11.11.09

Haven't checked-in in a while. As you can see my weight has been up and down. I was good from May 5th (after the release of Autopilot) to mid-July (when we got the keys to our Oak Park townhouse.) Between moving and grabbing fast food, trying new restaurants (and ice cream shoppes), and the start of football season, I gained a lot of weight fairly quickly.

However, ever since Brittany went to Hypnotherapy training I've been back on the train. She's been eating better, I've received some hypnotherapy sessions to work on some of my food issues, and I've gotten back into enjoying cooking, a hobby that fell off in the hustle of moving/adjustment period.

For chart nerds, you can see that when I'm losing weight, I record my weight often, resulting in more data points for a smoother, more accurate chart. When I'm gaining, I don't weight or write it down, resulting in long periods of straight lines. I do know I was 167.5 on 9/1 and 174 on 10/15 and it's hard to say at what rate I gained it.

It feels good to be classified by the U.S. Gov't as normal, and not overweight.

So in an effort to do something positive for the future me, here are some healthy meals that I've been enjoying lately:

• Probably the healthiest meal that is still delicious is Chicken Fajitas. Lean chicken (I use Trader Joe's frozen breasts cooked on Foreman), small wheat tortillas (Mission makes 80 calorie ones that are really good, and salsa.
• Also with chicken and salsa, instead of a tortilla, you could use cilantro-lime-rice.
• I love Trader Joe's Kansas City BBQ sauce and that on grilled chicken, or even the prepacked tubs of pulled pork is still pretty healthy. I saw a mention of BBQ pork quesadillas, so I think I'll try serving some pulled pork on a Mission tortilla (although it's good enough just to eat by itself on a plate).
• I'm still on an Italian sausage kick, and cooking two on Foreman is easy and delicious.
• I love my homemade pasta sauce, and I've gotten back into Angel Hair. My favorite brand of pasta is Barilla, and they have a good 51% whole wheat variety that doesn't taste wheaty. Earlier this week I made a delicious no-prep chicken parmesan: 1 chicken patty topped with sauce, crushed red pepper and parmesan-romano, served with a side of angel hair. Mmmm.
• I still love Moroccan chicken (I made some last week without almonds, but with craisins and pine nut couscous. The almonds/pine nuts are key for that satisfying crunch.
• I haven't made any spicy-sweet paninis lately, just because I haven't seen any roasting chickens on sale, but I really should. Those sandwiches are so good.
• I've been making sweet potatoes in the microwave, with some brown sugar. Tastes like fall.
• I love the Trader Joe's cooked turkey breast. I just bought a BBQ pork roast, some pork carnitas for my tortillas, and I should try their rotisserie chicken.
  

(Overweight line determined at BMI of 25.0 for my height of 5' 8.5")