So, What...I love food, always have and always will.....

...that doesn't mean my tastes haven't been changing and I love more and more healthy foods!

I was thinking about some of the things that I *love* to eat right now.

I pretty much eat all of these, except obviously the Chobani, in their natural state, not doused in anything, topped with anything, or dipped in anything...yay me!

I just cut them in half
and eat them right out
of the "shell"

I love blueberries alone,
they are awesome in Chobani!

Nom Nom Cukes

strawberries



Pistachios


 Of course I still love chocolate, cookies, pizza, tacos, ice cream, cheese, bagels, etc....but I don't crave them like they are the only satisfying savory food anymore.  Yay eating healthier! 

Funny story, I realized, because of one situation or another I had pizza on Friday, twice on Saturday, and on Monday....crazy, eh? But I didn't eat too much of it, or go over my calorie limit, I just ate a lot of pizza.

On Friday night I made it homemade (per my blog), on Saturday morning we made it and had samples during our cooking class, on Saturday night my friends served it for our movie night, and last night, Monday night, it was late, we were tired, and due to lack of planning (whoops) we got delivery. But all is well and good, I managed the cals!

Mmmm, pizza.

One Step, One Breath Priorfatgirl Summer Event

This weekend I joined some familiar faces, made some new friends and learned lots of new ways to think about the mental and physical aspects of my healthiness journey. Jen, of Priorfatgirl hosted this awesome and fun event!

We all met at The Beat Coffeehouse at 8am on Saturday morning, uffdah early, good thing they have wonderful coffee!

The first speaker was Mary Sailors of Fit this, girl! She's a Personal Trainer, Bootcamp Instructor and a Kettlebell instructor and super nice and easy to follow.  She gave us a presentation about how to focus on your goal, what to think about mentally, physically, food wise, and environment wise. She showed us exercises that anyone can do at home with a band, too!

Mary Sailor, Fit This, Girl!

Lets Squat!

Kris @krisgetshealthy.com and Ann @twelve-in-twelve.com

Ann working on resistance band moves

Jen @priorfatgirl.com
pulling those bands!

Yay Jen!

Kris and Ann listening attentively to instructions

Kris's turn!

Work it Kris!

Jen talked about how much relationships can change, can be lost, and new ones can be built as we change our minds and our bodies to become healthier. Our lives, our environment, the people we want around us, the people that can accept our new lifestyle may change who we surround ourselves with and who chooses to stick with us.  She said that 80% of marriages where one spouse loses a significant amount of weight end in divorce...so its important to compromise and to keep lines of communication open!

Jen





Doing her thing






















After meeting a the coffeehouse, we ventured to our 2nd half of the day, which was a cooking class on Healthy Comfort Foods by KitchenWerks.

We learned how to make:

Spaghetti sauce served on romaine or wilted broccoli slaw
(as pasta substitutes)



Topping off the mac 'n cheese with breadcrumbs



mmm organic, gluten free and appropriate portioned
mac 'n cheese

Coconut chicken strips, they are coated in
a flax crumb topping and baked on a sheet
with coconut oil, SOO GOOD!

Pizza made on Joseph's Lavash or Arnold's Sandwich Thins
We used the homemade sauce or olive oil as the base



Jen putting together what she claims was the "best" pizza















I had such a wonderful time catching up, networking, learning new things, tasting new things (you betcha I'm going to serve pasta sauce on wilted broccoli slaw now!)  Plus a healthier recipe for mac 'n cheese and chicken strips, yum nom nom nom!

Made me feel healthy and accomplished all weekend.

P.S.
On Sunday I also ran outside for another 25 minutes w/ a 5 min warmup, yay me!

Homemade Pizza!

It's date night and I made homemade pizza for the first time and then we are going to the movies!

I love Friday!

Thursday - Things I Eat

All I really want to talk about today is this awesome salad that I made for my lunch today and I've been thinking about it all morning. My personal trainer asked me to cut out as many processed things as I could, and she agrees I can do it slowly as I run out of stuff in the kitchen. So, I officially ran out of sandwich deli meat last week,  this weekend I baked 6 chicken breasts. I then prepped them for lunches this week, two I left whole, two I cut into strips, and two I diced up! 

I used the diced up chicken to make a sweet salad for today...mmmm!

Yum, right?

This is 4 ozs of chopped up chicken breast
20 g of Craisins
1/4 of cucumber diced
1 diced up Braeburn apple
1 TBS Miracle Whip Light

According to MyFitnessPal this is approx 293 calories! Whee!

I was also thinking I could have used cottage cheese or mandarin organges and the juice to bind it together, but I didn't have those in the kitchen today.

Does anyone have any comments about my prepping to run 20 minutes this weeked in my post about running?

Tell me a salad you like! Especially if I can prep it the night before work and perhaps I can avoid dressing by using juicy ingredients!

Recovered from vacation, running, treats?

Yay! I weighed myself this morning and its not an official weigh day yet (Fridays) and I'm back to my pre-vacation weight! w00t!  I still have two days to get to *this weeks* weight loss, so I'm pretty sure I'll post a loss of new weight..(well new within the last few years, hehe). I'm so glad I can make up for a vacation gain in about a week, that makes me feel more confident going forward about maintaining and vacations.

The app/website I use for food tracking is My Fitness Pal and according to the program's predictions I will be down another 5 lbs within the next 5 weeks if I keep eating the same, so I'm happy with that! That means in about 9 weeks I should be in a new decade, which makes me feel even better!

As I've mentioned before I do the Couch 2 5K program...but I'm actually using the ipod version that was done a few years ago. I do the one from http://www.ullreys.com/robert/Podcasts/ on my ipod. I'm on week 5, which started with three 5 minute runs, then two 8 minute runs, and then Friday or Saturday I will do my first continuous 20 minute run. I'm really nervous.

Does anyone have any tips about this? I think I can make it 10 minutes as I can do 8 and still have a bit of oomph left in my legs, but 8 minutes bumped up to 20....how much should I slow down? Or should I not? Hoo boy, I'm nervous!

Treats treats treats, I like treats!

I would NOT be able to keep on my healthiness journey if I didn't have treats, I would fail within days, I can go a couple days without a treat, but if I don't have something sweet, most likely chocoately after a few days I want to eat everything on the planet until I get it!

Yesterday I succumbed to a Snickers bar, but I actually had the calories for it and it was a workout day so I lifted weights and ran on the treadmill shortly after eating it.  I wish I was more prepared though, I bet a Dove dark chocolate square or a mini candy bar would have sufficed, but I didn't have time to leave my floor at work and I had nothing in my desk! 

What should I keep at my desk? (I don't have a lot of cravings, so I wouldn't just mindlessly eat stuff, so don't worry about that!)

I won the Kris gets healthy birthday contest on her blog, I am gonna get a bunch of sweet stuff, I'll tell you all about it when I get it from her, I'm sure we'll just meet up since I'm lucky enough to live in the same town! :) Thanks again Kris!

Celebrating a Year With My Love

Today I have been dating my boyfriend for a year. We dated on and off and were friends before that, we've know each other about 3 years. But a year ago, we decided to commit and there have been lots of ups and downs, learning more about how we push and then to not push each others buttons.  He is a huge source of love and support for me. He's helped me be an advocate for myself in the realms of mental and physical health, I've helped him expand his horizons when it comes to trying new foods and living a healthy lifestyle. We are good for each other and I'm so happy to have him in my life, love you baby!

Okay on to the non-mushy stuff!  We are lucky that its Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine Restaurant Week:Summer 2011 here in the twin cities and we were able to celebrate at a yummy restaurant Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for a nice prix fixe evening!

We were greeted warmly by the host stand, our waitress Lynn was off the charts with descriptions, recommendations and banter, if you go, ask for her section!

We chose filet mignon, shrimp, garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans for our dinner. We both also got our choice of salad, Ryan and Caesar I had steakhouse, and we also purchased a bottle of wine (not part of the restaurant week, but we were celebrating!)    When Ryan received the bill for dinner, our waitress had written "Happy Anniversary!" on the bill and she didn't charge for the wine! What a nice thing for Ruth's Chris to do to help us celebrate!

Here is a little photo review of dinner: