No More Excuses

At first, it was too much snacking, and then my son was sick. Then, I was extremely busy working 2 jobs, and then I was out of groceries. If there is one glaring lesson for my Cinch journey over the past month, it is life will get in the way. My weight hasn't budged in the past month, and I've got to kick it into high gear!

For this upcoming week, I have groceries in my kitchen, and my son is finally feeling better after 2 straight weeks of being sick. I do have a lot of work to do this week, but with some advance planning, I can (and will) keep up with my eating plan. I really miss the gym too, so I plan to get back into my workouts.

Today, I made up my own recipes that follow the plan, and they were all very good!

BREAKFAST (9:30 am)

Dark Chocolate Oatmeal with Apples and Cinnamon:

1 Gala apple, chopped
1/4 cup quick cooking oats
8 oz skim milk
1/8 cup Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips
Dash Vietnamese cinnamon


LUNCH (1:00 pm)

Israeli Salad with Feta Cheese and Rye Bread:

3/4 cup chopped cucumber, 3/4 cup chopped green bell pepper, 1 chopped plum tomato
1 slice rye bread, chopped and tossed into the salad
1/4 cup garlic & herb feta cheese
10 olives
Dash lemon juice and balsamic vinegar

I had my daily dark chocolate right after lunch.




SNACK (5:30 pm)

No fruit (because I knew that I'd be tossing in fruit into my salad at dinner)
No whole grain
1 oz cheese
2 TBSP Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter by PB & Co


DINNER (8:00 pm)

Morrocan Chicken Chopped Salad:

1 cup spring salad mix, 1/4 cup shredded carrots, 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper, 1/4 cup steamed butternut squash, 1/8 cup dried cranberries sweetened with apple juice, and 1/8 cup chopped dried apricots
2 TBSP whole grain croutons
3 oz cooked "Smart" chicken breast (no antibiotics or hormones used in raising the chicken)
1 TBSP slivered almonds, plus 1/2 TBSP olive oil for the salad dressing
Vietnamese cinnamon dry rub on the chicken, dash champagne vinegar, dash dried mustard

I was inspired by California Pizza Kitchen's version of this chopped salad, but I deleted the avocado, hard boiled egg, and beets to make the meal fit the Cinch plan. I bought the beets during my shopping trip this weekend, but I realized that this meal had plenty of ingredients already. This salad was DELICIOUS!!

Day 10 - 3 Days Later

I've been MIA...

I spent the entire weekend sick with a terrible respiratory virus that finally made it's way to me. I've never coughed so hard in my life. My husband has had this cold for about a week and a half now. I've been eating zinc lozenges to try and avoid it. My boss swears that if you start eating them before the cold strikes, you might miss it completely. Unfortunately, that didn't happen for me.

Last week was so hard with my son starting daycare AND him being sick with this thing at the same time. I just wanted to cuddle with him and take care of him as soon as we got home each evening. He coughed all over me, and we went through boxes of kleenex. It was inevitable. The cold got me too.

So needless to say, I haven't been sticking to my diet. With little to no groceries, we ordered pizza and salad on Friday night and had soup & crackers on Saturday night. On Sunday night, we did have a Cinch-based dinner, the Fiesta Pasta Salad, which was delicious. However, I didn't stick to the plan the entire day, so I am picking up where I left off today. I'm still feeling quite crappy, but I'm going to do my best...


BREAKFAST (8:30 am)

Cranberry Walnut Parfait:

¼ cup dried cranberries, sweetened with apple juice
¼ cup whole oats
6 oz. honey vanilla Greek yogurt
2 TBSP chopped walnuts
Dash Vietnamese cinnamon from Whole Foods (thanks for the recommendation, Laura!)


LUNCH (12:00 pm)

Black and Blue Salad:

1 cup field greens and 1 chopped plum tomato
1 serving Trader Joe’s whole grain crackers
¼ cup reduced fat crumbled blue cheese
10 Kalamatta olives, sliced
1 TBSP balsamic vinegar and dash each basil and oregano




SNACK (5:30 pm)

Cherry Pie Lara Bar
8 oz organic skim milk


DINNER (8:00 pm)

Turkey Pita Pizzalad:

1/2 cup marinara sauce, 1/2 cup field greens, 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 whole grain pita
3 oz. organic ground turkey breast, cooked
Chopped garlic, dash oregano, and dash basil

And I had a serving of Ghiradelli 60% dark chocolate chips as the plant-based fat. I still love that I am allowed to substitute chocolate chips for the fat part of a meal!




Hopefully, tomorrow is another successful day!

Day 25 - Pre-Pregnancy Weight!

Apparently 4 days of being on the road and not completely following the Cinch plan didn’t derail my progress too much because the scale is down another pound! I am officially at my pre-pregnancy weight. I’m completely elated and super motivated to continue my weight loss journey on this plan. I also tried on a pair of jeans that my Aunt gave me months ago that I could not fit into at the time, and this morning they fit! I am truly amazed and happy with all of my hard work. By the end of this week, I will have lost 8.5 pounds in 4 weeks. And I am about to start all over again on the Fast Forward phase. I'm thinking that I will only do 3 days since that is what the author recommends in the book if you do it a second time. Next Tuesday through Thursday will be Days 1-3, and then I will do the Core plan for another 27 days, which should bring me to about March 23rd.

Today has been much better than yesterday. I went back to work, and luckily I have some fresh food left in my fridge that hasn’t gone bad yet.

BREAKFAST (8:30 am)

Dark Chocolate Oatmeal and Yogurt with Green Grapes:

1 cup green grapes
¼ cup whole oats
½ cup low-fat cottage cheese
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Dash cloves

Unfortunately, my green grapes were rubbery, so I didn’t eat many of them. The cottage cheese with a dash of cloves was better than I thought it would be.

LUNCH (1:30 pm)

Turkey (Chicken) Almond Pita:

(I subbed chicken since my turkey slices weren't defrosted from the freezer yet.)

½ cup fresh spinach, ¼ cup chopped cucumber, and ¼ cup chopped plum tomato
½ whole grain pita
3 oz cooked chicken
1 TBSP raw natural almond butter
Dash balsamic vinegar

This pita was awesome!



SNACK (4:30 pm)

Berries & Yogurt with Crackers & Peanut Butter:

(I halved the whole grain and plant-based fat portions of the recipe.)

1 cup frozen Trader Joe's Very Berry Cherry Blend (cherries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries), thawed
4 Trader Joe’s whole grain crackers
6 oz vanilla yogurt
1 TBSP Justin’s Honey Almond Butter
Dash cinnamon



DINNER (7:30 pm)

Tuna Pecan Pasta:

1 cup chopped green beans, 1/3 cup chopped onion, 2/3 cup chopped carrots (omitted mushrooms + increased carrots), and ¼ cup low sodium vegetable broth
½ cup cooked whole grain penne pasta
3 oz. canned tuna, in water
2 TBSP chopped pecans
Garlic, oregano, and basil. This time, I added a dash of balsamic vinegar.

I love this recipe too!

I started working on my upcoming grocery list for this weekend tonight as well. I'm trying some new recipes this time as well as some traditional favorites of both me & my husband while I have been on this plan.

Day 21 - On The Road

Today was pretty good considering that I was completely out of my element and traveling on the road. I packed quite a lot of Cinch friendly snacks to fill in the puzzle pieces for any meal that I might be missing. I packed dried veggies, whole grain crackers, Kashi Go Lean cereal, a few Lara bars, a few 100 calorie packs of raw natural almonds, and a few packs of the Justin's all-natural nut butters. And of course, my daily dark chocolate boxes of 100 calorie bars from Trader Joe's! I even gave a box to my Dad. Next to me, he is the biggest dark chocolate fan I know. Here is how the day went:

BREAKFAST (9:00 am)

McDonald's Fruit and Maple Oatmeal and Skim Milk

Dried cranberries and raisins and red & green apples
Oatmeal
1 jug of low-fat skim milk
100 calorie pack of raw almonds
Spices - probably a few in the oatmeal

At first bite, the oatmeal was VERY sweet. And then I noticed that McDonald's has kindly placed 2 nutrition labels on the side of their oatmeal container: 1 with brown sugar and 1 without the brown sugar. They must be anticipating people to order their oatmeal without the added brown sugar.

And the difference is? About 14 grams. Yikes. 32 total grams of sugar in this baby. I ate a little over half of it. Although, I certainly could have kept going because it was tasty. I paired it with skim milk and a package of almonds I stashed in my food & snacks bag.

LUNCH (2:00 pm) at Cracker Barrel

Salad, Cottage Cheese, and Toast:

2 cups tossed salad (lettuce, tomatoes, red onion only)
1 slice of wheat sourdough toast
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 TBSP Justin's honey almond butter
Red wine vinegar for the salad

This was perfect for the Cinch plan! I was so proud of myself. Although the bread was probably not whole grain. And I did manage to sneak a bite of a biscuit at the table. Oh well...



A few hours later, we stopped at a Wal-mart to pick-up some misc. things we needed. While there, I bought some low-fat cottage cheese and vanilla yogurt to keep on hand at my parents' house. Shortly after Wal-mart, I had my 100 calories of dark chocolate.

SNACK (5:30 pm)

Chocolate Cookie Dough Lara Bar
8 oz skim milk

At my grandma's house, I was getting hungry for dinner. I also sneaked a slice of deli turkey and a piece of dark chocolate after my snack. Being accountable to "the cheater in me" stinks...

DINNER (8:00 pm)

Grilled Chicken Salad and Whole Grain Crackers with Almond Butter:

1 1/2 cups lettuce plus 1/4 cup Just Tomatoes Etc. dried veggies
1 serving Dr. Kracker whole grain crackers
3 oz cooked fajita chicken (I might have had more than 3 oz... yum)
1 TBSP Justin's honey almond butter
1 TBSP apple cider vinegar and Tastefully Simple Tomato and Pesto dried seasoning mixed spices

This was pretty good. I need to find a way to eat cooked veggies. I don't want to keep eating salads during this trip.



All in all, I didn't do too bad today.

Day 19 - Down Another 1.5 Lbs.

I have now lost 7.5 pounds in almost 3 weeks! In fact, I am 2 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight. My son is almost 2 years old, and I’m just now losing all of my baby weight. I suppose it is better than not bouncing back at all.

This is better than any other diet I’ve tried. I’m absolutely going to do another 30 days of this plan. I have a goal to reach by my son's birthday at the end of April.

BREAKFAST (8:00 am)

Dark Chocolate Oatmeal and Blueberries Mixed with Yogurt:

1 cup fresh blueberries
¼ cup whole oats
6 oz vanilla yogurt
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Dash nutmeg

Dark chocolate for breakfast. *drool* It was pretty awesome.


LUNCH (1:00 pm)

Black Bean Tacos with Cilantro Guacamole:

I altered the recipe to 1 full cup of cooked spinach, ¼ cup chopped red onion, and ¼ cup all-natural salsa
2 whole-corn tortillas
½ cup black beans
¼ of a medium avocado
Lime juice and chopped cilantro

I love these bean tacos. They were especially yummy with the fresh salsa. I finally found corn tortillas that don’t break in half when I eat them. They are the 365 brand from Whole Foods. And my avocados were finally ripe… Wouldn’t you know? I’m getting ready to go out of town for 4 days!



I had my daily dark chocolate and chai green tea around 3:00 pm.

DINNER (6:30 pm)

Citrus Salmon Salad:

1 cup field greens and ½ cup each chopped red onion and chopped green beans
½ cup frozen corn, thawed
3 oz cooked salmon
¼ of a medium avocado
1 TBSP red wine vinegar (I used balsamic instead), dashes of dried oregano and basil, as well as juice & zest from a Minneola

This salmon salad was great!



SNACK (9:30 pm)

Vanilla Almond Frozen Banana:
(I halved the whole grain and plant-based fat portions, so I could eat the full recipe.)

1 small banana
1/8 cup whole oats
6 oz vanilla yogurt
1 TBSP chopped peanuts
Dash cinnamon (subbed instead of the vanilla, since my yogurt was already sweetened)

Oh yum, I really liked having my snack later tonight. I had to rearrange my usual 8-12-4-8 eating schedule today since I took a Latin Mix class at the gym tonight. It didn’t start until 7:15 pm, so I needed to eat dinner earlier this evening.

But anyways, back to the banana. I stuck it in the freezer for ½ hour around 9:00 and took it out to enjoy around 9:30 pm. Look how delicious it is:



Tomorrow, I'm planning to make my meals based on whatever ingredients I have in my fridge that need to be used up before going out of town. Should be interesting!