Getting to Know Me

The overall theme for the June meetings is “Increase your awareness”. In other words, we want to explore our strengths as well as seek and exploit any opportunity for improvement to enhance our weight loss and weight maintenance success.

As my father used to say: “Why don’t we start at the beginning and begin at the starting point?” That would be: Getting to know ourselves.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? What have you learned about yourself so far on this weight loss journey? How does it help you now? How did you learn it?

Self monitoring is the best way to get to know yourself and how you relate with food and with exercise. We are talking about tracking of course, but there is more to monitoring yourself than just tracking your foods.

What else can you monitor to find greater success? We will pool our ideas and strategies for successful self monitoring.

ATTENTION: There is no meeting this week at the Jewish Community Center Tuesday evening. The center closes at 6pm for a holiday, so the 7pm meeting is cancelled for this week. You can look up my meeting schedule at: seamountains.net/mtg.html

Tool of the Week

Tracking the food that you eat, your activity, the Powerfoods and the Good Health Guidelines is the key to weight loss success. You can do all that in our Ultimate 3 months Tracker.

There is more to it than that though, you can also add little notes, put down an action plan for a coming challenge, and keep track of your weight and measurement.

It really is a good mirror in which you can look at your plan and see what needs to be done to achieve your Winning Outcome.

In the Kitchen

Packet side dish #2!

Again, I think these are the perfect side dishes for the grill. Easy to put together, no mess, no dishes (YAY!), you can throw it together in minutes and let it do its thing while you are grilling away.

I put in the very explicit explanations for those who have never done packets, but bottom line is: prep the food, make packets big enough for the steam to have space (so the packet doesn’t blow open during cooking), and make sure to seal well so that the steam doesn’t escape.

This has been a favorite of ours for a long time now!

Tuscan Potato and Pepper Packets
4 servings, 4 P+/serving

Ingredients
1 TBSP olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 TBSP chopped, fresh rosemary
½ tspsalt
½ tsp black pepper (I put coarsely ground)
1 pound red potatoes, thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced.

Prep the grill: Medium fire (or put the packet on the side away from the hot flame).

Prep the food: Combine the oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the potatoes, bell pepper, and onion and toss to coat evenly.

Make the packets: Tear off 4 (15x18 inch) sheets of heavy-duty foil and spray with nonstick spray. Place one-fourth of the potato mixture in the middle of each foil sheet. To close the packets, bring the two opposite long sides of the foil up to meet in the center; fold the edges over twice to make a tight seal. Double fold the open sides to seal the packets.

Cook: Place the packets on the grill rack and grill, covered, until the potatoes are tender, 20-25 minutes (it’s ok if it over cooks a little, it’s even better!). With one or two wide spatulas, transfer the packet to a cutting board; carefully open, standing back to avoid the steam. Transfer the mixture from each packet to a plate.

Source: Weight Watchers, Best Eats 2008, p. 159

Note: It’s a good recipe to prep ahead and bring to a BBQ somewhere. If you make the packets ahead of time, the potatoes and peppers have time to marinate, and you can just throw them on the grill. I’m not fuffy about opening the packets, I just eat it straight out of the packet. That’s how we roll ;o)

Activity

How do you monitor your activity? To earn Activity PointsPlus we look at Duration, intensity, personal weight. What else could we track?

What about these?

• Distance
• Weights
• Repetitions
• Post Work Out overall feeling

How far did you go when you first started walking/running/biking/swimming? How far are you going now? Did you add distance for the same time and intensity? Should you?

How heavy are the weights you work with? Could you swap the 7 lbs for 10 lbs? the 10 lbs for 12?

How many repetitions of each exercise are you doing? How about adding 2 to each set?

How do you feel after a work out? Ready for another work out? Maybe you need to bump up your routine. Worn off and sore to the point of not being able to go on to your daily activity? Maybe you are overdoing it! Sick of it? You need to try something else!

Self assessment is an important part of your activity routine. It keeps you on track, and let you know if your routine is effective, and realistic. It also is a great way to measure your improvements which are great motivators!

Have a good week!

Spring is at it’s tail end already, can you believe that? Don’t let the coming summer slow down your weight management efforts. Remember that being connected to your group is the best way to make sure you are connected to your weight loss.

Let me know if I can help you in any way, I'm here for you!

Melanie

To the question of your life you are the answer, and to the problems of your life you are the solution.

~Joe Cordare