Monday, February 28, 2011

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Don’t you hate it when Monday comes around and its rainy? Bleh, as if Monday’s aren’t bad enough, but add some rain and you might as well stay home.

Well I was hoping that this week would be a healthier food week, but we got back last night and I did not want to go to the store, so we are going to have to mash some stuff up this week for dinner. Luke is finally back in town (until Monday that is) and he wants to get Pho, so I think a rainy Monday is a perfect day for some Pho! But we will see.

I was reading another blog and wanted to try these fruit and Nut bars the girl always eats to see what they were all about (WW points = 5):

These are most definitely not worth the 5 WW points, I would rather have a snickers bar for 7 points.

The Iphone has this app called Fooducate, which grades the foods, gives you healthier alternatives, and the WW point values, all around an awesome app. This app is unfortunately not available yet on the android market, grr, so every time I want to fooducate something I go over to Kirstie’s desk and steal her phone. So fooducate gave these a C, not good, although I am confused as to why it would get a C rating, it does give a banana as a healthier alternative. Oh well, the Larabar was not great, and they are fairly expensive, so I will not be purchasing them again.

Tomorrow we find out where our team stands in the “Build a Better You” challenge at work. I think we need to do better, I think our team goal for pedometer steps should be at least 10,000 steps A DAY, and at least 20 minutes of exercise a day. But after tomorrow, we will see what other teams have done and what we need to do to catch up or beat them. Wish us luck!

Here are my personal achievements for the last 2 weeks:

Weight Loss: 1.5% <-- to really help out the team I need to lose 2 lbs a week...

Exercise Minutes: 1,415 minutes <-- my goal was 800 minutes!

Pedometer Steps: 132,958 Steps <-- my goal was 140,000 steps! very close


That’s all for today! :) Hope everyone has a great day!

On the Road Again!

Here is a picture of the lake near where we stayed. Pretty snow covered setting. We hit the road around noon, and got home around 7. Thankfully, an uneventful drive, just pretty trees and views, which I obviously forgot to take pictures of. We got home and unpacked, then went to my mom’s to pick Ella up. We hung out with my mom and sister and watched the Oscar’s, then headed home and hit the hay!

That’s all for today!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Hooray for Snow!

This is us on top of the mountain, right before our first run! It was a perfect day to go boarding! We got on the slopes at around 10am, and boarded until about 7pm. It was quite fantastic.

Here are some more pictures from our day!



We took a lot of movies, and they are all on facebook. Sunny is making a movie, and once that is completed he will probably post that up. We made some yummy burgers and fries for dinner, then watched the HOKIES BEAT #1 DUKE in basketball! Oh man what a great day! After that we all hit the hot tub for some much needed R&R!

That’s all for today! Tomorrow we head back home!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Mother Nature has a Bad Attitude

Well, here we are in Davis, WV:

Why are we sitting at the table playing “Words with Friends” on our phones instead of snowboarding down the mountain? Oh that’s because Mother Nature is mean! It rained all morning, so we decided to wait until the rain stopped to venture out into the snow.

Friday’s at Canaan Valley Ski resort they have $20 lift tickets, so we decided to jump on that deal. We should have checked the mountain out before we bought our lift tickets, because the entire mountain was ICE. It had dropped about 20 degrees so all the rain from the morning turned into ice. EW. We decided to try the slopes out, and literally five minutes into our slope ride I slipped on the ice, fell back and hit my head (ouch). After that we decided it wasn’t worth the risk of someone getting seriously injured, so we got a “snow check” and headed back to the house.

So here we are, the boys are fixing their snowboards, and us ladies went out for a mini walk to the store across the street from our house.

Tonight we are having spaghetti for dinner, and afterwards its HOT TUB time!!!! YES! Hot Tubs in the winter are one of the best things ever!


That is all for today! Have a great day everyone!


Road Trip!


Two new things I am now obsessed with: Quaker Oatmeal Squares Cereal, and Orbitz new Strawberry Remix Gum. Oh dear, so good. Sorry I had to share!

Well, I left work early yesterday in preparation for our weekend trip to Daivs, WV. I am going to make a disclaimer right now, that the next few posts will not contain healthy foods, haha, oh well. So after leaving work, I packed our stuff to go snowboarding, took Ella for a walk, and gave her a bath. I packed her stuff up in my car and headed over to my mom’s house to drop her off for the weekend.

After I got home and we packed the car, we went to Taco Bell for a quick dinner. And believe me when I say it was quick, we were in and out of there in less than 20 min, and I think we waited for our food for about 12 min. Record Taco Bell consumption time (kids please don’t try that at home, Erik and I are trained professional eaters). Afterwards we headed over to our friend James’s house, were we were meeting the rest of our group, Sunny, Diana, James and Mari. James had some sweet Tetris moves while packing the Suburban (I forgot to take a picture), and before we knew it we were on our way to Davis, WV. I do not recommend driving at night, on a mountain, in fog. Super scary, but James got us there safe and sound, thank you James.

We unloaded the car and called it a night! Check back tomorrow for snowboarding day 1.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Build a Better You?

Our company decided to launch a new program for healthy living called the “Build a Better you Challenge”. You are in teams of 5-11 people with a captain and you can compete in 1, 2 or all 3 categories. The categories are: Weight Loss, Exercise Minutes, and Pedometer Steps. I am the captain of our team called “2 Unfit 2 Quit”, clever I know, and we decided to compete in all three categories. The competition started on February 14th and will continue for 12 weeks. Each round consists of 2 weeks, and they will post standings at the end of each round. The first standings are published on March 1st, I will keep you guys posted on our team progress!

At the beginning of this week a guy comes into work with a really bad sprained ankle, and yesterday we find out that another guy at work stepped on his shoe lace while on the treadmill, and fell and got a concussion. So much for building a better you.

I am sad to say that we did not workout last night, actually I guess I’m not really sad about it, because it was a much needed break, but I thought I should confess.
Dinner last night was the Humus Crusted Chicken and Chili Carrots I found in Better Homes and Gardens (WW points = 11 for a whole chicken breast and carrots). A little disclaimer about the 9 point chicken, the recipe asks for 2 cups of bread crumbs (I used 1/4 of a cup) and for 2/3 of the humus, I probably used less than 1/3, so the points for this meal are a bit fuzzy. The chicken was good, but I don’t think it is a “do it again meal” as we like to call really yummy meals in our family. The carrots however, I thought were really tasty. I am going to change the “Featured Recipe” tab to “Do it again meals”! I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. Here is Erik’s plate, mine was half a chicken breast and didn’t look as pretty:


Here is the recipe:
Chili Carrots (WW points= 2)
Ingredients

• 4 medium carrots, peeled and bias-sliced in 1-inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. chili powder
Directions

1. In saucepan cook carrots in boiling salted water 8 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain. In same saucepan combine oil, honey, and chili powder; cook and stir 1 minutes. Add carrots; cook 2 minutes more or until glazed. Season with salt and pepper. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Facts
• Calories72,
• Total Fat (g)4,
• Sodium (mg)46,
• Carbohydrate (g)10,
• Fiber (g)2,
• Protein (g)1,

Breakfast this morning was the same as yesterday: honey nut cheerios, 2% milk, half a banana and come coffee. WW points = 5

Today is leftover day! I love leftovers, really I do. For lunch today I have a Peach Chobani Yogurt, carrots, and the half serving of coconut chicken chili, if you can even call it a half serving, ha!


Tonight for dinner I will be having leftover baked spaghetti, and Erik will have the last Chimichanga. I hate throwing food away, and I don’t think the leftovers will make it in the fridge any longer.

Last night instead of working out we watched our recorded episode of Biggest Loser, which was a tear jerker. I don’t know why I get so attached to these people on TV, but I do and I feel like I can empathize with the struggles. After wiping off my tears, we watched this new show called Traffic Light, which comes on after Raising Hope on Tuesday nights, (Raising Hope, Glee, and House are my favorite shows, hands down, best shows on TV). Traffic Light was actually really hilarious, I highly recommend it!

Well that’s all for today!

I hope everyone has a great day!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Great Success!

Last night Erik and I did the P90x “Plyometrics” workout, which as you might know is the very same routine that broke Erik’s jaw. It was actually a really great workout, and this time we were very cautious. After our P90x sweat-fest, we started making dinner!

Erik started cooking the chicken while I was de-sweatifying, which was awesome ( I love it when we cook together!). Here is the recipe:.

Coconut Chicken Chili
Ingredients
12 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1-1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 14-oz. can coconut milk
• 1 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 1 15- to 19-oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 medium carrots, shredded
• 1 stalk celery, sliced
• 1 medium green onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
• Hot cooked rice
• Fresh basil and sliced jalapeños (optional)

Directions
1. In large saucepan cook chicken, onion, chili powder, ginger, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the cayenne pepper in hot oil over medium heat 6 to 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in flour and cook 1 minute more. Stir in coconut milk, peanut butter, and 1 cup water. Bring to boiling, stirring occasionally.

2. Stir in beans, carrots, celery, green onion, garlic, and chopped basil. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Serve with rice. Top with basil leaves and sliced jalapeños.

Makes 4 (1-3/4-cup) servings.

Nutrition Facts (not including rice)
• Calories 401.2,
• Total Fat (g)25,
• Saturated Fat (g)17.1,
• Monounsaturated Fat (g)1.8,
• Polyunsaturated Fat (g)1,
• Cholesterol (mg)48.8,
• Sodium (mg)269.7,
• Carbohydrate (g)23.9,
• Total Sugar (g)2.3,
• Fiber (g)6.6,
• Protein (g)25.1,

I was reading some reviews of this recipe and they said that if you want to reduce the fat, carbs, and calories, you can use coconut water instead of coconut milk.

The recipe, which I found in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, required the chicken to be coated with the spices and cooked prior to adding the sauce, and this is what the chicken looked like:


I think we will use these spices as a rub in the future when we grill our chicken. We put the rice in the rice cooker and let it do its thing while we finished making the rest of the chili. WW points w/ 1/2 cup of rice = appox. 11. I think the actual amount of points were really less than that, because I don’t think we used 12 oz of chicken. Here is the final product:

Delish!

Breakfast this morning consisted of some honey nut cheerios, 2% milk, half a banana and come coffee. WW points = 5

I packed leftover coconut chicken chili for Erik with some yummy snacks and for myself I packed, a buffalo chicken sandwich, carrots, wheat thins, an apple, and of course Chobani (Strawberry) Greek Yogurt.

Buffalo chicken sandwich w/ Fat free cheese, lettuce, tomato, small amount of avocado, small amount of mayo, on Pepperidge Farm Light 7-grain bread WW points = approx. 5, most of the time I like to round up the points, just to be sure, especially when I calculate the points myself. Wheat thins WW points = 3 for a serving.


Tonight’s workout for me is P90x’s “Cardio” and for Erik its the “Back & Biceps” workout. I bought Erik a weighted vest, to increase his resistance when he does the muscle building routines, I will let you know tomorrow how that worked out, along with a picture :).

As for dinner tonight it’s another Better Homes and Garden’s recipe, Humus Crusted Chicken. I can’t wait!


Have a great day everyone!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Spicing up our blog-life

Hey guys! So I’ve decided to change our blog up a bit. I want to add a little spice to the blog, I’m not really sure if anyone will care, or read, but its fun for me so I will try it out and see how it goes. A lot of my friends are doing weight watchers, (I use their point system as a guideline too), so I figure I would put my calculated WW points along with the recipes/foods. I am not by any means a nutritionist, I just simply want to eat better and live a healthier lifestyle. So here goes:


I think I am a bit slow on the delish greek yogurt train but thanks to my friend Kirstie, I am now in love with Chobani Greek Yogurt. It is so good for you too, so much better for you than a sugar filled yogurt :) WW points: 3. Today I had the peach flavor:


Last night for dinner I made some yummy Greek-Spinach Veggie Burgers! The recipe made 4 patties so Erik and I took the other two for lunch today.



I put the patty on a whole Wheat hamburger bun, topped it with a tomato, feta cheese crumbles, and some plain non-fat yogurt. Next time I make these I will use a fat-free feta, to reduce the calories, but as is they are super yummy. Here is the recipe:

Greek Spinach Veggie Burgers

Ingredients


· 1/4 cup olive oil

· 1 clove garlic, minced

· 1 tsp. dried italian seasoning

· 1 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix

· 2 eggs, lightly beaten

· 1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained

· 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled (2 oz.)

· 4 whole wheat hamburger buns, split and toasted

· Toppers such as crumbled feta cheese, plain yogurt, sliced roasted red peppers, and/or sliced red onion (optional)


Directions

1. In medium bowl combine oil, garlic, oregano, dillweed, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper. Stir in stuffing mix to coat thoroughly. Stir in egg, spinach, and 1/2 cup crumbled feta; mix well. Shape into four 1/2-inch-thick patties.

2. Heat a griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add patties. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side or until browned and heated through.

3. Serve in buns with assorted toppers. Makes 4 servings.


Nutrition Facts

Calories367, ;Total Fat (g)18, ;Saturated Fat (g)4, ;Monounsaturated Fat (g)11, ;Polyunsaturated Fat (g)2, Cholesterol (mg)13, ; Sodium (mg)732, ; Carbohydrate (g)36, ; Total Sugar (g)6, ;Fiber (g)4, ;Protein (g)13,

Vitamin C (DV%)2, ;Calcium (DV%)27, ;Iron (DV%)18, ;Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet


Tonight for dinner I will be making Coconut chicken chili. I will let you know how that goes tomorrow.

Snowboarding Adventure!


This past Saturday, Erik, Sunny, Diana, James, Mari, Gilbert and I went to Whitetail to go snowboarding. This was my first attempt at any snow related activity (other than shoveling and sledding), and I loved it! I want to thank everyone who went for helping me learn, and being very patient with me. It really helped make this experience amazing. We drove up to whitetail around 8am, and by 10am we were on the slopes. I was very nervous, but like I said before everyone was so helpful, it was very easy to calm down. Sunny is putting together a movie of our snowboarding adventures, and when he has finished it, I will attempt to put it up on here. In the meantime, above is a picture of everyone (except me) Saturday before their last run. I was not in this picture, because after 7 hours, I was toast. They went up for one last run on a blue slope, while I sat and drank some yummy hot chocolate.


Thursday, February 10, 2011

Jaw Update 4.0

This just in!

Erik went to the doctor today and got his wires AND screws taken out!

Now he may eat as he pleases :) YESSSS!

I have a feeling this is going to be a big fatty weekend :)