Eating your calories well

This post was inspired by a very good friend of mine, I will not call her out 😉 She said “All I am having is Chick fil-A 3 pc minis for 260 calories”

First of all after 3 chicken “minis” I will be hungry in 30 minutes lol.

Gaining weight, losing weight or simply maintaining weight requires that you control your calorie intake. Our body gets its energy from calories found within food. When you eat too much, you gain weight. When you restrict your intake, you lose weight. When it comes to weight balance, all calories are the same. When it comes to overall health, picking the right foods will lead to a healthier life..

Our body gets calories from three main sources; fats, carbohydrates and proteins. While one calorie from a healthy food will provide the same amount of energy as one calorie from an unhealthy food, they will have different effects on the body. Whether you’re trying to gain, lose or maintain your weight, you need to maximize your intake of healthy calories while minimizing your intake of unhealthy ones.

So to simplify the first line I wrote in this post….

Why eat 260 calories, 770 sodium, 15 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbs when you can eat a quick home made breakfast taco for only 153 calories. 400 mg of sodium, 2 grams of fat, 15 grams of carb.

YOU COULD EAT DOUBLE OF THIS and still be SAFE. Eat your calories right and don’t be hungry!

 

 

Avocado Pudding

I PROMISE ITS GOOD! I know you hear AVOCADO and think eeww pudding but I promise you it is good. Try it!

 

Ingredients

• 1 ripe small or medium avocado
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (After workout instead of cocoa I use pure protein chocolate whey powder)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup milk or Almond Milk

Blend all ingredients in the blender. Taste it, if it’s not sweet enough for you add more honey. You can eat immediately or refrigerate it.

TOPPINGS

Nuts or fresh furits.

How to cut back and eventually stop eating sweets

Anyone that knows me knows how much I love sweets especially chocolate. I will skip any meal for a cake. However beginning of this year I set myself a goal to omit sweets as much as I can and see what my body does. During the holiday season at work we got an enormous amount of chocolate boxes sent to us and I was eating away. Apart from gaining some weight I felt tired and miserable by the end of the day. Chocolate cravings can be incredibly hard to stop, especially if you have been indulging in a bar or two of chocolate each day.

1. Be realistic. Any time you make a decision to give up something totally, you totter on the edge of falling back into your old way any moment and then finding even more excuses as to why the old habit is perfectly justifiable and doesn’t need changing. Rather than completely giving it up find an alternative and give your self a treat. I choose Dove Dark Chocolate 1 or 2 pieces after dinner only if I crave it.
2. Allow your self to really enjoy your treat. We’re heavily focused on taking the pleasure out of eating food and we’ve stopped savoring it. In other words, it’s much easier to scoff down a large bar of chocolate unthinkingly than it is to eat just a few squares and truly immerse ourselves in the experience of how it tastes, what its aroma is like, feeling the texture, etc. Savor every piece you eat, and eat slowly and literally focus while eating it. Seriously I tested this my self. I literally sit down by myself and just enjoy a piece of chocolate, if I do it while doing something else its like I did not even eat it, like my brain does not process it. 🙂
3. Change the type of sweets you eat. There are many healthier options of sweets that you can quickly make and eat guilt free. I will post a few recipes here soon. If you do not want to do that and just want to eat chocolate then you should buy good quality chocolate. Good quality chocolate is high in cocoa and generally lacks fillings and artificial flavorings and colorings. If you avoid “candy chocolate”, suddenly a lot of chocolate choices are off the menu and you will find it easier to enjoy quality chocolate properly on suitable occasions.

I reduced sweets so much to the point of one piece of chocolate which usually happens after the one cheat meal a week. I did not quit natural sugars from fruits and veggies. This is even more proof that “cheat meals” which mine are usually high in carbs make your body crave more bad stuff. So since I am cheating with the meal I just choose my desert after that meal and feel like crap lol.  I do have “healthy deserts” throughout the week, like I said those are healthy and good for you and I will share recipes soon.

I look at it as an addiction and quitting takes one day at a time but what I can promise you, YOU WILL FEEL GREAT!

 

 

 

The book WINNER is……

Congrats to Janine on winning the Tosca Reno  “The Eat-Clean Diet Stripped” book. She was selected by RandomPicker.org. I hope you find it as helpful as I did. For the rest of you stay tuned I am planning on more giveaways soon…

Janine please send your mailing address to healthymominabusyworld@gmail.com

 

Chicken Sausage and Kale Pasta

I saw a coworker eating sausage and kale the other day and I asked her how she made it and she said she just uses pork sausage and saute it with kale salt and pepper. Hmmm. That got me excited to come home and do my own version of something like that so here goes. This took me less than 30 minutes and it was DELISH!

WHAT YOU NEED

Bunch of Kale

Chicken Sausage

Garlic

Mozarella Cheese

Heavy Cream

Quinoa Pasta or any preffered pasta you want

Salt, Pepper and Paprika

Boil your penne pasta and set aside.

Chop up a bunch of kale (I literally just buy a bunch at Publix or Walmart)

Mince or dice 2-3 cloves of garlic

Dice up you chicken sausage

Saute your chicken sausage, garlic and kale in a non stick pan (I use a wok)

Season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Add half a coup of heavy cream, saute another 5 minutes.

Drain your pasta, mix with your Kale and a handful of shreded cheese.

ENJOY!

*You can also add halfed cherry tomatoes but I did not have any at the time I preppared.

 

Free tickets to the Atlanta Zoo

For those of you living in Atlanta. My oldest son loves animals and he also loves going to the library. We go to the library often and we enjoy that time together. We browse through books and love the smell of them lol..I know, we are dorks. So last week we learned if we rent a DVD about Atlanta Zoo upon return we received 4 tickets to the Atlanta Zoo. Now you must use the tickets within a week from the receipt but we thought that was soo cool. We even brough his best friend along since his brother’s admittion was free. I know the tickets to the zoo are not that expensive to some but the whole idea and the learning process was fun and my son enjoyed the DVD. We saved $17.99 per child and $22.99 per adult. We were blessed with good weather this past saturday and were able to visit the zoo. I thought to share the idea with all the mommies out there for some fun.

til next time Maya

Motivation Board

I am like most of you, EXHAUSTED when I get home from work. I think its more mentally than physically but whatever that’s the same in my book 🙂
My friend and I decided it would be cool if we created “Motivational” boards to place somewhere where we see it daily after we get home to give us that push to complete our goals.

We printed out pictures that motivate us, our future goals, completed goals/races and I even bought a dry erase calendar that I write my weekly workout schedule in so that way I have no excuse to skip anything. I hung it in the garage in my “mini gym”. What can I say I am a visual person. Note the little person helping me 🙂

Fitness Trackers

I am a visual person, seeing my calorie intake and calories burned gives me great motivation. I am also a gadget lover. I wanted to share with you what I use and want to use in the near future.

Currently I have a Polar FT4. I absolutely love it. It’s a calorie counter. It comes with a heart rate monitor strap that you strap to your chest and it links with the watch to measure your heart rate. It’s not expensive. You can find it at Best Buy, Radio Shack, Amazon or here.

For distance tracking when running or hiking I use RunKeeper App. I usually have my phone on me anyway for music so why not just use an app to show me how far I am going, it also helps with a map if I am running in a new place.

I also have downloaded a Nike+ Running App because it tracks even your indoor/treadmill running.

WHAT I WOULD LOVE TO OWN…..

Fitbit Charge HR or Fitbit Surge. I have been reading reviews on Fitbit products and hear nothing but the best.

Fitbit Charge HR hooks up to your phone of course. Comes with a heart monitor strap. Tracks your activity all day long even your sleep which is what I am intrigued about the most. It also has a called ID so if you are working out you can see if the call coming in is important enough to stop or you can call back later lol.

Fitbit Surge tracks GPS, continuous heart rate, all-day activity stats and sleep. Includes smart notifications and music control.

You can check out these babies here.

What do you guys use?

…til next time Maya

BOOK GIVEAWAY

So I am doing a little giveaway! Other than Maria Kang, Tosca Reno is another one of my favorite health and fitness gurus out there. She is almost 56 and looks amazing. She is the New York Times best selling author behind Your Best Body Now and the Eat-Clean Diet(r) series. I am giving away “The Eat-Clean Diet Stripped” book to help you learn about clean eating. Its full of recipes and also has a meal plan for you begginers out there.

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY…

1.Comment under this post with your email address 

2. Subscribe to this blog by clicking follow on bottom right of the page and entering your email address.

3. Share this page on facebook or twitter with #healthymominabusyworld.

I will announce the winner on Saturday 01/24/2015. I will use randompicker.com to select a winner. Good Luck!

til next time Maya

Choosing workout shoes

The single most important piece of equipment in virtually any kind of exercise program is the RIGHT pair of shoes. This is very important and is one of the things I believe you get what you pay for. I would not do short cuts or cheaper options on this. The right shoe not only has to be comfortable, it also has to support and conform to the shape and movement of your feet.

CROSS TRAINING

If you do a variety of activities, go for a cross trainer. Make sure that you can’t fold the shoe at the middle or twist it like you’re wringing out a towel. If you can, it’s too flexible and won’t provide proper support. My fave cross trainers are Nike Flex Trainer 4 Cross-Trainer. Can be found here or here.

STRENGHT TRAINING

The most important thing to keep in mind for strength-training shoes is that you want to be stable, which means having your heels as close to the floor as possible. Look for a shoe with a lower to minimal heel.

Chuck Taylors. These are one of the most efficient and effective shoes for strength training and my personal favorite. You can find these for as little as $30-50. You can find them on Converse website here or at Target, Marshalls, TjMaxx.

Nike. I am a Nike girl, even though I own a pair of chucks I always seem to go back to my nikes. My favorite are Nike Free TR4 or Nike Womens Free 5.0 TR Fit 4 Cross Training Shoes. My sister got me these for my birthday and they are definitely the cutest pair I own lol. You can find them here or here.

Running

Running shoe should flex , making sure it bends and aligns with the foot joints as they move through the running gait. This makes shoes feel lighter and more comfortable.
ASICS GEL-Lyte33 2 Can be found here.

Women’s Nike Free 3.0 Flyknit can be found here.

These are my opinions, shoes that work for me from personal experience. Remember shoes are pricey but you get what you pay for right?! 🙂

til next time Maya