I hope many of you read Brooke’s blog.  (Brooke Not On A Diet).  She and I “met” each others blog a few years ago.  She was overweight.  Like 327 pounds.  By the time I met her she’s already lost about 70 pounds and was looking fabulous.  She chipped away at it, day after day, month after month and year after year.

Mind you, this woman lost all her weight without a gym membership.  She could only walk to start, then she was able to start doing exercise videos and created at home workouts to keep it from getting too boring.  Now she can run, ride a bike and lift weights!

So yesterday was her WI day at Weight Watchers.  She’s been focused on this goal for four years.  She was close to her goal weight, which is 150 pounds.  Guess what??!!

GOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!!!

Yep.  This woman above has lost 177 pounds.  She’s lost more than I weigh now!  I am so fricken proud of her and I know she’ll be an inspiration to others if she becomes a WW leader.   Can you show her some love and leave her a comment on her blog for me?  Thanks!

I had a breakfast parfait for lunch.  My camera battery was dead, so my iPhone stepped in – plain Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup mango, 1/2 cup apple and 1/2 cup of Canadian Farm’s Chocolate Almond Granola. 

This granola is really good.  Super crunchy and I love the hit of chocolate every third bite.

But I have to say, either I am not cutting it right, but cutting up a fresh mango is a hard task.  It seemed like I had so much waste, I think I’ll just buy it frozen and defrost it from now on.

My knee is feeling better, but I didn’t want to push it too much, so I decided to do a run/walk on the treadmill, increasing the running portion until I finished a 5k.  Three minutes running, two minutes walking.  My last 3 minute run was at a 6.0 mph pace.

Over the weekend I made a Creamy Tortilla Soup.  I found a great recipe, printed it out and sadly, there was no mention of the blog on the print out so I can’t give credit where credit is due!  When I do find it, I’ll link to it.

Creamy Tortilla Soup

• 4 servings of 1.25 cups each:  133 calories, 4.3 fat, 508 sodium, 22 carbs, 3.3 fiber and 2.7 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 jalapeno
• 6 roma tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon agave nectar
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
• 4 corn tortillas
• juice of 1 lime

Heat oven to 350.  Toss the tomatoes, garlic and jalapeno with the olive oil and bake for about 20-30 minutes.  Check on the garlic though, that won’t take as long.  I kept the jalapeno seeds in, but you could remove them at this point for a less spicy soup.

Throw all the ingredients into a large pot.  Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, or until the tortillas are really soft, and using a stick blender puree.  Garnish with fried tortillas, cilantro and lime.

I didn’t realize how low calorie this dish was, so yesterday at lunch I ended up adding 3/4 cup of egg noodles, and I had a spinach quesadilla on the side.

I had chicken legs soaking in 1/2 cup of buttermilk, salt and pepper for 24 hours.  I simply took them from that marinade straight to the grill with just the addition of a little garlic salt.  Buttermilk makes the juiciest chicken, whether you bake it, fry it or grill it.

It was so nice outside last night – love the view from my grill!  Although we have to attack the creepy Charlie – it’s this tiny blue flower that just takes over the lawn.

I had some green beans that I was going to sauté with a bit of olive oil, lemon zest and almonds.  When I went to reach for them, they were frozen.  For some reason my back right hand corner is super cold in my fridge. 

All was not lost.  I decided to make a quick beer batter:

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup (3 oz) beer
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 a pound of fresh green beans

Heat your fryer or oil to 350.  Mix the flour, beer, salt and pepper together and toss the green beans in and let them soak while the oil gets to temperature.  Fry for 3-4 minutes, until the batter is golden brown.  I have Carolina bbq sauce on my legs (thanks Rachel!)

This made two servings.  Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, our fryer holds the oil temperature perfectly so nothing is greasy.  However, I do add 1 teaspoon of oil when calculating the nutrition.  This made 2 servings:  120 calories, 2.4 fat, 19 carbs, 2 fiber and 3.5 protein.  Delicious!

Stats for Wednesday:

• 1378 calories, 50 fat, 138 carbs, 13.5 fiber, 92 protein, 257 mg cholesterol
• 40% calories from carbs, 33% from fat and 27% from protein
• 45 minute treadmill workout

Yikes, only 20 minutes before I need to leave for work, and I still have bread in the oven to take out – no worries though, I’ll make it.  Make it a great day!