Week 2 Healthy Eating

Ah the infamous week 2! It brought both pain, tears and laughter. Apparently I gave myself shin splints as I didn’t have the correct shoes to run in. Without an extra $60+ lying around I had to grin and bear it. Icing my leg after each run, resting with my foot up and later in the week I got smart and bought the old ICY HOT to rub on! Oh boy did I smell “old”. I ended up borrowing the money from my dad to get the shoes I need because the pain became unbearable. Quite frankly I didn’t deserve the pain I was in and due to the fact I was trying so hard to lose this weight, it seemed unfair, so I bit the bullet and asked my dad if he wanted to contribute to the Monica get fit fund! LOL

Right away I could tell the shoes helped. Until I had gotten them I had stopped running and just walked as fast as I could. I still had to ice when I got home, but as the days went by the pain became bearable again. I upped my workout this week to 2 times a day, equaling close to 2 miles each workout. You know you are dedicated when you push through the pain and “just do it” day in and day out. My kids looked at me and wondered why in the world I would put myself through the torment. I think one day they will get it, but they don’t see me as I see myself. I hope I have inspired them as interestingly I have inspired myself. I just want my kids to look up to me and see all that I am doing is to become a better version of me.

This week in food I made sure to measure-measure-measure. Remember last week I only lost 2#? I was NOT going to live through that again. Someone told me, and I know it’s true, that losing 1=2# a week is normal and the way you should lose weight. I am too impatient for that. I do all this work, I want results! HA! So this week as I said I was going to make sure I lost more than 2#. Although that same person told me to go find something that weighed 2# and pick it up to see just how heavy it really was. You know what? She was right, 2# is not light! I felt better after that.

BBQ Chicken Wrap: (in photo above)

1 10″ large jalapeno cheddar tortilla

4.5 oz. boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and diced

1/4 cup baby spinach, washed

3 tsp. shredded mozzarella cheese

28 grams of asparagus, cooked but still firm

1.5 tbs your favorite barbecue sauce (I use Bullseye, be careful on the sugar content)

Add all ingredients to tortilla and roll up. I had a side of shelled edamame beans (super great source of protein) the BBQ Chicken Wrap comes in at 450 Calories and 11 grams of fat!

I again ate my Luna bars trying various flavors. so far the Chocolate Peppermint Stick and Chocolate Dipped Coconut are my favorite and I highly recommend them. I have even given them to my kids as a treat and they LOVE them! 

Music motivation this week:

P.O.D. – Here Comes the Boom

Since one of my weaknesses is sweets, I made a yummy version of banana bread that will set your heart a fluttering! Mocha Cappuccino Banana Bread Bites, only 92 calories!! Curbs that sweet tooth after just 1! Freeze them and take out as needed or store in an airtight container. 

When Monday rolled around, I was so excited to step on that scale…the result…4# that means I am down 6#!!!! WOO-HOO!!! I knew I could do this, what a confidence booster! I do not go to the gym, I do not take diet pills, I do eat REAL butter AND had chocolate and lost 4#, SUCCESS= ME!

If I can do this, ANYONE, can do this! Did you have an amazing feat this week? Tell me about it in the comments I’d love to hear about it!

Photo taken from the Spark People Pinterest page

 

Missed week 1? Check it out here:

• Week 1 Healthy Eating

Mocha Cappuccino Banana Bread Bites

In keeping up with my low-fat and low-calorie diet, I still need 2 things: (1) SUGAR and (2) CHOCOLATE! There are a few things I won’t give up because, well, I LOVE FOOD and that won’t change! But the reality is you don’t have to give up foods you enjoy to lose weight. Moderation is key. When I say moderation, I mean moderation sometimes in small amounts. You are giving yourself the satisfaction to please your tummy, mind and soul without having to feel like you blew your day’s workout or the progress you’ve made in losing weight thus far. With all that in mind I came up with these banana bites with chocolate, fruit, & even sugar in combination with fiber and protein  seriously this is a WIN-WIN if I ever saw it!

INGREDIENTS
3 medium-sized ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup sweetened apple sauce (I use Tree Top pre-packaged for convenience in measuring each cup is 1/2 cup)
1.25 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large egg whites
1/2 tsp real vanilla extract
3 tbsp Jif Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut Spread (YUM!)
Mini Chocolate Chips (optional to sprinkle on top and is not included int he nutritional value of this recipe)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 325°. Spray a non-stick loaf pan, or muffin tin, or brownie pan ( I used brownie pan) with a non stick spray. IF your pans are non stick no need to do this.
2. Mash bananas and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add egg whites, bananas, apple sauce, Jif Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut Spread, and vanilla. Beat with mixer until well combined.
4. Add flour mixture, then blend at low-speed until combined. Do not over mix.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan; bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serving Size: Makes 18 Mocha Cappuccino Banana Bread Bites at 1.75 oz each

 

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Nutritional Info

Servings Per Recipe: 18
Calories: 92.1
Total Fat: 2.1 g
Cholesterol: 1.9 mg
Sodium: 197.6 mg
Total Carbs: 18.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.6 g
Protein: 2.0 g

Week 1 Healthy Eating

My posts for a while will be different from the usual recipe posts. I will include my recipes, but the post will also include my weight loss pictures (how more embarrassing can i get?), things I have seen during the week doing my exercises and any neat or interesting articles I may have come across. I have been doing this for going on 4 weeks now so as I post there is a time-lapse. It takes time to get all these things in order! LOL I hope you enjoy the new posts coming up 😀

A few things to know going forward:

1. Please don’t judge my pictures, at least I am trying. I am putting myself out there in the hopes of inspiring!
   
2. No rude comments will be tolerated and promptly deleted
3. I am NOT a dietitian or a doctor
4. I create my recipes in a database called Spark People, it helps me track what I eat, how much I exercise etc. If you have issues accessing the recipes there, I am going to be adding them on my blog, it is just a slow process.

The first recipe I will share I found and tweaked to my liking. These are my best friend right now. Keeping a low-fat low-calorie diet is hard, especially when you weigh everything, count each and every calorie and measure your food ingredient by ingredient. After all that is said and done you usually are done eating in no time, and then on to the next task at hand. For me that means 5 kids and a household to run plus chairing my Relay For Life event, AND exercise which I do 2 times a day. Having these Mini Egg Foo Young Bites in the fridge are a gift from Heaven when your belly is rumbling and you have no time to make and measure and weigh! They are 24 Calories, 1.4 Fat Grams, and 2 Fiber Grams, Not bad!!

The sandwich in the picture at top is 1 piece of whole wheat bread, 1/4 of an avocado, 4 oz lean turkey meat, some baby spinach leaves, 2 slices tomato, and .25 oz of pepper jack cheese. the entire sammy full of protein and fiber is around 200 Calories. Perfect for a quick lunch on the go, and since the calories are low, you can add an apple or a few multi grain crackers with it.

Besides my go to Egg Foo Young Bites, my other new find this week to fill up my belly in the fly is the Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna Bars! Like candy bars? Like almond Joy? Replace it with this and you will be in LOVE! It is so yummy and fills you up like no candy bar will, WITH nutrition!

I started this week strong, but in the end this was one of the hardest things to “get into”. I struggled and did my couch to 5K app 4 days this week. I ended up losing 2 pounds, which I was not that thrilled with. I had a goal in mind of losing 10 pounds a month, and if I only lost 2 pounds now, didn’t see how I would manage in the coming weeks. I decided to have no excuses to get to where I wanted to be, so I took that 2 pounds and challenged it. Next week, it won’t be a 2 pound loss!

New Year, New Motto, New Me! Will you be there by my side?

Everyone has been busy making New Year’s resolutions, some being broken as we speak. Weight loss, obtaining better employment, eating healthier etc. These are all important things we need to do for ourselves and in our life, I am trying to as well, just not as a resolution. I see so many miserable and very unhappy people in the world, from the young 21 year old who felt the need to gun down innocent babies in their safe school to the pain we feel when our loved ones pass without notice, to even losing a job that we thought was stable. Life is full of twists and turns and some without notice, just a quick swift pull of the rug and we are on another turn in our lives and have to find our way, all without a handbook or instructions to get us to the next destination. Yes we can make our own destiny, yes we can turn the other cheek, but speaking frankly, not everyone is capable to do that without help or even at all. Speaking from experience I have had many down points in my life, some have felt intolerable, some have felt impossible, others have been helped along by friends and family, even social media friends and family can  make all the difference to feeling un-alone and or unappreciated. I know it is weird, to think, cyber-friends can help us, but they can, if sincere in nature. I see my blogger friends repeatedly telling each other on their pages, “hi just stopping by to say hi”, or “hope you feel better” when they are sick.

This year, even amidst my own family here at home I am making it my mission and my goal to do something that is not for me. This might sound weird and really lame, but it is something I have thought long and hard about with so many recent events being in the negative. I want to ensure people around me and strangers are happy. Does this mean I will sit around trying to make the impossible happen? No! It just means that things that are not important will be left unsaid, the little things that can make one happy, if I can do it I will. No more, “I’m too busy” to listen to you, no more, being selfish with my time. After all, if I didn’t have any time, I’d be dead right? The reality of my life now is that the only “thing” I can possibly give of myself is my cooking to my family, so I do so wholeheartedly and 200% worth. I go to school; I raise 5 kids pretty much alone as my spouse works an average of 15 hours a day, at times seeing no one but me because they are all in bed. I run around taking kids from here to there and everywhere, but at the end of the day, I want to sit back and know that I gave them my full attention, the utmost all I could to ensure they felt rewarded, heard and acknowledged.  This of course means possibly the unexpected, the admittance that, well, I could be wrong from time to time (sssshhhhhh no repeating that!) telling the hubs how important he is and how thankful I am he does what he does to support us whether it is his choice or not to work so much. Calling family and friends more frequently, even a quick hello text can make someone’s day. Strangers actually and ironically will be the easier of the two between family and them to suffice. A smile, a hug, a $1 here or there, helping with their jumper cables, cleaning trash from streams, walking an elder to their car helping with their grocery bags all things I have done, but have long since forgotten in my “busy” life. I don’t intend to be rewarded with anything other than a thank you or a smile in return. The knowledge I have in my mind and in my heart will be the reward that no one could possibly give. I will sit back with my Trudeau Barbaresco wine glass filled with Syrah, knowing my day was and is complete with all I wanted to accomplish. Should I not wake in the morning, knowing the night before I fulfilled the REALLY important things that actually matter. If we all did so, can you imagine the legacy we could leave our children with? Arming them with the information and the process on how to care for others besides just ourselves, this would be an amazing feat and a new world to look forward too. The one I see right now is so bleak and dreary. Sure there are lots of good and honorable people out there, but the reality is, there are not enough!

I am not trying to be holier than thou either, I am being 100% true and honest, and seriously if you know me you know I couldn’t be any other way anyway. Yes I have personal issues with family and some friends, but I won’t let that define who I am and who I want my kids to think and see me as.

I won’t give up and I may complain a little along the way, but this is my life, my ride and I will live it and use it to the fullest extent, WITH wine, and a little whine…and plenty of company to surround me while we get through this crazy ride, called life!