Hint of the Day

Hint of the day:  Take a few extra minutes to cut up fresh snacks like these carrots.  It will save you time and you'll be surprised how many extra servings of veggies you'll eat each week!

Composting

Hint of the Day: Try composting!  My mom helped me get this started a few weeks ago when they were helping with our yard work.  We took an old recycling bin that was just sitting around our garage, added some old leaves from last fall, a little dirt, some water, and the veggie scraps and coffee grounds from that weekend.  Over the past few weeks I've been adding to it every couple days.  I was really worried about how I would collect everything without my kitchen stinking, but it really hasn't been an issue.  I have a large cottage cheese container (empty) sitting on my counter and I toss in the apple cores, salad left-overs from lunch, egg shells, etc. each day.  Every other day it fills up and I run it out to my bin.  By late fall/next spring I'll have all kinds of healthy, black dirt!  And it makes me feel really good knowing how much trash I've kept out of the land fill.  We hardly filled a trash bag this week!

Grilled Turkey with Apples

We broke the grill out tonight and tried out a new combination.  It turned out pretty well!  (Note: I didn't measure out exactly so calories are approximate).

1/2 package of 99/1 turkey cutlets
Lowry's marinade (garlic & herb)
1 apple, sliced vertically
fresh green beans

Soak the turkey cutlets in a few tablespoons of the marinade in a bowl for at least 30 minutes.  (This is the part I didn't measure.  I struggle with the marinades because the calorie count is low and since most of it is left in the bowl I'm not sure how that counts).  Toss the turkey on the grill once it's around 450 degrees and cook about 5-7 minutes each side.  Slice the apple and add that to the grill, cooking 2-3 minutes per side.  While these are grilling, cut the green beans and add to a microwaveable pot with a little water.  I use the Pampered Chef pots, which are great for steaming veggies.

After the meat and apple is cooked, measure out your portion and enjoy!

Approximate calorie count of my meal:
3 oz turkey: 90 calories
green beans: 30 calories
roll: approximately 100 calories
apple: 95 calories (Mark ate one tiny slice so I'm counting the whole apple)
marinade: ???
Total: 315 (+ marinade)

 

Note: I ate dessert too, so don't worry I had more than my share of calories today.  Snacking is still my main issue!!

Lunch

I had the chance to eat lunch at home today, after going home with a terrible sore throat.  At this point it's not fun, but I'm really hoping it's allergies and not a cold because that is something that can be medicated.  I can kind of feel it moving to my lungs, so I have a feeling it's a cold.  Anyways, I try to eat a balanced lunch because it's the one thing that I pack up on a regular basis and KNOW that will be my healthy meal of the day.  Here was my lunch today:

salad - 15 calories
olive oil & red wine vinegar - 30 calories
pineapple (4 ounces) - 57 calories
chips (1 ounce) - 160 calories

I still haven't broken my chip addiction, but have realized that it's mainly because of the seasoning.  I really like seasoning!  Based on this realization I've been trying to use more seasoning in the meal itself and eat less chips.  It's not working super well, but it's a work in progress!

Hint of the Day

Hint of the Day:  Keep a food journal.  It may be painful to see what you're eating, but it helps keep you accountable.  The pain is actually good! 

For instance, I'm trying to get back on track after a disastrous weekend and forcing myself to write every.single.calorie down is making me realize exactly how off track I was.  It's helping me rein myself in again - although I'm still a ways away from getting back to where I was.  Cream cheese mints are the death of me!

Sugar Bites

This weekend was Joanna's wedding, which was super exciting, although I knew my diet would be out the window.  Anyone out there watch Biggest Loser or Survivor?  If so, you may be able to relate to what happened. 

Every season on Survivor there's a reward challenge where the contestants get comfort food and pig out.  Result: everyone feels terrible and gets horribly sick.  I watch that and go, "heck, if I didn't eat for 30 days there's no WAY I'd feel that bad".  Each season on Biggest Loser they have a segment where someone binges during their home visit and then gets horribly sick.  I watch this and think, "well duh, stupid.  You eat that much crap of COURSE you're going to feel awful!". 

Now we're at the wedding story.  I tried to hold back and eat ok to start with.  Instead of eating a donut for breakfast on Friday I had a quarter of a donut and an apple.  I had healthy chicken tortilla soup and salad for lunch.  Then we had a pasta bar, dessert bar, and cream cheese mints for dinner.  Bring on the downfall.  I love cream cheese mints and guess what, they're full of sugar.  The next day I had half a ton of m&m's and other assorted candy while preparing for the wedding, then about 25 cream cheese mints (plus cake) at the reception.  About a hour after this I thought I was going to barf.  All that sugar after going over a month hardly eating any sugar just killed me.  My mom actually had me out in the parking lot walking around, telling me she'd hold my hair while I threw up just like when I was little.  Later, while I was laying in a chair outside the bathroom, I had to explain to multiple guests that, no, I was NOT drunk, just not feeling well.  Oh the humility. 

Anyways, the root of the story is that it doesn't pay to binge and that not only will you gain weight but you may end up laying in a chair, in your bridesmaid dress, wanting to die.  So be good and eat moderately in those types of situations.  Don't deny yourself, but less is better!

Hint of the Day

Hint of the Day: All natural fruit Popsicles make a good dessert.  You get a sweet treat for only 45 calories!

Hint of the Day

Hint of the Day: Mix up your exercise routine.  Your body gets used to exercise if you keep the same routine for a few weeks, so change things up to boost your calorie burn.  Try a new exercise class, jump on the bike if you normally run, or try a yoga class!

Big Milestone

I hit a big milestone today.  It's been 1 full month since I decided to start eating better and tracking my intake in a food diary.  I was shocked when I did it for just one full week, and am astounded that I've made it a month!  There obviously are a couple of days that I missed partially, either forgetting it at work or (like this weekend) having too much going on to fill it in.  But even with everything going on I was aware of my food choices and portions.  So far I've lost a couple of pounds, which is nice but wasn't the end goal.  I no longer feel super puffy, which WAS the goal - feeling puffy and bloated 24/7 is not fun!  Over the month I've made an effort to go to exercise classes, even though I love the eliptical and the classes are never at convenient times.  But I have to say mixing it up has helped a lot and I feel stronger after being forced to actually hold weights.  I plan on continuing this momentum and maintaining my new lifestyle, only because I feel so much better.  Going forward I'm going to try and insert some exercise tips too, although I do NOT consider myself an expert.  So take anything I post with a grain of salt and consult a professional if you have any questions :)   Good luck!

Hint of the Day

Hint of the Day: Start the day with a banana.  Bananas have a fairly high calories count (105) but are packed with nutrients and will fill you up for the morning.  You may be able to skip your morning snack!

Food Prep

One of the hardest things about this lifestyle change has been taking the time to make food.  It takes so much time to plan meals, shop for fresh ingredients, and cook meals after being gone for over 12 hours a day.  Then after dinner is done I have to prep my lunch for the next day.  I try to have it done at night so that I don't have to rush in the morning and actually take healthy food.  In the mornings I get really lazy about healthy food and get tempted to bring pasta bowls etc instead of my salad and fruit.  Last night I was NOT in the mood to cook or cut up my salad for the rest of the week or my cantaloupe. I may have been tempted to lay on the floor and have a tantrum.  But I continue to remind myself of how important it is to maintain this newly healthy lifestyle and got my knife and cutting board out to start chopping. 

I'm also running short on new recipes.  We love all the recipes we've tried and make them regularly, but now we'd like to try something new.  So if you have any good, healthy recipes to share send them my way!

Temptations

Today was a struggle.  I'm just going to put it out there.  This morning started it all off wrong.  I woke up exhausted (not a good sign) after staying up too late trying to get Mark ready for interviews and not sleeping well due to allergies.  As a result I cracked and had a (not so healthy) granola bar for breakfast instead of something healthier.  It's never good when I eat sweets for breakfast, because then I crave them all.day.long.  I did ok for lunch, having healthy soup from D'Brian's and swapping out my 170 calorie garlic bread sticks for a 65 calorie wheat bread stick. But I almost (almost!) caved and got McDonalds for dinner.  I was soooo craving fried food.  In the end though, as I was on the eliptical, I decided that I HAD to be strong and have something healthy.  We had grilled chicken, fresh steamed green beans, and bread with olive oil (not so good for you).  Overall I hit my calories for the day and was really proud for staying on track!

Hint of the day

Hint of the Day: Use a food scale!  This was a huge learning for me.  It really makes a difference to measure or weight your portions.  A food scale doesn't take more than an extra few seconds and can drastically help you control portions.