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Posts Tagged ‘Fit Friends’

Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

March 9, 2011

It’s all how you look at it.

I was chatting with my friend Shaun about eating better and getting in shape, telling him about Four Hour Body, some things I typically eat, and how it’s really worked for me. We were sharing healthy lifestyle ideas and he was telling me that every morning, he journals and drinks a bottle of water. He got the idea from someone else, but he was saying how it really helps him re-hydrate his body after sleep and clears his mind. I liked the idea, and for the past four days have been drinking a big glass as soon as I wake up. I’m happy I started and am getting hooked on this healthy habit.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized the small act of drinking water in the morning can be symbolic of starting your day right — “glass full” with a clear, open mind, ready for opportunity. Try it! Make it a time to be grateful, to tell yourself what you’re going to accomplish for the day or remind yourself of your goals. It’s much deserved and worthwhile time for yourself.

What are some of your healthy, daily rituals?
What are some of your healthy, daily rituals that you’ve picked up from some one else?

Photo by kleinman.

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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.

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No Excuses, No Emotional Eating

February 22, 2011

Cupcakes from Ben's First Birthday!

“Good habits, once established, are just as hard to break as are bad habits” ~Robert Puller

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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