Spicy Basil Chicken...

This is what we had for dinner tonight, it was absolutely delicious, and it will become a regular.
For 406 calories you get 3/4C of the chicken, 1/2C of the citrus brown rice, and about a handful of the snow peas and peppers. You can add a Lean Cuisine Thai Chicken roll for 67 more calories.

Spicy Basil Chicken Recipe

Sesame Brown Rice

Snow Peas

Dr. Oz....

If you are even the tiniest bit interested in getting healthy and loosing weight you watch Dr. Oz.  I watch it, my mother in-law watches it, and I'm sure 9 out of 10 of my neighbors watch it.  It is a good informative show.  If not for nutritional information he helps us to know that we are weird and not alone.

I recently posted something on FB about bananas reducing your risk of breast cancer by 40%. (seen on a recent episode)  I got a message right quick from a relative telling me about balanced diets and what not.  She's right and I totally agree with her.

While Dr. Oz has PLENTY of wonderful tips, tricks, remedies, and help you feel betters, a lot of his nutritional information (in my opinion) are just puzzle pieces.  I have heard him say a millions times "This is my best diet yet".  I thought we are supposed to be looking for lifestyle changes?  Something permanent, not temporary to get us looking the way we want for maybe a month.  I don't know about you but I want to look good and feel spectacular for the rest of my life.

The point I guess I'm trying to convey is that while Dr. Oz seems to be a very educated man and a lot of fun to watch on TV he fails to mention that if you were to eat a balanced diet of a variety of foods, in most cases you would get all of the nutrients and minerals that your body needs.  Now I know that supplements are something that is needed because not everyone can absorb nutrients in the traditional matter of ingesting them and not everyone likes fish and spinach.

But really if you follow so many of the things that he supports on his show you will find that all you need to do is follow a balanced diet.

Eat whole grains, lots of dark green veggies, fruit, and lean proteins.  Eat something different every day or every two days.  Eat a variety of foods and you will not get bored and chances are you will get all the nutrients that your body needs to function and be healthy.

So watch Dr Oz but remember you need to incorporate the items into your diet along with what you saw on the show the day before. :)

If you haven't visited it yet his website is wonderful and you can find recipes that have been featured on the show. ( I haven't tried any yet, but I will)

Here's the link to his website:

The Doc's Website

Welcome back.....

Welcome back from your Holiday weekend! I hope your first day back to work was at least tolerable :) One of the hardest things that I personally had to deal with when it came to tracking what I eat was being honest with myself. It was like, if I don't write it down it won't count! Um, no. Unfortunately everyone that has ever tried to loose weight knows that that doesn't work. You're just cheating yourself. If that is you,you need to stop doing that right now and start being brutally honest with yourself. EVERYTHING that goes in your mouth and into your stomach counts, no matter how easy it is to convince yourself that it doesn't. Calories are calculated by determining how long it takes to "burn" said food. Food has an actual purpose. Our minimum calories is what we need for normal non active, living functions. The more active the more calories we need to fuel our body. Hence the heavy couch potato and the healthy marathon runner. It has taken me so many years to be able to wrap my head around all this. This time around it clicked. If I watch all the calories I put in and exercise regularly, I will eventually have a healthy body and mind and be able to maintain a healthy weight by keeping up with being an active person. You need to be excited about the foods you eat. If you aren't enjoying your meals your not getting satisfied. If fried chicken is your thing find a new way to make it. (It's a great example because theres so many oven fried recipes out there). There is the biggest cookbook available to you online. Use it. Read user reviews. Be happy about what you eat, and remember if it's an old standby you need to evaluate it to see if it needs a makeover. So, some of the keys to being successful are these: Be honest with yourself Count all your calories Develop an active lifestyle Enjoy what you eat I hope this has made you think about a few things and maybe motivate you to evaluate these areas of your life. I'm excited for my subjects to come this week, so stay tuned, lol.

Fishy Tacos..

Fish tacos are a very delicious meal, and in my house it's considered kid friendly.These came in around 350 calories or so. Of course everyone should have their own special way to have them so calorie values will vary by maker.

It's the Weekend!!!

OK...so I said I would mention weekends in a separate post, so here it is.  Again, this is what has worked for me.  It may not necessarily work for you but it may give you that special spark.

So I weigh in on Saturday mornings.  Its the first thing I do after visiting the bathroom.  There the week long wait is over and I can now enjoy my weekend. :)

I pretty much eat what I like on the weekends and staying within reason has gotten easier and easier due to the fact that certain things now make me feel yucky.  For example if I were to go to McD's and have a big mac super sized blow out I would probably be moaning and groaning in the bathroom, yeah not fun.  But for me to realize it I had to try it and learn from my mistakes, and should you.  The longer you eat healthier the harsher the not so healthy foods will be on your tummy. Not only that the longer you do this the smaller your meals will be and you will find that you probably won't be able to eat as much as you used to. (Hurray for proper portions!)

That being said I suggest you eat that greasy cheesy burger you have been craving all week.  Please feel free to use your weekends as your craving curbers.  But just remember you don't necessarily want to be working out to burn the weekend fat you gained for the first part of the week.

Weekend exercise?  Yeah I don't so much.  They are my workout days of rest, it allows my body to recoup and gear up for the next week of pounding.  But I do stay active in the yard and around the house, and maybe a walk with the family.  With summer coming I would assume that part of the weekends will be spent at the lake or the pool, so I still stay active, I'm just not determined to burn major amounts of calories.

I will be enjoying Chinese take out and grilled burgers and homemade fries this weekend. :D

Enjoy your Holiday weekend and enjoy the wonderful foods that surround you, be safe and happy, savor it cause Tuesday is gonna come fast!.

Plan ahead...

Plan your meals....if you don't think you can plan all of your meals at least plan your dinners. Dinner is the last meal of the day and is usually the one that is sloppily thrown together for varying reasons. Dinner is my families biggest meal of the day, I have friends that have their largest meal at lunch time and then a lighter meal for dinner, which is what most Europeans practice as well. Which ever eating habit you practice I recommend planning out whichever meal is your larger meal. So here is what I do...which is not to say that this will work for you but maybe it will spark an idea that will work for you. I found this steno notebook that was fun and spunky (like me) thinking I should use it for a whatever notebook, well it turned into my menu book. Over half this notebook is filled with weekly menus that I planned out for my family. Now granted not everything always works out and sometimes cooking laziness takes over and the eating out rules need to be applied. When that happens I just roll that days item into the next day or the beginning of the following week. Whatever the case the meal is planned and eaten. Usually no later than Sunday night I sit down with my iPad, my pen and pencil, and my notebook and plan meals. I use the pen for writing the days of the week and the pencil for putting in the recipe titles so if it needs to change I can erase rather than scribble out. For the most part my recipes start off coming from somewhere else and sometimes, not always I make them my own....cheating? Maybe, but I always give credit where credit is deserved. Of course when I'm planning this week I make sure I consider the weeks events, weather, and when I can, my husbands work schedule. I know that Monday's I'm starting the week off fresh and usually want something easy but very satisfying. Tuesday is karate night so I need something quick and kid friendly, Wednesday's and Thursday's are usually my most involved cooking days, these are days that I know I will be willing to be very involved in the cooking process if I desire. Friday is dinner and a movie night so I try to make it easy to eat on melamine or paper plates, on a TV tray while watching a movie. (weekends are different and i will touch on weekends on another post). When I put the recipe on my menu I write down where I can relocate the recipe and the calorie value so I am able to reference to it easily. So you say that sounds like a lot of work...not so much if you think about it. By planning your meals your not scrambling nightly to find something quick, delicious, and low cal and then possibly having to add running to the store into your already busy day. Eating on the fly also contributes to spending more money on things you may or may not use. Planning also helps to prevent weight loss sabotage. If you know what you're eating for dinner you can work the rest of your days food around that rather than having to frantically try to find something filling and satisfying for dinner, make sense? So all in all planning at least one weeks worth of dinners will keep you on track to health and weightless success and save you time and money. So go out and find a purse size notebook that you love and won't fall apart, grab you're favorite pen and pencil and find some wonderful new food to explore! Here are two of my favorite sites:

Eating Well

All Recipes

Falafel...

This was dinner last night. It wasn't the best recipe only because they kept falling apart....going to try a new one next time :) although the couscous was good!

The dreaded "E" word...

EXERCISE!!!!

Everyone always seems to hate that word.  It's related to the following phrases:

• It's so much work
• I can't do that
• It makes me tired
• I don't have time
• I have nobody to watch the kids
• I can't fit it into my work/school schedule
• I have physical limitations that don't let me

BULL FARKLE!!!  Everyone can fit in at least 20 minutes a day, and you would be surprised how easily you can fit in more than that.  I agree change is the devil and its hard to swallow, but once you do it you will be so happy you did!  When I first started I was a wreck because things weren't getting done around the house and I was behind on so many things because the hour i worked out seemed to dip into my day so much.  But, with the help of Tammy getting me to realize that it will start to be "normal" i pushed on.  (Thankfully my husband was also patient with me)

When most of us were small we probably watched our mothers do Sweatin to the Oldies, Jane Fonda, and stationary bicycles, and if you lived on a farm mom probably kept up the calorie burn with daily chores and duties.  A lot has changed since then (that makes me feel old, lol).  We now have gyms, YMCA, at home equipment, and more exercise routines available to us via the Internet.  We are a very lucky generation to have so much available to us.  Oh and lets not forget the two most up and coming modes of movement, the Wii and the Xbox 360 with Kinect.

Where did I start??  I started off almost 100lbs over weight, a pack a day smoker, and never did a day of "working out" in my life!  So my trick was to find something i liked so much i wouldn't want to stop no matter how much i felt like i was dying.  I happened to have a Wii fit board and game thanks to my favorite Florida girl, and I had gotten Just Dance 3 for Christmas.  This is where I started.  I'm not going to sugar coat it by any means....I thought i was going to DIE after 10 minutes of dancing! But as time went on the Wii fit helped me with a little bit of entertaining calorie burn, some good stretchy yoga, and a weight loss tracker.  Just dance got easier and prompted me to get Zumba for the Wii.  Wow...I was in love!!!  Zumba is one of the best things that I ever could have been introduced to...the music is fun and just makes you want to shake that bootie!  LOL  But let me tell you I had a hard time getting the moves down right away and after a 20 minute class i was more than done...but over time i learned the moves and the 20 minute class turned into a 40 minute class  LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!  Its one of those things i want to push onto everyone i know cause i have so much fun with it.

But anyways, lol...I got bored with the at home stuff and ventured out into the world of gyms.  Tuesday nights i have to take my kids to karate so i would pay the $10 to go use the elliptical machine for 45 minutes while they did that.  Fell in love again.  Then I started paying that same amount various times a week just to use random community centers equipment for my one hour workouts.  But then I found the most wonderful thing ever...I got a free 7 day pass to the YMCA...Its all down hill from there, or should I say uphill (up burns more calories).  We now have a family membership and I spend 2-21/2 hours there everyday (that includes shower time).  This is what I do on a weekly basis:

• Monday:  30 min elliptical/treadmill  30 min swim laps  (Monday is recoup from weekend day)
• Tuesday:  30 min elliptical/treadmill  30 min weight machines (because more muscle means more calories burned!) 30 min kickboxing (if time allows) and 30 min swimming
• Wednesday: MY FAVORITE DAY!  30 min treadmill/elliptical  45-60 minute Zumba class 20-30 min swim
• Thursday:  50 min interval training (weights and core) going to start 50 min yoga 30 min swim
• Friday:  30 min elliptical/treadmill  50 minute Zumba 30 min swim

This is my week as of right now, it is going to change when the kids are done with summer school, I'm not taking anything away but i will be adding at least 2 hours of swim on all days that I don't have something alternative planned like the Zoo or the Aquarium.  Oh and Thursday's I will be traveling to another area YMCA to take my Wednesday Zumba instructors class and let the kids play in the splash park .  I am excited about all this because my kids can go to child watch while i workout and then we can all suit up and eat lunch by the outdoor pool, plus they have kids Zumba  Fridays after my class, they are going to love it!

All these things I have listed are included in my membership with the Y...nothing is extra that i have listed...where else can you find that?!  Plus membership is based on your income and it caps off at $100 or so a month for a family of 4 ( I think).  I feel like I just did a commercial!  lol

So all this excitement over working out is coming from someone who used all those excuses you saw in the beginning....I am in love with all that I do and I know that if you find that thing that you like, you can be successful too.

Eating out.....

I have heard every excuse in the book..."if I go out to eat I'm gonna order what i want", "I'll just have a side salad and a lemon wedge".  FOOEY!!  So many restaurants have gotten on the healthy eating train it is more than easy to eat out and stay on track and have a delicious meal.
There are pitfalls to eating out and you should educate yourself before going out and do a little research on your favorite places.  For example, I naturally carry a small notebook with me in my purse and this just so happens to be where i started writing down my menu options.  As much as I love my calorie tracking app it is kind of a pain in the butt to sit there and scroll through every little ingredient to figure out what i want to eat.  So I visited websites of my most commonly visited restaurants and wrote down the calorie values for the things i would likely eat.  This way when i go out to lunch with "The Moms" they don't have to wait a half an hour for me to figure it out.  Having these little lists with me also lets me decide what i want without having to stay with the same thing every time i eat at said restaurant, its like having your own personal little menu.
There are 5 really great automatic options you can have without really thinking to much or a lot of planning, like those nights where your significant other says, "Let's go out tonight", or "I don't feel like cooking".  These are Applebee's, Chili's, Subway, Panera Bread, and Olive Garden.
Applebee's and Chili's have great low calorie menus with steaks, salads, sandwiches, and fish entrees. I happen to really enjoy the under 550 steak options at Applebee's and the skinny margarita at Chili's is pretty good for coming in at 110 calories.  Olive garden is OK but will power and determination really come in here.  I usually only go there for lunch and when i do I usually have the Zuppa Toscana (170 calories a bowl) with ONE bread stick (150 calories each); sometimes a salad with no dressing ( salad no dressing 120 calories, salad with dressing over 300 calories). There are other options that are more like a "real meal"but I love the soups so much its usually what i order.  Panera Bread is WONDERFUL!!!  They have their calorie values listed right on their menus!  When I first saw this a few months ago i was so excited!  The pick a pair is a great choice.  You can totally build your own meal through this and it can easily be different every time you go.  Just keep in mind that you should choose the apple options and NOT the chips as one of your sides and don't forget to add the calories to your total...pretty sure most small apples are around 70 calories.
Subway is a no brainer and they now have their 450 meal deal menu.  I don't think I need to say a lot about Subway (Jared has already done that, lol).  But let me just say this,  Subway is perfect for last minute meals throughout the day and I use it to my advantage often...especially Tuesday nights (Karate Night).


Here are a few links to get you started with the ones I have mentioned.


Happy Eating!!!


Subway Nutrition
Olive Garden Nutrition
Chili's Lighter Choices
Applebee's Under 550
Panera Nutrition

Last nights dinner...

So, I just finished doing the dishes (I'm the next day dishwasher), and I find that I can't stop thinking about last nights dinner!  It was AMAZING!! Shrimp should become your best friend, really.  It is such a high protein, low calorie, mass quantity food. If you tried it in the past and didn't like it, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE try it again!!  Hot, cold, grilled, sautéed, steamed, broiled it is an amazing power food.
I know I posted it on FB last night but I'm gonna do it again here and give you the recipe.  Please try it, it is a permanent staple in our house now.

Shrimp and Asparagus with Sauteed Gnocchi

Serves 4, 1 1/2 Cups each 464 calories

1 TBS. and 2tsp. olive oil ( can be flavored or EVOO), divided

1 lb. gnocchi (potato dumplings)

1/2 C shallots, sliced

1 lb. asparagus cut into 4ths (remove tough ends first)

3/4 C fat free chicken broth

1lb med-lg shrimp peeled tails removed

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat 1 TBS olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add gnocchi and cook, stir often until plumpy and slightly brown, about 7-10 minutes.  Remove from skillet.

Add the rest of the olive oil and add shallots to skillet.  Cook and stir till browning begins.  Add asparagus and broth.  Cover and cook til asparagus is slightly tender.  Add shrimp and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook til shrimp turn pink .

Add the Gnocchi back into the skillet along with the lemon juice till gnocchi is heated through.

Pour half of mixture into serving dish and sprinkle with half of the cheese.  Pour the rest of the mixture on top of the serving dish and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Let melt before serving.

NOTE:  Sauce will thicken from the gnocchi, just be a little patient :)

If you desire more flavor you can add many varieties of fresh herbs into or onto this dish.  Also a Swanson's flavor boost packet would be really good.

And for those of you that are allergic or just can't do seafood, chunks of chicken or turkey breast would be just fine...just remember to adjust the calories and the cooking procedure accordingly.

I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did.....I will be cooking it for my Florida family when I visit in September :)

The Begining

So everyone has been on me to start one of these things.  I have finally broken down and started one, I don't know if it will last or if it will blow up into something crazy.
This whole eat right and exercise thing kinda started in September of 2011.  My friend, Tammy and I went on a three day cruise to the Bahamas; it was an opportunity of a lifetime so pictures were second nature.  We both saw those pictures and didn't like what we saw.  As soon as we returned back to normal life she started to do something about it.  I did not.  I continued to eat everything  that I wanted to eat without even thinking about the consequences.  Holidays came and went and by January I was too big for the clothes I wore in September and in a jean size that I swore I would never wear.  It was time.  I had done Weight Watchers a few times and had been successful but it obviously did not stick for me.
So, I downloaded a calorie tracking app for my smart phone and got on the wagon. I discovered it was better (for me), to see the larger number of calories for the day rather than the few points I would have had doing the Weight Watchers program. 
When I started I weighed in at 240 pounds, just 14 pounds shy of my heaviest weight ever (pregnant).  I have become obsessed with tracking my foods and my exercises.  I feel excited when its time for a meal or my workout is done for the day; I get to see how many calories everything is worth, weird I know.
There were always rules that had to be followed for eating right and getting healthy which I now know as a lifestyle change (no more diets).  Everyone always said, write everything down, exercise, stop drinking soda, drink water,  the list goes on and on.  I don't think I ever followed any of them.
Ask me what I do now.....
I went from drinking about 1200 calories a day in beverages (coffee creamer and soda) to about 70 calories a day, (one diet soda with my dinner).  I workout Monday-Friday 1 1/2-2 hours a day.  I drink at least the 8/8 of water everyday, if not more, and everything I eat or drink goes into my smart phone app.  I follow most of these rules; well the nighttime eating one I'm still working on. :)
Of course one of the rules that is talked about most is don't deprive yourself.  I cannot stress how important it is to follow this rule.  If you don't you will more than likely not succeed and in the long run you will be able to return to eating a lot of the foods you enjoy eating but you will be "trained" to eat them in a healthier manner.
If you are considering loosing weight and getting on the track of being healthy give yourself a wake up call and calculate the calories of a days worth of food and drink, I think most will be shocked to discover how much your actually eating.
I have been tracking and working my butt off since the second week of January 2012.  I have lost a total of 37 lbs and I have gone from a  size 24 to a 16....I have also been a non-smoker for 2 weeks.  If I can do it, SO CAN YOU!


So anyway....this is where all my recipes and pictures will be posted along with tips and tricks that I hear about along the way, plus updates on how I'm doing as well.  I hope that my non-writing self can keep a captive audience and not confuse everyone! LOL  Please feel free to comment and post tips you have heard as well.