October 06, 2012

Pumpkin Spice Doughnut

Today is Jerry's "change over" weekend--when he switches from midnights to days at work (this happens every four weeks). So he was off work all day yesterday and today, so we wanted to spend some time with the kids.

Last night, we took the boys out to dinner at Applebee's (their choice). Jerry and I were trying hard to decide where to eat, because we wanted to pick a place that we could fit into our PointsPlus. We were looking at menus online, and I was getting frustrated. Finally, I just said, "Let's just ask the kids where they want to go, and I'll make a good choice. Maybe I will go over my Points, but I don't care. I'm not going to avoid my favorite restaurants forever."

The kids ended up choosing Applebee's, which actually made counting Points really easy. Applebee's has a few items that are "Weight Watchers" items, and the Points values are even listed on the menu. I ended up getting the Creamy Parmesan Chicken (a chicken breast with a little cheese on top, served with spinach and rice pilaf). It wasn't bad! I definitely like homemade cooking better, but for a restaurant meal that fit into my Points, it was decent.

Afterward, we took the boys to get their Halloween costumes. Halloween is the only time of year that I think it would be more fun to have a little girl. My boys wanted to be all the gross/scary things, but we settled on a ninja and some sort of ghoul.

We went through the drive thru at McDonald's on the way home for a vanilla ice cream cone. I never, ever go to McD's, but I was really longing for dessert, and a cone from McD's is only 5 PP. It was so good, and easy to fit into my daily PP, that I think I will do that more often :)

This is a tea saucer-sized plate
This morning, Jerry went to get doughnuts to bring home for breakfast. We very rarely do something like that, but it's not very often that he has a weekend morning off where we get to just be lazy and spend time together as a family. I had already decided what to get--a seasonal Pumpkin Spice cake doughnut. I looked up the PointsPlus online, and it said 7 PP for a glazed cake doughnut. Not too bad, considering I had some extra activity points to use up today.

The 7 PP meant a two-ounce doughnut. I had no clue what they weighed, but I assumed that it was about two ounces, because it was about half the size of the yeast doughnuts. When Jerry brought it home, I put it on my kitchen scale to check: 4.5 ounces.

When I plugged in the numbers, that meant that my tiny little doughnut was 15 PP!!

Totally not worth it. That's equivalent to THREE of the McD's ice cream cones. So I didn't take a single bite. I let the kids and Jerry each try it, and then we threw it away. I was really disappointed, but there was no way I was going to spend 15 PP on that tiny little doughnut.

I ended up having two waffles with sugar-free syrup for 4 PP, and it was very satisfying.

This afternoon we had a birthday party to attend. Jerry's co-worker Daniel was turning 23, and his girlfriend planned a surprise party for him. She went all-out, and did a fantastic job with his party. It was at a bowling alley, and she put a lot of thought into the details.

I ate lunch before I went, and decided that I wouldn't have cake or anything else at the party. It was hard--she had little chocolates on sticks in the shape of moustaches:
Eli had already eaten a bite of his 'stache, but you get the idea
There were cookies and little cakes, pizza, soda, and birthday cake and ice cream. I didn't eat any of it, but I had already planned on getting another McDonald's cone on the way home, so it wasn't too difficult ;)

I stopped at Sam's Club on the way home to buy more grapes. I eat more grapes now than I did peanut butter a few weeks ago--I'm addicted! I really should start keeping track of the pounds of grapes I go through. While we were there, I spotted some pumpkin spice Bagel Thins. Those sounded really good to me, so I bought some. I hope I like them, because I had to buy them in bulk at Sam's! I'm going to try one for breakfast tomorrow. Trying to think of what to spread them with. Just cream cheese? Or maybe pumpkin butter...

Today marks the end of four full weeks on Weight Watchers. I feel as strong and determined as I did back in 2009-2010 when I went a whole year without a binge. It feels awesome to be back in control!

19 comments:

  1. Whoa! Good thing you weighed it. I wonder if a scale would help me. I'm focused on clearing my mental clutter, which I blogged about tonight. Thanks for the inspiration and heads up about the sizes/portions!!!

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  2. What a day of challenges!! I cannot imagine doing so well...congrats on that :) We are celebrating Thanksgiving here in Canada, must remember portion sizes and not to eat like it is my last meal. enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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  3. I got the Pumpkin Spice English muffins and they are good. I have the Land O Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread (70 calories for 1 T) and I'll use that on one half and pb on the other.

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  4. The cinnamon land o'lakes butter is good, or philadelphia has a pumpkin cream cheese that's REALLY yummy. I get it at Target (which also has a brown sugar cream cheese this time of year. I have not tried that yet).

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  5. the donut sounded really good but 15 pts? yikes! I like to add nutmeg or pumpkin spice to my oatmeal. I use Coach's Oats

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  6. Understanding fully that grapes are less /calories/ than peanut butter, and possibly a good substitution for binging in this case, I'd try to dial back post-race. Grapes, while delicious, are very nutritionally void, mostly consisting of blood-sugar-spiking sugars and water. They're usually on the list of 'eat sparingly' fruits for dieters. PB at least has healthy fat and protein, I'd personally rather spend my calories there. Of course, it being a binge-food for you, you may not have the same benefit.

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  7. Well my 2 suggestions-the cinnamon sugar butter and pumpkin cream cheese-have been suggested already but another thought would be apple butter. I was sooooo scared to try it for some odd reason but recently did and LOVE it! It's like thick, reduced applesauce that's a little creamy. That might be good on the bagel thins.

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  8. Just in case you hadn't thought of it, you can freeze bagel thins. I put take a couple out and place them in a ziploc in my pantry and throw the rest of the package into a freezer ziploc and toss it in the freezer. I take two out at a time to keep in the pantry and they taste just as good to me! If I leave the whole package in the pantry they get moldy before I eat them all. Hope that helps. :)

    And lucky you for finding pumpkin space bagel thins. I haven't seen them! But you can bet if I did I would've grabbed two packages. I love me some pumpkin. :)

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  9. Laughing cow has a cinnamon cream cheese that is amazing on them!!!

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  10. Sounds like you're very much in control with WW! All you food and snack comments have made me hungry for something pumpkin spice ;)

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  11. I love that you share your process of making the best choices you can amidst all the temptations. It's a good reminder how easy it can be to get derailed and how important it is to stay determined. Making health a priority is challenging for everyone-it's not easier some people and harder for others. Thanks again for sharing!

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  12. It's a good thing you weighed the donut before eating it. That's not something I would have thought of.

    Laughing cow 1/3 less fat cinnamon cream cheese is really good on the bagel thins.

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  13. Im a sucker for Pumpkin... anything! =b

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  14. Eggo also makes a Pumpkin Spice waffle and it satisfies my pumpkin tooth! :)

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  15. That point count is ridiculous for a donut!

    At Applebee's they have a garlic steak served with mushroom caps stuffed with spinach that is delicious and part of the 550 calories menu. I'm not sure on the point, but if you go there again you should check it out if you're feeling it (or Jerry!), because it is so so so good!

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  16. I LOVE bagels but acutally prefer bagel thins to thick, regular bagels now. I usually make a breakfast sandwich with them by combining a fried egg or scrambled egg & egg white with turkey bacon & a little cheese..very filling but still low in fat & calories!

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  17. A friend of mine mixes cream cheese AND pumpkin butter to make a super yummy spread!

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