Hi everyone! It’s been awhile since I updated my blog, and it’s been purposeful for the most part.

This month has been crazy, but I’ve so missed writing to you all. Today I’m here to give an update on my 8-week weight loss journey.

Since January 1, 2013 (8-weeks ago), I’ve lost 13.2 pounds. That equates to about 1.65 pounds per week, which is pretty darn fantastic. In my ideal world, I would have lost 10 pounds a week and be DONE, but alas, that is now how weight loss works.

Picture: Taken 2/1/13, my first day of Turbo Fire.

I’ve been counting calories on My Fitness Pal, which is by far my most favorite and FREE way to lose weight. Feel free to friend me on there, I don’t bite.

It blows my mind that My Fitness Pal is so amazing and costs me zero money. The first 4 weeks of my weight loss, I lost about 10.2 pounds with Turbo Jam doing the advanced rotation. In February, I switched to Turbo Fire and have only lost 3 pounds. Turbo Fire is essentially Turbo Jam on crack. I’ll do more in-depth reviews of both in an upcoming post.

I never thought I’d be able to do Turbo Fire, and it’s quickly become my most favorite workout of all time. It’s so fast-paced and you never do anything for a super long time, so it moves by so quickly. Yet my weight loss has totally slowed down since I switched programs. I’d like to say I’ve kept measurements, but alas, I have not. I suck at taking measurements because I half-way suck it in, or I don’t know if I should measure between rolls or above rolls.

Complicated, I tell ya.

I did take before and after pics, and I don’t see a huge difference yet. Hmph.

As soon as I am done with this blog post, I am going to take measurements just for my sanity. My pants feel a little looser every week. It’s funny because before I started on my weight loss journey (for the 1.8 billionth time), I was like squeezing into my pants. Like, shimmying them over the hips, laying down, sucking it in, doing squats to make those suckers fit. Now, straight out of the dryer, they fit loose. Progress!

However, I am fairly certain my weight loss may go faster if I totally gave everything I had with my eating habits, but I told myself I wouldn’t force myself to be a saint knowing very well that it wouldn’t be something I could do forever. I still eat out. I still drink. I still eat sugar and carbs. But I do eat less of those things I love. I cut my restaurant portions in half. I have switched from margaritas with salt over to beer with lime. A donut is a once-every-2-weeks treat rather than a 2-3 times a week occurrence. Moderation is the name of my game. I also don’t eat 1200 calories a day…I eat closer to 1700-2000. I know if I cut out all those things, I probably would have lost more weight by now. But I’d also be very grumpy and ready to cave at any second.

So, 13.2 pounds down, about another 85-90 pounds to go. This is going to take awhile, and maybe that is the most discouraging part on any given day. The fact that although 8 weeks have passed, I probably have another 60, 70 or 80 weeks until I reach my goal. But if I stop now, eventually that time will pass, and then I’d have to start over again.

I’m not going to let that happen. I look forward to week-9 because it brings me my 28th birthday next Friday, March 8. One of my 30 before 30 goals is to finally be at a healthy weight. I think I’m going to get there this time.

Hope you’ll stick along with me on these pages for the ride.

The next few posts will be about some awesome fitness headbands (see photo below), a cool desk I made, and maybe I’ll finally finish the damn master bedroom makeover and take photos.

Progress.

Picture: Taken 2/20/13, after 20 days of Turbo Fire.

It’s funny how many people tweeted, wrote or Facebooked me to ask, “What are those meals you’ve been eating?”

Well, I was sent 4 days of food from DietToGo.com to review and give my honest opinion about. I finished the meals about a week and a half ago, but I am just now getting some time to write about my experience. Work is CRAZY INSANE. Everytime I think it’s going to settle down a bit, it so doesn’t.

So, I didn’t want to do the review rushed/halfway when I knew I wanted to point out some things.

I didn’t take pictures of all my meals because I get hungry and forget, but I did luckily get pictures of my favorite meals. That is one thing I will honestly say—the majority of the meals were TASTY. There were a few that I hated purely because it’s just not stuff I would normally, ever eat. Those dishes were a quinoa salad thing and a greek breakfast burrito. I tried to eat those and just could not. But if you like those foods, you might enjoy those dishes.

Here’s one of my favorite meals…it’s a reuben sandwich. I left off the salad thing that went on it to make it a reuben, so this was like a tasty grilled sandwich to me. The bread was like french toast and the cheese was plentiful and really gooey and yummy. Two thumbs up! It came with a fruit salad on the side that was super sweet and tasty.

While I thought the dinners and lunches were good overall, I thought where Diet To Go would prove really valuable for me personally is breakfast. Somehow that is the meal I have trouble with. I either eat something bland and am hungry, or I splurge and blow my whole day. The Diet To Go breakfasts were all A+ in my book (minus the greek breakfast burrito).

I tried 2 different kinds of muffins, and they were good. Now, the texture is different than a bakery muffin, but I sort of expected that because these are WAY lower in calories. The muffins were dense, in a good way, so they took me awhile to eat and digest. I was full with just the muffin. I want to know what magical stuff is in there, because I wasn’t expecting to be that satiated with a muffin. The muffin breakfast pack also came with juice (which I gave to the hubby) and yogurt. Simple, but tasty.

I thought the muffins were as good as it gets, but wait…the waffles. OH MY GOSH THE WAFFLES!

Sooooo good.

I stuck the breakfast pack in my purse on my way to work:

Then I dug in once I got to my desk:

So. Darn. Good. Delicious. Chewy. Filling. Sigh. I want more waffles. I could eat them everyday. The portion was uber generous.

Now I know a lot of you may be asking yourself if I think it’s a good value. Well, I got 4 days for free, and honestly… I liked it. It was nice to be heading out in the morning and just grab a breakfast. For lunch it was easy to just pick what I wanted to eat. It’s easy, and when I figured out the cost, it’s a bit better of a value than eating out at a restaurant…

And then there’s the sodium issue. Yes, there is a lot of sodium. There’s no way to prance around that issue. The way I look at it is that McDonald’s may be cheaper, and have just as much sodium, and maybe a Subway sub has less calories but more sodium. It is a concern though, and one I know so many people have. I feel you. I looked at the sodium and just drank more water, but yes, I was concerned.

Yeah. I don’t know what more to say about the sodium. There’s so many aspects to losing weight, and it’s hard to be perfect on all of them. My focus is calories in vs. calories out, try to make healthy choices, and exercise often.

You should do what’s best for you. Do I think that Diet To Go can help people lose weight? Absolutely. It takes the guess work out of it, it’s all there for you. Do I think it’s expensive? Yes and no. I think the meals are well thought out and coordinated, pretty filling, and it’s a tool to help keep calories under control, and if you want to lose weight, this might be a good way of doing it.

The food is tasty, and I wish they had a breakfast only plan.

Or if they just want to send me muffins, I’m down with that, too. And waffles, please.

I know many of you were waiting for my review, and I hope that I covered all my bases, but if you want to ask me a question, leave it in the comments and I’ll reply there. Or you can also email me privately at monicawantsit@gmail.com

I know what you’re thinking. Did Monica REALLY just type spinach, bacon and HEALTHY all in title?

Yeah, I totally did.

This recipe is hands down one of my favorite meals on earth now, which makes it all the more weird that when my pal Lindsey suggested it, I was like, “Hell to the no.”

I was wrong. My recipe is actually an adaptation/revision of Giada’s version because I didn’t want goat cheese, and I didn’t want that much garlic. The end result of this pasta is a healthy, creamy, tasty and filling pasta dish that is cheap and quick. I swear even those of you who hate green veggies will LOVE this pasta because of all the flavor. Just try it, would ya? Now, I did add bacon, because seriously, what doesn’t taste good with bacon? But, you can omit it and it’s still fab. And hey, without bacon, this pasta dish is perfect for meatless Mondays or vegetarians.

Ingredients:

-1 box of pasta (16 oz.)

-1 bag of spinach (6 oz.)

-3 oz. of light cream cheese

-2 peeled garlic cloves

-3/4 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp black pepper

-Parmesan cheese (optional)

-8 slices of bacon (optional: try to pick bacon that’s 70 calories or so for 2 slices)

-Sun dried tomatoes (optional)

1.) If you’re going to make bacon, go ahead and cook that up however you’d like. I personally prefer the oven method (425 degrees, 10 minutes-ish). Once your bacon is cooked, pat excess grease with paper towels and crumble it up. Set aside.

2.) Boil your water, throw in pasta til cooked.

3.) Add your cream cheese, garlic, 1/2 of your spinach leaves, salt & pepper and pulverize! Put the other half of your spinach leaves in the bottom of a bowl where your pasta and such can fit, too.

This is what I use as my food processor/power whisk/milkshake maker/immersion blender. This one tool does SO many things for me that it kind of renders so many other of my small appliances useless. Money well spent, I love this thing. It has never failed me. I gush over this thing. GUSH. It is such a time saver and it’s under $35 for essentially 4 appliances. Cuisinart- I loves you!!

I toss my ingredients into the food processor attachment and it’s done it seconds. I will say I add a little bit of spinach at a time  (about 3 batches) to ensure it all gets mixed well.

Here’s what it looks like once it’s done.

4.) Once your pasta is done, drain as usual, BUT reserve about 1/2 cup of starchy water in case you need to add it to make your sauce a little more “saucy”. I’ve never had to add more than a tiny splash of water, but ya never know.

Put the bacon crumbles over the spinach leaves in the bowl…

Pour the pasta over the bacon/spinach and add the sauce.

Mix, mix, mix!

Plate up and enjoy! Such a simple, healthy, quick, cheap meal for those weeknights where you just don’t have energy to do more than boil some water. We love to have some garlic bread on the side, and we grate up fresh parmesan cheese and put some sun dried tomatoes on top. Gourmet taste for so little money. Yum. Yum. Yum.

And seriously, aren’t the colors beautiful? That’s my fave thing about cooking with fresh foods- such beautiful colors on the plate.

The calorie counts are pretty low for the amount of food you get. I divided the recipe into 4, and the portions are HUGE!

Without Bacon:

With Bacon:

Just add the bacon, people!

Well, I hope you enjoy this recipe and you’ll add it to your repertoire. I’m sure glad I did, thanks Lindsey!

Be back tomorrow with a quick review on Diets To Go and an update about my weight loss progress. Squee!!

I was sent a fabulous pack of Balance Bar® products to try to help me stick to my New Year’s Resolutions. The variety pack I was sent included a pair of each of the following: Peanut Butter, Chocolate Mint Cookie Crunch, Blueberry Acai and Cookie Dough & Double Chocolate Brownie Minis (<---only 100 calories each!).

I’ve seen Balance Bar® in stores, but have never tried them until I was sent this variety pack. My absolute fave is the Double Chocolate Brownie Mini—I eat half before a workout and I eat the other half right after. My 2nd favorite is the Blueberry Acai bar—it’s become my go-to 3 p.m. snack. It satisfies my sweet tooth and keeps me satiated until dinner time at 6 or so.

But my favorite thing about Balance Bar® is that the bars are all reasonable/low in calories, and have a perfect amount of fat/protein/carbs plus vitamins and minerals. And, to be honest, some of the varieties are pretty darn close to being better than a candy bar. Sweet and satisfying.

Since I am trying to calorie count/do Weight Watchers, these bars don’t break the bank like some others I’ve seen. The most they have is around 200 calories and the mini’s have 100. Perfect as snacks or a quick breakfast. They’ve made it a tad easier and convenient to stick to my New Year’s Resolution of losing mucho weight.

Also included in my goody box of bars were some tips to help “outlast” my New Year’s Resolution. In 2011 I pretty much caved in April, and in 2012 I caved on January 3. This year, I hope to beat both of those records by making 2013 my lucky year. This tip is really what I keep telling myself daily because some days it really feels like a lot of work to stay on track:

“Be Patient with Yourself - On average, it takes 21 days to create a new habit. When you first get started, it will take more time and energy to focus on your daily goal. The trick is to notice when you didn't accomplish your daily goal - and to not beat yourself up about it. After about three solid weeks of working on your daily goals, they'll become second nature and part of your daily routine.” –Amber Rosenberg, Certified Life Coach

So, I’m being patient with myself, trying to enjoy the process, and trying to focus on the fact that it’s a journey not a phase.

And to help YOU outlast your New Year’s Resolutions, I’m giving away a box of Balance Bar® products just like the one I got! YAY!

You can enter below using the Rafflecopter widget. Good luck!  

Disclaimer: I received products to review/giveaway, but was not otherwise compensated for this post.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ever been to a restaurant where the free stuff they give you before the meal is sometimes almost as good as the actual meal? Like for instance, the kick ass pretzel bread at Le Cellier at Disney World (Epcot) or the amazing salsa at your favorite Mexican restaurant?

Yes. And yes.

Daniel and I ate at Gringo’s probably about 6-7 years ago, and immediately became obsessed with their green/verde salsa. Was it avocado? Is it ranch? WHY IS IT SO GOOD?!

Fast forward to 2011 when he graduated from college, we had his celebratory dinner at Los Cucos which is a Houston-area restaurant chain, as is Gringo’s now. Again, that oh-so-delicious green salsa was served to us. It’s creamy, it’s got amazing flavor, and it’s easy to eat an entire little salsa bowl of it in under 10 minutes.

We seriously asked for a refill of the green salsa when we went to Gringo’s last month. We have no shame.

Since we can’t always travel to Houston for our Los Cucos/Gringo’s green salsa fix, we set out to recreate it at home. Not one to be stingy, I’m going to share the recipe with you. There are many variations of it online, but mine is slightly different in that I omit cilantro and mine is a bit creamier, less watery than a normal salsa. This recipe makes about 32 oz./4 cups, and is perfect for chips or top enchiladas/tacos. Very versatile salsa.

Ingredients:

• 1, 28 oz. can of green tomatillos, drained (fresh can work, too, just boil until tomatillo flesh is tender, chill in freezer for to cool them off)
• 3 medium avocados
• 1/2 of a serrano pepper
• 8 oz. light sour cream
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. steak or fajita seasoning

Directions: Open your can of tomatillos, drain all the liquid out. Dump all of them into the blender, followed by your avocado and all other ingredients. It should look like this:

Not very pretty or fancy, but that’s ok. Now blend/puree until it’s all broken down. If it’s too thick for your liking, add a TINY amount of water. TINY!

Now, serve and enjoy. This dip is creamy, full of flavor, and so fresh and affordable. Perfect for a Super Bowl party or any get together. It comes together in minutes. I thought it was tasty at room temperature, but it’s really delicious cold, too. The dip will keep for about 4-5 days, so I would make this and use it up quickly.

As you all know, I’m counting calories like a madwoman, so I figured out the calories to be about 290 calories for 1 cup. I serve myself about 1/4 cup when eating, so it’s not too awful, but you gotta watch your serving sizes.

Are there any restaurant salsas you’re addicted to?

I’ll be back on Wednesday with a giveaway that will help the lucky winner keep their New Year’s Resolutions by snacking healthy. :) See ya then!