Make smoothies like a boss

I am going craaaazy right now. My kid is turning 2 this weekend! Not only am I weirded out by how old he is (and how old I am!), but I am attempting a mad dash to get everything ready for his party. I have this absurd tendency to go above and beyond when it comes to throwing parties. Things are about to get a little nuts around here.

But I am taking a break from my party planning to talk about something delicious- breakfast! And I love  breakfast cereal. I loved to wake up and pour myself a bowl of sugary goodness with a splash of cool milk. It was hardly any work and it tasted great every single morning. I didn't think anyone could love cereal as much as I did until I met my husband. WOW. This is how bad it is- every now and then I would take a break from the cereal routine and make a breakfast of melt-in-your-mouth pancakes, with sizzling bacon, and hot scrambled eggs. And he would look at it and say (in a very gentle, timid manner), "Honey...I would kinda just rather have cereal."

So with our combined love of cereal and milk, we spent quite a bit in those isles of the grocery store. And then when I tried to start eating better, cereal didn't seem to be the healthiest option. Sure, I tried to justify it for a while- I mean, there's milk, so that's a serving of dairy right? And there has to be some sort of grain in Lucky Charms- but in the end I knew I needed to change my ways. But the best thing about cereal is how EASY it is. I mean you wake up, throw a couple of things in a bowl and you're done! Is any healthy breakfast going to be easier than that?

But guys, I gotta tell you, my skepticism was all for naught! I discovered smoothies and I now declare them my official favorite breakfast food! No more sugary cereal! Smoothies taste super yummy, are so easy to make (throw a few things in a blender, I mean, come on) and they are not full of processed junk. And, you know how after you eat cereal you're hungry like 30 minutes later? Smoothies keep me satisfied for most of the morning. And the smoothies I make have grain, fruit, dairy, and protein in them (and sometimes *gasp* the occasional vegetable. But don't freak out, I'll explain later), so they are the perfect healthy food.

It's taken trying many smoothie recipes, and tweaking most of them, but I have found a few smoothie flavors that you can't go wrong with (unless you don't like fruit...is that possible?). Since I promised recipes, I have included my 3 favorites below. I don't really have specific measurements for the ingredients. I just "eye it" and throw it all together. Don't you just hate it when people say that? But I have tried to be as specific as possible for you. Also most of the fruit I bought at the store, cut up and froze them myself. No need to spend $500,000 on frozen fruit from the store. I also use oatmeal in the smoothies which really helps to keep me full. Ever heard about how oatmeal sticks to your ribs? It's so true! Anyway, enjoy and be sure to try your own twist!

Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie
-half filled bowl of strawberries
-half a banana (frozen)
-half a peach (frozen)
-1/2 cup of oats
-spoonful of peanut butter (protein!)
-spoonful of vanilla greek yogurt
-enough milk to blend ingredients (I start with a little and add more until the blender is mixing everything smoothly)





Blueberry Oatmeal Smoothie
-a cup of blueberries
-half a peach (frozen)
-half a mango (frozen)
-spoonful of greek yogurt
-1/2 cup of oats
-milk





Ok, so remember my little comment about having the occasional veggie in my smoothie? That's where my green smoothie comes in! A green smoothie is basically any smoothie that you add spinach to and I am in LOVE with them. I know, I know, it sounds gross. But I finally got up the guts to try it and guess what-- I couldn't taste the spinach at all! There's so many other strong flavors (especially if you add yogurt or peanut butter) that you wouldn't even know the spinach was there. A veggie that you can't taste? Perfect for me! Although you can add spinach to the smoothies above (and I have!), I put my favorite green smoothie recipe here.

Strawberry Green Smoothie

-1/2 cup of oats
-half bowl of strawberries (frozen)
-half peach (frozen)
-spoonful of greek yogurt
-handful of spinach
-orange juice

If the taste of this smoothie is too bitter for you, add peanut butter or honey to sweeten it up a bit. I've also used kale in my green smoothies. I am obsessed with these things!


Little side note- Being a former Jamba Juice employee, I think I already had a built in love for smoothies. But after working there for some time, I quickly realized that they are not very healthy (imagine me looking very sad when I discovered this). Most of them are chalked full of froyo (their frozen yogurt) or sorbet. If you are going to Jamba Juice for a healthy option, choose one of the all-fruit smoothies. That's the healthy way to go! If you're going for a treat- by all means, indulge in a Chocolate Moo'd   :-)

Cage wishes you good smoothie eatin'!

Boring scientific note- All the main ingredients of my smoothies (strawberries, blueberries, spinach) are antioxidants. That word is becoming quite popular nowadays. I swear I see it everywhere on the newest "health" foods, but I have to wonder if people actually know what it means. When your body is busy breaking down substances (like glucose, remember that?) by metabolism, it is creating energy. One of the processes of metabolism is called oxidation. And while oxidation is good, in the sense that it helps create energy, it is bad in the sense that it creates harmful waste products. These substances can cause damage to our cells and some people think that they are the main reason for aging. I don't know if that's true or not. What I do know is that there are some foods, superfoods (I love saying that), that will fight off those waste products for us, so that they cannot damage our cells. Talk about heroes! So now that you know what antioxidants are, try including them in your diet. Here is a list of superfoods that I found- http://foodmatters.tv/content/superfoods

Eat dessert like a boss

Sorry for the longish absence! I was busy enjoying my vacation in the Smoky Mountains with family. Be jealous. 70 degrees, sunny days, and plenty of tanning on the lake. There cannot be a more heavenly place on earth.

But now I am back in California, where it is 100 degrees and miserable. And I thought So Cal was supposed to be the model for perfect weather. Lies I tell you, lies! So while I'm sitting here complaining, I thought it might be time we have a little heart-to-heart. You see, I have somewhat of a confession to make. I am cursed. Cursed with the desire to eat healthy, but the love of baking. Brownies, cookies, cupcakes, you name it, I bake it. Seriously, you should see my desserts board on Pinterest. Over 400 dessert recipes and still going strong! I love to bring my creations to parties, get-togethers, etc. and watch them rapidly disappear. It's a strange, addicting satisfaction. Check out the Reese's peanut butter trifle that I brought to my husband's work party a few months ago.

What a beauty! See that smile on my face? That's my "this is going to taste really good and everybody is going to love it" smile. But...baking has it's downfall. Mostly in the sense that I usually eat what I bake. I mean, who couldn't?! So for a long time, I struggled in knowing how to satisfy my passion for desserts, yet implement a healthy, weight-losing lifestyle. And that's when I met "French Women Don't Get Fat", the book that change my whole perspective on eating.

The author of FWDGF is all about enjoying food. She basically states that food is there for us to enjoy, not torment ourselves over! And I completely agree with her. I think one of the biggest reasons why people give up eating healthy is because they're not finding pleasure in their food. How awful! :-( And when those people get sick of having salad after salad for 3 weeks and their aching sweet tooth finally crushes their desire to be healthy, they splurge on a whole gallon of ice cream. That's why FWDGF was such a breath of fresh air for my weight loss journey. Because it taught me that although eating salads and more produce are good things, I shouldn't have to completely give up chocolate. Allright all you doubters out there- don't believe me? Allow me to blow your minds.

Moderation in all things. Yes, you can have desserts, but in small doses. FWDGF said to save eating sweets for weekends and holidays. I agree with the holidays part, but I had trouble adhering to the weekend policy. See, if I had dessert on Saturday and Sunday, about mid-way through the week, my sweet tooth ache started to kick in. And I would have to drag myself another 3-4 days before I could have something sweet again, IF I made it that far. So I changed the policy to work in my favor. I would have one dessert on the weekend and one dessert mid-way through the week. It usually worked out that I had something sweet on Sunday night (that was the night we ate with Dave's family) and then Wednesday or Thursday, when I started to crave sweetness (usually in the form of chocolate), I would have dessert again. Twice a week and it didn't hurt my waistline. It actually helped because it kept me from splurging on a whole box of Nutter-butters or brownies.

Twice a week not enough for you? In the beginning, I'll admit, it was NOT enough for me. I was used to feeding my pregnant body ice cream or cookies every night, and that was a hard habit to change. Here's are a couple of foods that helped satisfy the cravings so that I would make it to my next designated "dessert day".
-yogurt (preferably Greek0
-fruit (talk about sugar in it's healthiest form! Love me some strawberries)
-dark dark dark chocolate. I'm talking about 80% or more cocoa. It's much less fatty than milk chocolate. I usually bought a bar of Ghiradelli's and on the days that I had cravings, I would eat one small square of it. It was enough to keep my sweet tooth satisfied and I began to really like the taste!

After a while, I didn't have the sweet cravings anymore. Twice a week became enough. But then came another challenge. You see, in my church, we have these wonderful people called visiting teachers. They come and check on you every month to see how you are doing, and they usually bring some form of cookies. Also, teachers in Sunday School almost always have a treat and church activities involve dozens of people baking in the kitchen. Seriously, they should call us "the eating church". So what did I do with all these desserts coming my way? I didn't want to offend people who had baked for me, because I know what a pleasure it is to make food for others.

I came up with a rule that I call "give or pitch". The first option is "give"- you pass on your desserts to others. This especially works well when I have made a dessert that my little family of 3 cannot finish by ourselves. Say, for example, it's a 9x13 pan of brownies. If it stays in my house, I will pick at those brownies all week long until I've eaten the whole pan. So I package it up and give it to a neighbor, friend, someone I visit, etc. Most often, the desserts go to Dave's work, where I know they will get taken care of!

The other option is "pitch". Dave hates this option. He grew up in a family where they were very careful not to waste anything, especially food. Even for me, it seemed terrible to throw perfectly good brownies away. But heed these words- it is better for those brownies to waste in the trash, than to waste in your body. Like I said, I don't prefer this option, but sometimes it is necessary and I just close my eyes and do it. Actually, I kind of get a kick out of it now. It's like saying, "Hasta la vista suckers! You're not going to torture me!"

One more lesson about sweet treats from FWDGF: do NOT stock sweet treats. Exhibit A: Oreos. I have a particular weakness for Oreos. And by weakness, I mean that if I buy a pack of Oreos, it will be gone in 24 hours (and I'm not talking about gone in the trashcan). So I don't buy them when I grocery shop. I stopped buying all of those junk food items and keeping them around my house. That way, when I'm looking for something to eat, I'm not tempted by them. If they aren't there, I can't eat them. And if I can't eat them, I eat something that's better for me (again, yay for fruit!).

So all you doubters, did I turn you into believers? I hope so! I have implemented these little rules into my life and I don't regret it one little bit. I'm at a healthy weight and still eating chocolate. Can't get any better than that!

Boring scientific note: You know that metabolism is taking ingredients and turning it into energy, right? Those ingredients are basically sugar, fat, or protein. Sugar, called glucose, is what your body needs to create energy. And essentially the more energy you need and spend, the more weight you're losing. But what happens when you have lots of glucose and you're not spending the energy? Well your body learns pretty quickly that you're not spending that energy, so it starts sending the sugar to be stored, instead of used and metabolized. The body is an amazing wonderful thing. It can actually take sugar and turn it into another ingredient. What an incredible feat!! So when you continue to store all this glucose/sugar that you're eating, your body says, "Well, we need to make room for all this glucose. Let's turn it into fat". So that's why too much sugar is harmful to your body. Because it turns into fat that just sits there, instead of being used to create energy. 

Run like a boss- part 2

Remember how in my last post I got crazy and ran a 5K? Well, I got crazier.

If you're from a big family, you know that nothing stays a secret for very long. So with Dave having a family of 10, word spread fast that we were running a 5K. And not too long after I finished the race, one of Dave's sisters, Casi messaged me asking if I wanted to train for a marathon with her.

To be completely honest with you, I didn't know how far a marathon was, so I googled it. 26.2 miles. Twenty-six point two miles!!! And I actually AGREED to it after receiving this information. Sigh, sometimes I still wonder what the heck I was thinking.

If any of you are training for half-marathon or marathon, I strongly suggest that you use halhigdon.com. It's written by a guy who has run dozens of races. There are tons of training schedules on that site, each based on how far you want to run and what level of running you are at. So naturally, I used the schedule for super new beginning runners. I also love his schedules because he is completely realistic about marathon expectations. For example, he talks about the importance of walking during your long runs to build your muscles. Because in actuality he knows that you're not really gonna run 26.2 miles without taking a walking break now and then. He says that he actually ran a 2 and 1/2 hour marathon while walking through every water station!

Our training schedules had us running shorter runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We rested Friday and then had a long run on Saturday. Originally, the schedules had us doing cross-training on Sundays, but we moved it to Mondays so that we could avoid running on our Sabbath. That's the fun thing about these schedules is that you make them work for you. And to be honest once again, I think I may have cross-trained one time during the whole 18-weeks. I usually just used that as an extra day of rest. Once again, this is where having a training partner definitely came in handy. Every Saturday, I knew I was going to get a text from Casi asking how my long run had been.

The way the training schedule worked is that it had us run up to 20 miles straight, two weeks before the race. Those last two weeks were used to run shorter distances so that we wouldn't burn out before the big day. And the big day finally came! It was 40 degrees outside and winds were blowing at 40 mph, but we finished! The whole 26.2 miles, we did it! It was such a huge adrenaline rush. When I crossed the finish line, I cried for a whole 5 minutes. I was so emotional and completely blown away that I had actually run for 5 hours straight.That's how overwhelming it was to finish such a huge feat.

See? That's me! Bawling like a baby. Casi is the one in the blanket, she finished an hour before I did.

Now do you have to run a marathon to be healthy? Absolutely not! But this experience showed me that I could push my body to do what I wanted. And that's also what losing weight means- to push your body to be what you need it to be. For me, being healthy means the ability to be able to do whatever I want. Sometimes that's being able running a ridiculous distance, something that's just being able to have energy to play with my kid.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! The training was super difficult and really just sucked sometimes. The first time I ran seven miles, I thought my body was either going to die or kill me. But that feeling when I crossed the finish line on race day is one that I will never forget. Anything that is worth doing is always going to be hard. Whether it's losing weight or just eating healthier, it's going to suck at first (hopefully not too much!) and it's going to take effort. But in the end, crossing that finish line or stepping on the scale, it's totally worth it and you would absolutely do it again.

Boring scientific note: You may have heard lots about cholesterol. Like, how bad it is for you. Well, to be honest, your body actually needs cholesterol. However, it doesn't need you to eat cholesterol. Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs on its own. When you eat large amounts of cholesterol in your diet, that's what it gets bad and clogs up your arteries. There are two types of cholesterol- one is good (the LDL type) and one is bad (the HDL type). LDL cholesterol is what you would get from dietary fats in your diet, a lot of it from meat. But, HDL is our hero cholesterol! It actually takes the LDL cholesterol from clotting the blood!!! Yay for HDL cholesterol! There is only one way that you can get more HDL and it's not through eating. It's through...drum roll...exercise! Exercise is THE only way to increase your HDL levels. I'm not even kidding. Interesting, isn't it? 

Run like a boss- part 1

I can't continue this blog for much longer without mentioning the one major contributor to my weight loss success- running. I still can't believe I'm saying this because I use to HATE running. I mean, HATE running. During my high school and college days, I ran one time and probably got 100 yards before I wanted to die (I was skinny then, but out of shape). But when I finally determined that I needed some sort of exercise to lose those extra pounds, running was the one thing I knew how to do and it didn't require a gym.

Before I go much farther, I want to emphasize how much I truly believe exercise and nutrition go hand in hand with healthy living. While nutrition puts things into your body that exercise cannot, exercise does things for your body that nutrition cannot. Nutrition will not make your heart stronger like exercise does. But exercise will not lower your cholesterol like healthy eating does. Neither is more important than the other. And when you have one, you must have the other.

So back to running. I use to hate it. And now I actually love it! It's grown into a passion of mine. But it took me a looooooong while to get there. I also understand that running is not meant for everyone. I have a sister in law that runs marathons and she's told me that running doesn't help her lose weight much. Yet I have a brother in law who you can almost see the weight fall off when he runs. It's just different body types and there is not much you can do about it.

Every one does running a little differently, but I can tell you what I did and it may work for you. To get serious about running regularly, I first had to figure out how far I could run. So I went outside, ran for as long as I could and looked at how far I had gone (I used Google maps to check my distances. Now I use RunKeeper with my iPhone that tracks the distance for me). The first time I did this, I ran about half a mile without stopping.

Once I had this distance, I next needed to decide how often and when I would run. I started out running every other day. I know myself very well and knew that if I ran every single day, it would be too hard and I would lose my desire to exercise. See? doing a little at a time is how you should start anything. I also chose a time every day that I would do it. I wrote it in my schedule, on my mirror, so that I saw it every day. I also told other people, so they could help remind and motivate me to run. This especially worked with Dave because he knew that every other day at 7, I would go run. And if it was 6:55 and I wasn't in tennis shoes yet, he would look at me and say, "Honey, do you need to run today?" It was a great motivator to have that constant reminder around!

I knew that I could run 0.5 miles (half a mile) without stopping. So my first week of running, I did half a mile for all 3 of my runs. The next week, I ran 0.6 miles for all my runs. It was a little bit farther, but not so much that it was ridiculously hard. Week by week, I added 0.10 miles to my runs and before I knew it, I could run a whole mile without stopping! It was about this time that I was beginning to enjoy myself and the fact that I was losing about a pound a week. I was so excited about this, that I mistakenly put "Dana Eyerly loves running!" as my Facebook status. My sister in law, Robin, saw this and said, "You know, me too! Let's train for a 5K together." I must have been delusional with endorphins because I agreed.

If you want to begin running, the best way I know to motivate yourself is to enter a race. It kinda forces you to commit *evil laugh here*. I use www.runningintheusa.com to find local races, whether they are 1 mile or a marathon. So Robin and I picked a race a few months away and made our training schedules. This kept me motivated because I had an end goal I was working towards and I could see myself getting a little closer every day. Another great tip for running is get someone else to do it with you. That way when you need a little kick in the butt, they are there to give you it. Robin and I checked up on each other frequently throughout our training and often ran side by side.

A 5K is 3.1 miles. I could already do 1 mile, so I looked up "5K training schedules" online and found one that fit my level. If you search this, there are tons of results that will come up, so sift through them and find the one that works best for you. Mine involved running 3 shorter runs during the week and a longer run on Saturday. I slowly increased the length of my weekday runs and my Saturday runs. Here's what a couple of weeks from my schedule would have looked like. 

Week 1: Monday- 1 mile, Tuesday- 1 mile, Thursday- 1 mile, Saturday- 1.5 mile

Week 2: Monday- 1.25 mile, Tuesday- 1 mile, Thursday- 1.25 mile, Saturday- 1.75 mile

Week 3: Monday- 1.5 mile, Tuesday- 1.25 mile, Thursday- 1.5 mile, Saturday- 2 mile

I kept this kind of schedule up until I could run 3 miles. It was important to have those rest days right before the longer run so that my muscles wouldn't be too worn out to finish the long distance. The next week it was race time and I ran the entire 3.1 miles without stopping! Wooooohooooo!!! 

Check out that group of good looking runners. Robin and I got quite a few more other people to train with us and this is the fantastic pink group we ran with. Robin is in the solid pink on the right and I'm at the very end on the left.

You want to hear the best part about the race? By the time training was over, I was back to pre-pregnancy weight. Imagine a super giant smiley face right here. :-)

But hold on folks! This isn't the end of my running story, stayed tuned for more.

Boring scientific note- Ever wonder why you always hear that you need 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per day? It's because that is the way to a healthy heart. When you run or swim or walk, your muscles need a ton more oxygen to function than they normally do. Oxygen gets to the muscles through blood. So cardio exercises force your heart to pump that blood faster and harder than they normally do to get that O2 to your screaming muscles. When your heart works this hard, it's actually building up it's OWN muscle too! Pretty soon, your heart is this buff blood-pumping machine that is almost unstoppable. This is why doing cardiovascular exercise is the number one way to prevent heart attacks and other heart diseases. Keeping your heart healthy is saving your life.

Drink water like a boss

Water, water...everywhere? Nope, not in America. Seriously, have you ever heard somebody talk about their favorite beverage and use the phrase, "I drink it like water". When someone tells me that, I want to say "No you don't, because nobody drinks anything 'like water' anymore". Mostly because no one drinks water, period.

Although, I am being a teensy weensy hypocritical here, because I use to be the exact same way. I drank Diet Coke "like water". Every single day, I had to have it. Oh and juices! Mmmm, we use to stock up on apple and grape juice in our house all the time. Milk? My husband alone will get through a gallon of milk in 3 days. Basically, my family drank anything but water. I hated the taste of water, mostly because it was tasteless. I need something with more fizz, more of a kick! Well that's great and all but it certainly was not helping me lose weight, so I put myself on a water-drinking program. Meet my program director:

BAM! The big guy to the left, check him out! The idea for this actually came from my best friend, Alyssa. She came to visit me one week and brought one of those huge things with her. She filled it with water and drank it all day long. I was jealous of her big bottle and decided to get one for myself.

So we all know the rule about water right? You need 2 liters a day. Yup, one 2-liter bottle of your favorite soda should instead be filled with water. So big guy up there is a 1.5 liter bottle. Little dude next to him is your standard 16.9 oz bottle of water. By the way, 16.9 oz is also 0.5 liters. So those two (with their powers combined! A little Captain Planet for you there) get me to my 2 liters every day. Four of those standard bottles would be the same thing.

You must have noticed the little black markings on big guy. Allow me to explain. I like small little goals to help me reach a big goal. So instead of telling myself to drink 2L a day, I had to drink a little bit of water by 9 am. And then 10 am. So on and so forth until the bottle was empty (at about 5 pm). I would then drink the little bottle for my beverage at dinner. That way, I'm finished drinking water a couple of hours before bedtime so I'm not running to the bathroom during the night. That's right, I own those 2 liters!

Here's another advantage to drinking 2 liters of water a day. It barely leaves time for you to drink anything else. I tell myself every day that until those 2 liters are gone, that's the only beverage I can have. Well by the time that's done with, I'm usually too full to drink any of these:

       Juices- stocked full of sugar, even the "100%" ones
       Milk- fat in a drink mostly. (Don't hate me for this, I love my milk and cereal just as much as the next      guy)
       Sports drinks- just as bad for you as soda if you're not exercising. And even if you are exercising, unless you are doing moderate-to-vigorous exercise (not softball-like sports) for more than 90 minutes, water is all you need.
       Soda- Do I really need to explain why these drinks are unhealthy?


Also, water fills you and is a hunger suppressant. I'm dead serious. Whenever you think you're hungry and need a snack, chances are that you're actually thirsty and need to drink water. So, more water = less snack food = weight loss. Water mostly runs right through you, while Chex Mix does not (ask my former hips about that).

If you're having trouble with the tastelessness, like I did, try putting lemons and lime in your water. That gives it a little something. Before you know it, you'll be drinking just plain water in no time.

I feel that by being a good truthful blogger, I must warn you of one of the consequences to drinking 2 liters of water/day- your bladder pretty much feels like it's exploding. When I started doing this, I was in the bathroom once an hour pretty regularly. Even now, after a few months, I go pretty often. Dave mocks my bladder to this day and says that a man would "just hold it". Yeah well, a man also hasn't delivered a child and had his insides turn into a sort of sick contortionist dance. So I feel his argument is pretty weak.

And even though I've lost all the weight I wanted to, I STILL drink 2L a day because my body needs it. And yours does too!

Boring Scientific Note: Being a nursing major, I have this insane need to spread my knowledge of the human body to others even if they don't ask for it. So if you want to skip these notes, no offense taken. But in case you want to know why water acts as a hunger suppressant, here you go. There is a part of your brain called the hypothalamus and it regulates your appetite. When your stomach is empty and growling, your hypothalamus tells your brain, "Get me some food man!" So you eat. When the food hits your stomach and digestion starts, the hypothalamus calms down and stop sending you the hunger message. So imagine if water took the place of food. It will still expand your stomach and turn off the hunger signal. It's like you're tricking your own brain! Now those are some great hunger games! (I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that pun was awful).