A Good Week and a Recipe...

Yesterday was the end of the first week of the 6 Week Challenge I started with some others over at Katschi's blog. I started a little late but Karen said I could, so there. As you can see by the report on my side bar I did pretty good. Can you believe it? I actually exercised 6 out of 7 days! That's a first for me!

Staying within my calorie range was a tough one this past week. I went to bed several nights hungry. Mostly because I stayed up too late. I was really wanting something sweet so I'd have a cookie and fixed myself a cup of hot tea with sugar free syrup in it on those nights and guess the caffeine in the tea kept me up. I figured that one out last night and had a cup of hot chocolate made with soy milk instead. It was almost as good and didn't keep me up 'til all hours. Actually it was a little too sweet. Next time I try it I'll only use a half envelope of the chocolate mix and see how that goes.

I still used my weigh-in day (Wednesday) to have a little splurge for lunch but counted the splurge into my calories and ate more sensibly the rest of the day and that worked out fine. I used to use Wednesdays as my splurge meal and not pay any attention to the rest of the day and would go over what I was supposed to. And some Wednesdays I just may slip back into that too but I will try not to.

I started keeping a folder with my print-outs in it. I've been printing out detailed reports on what I'm eating daily and the final reports of how I did. It makes for about 4-6 pages a day. I'm only doing this for the 6 weeks challenge then I'll stop. I may still print out the final report to keep track and that is only 2 pages. But I figured this would be another way for me to keep track of what and how I'm doing. This way if I start feeling a little complacent I can grab the folder and look back at what I was doing and what worked well and get myself back on track.

I tried a new recipe this week that I just kinda made up and it was so delicious. I made enough for 4 meals and spread them out over the week (a couple for lunch and a couple for supper). I boiled 2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, then boiled a half a package of 12 oz. noodles in the broth. I poured all the broth down the drain and then added a package of frozen fordhook green Lima beans and 2 tablespoons of light butter. Yummmmm. Course I love Lima beans but you could use any veggies that you adore. Mine came out to be:

473 calories
12.9g total fat
46.8g carbs
5.8g fiber
1.5g sugar
37.5g protein
134g cholesterol

I know that is a little high in fat but with my other eating it worked out just fine. And I figure the Lima beans were a little on the high side too, so that probably accounted for most of it. But I do LOVE Lima's.

Hope your week was as productive as mine. If not, get your rear in gear, friends. If this old gal can do it (living alone without any support) so can you.