Portion Control

It has been a great weekend!  I love all of the time I get to spend with my family.  Saturday mornings are one of my favorites.  We sleep in a little, have coffee and breakfast together, play & relax!  On the weekend I eat differently than during the week simply because I have more time to prepare breakfast and lunch, giving me more options.  I think it's great to allow yourself some of your favorite foods every now and then, just be sure to practice portion control.  We are a "Bacon and Eggs" kind of family on Saturdays.  My husband really looks forward to it and instead of making something different for myself, I just make sure to eat a small amount.  3 strips of center cut bacon, 1 egg, and 1 piece of toast (with butter) only 210 calories!!!!!  That's not even a splurge.  I can have coffee with french vanilla creamer and my entire morning is still under 300 calories : )

I have to brag for a minute on Kimmy and Kimmie...my sister and my sister in law. They have both been losing weight as well as motivating and encouraging people around them.  My sister in law joined weight watchers and has lost almost 27 lbs!!!  She has been so dedicated to eating healthy foods and working out on her lunch breaks....staying at work later in fact, so she can have a lunch break to work out on!!!  She is a great accountability partner.  There are several people at work who want to work out and sometimes do, but I can count on Kimmie every day to be there in the gym with me!  Her hard work is really paying off.

My sister Kimmy has been getting up at 5:30 every day to do "Insanity" work out DVDs.   She has been making very healthy food choices as well and has lost 10 lbs in just 2 weeks!  She still lives at home where there are food temptations all around, yet she continues to buy her own groceries and cook her own meals. I'm proud of her!  She is also a great accountability partner.  We call each other and talk about good workouts and new meal ideas, and encourage each other to keep up the good work.

Having people in your life to encourage you and keep you motivated is a HUGE help, so tell as many people as you can about your lifestyle changes until you find someone who is on the same page that can be that person for you : )

I have a lunch idea if you are someone who enjoys onions and peppers!  Grilled chicken quesadillas on whole grain tortillas!  It's easiest to use boneless/skinless chicken breast tenders.  Grill with a little garlic salt and pepper.  Saute plenty of onions with green and red belle peppers.  Lightly butter the outside of two whole grain tortillas, put chicken, veggies, and low moisture mozzarella cheese in the middle, and preferably grill on George Foreman grill.  With a little sour cream on the side a whole quesadilla (which is usually too much for me) is only 365 calories.

If you have plenty of chicken and veggies you should go ahead and cook extra while you're at it and save them in the frig.  Then over the next week if you want to make a quesadilla it will only take a few minutes because the hard part is already done!

I recently got the new zumba DVDs and I am really enjoying them.  There is so much dance incorporated that it really is fun even though you're burning a ton of calories.  There's even a little swing dancing which is my all time favorite style.  We are going to start changing it up a little on our lunch break workouts maybe one or two days a week. You don't want to get stuck in a rut doing the same thing over and over and hit a wall.  Our boss provided us with yoga mats they weren't using, so I bought a new "extreme yoga" DVD that we will try soon, and hopefully try insanity soon which Kimmie is buying. I'll let you know how it goes : )

Random: It's that time of the year to start grilling!!!!  Grilling is a great choice if you're eating lean meats and vegetables.  The open flame adds great flavor and you skip out on extra grease because no butter or oil is needed, and the grease from the meat drips away instead of soaking in. Bonus for me, my husband loves to grill so I don't have to cook AND there are less pots and pans to clean : ) 

Don't forget to share your own meal ideas and work out tips : )