Thought I’d would join in the Thursday Thirteen fun this week.

In last Thurday’s Thirteen – I covered salty snack solutions for when you’re on a diet. In the discussion from last week’s post, Jo left a comment asking about thirteen SWEET snacks. Don’t we all have sweet cravings?? I sure do – it’s one of my biggest downfalls (even bigger than salty!)

So, here we go – 13 sweet 100 calorie snack solutions:

1. Cracker Jack – 1/3 cup
2. M&Ms – plain, 30
3. M&Ms, with peanuts – 10
4. Caramel-peanut chocolate bar, trick-or-treat size – 1
5. Chocolate and wafer bar, trick-or-treat size – 2
6. Flaky peanut butter chocolate bart, trick-or-treat size – 2
7. Mini Rice Cakes, caramel – 10
8. Jelly beans – 25
9. Licorice – 3 twists
10. Chocolate covered raisins – 20
11. Malted Milk Balls – 7
12. Yogurt Covered raisins – 2 tablespoons
13. Hard Candy – 4 pieces

Don’t forget good ol’ fruit – grapes, apples, oranges, banannas, melon and pineapple to name a few. Usually a 1/2 cup of one of those will give you a good 100 cal. solution. Why isn’t fruit unlimited? It’s good – and good for you – but the natural sugar content of fruit gives it more calories than most vegetables.

Information in this list has been obtained from the Reader’s Digest: Change One Diet book.

Thought I’d would join in the Thursday Thirteen fun this week. It’s my first one – so be nice

In my diet and exercise plan – I find that I have certain weaknesses that are really hard for me to combat. Watching my sodium (salt) intake happens to be one of them. Sometime, as much as I want to drop the weight – I just can’t walk away from the salty crispies.

What have I tried to do when I lust for potato chips? I have a few – - but not many.

The following list are thirteen salty snacks that are 100-calorie portions that might just help the salty crunch craving:

1. Potato Chips – 12
2. Tortilla Chips – 8
3. Baked Tortilla Chips – 10
4. Corn Chips – 15
5. Rye Wafers (such as Ryvita) – 4
6. Wheat Thins (reduced fat) – 15
7. Ritz Bits – 25
8. Triscuits – 4
9. Pretzels – 20 thin sticks
10. Microwave Popcorn (butter flavor) 1 cup (a handful)
11. Rice cakes – 2
12. Peanut butter filled crackers – 2 sandwiches
13. Popcorn cakes – 2

Information in this list has been obtained from the Reader’s Digest: Change One Diet book.

I officially have one month to go before I leave for NY to get married.

The good news is that when I went to NY last month and had my next-to-last final dress fitting, I lost a full 3 inches around my waist… causing them to have to take the dress IN!!

Trust me, I’ve been having bad dreams about them having to let the dress OUT!

I have my final-final fitting on June 18th – - that’s when they’ll make the FINAL adjustments and inform me that I cannot, under any circumstances, lose or gain any weight at all until the BIG DAY on the 24th.

No pressure, really.

So, looking back over the past 6 months, what did I do?

• LOTS of water! TONS of water! Bottles and Bottles of water every single day. Even when I thought I had enough water – I had more water. To the point that now I feel like I’m dehydrating if I don’t have at LEAST 6-8 bottles of water in me
• Lots of walking – - mostly on the treadmill, sometimes outside. Every day. I didn’t walk at a really fast pace.. I kept it mostly between 2.5 – 3.0 MPH – - but at a slight incline, as well.
• Abs, Abs, Abs, Abs!! Mostly on the bowflex – - but some floor ab exercises, as well. I usually did these exercises 3-4 times per week – - every other day
• Looking back over what I ate the most of? Lots of fish – - Tilapia, Salmon, Cod and Tuna. And lots of chicken. Very little red meat and lots of veggies – - broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower.
• I supplemented with Flax Seed Oil and Green Tea.
• I snacked a lot on Dannon’s Light and Fit Fruit Smoothies, SouthBeat Diets Protien snack bars, Myoplex protein shakes, dried apricots, fat free vanilla yogurt and fruit/granola
• Tried REALLY HARD to stay away from Starbucks and my favorite 350 calorie heaven-in-a-cup

All in all – my goal was to lose 50lbs total by mid-June. I’m not there yet, but then neither is June, eh?

I have lost half of it – 25lbs. I estimate losing another 5-8 between now and mid-June if I stay on track – - which will put me 20lbs shy of my goal. But the strange thing is – - I’ve lost a heck of a lotta inches and dropped 4 sizes completely. So, while I’ve lost only 1/2 the weight… and I’m still not a size 8 (rather a size 12 – - used to be 16).. I’m still very happy, overall.

I think during the two weeks I’m in NY for my wedding – - followed by the 2 weeks I’m in South America on my honeymoon… I’ll probably (definitley) relax my dieting quite a bit – - and I’m ok with putting a little back on during that time (although, scuba diving and snorkeling are good exercise!)… I’ll be back at it again when I get home… still chasing that ellusive size 8!