Chips and Yummy Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Who would have thought you could enjoy chips and salsa guilt free? With Baked Tostito lays you can! Here is a great recipe that I love. It's also great over greens.

1 bottle small fat free italian dressing

1 bag frozen corn

2 cans rinsed black beans

2 cans mild rotel (it's a tomato/green chili combo found in the mexican section)

1 yellow pepper diced

3/4 of a bunch of cilantro chopped fine

3/4 bunch of green onion chopped fine

Enjoy!

SPLURGES

Deprivation IS NOT sustainable. If you are depriving your self...STOP...it will not last and you are wasting your precious time, life and energy on uselessness. Weight loss and management is about eating healthier and moving more and enjoying some splurges along the way. it's not ONE piece of cheesecake that makes you overweight. Mostly it's our day in and day out eating. Throughout our day we have to learn to negotiate. If we want a yummy dessert then if we have a light breakfast, snacks throughout the day of fruits and veggies, a sensible lunch and dinner we can make it work!! For me, I could have lost weigh a whole of a heck of a lot faster if I would have GIVEN UP on all those foods that I just love. I didn't! I ate them in very small quantities and negotiated them in my plan. I know that I would have given up if I had been extreme and cut out all of those things. I would have worked really hard for two or three months and then would have stopped trying and gained the weight back slowly over time.

ambience and satiety

One of the things that I've learned through this weigh loss and maintenance journey is to ENJOY my food. I used to think that the only enjoyable thing about food was how it tastes. This is very true. However, there are also other factors that can help you to enjoy your food. One of these is the ambience. A little music, candle light (it really only takes seconds to light one), and something pretty on the table can do wonders. It helps you to slow down and enjoy what you are eating. This has really helped me to eat less and enjoy my food. Even a glass of ice water is more satisfying in a pretty goblet. Having color in your food also makes it appear more appetizing (and usually offers you more fruits and veggies). I always try to look at the plate and make sure it is full of color. As we are more satisfied in our environment we will eat less and LOSE MORE!

Protein Pancakes

YUMMY HEALTHY PANCAKES

1 cup oatmeal (not instant)

1 cup fat free cottage cheese

6 egg whites

cinnamon, splenda (or truvea), 1-2 tbls water

Put all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth. Cook like you do normal pancakes, except use pam. They will take a little longer than other pancakes, and will be a little thinner. Top with fruit, Cary's sugar free syrup and Fat free rhedi whip. I count 2 pancakes as 1 point!!! This recipe has seriously saved me! I LOVE IT! I feed it to guests and they always love them too! You just gotta try it!

Butterfinger Cake

Check your points since what you use may be a little different
This cake is light and yummy!

Combine:

1 pkg sugar free pudding ( pick your flavor I use vanilla or white chocolate)

1 and 1/2 cup milk skim

Add 2 8 oz containers of FF cool whip

Crush 4 butterfingers (reg size)

Crumble: 1 sugar free angel food cake (buy already baked)

Spray pan with pam. Layer 1/2 the cake, 1/2 the pudding, 1/2 the butterfingers. Repeat layers and refrigerate. Enjoy!!

Mine was 35 points for the whole thing.

Some mental motivation

If you are trying to lose weight you truly have to believe three statements. They are

1. I can do this

2. I want to do this

3. This will work

The first process that happens when we desire to change our bodies and our lives in our thinking! It starts with our thinking and hopefully those positive, action directed thoughts encourage us to make those weight loss actions. We have to believe that it is possible for us to achieve this. I know for me what helped was thinking about things that I had been successful with in my life. Things like my marriage, my children, and my business that I owned. Think of the hard work you did to be successful and have that confidence help you get through your weight loss journey. Do you want this? How bad? Picture yourself having achieved your goal. What are you wearing? Who are you with? What are you doing? How does it feel? This thought can help pull you through when you are losing motivation. Do you believe that your weight loss efforts will work?? If you don't you better figure out a program that you believe will work. If you think you can you can, If you think you can't you can't!!!

DeAnn's top 20 Weight watcher friendly foods!

1. 1 point vita tops muffins (avail in freezer section at grocer and Costco)

2. Fat free rhedi whip

3. 0 point sugar free jello

4. Paloner sugar free jam (3 tbl 0 points)

5. Barbecue flavor pop it chips (in organic section) 10 chips=1 point

6. Fiber One Hungry girl approved 0 point yogurt

7. Ballpark smoked white turkey franks 1 point

8. Philly Swirl 16 cal creamy popsicle 0 points

9. Boca or Morning star Burgers 1-2 points per and super yummy and filling blackbean is 2 points chicken is 1 point...great with feta and salsa and no bun!

10. Hostess 100 cal pack of 3 chocolate mini cupcakes

11. Special K crackers 17 for 1 point

12. La Tortilla smart and delicious 1 point tortilla in deli section

13. Thomas's Bagel Thins=1point

14. Fiber one Granola Bars filling and sugary and chocolatey for 2 points

15. Sugar free Hawaiin punch or Lemon Breeze powder mix

16. Kashi Honey almond flax go lean 1 cup=3points but VERY filling

17. Just for one Green Giant cheesy brocoli or cheesy caulilfour for 0 points (yummy over a baked potato)

18. Jolly time popcorn: spray with pam and butter popcorn seasoning (0points) and enjoy a mini bag for 1 point or a large bag 2 points!

19. No bake cheesecake made with fat free milk and spray butter for the graham cracker crust! Yummy and WAY lower in points (I think it's about 5, but check on the box when you make it, because they are all different sized boxes)

20. Kozy Shack 1 point tapioca or rice pudding

Cheesy Vegetable Soup

2 cartons of chicken broth

1 can rotel diced tomatoes with green chilis

1 block 2% milk velveta cheese

1 LARGE bag frozen broc, caul and carrots (mine was 24oz) <> filling food hooray!~

Cook over medium heat broth, rotel, and frozen veggies. When tender add the block of velveta until melted. Serve immediatly. Great served with a 1 point corn vita top.

1 cup of soup = 1 weight watcher point

My journey losing 30 lbs

Welcome to my blog. I am so excited about this! Now I have a place to share great recipes and ideas! I want to tell you about my weight loss journey. Although I am not the best writer I hope you will be inspired.

The title of my blog is no regrets. I'm not sure about you but I have never met anyone to this day who regrets weight loss. Have you ever heard anyone say "oh that was a waste of time," "i shouldn't have done that," ...no one says that. Weight loss is ALL positive. You feel better, you look better, you move better, you are better!

My weight loss journey began about 2 years ago. My Little Benjamin was about 9 months old. With my other two children it took me till they were 3 or 4 to get down to a weight I was comfortable with at the time ( which was 20 lbs heavier than I am now).

I took a trip to see my family in Arizona. I had moved to Pennsylvania and was struggling. It was a hard time for us. My husband was in the thick of his orthopedic residency. I was depressed and feeling some things I did not like like-- hating my body, constantly wanting to change my clothes because I didn't like how they felt, and looked, lack of confidence in myself, insecurity in my marriage, and a host of other feelings. On this trip I remember one of the days changing my clothes 4 times because I didn't like how I was looking. I also did not enjoy exercise and I felt like I could never wear what I wanted. I always had to work at hiding this or that flaw in my body.

I also realized that my self esteem had been wrapped up in my work for the previous 10 years. It was now time to stay at home and be the mom I always wanted to be. I wanted to be a fun, happy mom. Not a depressed, insecure, overweight, unconfident mom. I decided that I could do something that would help me have a better self esteem without working, and that was weight loss.

Last summer we spent a week in Hilton Head. As I was walking on the beach with my husband I said to him "this is the best vacation we have ever had." He was a little perplexed and argued with me about this. He reminded me that we had been to Hawaii and on several cruises. You know what??? It doesn't matter what or where you are...when you feel good about who you are, what you have become, the goals you have achieved. nothing is better than that. I guess that is why that was the best vacation to me. AND I HAVE NO REGRETS!