Kicking *kitten* In Our Twenties - January Challenge!!

Rai - Glad to have you back and LOVE your goals for Jan :happy: They all sound awesome!

Water + fruit/veggies is honestly the easiest way to lose weight IMO without feeing deprived. I eat SO much fruit + veg every day, my boyfriend regularly says "wow... that looks like a really filling snack" with a really judgey "you're eating more than any normal person should eat" expression ... hahah! To which I usually reply "Yep! And it's still 150 calories LESS than your crummy, unsatisfying carb-loaded snack that won't keep you sated for more than 45 mins" because I'm a smart *kitten*. There are days when I cannot believe how much food I eat for 1500 calories. Stock up on raw veg, prep carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, bell peppers slices, raw cauliflower, etc and keep them in portions in the fridge. Have a variety of fruit on hand (I keep grapes, blueberries, apples, tangerines, pineapple, and bananas all on hand, all the time, and fully prepped to eat) and if you get hungry, grab a serving or two of fruit, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese or plain yogurt, and some cinnamon - mix and enjoy. It will honestly keep you full for hours. If you have extra cals, add some almonds or other nuts to bump up your healthy fats for the day.

I really don't "get" the anti-fruit attitude of so many people trying to lose weight. Is there something I'm missing? :noway: Yes - fruit has natural sugar. And? I've never had ANY issue eating as much fruit as I do. It kick starts your metabolism (specifically apples, peaches, raspberries, tangerines, oranges, etc), it's low cal, mostly high fiber, and really high in all sorts of vitamins and nutrients. 3-5 servings of fruit per day is a perfect healthy way to curb your cravings for sweets, get your vitamins, and enjoy really yummy low-cal snacks without guilt. It's also a great addition to dinner if you want to avoid dessert but still feel like you've had a little treat :happy: Throw some in a salad with balsamic vinaigrette and you've got a perfect side.

End rant. Can you tell I love fruit? I am so defensive sometimes... hahaha

Skip - Thanks Drunken NYE revelers were absolutely terrible. This weekend was by far the worst weekend yet at work (over months and months of bouncing). I am just glad that it's over! :drinker: And glad you didn't take my comments as critical, because they weren't intended to be. If you think your body will be capable of dropping the 5lbs then I say, have at 'er and best of luck :happy: I am sure you're going to kick *kitten* and work your tail off - you'll earn those 5lbs, without a doubt. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

Meredith - Spinach and cherry tomatoes sound delicious! And so does your snacky food. Great idea to throw it in the oven :happy: I never think to have hot snacks... I always go for raw because it's fast and easy. Love the idea though! Maybe I'll give it a try. What kind of frozen veg do you use?

AFM - I made a truly kick-*kitten* dinner tonight... Pork tenderloin pan-seared and then finished in the oven, basted with a few Tbsp of BBQ sauce. Spinach, veg + fruit salad w/ homemade vinaigrette, steamed green beans and oven baked sweet potato fries. Although I am still not feeling 100% today, my mom seems to have exactly what I had yesterday and was totally out of commission, so I offered to take over and make dinner and the results were incredible. Simple and yet really delicious. I always forget how amazing pork tenderloin is and how easy it is to cook. Comes out amazing every time! Definitely a repeat dinner in the near future :happy: I abstained from the sweet potatoes and my entire dinner was only 342 calories. Cannot beat that!

Hope everyone else is having a good evening. I think I'm going to experiment with my new muffin top pans tonight and test out some tasty new recipes. These are the ones I'm going to try:

http://ohsheglows.com/2009/01/17/flax-oat-breakfast-power-muffins/
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9848

I'll let you know how they turn out!
Meag

Disclaimer: This post is going to be ridiculously long :noway:

Melissa - My pork was the easiest meat dish ever. I literally just trimmed it, then pan-seared it in about 2 tsp of olive oil on medium-high (rotating it to sear all sides), placed it on a baking dish and basted it with a few Tbsp of our favourite BBQ sauce (80 cals per 2 Tbsp, so I used about 1 Tbsp per serving total) and put it in a 400F oven for 10 mins, turned it and re-basted and cooked for another 8 mins or so. Let it rest a few mins and it was perfect. Very tender and juicy. Incredibly easy. Tenderloin requires so little work and always comes out tasting incredible... So when it's on sale, we always stock up! I think we got this 1lb tenderloin for about $3.50CA - Cheap dinner, that's for sure!

Glad to hear a lot of you folks are on board with my fruit-love :happy: I find that whenever I am hungry I always gravitate toward the fruit bowl. 80 calories for an apple and my body is usually singing afterward. Very filling, full of fiber, easy to eat on the go (apples in the car are a godsend!) and so, so yummy. Sweet and crisp and a perfect snack, almost like a dessert. My body recognizes fruit as a kind of treat now because of how sweet and juicy it is and so it's almost always my first snack choice, without any consideration. I am programmed to crave fruit now :happy: Could be worse!

Rai - Hmm Good question about storage. Right now I live with my parents and on account of how much we cook (all the time), we hit the grocery store 5-6 days a week. It's incredibly excessive but we're always whipping something up at the last minute and running out of ingredients and produce. I eat so much produce that we have to replenish our stocks constantly. The best bet for not letting veg/fruit go bad is to plan to eat it and see your plans through - I know it seems redundant, but only buy what you have planned for in meals/snacks and then commit yourself to not wasting it or letting it go bad. If you see some fruit or veg turning, find a way to use it over the next 24 hours. It'll keep you creative and it will force you to incorporate more fruits and veg into your diet. If you are hoping to get more in anyway, nothing should be going bad.

With that said, my tips would be
1) Buy sturdy veg that keeps for a while - carrots, zucchini, squash, onions, cabbage, ruttabaga, etc are all easy to keep in the fridge for a few weeks without fear of them spoiling. They are not as low-cal as other vegetables like spinach, peppers, tomatoes, beans and so they have to be eaten in moderation, but if you want to keep vegetables handy to bump up your intake, these are great things to have around. Try to get a good mix of both.
2) When you buy produce, clean and prep it and store it in ready-to-eat portions. This eliminates the excuse to eat it and will keep it moving out of your fridge. I do this with both fruit and veggies and it works really well.
3) Meal plan. Plan to have at least one, if not two, vegetables or vegetable dishes every night at dinner. If you are having something sturdy like squash, replace your carb with it. I have done this for months and I must say, I really don't miss it. Try new recipes and experiment. I know not everyone likes to cook as much as me, but trying new healthy foods and feeling really good about what you're eating can give you a real sense of accomplishment.
4) When we buy greens like spinach, we find they tend to go bad quickly unless we store them in an air-tight ziplock freezer bag. We buy huge plastic cartons of baby spinach and compress them into a large ziplock freezer bag, squeezing out all the air (so it looks somewhat vacuum-sealed) and then toss it in the fridge. Use it up over 5-7 days and it stays pretty fresh. After 4 or 5 days we usually use it only for cooking, and we add it to everything!

My biggest suggestion - Add vegetables to every dish you make. Honestly. There is nothing you can't add vegetables to. And add a LOT of them. At least twice whatever the recipe calls for. You'll thank yourself for making a much more filling meal (serving sizes in "light" recipes are stupid and wayyy not enough food), chuck full of goodness, and incredibly delicious since veggies are tasty and fresh and wonderful. If you find something going bad in your fridge and you don't know how to use it, post a question here and someone (likely me, at the very least) will get back to you with a good healthy recipe to use it up.

Hope that all helps. It's just what I could think of off the top of my head. It's hard to explain how I eat/prepare/store food. I'm such a produce junkie but it's so second nature to me that I'm not sure exactly how other people do things... Or how anyone survives on 1500 calories without a billion servings of fruit/veg a day :blushing: hahaha!

Maybe I should post more of my veg experiments on here to give you guys some ideas re: veg dishes? Let me know if you ever want suggestions on how to incorporate vegetables and fruits and I'll be more than happy to provide ample recipe suggestions! Just yesterday I experiments with Apple Oat and Wheat Bran Muffin Tops and they turned out amazing! It was a great way to use up a few apples that my mom had bought by accident (wrong kind and I'm very specific about my apples). Here's the recipe, altered from http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9848:

2 cups finely diced apples, (about 2 medium apples - I used one gala and one granny smith)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup soft white wheat bran
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar (or substitute if you like)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
8 oz. plain low-fat yogurt (1 cup) (Astro 1% Plain yogurt - could not live without it!)
1/4 cup almond milk (or other milk)
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg (or substitute)

Preheat oven to 400F. Coat 12 standard muffin pan cups with cooking spray.
Place diced apple on paper towels to drain; pat dry. Combine flour, oats, wheat bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in medium bowl, and stir with whisk. Combine yogurt, milk, oil, vanilla and egg in small bowl and stir to blend. Make well in center of flour mixture; add milk mixture, stirring just until moist. Mix in apple.
Divide batter evenly among prepared cups. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until muffins spring back when pressed lightly in center. Remove from pan, and cool on wire rack.
Makes 12 servings. Per serving: Calories 179 Carbs 35 Fat 4 Protein 5 Fiber 3 Sodium 214

Definitely a huge hit at my house! And here's what I had for breakfast, if you are interested in incorporating more fruit...

Vegan Overnight Oats w/ Blueberry + Shredded Coconut

1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1.5Tbsp chia seeds (15g)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 banana, mashed
1/3 cup fresh blueberries
3 Tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut

Whisk together oats, chia seeds and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Add milk, vanilla and mashed banana and mix well. Refrigerate overnight (or at least 2 hours). In the morning, add blueberries and coconut and stir to combine.
Calories 372 Carbs 61 Fat 15 Protein 9 Fiber 14 Sodium 183

This is a HUGE breakfast and you can easily lower the cals if you omit the chia seeds and lessen the milk by 1/3cup. The chia seeds soak up some milk and add a "yogurt-like" consistency and pack a huge nutritional punch, but if you are watching your cals they can eat up quite a few at breakfast. Instead, put oats, some milk, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 banana and some cinnamon in your fridge and then mix in whatever fruit you like in the morning. If you want, omit the banana and use 1/2 scoop of protein powder instead. This is a great breakfast to start your day, rev up your metabolism and perfect for before a work-out. It's also a great time saver since all the work is done at night. Just grab it out of the fridge in the morning and enjoy! The coconut cost me 70 calories, not really worth it if you on a calorie budget, so I'd probably leave that out next time.

Wow - I sure do have a whole lot to say. Obviously I need a day job! :laugh:

mking - Great to hear about your workout and your love of the gym!! I'm impressed with your motivation for spin class - I wish I could get into it but it's SUCH a hard workout and my legs never forgive me, so kudos to you!

Off to the gym later today for a run and some additional cardio to make up for my lazy weekend. I am feeling better today and ready to get moving. Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

Welcome Kate! Adding you to our growing list...

skiptomylou32--scale goal: 125, non-scale goal: stop waiting till tomorrow, making excuses, and being complacent with my fitness goals
Lauratx22-to lose 7 pounds! Weighing 163!
Roobean33 - cardio 5X/week, lifting 3X/week, try out CrossFit, lose 2lbs, H20 guzzle, take measurements.
kvr414- 1 hr cardio 3x a week, try 3 new recipes, 12 cups water/day, lose 6 lbs.
meagalayne- curb late-night snacking and emotional eating, limit carbohydrate consumption after 4pm and experiment with new Low-GI recipes once a week, maintain under 130lbs, and complete first 4 weeks of Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Training (Novice)
emmarie1630- lose 4 pounds, 4x a week workout, use wii fitness games a ton, MORE WATER!
wardiemelissa-continue to maintain between 120-125lbs; plan healthy family meals at least 5 nights a week; begin training for half marathon (just need to find one in May or June)
tjradd73-lose 8lbs, 80oz H20 per day, and cardio 3x per week.
Mike (CaptainJim) lose 5-8 lbs, 3x (30-60 min) cardio per week, fit into size 32 jeans (I'm 34's right now)
Finncmh- see a loss on the scale, continue strength training 2x's a week and update the routine at the end of Jan, continue running training- increase to 5 min running intervals, 1 new healthy recipe a week, and get back in to yoga/stretching routine in the am and/or pm
briar_rose: lose 5 pounds, exercise 3x/week, no potato chips
mkingraham: lose 15 pounds by Feb 1., exercise 5/6 x a week with 3/4 days of strength training, eat breakfast everyday (a healthy one), two servings of fruit a day.
GuamGrly (Bethany) - DO NOT focus on the scale. Focus on changing my lifestyle by incorporating fruits and vegetables in my diet more, drinking my water everyday, planning my meals, working out 120 minutes per week, and getting back to C25k traning.
LostAlyKat (Aly) : Be under 170lbs for the end of the month. Do weight lifting or strength 3 times a week, be active in some way every day. Get back into doing Yoga do a class at least 1 time this month. Write down my feelings more often.
Stuartme123: JanSW = 156. Check-in with this thread 3-4x/week, 30 min of cardio 3x a week, Restart and keep up with 100 push-up challenge and C25K, Keep unhealthy snacking to under 200 calories/day, Add veggies that wouldn't normally be there to at least one meal a day, Try one new healthy recipe a week, Lose 1lb a week for a total of 4lbs.
seripha - exercise 5x a week for at least 30 minutes each. Try to eat at least 1 cup of dark green food every day and only 1 sweet thing per day.
miss_amy: to lose 8lbs (38 total lbs), work out 5x a week for an hour & log EVERYTHING!
Ngoat (nancy): Lose 5lbs, Drink more water, and eat healthier dinners!
rai8759: lose at least 4 lbs (164 by 1/31/11); work out 3x a week idevelop a consistent weight training regiment and work my way up to 2x a week weight training; drink 8-10 cups of water per day; eat more veggies; track everything in my food diary!!
Dteg: Scale to lose 5 LBs making under 140 for the first time in 5 years!!!! non scale: to eat more fresh food, eat in more often not going out as much anymore, excerise three times a week
Allie7383- be at or under 155, eat more fruits/veggies, and drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.
katecampbell03- Lose 5lbs this month and make time to fit in a work-out before/during/after work