Pepperoni Pizza Pasta Salad

I love pasta salad. When I started venturing into the land of Simply Filling (WW's program where you eat mostly Power Foods) it opened up new meal ideas as I didn't have to focus so much on the PPVs and more on the food itself. Because of the carbs it easy to not eat pasta very often because it costs more PPVs. Whole wheat pasta is a Power Food and included when you eat SF and pasta salad is the first recipes I turn to.

Pasta salad is one of the easiest recipes to throw together and the most easy to transport. I read suggestions on Kath's blog for making easy pasta salads:

• Pasta of your choice
• Protein source, mine is usually beans
• Cheese, if you want but we all know cheese makes things better
• Dressing, any pre-packaged dressing works great unless you want to make your own
• Veggie extras, adding in bell pepper and zucchini at the end of cooking your pasta is an easy way to get in some veggies

My usual go-to pasta salad is whole wheat pasta, kidney beans, zucchini, bell pepper, and Greek salad dressing. A few months ago I wanted to get a little creative and I made a pepperoni pizza version. I made it again for our picnic at the winery concert.

In this mix: Whole wheat pasta, turkey pepperoni, black olives, green bell pepper, Monterey jack cheese (I prefer mozzarella), and dressed in light Italian dressing. It was delicious.

As far as SF goes, this salad would cost some PPVs for the cheese, turkey pepperoni, and olives. I had light dressing on hand in the pantry but if you use FF dressing you wouldn't have count that either. Counting a few PPVs for those extra is worth it to me when I don't have to count the PPVs for the pasta. Whole wheat pasta is really filling and pasta salad often holds me over for hours. Unless I am going somewhere that I need a large amount I will often just make a single serving pasta salad where I measure my extras and count the PPVs.

I'm actually thinking this pasta salad would be really good by adding some cheese tortellini and omitting the cheese. I think I'll have to look into that this week.

You Are Awesome!

I ended up with only a pound gain yesterday at my WW meeting. I was thinking it might be closer to two pounds so I was happy to see it was just one. I know what cause my gain and tracking is my number one priority this week. I know when I track my food choices are better and my indulgences are less frequent. I've also done some grocery shopping and meal planning to help myself be successful this week.

My new Apple Watch activity burn goal of 550 calories a day is also challenging me. I found it easier to get the calorie burn in yesterday as I had more hours in the day to do it vs Monday. I also combated the goal by walking a lot! Both Monday and Tuesday I have logged over 10,000 steps. Even when I was meeting my previous goal of 340 calories per day I wasn't meeting 10,000 steps. So perhaps this is what I need to be more active. The hardest part is still my full 12-hour workdays. I'll have to see how I can manage that this week. I know I'll try my best!

I've not been getting onto the scale at home each day or logging my weight the Happy Scale app. I find that I don't like seeing the number go up and the number change to red. Since I had not entered in a few days and knew I might be somewhere in a good range today since I didn't eat over my DPA yesterday, I got on the scale this morning. I was pleasantly surprised to see that while the scale was up slightly from the last time I logged my numbers that I am in the green for the last 30 days!

Since the Happy Scale app takes your average more into consideration vs just the little ups and downs, it can change the moving average over several days. In this case it is showing my weight was stable over the last seven days and it is down over the last 30 days. That was sure nice to see today! Despite having a pound gain at my WW meeting, overall, my average is still hanging in there. I should use this more and continue to weigh myself daily. It is just really hard to see the scale go up.

We had a pretty good meeting topic this week about positive affirmations and how being positive can help weight loss. We all know it is waaaaay to easy to get wrapped up in that scale number and the negative relationship that can form because of it. You must never forget that YOU ARE AWESOME!

Scale Nerves & New Goals

I'm nervous about WI today. Gulp.

I didn't have a meal plan in place last week and winging it didn't work really well. My tracking was lax and I ended up eating out a few meals. I also turned to treats several times this week. I didn't keep my focus on the tango and instead this week I was back to the cha-cha.

Must move forward...keep moving forward.

I got my weekly summary from the activity function on the Apple Watch and it suggested increasing my daily calorie burn to 550 calories. I accepting the change and then immediate doubted I could reach that each and everyday. I have really liked seeing all three circles filled in each day and I really want to see each day turn into a complete month of reaching my three daily goals. However, I am nervous that 550 calories is going to be harder to reach. I tried to find ways to change it but I can't find where to do it. So, I guess I've got a new challenge (for this week at least since it does give the option to change it weekly). While nervous I might not reach my calorie burn goal daily, I need to turn that fear into the drive to complete it each day.

This is how we grow and change. By pushing ourselves harder than we did the day before, the week before, and the month before. So instead of worrying about this goal being to high, I will instead strive to meet that goal each day. Much like I have to focus on getting in 30 minutes of exercise and making sure I stand up and move at least once each other, I will also need to focus on getting in a calorie burn/movement into my day so I can reach all three of my goals this week.

I am also going to meal plan this week so that I am better prepared and arming myself with the right foods to make my week successful.