Showing posts with label Health Tip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health Tip. Show all posts

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Yummy Healthy Crackers


 I first discovered Mary's Gone Crackers about a year ago through a promotion that sent out free samples. I thought they were delicious but was going through a really rough time with the food budget and knew there was no way I could possibly afford them.
Since moving and the start of my new life one of the changes has included getting help with food and God has blessed me adundantly. Now I can afford healthy food for the children and I. I have found a wonderful local grocery that carries the weirdest assortment of foods. From the ultra healthy to the terribly not.   But I am happy to say they are carrying Mary's Gone Crackers. I had some today for lunch and dipped them into Hummus. DELICIOUS!  I highly recommend you try them. They are made with brown rice, quinoa (which if you have read my blog you know I love), flax seeds and sesame seeds.
Such a tasty difference from the dead lifeless crackers that are offered on store shelves today.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Chicken BLT Pasta

I was sick of the same old same old meals day in and day out. So I did a search on Tasty Kitchen
Stumbled on one of my favorite people there and found this wonderful recipe.
Chicken BLT Pasta.

I had stirred it at this point so it doesn't look quite as great as HowSweetEats. Also while I loved the flavor as is. My family likes more flavor so we added light Italian dressing. I also put a lot more pasta in to make sure everyone gets full in my family.  It was a big hit at our house. 

My New Me, Healthy Me

5 weeks ago I decided it's time. Once and for all I am going to get the remainder of my weight off since I had Prairie Princess. *It was 2 years ago*  I was struggling because the health of our food has declined in the last 6 mths to 12 mths when my husband had a huge job change and I had to purchase less healthy foods because I just can't afford the good stuff anymore.  And just couldn't get motivated. I've been able to stay the same weight for the last 2 years but just haven't been able to get it off. Thanks to my friend Coach Patti She was currently using the program as well as her dd and helped me find one for a great price. She has since become a Coach and I highly recommend her for any help you need at beach body.

So I am counting calories because I can't just eat healthy food. But the most important element is I am now working out faithfully 6 days a week. The first month I only did 5 days a week.

The biggest tool in my arsenal  is Chalean Extreme. 


There are several things I love about this plan. There are 16 different workouts on the plan.
The first month you do 3 days strength training and 2 days of cardio. Plus 1 day you do Stretching after you do your cardio and 1 day with Ab work.  Then the second month you do different strength training that will PUSH you to workout differently and harder. Then the third month another set of strength training. I LOVE that I am doing a totally different challenging workout 5 days a week. It is NOT boring. And when you get strong enough to take it to the next level. There is another level to acheive. I plan to do this workout for at least 6 months or more.

You can use free weights or bands as shown in this photo. The strength training is different than most. Usually your doing tons of reps but her you life the weight slowly and you actually get much more out of the workout with only 10 to 12 reps of each exercise. The cardio is intense! I am slowly getting stronger. Doing a little heavier weights using the resistance band for thigh workouts. 


Another tool in my weight-loss journey is Acct. I am currently in a group on Facebook. God's Temple Acct. If your interested please email me. And I am a member at Beachbody.com. The most amazing thing at beach body is if you own their exercise workouts you can plug in what you have and what workouts you want to do and the program can create a workout calendar for you. One of the things I have struggled with is having to make a decision daily what workout to do. And they do it for you. How great is that.

Putting my health first is best for my family. I can serve them better when I am healthy strong and fit.

What are YOU going to do to change your life for the better. YOU are GOD's TEMPLE treat it accordingly!

Friday, November 26, 2010

You can Keep your Pumpkin Pie... I've gone to better things...

I have found a new tradition for our thanksgiving!  Delicious and easy to make...

French Silk Pie

1 c. sugar
3 sqs. (3 oz.) unsweetened chocolate, melted & cooled
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 (9 inch) baked pastry shell
Chocolate curls (optional)
3/4 c. butter
3 eggs
Unsweetened whipped cream (optional)

In a small mixer bowl, cream sugar and butter about 4 minutes or until fluffy. Stir in cooled chocolate and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed after each addition and scraping sides of bowl constantly. Turn into baked pastry shell. Chill several hours or until set. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls, if desired. Cover and chill. Makes 10 servings.
Note: I choose a graham cracker crust for mine.





For a sugar free pie I substituted the sugar with 1 to 2 tsp. of stevia powder *different brands have different sweetness*  and I used a super thin flour pie crust. Delicious!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Apple Butter in the Crockpot

Apple Butter in the Crockpot.

16 cups of cubed apples (they can be large)
2 cups apple cider, apple juice or water.

Cook in Crockpot for 10 hours on low.  I do this the night before and it is ready in the morning.
I use a blender stick straight into the crockpot. Add 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cloves.  Blend in apples. Cook in crockpot 1 hour on low. Then you are done. Just try not to eat it all! :)

Sugar Free Version
1 1/2 to 2 Teaspoons Stevia instead of sugar.

I got 2 qts. from the Stevia sweetened and 3 qts. from the sugar sweetened.

Sugar Free (Stevia) Iced Chocolate Drink

This is so simple. But so delicious. This is my hot chocolate recipe. Summer edition.
8 oz milk
3 Tablespoons Baking Cocoa
sprinkle of Salt
2 packages Stevia
Splash Vanilla Extract

Blend together in a hand blender until cocoa is thoroughly blended in. Heat in the microwave (1 m. 40 S. on my 1300 watt)  or on the stove-top until very warm. *This is important to heat it because it makes it very creamy. Then add tons and tons of ice. This would ROCK with Sonic ice! But I'm in the middle of no where. So I use a whole tray of ice-cubes. 

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Workout Music

A friend shared what music she listens to when she works out. And I realized I should do this also. So here are the songs I thought of so far. I'm sure I could find many many more. But this is already dreadfully long. So put on some comfy clothes and move! This is over 75 minutes of music. So you may want to pick songs from each section!

Warm UP
Aaron Shust


Starting to Move More

Ginny Owens- I Know Someone





Time to get Moving!
Gotta listen to some Krystal Myers!






Addison Road


Cali


Mandisa- Shackles


Britt Nicole- Ready


Cool Down

Jeremy Camp- I am Nothing



Sara Groves- Hello Lord


Rebecca St. James and Barlow Girls


Phil Whickham- Divine Romance

Thursday, April 15, 2010

More Weightloss tips and tools


DIFFERENT WAYS TO MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS
flower

1990 WEIGHT STANDARDS
(I got this chart from Gentle Eating book) I choose this one because it is more forgiving than some.
:heart: Height :heart: Weight
:heart: 19-34 years :heart: 35=
5' :heart: 97-128 :heart: 108-138
5' 1” :heart: 101-132 :heart: 111-143
5' 2” :heart: 104-137 :heart: 115-148
5' 3” :heart: 107- 141 :heart: 119-152
5' 4” :heart: 111-146 :heart: 122-157
5' 5” :heart: 114-150 :heart: 126-162
5' 6” :heart: 118-155 :heart: 130-167
5' 7” :heart: 121-160 :heart: 134-172
5' 8” :heart: 125-164 :heart: 138-178
5' 9” :heart: 129-169 :heart: 142-183
5' 10” :heart: 132-174 :heart: 146-188
5' 11” :heart: 136- 179 :heart: 151-194
6' :heart: 140-184 :heart: 155-199
6' 1” :heart: 144-189 :heart: 159-205
6' 2” :heart: 148-195 :heart: 164-210
6' 3” :heart: 152-200 :heart: 168-216


NEGATIVE CALORIE FOODS
“All foods have some calories. No food is actually “negative calorie” food. But the overall effect of certain foods in our body is that of “Negative calories”. Negative calorie foods are foods, which use more calories to digest than the calories the foods actually contain!
VEGGIES
Asparagus, beets, brocolli, cabbage (green), carrots, cauliflower, celery, chicory, chili peppers, cucumbers, endive, garlic, lettuce, onions, spinach, turnips and zucchini
FRUIT
apples, cranberries, grapefruit, lemons, mangos, oranges, papayas, pineapples, raspberries, strawberries and tangerines

When You hit a PLATEAU Relief!
(These tips are from a friend who is a personal trainer! )
1. What is your sleeping pattern like? Whenever I hit a plateau (which, unfortunately was way too often for my preferences! ), the first thing my trainer would always ask me, was how much sleep I'd been getting nightly. The optimal is 7-8 hours. I don't know how 'true' this is, as I can't verify it, but he said that in the 7th hour is when the 'fat burning' takes place???? Whether or not that, in particular, is true, I do know that recently a study was published that DOES show a correlation between weight loss and an adequate amount of sleep. (I can give you more information about this if you want it.) But, take a look at how much sleep, on average, you're getting nightly. Don't cut corners there.

2. If you don't, I'd encourage you to log what you eat and when you eat in a food journal. Record
ALL bites that you take and the times that you take them. This can often show some patterns that you don't even realize. This would also be helpful to really take a look at your calories. Maybe it's not so much as cutting down on calories, but you may not even be getting ENOUGH calories????

3. Might consider changing up your diet a bit. You eat pretty small in the morning, you might consider eating MORE during the morning/lunch and little at night. You might also consider not eating anything after 7-8pm. Doesn't really matter HOW you change it, but just change your diet a bit since your body may be used to one way of eating and need a bit of a change.

4. Depending on how long you've had your exercise routine, you may need a change. I think you recently started the rebounding class, right? Well, maybe there's another change needed, if you've been doing the other things for awhile. It's good to change your routine somewhat every 4 weeks. Even if you just 'tweak' it a bit. For example, today I did just cardio -- often I run or do the elliptical. But, today I did the stairmaster (with the real stairs! ) and I was sweating like crazy after 10 minutes! The other day we did the bike in our trekking class, and went to level 25 and I was huffing and puffing and sweating like crazy, too. What I realized was that in running and the elliptical, unless I up the intensity, my body has become 'used to' those machines, so I MUST change things constantly to keep me challenged. Change is so good for our bodies! Could you maybe do some swimming/ rowing/ stairmaster? Do you have a crossaerobics machine? Running? Also -- does your gym have backpacks? You could strap on a 5-10lbs. backpack while you're on the treadmill or elliptical. This 'tricks' your body into thinking that it's heavier and therefore it burns more calories. You wouldn't need to do this all the time, but just maybe for awhile until your plateau breaks. Also, you could do more Interval training. Even while on the elliptical -- every few minutes, go harder at a greater intensity (faster pace or higher level) for 30-60 seconds, then bring it back down to 'normal' and then go harder again. Do this a few times within your routine, and each time keeping adding another interval. Could do this with the treadmill, too -- do 'bursts' of running or a higher incline for 30-60 seconds, every few minutes. This is GREAT for your body! And, in a way it 'tricks' your body also and you burn more calories.

5. Do you drink plenty of water? You should drink 1/2 your body weight in water. And, then if you drink coffee/pop or caffeinated beverages, then you're to add in another cup for 8oz. of caffeinated beverage.


Here are some excerpts from a magazine article called Scale Stuck? Don't Panic!

#1 Do the Math, Find out how many calories you need at your current weight. (Bandermom showed how Figuring out your needed caloric intake: !)

Constantly adjusting the program to beat the plateau really helps

#2. Shake up YOur Routine- Variety is a great way to boost your exercise results. "You don't have to do a different activity every time. It can be as simple as doing some intervals of higher-and lower- intensity exercise. This will change your cardiovascular system, as well as increase the number of calories your'e burning.

#3 Add some Muscle- If you don't feel like your body is getting firmer or burning fat efficiently, you probably need to discover the benefits of pumping iron. Better still, muscles are like fat-burning furnaces, the more muscle mass you have, the more efficient your metabolism is, so you'll essentially be torching calories even when your not exercising.

#4 Take a Break- If you overexercise and/or under eat, your body goes into survival mode and won't let go of the fat you're trying to lose. Whether you're an athlete or a new exerciser, if you're doing too much too soon, your body holds onto extra fat because it thinks its' in a famine situation. Going slow and steady tells your body everything's normal and OK In general, if you've been exercising more than an hour a day, six days a week, and/or you're consuming less than 1,200 calories a day, your body's going to hold onto everything it can. Take two or three days off of your exercise program. When you start getting your energy back you can exercise again. Generally getting 1 hour or exercise, 3-6 days a week is fine, and you should be consuming a MINIMUM of 1,200 calories a day. Considerably more if you are exercising!

#5 Focus on your feelings- People get frustrated because they're so focused on the scale. He says to focus your mind on something else. Especially if your weight training. You could be losing weight, but gaining muscle- so even though your body's getting more compact, the scale might stop moving or go up for a little while, even though you're losing fat. Bottom line: Pay attention to how you feel, the changes in your body, the way your clothes fit- and trust that the numbers aren't nearly as important as your health and well-being.



PORTIONS choc kiss
Even though we have the best intentions when it comes to a healthy diet, it's still easy to overindulge. Here are some guidelines to help without having to dig out your measuring utensils!

Serving Size :heart: Equals...
1/4 cup granola :heart: golf ball
3 cups low fat popcorn :heart: 3 fists
1 tsp. butter :heart: postage stamp
3 ounces white fish :heart: checkbook
3 ounces cooked meat :heart: deck of cards
1 medium potato :heart: small bar of soap
1 medium fruit :heart: baseball
1 bagel :heart: hockey puck
2 Tbsp. peanut butter :heart: roll of film
1 cup pasta :heart: tennis ball
1 ounce cubed cheese :heart: 6 small dice
1 serving ice cream :heart: computer mouse




SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO LOOK UP! bless
http://www.biblegateway.com/

Hebrews 10:35
James 1:2-4
James 1:12
2 Cor. 4:7-9 and 16-18
Song of Solomon 4:9-16 and 5:1
Ps. 37:3-5, 84:5, 69:16-17, 73:26, 31:7, 4:1, 28:2, 23:3, 127:2, 25:16-17, 104:13-15, 136:25-26
Nehemiah 8:10b
Lamentations 3:22-24
1 Corinthians 10:31, 3: 16-17
Rom. 8:9 and 1-5
Proverbs 4:18, 1:17, 31:17
Luke 3:22-23, 18:27
Galations 5:16
Gen. 2:9
Phil 4:6-7
1 Peter 5:7
Jeremiah 29: 11-13
John 6:35
Micah 6:8