Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

 I am not a fan of new years resolutions, I feel that if you would like to make a change, you should just make it. The idea that a fresh start is needed is bogus. Allow me to step off my soap-box here… Happy New Year! Things are back to normal for me today, I returned back to work one day early. I am really going to focus on eating healthier during dinner, by either making lunch and packing it or making better choices at the cafeteria. I am also going to be working on not eating at 11pm when I get home.

I worked out on the Wii active this morning, but I could not get into it, I think I need to get some food in my tummy before doing that. I also bumped my routine from medium to high intensity, I believe in the world of Wii this means doubling the number of lunges it makes me do. If I never have to do another lunge I will not be complaining about it! I did take all of the leftover cookies and candy to work with me tody to share them with co-workers and employees. I felt bad about this at first, because they were made with holiday love and given as gifts to Andy and I, but then I thought that they were made to be enjoyed with others. They didn’t last long at work, and they were definitely enjoyed by us last week.

I saw a great idea from another blogger about taking photos of food rather then writing it all down, I really like this idea, I think I am going to start trying to do this more often.

Angela

Day 2, post 3.

After I got done posting yesterday I was so hungry I was shaking, my mom calls it Hypoglycemia. I ate a tablespoon of light Skippy peanut butter (it says light, but it was still about 200 calories) for a quick dose of protein. I also had 5 Morning Star chicken nuggets with some ketchup. I was still hungry, but knowing that I had to write this down and not wanting to admit to eating any more I stopped. 20 minutes later the shakes went away and I felt better.  After that I was bored, knowing that my friend Sheena has the day off today, I called her and went to go visit, she has still not seen my wedding photos yet.

When I got home I made Chicken Picatta (vegetarian style). I have stumbled across some chicken patties that look like the real thing, they are made out of vegetable protein and are a great substitute for real chicken. I found the original recipe in a DASH diet book (The DASH diet is an eating plan to lower blood pressure, developed by the Mayo Clinic; http://dashdiet.org/dash_diet_book.asp?google&gclid=CMr46vPb_54CFR9dagod-X0QJA) I have since made this into a totally different dish..

Vegetarian Chicken Picatta;

Take 2 “chicken breasts” coat them in egg whites then in bread crumbs, pan fry in a tiny bit of oil on both sides (until brown).

Set aside and cover in foil to keep warm

In the same pan, add some butter, a little lemon juice, a tiny bit of veg broth, a dash of lemon-pepper seasoning, a can of button mushrooms (you can use fresh, I prefer canned because they are tougher) and some cappers.

Cook all of that up and pour “sauce” over the chicken.

I made two last night, but felt full enough for just one. Next time I will cut on “breast” out and add some veggies on the side.

Today;

I want to try doing more activities to get exercise so my husband, Andy, and I went on a hike today. I know a hike sounds really relaxing and spur of the moment, but finding a good hike in Washington, in December is easier said than done. We fell back on an oldie-but-goody, the big four ice caves. It took us an hour to get there because of the icy roads, but once we got there it was beautiful. Here are some of the photos we took with our fancy new camera.

Andy and Angela

 

 

It was snowing and of course we did not have any cross country skis, snow shoes, yak-tracks, or any other handy items to get us get up the side of a mountain (silly common sense). What a great work out, awesome leg strength trying to get up the trail and great cardio going down at a rapid pace. Because there was no bathroom in sight we were really moving to get back! We almost ran out of gas on the way home, barely made it back to Granite Falls before the fumes in the tank ran dry, whew.

Since I am off work this week, I have been not eating very late, I am going to try and keep that up. I have not been doing very good about the snacking though, there is chocolate and candy everywhere I look! I am going to bring it all to work and give it away on Sunday.

Angela

What did I eat?

This is my 2nd post. For the first, scroll down to the bottom. I do not intend on letting these posts get too out of control, I do not have the time and I don’t think you all have the energy for that. However, I wanted to share with you what I made today.

Breakfast;

Coffee with sugar free coffee mate creamer, Special K (vanilla almond) cereal with FF milk, Banana.

Lunch;

I have a mother-in-law that has a wonderful eye for cook books, I happen to reap the benefits of this gift of hers during Christmas. This Christmas I received from her two William’s Sonoma cookbooks, Soup and Vegetarian (guilty). What I like about these cook books, other than the huge photos of each dish, is the simple ingredients list. While leafing through the Vegetarian book today and placing post-its on all the recipes I wanted to try first, I came across one that sounded good for lunch. The Spicy Corn Cakes with Black Beans (Jacobi, 38).

Corn_cake_and_black_bean_salsa_recipe0001

In order to accommodate what I had in the fridge I changed a few things in the recipe.

                1. I used fat-free milk instead of the Buttermilk

                2. Used all egg whites instead of the whole egg

                3. Added salsa to the black bean topping to add some moisture.

                4. Added NuSalt (salt-substitute) to the dry mixture.

The cakes turned out beautiful, I think next time I make it (and I do intend on making it again) I will;

                1. Make sure to have buttermilk on hand.

                2. Use a griddle to prepare the cakes. It calls out a cast iron pan, I can see that working well, but the non-stick pan I used was a little cumbersome.  

If you try this recipie let me know.

Angela

Day 1, My Mission

I am starting this blog mostly because I am on holiday vacation and I am board. However, I have another goal in mind. With the holiday season passing and the candy and cookies coming out of my ears I have found myself several pounds heavier than I was a few months ago. This would not be such a problem, but a few months ago I was overweight also… I will not provide any numbers, but my Wii Fit character blows up like a marshmallow and it tells me I am obese every time I get on it. Granted my Wii Fit is not the controlling device in my life, but it does not lie to me. I have heard from several legitimate, and non-scientific sources alike, that journaling your activity and food intake is a great way to step back and do a little self-reflection.  That leads me to the Blog, (I can’t believe I am starting a blog), I have tried to journal my consumption in the past only to lose interest like a puppy chasing a squirrel (yes, I thought of the movie also when I typed that).  I think that having my family, as well as total strangers, follow along with my journaling it will inspire me to stay on track. So here it goes, Day 1 is on December 29, 2009.

I will be posting recipes of my own and from books, if you get the bug to try them, please let me know how it turned out and what you did to make it work for you.

Wii;

My husband has gotten for me the Wii Active for Christmas and I am on the 4^th day of the 30 day challenge, I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. It is a series of activities combined with strength training exercises. The workouts last apx 20-25 min and burn (so they say) apx 150 calories each time, I have been combining this with the Yoga and fun games on the Wii fit. We purchased the Wii with the intentions of using it as a work out device and have gotten great use out of it so far, I will be using this as my primary device for exercise. I have found that the Wii fit is a great tool for overall fitness, BMI tracking, Yoga, calorie calculator (I have no intention of using that), however, the heart pumping sweat creating activities are not very common with the Wii Fit. When you do find an activity that gets your heart racing (such as the super hula hoop), it only lasts 3 minutes and it takes several minutes and about 10 clicks of the “A” button to get to the next activity. The Wii Active is a great supplement to this, my review of the Wii Active is the exact opposite, great workouts in quick succession, but the lack of Yoga, stretching and BMI/Weight measurements is annoying.

Schedule;

I work until 11pm at night. My normal eating schedule goes something like;

9:00-10:00am, wake up and have 2-3 cups of coffee with equal and fat-free ½ and ½ or some sugar-free coffee mate creamer.

11:00, eat breakfast or lunch, depending on what we have in the fridge or what time it is.

1:30, leave for work

6:30, “lunch” break at work, I find it more convenient and cheaper to eat at the cafeteria, where I know they use a lot of butter and whole milk in what they prepare.

11:00pm get off work, I am always hungry, so I get home and eat again, usually snack foods, a piece of cheese, handful of crackers, tortilla, whatever is on hand and convenient.

Bad Habits;

• Eating at the cafeteria rather than planning and packing healthy meals
• Eating at 11:30+ at night, apx 1 hour before I sleep.
• Eating snack foods as a meal.
• Not eating enough vegetables.

I have a few more bad habits, but baby steps to knock off one at a time.

Thanks for reading my first blog. Here’s to me staying on track with my lifestyle changes and journaling.

Cheers,

Angela