my new brekkie fav

fage 2% plain greek yogurt, sweetened with ½ packet of truvia; topped with oats, walnuts & raisins. it is simply one of the most delicious flavors combos i’ve come across in a long time!

it almost makes up for not being able to find horizon yogurt in my local stores anymore...almost.

fed up

i’m fed up! fed up with myself.

last night i ate a healthy dinner and decided to have a few ounces of red wine. 3 ounces led to 6, then 9, then 12, then 16. four ounces of red wine a day is considered “drinking in moderation” for a female. if that’s the case, then i had 4 servings of wine, definitely NOT drinking in moderation! but that’s not the issue so much.

the BIG issue is that after i had the wine, i ate. i had four 4” x 3” wheat free crackers, a cheese stick and an apple with way more than a serving of peanut butter.

i realized this morning that losing weight will be just about impossible if i don’t increase my exercise and if i continue to drink.

by drinking, even if it’s just 1 glass, i’m sabotaging myself. losing weight as one gets older is hard enough without self-sabotage.

i’m lazy and i love my booze; this will be a struggle but it’s something i NEED to commit to. if i don’t, i’ll find myself so overweight by my mid 40’s that the possibility of getting healthy will be too overwhelming.

i’m done being angry with myself, i’m done being fed up, i’m done making excuses! today is DAY 1 and i’m going to be healthier and extremely mindful of what i eat. i will focus on creating wholesome and tasty foods but most of all i will increase my activity level, i will limit drinking to 1-2 nights a week and avoid late night binges at all costs!!!

one hike a week does not warrant an eating free-for-all

have you ever overeaten just because you know you’re going to be doing a lot of exercise and then overeat some more because you did do the exercise?

i fall victim to this line of thought each time i do a strenuous workout…heck, it even happens if i do a little workout!

last week was bad because we had a birthday lunch for 2 co-workers, a potluck at work and dinner with the boyfriend’s dad and stepmom. i ate fairly well but not great at the birthday lunch, i ate horribly at the potluck (can you say TWO slices of cheesecake?!?!?) and chowed down on chips & bean dip at dinner with the ‘rents. and let’s not even talk about the alcohol i consumed during the week…

so what rationale did i use? a 6 mile hike with an elevation gain of 1,000 feet. yes, hiking can be tough and it burns a lot of calories but could it possibly burn the 4160 extra calories i consumed during my food-fest? no!! i’d say it burned closer to 800 of those calories. no wonder my weight and body fat % went up when i stepped on the scale today.

this is my life: lose a pound, gain 2; lose 4, gain 6. the activities involved in gaining are so much more pleasurable; eat, drink and be social. no wonder losing is hard, it’s not as fun.

i do try to make being healthier fun. i create interesting meals even though i’m usually the only one eating them (eat), i switched to 1 glass of red wine most evenings (drink) and i’ve started hiking with my friends on saturdays (be social). so i’ve got the eat, drink & be social steps covered; i should be successful, right? wrong. somehow i still fall short of my goals and it is beyond me as to how i fix it. well i do know how to fix it, have a little freakin’ self control!!! and THAT is my biggest area of weakness.

i don’t think anyone is reading this blog but if you are and you have any success stories or good ideas, i would love to hear them. thank you

yesterday i decided i really wanted fish for dinner; the outcome was tilapia baked with tomatoes, capers, marinated artichoke hearts, lemon juice and just a touch of butter. i also made asparagus satueed in a little olive oil.

tilapia baked with tomatoes, capers & artichoke hearts
2 4 oz tilapia fillets
4 small tomaotes
6 - 8 marinated artichoke heart quarters
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
1/2 a lemon for juice
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, flattened/smashed a bit to release flavor
salt & pepper

1. grease or spray a 8" x 8" baking dish
2. season fish on both sides with salt and pepper
3. lay fish in pan, mine overlapped a bit in the middle
4. shave 3 or 4 very thin slivers of butter for each fillet and arrange on fish
5. cut tomatoes in half and then quarter each half; arrange on fish
6. place 3-4 artichoke heart quarters on each fillet
7. sprinkle capers over the fish and drizzle with juice from half a lemon
8. cover with tin foil and baked for about 15 minutes at 425. I was a little negligent about documenting the time it took to cok so check it at 15 minutes. If fish flakes with the fork at thckest part, it's done. If it doesn't just pop it in for a few more minutes at a time until it does flake.

Serve with your favorite vegetable and ENJOY!

Tuna & navy bean salad

I've had the last couple days off and have been in the mood to make healthy stuff. Yesterday I made Tuna & Navy bean salad. It started off as a basic no-mayo tuna salad but then I realized I had navy beans that I'd cooked the night before so I added them and served it all atop a bed of romaine lettuce tossed with olive oil.

This recipe was so easy and can easily be modified to anyones tastes

1 can chunk light tuna (you can use less; I use one can because I need a lot of protein to stay full)
1/4c navy beans (cooked or canned)
6 diced baby carrots
1 stalk diced celery
3 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt
pepper
~~~~~
1/2 romaine heart, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Combine tuna, beans, parsley, carrots, celery, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt & pepper
Place romaine in a bowl, toss with olive oil & vinegar then top with tuna mixture

A long term solution?

During spring, I start to get desperate about my post holiday weight gain and I begin looking for new and interesting ideas for weight loss. This happened again last week and I stumbled upon “The Diet Solution”. I watched the little video and was “sucked in”.

Try as I might, I couldn’t find any “real” reviews on this diet; just website after website, set up to look like blogs, promoting this plan.

The only thing I had to go on was that the creator of the plan (a nutritionist named Isabel De Los Rios) does everything she can to make you feel comfortable about the privacy policy, not selling your name and about trying her plan with the promise of a money back guarantee. So I decided to give it a shot.

I paid my $47 and downloaded my 9 e-books. I took the metabolic test and what the author had to say really seemed to sum up my eating style. I discovered I’m a “protein type” which would explain why I feel hungry much quicker after a meal consisting mainly of carbohydrates (yes, even healthy ones!) than I do after a meal with more lean protein.

***NOTE: Because I’m a sucker and often believe what I read if I don’t research it, I read the other metabolic type descriptions. Turns out the Carb-type eater has a very different style and it most certainly didn’t describe my eating habits.***

This is by no means a low carb diet (yay!), I still eat healthy carbs but the focus is more on the protein to carb ratio. For example, dinner could be a 1/4 cup of brown rice and a ½ cup of veggies sautéed in olive oil with 5 ounces of protein. Eating like this has really helped with evening snacking. I find that I’m just not hungry after dinner.

After the test, I read through the quick start guide. A major focus of the plan is eating whole, natural, organic foods and avoiding sugar, fake sugar, soda, bad fats, preservatives & processed foods.

I really like this idea and find that when I eat meals that satisfy me, I don’t need to eat so much. What this means is that despite paying a bit more for “clean” foods or specialty foods, I eat less so I’m spending about the same as I was on processed “diet” foods.

There ARE a few things about “The Diet Solution” that I haven’t quite “bought into” yet.
1. Using coconut oil for cooking
2. Eating DARK meat from poultry; or eating fattier birds such as duck
3. Consuming WHOLE milk

Fattier foods do keep me full longer but I also know the dangers of cholesterol in my family. So far I have found that eating lean proteins, snacking on a few raw walnuts between meals or cooking with olive oil has worked at keeping me satisfied.

The diet creator seems to be ok with experimentation of her sample meal plans (created for each metabolic type) and says that paying attention to your body in the beginning is important. She adds that eating for your metabolic type will become second nature & give you an understanding of what your body wants for the long‐term.

“for the LONG-TERM”, I like that!

Now I just have one more problem to solve: I LOVE salads! Salads loaded with tons of fresh veggies but even with protein, I find myself hungry within an hour.

I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard or read “Fill up on veggies” but that only holds me over for a short while and then my stomach starts growling and feeling empty; a feeling that all the water in the world or more veggies can’t take away.

So I’m not sure what I’ll do about the salad situation yet…Maybe olive oil & balsamic dressing with a “heartier” protein and some avocado?

Anyway, gonna give this plan a fair trial and see if it becomes my long term solution.

Yogurt Woes

Until last year, yogurt was yogurt to me; as long as it was nonfat and sugar free, I’d eat it. The lower the calories, the better. Then one day my boyfriend & I were talking about the artificial sweeteners and how small amounts of sugar in your diet have got to be better for you than all the fake junk out there. After that conversation I tried several brands of yogurt that he carries at his store.

I tried lowfat versions of the following: Wallaby Organic fruit at the bottom, Horizon Organic with the fruit mixed in and Stoneyfield Farms Organic with the fruit mixed in. I have to say, I am not a fan of fruit at the bottom so the Wallaby was out. Stoneyfield was good but it was the Horizon that I fell madly and deeply in love with; especially the peach. It was then that I converted to Horizon and strictly Horizon. The consistency was perfect, not runny or soupy, firm but not too dense or thick. The flavor was as close to fresh fruit as you can get and there wasn’t any awful faux sugar aftertaste.

As the months went on and I’d buy my weeks worth of yogurt I noticed a decline in stock at the local stores. First my boyfriend’s store stopped carrying it due to low sales, then the supermarket slashed the prices and eventually stopped carrying it. I checked other grocery stores, my local Whole Foods, no one had it!

This week, when I did my grocery shopping I purchased several varieties to see if I could find one to replace my beloved Horizon. I purchased Stoneyfield Farms with the fruit mixed in again, Wallaby with the fruit mixed in and Fage Greek yogurt with a cherry sidecar.

Stoneyfield was ok but I would have liked it a bit sweeter, thicker and less diluted in flavor. I had the Wallaby this morning and it was runny; almost like kefir (a beverage made from cultured milk) in consistency and I basically drank it out of the container.

I haven’t tried the Fage yet but I’m sure I’ll like it as I love plain Greek yogurt. My concern is this: The density; for yogurt as a snack, I prefer something a little less dense. When I use Greek yogurt, it’s as a sour cream substitute because it’s got the perfect consistency.

If anyone has had Horizon and has found a similar yogurt, I would love to hear it!