December 30, 2012

The last post of 2012. I am happy to report I have not put on any holiday weight. I must have boosted my metabolism because I did eat. I didn't lose any weight though. I have been pretty happy looking at the changes in my body but I know I still have some work to do. My work office has mice and at least one made it into my junk food drawer it ate a bite out of the wrapping of a fruit snack. The food at my desk is all gone, no more chocolate. I will never have food at my desk again at any office I work in. At least the mice are helping with the weight loss journey.

There are a few changes I made in the last few weeks. My workday breakfast became smoothies made of whatever I had available they ranged from kale, mango, lentils, spinach, nut-butter,orange, and avacado to banana, soy milk, nut butter, chocolate. I was working morning overtime and I found this to be great to drink at my desk and easy to digest early in the morning.

I have switched from black tea to green tea this has helped a lot. For me black tea requires milk and something sweet along with it. Green tea I can drink plain. I have also noticed a reduction in bloating after eating processed food and I believe the green tea has helped.

I craved the cauliflower pizza a couple of times. I tried it once with mozzarella cheese the texture wasn't good it was too soft. I also compared the texture with adding chickpea flour vs the no chickpea flour. Texture was good with the flour however I did not like the taste. I have grown up eating chickpea flour as a lot of dishes from my ancestors are made with it but this didn't taste right with the pizza. It may have been the $1.99 giant bag I bought from Walmart. I may try it again with a better quality flour and try my mom's method of dry roasting the flour first which gets the uncooked taste out. I am going to try experimenting with other ingredients until I get something that's good both flavour and texture wise.

My contribution to Christmas lunch was cranberry sauce. This recipe is a holiday treat because it wasn't just for me I added more sugar than I would for myself. I did try the sauce mixed with the banana dessert I have posted before and it was really good. I will likely make some less sweet cranberry sauce in the future to add to my desert.

I wish everyone a happy 2013 full of healthy nutritious eating. I booked a nice beach vacation in February so January will be all about trying to get into bathing suit shape.

Holiday Cranberry Sauce

1 package fresh cranberries
4 small packages vanilla sugar
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water

boil above ingredients in a pot approx 10 mins use a wooden spoon while cooking to press cranberries

let cool
blend in processor

cranberry sauce beautiful colour

cauliflower pizza with 2 tablespoons chickpea flour added

December 22, 2012

Holiday Eating

Two weeks ago I was going to write about how well I was doing avoiding holiday eating and my breakfast smoothies. I was going to talk about how well I was doing staying on track during the holiday season and even managing to lease another pound. Why did that post never happen?

I am going to call it forced holiday eating. People baking for me what am I supposed to do refuse a homemade thoughtful gift so I binged instead. You can't share at this time of year because everyone is feeling the same way uh no more. I tried to get out out of some holiday eating parties but some were forced rescheduled well I feel pressured to attend. This year I can't figure out how to  avoid these things. Of course I see those things in the magazines saying only eat this and that at parties. All the events I have had to go to are set menu's and being vegetarian I am already going off a special menu. I really don't want to be more of a bother than I already am so I eat. My body is really paying for  it feel like I have the flu but I know its from eating too much holiday food my stomach is so bloated. So being so tired haven't really worked out very much. The weather and exhaustion I haven't gone to the gym once this week so no weigh in but I will guess that I have put on some weight. I really feel unhealthy and there is still a week to go. I have given in but I am looking forward to the new year. At least in the new year people are trying to eat healthy and there is more support and no pressure. I may have to try a detox.

I usually go away in December and usually miss at least some of this holiday eating. The only way I can think of avoiding this is next year escape for all of December. If I am on a beach somewhere no one can force me to eat holiday food. 

December 9, 2012

One more pound down (Its more on the scale but I can't believe it so I'll just say one) At the beginning of the week when the scale went down I was double checking to make sure it wasn't broken as I hadn't really been doing anything other than walking at lunch. I get out during breaks but and find I need my lunch break to eat. I will be trying to take lunches that I can walk and eat. This week I was busy so I really only ate soups (either pc blue menu the kind with beans and vegetarian sandwiches (ie quiznos and subway) and my mom's cooking thanks mom.

A co-worker tried out the Dr.Oz 3 day smoothie detox. I was really curious to see if she would make it through the 3 days. I know I wouldn't and if I did day 4 would be binge eating and just cancel out the effect. She was all excited saying she made all the smoothies so she would have no choice to stick to it. She lasted a day and a half and then wanted real food so she gave up with a coffee and toast. She felt good the first day and the energy dropped the second. Now I know I don't need to try this one.

This week I had my first personal training session. This was on insistence and pretty much kidnapping by my brother. My brother is a die hard fan of Innovative Fitness and they only do personal training. Since this was the first time it mostly involved an assessment which were basic exercises. They also did a lot of stretching as in they stretched me a lot. The workout portion wasn't too difficult 3 minutes fast walk on the treadmill, and some other exercises I don't know the name of basic gym exercises that do not involve wieghts, there were push ups involved and since that is the one thing I am terrible at after seeing how terrible I was at them the next round was modified so I was doing standing pushups using a bar I liked it a lot better. I found the workout too easy but the trainor did say that they don't just throw people into things. I did like getting the information about the different moves but I am not sure that training is for me. I can see how it would work though. I went to the gym after because the workout was too easy but today I am sore, I think its the muscles that were stretched not muscles that I usually use.

The wheat belly diet came up this week again. The principle is that today's commercially grown wheat is not what our ancestors ate its a fast growing wheat that also makes your stomach grow fast. I saw this article in a magazine last year and tried it out just out of curiosity and it works. I will explain my reactions to wheat and other grains later. The reason I gave up the gluten free diet was I found I was eating a lot of gluten free products that were making me feel worse. Now I have found that I missed a step and the diet recommends not eating gluten free products and limiting other grains. Okay this makes a lot more sense I may try this in the future. For now I am sticking to reducing my processed food intake which means eating more vegetables and this diet has some great recipes.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust. Wow I can't believe cauliflower can turn into this. I don't even like cauliflower but I ate the entire thing.  The crust was slightly more delicate than regular thin crust pizza but so much better for you. I made the crust a day ahead as I was going to add some good toppings. Then I got busy and just added frozen vegetables and the cheese I had which was cheddar and parmesan. It was really good. Next time I will try adding chickpea flour to see if it makes a stronger crust.

1 head of cauliflower cut into florets steam for 10 minutes let cool (most of the recipes say chop first then microwave for 7 mins) pulse in a quick chopper (you want small pieces)  add spices of your choice 1 egg and a quarter cup of parmesan cheese spread on a cookie sheet in a thin layer or shape into whatever you want  and bake for 20 mins then broil for 5 the small one was the freshest

after steaming in the steamer basket of the rice cooker

put the chopper on low and pulsed was done in 30 secs on the pan

had a little left over to play with shapes

cooked after cooking flipped over  pizza i forgot to take a pic after cooking

December 2

This week I learned what happens when you fall off track and get out of the routine. I had a few cheats here and there and missed a few workouts and did not use the calorie app. Fortunately I did not put on anything didn't lose anything either. The problem with getting off track is its so easy to not go back there are so many excuses too busy, this is happening etc. Even knowing that I feel so much better emotionally and physically if I stick to the healthier life somehow the unhealthy life is right there to suck me in watching tv and eating processed food is a lot easier than making fresh food and working out. Anyways I am back on track now and on my way to feeling better.

There is something to using gadgets to help with your weight loss. I bought a block a  cheese to see how well the chopper would chop it. Worked great the cheese reminded me of cauliflower I don't like cauliflower but I would probably like it if I chopped it up like this. A future recipe to come.

There is a recipe in the book that came with the chopper for peanut butter. I attempted to make nut butter without following the recipe. It didn't turn out like nut butter but the ground nuts were nice.

I had opened a bottle of cashew hazelnut butter so I added the natural oil from the jar into the nuts and a bit of water.

Then I made tomorrow's dessert

half a frozen banana
1 lindt chocolate mini
1 tbsp nut puree

November 25

One more pound down. I enjoyed my 5 pound lost reward. Trying to think of what I can reward myself with for the next 5. Not much has changed this week I have been slacking a little but sort of getting in a habit eating bigger nutritious meals and less processed snacks. If I do go out I do end up not eating the whole thing for example taco's eat half the shell, or pizza half the crust etc. This seems to work I get what I want but save on calories.  Today was use up all the veggies in my fridge day. I made black bean and veggie soup, a sauce, kale chips, and the sweet potatoes are cooking right now. That should keep me full for the next few days.

I started out making a hot sauce from Chatelaine magazine but then threw in some more things that needed to be used up. It ended up being a tasty sauce.

Sauce

1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
2 serrano peppers
1 carrot
1 red onion
1 bunch cilantro
10 cherry tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Boil all the ingredients together. Puree with hand blender.

I like to cook soups in the rice cooker as it keeps all the flavour in. My intention wasn't to puree the soup I was testing out the hand blender and it worked pretty fast.

November 20, 2012

4 pounds down and as long as the scale keeps dropping I am happy. I am starting to see a big change in inches. Although 4 pounds may not seem like a lot I have been going to the gym at least 2 times a week for the past year and a half and this is the lowest weight I have been so far. I expect to see the scale go down more.

The big changes this week are I kept with the 1000 calorie extra day per week. It happened that I had someone to go out for lunch with every weekend for the past few weeks. Although I went all out during those meals a lot of pasta with cream sauce, bread, maybe dessert maybe a mocha or a hot chocolate. What I didn't do or feel like doing was having bad snacks outside of the meals.

The rest of the week I tried to stick with eating more fruit and veg. Did I cheat? of course but being aware of it made a difference helped to cut back on portion sizes.

My go to dessert is now the magic bullet frozen banana dessert recipe I posted earlier but it has been enhanced, the food prep center made such a difference in texture. I now add less soy milk and more fruit. So far have had it with mandarin orange and strawberries. Same recipe just added additional fruit.

Kale chips are another favorite I have discovered recently. Fresh Kale seems to last a couple of weeks so I make this as I feel like eating it.

Kale Chips

Wash and dry a few Kale leaves
Tear into pieces
add spices of choice (I add curry spices) - note Kale is naturally salty limit the salt
Bake in toaster oven for  approximately 10 minutes at 350
stir and remove cooked pieces occasionally

Once cooked sprinkle with vinegar for a salt and vinegar chip

I will get some pictures and recipes up when I have some more time. I just want to get the post for the week done. This week started out last sunday ended up eating out twice in one day so decided my cheat day would be sunday's.

During the week I got into using my new rice cooker to make soups and experimenting with the new "prep" center I have only used the handchopper part so far I was pleasantly suprised. I ended up trying out the carb cycling for lunch and dinner because I ended up eating the same thing two times in one day. I think its working so I am going to continue with it and try for less cheating. I was down 1 pound mid week. I have a feeling its more my stomach is getting smaller. I tried to eat the extra 1000 calories on sunday but its actually difficult if you don't get a lot of junk food. I think I will cheat less during the week and do what is intended save everything for that one day just to see what happens. I have been cooking sweet potatoes for my afternoon snack and it has been working great to help me not eat junk food. I have also made two batches of Kale chips in the last two days and really enjoying this snack.

The calorie app has been great it really makes me think twice about what I am eating. Really helps to cut back on those addictive Starbucks drinks. I just earned a new badge for logging in everyday for two weeks.

I caught Tommy Europe's seminar at the Health Show on Sunday. The only thing that he said that was inspiring was remember there are a million people in the world that would trade places with you. They would love to have the opportunity to exercise or eat well. 

Today's Dessert creation.

Recipe Banana Nut Soft serve

1    frozen banana
1    tablespoon nut butter
1    lindtt chocolate mini with sea salt
1/2 cup soy milk (omit to get a more frozen texture)

Mix in a blender of your choice. The magic bullet is great its the only blender I own.

I tend to make things up based on what I have in the house. This was really tasty and a good healthy dessert that only takes a couple minutes to make.

November 2, 2012

Half a pound down since last week and considering there were two dinner events and Halloween this week its pretty good results. One of the main tools this week has been the lose it app. It does involve calorie counting but actually seeing how many calories things are is motivating me to limit snacks. I have used the app in the past mostly as just a weight tracker but I hadn’t updated it. There are some new features which I like one is a scanner to scan bar codes to get the calories. The other is badges for doing tasks it would be more fun if there was a reward at the end. It is still motivational when you get an e-mail saying congratulations you did this. 

My Starbucks addiction

I used to drink starbucks daily. Lately mainly the price has been motivating me to start making my own coffee. I have a Tassimo and a really good travel mug now. I am slowly making my coffee more and more but am still not at the point where I can go an entire week without going to starbucks. The Christmas drinks are back ahhh those are so addictive. Today I thought its Friday I will have one, had a tall gingerbread latte with soymilk. I had to look up pumpkin spice as the gingerbread didn’t show. 230 calories in the app wow better not drink those everyday. When I looked it up on the starbucks Canada app its 160 calories. I wonder if this is the reason I always put on weight in the States such a big difference for a very similar drink. I didn’t enjoy the latte as much as I remember it, but I did note they now have skinny peppermint mocha’s only 100 calories. I will try that next time.

Carb Cycling

An episode of Dr. OZ came out this week with Chris Powell talking about carb cycling. Essentially you always eat 5 meals a day. You always eat carbs for breakfast then one day carbs one day no carbs. The high carb days still involve healthy carbs whole grain pasta, granola, oats. The low carb days involve things like lettuce wraps. There is also a binge day where you can eat 1000 more calories a day so save the eating out for these days. I liked his rules for this day you have to eat at a table and no leftovers kept in the house.

I have seen a diet like this before but the reason I won’t try it is my body doesn’t enjoy binging.  I also find it difficult to organize my schedule so you only need to go out on cheat days. I do like to only eat out once a week if I can help it.

I eat the same breakfast Monday to Friday which has been working for me. A tortilla with an apple and nut butter. What I am going to try from this is alternating between a carb lunch to a non-carb lunch. I like this idea.

October 27, 2012

This is my weight loss blog. I was always skinny growing up was a very picky eater. Something changed when I got older after 25 I just consistently put on weight. I had always been told by family that I would become big at 21 I was always happy I lasted until 25.  I am not athletic but do enjoy walking everywhere I always walk around town and at minimum will walk for 30 mins everyday.  Now at 35 I have been going to the gym at least twice a week, own and love Shaun T fitness DVD’s (hip hop abs and rockin body) and hopefully one day I will comfortable enough to try insanity.

So after a year of no weight loss but with a job change and getting the DVD’s I lost 7 pounds. Then I went to Vegas and put on about 10. It took me a couple of months to lose that weight again and decided I don’t want to put that weight on again. Decided instead of flying anywhere I will  just go across the border to Tulalip for a couple of days. Well I just put on 5 pounds on that trip so here’s my problem. I love to travel but if I do I am going to put on weight.

This is the challenge I want to go to Vegas to eat at the new Caesar’s buffet. The only way I will be happy to go is if I lose 20 pounds. I have a bunch of girls ready to come on an eating tour with me if I can do this. There is no deadline on my goal but realistically I will want to go to somewhere in February and if I can’t do it by then for sure in April for my birthday.

This blog is part of the plan to help make me feel more accountable. I will try to blog more frequently but will commit to at least once per week. I will post things related to my weight loss journey and hopefully will be able to see results.

I am vegetarian and believe in only natural methods. I have a co-worker friend who has last 50 pounds strictly calorie counting so I have some inspiration but I don’t think calorie counting is the method for me.

Since people I know will be reading this I will not post my weight so let's go with goal's lose 20 pounds and be a size 8.