Recipe: Tomato Soup Chicken

This morning was weigh-in day at Weight Watchers, and I lost another 1.8 pounds! Woo-hoo! I am now at 230.8 pounds, which means I am right around the weight I was at before I got pregnant with my son. I finally lost the baby weight, and it only took five years! Go me! Meeting was fun today because a friend of mine came along for the first time. She's joining up and we're going to exercise together, so that'll be excellent. It's always good to have a weight-loss buddy.

Anyhow, after WW, I went to the gym for another dose of Zumba (did one last night as well, I'm starting to learn the steps of the new release now), then had Subway for lunch. I love their sweet onion chicken teriyaki with tons of spinach and cucumber to bulk it up, and I gave my oven-baked Cheetos away to my ravenous child.

Dinner tonight was a variant of a  recipe I pulled off the back of a soup can label many long years ago, but it incredibly simple and surprisingly good. Even Bug will eat it, and he tend to avoid anything that has meat and rice and sauce all together.

Tomato Soup Chicken and Rice

3 large chicken breasts, thawed
2 cups (1 family-size can) condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Cooking Spray
1.5 cups brown rice, uncooked (about three cups cooked)

Cook your rice in a separate pan according to package directions.  Cut chicken into 9 or 12 large chunks. In a saute pan or deep skillet, liberally spray cooking spray, then cook chicken until light brown on all sides, about 8 minutes, turning as needed. When chicken is browned, sprinkle brown sugar evenly into pan, then sprinkle with vinegar. Pour condensed soup over chicken, then use water to rinse out the can and pour it over top as well. Stir everything, including chicken, thoroughly, and allow to simmer 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce is thickened. Dish out brown rice, then top with chicken and sauce. Serves 6, each serving is 9ppv.

This recipe is very versatile and can be changed up in lots of ways. I like to make it with just two chicken breasts but keep the sauce the same, then just have leftovers of rice and sauce. If you don't like the sauce as much, you can halve the ingredients and use a small can of tomato sauce with the same amount of chicken.

Here are tonight's leftovers, ready for tomorrow!

Gold's Gym Challenge: The Food

Even though the Gold's Gym Challenge started on Saturday with measurements, I didn't get my meal plan from my trainer until Sunday, and didn't get out to the grocery store till Monday, so today, Tuesday, is really my first day on the meal plan. It's a weird meal plan and it's the same every day, which I'm not terribly fond of, but I'm giving it a try. An edited, personalized try.

It's a pretty intensive plan, calls for four meals a day and two protein shakes, one after breakfast and one after my workouts. I bought some Rule 1 Protein Shake from the gym because it pretty much has no ingredients besides protein and weird artificial chocolate flavor, and is considerably lower in cholesterol than the other stuff I looked at. That's the biggest problem with the meal plan so far, actually, the cholesterol. I'm trying to lower my bad cholesterol and I've got a lipids panel coming up this week, and suddenly I'm supposed to be eating two eggs, ground turkey, chicken breast and even lean ground beef _every day_? I mean, I know cholesterol isn't a bad thing in moderation, and some studies show that eggs are such good cholesterol that they don't really affect your LDL levels long-term at all, but that is still a lot to be dumping into my body when the threat of Lipitor is still looming. My normal menu includes some chicken and some turkey, but very few eggs and almost no beef at all. I wonder if she'll let me sub in some fish, because I got a very good deal on some frozen swai fillets this week.

Anyway, I cooked up my very first meal this morning, and whoo boy. The meal plan from the trainer is something like this:

• 2 eggs, 5 egg whites (!) 
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup blueberries

and then a protein shake. This didn't look like that much (except for the crazy egg part) when it was on the paper. I'm very leery about the egg business, so for this morning I decided to just do the egg whites, which I'd gotten a carton of at HEB. Turns out just four egg whites is an entire cup, so I went with that many. Spinach and egg just screams omelet, even without cheese, so I wilted the spinach in the pan, then added the egg white, garlic salt, pepper, and some fresh dill that is still growing against all the odds in my January garden. It made a very large egg white omelet. While it was cooking, I zapped the oatmeal in the microwave and stirred in some blueberries. I didn't use the whole half-cup because a six-ounce clamshell was nearly two dollars this week at the store and that is ridiculous. I may need to find more seasonable fruits and vegetables if I want to do this plan long-term. And I made the protein shake in the blender. 

So my first meal ended up looking something like this: 

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 1/2 cup oats, 
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• protein shake

And I have been eating it the entire time I've been writing this and I still have half the oatmeal to go and I do not want it at all. Way too full. Even if this diet is boring, I suspect it will discourage cheating by making me work to fit all its ingredients into my stomach. My next meal, which is ground turkey, sweet potato and broccoli, is already barreling down on me, and it is the last thing I even want to think about. 

So how does all this work with Weight Watchers? Not too bad, actually. It's a fair amount of veggies and a little fruit along with all the protein, and those don't count for points on WW at all. I took the entire menu and plugged it into my meal tracker and came up with 37 points (including the whole eggs I didn't eat today). That's one point over my daily target, but the challenge also involves a ton of exercise. It's nothing at all to swap a single activity point each day to make things balance. If I can get the cholesterol business sorted, it seems like a nutritionally sound short-term diet. 

But if I know anything about myself it's that the monotony is going to get to me sooner rather than later. It's what I like about Weight Watchers in the first place, that I can have infinite variety so long as I count my points. And sure some weeks I'll eat the same lunch four days in a row, but I don't have to. I need to come up with some way of jazzing this up or mixing it up, lest I fall off plan in the first week. 

Here is my in-process omelet this morning. Yummy, yummy! 

After Vacation

So I went on a week's vacation for Thanskgiving and didn't blog at all, bad me! Then I came back from vacation and planned to blog about vacation, but I was lazy and doing other things and didn't get around to it. Also bad me! The good news is that I did get to the gym twice on vacation, and have gotten back to exercise since I got back, so I haven't totally been slacking off. I may go back and backfill at least one post about Thanksgiving, but I've realized that if I don't start blogging the present again, I'll never catch up.

Coming back from vacation was a little weird, because it was hard to know exactly what happened during my vacation. We came home on Saturday night after flying and being in airports all day, and I weighed myself almost as soon as we got home, just to get it over with. I was appalled to see that I was ten full pounds up from my last weigh-in weight.Yikes! Luckily, it turned out that quite a bit of that was water retention from being in airplanes all day, because I lost five pounds by Sunday afternoon. Still not a great result, but one I could live with. Then I started getting cramps, and realized that the time of the month was also probably a factor in my sudden growth spurt. I finally got my period yesterday, and today I'm weighing as about two pounds up from my last weigh-in. Considering the week's vacation and the holiday, the fact that I'm still ragging, and that my last weigh-in was done on the end of two weeks of illness, I feel pretty satisfied with that. Still gotta keep working, but it's nothing apocalyptic. Water weight is crazy stuff.

Anyway, I've been getting back to exercise at Gold's Gym, and it feels good. It was fun to exercise with my mom at her gym, but I definitely like the classes and the energy better at my own place. I also have three new pairs of exercise pants, which substantially decreases the risk of embarrassment from the growing chance that my old sweatpants would fall off mid-workout. I went to cycling on Monday and actually tried out one of the newer bikes with the RPM meter. I couldn't control my RPMs at all, but Carlos says that comes with practice, and he'll help me get set up properly next week. He definitely seems to think I should start taking his Tuesday cycling class as well, but I need my yoga. It's making me all stretchy!

Tuesday was, obviously, yoga class, and it was good despite the oncoming time of the month. Ana Maria was introducing us to a new routine, some parts of which were quite difficult, and my abs were still sore all the next day. But it was good! I love the times when I'm in class and I feel like I'm really getting it, like I'm right there with everybody else instead of trying to do my own limping variant, and it's happening more and more in yoga class. I think you all should know that I can stand on my right foot, grab my left foot with my right hand behind my back, and lean forward, all without falling over. It's really quite impressive. The stamina and flexibility exercises like sun salutations and the pilates work are probably the parts of BodyFlow that are best for me, but I think the balance exercises are the most fun.

Wednesday is Bodycombat day, which is both the hardest and the most fun class. I have to be on top of my game for that class because it's extremely challenging just to get through all the punching and kicking without falling on the floor gasping. Unfortunately, this Wednesday was less about being on top of my game and more about having cramps and pouting, so I stayed home from the gym. Bug was disappointed because he wanted to go to Kids Club, but his pain was eased when he and I spent a half hour or so using his new dart guns from Papa to cause mayhem around the apartment. I'm feeling a lot better today, so I'm hoping to get to yoga and do at least part of the exercise tonight. Between vacation and that two week long cold from hell, I only made it to the gym eight times in November, well below my minimum goal of 12. We're leaving for our Christmas trip in two more weeks, so I have to work fast if I want to get my time in this month!

Good Yoga

Didn't get out to cycling class yesterday, a combination of lingering illness and bad traffic that would've made me both late and lethargic for class. Hopefully that's the last day I have to miss for the cold, because I was feeling much better today. Took Bug to karate and then went to bodyflow yoga at the gym. There was hardly anybody there because the temperature has dropped to a frigid fifty degrees, so it was just me and two others most of the time. (I did not even wear a coat to classs.)

Yoga was really good tonight, surprisingly good! I exercise because I want the results, not usually because I enjoy the classes, but it actually felt great to be moving my body again, stretching and bending and twisting. I was right there with the teacher the entire time, not exactly perfect on all the poses, not always going deep into the poses, but still doing the work and feeling good. I did my planks with no knees, and got my foot all the way off the mat for tree pose. Small steps, yeah, but it still felt good. It makes me feel like I could actually get pretty good at yoga.

Beans and Rice in a Big Pot

Today's recipe, beans and rice in a big pot! Easy and cheap, meatless and absolutely chock-full of power foods. One recipe makes a huge amount of very filling food. This is one of my go-to recipes for the beginning of the week; I like to make it on a Sunday night and pack it up into single-serving containers to use as lunches all through the week. If you leave just an inch of room at the top of your container when you pack it, you can add a dollop of plain greek yogurt, a sprinkle of cheese and some extra salsa before you put it in the lunch bag in the morning.

A note about the beans: I started out by using all canned beans because it's really easy. Draining, rinsing, and tossing in beans is about as easy as it gets. But using dried beans is actually super-easy as well, especially if you use your crockpot. Just put in two pounds of dried beans, fill with water so the beans are covered by two inches, and cook on low for six hours or overnight. I don't even bother soaking. If you eat beans a lot, your body gets totally used to the fiber and gas isn't much of an issue. My preferred method is to cook all my beans, one after another, and scoop them into plastic Ziploc baggies to freeze. I have a large crockpot, so when I want to make beans and rice, six baggies of frozen beans go back in the crockpot for a couple hours on warm to reheat perfectly with no scorching.

Beans and Rice in a Big Pot
(the "everything in cans" version)

2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans black beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn
1 jar salsa (I like a mild citrusy salsa with no chunks)
2 dry cups brown rice, cooked
Salsa, plain greek yogurt, reduced fat cheese to garnish

Cook brown rice according to package directions, ideally in rice cooker. When rice is nearly ready, drain, rinse and combine all cans of beans in a large dutch oven or small stockpot. Drain tomatoes and add to pot, simmer all over medium heat until warm. Add corn, no need to thaw. Add cooked rice and salsa, stir all very well, let simmer until heated through. Makes 10 servings, 7pts each.

Beans and Rice in a Big Pot
(the "extra-beany" remix)

This recipe assumes you have made and frozen your beans ahead of time like I talked about above. A "bag" is a sandwich-sized Ziploc-style bag, it holds 2-2.5 cups.

2 bags frozen kidney beans
2 bags frozen pinto beans
1 bag frozen black beans
1 bag frozen garbanzo beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn
1 jar salsa (add another half jar if you like more spice)
2 dry cups brown rice
Salsa, plain greek yogurt and reduced fat cheese for garnish

Peel the beans out of their bags and thaw them. If you have a big crockpot, a couple hours on low is the easiest way, otherwise microwave or stovetop. Cook the rice according to package directions, ideally in a rice cooker. When beans are thawed, put them in a stockpot (you WILL need a big pot for this, a dutch oven probably won't cut it.) Drain and add tomatoes, corn and salsa, heat until simmering. Add cooked rice, stir well, cook till heated through. Makes 14 servings, 6pts each

Here are the results of my most recent bean-and-rice adventure. All those containers on the bottom shelf, including the yogurt container, are beans and rice to be used this week. I like to put about a serving and a half in each of the smaller containers because my husband has very long days at work. It's also nice to toss a few whole-wheat tortillas in with the beans and rice for variety.

Let Me Hear Your Body Talk

Aside from it being weigh-in day today, I decided that today would be Back To Exercise day. Still got the cold, but it's a little bit better every day, and the worst of the coughing seems to be restricting itself to nighttime. Plus I missed Zumba twice in a row and didn't want to miss again! I figured I could back off on the intensity a little bit if I needed to and it would all be fine.

Sooooo... a good idea in theory, but then I got all stupid about it. See, it was a big important weigh-in day today, so I was careful about not eating after supper last night, or drinking very much at all in the morning before weigh-in. That made for a successful weigh-in, seeing as how I overshot my goal by almost a full pound, but I did not do a good job afterwards of refueling. I had breakfast in my bag, but all I ate was a granola bar and a little water. That was not smart! I also hadn't gotten good rest last night, see aforementioned nighttime coughing jags. I really only got a couple of solid hours, and was staggering around in a more than usually zombielike fashion for awhile this morning. Add that to the fact that I am literally still sick  and it was a recipe for disaster.

Now if I were a smart person who listened to her body, I would've paid attention to all those warning signs, right? But that's one of my big problems, one of my inertia issues. My body and I have been on the outs for years. I have hated my body since junior high, why should I be good to it? I treat it badly, it works poorly, I punish it with more inattention, and on and on. It literally did not occur to me that I was really unprepared to exercise today. And for awhile, it was okay! I went to Zumba, I danced, I twirled, I shook my groove thang, and every so often I stopped to cough or blow my nose or gulp some water. But then right at the end of the workout, during the cooldowns, I found my heart starting to race when I had to stretch my arms above my head, and I started feeling weird and oogy. We all stuck around a few minutes after class for a raffle, and while we were guessing numbers to win a new pair of pants, the lights started getting all flashy and I knew it was time to sit or fall. I sat, possibly the first smart choice I'd made all day.

It took a minute or two for anybody to notice that I hadn't just decided to take an impromptu time-out in the middle of the dance floor, but then my instructor and some of the other ladies were right there and very concerned. My instructor Karina is a sweetheart, and I think I scared the hell out of her when I mumbled about being dizzy. Luckily, one of my fellow Zumbistas is a nurse, and she sort of took over and got me drinking water and eating little bites of a protein bar, and I started feeling better pretty soon. Everyone was really nice to me, and it was embarrassing but also really nice not to be alone when I felt so bad. A bottle of water and ten minutes of sitting and I was well enough to drive home, whereupon I laid down and took a nap, my second good decision of the day.

By the end of the afternoon I felt totally normal again, but it was a good lesson, delivered by my body in no uncertain terms. I can't just make my body fall in line because I think it ought to work all the time. I have to be good to it, I have to take care of it, and I have to listen to it. Given how badly I've treated it and how heavy and out of shape it is, my body has done yeoman's work the past three months in rising to the challenges of working out and slimming down. When it tells me it's hungry or thirsty, I need to listen. When it tells me it's time to stop, I have to stop. There'll always be another chance to dance tomorrow.

Ten Percent, You Must Admit That's Excellent

Huge big milestone day today! I finally made my 10%, as we call it at Weight Watchers. I have officially lost ten percent of my starting weight, in my case 26 pounds. Ten percent is a big deal healthwise, because it's where you start seeing major long-term health benefits when it comes to mortality and morbidity risks. It's an especially big deal to me because that is why I started on Weight Watchers in the first place.

When my doctor told me that I'd had a stroke last year and didn't even know it, I was terrified. I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac on my best days, maybe from all the years when I had no insurance and couldn't go to the doctor, I remember feeling bad last summer, scary bad, and wondering if there was something really wrong with me, but I didn't do anything about it, and eventually it all went away except for a lingering faint numbness on the left side of my face and a left shoulder and arm that seemed to get tired and achy more easily than they used to. I didn't really change anything about my life. Then months passed, and I learned what had happened, and suddenly it felt as though my body were a primed explosive, ready to go off without warning. Every ache was ominous, every bit of fatigue or skipped heartbeat a prelude to my early end. It sounds really melodramatic, but I was scared, down in my guts scared.

I think that the best thing that Weight Watchers has done for me is help me shed that horrible fear by turning it into action. I know what I need to do to save my own life, and I'm doing it, slowly, day by day. The first weeks were strange and miserable, I had little appetite and was afraid to eat anything at all. There are no real nutritionists in Laredo who aren't associated with fake weight-loss clinics, so I couldn't even get a referral, it was all research online and listening intently at my WW meetings. I tried to ask my doctor, but he completely blew me off, which has been his standard practice and why I'm looking for a new one. My poor family subsisted on low-sodium shrimp fried rice I made with brown rice, frozen veggies and shrimp, and on pan-grilled tilapia several times a week. I did lose some weight, but that wasn't the way I wanted to live.

Gradually I learned some stuff and began to loosen up a little. I talked to my parents' naturopath friend who recommended some good vitamins and supplements, as well as a modified Mediterranean-style diet. Lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, cooking with olive oil. My cardiologist ran me through enough tests to show that my heart is not the ticking time-bomb that I feared, put me on some beta blockers and baby aspirin, and told me that weight loss would do the rest. He told me I could exercise, so I joined a gym and started going five days a week. I felt lucky that I wasn't working, so I could concentrate on myself as a full-time project. I have a husband and a four year old son that I love more than anything. If anything happened to me, I never wanted them to feel like I didn't love them enough to do everything I could to stay with them.

It's been a little over three months since I joined Weight Watchers, and things are different now. My cholesterol is down, and my liver enzymes are improving. My energy is up, my acid reflux is all but gone. I drink more water than I ever have in my life. But it's not just me. Bug comes with me to my meeting every week, and we talk about healthy foods and why we eat or do not eat certain foods. I've stopped taking him to McDonalds just to kill time by letting him eat Chicken Nuggets and play on the playland (this was not a popular decision!) But he loves fruit and some vegetables, and he's stopped fighting the idea that he only gets one serving of juice per day, because too much is not healthy. His meals are healthy now because my meals are healthy, and that makes me happy. If there is any gift I can give him, I want him to never have the screwed-up relationship with food and with his body that I have always had. He can do so much better!

In any case, 26 pounds is just the tip of the iceberg. My next "official" goal is another 10%, which means 10% of my current body weight, or a goal of 213 pounds. It's a pretty good goal. My personal, unofficial goal is 15% of my starting body weight, or another 13 pounds down, for 224 pounds. The holidays are coming, which will make things harder, but I intend to keep going. I lost 26 pounds in three months, I can lose another 13 by January 1. Ambitious! My final-final goal is still almost too far away to talk about, my proper BMI weight of 155 pounds. I haven't weighed that much since puberty, so it's hard to contemplate it at all, but anything is possible!