Headed for the Weekend

I'm thinking about stir fry for lunch today... hubby's delicious hashbrowns for dinner... workout clothes have been moved to a pile in the office which means I'll trip over them for days to come, making it easy to grab whatever I need for the workout at hand... thinking about making soup and homemade bread for the boys tomorrow... and maybe toward roast chicken and vegetables Sunday... And I want to try making a different kind of muffin this morning. Overall a healthy weekend: some healthy food and activities with a few treats thrown into the mix! Do I do anything besides eat and exercise? Yes! Lots of writing today, some quilting in the evenings, a Blazer game with hubby Saturday night. I might even clean -- that's good for some activity points, yes?

This old tip...

No, I'm not going to link to some weird commercial. But I'm sure this tip has been around awhile. It's so much easier for me to remember to eat healthy food if I have it in the house. :-) This should be obvious... This week I've had salads, because the ingredients are handy (see "On a Scale of 1-10") and veggies. Fresh asparagus tonight, new crop I think. Tasty. Stir fry in the plans for sometime tomorrow.

A favorite tip

I've seen this tip in more than one place, Weight Watchers being one of them. Slow down, enjoy each bite and taste it, enjoy the food. I remind myself often to do this - If I'm only having 1 cookie I want to enjoy it! Or breakfast muffin, piece of cheese, whatever.

Life happens...

and while it's been happening, I've kept on eating. Let's say 2/3 healthy, 1/3 not so healthy. And I've gotten in *some* exercise each day, in spite of it all. Looking forward to getting back to regular exercise routine for the rest of this week, though. Last night I met with friends for potluck before a writers meeting. We always have lots of good, healthy food to try! I enjoy the opportunity to try new foods this way before trying to cook them at home. One new food I tried was butternut squash. Roasted. I think that would be my favorite way to have it, with a bit of seasoning. Also tried a great salad-in-a-bag from Costco. How do you stay on track when life happens?

It takes more than one...

Plan, that is. Before I joined hubby in his Weight Watchers endeavor, I spent six months writing a series of Nutrition and Fitness books for Teacher Created Resources. In the process of researching and writing those books, I spent quite a bit of time on a government web site, Choose My Plate (listed under "Tidbits"). Within the site there are suggestions for number of servings of each food group per day. These have changed slightly from the former "food pyramid" with an increased emphasis on fruits and vegetables. I decided to try to follow the daily equivalents for the calorie range I wanted. Combined with tips on visualizing portion size, the guidelines gave me a general plan to follow, without a lot of measuring or weighing. Bearing in mind that I'm not very tall, so my nutritional needs fall at the lower end of the scale for adults, the guide I followed was this: Grains: 4 to 5 one ounce equivalents, Vegetable: 1 1/2 cups, Fruit: 1 1/2 cups, Milk: 2 cups (or 2 servings), Protein: 3 to 4 one ounce equivalents. Those one ounce equivalents are the key. For example, a "serving" of pasta is 2 ounces. So to have pasta at dinner is half of my total grain servings for the day. If I have a muffin for breakfast or lunch, that's the other half. Or, I could have 1 ounce cereal (that part I do have to measure) for breakfast and 1 slice bread (half sandwich) for lunch. These general guidelines confirmed something I had suspected: some of our (collective, in general) problems might not arise specifically from wheat as much as from the total amount of grain. If we look around, we'll find people advocating no grain, no meat, no preservatives. I can tell you this: we need food to live. A common sense approach seems best. As Mom says, "all things in moderation." That said, I'll keep looking for things that have crunch :-) And I do steer clear of preservatives -- I'll live just as long (or longer!) without them.

On a Scale of 1-10

Yesterday and today have not been quite as healthy -- I'm not sure if you would call it fun or antidote to stress! I like one of the thoughts from Weight Watchers, that each day is a new day to do better. Even in the midst of a not-so-good day, we can plan ahead to do better. Good, positive, thinking counters the threat of continuing to slip into bad habits. Here's a positive thought for today: I like to keep parts of my favorite salad prepared ahead of time to make it easier to make it (that way I'll be inclined to have it more often)! After having a delicious salad at Tidal Raves, I've created my own tasty version. Romaine lettuce shredded carrots (I shred these ahead of time and keep in a small container) dried cranberries (they're handy in a jar in the cupboard) curried almonds* (this is something I have to do ahead of time -- I'll make up enough to half fill a small jar and keep them in the cupboard) balsamic vinegar dressing* (I make this ahead and keep in a jar in the cupboard) When I get ready to have this salad for lunch or dinner or afternoon snack, all I have to do is tear some lettuce in a bowl, sprinkle on a few carrots, drizzle a little dressing, and add the cranberries and almonds on top. Instant salad! Curried Almonds about a handful of slivered almonds (I buy whichever kind is cheapest and chop them at home if I have to) Melt about 1 tsp. butter in small fry pan. Add 2-3 dashes of curry, depending on taste. Stir in almonds and toast for a couple of minutes. They burn easily, so watch carefully. I usually pull them off the heat after a minute or two and leave them in the warm pan for another minute to cool before pouring them into a jar. Balsamic Vinegar Dressing I just use equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I suppose you could add seasonings if you wanted. I drizzle about 1/4-1/2 tsp. over salad - just enough to add a little moisture and taste.

Crumpet alternatives

I'm trying to reduce the total number of grain servings I eat so am thinking about satisfying alternatives. Today with tea I'll try apple slices: they're crunchy and a little sweet. Should fit the bill, don't you think?

"Power" lunch

Easy, tasty, healthy - thought I'd share with you. a bit of cut up leftover roast beef from our family dinner chopped red pepper chopped green pepper olives granulated onion granulated garlic cumin 1/4 lime shredded jack cheese (about 1 T.) 1 corn tortilla I heated the first 4 ingredients in a bit of olive oil in my handy small cast iron skillet with a bit of water to prevent sticking. Season with a dash of the seasonings. Squeeze the juice from the 1/4 lime into the pan. Then I toasted/browned the tortilla in a small pan. Spoon all the stuff into the tortilla and sprinkle with the cheese. If you have any of the dressing left from the recipe posted 2/13/14 drizzle that over it all. I had salad with this: Romaine lettuce shredded carrot I keep in the fridge for quick salads drizzled with a bit of oil & balsamic vinegar I also keep pre-mixed in a small jar Top with 1/2 apple chopped into pretty small pieces 1 T. raisins I'll probably have a banana because the treadmill makes me hungry. The not-so-powerful part? half a dozen sweet potato chips for crunch 1 (count them) small chocolate chip cookie Hmmm... maybe that recipe should follow another day -- they're only 3 weight watchers points and they have all that homemade taste.

Every Sunday morning of the world I feel like a slug. This could be the work of the one who doesn't want God's people to follow through on opportunities to meet with God and His people, or it could be much simpler. That's the one day of the week I don't roll out of bed to a walk outside. I proved my theory this week. As soon as we got home from church, hubby and I agreed to walk by the river. By the time we got back, I was a different person. Fresh air is the best cure for what ails a body.

Real Life...

... happens, right in the midst of my good intentions to start blogging again. We certainly racked up some exercise "points" this weekend helping a son move and then catching up on our regular exercise routines with lots of walking Sunday. Today's "new" healthy habit: attempting to have tea without requisite crumpet. Shaggy Doo will understand!

A recent healthy food meal: We had something like a super taco a few nights ago that resulted in leftover black beans, chopped red and green pepper, tomatoes, and olives. Looked like the perfect makings for taco salad the next day for lunch. I added 1 T. grated cheddar cheese and made a miniscule batch of my family's favorite Mexican salad dressing. For me, this equals about 2 servings of salad dressing: 1 tsp. mayonnaise 1/3 tsp. honey 1/2 tsp. red wine vinegar dash cumin dash black pepper dash granulated garlic Sadly, the one thing that wasn't leftover after the taco night were the crumbs of multi-grain (gluten-free) chips.

We're following Weight Watchers at our house -- I love their healthy eating ideas and good fitness tips. I've heard from more than one source that eating at the computer = mindless eating. I'm here to tell you it just happened. That (small) piece of cheese (a healthy snack) that was here on my notepad has simply disappeared. It's gone. I've been trying to practice more "mindful" eating, but I find that has to happen away from the computer for me to truly focus and enjoy the food.

It's nice to know everything we ever thought remains in cyberspace -- indefinitely. So, too, this blog. It's now been a year and a half. Much exercising -- and eating! -- has happened in the interim. I have a new "best friend" for exercise: an elliptical. It's truly a wonderful addition to my rotation. Dear hubby rigged up a shelf with a DVD player at the correct height so I can watch movies, listen to CDs, etc. I also have access to Pandora radio which gives me an ever-changing menu of music. No excuses not to exercise! Hubby has his exercise bike right next to it, so we can even workout together. Yes, these tools have enabled me to continue to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, which keeps me happy. :-)