Happy Monkey Hummus

I usually don't post very much about food. I'd really like to, but I don't cook alot. I usually buy frozen meals and eat those because I don't have time to sit down and cook something healthy.

Well, here is a healthy food post! Yay!

As I posted in my last post, I rode my bike in to the farmer's market on Saturday to visit my friends who own Happy Monkey Hummus and to buy some of their divine hummus! (FYI - They aren't paying me to advertise for them, this is just one of my favorite local foods.)



Hummus is an awesome, healthy snack. It provides great protein and isn't too high in calories either. I believe for 3 oz. it's only 140-150 calories.

They have some awesome flavors. They have Original, Fire Roasted Bell Pepper, Roasted Garlic & Tomato, Margarita (limes, tequila, anaheim peppers, garlic, cilantro, cumin), Suesabi (soy sauce, garlic, ginger, wasabi radish, sesami seeds), XXX (chipotle peppers w/liquid, red peppers, cocoa powder, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg), Buttnut (butternut squash), Beet My Monkey (beets), Spun Monkey (spicey) & a couple of others, just to name a few. All of their flavors but 2 are vegan friendly. The other 2 have cheese in them and are DIVINE!!!

One of my favorite ways to use their hummus is as a sandwich spread. It is SO good to put on a cucumber sandwich. Ooooh I'm craving one right now. I honestly don't have a favorite.

You can buy their product at the farmer's market until Oct 18th, Harmon's (statewide), Jade Market, The Store, Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort - Aerie Restaurant, and Whole Foods.

If you buy it, you'll have to comment on here & let me know how you like it.

Big Changes on the Way

This week, things are going to change. Drastically. I'm EXTREMELY nervous, but I'm excited too.

First off, I need to get serious about my working out again. I've been kind of relaxed about it, and I need to not be. I've found that I've been using excuses lately and I need to not use excuses. If I want to be an Ironman (one day it'll happen), I can't not take my workouts seriously.

So, my workouts this week are going to be:
Monday - Swim (200 swim/kick/pull, 4 x 200 swim with 100 pull).
Bike (90 minutes)
Run (4 miles)
Weights

Tuesday - Swim (200 swim/kick/pull, 4 x 200 swim with 100 pull).
Bike (90 minutes)
Run (4 miles)

Wednesday - Swim (200 swim/kick, 4 x 100 drills, 4 x 100 swim, 200 pull, 4 x 100
swim, 200 pull)
Bike (90 minutes)
Run (4 miles)
Weights

Thursday - Swim (200 swim/kick, 4 x 100 drills, 4 x 100 swim, 200 pull, 4 x 100
swim, 200 pull)
Bike (90 minutes)
Run (4 miles)

Friday - Swim (200 swim/kick/pull, 1000 swim, 4 x 100 drills)
Bike (90 minutes)
Run (4 miles)
Weights

Saturday - Run (9 miles)

Now, I'm going to put a disclaimer in here that some of the running might be done on the eliptical trainer just because I'm just getting over shin splints and I don't want to get them again.

The other thing that is changing this week that I am SUPER nervous about is my eating habits.

I have a dear friend that is a dietician. I went and saw her yesterday and we sat down and consulted about my food, etc., and I've got to make some major changes. This is probably why I'm having such a hard time losing any additional weight.

With the amount that I workout, I haven't been eating enough. This could contribute to my lack of energy as well.

My normal eating schedule Monday through Friday is:

Breakfast - Grits, lowfat yogurt, and a piece of fruit.
Lunch - A Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine Frozen meal (less than 300 cals) and a home made salad and maybe a piece of fruit.
Dinner - A Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine Frozen meal (less than 300 cals).

If I'm lucky, I'm consuming 1200 calories a day. Just on the bike, when I ride it for 90 minutes, I burn 1400+ calories.

I told Maria that I'm really nervous about eating more because I'm not used to it. For the past 3 years since I started training for triathlons, and losing weight, it's always been eat smaller portions and workout.

Well, Maria said that for starters, I need more protein in my diet. I'm not getting near enough protein. This will help with my hypoglycemia too.

So, my new eating schedule is going to be:

Breakfast - Grits, lowfat yogurt, and a piece of fruit.
Snack - A piece of fruit or a veggie and some sort of protein, whether it be cottage cheese, string cheese, vegetable and hummus, crackers, etc.
Lunch - A Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine Frozen meal (less than 300 cals) and a home made salad and maybe a piece of fruit. My salad that I used to make was using iceberg lettuce. She wants me to start using darker lettuce.
Snack - A piece of fruit or a veggie and some sort of protein, whether it be cottage cheese, string cheese, vegetable and hummus, crackers, etc.
Dinner - A Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine Frozen meal (less than 300 cals) and 1 cup of vegetables.
Snack - A piece of fruit or a veggie and some sort of protein, whether it be cottage cheese, string cheese, vegetable and hummus, crackers, etc.

Hopefully this will help with my weight loss and it will help with my energy. I'm just super nervous because to me, that sounds like a TON of food.

I will keep you all posted this week on how it goes.

First Day Back

Today was my first day back to eating healthy and working out. Honestly, it feels like it's been weeks since I've worked out, but I did workout a couple of days last week.

I was concerned today because I didn't get up to go swimming this morning. I didn't get to bed until 1:30 a.m. and I have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to go swimming. I can go swimming on 4 hours of sleep, but getting 3 hours of sleep and then trying to tell your body that 4:30 a.m. is ok to get up to go swim a little over a mile, yeah, that doesn't go over too well.

So, yeah, I was concerned that I'd just eat anything and everything in sight at work today since I didn't workout.

I feel like I did pretty good. I ate breakfast at work, so I had 2 pieces of cinnamon raisin toast with butter and a yogurt and fresh fruit.

I didn't snack at all between breakfast and lunch. Finally lunch came and I had an easy mac & cheese (220 calories) and a salad. I decided to splurge a little bit and I had a tapioca pudding and then I bought a banana for a snack later.

After lunch, I got back up to my desk and someone had pulled some baby carrots out of the fridge and put them out for everybody to snack on! Yay!!! Something I can snack on.

I was really hungry around 4:00 so I had my dinner, which was only 220 calories and it was a microwave pasta thing. The packaging makes it look not too appetising, but it was REALLY good.

I came home and ate 2 oranges and then went straight to the gym. I did 4.4 miles on the eliptical trainer and then did 25 miles on the spinning bike. I went downstairs to go swimming, but every stinkin' changing room was taken. As soon as one changing room was taken, I was getting ready to head in to it, and some lady beat me to it. :( Unfortunately, I'm not like other ladies at the gym and I don't like to bare all out in the open to change my clothes. So...I didn't swim tonight.

My plan tomorrow is to get up at 4:30, go swimming, come home and then swim again (to make up for today) and then bike and run and do weights.

It feels so good to be back on the wagon. :)

Delicious Lasagna

This blog isn't just about exercise and what I've done to lose all my weight and my races, etc. I haven't been very good about posting about food, etc. And I feel bad.

But, the other day I found a vegetable lasagna recipe that sounded good, so I made it on Saturday for dinner and it was SOOOOO good!!! It's really healthy too. There's only 380 calories a serving. So...I thought I'd share it with ya. (P.S. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com)

Cheesy Vegetable Lasagna

12 lasagna noodles (If you get the "oven ready" noodles, you can skip the step about boiling the noodles)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 heads fresh broccoli, chopped
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 large onion, chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 small zucchini, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 (8 ounce) container small curd cottage cheese
24 ounces ricotta cheese
2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add lasagna noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Heat oil in a large caste iron skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot add broccoli, carrots, onions, bell peppers, zucchini and garlic. Saute for 7 minutes; set aside.

Place flour in a medium saucepan and gradually whisk in milk until well blended. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook 5 minutes, or until thick, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper; cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in spinach. Reserve 1/2 cup spinach mixture. In a small bowl combine cottage and ricotta cheeses; stir well.

Spread about 1/2 cup of spinach mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan. Layer noodles, ricotta mixture, vegetables, spinach mixture and 2 cups mozzarella cheese, ending with noodles. Top with reserved spinach mixture, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Cool for approximately 10 minutes before serving.

Cheat Days

I also talked in a previous post about how now that BJ is writing my workout schedules for me that I'm going to have to totally revamp my cheat days.

This weekend was my first weekend where I need to not binge on my cheat days. I think I did pretty well considering what I had been doing.

On Saturday, for breakfast, I had 3 pieces of whole wheat toast and butter and a yogurt. For lunch I had a ham and cheese sandwich, made with low-fat cheese. All I put on the sandwich was mustard and I had some pretzels. For dinner I had sour cream enchilada's. They were really good and it was made with chicken and fat-free sour cream. I think I had a candy bar yesterday too.

Today, I had a one bowl of cereal for breakfast, I didn't have anything for lunch, I had 2 home made waffles for dinner, with peanut butter on them. I had a butterfinger candy bar today and a small ice cream cone today too.

Now, I know that might not sound very healthy, but you have to consider that before on my cheat days, I would seriously binge. I would eat chicken fingers and "tater babies" for lunch on Saturday. I would have a piece of cake from the local bakery during the day too that was covered thick with buttercream icing. I'd have a big sugar cookie and a peanut butter bar. I would seriously binge.

So, considering how I used to eat on my cheat days, I think this first weekend of my new cheat days was pretty good. :)

Food Posts

I apologize for not posting very much about food. I realized why I don't, and it's because I eat pretty much the same thing every day.

Well, and I have to say, I don't think it really matters as much what you eat, it matters more that it's portion control. Granted, you still need to eat a little healthier than say fast food all day every day, but I think it's more about portion control.

But, anywho, I thought I'd let you guys know basically what I eat on a daily basis and then you can see why I don't post too much about food. Now, I don't necessarily recommend this eating menu for everyone. You just have to figure out what works best for you, and this is what works best for me.

Breakfast - 2 packets of sugar-free instant oatmeal (100 calories for each packet), a low fat Wal-Mart brand yogurt and a piece of fresh fruit.

Lunch - Either a Lean Cuisine or Smart Ones frozen lunch and a salad. Now, with a salad, I think you need to be careful what you put in the salad because some stuff (croutons) aren't the healthiest. But, what I put in my salad is fresh mushrooms, one spoonful of black eyed peas, a small spoonful of mandarin oranges (in their own juices), and 5 black olives. If I have a cucumber, I'll put slices of cucumber in there too. Then I have fat-free Italian dressing. Now that we're getting in to cooler weather, Campbell's Soup makes really good healthy soups that are usually only between 200-300 calories a can, so instead of having a Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine, I might have soup instead.

Dinner - I usually have whatever my family is having, it's just in smaller portions. If I feel like what they're eating isn't healthy, then I'll repeat what I had for lunch.

Dessert - 100 calorie pack of microwave popcorn.

Snacks - Throughout the day, if I get the munchies, I have a stash of fresh veggies (baby carrots, celery sticks) that I munch on.

Now, Saturday is my cheat day, so I can eat whatever I want that day. :)

Low Cal Olive Garden

I was treated to Olive Garden for lunch on Monday. I was excited, yet super nervous at the same time, because the first thing I think of when I hear Olive Garden is pasta/calories/delicious! Lol.

I pulled up their menu in hopes to find something low cal, and lo and behold, they had something besides pasta and it was DIVINE!!! It was Apricot Chicken. It was a chicken breast in an apricot sauce with broccoli, asparagus and tomato's. It was only 380 calories!!!

I'm sure Olive Garden has other low calorie stuff...I know their chicken caesar salad minus the croutons is 580 calories.

Some time, on one of my cheat days, I'm so gonna go to Olive Garden though and thoroughly enjoy their Chicken Fettucini Alfredo (my favorite)!

Gobble Gobble

I realized earlier today that I post alot about my workouts and stuff like that, but I don't post very much about healthy eating. Healthy eating has just as much to do about weight loss as does the exercising.

So, I thought I'd start with one of the basics that has helped me. Turkey burger!

I've gotten to the point where I would much rather have turkey burger than have ground beef. It's alot healthier for you and I personally can't tell the difference between the two. :)

Granted turkey burger can get expensive, but I think it's worth it and some times I find that Wal-Mart has a pretty good deal on turky burger and sometimes it's less expensive than ground beef.

So, I've decided, I am going to try really hard to post something about healthy eating on this blog, along with all the other stuff I post. :)