Category Archives: Tips and Secrets

Weight Watchers Restaurant Helper

Leave a reply

Posh

The picture above was taken at Posh Improvisational Cuisine in Scottsdale Arizona. My Hubby and I enjoyed this restaurant a great deal on our recent trip to Arizona. When we return to Scottsdale, it will be a must eat at again restaurant. AMAZING!!! If you are ever visiting Scottsdale, please go there. The experience, food and staff are just fantastic.

Let’s take a break from food for a moment. The worst part of watching what you eat is when you eat out. Be it with friends, family or a romantic night out. Perhaps it’s a fancy restaurant or just a small gathering at a coffee shop. When possible, I always check the menu before I head out. I want to make sure there’s a healthier option. If I don’t have time to check I most likely end up having the salad or say screw it and go for the full-on, non-healthy dish. That’s call self-sabotage people and the feeling afterwards is not a happy one. Guess what food lovers? All is not lost and yes we can finally enjoy a night out knowing exactly what we are eating. I stumbled upon a restaurant listing that contains the Weight Watcher points Old and New for the dishes served at a few main steam restaurants (Weight Watcher’s Restaurant Helper). I am hoping this helps provide piece of mind to all those food lovers out there. I mean come on, we can’t eat at home all the time.

Note: save the link to your phone so you will have it on hand for those last minute hook ups with your peeps.

Vacation Breakfast

Leave a reply

Last week my hubby and I went on a great vacation to sin city Las Vegas for a whole week. I am always worried when I go on vacation especially for an entire week because I know there will be many temptations that may throw me of track. If your like me you will want to experience it all and here’s how you can without gaining a ton of weight. For breakfast I would have a something light like a fruit dish and my hubby would order an omelette with egg whites then we would share each others dishes. This way I would be getting some of my protein in to help jump start my day but not over indulge with all the added calories and carbs that most breakfast plates have. This is a great way to stay on track and start the day with a well rounded breakfast without consuming a ton of calories. It’s always best to share your meals when you can and always drink water with your meals.  It’s Sin City you can go to the corner store and get cheap wine, coolers, beers and slushies  after dinner, don’t pay those crazy restaurant prices for booze.

Note: The fitness rooms in the Vegas hotels are pricy, even if you are a guest. So to burn off any additional calories I suggest walking the strip at least once or twice a day. Make sure you have comfy running shoes. In the evenings go dancing, there are tons of places to  dance in vegas, just get there early so you don’t have to pay cover. Ladies and gents I gained 2 pounds on this trip. Yes I indulged in treats and yes I drank those fantastic slushies and mojito’s pretty much every night. So go ahead and enjoy Sin City, I sure did and remember if you share your treat, drinks, and meals with your partner your only taking in half of those calories.

The Big Book of ABS

Leave a reply

Weight loss is a combination of eating healthy and working out. I decided to switch up today’s post and share my one true love, working out. I am a huge fan of the Women’s Health workout books and while waiting for my hubby to get off work I decided to walk around coles book store. First I checked out the cookbook area to see if there were any new books on low fat healthy recipes and there were none. They did however have a bar tending for dummies book which I quickly grabbed. Then I headed over to the Well Being section where to my surprise I noticed a new book by Women’s Health The Big Book of ABS. I of course added this to my cart headed out the door. All I can say is wow, what a work out. It’s tough working my core lately. I have done so many AB workouts that they are used to the ones I do. This booked kicked their butt and I am extremely sore which mean they got a great workout. If anyone is looking to get on the right path and do not want to spend money on a gym membership I highly recommend these books. I have all of them and  I use the every time I workout. They have shaped my body and tightened my muscles and for that I give a huge THANK YOU to women’s health.

Tricks to Eating Out

Leave a reply

I have received a few inquires on what I do when I go out for dinner or when I am on vacation. How do you stay on track is the most common question. I would like to share a few rules I keep with me at all time while out on the road traveling or having a romantic dinner with my hubby. The picture above was taken at a restaurant on our vacation to Atlanta. Gumby and Pokey enjoyed the adventure just as much as we did.

The Bad Buzz Words that makes Amanda Run the other way:
  • Creamy Sauce/Dressings…. RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Deep Fried… If I have to explain this I will smack you
  • Pan Seared.. There has to be oil in that pan for it to not stick
  • Anything Blackened.. It’s like a pound of butter to blacken that piece of meat
  • Lightly Battered/Fried… This does not make it less fattening
  • Sauteed… NO NO NO
  • Au Gratin… this means the food is topped with something unhealthy like breadcrumbs, cheese, breadcrumbs and cheese, etc. AVOID this word, just because it sounds fancy doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
General Notes:
  • Good restaurants will accommodate your dietary needs.
  • Some restaurants will have their nutritional values posted for their menu items online.
  • Salads make me laugh. Most salads have higher calories, fat and sodium content then a steak or chicken meal. Don’t believe me check it out the next time you look up nutritional information on your favourite restaurant.
  • Share your dish. My husband and I often share our dishes when we are on vacation. The portions are often huge and we save money in the process. My favourite dish to share is Chicken or Steak Fajita’s. Soooo much food and you control what you want on it.
  • Order from the kids menu. There is no shame.
  • Plan what you will eat before you go. Sometimes it take a few extra moments to decipher a menu. This way you will be prepared to order and will most likely be waiting on your company. DO NOT look at the menu.. just sip your water, play with your phone and wait patiently.
Amanda’s Top 5 Questions/Comments to the Waiter:
  • Hold the cheese please…
  • Dressing on the side please…
  • Instead of the potatoes, rice, pasta etc..can I please have a second helping of veggies or a small side salad?
  • What’s the smallest steak you can make? Yes I have used this and got a pretty small steak….
  • Hold the Pepper Corn Cream Sauce or BBQ Sauce.. It’s amazing how good a steak tastes without all that added stuff.
Amanda’s Friendly Buzz Words:
  • Steamed
  • Baked
  • Grilled
  • Balsamic Vinaigrette
  • Honey Mustard
  • Au Jus
  • Roasted
  • Garden Fresh
Amanda’s Temptation Dessert:
  • I always look at the dessert menu and if there is something that stands out then I order it and share it with my hubby. By sharing your only consuming half the calories.
  • I also will not have an appetizer if I know I am going to have dessert. For starters I just can’t eat that much food and secondly I would much rather have dessert then a plate of calamari or stuffed mushroom caps.

There you have it, Amanda’s top tips and tricks when eating out or on vacation (P.S if on vacation don’t be afraid to use the fitness room if your hotel has one.) If you have a tip and would like to share it please feel free to add it in the comments section below.

Dill-icous Egg White Lettuce Cups

Leave a reply

It’s after the holidays and time to get back on track. This is a simple recipe and takes no time at all to prepare. Plus it’s finger foods so the kids may enjoy this for lunch or dinner. These are my Dill-icous Egg White Lettuce Cups. Wash three large romaine lettuce leaves and pat to dry. Take 3 hard boiled eggs and remove the yolks. Chop eggs into little square pieces and add 1 tsp of low fat mayonnaise and 1 tsp of mustard. Add a sprinkle or two of Dill and a little pepper and mix. Place egg mixture on romaine leaves and enjoy. Total Point value 2 points for the cups, plus 1 point for the side of orange. This was so refreshing after a week of horrible holiday eating.

A Little Tidbit: 1 whole egg yolk and all equates to 2 ww points. 3 egg whites equates to 1 ww points. Needless to say, I gave up on egg yolks and no longer eat them.

What is Couscous?

Leave a reply

Happy Holidays my foodie followers. My last few posts have featured couscous as a side or part of the main. Couscous is a pasta of North African origin made of crushed and steamed semolina. It’s an amazing side dish that I constantly use to replace rice, pasta and other starches. The one I purchase is from Save On Foods, it’s organic and contains 7 grams of fiber. For one cup it’s 3 WW points.

Generic Food List with Points for Weight Watchers

Leave a reply

After a few Weight Watcher conversations with my fellow foodie followers, I decided to share this website Generic Food’s Weight Watchers . It contains a pretty hefty list of various foods and what the WW point value is for each of them. Everything you can think of from A-Z is in this list. I used and still use this site throughout my day to day meal planning. It helps me keep track of what I am eating and the points for each item. It’s a great resource and I hope you’ll use it just as much as I do.

The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises

Leave a reply

If I could recommend any book to get you motivated to start working out, this would the book: My fitness bible is the The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises. As you can see from the condition of the book in the picture above, I use this book a lot. The last few pages of this book have amazing pre-planned workouts, and all workouts are completed within 20-30 mins. I have completed them all and my favourite one is the Hardbody Workout. I used this one before the wedding to sculpt my body especially my back muscles as you can see in the picture below I had BACK FAT. Wow look at the difference in those muscles after following the workout program.

If you are a beginner with weights, I suggest starting out with 5 or 8 pound weights. However if you are intermediate, I suggest 8 to 10 pound weight. Depending on the exercise, I will use any where from 5 to 12 pound weights. If you happen to buy this book, I truly hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It completely transformed my body, but you have to be dedicated to the workouts at least 3 to 4 days a week to see a difference.

Well there you have it another tip from Amanda’s tickle truck of Secrets and Goodies. For more information on staying healthy and added tips and tricks please visit the Women’s Health Website as it is a great resource for health information for women.

Who Is The Hungry Girl?

Leave a reply

Amanda’s Foodie Website of Choice

Aren’t we all just HUNGRY GIRLS!!!

I had to think long and hard before posting my first tips and tricks for you. I know how hard the struggle can be to eat on a point system and feel like you’re starving all the time. Here’s a website I wanted to share with all my foodie followers – Hungry Girl.

Like many of us, this women is all about finding the biggest bang for her buck when it comes to eating and calorie consumption.  Every week she posts a new recipe on low calorie meals, snacks, drinks, etc.

Before I bought her books, I tested a few of the recipes on her site and I loved all the ones that I tried. My absolute favorite book of hers is Hungry Girl 300 Under 300. It’s one of her newer books and it has tons of recipes.

Please take the time to look through her site and see what recipes she has up there for you. A lot of my eating habits changed after I went through her site.

Foodie Follower Food Quote:

“Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”  ~Jim Davis