Eating for the Holidays

Since I don't celebrate Holidays, I don't have to worry about this too much, but the temptations are still all around me. But I thought I'd share what I WOULD eat if I were to partake in a large meal like many of you will today.

Traditionally, there will be turkey and/or ham. Choose the turkey breast meat and remove the skin.
Eat the vegetable casserole (green bean, squash, yam -but remove the marshmallows from the yams if it's prepared that way).
Skip the potatoes and try to have no more than a cup of dressing. My mom makes giblet gravy with cornstarch, so this is a good choice or "lesser of two evils" lol.
Cranberry sauce................I don't eat it. Check the labels and see if it's full of sugar. I bet it is since cranberries are so tart. I bet the "jellied" kind that slides out of the can and wiggles for you will be worse than the kind with the little cranberries actually in it.
Skip the rolls or bread (you are having dressing already).
Get the unsweet tea or water. Save your calories for the important stuff............DESSERTS!
Desserts..............just pick one or two, or share one of each with someone else!

AFTER LUNCH OR DINNER OR WHENEVER YOU EAT, GO FOR A WALK! TURKEY MAKES YOU SLEEPY, SO DON'T LAY DOWN ON THE COUCH AND WAKE UP HOURS LATER! GO PLAY SOME TOUCH FOOTBALL! DO FAMILIES EVEN PLAY TOUCH FOOTBALL ANYMORE!

No more excuses

I decided to copy and paste this story. I linked to it the other day, but I decided a lot of my guests reading my blog are certainly drawn by the visual aspect lol. Please read this story. Please look at these pics. I have my pics, but I wasn't ever standing in a bikini at 152 pounds! Who would think THIS is the way I am going to lose weight and it WILL work and therefore, let me put my fat butt into a teeny tiny bikini (not even a one piece mind you!) and snap pics...............NOT ME!!!! I am so thankful she shared her story. She is right, NO MORE EXCUSES!

I was 78kg at my heaviest when I decided one night that I had to do something, that my weight was out of control and I didn’t like the person I saw when I looked in the mirror. I’m 152cm tall and small framed so that weight looked horrid on me. I didn’t like that I had no nice fashionable clothes to wear. I felt alien in my own skin, I felt older then I was because I was dressing older then I was. Still getting around in maternity wear long after my baby was born. At that time my clothes were getting tighter and I refused to buy more in a bigger size.

I had a bag full of ‘skinny clothes’ to inspire me and get me motivated. Stuff that I wore when I weighed 59kg’s, before I had my two children, clothes that I had held onto, believing someday I’d get back to wearing them. Well I managed to fit into those clothes but didn’t get to even wear them for long because the weight kept coming off so I passed them on to a friend that was also losing weight at the time. That was a moment when I realized how well I had done. I have a whole new wardrobe of clothes now, size 8 and even some size 6, beautiful, sexy, feminine, in fashion clothing…and some ultra-cute gym wear (I just love Lorna Jane)

So that night at 78kg, I had decided, enough was enough, I was going to make changes, I was going to lose weight and get healthy. It all came down to choices and changes. The direction of your life and of your health can depend on the choices you make. You’re faced with them every day. Eat that cake, don’t eat that cake, do some exercise or stay on the couch, just settle for take out again or prepare a healthy home cooked family meal. I always took the easy way out. I’d try to exercise, but in the end it just felt too hard, I’d rather settle in front on the TV then get up and move my body.


I was an emotional eater, I binged on sugary junk. I over ate, my portion sizes were ginormous. If there was junk in my house, I had to eat it, and I had to finish it. It was not uncommon for me to chow through a whole packet of biscuits or tub of icecream in just a few days. I’d try to hide my overeating, carefully disposing of packaging so my partner wouldn’t see what I had done. But there was no hiding the fact that food disappeared. I hated the shame I felt after I binged. I’d eat while he was at work or in the middle of the night. I had no energy; I felt sluggish, lazy and in a way unsatisfied with my life. Although I had all I could ever dream for, a loving partner and two beautiful kids aged 4 and 1, I had no motivation. I was making all the wrong choices. I needed re- programming and I knew that I was the only one who could change me. My Dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and I knew I was heading that way if I didn’t do something. I’d tried in the past, and sometimes I succeeded in losing a few kilograms, but then I’d have a little set back, have a pig-out and it would be all over. I was the Queen of self-sabotage; I was always blowing it and then waiting for a ‘Monday’ to start again.

So I decided to enter a ‘12 week challenge’ that I had been following in a magazine for years, reading all the monthly success stories and telling myself ‘that could be me’, if I could only follow through for once. I had entered a couple of times over the years but could never finish. Never really even get passed the second week! This time when I entered it something clicked, I wanted it, I made that decision to commit, I made that decision to get healthy, I wanted to be a good role model for my kids. I wanted to finally feel good about my body. I wanted to be a yummy Mummy, not a frumpy Mummy.

In November 2010 I joined the local gym, and I went as much as I could, but without conforming to a strict routine. I changed it up, weights some days, cardio others. Sometimes I participated in the gyms classes. Same with diet I didn’t set myself any strict plan, I just made healthier choices and limited my carbs, especially with dinner. I started doing a grappling martial art called Brazilian Jiu jitsu. It’s my new found passion and it’s an awesome workout too! I use to do Jujutsu as a teenager and I enjoyed it. I had always wanted to go back to martial arts, but my weight had held me back. When I found out the gym I joined held Jiu Jitsu, I was excited and pushed myself to go, although I was so scared I wouldn’t be able to keep up! The class instructor was great and he pushed me from the start, I use to really struggle to do just few sit ups or star jumps!

When that 12 week challenge was over I had lost 9kg’s! I felt fantastic but I still wasn’t ‘there yet’. So on the 27 March 2011, I started my second challenge, an 8 week one my gym was holding. It was a ‘couples’ challenge, my partner was a girl I had met at gym. My start weight was 62.2kg and body fat 24.3%. During that challenge I changed my workouts a touch, I added in some heavier weight training to build some muscle. I did about 3x cardio sessions a week during the first 4 weeks and then stepped it up to 5x a week for the last 4 weeks. The cardio I did was mainly gym classes and walks on the treadmill on highest incline or I used the spin cycles. I also tightened up my diet, making sure it was clean and adding it a lot of protein. At the end of that challenge I weighed 54.7kg and body fat was at 19%. I’m very proud to say that my partner in the challenge also had a great reult and we came first in the competition. We won a great prize that included free gym for a year, 20 free personal training sessions and a makeover & photo-shoot. But I still wasn’t ‘there yet’.

I felt I wanted to lean up just a little bit more. By this time my life was completely different, I felt like a whole new woman. Full of life and energy and feeling like I could achieve ANYTHING if I put my mind to it. So when my gym advertised for another challenge, a 10 week one, I entered yet again. I was at a healthy weight and looking great, people couldn’t understand why I’d want or need to be doing another one. But I had my 20 free Personal Training sessions to use, and I still wanted to tone a bit more, and I had a goal of getting me some abs for summer. I wanted to challenge myself, but it wasn’t about trying to win this time, it was about pushing myself to new limits and seeing what I could achieve, how far my body would go. I stepped up my cardio, I started to run. I had always had made excuses not to run, I use to say, oh I CANT run, I have asthma, I just CANT run.... but I found out I can run, and I enjoy it. I’m still only beginning my running journey, but now I can run 10km on the street in just over an hour and 10km on the treadmill in just under. That’s a huge achievement for me. For my cardio I also did short intervals with high bursts of intensity. I changed my weights training to lower weights at higher reps. I used two sessions of Personal Training a week, and my trainer Paul was fantastic, I don’t know If I could have done so well without him. We did a lot of circuits with supersets and plyometric training.

Last week I completed that 10 week challenge at 51kg and body fat 16%. My abs even came out of hiding! I’m very, very proud of myself. I feel like a super woman. I feel strong, I feel fit. I’m in the best shape I have ever been before. And most importantly I feel like now I’m a good role model for my kids.

It took me just under a year to get to where I am, and now at my goal weight, so what next for me now? I’ve decided I want to become a Personal Trainer so I can help and motivate others. I’ve started my certificate in fitness and I’m going to put a lot of my time and energy into getting that completed.

So, to all the ladies out there that have struggled for years like I did, yo-yo dieting….I say to you…You can lose weight without starving! You can lose that weight without fad diets, diet pills or living off meal replacement shakes. You can do it with a good clean food, and good old fashioned exercise. Indulge in that chocolate or ice cream every now and then. Everything in moderation is the key. Hey, go for it, if I can do it, so can you! ……No more excuses.

114 BABY!!!

WOW! Today I am officially smaller than I have been in probably 19 years! When my daughter, Shena (now 20 and a mommy!), was 1 year old I weighed about 110 or so. I started working about that time. I started "grabbing breakfast" of usually a pack of  donuts and coffee (with those cute little french vanilla creamers............YUMMMMMMOOOO!). Then I usually "grabbed lunch" with the girls from work. Wit in 2 years I was probably 130 or so. then I think I remember stopping for a few years at that weight. The rest of my life was pretty much the same thing, except I wasn't working anymore. I was snacking on all the junk food crap we buy our kids lol.

Anyway, I felt pretty good about my weight today. THEN I was out of wheat bread so I had 2 eggs for breakfast. THEN I had 2 pork chops and rice a roni left over from late last week. THEN I had 4 margaritas (with the mix, not lite or homemade with lime juice lol), 3 salmon patties, and mac and cheese. THEN I had to have some Chocolate Covered Cherry Ice cream from Braum's. I hate to see the damage tomorrow lol. Oh well, after being good all weekend, a little splurge was almost.................necessary. Also, we are getting ready to move HOPEFULLY this week, so I know I won't be getting to eat good healthy meals this week for sure. I may try to make some veggie bags or something...............who am I kidding? We'll probably order pizza and drink some beer! I am actually looking forward to beer and pizza! I may even grab a bag of Funyuns!!!

Looking forward to finally getting moved. It's taken 3 1/2 LONG months. I hope to have room in my bedroom to set up my pilates mat. Here I don't have room due to the baby's stuff taking up so much room in every part of our house. I will probably not be online much for the next week, so until I return.......................I hope you all have a GREAT day!

This couldn't be more true. This is the way I feel about dieting/weightloss. Who am I cheating when I cheat on my diet? My hubby? My co-workers? My boss? My friends? My children? NO just ME ME ME ME!

Today's motivation inspiration whatever you wanna call it

I borrowed this from a friend's facebook page. If you have trouble viewing it, let me know and I will copy and paste. I want you to see the pics though. I have pics, but I wouldn't dare share them lol. I am vain to a point, and people seeing my ugly tummy up close and "zoom"able and all is just NOT gonna happen lol

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150462417815802&set=a.398427160801.195589.133136530801&type=1&theater

Can't go wrong when pork loin is on sale!

Again, this week pork loin was on sale for 1.99 a pound. I bought a 4 pound pork loin for about 8.00. I had the butcher cut it up in to chops between 1/4" and 1/2" (1/2" are too thick for me and 1/4" are too thin). I ended up with 2 trays (I had to ask for it to be divided among 2 trays. If you are eating/cooking for just you, you can even ask for 3-4 trays!). One had 8 and one had 7 chops.

Yesterday we had grilled pork chops. I seasoned these pork chops with Montreal Steak Seasoning and Lawry's Season Salt. I preheated my George Foreman Grill (I saw these on sale at Ross last night for like 20.00 for the big ones!) and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. I placed my chops on the grill on the first side and cooked them for about 4 minutes. I turned them over and cooked for an additional 4-5 minutes or until they were cooked. I know you aren't suppposed to have to turn the food in a George Foreman Grill, but I can't help it! We ate them with some rice a roni. Not exactly a healthy side, but it worked for us yesterday. We are having them again tonight. I need some new healthy side recipes, but until then, hubby likes mac and cheese, so that's what we'll have. Since pork chops are so healthy, it really is a nice balance, but it could be soooo much healthier with a good healthy side like broccoli or green beans. I am just out of those right now. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I seasoned my chops right in the tray!

I grilled the first side for 4 minutes

I grilled the other side for 4-5 mnutes

Sugar makes you crave sugar

Thought I'd talk about bad carbs/sugar. One day I couldn't stop wanting carbs, bad carbs, bad bad carbs. I had eaten a relatively healthy lunch (or so I thought) of chicken fajitas. Fajitas come with flour tortillas at most places. When I got home I wanted cereal...........BAD, then ice cream, then marshmallows, oh I can't even remember all I craved that day. It was BAD. I don't even remember now what all I ended up eating and what I just craved but didn't give in to. BUT I posted it in my journal at fatsecret.com. One of my "buddies" read it and suggested that I had craved sugar since I ate sugar..................... My response was I didn't have any sugar! THEN and there was when I learned about hidden sugars! Flour tortillas are full of sugar! I had eaten a healthy meal wrapped in a giant sugar cookie! So by eating clean and staying away from sugar, THEN eating sugar that day, my body remembered that it liked sugar and therefore made me crave it! I started cutting out those bad carbs and I had no more days like that except for the days when I elected to eat bad carbs. I am not a saint, I do give in, more often now than before when I was so strict.

So this is what I do about fajitas now. I order them with soft CORN tortillas instead! I also stay away from cereal lol. It's my "chocolate" more than chocolate actually is. I LOVE cereal! Bad cereals too. I thought about this because my aunt brought me by some "firecrackers" to try. Now these are delish! They are white crackers (BAD carbs) soaked in a mixture of canola oil and seasonings and SPICY. As I am eating them, she offers me the recipe. My response "oh no, they are way too fattening, I'll just stick with eating what you brought". Her response "They aren't too bad, just canola oil and seasoning". See she doesn't realize how bad those little white crackers are for a person like me who craves carbs once eaten lol. So anyway, next time you find yourself craving those sweets and can't seem to satisfy the craving no matter what, think back to what you ate BEFORE the craving started, I bet it was a bad carb! Then let me know so I can put it on my "watch" list!!!!

Baked Chicken Taquitos

With the Chicken Enchilada Filling I had made up, we ventured on a new recipe. I heated it in the microwave, just until heated. I dry cooked 8 corn tortillas on the stove top. I shredded the chicken filling in my NINJA!!! I place about a heaping tablespoon onto each tortilla and rolled it up as tight as I could (we dislike those chinchy taquitos with hardly any meat in them). I sprayed nonstick spray on the cookie sheet, placed all 8 taquitos seam side down, gave them all a quick spray on top with more nonstick spray, and baked them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. I tried to flip them over, but my filling was falling out, so I stopped lol.

Karen's Baked Chicken Taquitos

cals: 295kcal | fat: 3.41g | carbs: 34.00g | prot: 30.19g

low fat

Ingredients

• 2 servings (4 tbsp) great value salsa
• 4 servings mission corn tortillas taco size
• 1/2 lb bonesless skinless chicken breast

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dice chicken breast meat. Saute chicken in pan with nonstick cooking spray. Cook until chicken is no longer pink. Pour in salsa and cook until heated through. Remove chicken and salsa and shred chicken (I used a food processor to get mine very fine).
2. Dry cook the tortillas in a small nonstick skillet. I cook each side for about 10 seconds. I just watch the tortilla and as it is done, the edges lay down flat. You can also steam them in the microwave for about 30 seconds wrapped in moist paper towels.
3. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray. Lay your tortillas on the cookie sheet. Place approx. 1 Tbsp filling mix in each tortilla. Roll up tightly and place seam down on cookie sheet. DO NOT LET TORTILLAS TOUCH or they will stick together. Spray the tops with nonstick cooking spray.
4. Bake in oven preheated to 400 degrees for 15 minutes, turning once about 1/2 way through cycle. Serve with salsa, guacamole, light sour cream, and/or refried beans.

Yesterday I took 5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts and made 4 meals! I made:

Baked Chicken Tenders, Chicken Enchilada Filling, Black Bean Chicken Chimichanga Filling, and Chicken Parmesan!
We ate the tenders.
I froze the Parmesan patties until I cook them. All I will have to do is defrost them, heat spaghetti sauce, place in pan, pour sauce over, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake! I will add black beans to the chicken and salsa mixture and roll up in large tortillas to make the Black Bean and Chicken Chimichangas. Finally, I will heat tortillas and roll the last of the chicken and salsa into enchiladas. Then I will top them with Green Chile Enchilada Sauce and cheese and bake, making Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas!

It took me 1 hour to make all these meal AND clean up!

 Today, I am making my first freezer meal. The other day I found chicken quarters on sale for 5.90 for a 10 pound bag. I made 3 freezer meals of my Crockpot Chicken and Veggies from this chicken! Normally I would spend 4.50-5.00 for a whole chicken! I feel vindicated from spending a lot of time of pinterest.com! Now I feel as if I haven't wasted that time hahahha! 

 Well dinner was a complete success! It was just as if I had put it all together today and cooked it! We ate every bit of it. Since I used 3 chicken quarters instead of a whole chicken, there was not excess, no leftovers, and plenty to eat! PERFECT!

Future Plans

It's looking like the recipes are the favorite part of this blog. I need to take pictures of my meals as I prepare my recipes. WHEN I GET MOVED, I plan to get out my pretty dishes and set up a pretty "photo" area. In this house I just have bad lighting and NO ROOM! I used to take pics of my meals for my cookbook on fatsecret.com. I stopped because I quit making new recipes. Now that I am adapting old recipes to make them healthy and trying new recipes, I find myself lacking pics lol! So I promise when I get moved I will remedy this!

I enjoy cooking. I enjoy cooking great tasting healthy meals. I do NOT enjoy spending hours and hours cooking. Most of my meals require less than 30 minutes to prepare AND cook. Some have to bake so that adds to the time. I have always LOVED my crockpot, but evidently it is underutilized! This week I made 3 freezer meals of my Crockpot Chicken and Veggies! Instead of a whole chicken, I bought a 10 pound bag of leg quarters. I got 3 gallon ziploc freezer bags and put them on my table. I divided the leg quarters evenly among the bags. I ended up with 3 quarters per bag. I cut up 1 1/2 onions, 1 bell pepper, 6 red potatoes quartered, and 2 pounds of carrots. After these were all cut up I divided each one evenly among the 3 bags. Then I seasoned each bag with Italian Seasoning, Seasoned Salt, etc (whatever I felt like that day). I had frozen chicken broth from the last time I made this dish. I froze it in a large (too large) container. I let it defrost just enough to "let go" of the container. I sliced the broth into 3 pieces and added one to each bag. I got as much of the air out of each bag as I could, then sealed the bags. I then placed them in the freezer (making a mental note that I need a deep freeze at the new house). This was Wednesday. It didn't cost any more really to buy this much as compared to what it would have cost to buy a whole chicken. It may have cost an add additional 3.00 total. BUT I got 3 meals instead of my usual ONE meal. It didn't take me any more time to cut the veggies either. I always cut them up and save them for use in other meals (and usually throw out the bell pepper since I didn't use it and it went bad). So last night I pulled one bag out of the freezer and moved it to the fridge. Today I checked it and the chicken is still partially frozen. By tomorrow morning when I need to put it in the crockpot, it should be ready to cook. This will be perfect for those days when I am in a hurry and need to just toss it in the crockpot! OR OR OR when I am going out of town, Chris can do this all on his own and have a fresh hot meal to eat instead of eating a frozen leftovers meal! I will post a pic tomorrow of the steps, lol. That'll be 2 pics! One as I pull it out of the freezer and 2 as I pour it in the crockpot! So excited!

Gluten Free Recipes

Due to being out of town all week and having more trouble with the house we are buying, forgive me for being lax in posting! I found a great website for some gluten free recipes! I thought I'd share since we have a ladies gathering coming up in just a few short weeks! I would like to make the effort to bring something gluten free and delicious! Please comment back on this post if you try any of the recipes and tell us if they flop or not!



http://glutenfreemommy.com/recipes/