year since I actually needed to prepare a meal for myself. With three solid days of success on South Beach, I am feeling pretty good. I won’t lie, it takes work. Not the kind of work avoiding bad food (I haven’t really had much issue with that yet), I am referring to the prepping and planning kind of work.

Had it not been for my pre-prepared egg cup breakfast thingies (recipe in an earlier post) and the 36 ounces of chicken breast I grilled, sliced and portioned out last Sunday, this week could have been a total disaster.

Disaster avoided… so far.

Two big wins today: I ignored the bowl of M&Ms a coworker put out for us and I fixed dinner, looked at my plate, realized I had too much food, and put 1/3 of it in some Tupperware and back in the fridge!

Breakfast
1 mug coffee, 2 Egg Cups, 2 servings lite creamer

Mid-AM
1 stick lite string cheese, coffee, 2 containers half & half

Lunch
3 servings Balsamic vinegar, 4 oz boneless, cooked Chicken Breast, 1 serving extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 serving red bell pepper, 2 cups mixed greens romaine lettuce

Afternoon
2 celery stalks, 1 oz beef jerky, 1 lite laughing cow cheese, 1 lite string cheese

Dinner
1 1/2 cups frozen, chopped Broccoli, 1/2 cup sliced onion, 1/2 serving red bell pepper, 4 oz top sirloin

Dessert
1 South Beach PB Cookie, 1 serving South Beach Peanut Butter Cup

Total Calories: 1540
Fat: 81.36 grams
Carbs: 76.72 grams
Protein: 136.37 grams