Craving something sweet? You don’t have to eat candy or ice cream. Sometimes you body just wants something as simple as fruit and yogurt!
These are a few things I go for when I’m craving something savory, salty or sweet but want to stay on track with my diet!
Don’t get me wrong, I love a DQ blizzard on occasion. But that’s not always the best choice for me. Especially when I’m trying to stay on track. You can find healthy alternatives to curb your food cravings!
I’m sure people are going to think I’m ridiculous for saying this, but I wish we could rename fats, from food, something else. Yeah yeah I know it sounds stupid. But a good majority of the general public sees that word and freaks out. I think it’s due to the word association with the word body fat. We define fat (from the body) as connective tissue that stores cellular fat. Or….the yellow blob stuff that we see in pictures in ads and learned about in heath class.
Body fat is not the same as food fat. Will fats from food make you fat? Yes and no. It’s all about portioning and eating the correct fats. If you eat a proper amount of fats, you can make it work to your advantage. With that being said, I’m referring to fats from avocado, olive oil, eggs, etc. NOT fats from things like Doritos, pastries, sugary drinks, etc. Should you completely avoid the “bad fats” all together? Some would argue yes. I say no. That’s what cheat meals are for! I don’t recommend consuming them every day but on occasion is fine! If you can completely avoid them all together, more power to you! I however want a greasy burger and pizza every so often. 😉
Fats are a good thing! Let’s stop being so scared of them! Use them as fuel for your body and don’t feel bad about consuming them, when they’re the good kind. Eat your avocados every day, and eat those eggs! They are fantastic for your body. Just make sure to portion things out properly! Figure out how much fat is recommended for your body per day. Once you understand the fat amounts in each food, you can portion things visually and it becomes really easy! Let’s get back to enjoying foods (especially ones with FAT) and not being scared of them! 🍴💪🏻
Dinner last night was a brown sugar salmon. I’m not a huge fan of salmon but my husband is. So I try to make it at least once a week. Plus it’s good for me so I suck it up and eat it. This recipe is super easy and tastes great!
Ingredients:
✴️ 2 Salmon filets
✴️ 2 Potatoes
✴️ 8 oz green beans
✴️ 1/2 oz Dijon mustard
✴️ 1/2 oz light brown sugar
✴️ 1 oz milk
✴️ 1 Clove garlic
✴️ Salt
✴️ Pepper
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 400
Rinse green beans and chop off ends. Rinse off potatoes and chop into cubes. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. I’m a small bowl combine mustard and brown sugar. Rinse off salmon and pat dry. Mince garlic and set aside.
Place potatoes in a small pot and boil. Cook until tender, 14-18 minutes. While potatoes cook, place salmon on a nonstick pan and sear. 2-4 minutes on each side. Remove from burner and place on baking sheet. Brush salmon with brown sugar mixture. Roast in oven for 7-10 minutes.
Return pan used to cook salmon to medium heat. Add green beans, 1 tap olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook beans for 6-8 minutes.
Drain potatoes. Mash potatoes and mix in milk, sour cream and garlic.
Plate dish and enjoy! 🍴
Last night for dinner I made a Gluten Free Chicken Marsala. I’m not a huge fan of pasta but it turned out pretty good! Each serving was under 400 calories and it took just 25 minutes to prep and cook.
Ingredients:
•2 boneless chicken breast
•6 oz broccoli
•1 cup pasta noodles (I use gf)
•2 tsp chicken semi glace
•6 oz mushrooms
•4 oz cream
•3 oz Marsala wine
•2 oz peas
•1 shallot
Recipe:
Cut mushrooms into 1/4 slices. Dice shallot. Cut broccoli into bite size pieces. Pat chicken dry and cut into small pieces. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
Heat a pot of water for noodles. Once boiling add in noodles. Cook until soft. If GF 7-8 minutes
Place medium non stick pan over high heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and cook chicken for 3-4 minutes. Chicken will finish cooking in a later step. Set chicken aside.
Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to used chicken pan. Toss in shallot and mushrooms. Stir occasionally. 2-4 minutes. Add Marsala and stir occasionally until reduced. 2-3 minutes. Stir and in cream, broccoli, 2 tbsp water, demi glace, 1/4 tbsp salt and a pinch of pepper.
Return chicken to veggie pan to continue cooking. Bring to simmer. Simmer until sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. Add in pasta and peas. Reduce heat and mix. Let sit for 1 minute to warm peas. Plate and serve!
This will serve about 3 people (can stretch for 4) Happy eating! 🍴
355 Cal
24g Carb
31g Protein
1052g Sodium
Last nights dinner was one of the easiest meals I’ve made and SO good. Teriyaki chicken lettuce wraps. Just 7 ingredients and it takes less than 20 minutes to prep and cook!
Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 head of butte lettuce
1/2 oz honey
3 oz shredded carrots
1/2 oz almonds
2 tsp of sriracha (add more if you like spicy)
3 oz teriyaki glaze
Recipe:
Separate lettuce for cups and rinse. Pat dry with paper towel. Dice up chicken and season with salt and pepper
Place a non stick pan over medium high heat and add 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add chicken and cook until browned (or no longer pink in middle) 3-5 minutes
Add in carrots and stir until carrot is tender (about 3 minutes)
Remove from burner and stir in teriyaki, honey and sriracha. Put chicken mixture into lettuce cups and top with almonds.
Enjoy!! 🍴😍
554 Cals
31g Carbs
28g Fat
47g Protein
Food can be VERY deceiving. People see certain meals and because there are healthy items in them, they automatically think it’s a healthy meal. What we often forget is the added sauces and things that completely kill the meal. For example, my dinner last night was an ahi tuna salad. It has seared tuna, arugula, mango, tomato, noodles, avocado, almonds and a ginger dressing. Doesn’t sound too bad right? Take a look at the nutrition breakdown:
920 cals
64g fat
60g carbs
33g sugar
36g protein
Notice how high the calories and sugars are! 920 calories in ONE serving. Just because it’s a salad does not mean it’s going to be healthy. The little items like dressing, noodles, and the avocado jack up the sugar, fat and calories drastically! Yes things like avocado are great for you. But in the proper amounts. If you removed the dressing, noodles and cut the avocado amount in half, you would see a drastic drop in these numbers
By no means am I telling you to not eat certain things. Im just encouraging you to be cautious. Enjoy a salad like this every so often. But I wouldn’t recommend it daily. As I said before, just because something has healthy items in it, that doesn’t make it healthy for you. Know what you’re eating! Don’t be afraid to be high maintenance at a restaurant and ask to remove things or put dressing on the side. Especially if you’re trying for a healthier option. You can make restaurant meals work for you and your diet!
Happy eating! 🍴😉💙
Ingredients:
•2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
•2oz jerk sauce
•2tsp chipotle seasoning
•1 lime
•1 red bell pepper
•2 zucchini
Recipe:
Chop veggies and toss in 1tbsp olive oil, lime juice and chipotle seasoning.
Chop chicken into pieces. Cook chicken on medium high heat in a nonstick pan until no longer pink. Turn heat down to low and pour in jerk sauce. Coat all of chicken and let sit, mixing occasionally while veggies cook.
Cook veggies on medium high heat on a grill pan. Cook each side 2-3 minutes.
Plate chicken and veggies and enjoy!
427 cal
19g fat
18g carbs
42g protein
I want to lose weight, how did you do it?” This is a common question I get from my friends and former athletes (I’m a cheer coach). There isn’t this huge secret of how to do it. I’m not wasting money on products that claim to make you lose weight. I just watch what I eat and I make sure to workout. That’s literally it!
If you aren’t losing weight and you have been trying, these are some reasons that may be affecting you!…..
1. You aren’t being patient. Losing weight won’t happen over night. It would be awesome if it did, but that’s unfortunately not how the body works. For some it takes weeks, others months. Everyone’s body is different.
2. You are comparing yourself to others rather than comparing yourself to where YOU started.
3. Too many cheat meals. Are you eating good during the week then eating everything in sight on the weekend? Or are you adding in too many cheat meals during the week? Cheat meals are great! They’re a good shock for your body. They’re also a great reward for yourself. However doing too many that are too high in fat and calorie will set you back.
4. Water retention. I’ve explained it before in a past post. When you lose weight your body depletes itself of fat cells. However the fat pockets that held the fat cells take a while to diminish so your body fills them with water till it can get rid of them.
5. Eating the wrong things. Some foods are deceiving. We claim them as healthy but in too big of amounts they can actually have reverse effects
6. You’re only doing cardio and not building muscle to burn fat. Cardio burns both fat and muscle. Cardio is fantastic for building endurance but it’s not the only thing you should be doing in your workout routine. Weight training builds lean muscle mass, which elevates your metabolism and burns more fat, even when you’re not exercising!
7. Calorie Deficit. By definition this is reducing the amount of calories consumed relative to the amount of calories required for maintenance of body weight. Multiple your body weight by 10-12 (depending on your activity level. I do 12 since I lift and do cardio weekly) Recalculate every 2-4 weeks as you lose weight.
If you’re struggling to lose weight, don’t give in and go buy diet pills or the teas that claim you’ll lose a ton of weight fast. Work with your body. You’ll be amazed what it can do on its own when you fuel it properly and workout!
It kills me when one of my friends says they drink a smoothie on a regular basis instead of eating meals. I will admit I grab a smoothie sometimes when I’m out and about because it’s convenient. My husband does it too. We love them! Smoothie king is our guilty pleasure! BUT we try to eat regular meals as often as possible and not supplement a smoothie in place of a meal.
Smoothies tend to have way too much fruit in them. They also have syrup which the fruit was sitting in, that’s incredibly high in sugar. I don’t know many people who get veggies in their smoothies so you’re basically getting an overload of sugar. The average fruit smoothie is 500-600 calories with around 49-60g of sugar. That’s twice the amount of sugar you should have in a day!
If you are making smoothies at home, this can be a different story. I will still argue that they shouldn’t be replacing meals. However, you can work them into your diet to your benefit! I make a “smoothie” protein shake. In my protein shake I mix protein powder, fruit, spinach, milk and sometimes an avocado. This is my post workout drink. The difference is that there is WAY less sugar than the smoothie places! I measure out the amount of fruit I need for one serving. I also add in spinach for extra magnesium and iron which is great for you post workout!
Remember, just because it has healthy items in it, doesn’t mean it’s the best option. Read your nutrition labels. Check the sugar and fats! And for goodness sake, don’t replace meals with smoothies on a regular basis. Occasionally is ok. Eat your fruits and veggies in the proper portions!
Ingredients:
•1/2 oz apple cider vinegar
•8 oz asparagus
•2 boneless, skinless chicken breast
•1/2 oz feta cheese
•1 tbsp grainy mustard
•1/2 oz light brown sugar
•2 zucchini
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 400. Trim ends off asparagus and dice zucchini. Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper.
Combine vinegar, mustard, a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper and 2 tbsp olive oil in a bowl.
Grill chicken on grill (I used stovetop cast iron) for 3 minutes on each side. Transfer to baking sheet and baste with 1/2 vinegar mixture. Place in oven for 15 minutes.
While chicken cooks, place asparagus on baking sheet. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook asparagus for 10 minutes.
Toss chopped zucchini in a bowl with 2 tbsp of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place zucchini pieces on stove top grill. Cook on each side for 3-4 minutes.
Once food is cooked, plate food and top chicken with remaining vinaigrette and top asparagus with feta. Enjoy!
Fit Dallas Mom Blog 