Skinny Rules: A Book Review

I love reading diet books.  Even though I don't need to lose weight I still read them from cover to cover.  Why?  For a number of reasons.

1) It's a subject that interests me
     It's the same reason my dad reads war novels or my sister reads science fiction

2) Validation that I'm doing things right.
     Don't you like it when the doctor tells you your health is good or the dentist says you have no cavities?

3) New ideas.
     I read cookbooks for new recipes.  Some people read style magazines to find a new look.  I read health and fitness books to get some new ideas to keep my weight off.

I finished the book, The Skinny Rules by Bob Harper (of The Biggest Loser) last nite.  This book is really great for someone who is just starting out.  It was also good for someone like me because it gives you a few new tips and tells you WHY you're doing some of the things you do (or should be doing.)

Bob lays it out in 20 simple, straightforward rules.  These are are meant to help you be successful on your health journey.  They range from "Don't drink your calories" (number 2) to "Go to bed hungry" (number 18).  [That one sounds alot worse then it really is]  Number 18 is actually about what time you eat in relation to the time you go to bed.

I would definitely recommend checking this book out of your local library if you don't want to buy it.  

Skinny Rules on Amazon 
Bob Harper's Official Page 

I mean seriously, if Bob Harper, a man who has helped 100's of people lose 1000's of pounds doesn't have a set of "rules" that work then there's not chance in Hell for anyone else.  Next on my list of books? Unlimited and Master Your Metabolism both by Jillian Michaels.

Look Everybody! I Made Gumbo...

and cheese-steak fries.
{Sorry for the shameless Princess and the Frog quote.  It's a favorite of the girls.  Okay, I can't lie, it's one of my faves too.} 

Gumbo!  Loaded with tomatoes, beans, onions and okra.  I served it over quinoa.  This dish was a protein and nutrient bomb (in a good way.)  This was another great recipe from Happy Herbivore.  It's on page 108 in the 30 minute cookbook.  (I'm not certain about copyright laws and all that so I'm not going to post the recipe).

I came up with this next recipe because I couldn't decide if I wanted cheese fries or cheese steaks for dinner.  Because I didn't want to decide and the kids were being no help, I combined the two.  Crispy, crunchy oven baked fries layered with mushrooms, onions roasted garlic and collard greens with some melted fat free cheese on top.  Sounds decadent right?  It only weighs in at about 320 calories and 1 gram of fat.  I also snuck in a couple carrots since cheese fries aren't exactly a "healthy" dinner.

Before Cheese

After Cheese

Super Veggie Cheese Steak Fries
1 large potato or sweet potato per person (I used a couple small ones instead of a large one)
2 carrots per person
1/2 lb of mushrooms per person, cut in half or quarters
1-2 onions sliced thin
1/4 - 1/2 cup of shredded fat free cheddar per person
1/2 - 1 cup of prepared collard greens or spinach per person (optional) {or any other veggie you want}

Directions

1. Boil potatoes/sweet potatoes in a large pot of water for about 5 minutes
2. Drain and cool
3. Peel carrots
4. Slice potatoes and carrots into fries (make sure they are all the same size)
5. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a baking sheet with pan spray
6. Lay the fries in a single layer and spray with more pan spray
7. Bake for 45 - 60 minutes, flipping every 10-15 minutes until crispy and brown.  During the last 20 minutes put the mushrooms on a separate baking sheet and put them in the oven
8. Divide the fries evenly between the plates and layer with mushrooms, onions and other vegetables
9. Sprinkle cheese on the top and put in the microwave on high for 30-60 seconds until the cheese melts.

How do you like to jazz up your cheese fries?

Buddha Buddha Buddha

The weather was gorgeous this past week, up until Thursday when it decided to turn cold.  It's been great to be able to get outside without a jacket.  We spent the whole weekend playing on the beach.

Summer makes me think healthy.  We've been on a mega health kick as you know.  Dinner tonite was Buddha's Delight (page 116 in the Happy Herbivore cookbook)  I definitely suggest picking up a copy of the book.  It's incredible.  The Happy Herbivore website has some great basically fat-free recipes.  You should totally go check her out!

It was delicious.  Stereotypical "summer food."  Fresh, bright veggies and super healthy.  I had a photo for you but my phone decided not to upload it   : (

I have BIG news though.  By the time I get back from my trip to Virginia in the middle of February I will have signed up for my Personal Trainer's Certification.  Which means soon after that (I'm hoping before the blog's 1 year anniversary in March but definitely before May) I will be a personal trainer!  2013 is going to be an AMAZING year!

How's your year?  Is it looking good?  Has the weather started to get warmer where you are? 

Getting into the Swim of Things

Today was my swim day.  I honestly forgot how much I adore swimming.  It's so freeing.  Nothing hurts while I'm swimming.  (Click HERE and HERE to see the benefits of swimming on joints)

It's a total body workout without the feel of a total body workout (until you get out of the pool and your legs feel like jelly.)  Swimming 1 mile is the equivalent of running 4 miles!  Don't ask me how fast because I don't know.  I managed to do over a mile in under an hour.  That beats my normal time by about 30 minutes!  

According to SparkPeople.com my 50 minutes of swimming burned about 404 calories.  I paired that with my healthy dinner of catfish, green beans and a sweet potato.  It was a perfect day.  (Besides the fact that it decided to turn cold today.)

Some days I wish that my future job let me work in the pool all day but, I'm happy at the gym, and I have no plans on changing my career plans.  

I'll be giving you guys a new recipe soon.  Also a cookbook and diet book review coming in a few days.  It's been a busy few days and I have loads of info for y'all.  

Do you like to swim?  Do you prefer to be in the gym, or in the pool?  

Prompt :  How would you start saving the world if you woke up tomorrow with superhuman powers?
Answer:  I'd have to give the world healthy food and rid it of the bad food.  (Sorry I'm on a health kick)

Sodium Reduction

Monday was sushi night.  One of the healthiest dinner nights we have.  Seaweed, sliced cucumbers and carrots, rice, and kimchi.  Same as always.  When I woke up on Tuesday and stepped on the sacele IO saw a 3 POUND GAIN!  Luckily I've been doing this long enough to know that I couldn't have eaten enough to gain 3 pounds.  That would be 10500 calories.  (That's over 50 pounds of carrots.)  It was the soy sauce and gochajang (Korean red pepper paste) that were the culprits. 

Low sodium soy sauce has 575 mg of sodium in 1 tablespoon.  Gochajang has 554 per tablespoon.  The reccommended daily value is between 2300 - 2500 mg.  That's equal to about 4 tablespoons. 

Let's talk a bit about why sodium is bad. 

• It causes the body to retain water (as seen on my scale)
• It raises your blood pressure
• It makes your kidneys work harder (As Ken says "sodium is the reason so many Asians are on dialysis.")

Here are a few  steps you can take if you overindulge in salt and sodium.

1. Cut your sodium intake in half (around 1000 mg) for the next 2-3 days.
2. Drink more water!  Cut out all other drinks and stick to water until your numbers (weight and inches) are back to pre-indulgence
3. Rinse packaged foods to get rid of the extra salt on them.  Or stick to home cooked, nonpackaged for the next few days
4. Exercise.  Sweat is partially made of salt.  Plus, when you exercise your blood pumps faster which helps clear salt out of the kidneys faster

On the flip side sodium and salt are necessary for your body to function.  Here are some of the benefits:

• Controls fluid balance
• Helps transmit nerve impulses
• Influence the contraction and relaxation of muscles

Sources:
CDC Sodium Facts Sheet
American Heart Association
Blood Pressure UK
Mayo Clinic
LiveStrong Sodium Cleanse 
 

First Day of School and the Gym

Oh my God! I have so many things to pack into one post!!  To start off, today was the first day of my on-campus class.  This meant that I had to be out of the house by 7 this morning.  (Luckily I'm a morning person!)  Before leaving I needed to wake up the girls AND Ken, plus make Kaylee and Mantha's lunches. Where's the time for ME to eat breakfast??

In the car, of course!  I decided to start with a smoothie this morning.

1 cup soymilk (I like light vanilla)
1 banana
1 cup fresh/frozen strawberries

Blend and drink.  This only takes about 5 minutes and I did it while I was making the girls' lunches.

On Tuesday's I'm in class for 4.5 hours. From 8-12:30. 3 hour labs = NO FUN!   Then I goto the gym.  I packed myself a granola bar.  I tried to use cereal instead of granola and it completely failed.  I went back to a tried and true granola bar. 

Granola Bar Recipe

• 2 1/2 cup oats (I used quick cooking even though every recipe told me not to)
• 2 mashed bananas (about 1 1/4 cup)
• 1/3 cup sugar free maple syrup
• 1/4 cup cherry craisins (next time I'm going to use 1/2 - 3/4 cup)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees
2. Mix everything together in a bowl
3. Bake on a small sheet pan greased with pan spray for 25 minutes
4. Cool then cut into squares/rectangles

I cut it into 8 bars.  According to SparkRecipes each bar has 150 calories and 2.1 grams of fat.

So what did I do in the gym?  Nothing too fancy.  Nothing that would kill me.  Even though I am kicking myself for being too self conscience to use the free weights.  I need to stop worrying that I'll look like an idiot

Gym Workout 
10 minutes rowing machine (It's harder than I remember.  My goal is to eventually be able to do it for a full 30 minutes)
15 minutes elliptical

The next set of exercises were done using the 15 lb weights and I did 3 sets of 10

Ab rotation
Rowing weight machine
Bench Press
Lat Pull
Chest Press
Ab machine


I think on Thursday I'm going to spend my hour doing laps.  Now that WILL kill me!  I'm actually surprised at how well equipt the campus gym is.  Cardio equipment, a few weight sets and a 25 meter, 8 lane, indoor heated pool.  I couldn't ask for more.  

Writing Prompt --As a superhero, would you rather have extreme strength or extreme speed?
Answer -- I'm a superhero, why can't I have both?  I think that there are definate perks to both.  But if I only had to choose one I'd pick speed.  I'd never be late to anything and I could travel the world and not have to worry about paying for transportation.  Plus I'd save on gas and car insurance. :)

6 Weeks to a Sugar Free House

With Kaylee and Mantha starting sports in March I decided that we were going to start cutting out sugar.  I'm am going to "gently" ween the kids (and myself) off of sugar over the next 6ish weeks.

I still plan on allowing them desserts but, they will be the healthy kind.  Sugar-free sorbet, fruit cobblers and things of this nature.  

I'm not going to be the SUPER-STRICT, ridiculously, sugar free mom.  I just won't allow it in the house except for on special occasions.  If they have it in school, fine.  When Mantha, Sunny, and Kaylee's birthdays come around, we'll have a cake.  But after those are gone?  Bye, bye sugar.  I WILL still allow juice, and Sunny will get her strawberry and chocolate milk. 

I will be weening myself off of sodas.  I can't cut out my morning Monster.  I don't drink coffee, I drink Monster.  It's what keeps me up at 5:30 every morning.  Cereals will be non-sugary.  Rice Krispies, Cheerios and Chex are acceptable.  Frosted Flakes are not.  (Duh!)  Here's a hopeful timeline of how our sugar cancellation will go.

GOAL DATE -- Feb 25th

Week 1 & 2  January 14-27

• Use up all the sugary desserts in the house (candy, cookies, etc)
• Finish box of sodas (3/4 of a box left!)

January 28-31

• Eat Mantha's birthday cake

Week 3 & 4  Feb 1-10

• Decrease the number of days the girls eat dessert
• Cut out soda all together

 

Feb 11-15

• Trip to Virginia

Week 5 & 6  Feb 16-24

• Stop dessert/completely substitute with non-sugar desserts 

FEBRUARY 25th  -- Be a 100% sugar free house!!

But you might be wondering how I got the kids to be on board with us cutting out sugar.  It was actually quite simple.  I told them since they were going to be exercising more that they needed to eat better.  I told them that Olympic soccer players and gymnasts don't eat sugar.  

Don't worry though.  I'm not pushing my girls to go for gold...yet.