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

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!

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!

Quick Laugh

Camp Food

So as most of you know, we just got home from our first camping trip of the summer. One of our biggest obstacles to overcome would be FOOD! And this is an issue on SO MANY levels. Food takes up a lot of space, wastes a lot of my time, requires a lot of clean up, and tends to be over done when camping.

Last summer was the first summer that Melanie and I had been working out and really trying to become more health conscious. We were working out and watching our food choices, etc... and then camping season started! Suddenly I was gaining 3-5 pounds over a weekend camping trip! I would spend the next week working the weight off, only to put it back on the very next weekend. I was so disgusted! So we really tried to get a better perspective. All the workouts and smart eating during the week couldn't compete with soda, chips, marshmallows, burgers, and hot coco during the weekend! So we started to slowly make changes. We left all of the soda and juices at home. Instead we brought along water bottles and powdered drink mix (Gatorade or poweraide). We started cutting out the snacks and instead just brought one treat (like marshmallows) that we didn't want to part with. Then I did a bunch of food research to find healthier meals that strayed from the normal burger options. Lastly we committed ourselves to stick with the food plans and not just stop somewhere and grab fast food, etc...

Well all of those strategies were good starts, but this year I decided to take it even further! This summer I spent a couple of weekends, well in advance of camping season, to plan "menus" and prepare/portion/freeze all of the food. I started with breakfast: I decided to make mini muffins (just using the tiny muffin tins), and then bagged them up by portion size and froze them (to be eaten a few at a time with a piece of fruit), and my Loaded Oats recipe that is super easy and super filling. I just bagged up all of the dry ingredients in Ziplocs. For lunches I decided to do stuff like chicken salad wraps. Wraps are a great idea in lots of ways, but my favorite so far is that a bag as flat as a pancake packs a heck of a lot easier than a loaf of bread! Then I bought a few snacks (pretzels, apples, banana chips, etc.) and bagged them in snack ziplocs per person, per day. Finally, for dinners I came up with a handful of easy meals that could be made, frozen, and easily reheated over a campfire when the time came. I used our slow cooker and made a huge pot of chili, BBQ pork, baked beans, and fried up ground meat. Then I measured out portions and froze it all. The chili and beans can be reheated and eaten with mini corn bread muffins. The BBQ pork can be eaten on buns, and the ground meat is for Hobo dinners.

Well our first trip this summer put it all to the test! The boys griped the first night saying "what do you mean this is all there is for dinner?!" and tried out lines like "so if I get hungry in the middle of the night...where are the snacks?" Well I put my foot down and didn't give an inch! Plus it helped that there wasn't a fridge that they could raid in the middle of the night;) Once they relaxed it was clear that there was more than enough food still. All of it was much healthier options, all of it was cooked in disposable foil trays over the campfire (and eaten out of them too, so no clean up!) and nobody went hungry. We went biking and exploring and got in some good exercise too! And when we got home everybody felt great with no guilt trips! Just a few sore muscles from the 6 mile bike ride:)

Breakfast Smoothies

Okay, I think it's about time we had a new post on this blog, and it's about time Melanie thought of a "good title"!

As Melanie and I have progressed through our workouts one of the things we have stumbled upon is the value of a good breakfast. I LOVE cereal and feel that I'm somehow being jipped one of the best things in life if I don't get to eat a bowl every morning. BUT, cereal does not sustain the body for very long. Even after a couple bowls of cereal, I'm already hungry for a snack by the time I get into work in the morning. So that doesn't say a lot for cereal, no matter how much I love it! But I don't have a lot of time to "prepare" a breakfast before Elliott and I run out the door in the mornings. Plus I can't eat eggs and don't want just plain toast or anything. So I talked to a friend of mine who works as a physical trainer and asked her for some tips, and maybe a good breakfast idea. She gave me the basic outline for a good breakfast smoothie so that I could fill in the rest to fit my diet. Over the last year I've figured out what I like, and it has really helped! This makes a LOT, and it holds me over until lunch time EASILY! Plus it's a great way to add healthy things into your diet.

Breakfast Smoothie

In a blender add:

1 Cup of Milk (I use light vanilla soy milk or almond milk)
1 Serving of Protein Powder (I use the Chocolate Gen Soy brand)
1-2 Tbsp. of ground Flax Seed (optional)
1 Tbsp. of powdered Fiber (optional)
1 peeled Banana

After that has been thoroughly combined, add:

1/2 Cup of Oats (barely covered in water and microwaved for 30 seconds to soften)
1/2-1 Cup of FROZEN fruit (I like to use the bagged fruit blends)

Blend until all of the oats and fruit are COMPLETELY combined, then add:

3-5 Ice cubes, this will help thicken it up a bit

Blend until all ice chunks have been dissolved, about 10 seconds.

This will fill a HUGE smoothie cup, or can be broken into 2 cups to share if you want. If you freeze any extra, just make sure you give it proper time to thaw out a bit before drinking the rest. And don't worry it will not be gritty or chunky. Adding more or less fruit will change the consistency of the smoothie along with revealing or masking the taste of the protein powder. I like to not add TOO much so that I can still taste the chocolate flavor. Also, pretty much any dietary/vitamin powders can be thrown in here to work into your diet.

My 7 year old ,Elliott, loves this smoothie too and will often ask if I'll share some with him. It's great too because I can eat it on the go and it whips up in less than 5 minutes!

Christmas weigh-in

So, as usual these holidays have been filled with all the things that are bad for us. But luckily we got a Wii for Christmas! Who knew Nintindo could prevent weight gain?! Instead of death by chocolate, I've been "training" on Wii Sports! Boxing, baseball, tennis, bowling, and golf. Instead of gaining weight I've broken even! Oh, and solved 5 CSI cases! I suggest we all get Wii's!

Lunch

Does anybody have some good solutions for lunch at work? It is my least desired meal of the day, but in my opinion more important than breakfast. If I don't eat breakfast I will still wait for lunch. But if I don't eat lunch I will binge as soon as I can get my hands on food! The problem is that I can never seem to find anything appetizing for lunch, that's also healthy. So I'm looking for some suggestions beyond sandwiches from home, and left over dinners (because let's face it, I just ate it a few hours ago, I'm not interested in eating it again!).

Clearly We Need to Stick Together

This is a follow up to Melanie's last post. I just got home from a big camping trip, so I just discovered this blog! Melanie and I have been working out to the Chalene workouts together and we are in the second week of the final month this week. Well since I was camping Thursday (last week) through this morning (Monday) that means that I wasn't around to work out with Melanie, not there to support her...and nobody was there to encourage me either! It just goes to show that support and encouragement go a long way, and when the structures are removed it's just that much easier to give in to temptation.

I include myself in those statements of course. I decided I would skip all of the work outs since there wasn't any real good way to do them camping. I wasn't exactly going to hook the lap top up to the power inverter and work out in the tent or by the picnic table or anything! But I did tell myself that I could do other things to stay active. And it sort of worked out. I took the dog out for walks on the beach in the morning, I played a little football with Elliott, we went on the Hall of Mosses hike, and we took lots of walks with the dog around the campground. BUT..... I also ate toasted marshmallows, I drank lots of sodas and juices, I ate junk food, and even had breakfasts such as beacon and eggs and pancakes, etc... so over all....it was a TERRIBLE weekend! I even tortured myself and gave in to cravings and had an ice cream cone on the way home on the ferry today!!! I'm not even supposed to be eating dairy, so I paid for it dearly within half an hour...but bad bad bad with the self control!

We are going camping again this next weekend, and Jonathon promised to let me have more control over the menu to make sure that we eat healthier because this weekend was just embarrassing!

Tomorrow at work, I will know the damage when I use the fancy digital scale....Melanie, expect to hear from me with tears!