What? A Healthy Lunch?

I set my alarm clock for 6am. Exactly 1 hour before I need to be at work. When I factor in the 20 minute drive, that leaves me 40 minutes to shower, put on makeup, eat breakfast, and dry/straighten my hair. My tight schedule unfortunately doesn't include time to prepare a healthy lunch to eat at work.

Why don't I just wake up 10 minutes earlier you ask? Because then my alarm clock would say 5 something and that is not an acceptable time to wake up. It doesn't matter if it says 5:59. I don't wake up at 5.

As a result of me not taking the time to make a lunch  in the morning, I usually just go out. I spend an average of $5 a day. That adds up. I get tired of fast food and am usually craving something fresh and healthy. Unfortunately fresh and healthy = more money which I don't have a lot of.

Today I had an idea (ok I've had this idea 100 times before, but I have never actually done it...the phrase should more accurately state...today I acted on an idea)

Why not buy all of the ingredients for a yummy salad, make a yummy homemade dressing and divide the salad into Tuperwares that can easily be taken out of the fridge on my way out the door. Healthy, delicious lunch that takes no time out of my morning routine.

I found a recipe for a creamy balsamic dressing click here to go to the original blog

Creamy Balsamic Dressing:
4 cloves garlic, grated
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons Morton's Nature's Seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup extra light olive oil


(a hint...Morton's Nature's Seasoning can be found by the spices in your grocery store)

The dressing can be expensive up front, but once you have all of the ingredients you can make it again for little or no cost. I put all of the ingredients in my blender to mix them.

For the salad
Romaine lettuce
Cucumber
Red onion
Cherry Tomatoes
Cilantro
Gorgonzola cheese
Bacon
Mushrooms
(add any other ingredients you like in a salad)

I spent 30 minutes preparing the dressing and chopping the veggies. I prepared 3 Tupperware containers of salad and 3 containers of dressing. Lunch for the next 3 days. Amazing.

Challenge: Bikini Bootcamp

I have a board on pinterest called "Gettin' my Body Back".

I will be the first to admit that I have never really tried any of the exercises I have pinned.

You see, I HATE exercising. (shh don't tell any of my patients who I make work out every day) I have tried over and over again to find a workout that I enjoy. I hate running because it hurts my knees, I don't have a bike, I hate driving to the gym, I hate paying for the gym, I don't own a set of weights, and last but not least, I am just plain exhausted when I get home from work and the last thing I want to do is work out. Oh and waking up early is just plain out of the question. So, as you can see, that doesn't give me any options.

That being said, I am on a road to a better me which eventually needs to include working out.

Motivation:
1. We started a "Biggest Loser" contest at work today where you pay $10 to play and then weigh in every week. If you don't lose at least 1 pound in the week, you have to pay another dollar. The person with the largest percentage of weight loss gets all of the money. (something like $100) In the interest of not losing $1 a week over the next 12 weeks, I would like to lose weight.

2. We are going to the lake for a week with my family in August and I would love to look great in a swimsuit.

3. I am sooooo out of shape. I know that working out will give me more energy during the day.

SO here we go.

I went to my pinterest board where I have collected a variety of workouts and found this blog. She has a bunch of different posts about working out, eating right, and losing weight. She has a post entitled Bikini Boot Camp. I think this is where I will attempt to start.

Who's with me?!

1. Pick 1-3 foods you know you binge on and for the next 5 weeks you are not allowed...lets see, we will go with ice cream for sure (although that is going to be a hard one for 5 weeks) and chips.

2. Buy a new bikini...Done. OK well it isn't a bikini, it is a tankini...but close enough. Go to this website. It is amazing and has the best swimsuits.

3. Keep that swimsuit in a public place...I'll hang it on my closet door.

4. Start working out 2 times this week. Not too hard...I can do that.

5. 2 goals I want to achieve over the next 5 weeks...1. to eat healthier 2. to enjoy working out

6. Make sure to drink 8 glasses of water a day. This is hard for me. I am terrible at drinking water. But I will try. If I can give up ice cream, I can drink more water.

Here is my first workout (also from the same blog mentioned earlier)

 In case you are like me and are clueless about working out, I found a few definitions:

Mountain Climbers - Begin in a push-up position on the hands and toes. Bring the right knee in towards the chest, resting the foot on the floor. Jump up and switch feet in the air, bringing the left foot in and the right foot back. You can also run the knees in and out rather than touching the toes to the floor. Continue alternating the feet as fast as you safely can for 30-60 seconds.

Burpee- squat, push up, vertical jump...yikes

Let the games begin!

Pink Slime

The other day I came across this article on yahoo. Basically it goes through the 9 worst things that you can buy in the supermarket. Let me just say that I usually avoid reading things like this because it is impossible to eat completely pesticide/cancer free foods and someday we're all going to die of something anyway. Right? I would honestly rather not know.

I however made the mistake of reading the article. It talks about nasty things such as pink slime in ground beef, MRSA in turkey, and pregnancy hormones that cause birth defects lining the inside of canned foods. Oh and apparently the FDA allows canned fruit and vegetable juices to contain up to 15% mold. Awesome. Now I am completely grossed out and don't want to give my baby any more canned peaches.

The thing is, while it is 100% disgusting knowing the things they put in food these days, it is also 100% impossible to do much about it. Sure we can all go back a century and grow all of our own food and raise our own animals, that's realistic. We could also go organic and buy only grass fed beef raised in ideal conditions, but who can afford that?

Lately, I have been trying to come up with some more realistic ways to eat a little healthier...

1. Bountiful Baskets If you have never heard of this, it is a pretty cool organization. They are a food co-op that put together baskets of fresh fruit/vegetables that you can order on Monday for $15 and pick up on Saturday. You don't get to choose the foods in the basket so sometimes you get strange things you have never tried before. I have done this once and we ended up throwing a bunch of stuff away. I decided to give it another go this week since I have been cooking more lately. I am going to make it a goal to use ALL the food in the basket. While it isn't all organic, it is definitely handled less than grocery store produce and its cheaper. (You get a TON of produce) If you don't live in the Salt Lake area, look up food co-ops in your town.

2. Farmer's Markets - I will admit, I have never really bought food at a farmer's market. I have walked through them but never thought much of it. This summer I am going to try to go to them regularly.

3. Canning my own food - alright I know it's a little overly ambitious. Ok a LOT ambitious. Canning, like jam making is something that in my mind you have to be either a supermom or over 50 to do. However, it is something that I am willing to try. My sister-in-law and I are going to attempt to can some peaches come end of summer. You will DEFINITELY want to stay tuned for that one

4. Freeze fresh corn - This is an easy one that my co-worker does every year. Go to one of those little stands where they sell fresh corn, take it home, cut it off the ear, and freeze it. So easy to do.

Those are my goals for the summer. At least I can try to get rid of moldy, hormone filled canned food and replace it with something a little bit fresher and a little bit healthier. One step at a time.

(You may see me going vegetarian until I can figure out a way around pink slime/hormone/infection filled meat...)

Strawberry Jam

My mom makes the best strawberry jam. Every time we go to visit her Nick and I eat about a gallon of it. It just makes everything taste better. Each time we leave to come back home I try to think of a way to smuggle it in my suitcase, but it never seems to be that practical. Never once has the thought occurred to me to make it myself. You see, jam is one of those things that I have always thought you had to be a super-mom to make. Or at least be over 50...

Today, I made jam.

Seriously, it was not that hard. It contains 3 ingredients (sugar, strawberries, and pectin), cost about $15 (strawberries were on sale for $1.40/lb), and took all of 30 minutes. I now have 7 containers of jam to put in my freezer. Amazing.

Aparantly being a super-mom isn't that hard.

Next step is homemade bread to eat with the jam...or maybe not.

Below is the recipe if you want to make it yourself! (The recipe also comes in the box of pectin)


Strawberry Freezer Jam
yield-6 cups

Ingredients

4 cups crushed strawberries

3 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 box Fruit Pectin (I used Sure-Jell brand)

1. Crush strawberries using a food processor (don't puree-it should be chunky)

2. Measure out sugar into saucepan

3. Stir box of pectin into sugar until thoroughly mixed

4. Stir in 1 cup water. Bring mixture to a boil stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute.

5. Stir crushed strawberries into mixture and stir for 1 minute

6. Pour into containers leaving 1/2 inch space at top to allow for expansion during freezing

7. Set out at room temperature for 24 hours until set. Refridgerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.