Garlic Shrimp & Veggies

So, for my next trick, I have another go-to recipe. It’s garlic shrimp & veggies with pasta. I wasn’t going to blog about it because it seems SO easy to me, but when I was a struggling new cook, I totally would have  appreciated something this easy!

I still keep forgetting to take pics…it’ll happen eventually.

My problem here is that I don’t measure with this particular recipe. I usually make some terribly large amount so I can have leftovers until I can’t stand it anymore. Last night I used the whole bag of shrimp (about a pound), a small handful of angel hair, and a quarter of the huge bag of veggies. With these amounts, I used about 4 T (that means tablespoon if you’re new to this cooking thing) each of butter & olive oil (gasp!), 4 cloves of garlic (I use a garlic press), and about 1 T of lemon juice. It’s a really basic scampi-type recipe. I try to make it healthier by using less & whole wheat pasta and lots of veggies. Maybe someday I’ll decrease the fats, too!

Whole wheat pasta of your choice (I use Barilla Smart something-or-other)
Frozen “California Blend” (Broccoli, cauliflower, & carrots…we get the huge bags at Sam’s)
Frozen medium-size RAW shrimp (it comes deveined & shelled at Wal-Mart, in the fresh fish section)
Butter (gasp again!) & olive oil
Fresh garlic
Lemon juice

1. Cook pasta to the al dente stage (it’ll say on the back of the box). Measure butter & olive oil and heat on medium heat until butter melts. Add garlic and cook for a minute. In the meantime, cook veggies in microwave a couple minutes less than done (the directions said 9 minutes, so I put it on 6 minutes). Add lemon juice to the garlic mixture.

2. Add shrimp & cook until starts to get pink, about 5 minutes. Add the veggies and cook another minute. For the last minute, add the pasta.

Super-easy & yummy, with lots of leftovers!

Makes about 6 servings

 

Weight Loss War-Wk 1 recap

Week 1 is over for the weight loss competition. I lost 2 pounds, which is a great start!

I did 4 half-hour cardio sessions of intervals on the elliptical, did one session of the 30 Day Shred and started making smarter eating choices. I didn’t have any chocolate or baked goods in the house, so I didn’t eat dessert for lunch & dinner every day like I usually would.

This week, I hope to do more sessions of the 30 Day Shred and continue making smarter food choices. I also hope to increase my daily water intake to the suggested amount.

 

Oven-fried chicken

I’m going to start posting my new favorite recipes that are going in my regular rotation, so I can find them easily AND so I can share them with you all. I don’t really make any recipes up on my own or anything, but this will help with meal planning and I figured it might help someone else along the way.

I based this one on recipes I’ve seen before, but I didn’t actually follow a particular recipe this time. I’ve made similar things where the chicken breading ended up soggy. I think using the rack and spraying with canola oil helped.

Oven-fried chicken

Thin-sliced chicken breast
Flour
Egg
Bread crumbs
Season-All
Salt & pepper
Canola oil spray

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I used a baking sheet with sides and put a rack I normally use for cooling cookies and put it on top. Spray rack with cooking spray.

2. Mix salt & pepper, season-all, and bread crumbs to taste. Dredge chicken in flour, dip in egg, and cover with bread crumb mixture. Spray both sides of chicken with cooking spray before putting in oven.

3. Cook for 15 minutes, then flip chicken after spraying both sides again with cooking spray. Cook another 10-15 minutes until done.

Next time I make it, I’ll include pictures!

 

Best salsa E.V.E.R!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/restaurant-style-salsa/

For reals, make this now! I can’t get enough of this stuff!

 

A Little Friendly Competition…

So a couple friends and I are going to do a friendly competition in the likes of “The Biggest Loser.” We have 12 weeks to go! Should be fun!

So far, I’ve printed out my eating plan, but I hadn’t planned ahead, so I don’t have unlimited healthy food at my disposal right now. It’s okay, though, because it’ll help me to start making healthier choices everywhere, including at home, which seems to be my weakness.

I will update at least once per week on my progress. My starting numbers are the same as they were a couple weeks ago…I haven’t lost anything yet, but haven’t been motivated much to try.

Oh & what will the winner get? Either a book or a manicure or pedicure…at least that’s what’s on the table right now. Considering I could SO use a pedi…at this point, I think that’s what my choice would be!

Any tips for healthy weight loss?

 

P90-2xtreme!

(Obviously, that’s not me…but it is how I felt last week!)

That’s what this program should be called! I lasted about four days before I burned out on it. I did NOT, however, fail. I learned a lot from the program in the short time I followed it.

Tony Horton is Crazy (note the capital “C”). P90X is really a large time commitment. If you’re thinking of doing it, make sure you have well over an hour to spare every day. I don’t want to spend so much time working out that I can’t live my life. We’re currently house-hunting, in addition to daily life, and I don’t have time to invest in nearly two hours of working out each day. I’m not trying to be the next Lance Armstrong or anything.

In addition to Tony Horton being Crazy, I learned that I need to make some tweaks in my eating. I couldn’t follow their restrictive diet. In fact, I’ve confirmed what I suspected: that “diet” is a four-letter word.

The new plan is that I’m going to do more moderate exercise: the elliptical machine 2 days per week, my 30 day shred dvd 2 days per week, and my yoga dvd once a week. I also need to add some protein and decrease my carbs. They need to be better quality carbs, too, instead of white pasta and cookies.

I’ll still reach my goal, though, I’m sure about that much.

 

Ow!

Day one: I hurt everwhere. I’m going through carb/sugar withdrawal and have a killer headache. My shoulders, chest, arms, and abs are sore. BUT, I feel really proud of myself for making it through day one.

Things I learned today:
1. P90X is no joke. I mean, really, I was pooped after the warm-up and then had 52 minutes left or something ridiculous.
2. Tony Horton sounds exactly like Matthew McConaughey when you’re closing your eyes and wincing in pain. At least it brings a smile to my face while wincing.
3. Our downstairs neighbors are going to need a new ceiling after I’m done with this program. There’s a lot of jumping around and we can feel the floor shaking…they’re probably downstairs looking up at their ceiling fan, wondering when that moment is going to be.
4. If I make it through the next 90 days, I really will look hawt. But that’s a big “if.”

 

Beginning Stats

Here are my “before” stats. Tomorrow is Day 1! I have our food for tomorrow (& most of the week) planned out and I’m excited to do this!

Resting heart rate: 80
Pull-ups: 0 (1/2 of a chin-up instead)
Vertical leap: 3.5 inches
Push-ups: 1 “real” (plank position, chest 3″ from ground)
Toe touch: +1/2″ (past my toes)
Wall Squat: 15 seconds
Bicep curls: 15 reps, 8 lbs
In & outs: 16

Measurements:
Weight: 141.5 lbs
Chest: 29″
Waist: 31.25″ (at natural waist, not where pants button)
Hips: 41″
Right thigh: 24.25″ (fullest point)
Left thigh: 24″ (fullest point)
Right arm: 11.75″
Left arm: 11.25″

Oh & I’m chickening out about posting Before & After photos here. Posting my measurements & fitness test results already feel like TMI, I can’t bear the thought of a bikini picture on the internet! LOL

 

Getting Ambitious!

So, how have you all been enjoying my health blog? Yeah, I know…I suck at frequent blogging.

I’ve noticed a pattern here…I complain about my health or have an idea, get excited about it and blog once, then fall off the face of the blog-planet. I’m going to try to get better, but I’ve said that before, too, so I won’t make any promises at all. Let’s just see what happens.

So the reason for this blog post is that I’m going to do the P90X Lean. It’s less strength training than the classic P90X and a little more cardio, without it being ridiculous. I’m also going to try my hardest to follow the nutrition plan, which I really like the set-up of. They give you portion sizes for proteins, fruits, etc. and then you have checkboxes you fill out each day for the number of portions you should eat. For what I weigh, I will be consuming approximately 2200 calories each day.

I’m basically out of shape currently, but I won’t be jumping in blindly on this and getting injured my first day. I’m going to ease into it and take breaks when needed. I’m going to be realistic about it, so if it is just simply to ridiculously hard for someone as out of shape as I am, I’ll start with a different program, like 30 Day Shred or Turbo Jam (both of which I already own). I want to get myself kick-started. I’m at my heaviest weight and my weakest fitness level. Just climbing a flight of stairs has me winded.

Tomorrow I will take my Before pictures (if I’m feeling brave I MAY post them…we’ll see!), as well as my measurements, and baseline fitness levels. I will be sure to blog about it–that much I CAN promise!

 

Ideas to Explore…

So, I’ve been thinking about what to blog about more and I have a few ideas. But I haven’t had time to start researching much just yet. So, in an effort to become more health conscious, here are a few concerns I have that I want to research and think about more.

1. Don’t drink the water?
I’ve had a weird skin thing for a few years now. Hopefully, that isn’t TMI. No worries, it’s not contagious or gross. I just occasionally get a random bump here or there that itches. It’s pretty much exclusive to my face, head, neck, and arms. It just looks like a bug bite. I went to a dermatologist, who referred me to an allergist. He performed many skin-patch and allergy tests and the result of all of those was inconclusive. I thought I had it figured out to be a problem with sulfates (which are found in shampoos, body washes, and I believe laundry detergents), but switching to sulfate-free, organic washes has only reduced, not eliminated, the problem.

So recently, I’ve started to wonder if it’s a problem with the public water in the area. I’ve tried to do some online research and I feel the need to tell you that there is a severe shortage of information on the drinking water in my area online. This concerns me! Especially since I worry that potential contaminants in drinking water could cause other health issues. I need to look into this more to find out just what is in the water I use & consume daily.

2. My American Eating Plan
I’m currently in a state of slumping back into my diet of over-processed foods and convenience items. I’ve also been on a comfort food kick, which doesn’t seem to include many veggies, unfortunately.

Over the past year, I’ve ended up following a couple blogs that are incredibly interesting and fly in the face of most conventional wisdom.

Mark’s Daily Apple: This blog & site focuses on “primal living,” or the “Paleo diet” & way of life. In case that has you confused, it means it encourages living like our cavemen ancestors did, eating mostly meat & veggies and working out & playing in “real life.” It’s intriguing, but considering our ancestors had ridiculously short life spans, I’m not sure I’m in it to win it on this one.
Disease Proof: This site is by Joel Fuhrman, MD, who also wrote Eat to Live & similar books. He focuses on veggies & fruits and pretty much says you should eat as little animal protein as possible.

Three important things they have in common:
1. They stress the importance of veggies & fruits, as well as exercise.
2. They encourage being mindful of long-term health.
3. They discourage artificial ingredients, highly processed foods, and simple carbs (such as white bread, etc.).

These are areas I need to improve on desperately anyway, so they are things I will focus on in the coming months. I plan to grow some vegetables on our deck in hopes of having some inexpensive and convenient healthy foods.