Breakfast Quesadillas!!

This breakfast is delicious and only takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. It can be modified to make a regular quesadilla for lunch or dinner as well, just use your imagination.

You will need:

1-Flat bread/Tortilla- I used Joseph's Bakery Lavash
1/4 cup Jimmy Deans Turkey Sausage Crumbles (fully cooked)
1/2 Cup Egg whites-I used liquid egg whites to save time but use regular eggs if you prefer
1/4 cup of Fat Free shredded Cheese


1. The first thing you should do is cook your eggs separately.  I cook 1/2 cup of liquid egg whites in a small bowl in the microwave for 1:30.  You can also cook them in a pan on the stove, but I do suggest cooking them first or your quesadilla will be a big, runny mess.

2. Place your tortilla on a flat surface or in a pan on the stove (stove off) and fill it before you begin cooking it.  This way you are not filling the shell while it browns and melts the cheese and it will be done before you are ready to cook it.
I put the 1/4 cup of fat free, shredded cheese, 1/4 cup of pre cooked turkey sausage and the eggs in the shell.  Fold the shell in half and place in the pan and turn the heat on low.

3. Cook each side until it is brown and the cheese is starting to melt.  Even on low heat it will cook very quickly, just a few minutes each side.  Turn it with a large spatula and be careful not to spill the ingredients out into the pan!

4. Remove from heat, let cool for 5 mins, cut into strips and enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

1 whole quesadilla

Carbs- 17grams
Fat-       6 grams
Protein- 40grams

Guiltless cream cheese bites

It is fair to say that most of us have a sweet tooth and when you are trying to eat right satisfying that tooth can be a challenge.  This is a recipe for warm, crispy cream cheese bites that will not wreck your diet and will satisfy your craving.  

You will need:

- 1 package of Nasoya won ton wraps

- 1 package of your choice of filling.  I used Philadelphia sweet indulgence white chocolate cream cheese, milk chocolate cream cheese and cinnamon laughing cow cream cheese.  First lay your won ton wraps out on a flat surface and fill them.  The one pictured below is 1/2 a laughing cow wedge, a full wedge was just a bit much.  For the cream cheese I used 1/2 TBSP per won ton.  Place the filling in the center and fold the top corners of the won ton together so the cheese does not spill out. Place your folded won tons on a greased baking sheet and pre heat the oven to 425 degrees.  For a softer won ton brush them with olive oil or a cooking spray.  For crispy won tons, leave as is and bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes. After the time is up, remove from the oven and ENJOY!  

You could fill these with almost anything you want.  Philadelphia also makes cream cheeses in pesto, santa fe and garlic to name a few if you wanted more of an appetizer.  Milk Chocolate is my favorite. 

NUTRITION FACTS:

1 Philadelphia Won ton with White or Milk Chocolate with 1/2 TBSP of cheese: 

7 carbs

2 fat

1 protein

1 Laughing cow cinnamon wont ton with 1/2 wedge

5 carbs

2 fat

2 protein

My mom, made no excuses and lost 40 pounds!

Everyone has an excuse for why they cannot lose weight. Some say they do not have time, they do not have the money, they have an injury just to name a few.  I would like to use this blog to tell you about a woman who could have used every single one of these excuses but didn't. My mom is 58 years old, sells real estate, manages a construction company with my father. Does a lot of the painting, running around and book work for that business, baby sits 10 grandchildren and has a permanent foot injury that required her to wear a boot on her foot for 6 months. She will forever not be able to do many type of common leg exercises or certain types of cardio.  She easily could have said that she didn't have the time or the physical capability or that her age and metabolism were to blame but she did not. 

Instead in February she started with x training and began a diet and exercise routine that required working out with weights 5 days per week and planning and tracking all of her meals. This is the same program that I began in January. Initially she did not want to do it, she did not want to take food with her in a cooler or plan her meals.  Her breaking point came when she reached over to tie her shoe one morning and she felt a belly in her way, that was the turning point. She began her program in February of 2012 at 170 pounds and today almost 6 months later weighs 133 pounds. She is only 3 pounds away from her goal weight!

Even with all of the demands on her time, parties, babysitting and business lunches she has successfully ate right and exercised only having missed one workout the entire time! She has had her challenges and struggles and even wakes up at 3:30 or 4 am sometimes to get her workout in but she does it and doesn't make any excuses.

The next time you think that you do not have the time, energy or means to workout think again. The only thing standing in your way is you and your excuses. There is always a way to get it done focus on how you CAN do it instead of why you CAN'T.  My mom had worked very hard and is constantly being pulled in 100 different directions but still got the job done because she wanted to and she was dedicated.  Congratulations Mom!

Cheating- Step away from the donuts

If you have been following this blog from the beginning you may be under the impression that I am a robot. A slightly human robot but a lean, mean diet machine robot at that. I am here to tell you that although I have worked hard and done the right things that I am just like you, I cheat, I have cheated and I am currently in recovery and on the wagon.

When I first began changing my lifestyle it definitely changed the way that I thought about food and the way that I eat. Instead of mindlessly putting things into my mouth because I was bored, happy, sad, hungry or just because it was there I was thinking about each thing and if my body needed it. Most of the time the answer to that question is no. Instead of seeing a chocolate covered almond and simply thinking, "YUMMY" I first thought, "YUMMY" and then thought, "how many grams of fat are in this, I'll pass".

In the beginning I was consistently good, I stuck to all of my numbers and my meal plan because I had not yet made any progress. As the weight began to come off I would slide a small cheat in here and there. One cupcake on weigh in day, a few chocolate covered almonds (my gateway drug) because like most people I thought, " I deserve this, I've lost x amount of pounds". The problem is like many of you I cannot eat just one of anything or just a handful of candy, I always overdo it.

Often times when I would throw a cheat into the mix I did not necessarily even want whatever the item was but the habit of eating sweets was still exactly that, a habit. Not until I had the taste of the cookie, cupcake or whatever it was would I then want something sweet, but technically the moment was over. I had cheated, so why not cheat a little bit more!? There are people I know who can eat just one cookie and be satisfied and move on with life.  I am not one of those people, after one cookie or bite I feel like I didn't get any satisfaction, I want to eat a few more to really feel like it was worth it. This is how most people not only plateau on a plan but also start to gain weight back again. Luckily because of the X training program I was answering to someone else throughout my weight loss so I could not allow myself to go overboard or begin putting pounds back on. Not that there have not been days when I did go overboard and then weighed more and had to explain myself.   This is not the case for everyone.

In order to start reforming my cheating ways I first had to realize that the mindset of, "I deserve this" is just not true.  You deserve to maintain your new weight and new look and feel good about yourself.  We are not animals or children, we do not need to be rewarding with snacks for accomplishing something.  Every single day you could justify cheating with that mindset and before long you have gained 5 or 10 pounds back and then all of those treats you  "deserved" have killed your goals.

What I had to do to get back on the wagon was really think about what makes me want to cheat.  Is it that I am hungry?  Tired?  Social pressure?  Boredom?  Simple love of chocolate etc?  For me personally the time that I am weakest is when I am tired or hungry, or both.  When I am tired I am more likely to just say, "oh forget it" and eat the cookie or whatever it is.  Even though this never makes me feel better and after I eat it I just want more.  My willpower level stinks when I am tired.  To prevent this obviously trying to get enough sleep is key but that is not always possible.  I use MIO water flavor as a means to curb my cravings when I am tired.  I keep it with me and instead of using it all day I will only add it to my water when I am really craving something or towards the end of the day as a treat.  There are many different flavor and it is quite tasty when you find one you like.  After a bottle I am usually pretty content and have killed the cookie craving.

The hungry is a little bit more difficult.  One excellent way to prevent this is to make sure you space your meals far enough apart that you aren't out of food and you know you are going to be at work for 4 more hours or awake for 10 more hours. If you plan well you always have a meal to look forward to and can prevent feeling tired and hungry. If you don't and you end up finishing half of your food by 2pm then you really have no choice but to be hungry or give in and eat.  No matter what when I leave the house for work etc.  I always bring at least one more meal with me than I think I will need just in case the day does not go as planned.  As I eat each meal I try to think about if I eat every 3-4 hours where does that put my last meal of the day?  Plan accordingly to make sure you can fuel your body periodically and make it last all day long.

What is it that triggers your cheating?  What food can you never seem to resist?  Don't beat yourself up when you give in and go for the cookie, you are human and it happens.  Just be careful of not getting out of control and falling back into your old habits.  No matter what you think everyone has their bad days, try to prevent them and work through it and when you fail, move on and do better next time.

Gotta eat to lose!

One of the most common mistakes that people make when trying to lose weight and get in shape is the assumption that they need to eat like a bird to lose weight.  The opposite is actually more effective and closer to the truth.  If you want to lose weight you need to eat.  The secret is to eat food that is nutritious, has a purpose and will keep you feeling full.  Not to just eat, eat, eat all day because you heard that you had to eat to lose weight.

I always had heard and knew that most people really do not eat enough and that the food that they eat is basically crap which leads to low energy and weight gain.  What I did not realize is that I was one of those people.  Although I thought I was eating more than enough and in my uniformed state thought that I was eating pretty healthy neither of these was true.

When I first began my lifestyle change, armed with my nutrient goals and bagged lunch (before the days when I learned how to pre-plan and pre-pack)  one of the most frustrating and shocking things to me during the first week or so of my new life was that I was not eating enough.  I would pack a bag of random item, greek yogurt, string cheese, protein pancakes and lunch meat and take off for my 12 hour workday thinking I would have more than enough.  As the day went on and I entered in my meals as I went, not knowing what the future held I would get home each night only to see that I still needed to eat sometimes as much as 1,000 more calories to hit my numbers for the day!  Not only was I not hungry at this point I was horrified that at 9pm on a Saturday night I had to eat quite a bit more food and the majority of it needed to be protein.

A few days of getting home from work each night and scrambling to eat a lot more and figuring out how to make it work with my plan was all it took to push me into meal planning.  At first I was not only frustrated but scared of eating all of that food.  I felt like it was too much and there was no way that I would be able to lose weight this way.  After a week or so of this I noticed something, not only was I losing weight but I was starting to feel hungry and really be able to eat all of that food no problem.  My metabolism was getting fired up.

Everyone has heard that you need to eat 5 small meals a day, every few hours to keep your metabolism going.  While there are a million different theories out there for how much and how often you should eat this is the rule of thumb that I use and it works well for me.  By eating "small meals" this does not mean eat a string cheese for breakfast, a yogurt 3 hours later, an apple etc.  Each small meal should consist of proteins, fats and carbs and should essentially be a small meal.  (refer to my earlier blog for examples)  When you go for extended periods of time without eating your bodys natural reaction is to think that there may not be food coming anytime soon, that it needs to prepare for starvation.

When your body begins to prepare for starvation it stops burning energy (carbs, fats, proteins) and starts hanging on to whatever it can so that you will have energy available.  If you aren't eating regularly or eating enough your body is going to cling to everything it can, slowing everything else down and slowing down your weight loss in the process.  If you are also participating in some kind of exercise program this is especially important.  Too many people wake up, skip breakfast, go to they gym and then run errands before going home hours later and eating their first meal of the day.  You may think this is going to help you lose weight, working out on an empty stomach but the opposite is true.

When you wake up in the morning you should eat to get your body going again.  You have probably gone at least 5-6 hours without food by the time you wake up in the morning.  If you do not eat, your body is not going to be going at 100%.  Combine that with working out and then making your body wait yet again for more energy and you really didn't accomplish much by going to the gym because your body is hanging on for dear life at this point.  You may say you cannot eat when you first wake up or you do not like to but I promise you that if you try it every day for two weeks you will not only love it you will wake up hungry and craving it.

There is also a fine line between eating to lose weight and using exercise as an excuse to over eat.  Just because I said you need to eat to lose and you are in fact exercising does not give you a license to indulge after each workout.  The common thought of, "I earned this, I ran on the treadmill, give me that pizza" isn't doing you any favors either.  Use a website like myfitnesspal.com to get an approximate idea of how much you should be eating each day and PLAN PLAN PLAN.  Failure to plan is not an excuse to make poor decisions and lose sight of your goals.  Remember your body needs fuel to burn and if you aren't feeding it and feeding it properly you won't burn anything.