Get a Better Mood From Your Food

Start waking up on the right side of the bed by adding these to your daily intake.

Omega-3 fatty acids: Research suggests that polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly of the omega-3 variety, may have an effect on mood.

Where do I find it? Oily fish, such as salmon and mackerel. Also found in some plant foods.

Zinc, magnesium and iron: Minerals such as zinc, magnesium and iron may play a role in regulating mood. Magnesium compounds, for example, have been found to successfully relieve premenstrual mood changes.

Where do I find it? Zinc is found in oysters, lean meat and poultry, while sources of magnesium include legumes, nuts, whole grains and leafy greens. Rich iron foods include liver, red meat, poultry and fortified cereal.

Vitamins C and E: Your diet should always be rich in antioxidant vitamins C and E, which help protect cells, including brain cells.

Where do I find it? Citrus fruits are a good source of vitamin C, while vitamin E foods include vegetable oils, nuts, spinach and asparagus.

Contemplating a Diet? Just Eat Healthier Instead.

When you start thinking of diets, do you start thinking of salads? No surprise there. Well, after that, what else do you think of? Vegetables are probably the next thing on your list. People tend to assume every food that they eat when they are on diet is a healthy food. Common misconception. Look at the fat content in your salad dressing. Add in some cheese, bacon bits, and a generous serving of croutons and all of a sudden that salad isn't much better for you than a taco. Too often, people eat to lose weight. If you ate healthier, chances are some weight will come off anyhow. Rather than worry about what your scale says, focus instead, on your lifestyle and the way you feel. Being healthy doesn't mean you have to be a petite or have a 32 inch waist. It means feeling good physically as well as mentally. Do you have the energy to enjoy your day? Do you have the energy to enjoy every day? Relax. It really is not that difficult to lead a healthy lifestyle, feel better and still give yourself little indulgences and you don’t have to eat salads all day every day.

Fresh fruit really does a lot more for you when it is closest to its natural state. Ever eat strawberries right off of the vine? Not only do they taste considerably better, it’s doing more for your body too. They’ll satisfy a craving for sweets due to their natural sugars. Whole vegetables have lots of vitamins and minerals, so choose more green, orange and yellow vegetables. Steam them to retain the most nutritional value. Try cooking them over a wok with some low sodium soy sauce.

My wife comes from an Italian family so you know we’re eating pasta once a week or so. There’s nothing wrong with that if you are smart about it. Pasta and/or baked goods should be made from whole grains. Try to stay away from white breads and noodles if you can. These are made from flour that has had much of the nutritional content removed. On top of that, the high starch content in white bread will affect your blood sugar as quickly as regular sugar. Avoid sugary snacks and pastries as well. An apple is good for you, an apple pie really isn't. If you have to eat the apple pie, eat a small portion.

Shop for lean meats. An often overlooked meat is fish. The omega-3 essential fatty acids in ocean fish are often deficient in our diets, so start to add more seafood to your diet. It’s recommended two or three times per week. Baked fish and chicken are healthier than fried. Of course it could go without saying, but processed meats, hot dogs, bacon, and sausages have a lot of junk in them you don't want in your body, but if you love these meats, find healthier versions sold at health food stores. Turkey is almost always available as an alternative.

Stick to water as your main drink. It’s the most plentiful and least expensive thing you can drink. Limit your soft drinks. If you want to drink a cola, go with the diet version where possible. After a while, you’ll not crave the “regular” version.

Keep healthy snacks like fruits, crunchy vegetables with dips, or nuts handy. There is nothing wrong with having a little treat like a candy bar once in a while. Once. In. A. While.

Like watching your TiVo shows at night? Every feel the inclination to snack while you catch up on Heroes? The same tips apply here too. If you don't want to completely give up snacking, keep low calorie foods close by. It’s way to easy to finish off that bag of Dorito’s.

Don’t skip a meal. This is important. If you skip breakfast, you may find that you lose your energy by noon. Rather than skipping breakfast completely, split it in half. Eat a small breakfast early, such as an egg, small serving of oatmeal, or a slice of whole grain bread. I like to eat oatmeal early in the morning and then some kind of fruit later. Lately it’s been two kiwi or a grapefruit.
Are you one of the people who feel like your mornings just can't begin without a cup of coffee? Or two or three? If you’ve got certain foods or drinks you won't give up, enjoy them in smaller amounts. Buy one candy bar enjoy it. Don’t buy and eat two just because they were on sale at 2/$1 at the gas station. Maybe you don’t want to switch to decaf yet. How about mixing half regular coffee and half decaffeinated coffee? Limit other treats or favorite foods that aren't healthy, maybe let yourself eat them one time per week. My wife and I have tried to treat ourselves to a day of “whatever” foods if we feel like we’ve done well for a week or so. It’s nice. We don’t feel too guilty about it.

Take your time. It’s not gonna happen overnight. Start with today and try to add to it. Eat smaller portions. Eat wiser foods. Add a little exercise here and there. Maybe park out in the back of the lot and walk to the store. Grab a bottled water instead of a Pepsi.

Here is a short list of unhealthy foods and healthy foods.

Here’s a quick recap of healthy and unhealthy foods.

Unhealthy Foods

• Battered and deep fried foods
• Sugary sodas
• Processed lunch meats
• Greasy snack chips
• White bread and refined pasta
• Most canned spaghetti and ravioli
• Sugary breakfast cereals
• Frozen fried chicken, fish sticks and corn dogs

Healthy Foods

• Green and brightly colored vegetables
• Dark leafy greens and lettuce
• Fresh fruits and berries
• Lean turkey and chicken
• Nuts, dried fruits and healthy snacks
• Whole grain breads and pasta
• Healthy cooking oils like canola and olive oils
• Grass fed beef and bison
• Cold water oily ocean fish
• Low fat milk or soy beverages
• Nuts, seeds, and legumes

Portion Control

Take a look at the picture to the left. Would you recognize the hamburger club sandwich with a large side of fries looks as multiple servings? "But it looks like an average meal!" Although it looks like only one meal there is enough ground beef to qualify as at least two servings, plus one serving of bacon. The lettuce and tomatoes are great, but the bread counts as three servings. One serving of potatoes should equal about one half a cup, so there are about four servings of a starchy vegetable there.

Most people don't realize the ever increasing size of their meal portions when they go out to eat. Over the last few years, Super, Mega, Biggie, and XL have shown up on products at your fast food restaurants as well as in your frozen food sections too. Even your microwave lunch or dinner is larger today than in previous years. We're slowly conditioning ourselves to get the most food for the lowest price, even when that food is not good for us. Here's a test: You're at an amusement park with $10 to eat between you and your friend. You're both getting hungrier as you walk around. What do you find yourself doing? Be honest.

• Stopping at the first restaurant/booth and buying the first thing you see on the menu
  
• Looking at a few booths to see what you can get for your money.
• Figuring out whether or not you'll get more food for your money by eating two hot dogs at the All American stand versus a burrito at the Mexican one.
• Forgoing a drink in lieu of the drinking fountain so that you can get chicken nuggets as a side.
  

If you are like most people, your answers lean more towards #3 and #4. It's not uncommon to do this in an environment like Disney or at a sporting event. But what about when you're driving to a destination and you get hungry? Then what? How do you keep portions under control when you go out to eat? A simple practice that I often try to use is to box half of my food before I take a bite. It's not as easy as it sounds and takes some getting used to. Literally, draw a line through your food with a knife. Cut your chicken in half, cheeseburger, whatever. The real trick is when there are appetizers like nachos that can often be replaced endlessly. Just being more cognizant of the amount of food you have eaten will often help curb your eating habits. Here's another tip: The next time you run through the drive-thru at McDonald's, grab a Happy Meal. You'll be surprisingly full after about a half hour. Sp what do you do when preparing your own food at home? Here's a few tips to keep your meal sizes down.

• Make foods that keep you'll be able to keep in your freezer like casseroles, soups, and pasta sauces. Freezing them ahead of time and freeze in individual servings makes for easy preparation later and less chance of extra food sitting out on the stove begging to be eaten. Most foods like this will keep for several months.
• Buy your fresh produce and fruit individually instead of by the bag. Cut what you want to eat ahead of time and put the rest back in the fridge.
  
• When buying meat, ask your deli guy/butcher to cut it into meal size portions for you.
  
• Use recipes that can easily be reduced by halves or quarters.
• Look closer at the back of the box. A majority of your pastas and rices have instructions on making individuals servings.
• Snoop around the deli area of your grocery store or supermarket. Lots of times, you'll come across small servings of veggies and fruit in pre-cut form. Add these as a side dish to your next meal. You'll probably find something new to try while there too.
• Use a smaller plate. Mentally, you'll do a lot for yourself if you eat the whole plateful of food.
  

Until next time, eat slower and drink more water.

Let's Get Busy!

I was back on the treadmill today after a pretty decent time away. In fact, last Thursday was the last time I ran. I took Saturday and Sunday off to go to a wedding out of state. Sunday was actually a pretty busy day for me. My wife and I cleaned our garage out and rearranged our basement. We put things aside for a yard sale that we'd like to have in the next few weeks. We ended up throwing a bunch of stuff away and boxing things up too. It was one of the busier days I've spent outside of the gym. Yesterday was a half hour on the bike and then on the chest, arms, and ab exercises. It felt great to get back in there and get active.

Tonight on the way to the gym I was deciding whether or not I wanted to run for an hour or do more exercises. I figured I needed to run but didn't know if I had a full sixty minutes in me. I think mentally I didn't feel like I was up to the challenge of beating the 958 calories or the 5.71 miles I have as highs. Once I got started at 5.8mph and knocked out ten minutes I felt better about my decision to run. About twenty minutes in though I had second thoughts. It seemed like the hour was going to go on for way to long. I told myself to keep doing it since I had already started it. I also noticed that about halfway in I was on pace for beating the previous calorie high. At this point I just had to find out where I'd end up. I'm happy to say that after sixty minutes of running this evening, I burned 1,004 calories! Incredible! I also hit a new high of 5.83 miles. I kept my speeds at 5.7 or higher for probably 40 minutes and even peaked at 6.2 for a few and then ran at 7.5 at the end too. My knees felt pretty good when I was done. I was really really thirsty. I had something like 48 ounces from the time I got to the gym to the time I got in my car. When I got home, I was already somewhat full from all of the water, but I had a fantastic dinner waiting on me. Steak, baked beans, pirogies, and a small baked potato. How can you not eat that? My wife gave me the smaller portions I have been trying to eat especially the baked potato. I love her so much. She's been a lot of support for me lately in this fitness thing. She's very encouraging.

Aside from tonight's dinner I have eaten decent these last two days. Very minimal calories for breakfast and lunches. Saturday and Sunday were completely different stories. I ate like an idiot Friday night. After a burger from Red Robin, we stopped at the Krispy Kreme store next to our hotel and grabbed some doughnuts. I had three for dessert that night in the hotel! I felt like I had stolen the Cup of Christ. Each time I ate one, I felt more and more guilty. Oh well, it's not everyday that one of my junior high and high school buddies gets married, right? I was out of state and felt like I had been doing very well lately. I decided it was okay to give myself a little treat. I had plenty of little cheese and vegetable hors d'oeuvre snacks at the reception. They also brought around some Swedish meatballs, quiche, shrimp cocktails, and chicken tenders. Then the main course came. I only had room for the stuffed chicken. I had two bites of roasted red potatoes and that was it. Too full to eat any more. It'll be a long time before I eat like I did over the weekend.

No Fat Refried Beans

by Jamie Hunter

I don't know about you, but I could eat refried beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner! But I couldn't be that cruel to my family and co-workers, so I keep my consumption to an occasional treat. When I was a vegetarian a friend of mine introduced me to this delicious fat free recipe for refried beans. I love it with rice or nachos.

2 cups of dried pinto beans
4 whole bay leaves
1 16 oz. jar of salsa
1 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper (optional)
Salt to taste

Cook your beans thoroughly. This takes about 3 hours so get this step done early. Drain the water, then mash the beans with a potato masher. When you are finished the beans should be smooth in texture without any lumps! Now mix in your bay leaves and let the mixture sit for 3 to 4 hours. If you can let the mixture sit over night the bay leaves will have an even greater affect on the taste. Finally remove the bay leaves, mix in the salsa, red pepper and salt. This can be eaten hot or cold. In fact it tastes great on a taco salad, or in a burrito. For an even better treat sprinkle some fat free cheddar cheese on top, and place in the microwave until melted! Try this one out. It's inexpensive to make and very good for you. Hmmm.... I think I will make some this week!

Grilled Bananas

Sounds gross, doesn't it? Yeah it did to me too at first. Check out this ridiculously simple recipe for a healthy summer dessert. If you're cooking out on the grill this weekend, put this one together!

Slice bananas length-wise and place on a sheet of aluminum foil.

Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Fold over the top so it is secure and place on the grill until the banana is soft and warm and brown sugar is carmelized.

For the best timing, throw the aluminum bananas on the grill right about the time you start serving dinner. Not using a grill? Gong camping instead? Place the packets on the warm embers of the bonfire and retrieve safely with tongs.

Oooooh It Burns!

Yesterday was an incredible day for me on the treadmill. I took two days off from running because my knees were bothering me the other night. On Tuesday, instead of running, I biked for 30 minutes straight and then did some workouts on the machines at the gym. I focused on the abs and chest. My legs are plenty big enough as it is. I really don't like having such big calves. It's definitely genetic though because my dad has big ape calves as well as my uncle. My running 5 miles a day, three times a week has only "enhanced" mine. Oh well. Incidentally, I learned last night that my wife "loves" my "killer calves". At least someone does.

Back to the reason for the post. I took Wednesday off as per usual. As it got closer to time to go run, I was nervous that I was not going to come close to the 845 calories I burned on Monday. WRONG! I hit a new high of 958 calories. I had a 13% gain over the previous high. Here's the secret. Instead of running half the time at 4 or 4.2 mph and the other at 7 mph or so, I got on and set the speed at 5.5 and didn't look back (until the last 12 minutes). I still took my sixty second pauses every mile or so, but I didn't walk at all last night. I wanted to see if I had the endurance to go for more than ten or fifteen minutes like that. The time I tried this before, I only lasted like eight minutes. Well, I definitely think I will be trying this method again. Friday is day off from the gym. Saturday will be another day off this weekend as I am going out of town to a wedding. Rest assured, Sunday I will be back at it. I think mixing running, biking, and resistance will be good for me. It gives my body time to heal where it needs to.

Spicy Cocoa Sloppy Joes

I know this might not be the healthiest thing we've posted on here, but it might be one of the best tasting ones. In all actuality, it's probably not that bad for you if you have it in a moderate portion. Once you look over the ingredients you'll probably agree. The great thing about this is that it is an official recipe from Hershey. Those guys can rarely do anything wrong in my opinion.

In the end, I would probably substitute the bun with a tortilla or pita. Both come in a variety of flavors that may only enhance the taste. I want to try this one out as soon as possible. Let us know how yours turns out if you make it.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 to 1-1/4 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard
• 2-1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1-1/4 teaspoons salt

Directions:
1. Cook ground beef and onion in large skillet on medium heat until beef is browned and onion is tender. Drain excess fat.

2. Stir in ketchup, cocoa, mustard, chili powder, pepper and salt. Heat 10 to 15 minutes on low heat or until hot. Serve in buns. Cover; refrigerate leftovers. About 4-1/2 cups sandwich filling.

Another Helpful Link

This is a site I've visited in the past, but totally forgot to bookmark or add to this blog. In fact, the only reason I even recalled it is because it was featured in the LIVING WELL section of my newspaper today. The site is called Nutrition Data. It has a lot of cool stuff including a very detailed breakdown of foods and their respective nutritional makeup. It shows you where it falls in terms of what vitamins and nutrients you're getting in the food(s). They also have some very helpful topics. I'll list a few of them here...

• Learn what your body needs to be healthy
• Estimate your daily needs of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and more...
• Analyze any food
• Secrets to weight loss
• Sensible diet advice
• Recipe help: Create recipes and let ND help you make them healthier
• Find foods that are highest in any vitamin or mineral or lowest in saturated fats or sugars
• Nutrition glossary: your reference guide to diet and nutrition
• Calculate glycemic load, inflammation factor, and omega-3:omega-6 ratio for any food or recipe
• Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) and what it means for your health

Check the site out. I am positive there is something there for you to look at!

Time to Make A Change

Ok, I decided tonight right after I got in my car that I will not be running five times a week any longer. Instead I will be riding a bike on two or three days and running the other two. I made this decision for a few reasons. Let's examine the big three.

A) My knees are killing me. There are nights when I get off the treadmill and feel like someone has taken a baseball bat to them. It's about one out of every three times. Maybe four. I think it's because I feel like I have to constantly push myself to hit the goals I set for myself.

B) My focus is on calories, not distance. I came to this conclusion about a week ago. If I burn 800 calories in 5.5 miles, it's just as good for me as if I did it in 5.70 miles. Right? I did the same thing to my body in both scenarios.

C) I'd like to work on different muscle groups. It's as simple as that. I want to start to mix it up a little bit more.

I wonder how many calories I would be burn on the bicycle? It'll be fun to find out!

So how did I do today? Well, I set out to hit 840 calories and ended up with 845. Sweet! I also ended up at 5.71 miles. Both are new highs. For dinner, my wife prepared some steamed vegetables, baked beans, and some small chicken tenders. She baked them as opposed to frying them. She marinated the tenders in soy sauce for a while prior to baking them. It's amazing how much flavor is added with just a little bit of sauce. It's been around an hour since dinner and I feel pretty good aside from the knees feeling a little tight. Dinner seems to be sitting very well. I have to applaud my wife for helping me along. She's trying to make some changes inher lifestyle right now and it is comforting to know that she's got my back and ecourages me. She makes smarter decisions for dinner each week. Whether it's portion size or the actual items, I think she's done a lot for both of us lately to make sure we are going to meet our long term goals. It's kind of like having a partner that works out with you at the gym. Things are much easier when you have someone watching your back and pushing you.

I think I had somewhere around 56 ounces of water in the time since I started running tonight. That's a pretty fair amount in 3 hours. I also had around 48 before I left work. Not to shabby. Water always helps curb little appetites. I can't say enough about the benefits of it.

So tomorrow I will be biking. I have ZERO idea as to how well I will be doing. I hope to burn an equal amount of calories if not more. We'll see!

The Beast Will Not Be Tamed!

About three hours after the previous post I hit the gym. I used yesterday's numbers as a gauge for my progress. Short and sweet, I set two new highs. I'm happy to say I hit 5.66 miles and 833 calories! Again, I did not expect to hit it, but I hoped to at least do as well. I think if I keep trying to add a few more calories each day I'll be good. My 30th birthday is coming up in just over a month. I'd really love to be running 6 miles an hour by then. By then, I ought to be able to burn 1,000 calories an hour. I spoke to my mom tonight and she said I can borrow the Gazelle, so I should be able to rip off another 100 calories or so at night when catching up on TV shows. If I can get myself motivated enough, I'll start doing it in the morning. Gotta do everything I can when I can if I want to see results. I do see results now, but I'd like to kick it up a step or two.

As far as eating hard boiled eggs as a snack, I will be cutting out the yolks wherever possible. I read tonight that roughly 55 or 75 calories come from the yolk. I might eat a few egg whites and one or two yolks here and there for the taste. Just another place to cut out unnecessary calories. Now I gotta start cutting out drinking calories. I crushed a 32 oz. Gatorade after my run today. Well, back goes 200 calories right there! Wow, is that aggravating.

Another Victory

Yesterday saw me reach two new highs. In terms of miles, I ran 5.57 this time around. I think that the reason behind that was because I set out to break the calorie barrier of 800. Rather than focus on how far I ran, I wanted to see how much I could burn in the hour. As it turns out, I ended up going from previous high of 798 to new high of 828 calories. That's insane for me to think about. That is almost 500 more calories burned in an hour than when I started running about 7 1/2 weeks ago.

I knew I was in good shape around 15 minutes into the run. Typically, I feel a little heavier on my feet at the beginning. I felt like I was running 10 pounds lighter than normal. For some reason I felt like I was gliding a little more in my run. I set out with a goal of around 67 calories every five minutes. I noticed at around that fifteen minute mark that I was hitting around 70 per five minute increment. Overall I was around 12-20 calories ahead of my goal(s). I think I will use that as my gauge for today's run. I will know exactly where I stand versus my best run. With about two minutes left into yesterday's run, I had already exceeded the 800 calorie goal. That' when I pushed hard to beat the 5.55 miles. I barely beat it.

I had no idea that I would have done that well. For dinner the night before I ate a huge salad at one of my favorite restaurants. I also had a bowl of chili and some bread. Not the best thing to do, I know. For lunch yesterday I had two sandwiches made on Asiago cheese bagels. They were capacole and hot pepper cheese. Delicious! I looked at my Angel (my wife) and said, "I am definitely gonna have to run hard today." For dinner last night, we shared a General Tso's combo and some dumplings. I'm anxious to get back on the treadmill today. My legs feel way better than I expected them to. I'll be back again soon with the update.

More Links

Check out the links on the right. I added three more today. Fitness Wikia, Health Wikia and Food Wikia are all very good sites (in theory) designed on the wiki platform. It's great stuff. Community sites are what web 2.0 is all about, right?

Not Ready for the Rockies

I’ve been hitting the Mountain Climber at the Gym. I go strong for about 15 minutes. But my bpm is like at 170-190. I have to keep to 2 mph just to get anything out of it!

It makes me feel a little stronger though. I added like 30lbs to my weights. Abs added about 10lbs. Next year I’m going to climb the Alps 3 days a week!

More Progress Made

Yesterday saw me blow past my next personal goal. I hit 5.55 miles on the treadmill over my 60:00 run. I came about as close as possible to beating the calorie high too. I hit 797 where the high is 798. Yesterday was different for me. Instead of trying to run further than before, I set out to burn a new high in calories to see what happens. My goal was 800 calories. As it turns out, I was .00375% short. Not bad! My legs felt much better than before. I kept a nice pace of around 7.5 mph for almost half of the time with a walking speed of around 4.0-4.2 for the other half. I think I am going to start to concentrate on burning calories for a bit. The way I look at it is this; it doesn't matter how far I have to go to burn the calories or what I actually do. It's the calories being burned that matter. I'd love to hammer out 1,000 on the treadmill. To me, that is definitely attainable. My mom has a Tony Little Gazelle that I'd like to borrow off of her to burn an extra 100 or so at night before bed. I've used it before and it's great.

How have I been eating since Easter? In a word, better. I've been snacking on hard boiled eggs and popcorn cooked on the stove. For dinner last night I had two burgers with no bun. They were average sized patties. The two of them would probably be slightly larger than a normal cheeseburger, but since I did not have buns on them, I felt justified. For a side, I did have a baked potato though. Other than that, no snacks after dinner over the next 4 hours. Just water and chocolate milk. Could have done better, could have done worse.

I've been on a salad kick lately too. I've tried to add one to all my dinners as a larger portion of my meals. We picked up some pre-cooked buffalo tenders from Tyson. They're great, just pop them in the microwave for 4 minutes, turning them over at 2:00 in. They have a nice flavor that would add a nice kick to your salad. I'm gonna try that this weekend when I pick up some more lettuce. Speaking of, the lettuce and spinach crops are in the ground now. The pre-washed bagged salads will be here before long. After last fall's E. coli outbreak in spinach that sickened 200 people and killed three, the big question is, are those leafy greens safe to eat? Me personally, I love to buy romaine by the stalk or head. It takes seconds to cut up and tastes fresher to me. I bought a lettuce knife last year at Target for 25¢ and it's simple. I'd prefer this over a bag any day. Who knows what marinates in a bag in the middle of a hot summer day?

Links

Gonna add a few links today for you to check out when you have free time. If you're looking for recipes, ideas or help, check out the following sites.

• American Dietetic Association
• FoodFit
• Meals Matter
• Slashfood
• That's Fit

I will park these on the right hand side of the side too for easy access. If you have a personal favorite you'd like us to add, drop a line!

Site Changes

You may or may not notice a few changes to the site today. The most obvious is the color scheme. What you may not pick up on though is the change to the posts. Not only are posts labeled by author now, they also have secondary and tertiary tags to them so you can sort by topic and not only by the people creating the articles. You'll also notice a couple of site feeds to the right side. For now, there are live feeds from Slashfood and That's Fit. I will add more as I find them. If you have a suggestion, please let me know.

As always, if you are interested in helping out on this site, please email me at swebster77@sbcglobal.net and I will be happy to get back.

Update (By the Numbers)

Well Easter weekend has come and passed. How did everyone do? Eat a bunch of stuff on Sunday that you regret still on Wednesday? I know I certainly thought twice about all the food I ate later on Sunday night. I had pancakes for breakfast on Sunday and then a few cookies at my mom's house. Later in the evening around 5:30 we had dinner at my in-law's house. Delicious spread of things like (of course) ham, deviled eggs, steamed vegetables, salad, homemade sausage and capacole. It wasn't exactly a bunch of bad stuff, just a little too much in the belly when all was said and done. In the end, I didn't really regret it, more like I was just trying to get comfortable later on the couch and I just wasn't able to very easily. It's alright though since Easter is once a year and there aren't that many holidays in a year like this. Plus, I feel like I kinda owed it to myself.

For a few reasons that I won't go into here, I was not able to run on Saturday. With Sunday being Easter, obviously I didn't run either. So rather than one day off on Friday, I had three in a row. Wow! I am gonna do all I can to not let that happen again anytime soon. It felt like I was off for two weeks. By the time I was done, my legs were more sore than any other times in recent history. I ended up short of my high of 5.24 when I finished at 5.07 miles. I was a little discouraged. I thought that the extra rest would have helped. Nope. On the calorie side, I did continue to burn more than previously with a high of 757 in the hour.

Last night was a different story altogether. I'm happy to announce that I cruised to a new high of 5.38 miles going well past my third goal of 5.25 miles almost three weeks early! I also burned 798 calories! I was literally seconds away from eclipsing 800. Oh well, that's just another number to beat. I am gonna work on the next goal of 5.50 miles. I hope to hit it by month end. I had to really push myself to get to this new high last night. The thing is, it seemed to come a little easier than the night before when I did over 1/4 mile less. My calves are very tender today. Walking is fine and going up stairs is no problem. Walking down though really takes a little more effort today. I hope to recover okay for tomorrow night. I'd love to beat both numbers but I do not expect to.

This post mentions that it's an update by the numbers so I will get right to them.

• 8 straight days of running 5 or more miles
• 12 straight days of running 4.5 or more miles
• 31 days of running
• High in calories burned - 798
• High in miles run - 5.38
• Average Calorie Burn - 570
• Average Distance Run - 4.27
• 132.06 total miles run
• 17,669 total calories burned

Chart #1 shows miles run with actual versus average
Chart #2 shows calories burned with actual versus average

FUN FACT: Cumulatively, I have run the distance from Cleveland, OH to Pittsburgh, PA so far.

Eckrich Turkey Sausage Smoked

by Jamie Hunter

While I was shopping last week, I found Eckrich Kielbasa on sale for 5 for $10. Anyone that's shopped for sausage knows that Eckrich hardly ever goes on sale, at least not at Giant Eagle, so I jumped all over this deal. Well, today while I was preparing my lunch I happened to take a look at the label and noticed it said Turkey Kielbasa. Now I've never been a fan of turkey based products. Not because I don't like turkey but because it's always seemed weird to see "turkey burger" or turkey whatever.

At any rate I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of these sausages. They are tremendously lower in fat than the original pork sausages, and they don't taste as salty either. I highly recommend them if you are looking for a healthy alternative to regular Kielbasa. Try them and you just might be as surprised as I was at the flavor.

Italian Crusted Chicken

by Jamie Hunter

This recipe is a household favorite and is sure to please most eaters!

Serves: 2 People

Prep Time: 6 hours

- 2 Whole Chicken Breasts (fat trimmed)

- 1 Cup of fat free Italian salad dressing

- 1 Tablespoon of Italian seasoning

- 2 Cups of bread crumbs

2 Sandwich bags

Be sure to trim the fat off your chicken breasts. Tenderize your chicken breasts using a meat tenderizer until flat. Take two sandwich bags and place a chicken breast into each one. Next pour half of the salad dressing into each bag, seal with a twist tie or rubber band and place in the refrigerator for 2 or more hours. It's even better if they can soak overnight.

Now take the bread crumbs and combine them with the Italian seasoning.

Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees.

Take out your chicken breasts and coat them with the bread crumb mixture. I use a bowl with a lid and shake them until they are evenly covered.

Place them in an oven safe pan, cover with foil then place in the oven for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes has expired remove the foil and continue to cook for an additional 30 minutes or until done. Use a meat thermometer to make sure it is thoroughly cooked. Poultry should reach an internal temperature of 180 degrees before eaten.

Serve with rice and steamed vegetables for a really healthy and tasty meal.

Pound It! The Secret To Tender Chicken Breasts Everytime

by Jamie Hunter

Ever wonder how restaraunts are able to serve tender and juicy chicken breasts everytime? Well, I will let you in on two of their secrets.

The first thing you can do is to slow cook your chicken. The slower you can cook chicken or any other meat the more tender it will be. The only thing you have to worry about is overcooking, as this will cause the meat to become stringy and dried out. You can cover it in a pan with aluminum foil, and place it in the oven at 175 to 200 degrees for up to 8 hours. You could also use a crock pot. The only problem with crock pots is that moisture accumulates and if your meat sits in the liquid for too long it can have a "boiling effect" which doesn't work well with some recipes.

The next trick is to "tenderize" the meat before cooking. You will need to purchase or have access to a meat tenderarize for this to work. It's that hammer type utensil that has different sizes of spikes on the 4 sides it. Chicken breasts are usually pretty thick so pound it down until it's flat, being careful not to break through to the other side. It's okay if you do, but be careful when you're handling it or it could fall apart. By tenderizing it you are breaking down the natural consistency of the meat. I prefer using this method as opposed to slow cooking because it works with any recipe involving chicken breats.

Give this a try and I guarantee your chicken will be as tender and juicy as the pros!

Freshman Fifteen Theory

I've long had my own theory as to why teens add that chunk of weight right out of high school. It kind of goes along with a few other reasons that the experts have come up with but it is slightly different and may stand on it's own for some individuals. To me, it was common sense after I had the realization as to what each person has in common. First let's look at some of the reasons that people already attribute to it. Each reason listed below is valid and could be responsible. The likelihood increases with the more reasons you have. I'd say that depending on whether you live at home or move off to the big city, your propensity for the freshman fifteen changes. Let's examine a few...

• Increased homework and studying leads to increased snacking
• Decreased levels of sleep which deprive the body of leptin. Leptin is what tells your body you are full when eating.
• Cafeteria style foods in the dorm serving unhealthy food.
• Teens fending for themselves for the first time in their life having trouble setting good habits.
• Increased popularity in fast food
• Larger socials circles leading to more partying and social events with food

I think that each one of those is very valid and in most cases leads to weight gain for teens going off to college. For some people, the partying alone will lead to large amounts of alcohol consumption and the startings of the "beer belly". Fast food franchises are currently opening at an alarming rate and make it more (in)convenient for people all the time to "grab a bite". If you stop and think about it, nobody ever grabs a "bite". This is typically when people eat worse than they usually do. It's more along the lines of "grab a bunch of stuff that I normally wouldn't eat if I were home in larger portions than I really need" instead.

Now for my theory. Think back to when you were in school. Doesn't matter when. Elementary, junior high school or high school. When did you eat? It was between the same 2-3 hours every day for almost the entire year. Let's assume you start school at age five. By the time you leave high school, you have spent the better part of your life (75%) eating at roughly the same time every day. On top of that, you are eating the same portion sizes too. You get home from school and typically have dinner around the same time. Your body has come to depend on getting certain sizes at certain times and makes adjustments accordingly. It burns stuff off because it knows you're gonna give it more in just a few more hours. I feel bad for today's kids because with mom and dad both working sometimes two jobs, there is less chance of the family sitting down together at one time for dinner. "Just make yourself something to eat" is not the best thing for a teen to hear.

Now, you're in college. You might be living at home still, but now you're doing something completely different to your body. Your classes might start later so you are eating breakfast at a different time. You might be sleeping in (through class) so you grab something on the way. What about those classes that are sandwiched together in the middle of the afternoon? Your lunch ends up getting pushed back a little bit or perhaps you are snacking in class. Gotta spend some time in the library? Take something with you. In the end, your body has no idea when it will be eating again, so it starts to store things instead of burning them.

This is evident in people who go straight to work out of high school too. Maybe you're working a closing shift at the plant. When are you eating? It's not the same time as your body is used to. Where do a lot of kids get jobs right out of high school? Restaurants. I don't even need to get into how that affects things. I think that the "routine" is probably the biggest reason that people put on weight. It doesn't stop after the first year of college either. If you have taught your body how to burn and store things, it will react adversely if you throw it out of whack. Ask me later about how much I hate the "desk" job that I have had for the l8 month. Ask me about what I would do when I was bored. Here's a small hint, it rhymes with "eating".

So now, I'm running almost daily. I'm also snacking all throughout the day. The difference here is that I am eating very small things that are healthier for me. I also do it every 3 hours or so. It feels like my body is catching on to what I am doing. I am trying to get my body into a routine that it can memorize for me.

The High Cost of Eating Healthy

By Jamie Hunter

Did you ever wonder why it costs so much more to buy healthy foods when you're at the grocery store? Well, I came up with a few of my own reasons. Tell me if you think I'm on the right track.

For starters I think its a simple matter of supply and demand. There are far more people purchasing processed food than there are that purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and so on. The majority of the food manufactures are built to produce these types of foods because they are in such high demand. On the contrary since healthy eating is in the minority and the demand isn't as great for these foods it takes more money for manufactures to produce them and still make a profit. If more people demanded these foods, the prices would start to come down.

Transportation for healthy foods is a lot more expensive than foods packed with preservatives. The cost of your produce is directly related to your grocery bill, particularly when you are dealing with perishable goods. I think you would be surprised to learn just how few of our fruits and vegetables are grown locally. Now we know there aren't any orange groves in Ohio, but what about apples, cherries and other fruits that could be produced locally? I know for a fact that Giant Eagle imports the majority of their fruits out of state. Have you ever priced their apples and strawberries year round?!

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot we can do about the prices of fresh foods right now, but in the end I think it's an expense worth incurring. In the mean time, shop around for the best values and even check the Sunday papers for valuable coupons to help soften the blow of these necessary nutrients.

Mandarin Chicken/Tuna Salad

Here's a great idea for a quick salad that's low in fat and calories. The chicken can be subsituted for Tuna.

- 1 small can of tuna

- 1 cup of baby spinach leaves

- 1 mandarin orange or clementine

- 1 tablespoon of chopped walnuts (optional)

- 1 half cup of sliced tomatoes

Non fat Caesar Salad dressing.

Drain your tuna before adding it to the rest of your ingredients. Mix together your baby spinach, tuna or cubed chicken breast, tomatoes and orange slices. Add your chopped walnuts to last to maintain their crunchy texture, and finally add your salad dressing to taste.

This is a really fast meal that you can enjoy at home or at work. I find that "eating right" requires that you experiment and treat yourself to different textures and flavors to keep from getting bored with same old food day in and day out. Give it a try. You just might like it!

Jamie Hunter

It Can Be Very Slow

This post originally started out as a comment to Jamie's Avalanche post. As I typed it, it got bigger and bigger so I decided to create a new post altogether. The slow and subtle avalanche can be scarier than an instant one! Twice now as an adult I have lost weight at a relatively impressive rate and amount. About 4 years ago, I lost 35 pounds over the course of a year. I didn't even realize it until I weighed myself almost 11 months apart. Two years later, I lost 25 pounds in around two months. Somewhere between there, I noticed that Of the 35 I lost, I gained back about 15 or more over the next two years. Well, here I am again, about 15 pounds heavier. Not bad if you think about only adding 1-2 pounds a month over the next few years. The problem is, to safely lose weight, you have to do it somewhat slowly so your body can adjust. Same thing goes with gaining. I'd rather add ten pounds in two months because I would notice quicker which way I was heading. Also, my body would exhibits signs of distress if it felt like it was going crazy. Only adding a pound or two here and there, my body never said anything to me. I am lighter now than I was four years ago and getting closer to my weight from two years ago. Not close to my goal, but heading there. I want to look different than I do now. The weight will be a product of my changing my habits.

I'm now in my third iteration of losing weight and toning up. I started eating better (again) a few months back. Dropped the amounts of sugar down and portion sizes scaled back slowly. Now that I have been running, I feel great. I am not 100% comfortable with my weight. I doubt I ever will be. Some people have commented that I look better and see improvements. I thank them politely and say something along the lines of "Yeah, still got some work to do, but thank you for noticing". If someone asks me if I have lost weight, I tell them "That's the plan." This time around, I am noticing the inches more than the weight. I think it is because of the muscle weight staying on or adding when I am slowly taking off the fat weight. The road is long, but as long as I keep looking forward and moving I think I'll be alright. In fact, I think that my moving slower this time weight-wise is better for me. I'm developing habits and routines that I think will be around for a long time.

Sugar...

For the past month or so, I had been real strict on my sugar/carb/fat in-take. I'm a slim dude by nature, but I was looking to force myself to make up for my lack of carbs with a higher amount of protein. This was helping by leaning out some of the body fat, and building up muscle tissue underneath. One thing I noticed was a major change in energy levels. Aside from a day or two transition period, I had a lot more energy and less severity in the change in my moods. Recently, I indulged myself in a week long feast of carbs, sugar, and fat. Part of it was because I was out of town and couldn't really regulate my diet comfortably, and the other part was because I got a sinus infection and I always spoil myself when I get sick. The major change has been in my moods. They are much more drastic when they change, while eating lots of sugar/carbs. The natural energy surge has been replaced by a quick artificial spike, and then a slow and sludgy slope. I look forward to getting back on my healthy eating again. Sounds weird right? I always picture two people in my mind when I eat. I am either eating to look like Stallone in Rambo, or Gandolfini as Tony Soprano. It helps make things easier. Try it. Holla.

Beware of the Avalanche!

I've always been health conscious. I know how I should be eating, and I am well aware of the risks of not exercising and taking care of your body. Believe it or not I used to be quite the physical specimen about 15 years ago. I ran 5 to 7 miles per day outdoors, I was meticulous about my diet, and I took great pride in my physical appearance. So what happened? What turned me into this mass of liquid jelly that I am today? Well, I fell victim to the avalanche.

Things were going great. I was in the best shape of my life and I looked forward to working out daily. In fact there were times when I would actually run two times per day. I stayed away from fast food, and rarely ate meat except for chicken and fish. I even made my own milk out of rice and vanilla. My family felt I was becoming too thin, but I felt great so I didn't worry too much about this. You might say that I was the picture of health, so dedicated was I to my well being and appearance! Then it happened. At the time I started dating my wife I also worked in a mall, so we would often frequent the food court for lunch and even dinner. Now in the beginning I stuck to my guns, sticking to steamed vegetables and rice, and maybe a been burrito from Taco Bell. I would later learn that these been burritos weren't exactly a devout health nuts best meal choice. Now, I was still running and working out, but my frequency had changed. Once you start dating you find that you just don't have as much time for other things in your life. Something had to go, and it wasn't about to be my future wife. So I made sacrifices when it came to my workout routine. I started adding sour cream and cheese to my burritos, sweet and sour chicken with my white rice, and fish and chips from Arthur Treachers! The avalanche had begun! Before I knew it I had totally abandoned my work out routine all together! I figured that I had done so much damage with my eating habits that I was spinning my wheels working out. It just seemed futile! I was now burried beneath mounds and mounds of snow and I have not recovered since!
Every time I motivate myself to get back into the habit of working out and changing my lifestyle, I am always weary of the avalanche. It can be set off by an unplanned lunch with friends or co-workers, or by indulging in a little snack that wasn't a part of your meal plan. If anyone has any advice or suggestions to avoiding the avalanche I will listen. It may even help others as well.

Jamie hunter

Water

How much water should one drink? A lot of people subscribe to the 64 ounces a day theory. Personally, I try to get around 100 or more. For a lot of people it's very tough to drink enough water. One of the best pieces of advice I could give is to just carry it around in a little container. Maybe something around 16 ounces. I have two that I use. One I have here at my desk all day everyday. The other goes with me from to the gym and anywhere else I end up. I try my best to get in 16 oz. before I have shoes on in the morning. Some days, I pound it down very easily. Others, I have to take it with me and sip on the way to work. Either way, I do everything I can to drink that before I eat or have any other beverages. I don't touch my daily orange juice unless I have had my water first. It kick starts my day and gets my flushing my system. I also try to get in one more bottle before bed no matter how late or what I recently ate or drank. It might wake me up in the middle of the night, but between those two bottles, I have 32 ounces right there. Here are a few other tips for drinking more water.

• Add some lemon or lime to your water. It adds a taste to it that might make you want to drink more of it. Be careful not to make it too sour.
• Instead of a Coke at lunch, try a glass of water. It's a whole lot better for you since you're not gonna be drinking around ten teaspoons (50 ml) of sugar.
• Fill two 32-ounce bottles in the morning and make sure you have emptied the contents of both by the end of your day. It also helps by giving a sense of accomplishment as you can see exactly what is left for you to drink for the day.
  
• Drink water 20 minutes before meals, preferably cold water. The cold causes your stomach to shrink somewhat, which will make you feel full more rapidly. This helps two ways in that you get extra water and that you also tend to eat less.

Of course, it is very hard to drop juices and sodas completely. I still treat myself to a Pepsi One or Coke Zero around once a night. As long as I am staying active and getting enough water, I justify it. I am doing all I can to eliminate liquid calories. If I am gonna have 15o calories, then I might as well eat some chips right? Diet sodas are great because they taste very similar to regular drinks and they are "better" for you. After a while, you don't miss the originals as much. Besides, a lot of companies are offering new variations and flavors all the time.

Chinese Food

I came across an interesting article online a few minutes ago that I want to share with you. I know that we are constantly hearing about fast food giants like McDonald's or Burger King being "not so good" for your waistline. Have you ever thought about the local Chinese buffet? The mom & pop places that can cook up whatever proprietary blend of food can be just as bad, if not worse. Check this out...

A plate of General Tso's chicken, for example, is loaded with about 40 percent more sodium and more than half the calories an average adult needs for an entire day.

The battered, fried chicken dish with vegetables has 1,300 calories, 3,200 milligrams of sodium and 11 grams of saturated fat.

That's before the rice (200 calories a cup). And after the egg rolls (200 calories and 400 milligrams of sodium).

A plate of stir-fried greens has 900 calories and 2,200 milligrams of sodium.

An order of six steamed pork dumplings has 500 calories, and there's not much difference, about 10 calories per dumpling, if they're pan-fried.

They do offer a few tips to help you out though

• Look for dishes that feature vegetables instead of meat or noodles. Ask for extra broccoli, snow peas or other veggies.
• Steer clear of deep-fried meat, seafood or tofu. Order it stir-fried or braised.
• Hold the sauce, and eat with a fork or chopsticks to leave more sauce behind.
• Avoid salt, which means steering clear of the duck sauce, hot mustard, hoisin sauce and soy sauce.
• Share your meal or take half home for later.
• Ask for brown rice instead of white rice.

Glad to Have the Day Off

I think I say it to my wife every Tuesday night or Wednesday morning when I am getting ready for work. "Wow, I am really glad I'm not running tonight!" It was a tough last few days on my legs. Most notably, my knees. I think I was running harder on them than normal. I feel like sometimes I was push too hard down on my legs rather than gliding. I did hit another high of 5.16 miles and 722 calories burned last night. I was thinking that I had hit my plateau of around 5.10 or so. Hopefully with the day off and 48 hours between running, I can hit around 5.20 miles. My goal is still 5.25 for the end of April.

Been eating pretty decent. The other day, the chili I had seemed like it held me back from running great. I ended up .02 short of my previous high, however, I feel like I could have added .05 or more if I had eaten well. Yesterday I had a Snackable for lunch with yogurt, pretzels and one of those 100 calorie snack packs from Ritz. I felt lighter just from not eating like I did the day before. Dinner last night was salad, green beans, and a delicious cheeseburger cooked on the grill by my wife. It's always nice to get home and smell something cooking on a grill in the neighborhood and find out that it is yours! After my sit-ups later on, I had dessert of strawberries, whipped cream and a small angel food cake. Lunch today was a can of soup and some pretzels. Snacks were string cheese, Jello pudding, and another Ritz 100 calorie pack.

I'm really looking forward to relaxing after work and enjoying the night off from running.

Tough Day

Although I did beat the previous high of 5.11 miles by one-one hundredth of a mile, I had to really push it. Hardest I had to go in about a week. The one big reason I can think of is that I spent almost 9 hours working on our office and spare bedroom yesterday. Moving desks, beds, dressers, etc. Perhaps that might have played a little in how I fared. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to beat my record. I have no idea how I will do today when I get off work. My knees felt sore most of the night last night afterwards and I hope that time at the desk today helps a little bit. I also really need to get some new music for my run. I think that it mentally plays a pretty good sized portion of my run too. It kinda sucks to hear the same DJ set start over every few days. It's like "Oh... here we go again with this."

Gonna have a light snack day with some pretzels, string cheese, jello and lunch will be a bowl of chili. We'll see what happens there!

Time to Rethink Things

Well, it seems like things have not gone the way I wanted them to. They've actually gone better! I set two goals when I started running. After my first week of averaging around 3.5 miles in my 60 minute run, I set the first goal of hitting 4.5 miles by the end of March and the second goal of hitting 5 miles by the end of April. Well, I hit the first one last weekend a week earlier than expected. After taking off Wednesday, I hit 5.01 yesterday a full month early! Now, I have no idea why I was able to jump a full quarter mile between my two runs. Could be any number of things. Conditioning is my most educated guess. I have been eating better yet. Smaller portions! I snack about 3 times a day on stuff like Chex Mix or beef jerky. I think my body is just getting used to it. I didn't sweat nearly as much as I would have a week ago. When I started getting close to my first mile, I noticed that it was just about 12:30 minutes in. At twelve minutes a mile, I'd end up at 5 miles in the hour. The second mile was almost equally close. By the time I was hitting the third mile I kinda laughed to myself because I thought "There is no way I am gonna do this already". When I hit the fourth mile at 48:05 I knew it was on!

I think I ran more often at speeds of around 7.6-8.0 mph than usual. It used to be that my high running speed was around 5.5- 6.0 mph. I also started running earlier in. Typically, I will start with around 3-4 minutes of walking at about 4 mph. I'm definitely gonna go back to that tomorrow afternoon when I hit it up again. Today's Friday and I take it off. My legs feel great! I am nowhere near as muscle-sore as I used to be. I think a realistic goal for me is to hit 5.25 miles by the end of April. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will plateau somewhere. God knows I'd love to keep advancing at this rate though! For a visual of where I started and where I am check out the graphs to the left. The top one represents my distance run and the bottom is my caloric burn.

Now that I have hit 5 miles, I am going to start working on my abs. Gonna start out doing about 100 crunches a day maybe 3-4 times a week. We'll see what happens with that.

Hill Climber Kicks Butt!!!

My Butt anyway. I did the hill climber tonight for 15 minutes. I did 1.1 miles. It was a tough one! The rest the workout didn't seem as bad after that!!! I'm not sure of the calories. It said like 162, but I didn't have my hands on the sensors to get an accurate reading. I'll be back in a few days to rock it out further!

Keeping on

I started yesterday with a 3 mile walk on the towpath in Navarre. I couldn't gage calories, but it was a nice walk. It took an hour exactly. I then went to work for 8 hours, then to the gym. I hit the hill climber for 5 minutes. I did have intentions for more, but it just wasn't happening. I then continued on to upper body, including: Triceps, Biceps, Shoulders, abs, back, sides. It was a good workout. I'm noticing it a little in the mirror now.

Cause to Celebrate

If I was a stock, I'd say buy now. I'm on the rise. Yesterday was a new high for calories burned in my run as I hit 627 in sixty minutes. This is almost 30 higher than my previous high. I fell .01 miles short of tying my high of 4.73 miles. I was still very surprised and happy to hit it though. Each day, I feel like I am not going to be able to hit the goal or come very close to it. I know it's not gonna be long before I run into a plateau. I was talking to my wife last night at dinner about that actually. I told her that as I keep track of all my running, I will keep the running average over the previous two weeks as my goal. For instance, I started out a few weeks ago hovering 3.4 miles. Now I am up to 3.92 as my overall average distance. If I can hit that or higher, then I will be pleased. The more highs I keep getting, the higher that average will be. I'd like to keep my two week average at around 4.75 - 5.0 miles in the end. Once the average stays up there, I will really start to focus on my core with crunches and chest exercises.

Dinner was absolutely delicious! My wife was cooking pork chops on the grill when I got home last night. She made an awesome marinade with red peppers and soy sauce. For sides, we had corn and sliced potatoes/cabbage on the stove. I come home and the house smells so good, I just want to totally ruin all the progress I just made! I use portion control and eat slower and everything seems okay. Also, gotta make sure to drink plenty of water in there too. The first thing I do when I get home from working out is to drink at least 16 ounces of water. This helps fill me up prior to dinner, especially if it's gonna be another half hour or so. This is on top of anything else I might have had to drink at the gym. When dinner comes, I put a slightly smaller helping on my plate, and my stomach doesn't seem to notice.

At about ten o'clock last night I made smoothies for my wife and I using frozen strawberries, a plum, banana, mango yogurt, and some fruit juice in the fridge. The frozen strawberries were nice because they give the cold, blended feeling you get with ice, but without as much watered down flavor. About 16 ounces later, I was ready to shower and go to bed. First, we had to finish watching 24 though!

Goal Number One Reached

I went to the gym yesterday to run and I pounded it out. I reached my first goal of 4.5 miles in an hour! I had set the goal for myself to be reached by the end of the month. I am very excited to announce that I hit 4.56 miles yesterday. This is up from 4.44 on Thursday. Yesterday was also the sixth straight day of setting a new high. Of course, the caloric burn has gone up each time too. The last two times I have gone, I have burned 598 and 596 calories. I would love to cross the 600 mark. I know that I will do this soon. Not a huge deal, but it would be nice. The next goal I have is for 5.0 miles in the hour. I had originally set the goal for the end of April. Looks like I will be beating that on too. That is of course if I continue at my pace.

How have I been eating? Pretty good actually. I had a salad for lunch yesterday with romaine lettuce, onion, small amount of cheese, red wine vinegar, small amount of granny Smith apple, ranch and dried sesame sticks and corn nuts. Very good. It's probably only good to me. I'd tell y to make it if you happen to have all the ingredients lying around though. For dinner, I had some Swedish meatballs and noodles. One bowl. Not a lot. Afterwards, I went to see a movie and had a few handfuls of popcorn and one of those Nestea Enviga drinks. For breakfast today, I had a bowl of cereal and a banana. Naturally, I've been having water all the live long day. Gonna run later today. I have no idea if I can beat the 4.56 miles or not. I told myself to take it easy today. It's tough though when you keep beating your highs. You keep wanting to beat it over and over. Check back to find out how I did.

Getting Really Close!

I'm getting "this close" to hitting my March goal of 4.5 miles in an hour. I say "in an hour" because to me, it sounds considerably better an 4.5 miles per hour. That doesn't impress anyone. Well yesterday went way better than I expected. I figured I would come close to the 4.33 that I hit two days ago. For lunch I did end up with a Whopper Junior, 4 nuggets, and small onion rings. I spent $3 and felt fine afterwards. It was a nice sized meal that didn't make me feel crappy afterwards. It doesn't sound healthy, and it really wasn't , but I've eat much worse lunches. I swear, if I had 30 seconds more on the treadmill I would have hit that goal plus eclipsed 600 calories too. Oh well, that's why we set goals, right? I look forward to meeting these goals as early as this weekend.

After a Day Off

Took yesterday off from running as Wednesday and Friday are the two days I don't run. It's a good thing too. Somehow when I was running on Tuesday, my sock was not up high enough on my heel and created a small blister. Just small enough to notice. The problem with blisters though, is that no matter how small, they still suck to get. I can feel it today and hope that it doesn't affect my running tonight after work. I am really looking forward to trying to beat 4.33 miles. I have no idea if I will, but right now I feel up to it. Legs feel pretty good today with the day of rest. I'll push myself hard tonight and try to get to 4.5 miles. We'll see what happens when I actually get on the treadmill though. Gonna have a light lunch today since I forgot to pack anything. Looks like my snacks that I have packed will end up being the lunch too! Oh well. At least I won't be full or have lunch hanging around in my stomach when I leave work.

Like Milkshakes? Try this!

Spring is here and it's time to continue a close watch on our weight and health. I know when the temperature starts to rise, I like to enjoy a cool shake! Don't deny your cravings, just do it right.

A couple tips. Use frozen fruit and skim milk for a great strawberry, blackberry, banana, or your favorite fruit shake. The frozen fruit gives the consistency of the hard ice cream. The skim milk keeps it fat free! You can also use a little vanilla extract for added flavor.

Here's a recipe for one of my healthy faves:
Choco-Peanut Butter-Banana Shake
1 cup skim milk
2 tbs chocolate Ovaltine
2 tbs Jif creamy peanut butter
2 ripe bananas-if not ripe, they won't give the desired flavor
1 tsp vanilla extract
5-6 ice cubes

Two More Records

This is the 4th straight day for me to set a personal high on the treadmill. New high for mileage and calories. I am at 4.33 miles in an hour now. This is 1.10 miles better than when I started only three weeks ago. I should definitely be able to get to 4.5 by the end of this month! I don't know what it is, but each day when I get done, I feel like I could have done just a tad more. Somewhere around 45 minutes in, I start to get in a groove and any cramping I have seems to die down.

How have I been eating? In a word, decent. Lately, I have been eating slightly less during the day. I have snacked on lighter things, like Jello and apples. For dinner, I've had salad three nights in a row with dinner. I had pasta last night. My wife makes a mean sauce. It's impossible to resist. I eat smaller portions for dinner than I was a few months back. Small steps. I keep telling myself that I am going in the right direction. As long as I'm running or getting exercise in some form, eat less, I feel like I am doing the right thing. Once I am getting five miles a day in on the treadmill, then I will focus on my core with crunches and sit-ups.

Last night's salad was a new concoction. If you're curious, this is what was in it:

• Romaine lettuce
• White onion
• Chopped Granny Smith apple
• A few dashes of red wine vinegar
• A small sprinkling of Cajun crunchy stuff (peanuts, corn nuts, sesame stick, etc)
• Ranch dressing

Tangy, zesty, crunchy, and nice robust flavor. Easy to make. You can substitute things in place of the Cajun stuff with things like onion straws, croutons, etc. If you want a nice additive to salad, try broken pieces of Doritos. Any flavor.

Starting the Day off Right

Well, at least as right as I could. Had a 12 oz orange juice and banana for breakfast. I try not to drink many calories if at possible. It's tough. I do have an orange juice a day with whatever I end up eating. I know, it's 140 calories right off the bat, but I love the flavor and it helps to get the vitamin C. I'll have some water in the next hour. I've got a green water bottle that holds 16 ounces for me. I try to get in about 4-5 of those a day on top of my meals. Some days I do better. The one thing I've been doing consistently is getting in 16 ounces before I even have my shoes on in the morning. It seems to help me curb any breakfast cravings. Obviously, the weekends are harder with days off work. Too easy to skip that part.

Treadmill Day

Spent an hour on the treadmill today. Been doing it for about 3 weeks now. I try to get to the gym at least 4 times a week if possible. So far, so good. When I first started running on the treadmill, I was getting around 3.25 - 3.5 miles in over the sixty minutes. Today was a new high for me. In fact, it replaced the high that I set just yesterday. I am now up to 4.21 miles in an hour. Now there are probably a ton of people out there that think that is an insanely easy number to hit. Well, it's not easy for me. In fact, I really have pushed myself the last two days. My personal goal is to be at 4.5 miles in an hour by the end of March. I definitely think that is possible, considering the progress I've made so far. I also keep track of the calories I burn just to see how I do. I burned 560 calories today. That seems like a crap load to me until I get home and remind myself how easy it is to add calories back on. For instance, my wife bought me some chocolate from the store that has lemon in it. She knows that I love to try new stuff out, especially drinks and snacks. I love LIMITED EDITION stuff. Well anyways, one square piece of chocolate is 90 calories. How aggravating is that!?

With tomorrow being Monday, I will stop at the gym on the way home. I'm not sure if I have three straight days of setting new highs, but we'll see how it goes. Last week I went a few days in a row and I started noticing that I was cramping in my calves more than I expected. I started eating more bananas to increase my potassium. Hopefully thi spays off. Today was nice. My legs feel a little heavy tonight as I type this. Be back tomorrow with an update.

Here We Go!

Let's get the ball rolling. This site will be where my friends and I will help each other out with our personal goals. Whether it be to lose weight, save money, or whatever, this is the place to contribute, encourage, and help. Come back multiple times a day for updates!