In response to my last post, Fig commented that “sometimes it seems like making healthy food will take too much of my time, but that doesn’t have to be true–you can make healthy snacks easily accessible”. Her comment got me to thinking about my snacking habits, specifically the snacks that I consume during my work day.
When I began my career, I was not adopting a healthy living lifestyle, and as a result I would frequently visit the vending machines just down the hall from my offices. I did it so often, that my co-workers could almost pinpoint the exact time I would go and what snack I would come back with. (For those who want to know, it was at 3:15 p.m. every day and I either had a bag of potato chips or a Snickers bar). It seems that I am not the only woman who falls victim to the vending machine habit. This 2007 study found that 80% percent of woman snack at work. Of those 80%, nearly half admitted to snacking on chips, chocolate, candy bars and cookies. (more…)
I’ve done really well getting my workouts in…which isn’t a problem for me. I love my workouts….for me it’s the food part of it. I’m not doing too bad. But I thought I’d share the opposite coin of my life. My hubby!
Tim is THIN!!!! He is the total opposite of me. We are always looking for ways to put some weight on him.
The other day, we stopped at Panera for Breakfast…my (almost) healthy egg sandwich, and his pecan roll, which I swear I gained a few pounds just smelling as he ate it.
After being on the, watch what you eat…count your calories….it’s so hard to be looking on he greener side of the fence of, “what can I buy that will help my husband?” (more…)
I’m so excited to welcome my new fellow bloggers to keep FitFig.com active. I’m even inspired to write new posts again.
I have written before about this great book I have called 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life by David Grotto. I first heard about it from MizFit’s blog. Ever since my husband read it around the holidays we’ve been eating very clean and trying to get in more and more of the 101 foods. Mr. Fig has made a sort of competition of it (competing mainly with himself as he always far outdoes me) by seeing how many of the 101 foods he can eat each day. He’s an accountant, so he’s made a spreadsheet (and a graph, seriously) listing all 101 foods. Then he’s got the dates there so he can mark each food he eats in a day and tally up the list. He always eats more of the foods than I do because he doesn’t worry too much about calorie intake. He also wants to lose weight but he has less to lose and like most men he has an easier time losing it than I do.
When we started with the book there were tons of foods in there we don’t normally eat. We’ve introduced a lot of them into our diet since and we’re gradually adding more in. We also do what we can to pack a lot in. For instance, a common breakfast for us now is steel cut oats. Then we will add in things like flaxseed, bananas, blueberries, walnuts, and agave nectar–whatever fun combo we want. We also do a lot of smoothies similar to Kimberly’s recipe. Both are a great way to get more healthy stuff into our picky kids as well. (more…)
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” That’s the message shared by doctors, dieticians, and mothers everywhere. But when I am trying to feed the baby, packed my briefcase, tidy up the house and make it to work on time – breakfast often falls by the wayside.
And for me, if my breakfast is either missed entirely or a poor choice (think sugary doughnut), it becomes a lot harder to resist those 3 p.m. vending machine cravings. In order to combat this problem, I have armed myself with a few quick and easy breakfast ideas – that take only minutes to prepare, taste great, and are nutritionally sound.
As the weather warms up, my go to quick breakfast is a smoothie. Here is the smoothie that I can been drinking lately:
1 medium banana*
1 6 ounce serving of Greek yogurt**
2 handfuls of baby spinach ***
1 cup frozen fruit
A splash of milk
Ice
Everything into a blender, blender until desired consistency and enjoy! Do you enjoy smoothies? If so, what are your favorite combinations?
*If you have overripe bananas, pop them into your freezer and use them in this recipe. They had a great taste and extra creaminess.
**I prefer using Greek yogurt due to the high protein content, but you can use any yogurt of your choosing.
***Spinach in a smoothie may sound weird, but you can not even taste it. It is a way to sneak in an serving of veggies.
Also, here is Carolyn’s other website, which includes info on her cardio workouts (2 DVDs and 3 audio). I’m ordering at least one workout from her later today.
I’ve probably talked about this before, but it really is a wonderful tool — SuperNoots! I think I first heard about this from MizFit. I have a SuperNoots board for each of my bigger boys and sometimes I can get them to compete to see who can have the most nutritious day.
I’ve also mentioned David Grotto’s books before, too, but they continue to be big favorites around here. The first is 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life and the second is 101 Optimal Life Foods. My husband consults the first one like it’s his food bible. His current thing is trying to get in as many of the good foods in on one day as possible. Yesterday he claims he ate 44 of them.
My husband and I have been on a great clean eating kick since Christmas. Even though I am the one usually interested in fitness, it was my husband who instigated turning over our new leaf. He started reading a book I’ve had for awhile but haven’t read (I have a bad habit of buying new books and stacking them in a corner while I read something else). The book was 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life by David Grotto. I first heard about Grotto and his book over on MizFit’s blog where he has done hilarious guest video posts, such as this one. Anyway, Brian was inspired by the book and shortly after Christmas he even went to the grocery store (we’re usually very 50′s traditional-type couple around here and I do all the shopping and cooking). Then he brought home all sorts of lovely clean foods and cooked for us every day until he went back to work (and has still cooked some on the weekends and made us steel cut oats many mornings). (more…)
I went to the OB/GYN yesterday. I actually have to see a different one almost every time because it’s one of those group practices where you don’t know who will be on call when you go into labor. That makes sense and I’m sure it’s better for their work life balance, but it can get a bit confusing and inconsistent for the patient. Anyway, yesterday I finally saw Dr. Q, whom I’d been trying to see for a couple months already. Every time I had an appointment with her I would wait for ages and then end up seeing someone else. So I finally met her and she wanted to ask about my previous babies. They were a bit on the big side (Isaac was 8lb 14oz and Ewan as 9lb 11oz) but she noted I had never been diagnosed as having gestational diabetes (which is often a link to gestational diabetes). I told her, “No, those tests always came out negative.” Then I also told her I had excess amniotic fluid both times, which she said was another common sign of diabetes. Huh. Then she asked about family history and of course we’ve got more than our fair share of diabetes on my mom’s side of the family. And lots of fat people, to be honest. (more…)
Today I give you an excellent guest post on feeding oneself without breaking the bank. There’s some really great advice here (some of which I actually follow myself, though my hubby would be surprised to know that since he’s always shocked at the size of our grocery bill).
Hi, I’m Mara from What’s For Dinner? and I was thrilled when I was asked to do a guest post for FitFig.com! I immediately thought of a topic that’s all too familiar to me: budget eating.
My fiancé often jokes that “Only in America are the rich people thin and the poor people obese.” It’s quite a sad statement actually. In a world where $0.99 value menus rule, and an organic meal can run nearly 10 times that, what are those of us in between supposed to do? What about those of us that want to eat well and healthy, but don’t have tons of “edible” income to spend? (more…)
Tonight we tried yet another recipe from my Eating for Life cookbook. This time it was something called “Deluxe Turkey Dinner.”
You can see most of the ingredients in the picture below (the one from the book, not the mess I made): turkey breast slices, yellow squash, zucchini, whole cranberry sauce, and stuffing with celery and onion. It sounds like a nice combo of a lot of Thanksgiving dishes all mixed together. I thought that was a sure hit. Nope.
Unfortunately this was not one of our more successful attempts from the EFL book. The hubby ate it but didn’t go for seconds (which I’d expected since I started us with small portions and he’s a big eater). Then he ate a bowl of cereal instead of seconds. He said something like “Turkey dinner all mixed up is not a good idea” in between cereal bites. Apparently he hadn’t realized it was a casserole sort of thing, though it was one of the recipes he’d marked as something he’d like to try (I always have him look through new cookbooks and stick little post-its on dishes he’d like). The boys weren’t even willing to try it. Alas, even I didn’t care for it. I like cranberry sauce but not on the turkey, I guess. I’m actually not even a big fan of turkey. I barely eat any at Thanksgiving, preferring to focus on the yummy side dishes. So we all ended up having Cheerios for dinner.
This would probably be fine if you don’t mind your turkey dinner “all mixed up” and this is still one of my favorite cookbooks, but I removed the post-it from the page as I doubt will try this one again.
Here’s the lovely book photo:
And this is the hot mess I made (literally–you may be able to see the steam rising from it):
You don’t have to spend hours upon hours in the gym to be buff and strong (unless perhaps you are really dedicated and planning to enter a fitness competition). Sometimes you meet people who spend hours and hours working out and it’s discouraging to think, “I’ll never have time to do that!” So I’m always heartened when I meet someone who is very fit but spends a sensible amount of time on her fitness. Of course I know different body types have different requirements. I also recognize that post-baby I’m probably going to need more cardio than someone at a lower weight. Still, I think some people unnecessarily overdo the exercise.
Our poll on the hours people work out is ongoing, so I’m curious to see where we all fall on the average week. I believe I said 6-10 though sometimes my workouts are only an hour long lately because I take frequent breaks (to take the 3-year old or dog to the potty or to go potty myself, to get some water, etc.) When I was working out more than 10 hours a week is also when I managed to injure myself last year, so I try to make sure I don’t overtrain now (well, especially while preggers, of course).
Admittedly, I’m no expert, so I direct you to another blog to see a couple examples of the amount of time some much fitter women work out. Last week on MizFit‘s blog she and fellow fitness queen Kelly Olexa posted video blog posts about their typical workouts. Kelly works out much longer than MizFit right now, but that’s because she’s training for competition–Miz herself is totally buff without committing a huge amount of time to exercise. And as MizFit says, how you behave in the kitchen has a lot to do with it. (This of course has been my main problem–I usually work out plenty but I don’t eat so well–at least not with consistency.) Miz is all about the clean eating.
I’ve got all the books about clean eating (and a subscription to Clean Eating magazine) but I’ve been rather slow in actually implementing a clean diet. I guess it’s happening a little bit at a time. Lately my hubby has shown an interest in eating cleaner as well, which is probably the best development to help my own diet. I think if I can continue to clean up my diet, I’ll have more success postpartum at losing the flab and getting fit and strong.
So, I got an email asking if I wanted to try POM Wonderful and of course I was delighted to sample some yummy pomegranate juice (well, I was hoping it was yummy but didn’t know yet). I said something like, “I may be all about the figs, but I’m open to other fruits.” (I know, I try too hard to be funny sometimes). I’ve been drinking a lot of juice as an alternative to sodas lately, anyway. (And milk, and water, and decaf tea–I like plenty of variety.)
So when the POM Wonderful arrived I was eager to try it (but had to wait for a day when the tummy wasn’t troubled–I can’t drink juices much when nauseated). Finally I was feeling good and popped open a little bottle. And YUM. Yes, it was pretty darn good and pomegranate-y. That also brought a happy memory of picking fresh pomegranates and eating them right off the tree while growing up. (Weird sentence there–pictured myself stretching my neck up and eating the fruit while it was still on the tree.)
I also got lots of info about the health benefits of pomegranates. Who knew? I know I’ve had several posts about how awesome figs are you, so I guess in all fairness I should tell you that pomegranates are pretty darn good for you too. For more information on the health benefits, check this site out.
Also, you might like to see MizFit’s POM Wonderful review as well. I probably should have posted this in time for you to enter the giveaway–sorry about that. I’m a pokey poster. Maybe some day I can offer a giveaway of POM as well. The comments below her video are worth a read as well. MizFit has some of the best commenters in the online fitness blog world.
Tonight we made yet another recipe from my Eating for Life book. (Have you bought it yet? Am I tempting you with all these recipes?) I made the super-easy Ranchero Eggs. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like them. I’ve had a bad experience with Huevos Rancheros before–while traveling in Mexico I got a bad case of Montezuma’s Revenge after eating some, though I think it was actually more about the mangos and papayas I’d had at breakfast every day. (I still can’t eat those.)
These Ranchero Eggs were different enough that they didn’t make me toss my cookies with taste memory associations. They were also not nearly as authentically Mexican, of course, but they were very tasty nonetheless. You cook the eggs and egg whites and then add in some pinto beans and heat it all up. Then lay it on the tortilla and top it with salsa, cheese, chives, and jalapeño.
Here’s the lovely cookbook photo. I just know they cheated to make it look so good.
And here’s my messier version.
I don’t know how I was supposed to eat it. After I laid it out on the tortilla I decided just to fold it up and eat it like a taco, but of course it was a bit full for that. Messy. But yummy.
I did have one positive taste memory association–I thought of these delicious egg and potato concoctions in tortillas we used to have when I lived in south Texas. We had a neighbor who would bring them over and they were so delicious. I also got them from some women at my church (at the time I went to a Spanish-speaking church as one of the only gringoes). Now I’m thinking I want to find a recipe for that for a good breakfast soon.
Once again, I’m featuring a meal we made from the Eating for Life book. Can you tell how much we like it? A couple nights ago I made Rosemary Chicken. I like the recipes that include sides along with the entree so I don’t have to plan too much–just make it all. This book also has directions for all in the best order to do everything (which is wonderful until I decide to only make one part of it and have to decipher which directions are for that menu item). Another bonus for this book is a picture of the finished meal for every recipe. That is always a big plus for me in a cookbook. I like to see a photo of what I’m about to make–especially when they show cute garnishes I can copy. I’m sure this says something about me but I’m having to correct typos a lot tonight so I’m definitely not with it enough to self-analyze too much.
The hubby had to work late that night and so didn’t even get to try it, so my only guinea pigs were the boys and myself. The boys were their usual picky selves and ate just parts of it. Isaac liked the pine nuts, which he called seeds. Ewan decided he liked the broccoli (“Broccoli is my favoritest food!” he declared) but didn’t actually eat much of it. I think he just liked that they looked like little trees and that I told him broccoli would make him toot. Boys will be boys.
Oh, and I thought it was overall very yummy but the broccoli needed a bit of something. Probably cheese. I’m a sucker for cheese on my broccoli.
Here is the book photo:
And my creation:
I actually don’t think mine suffers too much in comparison this time. OK, so maybe I laid out my chicken and broccoli more sloppily, but I used another lovely Fiesta plate from my collection (this one is Cobalt).
Earlier this week I made Chicken Enchiladas from the Eating for Life book. This is the third time we’ve had them. Actually, the hubby pointed out that mine are more chicken burritos than enchiladas because I end up using big flour tortillas instead of the corn tortillas specified in the recipe. I tried corn tortillas, but they didn’t roll over very well (sounds like a dog command–roll over, corn tortilla!) When I tried to roll the chicken mixture up in the corn tortilla it would tear every time. So I gave up and got the less healthy option of flour tortillas.
I also realized when I took the pictures that I sure slathered a lot of sour cream on mine. It was reduced fat, but still. No wonder I have weight issues. As it happened, I had a stomachache that night and ended up not eating more than a couple bites anyway, so I didn’t actually scarf down all that sour cream.
The hubby still thought they were delicious–probably our favorite item from the EFL book.
Again, the picture from the book looks better, except they didn’t use a lovely Fiestaware Scarlet plate like I did.
Tonight we made what we call Welsh Pasta. Actually there’s nothing particularly Welsh about it. We call it that because we started making it on a trip to Wales. We were staying in a little cottage in the countryside with our own kitchen so we went grocery shopping. The hubby found some rotini pasta on sale and bought a couple boxes of it. We also got several other things on that trip, including a variety of veggies and some mushrooms.
When we got back to the cottage, the hubby actually decided to do the cooking (a rare occurrence at home) and he put together a yummy pasta dish. He cooked a batch of the rotini pasta. As it boiled along, he sauteed sliced red and green peppers and mushrooms in butter. Then he threw it all together and it was heavenly.
Now we make Welsh Pasta fairly regularly, usually with tricolor rotini (though when I make it I just spray a bit of butter-flavored cooking spray instead of actual butter). I also like to toss in some minced garlic as I’m sauteing the peppers and I sprinkle a bit of Italian seasoning over them as well.
It’s a lovely vegetarian meal (lovely in color and in taste). I should have taken a picture tonight to share but once it was made we just set to consuming it (it was a late dinner and we were ravenous). I think it’s a fairly clean meal, though would probably be cleaner with whole wheat pasta.
Last week I had the brilliant idea of making the Chili Rellenos Casserole from the Eating for Life book.
Again I have to show you the lovely cookbook picture versus my unaltered all-natural version. See that bit in the left corner in my own pic–that’s the little bit I put on my plate and ate 2 bites of it. On the right is the part the hubby attempted (he’s tougher than I am). Those jalapeños were insanely hot. We’re Texans by birth and heritage so we thought we could take it. Nope. Well, the hubby plowed through more of it than I did, but didn’t eat any leftovers the next few days.
So it seemed potentially like something really yummy but I almost had smoke coming out my ears. So that was less than a success. We’re still trying a lot of Eating for Life recipes, though. One that went over well with everyone was the recipe for Chicken Tenders. Even my little boys ate that one (since it was breaded chicken they were willing to try it). By the way, I didn’t even attempt to feed them the Chili Rellenos Casserole. I gave them something else that night. Normally I have them eat whatever we’re eating (or try to get them to eat it) but sometimes I know better.
So, it’s only the third day, but I’ll post a little update. I’m doing pretty well with the exercise–I’ve at least done my workouts as planned! I wish I’d burned more calories with the kickboxing workout yesterday, but as it was my first time I hope to burn more next time. Since it was my first time I had trouble getting into the groove and doing all the moves properly–head working too hard and body not hard enough. I don’t think it will be hard to learn, though–should be much better by the next time I do it. Tomorrow I think I’ll do Cathe Friedrich’s 4-Day Split: Higher Intensity Step cardio only premix. I might do another favorite workout and throw in my own intervals.
As for eating, my main problem is not eating enough (crazy, I know). It’s hard to fit in 6 meals a day, even when you’re a SAHM. I also can’t just eat a protein bar, because my braces prevent that. Ugh. Well, still working on it. I’m eating much better at least.
The best thing is I feel great. I forget when I’m pigging out over the holidays how much better and more energetic I feel when I eat right and exercise. Duh, Fig.
So today I restarted Body for Life and it went well (though I actually only ate 5 meals instead of 6–oops). I did a killer BFL upper body workout and it felt great (but also hurt a bit of course). The only problem is when Pepper came to lick me when I lay down on the bench or was trying to sit next to me while I sat on the bench. Typical puppy underfoot action.
Tonight we had Asian Beef Stir-Fry for dinner. It’s a recipe from my Eating for Life cookbook that I wrote about last week. I’m always amused at how my concoctions fail to look like the lovely pics in the cookbooks, so I’m showing you that here.
Here’s the gorgeous cookbook pic of this dish:
And here’s my mess:
I need to get Photoshop so I can make my pics look that pretty. Anyway, it was pretty good though I think I might have overcooked the beef a tad. I do that sometimes in my paranoia to not undercook it.
We don’t claim to be fitness experts. We don’t dispense medical advice and we're not qualified to do so. We are also neither nutritionists nor personal trainers. We are just women on the journey to better fitness and a richer life. Please consult a doctor if you are starting a new exercise routine.
In response to my last post, Fig commented that “sometimes it seems like making healthy food will take too much of my time, but that doesn’t have to be true–you can make healthy snacks easily accessible”. Her comment got me to thinking about my snacking habits, specifically the snacks that I consume during my work day.
I went to the OB/GYN yesterday. I actually have to see a different one almost every time because it’s one of those group practices where you don’t know who will be on call when you go into labor. That makes sense and I’m sure it’s better for their work life balance, but it can get a bit confusing and inconsistent for the patient. Anyway, yesterday I finally saw Dr. Q, whom I’d been trying to see for a couple months already. Every time I had an appointment with her I would wait for ages and then end up seeing someone else. So I finally met her and she wanted to ask about my previous babies. They were a bit on the big side (Isaac was 8lb 14oz and Ewan as 9lb 11oz) but she noted I had never been diagnosed as having gestational diabetes (which is often a link to gestational diabetes). I told her, “No, those tests always came out negative.” Then I also told her I had excess amniotic fluid both times, which she said was another common sign of diabetes. Huh. Then she asked about family history and of course we’ve got more than our fair share of diabetes on my mom’s side of the family. And lots of fat people, to be honest. 
