I Ate Half a Pizza!

You should have seen the looks I got from that comment when I was at my weight support group on Saturday! I must preface this by saying I used to eat a whole pizza before I started changing things. These are not pizzeria pizzas. I am referring to the frozen ones you get in the grocery stores.

I love pizza. I have been trying for months to create a pizza that not only tastes good to me, but that is within my comfort range of calories, fat, and volume. You can eat most any pizza if you limit yourself to one slice. I just haven't gotten to that point yet.

I tried using pita bread, burrito wraps, and tomato basil wraps as the crusts for my concoctions. None of these were very satisfying. I tried finding a frozen pizza that worked and until I found the Krogers Thin Crust Margherita pizza, I had been unsuccessful. This pizza's serving size is 1/3 of a pizza! I added veggie toppings that I personally like and oh my, this was good! I figured out the calories in half of the pizza too. I cut the frozen pizza in half, re-wrapped the other half and put it back in the freezer before it thawed. This way I can load all my toppings and have a half pizza that really satisfies me! I then have the other half saved for the next time it is pizza night!

Most pizza still is not all that healthy for you, even mine. I would not say to eat this every night as it still has a lot of sodium in it, but it sure was handy! My family has their own real pizzas with their meats and such, at the same time I have my special one. I no longer feel deprived when joining them! Perhaps someday I will be more comfortable with one slice, but for now, this is an option that works for me!

I had loaded the most recent pizza I had with slices of portabella mushrooms, onions, and the like and even added a quarter cup of no-fat Kraft mozzarella cheese! For half a pizza it was 475 calories and had 18 grams of fat. Yummy!

One of the secrets to finding a healthy base pizza to start with, is thin crusts. I see there is a Newman Thin Crust Margherita pizza out there now too. I have not seen it in my stores yet, but will definitely check it out when I do.

I am very motivated to keep on track this summer while my exercise time is constrained by having a young child home from school. I have accomplished a lot over the past seven months. I have:

• Gone from 291 lbs. to 236.8 lbs. (down 54 lbs.)
• Chest 53" to 43" (10" difference)
  
• Waist 50" to43" (7" difference)
• Hips 54" to 47" (7" difference)
• Thigh 29" to 26" (3" difference)

I don't want to gain a pound or an inch back! I am working on the second half of my weight loss journey and this will be harder than the first half. But I do NOT want to backslide! This has been too much fun; fitting into new clothes, having more confidence, and helping encourage others has been a blast!

I also found an outdoor pool, that had a reasonable rate for both my son and I, to use this summer. I can use it four days a week and it is also good to pry my son away from the computer a bit. I can go to the gym on the weekends and on Wednesdays my son will go to see the children's programs at our local library while I sneak in 45 minutes of circuit training at the gym too. I got it covered!

PHEW! I wrote a lot. This entry was hard for me to do for some reason. I just couldn't get started and it isn't as witty as I would like. Maybe next weekend will see more wit and pictures!

Enjoy your week and be kind to yourself!