Week One

It's always amazing how exercising changes so many things on top of your physical appearance. I have faithfully completed week one of Jillian Micheals, "Get ripped in 30" and heres what I've noticed. 

I'm happier.

I have more energy

I want to eat better

I'm more productive

The house is cleaner

I feel better about my body

I'm stronger

The DVD comes with a meal plan to follow but I decided that I didn't want to. I have never, never ever been good at dieting. When ever I "cut" something out of my diet, I just crave it ALL THE TIME and end up eating it more then I would have in the first place. SO I focus on the good things I put in my body and I naturally lean towards skipping the brownies. Not that I always skip brownies but you know....


Here are a few healthy recipes that we had this week and a tip  I try to follow, if you are into following my health kick.


Water, water and more water. It's all I drink. If you can commit to drinking a glass of water BEFORE you eat you will loose weight. "They" did a study that showed those who followed this rule lost on average 5 extra pounds then those who don't.  Just another reason to love water. Also, herbal teas count as a glass of water... If your not into having a water bottle at your side 24/7 like myself.


Breakfast:


Steal cut oats with honey and cinnamon (top with berries of any kind). To me it is SO much better then oat meal because it's less mushy and I once heard Dr. Oz say that it was the ideal breakfast. It keeps me full for longer then any cereal could.


Oatmeal Pancakes (biggest loser recipe). These are thinner then your normal pancakes and you use a blender to cut the oatmeal so you can't even tell that you didn't use flour. Click here for the recipe.


Fat free yogurt with pumpkin and flax granola. I love this breakfast and eat it all the time. My favorite is with strawberries or raspberries on top.  I try and find yogurt sweetened with honey and the cereal I get is Natures Path Organic. Costco has by far the best price :)



 Lunch/Dinner 


Ok truth be told lunch is not my favorite time of day. For some reason I just hate making lunches so I try to make a larger dinner and have leftovers. It works for me.


White bean turkey chili. This meal is a staple in our house because it is super quick,easy and healthy.


1 lb of lean ground turkey
1 onion
1 bell pepper (green)
1 tsp oregano 
1 tsp basil
2 cloves garlic
1 cup corn
1 can white kidney beans
1 can stewed tomatoes 
1 can tomato sauce
Delish! and obviously we eat it with tortilla chips and a bit of cheese on top. But you can easily cut that out if you want to cut calories.


I have been trying to have one vegetarian meal a week. I love meat but over all as north americans I think we eat too much of it. Also, it's a great way to cut back on your grocery bill. Matt usually complains about not being full without meat.  I think it goes against his upbringing but sometimes I don't mention it and he doesn't notice... Bah ha ha. This week we tried a great recipe...


Stuffed peppers. I used quinoa instead of rice. I'm on a quinoa kick!!  Recipe here I also cook my stuffed peppers in the crock pot so I don't have to pre boil the peppers. It's just a lazy trait I guess.


Quinoa BBQ chicken salad. Recipe here I successfully fed Matt a salad for dinner without complaint. He loved it in fact. It has taken me years to get to this point :)


Anyway here are just a few ideas for some healthy eats. If you have some favorites PLEASE pass them on. I would love to try them.