We haven't officially started school yet, that starts next week, but my son has started his exercise program (PE) for the fall. He grumped quite a bit about starting a week early but that's the way the program runs and since I had to pay for a full month, he started!
He's mainly doing cycling at the rec center close to our house. Once he begins to get in cardiovascular shape, he'll start more weight training. He's now fourteen so using weights will begin to build muscle mass. I've also committed to not having as much junk food around. I and my daughter don't eat it but my husband and son do and they are the ones that are showing it! My husband is going to be starting working out in the evenings with my son. He's going to be doing two a days for a while to whip him back into shape!
Our mealtimes are usually healthy things but it seems that between meals and drink choices are what is killing both of them. Those are going to change because they are both too lazy to go and get bad food choices so if I don't bring it into the house, it won't get eaten.
I am a bit worried about this because I have never worried about my weight. I pretty much eat what I want and stay around 115 pounds. That's twenty pounds heavier than when I got married but I figure a pound a year isn't too bad. Plus, when I drop under about 110 pounds, the doctor looks at me with a frown. My downfall is salt and Braum's German chocolate ice cream. My husband has promised me that he'll take me out for ice cream, my daughter calls it broccoli, at Braum's when I need it.
I'll keep you posted on the two men in my life and their exercise program. I can be pretty hardheaded about things sometimes and keeping them both healthy is one hill I'm willing to die on!
A journal of recipes and ideas to help readers laugh a little at everyday things and realize just how blessed they are!
Showing posts with label healthy eating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy eating. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Homemade Hamburger Helper
Let me just say first today, that I'm not against putting hamburger helper on your table every now and then. I'm not one of those women who look down on others if you use a box out of the pantry to get a meal on the table. I reason that hamburger or chicken helper is probably better than the drive through anyway as long as you serve a salad or veggie on the side. I gave up on perfectionism a long, long time ago and my mantra concerning meals is 'whatever works'! Plus, I found out after slaving over things like homemade macaroni and cheese that my kids really like boxed better.
Yes, it was a humbling experience to realize that Kraft macaroni and cheese was loved and mamma's homemade was not but I came to understand that 'whatever works' is sometimes good enough. My daughter came home from a friends house raving about the mac and cheese. 'The best ever', was the exact wording. I casually asked a few days later for the recipe and the mom started laughing hysterically and said 'it's Kraft'! I realized then and there that gourmet is sometimes lost on the young.
If you are a box reader like me, you're probably wondering how I get around all the sodium inside that little blue box. Well, I tell you, I first thought I'd be sneaky and buy a box mac and cheese but only buy an organic, whole wheat, good-for-you, taste like wallpaper paste brand that cost six times as much. It was a no-go at my house! So now I'll let you in on my dirty little secret....I only use half the package of powdered cheese! No one knows but me and I use the rest later to season rice or veggies! No one said a mom can't resort to underhandedness to save my famililes health!
Once I was able to pull that off and had no mutiny, I decided to try it in some of the other boxed meals. Worked like a charm! I do use the rest of the packet in brown rice for later meals. I also always add extra frozen veggies to the skillet after I add the seasonings and liquid. Now my kids think I'm really cool because I let them have hamburger helper sometimes and what they don't know, won't hurt them!
Tomorrow, I'll give you a recipe for homemade hamburger helper. It doesn't have all the salt and preservatives and is loved at my house. I call it mom's hamburger helper and no one knows it doesn't come out of a box! Hey, at my house, coming out of a box is exciting! (at least to the kids)
Look outside today and really see the gifts of nature that are around you! Little blessings really add up!
Yes, it was a humbling experience to realize that Kraft macaroni and cheese was loved and mamma's homemade was not but I came to understand that 'whatever works' is sometimes good enough. My daughter came home from a friends house raving about the mac and cheese. 'The best ever', was the exact wording. I casually asked a few days later for the recipe and the mom started laughing hysterically and said 'it's Kraft'! I realized then and there that gourmet is sometimes lost on the young.
If you are a box reader like me, you're probably wondering how I get around all the sodium inside that little blue box. Well, I tell you, I first thought I'd be sneaky and buy a box mac and cheese but only buy an organic, whole wheat, good-for-you, taste like wallpaper paste brand that cost six times as much. It was a no-go at my house! So now I'll let you in on my dirty little secret....I only use half the package of powdered cheese! No one knows but me and I use the rest later to season rice or veggies! No one said a mom can't resort to underhandedness to save my famililes health!
Once I was able to pull that off and had no mutiny, I decided to try it in some of the other boxed meals. Worked like a charm! I do use the rest of the packet in brown rice for later meals. I also always add extra frozen veggies to the skillet after I add the seasonings and liquid. Now my kids think I'm really cool because I let them have hamburger helper sometimes and what they don't know, won't hurt them!
Tomorrow, I'll give you a recipe for homemade hamburger helper. It doesn't have all the salt and preservatives and is loved at my house. I call it mom's hamburger helper and no one knows it doesn't come out of a box! Hey, at my house, coming out of a box is exciting! (at least to the kids)
Look outside today and really see the gifts of nature that are around you! Little blessings really add up!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Heathly eating habits II cont...
These will be the last in the series of eating healthy, losing weight for a while, I promise!
9. Stop drinking diet pop. If it has aspartame in it, that actually causes you to crave sweet things. It doesn't satisify that sweet tooth like sugar so you want to have more. Drink unsweet tea or sweeten with stevia, or water, or green tea. Don't drink more than one 6 oz. juice in a day, eat a piece of fruit instead. It will fill you up. No on has ever gotten fat eating fruit, but some have drinking it!
10. Eat the real thing! Take for instance peanut butter. Have you read your label in the pantry? Most peanut butter contains all sorts of stuff along with the peanuts. So when you make that sandwich, you have to pile on the peanut butter so you can taste the nuts. Natural peanut butter only has nuts and maybe salt. You don't need nearly as much to get a real peanut taste. So by using less but getting the same flavor, you are saving fat and calories. The same with cheese and lunchmeat. Buy the best you can afford and you won't need much for that sandwich, again saving fat and calories. Treat yourself to the best in nutrition, you deserve it!
11. Start a garden in the spring. You will burn calories, eat better, and save money in one swoop! Grow stuff you like! It doesn't need to be a large garden, my first one was on our apartment balcony. My husband knew I needed a house when it began to look like a jungle, but the neighbors liked the tomatoes!
Lastly, I want everyone to know that our society just needs to step back and give everybody a little break. We can't all be super models, not that I want to look like that! God made each of us a size and shape unique to us. We need to take care of what He gave us to the best of our ability but we really get too freaked out about outward appearances.
So I guess my advice is to work on your outside this year, but also, work on your inside too. Work on blessing other people. My grandma used to say, 'pretty is as pretty does'. Some of the prettiest people I know aren't necessarily the best to look at but once you get to know them, they are beautiful to be around!
Remember to bless someone today!
9. Stop drinking diet pop. If it has aspartame in it, that actually causes you to crave sweet things. It doesn't satisify that sweet tooth like sugar so you want to have more. Drink unsweet tea or sweeten with stevia, or water, or green tea. Don't drink more than one 6 oz. juice in a day, eat a piece of fruit instead. It will fill you up. No on has ever gotten fat eating fruit, but some have drinking it!
10. Eat the real thing! Take for instance peanut butter. Have you read your label in the pantry? Most peanut butter contains all sorts of stuff along with the peanuts. So when you make that sandwich, you have to pile on the peanut butter so you can taste the nuts. Natural peanut butter only has nuts and maybe salt. You don't need nearly as much to get a real peanut taste. So by using less but getting the same flavor, you are saving fat and calories. The same with cheese and lunchmeat. Buy the best you can afford and you won't need much for that sandwich, again saving fat and calories. Treat yourself to the best in nutrition, you deserve it!
11. Start a garden in the spring. You will burn calories, eat better, and save money in one swoop! Grow stuff you like! It doesn't need to be a large garden, my first one was on our apartment balcony. My husband knew I needed a house when it began to look like a jungle, but the neighbors liked the tomatoes!
Lastly, I want everyone to know that our society just needs to step back and give everybody a little break. We can't all be super models, not that I want to look like that! God made each of us a size and shape unique to us. We need to take care of what He gave us to the best of our ability but we really get too freaked out about outward appearances.
So I guess my advice is to work on your outside this year, but also, work on your inside too. Work on blessing other people. My grandma used to say, 'pretty is as pretty does'. Some of the prettiest people I know aren't necessarily the best to look at but once you get to know them, they are beautiful to be around!
Remember to bless someone today!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Healthy eating habits, cont...
Yesterday, I started on my food pointers for the new year. Today I'll continue today and tomorrow and then I won't say another word about healthy eating for a while, I promise! If you have an great idea on how you watch your weight, post it! We can all use help!
4. Eat things as close to they lived as possible. I know, this sounds gross, it used to really gross out my students too. But here's the deal, the more processed your food is, the more of the natural taste is taken out and the more fake taste is put in. That's why processed foods have a lot of salt in them. The manufacturers have to replace that natural stuff with something!
Take chicken. If you want chicken, go for a real piece of chicken, not a nugget. Exactly where is the nugget on the chicken anyway? A real piece of chicken, leg, breast, thigh...is low in salt, not high in fat and tastes pretty good. A nugget, which is ground up chicken, is very high in salt and fat. Same for veggies and fruit, grains and breads. Go for the least processed and you'll always score better nutritionally.
5. If you want dessert, eat it! Don't deprive yourself of a few goodies in life! Have you ever noticed that skinny people often have a sweet tooth? Watch them, they eat the pie, they just don't eat it all. They usually savor it though, eating slowly enjoying every single bite. How often have you scarfed that candy bar and then realized that later you don't even remember eating it? Make those goodies really count!
6. Plan your meals. Truly, if your meals are planned, you will be less likely to just grab something. If you know that when you get home from work today, the ingredients for tacos, chili, your favorite soup, meatloaf...is waiting for you to just get out of the pantry, or even better, get it out of the freezer or crockpot, how eager are you going to be to get back in the car and go out? I make my meal plans almost monthly. That way, I can shop a week in advance for the big stuff and just buy produce and fruit each week or so. Yes, I did this when I worked full time, in fact, it was more important then because I had less free time. I can also big, batch cook easier if I had a plan. (I'll go into this later)
7. If you can't resist it, don't keep it in the house! Enough said.
8. Never, never, never go without breakfast. Your body is like a woodstove and if you leave the house without stoking that fire (your metabolism) it will be sluggish all day! Get it roaring and burning those calories! My students always hated this one. My anatomy & physiology kids would roll their eyes but about half of them would begin to eat breakfast during the year and always tell me that it made them feel better! Some even reported losing weight even though they didn't do anything else. Eat something with a protein in it, that will keep you from being hungry.
I'll post more tomorrow!
Have a blessed day!
4. Eat things as close to they lived as possible. I know, this sounds gross, it used to really gross out my students too. But here's the deal, the more processed your food is, the more of the natural taste is taken out and the more fake taste is put in. That's why processed foods have a lot of salt in them. The manufacturers have to replace that natural stuff with something!
Take chicken. If you want chicken, go for a real piece of chicken, not a nugget. Exactly where is the nugget on the chicken anyway? A real piece of chicken, leg, breast, thigh...is low in salt, not high in fat and tastes pretty good. A nugget, which is ground up chicken, is very high in salt and fat. Same for veggies and fruit, grains and breads. Go for the least processed and you'll always score better nutritionally.
5. If you want dessert, eat it! Don't deprive yourself of a few goodies in life! Have you ever noticed that skinny people often have a sweet tooth? Watch them, they eat the pie, they just don't eat it all. They usually savor it though, eating slowly enjoying every single bite. How often have you scarfed that candy bar and then realized that later you don't even remember eating it? Make those goodies really count!
6. Plan your meals. Truly, if your meals are planned, you will be less likely to just grab something. If you know that when you get home from work today, the ingredients for tacos, chili, your favorite soup, meatloaf...is waiting for you to just get out of the pantry, or even better, get it out of the freezer or crockpot, how eager are you going to be to get back in the car and go out? I make my meal plans almost monthly. That way, I can shop a week in advance for the big stuff and just buy produce and fruit each week or so. Yes, I did this when I worked full time, in fact, it was more important then because I had less free time. I can also big, batch cook easier if I had a plan. (I'll go into this later)
7. If you can't resist it, don't keep it in the house! Enough said.
8. Never, never, never go without breakfast. Your body is like a woodstove and if you leave the house without stoking that fire (your metabolism) it will be sluggish all day! Get it roaring and burning those calories! My students always hated this one. My anatomy & physiology kids would roll their eyes but about half of them would begin to eat breakfast during the year and always tell me that it made them feel better! Some even reported losing weight even though they didn't do anything else. Eat something with a protein in it, that will keep you from being hungry.
I'll post more tomorrow!
Have a blessed day!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Chocolate should be a food group
I am a former science teacher so I know all about the food groups and proper diet but as a chocolate junkie, I have always struggled with the fact that chocolate was put in the fats category. The fat category should be reserved for yucky stuff which chocolate is clearly not! Plus, dark chocolate, my personal favorite has been found to have many health benefits. I don't know which federal agency spent the money to find that out but they could've just asked any woman at a certain time of the month! I'm sure a good piece of dark chocolate has kept me from committing murder both at school and at home!
If you stuggle with your weight and have set your new years resolution to get your eating habits under control this year, I have a few pointers that may help you. Remember, I'm not a doctor, I just used to play one at school! Everyone would bring their medical problems to me. I would cringe when someone would say, 'could you look at this and tell me what you think!' I would always say, see the doctor and tell your parents. I figured I couldn't get sued with that response! I also look at life with a little satirical humor, so don't get bent out of shape here...get in shape! Ha!
1. Do not eat standing up or in the car! We as a society tend to eat on the go, so we don't really taste our food. This quick eating fools our bodies into thinking that we really didn't eat. If you are really hungry, find a table to sit down at and eat.
2. Eat what your body craves. If all you really want is mashed potatoes, don't make fried chicken, corn and hot rolls. Just eat mashed potatoes. Ask a pediatrician, a two year old will eat what their body needs. That's why some days all they eat is corn, the next day meat. Get in touch with your body.
3. When your stomach is growling you are losing weight. I heard that on a talk show years ago and it completely changed my atitude about hunger. Americans think it is a bad thing when our stomachs growl. We rush to fill it with whatever we can find at the moment even if we really don't want it. Wait it out to see what you are really hungry for or eat something that once grew in the garden!
I'll post more tomorrow, I think those three are enough to think about today!
Remember to bless someone today, even if they don't know you did it!
If you stuggle with your weight and have set your new years resolution to get your eating habits under control this year, I have a few pointers that may help you. Remember, I'm not a doctor, I just used to play one at school! Everyone would bring their medical problems to me. I would cringe when someone would say, 'could you look at this and tell me what you think!' I would always say, see the doctor and tell your parents. I figured I couldn't get sued with that response! I also look at life with a little satirical humor, so don't get bent out of shape here...get in shape! Ha!
1. Do not eat standing up or in the car! We as a society tend to eat on the go, so we don't really taste our food. This quick eating fools our bodies into thinking that we really didn't eat. If you are really hungry, find a table to sit down at and eat.
2. Eat what your body craves. If all you really want is mashed potatoes, don't make fried chicken, corn and hot rolls. Just eat mashed potatoes. Ask a pediatrician, a two year old will eat what their body needs. That's why some days all they eat is corn, the next day meat. Get in touch with your body.
3. When your stomach is growling you are losing weight. I heard that on a talk show years ago and it completely changed my atitude about hunger. Americans think it is a bad thing when our stomachs growl. We rush to fill it with whatever we can find at the moment even if we really don't want it. Wait it out to see what you are really hungry for or eat something that once grew in the garden!
I'll post more tomorrow, I think those three are enough to think about today!
Remember to bless someone today, even if they don't know you did it!
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