Obsessed.

Call me crazy, but one of my favorite things to do is grocery shop. I love not only buying good food, but finding new things to try. These new things usually turn into obsessions though. Seriously, I tend to get so obsessed with certain foods that it's all I eat for a couple of weeks...until I find something new, you know?  So, I thought why not share some of these good finds as well as a few of my staple items with all of you.

Bread:
• Sara Lee 45 Calorie Multi-Grain bread -- 1 pp per slice, 2 pp for 2 slices
• Flatout Light Original wraps -- 2 pp per wrap (these make great chips too -- just cut into small pieces, spray with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and bake at 350 for a few minutes)
• Trader Joe's Par-Baked Pizza Crust -- 6 pp for 1/2 crust, 13 pp for the whole crust (medium size pizza)

Dairy:
• Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk -- 1 pp per cup (I love making smoothies with this...toss in some frozen fruit, blend, and voila...delicious low point snack)
• Trader Joe's Lite Shredded Mozzarella -- 1 pp for 1/4 cup (tastes like the full-fat version!)
• Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla Greek Yogurt -- 2 pp per cup

Meats:
• Hillshire Farms Mesquite Turkey Breast sandwich meat -- 1 pp for 2 oz (I'm a total deli meat snob, meaning I usually only like fresh sliced meat, but this is really good!)
• Trader Joe's Uncured Peppered Turkey Bacon -- 1 pp per slice (makes one of the best BLTs ever!)
• Perdue Simply Smart Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Cutlets -- 4 pp (love making chicken parmesan with these...add a little tomato sauce and TJ's lite mozzarella and you're good to go!)
• Boca Burger All-American Flame Grilled Veggie Burger -- 3 pp (ok, I know this isn't technically meat, but they might as well be...tastes like a burger to me!)
• Weight Watchers Chicken Burgers -- 3 pp

Dips/Dressings:
• Trader Joe's Reduced-Guilt Guacamole -- 0 pp/1 tbsp, 1 pp/2 tbsp (seriously obsessed with this stuff -- I love putting it on turkey wraps!)
• Bolthouse Farms Yogurt Ranch Dressing -- 1 pp/2 tbsp
• Panera Fat-Free Poppyseed Dressing -- 0 pp/2 tbsp (I buy it from Target)

Dessert:
• Hersey's Sugar-Free Chocolate Syrup -- 0 pp/2 tbsp (love adding this to a bowl of strawberries and banana slices)
• Brownie Brittle -- 3 pp for 1 oz (this stuff is ADDICTING!! you've been warned!)
• Arctic Zero Strawberry "Ice Cream" -- 3 pp per pint (ok, this definitely lacks the creaminess of ice cream, but if I need to have a moment on the couch, watching bad tv and eating directly from the pint, this is my go-to...the chocolate is ok...add some chocolate syrup though...but the strawberry is the best in my opinion...tons of protein in either one!)

Other:
• PB2 -- 1 pp for 2 tbsp (I add an extra drop or two of water if I want to drizzle it on apple slices instead of dipping-- the chocolate version is delish as well!)

Have you found something worth trying? I would love to hear about it!

The struggle is very real.

I've never been one to shy away from talking about my struggle with weight loss.   It didn't just begin when I started Weight Watchers.  Oh no.  I honestly feel like I've been on a diet for the past 20 years.

Until I was about 7 years old, I was the tallest and thinnest girl in my class.  By the time I was 10, I was chubby.  Seriously -- chubby and no boobs.  In fact, I would spend the next 6 years that way.  The first time I did Weight Watchers was when I was 16.  Yes, 16. Remember the old school points calculator that was actually CARDBOARD?!  I had one of those.  And I lost weight.  In fact, my senior prom dress had to be taken in 3 times.  But then I gained it back...plus some.

The next time I did Weight Watchers was in college.  My roommate and I joined together, and I was psycho about losing the weight.  I had just broken up with my high school sweet heart, and desperately wanted him back.  (What was I thinking?!)  I counted my points, worked out obsessively (I'm talking gym, pilates, and yoga...), and lost quite a bit of weight.  In fact, it was the smallest I had ever been at that point in my life.

But guess what?  I gained it back.  Another relationship came, and we all know what happens when we get comfortable in a relationship...  Don't even get me started on what happened when we broke up!

For the next 6 years, I continued gaining then losing...gaining some more, losing a little bit more.  In the end, I packed on a whopping 70 pounds.

You know what my problem was?

Fast food.

Chick-fil-A (mmm, waffle fries) , Zaxby's (buffalo chicken fingers!), Wendy's (gimme a cheeseburger!), McDonalds (bacon, egg, and cheese on a bagel please!) -- I couldn't stop.  I was basically eating out 3 times a day, all fast food.  Sometimes I would eat a whole meal, then go get a milk shake.  Let's not forget this was before my teaching days...I was traveling all over the country for work, so not only was I eating unhealthy, I had unlimited funds to do so (hello, company credit card)!  As embarrassing as it is to talk about, it's the truth.  Food was my comfort.  Any emotional struggle I had was solved with junk.  Some people drink.  Some people party.  I ate.  A lot.

I knew something had to change.  I was out of breath just from putting on my seat belt in the car.  Flights were horribly uncomfortable.  Running around the block was non-existent.  I wanted to change...but then the going got worse and I just continued in my old habits.

When I decided to start Weight Watchers again, I wasn't very confident in myself.  I knew I had an addiction.  Much like an alcoholic, I needed some sort of support to make sure I didn't go off the deep end again.  I started attending the meetings and everything was great.  I was so focused!  I mean, hello, I started WW the day before I was going out of town for New Year's Eve -- talk about crazy.

I stayed focused for a long time.  The weight was coming off and I was feeling so much better about myself.  But then it happened...  One cheat meal led to another, which led to another, and before I knew it I had gained about 7 pounds in one weekend.  I realized then that those "cheats" weren't worth it to me.  So I got refocused...for a few weeks at least.  Then it would happen again.  Granted, I was losing weight...very slowly...but I was losing.  The closer I got to my goal weight, though, the more I was losing focus.

But then I hit that fabulous 100 pound mark.  I weighed in at 144 pounds on June 5, 2014.  After "cheating" for a couple of weeks, I thought I had beat the system.

Just like an alcoholic though, my old habits came roaring to life.  I thought, "oh, I have 6 weeks...it's ok if I gain a couple of pounds...I'll still make Lifetime."

Y'all, I ate.  And ate.  And ate.  I would make myself physically ill from eating so much.  Anything I wanted, I had.  I used vacation as an excuse.  But then I had a moment of clarity and realized I was getting out of control.  So I reeled it in for a few days.  I even went to the hotel gym and worked out hard.  But then...I ate some more.

By the time I got home from vacation (keep in mind, this was 3 days ago), I had gained a big ole 10 pounds.  Seriously.  Some say it isn't possible to eat an additional 35,000 calories in one week but it is!  Oh believe me, it is.

Some also say it isn't possible to get back in track immediately.

Well folks, I'm here to tell you it is.  We all struggle, but yet we can all succeed.

In the past 3 days I've really thought about all this quite a bit.  I've had to deal with a lot of my own personal demons, but I know I can get through this.

A few things which have helped me quite a bit:

1. Ask yourself why you want to be healthy.  For me, it's all about confidence and feeling comfortable in my own skin.

2. Make a list of the good things you've done lately.  My list includes meal planning, working out,  getting a trainer (which completely scared the crap out of me both financially and mentally!), and even putting on a bikini (when I felt like a busted can of biscuits at that!) because I remembered how far I had come.

3. Make a list of the things that help you succeed.  Maybe it's going to meetings, hitting the gym, or even talking to a friend about living a healthy lifestyle -- those are all things that help me.

4.  Stop dwelling on the bad.  You didn't make a list of those things for a reason!

We gotta take it day by day folks.  Just because we live in a world full of temptation doesn't mean we have to partake in those temptations.  And just because we feel like we can't pick ourselves back up doesn't mean we can't.

Enough of my rambling for tonight.  And I swear, I'm gonna get better about this blogging thing.  ;)

I like simple. I like pancakes.

And these are both. (Sidenote: I'm well aware of what a horrible blogger I am.)  I woke up this morning with a serious pancake craving. Now, I don't keep pancake mix in my house for the simple reason that it would only last a couple of days. So of course I had to go to Pinterest, which led me to Food.com. So I can take no credit for these, but I thought the recipe was definitely worth sharing.

Oatmeal Banana Pancakes
WW points+: 5 points

1/2 cup Quaker Old-Fashioned Oatmeal
1/2 banana
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Dash of cinnamon

Add all of the ingredients in a blender, and blend for a minute or so. Cook batter like regular pancakes. It won't be quite the same consistency, but it still works!

I mixed 2 tbsp of Chocolate PB2 (for an additional point) with quite a bit of water to make a "syrup" for the top. Just add as much water until you get the consistency you want.

Enjoy! And happy Saturday! Only 27 more days  of school left!

Yup, I like to eat.

One of my Instagram buddies asked me about creating a Weight Watchers friendly meal plan.  So for the past few days I've been thinking about it, and...well, basically I decided to just tell you a few things I eat a lot of because let's be honest, it's the easy way out.  Ha.  Just kidding.  But it is what's worked for me -- I mean, I've lost (or had lost before vacation) 90 pounds without exercising so it can't be that bad.

Breakfast

• Plain oatmeal (Quaker Oats) w/ 1 tsp brown sugar (or Splenda) and cinnamon (4 pp)
• Cheerios (1 cup), fat-free milk (3/4 cup), a banana slices (4 pp -- one of my faves!)
• Dannon Light & Fit vanilla greek yogurt with a banana and a toasted light english muffin with spray butter (5 pp)
• Sliced hard-boiled egg and light english muffin breakfast sandwich (5 pp)
• "Fried" egg sandwich -- egg cooked on top of stove with cooking spray, 2 pieces of Sara Lee 45-calorie whole wheat break, and 1 tbsp fat-free mayo (4 pp)

Lunch

• Salad (whatever veggies you like) with 2 chopped hardboiled eggs and a tablespoon of fat-free dressing (about 5 pp depending upon your dressing)
• Plain sweet potato (medium), sliced turkey breast (3 oz which, for me, is usually about 3 slices), Sargento ultra thin sliced provolone (3 slices), raw veggie (like baby carrots) or apple slices (8 pp)
• PB2 (2 servings) & banana sandwich made with Sara Lee 45 calorie bread and a Yoplait or  Dannon Light & Fit greek yogurt with a fruit or raw veggie (6 pp)
• Leftovers -- I usually just have what I ate for dinner but try not to exceed 8 or 9 pp 

Dinner

• Emily Bites Deep Dish Pizza Casserole (8 pp)
• Baked ziti -- pretty sure the recipe is on my IG, but I'll try to get it up on here soon...you basically just sub the pizza casserole dough for whole wheat pasta (9 pp for 1/4 of the whole thing)
• Chicken parmesan -- 1 Perdue lightly breaded chicken breast cutlet (cooked), then add a tablespoon of tomato sauce and 1/4 cup fat free mozzarella cheese and stick back in oven until melted; serve with veggies...I like green beans and broccoli (5 pp for 1 piece of chicken and toppings)
• Chicken taco bowl -- 3 oz crockpot salsa chicken (chicken, taco seasoning, salsa), 1 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup black beans, 1/4 cup fat free cheddar, 1 tbsp fat free sour cream (about 11 pp)
• Cheeseburger Macaroni (9 pp)
• Chicken Tetrazzini (8 pp)
• Chicken burger -- WW Chicken Burger, sandwich thin, 2 tbsp of goat cheese, lettuce, onion, pickles, Heinz 57 -- with sweet potato (10 pp)
• Emily Bites Pizza Logs (2 pp per log, but keep in mind it's one of those weird values where it's like 5 pp for 2 logs or something like that)

Snacks

• Kellogg's Fiber Plus antioxidants chewy bar with protein -- I like the mixed nut with chocolate (4 pp)
• Smart Pop mini popcorn bag (2 pp)
• Apple slices (0 pp)
• Grapes (0 pp)
• Sliced navel orange with salt (0 pp)
• South Beach Diet Good To Go bars with extra fiber -- I like the chocolate of course (3 pp)
• Popchips -- 1 serving (3 pp)
• Sliced strawberries, 2 tbsp of Hersey's sugar-free syrup, and 3 tbsp of fat free Cool Whip (0 pp)
• Unsweetened apple sauce with cinnamon (0 pp)
• Dannon Light & Fit or Yoplait greek yogurt (2 pp)

I get 26 points a day so whatever I have left over after I track my breakfast, lunch, and dinner (yup, I pre-track everything), I use on snacks.  I eat a lot of snacks.

Sooooo hope that helps!  :)

Yesterday.

You know what's great about my Weight Watchers leader?  She lets me cry.  Seriously.

I weighed in for the first time yesterday in 2 weeks (I was on Spring Break last week and there was no way I was going to face that scale after being on vacation).  I knew I was going to have a gain.  I expected maybe a pound at the most.  Never ever ever did I expect to stand on that scale and see that I was almost 3 pounds heavier.

To say I was devastated would be an understatement.  I had already cried that day (a couple of times, actually) for unrelated matters, so this was just the icing on the cake.

But you know what?  My leader let me cry, hugged me, and said "what can I help you with?"  And for that, I am so appreciative.  I love that she didn't try to tell me I had nothing to cry about because it was only 2.8 pounds.  She got it.  She understood.  She had been there before.

Seriously folks, where else can you get that kind of support?  If I were doing this online (like I have in the past), yesterday would have been it.  I would have quit.  Straight up quit.

And yes, I was still upset when I left.  In fact,  I went to Chickfila for dinner, fully prepared to get a delicious chicken sandwich and some good ole waffle fries, and eat every bit of my feelings away.  But I didn't.  Something came over me and before I knew it I had ordered a kids meal -- a 6 piece GRILLED (!!!) chicken nugget, a FRUIT CUP (what?!), and a refreshing Diet Coke.  That's 3 PP folks.  3 PP instead of 25ish PP.

It doesn't happen over night, but Weight Watchers is so much more than losing weight.  It's a lifestyle change.  It's getting rid of those bad habits (even though we will slip from time to time) for the most part, and learning how to really take control of our lives.  Even though I can't say I'm down 90 pounds right now, I know that I will get back there soon.

No Box Cheeseburger Macaroni

So with it being the end of the month (and payday doesn't come until the last day of the month aka I'm a poor teacher for real right now) I was trying to think of more budget friendly meals to have this week.  I was walking down the aisle at Wal-Mart last night and came upon the Hamburger Helper.  Now, I hadn't eaten HH in about 10 years (i.e. college) but I remembered looooving Cheeseburger Macaroni.  I picked up a box, thought about it, but decided I could probably make a much healthier version for about the same price.  So after a bit of googling what spices go into it (literally, in the middle of the aisle, blocking the boxes of mashed potatoes) -- thanks, Food.com -- that's what I did.  Oh, and it's totally Simply Filling friendly for those of you on that train.

No Box Cheeseburger Macaroni

Servings: 4

Serving Size: 1 cup

Weight Watchers: 9 PP / serving

Ingredients

1 pound 93% ground beef

1 1/2 cups (or 6 oz) uncooked whole wheat elbow macaroni

1 cup of hot water

2 cups of fat free milk

1 cup of fat free shredded cheddar cheese

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

Directions

Brown the hamburger meat in a really large pot.  Drain the grease when cooked, then throw it back in the large pot and add all the spices (including the cornstarch and sugar), water, milk, and pasta.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Lower the heat so it is simmering.  Cook until the pasta is done.  Add the cheese and stir until melted.  Makes about 4 servings if you dish out 1 cup per serving.  And it's delish!

Skinny Chicken Tetrazzini

You know what I love?  My mama's cooking...more specifically, my mom's chicken tetrazzini, which is definitely not Weight Watchers friendly.  Good news though -- my mom and I revamped the recipe this past weekend to make it skinnier and ALMOST Simple Start friendly.

Skinny Chicken Tetrazinni
Servings: 8
Weight Watchers: 8 PP / serving

Ingredients
1/2 cup diced bell pepper
1 medium diced onion
1 small jar of mushrooms
1 small jar of pimento
1 cup of fat free chicken broth
2 cans of 98% fat free cream of mushroom
3 cups of diced chicken breast (cooked -- just boil it!)
1 small box of whole wheat spaghetti (cooked!)
8 oz fat free shredded cheddar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Saute onion and bell pepper in broth and simmer until tender.  Add the cans of cream of mushroom as well as the jar of mushrooms. Add the cooked chicken and pimento.  Fold in salt, pepper, cheese, and spaghetti.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

The only thing not Simply Filling friendly is the cream of mushroom -- I'm doing SF right now and gave myself 1 point per serving when I had this earlier today.

Moment of truth.

True story...I'm really bad at keeping up with this blogging thing. It's not that I don't want to, I just never know what to say.  So I deleted all of the old posts and decided to start fresh. Sounds logical right?

What to say, what to say... Ok, how about I start by talking about me? At least that's something I know a little about.

1. I'm Kristen.
2. I'm 29 and not so sure how I feel about turning 30 this summer.
3. I teach middle school, which is probably why I feel like I'm going crazy at times.
4. I've lost 90 pounds thus far with Weight Watchers...I guess I know a little about that as well.
5. I have a really hard time seeing myself as 90 pounds thinner. More on that later?
6. I'm siiiiiingle. What's up boys?
7. I have a fear of dating, which makes #6 laughable.
8. Apparently I'm not that great at talking about myself because I've run out of things to say.

About this whole "seeing myself thinner" thing...anyone else have this issue? For years and years I was morbidly obese.  I remember wanting so desperately to fit into clothes at certain stores and couldn't...even at Target! Seriously. What's even worse is that now, even after losing all this weight, I still have a fear of going into a dressing room and the clothes not fitting. Even though I know all the clothes in my closet are a size 6, I still see that girl who wears a size 18 or 20 in the mirror. It just doesn't click.  And if I'm being real honest, when I look in the mirror, I still see the same amount of stomach fat as always.

I know this is something I have to work through and I'm so thankful for my Instagram friends and their unwavering support. I literally blush when someone says I look thin because I've never thought of myself as a thin person.  So if any of you are reading this -- <3 p="">
And if you're not my IG friend, what's wrong with you?! Just kidding -- follow me @krisnichgill  -- and you can see what I ate for breakfast. No seriously, I'm one of those annoying people. You've been warned.