Category: Weight Loss

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Three Sisters Redux

Wow!  I haven’t blogged in such a long time but I finally feel like my brain has been revitalized!  I’m ready to start blogging again…and I have a lot of catching up to do!

So I wanted to start with a small celebration.  Instead of fighting the crowds of Black Friday, my husband and I opted to make a run again at the River Mountain Loop trail.  You might remember that the first time we tried this it was summer in Las Vegas.  We made a not so wise move to try this trail in the middle of the day when the heat peaked out at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe even hotter in the direct sunlight!  I may have slightly over exaggerated a bit in Three Sisters and Dead Grandparents but it was a pretty rough day.

After a pretty quiet Thanksgiving without all of the turkey and dressing, we were delighted to get on our bikes and head towards Boulder City.  Initially we were only going to ride to the Railroad Casino but it was such a nice day that we decided to finish the whole loop…or at least try.  

Our Three Sisters RMLT Redux was a success!  It was a 37 mile trip with a 2800 foot climb included…that’s definitely the Three Sisters part.  While we didn’t suffer from heat exhaustion or hallucinations of our dead relatives, we were really tired when we finally made it home.  But what a great ride.

This is one of the many reasons we love Las Vegas.  It’s not often that you can enjoy the sunshine and a nice day after Thanksgiving.  While others were struggling with the cold front and holiday travel we were so lucky to make that trip and accomplish that goal.  It also takes away any guilt from the previous day indulgences!

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Hard Gore

So I got a little ahead of myself on my exercise routine.  I’m totally loving riding our bikes and I just wanted to take it to the next level.  So my husband and I outfitted my bike with clip in pedals and shoes.  My husband is pretty handy and he assembled them on the loosest setting so they are easy to clip in and out of.

I thought this will make my pedal more efficient, increase my speed, and make the hills even easier to conquer.  What I didn’t anticipate was my overall clumsy tendencies and my inability to properly mount and dismount the bike!

So of course, I assume this is the natural course for someone new to clip in pedals so the first four times I fell because I didn’t get unclipped quick enough, I just chalked up to the learning curve.  I was then able to ride 3 times without injury, so now I’m feeling pretty cocky.

Then comes Tuesday morning.  I’m confident now on the bike with the clips.  We ride our 14 mile ride and come home.  I’m zooming up the driveway, unclip the right side and somehow the left doesn’t unclip that fast.  BOOM!  I fall over and the handlebar gores me to the left chest.  Thankfully, it didn’t break the skin or a bone but the resulting injury was impressive.  I have a hematoma the size of a grapefruit and the color of an eggplant.

You know the lesson here is that you don’t have to get all technical….just get out and move.  You don’t have to become Lance Armstrong, you’re not competing in the Olympics, and you need to respect what you are good and not good at in life.  I don’t need clips to ride my bike and guess what….I won’t be riding with clips anymore!

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Steak, Steak, Steak!!

I’m from Texas originally and I love all things beef.  Recently, the mister and I were at a restaurant and the waiter told us that he had lost a lot of weight because he became a vegan.  I’m pretty sure the State of Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics would revoke my birth certificate if I became a vegan.  I really have no interest in being vegan….I’m sure its a wonderfully healthy and miserable life. (Please don’t be offended vegans…but meat is in my blood.)

My husband (6’5″ and a big guy himself) went to a doctor in our former residence in California when his very nice and quite intellectual petite female physician told him on more than one occasion, “you need to be a vegan.”  He’s a pretty easy to get along with kind of guy so he shrugged that off over the course of several physician visits.  However, one particular day after receiving a jury summons and encountering some teeth gnashing drug induced zombie in traffic, he arrived at the doctor’s office with an elevated blood pressure.  Again, the good doctor said to my husband, “you need to be a vegan,” which sparked the following tirade from my husband:

Continue reading “Steak, Steak, Steak!!”

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I lack creativity…..there I said it

You all know that I speak of working long hours and eating out but half the battle in eating well is having a little creativity in the kitchen.  Being raised in the South, I know how to cook a cadre of really good tasting but not good for your rump size food.

So when I’m stumped for what to do for dinner when we are staying at home, it’s a bit challenging for me to come up with something beyond grilled meat and a salad.  I blogged about Gigi’s Throw Together Salad and let me tell you even that was a chore to put together that recipe because I seriously throw it together without thinking, pretty much whatever is in the refrigerator on some days.

My husband is retired and he never really cooked that much before.  So same thing….low creativity in the kitchen with high calorie outputs.  Enter Home Chef….

We love Home Chef!  This has been life changing for us.  First, we don’t have to go to the store.  I hate going to the store and there are so many temptations on all those end caps that it is like a gambling addict walking through a room full of screaming slot machines.  Second, Home Chef taught my husband how to cook.  BONUS!!  Third, we don’t waste any food, EVER.

They have many choices and you are never stuck with a meal you don’t like.  I frequently get online and plan my meals weeks in advance.  They deliver the meal to your door weekly.  Everything is in portion sizes so it is cost effective and there is no waste.  The recipe cards have nice pictures and are easy to follow.  Meals usually take 25-30 minutes to prepare with 45 minutes pretty much the max time.  You can choose low carb, low calorie, gluten free, and vegan options.  You can also order lunches, smoothies, and fruit baskets.  The price is amazing with meals starting at $7.99 a piece.   When was the last time you had a meal in a restaurant that was tasty and healthy and only cost $8!

When I do make myself go to the grocery store (or in most cases order online) and I have a meal in mind, it frequently costs $40-50 to purchase all of the ingredients which you always have too much of and then it sits in the pantry or the refrigerator and goes bad.  Not the case with Home Chef!

The good thing about these meal services is that it does expand your  ideas and gets your creative juices going.  One night, I remembered that my husband  had made a really good fish taco with coleslaw so I pulled out the recipe card and did a spin off version of that with some food we had in the refrigerator; chicken breast instead of fish, chili infused olive oil, slaw mix, Sriracha, lime juice, avocado slices, and wheat tortillas.

There are other services out there such as Blue Apron, Sun Basket, and others.  I’m sure they are all comparable.  We actually started out on Blue Apron but there were some strange things on the menu that I couldn’t wrap my brain around.  Home Chef has been a perfect fit for us.

For Weight Watchers followers, I simply add the recipe online and the serving size (in our case 2) to calculate what the points per dish are.  There are some higher point dishes so I am careful on those days to make sure I eat lighter at breakfast and lunch.    Tonight: Crispy Onion Chicken with Creamy Mushrooms and Green Beans.  Mr. Shaw gets all the mushrooms, not my thing.  I calculated this meal out to be 9 points. 

 I did add the Bourbon Peach Basil Smash from be MIXED that I spoke about on my blog be MIXED. 

 Four points for that lil darling and 13 points out the door for dinner and the drink!

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”  So be happy and just try it!

 

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My Memorial Day Hiatus

Changing the mindset is half the battle.  I realize on this new journey to have a healthier life that I’m in a totally different mindset that I have been in the past.  I have talked before about not approaching this lifestyle change as a diet because of the negativity around that word.

According to The Online Etymology Dictionary, the word diet originated from Old France (huge shocker, ugh the French, always so healthy) in the 13th Century “diet, pittance, fare” and goes on to say “often with a sense of restriction”.  The Greek referred to it as a way of life (lifestyle change), so I suppose I shouldn’t be so sensitive to the word except to me it still encapsulates the word DIE at it’s root.

Changing your mindset or your habits is slightly harder to embrace during the holidays and the summer holidays are especially challenging for me.  So here’s a recap of my Memorial Day weekend…

First, my sweet 75 year old mother came to town in tow with my adorable 3 year old granddaughter.  You have to give my mother props for being willing to endure a 3 hour plane ride with this rambunctious child!  It was a wonderful long weekend and let me tell you….I forgot how hard it is keeping up with small children.  Props to mom again.  Wow!

So we did a lot of swimming and a fair amount of eating.  My husband’s birthday was on Sunday of the long weekend so of course, we had to have a BBQ and invite the friends and neighbors.  Now, had I not had to entertain a 3 year old, I may have been more inventive in my food selection and preparation but seriously, it is all I can do to hang with her.  She wakes up at 6:30 every morning like clock work, even on Saturday and Sunday.  What?!  Who does that?  THREE YEAR OLDS!!  By the time they finally go to sleep at night you feel like your ran the Boston Marathon, TWICE!  “Gigi, watch this” plays on repeat in my head a million times.

Then I realize, I really didn’t make very many bad choices.  For snacks we had unsweetened applesauce, fresh fruit, and sugar free jello cups.  I was slightly panicked though because I felt like I was on a bit of a hiatus and I didn’t track my food on the Weight Watchers app the entire time.  While I was enjoying the time off of work, my husband and I got away every other day or more to ride our bikes so we did get some extra exercise in on top of chasing the kiddo around and in the pool.

So I started thinking what is the mindset of the healthy in shape person?  They aren’t running around every day counting every morsel that they eat. But it can’t be easy for all of them, right?  My downfall is that I have always thought like an overweight person.  “I had a rough day, I should reward myself with a <fill in the blank>”, “I’m stressed, let’s go get a <fill in the blank> from the drive thru”, “I worked out last week so I’m going to take a break this week”.  Food shouldn’t always be a reward just like “diet” food shouldn’t always be a punishment.  You have to find other ways to reward yourself.

Now I am saying things to myself like, “if I eat that burger I should probably plan a long bike ride for tomorrow”, “I think I will have fruit instead of dessert”, “it’s going to be too hot today to ride my bike, so I think I will swim laps for 30 minutes”.  Or better yet, “today was stressful, I think I will go work out to burn off some steam”.  Food cannot be the crutch, the solution, the cure, the pacifier.  Food is fuel and you don’t put gas in a car that hasn’t driven anywhere and still has a full tank. How silly would that be?

So with that said, I’m down 15+ pounds in 7 weeks, 18 according to my home scale.  I can do this.  You can too.

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be MIXED

So if you know me at all, you know that I love to entertain and I love to do so with cocktails.  I don’t drink daily or weekly, so don’t worry, I don’t need that 12 step program.  Remember, my addiction is food.

But if you are modifying your lifestyle like me, you also know that the dreaded cocktail can add on tons of empty calories that aren’t friendly to your waist line.   And let’s be real, vodka sodas make me sad.

Well let me introduce you to be MIXED!  Jen and Cristina created be MIXED out of a love for spending time with friends and a love for indulging in the good stuff.   Jen is a Type 1 diabetic so she needed some better low calorie options for creating cocktails sans the vodka and soda option.

Be MIXED is all natural, zero calorie cocktail mixers that really add a pizazz to your rum punch.  They currently offer three flavors: cucumber mint, ginger lime, and margarita.  The really cool thing is that that they have a ton of recipes using all types of liquor as an option, so the “Skyy” really is not the limit.  Options exist such as cucumber watermelon cooler, kiwi margarita, spiked blackberry lemonade, pineapple smash, lavender lemonade, and peach basil smash to name a few.  Goodbye vodka soda!

For those of you on the Weight Watchers journey, most of these drinks can be made for 3 points each.  (Just the points for the alcohol).  Compare that to an Italian Margarita at Olive Garden (14 points)!  You can thank me later!

Where to buy you ask?  Online is the best option except for some locations.  They have a store finder on their website.  Good news, you can get it on Amazon Prime and with any luck they could add it to their Prime Now menu.  I highly recommend trying all three flavors to see what you like best.  Use the online recipe tool, choose your liquor of choice and your bartending expertise and Voila!

Cheers!

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Bella Vita’s Burrata Salad

We love to eat out.  What can I say?  I work long hours every day, 5 days a week and sometimes you just can’t talk yourself into cooking.

One of our favorite restaurants in Henderson is Bella Vita in the District.  The ambience is really nice and we love to sit outside when the weather is nice and listen to the music.  They almost always have someone playing or singing.  Sitting beneath the olive trees and watching the shoppers pass by is an excellent way to spend the afternoon or evening on one of our mild spring, fall, or early summer days.

When I’m trying to eat somewhat healthy there, I always choose the Burrata salad which is made with arugula, beef steak tomatoes, the most luscious burrata mozzarella cheese and drizzled with Balsamic and a light citrus dressing.  I always ask them to add some grilled chicken breast as well to round out the meal.

I’m guessing this is about 10 points using the Weight Watchers Smart Point system.  This is one of the reasons I love Weight Watchers.  I can live a normal  life and eat well with a little planning and thought.  You may think that is a lot of points for a salad, but just wait until that wonderful Burrata cheese hits your palate.  You will be thanking me!

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Gigi’s Throw Together Salad

I love throwing together strange combinations of salads.  I like to mix different fruits and nuts together with the peppery taste of arugula. In the winter months I will use apples and walnuts instead with a Fuji apple vinaigrette.  If you come to my house to eat, don’t be surprised by my non-traditional salads!  I usually eat these with a piece of grilled meat.  Tonight it’s Filet Mignon.  Yum!

Serves 4

  • 2 cups arugula 
  • 1 small carton raspberries
  • 1 small carton blackberries
  • 1/2 cup almonds
  • Butter spray
  • 1 tsp. Chili olive oil
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • Tony Chachere’s Cajun seasoning
  • Maple Grove Farms Citrus Vinaigrette

Rinse arugula and berries, toss together in salad bowl.  Saute almonds in butter spray and chili oil until fragrant.  Add honey and cajun seasoning.  Let cool.  Toss with salad.  If you like, toss with citrus vinaigrette.

Smart points:  4 points per serving

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Three Sisters and Dead Grandparents

So about 2 weeks ago, my husband and I got cocky and decided to attempt the River Mountain Loop Trail (RMLT) in Las Vegas.  This trail is said to be around 34 miles and makes a loop by Lake Mead, up to Boulder City, and then back down into Henderson which is where the Three Sisters are.  The three sisters, also known as the three bitches are some pretty gargantuan hills to tackle on your bike. Continue reading “Three Sisters and Dead Grandparents”