What are your goals?

Do you tell other people what your health and fitness goals are? Studies have shown that sharing your goals and intentions with others will help to keep you on track. Too many of us start a program or diet on our own without letting anyone know. Why do we do that? Because when we fail, we are the only ones that will know. Telling friends and colleagues about your fitness aspirations will help keep you honest and working hard!

I thought I'd share with you my summer goals to keep me honest and working hard!

I don't want to set any goals to get down to a certain weight. The scale doesn't always tell the whole truth! Rather, I'd lke to fit into all of my shorts that I have from the summer BEFORE I was pregnant with Ellie. Size 6! This will mean that I will need to continue eating clean and consuming less calories per day than my body is burning. Cardio sessions three times a week along with weight lifting three times a week.

My hopes are to reach this goal by July 4th.

Tosca Reno on Miami Morning show

This woman knows what's up. When I grow up I want to be like her!

 

Health Nut or Healthy Nut?

So, my brother came over this weekend and while he was drunk and I forgive him for talking sh!t, some of his comments made me wonder.....

Am I a health nut or a healthy nut?


I suppose there are extremists wherever there are beliefs. I believe that a healthy lifestyle is very important but I don't want anyone to think that I am forcing my lifestyle on to others or judging the person that is eating the bacon double cheeseburger with extra mayo. I think that what I am doing is the best for ME and MY family. Although, I think there have been plenty of studies that show that a healthy diet and exercise is something that is great for most people and I would love to see more people subscribe to the same belief, however, I know we are in America and I know that the bacon double cheeseburger isn't going to be pulled from menus anytime soon.

That said....Stop eating bacon double cheeseburgers, they make you fat.

Lex.

Sample Meals

I have been asked to compile a list of what I eat. I mapped out a couple of days, however, I urge anyone that is thinking about starting a clean eating lifestyle to get Tosca Reno's books. There are tons of recipes and cooking tips in her books.

Monday:
Breakfast:
scrambled egg whites, 1/2 slice of cheddar cheese made with 2% milk, 2 slices of canadian bacon, 1 slice of Ezekiel bread

Midmorning meal:
2 protein pancakes (see receipe in a post a few days ago)
2 wedges of homemade yogurt cheese (or use a laughing cow light)

Lunch:
Flatout Flat Bread, Arugula, Chicken Breast, roasted red pepper hummus

Mid afternoon meal:
fresh veggies dipped in 0% Fage (non-fat greek yogurt)

Dinner:
Bison Burger on whole wheat bun, sliced tomato, lettuce, and onion

Dessert:
1 Tablespoon Almond Butter (I like it right off the spoon, or you can spread it on a couple of apple slices)

Tuesday:
Breakfast:
Powershake--1 cup blueberries, 1 cup spinach, 1 scoop vanilla whey, 4oz of natural fruit juice of your choosing, 4oz of water. Blend.

Midmorning:
2 slices of turkey breast lunch meat. I swear that Costco has the best Honey Roasted Turkey Breast (all natural). 60 calories per slice and a whopping 9 grams of protein in each.
1 piece of Ezekiel bread

Lunch:
Flatout Pizza: 1 Flatout Flatbread, 1/4 cup of organic pizza sauce, mozzerella cheese made with skim and 2% milk, lots of veggies of your choosing. I like spinach, mushrooms, onion, artichoke, and green pepper. Add a slice or two of canadian bacon.

Midafternoon
Muscle Milk Light (chocolate). I don't make these a regular part of my diet, however, these are great for when you are on the run or in meetings, like I often am.

Dinner:
Steamed veggies, 1/2 of a large sweet potato, fish.

Dessert: Greek yogurt and fresh (or frozen-no sugar added) strawberries.

Setbacks

No matter how determined you are, there are bound to be set backs that you are faced with...some that you can control, others that you cannot.

I had my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday. Because of this, my diet was pretty limited to soft foods. I could have chose soft foods that were clean, however, ice cream sounded SO good. The pain medication I was on really limited my physical activity yesterday as well. By limited, I mean that I was in bed ALL day. Just me and my ice cream.

Here it is, Sunday. I am back on track and ready to start the week of right. Started the day with a 3 mile run, 50 burpees, and 5 minutes of jumping rope. Today is John's 40th birthday and we are having a few family members over for a small BBQ. Lots of good clean foods on the menu. Oh, and cake. I suppose that I have to have a piece, afterall, it is my husband's birthday.

:)

High Energy Protein Pancakes

What you'll need to get started:

1 cup of fat free cottage cheese
1 cup of egg whites
1.5 cups of Oatmeal

Throw 'em in the blender!


Pour 'em onto a hot griddle (350 degrees)

Cook 'em like regular pancakes and they'll look like regular pancakes. Makes about 8pancakes.


These pancakes will be a bit more dense than other pancakes that you are used to. A serving will be about 2 of these 3"-4" pancakes. Top them with a sugar free syrup, fresh fruit, apple butter, spreadable lowfat cheese, or my favorite, a nut butter. Just remember, if you are using a cheese or nut butter, to use it sparingly.


These pancakes pack a powerful energy punch by giving you:
228 Calories, 1.4 grams of fat, 0 saturated fat, 29 carbs, and 26 grams of protein.

A great way to start the day!

Breakfast

Which would you choose?
#1

OR #2(Ignore the crappy photography for a minute while making this choice)


Here is what you'll get with #1:
450 Calories, 27 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 920 grams of sodium, 10g of carbs, 2g of fiber, 21g of Protein

Here is what you'll get with #2
256 Calories, 6.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 125g of sodium, 16g carbs,
3g of fiber, 35g of protein.

I chose #2 this morning. What good choices will you make today?

Adobo Pork Tenderloin

What's for dinner??

CALORIES: 572
FAT: 17 g
CARB: 45 g
PROTEIN: 62 g
NUTRIENTS PER 488g SERVING:


INGREDIENTS:
For the pork:
• 6 tbsp paprika
• 2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 pinches cayenne pepper
• 24 oz pork tenderloin, trimmed, cut into 3- or 4-oz pieces
• ½ cup arugula, loosely packed
For the Pico de Gallo:
• 2 cups black beans, cooked
• 4 medium tomatoes, diced
• ½ cup red onion, diced
• ½ cup green onion, chopped
• ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 tbsp jalapeno pepper, minced
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chili powder

For the pork:
Heat oven to 350ºF. Mix paprika, black pepper, salt, chili powder, brown sugar and cayenne pepper in a bowl. Rub
both sides of each piece of pork with spice mixture thoroughly. Heat an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat
and pan-sear each piece of pork on both sides until golden brown. (Pan-searing seals in the meat’s juices.) Transfer
pan to oven until pork is completely done, about 6 to 8 minutes for each inch of thickness.


For the Pico de Gallo:
Combine all ingredients.
Garnish plates with arugula, add pork in equal portions and sprinkle ½
cup Pico de Gallo on top. Serves 4.

Yum.

Diet Fads

I remember my first bottle of Metabolife. I think I was 15ish. My mom bought them! We both started to take these miracle pills loaded with what later would be labeled as a dangerous, heart attack inducing drug, ephedrine.


America is so obsessed with weight and being thin that the cornerstone of what gets you there AND keeps you there is thrown out the window: Health!!

Believe me, we all want to be and look the best we can and as quickly as we can, however, there are certain rewards to be reaped from doing it the old fashioned way through proper nutrition and exercise.

Many of the rewards can't be seen but they can be measured. Lower cholesterol and blood pressure are just a couple of those rewards. Treat your inside to the same attention you give to your outside. Manicures, pedicures, nice make-up, wrinkle creams, expensive shampoos and hair potions to achieve shiny and healthy hair.


Changing your diet and consuming the right amounts of healthy fats and oils can save you a lot of money on these beauty products.


They work from the inside out...giving your skin, hair, and nails a healthy glow and appearance that we pay hundreds for at the salon. In fact, take a look at a few of your products labels and many of them contain these oils.

Aside from the benefits mentioned above, the reward of knowing that you accompished a healthy-self without cheating and without taking any shortcuts is one that feels better than any quick (and usually temporary) result brought to you by a pill or fad diet.

Alexia.

Weekend Deliciousness

For the most part, this weekend was gorgeous! On Friday, I decided to make stuffed peppers for dinner. I had a few peppers that I needed to use and thought that stuffed peppers would be a great clean meal for me and my family. I also decided that being a pescatarian wasn't for me. My diet is too protein heavy for me to keep my food interesting enough for me to not consider other meats.

First, I started with the peppers. I cut them in half and took the seeds out. I then threw them in a pot of cold water and put them on the stove until the water came to a boil. This helped to soften their texture a bit so that the baby could enjoy it as well.

In the meantime, I preheated the over to 350 and started my filling. My filling consisted of ground turkey (I used 93% lean and drained all of the fat), spaghetti sauce (be sure to check the sugar content on any prepackaged pasta sauce. I used Classico Tomato Basil and it had no added sugar.), spinach, garlic, and quinoa. The quinoa was made earlier in the week for use throughout the week.

Once the peppers reached a boil, I rinsed them with cold water so that they were easier to handle and stuffed them with the mixture. I topped them with mozzarella cheese made with 2% milk (lower fat content)

And then we ate. And it was very delicious. By the way, excuse my very amateur photos. I am not doing this blog to show off my photography skills, or lack of. :)


On to Saturday. Saturday was a good day. It was my last BFL workout for this challenge and I swam! It was great! On to dinner. The night before, John and I were watching Jamie Oliver serve Bison burgers. In my clean eating books, I had heard quite a bit about bison and how lean the meat is. It was time to try it! We headed out to Czimer's game meat market. At 6.99 a pound we bought a few packages of frozen burgers. We seasoned them with a bit of sea salt and some ground pepper and threw those babies on the grill. In the meantime, I prepared some asparagus using a tbs of olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper. I also made an arugula, tomato, basil and 2% mozzarella salad with Trader Joe's Fat Free Balsamic dressing (This is by far the best fat free balsamic you can buy). I actually topped my burger with this salad inside of a whole wheat bun. Once I had remembered to take a picture, it was almost too late....


Bison tasted a lot like beef, only leaner and fresher. If that makes any sense. At 6.99 a pound, I don't think it is going to become a staple, however, when I am craving a burger, I Bison does the job! Did you know that Wrigley Field now sells Bison Burgers?

Cheat Meals

I have a love hate relationship with them. I had a cheat meal last night, took the family out to Greektown to celebrate my Dad's birthday. I didn't over do it, I just feel like crap today! I didn't sleep well last night. I was up every hour chugging water. I enjoyed the food though, but will really enjoy eating clean today.

Body for Life Results

Such a happy day! Today marked the end of challenge #1. Here is what I achieved in 12 weeks on this program:

1. Lost 26 lbs
2. Took body fat from 33% to 28.5%
3. Lost 12" overall, 6" from my waist
4. My hair and skin look better than ever
5. I quit smoking (1/1/2010)
6. I went from a TIGHT 12 to an 8.

I am very proud of myself. I treated myself to a couple pairs of pants yesterday, just to get me through these next few weeks before I drop again. When I was in the fitting room yesterday with my new pants, I had a "moment". My eyes welled up and I was the happiest I have been in a long time. I actually liked what I saw. I haven't felt this way in years. I know I am on my way to great things.

My goals for the near future are:

1. To lose 20 more pounds, although, I am not going to be very fixated on the number.
2. Ideally, I want to fit a few pairs of size 4s that are still in my closet circa 2004.
3. Reduce body fat to under 24%.

I would like to accompish this by Mid-August. I will start a loose exercise program tomorrow. By loose, I mean that it doesn't matter what I do, as long as I workout 6x per week and incorporate 3x per week of weights. I can do a FIRM DVD, I can go to the gym and do the treadmill for an hour, I can jog the trail near our home, I can swim, I can go and do abs, biceps, and triceps, etc. Whatever I feel like doing.

Starting May 17th, I will start my 2nd BFL challenge.

All the while, I will keep up my clean eating and finding anyway to burn an extra calorie. Stairs, walking instead of driving, playing with my daughter at the park....these are all ways to get MORE out of my day.

Lots of cooking done this weekend. A few new recipes that I will share with you next week.

Stay tuned!

Body for Life

Many of you know that I am nearing the completion of my first Body for Life (BFL) challenge. The first twelve week challenge ends tomorrow. I can't wait to take my measurements and I am actually looking forward to taking my after pictures. Don't get me wrong, I am sure I won't be too thrilled with my body yet, but to put them up next to my before pictures will feel fabulous. I will post my complete BFL results on Sunday morning when measurements and body fat are calculated.

I am pretty impressed with the BFL program. I think that it is a great starting point for beginners or for those that fell off the exercise wagon and need help getting back on. This program can also be tailored for the advanced as well. The program is very regimented and specifically laid out for you in the book or on the website, www.bodyforlife.com, which is good because you don't have to think too much about what you are doing. You just do it. And you follow the rules. A big part of BFL is clean eating. The cheat day that you are allowed on the BFL program really helps give you something to look forward to. Now that I am about done and have been reading more and more about clean eating, I think that the cheat day is a bit excessive and a cheat meal would yield even better results. However, like I said, I think this plan is a great way to get started. One cheat day per week is better than 7 so I strongly urge those that are trying to get into shape to try this program. What I have learned is that when you start seeing results, which for me were almost immediate, you don't want to have a whole day to eat whatever you want. In fact, it might make you sick.

My plan for the near future is to take a week off from exercise completely starting Sunday. This is going to be hard for me, however, I am nursing a muscle in/near my hip back to health.

Once my week of rest is behind me, I am going back to my FIRM DVDs for 1 month. I may alternate a few days with a day of cardio at the gym here and there or running the 5K trail a few blocks from my home but, for the most part, I intend to get up daily at 4:15am and pop in a DVD. The reason why I am doing this instead of entering another BFL challenge right away is because I get bored quickly. I am in need of changing it up a bit. I think in about a month, I will really miss the gym workouts. And then another BFL challenge will begin.

As far as food goes for this next month, I plan on eating clean the entire month, allowing for 2 cheat meals the entire month. I already have these days planned as there are events that are taking place which might make eating clean difficult.

Results from BFL to be posted this weekend.....stay tuned!

Temptations

Just so you all know, I am still tempted, almost every day, to eat something I shouldn't! It isn't easy, this lifestyle! I am here just to help make it more enjoyable by offering up suggestions and motivation.

For example, this is in the office fridge right now. Red Velvet Cheesecake. It is sitting right next to my cottage cheese, eggwhite, and oatmeal pancakes.

vs.


I am not trying to convince anyone that my pancakes taste better. I am suggesting that the goals we set for ourselves be moved to the part of the brain that blocks the receptor that says "mmmm, cheesecake". I am not fully there yet myself, however, knowing that I am going shopping for new size 8s this weekend, is helping.

Love.

Addiction Replacement

Booze, drugs, food, cigarettes, shopping, sex.....these are all words that come to my mind when I hear the word addiction. What words come to your mind?

It took me a while to admit it, but I am an addict. I was addicted to cigarettes, binge drinking, and food. In 2009, at least two days of the week would include a bottle of wine, a pack of smokes, and a pizza. I knew what I was doing was unhealthy, but I didn't care. The gratification and "high" I'd get from that combination was enough to keep me doing it, no matter what the consequence.

I would tell myself, usually after I drank half of the bottle of wine, that this was the last day I was going to do this to my body, I'd finish up the pack of smokes and be done, and I'd start working out....tomorrow. Tomorrow was always the day I was going to quit. Yet I saw a few years of tomorrows go by and the only thing that changed was my health. I was overweight, depressed, tired all the time, and my hair and skin looked like crap.

I am not sure what finally made me decide to change things. I think that turning 30 and the thought of getting old hit me pretty hard. Even when I did decide to adopt a healthy lifestyle in January of 2010, I was still scared. What was I going to do to handle stress if I was giving up my wine, cigs, and pizza ritual!?!?

But I fought through the cravings and combated them with exercise. As the days and weeks passed, I was thinking less and less about the vices that plagued me just a short while ago. I was thinking more and more about working out and eating right and getting my family on board with some of my lifestyle changes.

It was then I realized that I replaced my addiction. When you hear the word addiction, so many things come to mind as I mentioned when I opened today's post. But why can't health and fitness be on that list. It's on mine.

Hello, my name is Alexia, and I am a health-aholic.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

They weren't kidding. I can't tell you how many years I thought I was doing my body good by skipping breakfast. Those were the years that I actually gained weight and became an unhealthy 180 lbs. So, in honor of breakfast, I will share with you what mine consisted of today, but before I do, I must say to you the same thing I tell my children. DO NOT SAY "GROSS" UNTIL YOU HAVE TRIED IT. After a very exhausting upper body workout this morning I gathered my ingredients:

Pineapple chunks, flax seeds (which I ground), ice cubes (not pictured), spinach, and light vanilla whey.

I am sure that most of you are thinking this is gross. I ask you why? Because it is green? You can't even taste the spinach. I used about 5 chunks of cut pineapple, about 15 ice cubes, 1 level scoop of protein, 1 tbs of ground flax seed, and 1/2 cup of spinach. Talk about energy! This shake really gets you movin!


My suggestion is to get a good portion of your days energy from breakfast. Remember, energy=calories. My breakfast is usually the meal with the highest number of calories for the day. That really helps start my day out right. If you are looking for a way to document your calorie sources, I highly recommend fitday.com. There aren't a ton of bells and whistles on this site, it is very user friendly, you can add and save many custom foods and there are also thousands of foods to select from their database. I really don't count calories too much anymore, but I do like to see the breakdown of where I am getting my calories from. This site can track that for you.

Clean eating in the office

Yes! It's true! You do not need to be Suzy Homemaker or have a personal chef to eat clean, delicious meals everyday. Today, for example, I am at work for, hmmm, probably 15 hours. I still have been able to get my 5 daily clean meals in though, without a problem. The key to this is proper planning. I begin to plan my week ahead on Saturday night. Not only do I map out my exercise routines in my head, I also plan my meals. After the kids are in bed and I have a little time to myself, I think about what I have in the fridge and/or freezer and what type of meals I want to cook for myself and my family for the next week. I sometimes will pull out a recipe book or my latest Oxygen magazine to find inspiration. I then make sure that I have the time on Sunday to pick up whatever it is I need and cook a few things in preparation for the week ahead. I ate most of my meals at work today, which is not fun, but it is still tasty and clean. My meals today were:

Meal #1: 6am Eggwhites and 2 slices of lean ham on a slice of Ezekiel bread.
Meal #2: 9am Cottage cheese, egg white, and oatmeal pancakes
Meal #3: 12pm Arugula, chick peas, 1/4 avacado, chicken breast, in an Ezekiel wrap drizzeled with balsamic and olive oil
Meal #4: 3pm Muscle Milk Light (I don't use these often, but when I am busy or have a meeting, they are great caloric composition for a high-protein snack and super fast)
Meal #5: 6pm Roasted Red Pepper Quinoa, chicken breast with roasted red pepper sauce, asparagus, arugula salad with a very light drizzle of balsamic and olive oil.


This was my dinner. And it was delicious!

The quinoa, roasted red peppers, and pepper sauce was made on Sunday. Everything else was easy. The chicken I buy canned from Costco. It is all natural and packed in water and a great option for high protein on the go. Very tasty too, I might add.

To make the quinoa, I just followed the instructions on the package. I roasted 4 red peppers and I used one in the quinoa along with some garlic and a drizzle of EVOO. To make the roasted red pepper sauce, I first purchased one of these:


This blender was very pricey and I am not suggesting you need one of these. However, it is pretty fricken awesome. Stay tuned in coming days for a recipe made in this guy for Spianch Ice Cream. Sounds gross, right? Wrong. It is delicious! My 11 and 1 year old LOVE it.

Anyway...I threw a few whole roasted, seeded red peppers in this baby, a couple tbs of 0% fage, and you have a tangy and creamy red pepper sauce. I made a ton of this and served it over wheat pasta on Sunday night. The family LOVED it.

So, while I wish I was at home, eating a healthy dinner with the family, I can at least still be eating a healthy dinner.

And THIS is why I am doing what I am doing....

I have never been more proud of changing my habits and also my family's habits. I think that after reading about and seeing the picture of the latest offering from KFC, even the OLD me would have been disgusted. We as a community of Americans need to change the way we look at food. Why are the marketing geniuses at these fast food corporations coming out with these foods? Certainly they study trends and ask people what it is THEY want. Was this the answer? A few years ago, shortly after "Supersize Me" was realeased, the fast food industry answered by eliminating "Super Size" and by introducing new lines of healthy fast food. Do you remember the "Adult Happy Meal" that had the salad and bottled water? Or the McSalad Shaker that was a salad to eat on the go? What happened? Did we forget about the lessons taught in that movie already? Truth be told, we all knew what Morgan Spurlock's message was going to be even before popping the movie into our DVD players. We all KNEW this food was bad for us. Somehow though, seeing his body change and get sick over the course of 30 days convinced us to make smarter choices, even if only for a little while. Looks like we are back to square one. Who is our next savior? Jamie Oliver? Me? You? Let's make a committment to our families to stop this madness! Make better choices! Lead by example. I can't tell you how many people I have touched already and I only subscribed to this lifestyle a few months ago! People are asking me "What are you doing differently?". They are asking me for tips and recipes. What I am doing isn't a secret. We know what is good for us and we know what is bad for us. It is never too late to start eating right. You are never too heavy or too out of shape to see the benefits of changing your eating habits.

Alexia

Welcome!

This blog will be a documented journey of my clean cooking successes (and failures) along with other tidbits of information that I will share as I learn more and more about health, fitness, and overall well-being.