Weekly Planner for Detox - Days 8 thru 14

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I'm going to start posting my weekly meal plans while on the Sexy Forever program.  I'll be starting with my first week of meals in the Detox level and going in sequence from there.  I plan on posting my meal plans once per week.

Below is the meal plan for days 8-14 while in the Detox level.  You'll see that it includes information as to whether I got the recipe in one of Suzanne's books or her web site.  In addition, I indicate how many servings to prepare for each recipe to help you plan your shopping list.  And. also, which meals are to be used as leftovers.

Finally, you can reference my blog archives to read my recipes reviews, tips, and preparation information regarding may daily meals for this weekly meal plan.  Also, please keep in mind that my meal plans were prepared for two adults; myself and my husband.


Detox Level - Days 8 through 14 (meals are for 2 adults)

Day	Meals	Prep
Saturday Day 8	B- fried eggs in butter, bacon, sliced tomato L - Chopped Italian salad (pg. 172 Sexy Forever book) D - Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Burger and steamed broccoli (pg. 259 Sexy Forever) AM snack - skipped PM snack - clementines	Make enough Turkey Burgers for 3 meals or 6 servings. Approx. 6 oz. for me and 8 oz. for hubby each serving. Plan 4 servings of the Italian salad; 2 meals.
Sunday Day 9	B - Quinoa (pg. 169) (exercise) L - Leftover Chopped Italian salad (Day 8) D - Tuscan White Bean Soup (2 cups) found on SS web site AM snack - Clementine PM snack - 10 skinless almonds	The bean soup made more than expected. I planned on 3 meals or 6 servings, but it made 4 meals.
Monday Day 10	B - fruit; then exercised. Whole grain toast with natural peanut butter L - Leftover Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Burger (Day 8) and salad D - Cilantro Ginger Chicken (pg. 252 Sexy Forever book) and canned green beans AM snack - hard boiled egg PM snack - clementine	I planned on 2 meals or 4 servings of the Ginger Chicken. But, it made one extra serving.
Tuesday Day 11	B - Fruit salad; then quinoa L - Leftover Tuscan Bean Soup from Day 9 D - Steak Fajita Bowls (SS web site) Skipped AM snack PM snack - small peach	Make one meal of the Steak Fajita Bowls.
Wednesday Day 12	B - Fruit smoothie; exercised. Then quinoa L - Leftover Mozzarella Turkey Burger and sliced tomato w/basil from Day 8 D - Leftover Ginger Chicken (Day 10) and side salad AM snack - cheese PM snack - 10 skinless almonds	Leftover day.
Thursday Day 13	B - fruit; exercised. Then wholegrain toast with natural peanut butter L - Leftover Tuscan White Bean Soup from Day 9 (2cups) D - Hubby had leftover Ginger Chicken (Day 10) and I had leftover turkey burger (Day 8) and a salad AM snack - skipped PM - prosciutto & asparagus roll-ups (SS web site)	I was planning on making fish today, but moved it to tomorrow because I had one serving each of the left over turkey burger and ginger chicken. So, we got a bonus leftover day! Yeah!
Friday Day 14	B - Fruit salad; wait 20 minutes. Then, whole grain toast with natural peanut butter L - Leftover Tuscan soup (Day 9) D - Pan Roasted Catfish with Thyme & Lemon Butter Sauce (pg. 242 Sexy Forever) and brocolli PM Snack - prosciutto & asparagus roll-ups	Make enough fish for one meal.

　

Level 1 - Day 101 (Weigh-in day)

The Scale's Slowing Down

It was bound to happen.  The scale showed a one pound loss for my hubby and it didn't even move at all, for me.

As we're getting closer and closer to our goal weight, it's only natural, I think, for the scale to slow down.  With only 8 more pounds to go for my hubby and 12 for me, I think we're going to have more of a battle to get those last pounds off.

Plus, I think the longer you're on the plan and the closer you get to your goal the more apt you are to cheat a little bit.  And, that's been the case for us, and I'm sure you've all been there too.  I'm not saying we're eating things we shouldn't but rather that I'm not balancing my meals as well as used to do.

Lunch is my culprit because I work from home.  I don't always take the time to make those veggies.  It's much easier to stay on track when the veggie is a leftover or I make a salad ahead of time.  Then, on top of not eating my veggies, I get hungrier at snack time and end up eating a little more than I should.  It's been a struggle to stay on track.  I'm sure you can all relate.

Here's my meal plan for the day:

Breakfast - Cereal with non-fat milk.

AM Snack - Fruit smoothie.

Lunch - Leftover hamburger with a little melted cheese.  I was planning on eating a salad today, but didn't feel like getting everything out ... then chopping, etc.  So, I just ate the protein.

PM Snack - Tomato Pizza Bites (SS web site).  You're supposed to stack a slice of tomato, then a slice of turkey pepperoni, then some cheese and microwave to melt the cheese.  However, I didn't feel like slicing the tomato and just had the pepperoni and cheese.  Now, that's bad.  But worse, my stomach started growling an hour later and that's not good.  So I had a hard-boiled egg when I should have had some sliced veggies.  Yikes!

Dinner - Roasted Sweet Red Pepper Soup with Creme Fraiche and Crispy Sage Leaves (SS web site) plus a meal we had during our first week on the plan, Butterflied Rosemary Chicken with Pan Juices (Sexy Forever book, pg. 254-255).

This was a wonderful combination.  Other than roasting 6 red peppers for an hour, the soup was very fast and easy to make.  Plus, the addition of a dollop of sour cream on top was fabulous. 

However, we weren't too crazy about the fried sage leaves.  While they looked very pretty they didn't add anything at all.  In fact, I think they took away from the heavenly flavors of the soup.  We won't be adding them when we reheat the soup as leftovers, which is too bad because I already made the sage leaves ahead of time.  You know how I hate wasting food, but I ended up throwing the fried sage leaves away.

Regarding the butterflied chicken, you can read my review from our first week in Detox.  Just go to my blog archives and pull up Detox, Day 2.

Level 1 - Day 100

Burning Down The House

In honor of our 100th day in Level 1, one might think I was celebrating with the sounds of our smoke alarm going off while preparing dinner.  On the contrary, the alarms were quite un-nerving as they went off unexpectantly, not once, but three times!  But, luckily for me, my hubby was home and was able to take care of disarming the alarm while I tended to my feisty dinner.

While I quickly worked to keep our expensive dinner from burning, my hubby was running around the house opening windows and bringing in fans to suck the smoke out of the air.  To look at us you would have seen that we were quite the team as we both kept our cool during all the chaos.  And, in the end, we were relieved and delighted when we finally sat down to a delicious dinner.  Although, it wasn't as relaxing as I'd hoped.

The moral of the story:  When a recipe instructs you to cook something on high heat, you need to take into account that all burners are not the same.  Temperatures can differ as well as their features.  Which I later found out.  The burner I was using on my stove has a feature that makes it heat faster and hotter than all the rest.  Yikes!

The second moral of the story, according to my husband:  Always read the directions.

Below are our meals for the day:

Breakfast - Leftover quinoa with non-fat milk and agave nectar.

AM Snack - 3 servings of grapes which I soaked in apple cider vinegar and water for 30 minutes to remove the toxins.

Lunch - Leftover Shrimp Stir Fry for 4 (SS web site) from earlier in the week.  The recipe calls for brown rice which makes it a Level 1 meal.  This is a quick and light meal and was surprisingly more delicious as a leftover.

PM Snack - Natural beef jerkey (1 oz.)

Dinner - Pan-Roasted Ribeye Steak with Slow-Roasted Sweet Onion and Sauteed Spinach.  Other than roasting the onion with bacon wrapped around it for one hour, this is a fairly quick meal to make if you leave out all of our chaos.

My intention was to make a romantic meal for my hubby because he was having a particularly challenging week at work.  Instead our meal reflected the chaos he was experiencing at work.  NOT what I had intended!

The recipe requires heating an oven-proof pan on high then adding EVOO.  Next, you sear the ribeye steak for 2-1/2 minutes on each side.  But, my pan was screaming hot and immediately erupted with smoke and intense sizzling sounds when I tried to sear the steak.  Within a minute the smoke alarm went off.  Then, a minute later, it went off again.

And, if that wasn't enough drama, the recipes directs you to pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees where, once the steak has been seared, you finish cooking it for another 2 minutes.

Well, my pan was smoking and sizzling and spitting EVOO all over.  So, when I opened the oven door to slide the pan inside it soon triggered the smoke alarm to go off the third time.  So much drama for one little steak!  In addition to the smoke alarm noise, I had the oven exhaust fan going on high and my hubby had a large floor fan running on high, too.  We could barley hear ourselves think, let alone carry on any kind of conversation with each other.

But, later, when all the noise stopped, we were able to laugh about it.  But it sure put a damper on my intended romantic and quiet meal.  So, while I will tell you that this was a very delicious meal, I would bet that it was probably much better than I remembered because my emotions weren't in the right place.  You can bet that the next time I make this meal it will be prepared on a lower temperature setting.

Level 1 - Day 99

Weekly Meal Planner

I hope the meal planner I posted in my last blog entry from Detox, Days 1 thru 7, helped some of you plan your meals.  I'd love to hear from you about it.  It was fun for me to go back and re-live those days.  In fact, I'm going to be re-vamping one of Suzanne's meals from that planner in an upcoming meal this week.  Be sure to look for it, as I'm hoping it will be another winner.

I'd also like to mention that I attached the weekly meal planner to my original blog entry in my archives for Detox, Day 1.  So, you can also look for the planner, there, as well.  As I publish upcoming weekly meal planners to my daily blog, I will also be posting it to the corresponding first day from my original blog in my archives.  I'm hoping this addition will help newcomers to my blog, as well, when they search the archived entries.

Here are my meals for today:

Breakfast:  Exercised; then Quinoa with non-fat milk and agave nectar.

AM Snack:  3 servings of fresh pineapple.

Lunch - Spinach Salad with Chicken, Goat Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (SS web site).  For this salad I used leftover chicken from last night's dinner.  I substituted the balsamic vinegar dressing for fresh deli dressing I had on hand. 

PM Snack - Natural beef jerky (1 oz.)

Dinner - I was a little rushed today, so I didn't use one of Suzanne's recipes.  Instead, I simply pan-fried a couple of pork chops in EVOO and paired them with organic, canned peas.

Cheater Alert:  My hubby usually has a couple honey graham crackers and some 1% chocolate milk in the evening and most of the time I can refrain.  However, tonight, I had one, plus a sip of his milk.

Weekly Planner for Detox Days 1-7

Here It Is!

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to start posting my weekly meal plans while on the Sexy Forever program.  I'll be starting with my first week of meals in the Detox level and going in sequence from there.  I plan on posting my meal plans once per week.

Below is the meal plan for days 1-7 while in the Detox level.  You'll see that it includes information as to whether I got the recipe in one of Suzanne's books or her web site.  In addition, I indicate how many servings to prepare for each recipe to help you plan your shopping list.  And. also, which meals are to be used as leftovers.

Finally, you can reference my blog archives to read my recipes reviews, tips, and preparation information regarding may daily meals for this weekly meal plan.  Also, please keep in mind that my meal plans were prepared for two adults; myself and my husband.


Detox Level - Days 1 through 7 (meals are for 2 adults)

Day	Meals	Prep
Saturday Day 1	B - Cup of cantaloupe; exercise. Then, 1 slice whole wheat toast, lettuce, warm tomato & basil L - Taco salad (chopped lettuce, seasoned ground beef, cheddar cheese, sour cream, & salsa) D - Cheeseburger served in lettuce cup and side salad (Sexy Forever book pg. 172) AM snack - skipped PM snack-2 brown rice cakes topped w/fresh salsa	Make enough taco salad for 2 days. Make enough cheeseburgers for 3 days. I made 6 oz. patties for me; 8 oz. patties for hubby.
Sunday Day 2	B - Scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms, fresh spinach, and grated cheese (pg. 171 in Sexy Forever book) L- Leftover cheeseburger and side salad D- Butterflied Rosemary Chicken with Pan Juices (pg. 254) and sautéed kale & brocolli AM snack - one serving cherries PM snack - clementine	Make enough sautéed kale & brocolli for 2 days. Chicken will yield 4 dinners and 4 cobb salads for 2 people.
Monday Day 3	B - Fruit; wait 20 minutes. Then whole wheat toast with lettuce, warm tomato, & basil L - Leftover taco salad D - Leftover cheeseburger & spinach salad AM snack - skipped PM snack - 2 brown rice cakes and fresh salsa
Tuesday Day 4	B - Fruit smoothie L - Egg salad wrap (pg. 172) D - Leftover Rosemary Chicken and leftover sauteed kale and brocolli AM snack - slice of cheddar cheese PM snack - brown rice cakes and fresh salsa	Make enough egg salad for 3 days; or in my case this was 6 lunches.
Wednesday Day 5	B - Cup fruit; wait 20 minutes. Then, whole wheat toast w/lettuce, warm tomato & basil L - Leftover egg salad wrap D - Cobb salad using leftover chicken (recipe page 171 in Sexy Forever book) AM snack - skipped PM snack - 2 brown rice cakes and fresh salsa	Make enough cobb salad for 2 days.  For me, this was 4 lunches.
Thursday Day 6	B - Fruit smoothie using 2 servings of fruit L - leftover egg salad wrap D - Pork chops (pg. 172) and oven-roasted cauliflower AM snack - skipped PM snack - one Clementine; waited 20 minutes, then had slice of cheese	I made 4 pork chops to use for 2 meals.
Friday Day 7	B - bacon, fried eggs, & sautéed zuchini ribbons in EVOO L - leftover cobb salad D - leftover pork chops and sautéed kale in EVOO AM snack - skipped PM snack - last of brown rice cakes and salsa	Re: breakast use 2 eggs per person. There was leftover kale in the bag so I used it up today.

　

Level 1 - Day 95 (weigh-in day)

Stubborn Scale For Hubby

After not sticking to the plan correctly last week, I'm happy to report that I got the scale moving this week and lost another pound.  I was a little worried because I had two cocktails and some potato chips over the Memorial Day weekend.  However, I did stick to the plan the remainder of the week and did not include any Level 1 meals.  So, that must have helped.

My hubby, on the other hand, didn't lose anything this week.  But, he fell off the plan over the Memorial Day weekend by having a few more snacks than I did plus a couple of beers.

So, as of today I've lost a total of 18 pounds and my hubby is holding at 21 pounds.  With both of us wanting to lose 30 pounds each, we're getting closer and closer to our goal.  And because we're getting close, it's easy to get lax once in a while.

Announcement - I'm Adding a New Feature To My Blog

First, I'd like to thank my sister for all her support in regards to my blog and my weight loss success.  She's my biggest fan and the reason behind the new feature I'm adding to my blog.

She suggested a wonderful idea that I think my loyal blog followers will appreciate.  She thought it would be helpful if I could post my complete weekly plan in one document.  Which would also include the recipe source and how many servings I made of each meal.  In that way, she felt it would be easier to plan weekly shopping lists and meal preparation at a glance.

So, starting tomorrow, I will post one week of meals that you can print out or cut and paste to another document.  As you know, I already post our weigh-in information each Friday and our Top 5 Recipes every 30 days.  So, now, I'll also be posting documents that show one week of meals, starting with my meals from Detox, Week 1, and then going sequentially from there.  This will be done each Saturday.

I'd love to hear your comments or suggestions regarding this new addition.  So drop me a note.

Level 1 - Day 90 (Top 5 Recipes)

Top 5 Recipes For The Past 30 Days

I can't believe it's been 3 months since my hubby and I started Level 1 on the Sexy Forever plan.  The food has been fabulous and we've had great results.  As in the past, I'm again posting our favorite recipes for the past 30 days.  Look in the blog archives for previous "Top 5 Recipe" postings.

#1 - Summer Tomato Soup with Basil Pistou and
       Open-Faced Grilled Cheese Sandwich from Day 83
       (a great comfort food meal the Sexy-Forever way)
#2 - Lamburger with Tomato Chutney and Mint from Day 77
#3 - Chicken Parmigiana from Day 63
#4 - Shrimp Scampi and Gorgonzola Cheese Salad from Day 76
#5 - Red Lentil Cumin Soup from Day 75

Here's our meal plan for today:

Breakfast - Special K cereal with non-fat milk.  It's probably not the best choice, but it was on great sale and I had a $1.00 off coupon, to boot!

AM Snack - A delicious fruit smoothie made with assorted frozen fruits and a splash of pomagranite juice.

Lunch - A big salad with greens, deli ham, shredded cheddar cheese, hard-boiled egg, sliced peppers, tomatoes, and homemade Italian dressing.

PM Snack - Sliced cucumber sticks and tomato slices.

Dinner - Leftover London Broil Stir-Fry from Day 88.  (This is the meal I made up myself.)