Time for an Evaluation

            “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”  This is one of those sayings that I loathe with every fiber of my being.  It is not shallow to feel as though you want to be skinnier, but just because you are skinny does not mean you are fit and/or healthy.  A wonderful thing that happened to me this past month was my scale running out of batteries.  The numbers on the scale do not determine whether or not I am in shape or healthy.  I think that once you are in a healthy weight range (which is actually a fairly large range) the scale should be thrown into a closet and you should focus on the way you look in the mirror and how you feel about the person looking back at you.  One thing I will not discuss on this blog is how much I weigh.  It was not until I stopped caring about my weight and focused on fitness that I got to where I wanted to be. 

            My quest for physical fitness was long.  I wanted to go to the gym 4-5 times a week and that did not happen.  I wanted to go running but quickly discovered that my allergies (sinus problems) and running several miles equaled a very bad sinus headache due to climate.  The reality was that I have about 30 minutes of extra time in my day to get a workout completed.  If it is going to be this short I better be sweating and feeling the burn!  Did I mention the keys to this were that it had to be at home, at 6:00 am, and take up limited space?  This is just for me personally and do encourage anyone who has the time to go to the gym or run a few miles to do it.  I do love the freedom of running and hope to do it whenever possible.  Allotting enough time to consistently do either one is not feasible for me so I had to find an alternative.  My wonderful solution was Kettleworx.  It is a fantastic workout that is about 20 minutes long and causes me to sweat and briefly question just why I am torturing myself.  I feel fantastic when it is over with and ready to do the next one with results that started showing quickly.  Mornings tend to be a great time to work out and if you are someone who has trouble sleeping my doctor had once mentioned to me that working out approximately five hours before bed may help you fall asleep easier.

            Now for a few little lessons in eating for those who are left in wonder.  Vegetables are our friend.  My kids always built a preconceived notion in regard to how they would feel about a vegetable.  I am not sure if it was the texture, appearance, or a combination of both that caused them to be cautious and psych themselves out into disliking it that was the problem.  I can only list one thing that my children will not eat because how I prepared something turned out to be what made the difference.  I will have to say that sometimes you just have to suck it up a bit and learn to enjoy some of the vegetables out there.  We are omnivores after all so it is about time we all act like it (unless you are a vegetarian and find your protein elsewhere).  Drinking lots of water really is beneficial for your insides as well as for your outside.  I keep a 32 oz bottle of water with me at all times and try to drink at least three of them in a day.

            Have you all heard that you should eat 5-6 times in a day?  This is an ideal concept I suppose.  If I am not hungry I am not going to eat and if I am hungry I am not going to wait.  I loosely follow this one because I think it is a great concept, but hunger will ultimately dictate when I eat.  Portion size is a big deal.  You can eat healthy all you want, but too much of a good thing really isn’t that good at all.  I use the smaller plates that we all have in our kitchen cabinets but are often over looked.  I am not going to lie, I had to get used to this one.  I am an eater and would eat until I was stuffed.  If we all slow down and just eat until we are satisfied we will find that we eat a lot less and are not starving.  I do bust out the big boys when I eat a salad.  I love salads and eat one for lunch or dinner almost daily.  How much it fills you up all depends on what you put into your salad and those heavy dressings do nothing more than add empty calories into your diet. 

            With this being said I leave you with a better saying to follow.  "Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels."  Focusing on how skinny you can get will do nothing more than effect your sense of self and may leave you starving and miserable.  We have all heard the phrase, “you are what you eat.”  If you eat badly you will find your energy levels dip and surprisingly enough, your mood as well.  Does that truly sound like the way to live?  Evaluate your lifestyle and give yourself a personal assessment.  What can you change today to help give yourself a better tomorrow?

Starting the Morning Right

            Whatever happened to the most important meal of the day?  For many it has become a forgotten part of the day due to a rush or a desire to hit that snooze button one extra time.  Here is a news flash: coffee does not replace breakfast.  It can be a desired part of breakfast (black coffee has zero calories), but it is not a supplement for the all-important meal that starts our day off in the right direction.  I was the champion of skipping breakfast.  I had children to take care of and get ready for school and a massive list of things I had to accomplish for the day at home (the list also included homework).  I would often forget to eat until sometime past noon and assumed that I would be just fine with only two meals.  I may also want to mention that during this time I did not drink coffee since I was still nursing my youngest so the energy levels were anything but high.

            I am not one to spend a ton of time getting breakfast made in the morning.  I simply do not have the time and if I do not get a bit of working out done that morning the energy (read: mood) is just not there.  But if I am going to constantly tell my kids how important breakfast is I need to practice what I preach.  I learned to cover my personal take on the morning basics: fruit, protein, and whole grains.  My current love is Kashi’s whole grain blueberry waffles sans syrup.  I pair it with a ½ cup of plain yogurt and as much fruit as I could cut and put into my bowl of yogurt.  Granola would usually be snuck in there as well, but I did not remember to pick some up at the store so this morning I went without.  Sorry guys, I was starving this morning and had no camera/iPhone close by so I just dug in without taking a picture.

            If you have a little bit of time I would suggest the glorious world of egg whites.  My favorite would be my spinach and feta egg white scramble, a slice of turkey, and tomato stuck between 7-grain deli flat bread (one of those 100 calorie deals).  Add some fruit on the side and you have breakfast in less than 10 minutes.  My husband loves it and it is a filling breakfast for less than 250 calories (depending on how much fruit you have with it).  I also enjoy an egg white omelet with turkey or chicken, feta, and spinach.

 Egg White Omelet

Egg White Scramble Breakfast Sandwich

            I do not drink juice with my breakfast.  As a matter of fact, I may drink a cup of coffee if I am exhausted but my main liquid staples are green tea and water.  I know that may sound a bit boring to some, but what benefit does soda have?  If I really want juice in the morning I opt for eating the fruit instead.  And you can forget about diet drinks!  How is that dinky little can supposed to satisfy me for a few hours?  If I do want flavor I sneak a packet of Propel Zero into my water so I at least feel as if I am consuming something other than water. 

            We really should not skip breakfast or assume that coffee is a suitable substitute.  I personally feel as though it helps set the foundation for the rest of the day and jumps start my momentum to continue eating better throughout the day.  Since this post is focusing on food, I will devote the next to more nutrition tips and a bit of working out as well as when to do it.  

Sweet Beginnings

            Welcome to my blog!  I have been asked to give advice on several occasions for a number of different things.  One large problem people ask me about is diet.  I do not consider myself to be on any sort of diet, just a smart eater.  I am not a nutritionist, a doctor, a psychologist, a physical trainer, or anything along those lines.  I am a stay-at-home Army wife and mother to four children.  It is not easy to feed your entire family healthy food when you have six different palettes to please.  I manage though and as a result my husband has lost a significant amount of weight and I am in the best shape of my life.  I am going to be learning how to develop a better layout for my blog as I go and will take pictures of my culinary delights (with recipe) within the next few days.

            I love to cook almost as much as I love to eat.  Portions sizes were always as big as my plate could hold and seconds were almost mandatory.  Eventually I woke up one day and had to come to terms with the fact that I am no longer in high school and the joys of eating massive quantities was behind me.  I have looked into diets and had to laugh.  Eat little to no carbs?  Only grapefruit for breakfast?  No cheese?!  I know I am not the only person out there who has felt that way in regard to a diet plan that is “guaranteed” to work.  I would attempt some of them and it was rare that I lasted past the first few days.  As the chef of the house I am not about to fix multiple meals at one time because no one in their right mind would touch some of the “diet” foods I am told to eat.  Paying a company to deliver “healthy” foods sounded like a novel idea until I realized they are all frozen and canned.  If one were to take a step back and realize that prepared foods that have a shelf life of years are highly processed and jammed packed with sodium, they would rethink those diet plans.

            Confession: I cheat, a lot.  Any person on a diet who can tell me that they never cheat is lying to themselves.  Everyone has at least one guilty pleasure they refuse to give up.  Some people love chocolate and sweets while others may love that glass of wine or bottle of beer at the end of a hectic day.  Whatever it is that is so sinfully delightful at a moment of weakness is a little cheat.  If I want to lay back with a glass of wine, I am going to drink a glass of wine (which is only 4 oz by the way).  My kids want cheese and crackers for a snack you can bet your bottom dollar I am going to take my service tax for preparing their snack.  Moderation is the magic word.  If you cannot control yourself enough to consume what you want in moderation then maybe it is better to give it up.  Nothing should have that much control over you, especially food. 

            I think the best way to wrap up this short introduction would be some of the things that are quickly becoming extinct in my house and/or my eating plan.  Chips and soda are not kept in my house unless there is a party going on.  Almost every item in my refrigerator or pantry that is grain is a whole grain.  Cheese would be forbidden if it was not for the dairy obsession my toddlers have. Processed foods are kept at an absolute minimum and I cannot omit them completely since that can of whole grain Chef Boyardee does come in handy in a pinch. 

            This is just a short little teaser that does not even begin cover the broad spectrum of nutrition that I am going to dive into.  Since this is the beginning of my blogging adventures I will write a more “official” entry tomorrow that will touch on that one meal that is often forgotten: breakfast!