Fitness
Easy and Nutritious Recipes – 4HB-Friendly
February 25, 2011
The good news is that I’ve gotten pretty confident in the kitchen, and I’ve been experimenting. I’ve adjusted some recipes, so now I can call them my own! I think you need to get brave and experiment too. Let me know if you change these up.
Here are some recipes – they are delish and great if you’re doing Four Hour Body. More coming soon!
Quick and Easy, Protein-Packed Chicken “Tortilla” Soup
Based on a recipe from the Four Hour Body cookbook
• 2 cans of chicken broth – estimate this, you can use less to make soup thicker
• 1 can of fat-free refried beans
• 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes or tomatoes with jalapenos
• 1 can of black beans – drained and rinsed
• 1 rotisserie chicken chopped up, skin removed or shredded chicken breast or browned ground turkey or browned ground chicken
• Chopped green onion – optional
Whisk chicken broth with refried beans. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together. Heat thoroughly on stove. I’d try this with red kidney beans and black beans the next round. The base is really good, so you can make a simple bean soup with your favorite beans from here.
16 Bean Soup
• Bag of 16 Bean Soup Mix – Look for a bag of these dry beans by Goya or Jack Rabbit. They have something similar at Trader Joe’s
• Water and chicken bouillon or chicken broth
• 1 can of diced tomatoes or stewed tomatoes – can use tomatoes with jalapenos
• Garlic – thinly chopped – as much as you want
• 1 medium onion – chopped
• 2 stalks celery – chopped
• 1 large carrot – omit if you are on Four Hour Body Diet
• Red peppers -diced – optional
• 1 bay leaf
Soak and drain beans – boil in water two minutes and set aside for an hour. (Be sure to drain.) Add about a cup of water or chicken broth, more or less depending on how soupy you want it. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until tender.
Awesome Eggplant Chips
• Very thinly sliced eggplant – I use the mini ones about an inch and a half to three inches round, not the fat ones like you make for eggplant parmesan
• Cooking spray
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Garlic powder and/or dry minced garlic
• Emeril’s Essence
Preheat the oven for 350. Spay a cookie sheet with cooking spray and lay the eggplant on top. You can overlap. Drizzle some olive oil on top, and sprinkle with spices. I go crazy with the dry minced garlic. Bake until dry and crisp. I like them burnt. I swear these battle with Kettle Chips.
Cucumber and Onion Salad
• Peel and cut cucumber into circles
• Slice, dice or chop onion as you wish
• Dice a tomato – optional – I prefer plum tomatoes
• White vinegar
• Paprika – optional
Add the cucumber, onion and tomato to a bowl or dish. Add vinegar to taste – don’t drown your veggies, it’s tangy so a heavy splash is good. Add fresh ground pepper and a smidgie of sea salt. Refrigerate or serve immediately.
Photo by premus.
Feeling Young and Fresh
February 23, 2011
With my brother. We're young and fresh!
Day 8 on Four Hour Body and down six pounds!
First off, I am so amazed at the positive feedback. So many people tell me that they can relate to my battle against emotional eating and they say I’ve inspired them.
I feel amazing. My attitude and mood have been positive all day long. I find myself really wanting to write (which I love to do) and my head is really clear. Not only have I lost weight, my friends (well, friend – singular) and I can see the difference. Spent some time today with my girl friend Amanda – she hasn’t seen me in a few weeks. She says she sees the difference in my face, my legs and belly. She says my skin is glowing and I look young and fresh. I’ve begun to see that too. I FEEL young and fresh too! Funny thing is that she’s known me for years and says that if I can do this diet/lifestyle change than she can — meaning she knows how crappy I used to eat and how I’ve never been disciplined ever. Heee heee!
Sample Meals
People have asked me for some sample meals and I am happy to share some of my favorite recipes. They’re coming soon, I promise. Here’s what I ate today to give you ideas:
MEAL 1, 7:30 am – One egg, two egg whites topped with two tablespoons of organic salsa and a black bean mix I made – sautéed garlic and onions with diced red peppers, mushrooms and black beans. (Goya Black Beans – drained and rinsed.)
MEAL 2, 11:30 am – One egg white (from a hard-boiled egg).
MEAL 2.1, 12:00 pm Belated Birthday Lunch out with co-workers at Pizzacato. I had the “Mixed Greens” salad. It was mixed greens with roasted red peppers, balsamic onions, grilled chicken with roasted garlic vinaigrette on the side. Told them to leave off the Gorganzola cheese. It was really yummy and barely used the dressing because I didn’t really need. it. The peppers and onions gave the salad a lot of flavor.
MEAL 3, 3:30 pm – Some chicken and a bit of baked eggplant and baked zucchini.
MEAL 4, 7:30 pm - Taco salad – lean ground meat, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, black beans (drained and rinsed), a smidgie of corn and my new bff, organic salsa. Wasn’t sure about the corn, but I also made a recipe from the Four Hour Body cookbook for Chicken Tortilla Soup and it called for corn. (Soup is for tomorrow.)
See? Good food! Full all day and not feeling starved. My energy and mood was stable all day, no sugar highs and lows. LOVE IT.
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No Excuses, No Emotional Eating
February 22, 2011
Cupcakes from Ben's First Birthday!
My life, WAS a bunch of oxymorons — mixed up and confused. See, I love to work out, teach group exercise classes … and eat my face off. I’ve never been disciplined with eating healthy or followed an exercise plan. (I’m Filipino and all we do is gather around food.) I’d run a 10K without training, sign up for all kinds of races and just do them. I never felt strong while doing them though, and always chalked it up to — I don’t have time to do my own workout since I’m teaching so many classes. Regardless, no matter what I knew was right to do — for diet and nutrition with all that activity — I never did it. I’d answer everyone’s questions and be encouraging for them, but I was always a “fraud” so to speak. I always felt like it.
Bad Scene
In fact, I’ll never forget the time I drank one Diet Coke the day before a 5K. One Diet Coke and that’s it. No water. In the summer. On the way to the race, I barely drank any water for fear I’d have to pee (stupid excuse!) . The race was brutal. It was insanely hot and I felt horrible. I barely drank water after because it was a long ride home. I ended up getting crazy dizzy and barely being able to drive during a major storm. Yes, I made myself sick for days because I was dehydrated. Could barely get out of bed. Stupid.
Emotional Eating
I realize now that life is always going to be hard, there are always going to be challenges and I need to stop the emotional eating. During 2008 – 2010, I gained about 25 pounds from my stressful job from which I’d later get laid off from. I’d start at 7 am after an hour commute, be falling asleep all day, and when I came home just wanted to eat everything in sight and decompress. And, I did. My excuse then was — I work so hard, I deserve to eat this! I know now that that job sucked the life out of me and eating gave me joy. Life didn’t give me joy. Thank goodness the door closed there for me, because it was emotionally unhealthy for me and the other people in the department that were let go/left as well.
More Excuses
Here I am now, married. Before the wedding, I was watching what I ate (sorta) and lost about ten pounds simply by not eating late at night. I still look back and wish I tried a little harder … but again, I had an excuse. At that point, it was — I’m stressed! We have so many expenses! I got laid off months before and was bugging out about what to do with my life. I had a flood of emotions associated with losing my job.
More Unhealthy Habits and The Turning Point
Recently, we’ve been going to a lot of family parties. My hubs and I have tons of cousins, and we have a lot of close friends. That means first birthdays, showers, weddings … all that. Last weekend, we went to a first birthday and they had an insane amount of desserts — vanilla ice cream with caramel and toffee, ice cream cake, a candy bar and gigantic sugar cookie favor. I ate all of it. These aren’t even my favorite sweets! It was there and I ate it. Did the same thing at a baptism the day before. GROSS. I was really feeling like I was eating sugary stuff I didn’t need and felt like crap about it.
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AllThingsGwen.com is my unofficial guide to health and happiness. It's a chronical of me finding my way.
I encourage you to think about “AllThings[YOUR NAME HERE]” and what’s really, truly important to you. Hope you enjoy my recipes, fitness tips, motivational posts and aha moments.
- RT @motivationlive: People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. - Anonymous
- Oh man. Gotta teach 7 am and 9 am kbox after crazy Meise wedding.
- I was part of Facebook's IPO! Bought many a share. Hope it makes some bacon. I will tell my grandkids about this historical moment.
- Planning our First Annual Meise Summer Jam. There will be a big roasted pig.
- Best part of tonight was when Cha Cha Slide came on and Aunt Mary Jane asked, "Is this the Dougie?"
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