Buffalo Chicken Wrap

My lunch of a Buffalo Chicken wrap (WITH Blue Cheese Sauce), steamed vegetables, and a side spinach salad (WITH dressing) is a total of 280 - 300 calories! Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE BUFFALO WINGS!

Things I've typically eaten in the past for lunch:

• McDonald's Cheeseburger (I'd get the happy meal with diet coke, apples if I was being good)
  300 - 330 calories / 12g fat (6g saturated) / 750 mg of sodium
• Starbuck's Small Double Chocolate Chip Frappacino (no whip - not necc. for lunch, but as a 3:00 pick me up):
  300 calories / 6g fat / (2.5 sat) / 230 mg sodium
• Subway 6inch Turkey on White with Cheese (no mayonnaise light or otherwise):
  320 calories / 8.5 fat (3.5 sat) / 930 mg sodium

Wow, what a difference cooking at home maks. How did I get so much food? It's all about PORTION CONTROL.

• 3 - 4 oz chicken with sauce
  
• 1 cup spinach
  
• 1 tb Newman's Light Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
  
• 2/3 Cup Bird's Eye Steamfresh Asian Medley
  
• 1 tb Blue Cheese Mixture

• One La Tortilla Factory Hand Made Style Corn Tortilla (it really DOES taste like my grandma's homemade tortillla)
  

The Stats: 280 calories / 6.5 fat / 1248mg sodium (I blame the hot sauce) / 20g carbs / 3g sugar / 2.3g fiber / 34g protein

Albeit, it is high in sodium, you get ALL OF THAT FOOD for around 300 calories. You could still add some tortilla chips AND an Edy's No Sugar Added Fruit Bar (so good) and be under 500 calories.

The best part is, I bought the chicken tenderloins on sale, so the grand total for this meal was $13.00 (I already had all of the seasonings, hot sauce, and vinegar). That is less that $2.75 a meal with less than 20 minutes preparation time.

I've seen this recipe a couple of times, but seriously doubted it could fix my buffalo wing cravings. I stand corrected. Enjoy!

BUFFALO CHICKEN WRAP

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce, such as Frank's RedHot
3 tablespoons white vinegar, divided
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound chicken tenders
2 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons nonfat plain yogurt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
4 8-inch whole-wheat tortillas
1 cup shredded romaine lettuce
1 cup sliced celery
1 large tomato, diced

DIRECTIONS
1. Whisk hot pepper sauce, 2 tablespoons vinegar in a medium bowl.
2. Season chicken with celery seed and crushed red peppers
3. Heat large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat (I used the foreman grill and sprayed olive oil on it). Add chicken tenders; cook until cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Add to the bowl with the hot sauce; toss to coat well.
4. Whisk mayonnaise, yogurt, pepper and the remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar in a small bowl. Stir in blue cheese.
5. To assemble wraps: Lay a tortilla on a work surface or plate. Spread with 1 tablespoon blue cheese sauce and top with one-fifth of the chicken.
6. Drizzle with some of the hot sauce remaining in the bowl and roll into a wrap sandwich.

(The original recipe called for celery and tomato, but I didn't want to buy celery for one thing, so that's I used celery seeds. It also called for lettuce, but I love baby spinach.)

Baby Steps - Meal Planning

I have successfully planned and prepared 75% of my meals and snacks for the week:

• I made Indian Spiced Chickpea and Fire Roasted Tomato Soup. This soup is so cheap and easy to make. It's one of those healthy meals that make you wonder if you are cheating because it tastes so good. Three different people have tried it and loved it. Of course I had to add my twist, so I add fresh chopped cilantro and parsley, more fresh garlic, garlic powder, and some garam masala. I also grind the chickpeas coarsely for texture as well as blend a couple of cups of the soup to make it thicker. This will be lunch along with pita chips and baby carrots.


• I made five baggies of strawberries, grapes, and cherries.


• I have greek yogurt for my 3 pm snacks. I plan on topping it with fresh blueberries and sunflower and pumpkin seeds.


• I also made oatmeal with golden raisins and dried cranberries. I added vanilla soymilk, maple syrup (1 tb), brown sugar, vanilla extract, and vanilla protein powder.

I am so proud of myself! This was inspired by Bicycle Girl's Facebook suggestion to pack healthy snacks for the week. When I read that, along with her weight loss success, I thought to myself "Well that's easy, at least I can do that." I took it a step further and added the lunch and breakfast.

I also read an interesting quote from SparkPeople that inspired me:

"Millions of people hope to lose weight. Only a few actually prepare for it. They treat it like a treasure hunt, setting off on a quest and hoping it'll all work out. No wonder the dieting failure rate hovers near 95%. Any time you've reached a meaningful goal, it was because you were ready for it…"

In readiness is much preparation. This reinforced the importance of planning my meals in advance. Part of the reason I've gained weight in the past is because I routinely made poor food choices. I now know that if I leave my meals up to chance, I'll most likely choose something horrible. However, if I put in the effort to plan healthy meals for the week, meals that I know I will eat and that taste good, I will have more of a chance of success.

For example, I buy a lot of food that I feel I should buy because they are good for me or because they are good diet foods. Apples are the perfect example - fiber / apple a day / chewing / cheap / variety / blah blah blah. But I don't always eat them because they aren't always appealing to me. Apples are cool; I don't dislike them, but I don't LOVE them. This week I reached for the apples out of habit, but I thought to myself, what kind of fruit do I LOVE? I love berries and grapes, but I usually don't buy them b/c they are expensive in relation to other fruit. So do I waste the cheap fruit or buy and eat the expensive fruit? I ended up buying cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes. I KNOW I will eat those...and they're so damn pretty (I'm such a visual person, lol).

I am still sticking with my basic goal of exercising 30 minutes at least 3x a week (for the past month I've done way more than that). Now I am adding meal planning. Every Sunday (or Saturday) I will prepare healthy snacks and cook one dish for the week.

Swipe: NPR - "Eat Healthy Without Going Broke"

From Michel Martin's show, Tell Me More, she discusses practical ways we can maintain a healthy lifestyle with a tight budget.



July 17, 2008



"As part of the program's Cheapskate Week, author Dr. Rovenia Brock, a nutritionist, is joined by Jonell Nash, of Essence magazine, who wrote the article "Healthy Food Shopping for Less!" in this month's issue. The two discuss how to eat healthy on a limited budget, and which foods you might be worth a little extra cash." - NPR



Click to Listen

Where is the Easy Button?

As a habitual dieter (see Albert Einstein's definiton of insanity), I know the process of getting on the wagon, jumping off the wagon, completely forgetting there was ever a wagon to begin with, and shamefully running after the wagon when that mischevious muffin top appears.

We food addicts know the feeling of waking up one day, after months of behaving badly, and not being able to fit into those reliable jeans. For me, it was around May when all of my professional work clothes started looking like club clothes. Excuse my crassness, but when you can see your cellulite through your slacks...it MIGHT be time to start hitting the weights and veggies.

This "reawakening" is a vulnerable time in the habitual dieter's life and it comes in stages:

GETTING BACK ON THE WAGON

• Stage One - DENIAL - "The dryer shrunk my jeans! The dryer shrunk my jeans!! I wonder if Home Depot is having a sale?"
• Stage Two - SEEKING CONFIRMATION -"Baby, do I look fat in these jeans?"
  
• Stage Three - ANGER - "Eff these jeans!! They ain't never fit right anyways."
  
• Stage Four - ACCEPTANCE - "I knew they started making clothes smaller. It's a conspiracy. This 14 looks JUST like my size 8.

With acceptance, there comes a new resolve to make a change. This is when our fight or flight response appears. Do we fight our learned habits of getting extra cheese, margaritas, and fried comfort? Or do we fly away from the real reason we are in this predicament?

The key to starting and sticking with a weight loss plan is to avoid panicking, and focus on nurturing. Lack of nurturing your body, mind, and soul is what got you here to begin with.

Since I am an emotional eater, I've learned that I eat to avoid uncomfortable emotions. When I realize I am "fat" again, the emotions I face are shame, guilt, anger, depression. Ironically, those are the same emotions I was trying to avoid (via food and alcohol) to begin with.

Panic mode is a vulnerable time. Those hyperbolic weight loss commercials start looking increasingly appealing. I stock up on health magazines and covertly eye the diet pill aisle in Wal-Mart. I become obsessed with calories and measures. I start making self-deprecating fat jokes. Once again, it is something else to focus on than what I am truly feeling inside. This time I am trying not to transfer one compulsve habit to another.

Panic mode is when habitual dieter's fall for the gimmicks, looking for an easy and painless way to make the fat go away. Panic mode is when you start punishing yourself for failure with unreasonable eating and exercise habits.

I have a friend now who texted me this week that she lost 12 lbs. on the Master Cleanse diet. Now, I am happy for her weight loss, but I can't help but wonder how long that will last without implementing any lifestyle changes.

Unfortunately, when it comes to health, THERE IS NO EASY BUTTON. Consistency and longevity is key. I am trying to remind myself of this pearl as I continue on to the fourth week my 234,4343,324th "health program" and see minimal progress.