First Weigh-In and More Recipe Pics!

Hi there! It's officially begun, the weigh ins! Yikes!

First week in, I am less 4lbs!!! Yay!!! Super Yay! Just knowing that this plan in working is making it even easier to stick to it. The plan is the easiest thing really. It has your 5 meals ready for you, all you have to worry about one! Super convenient food that is also pretty yummy. The support at the office is great! Super friendly and so accommodating!!

Since I passed the first week mark I can now begin getting food other than shakes and bars. I did love the shake and bars so I definately made sure to purchase more of them! I got used to them. =) It was starting to be a routine.

Here are the goodies!

 A list of what I got this week:

• Honey Mustard Pretzel Sticks
• Cinnamon Pretzel Sticks
• Chocolate Crunch Bars
• Essential 1 - Calorie Burn Cappuccino
• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
• Dutch Chocolate Shake
• Coffee Soft Serve
• Chili Nacho Cheese Puffs
• Soup bowl w/lid and spoon.

Which in about 5 minutes of assembly line style work, got me these beauties! Great organizational trick from the online Medifast Community.  I place 4 meals in these baggies. I take out a bag the night before, make the shake for fridge if any, then throw the ziploc into my purse and take to work. I leave the 5th meal at home. No point in giving it a field trip!

 What remains goes into the recycling bin!

Organization time! The food made me expand into the second shelf. On the first shelf is the scale, measuring cups and daily medicines.
The top shelf has the meals, bottles, extra pill bottles/boxes and the 5th Medifast Meal packages in the plastic container.

 All lined up and ready to go!

 I tried out another recipe from the Medifast Recipe booklet. This time it was the Spicy Tilapia with Spinach and Tomatos.  Here are the ingredients. Ready for some serious chopping and mixing!

Which gave us this beauty. I placed a layer of the spinach then the fish with the seasoning mixture and finally topped on the chopped tomatoes.

 Close up!

The finished product......so SPICY. It was tolerable but it was definately spicy!!!!!! I will modify to make it less spicy next time.

I was so excited to try new food. It was hard to pick which one! So I tried these sticks. They are pretty good! The taste is not overpowering which I like, just enough of the honey mustard to taste it!

 This is the full serving....less three sticks!

The next recipe we tried was the Italian Sausage Patties. I love peppers, so those were good. The patties were seasoned just right. The warmer the food was the better it tasted!

 They smelled wonderful!

Next up...........is the Grilled Sun-Dried Tomato Salmon. Less the grilled. I will be baking these instead. I am familiar with the taste of both of these babies in the oven, in the grill, not so much. I am afraid they will come out pretty dry. With organic salmon, I leave the experimenting for later!! =)

That's it. Hope you found something useful. If anything, seeing the actual pictures of recipes always seems to help me out. Let me know if you have any questions!

Day 2 & Day 3!

Day 3 down! Yay! I feel good. I did feel really hungry this morning around 10ish. But I moved offices and was unpacking boxes. The added movement with a decrease in caloric intake could be to blame. I drank more water and waited it out until my next Medifast Meal.

Lunchtime brought another surprise, I had forgotten to pack half of my Lean and Green for lunch. Nooooooooo!!! I was upset! Since I had been feeling hungry I was so looking forward to the shrimp. So I ate the bar instead and for dinner had the full Lean and Green portion. And I must confess I asked my co-worker to bring me two pickle spears from the deli. I ate those between the lunch Medifast Meal and next Medifast Meal shake.

 Yesterday, Day 2 on the plan, I had an appointment with the counselor to get weighed in. Small change of 1.5 lbs down. I am hoping for more and more and more.

True to the prior post, we bought more broccoli to make the Northern Italian Shrimp recipe for dinner and another portion for lunch. 

 The aroma of the dressing with the shrimp is delish! I find that this meal is really simple to prepare and cook. The chopping is minimal, very little ingredients, and it cooks in no time! We will definately repeat this one.

 Yummy goodness.

 To me, the serving size yields alot of food! This is a picture of three servings. Trust me, we measured twice just to make sure. My husband is not on the Medifast plan but is eating the Medifast Lean and Green recipes for dinner. He is also not a seafood lover, he decided his portion was too big so he put back 3 shrimp. At the end of his meal he took them back since they were so delicious!

 My next Medifast meal was a Chocolate Crunch Bar. 

 Here is a closeup of the bar so you can see the bottom layer of chocolate that holds it all together.

 Tonight, I am pre-preparing the Dutch Chocolate Shake for my next Medifast meal of the day.

 I added enough ice just to make it smoother.

 I love these cups. The lids do a great job. And they are so much easier to clean due to the width.

I have two appointments with my counselor next week. So nervous. Like a good student I have started to fill in the Daily Success Tracker by day. I see that this has really helped other patients in identifying the best meal plans for them when they reach their plateau. Here's hoping!

Let's do this!

I woke up one day and knew it was time.  Lets take this serious! I decided on Medifast after much research. Luckily, they had an opening when I went to get more information! Loaded with a weeks supply of bars and shakes, bag full of books, journals, guides and inspirational stories, water bottle, a very cool Health Mate Blender, blender bottle and two lidded cups for premade shakes, I came home to put everything up. With all this stuff, organization is a must. I cleared out a shelf in the kitchen cabinet and setup "the Medifast space".

This is what my shelf currently looks like. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the pills I got. B12, B6, Omega-3's.

I wasn't very productive at work today, I was so busy reading blog after blog of successful Medifast Clients. Their stories are inspiring and give me that push of motivation to know that it can happen to me!!!

I LOVE LOVE the dark chocolate shake.  After reading many stories of lumpy shakes, I decided to pre-mix/make the one I was taking to the office and leaving it in the fridge overnight. Loved it. Smooth and super delicious.  The chocolate crunch bar is another instant favorite. I am not big on sweets, I am big on chocolate! Love it. And this bar does not dissapoint.  It is rather small, but very powerful. It definately fills you up. The chocolate taste is soo good. It does have this small after taste at the end that reminds me of splenda. But just take another bite quickly and its gone!

This side has the other goodies. I always wanted to have one of these shaker bottles, even when I didn't drink shakes, just because I like the whole shiny ball moving around concept, I guess. Well, I have one now, and I have yet to use it. Again, I am only one day in. But the electric blender is so fast and does a great job. Here are the vitamins that I chose to add on to my plan. As my ever-so-knowledgeable counselor explained how many and when to take, I was thinking there was no way I was going to remember all of it.  She must have known, she wrote the times and amounts on the bottle tops!! So cool!!!

I headed over to Target after work to pick up a scale. I can't remember the last time I got one. I was then ready to try a new Medifast Recipe for my Lean and Green.

Northern Italian Shrimp & Broccoli. Yum-Yum-Yummy!!!! Super easy to prepare, super fast to cook, super delicious!!! It helped that I already owned the salad dressing and had shrimp in the freezer.  I made extra so I could take some to work and we plan to cook this again tomorrow for dinner.  Why mess with a good thing?!?!? I love to repeat recipes when I first try them. I already have most of the fresh ingredients on hand, in this case the package of cherry tomatoes and broccoli, so it will be alot easier. Thankfully I am not picky on leftovers and repeat meals, then again I am usually on the cleanup or cooking duty...cleanup or leftovers....hmmm...leftovers! Definately!  

Here are the ingredients ready to go. Please note that I have doubled the recipe to make sure I get enough for lunch tomorrow.

Burn baby burn!!!! =) The smell....soo good!

Ta-da! The finished product! This is half of one serving size.  Since I have this bad habit of staying up late, my counselor wanted to make sure that I was still eating and drinking the H2O every 2-3 hours. So she divided up my Lean and Green, half for lunch and half for dinner.

Here is the plan:

• 5AM Wake up - Drink 8oz of water and take vitamins
• First Medifast Meal within one hour - Bar with water (8oz)
• 8:45  Shake with water (8oz)
• 11:15 - 11:45 Half of the lean green with water (8oz)
• 2:45 Bar with water (8oz)
• 4:45 - 5:45 Half of the lean green with water (8oz) 
• 7:45 - 8:45 Shake with water (8oz)
• 11:30 - 11:45 Bar or Shake with water (8oz)

This is such a good way to incorporate the water throughout the day. I am still working on finding a water cup/container solution for all this water drinking. I would like to find 8 oz cups with lids that I can have in a lunch bag with ice pack in my desk. This way they are close by, ready to go, no fuss! Any ideas?

Thanks for stopping by and reading this! Wish me luck and much love and positive thoughts to you on your own journey to being a happier and healthier you!

Relaxing Sunday!

This is the most relaxing weekend we have had in a very long time. I had an organizational to-do list but was unable to check off anything on it. I am not stressing over it. It’s nothing that won’t be there tomorrow or the next day!

Breakfast

Breakfast was fast and simple. A hardboiled egg with toast with almond butter and the Starbuck’s Vias are back!!! This morning I tried out the cinnamon flavored one. It’s pretty good. Would I buy it again? Probably not, I am really in love with the caramel one. It’s the closest to my caramel macchiato!!!!

 Lunch

Hello again! Leftover tilapia, still as good as yesterday. Sides of roasted tofu, fresh cherry tomatoes and tortellini.

I am looking for a new plain or vanilla flavored yogurt.  I picked up these three contenders yesterday. I compared them side by side and first prize goes to… Yoplait. Second prize goes to O organics Vanilla bean.  Yoplait French Vanilla tasted like a true dessert. Smooth, sweet and simply good. O Organics tasted a little more yogurty, not bad but not as sweet. (must check sugar content) And Lucerne plain was too strong for my taste.

A little yogurt topped with nut/cranberry/raisin mix. SUPER GOOD!! The smooth cool yogurt with the crunchiness of the mix was beyond delicious. It was more than perfect!!!

The kind of Saturdays I wish for!  

Today was such a relaxing yet productive Saturday.

Yesterday I prepared this tofu for today’s dinner. 

I used:

-Extra Firm Tofu

-Balsamic Vinegar

-Garlic Powder

-Black Pepper

I pressed out as much water as possible by stacking the cubed tofu, wrapped in paper towels, under a cutting board and cookbooks for about 10 minutes. Then sprinkle them with the above and put in the oven @ 400⁰ for 20 minutes.

 All lined up and ready to go!

 I left a few without the balsamic vinegar, they only had black pepper. 

We started off the day by picking up the baby from Grandma's house. It was so nice to sleep in until 8am. We then headed over to Memorial City Mall to do some serious work clothes shopping. For lunch we headed over to Panera bread. It was a tough decision. Although Panera bread is at the mall and super convenient. Once we were "in town" (from Sugar Land), there were so many other choices available to us that have not made their way here. The contenders were Brothers Pizzeria, authentic NY style Pizza that speaks to Mr. Brooklyn aka Hubby reminds him or his home town and El Rey Taqueria that serves a Cuban and Mexican food menu.  He loves the pizza and knows the owners for years, and I love El Rey that brings back my college days where it was our "treat" to go to those days. With an 18 month old, convenience won! And organic cheese in the grilled cheese sandwich just sealed the deal. I had haf of the Frontega Chicken Sandwich with half of a Greek salad and an apple. The salad was big! I could not finish it. They were both so good.

 Nice and warm!

It surprising to get any naps into the day around here. So I was very grateful for today’s mini power 2 hour nap.  I felt so relaxed and energized!

Dinner

Breaded Tilapia went into the oven while the tortellini cooked on the stove. A side salad and a glass of wine finished off dinner.

And now that the baby sleeps, I will go off to spend some time with my Kindle!

Breakfast

Today it was one hardboiled egg, Starbuck’s Via with soymilk and two small pieces of watermelon.  So good.  The sweet cold watermelon was a perfect way to finish off breakfast.

Leftovers for Lunch

We met up at Pappasito’s Mexican Restaurant last night. I love to order appetizers, that way I get to sample a lot of different things.  I ordered the appetizer that had 4 chicken quesadilla wedges, one hard shell filled with chile con queso, 2 gorditas topped with pork, and four beef fajita nachos.  Look at these leftovers, they are a more than a meal by themselves.

 I was not super impressed with the gorditas. I don’t really like pork and I don't like the texture of shredded meat. But overall the dish was really good. Lots of cheesy goodness.

I came home and saw that a package had arrived! Yay for internet shopping! I found this Built sleeve for my kindle. I love the Built brand.  Durable, easy to clean and so soft.  I could not believe they made kindle covers.  It fits it perfectly! Can’t wait for my other packages to get here.