Day 2: Chicken Rotini

So far I'm off to a great start, the Moroccan Chicken was quite delicious, satisfying, and made for quick clean up! Plus I weighed in today, dropping 1.6 pounds since yesterday!

Tonight's dinner features whole wheat pasts and even sweet potato!

Chicken Rotini with Roma Tomato Sauce:
****
Adapted from The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook
Reheat: 30 minutes at 350°



> Prick one sweet potato with a fork and place into microwave for about 6 minutes. Or until soft. Remove skin, mash up and set aside.

> Cut 1/2 of a chicken breast into thin strips and set aside.

> In a skillet heat 1 Tbsp coconut oil over medium lie heat. Add 1/4 chopped vidalia onion, 1/2 a chopped carrot, and 1/2 a rib of chopped celery and cook until soft but not brown.

> Add a small sprig of basil, chopped, 1/4 tsp. Dried oregano, and 1 clove of minced garlic. Continue to cook another 2-3 minutes.

> Add 2 chopped Roma tomatoes, 1/2 of the sweet potato pulp, and a 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Add chicken strips and Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer for 20 minutes.

> Meanwhile, Fill a pot with water and a dash of salt and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 to 1 cup dried whole wheat rotini noodles to water and boil for about 10 minutes.

> Dain pasts and combine with tomato sauce.

Day 1: Moroccan Chicken

A few years ago, in a whole different life, I got sick and tired of coming home and staring into the pantry like it was a Magic 8 Ball every night - never truely yielding up anything of worth for me or the 2 hungry boys. So I decided to try out meal planning - which ended up saving me time, money, sanity, and of course weight gain! But life changes. Now, single, I just don't bother. I'm never in the mood to cook for just me, and my food always goes bad before I can finish it. So, naturally, I eat a lot of convenience food (or my sister's food - let's be honest!) And I will never be healthy like this - plus there is a lot to be said for a nice home cooked meal!

So this last Sunday I drew up a menu and went shopping. I made sure to choose dynamic dishes that also used similar ingredients. Then I spent a couple of hours Sunday cooking everything up. The hardest part was modifying for a single serving! Then I put each one into small (7x5x1) casserole dish and popped them into the freezer.

Day 1: Moroccan Chicken over Basmati Rice
*****
Reheat 30 mins. @ 350°
Modified from Eat Clean Diet Cookbook

> In a skillet heat 1tsp coconut oil over medium low heat. Add 1/4 of a vidallia onion, chopped, and sauté untill well cooked.

> Add half of a chicken breast, thinly sliced, and sauté 2 more minutes.

> In a small bowl combine a heavy pinch of sea salt, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp Chili powder and aheavy pinch of cinnamon - combine and then add to skillet, evenly distributing over chicken.

> Sauté until chicken is cooked through.

> Lay a bed of cooked Basmati rice into the caserole dish and top with chicken mixture.

> Cover and freeze immediately. Remove cover and cover with foil before replacing in the oven.

I'm in

I ( Oma) am new to this party, thank you for allowing me in girls.  I have been trying to loose weight for it seems most of my life....crazy because my family is all very small...but I have a horrible sweet tooth and no control.

I am taking control. 

June 1st the Hubs and I started a dextox cleanse with a product we were introduced to called Elemis...the first month every morning with breakfast we take a deep drainage body enhancement & a cal-metab plus capsule.  These are all herbal formulas.  We got enough for 6 months.

The guy explaining the program said that if the liver is clean then you won't store extra water as well as getting the toxins out of your system will help you digest your foods better and keep the intestines working well.  Also I have been getting so many colds lately and this is suppose to help the immune system.........It all makes sense. 

At the same time as doing this drinking lots of water and eating well and exercising is important...

~dah~

 we all know that part. 

I have been doing well all week, little slip ups but nothing big...if I start my day with greek yogurt (Melanie I loved that stuff you got me last weekend what was it again?) and blueberries or raspberries it just feels good for me and I can do well the rest of the day.

So far I have lost 4lbs this week....I need to lose 40 so if I can lose 4lbs a week that is only 10 weeks....I have to keep going I really want to be back in my clothes again...the ones I haven't thrown out for 10 years....and I want to be healthy to keep up with my grandkids.......yikes big goal - but girls

 I'm all in! 

While writing this I've already drank 1 glass of water...my water bottle is a 16oz panera bread cup with a pink straw and it works for me....I am also keeping a journal of what I eat...

Ok.... I'm using this blog to make me be accountable....here goes!!!!

hiccups

It's been a very long week or so... I don't get stressed all that often but when I do it's in a major way.

And I have been stressed.

I need a break... but that's a different matter. My biggest problem with keeping on my diet is that I am a horrible stress-eater. In fact this has been me for at least the last week:

I need to get a grip. So whether I like it or not, I'm going back to being good starting NOW.

I haven't weighed in in a week and a half, I'm slightly concerned about what that number will be but I can't beat myself up about it... I just need to go back to what I was doing...

...I've always wanted to take Krav Maga, I bet that would take care of both my weight and my stress...

Sunday Confessional

My lovely sisters gave me publishing rights on this blog and I never post anything. Until now.  I don't post things as this is not my preferred method of encouraging myself to be more healthy.  However something that does speak to me is Mathematics.  I recently read an article that mathematically explains the issue of obesity today.  Being an applied mathematician I found this article fascinating.  I would draw your attention to some of his ending remarks:

Any practical advice from your number crunching?

One of the things the numbers have shown us is that weight change, up or down, takes a very, very long time. All diets work. But the reaction time is really slow: on the order of a year. 

People don’t wait long enough to see what they are going to stabilize at. So if you drop weight and return to your old eating habits, the time it takes to crawl back to your old weight is something like three years. To help people understand this better, we’ve posted an interactive version of our model at bwsimulator.niddk.nih.gov. People can plug in their information and learn how much they’ll need to reduce their intake and increase their activity to lose. It will also give them a rough sense of how much time it will take to reach the goal. Applied mathematics in action!

Article from the NY Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/science/a-mathematical-challenge-to-obesity.html

The simulation is interesting and not too complicated to use so try it out.  And remember you are using a beautiful thing called mathematics.

On a less serious note I've had a song stuck in my head almost all weekend.  The chorus says "My body tells me no, but I won't quit 'cause I want more."  It makes me think of my delicious pasta salad I made this weekend. I guess I'll have to dance around to the song a few more times to burn off those extra calories.

loving yourself

 A long time ago - when I was at a weight I'd give anything to be at right now - I was trying to lose weight. And I had a thought. I'm always reading and hearing about how you aren't supposed to "diet", you are supposed to make life changes. Anyone can crash diet and lose weight, even a lot of weight. It's keeping it off that is the real challenge. So my thought was... I shouldn't just be focused on losing weight, I need to learn to love my body (regardless of how I feel about it when I look in the mirror). Treat it well. Take care of it.

Easier said than done.

 

I've always been extremely self conscious about how I look, my weight especially, and that's not something easily overcome. A big part of doing this weight loss challenge between Sandie and I is that I just need that extra nudge to remind myself I need to take care of me. Eating right and exercising is the biggest part of it, but I'm trying to do other small things as well. This is particularly difficult with a 3 year old and a 4 month old... but every little bit helps. Whether it's trying to make sure I'm getting enough sleep (ha! 4 month olds are totally known for letting their moms get sleep), or taking time for something small like a hair treatment or a pedicure. All the moms out there definitely know what it's like to put yourself last on the priority list... so take this challenge and do something for YOU this week!

I'll leave you with this last picture - I think it's completely on par with what I'm trying to convey here. It also reminds me of my Grandmama who is 94... or 95? To this day if you asked her how old she is, she would tell you "sweet 16".

Sunday Confessional

     Sometimes I feel like there is a lot of food obligation. What do I mean by that? I'm talking about instances in everyday life where people or circumstances predict the outcome of your dietary intake. This is always a huge downfall of mine! Guys especially seem to have a need to feed women, like we're starving away just because we're on a diet. Friday was my worst day of all! I had actually been great all week and steadily loosing weight, and then there was suddenly too much food obligation! I was working too hard - up super early, no breakfast, no lunch, squeezed in some water breaks and an energy bar, then went into OT and then stopped in to spend several hours helping a friend with their own job that was overwhelming them. Naturally I was offered food - Rinconsitos (so yummy!). Which I turned down since I was headed to dinner at my sister's house. But these 2 guys wouldn't take no for an answer! So they ordered me 2 small tacos, made sure I ate them, bought me a soda, dared me to eat a whole jalapeño, then tried to force more tacos on me! Then I went to my sister's house where we ordered amazing Indian food - followed up with ice cream desserts (and I'm lactose intolerant). I'm pretty sure I crashed my whole diet in one day!! The confessional is open please post or add encouragement for others. 

It's Not A Diet

       A few years ago Melanie (my amazing little sister) had her adorable and wild son Matthew. After recovering from the birth and getting back to work she sent out a plea - the baby weight needed to go and she didn't want to do it alone. I was out clothes shopping when her text dinged. I took one look at the offer, one last look in the dressing room mirror and eagerly responded "when can we start?!" BEST. DECISION. EVER. One of the first things I did was call up a good friend of mine who is a personal trainer and asked about diets. She told me not to go with any of the diets, but instead change the way I look at food. She steered me towards Tosca Reno and her popular Eat Clean Diet. She immediately added "It's NOT a diet! It's a way of life." If you haven't checked this out yet, you should! The biggest most important message is about moving towards whole grains and natural healthy foods and cutting out processed foods full of sugars and empty calories. This means smarter shopping and more home cooked meals - and as my friend added "only treat yourself once a month" so no more packaged or fast foods. This "diet" is surprisingly easy, very satisfying, good for the whole family, and honestly a bit of an adventure! I didn't realize how many basic foods I've never even tried. Trying new rice alternatives opened up so many options I just wasn't familiar cooking with - and I have so many favorites! Here is a favorite from the Eat Clean Diet Cookbook:

MAUI BLACK BEAN SOUP 

In a large skillet, heat 2T olive oil over medium heat. Add 2 ribs of celery (coarsely chopped), 1 fat carrot (peeled and chopped), 1 small purple onion (peeled and chopped), and 1 red and 1 green bell pepper (cleaned and chopped). Sauté until onion becomes translucent, about 8 minutes. Add 2 cloves of garlic (through a garlic press), 1 tsp. dried cumin, 1 tsp. dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp chili powder. Cook another 2 minutes. Add 4 cups stock, 2 (15 oz) cans of black beans, and 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Using a blender, purée soup to desired consistency (some chunks are nice so don't blend 100% without trying it first.) Add 1 cup fresh corn and let simmer another 5 minutes. Serves 8

Sunday Confessions

It's confession time again - and I am proud to say that I have been SO good with my diet this week! I can't think of a time that I've cheated even once (this may be a first)! I've really tried to construct my diet around a realistic, healthy new way to eat. But more on that later.

Just because I haven't cheated on my diet, however, does not mean I don't have anything to confess. I've been extremely lazy about exercising. I'm here to confess I haven't done a single workout since last Saturday! And I don't mean yesterday-Saturday, but a week ago Saturday. In fact the only reason I'm still losing weight is because I've been so good on my diet! This morning when I did my weigh-in it occurred to me that if I would just do my workouts, I'd probably be losing weight like crazy. I struggle so much with time though.

There are 1,440 minutes in a day, and I need to set aside just need 20 of those. 

Somehow. Somewhere.

So what is your confession for the week? Eat a whole box of cookies (been there)? Have fast food every day for lunch at work (done that, too)? Let's hear it!

Adding a Little Spice to Your Life

Let me be honest - I'm a wimp! I'm pretty tough for a girl, but in a rediculously delicate package! I cannot handle the sun in any form thanks to my beyond fair skin, let's not even start on my blue eyes, and I wouldn't even go near mild salsa until I was about 17. I AM A WIMP! Or I should say - was. Then I met someone who cooks the most wonderfully authentic Mexican food. It was "man" up or loose out on an amazing experience. After about 6 months it became clear that I was actually better at tolerating spicy foods than he was! I actually eat whole jalapeños and dump hot sauce on 90% of what I eat now. My son actually said to me "why don't you just use the whole bottle of hot sauce on that tostada?!" To which I replied, "because I might want seconds!" Little did I know, the benefits of eating spicy foods are great!

Did you know that spicy foods can speed up your metabolism? They contain capsaicin {the element that gives chillies their heat} which increases your heart rate and your body tempeature upon consumption - which speeds up the rate at which your body burns calories. Unfortunately the increase is at only about 8%, strength training exercises being your best bet since muscle is a more effective calorie burner. You would have to make an extreme diet change to see a larger effect. But it is still something to consider the next time you go out to eat, stray from your diet, or are just looking for a snack. It should also be noted that similar effects were also found with black pepper and ginger. Capsaicin has also proven to be an appetite supressor - studies suggest that people who consume spicy foods tend to consume 200 calories fewer than those who didn't eat spicy foods. In addition it is a natural blood thinner, an anti-inflammatory, helps to reduce allergy and asthma symptoms, releases good endorphins to the brain, and even helps to control pain!

So keep exercising, keep eating healthy, but don't be afraid to add a little spice to your life!

Our Hunger Games

In the interest of staying committed and motivated in our effort to lose weight and get healthy, Sandie and I have decided to have a little sisterly competition.... Sandie has dubbed it:

The Hunger Games

The rules are easy... to win the competition you have to be the first person to lose 50 pounds. For every pound we lose, a dollar goes in a jar. If you gain any of the weight back, that money stays in the jar and you still have to pay when you re-lose the weight. At the end, whoever hits 50 pounds first - and maintains it for a month - gets 175% of the money (meaning the money in their jar plus 75% of the other person's money).

It's that simple.

Aside from the whole "losing 50 pounds" part.

I'm going to find a way to post on the side bar how much money is in each of our jars, and if you look at the very bottom of this blog you'll be able to see where we are at in our weight loss. Currently I'm about 2 pounds ahead - HA! IN YOUR FACE!

...although to be fair, I haven't weighed in since Friday, and I DID just eat a big bowl of ice cream while celebrating a coworker's birthday... not to mention I still have 45 pounds to go....

anyway...

We are both just competitive enough that this might work for us! We'll keep the blog updated on our progress, and we'd love to have someone else join in with us! Maybe on a smaller pound goal? If we decide we are brave enough, maybe we will even post progress pictures. Maybe.

Wish us luck, and maybe a little encouragement!

Sunday Confessional

Welcome to the Sunday confessional! This is a new feature to the blog, and one that I'm hoping will be not only fun and humorous, but therapeutic and educational. The idea is that every Sunday a contributor will start off the confessional. Then all you followers can respond in support, ideas, and hopefully your own confession from the past week! Confessions can be big or small but need to be diet, exercise or health related - no confessing to pranks or serious life sins unless you can prove it tipped your scale! Since this was my *brilliant* idea, I promised to make the first confession!

Food carries too much importance to me - and it takes a lot to admit that out loud...or at least in black in white! It's not something I can just brush off - take or leave it. There is often a full on mental battle that goes on in my head when I choose to turn food down - one than can be hard to win with so many mental excuses and justifications! This week someone brought in a cookie bouquet! I took one look at it and then my brain screamed "your sister just lost 5 pounds on her weigh in today! Stop looking at that and run away!" At least I won that battle!! Burn Notice is open for confessions - please comment and please CONFESS!

dieting rules

I'm starting my new weight loss plan today. For reals. I did my first workout in a long time, and I'm doing my best to eat right! I always struggle with what to eat. I'm thinking I'm going to do a version of the Slim Fast diet. I like the shakes, and I love not having to prepare meals for work or while trying to corral two kids. The thing is though, I don't want to have a really strict diet. I want to have a healthier way of living so that this is a permanent change and not just a temporary diet that will end in me going back to doing things exactly as I was. I'm going to make some weight loss rules for myself and if nothing else, I must follow these rules. Here are the rules I'm creating for myself - and if anyone has any good ideas for additions to these then please share!

1. no junk food. period. (this includes all cookies, chips, soda, etc... and especially fast food)

2. drink nothing but water and occasionally crystal light (no juice or soda - a suprising number of useless calories are consumed this way)

3. drink a minimum 64 oz of water per day, but preferably twice that (twice that = 1 gallon)

4. no food after 8 pm (really I'd like to make this time earlier, but since Aaron isn't home from work until 7 we eat dinner pretty late... I'm not really sure of a way around this yet that doesn't involve not having family dinners)

5. get at least 8 hours of sleep per night (I wish this could be more as I have a sleeping disorder - but with a baby I think I'll be lucky to even get this much. We'll see)

6. always eat breakfast

7. only bring to work the food I plan on eating that day, and no more. (if I bring more, I will always find myself bored and munching on anything in sight)

I feel like there were a couple others I had thought of... I should have written them down when I thought of them. I'll add to this list if I think of anything. That's it for now... I'll comment on how my workouts are going after I've done a few more days of it... so for now I'll leave with a picture I found that I feel is a good motivator for me. It's a good thing to picture in my mind when reaching for some sort of junk that I don't need!

it's about time

Nothing has been posted on this blog in a very long time... one might think we didn't need the weight loss help anymore! The reality is, I have been getting fatter instead. Ok to be fair, I had another baby. That doesn't make me feel much better about the weight gain though... it does, however, mean I gained back all of the weight I lost last time around. Great.

So I'm starting from square one... I've gained all the weight back, plus I've lost the majority of the strength and stamina I had gained from 2 years of workouts. I plan on coming back to this blog and hopefully using it as an outlet and a form of accountability. My little Miles is now 3 months old and I've yet to do anything to start getting my old body back. I'm really struggling getting motivated what with being so tired and busy with a full time job and 2 kids! I NEED to make this happen. And soon. I'm starting to head in to that downward spiral which leads to me feeling completely depressed and hopeless about how I look and feel. So I need to {wo}man up and make it happen.

Anyone out there with me?