On-the-go!

I was asked by a friend, what are some good, on-the-go snacks that are both filling and healthy so here are some of my favs. For further reading on the benefits of snacking please go here.

I keep these in my center compartment in the car:
~Almonds
~Special K Bars
~Peanut Butter packets (from restaurants)
~Market Pantry Strawberry cereal bars
~raisin boxes (mini boxes)
~no salt pretzels
~goldfish (1 serving)

Items you can keep in drawer at work:
~Canned fruit (IN WATER)
~Fruit (apples are best because they store longer)
~Ready to drink shakes
~canned low sodium healthy soups
~tuna pouches

If you have access to a mini fridge or have a cooler in your car (only for temp storage):
~hard boiled eggs
~low or non fat yogurt (plain or vanilla only)
~celery or carrot sticks (in premade baggies)
~cheese sticks
~cottage cheese
~sugarfree jell-o

This is my fave: Tangerine and Rice Cakes :)

And PLEASE don't forget to drink your water!!!

~wL

Back from unREALity!

Vegas was unreal. A little hit and miss, but fun for the most part. I feel like dieting is like budgeting [money]. You save up [calories] so you can use them later on. :) So that I did! I'm sorry I don't have pictures of what I ate, but I did take pictures of what I wore.

Cathouse hookah lounge + nightclub

sightseeing on strip

A big s/o to my bff Mary for making the night a blast. I love that girl!!!

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My Workout:

I was supposed to go to Fitness Class this am but I felt so sick I had to stay home :(

My Meals: 

8 am Breakfast: 3 egg whites and 1c spinach

10 am Snack: apple and 1 oz string cheese

12 pm Shake: Chocolate Protein Shake

2 pm Lunch: Chili

5 pm Dinner: Chicken salad

7 pm Dessert: Sugarfree Jello

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Recipe Request:

Here is a recipe request for a healthy version of Macaroni and Cheese.

I make it using cauliflower instead of pasta for a low carb dinner version...

Serves 2

3 cups Cauliflower –Steamed and chopped 

1 cup low fat shredded Cheddar 

1 cup low fat shredded Colby Jack 

2 Tbsp Half and half (I used 2% milk)

2 Tbsp reduced fat cream cheese

1/4 tsp garlic powder 

1/4 tsp onion powder 

1/4 tsp ground mustard (I used Dijon mustard)

Preheat oven to 350F. In saucepan over medium-low heat, warm milk, cream cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, and mustard (feel free to use any combination of spices you like). Whisk until creamy, do not let boil. Mix cheese together in bowl. Pour 1 1/2 cups of cheese mixture into saucepan. Stir until cheese is completely melted. Add cauliflower and gently fold until cauliflower is covered. Place mixture into baking dish and top with remaining shredded cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cheese is browned. (If desired broil for the last 2 minutes of baking time)

We stayed in...it was officially a lazy Monday :/

~wL

Second contest entry...

The second entry request was for a Steak Milanese.  Here's a healthy version:
Serves 4
16 ounces of sirloin steak (the quality of the meat make a huge difference)
2 egg whites
1 tbsp water
1/2 cup fine panko crumbs (can be found at any health food store)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large tomato finely chopped
1/4 cup of fresh parsley, minced

Season the steak with salt and pepper and a good steak season. Combine the egg whites and water in a bowl. Dip each steak into the egg mix then coat with crumbs. Repeat with each steak.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the steaks in two batches and saute until golden brown. Turning only once. Finish by sprinkling each steak with tomato and parsley.
Cals: 233, Sat Fat: 2g, Sodium: 450mg, Carbs: 12g, Protein: 24g

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My Workout:

No workout except for light house chores

My Meals:

8 am Breakfast: Chocolate Protein shake

12 pm Snack: Pretzel sticks and 1/4 cottage cheese

3 pm Lunch: Chili with added turkey meatballs

5 pm Dinner: Baked chicken strips w/ side salad (Hubby and baby had baked potato wedges)

Chicken Strips Recipe: 

Serves 4

1lb chicken, cut into strips

1 c of low-fat buttermilk (I used 2% milk)

1 c breadcrumbs or panko crumbs (I used homemade crumbs made from toasted wheat bread)

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp of poultry seasoning (I used Adobo season all)

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

1/4 tsp allspice

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly coat a broiler pan w/cooking spray. Pour milk into a pie plate. In another plate combine crumbs, paprika, poultry seasoning, red pepper, allspice and black pepper. Dip chicken in milk then coat both sides with crumb mix. Place on broiler pan and bake for 6 minutes, then turn to other side and bake another 6 minutes or until center is no longer pink. 

I'll be having some potatoes for lunch tomorrow

And as I go off to Las Vegas for my birthday weekend extravaganza I leave you all with this...

Do something to improve your health TODAY, because you CAN!

~wL

Contest entry...

My first contest entry response was a request for an enchilada recipe. Now if you know me, you know that my food has to serve two purposes, it has to be good and it has to be healthy. Here is my favorite healthy enchiladas recipe, I hope you enjoy...

Serves 4
1 lb chicken breast (you can pre cook before for faster prep)
4 green onions, sliced (I use reg white, diced)
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced, optional
2 cans of green enchilada sauce
8 corn tortillas
1 c reduced-fat cheddar cheese or part-skim mozzarella
2 c lettuce, shredded (I use chopped spinach)
1/2 c fresh salsa
1/2 c light sour cream
1 tomato, sliced, optional

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly coat a baking pan w/cooking spray. Place chicken in a pot and cover w/water over high heat, cook until center no longer pink. Drain and let cool. Shred the cooked chicken and set apart. In same pot you cooked chicken add cooking spray place over medium high heat, add green onions, jalapeno, shredded chicken and 1 can of enchilada sauce. Cook about 5 minutes until warm.
Warm tortillas so they are flexible and fill with 1/8 of chicken filling, and roll. Do this for remainder of tortillas assembling in baking pan. Pour remaining 1 can of enchilada sauce evenly over all tortillas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake until heated through and cheese has melted, about 15 mins. Serve by topping with lettuce (or spinach) salsa, sour cream, and tomatoes. Enjoy!

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My Workout:
1.5 mile run
20 minutes of core exercises
2 sets of 20 reps of chest presses, super-setted (followed with no rest) by set of 15 flys
2 sets of 15 push ups
15 tricep dips
2 sets of 20 reps of arm curls
various TRX workouts
2 sets of 15 pullups
2 sets of 15 reps tricep cable extensions

My Meals:
8:30 am Breakfast: 1 chocolate protein bar
10 am Post Workout: EAS Myoplex Chocolate Carb Control Shake
12:30 pm Lunch: Mediterranean Chicken Salad from Tender Greens (no dressing)

from Tender Greens Restaurant, Point Loma

3 pm Snack: Chocolate protein shake and 1 string cheese

5:30 pm Dinner: Turkey spaghetti with leftover spaghetti squash 

made with last nights leftover squash

8:30 Dessert: 1 small plum

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Inside TENDER GREENS Restaurant...

Rome enjoyed his spaghetti too!

~wL

Is fruit making you fat?

This post was inspired by a Facebook thread on one of my friends pages. She is, like most of us, working on that bikini body for the Summer. Anyway, someone posted about smoothies for breakfast and adding fruit and all that. Now keep in mind (DISCLAIMER: I am not, nor do I claim to be a nutritionist, dietician , or personal trainer) everything that I share with you are things that I have read, researched, and tried on MYSELF first. But, I can speak about this from experience. As I tell people all the time, there is a difference between a weight loss diet and a maintenance/health diet. A REAL weight loss diet will highly limit things like flavored yogurt, pita chips and hummus, FRUIT or FRUIT JUICE or any other kind of juice at that! WHY? Because although these things may be healthy, they are either high in sugar (carbs) or fat (ugh). So they have little or no place in my diet when I am trying to lose weight/cut fat. But the choice is yours.

Let's examine what it would take us to burn 1 cup of orange juice off...

 1 cup = 80 fl oz of 100% orange juice:
Carbs 27g x 4 cals per carb = 108 calories needed to burn off
Sugars 24g / 4.2 g per tsp = 5.7 teaspoons of sugar in 1 cup

So in order to burn that cup of juice you have to add an EXTRA
- 1 mile
- 20 minute brisk walk
- 7 minutes non-stop jump roping or non-stop swimming 
to your workout. Now keep in mind this is aside from your normal workout. So the choice is really up to you. Moderation when it comes to fruit or adding extra time in the gym?

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No Workout - but the legs are sure grateful for the rest day! :)
My Meals:
7:30 am Breakfast: Cereal bar
9:30 am Snack: Low Carb shake
12:30 pm Lunch: Grilled chicken (yesterdays left over) w 1/2 c Uncle Ben's brown rice (microwaveable)

Chicken from yesterday

3:30 pm Snack: mini rice cakes w/1 sm tangerine

6:30 pm Dinner: Shrimp Alfredo over spaghetti squash, 1/2 c steamed green beans

Literally my FAVORITE meal!!!

How to bake Spaghetti Squash:

Peheat oven at 375F

Pierce the squash all over so it won't burst in oven

Place squash in and cook for 25-35 minutes

Slice down middle and scrape out vertically using a fork

Spaghetti squash (after baking)

Alfredo recipe (can be made with chicken or shrimp):

Serves 2:

*If you are using chicken, pre grill/cook it

18 oz shrimp

4 The Laughing Cow cheese wedges (any flavor) I used swiss

4 tbsp 2% (or less) milk

4 tsp reduced fat parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 tsp butter sub or margarine

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat. Once the cheese wedges start to melt, add your shrimp. Stir until sauce thickens and shrimp turn pink. Serve over hot spaghetti squash. *Top with a little more parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste, optional. 

Enjoying today's rain

Oh to be a kid again...!

~wL

Be your own motivator!

Hi everyone! As I flipped through a magazine today, (Clean Eating) I found an ad with a fitness model pretending to be running. This girl's quads and abs were beautifully chiseled. The first thing I did was rip the page out and proceed to put it on my refrigerator, but then I stopped and thought, "Why not put pictures of ME to motivate ME?" It's true, we need to be our OWN motivators. Although others can inspire us, we have to find that strength within US to push for 5 more minutes, to drink that water instead of soda/juice, to get up when the alarm sounds instead of hit snooze. We have to motivate ourselves to do what is right for us when no one else is looking.
So instead, I printed a picture of myself (the progress pics) and put THOSE on my fridge. :)

I AM MY OWN MOTIVATOR!!!

And like I said, embrace those who inspire you. There's nothing wrong with drawing strength from those who you love, admire, and/or respect. 

My son is my biggest inspiration.
Everything I do is...

Workout:

8 minute treadmill warmup @ faster pace. 7.0mph at 1.5 incline

20 minute upper body weight machine circuit

20 minute cycling circuit

10 minute nonstop core exercises

My meals:

8 am Pre Workout: Chocolate protein bar

10 am Post Workout: Low Carb EAS protein shake

12:30 Lunch: Chili w/added 3 turkey meatballs (from frozen Foster Farms Homestyle)

3pm Snack: 1 oz string cheese, 14 almonds

5pm Snack: granola bar, 1/2 plum

7pm Dinner: Grilled chicken seasoned with 1 tbsp Mrs Dash extra spicy seasoning, 1c green beans, 1 side salad with fat free italian dressing

Grilled the rest of chicken for lunch tomorrow :)

9 pm Dessert: 1/4c of red grapes, 10 almonds 

One day I'll be as cool as this guy!

~wL

Sunday funday!

Hello everyone! Hope your weekend was as great as mine! I did a lot but now I'm back on the blog. :) I will most likely not be blogging on Fridays and Saturdays because these are my busiest days, Fridays are filled with a long morning workout, running errands and house chores and Saturdays are all about family.
So here we are on Sunday Funday, what I like to call it! Because you always want to close out the weekend with something fun to do and of course eat, right?
This morning we woke up and went veggie shopping, for our garden that is. I bought 3 types of tomatoes, a couple of herbs and some strawberries, as well as some soil and containers. I'll be doing container gardening this time in case we move, I can take them with me. I'm so excited to get back into gardening, I always loved it and hope to pass that love of labor down to Rome.

fruit & veggie garden supplies

Workout:
4 mile run with a couple of gal pals at Lake Murray Trails. Average 11:00/min pace, definitely a nice, comfortable pace for us.

NOTE: I choose to eat more wholesome breakfast the days I know I will be running more that 3 miles UNLESS, I will be running in the morning. If it's a morning run I go light on breakfast, maybe only a shake or a bar, then I have a really good meal right after.

My meals:
9 am Breakfast: Lean Turkey Kielbasa with 3 egg whites all scrambled together on pan sprayed with Pam  with 1 cup of red grapes

turkey kielbasa egg white scramble
w/red grapes

11 am Snack: Vanilla protein shake, 1 oz almonds, 1 oz string cheese
1:30 pm Pre Workout: 1 granola bar
3:30 pm Post workout: Low carb shake, 30 goldfish
6:30 pm Dinner:  Taco Salad (hubby and baby had tacos)

8 pm Dessert: 1 sugarfree fruit pop


Rome enjoyed Daddy pushing him around the house and thru "tunnels" while momma cooked.

~wL

Not your momma's meatloaf!

Today I want to start with dinner. Why? Because this is one of the easiest, healthiest, and yummiest meatloaf recipes out there! I've adapted this recipe from one I found here. But my version is made with lean turkey (could use breast if you'd like) instead of beef. This will save you about 100 or so calories and 20g of fat per serving! NOTE: I only use Foster Farms brand ground turkey. Please feel free to add any vegetables you want into this meatloaf. I've added zucchini, bell peppers and even grated cauliflower before and the hubby never even notices. :)

When it's fully cooked pull out

Spread mustard mix and cook 5 more minutes

Today's workout:
-12 minute treadmill warm up 6.4mph @ 1.0incline
-20 minutes cycling alternated with 20 minutes various weight machines
The above workout was in my fitness class. Coach had us doing intervals. So all was non stop.
10 minutes of various ab workouts. Especially, scissor kicks, leg lifts, and my fav...toe touches.
Abs definitely sore!

My meals:
8am Breakfast: Low carb bar
10am Post Workout: Low carb vanilla protein shake
12p Lunch: Bean-less turkey chili w/3 added turkey meatballs (from frozen)
2p Snack: Chocolate protein shake
5p Dinner: Turkey meatloaf and roasted vegetables

My plate, yuuuummy!!!

8p Dessert: sugar free cherry jello

Roasted Vegetables Recipe (great vegetarian recipe as well):

2 zucchini's
1 med sized white onion
1.5 cups of cherry tomatoes
1 yellow bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
olive oil
sea salt and pepper, to taste
Wash all veggies. Cut zucchini in half's then chop (not too small or they will disappear), quarter onions, and slice bell peppers.
Toss vegetables in roasting pan with olive oil.
Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.
Cook in preheated oven (350F) for 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on them and toss while they cook about every 5 minutes.

Add color to your plate with these roasted veggies!

Enjoy!
~wL