My Fitness Pal

I cannot seem to lose these last 10 pounds and it is driving me insane!! I've obviously hit a major plateau and I am quite frustrated by the lack of success, especially when this is the best I have felt in a very long time. My fear is that I will never reach my 10 pound goal which means my overall goal of 20 pounds is a lost cause. While I am very health minded, I am human. I've been known to overindulge in sweets, alcohol and bad fitness habits. I know I am to blame for this lack of will power. I will also blame my job; I used food and booze as a way to cope with the stress. The last few weeks of school I packed on 5 pounds. I was going in the wrong direction!! I was disappointed, mad at myself and getting to a point where I just didn't care. Then I caught a stomach bug. After puking and pooping my brains out my body was exhausted. I didn't eat badly because I couldn't eat anything without getting sick. While I certainly do not enjoy throwing up and pooping like a goose, it did halt my alcohol and food consumption and really made me conscious of what I was putting into my body.

Awhile back I joined an on-line health site called My Fitness Pal. It is kind of like a version of Weight Watchers minus the points system. I had joined this site, logged in with my weight and never went back on there. One evening after having the bug, I decided to pop back on the site to play around with the settings. I realized how very easy it was to record my daily food consumption, my water intake and my exercise. That night I recorded what I had eaten that day and while not bad, I realized that snacking was my downfall....it added about 150 more calories than what I really needed. 150 extra calories doesn't sound like a lot, but do that daily for weeks and months on end and it equals a lot of unwanted and unneeded calories. The beauty of this site, for me at least, is seeing in black & white what I was eating and how the food was broken down. For example, the chips I ate didn't sound bad at the time, but the site breaks down the amount of  calories, carbs, fats and proteins in each food item. Seeing in plain site how much I ate and how much fat was now pumping through my body was an eye opener! It also helped me realize that while I was eating mainly healthful foods, the portions were too large. I slacked big time in exercise and seeing what I was NOT doing also made an impact.

For the past 2-3 weeks I've been logging my food intake, making conscious choices about what I consume and I've even started exercising. It is so easy! Last night I met some Boy Scout moms at Bread Co. so we could plan the upcoming year. I love Bread Co.'s chocolate chip cookies so I made sure I ate well during the day, saved up my calories and enjoyed a cookie while I was out. Last week I went shopping with my sister-in-law and I knew we'd have dinner and drinks so again I watched what I ate, upped my walk time and was able to enjoy beer on the patio without any guilt. The beauty of this program is that it teaches you how to eat and enjoy life, not be chained to lettuce and bran flakes. I eat and drink what I want within reason!

This morning I stepped on the scale fully expecting to see the same number, but to my surprise I saw something different!! I've lost an additional 2lbs! My total so far is 6lbs! I may never hit that 20lb goal weight, but I am happy and healthy and I broke the initial plateau!

Memorial Day Foods

This weekend I have been cooking up a storm! Bryan commented to me what a good cook I've become so I must be doing something right these days! I am usually very conscious about cooking as healthy as possible, but I 'll be very honest, my extended family isn't on the same wave length as I am. Healthy to them is not adding ice cream onto the heaping pile of cake or not adding creamer to the coffee. When I cook for them I pretty much disregard all health notions because I know it will just be met with a fight and it isn't worth it n the end.

Today we BBQed brats, burgers and dogs and as sides I grilled fresh corn on the cob, made some doctored up beans, made a delish caprese salad and baked a peach dump cake. Everyone else supplied the rest of the sides. I'll be the first to admit that the beans were loaded with fat and sugar, but they were a hit. I will only make these bad boys for special occasions like a holiday BBQ. The caprese salad was divine! The basil came fresh from my garden! I cannot wait to pick tomatoes from my garden, too. I would happily make and devour this light, tasty dish throughout the summer months. The peach dump cake was another yummy hit. This cake is so easy to make, you have to try it at least once! The smell of the cinnamon and peaches baking fills the kitchen with a heavenly scent!

Southern Style BBQ Baked Beans


Ingredients
56oz of pork & beans
11oz can of pork & beans
3/4 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2 teaspoons of dry mustard
1/2 green bell pepper diced
1/2 onion diced
8 slices of bacon, cut in half

Directions
1. In an iron skillet, fry the bacon slices just enough to render some bacon grease. Keep the bacon soft and half cooked, do not cook all the way! Remove bacon, but keep the grease in the skillet.
2. Place diced onions and peppers into the grease and cook until tender.
3. In a small bowl mix together the BBQ sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, molasses and dry mustard. Pour mixture into the skillet and mix together well with the onions and peppers.
4. Pour the cans of beans into the skillet, mixing well with the sauce. Simmer on low to medium heat until it starts to bubble.
5. Transfer beans into a baking dish. Place the slices of bacon on top of the beans. Bake on 320 degrees for 2 hours. You want the sauce to be thick like syrup.
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Caprese Salad


Ingredients
2 tomatoes
2 balls of fresh mozzarella
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
coarse sea salt
pepper
fresh basil leaves

Directions
1. Slice tomatoes and mozzarella into thick slices.
2. On a small plate or platter, alternate tomato slice with a mozzarella slice and so on.
3. Tuck a piece of fresh basil in between each slice of tomato and mozzarella (the pattern will look like red/green/white, red/green/white, etc).
4. Lightly drizzle olive oil over the dish.
5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. Drizzle lightly with the vinegar.
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Peach Dump Cake


Ingredients
2 cans of peaches in heavy syrup
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 stick of butter
ground cinnamon

Directions
1. Spread both cans of peaches with the syrup on the bottom of a casserole dish. (I used a 9x13 dish, but you could use a small dish if you want a thicker cake.)
2. Sprinkle the entire box of cake mix over the peaches.
3. Cut the butter into small pieces and place on top of the cake mix.
4. Sprinkle the cake with ground cinnamon.
5. Bake on 350 for about 40 minutes.

Happy Memorial Day to all of my family and friends. A very special thank you to all of the brave women and men (past, present and future) who have served in the military for our freedom. Without you we wouldn't have the luxury of backyard BBQs or visits with family and friends.  Bless you!

Recipe: Avocado Pasta

First, can I just say how much I loath this new format??!! When I log on I can't even see my blog, it shows me goofy charts and percentages of how many page views I have, how many comments, etc. Just go to my page! Why doe these sites always have to mess things up?

OK, on to the recipe. I've never made this before, but my sister-in-law swears to me it is tasty. She said my nephew loved it so I am hoping my boys enjoy it as well. I'm getting ready to start making this so I'll report back with the kid approved results later!

Ingredients
1-2 ripe avocados
1/2 lemon, juiced
lemon zest
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup of fresh basil
2 tbsp olive oil
6oz whole wheat pasta

Directions
1. Cook pasta until al dente, drain. I'm using thin whole wheat spaghetti, but you could use any type pf pasta.

2. Place garlic, olive oil and lemon juice into food processor and process until smooth (I do not have a processor so I am using my Magic Bullet). Add in pitted avocado, salt, pepper and basil and process until smooth and creamy.

3. Pour sauce onto pasta and toss well to coat. Serve immediately. This dish doesn't reheat well due to the avocado.

This makes two servings. I'm increasing everything a little to make enough for our family, however I do not want leftovers since it doesn't keep very well.

Avocado is a great alternative for cream based pastas. In fact, I use avocado in place of mayo on my sandwiches. True, avocados are high in fat, but it is healthy fat!They are also high in fiber (about 10 grams), Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Folate.

Update: I made this, it was a hit!! I would recommend using two cloves of garlic. I only used one clove and it just wasn't enough for our liking. My sister-in-law made this dish for our Mother's Day Brunch and she used a great little noodle called bucatini. This is on my favorite list!

What's Up

I haven't been on here in over a month! So much has changed in life and on this blogger, I don't even know how to navigate through this anymore! Brennan is on two baseball teams so four times per week we are involved in baseball, plus he has the last of his Boy Scout events. I'm trying to wrap up the end of a very long school year and Bryan is finally going back to days (or schedule has been so off with this midnight shift). I'm looking forward to settling down in May!

Last weekend we attended the Earth Day Festival. Apparently St. Louis hosts the third largest celebration in the US. We went with Bryan's sister and her family and had a blast. The boys and my nephew had so much fun collecting goodies from all of the vendors, playing with the kids activities and just running around being silly. The adults enjoyed some organic beer compliments of a local brewery and learning about ways we can help preserve our planet. It was great people watching, too!

After a lot of thinking, talking, researching, networking and praying, I've decided to return to school this fall. Originally I wanted to go to school for nutrition, but after searching and searching I just couldn't find what I wanted. Then I started talking with a friend and former co-worker who introduced me to a new degree and certification being offered through a local university. This programs is designed to promote global sustainability in education. Basically that means teaching children how to preserve resources. Tracy is earning her second master's degree, but I am just going to start with a certification. If the university is correct, in five years the Department of Education will be pushing global sustainability studies in schools. To date, not many people are trained in this area so it should be easy to get a job. Tracy was offered a job in a district where 700 people applied and because of her degree, she was offered the job. I'm excited to start this new adventure!

I'd love to write more, but motherly duties await me!

More Food Rules

As I said before I am in love with Michael Pollan's book Food Rules. Every page of this book was meaningful to me, but some of his rules stuck out more than others. I do not want to steal of of his ideas and get in trouble so I will just list his rule and then add in my own thoughts/opinions:

1. Eat food: Of all his rules this one is the simplest yet most complex. In a nutshell it means eat foods that are real foods like apples, bananas, beans, carrots, chicken and beef. If it is not found in nature is is not food in the true sense of the word.

2. Don't Eat Anything Your Grandmother (or great-grandmother) Wouldn't Recognize: I love this one! I picture my sweet grandma walking into Schnucks and being amazed by some of the items on the shelf. Granted she has been gone from this Earth for ten years, but even 11 or 15 years ago would she be able to pick up a tube of Go-Gurt and know it was portable yogurt?

3. Avoid Products That Contain Ingredients That Most People Wouldn't Keep In The Pantry: This makes so much sense!! Flip over a package of Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni and you will find a list of ingredients that I cannot even pronounce let alone keep stored in my pantry. Any idea what monoglycerides are? Do you have enzyme modified cheese or partially hydrogenated soy oil in your pantry? I know you have a nice stash of Yellow Lake 5&6 in your spice cabinet. Ugh, seriously this is advertised as FOOD?! Not to mention it is loaded with sodium and fats. Stay far away from processed items!

4. Avoid Foods You See Advertised on TV: True you are starting to see more commercial for real foods like the Real California Milk (Happy Cows Come From California! ads), but think about the last time you saw an advertisement from farmers about their carrots or from a local orchard for their apples. I can honestly admit that I have never seen a carrot farm ad! But an add for McDonald's or Coco Puffs or Coke, well I can pretty much guarantee you that I will see some type of non-food ad on my TV within the next five minutes.

5. Eat Only Foods Cooked By Humans: If it comes mass produced by a machine you can pretty much guarantee it is grossly over processed.

6. If It Came From a Plant Eat It, If It Was MADE In a Plant Don't Eat It: 'nuff said!

7. Eat Animals That They Themselves Have Eaten Well: Obviously this doesn't apply directly to me, but it does apply to my family. If the cows have been forced to eat GMO grains, have been injected with antibiotics and growth hormones it is not a good idea to nosh on it. If the chickens have been forced to live in small, dark houses with no ventilation and are fed a bunch of GMO grains, don't eat them! Stick with animals who are allowed to roam free and are fed foods that are made for their unique systems, like grass fed beef.

8. Eat All The Junk Food You Want As Long As You Make It Yourself: Would you REALLY eat all of those fries and ice cream bars if you had to physically make it all yourself at home? Probably not. It is so easy to pop open a box of ice cream or drive through the window to grab some fries. But if you had to churn the milk and sugar in your kitchen, make your own chocolate syrup, freeze it & insert the sticks you probably wouldn't eat it as frequently.

9. Don't Get Your Fuel From The Same Place Your Car Does: Where else can you go to fill up the tank, buy a 32oz soda, a pack of cigarettes, grab a doughnut and container of nachos & cheese?!

10. Cook: I used to hate cooking! I usually burned things, sauces boiled over and the kitchen was a cleaning nightmare. I started making easy dishes and slowly moved up. While I am still not the best cook, I am definitely improving in my skills.

I could go on and on about this book, but I'll save the rest for you to decide!

Food Rules

In my last posting I talked about this great little book I had just finished reading called "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan. I love this book! Michael lists about 65 food rules that all humans should follow in their lives. Some of these rules seem so very common sense to me yet I can truly imagine how many people would read his list and say, "huh?!"

I am genuinely amazed at how uneducated folks are about food, health, choices and lifestyle in general. I had to go grocery shopping today. Prior to walking out the door I planned a week's worth of dinners, checked the kitchen for foods we were in need of and made a list. Upon arriving to the store I started shopping. In the first 15 minutes my cart was full of bananas, tomatoes, kiwi, apples, red onions, ginger root, romaine lettuce, avocados, cucumbers, zucchini, blood oranges, grapefruit and strawberries. Yes, we eat that much produce! I try my best to shop the perimeter of the store and I strive to steer clear of processed foods. If you had looked in my cart you would have also found skim milk, yogurt, chicken breast, ground turkey, canned beans, unsweetened applesauce, canned mandarin oranges and tuna (not bad choices, in my opinion). The processed foods were Kashi cereal bars, organic oat o's (like Cheerios), provel cheese, cream cheese, bagels and multi-grain rice cakes (not the best, but really not the worst). I walked out of the store feeling like I had made conscious food choices, foods that would truly feed my family. I don't know about you, but I always look at other peoples carts and wonder about their food habits. Yes, I know that sounds kinda weird and stalker-like in nature, but I promise I never actually talk to these people!! Anyway, I noticed one man with probably 20 packets of Ramen Noodles. I couldn't help but think about how much sodium and artificial crap he was ingesting. He could easily buy whole wheat noodles and jarred sauce for the same amount of money and the nutritional benefits would be so much greater. Another man was buying Lucky Charms, Fruity Pebbles and Pop-Tarts like they were going out of style. I couldn't help but wonder if he actually fed that sugary "food" to his children before school each day. Instead of Lucky Charms or icing coated Pop-Tarts, he could buy a big container of oats and jazz them up with a little peanut butter and sliced fruit or even but a big box of Cheerios.  The kicker was the lady in line in front of me at the check out; she had 10 frozen pizzas, 10 frozen dinners, 10 frozen orange juice concentrates, two cases of soda and a big container of rum. I'd like to think she was hosting some type of party, but I bet money that was lunch and dinner for the next several days. I am sure she was able to buy all of the items for fairly cheap, but I venture to say that she could also buy noodles, rice, beans, canned/frozen vegetables and select cuts of meat for about the same amount of money. Maybe cost wasn't even an issue, maybe it was the convenience of the prepared foods that appealed to her? Again, I bet she could spend a few hours cooking and baking one afternoon and freeze/prep enough healthy foods for the week. I try very hard not to judge others when I am out, but sometimes I just cannot help it. How can people eat so unhealthy and not realize the effects of their choices? Do they truly not know the risks? Do they not care at this point (that would so be my mom!)? Is money a factor? There are so many possibilities.

I am so interested in food and seeing how much I adore this handy little book, I have decided to delve a little farther into it all. Look for my next post!

My Plan

I just finished reading a fabulous book! If you are interested in reading about food, please get your hands on Micheal Pollan's book, Food Rules. It is a very short, fast, easy read and best of all it is page after page of simple rules to follow when selecting what you eat. I don't know how to make the picture bigger otherwise I would. I borrowed a copy from the library, but it wouldn't be that expensive to purchase if you are truly interested.

I feel like a live a fairly healthy lifestyle, but I'll be the first to admit that I need to make some major improvements. I do not exercise (unless you count running after kids all day as exercise). I have a sweet tooth. I must have a daily soda. So while not criminal in nature, I can and should make improvements. As I lay in bed last night, exhausted from a week of intense teaching moments and countless patent/teacher conferences, I thought about my health over the past seven days. I had declared Monday as Margarita Monday so I indulged in empty calories of alcohol. Wednesday was Principal's Day at school and we all brought in pies for "Pies with the Principals" and I ate slivers of key lime and cherry pie. Wednesday and Thursday night were conferences so I ate snacky type foods all evening long (the parents provides all of the food). I ate soup, chips and dip, veggies and fruit with dip, a cupcake and yes more pie. Thursday night after conferences I stay up way too late visiting with a co-worker over a Starbucks at 9pm. I was wired and didn't get enough sleep. On Friday we ordered a cheese pizza for dinner (our Friday night Lent dinner since we cannot eat fish due to allergies). My 10pm last night I was bloated, full of trapped gas, sleepy, had another headache and disgusted with myself. I decided right then and there to take back my health and lifestyle.

Today I am going to plan 100% healthy meals for the next seven days. Then I'm headed to the store to buy everything we need. I cannot wait for the farmer's markets to open! For the next seven days I am going to make it a promise to my body to walk at least one mile every day, to juice 2x a day and to eat only fruits and veggies for snacks and meals. No more soda, dairy or grains for the next seven days. I will drink water, juice from my juicer and green tea. I will go to bed no later than 11pm each night and I will make for certain that I read at least one chapter from a book before bed. I can do anything for seven days. I'm on spring break so what better time to get my life back in order? Here is to health!