Purge Time

I am purging a bunch of blogs and websites I subscribe to by email.

They are taking up my precious time, cluttering up my inbox and life and are of no value to me.

Goodbye time wasters.

Hello real accomplishment!

Eating Healthy

Eating "Healthy".

What exactly do you mean by eating healthy?

There are a million and one ways to "eat healthy" and the decision is a very personal one. What is healthy for one person may not be for another person so you can't really say there is only one way to eat "healthy".

Here is how we eat healthy at the Ridges' household being fairly "healthy" individuals 

with regards to diet requirements.

#1- We eat as fresh as we can.

#2- We eat as little processed food as reasonably possible (going along with #1).

#3- We have portion control. (This happens automatically. If you eat nutritious foods, you won't need to eat as much and you will naturally feel more satisfied.)

That's about it. Most of our eating habits fall under one of the aforementioned categories.

No, we do not cut any "foods" out of our diet (...except maybe pure lard).

I thoroughly enjoy eating and trying new foods so cutting out a specific food group is not really on my bucket list. I just control my portions and frequency of the not-so-healthy options.

But just because I really enjoy food doesn't mean I don't eat healthy....there are LOTS of delicious healthy foods out there. Sometimes it just depends on how you cook them.

Disclaimer: We have become spoiled now with our changed taste buds. You probably will too.

Once upon a time you drove past McDonalds and craved their BigMac 

(and then felt guilty for actually getting it). 

Now after your taste buds have changed, when you drive past McDonalds, you crave your homemade deliciously fresh hamburger with all the fixins

(and feel satisfied that you just ate something so delicious and fresh that YOU made!)

So, why is it so hard if it is so much tastier (and cheaper!) to cook at home?

Simple. It involves effort...... at first.

Changes of habit involve initial effort and that's why I think it is necessary to not go overboard on a "diet".

I don't like "diets". I like "lifestyle changes".

For something to have a long lasting effect, you have to have a long lasting habit.

This is why I will still have a Kouing Aman for Valentine's Day or make my wild mushroom soup that I have been wanting to make forever.

....because it's doable.

I am not deprived of anything and therefore I really don't crave anything.

It's nice not to crave things....wait a second. I lied. I do crave some things.

I crave healthy foods now. I crave a turkey sandwich. I crave a nectarine. I crave salmon.

I crave a feeling of health.

It's addicting and you will be addicted too.

(Another thing I crave is running now....it's really awesome)

So, what kind of effort is involved?

#1- It's a family affair. 

The whole family has to be on board (really just the parents). 

Have a short discussion on what your "healthy" is. 

If you don't know... then how are you ever going to get there?

Make sure you consider any health conditions that need to be addressed.

#2- Go Shopping. It takes 15 seconds to walk past something unhealthy in the store, but at home, it's looking at you all day asking to be eaten. If you can resist at the store then you are good to go.

(Now that we have changed our taste buds these foods are really not tempting as much. We have junk food still sitting in our cupboards from before because we just don't really want them anymore. nice.)

We started very simply.

We loaded up on the following:

1- Fruit (Fresh and ready to eat)

2-Veggies (Fresh. Some ready to eat and some needing cooking)

3- Meat (Fresh. Fish we buy frozen because it holds up well to freezing. Basically avoid sausage and processed meat.)

4- Grain/Starch (Wheat bread, quinoa, rice, oatmeal, potatoes, etc. Milton's wheat bread from costco is TASTY. When Ben couldn't have iodine we bought potatoes (frozen southern style hashbrowns) to replace our "bread" and we actually found some really yummy ways to use it in place of bread.)

{My philosophy: Carbs are NOT evil. Some are better than others. Don't just eat carbs.}

5- If buying processed..... make it less processed and as healthy as possible.

(I like triscuits with my cheese. Processed but not as bad as fritos.)

That's what we buy and have been living off of very nicely.

#3- Get to cooking. The beauty of cooking fresh is that it actually takes LESS time to cook fresh food than processed foods.

You also don't even need recipes (but can use them if you want).

Don't make it complicated to start with.

 You can look in your fridge/pantry, choose a meat, a veggie and a grain or starch. Make it into a meal and voila. Deliciously fresh food. It doesn't have to be complicated.

It has usually taken us less than 30 minutes to make dinner, very often only 15 minutes.

Steaming takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish. It is healthier and faster than boiling veggies plus it keeps veggies crispily fresh and non-soggy. Plus all you need is a little steam basket for $3.

I subscribe to a lot of cooking/baking blogs and websites (They send emails of delicious foods straight to me! Can't get much easier). Some are healthy. Some are not. Just try to stick with the relatively healthy stuff. You can also subscribe to "healthy" websites only if you want.

Here are some of them:

http://allrecipes.com/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/

http://www.parents.com/recipes/

http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/

http://www.food.com/

I also think a big help to eating fresh is to keep variety.

Guess what?

I bought parsnips. What the heck is a parsnip? I have no idea but I found a recipe that roasts them (with some brussel sprouts, potatoes and zuchini) and they look pretty good so I am excited to cook them up tonight! It's fun to try new things!

So, you're probably still asking, "So.... what do I make for dinner?"

Here are some meals we eat around here.

{Keep in mind that this will differ depending on your snack and dinner routine. 

We snack a lot so our dinners or lunches may not seem "complete".}

Breakfast:

Eggs (any way you want 'em), hashbrowns (pan fried in a tiny amount of oil) and ham (thrown in the pan to heat up).

Malt o Meal with a bit of brown sugar (Ben loves this)

Wheat French Toast

 Oatmeal

 Fruit

English muffin with peanut butter spread 

(this also makes a FAB snack because it keeps you satisfied forever)

Lunch:

Turkey Sandwich- 1 milton bread slice cut in half, laughing cow creamy swiss spread on both sides, 1 slice turkey (amazing turkey breast slices from costco), lettuce. The creamy swiss acts as condiments as well as cheese. This is my favorite sandwich ever. Best part. It's only 200 calories. Have a sliced fruit and/or glass of milk.

Salad

Dinner:

Taco Salad- Southern Hashbrowns panfried w/ little oil, lean ground beef (or turkey), fresh lettuce, avocado, and tomatoes. SO Tasty!

Salad with grilled chicken (grilled chicken from costco- ready to throw on salads), handful of lowfat cheese, any other veggies and something crispy and maple grove's fat free poppyseed dressing (This is the best fat free dressing I have ever had). 

Snacks:

Triscuits with a laughing cow creamy swiss.

Fruit

Veggies

handful of nuts

Celery w/ peanut butter

Dessert:

Dreyer's Frozen Fruit Bars (Best ever- they are made of frozen pureed fruit only)

Fruit

(We are not "dessert" people so we don't ALWAYS have dessert)

Last note:

Pick your battles. 

I am ok with my Skippy peanut butter. Look at the nutritional content and the nasty stuff (as in "healthier" stuff) just isn't good enough to warrant me eating it. 

Remember.....I like food. I'm not going to eat gross food.

If you LOVE a certain dish that you make a lot, don't stop eating it. Do try to make a few adjustments to make it healthier.

ie: Taco salad night: Put the fixins on southern hashbrowns instead of fritos.

Meat loaf: Use lean meats and/or use half ground turkey and half ground beef, throw in a bunch of diced veggies and use wheat bread instead of white. Voila. more nutritious (and definitely more flavorful!)

Enjoy creamy casseroles? Use low fat cheeses and fat free sour creams or whatever else you add in.

There really is a healthier way to eat most dishes we love without sacrificing flavor.

I will be posting a bunch of tasty meals as I come across them and make them.

And remember.... it's about balance between body and mind.

A happy mind makes for a happy body. vice versa.

Happy body and happy minds lead to a long-term commitment to health.

Want to learn more about what you are eating?

Start using myfitnesspal.com with me. 

It will tell you what nutrients you get too much of in a day and what you are generally lacking in when you fill out the food diary. It will also help you with portion control.

Check it out. It's pretty awesome.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

Here is an easy Irish recipe for you to enjoy at your Irish feast on this jolly green day.

Salmon Chowder

3 Tbsp Butter

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery
6 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups diced potatoes

2 carrots, diced

2 cups chicken broth

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp dill weed, fresh (can substitute dried)

3 fresh salmon fillets (I thawed the frozen fillets from costco)

12 oz can low-fat evaporated milk

15 oz can creamed corn

1.5-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 Tbsp cornstarch (dissolved in some water)

All of these portions are "approximates". Go ahead and throw in more of whatever you like or make substitutions.

You can prepare all the ingredients ahead of time and just throw them in at the right time and have this done in about 25 minutes.

Melt butter in large stockpot over medium heat. Saute the onion, celery and garlic until onions are tender and translucent (about 5 min). Stir in the potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, pepper and dill. Drop in the whole fresh salmon fillets. They will break up as they cook and you stir. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low-med, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the evaporated milk, corn and cheese and cook until thoroughly heated. Enjoy with french bread for dipping or make some fries to go along with it. Yum!

{Adapted from Salmon Chowder recipe by Allrecipes: Kenulia}

Running

Running.

Sounds simple.

I thought it was until I started researching (what the heck is a neutral foot?!)

It has been a lot of fun to learn about running actually.
I learned a ton from the Salt Lake Running Company. I went to the store on 700 East just south of I80 and was helped by Elizabeth. She was amazing! When you want to buy a running shoe I would highly recommend you go to one of the Salt Lake Running Company stores. They do a free analysis where they give you a neutral shoe (no supports) and they film you running. They analyze your gait and decide what kind of support you need in your shoe.
She explained that the shoe should basically feel like it isn't there.
The shoe that fit me best turned out to be an Asics shoe,
which is pretty much the only type of tennis shoe I buy!

 My shoe is super light and super comfortable! Who knew?!
 

 Elizabeth also explained that a running shoe is completely different than a tennis or basketball shoe.

This blew my mind! 

How come I had never heard of this concept?!

Anyway, I love my shoes and they are super comfy.

Elizabeth also introduced me to running apparel layers and how you want to wear nothing cotton pretty much. So I loaded up on some running clothes while I was there too.

$450 dollars later and I am ready to become a running champ! 

(It's ok, I had a personal stash that I was saving for a rainy day)

Yes, it was a little expensive but it was well worth the investment to actually get me started (Plus the clothes are actually really cute too!)

I will likely be purchasing cheaper apparel in the future....maybe. We'll see.

I have found that every time I go out, I enjoy my experience even more.
Plus I learn something I can use for the next time.

Tip #1: Music. Not an absolute necessity (sometimes my phone hasn't worked) but it makes the effort seem less and makes the time fly by. It also  helps you get amped up and get a good pace set.
 Highly recommended!

Tip #2: Track your progress. I use an App on my phone called MapMyRun. It uses GPS to track distance, speed, time and lots more. It stores the info and automatically downloads it to the internet so I can look at my progress effortlessly! Way cool.

Tip #3: Along with having your good shoes you need a good step. Make sure you are running correctly. This means don't heel strike. Land on your midfoot and heel region (more of a flat foot run) and then roll forward onto your toe and step off again. This is huge. It dampens the impact of each step by allowing the foot joint to absorb some of the impact. When you heel strike, the impact goes directly from your heel up to your knee and jars the knee causing pain. When I used to run, my knees and hip would hurt a ridiculous amount but now they don't at all. This has made running much less painful and much more fun.

It's been great and best of all I can do it forever pretty much.
So if you run or start running, let me know! We'll go do a 5k together!

Greek Souvlaki

Here is a fabulous Greek Chicken Souvlaki recipe I adapted from All Recipes. I have made this 3 more times since having it initially a few weeks ago. It's really tasty and goes well with greek lemon rice and baci rolls. :)

Greek Chicken Souvlaki

1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 tsp dried oregano
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 medium yellow onions, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 green bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
Skewers

In a large glass bowl, mix together lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, oregano, and garlic; add chicken, peppers and onions and stir to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
Preheat grill (or stove top grill-looking pan) for medium-high heat. Thread pork, peppers and onions onto skewers.
Lightly oil grate/pan. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or to desired doneness, turning skewers frequently for even cooking.

Serve with tzatziki sauce (we got some great sauce from costco....yum!).

Enjoy!

Discovery

I just discovered an awesome website.

In my efforts to become who I want to be this year, one of the elements I have been lacking in for the last long while and started working on as of late is Strength.

To accomplish this I have been eating a lot healthier and I started running....for fun.

I actually really enjoy running- the act of.

One thing I do not enjoy is being out of breath.

So, I am starting slow.

I don't want to burn myself out on my first run and never do it again.

I ran a few 5K races last year and actually really loved being a part of it but I had no endurance so it was pretty painful, especially with my hip and knee issues

 (plus I was running wrong....who knew there was a wrong way to run?! More on that later...)

My goal is to run the races and have fun doing it. Right now I want to run a 5K (not walk...hehe).

So I will be tracking my journey right here. You should join me. :)

When I do things that matter to me, I like to do them right so I have been researching the keys to success (as I do for many other things). I have been looking for an app or program that could help me log my journey of fitness.

I found a super one.

www.myfitnesspal.com

After finding this site I realized that it looked familiar!

One of my friends is blogging about her weight loss journey and she mentioned this website a while back that she has been using. (www.110percentmotivated.blogspot.com). 

Go ahead and visit her website.

So, MyFitnessPal helps you track your food intake, exercise, charts your goals and creates graphs of your progress. It has a huge database of any food you can imagine so it will automatically record the nutritional information into your food diary. No more calorie counting! It does it for you.

It also tells you what you need to do everyday to reach your goal. It is quite awesome.

Whether you are trying to lose weight, gain weight, maintain or just be aware of where you are.... you should check it out. It is super easy to use and I am really glad I found it.

Best part? It's FREE! You have absolutely ZERO to lose...except maybe some cellulite (I can't wait!)

If you join, we can be friends in the network and see certain facts about each others progress. (ie: so and so just filled out their food diary and is under their calorie goal!)

It's like having a buddy right there!

{No, I have not received any money in exchange for this promotion ;P }

So what am I doing exactly to become strong?

Food: I am trying to eat as much fresh food as possible and stay within my calorie goal. That's pretty much it. I do try to keep in mind balancing protein, veggies, fruits and carbs but I don't fret over it right now. (The website can do that for you too!) As I get used to this then I will venture out a bit into balancing the diet a bit more. I am already healthier than I was.

Exercise: My goal is to slowly increase my endurance and speed when I run. To start out, I am doing 30 minutes, about 3 times a week. I jog for 2 minutes then walk for 2 minutes and repeat for a total of 30 minutes. Starting out with a 5 minute walk to warm-up, stretch, do the routine then a 5 minute cool-down and stretch. That's it for this week. Next week (or when I feel comfortable) I will increase to jogging 3 minutes, walking 2 minutes and each week continue increasing my time jogging until I can jog for 30 minutes straight. After that I will increase my speed and time (and therefor distance). I will also soon add some strength training in between running days to get a strong core, which I have found REALLY helps decrease and even eliminate my back pain.

Not too bad. I can do it. :D
I honestly didn't realize how beneficial running was until I started looking into it.
It does a lot more for you than you even realize. Google it. Check it out!

I remember when I was athletic, strong, limber and felt like I could do anything.

I crave that feeling again so I think, why not?!

If any of you have any other recommendations I would love to hear them!