My worst enemy...portion control

Lately, I have decided to really give it my best go (well... a go at least lol) at loosing some extra weight I have put on and slim down. After talking to my trainer ... lol that makes me feel cool saying I have a trainer which is really my friend and boot camp instructor Kristin (I put her website on my blog list check it out...just don't look too closely at some videos you might see me lol). The two main things I need to do we decided on were watching my portions and working out on days that I don't have boot camp. Lately, I had been lazy missing some boot camp days , definitely not working out on the other days and eating whatever I wanted. Well the jeans are getting a little tight and I figured I should take advantage of Kristen's awesomeness while I still am in Sacramento.

At boot camp Kristen gave us a website (myfitnesspal.com) which is a really easy way to track calories. Now I have never counted and written down my calories so I was against this step thinking it was going to take forever to log in my food for the day. But, this site makes it so easy and it tells you after each entry how much you would weigh at the end of a month if you kept eating the way you are. I have been good this week...minus a doughnut mishap which when I put it in I found was 460 calories SO not worth it and I will think twice!

A really cool thing about the site too is that for example I made two recipes from a cooking light magazine for dinner this week and I thought that I would have to enter in all the ingredients. I just thought hey I'll try typing in Cooking light and the name of the recipe (provolone mushroom patty melt/pasta with lemon cheese and spinach). And it totally popped up and the calories it said per serving matched what the magazine says!! It also saves what you have entered before so you don't have to constantly type in a turkey sandwich for lunch you can just click it again if you have entered it before.

Now again it's only been a week so we will see if I stick with it lol...

Here is the pasta with lemon, spinach and cheese recipe-it was really good and I made sure I portioned it to the serving suggestions for dinner and then packed them for lunch for Greg and I also using the serving size. Normally it would be a free for all and we would go back for seconds and pick at it, but were both trying to be good. For the patty melts (which were yummy too) I wrapped up the extra meat and bread for lunches before we even sat down for dinner so it was out of sight out of mind.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. cook pasta ( 10 oz. either casarecce or fusilli-I used the fusilli just think short and twisty)8 minutes or until al dente. Remove from heat and add 1 package of spinach. stir and let sit 2 min. so spinach wilts. Drain mixture well.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1tbs. olive oil and 4 cups chopped onion. Cook 15 min until golden brown. Add 1/4 cup of flour and garlic and cook 1 min. stirring constantly. Gradually add 2 1/2 cups low fat milk and 1/2 cup dry white wine (I don't do wine lol so I used chicken stock) cook 8 min until the sauce boils and thickens stirring constantly. Stir in 3/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese (I bought weight watchers shredded cheese that was parmigiano-reggiano and mozzarella blend) salt and 1/4 tsp. grated lemon rind. Remove from heat add pepper and salt to taste and add pasta mixture to onion mixture and toss to coat.

Spoon pasta mixture into a 13x9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. sprinkle 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs over pasta and then top evenly with 1/4 cup cheese. Bake for 50 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

Serves 6.

This morning we went for a hike around lake folsom. Taking time for our health and each other. Hopefully we can keep it up... just stop me if you see me pick up a doughnut lol.