Sorry I’ve been MIA. My husband and I have been battling a horse illness and it’s really been playing havoc on both of us in a horrible way. I’ve been blogging about it on my own blog. I was really reluctant to start my own blog but I did it mostly to deal with my feeling and share with my friends and family without having to share it several times with every one. This way, I can just point everyone in the direction of the site. I still get questions and that’s fine, but what we are going through at the moment has been very heart breaking. If you want to read about it you can go to http://celestialtimesatfarm.blogspot.com/.
I’ve done really well about getting my workouts in, as usual, but due to lack of sleep, I gave myself a rest day yesterday. Did I feel guilty about that rest day? For the first time in my life, no! But you know I do notice every time I don’t workout, I get super sweaty as I’m getting ready to walk out the door for work and feel like I missed something. My whole day is kind of thrown off. Does anyone else experience the sweating? Or the feeling of missing something?
I’ve been exercising every morning since March of 1997. It’s become such a part of life for me that it almost resembles my husband’s morning cup of coffee. (more…)
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…)
“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.
And here’s another awesome new contributor. Thanks so much, Kimberly!
Hi Everyone, I’m Kimberly. When I saw that Fig was wanting contributors, I immediately e-mailed her and expressed my interest. As I thought about what I wanted my first post to be, the words of my high school English teacher echoed in my mind “Kimberly, when you need to tell a story — start at the beginning.” So that’s what I am going to do.
My pursuit of a healthy lifestyle has not been an easy one. For most of my life, a high metabolism and lots of physical activity, compensated for my poor food choices. I was able to stay naturally thin until my freshman year of college. The demands of a full course schedule, late night pizza runs, and copious amounts of chips had me gaining “the freshman fifteen” and an additional 30 pounds.
This is the point where I would like to tell you that I modify my eating habits, became more physically active, and over the course of time lost the weight I had gained. But that is not what happened. Instead, I began using diet pills (at the suggestion of a college friend) which quickly lead to my developing an eating disorder. I battled my eating disorder for nearly 5 years before finally realizing that I needed help. With the help of my friends, family, and a great therapist, I have been ED free for 3 years. (more…)
Fig’s Note: This post is from one of the new contributors to Fit Fig. I appreciate Celeste joining me to write content! I promise not to interrupt her every post – just wanted to introduce her this once.
Well, let me start by introducing myself. I’m Celeste, I am married to Tim. We live in Annapolis, Maryland. I work in the marine industry. I have 4 “kids” that I adore. They are of the 4 legged variety. We have 2 horses (Frank and Tonka) and 2 Dogs (Muttsey and Sara). (I’ll introduce them more next time.)
I saw Fig’s cry for help and I’d been thinking about doing this on my own….and how ironic that Fig would post a help sign.
I’ve been struggling with my weight all my life. I’ve been exercising since 1997, lost 107 pounds….and when I got divorced, I put on 20 pounds….then I found my hubby…and he can eat everything and not gain a pound, I gain 30….oye. So, right now, I’m trying to lose 50. I’ve been struggling with this for a couple years. I did really well for a while and then the economy tanked and well…a lot of things happened to our little family. But, I’m getting my rear in gear. (more…)
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…)
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):
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).
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.
I got this cookbook when I briefly tried Body for Life a few months ago. Of course, I didn’t complete the 12-week BFL program, but I still learned a lot from it and I kept the cookbook. This week I came across the book while planning my grocery list, so I pulled it out and searched out some recipes. I found 3 recipes to make this week. So far I’ve already made 2 of the 3 with great success.
Last night we had Mom’s Chicken Enchiladas. They were absolutely some of the best homemade Mexican (or TexMex) food we’ve had. The hubby and I both loved them. If my little boys were not such picky little eaters and had actually tried them, I’m pretty sure they would have liked them as well. They often decide a meal is “yucky” before even taking a bite. I can tell you it certainly did not look yucky to the adults. It also made a nice re-heated lunch today.
Then tonight I made the Colorado Buffalo Burgers. (Obviously we are not vegetarians.) The recipe included coleslaw (to be served on the burger but DH preferred it on the side) and oven-baked fries. The fries turned out too hot for us (and we’re transplanted Texans who like our food spicy) so I think I’ll tone them down next time. The burgers were a big hit even with the boys, though.
The next recipe on the agenda is Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken. I’ll probably do that one tomorrow.
I’ve also done the Golden Pancakes several times–they include lots of protein in the form of egg whites and cottage cheese. The hubby was not impressed at how they looked, but to be fair he never actually ate one–just saw me eating them.
I recommend this book for great healthy recipes, especially if you are doing Body for Life, but even if you’re not. I did not evaluate these recipes closely as regards fat content, calories, etc., but they seemed balanced and nutritious (veggies as well as protein and carbs). I can tell you they tasted pretty darn good as well.
Here is this week’s somewhat-BFL-like meal plan. It doesn’t really differ much from last week’s meal plan. I was in a bit of a hurry so I didn’t try to get creative. Maybe next week I’ll branch out a bit.
Today I started Body for Life again. As I mentioned in a previous post, this time I’m not doing the workout plan (though I am working out, of course) but I’m focusing on the eating plan. (I got this idea from fellow blogger friend Betsy). So far so good. Of course it’s only been one day.
Here’s what I ate today:
7 am: Coffee w/ raw sugar and skim milk (nope, not ready to give up my coffee–rarely have more than half the cup I pour every morning, though)
8 am: Kashi Go Lean Crunch w/ blueberries & skim milk
11 am: Special K protein bar
2 pm: Tuna salad (OK, not much of a salad–just tuna, mustard, dill relish), apple w/ Tbsp. peanut butter
5 pm: Cottage cheese, carrots
7 pm: Protein pancakes (recipe from Eating for Life) with raspberries, strawberries, & sugar-free syrup
9 pm: Dannon Light & Fit yogurt
This was all pretty close to plan, though maybe I could have done a better tuna salad. Also, I drank water but not as much as I should. I’ll do better on that tomorrow.
I keep forgetting I need to add more recipes to the lists I started on my Fit Fig Tools page. Does anyone have more to send me?
This week I am experimenting with creating a Body for Life meal plan for the whole week in advance, much like my fellow blogger friend Betsy. I confess I even copied a lot of Betsy’s style, though I can’t get it quite as tidy as hers. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
Let’s see if I can upload it here. Click on it to see it larger.
I admit it is a bit repetitive, but in spite of my need for variety in workouts, I don’t need much variety in eating, at least not within one week. So we’ll see how this goes.
I think I’m actually going to try Body for Life again. I know I fizzled out at 6 weeks last time. This time I’m going to try just the meal plan (which even when I quit seemed like such a darn good idea). I was inspired by a post by fellow fitness blogger Betsy, who is winding up her first week of the BFL meal plan but is not following the workout plan (but like me she works out on her own already). I have to admit I got pretty bored with the BFL workouts, just because I love a huge variety of workouts. I also had my issues with injuries and so forth (which are ongoing, of course). So now I’m going to focus on the eating part, and be a little more careful with it. I’ll be starting on Monday because that’s always the day I start stuff. I promise not to go nuts over the weekend, though.
I’ve enjoyed some decent workouts this week and stuck to my plan except for yesterday. I spent so much time traveling to visit with a friend that my planned workout didn’t happen. Tomorrow I’ll be doing Cathe’s Low Impact Circuit, which is one of my all-time favorite DVDs and no sissy workout for being low impact.
Stay tuned–I’ve got some more Spider-Man yoga pose pics to post–perhaps tonight.
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.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
