Review: Jamba Strawberry Lemonade Swirl bars

It's such a hot day here today.... 86! Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 40s... sheesh. Anyway, I decided to try one of these new Jamba bars we got at the store on Friday (we don't have a Jamba Juice here, but they have them in OKC and I loved to get smoothies there when I lived there!).

TALK. ABOUT. DELISH. They're really creamy - not icy at all - and not too sour or too sweet. They're like a mix between a strawberry smoothie and sherbert icecream. I can't believe these things are only 70 calories!

(I couldn't even wait to take the picture before I took a little taste. ha!)

Definitely recommend!





A Great Find & Some Tips for the Weekend

 I recently bought some frozen fruits and vegetables (Great Value brand... only about $2 for a bag!!). The veggies were the ones I posted with the rice a couple of days ago... and I thawed some fruit to have with breakfast this morning.

DELICIOUS! I'm definitely going to keep buying these!

And yes, that's a Domino's pizza box under there in the 2nd pic LOL, and YES their new pizza is amazing!! 

I've really been worrying about this day "off" that I have planned for Saturdays. I know that I need it to keep me sane during the week, but I DO NOT want to ruin my entire week's work on one day. Someone on 3fc posted THIS article, which has tips for staying in control over the weekend. The tips I'm going to try this weekend:

• Track all my food METICULOUSLY
• Workout
• Eat breakfast & weigh in before and after (already do these)

Thoughts on the article? What helps YOU stay on track over the weekend?

Today I'm getting the 2nd bedroom all cleaned out. The BF's best friend is coming to stay with us over the summer. I think I'll go ahead and clean the whole house while I'm at it! Have a good weekend everyone! :)

as always,

Carissa

A Possible Plateau and Other Ramblings

Today is the seventh day in a row that I've weighed 179 lbs. Buuut, I'm not too worried about it, seeing as how I didn't work out much over those past 7 days. I did get a good workout in today, though, so I guess tomorrow morning we'll see what Mr. Scale has to say about that! ;)

Yesterday for dinner I tried the Smart Ones Ham and Cheese Scramble. It's made with egg whites, ham, potatoes and reduced fat cheese - which totals 220 calories & 9 g of fat.

I put salsa and salt/pepper to taste on mine, but it didn't help a whole lot. It got cold really fast and a lot of the chunks of ham were rough and not edible (for me anyway)... the potatoes were the best part. The meal overall just wasn't very good. I didn't even end up eating the whole thing... so, I probably wouldn't recommend it.

I also wanted to give props to all you real-life runners out there... on Sunday, I went to the park to walk around with my hand weights. Now - at the gym I've worked my way up to being able to run anywhere from 5-10 minutes @ 5.5 pace. But when I ran at the park, I could hardly go for a minute or two (granted I wasn't timing myself, but yeah)!! I was really surprised! I thought at the time that maybe since I hadn't run in a few days my stamina had gone down (ha), but today at the gym I ran for 7 mins! The treadmill moving does a lot more work than I initially thought, lol! And different muscles in my legs were sore than usual - it's so crazy. Sooo yeah, all you athletic people who walk/run outside, I admire you!!

Today for breakfast I had cereal + cinnamon sugar toast (yum!), and for lunch I had the Smart Ones 3 cheese ziti marinara + corn. For supper I was planning on having a Velveeta Shells & Cheese bowl (another yum) + beans, but I actually FEEL LIKE EATING SALAD AND VEGGIES. UH, WHO IS THIS CRAZY PERSON AND WHAT HAS SHE DONE WITH MY CRAVINGS??!! HAHA! Seems like while I was trying to go gluten free my body got used to eating more whole foods and less frozen meals, which I'm totally okay with :). I will say, though, that there's nothing better than a Smart Ones lasagna/pizza/dessert when I get a hankering for one! What changes have you noticed in your appetite/cravings since you started your WL journey??



Hmmm... guess that's it for this update :). Love you all!

-Carissa

60 calorie treat :)

During our most recent trip to the grocery store, the boyfriend picked out these Jello Mousse Temptations cups.

Now, let me just say, I don't really like these as they are. It's pretty much a foamy jello chocolate pudding... I think it's the texture that gets me. HOWEVER, if you freeze these bad boys, the morph into a 60 calorie cup of deliciousness.

You have to make sure that you let them freeze all the way through, but once they're frozen they taste like chocolate ice cream. No joke.

Perfect for those chocolate cravings, especially for an ice cream lover like me :).

REVIEW: Fiber One Honesy Clusters Cereal

If you like Raisin Bran, you'd probably like Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal. It tastes alot like Raisin Bran, just without the raisins ;).

I LOVE it and it's such an easy & delicious way to get in fiber with 13g per serving!

The first few bowls I had didn't have very many honey clusters, but now that I'm getting to the bottom half of the box there are plenty! I like to eat it plain as a snack, or with nonfat milk as breakfast (sometimes lunch or dinner, heh!). Try it out! :)

REVIEW: Smart Ones Stuffed Breakfast Sandwich

This was definitely something different for breakfast. It was really good, except for the turkey bacon. If you like turkey bacon, though, I'd definitely recommend it. When I have a problem with one of the Smart Ones meals, it's usually because of the meat. I'm not exactly a vegetarian - but if you've been following my blog you know that I pretty much eat boneless chicken and that's it.

Anyway, I still like it. I just did my best to pick out the biggest chunks of meat. It also has eggs, cheese, and peppers.. yum! 




Overview:

PROS:

• Lower calorie than similar breakfast sandwiches
• Comes with 2 per box
• 16g of protein
  

CONS:

• Turkey meat
• Not as filling as other breakfast options (but I still wasn't left hungry)
  

Bye bye gallbladder!

Yesterday and today are running together for me.. I had my surgery yesterday morning but it feels like it was this morning! I think because I've been sleeping for the majority of both days. I'm still really sore, but they gave me some pain medicine that seems to be working pretty well. My mom and sisters brought me the cards & flowers and my love has been taking such good care of me :).

Yesterday all I ate were some saltine crackers with my medicine and water... today I had a little more:

B-1/2 mini blueberry bagel, 1/2 raspberry yogurt

L-crackers

D-Healthy Choice potatoes & veggies side (see pics below)

Mmm :). So good!! Especially for only 100 calories for the whole thing.

My boyfriend made a good point today.. it's only gonna get better from here. So I'm focusing on that. Thank you for all your kind words & prayers! Talk to yall soon :)

-Carissa

Healthy Choice BBQ Chicken Meal Review

I picked this up while I was grocery shopping yesterday. It looked good & I was really surprised that it has a full meal for so few calories.

You can either microwave it or put it in the oven. Usually I'm the microwaving queen, but for this I decided to try the oven. Here it is, frozen, just out of the box:

And here it is after 25 minutes at 350 degrees F:

 

(of course I had already eaten some of the chicken, lol)

It came with chicken in bbq sauce and potatoes,:

yellow and white corn, and apples covered in caramel sauce with granola:

OMG - SO GOOD. The only thing I didn't really like were the apples, but not because they were gross, just because I don't really like that sort of thing. But I definitely give this a THUMBS UP for being easy, delicious, and not over priced (it cost the same as my usual Smart Ones - about $3).

I'm gonna see what other kinds they have when I go shopping next. Has anyone tried this or any other Healthy Choice full meals? Thoughts?

xoo!!!

Carissa

Guess what I ordered yesterday!!

MY TOMS!

I can't wait until they're here! I'll make sure to take pictures when they arrive! :]

Yesterday I went swimming for my workout.. 1 hr.. it didn't really feel like a workout at all. DEFINITELY what my legs needed though - a break from that elliptical! My legs feel SO much better than they usually do today.. so I think I might start swimming on Wednesdays.

EXCEPT I found out today that I wont have access to the gym or pool during winter intersession or during the summer unless I take classes during those time periods. I don't have a way to pay for classes during intersessions, so I guess I'm gonna have to figure out a way to make exercise work at home. :[

I've been feeling bloated so much lately. I think it's been my whole life actually. But I wonder why? Do any of you experience it/what do you do to help it?

If you haven't tried Smart Ones frozen dinners, I suggest you do so :]. They're perfectly portioned, and perfectly delicious. One of my faves is the mini veggie pizzas.
They taste even better than they look. Only 270 cals for all 4, and each box comes with 8.


I think that's about it for now.. if I think of more later I'll edit ;].

-Carissa ♥




*EDIT*
oh yeah - the crunch (not the candy bar) challenge is over I think.. I keep forgetting to change the countdown, so I never know! I don't think I hit quite 1500, and my stomach looks exactly the same. Oh well!

Yoplait Smoothie

Okay, first of all, I absolutely LOVE smoothies. So the frozen Yoplait smoothie mix was pretty much gonna win either way. BUT as it turns out, it really is delicious!

Each bag (about $3) makes 2 servings. There are 2 different flavors, I got Triple Berry. All it is is frozen strawberries, blueberries, and yogurt chunks. The directions call for 1 cup of nonfat milk.

Aaaaaaand blend for a few minutes, mixing when needed.

Oh gosh, it was so good! Even the boyfriend loved it! It wasn't all watery and it wasn't too thick. Not to mention it was EASY EASY EASY to make! And with only 110 cals per serving (yeah, that's right. 220 calories for the entire bag. that's even including the milk!) I don't think I'll ever leave the grocery store without this again! :)

5 mile workout

On Friday I got Leslie Sansone's 5 mile walk in the mail! :) My wonderful boo did one mile with me on Friday & another on Saturday, and I just finished doing 5 miles. It was really hard! I didn't really have much energy to work with, but I pushed myself to do all 5 and got a good sweat in.

The DVD is broken up into 5 mile segments and you can choose how many or which of the miles you want to do. Each mile is 12 minutes long (awesome for a quick workout!), for a total of one hour if you do all 5. There's an inspirational story at the end, but for some reason mine cuts off before its over? Idk.. maybe I accidentally pushed some button?!

All in all, I'm happy with it!

What are your favorite workout DVDs??

Workout DVDs

For the past week I've been focusing A LOT on staying active.. I try to do SOME kind of exercise every day. I wanted to share with you 2 workout DVDs that I've been doing.. I think you might enjoy trying them out!

-Biggest Loser Workout 2-

This DVD has different segments ranging in time from 5 to 15 minutes. You can add and remove segments from the workout that you want to do that day, and change it up everyday if you'd like. I REALLY love it. It gets me sweating and, of course, the BL trainers get me going!

-Tony Horton's Power Half Hour-

Basically, it's 30 minute segments that target different areas of your body - arms, thighs, butt, abs - and a stretch segment. I did the ab one today.. Talk about intense! I can't do everything that Tony does.. but at least I'm moving, right?! Ha.


Have any of you tried either of these? What did you think?


Always, BB.