On the Menu This Week

Greek Style Cheeseburgers
Vegetarian Black Bean Chili
Roasted Cornish Hens with Quinoa and Broccoli

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Berry Picking on the Farm

I went to the South47 Farm today, the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that I belong to. For those who don't know what a CSA is you basically buy a stake in the farm. You pay a fee up front and get a share of vegetables and fruits that the farm produces, usually weekly. Most CSAs have a set box of produce that you get weekly, what I like about South 47 is you get a debit type card to use every time you go. So I got vegetable starts at one point, to try and catch up on my vegetable garden, now the produce is really starting to roll in.

They have both U-Pick and Farmstand produce. The berries, herbs and some of the other vegetables are U-Pick, most of the vegetables are at the farm stand, at least that's how it appears now.

Today I picked both raspberries and blueberries. Is anything sweeter than a freshly picked piece of fruit???? I ate at least a few as I meandered through the vines looking to fill my 3 baskets. I also grabbed some dill and cilantro, 2 herbs that I don't use enough of to justify growing my own. Well I do use lots of cilantro but it always seems to bolt before I get any real use out of it.

I also picked up some of their first crop carrots, nice and sweet, heirloom zucchini, green onions, baby red onions and organic rainier cherries from Eastern Washington, soooo yummy. Still early and there isnt much selection but you see the rows growing and that's just cool.

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My Plan

I did WeightWatchers once before in 2004-2005. I lost 50 pounds. I gained some back going through my divorce but the good news is I kept off 20 of them until I restarted WeightWatchers in January 2009.

For the first time, I have found a plan that was easy to stick to. Something just felt right this time. Before embarking on WeightWatchers I re-read some books I had found helpful in the middle of my last journey. The books are listed under "Weight Loss" Books on the side bar, and a blog post about them will follow soon. These books helped get me mentally prepared to lose weight and they are the reason I think I am finding losing to be less of a struggle. I am not letting myself get discouraged by small gains and I am seeing far more consistent results.

WeightWatchers gives you a points target based on weight and basic daily activity level. Every food has a points value based on calories, fiber and fat. Then its like a checkbook you start with your daily balance, subtract for foods eaten and add for activity done which can earn you points. Exercise=More Food. Each food point is roughly 50 calories and each activity point is worth roughly 100, I use a heart-rate monitor to calculate my activity points earned.

You also get 35 weekly points to use as you want anytime during the week. For me the most successful both mentally and on the scale is to use most of those points on Saturday night for a splurge and to then stick to my daily points fairly closely the rest of the week. It helps me to know my favourite foods are only a week away if I want them. People can manage the plan however they want but for me this is the most successful. When I'm working out a lot I try to eat some of those activity points as well. Ironically I get much smaller losses the weeks I don't eat those points on Saturday, maybe it shakes up my metabolism, who knows I just know it works

Finally my last key to my plan is attending meetings. It helps keep me accountable and on track.

Weight Loss Slideshow