Sunday Smart Eats - Tips for Healthy Eating

Did you know that March is nutrition month? I didn't until a couple of days ago and decided then that I would do something special here in honor of nutrition month. Each Sunday during the month of March I will be talking about something food related. Recipes, facts, tips, etc.

To start it off, I want to introduce you to some of the habits I have picked up that have helped me to eat healthier.

A recent grocery haul.

 1. Meal Planning. This is something I have done on and off for years and find it has so many benefits. The first, and most important recently, is that you end up saving a lot of money. When Matt and I plan out our meals for the week we end up using up all of the fresh fruits and veggies we buy (big yay!!!) which means we end up spending less money. We use up our leftovers and in general, end up buying less food when we do our groceries. This is something that I find tough to keep up when I'm feeling lazy but it's definitely worthwhile.


 2. Easy Snacks. I am a snacker. Well, I am an eater really, but I enjoy my snacks. I find when I get home at night after a long day at work, snacks are my go to craving. Therefore, having healthier options around makes it a lot more forgiving for the waistline. I like to keep a variety of nuts/dried fruits around the house. I've been especially hooked on pistachios as of late. We also keep things handy like clementines, crackers with cheese, popcorn, melons, etc.

3. Weekend Prep. Which brings me to my final tip, prepping your food. One of the things I hate most about cooking meals and eating healthy is the amount of prep work that goes into it. Therefore, I try to do as much of it in advance as possible. Usually, after we get our groceries on the weekend, I'll do as much prep as I can for our snacks/meals. I'll cut up our watermelon or cantaloupe so it's easier to snack on during the week. I'll make a big batch of chili, corn chowder or soup for quick lunches. Sometimes I'll even chop up my veggies ahead of time. That way when I get home from work I just need to cook. I find it makes cooking a healthy meal less of a daunting task if at least some of my prep work is already done.

Have you had any success with one of the above tips? Do you have any good ones of your own? Share with us below in the comments section :)

Catch up #1

So... I originally planned to do a vlog for my catch up post. I took the video thinking that I could edit out some MAJOR bloopers but turns out I don't have any video editing software. Which means I have to do this the old fashioned way.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in my last post but for the first week of December I was pretty sick. The second week I was recovering. So for two weeks I wasn't eating a whole lot and couldn't do any exercising. Then with Christmas coming up I got so crazy so quickly it's not even funny. I hand made 40 Christmas cards this year to give out to family and friends. I had ALL of my Christmas shopping to complete. Matt and I went to Wentworth for a weekend. I made 7 dozen cookies. Made 14 candles. Put up our Christmas tree and all of the decorations... And the list goes on and on.

I haven't been photographing everything I eat but here are some of the highlights.

Jackie's love potion smoothly from the juice bar at Pete's Fruitique.

Breakfast wrap from Pete's Fruitique.

Pete's makes the BEST salads ever!!

These are the best granola bars I have EVER had. I have been trying to find them again but can't. Might have to make my own.

Chicken, cous cous and veggies.

ColdStone Creamery chocolate chip cookie dough. This is to die for. I could gain sooo much weight if I had no self control. lol.

Eggs benedict at Smitty's.

Nachos.

Homemade waffles for Dad's birthday.

Sandwich - mixed greens, tofurky, avocado and tomato.

Chocolate chip cookie dough cake for Dad's birthday.

Sushi.. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm. This one is called the green dragon. It has shrimp tampura, avocado and crab on the inside and then avocado on top too.

Thai noodles. I made these from a box but I want to try making them from scratch next time.

Indian style curry veggies.

Fabulous M&M and oatmeal cookies.

Cookies all baked. I haven't made cookies in a while so I over cooked them. Oops!

Tomorrow I'll post all of my Christmas decorations. I'll be photographing what I eat starting Christmas day again and hopefully I'll get into the post a day routine again.

Whats In My Purse and Wish List

Over the past few weeks I have been adding more and more blogs to my Google Reader. Yesterday I added a bunch of financial blogs that Alexis recommended. For the longest time I only ever followed photography blogs. Me wanting to be a photographer, that kind of made sense. Then I started to read a bunch of health/fitness blogs. Now I have added a variety of financial and a couple fashion blogs to the list. I find the mixture keeps me interested and it gives me ideas for future posts.

Today I was reading Give Me Back My Five Bucks and found this archived post. Then I was trying to find my lip gloss in my purse and it was such a mess it took me longer than it should have. SO... when I got home from work I emptied it out on my floor. This is what the mess looks like...

Horrible I know. After putting away things I don't need to have in my purse the pile was narrowed down to this...

Not too bad. A LOT better than it was before. Interested in what is in there? Here's a list

-wallet

-work BlackBerry

-personal BlackBerry
-lip gloss
-Kleenex
-tampons
-security badge for work
-thumb drive
-certs
-Advil
-pens and post its for Operation Beautiful
-leather gloves
-and usually I have my dSLR in my purse for my daily eats.

I'm sure that wasn't super exciting but oh well. I kind of enjoy when people post photos of their stuff so why not do the same?

Wish List

I have decided that once a month I will post photos of some items that I would really love to get. They are going to range from running shoes to wine glasses. Pretty much anything goes here. This months wish list is below.

From top to bottom we have:

• Spibelt
• RoadID
• Sooke Stackhouse Boxed Set
• Black&Decker Bread Maker
• As much Tazo African Red Bush tea as I can get my hands on. I found out tha tthey are discontinuing this flavour which SUCKS because I reallllllllly love it :(

On to the regular updates. I still have not completely recovered from being sick last week so I have decided not to do any work outs this week. It's really weird. I haven't worked out in over 1 week and my body is craving it. Too bad my lungs can't really handle it right now. I really hope to start again on Tuesday and start from the beginning of my training schedule as I was only 1 week into it.

For breaky this morning I had a quick english muffin with homemade strawberry freezer jam. This is the stuff that Matt's mom makes and it's soooo yummy.

When I got to work I had a banana for a snack.

I also brewed a cup of ARB tea and then FORGOT about it and it went cold :(

Lunch was my yummmmmmmmy corn chowder. I never really ate much corn chowder growing up but lately I'm craving it all the time. I had some pumpernickle bread on the side.

If anyone wants to try making it here are the ingredients:

• potato
• celery
• red pepper
• onion
• sunflower cooking oil
• 1% milk
• vegetable broth
• can creamed corn
• frozen corn
• hot chili pepper flakes
• salt&pepper

As you can tell I don't have amount because I don't follow it that closely. For a batch of maybe 4 ish servings follow these instructions. Mix in frying pan on medium heat potato (1 or 2 large, cut up), celery (1 stalk cleaned and cut up), red pepper (1/2 pepper cut up), onion (1 small onion) and sunflower cooking oil (could use EVOO instead, 1-2 tbsp). Once vegetables are a little soft put them in a large pot adding milk (~1/2 cup), and vegetable broth (~1 cup). Bring to boil on medium-high heat. Once boiling add creamed corn (1 can) and frozen corn (1 or 2 cups). Once the chowder is boiling again add in hot chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste. Personally I like mine on the spicy side so I use a decent amount of the pepper flakes. Turn burner to low-medium heat, put lid on pot and let simmer until all vegetables are cooked.

In the afternoon I had some sliced strawberries, canned peaches and yogurt for a snack. A little bit of granola on top.

+ a clementine

It was snowing when I got off work and the short drive home was soooo slippery. I'm getting my snow tires on tomorrow morning (early) but I they are at my parent's place. So I got my dad to drop them off. While I was waiting for him I threw together a breakfast sandwich. I really like these sandwich thins. They're great!! It had tomato, avocado and two friend eggs in it.

And here are some pictures from my balcony tonight. Brrrrr.. snow.

Can you pick out my baby?

Hopefully it'll be cleared up tomorrow morning so I can drive to the shop. Off to do some work now. Good night :)

PS- Don't forget to comment! I am running cans for comments until Dec. 15!

I Did It!! Finally Back On Track

I did it!! Finally I woke up at a good hour and got a chance to do a workout before heading to work. As per my training schedule I did Yoga Sculpt and leg strength training. I really liked getting my workout over with and going on with the rest of the day. I also found that I am a lot less sore/stiff than I normally would be. Most of the time I do my workout late at night and then don't do much for the rest of the night. I think the lack of moving around causes me to get stiff. Whereas today I feel absolutely fine :) Hopefully that will motivate me tomorrow morning to get up early again. He he he.

Breakfast was a bowl of cereal with a sliced banana.

When I got to work I snacked on some granola with yogurt and a clementine.

By lunch time I was getting pretty hungry and this sandwich hit the spot perfectly. It's just greens, tomato, turkey on my fav bread (pumperknickle).

I also had a couple of bites of yesterdays pasta salad.

During the afternoon I snacked on a clementine.

And I succumbed temptation and bought a bag of hickory sticks.

We're not perfect all the time right? ;)

I was originally planning on making some chicken noodle soup for supper but when I got home I wasn't really hungry. Instead I cleaned our entire department. I mean like scrubbed, dusted and vacuumed the whole thing. I even scrubbed down our shower with CLR. Talk about a productive evening. :)

Afterward he hunger hit and I made corn chowder. Here it is in the pot.

And in my bowl :)

It was the same recipe as last week. Let me know if you want it!

After my run last night I posted on Twitter/Facebook asking people if they knew of any ways to get rid of shin splints. I got a lot of good suggestions that I will be trying very soon. In the back of my head today I was thinking about being not just a better athlete but a smarter one. Then when I read Angie's post tonight it really got me thinking about it. She talks a little bit about how it has taken time to trust herself and realize what she is capable.

I know what my New Years resolution will be. To be a smarter athlete. My doctor (she's been my doctor as long as I can remember) retired this past summer. And although that is awesome for her, it sucks for me :( I am going to find a new doctor in the new year and go for a check up. I really want to be proactive about keeping my body healthy and strong enough to continue with my running.

Have you thought about your New Years resolutions for 2010?

Just Another Day

November 24

As I mentioned in yesterdays post I have been having a hard time getting up early to do workouts. Today was no exception. Even though my alarm was set for 7am I didn't get up until 8am. I'm going to aim to be to bed by 11:30pm tonight and I hope that will get my butt out of bed early in the morning. *cross fingers!!*

Before work I had the last of the dozen blueberry bagels with almond butter and jam. I am going to attempt to remember to take daily vitamins. I am not good at remembering them but I have started my next attempt to do so. From left to right there is vitamin D, one a day for women and fish oils (name).

When I got to work I snacked on one of these two celmentines.

Lunch consisted of a chefs salad from Sobeys with poppy seed dressing (my new fav!!). I also had a few bites of this pasta salad. Saved the rest for in case dinner needed a little punch.

While at Sobeys I was browsing the organic food section and stumbled upon a few items I wanted to try. First was snack bar called Everyone's Organics. It is made by Honey Bar which just so happens to be a Canadian company :) Yay!

It was pretty satisfying. The ingredient list is pretty simple so I might try making some on my own sometime.

When I got home I went for a 3km run as per my training schedule. I have found my Nike+ to not be very accurate. I tracked my distance using Google Maps and it was 3km but my iPod showed 3.48km. The run was a lot better than the run I had last Thursday. Thankfully!

Anyone else have problems with their Nike+ being accurate?

I was browsing the internet tonight and stumbled upon RoadID. I really want to purchase one. I think that'll happen after Christmas. I would probably get the sports band for my wrist. It is basically a little ID bracelette that you wear while running/cycling/hiking/etc. that has your name and emergency contact information on it. You can even get ones with a subscription to an online Emergency Response Profile. There you list all of your information including name, address, alergies, medical information, picture, emergency contacts, etc. The bracelette will list a phone number and website with your serial# and PIN# and the first response person can use either method to find out everything they need to know about you. Maybe Santa will bring me one? ;)

By the time I got home I was pretty hungry so I made the second item I bought at Sobeys earlier. Wolfgang Puck butternut squash soup with some pumpernickle bread. I love the holidays. The holidays bring with them pumpernickle bread :D I ended up not needing any of the pasta salad I had bought with lunch because the soup was pretty filling.

And because she is just SO cute here is Squeaky.

She doesn't look like she wants her photo taken. hehehe.