Hey girls - i didn't realize we had gone over our 500 posts. so here's the new thread!

Yayyy....a NEW thread on Day 1 of week 2!!!!

I'm off to start the food challenge....see ya in a bit!

Mini-Challenge #2
Food Challenge!!!!!!!

Hey everyone.....remember the push up/sit up challenge will run the full six weeks...the other mini- challenges will only run one week....so the food challenge is running Today Thursday 1/8/08 thru Wednesday 1/14/08

Soooo, this is it...our year 2009! We are making ourselves over into the US we want to be. I don't know about you all....BUT....there are lots of different foods that I LOVE. I try to not eat them cause they are high in calories and fat and such....but there are a few that seem to ALWAYS be my down fall. So...I have decided to "make over" some of my favorites.

So, that is your challenge.....take a dish...any dish....appetizer, snack, dessert, entree, or a meal you LOVE to go out to eat and splurge on. NOW......pick it apart...look at all the ingredients and how it is cooked.....can you replace any of the ingredients for lower calorie/ healthier ingredients? Can you change the way it is cooked?

List your meal and your before calories...list the changes you made and the after calories....PLEASE include a picture of your delicious meal if you can!

This should be an EASY and interesting challenge!

Okay soooo....one of my FAVORITE things to do is go eat at the Mexican restaurant....I LOVE grilled chicken nachoes, chicken quesidellas (sp?), Chicken fajitas, so forth and so on...LOL! All the Cheese they drizzle on everything and all the chips I can eat....Not good in the calorie department though!

So....what I decided to do was try to save money and eat healthier versions of these at home....

I make a grilled chicken mixture that consists of
Grilled chicken
Red Bell Pepper
Green Bell Pepper
Onions
and Fajita seasoning


then I divide it up in to small individual packets so I can freeze it and eat it as I want it

with it I make

Chicken Quesadillas ONLY 360 calories vs the restaurants 600 calories
Grilled Chicken Nachos ONLY 390 calories vs the restaurants 1090 calories
Chicken Fajita Pizza ONLY 385 (No calorie info for restaurant this is my creation!
and
Chicken Fajitas ONLY 275 vs the restaurants 450

Here are some pics of the Chicken mixture, how I divide it up into 3.5 oz servings.....the quesadillas and the nachos

and pictures of the pizza and the chicken fajita

Enjoy....

Mel -I haven't even thought about Valentine's day! I'm thinking a gift card to Game Stop.. I can NEVER go wrong with that!

Nessa - OMG that's too funny! I would be wife of the CENTURY if I took DH to a Chinese buffet AND got the gift card! WOW!

Hattie - Those are AWESOME ideas.. but way too much planning for me right now!

Stephi - and get some SLEEP!

tera - That's cool with me. Not everyone will enjoy the same type of challenges... just don't skip out on us! I want you to hang out, and the other challenges will include the scale

Dixie - You have been totally kicking BUTT!!! I'm SO proud of you!

bjewled - Hang in there girly! Don't let the Blahs get you down!

Ufi - WTG on the pushups! And !!!

mayness - We're talkative, it's hard to keep up! Just post when something really catches your eye - and always let us know how you're doing! What kind of lab?

Jade - Take care of yourself! And you're welcome for the challenge. I love these - and I love that Mel and I have collects barnacles.. umm I mean regulars that we've become close to!

scarah - Just an FYI, I'm not checking in as often as I was in the past, and I was getting an ultrasound done when we hit 500 post this morning. If this happens again, anyone can start the new thread. I'll try to stay on top of it though.

Kosh - OMG that WOULD be nice.. maid, nanny, personal trianer.. i'd sit back and do crafts all day!

Ok I'm done catching up from the last thread. Mel - feel free to post the food challenge (if you haven't already since I'm really wordy! and taking FOREVER to post this!

As an update on me - i went to Dr.s this morning for a follow up on the Cancer scare. he said everything with that looks "freakishly normal" Also he gave me an ultrasound, because there is an increased risk of my cervix shortening due to the proceedure I had done. And I got to get a picture of the baby's sac. It's too soon to actually see the baby. - but he typed on the U/S "Baby's Home" It's AWESOME! It definately relieved some worry, and made it more "real".

I'M SO EXCITED! Oh and I've lost a little over #1 since I found out - which is great. He said to not try to lose, but to just eat healthy... he doesn't want me to gain a ton, but didn't give me a number either, so i'm still sticking with my original #15 goal.

WOW...I saw my baby at 6 weeks and 3 days and heard the heatbeat but it was a transvaginal ultrasound instead of the regular one

SO.....we know YOU are stoked...but tell us Joe's reactions to dr's visits and such.....and Hunter....is she excited about being a big sister???

I'm still sooo excited for you....I can't believe you are 7 weeks already!

Hunter's is STOKED, Joe's boyish.. still a little too new, and freaked yet.

Dr. said you usually can't see the baby w/ abdominal u/s until about 9 weeks, but the vaginal one a lot sooner. I didn't want to go that route, and if something looked wrong he would've...

I don't think I'm quite 7 weeks - that's their calculation that they put everyone on at first. I think i'm about 6w 4-5 days. But I'm still excited!

Eny-Im so happy for you! I cant wait for you to see if its a boy or a girl

Melissa-Good challenge! I hope that I can get some ideas from the others being I already knew your secret recipes, lol. Im not real creative so I gotta think about this one. Ill get back to everyone.

I just got done doing a short work out with one of TBL dvds and some situps and pushups. I decided im not gonna push myself through it just yet. Im ease my way into it. I still get my heart pumping for a while. Those dvds are HARD. Im about to order one of the Walking away the pounds.

Thank You all sooo much for all the kind words and well wishes! I really needed that more than you all know.

I do not take medication for my depression. It made me feel weird and I vowed to try to control it with diet, exercise and my relationship with God. I am definitely interested in hearing about any and all herbal, natural remedies for dealing with it. mine starts with tremendouse anxiety and then i go into the depression part.

thank you heather, pat, purple, melissa, tera, abby and enyso much for your thoughts and hugs!

i will go and look for the herbal remedies named thus far and would like for the others that needed to ask to share that with me as well. i have to get healthy and graduate and i need as much help and support as i can get.

i will have to think about what recipe i will change. i too love mexican food melissa! i will work on that this weekend.

i am fooling with my hair this morning and then i am off to the gym. i will ttyl i feel so much better today.

Great food challenge, because I was at the store this afternoon buying stuff to make my own version of Taco Bell's nachos bel grande...something that I have been craving but know better not to even go there! I will post everything with pictures tonight after it I get it made, but here are the ingredients I bought for improvements:

baked tortilla chips (less sugar & cal. than multi grain)
organic vegetarian refried beans
light fat free sour cream (1/2 cal. or regular)
extra lean ground turkey (instead of beef)
fresh tomatoes
salsa (yum!)

I think that is all I got, but I kept feeling like something is missing and if I think of what it is, I will go get it! I will post pics and the calorie info later after I make it.

Brie-Any time! We are here for ya!

For the grilled cheese lovers! You can use I Cant Believe its Not Butter spray (0 Calories), a low fat american cheese slice (60 cal), and 2 slices of Sara Lee 45 cal wheat bread. 150 calories.

Just go light on the butter spray it actually does have calories if you use a lot of it...one serving has no calories, which means it has less than one so they don't have to put it on the bottle but you do start adding calories once you use like 20 squirts or something. I heard it on Jillian's radio program, she said there is like almost 1,000 calories in a bottle of that stuff actually! I use it too, but go light with it.

Yeah....is there a reason you don't want to get the vaginal ultrasound??? I don't see how you can WAIT to see that baby and hear its little heart beat! Awwww!!!! And they can tell you very accurately with those things how far along you are! But......sounds like you have some mother's intuition going on here!!!



Ha ha ha!!!! It's so funny you mention this cause I always figured that if you use more than the 5 sprays it says has no calories that there actually would be calories......so what I always do is say....okay 5 sprays no calories......wait a minute.....here comes 5 more no calorie sprays....wait a minute....5 more no calorie sprays....LOL! I'm silly I know...



I just wanted to tell everyone they didn't have to do Mexican food....you can do whatever kind of food you like.....I wasn't sure if I said that or not....I just like Mexican so that is where I'm starting....


I plan on posting a bunch of different recipes this week with pics! I hope to get alot of good ideas for you guys too!!!!!

Eny: Congrats on the positive sonogram!! And good luck on the rest of your !

Melissa: I love this mini-challenge! I'll post my recipe after I get home to my own kitchen. I'm thinking fettucine alfredo...

All of you ladies are wonderfully inspiring and motivating and I can't wait to put some of your recipes to the test!

I began the sit-up and push-up challenge last night. Today I was soooore, but I felt great after doing them last night. Hopefully, I will stay on track. SCRATCH THAT--I will stay on track. A to staying OP!!


For dinner, I had two slices of Papa Murphy's DeLITE Hawaiian . It was sooo good and only 150 calories a slice! Yay!!

Another day OP, another day closer to my goal.

~ Dara ~