Grocery Shopping #101 for us Newbies

So thought I'd share a few of my new grocery cart introductions & I encourage you to add them to yours.

Many of these are new items to my weekly grocery receipt & I will try to help you spend your grocery dollars wisely following my research.
#1- Red Swiss Chard - I sauteed this bundle in 2 Tble. butter & absolutely nothing else.  It is my new favorite side dish! The only problem is one bundle is not big enough when you are cooking for two.  So easy, so tasty....BUY it now!
#2 -Cottage cheese with a covering a fruit is a fantastic healthy snack.  Blueberries were my choice of topping today.  No it's not exciting, but when you're looking for something quick you'll be thankful to see this in your frig.
#3 - I favor any natural sweetener over anything artificial & will be looking for ways to use my Agave nectar.  The jury is still out on this one.
#4 - Eggs are one of nature's most natural proteins.  As long as I know the chickens are able to move about freely as they make my meal, I can fully enjoy their nutritious bounty.  We always prepare a few hard boiled eggs to have on hand later.  They are very handy for just about any type of salad or snack.
#5 - Non-fat plain Yougurt is THE new staple for my frequent protein shakes.
#6 - Quinoa was a new protein rich side dish I experimented with today and I really liked it!
#7 - Almonds are now my easy go to on the road snack.  I always keep a package in my car.
#8 - Spinach  It now goes right in the freezer like this so it's ready for smoothies.

Already in my frig/freezer or not pictured:
Fresh Seafood - We eat Organic Norwegian Salmon about once weekly & frozen shrimp/scallops whenever time or stores do not allow a good alternative
Frozen Mango for smoothies
Bananas
A good assortment of multi-colored veggies- Brussel Sprouts, Red Peppers and Green Beans are some of my favorites.
Humus- an awesome dip for veggies or Plain pita chips if you must.

& an exceptable sweet snack.  I made my virgin batch of Black bean Brownies tonight, which I highly recommend for your sweet tooth.  Take your standard Brownie mix, add a can of mashed black beans or if you're feeling lazy like me:)  a can of refried Black beans.  Mix well.  I added a little water to make it more like the normal consistancy of Brownie mix.  Bake as directed & enjoy with much less calories and fat!

Although I prefer to shop once per week I've found in order to really eat fresh, it's best to go twice.  I typically only buy enough produce/ fresh meat to last half the week.  There is nothing more depressing than throwing away expensive produce don't you agree?  Can't wait for gardening season when the natural possibilities will be more numerous!

Setting the Schedule

Sometime the hardest part of making a decison is just making the decision.  Does that make sense?           I guess I'm just one of those people who performs best when I put my intentions down on paper.  Once it's in black & white, I'm completely onboard and committed.  I can not ignore my goals after they are formally submitted so to speak.  To date I've been "dabbling" in adding weightlifting to my workout routine while still trying to give myself enough time to allow me to choreograph/participate in my favored Zumba routines.  I really haven't done much weight work the last year or two.  After researching various suggested schedules, I have finally come to a conclusion.  

This is the initial routine upon which I have decided to embark:

Basically the plan is to continue doing my cardio/Zumba 4x a week AND add weights 4x per week.

This given schedule would necessitate working out 7 days a week.  As I consider Zumba to give me a very good lower body workout, I will probably "skip" some Tuesday or Friday lower body work and use one of them as a complete Rest day.  Since I only teach on alternate Sundays, on off weeks this day can either be used to prepare new routines or it is another potential rest, extra or make-up weight day.  Don't you admire how even given this strict schedule, I have already figured out a couple possible breaks?

So it appears Monday will be my hardest day.  It's the only day I'll be required to do my Cardio AND an upper body workout in the same day.  

Sweet dreams folks.  Gotta rest up for tomorrow!

Welcome to our Gym

Two and a half weeks ago I started a blog about trying to get ripped.  Has anyone noticed that I haven't done a single entry regarding my workout routine?

I thought I'd begin by introducing you to the Fisher home gym.  It is rudimentary, but proves the point that you really don't need a lot of expensive equipment.  A nice assortment of free weights is all you really require.  One of my first purchases for this area many years ago was the sit-up bench.  It's pushed against the wall on the far right because I NEVER use it.  Our "bench" is really a horizontal ladder covered with a pad I made for our garden bench.  I have pleaded with Mike repeatedly to buy a "real" one but he's really right.  It's perfectly functional for our current use.  I don't benchpress a heavy enough weight to require a safety catch yet & I also like to use the ball as a bench.

Ironically I have access to a wide array of professional grade equipment at the gym where I teach Zumba.  As it caters to bodybuilders, it is filled with everything you could want and a well built clientele that knows how to use it.  Ok, I understand the whole intimidation thing newbies experience when they go to a new workout facility the first few times.  Maybe when I really get a little "rip" or two I'll make my appearance on that workout floor.  I'm "Zumba girl" and bodybuilders really aren't that impressed.  Well that's what they want you to think anyways.... However they aren't too subtle about staring when they're taking rather lengthy breaks between their sets while we do our routines.  Let's not get sidetracked and get back to the focus of today's blog...

First off, I find keeping a record of your weight lifting routine to be mandatory.  How can you make sure you are progressing if you can't remember what weight & number of reps you did last time?  I'm still working on a better routine that focuses on specific areas.  My old practice was a hop/skip/completely random assortment of exercises.  Basically I'd decide on a number of exercises I was going to do and it was usually a really small one like ten.  Is it any wonder I'm not already ripped?  LOL  Also with the exception of abdominal work, I almost never did more than one set of anything.  You have to start somewhere & I'm the first to acknowledge that my workout routine needed some fine-tuning.

So today I choose three areas upon which to focus:

 Shoulders (Anterior, Middle & Posterior Deltoids) Traps & Abs

I did TWO reps of every exercise I selected & I did TWELVE different ones!  We'll get more specific later and maybe I'll even progress to a proper number of sets like three.

Tackling the Enemy

Her name is Vino, but occasionally she tempts me with her friends margarita and other fruity cocktails.  I'm sure many of you are familiar with this beguiling temptress.  We've been intimate friends for awhile as she keeps me company on many a late evening.

 However recently I've developed a new daily relationship with this website called MyfitnessPal.com.  For the first time in years, I've been tracking my daily calorie intake & my exercise expenditures.  I highly recommend it because if nothing else it will MAKE you think about what you ingest knowing you will have to enter it into this log later.  It's all on the honor system & they have a very good database for your meal entries.  Of course you could just forget, or lie ....but that defeats the purpose...so odds are you'll be truthful.  So in brief, I will make agonizing conscious decisions all day long to avoid things I'd really like to eat.  I'll eat my roasted vegetables and baked fish which are really quite delicious.  I'll congratulate myself on that smart decision to have a fruit/veggie smoothie for brunch and some almonds as a snack when hunger beckoned.  And then it happens....

I'll decide to "celebrate" my success with a little glass of wine.  It appears I am not one of those people who can limit themselves to just ONE glass of wine unless someone has hijacked my MyFitnessPal.com account.  Holy mother of earth HALF of today's calories are liquor.  (This is especially bad as tomorrow is a planned "skip" evening of liquid hydration & sushi celebration.)

On the bright side, admitting your mistakes is the first step in correcting them.  I am also pretty proud that even with this HUGE handicap I have already lost 5 pounds since I began this quest.

However, consider yourselves forewarned.  If I get cranky next week, you'll know I have started abstaining my visitations from a dear friend in pretty glasses.  No, I'm not going to say goodbye forever.  I'm not the kind of girl who lies.

My First Smoothie

It seems if you follow any fitness or diet blog for long you'll hear someone raving about smoothies.  I recalled that I actually own a smoothie maker.  So on the last trip to the grocery store, I bought a large container of plain yougurt, more spinach, some kale and fresh strawberries.  My next purchase will be protein powder, but I haven't figured out which one I want to buy just yet.  That is a whole other blog.  Figuring this was enough material to whip up a maiden batch, I did a quick internet surf for some recipes.  All the recipes I found suggested frozen strawberries.  Ok....I remembered purchasing some kind of frozen fruit quite awhile ago & burrowed to the back of the freezer.  Bingo...Mangos!  I revised my internet search but quickly decided I was too hungry at this point to bother with a precise recipe.  Into the back of my cabinets I delved searching for my long forgotten Smoothie maker & I filled it with this:

One quart sized baggie full of frozen spinach

An undetermined amount of frozen mango

One ripe banana

1 Cup Choboni plain low-fat yougurt

Then I hit mix.  My poor Back to Basics Smoothie ELITE struggled to life but it didn't seem like any mixing was really going on so I helped it out with a spoon.  After a few rounds of this I tried the smooth button and finally got some real help from my appliance.  It began to circle into the desired thick green blend.  I anxiously grabbed my mug aiming it under the convenient spout at the bottom, hit pour and waited for my glass to fill.  Nothing.  Ok the bottom spout is clogged, so I whipped off the top and poured it into my glass.

...and you know what?  It was delicious! 

 Smoothies are so simple to make.  Do other people know about these?  Now as I recall the reason my Smoothie maker is stashed in the far back corner of a cabinet is because it's an absolute bitch to clean.  I'm seeing a Vitamix in my future.  Sure wish there was a gift giving holiday coming up like a Birthday or something......  (Is that subtle enough?  It's January 26th in case you were wondering.)

Cheers!

Goodbye Mr. French Fry

I love you Mr. Potato, but we need to talk.  I'm sure you're not all that surprised by what I am about to say.  It's time for a break & honestly it's really not that unexpected.  I'm sure you've picked up on the growing warning signs and noticed my more frequent absences.  Perhaps it won't be forever and know that I will still think of you often.

My new mantra is clean eating.  I'll be following some advice I got from the athleticbuild.com.  Their article "The Big Ten: 10 Nutrition Rules to Achieve an Athletic Build"  got my attention.  I will paraphrase the article for you.

1. Eat Clean
If it was made naturally it's ok.  If not it must not go. (no candy bars, cheetos, soda)
2. Drink Water
3. Eat lean Protein (fish, eggs, chicken, beans)
4. High Fiber (Broccoli, whole grains, beans, peas, oatmeal)
5. Protein Shakes (well......maybe I'll give these a try)
6. Avoid Simple Carbohydrates (White breads & rice, most baked goods, anything with sugar....GASP!)  Fried food & Sodium Nitrate
7. Eat Healthy Fats
 (almonds, olives, salmon, peanut butter)
8. Choose slow digesting carbs (oatmeal, beans, brown & wild rice)
9. Eat your Fruits & Veggies
10. Cheat - This is my favorite!  The only problem will be only doing it once or twice a week as they suggest.

So my new friend is the roasting pan.

It's really shocking that I've never tried roasting vegetables this way until now because it's so easy!
On my first attempt I did a sweet potato & a head of broccoli.

Preheat Oven to 400 & bake for 30 minutes.

I peeled and diced the potatoe & then put in a ziplock bag.  Next I added 1 Tablespoon of Olive oil, 3/4 teaspoon sea salt & 1/4 tsp. pepper.  Shake well & spread on parchment paper.
The broccoli looked dry so I added another Tble of olive oil to the bag.  The result was I burnt the shit out of the broccoli & the same amount of salt was way too much for this veggie.  However, the potato was very good!  Tonight with our fish I'll be trying cauliflower & maybe another recipe with tomatoe and cipollini that a friend shared.  I love that people want to help with this quest and I'm not ashamed to admit I'll need all the help I can get!  Hope you enjoyed today's roasting lesson although I'm sure most people are not new to this.  How about I demonstrate how to properly spread peanut butter on bread tomorrow?

...that was a trick....You mean dip celery in the peanut butter right?  Right!  See you are reading this thing.  Thank you.

The numerology of Four

So why now?  What changed that made me want to really change the way I look?  This is it in a nutshell:

I think that if I don't attempt it now, then I'll never know if I can.  Oh....and I love a good challenge.

It is my greatest hope that great Abs are NOT made in the kitchen & can be achieved soley with endless crunches.  I am secretly hoping that I can prove all those other body sculpting enthusiasts wrong.  First off, you should understand that I abhor the entire concept of dieting.  I would honestly rather do five thousand crunches every single day than deny myself one bite of something I crave.  You should also know that I have already changed that number three times.  One thousand wasn't enough compared to my desire for a heaping pile of homemade mashed potatoes covered in butter, bacon and an enormous amount of cheese.  I decided it might not be feasible to complete 10,000 sit-ups in one day.  Does that help you comprehend the size of my chosen task?

 I LOVE a lot of foods that you will not find on most serious body builder's grocery lists.  Luckily the past few years, I have also developed a strong distaste for almost all fastfood.  Sodas only touch my lips via Long Island Iced teas.  Oh no, please don't tell me liquor has calories....I might have to totally rethink this resolution!  I'm hoping I love sweet pototoes.  The owner of the gym where I teach, which cators to body builders, swears by the sweet potatoe as the perfect food.  I'm not sure I've ever had one that is not dripping in butter, with a sprinkling of maple syrup.  It's on the next grocery list; so, you'll be sure to hear the results soon.  

So back to the number four.
My current weight is - 140
Later this month I will turn - 44

Yeah that's it.  I'm not really "into" the numerology thing.  It just seemed like a nice title for the blog as we approach the 4th.

P.S. Don't worry we'll get to the BEFORE pics.  Need Mike's help for that & the weekend awaits.  Oh joy....but what get fit blog doesn't include a BEFORE pic?

Why start a blog or Journal?

I've often thought about starting a blog.  They are certainly numerous reasons not to take on this endeavor like the time commitment & the overabundance of other available blogs.  Honestly I think the real reason I haven't up to this point is this: would anyone really READ mine?  Why bother doing it if after putting all that effort into something, no one saw your work?

 I have always been an enthusiastic follower of the New Year's Resolution tradition.  Faithfully for years I have made & forced myself to KEEP those little changes/ promises to myself.  I add new ones every year while maintaining the old ones & feel those improvements have really added value to my life.  In my opinion, the number one reason to announce your resolution to as many people as possible is it provides additional motivation to keep you on track.  I also think the key to achieving the results of your resolution is it absolutely must be ALL ABOUT YOU and no one else.  You can't control other people, you can only attempt to control yourself.

  I recently read another reason to create a journal & as you will see this blog will be this year's journal:

 " How can we keep a positive change permanent? It is really important that any change you make is a change you want to make.  You have to own it.  You have to feel passionate and have a strong emotional connection to it.  If you change because you feel you "should" or "have" to, or worse, because other people want you to, then you run the risk of the change not lasting.  I also believe that it is really helpful to document the positive outcomes of the changes you make.  If for instance, you lose weight and feel a huge improvement in your physical and emotional well-being, then journal those feelings.  Doing so will give you something to reference when you feel less motivated."


So what is this year's resolution?  I've decided to GET RIPPED!

My BMI is in the average range & I already workout a lot; so, I know it won't be popular with my more sedentary friends.   However, this is my goal so it doesn't really matter to me what others think.  I've been sporting my cute "two pack" for a few years & I've always wanted something closer to six.  I'm on a plateau and I need a kick-start for change.  I teach a toning class & I think the instructor should look more toned.  Some might view it as narcisistic, others will view it annoying and unnecessary.  It might also just be highly entertaining because I love to eat & they say abs are made in the kitchen not the gym.  I'm getting hungry right now just thinking about it.  Perhaps I'll dabble into other topics as traditionally I expand my resolutions into more than one thing.  I'm hoping that just one or two people might find it helpful, or inspiring or educational.  If it's just one or two, that's ok.  So let's go get more fit!