Let's Check Out My Food...

Hi guys,

I have been really trying these past few days to take pictures of my meals - I find that it truly does help me to say on track and let me tell you, I can use all the help I can get. So here we go...

Dinner: this is baked chicken breast (with onions, garlic, mushrooms and red peppers) with mixed veggies (broccoli, spinach, red pepper, mushrooms, onions, skim milk, seasonned with pepper, curry, garlic & onion powder) with a very small amount of whole wheat spaghettini. It was delicious. I don't usually have pasta but I splurged. It really wasn't a lot (maybe 1/4 cup); more veggies than pasta!

Close-up... The following was for lunch one day. A simple garden salad (spring mix & cherry tomatoes) with left over roasted chicken breast shredded on top. About 1 Tbsp of home-made dressing (EVOO, pepper, vinegar). It was great, quick, tasty and more importantly - filling! :)

Close-up... (you can see...very, very light on the dressing).

Dinner: My husband cooked this one. He was the grillmaster on the BBQ...Salmon skewers with grilled zucchini. There was also corn on the cob which he prepared on the grill but I didn't have any.

The following was another quick lunch. Sliced cucumbers with canned sardines (in water). I literally sliced up about 1/2 of an English cucumber, opened the can of sardines and poured it in the same bowl, added pepper, mixed it all up and ate it!!! No dressing required as the water from the sardines did the job. It was yummy - I've always liked sardines.

Close up...

Dinner: Roasted chicken leg with steamed broccoli and sweet potato mash! I baked a whole chicken (seasonned with pepper, garlic & onion powder, cayenne pepper). I baked the sweet potato in the oven, once it was done, scooped out the potato from skin and mashed it up in a bowl. It was quite moist. That's it!! This was a very filling meal and I had a lot of chicken left over to use in salads and for another dinner. Below is a close-up. So that's it so far. I have also been drinking between 3-4 litres of water each day. Hoping I can continue taking these pics. Just knowing that I have to take a picture helps me to plan what exactly I will be eating! Anyway, that's it for now, just a "food pic" post.

Until next time...

Joania (2KMINE!!!)

VERY, HOT Power Walk...

Hi guys,

First off, thank you all for the wonderfully supportive comments on my last post!! I have put the 1-pound gain behind me and moving forward full force! As one of my girlfriend's said, "the body is weird - this could be muscle gain, water or poop and stuff!!"...hehee..thanks Fran. I've got to keep reminding myself to celebrate and not forget my accomplishments. As a few of you stated in your comments, "60 pounds is a huge amount of weight lost!!" I should be...I AM VERY PROUD of that and just need to not lose site of that. Thanks guys.

Anyway, continuing on, I had a fabulous cucumber salad with sardines for lunch yesterday...it was yummy and a grilled hamburger patty (homemade with extra lean ground beef) and a salad. Of course lots of water accompanied both meals.

This morning, I woke up and had two boiled eggs with a turkey sausage and water for breakfast. I then got my son, set him up in the stroller and went for an hour long 5+K Power Walk in the blazing heat!! It was awesome! I feel great...feel even better being indoors in my air conditionned living room :)

My husband grilled salmon skewers and veggies on the BBQ for lunch...

So far, today's been wonderful...

Until next time...
Joania (2KMINE!!!)

Healthy Eating...not so Tough!!!

I wrote this post after returning from my trip to Halifax a couple of weeks ago. I did not post until now as I was waiting to upload the pix - i used my camera phone and lets just say it took a little "doing" to figure it out!! So here it is!

Well, I passed my first big test. I went on a business trip and like in the past would be eating out everyday and for every meal!! How could I possibly stay on track and maintain my new healthy eating habits??? That was my biggest concern with this trip. Well to my surprise, it was relatively easy to stay on track. This healthy eating isn't so tough!!!I couldn't believe it! Did you know that most restaurants offer a healthy alternative to most of the items listed on their menus??? I don't know if this is the case everywhere, but certainly in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia!!

My colleague and I arrived in Halifax in time for lunch and we found this quaint little bistro style restaurant (McElvies) which was just fabulous. I had a grilled salmon salad (see pic below). It was a generous piece of grilled salmon served on top of a bed of fresh salad with a vinegarette dressing. It was delicious.

For the duration of my stay, all of my meals (lunches and dinners) included seafood (usually fish) and veggies. It was wonderful. For breakfast, we ate at the restaurant in the hotel. I was so pleased to see that they had a "Healthy Breakfast" (see pic below) option on the menu. This is what I had every morning. It was great. It included 3 scrambled egg whites, a small bowl of oatmeal, a small bowl of fruit and 2 slices of whole wheat toast. I never ate the toast. After having the eggs and oatmeal, I was honestly stuffed. It was just wonderful.

This a pic of two of my dinners...Top is grilled salmon, shrimp and veggies (zucchini, mushrooms. onions)....this was from a restaurant called Hibachi....just amazingly delicious! YUMMY!! The next pic is just broccoli and salmon...yummy....

I did catch a cold while I was there and one morning I thought maybe I needed to up my vitamin C, so I ordered a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice in additional to my usual glass of water. I took my first sip and found that it was so ridiculously sweet that it wasn't even enjoyable. I did not finish it. My water tasted so much better. I'm noticing so many changes in my taste buds - it's crazy! Sweet, not enjoyable??? I never before thought that was possible.

Anyway, just wanted to share that I found it very easy to make healthy food choices while eating out. I had a wonderful dinner at another place. It was steamed halibut, baked sweet potato slices and steamed veggies (unfortunately, it's one of a couple of pix which I guess I did not save properly). It was sooooo good! I also had a lobster dinner one night ( a 2lb stemed lobster, grilled asparagus and sauteed mushroom and onions!! So fabulous.

I must admit that i had two martinis while I was there...that same night, I emailed my trainer to confess my sins...the guilt was killing me!!! I was so surprised at his response, "consider it a treat, since you were so good with your eating and exercising!!' I felt so much better!! Anyway, I ended up losing 2 pounds, so no harm done!!

So, I did good!!!

Until next time....

Joania (2KMINE!!)

This New Way of Eating is $aving Me Money!!

I've heard quite a few people say how expensive it is to eat healthy. Well, now that I've been doing this for awhile (3 months), I can honestly say that I DISAGREE with that statement - if anything, I've saved so much money. Now this may vary from person to person but for me...I've never before kept cash in my wallet for this long!! In the past, when I went to the ATM, took out some cash - say $20 or $40 bucks....it would be done in two days and sometimes even sooner. Now, I take $40 bucks out of the machine and a week later, that same $40 bucks is still sitting in my wallet!! This is what used to happen...

Monday morning, I would take $40 bucks out of the machine. I RARELY brought my lunch to work, much less snacks!! There's a cafeteria in my building and several vending machines which fed me on a daily basis!! I would get to work and buy my breakfast which usually was a fried egg and cheese sandwich or bagel, egg and cheese, with a bottle of juice and a muffin (for later - who am I fooling? I ate that muffin as a morning dessert!!). There went about 7-8 dollars. By mid morning, I'd grab a coke (I know it sounds disgusting having a pop so early, but it was a bad habit at the time - and more common than one might think). That's another $1.50 or $2.00 depending on the size (can or bottle). That's $10 bucks and I hadn't even had lunch yet.

Lunch would usually be around 9-11 dollars and would comprise of a mixture of items from the buffet (chicken, fries, some sort of pasta, pizza, corn and a couple pieces of vegetable- covered in dressing). Don't get me wrong, there were healthy options like the salad bar and wraps but I never really went there - the buffet was always more appealing! Running total $18 -$20 and the day was not over...

I would always have an afternoon snack which was usually a chocolate bar or a Jos Louis (moon pie), some sort of sweet cake or tart and it was always around 2:30/3:00 o'clock!! Never failed. That's about $2-$3 dollars. So you get my drift...I would spend between $20 to $25 dollars each day on food,THAT's $100 to $125 A WEEK!!! FOR ONE PERSON ...and that does not include supper and whatever may come later...it was CRAZY!!!. There is light at this expensive tunnel, y'all!!

So now, I spend about $40-$60 dollars a week buying tons of fresh veggies and lean healthy meats and foods for me AND my family!! That's a $40 to $60 dollar saving on a weekly basis!!I'd say 90% of the time I bring my lunch and snacks to work. I've also cut out alcohol from my diet. I'm saving major mullah here. My vegetarian husband does not drink so I was the only one consuming all that "special juice" - usually Heineken or Wine or vodka, which I used to make my fruity calorie-loaded drink mixes! So overall, I am saving a ton of cash.

I've decided to take $20 bucks a week from these savings and treat myself. Some days I'll save it up to get something really good (purse, boots) or put it towards my New Wardrobe Fund - which I will need at the end of my goal!!

So that's it...just wanted to share that there's even more than health and fitness to gain when you adopt a healthy lifestyle - you can save money too!! :)

Until next time...

Joania (2KMINE!!)

Joania - 1, Cravings- ZERO!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys,

Okay, so I've been having a rough few days with the cravings...but it looks like it's over for now (I HOPE)!! This is the worse it's ever been and I know it will happen again, but I won this round!!

I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for your suggestions and advice and just overall support!! It really means a lot. Although I agree that some times you need to let yourself have a break and give your body something sweet to change things up, I just don't believe that I AM at the point where I can SAFELY do that! So I didn't!! What I mean is that if I was to allow myself just one cookie or even a chocolate bar, that would just open the flood gates, unleash that eating machine that still resides inside of me!! So in this case, I decided to heed the advice of my trainer. I made a huge cup of cinnamon tea - the real deal - I boiled the cin sticks in a pot of water!! It smelled amazing....like I was doing some Christmas baking. It was suprisingly sweet, even with no sugar added!! Now, the tea was great but I still felt like eating something so I made a huge salad and threw in some roasted chicken breast strips and almonds...it was good. I was stuffed!!

I really see the value of cleaning out all the junk out of your house because I tell you, if I had anything in here, it would have been ugly!! Anyway, I'm back on track...

The journey continues.....

Joania (2KMINE!!)