Weigh-In #25

Previous Weight: 199
Current Weight: 199.4
Difference: +0.4lbs

I guess it takes a while for your body to get back in the swing of things. I expected a loss, but a gain of 0.4 is not much of a gain. I know that I am doing all the right things at the moment and it will only get better from here on out.

I'll tell you all about this week and how I got back on track on Sunday. But right now, I want to share with you how to eat pasta while on a diet.

Once and a while I get a craving for some heavy carbs. I love cooking pasta because it is so easy and always looks like you spent a lot of time on it. I tend to use a bottled marinara sauce and add all my own veggies (onions, garlic, basil, zucchini, bell peppers, etc) and spices to it. By bulking up the sauce with veggies I don't need to add meat to it- shaving off a considerable amount of calories.

While watching my calories, I measure out my pasta carefully with one of these below. It's a pasta measure- giving you the sizes of 1-4 servings. This is for long pastas like spaghetti, fettuccine, linguine, etc. For other types of pastas I use a scale. Pasta is so calorie dense, you really need to watch your serving size. The servings at Olive Garden are enough to feed 2 people. That's why you always have leftovers for the next day.

Another trick I use- make enough servings for the amount of people dining. It is usually just me and my Mister- so I make 2. No leftovers or going back for seconds.

Here is a dish I made myself the other day when I was dying for a little gnocchi.

There is about 1/4 cup of marinara with 2 TBSP of light ricotta for the sauce, 1/2 cup of gnocchi, mozzarella on top and some basil. For a grand total of....

270 calories!

Pretty good. Add a big side salad and you meal is filling and complete. I was totally satisfied.

Eating low calorie or low points doesn't mean that you have to eat bland food. You just have to get yourself into the kitchen and get creative.