Posted on

I’m Rubber,You’re Glue

A few days ago our son approached us about a friend who had called him “fat”, and said that it hurt his feelings and he wondered what he should have said or done. Now, this is almost as ridiculous as it is mean. This particular son of mine just happens to be in about the 25th percentile in weight for his age. So…you can see why maybe this particular insult was misinformed. But, it hurt his feelings just the same. So we chatted about kids and how sometimes they can say and do things that make us feel bad. We taught him some good old-fashioned comebacks…just for fun: sticks and stones, rubber and glue, pants on fire, etc…they all still apply. The sad thing is…adults are just as guilty of this bad behavior as kids.

In one of my challenge groups we were talking about the nay-sayers we face in our own families and circles of friends. You know, the ones who would mock, make fun of and belittle someone’s health and nutrition efforts. Why would anyone do that? Well, my explanation to my son about his friend was that sometimes a person doesn’t feel very good about themselves. Rather than changing what they don’t like, they attempt to build themselves up by tearing other people down. I think the same holds true for us grown-ups. Shame on us!

When we see someone pouring themselves into something we don’t quite understand, we should ask questions, express interest, or keep quiet.  We should not insult or belittle. What could be better than someone trying to be their best self, inside and out (to borrow a phrase from my friend Carrie)? But I get the eye-rolls, and the comments, too: “I would only run if someone was chasing me”. If I had a nickel for every time I heard that one! “Do you enjoy that bird food you eat?” Actually I do! Because it makes me feel good! You would never hear me mocking someone’s lack of exercise or greasy cheeseburger “value” meal! But what if I did? I could say something like, “Wow, looks like you haven’t worked out in a while!” or “Hey, I see you don’t give a crap about what you eat. Think there’s enough grease in your meal to clog ALL your arteries? ”. Nope, I wouldn’t do that. So why would anyone feel that it is ok to mock healthy lifestyle choices? I don’t get it.

Here’s my public service announcement: Choose your words wisely. Don’t insult what you don’t understand…yet! Ask questions. Express interest. Learn more about people! The more we learn about each other, the more we understand, experience and GROW! If you cannot act your age and refrain from negativity, than bite your tongue and listen. You might learn something without even trying. We’re all on our own journeys in life. We’re finding our ways, learning about the kinds of people we want to be. We tell our kids to be nice to each other:  “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”, right? Let’s practice what we preach. Teach by example. Be excellent to each other. 😀

Posted on

A Tiny Little Art Lesson

I’m reading a really good book right now called “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. It has me thinking about the little things and the bigger picture. What are the little things? The little things are small little every day efforts, or non-efforts, that either doing or not doing make no significant difference in the course of your day, but add up over time and either turn you into the person you want to be, or defeat you and your bigger picture. We paint our bigger picture with each tiny little brush stroke we make. What do you want yours to look like?

We all know how to be healthy right? Eat fruits and veggies, lean protein, whole grains, and limit red meat, alcohol, processed foods, etc. Oh, and we all know that we should fit some physical activity in at least 3-5 times per week, right? These are not new ideas. They’ve been around for quite a while actually. They are easy enough to do…but they are easy enough NOT to do, too! And therein lies the problem.

We are such an instant-gratification, need-results-now, kind of society that when we don’t get an immediate return on our efforts, it’s easy to disregard their importance. You worked out today…GREAT! Do you see results yet? NO! You chose the apple instead of the bag of chips…can you feel your heart getting stronger and your waistline getting smaller right now? Not likely. The same holds true for almost every aspect of your life. Saving a few cents today won’t mean anything until it’s done over and over again and eventually someday…down the road…your savings adds up to a nice retirement. These are all little things that go largely unnoticed in the short-term. However, all of these seemingly small efforts compound over time and lead you to the bigger picture. What is your bigger picture? In order to see it, you must pour yourself into the little things, the smallest details, and paint a little at a time…every day.

The opposite is true for NOT doing the little things. You won’t likely have a heart attack today, right after you eat your drive-thru lunch.  However, that choice, made again and again will eventually have a negative effect on your blood pressure and your cardiac health. You won’t gain five pounds today if you decide against working out, but a daily sedentary life will have a progressively negative effect on your overall health. Spending too much money today won’t likely land you in the poor house, but that trend will eventually contribute to your debt and your chances of retiring with a healthy nest egg. What will that picture look like? Is it unfinished? Would you want to hang it up for everyone to see?

I know that people can sometimes feel defeated if they didn’t make the right choice today, but you get a new shot every day to get it right. You can paint over the mistakes that you’ve made until it looks just right. The more you focus on the little things, and see success in your smallest victories, the more progress you will make toward turning those little things into a big and beautiful picture.

Posted on

Fall Food: Stuffed Squash

I have almost a dozen squash to figure out what to do with! I spent the day yesterday scouring the internet for just the right recipe. I couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I made up my own. As my friend Julie would say…I “scratched” it up! And the finished product was…

Lean Turkey & Quinoa Stuffed Squash with Apples and Cranberries

Ingredients

3-4 squash (depending on size and variety) – cut in halves

1 T. olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

1.25 lbs extra lean ground turkey breast

1 C. quinoa

1 C. broth + 1 C. water

1 t. olive oil

1/2 onion – diced

2 stalks celery – diced

1 apple

1/3 C. dried cranberries

1/2 t. sage

1/2 t. pepper

1.   Preheat oven to 400 degrees & prepare squash halves for baking: brush with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

2.   Cook quinoa in broth and water per package instructions (apx. 15 minutes)

3.   In 1 t. olive oil, cook onion and celery until tender, apx. 5 minutes. Add ground turkey and cook until browned.  Add diced apple and cranberries, cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, season with sage, and ground pepper and salt to taste. Add cooked quinoa to the pan and toss together.

               

4.   Heat oven to 350 degrees. Stuff the squash halves with turkey, quinoa mixture and return to oven until heated through 15-20 minutes.

Done & Delicious!

🙂
Posted on

Friday Fun…Be a Good Tree!

Here’s a little Friday Fun.

My mom actually owned this album back in the day. She would put the record on and attempt to do the exercises that Jane was describing, without actually being able to see her. My good friend Jenelle and I stumbled upon one of these “workouts” one night and decided to join the fun. For giggles, we took everything Jane said literally. She would say something like,”Lift your right leg, raise both arms, now twist, twist…” It ended up being much like a game of workout Twister which eventually ended when we collapsed in FITS of laughter! I guess if nothing else, we all got a pretty decent ab workout. 🙂

After that, my mom was an avid Jazzercizer! She would don her most fabulous Jane Fonda-inspired workout attire, and head to class with her towel and her water bottle, and sometimes, me. Jenelle’s mom even started up a Junior Jazzercize program and we would meet at her house and workout together with our friends to all the latest and greatest hits of the 80’s! The Pointer Sisters come to mind. I remember ‘jumping for my love’…in leg warmers. What a blast!

Times and workouts have changed a bit since then. For one, I can actually SEE what Chalene Johnson would like me to do when I’m working out, which is awesome! I don’t own a pair of tights OR a leotard…which is a good thing for EVERYONE! I still think leg warmers were kind of sweet, though totally useless; I have fond memories of my exceedingly warm ankles. 😉

So here I am…in this new and exciting fitness business. How did I get here? It’s becoming plainer and easier for me to see every day. This has ALWAYS been a part of my life. I didn’t realize it then, but my mom-who we’ve already established was a health nut before it was cool-was a fitness junkie, too! She still is, in fact. In her 60’s now, she is still an active runner, competing in a few 5 K’s every year. She also just finished “Slim in 6”, and loved it! But she is always looking for MORE! She is definitely my inspiration.

The lesson to learn here I guess is that apples don’t fall far from trees. Be a good and healthy tree, and your apples will take seed, and grow up to be just like you!

I love you Apple Tree!

Always,

Your Apple

Posted on

Eat Your Veggies?

Remember before you had kids you would say things like “I would never let my kids act like that”, or “I would never let them get away with that” or “I would never let them EAT that”!? Oh yeah, I said it all. And here is the lesson I learned about that: NEVER say never.

Here I go sounding like an old lady again, but ‘when I was a kid’…my mom made one dinner and we ate it, or went hungry. Mostly we ate it though, whether we wanted to or not, sometimes after hours at the table, through tears…but we ate it! I don’t know if it was all that bad, but I do know that I had to at least TRY a food before I committed to not eating it.

When I was a babysitting teenager, I would babysit these kids that would only eat 3 things: peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, and fast food. I thought it was ridiculous! So my mom’s approach to meal time was to be my plan as well, it’s what I knew, it seemed appropriate. I would make one dinner, and my kids would EAT it! Right?! Well, in the time it took me to grow up, get married and have children, a lot changed in the grocery stores, and in the towns where we live. Processed and fast food became readily available, beautifully packaged and marketed like never before. This was going to be an uphill battle.

I was prepared for the battle though…until my first child was born, 15 weeks early, and weighing less than 1 pound. Needless to say, she spent a long time in the NICU, 5 months to be exact. She underwent multiple surgeries. She was intubated (on a ventilator) for about 2 months, and that was going to put a huge wrench in my plan. When we brought her home, we faced many challenges. She did not know how to eat. She had been on an IV and tube feedings for much of her hospital  stay, and was very late to the bottle, which meant her oral motor skills were not what they ought to have been. She was given speech therapy, feeding therapy and other therapies as well, but it was a struggle. She didn’t experience ‘hunger’ until she was almost 3 years old. Her brain had ignored the feeling of hunger for so long (because of the IV, etc) that she learned to ignore it. She had extreme textural issues; there were certain foods that she simply couldn’t eat. As a result…I was cooking 2 meals, every day. So right away, my plans had to change.

Fast forward to child number 2, 3 and 4. How do you explain to them that one child is allowed an alternate meal, but they are not? Ugh…this has been a daily struggle for me. I so badly want them all to eat what I am making, but the precedent has been set. I will say, that 2 out of 4 will generally eat what we are eating, it’s the other 2 that are in cahoots to thwart my plan. But for how long? With the unhealthy, fast, over-processed and attractive alternatives, that are so readily available to them…will they ever grow out of picky eating?

So, your circumstances might be different, but I run into a lot of parents who have very different approaches to this issue. Do you make them sit at the table until they eat what is served? Does that form a very negative association with mealtime, and food? Do you make them eat one bite, and then they’re excused, but go hungry, and no snack later? Or do you make them take a bite, and then allow them to get something for themselves that they WILL eat? Or do you just make 2 dinners every night so that everyone is happy? You’ll see, I have no answer here. I personally do a little bit of all of the above. I haven’t found one approach that works for me…yet.  But I’m open for suggestions. 🙂

Posted on

Have Box, Must Climb

What are you doing RIGHT now? Where are you right now? Because NOW is what matters the most. You’ve heard this before right? It’s not a new concept, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I am all for learning from the past, and having goals for your future, but I think we all need to focus a lot more on being present, in the present tense and living for the moment of now.

What is ‘now’? Now is happening every second, in every opportunity and in every choice you make. Every step you take, every move you make…no wait, that’s a Police song, and I won’t be watching you, cause that’s creepy. But consider this, there are 86,400 seconds in a 24 hour day. So let’s say a third of those are spent sleeping, which leaves 57,600 seconds every day that you spend awake, and engaged in the activities of the day. That means you have 57,600 opportunities in your day. How will you spend them?

Will you reflect on the past? Or will you just be in the moment of now? I think that when you spend your time thinking too much about the past, you might become complacent and assume that not much you do will change your course. Let’s talk about this in terms of health. Maybe you’ve dieted in the past, and fallen back to old habits. Maybe you tried a new exercise, and slowly fell away from that, too.  Well, now you have a story, and that story becomes an excuse, and you don’t seize the opportunity to make a change NOW. You have 57,600 opportunities a day that can make a difference now. You can’t change your past, but you can start with now. Take a walk, choose the fruit-not the doughnut, park farther away from the store instead of wasting time circling the parking lot, take the stairs, try to a new exercise program, look for a healthy recipe on the internet to make for dinner…etc. These choices take seconds to make. Just think how many good choices you could make in one day, rather than let time tick by…grab a second by the neck, and show it who’s boss!

Will you dwell on the future? Do you live in the land of ‘someday’? Make someday happen today. Sure, write down your goals, visualize the future, and then do something about it. Someday never happens if you don’t start now. Did you miss an opportunity a second ago? That’s ok, because you have 57,599 other seconds to get it right. Why start your diet on Monday, when you can do it now? Why wait until after the holidays to undo all of the mistakes that seem inevitable? You give yourself permission to fail when you ignore the opportunities that you have right now. Plan less, act more. 🙂

Now exists in the middle of “I did” and “I will”. What will you DO today. Do something that flies in the face of the past, and brightens your future. Just Do It…Now! (Nike should have added “now” to their slogan, don’t ya think?)

Here are the last 2 days of my Clean Eating Challenge:

And finally, if you haven’t seen my results already, here they are. I cannot believe what I was able to accomplish in 25 days! I made a lot of really deliberate choices everyday during this challenge. And they were choices! You can make them, too….guess when…NOW!

Posted on

Oh Happy Day!

Happy Halloween!

So good news first! If you’ve been following along, you know that I decided to start Beachbody coaching about 2 months ago. Since then, I have lost 12 pounds and almost 10 inches! This alone is so fantastic and thrilling, but on top of that I’ve been working with friends and family members who are all on their fitness journeys, too. It’s been so fun to connect with friends and family and new people as well!  Thanks for being supportive, and please feel free to contact me if you’d like any information about the programs I use, the food I eat, or the coaching opportunity!

So here are my updates for days 20-23 of the cleaner eating challenge.

Actually…there really isn’t anything too exciting to report in terms of food, come to think of it. I think the most exciting thing I did was to make a warm-up for Thanksgiving meal last night that was all squeaky clean! I cooked a turkey breast in my crock pot all day, with some carrots and celery, and made some green beans (which happen to be one of my favorite veggies!). The hubs and kids wanted Stove Top stuffing of all things with it…though I did not partake. Enjoy the turkey recipe, maybe it’ll come in handy for your Thanksgiving! 🙂 I need to start thinking about how I’m going to clean up that holiday menu…it’s going to be a real challenge, but I’m up for it.

Posted on

Challenge Update & Yummy Recipes

Day 10 was a hurry hurry day. I was running around from the second I woke up in the morning.  That’s the one tricky thing about clean eating, your ‘grab-and-go’ food items are limited to fruits, some veggies and food that is leftover from a previous meal. Even cereal is off my list because it’s processed. So for breakfast I microwaved an egg, threw it on some Ezekiel toast and sliced up some avocado on top.  It was fast, and surprisingly tasty. I like the egg and avocado together.  For lunch I made my favorite Greek salad…again.  For a snack I had a bowl of plain Greek yogurt (I have a thing for Greeks) sweetened with a Stevia packet, and cut up strawberries and almonds on top.  Very satisfying!  Even though I was short on time, I made Tilapia, quinoa and lemon roasted broccoli.  It came together quickly and everything was delicious.  Here are the recipes.  *You could probably use any fish with this recipe.

  and 

Eleven is my favorite number and it was a good day, too.  I woke up and made breakfast for 5, I packed up lunches for 5 (we were going to be out all day again…surprise!) and put dinner for 6 in my crock pot!  All before 9:00! I had oatmeal with strawberries and almond milk for breakfast and Shakeology on the road. For lunch I used my leftover quinoa to make a tasty salad to go.  For dinner we ate the delicious turkey chili that my crock pot made for us  while we were gone.  It was super tasty!  There were a few healthy snacks tossed in throughout the day as well…but let’s get on with the recipes, shall we?

Quinoa Avocado Salad

(for 1, modify for additional servings)

1 C. quinoa

1 tomato (I used a roma)

1/4 fresh, chopped cilantro

1/2 avocado (cut into chunks)

 1  T. chopped onion OR 1/2 t. onion powder

1 garlic clove, minced OR 1/2 t. garlic powder

1/2 fresh lime, juiced

salt and pepper to taste

* Toss everything together in a bowl and serve!

Turkey Crockpot Chili

 1 1/4 pound lean ground turkey, I use the EXTRA lean ground turkey breast:

3/4 C. yellow cornmeal

1 C. chicken or vegetable broth

1 – 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

small can of green chilis

1/2 C. or your favorite salsa

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup frozen (or canned) corn

1 can kidney beans, rinsed & drained

2-3 T. chili powder

1t. cumin

Directions:  Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and cook turkey until it’s browned and cooked through. Meanwhile, soak cornmeal in broth, whisk and let sit for about 5 minutes. Add cooked turkey and cornmeal mixture to the crock pot along with all of the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 7-8 hours.

Optional toppings:  reduced fat shredded cheese, low-fat sour cream, black olives, avocado, whatever you like 🙂

Nice for a chili weekend, get it?! 😉

Posted on

The Glass is Almost Totally Full! and Challenge Catch Up

I am an optimist.  It has mostly served me well in my life.  I say ‘mostly’ because I can think of a few instances where it hasn’t…like believing that people are always good, nobody will ever hurt me, and nothing bad could possibly happen.  I’ve been wrong a few times about those things.  But overall I’d say I’m right most of the time.  I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.  Actually, I have no choice.  I’m a die-hard optimist.

I was thinking about this today in terms of health and nutrition.  Here’s how an optimist looks at these particular goals: I like to think of what I CAN eat, as opposed to what I CAN’T.  As you know I’m participating in this cleaner eating challenge, and when I look at the pictures I’m taking, I can’t help but think how pretty and delicious everything looks.  It doesn’t seem like a sacrifice at all to me when I GET to eat all of that yummy food.  I go to the store with a different mindset.  I’m looking for what I can have, and not begrudging what I can not have. I come home with bags of fruits and veggies and other healthy foods. I get excited to cook new recipes and try new foods.  Maybe I’m weird.  Ya, probably.  😉

For exercise, I like to think of what I CAN do, and not what I CAN’T.  Maybe not everyone can, or wants to try, to run.  So, what CAN you do?  Can you walk?  I bet you can.  Maybe not everyone has weights in their house.  Can you do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups (there are a lot of “ups” here that require only your body as weight) squats, lunges, etc? I bet you can.  Maybe you can’t go to the gym, but do you own a DVD player?  I’ve got some awesome workouts I could recommend to you.  And they’re FUN, too!  You see where I’m going here.  Start with what you CAN do.  Focus on what you CAN eat. Your mindset will change, and so will your habits. You’ll be on your way to eternal optimism. Well…maybe. 🙂

Who would think that they could start a new health and fitness business at 40?…Me! But this one was kind of a no-brainer for me.  I love to workout.  I enjoy eating healthy foods. And I LOVE to talk.  That just about sums up my new job.  These are things I most definitely CAN do.  🙂

So here are my weekend Clean Eating Challenge pictures and a couple of recipes:

 Nothing remarkable on Day 5, except I learned how to make my own “almost” fat free coffee cream.  Want the recipe? Click here:   Oh, and the pretty green drink is a spinach, kale, strawberry, pineapple smoothie that was delicious!  Seriously, don’t knock it til you try it.

Day 6 looked like this:

  This was my “cheat” day, well sort of.  I ate really clean during the day and then it was “Ladies Night Out”.  So for dinner I splurged on 2 small pieces of veggie pizza and a salad with a little drizzle of raspberry vinaigrette dressing…oh…and 2 vodka tonics :o. Ladies night out doesn’t happen very often, so I forgave me.

Day 7 looked like this:

 I had a big salad for lunch, with lots of veggies and 1/2 of a very lean turkey burger sliced on top. Raw almonds are an excellent snack to keep in the house. I had mine with half of a honey crisp apple and a tall glass of water and felt very full.  Dinner was so yummy, I’ll have to share the recipe.  I made a spinach, ricotta (low-fat), tomato frittata.  It was delicious!  Recipe here:  (I added tomatoes to mine, but it wasn’t part of the original recipe).

So there you go!  What CAN you do today?

Posted on

Clean Eating Challenge, Day 3

Yesterday morning I awoke to such a glorious smell…I lept out of my bed with delight and anticipation of the coming glories of the day. Well…not exactly, but you get the idea. Anyone who knows me also knows that there sure isn’t any ‘leaping out of  bed’ in the morning. Mornings and I have never really gotten along. But, yesterday was a little better. The night before I had plopped all the fixin’s for apple cinnamon steel-cut oatmeal into my crock pot, and that wondrous little machine cooked my breakfast for me while I slept! The kids really enjoyed the oatmeal, too.  As a matter of fact, 5 out of 6 Hunts agree: this recipe is a winner! You can make Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal, too!  Click here if you’d like the recipes.

For lunch I had some Un-refried bean burritos (I told you that recipe makes a ton!) with avocado slices, reduced fat cheese and homemade salsa. I had Shake0logy for an afternoon snack and some fuel before my workout.  I lifted pretty heavy, and today I’m walking a little funny, I’m not gonna lie to you.  That just means I did it right.  🙂

For dinner I grilled up some Costco Extra Lean Turkey Burgers (only 200 calories) and made baked sweet potato french fries.  I used sweet potatoes from the farm. They were SO delicious!  I could have eaten a lot more just because they tasted so darn good, but I didn’t need to.  This was a very satisfying meal!  Sometimes, if I just take my time and enjoy every little bite, I find that I’m content with just 1 serving.  I once heard that it takes your brain about 15 minutes to register that your stomach is full.  Do me a favor and DON’T shove the food in quickly in an attempt to fool your brain.  It’s not a smart strategy.

Later on, I needed a little snack so I toasted up some Ezekiel bread, spread it with natural almond butter and had an organic dark chocolate square on the side.  I really was totally satisfied all day.  It’s amazing what mindful eating does for your daily diet.  It’s funny, because I now know what my ‘weak times’ are.  When the kids start reaching for snacks in the afternoon, that’s when I would typically grab a handful of whatever it is they took out of the pantry:  a few chips, crackers or pretzels.  Not that any of those things would put me over the edge, but it’s processed food that my body doesn’t need, especially if I had planned ahead and ate accordingly.  🙂  Day 3 is done…only 27 more to go.  I’ve got this!