Banana Oat Muffins

Here's another one I found on Pinterest.  Perhaps it would just be easier from here on out to just allow any readers to assume the recipe came from Pinterest unless otherwise noted!

These are good!  Now, they're also pretty healthy, and unless I'm mistaken, gluten free, 'cause there's no flour in these babies.  Apparently some baking powder may have gluten in it, but I'm not sure if mine does or not.

I made some adjustments on this recipe, so I will list my recipe below.  However, you can find the inspirational post HERE.  If you stop by the Green Lite Bites blog, leave some comment love...us bloggers just LOVE comments!

Here's the recipe as I made it (again, slightly different than the blogger above).

3 mashed over-ripe bananas
1 cup skim milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
3 cups old fashioned oats
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
2 packets truvia (use the sweetener you have on hand)
1 small box raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix all ingredients except raisins.  Fold raisins into batter.  Spray muffin tin with Baker's Secret.  Fill muffin cups with batter.  These will not rise a lot, so you can fill them fairly full.

Bake 20-30 minutes until muffins are firm to the touch.  Cool in the muffin pan...they are easily removed once they've cooled.

As you can see if you compare my version with the original, I substituted raisins for chocolate chips.  I think my kids would like them better if they had chocolate chips!  My 11 year old son did say (after taking a few bites), "Mom, these would be better with more cranberries".  I then explained that it was raisins and not cranberries and then told him I'd try cranberries next time 'cause that sounded like a great idea!

I entered the ingredients into the Body Bugg software and it's telling me that if you make 12 muffins with the recipe I used above the muffins are 134 calories each and 2.1 grams of fat.  Pretty good for a muffin! This would be a nice breakfast muffin.  Give them a try and let me know what you think!

If I remember to get some dried cranberries and give them another go I'll let you know how that changes things (or any other variations)!!

Lemon Chicken

This is another Pinterest inspired dinner!  I have really enjoyed going through and pinning different recipes to my "Recipes To Try" board.  This one was really flavorful.

Lemon Chicken...The original poster commented that this was a spring-time dish but I thought it was great on a cold, dreary fall night!  Actually I think it'd be good ANY time!  You can find the original post HERE.  When I made this one I followed the recipe to the letter...no diversions!  I brushed melted butter on the chicken legs and oh my...they were delish!  The chicken was crispy but moist and very flavorful.

Here's a photo of my finished product, fresh out of the oven:

Stop by the blog that I found this on for a full copy of the recipe.  Her instructions are great and very detailed.  I'm not a huge fan of dark meat chicken but I thought this recipe was a "keeper".  Hope you try it and enjoy it also!

Pumpkin Muffins

I have decided to add an occasional recipe posting to my normal weight loss updates.  I think a key to successful weight loss is to be able to eat things you really enjoy, but find ways of preparing those things in a lower fat and lower calorie way.

Once again...Pinterest to the rescue!  I have found many great recipes while browsing so today I'd like to share one.  It's fall time and I LOVE pumpkin recipes...pumpkin soup, pumpkin bars, pumpkin coffees, pumpkin cookies....you name it, if there's pumpkin in there I'm bound to love it.  Great, except for someone who is watching her caloric intake, things like pumpkin cookies can get me into trouble quickly!  So, seeing as how I'm newly back on the diet train I thought I should just avoid all things pumpkin to keep myself safe.

Untillllll I saw THIS post!  This my friends is a fat free pumpkin muffin.  The recipe seems so easy I had to give it a try.  Here's all you need:

1 spice cake mix (you can also use yellow or vanilla, but I used spice)
3/4 can canned pure pumpkin (15 oz. can size)
1 large egg white
1 cup water
nutmeg and cinnamon (I just shook a little in...probably about 1/2 tsp each)

Mix all of the ingredients together.  You can add more water if the batter is too thick, but I thought it was fine using 1 cup.  Spray your muffin tin with Baker's Joy (if you don't know what that is, GET SOME!  It's awesome!)  Add the batter to the muffin tin and bake at 375 for approximately 15 minutes.  Ovens vary, so test one before you shut the oven off!

After I took mine out of the oven I sprayed the tops with a little "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray (you know you just said that with a Fabio accent....) and then sprinkled the tops with a cinnamon sugar mix.  There's probably less than 1/2 tsp. on each one, but it adds a little something!

Now, I know someone's wondering (that is, if anyone reads this blog) what the nutrition is like on these babies.  Well, I plugged all of the ingredients into my BodyBugg program and here's what it told me!

1 muffin
182 calories
2.9 grams protein
36.3 grams carbohydrates
3 grams fat

The original post indicated it was a fat free recipe, but there's a little fat in the pumpkin, and I figure 3 grams of fat in a muffin is pretty good, compared to a standard blueberry muffin, which packs in (on average) 27 grams of fat and over 500 calories.

As any decent cook would, I tested one to make sure the recipe was blog-worthy and it totally passed the test!  I thought these were great, and am really looking forward to enjoying one tomorrow morning with my coffee!

Still motoring along....

I decided that I'd weigh in on the 1st, 10th, and 21st of each month to help keep me in-tune and accountable for how I'm doing.  So far, so good.  I weighed in on the 21st at 239.6.

I'm in the 230's now.  That's a good thing...the number is moving in the right direction.  Next goal...get into the 220's.

I do have to say, I REALLY like the Body Bugg SP.  I saw lots of complaining on the old message board and even on the BB Facebook page, but no complaints from me.  Well, maybe one tiny one...you can't enter a custom food from the app, but you could go to the site in your browser and do it that way.  Me...I just wait 'til I'm in front of the computer and do it then.  I like that the SP makes it really easy to either enter right after I eat or even enter some food before I eat to pre-plan.  (Yeah, that's kinda anal, but that's kinda me at times!!!)

So, nothing really big to report, I'm just happy that I'm back on the right track and seeing the scale move.  I'm walking Monday - Friday in the morning pretty faithfully (hate getting up at 6:15, but it's necessary right now) and then logging some extra miles on the treadmill.  I'm thankful to have that right here at home.

I have been experimenting with recipes quite a bit.  I love Pinterest, and have found some great recipes on there.  Yesterday I made a Taco Soup that I found there; apparently it's a Weight Watcher's recipe.  It was SO GOOD!  Wow...seriously great.  You can find the recipe HERE.  I did make a few modifications, just because it was a last minute idea and I didn't have all of the items on hand.

I used Fajita seasoning because that's what I had.  I used black beans instead of pinto beans, and I drained the black beans.  I added 4 cups of water to the soup because when I made it per the recipe I thought it was too thick.  I ate leftovers today for lunch and it was even BETTER than last night!  And I ate a ton of it for only 500 calories.  Awesome.  Try it...it's delish!

If you're working on your health and fitness, just keep reminding yourself that you're worth it and you almost ALWAYS feel better after getting some exercise, so make that time for yourself!

Lori

Trying to find the wagon I fell off of....

The sad reality is that it's really hard to lose weight, but oh so easy to gain it back!  It's just a fact for me...hard to lose, easy to gain.

And maybe for me, another fact is that I'm a little dumb and I have to learn the lesson the HARD way.  To sum it up...At 265 I felt like crap but didn't even realize how crappy I felt.  At 195 I felt freaking AWESOME and looked great, even though when I looked in the mirror I saw the 265 pound me.  Then at 205 I figured, eh, it's 10 pounds, no big deal.  But the thing I didn't understand was that at 265, 10 pounds wasn't really a big deal...at 195, 10 pounds was a huge deal.  And it needed to be dealt with.

But I didn't, and soon, 10 pounds was 20, and so on until I saw 244.

Craptastic....seriously?  244?  How the hell did I let THAT happen?

Take 20 or so reasonably good excuses, add alcohol, bad food, and laziness and you get 244....or something like that.

But now I'm back.  I plugged in my good old bugg and started back.  But, the old bugg was losing it's sound and kinda seemed like it was on the verge of dying.  Let me make this clear...it deserved to die!  It was used almost daily for almost 3 years.  It served me well.  I got on the website and saw that the buggs were on sale for $99...what a DEAL!  The sale included the SP and since I am the owner of a new iPhone 5, I figured now was the time.

My SP came last week and so far I am loving it.  Like my old bugg, sometimes the reading on my phone (or digital display with the older one) is a bit higher than the reading when I actually connect to the computer.  But, no worries....I am trying to get a higher burn than my target anyway.

I have made some significant changes to hopefully ensure my success (again)...

1.  I get up every morning between 6:15 and 6:30 and take the dog for a walk.  Some days we get a mile and a half in, some days less, but at least I'm starting the day with activity.

2.  I am logging my food...that's the hard habit for me to get into, so being faithful with that is a huge step in my success (or lack thereof).

3.  I'm logging my walking mileage in daily mile again.  If I can hit 50 miles in October I'm going to treat myself to a Shellac Manicure.

I'm going to weigh on the 1st, 11th, and 21st of the month to see where I'm at.  I started at 244 and today I weighed in at 241.5.  I am happy with that.  My first short term goal is to get into the 230's.  Any of you who followed me before know that setting goals to the next set of 10 was what I did before.  Once I hit 239, my goal with be to get into the 220's, and so on.

Here we go again...wish me luck!

Keeping up...

The week is nearing an end and so far, so good.  I'm keeping up with my goals.  Yesterday I did not walk the full 2 miles per se, but I am still happy with my results from yesterday.  I spent 5 hours in the car driving to and from a meeting point.  My niece and I met for a shopping day to get the kids their summer clothing.  We spent about 5 hours shopping, which was obviously all walking.  Then after I got home I jumped on the treadmill and walked for about a mile and a half.  I could've skipped it and just gone to bed, but I got some exercise, and more importantly, got my burn target in for the day before I went to bed.

I'm logging food.  I am not measuring and weighing everything, but I'm trying to keep fairly accurate track.  Once I get back into the habit of logging food I may go back to measuring and weighing everything.  Time will tell.

I know what works.  That's the simple part.  DOING what works is really the hard thing.  But, I'm trying, and that's what I wasn't doing before.

Buggin' again...

It's been a tough winter.  I had good intentions, but I just didn't follow through.  I had an injury that really sidelined me for working out.  Now, I could have walked through that, but I didn't.  I slacked off big time and now I'm paying for it.

So, here I go again.....

I have set up a few new BB programs in the last few months, but been very unsuccessful sticking with it.  So, this time I thought, why not aim a bit LOW and then be encouraged by the success.  Hopefully this will keep me motivated.  My pants are WAY too tight and I'm NOT buying bigger ones again.

Here's where I am at.

I'm up to 235...that's bad.  Body fat is up to 48%...that's bad too.

I'm not working out at all and I'm eating poorly.  That's BAD.

New BB program is for 2050 calories IN and 2550 OUT.  That is a one pound per week loss.  I can do that.  In addition, I have set a few other goals personally.

Goals:
1.  Get into the 220's...229 counts as 220's, so that's where I'm setting my current sights.
2.  Walk 2 miles per day at a minimum.
3.  Log ALL food eaten.
4.  Drink 4 cups of water daily.  Now, by cup, I mean one of my sports bottles.  I think water consumption is really important and helpful, so I'm starting there.

I'm going to try and blog again to help keep myself accountable.  Here we go again.....

2012

Here it is...a new year.  2010 was my year of weight loss.  2011, however, was not really.  I yo-yo'ed up and down and wasn't really committed to it as I had been before.  But, one great thing happened with 2011.  See, I, like most people out there have lost weight and then gained it all back plus some so many times over my life that I kinda felt like what's the point.

What's the point of working hard and then gaining it all back?

2011 was the point.  I didn't gain it all back.  I can now understand the power of 10 pounds.  I can literally see 10 pounds being the "wiggle room".

So now, in 2012, I'm not going to beat myself up over the up and downs of 2011.  I'm getting back to what I know works, which is tracking the calories IN and OUT using my Bodybugg.  I plucked the Bugg out of a drawer and am currently charging it up.  I created a new program.  I'm going back to what works.

I renewed my subscription, using a coupon code that Apex had e-mailed me.  I am now good to 8/22/2012.  I put my first new goal at 15 pounds.  That means 1600 calories IN and 2500 calories OUT.  Both will be a struggle, but I need to remember that if I feel that I need more food, I need to off-set that food with more activity.

I want to ultimately get into the 170's.  I really think that if I get there, I will be able to maintain that 10 pound wiggle room.  When I see the scale hitting a 180 number, I will have to be diligent for a few weeks or months to get back into the safe zone of 170's.  I will not let these numbers define me, but motivate me.

Today I'm starting back, and just that in itself feels good.  I know I will have ups and downs, but I felt great at 195, and so I know that getting back there and even lower will feel even greater.  I am not looking at it as losing weight I've already lost.  I'm looking at it as getting to a comfortable spot, where I not only feel great, but look great too.

Today I am in the 220's...my first goal is to be into the 2-teens.  This methodology worked for me before and I believe it will work again.  I will take this journey one step at a time and get to a place that I am comfortable and feeling great.

Best of luck to you on your journey, and hopefully my own journey can encourage someone else out there to stick with their own.

Lori