Cereal Obsession

As a kid I grew up with a mom who did not allow us to have sugar cereals. Occasionally our whining paid off at the grocery store and we broke her down to buy us Lucky Charms, Trix, or Coco Puffs. I found a cereal that rivals all the others and is healthy for you....Fiber One Carmel Delight. I love, love, love, this cereal so much that I eat it without milk. I definitely suggest trying it!

Chocolate Fix

If you're like me there are those certain foods that if put in front of you or are even in close range you will devour. Well, mine is Oreos and I can't just have one so they are completely banned from my house. I recently had friends in town and they had brought a package with them but left in the van. I tried so hard to not look at them but they just kept calling my name so I indulged thank goodness there wasn't many left.

Anyway one of the best recipes I found to satisfy my Chocolate fix is from the Hungry Girl cookbook(the original book) and it's the easiest recipe.

Yum Yum Brownie Muffins - Hungry Girl recipe
1 box devil's food cake mix(18 oz)
One 15 oz. can pure pumpkin

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Mix the two ingredients together. Don't add anything else that may be mentioned on the box, like eggs, oil, or water. The mixture will be very thick, so you might be tempted to add in other things to make the batter smoother. Do not do this! One thing I do add is some chocolate chips or buy the brownie mix with chocolate chunks.

Place batter into a 12 cup muffin pan lined with baking cups or sprayed with nonstick spray. Place pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. If you use the large muffin pans each muffin is 4 WW pts.. I use a mini muffin pan which makes them only 2 WW pts..

You'll LOVE these!!

300 Calorie Pancakes

I love pancakes and I found this recipe in Fitness Magazine.

Peanut Butter & Banana Pancakes
1/2 small banana, chopped(I use the whole banana)
2 tsp peanut butter
1/3 cup prepared whole-grain pancake batter(I use Heart Smart Bisquick)

Add banana and peanut butter to batter. Cook pancakes and serve. You can use honey to drizzle on top. I prefer Smuckers Sugar Free Breakfast Syrup(0 points and so yummy can tell the difference from the real stuff).

Just Say "Thank You"

I know many of us hesitate to accept compliments about ourselves. We do everything we can to outright deflect or reject them. Yet taking the compliment or acknowledging our successes can feel so good. It can help us feel better about ourselves, improve our self-image and self-confidence, and help us feel happiness or joy.

This is definitely true during weight loss as I continue to drop the weight people are very complimentary and gracious about telling me how great I look and what an inspiration I am to them to make a change. It’s taken a while but I’m learning to accept the compliments and turn them into motivation to keep achieving my goals.

The best compliment came the other day from a store clerk downtown and she didn’t even realize she’d just given me the biggest compliment of my life. I had seen a cute summer dress in a fashion magazine and as I walked by the store I thought I’d stop in to see if they had it available. The woman greeted me at the front of the store and asked if she could assist and I told about the dress….now here’s the good part. She said “you need the regular sizes and that store is down the street” the store I was in was for plus size. I could have hugged her right there. I walked out of the store with the biggest smile on my face.

The morale of the story is to learn to accept the compliments no matter why it’s given you deserve it!