One meal at a time

Welcome back,

This week is going to be short, simple, sweet, and to the point.

Not to sound like a support group leader BUT when it comes to eating healthy you have to take it one meal at a time. When you start making large changes to your diet it is hard to do all at once especially if you weren't living any kind of a healthy lifestyle. There will be many times when you "Fail" with eating and in those moments you will feel like you have ruined the rest of your day for eating when that just isn't true. You may have killed breakfast but you can make a difference in your day with your lunch. If you were on the go and had to eat something and ended up eating fast food your day isn't over.  If you can take a walk before dinner or hit the gym for some exercise to help alleviate any damage that meal could have done. My husband and I like to take one day off from healthy eating every week. Sometimes we really abuse our food privileges that day and sometimes just end up eating one carb heavy meal. We have often found that if we only mess up with one meal the next time we weigh in isn't  bad at all. If we blow off the entire day we end up carrying around 2-5 pounds of water weight for two days and have to work that much harder to get back to losing additional weight that week. There isn't much that needs to be gone into on this blog because its pretty self explanatory. Don't blow your entire day of eating because of one food mistake and give yourself a break when you take a meal off. Just remember you can get your day back at your next meal. Just take your diet one meal at a time.

WEIGHT LOSS TO DATE

Jon: 21 pounds
Drew 22 pounds

Thank you for reading and stay sexy America,

Be true to you.

With love to you,

Drew

Foodie Friday!!!

Welcome back Sexy People!

Welcome to Foodie Friday! I have decided to spice my blog up with some variety and instead of lumping everything into one weekly blog I decided to start making entries on Fridays and all about FOOD! So for our first Foodie Friday I will give you a delish dish that you can try that is low carb and low calorie and tastes great! One of the reasons people don't commit to a diet is because you have to DIEt and give up anything that tastes good. So put down those celery sticks and rabbit food and come join the health food revolution!

Protein makes perfect! Are you sick of eating dry lifeless chicken breasts with no seasoning. Turn up the fun with this super simple recipe.

Serves four

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

4 tablespoons of Velveeta Cheddar cheese shreds

Lowrys Seasoning 

Onion powder

Garlic Seasoning

Take the Chicken breasts and butterfly them. (cut them in half but not all the way. Cut it deep enough to lay flat on a griddle or in a pan.) Please be careful whenever using sharp objects while cooking.

Season with all three seasonings on both sides of chicken. 

Cook the chicken until lightly golden brown on one side then turn over to cook the other side. Once turned over sprinkle one tablespoon of cheese on each piece.  Cook thoroughly then enjoy! If you are concerned of food safety make sure you take a knife and cut into one piece of chicken and check to see if it is white or pink. If it is pink keep cooking if it is white enjoy! :)

Serve up this chicken with a spinach salad and enjoy! Very filling and satisfying and doesn't taste overly healthy! This meal minus the salad is less then 200 calories!!! You can't go wrong with that! Also the velveeta shreds are actually higher in protein then in carbs so another epic food win and velveeta cheese is the best!

Speaking of salad, if you are anything like me you like a lot of dressing, croutons,  and a little spinach. I know the salad dressing is what kills you but its what makes the food bearable to me. So If you are a dressing lover like me here is a healthy salad solution that I have come up with. I recently came upon a salad dressing from Ken's. It has a red label, it is lite, and it is italian. It is AMAZING! I usually hate lite salad dressings and this one tastes great. It is under 50 calories for two tablespoons and only 1 carb! Yes 1 carb!!! Most vinaigrettes or italians usually have at least 4 carbs per two tablespoons so what an exchange! So Shout hallelujah from the roof tops you can finally enjoy a salad without overdoing the dressing! They have many other lite options that I haven't tried but if they taste anything like the italian you are in for a treat. So go eat a salad that tastes great with lots of dressing and don't feel bad about it! Below I placed a link to the dressing and hopefully it will show the one I am talking about. :) Also Croutons have proven to be fairly low carb too as long as you check the bag. Usually you can have 6 croutons and only get 4 carbs and if you are pairing this salad with a high protein meal like this chicken you will come out a winner. 

http://www.kensfoods.com/proddetail.php?id=32

Here is the healthy food find of the week

Breyers Carb Smart Ice Cream bars!!! 

http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113880/carbsmart-vanilla-ice-cream-bar 

These bars are the bomb! They are really low carb for ice cream and taste amazing!!! I have fallen in LOVE with them! I buy the vanilla coated in chocolate. You get the pleasure of ice cream without all the guilt and bloating that comes with them! Obviously Every thing in moderation but these are fantastic. Note: These bars are a little higher calorie then I would like for a midnight snack but still way less calories then other ice cream bars. Just keep track of your food during the day so you can make some calorie room for these delicious treats! 

Both food recommendations have been found at Walmart. I hope you have enjoyed our first of many Foodie Fridays and will eat well this week! If you find something healthy and delicious share it here! I will try it and pass it along to the readers! Lets start a Healthy food revolution and say No More to DIEting in misery! So remember to Live well, Live healthy, and Live long!

Thank you for reading and Stay sexy America,

Be true to you,

With love to you,

Drew 

*Weight loss updates will be posted with the weekly entry focused more on overall health and wellness. The Foodie Friday edition will only be for food! :)

The Smoke Detector

Today's blog is about the inevitable, the terrible, and the reality of death. You're going to DIE, Obviously, it is inevitable. We are all Pre-Destined to have a set start and end date on our earthly clocks and none of us know when the time will be. Rarely will you ever find someone that feels like they had plenty of time to accomplish every dream or goal and feel they have lived what we call a FULL life. People are always scrambling to chase wild dreams and shouting YOLO at every chance they get. Some people live life without fear of death and embrace the inevitable reality and one day outcome for their life.  I personally HATE thinking about death, I know that with a faith in God you have nothing to fear but I still get sad thinking about death. I know that in that moment when my soul joins to God's that I will forget my earthly toils and it will be great, but I fear the wake of sadness a death leaves behind. I worry about leaving my husband, kids (at the moment just one kid), family, and friends behind. I worry about not getting another chance to laugh with my girls until the middle of the night about absolutely nothing! I will miss telling my daughter how much I really love her. I will miss telling my husband that he is not always right and that I'm the boss today (inside joke, we always joke about the balance of power in our home.) . I will miss trying to get my sister Dawna to loosen up once in while and just be goofy. I will miss hearing from my Sister Nikki and hearing about the amazing things God is doing in her life.  I will miss hearing about my mom's serious technology intolerance and miss helping her navigate the simplest of problems that seem insurmountable to her. I will miss my dad embarrassing me in public with dancing in every store and starting up random conversations with every store employee we come in contact with. There are so many things I will miss and that is one of the greatest reasons I HATE thinking about death. Its horrible. Up until recently I would lay in bed at night writhing over my impending doom. Why? Because I knew I wasn't making healthy decisions with my life and that I was playing Russian Roulette with my health. I didn't really toil that often over my health until after I had my daughter. You watch the news and read all these stories about these poor children left to navigate life without a parent and it makes you feel human and you lose that feeling of invincibility that you used to feel as a child.

A few months ago I turned on the television and as I flipped channels I saw that The View was coming on. I hadn't caught this show in months and looking back now I don't think it was a coincidence that I started watching that day. The episode was called The FAT Show. (catchy) It was all about the real effect that living unhealthy can have on your body. Most people are well aware of the health risks of eating unhealthy. You know there is a chance of diabetes and heart disease but did you know that you have a increased risk of cancer and serious organ damage? I didn't. I had no idea that because I wasn't embracing a healthy lifestyle that I was increasing my risk of getting serious forms of cancer that basically KILL you immediately. I didn't know that you could do irreversible damage to your heart. I didn't want to watch the episode but I had to. I have a child. I needed to know the truth about the health road I was headed down. Now, I have been to the doctor many times and I have never had any high risk concerns at this point, but why chance it? Why should I wait until something goes wrong to change? Why wait until the house is burning down to install a smoke detector? After watching this show I was outraged! Not that they were telling the truth, but that is took so long for the truth to come out! I am only mentioning just a couple of the things that could go wrong if you live unhealthy. Why wasn't I told in school about these risk factors. Why weren't my parents educated about the risks their child would have if she didn't get it together by age 30? Why?

After watching this show I didn't immediately start making changes. I had to ease into this change. I will say that after watching this show that I was haunted every night when I went to bed and had eaten super unhealthy that day. Some nights I would go to bed with a heavy chest full of carbs and just pray "Jesus, Please, I'm sorry. I don't want to die tonight. Please let me live and make good choices tomorrow." I know I touched a little bit about this in one of my earlier posts but along with God giving me the divine wisdom that I had to change I also had a moment of realization one night laying in bed when I realized that if I didn't change and soon that I was going to die and before my time. Obviously eating healthy will not prevent death altogether, but it will put time on your clock. Of course anything horrible can happen at any time. Yesterday our country suffered a huge tragedy at the Boston Marathon and those were healthy, beautiful people who were doing something great that evil had to come and destroy.  Unfortunately moments like that we can't control, but we can control our health. We don't know the future, but shouldn't we be good stewards with our health anyways? Whether you are skinny or not skinny you need to take care of your health. Skinny people can destroy their organs just as easy as  someone who is overweight. I think people like to target overweight people and say "Oh they have some health issues!" But no one looks at the skinny person with the wild metabolism who just ate three cheeseburgers and a large fry. I have seen first hand people who never gain weight but are killing their insides by the foods they consume.

This blog is not here to tell you that you can never enjoy fast food or that you can never eat cake again it is just saying you should try to live better overall. How?

Drink: Drink more water, really. Drink tea, there are many health properties that are found in teas that I never knew existed until recently. Oolong tea actually boosts your metabolism and can regulate blood sugar too. White teas can help prevent major diseases and strengthen your immune system. Drink Coffee it can also help your metabolism.

Cut: Cut out the extras in your life butter, salt, mayonnaise, sugar. You can always use these things just not as much.

Replace: Try replacing a few meals a week with healthy options. If you are feeling adventurous try only eating unhealthy one to two days a week. You will see amazing results if you really commit to a lifestyle change that replaces 75% of your unhealthy options with healthier ones.

Walk: Go for a walk. Not everyone is ready to hit the treadmill or in my case join a zumba class. So go for a walk with a friend or family member. Go to the mall its great exercise just walk with a little speed increase in comparison to what you normally walk at.

Try implementing these changes into your life and increase changes at your  own pace. You deserve to live as long as you possibly can so do something for yourself so you can live long and healthy. Do it for the people in your life that would miss you and that can't live without you. Do it because you are worth more than the temporary pleasure a snickers bar can give you. Live well, live healthy, live long.


I will post the food find of the week later this week.

Weight loss to date:

Drew: 19 pounds

Jon: 18 pounds! (Jon had a great weight-loss week!)

Thank your for reading and Stay Sexy America,

Be true to you,

With love to you,

Drew 

How do YOU really feel about you?

Today we are focusing this whole blog on YOU! Yes, You. Don't turn around and look suspiciously behind you to see if someone else is reading this. So before you have a panic attack that this blog is about to reveal your deepest darkest secrets just relax. This will be fun, I promise. Today we are going to talk about your body image and I want you to answer this question. How do YOU really feel about you? You don't have to answer on the blog (unless you want to) or to anyone. This is a moment for private personal reflection. In the past I have worked for many retailers from men's, women's, teen's, and plus size.  After working for a variety of retailers I can honestly say that EVERYONE has body issues. Some people have minor body issues while others wont leave the house unless covered from neck to toe for fear that someone might see their jello jiggle. Please don't misunderstand I am not suggesting that anyone read this blog and go outside in a string bikini and flip flops. First off thats tacky and secondly thats just an inappropriate lack of fabric. I am just saying that you can't be constantly hating on your body that God created and gave to you even if it needs some work (Or just a serious work-out). I have heard beautiful women look themselves in the mirror and talk complete trash about themselves just because they have been taught to not love the skin they are in. Many people seem to be under the impression that based on your appearance is how you will attain love, friendship, and favor with jobs. While in many cases that is true and that mindset holds weight there is only so much you can do to change the way you look. Eventually you will have to be happy and content with what you have. If you read my blog strictly to hear about weight loss please keep reading. I will get to how body image improves your weight loss.  So how do you change your self image? One Mirror at a time. Here are some tips to change how you feel about yourself without making drastic physical changes to your body.

Self Confidence: Be confident in what you've got NOW and you will be surprised by what you will get in your future. Here is what I mean. There is absolutely nothing wrong with recognizing that your body needs some changes but bashing your body will only lead to self destruction. If you are a man or a  woman reading this and you are currently on the search for love you will find that self confidence is the sexiest thing you will put on in the morning. Of course every person has their own specific tastes for a person they find attractive but there is no denying the chemistry that can build from a person of confidence. Of course there are people who are over confident and that is a complete turn off, but someone who is comfortable in the skin their in and not afraid to embrace themselves has a kind of animal magnetism. When I started going to Zumba my brother in law couldn't believe it. It wasn't that he couldn't believe I was working out it was that he couldn't believe I had the self confidence to join a fitness class. He used to sell gym memberships and knew first hand that the majority of women (all shapes and sizes) will never set foot in a fitness class due to fear of judgement. I told him that I wanted to lose weight and enjoy doing it and that I couldn't worry about what anyone else thought of me. I can honestly say that I have not received one rude comment and that all I have received is complete support. I can't speak for every gym but i have a great one. I have women and men of all body types congratulating me regularly after classes and welcoming me into the world of fitness. There will always be people in the world who will give nasty looks but you have to realize that they probably have self image issues that cause them to turn their noses up to anyone that doesn't look like they are camera ready. Honestly, if somebody looks at you funny just blow them a kiss and say "You know you want some." It will change their life and yours.

Love thy Jiggly Jello:  Please know that what I am about to say is only an opinion I don't know if there is an official study on this theory but this is just what I have known to be true in my own life and from what I have observed by many people. When people embark on a weight loss journey there is usually a motivation behind changing your entire eating and exercise habits. There are a million reasons that people decide to lose weight but one of the main reasons is because they HATE the body that they are in and want it to change. I personally think that losing weight because of body hate is the WORST reason to lose weight. If you hate your body you will usually not make lifestyle changes that are healthy. You might go on a crash diet or push yourself to hard at the gym and receive an injury, or you might find that in the early weight loss stages you will drop 20 pounds instantly and then hit a wall, become disappointed and angry, then quit your diet and balloon back those 20 pounds and gain 10 more on top of it (umm can you say yoga pants?) You have to LOVE you in order to safely and permanently change you. Think about it like this, if you are constantly holding your body to a high standard of what you think looks sexy then you will never truly be content with your body. I am not saying that you shouldn't decide to change and be healthy I am just saying that you should always love your body in all stages. I will tell you that even though I am nowhere near my ideal body weight that I LOVE my body. I think that even though the world might consider me to be a plus size that I am still a beautiful person inside and out. I walk with  my head held high and think that I am gorgeous, but today isn't about what I think of me, its about what you think about YOU! Do you think your sexy? You should. Everyone is beautiful, sexy, vivacious, handsome, and down right hot in their own right. Whether you are a size 2 or a size 202 you can love yourself and be confident in your self worth and beauty. So as the great Destiny's Child once sang "I Don't think you're ready for this Jelly." Don't listen to what the world says is awesome because you already are awesome.

Make an effort: If you struggle with image issues maybe some of the actual issue is you. People will whine and complain that they hate their hair, face, body, hands, feet, or neck and the list goes on. What most people forget to realize is that a lot of what they are angry about are simple cosmetic issues. If you are unhappy with your hair they have these places called Hair Salon's which can actually change the way your hair looks (Mind Blown). Obviously you do need to be careful in your salon selection if you go to a hair chop shop and expect a life changing hair cut you will probably get one just not the change you were looking for (Do you own any good wigs? Seriously, do you?). If you don't like your hands or feet go get a pedicure or manicure and handle your snaggle toes. When it comes to your body and clothes go to a store and actually buy clothes that FIT! If you are a plus size woman and you just buy moo moos for your body thats like putting a bandaid on a bullet hole and asking for ridicule. You have curves accentuate them! Here is a secret that most people wont tell you, but if you are plus size woman then you are most likely well endowed in certain places of your body that skinny girls aren't and that means you have something sexy to show off in MODERATION. You would be surprised about how many functions fashion belts have besides holding up pants. Men, get a nice pair of jeans or a well tailored suit and you will be surprised at all the flies you will catch. If you don't like something? fix it and love it! Obviously if you want to fix your weight it will take time, but if you are making an effort along the way losing weight will be effortLESS. When I first became a mother I did not make an effort. I seriously gave up on myself and walked around looking like a frumpcake every day and it was not pretty in fact some days it was downright inappropriate. At the end of 2011 I looked at myself in the mirror and basically told myself that something had to change. So I committed that for the entire following year I would wear make up every single day of the year with the exception of like 5 days just because 366 days of make up is insanity. I will tell you that I accomplished my goal and I felt great. I felt better about myself then I had in over a year and simply because I made an effort. My husband wasn't concerned with make up but he was happy that I was happy. Sometimes making an effort is more for yourself to increase self confidence then it is for others.

There is clearly way more we could discuss today about self image but hopefully you feel better about yourself already. Remember that you will always have bad days but overall you should love the skin your in. You're not perfect so give yourself a break. Reclaim your sexy and remember to be confident in yourself, Love your Jiggly Jello, and Make and effort! You will be surprised about how this will improve your experience for weight loss and a healthy life.

Weight loss to date:

Jon: 15 pounds

Drew: 17 pounds

Healthy food discovery of the week.

PowerCrunch Bars!!! These health bars will change your life if you are on a high protein diet. They have ZERO granola in them and are designed to taste like a wafer cookie. They are a little bit chewy but they have a great flavor selection and taste way better than other protein bars. So go out and enjoy another healthy snack.

Note: We have only found these bars at Walmart and Trader Joe's so far.

If you enjoy reading my blog and are currently on a healthy journey feel free to leave comments about things that work for you or healthy food that actually tastes good for people to try. If it sounds awesome I will try it and might feature it in a blog some time. Or if you just want some support feel free to comment and I will try to respond with any help I can give.



Thank you for reading and Stay Sexy America.

Be true to you.

With love to you,

Drew

Being Overweight is a choice

This last week I have been pondering a lot about being overweight and who's fault it is that so many people are fighting so hard to lose weight and why so many fail. I am not claiming to be any sort of an expert at weight loss in fact I have a pretty lofty weight loss goal that I am fighting to attain at this moment. What I discovered about myself is that I may have initially become overweight based on my upbringing and eating more comforting foods then healthy options but after a while it becomes my choice to stay overweight. I can play the blame game for as long as I want but eventually I had to take responsibility for my body. I have grown up in a home with parents who were not super fit so I think that I just automatically set my eating habits to auto pilot and just ate whatever I wanted without really considering what was going into my body. Please understand I have absolutely AMAZING parents they raised me with amazing values and I am very well adjusted adult. The thing is just that my parents weren't very health conscious. They never forced us to be apart of any athletic programs and didn't require us to replace an unhealthy snacks with healthy ones. So I would have to be honest and say that I blamed them for years for my weight issues but after being out and on my own for almost eight years the blame has to inevitably fall on my shoulders. I had to start taking responsibility for my actions, but where to begin? How do you go from being a health food HATER to a health food EMBRACER? Or how do you make some changes to your life without hating yourself? How do I change and begin to make the right choices with food?

See a nutritionalist. Most gyms have them on staff these days and they can inform you how to eat and  not HATE yourself doing it. My husband and I met with a nutritionalist this last month and she put to rest a lot of our eating misunderstandings. A lot of the things we enjoyed eating we could still enjoy just on a different scale.

YOU HAVE TO CHANGE. I have a strong belief in God and I'll admit sometimes I come to him as if he is a magic Genie rather than a source of counsel. I can't tell you how many nights I would lie awake and Pray "Jesus, Please help me make healthy choices for my life. I want to live to see my grandchildren. Please Lord I made a lot of eating mistakes today. Please don't let me die and let me try again tomorrow. Please Lord let me wake up tomorrow looking like a swimsuit model and I will start eating and living better." Well Clearly God did not make me into Victoria's Secret material overnight. What God did do is respond to me one night while I was lamenting with one of my very overdramatic prayers. He basically put it in my face. "YOU HAVE TO CHANGE" Me? God I think you might have it wrong. I am giving you full control to do whatever you want as long as I don't have to do anything about it. So after this epiphany/God moment I realized it was time. My husband and I sat down and discussed the changes we needed to make and committed to support each other in these new changes we would have to make in our lives.  We agreed that whatever life throws at us that we would stay committed and keep each other accountable in eating and exercise. Please understand My husband and I weren't going to be featured on a dateline special for overeaters Anonymous but we still weren't doing the best we could with our eating. We realized that we didn't want our children to grow up with weight issues and also realized that with our daughter turning two that this is when she would be watching to see what kind of decisions we make for ourselves to guide her through her healthy life. So we began eating six small meals a day which are protein focused.

Everything in Moderation. Eating six SMALL meals a day is very different from how we have always lived. We recently were eating only two meals a day and two very carb loaded meals a day. We thought we were doing our bodies a favor but it turns out we were doing the opposite. Our bodies were basically planning a mutiny while we thought eating less frequently would help us lose weight. When you eat six small meals a day you are keeping your bodies going. It's like ensuring you have enough gas in your tank to get to work, home, the grocery store, movie theatre, and so on. You fill your gas tank so you wont be stranded on the side of the road angry. So feed your body six SMALL meals a day to keep yourself sharp, awake, focused, and alive. Be sure to heed the word small. If you eat six LARGE meals a day you will most likely end up worse then you were before.

SUPPORT! Create a support network for yourself with people focused on their weight and people who aren't afraid to call you out when you are about to eat six McDoubles because you had a horrible day. Build a network and be accountable to someone.

Disable your enablers. You can't rely on enablers to keep you focused. You don't need to go defriend anyone you just need to keep people around you who will tell it like it is and not invite you over for a food fest every day and say Carpe Diem.

Keep track of what you eat and share with someone. If you have to tell someone everything you ate right down to the last peanut you will think twice before making as many bad decision. You will want to be proud of your health decisions and not embarrassed that you ate all of your kids Easter candy while watching the voice last night.

Read the nutritional information. Don't be misinformed by what the bag says. If it says Low-Fat that usually means it is low calorie and HIGH carb. The higher the carb the higher the scale.

Hopefully I have given you plenty to think about this week. I will add more ideas next week but I need to stop writing before this blog becomes a short novel.

FOOD DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK.


Yoplait Greek Frozen yogurt bars. We discovered these bars and they are AMAZING!!! They are a delicious healthy ice cream bar. Only 90 calories and higher protein then many desserts you will buy in the store.  We love them! We get the honey caramel flavor and have fallen in love with them. So go out buy and enjoy a truly Guiltfree dessert. :)


Weight Loss to date:

Drew 14 pounds

Jon 14 pounds



Thanks for reading and Stay Sexy America,

Be true to you.

With Love to you,


Drew