When I'm hungry I eat - Meltshroom Sandwich

I eat a lot of food. When I'm hungry I eat. This is my favorite lunch when tomatoes are in season. The sandwich is only 200 calories and 7.3 grams of fat- because of the cheese.
I've tried the starvation way of dieting and it's not for me. I get too grumpy when I can't eat.

Meltshroom Sandwich
2 medium mushrooms sliced
2 thin slices onion
2 TB shredded mozzarella cheese
1 medium tomato sliced
1/4 cup alfalfa sprouts
2 slices 9 grain or whole wheat bread
1 TB lite Miracle Whip

Toast bread and spread with lite Miracle Whip. Layer the mushrooms, onion and cheese on both slices bread. Broil for 2-3 minutes until cheese is melted. Top with sliced tomato and sprouts. (I season it with Mrs. Dash).
Makes one open face sandwich.
My bread only has 50 calories and 1/2 a gram of fat per slice. So even with the grapes and strawberries, it's under 300 calories.

Random Food Journal 9/29/10

Breakfast:
Steel Cut Oats mixed with 1 apple chopped, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1/4 cup raisins & cinnamon. 1/3 cup cranberry juice. DoTerra Wellness Supplements (400 calories 3.6 fat grams)
Lunch:
Bajio lime chicken enchilada, 1 cup sweet rice, 1/4 cup black beans, water (576 calories 8.8 fat grams)
Snack: 2 homemade granola bars * (210 calories, 8.8 fat grams)
Dinner:
1 cup pasta alfredo made with skim milk , 3/4 cup steamed squash, broccoli & carrots, 1 small tomato, 2/3 cup (packed) raw spinach, 4 strawberries, 1/2 TB Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette (368 calories 8.4 fat grams)
Snack #2: 2 more granola bars, a small banana (300 calories, 9.1 fat grams)
Grand Total: 1854 calories 38.6 fat grams
2.5 mile run, 10 minutes of upper body weights
Today wasn't one of my good days. I went a little overboard with the granola bars and Bajio. I usually try to eat more fruits and veggies than I did today. I used Prevention.com's health tracker to calculate everything. If my totals don't match up, just know that the Grand Total is correct. I'll do better tomorrow!
* Follow the link to "A Life Less Sweet" for the recipe for the homemade granola bars.

21 Year Reunion

You know what's a real bummer? I lost the weight AFTER my 20 year high school reunion. Can we have a 21 Year Reunion? Cause now I'm ready.

Beans are your friend

I was watching a web broadcast by Dr. Fuhrman yesterday. He's the one who wrote the book Eat to Live that really inspired me to change what I eat. I was thinking that the reason that more people don't eat like he does is because eating the nutritarian way is just too big of a change to make all at once like he suggests. The way he eats really makes sense, but eating is more than just what we put in our mouths. We have traditions that revolve around food. We eat certain things out of habit. We eat because it makes us feel good, etc. To change our diet completely would be like moving to another country and culture. In the web broadcast Dr. Fuhrman said that to be healthy, everyone should make sure the following 6 things were in their diet daily.
1/2 cup beans
3 fresh fruits
1 oz raw nuts and seeds
1 large salad
1 large serving steamed green vegetables
some mushrooms or onions every day
Even these 6 things would be a huge change for some people, so I was thinking what if you just chose one of these things to add to your diet for a week or 2 and then pick another to work on.
Just a thought. So my goal this week is to add more beans. Beans are good real food.  You just have to find some that you like. Today I chose garbanzo. I had leftover stir-fry in my fridge, so for lunch today I threw 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans in the stir-fry and heated it up. And it was yummy. I also bought that bean soup mix that I always see. You just add water and whatever else vegetable-ish that you want to throw in. Has anyone ever tried it?
Beans are fiber and nutrient packed and actually contain a wider variety of healthy nutrients than most foods. These include calcium, potassium, vitamin B6, magnesium, folate, and alpha-linolenic acid. They also have anti-cancer benefits against breast and prostate cancers.

Motivation from my Google Reader

Sites I follow that motivate and inspire me to eat right or get moving!
Trainer Momma  Mandi is a certified personal trainer and certified nutrition and wellness consultant.  She posts workouts, recipes, giveaways, and answers questions from readers.  She also posts really helpful videos demonstrating how to do different exercises.
Super Healthy Kids Amy is all about teaching kids healthy eating habits. She posts weekly kid friendly menus along with recipes, tips and ideas for raising Super Healthy Kids.  Oh, and she has some great giveaways! 
Disease Proof.com  Dr. Joel Fuhrman is the author of Eat to Live and Eat For Health. Disease Proof is his blog. It's a forum to promote discussion on diet, fitness, health and green living.

Another site that I visit from time to time is Prevention.com. 
Health Tracker  I use the Health Tracker on Prevention.com to get an idea of how many calories I'm actually eating and burning off with different types of exercise. I can also track my weight and measurements.  It has all kinds of reports and graphs you can use to track your progress.  It will also tell you if you're getting the RDA of vitamins and minerals and all that fun stuff.

If I don't want it, it's not Willpower

 A friend of mine recently commented that she admired my willpower.  I thought that was so strange. I don't have any more willpower than any one else.  What I do have now that I didn't before is Knowledge.  I've tried the weight loss thing for years with zero results, until last year when it finally clicked.  Now that I know the Why and the Why Not behind my eating and exercise choices, it's simple. No willpower required.

Here are some of the books that have really helped me:

The Culprit and the Cure:Why Lifestyle is the Culprit Behind America's Poor Health by Steven Aldana. Once you understand why your current lifestyle is causing poor health and see what is meant by good nutrition and physical activity, you will be more ready to change your behaviors.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan He talks about the Western diet and its detrimental effects on our bodies and culture.  We're overfed and under nourished!

Eat To Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman  This will educate you on why you on the importance of eating vegetables, fruit, and beans and contains a 6 week plan to lose weight quickly eating plenty of real food.  Eat For Health: Lose Weight, Keep it Off, Look Younger, Live Longer by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  This is a 2 book set and is similar to Eat To Live except that it gradually eases you into Dr. Fuhrman's nutritarian lifestyle in phases. It's also about losing weight, but more about becoming healthy and preventing and reversing diseases caused by the Standard American Diet. (Diabetes, Heart Disease, etc.) The second book in the set contains recipes.  I haven't used many of them because the ingredients aren't simple common ingredients, at least where I live. But I'd still recommend reading it. 

Mormon Wisdom and Health by Kenneth E. Johnson, MD  This book is out of print, but it's a good one if you can find it. It contains scientific evidence that backs up the Mormon "Word of Wisdom" health guidelines.

Conspiracy Theory and a Size 4

I stopped off at Old Navy's clearance rack the other day to look for jeans.  First, I need to say that I don't remember ever buying a size 4 in my life.  And I have to admit that I was a little giddy when they actually fit.  But then I became suspicious. This can't be right. "Old Navy has realized that it if they tag things smaller than they are,  people would buy them because it's good for self esteem! :) I've discovered their marketing strategy." Vanity sizing!  So I tried on a pair of shorts and a pair of capris in the same size. And they fit.  And I bought them all.  It worked on me.

Green Smoothie

Green Smoothie #1
serving size: 16 oz

1 cup packed baby spinach
1 cup frozen peaches
1/6 cup almond milk or skim milk (1/6 is half of one third cup)
1/3 cup orange juice OR 1 medium orange, peeled of course
1/3 cup Dannon All Natural Vanilla Yogurt
1 small carrot peeled & chopped.  Optional. You might as well add it. It doesn't change the flavor.

Put everything in the blender, frozen peaches on top. Blend & Enjoy.

Green Smoothie #2 (My healthier version!)
serving size: 18 oz

1 cup packed baby spinach
1 kale leaf
1 small carrot peeled and chopped into a few pieces
1 small apple cored and cut into a few pieces
1 cup Mixed Frozen Fruit or Berries *(Sam's club has a mix of peaches, mangoes, pineapples & strawberries)
1/6 cup almond milk
1/3 cup OJ or a small orange


Put everything in the blender, frozen fruit on top.  Blend and enjoy. If you don't have a BlendTec or a Vitamix, you'll want to use more liquid and chop the carrot and apple before blending.
It also blends better if you blend everything but the frozen stuff first and then add the frozen.

 Don't let the color of this smoothie scare you.  It turns out brownish purple because of the berries, but it's good.   I drink one of these smoothies every day. Sometime I'll do a kiwi instead of an apple.
If you're feeling brave:  I've also added 1/4 avocado or 1/4 small beet to this smoothie.

Random Food Journal

Breakfast: 1/4 cup (dry) Steel Cut Oats made with water and with 1 small apple chopped, 1/4 cup blueberries, 1/4 cup raisins, cinnamon. 1/3 cup cranberry juice.

Workout: 1 hour Zumba
Snack: Water, banana
Lunch: 3/4cup Rice and Bean Salad, 1 tomato, small carrot,water

Dinner: Green Smoothie, 1 egg scrambled, 1 tomato, 3/4 cup mixed veggies. Slice whole wheat chocolate chip zucchini bread. Water
Snack: Another slice zucchini bread. (Substituted most of the oil with applesauce, used whole wheat flour).
Weigh in:  128.0
For links to these recipes and more go to my Healthy Recipes page.

Healthify-ing Dinner

Tonight I made pizza for dinner.  Here's what I did to make it a more healthy meal.
* Homemade Whole Wheat Crust. I usually grind my own whole wheat flour but you don't have to.  Grinding your own is cheaper and healthier. Whole wheat flour loses it's nutrition if it sits longer than 6 months.
* Instead of using canned pizza sauce which is spendy and not so healthy, I used a can of tomato sauce, added a sprinkle of sugar and some Italian seasoning.  Most canned pizza/spaghetti sauce contains HFCS which I try to avoid.
* Use turkey pepperoni.  It tastes the same, but has much less fat.
* Add veggies for your toppings.  Tonight we had yellow squash, zucchini, and mushrooms.  Also good:  fresh spinach, garden tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and pineapple.
* Go easy on the cheese.  If you cut back gradually, you won't notice when you use less cheese. Or skip it all together.

The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule is something else that was helpful to me when I decided I was going to get healthy.  I'm a bit of  a perfectionist which carries over to my eating.  If I decide I'm going to eat healthy and then I go ahead and have a piece of cheese cake at book club, then I feel like I've failed.  The 80/20 rule tells me that if I eat good things 80% of the time, then it's ok not to 20% of the time.
I have to admit that at this point, I'm more of a 90/10 sort of gal, but that came later.  Anyway, this worked great for me. I'd eat mostly healthy food all week, and then I could feel OK about going out for Mexican food on Saturday night.  This also helped me cut down on the pop.  Coke was a hard thing for me to give up. If I told myself that I'd never drink another Coke, of course I'd want one immediately.  So instead I'd have one a week.  Some foods just need a coke to go with them (think Pizza and Bajio).  So at first I drank pop, but much less than usual.  The more I read and learned, the less I craved it. It's now been months since I've had a pop.  And I'm OK with that.

Here's The Secret

I read somewhere that you shouldn't eat anything your grandmother (or maybe we should say great-grandmother) wouldn't recognize as food. What!? No fruit snacks, Nutrasweet, Gogurt or soda pop?  No dino nuggets, fast food, corn dogs or Budget Gourmet dinners?  That's right folks.  Our bodies were designed to eat real food.
So bring on the fruits, veggies, whole grain breads and beans. Bring on the grass-fed beef and the farm fresh eggs.  That was my first step toward healthy eating.