Hey everyone! I thought I'd tell you about my health report--so a quick blog today!
Rachel
21 year old female
Full-time college student
Moderate exercise (2-5 times a week)
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 210lbs (down two pounds!)
Thoughts: "I rarely feel hungry anymore! I mean, around mealtimes I do, but inbetween? No sir. I eat a snack on very rare occasions! It's a great feeling!"
Just as a four week (or 28 day!) update: I've lost 9.5 pounds just by changing how I eat for four weeks. I'm so excited! This is the start of a great thing for me!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
New MyPlate Recipe! Rachel's MyPlate Pizza!
Hi everyone! I know Kellen had posted a recipe for MyPlate pizza, but I think I've further perfected it. I don't have a picture to post of it, but it looks like a mini pizza--a real pizza!
Now, last time I went grocery shopping, I found that Mama Rosa's pizza crusts came in individual sizes! Holy cow! There are three to a pack, and I chose the whole wheat and honey crusts--my favorite in the large size.
So you take one crust, and add a quarter cup of pizza sauce (your fruit). It seems like a whole lot of sauce, but pizza sauce is tasty. Just spread it out evenly over the crust and you'll be fine. Then place on a quarter cup of shredded low-fat mozzarella (fat free won't melt). It doesn't look like much cheese, but when it melts, it's plenty, I promise! I'm a cheese hound myself, so I was pleasantly surprised.
Then I added a serving of ham sandwich meat, folding the slices in quarters so the meat was thicker. It'll probably cover the whole pizza. Now for your veggie! I used green bell pepper (yes, I eat a lot of green bell peppers!) and took a good hunk of it and chopped it relatively small to put on top of the pizza.
Cook for 7.5-10 minutes at 425 degrees, and you have a perfect MyPlate pizza! (Serves 1.)
That's all for now!
Now, last time I went grocery shopping, I found that Mama Rosa's pizza crusts came in individual sizes! Holy cow! There are three to a pack, and I chose the whole wheat and honey crusts--my favorite in the large size.
So you take one crust, and add a quarter cup of pizza sauce (your fruit). It seems like a whole lot of sauce, but pizza sauce is tasty. Just spread it out evenly over the crust and you'll be fine. Then place on a quarter cup of shredded low-fat mozzarella (fat free won't melt). It doesn't look like much cheese, but when it melts, it's plenty, I promise! I'm a cheese hound myself, so I was pleasantly surprised.
Then I added a serving of ham sandwich meat, folding the slices in quarters so the meat was thicker. It'll probably cover the whole pizza. Now for your veggie! I used green bell pepper (yes, I eat a lot of green bell peppers!) and took a good hunk of it and chopped it relatively small to put on top of the pizza.
Cook for 7.5-10 minutes at 425 degrees, and you have a perfect MyPlate pizza! (Serves 1.)
That's all for now!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tight Wallet? Fatten It Up A Little With MyPlate!
Hello everyone...
I was just looking at some news sites about MyPlate, and I saw a few reader comments which really got me thinking. They said things such as, "America can't afford to eat healthy" and "poor people shouldn't be expected to buy expensive healthy foods." Wow. That kind of ticks me off. The effect I've noticed MyPlate having on my wallet is the exact opposite.
I go shopping and spend about $35 for 2 weeks worth of groceries for myself on the MyPlate diet. Granted, I'm a single college student. If you were buying for yourself and another person, I'm guessing it'd be about $55-60 every two weeks, because to buy a gallon of milk versus a half gallon would save money, etc. Fruit doesn't have to be fresh fruit, and I do drink orange juice! If you have a serving of orange juice once a day, that jug will last you a long time!
So for people to be ignorant and say that to eat healthy, they'll have to spend loads more money iscrap. I'm saving money not buying potato chips and McDonald's burgers and soda. And Funyuns. That was my downfall before MyPlate. I'm not buying all these unhealthy foods that drain my wallet, and am in turn buying foods that cost far less and seem to really fill me up more. (A big bag of frozen peas is only $0.89 for crying out loud, and they taste like fresh peas when uncooked!)
End of rant. I hope you understand that I am saving money as a result of this experiment. As a college student, every bit helps. If you want to get healthy and save money in these tough economic times, I'd suggest MyPlate.
Still yours (and still ticked off at the ignorami!),
Rachel
I was just looking at some news sites about MyPlate, and I saw a few reader comments which really got me thinking. They said things such as, "America can't afford to eat healthy" and "poor people shouldn't be expected to buy expensive healthy foods." Wow. That kind of ticks me off. The effect I've noticed MyPlate having on my wallet is the exact opposite.
I go shopping and spend about $35 for 2 weeks worth of groceries for myself on the MyPlate diet. Granted, I'm a single college student. If you were buying for yourself and another person, I'm guessing it'd be about $55-60 every two weeks, because to buy a gallon of milk versus a half gallon would save money, etc. Fruit doesn't have to be fresh fruit, and I do drink orange juice! If you have a serving of orange juice once a day, that jug will last you a long time!
So for people to be ignorant and say that to eat healthy, they'll have to spend loads more money is
End of rant. I hope you understand that I am saving money as a result of this experiment. As a college student, every bit helps. If you want to get healthy and save money in these tough economic times, I'd suggest MyPlate.
Still yours (and still ticked off at the ignorami!),
Rachel
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
New MyPlate Recipe! Rachel's Pizza Pasta!
Listen up, my friends! Have you been craving pizza lately, but can't justify making MyPlate pizza, or ruining the diet to eat Pizza Hut? I think I have a solution! I made MyPlate Pizza Pasta!
Okay, that sounds really ridiculous, but it's pretty delicious. It's also pretty ugly, but that just makes it tastier in my opinion.
I didn't intend to make it taste like pizza. It just wound up that way, so I thought since it's darn delicious, I'd share the recipe and post a few pictures for you.
I started out hungry for spaghetti, and figured I didn't want to eat anything but spaghetti and sauce. So, my quest to make spaghetti sauce in MyPlate portions was on. I started out with a serving of tomato sauce. Okay, so it wasn't tomato sauce, it was leftover pizza sauce, made from tomatoes and sea salt and a few seasonings, from the MyPlate pizza I made for lunch today. Then I took a small handful of fresh spinach leaves and a thick slice of green bell pepper, and tossed everything into the food processor.
What I found when I opened the lid of the food processor was a smooth, dark greenish-brown sauce. Dipping in a finger to taste, I thought, "Hmm. Pleasant surprise!" I then rummaged through the fridge to see what kind of lean protein and low-fat dairy I could add.
"Aha!" I said quietly to myself as I found some turkey sandwich meat and some shredded low-fat mozzarella. I added one serving of turkey and a quarter cup of the cheese into the food processor and blended that into the sauce.
Well, now it was even uglier, a light brownish-green color, but it tasted like pizza. I'm not going to complain. I put it in a microwave-safe dish and nuked it a while till warmed through, and then the cheese was melted. It was chunky, smooth, and creamy all at once like pizza kind of is. Super delicious! I added it all to a serving of spaghetti (about one cup cooked) and mixed it in. It was probably the best spaghetti sauce I've ever eaten, because I am not one to usually eat sauce on spaghetti. If I make spaghetti, it's usually with a little Smart Balance butter-substitute melted on top, eaten plain like that.
Want to see the finished results?
Here's the recipe again, for those of you who didn't catch it before:
Pizza Pasta:
Ingredients
--Rachel
Okay, that sounds really ridiculous, but it's pretty delicious. It's also pretty ugly, but that just makes it tastier in my opinion.
I didn't intend to make it taste like pizza. It just wound up that way, so I thought since it's darn delicious, I'd share the recipe and post a few pictures for you.
I started out hungry for spaghetti, and figured I didn't want to eat anything but spaghetti and sauce. So, my quest to make spaghetti sauce in MyPlate portions was on. I started out with a serving of tomato sauce. Okay, so it wasn't tomato sauce, it was leftover pizza sauce, made from tomatoes and sea salt and a few seasonings, from the MyPlate pizza I made for lunch today. Then I took a small handful of fresh spinach leaves and a thick slice of green bell pepper, and tossed everything into the food processor.
What I found when I opened the lid of the food processor was a smooth, dark greenish-brown sauce. Dipping in a finger to taste, I thought, "Hmm. Pleasant surprise!" I then rummaged through the fridge to see what kind of lean protein and low-fat dairy I could add.
"Aha!" I said quietly to myself as I found some turkey sandwich meat and some shredded low-fat mozzarella. I added one serving of turkey and a quarter cup of the cheese into the food processor and blended that into the sauce.
Well, now it was even uglier, a light brownish-green color, but it tasted like pizza. I'm not going to complain. I put it in a microwave-safe dish and nuked it a while till warmed through, and then the cheese was melted. It was chunky, smooth, and creamy all at once like pizza kind of is. Super delicious! I added it all to a serving of spaghetti (about one cup cooked) and mixed it in. It was probably the best spaghetti sauce I've ever eaten, because I am not one to usually eat sauce on spaghetti. If I make spaghetti, it's usually with a little Smart Balance butter-substitute melted on top, eaten plain like that.
Want to see the finished results?
The ugly-yet-amazing Pizza Pasta sauce!
The finished product on a small plate! What a tasty MyPlate meal!
Here's the recipe again, for those of you who didn't catch it before:
Pizza Pasta:
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup of pizza sauce
- Small handful of spinach
- Slice of green bell pepper
- Serving of turkey lunch meat
- 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup spaghetti, cooked
--Rachel
Monday, July 4, 2011
Best Summer Vegetable--Without Overheating Your Kitchen!
Hallo MyPlaters!
Everyone loves corn on the cob, right? I know that's my favorite summer vegetable! Yummy!
But no one likes to stand over a grill and grill it, or to stand over a pot of boiling water in a hot kitchen while the weather's hot outside. Sometimes when we're really hot, we'll just skip over such a delicious and healthy vegetable just because it's too warm to cook it.
Well, my gramma called today and gave me a new way to make corn on the cob. She said, "Rachie, just wrap it in a terry-cloth towel and microwave it for five minutes." I thought she was nuts, but sometimes she's just so crazy her ideas do work. So I went grocery shopping and got corn on the cob. I brought it home, peeled an ear for my MyPlate lunch, and wrapped it in a bathroom hand towel. Then I placed it in the microwave and nuked it for five minutes.
It was steaming hot when I took it out, and when I put a little bit of Smart Balance on it, it melted right away. But that's not even the best part--no sir! When I took a bite out of that beautiful ear of corn, it was perfect. It wasn't soggy like when you over-boil corn, and it wasn't all charred like when you grill it. It tasted like pure, fresh, delicious corn. It's probably the best corn I've ever eaten, to be honest, because of the way it was cooked. It was like it was steamed, and it was so good!
Not only was it tasty, however, but on this hot Independence Day, I didn't steam up the kitchen! I already have a hot enough apartment, so I was very grateful for the lack of excess heat. So what are you waiting for? Go put some corn in a hand towel and microwave it!
Just goes to show that sometimes batty old ladies aren't so batty after all...
Rachel
Everyone loves corn on the cob, right? I know that's my favorite summer vegetable! Yummy!
But no one likes to stand over a grill and grill it, or to stand over a pot of boiling water in a hot kitchen while the weather's hot outside. Sometimes when we're really hot, we'll just skip over such a delicious and healthy vegetable just because it's too warm to cook it.
Well, my gramma called today and gave me a new way to make corn on the cob. She said, "Rachie, just wrap it in a terry-cloth towel and microwave it for five minutes." I thought she was nuts, but sometimes she's just so crazy her ideas do work. So I went grocery shopping and got corn on the cob. I brought it home, peeled an ear for my MyPlate lunch, and wrapped it in a bathroom hand towel. Then I placed it in the microwave and nuked it for five minutes.
It was steaming hot when I took it out, and when I put a little bit of Smart Balance on it, it melted right away. But that's not even the best part--no sir! When I took a bite out of that beautiful ear of corn, it was perfect. It wasn't soggy like when you over-boil corn, and it wasn't all charred like when you grill it. It tasted like pure, fresh, delicious corn. It's probably the best corn I've ever eaten, to be honest, because of the way it was cooked. It was like it was steamed, and it was so good!
Not only was it tasty, however, but on this hot Independence Day, I didn't steam up the kitchen! I already have a hot enough apartment, so I was very grateful for the lack of excess heat. So what are you waiting for? Go put some corn in a hand towel and microwave it!
Just goes to show that sometimes batty old ladies aren't so batty after all...
Rachel
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Week 3 Health Report
Hey everybody! It's Rachel. I have my health report for today!
Rachel
21 year old female
Full-time student
Moderate exercise (2-4 times a week)
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 212 (up .9 pounds)
Thoughts: "I didn't watch the diet as much as I should have this week--granted, each meal had all my MyPlate options, but sometimes I only ate 2 meals and one was larger and so on. My snacks were also a lot of peanuts and sunflower seeds, which have a ton of salt! I felt so bloated all week and my fingers even swelled up to the point where the rings I was wearing that got really loose were now tight and uncomfortable on the original fingers they were on! Looks like I'll have to stay away from such tasty (and supposedly healthy!) snacks and eat things with far less sodium! Next week will be better though--I'm learning a lot!"
That's all for now. Watch sodium intake, MyPlaters! It'll make you retain water and you won't feel your best--needless to say you'll gain some weight! However, I'm confident I can get that off and maybe a little more next week!
That's all for now!
--Rachel
Rachel
21 year old female
Full-time student
Moderate exercise (2-4 times a week)
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 212 (up .9 pounds)
Thoughts: "I didn't watch the diet as much as I should have this week--granted, each meal had all my MyPlate options, but sometimes I only ate 2 meals and one was larger and so on. My snacks were also a lot of peanuts and sunflower seeds, which have a ton of salt! I felt so bloated all week and my fingers even swelled up to the point where the rings I was wearing that got really loose were now tight and uncomfortable on the original fingers they were on! Looks like I'll have to stay away from such tasty (and supposedly healthy!) snacks and eat things with far less sodium! Next week will be better though--I'm learning a lot!"
That's all for now. Watch sodium intake, MyPlaters! It'll make you retain water and you won't feel your best--needless to say you'll gain some weight! However, I'm confident I can get that off and maybe a little more next week!
That's all for now!
--Rachel
Friday, July 1, 2011
Fit Meals Into Your Life--Don't Change For Them!
Hello everybody!
It's Rach. If I've learned anything from this diet to make it more successful for me, it's to fit the meals into my routine, and not to try and change my routine to put the meals in! For example:
I used to get up early, eat breakfast, then go back to sleep. I'd wake up, eat lunch around noon, then work. I'd eat dinner around 5 because I was hungry again, then a snack sometime between 5PM and 1AM because I was hungry before bed. The past two days I've tried something different, and it's worked thus far in keeping me more satisfied.
Now I eat breakfast when I wake up, whenever that may be. Late afternoon-ish/early evening-ish I will eat lunch, like I used to, because that's when I get hungry. And then around 10PM I eat supper, because that's when I am most hungry of all. This really eliminates the need for a snack, so if I have anything, it's likely a glass of juice or an MGD 64. It's made me feel more in control, and I don't feel so cranky from being hungry all the time!
With that being said, my friends, eat your meals when you're hungry. Who said breakfast has to be early morning? When you get such notions out of your head, you'll feel tons freer, and you'll appreciate your new way of living even more!
Until next time,
Rachel
It's Rach. If I've learned anything from this diet to make it more successful for me, it's to fit the meals into my routine, and not to try and change my routine to put the meals in! For example:
I used to get up early, eat breakfast, then go back to sleep. I'd wake up, eat lunch around noon, then work. I'd eat dinner around 5 because I was hungry again, then a snack sometime between 5PM and 1AM because I was hungry before bed. The past two days I've tried something different, and it's worked thus far in keeping me more satisfied.
Now I eat breakfast when I wake up, whenever that may be. Late afternoon-ish/early evening-ish I will eat lunch, like I used to, because that's when I get hungry. And then around 10PM I eat supper, because that's when I am most hungry of all. This really eliminates the need for a snack, so if I have anything, it's likely a glass of juice or an MGD 64. It's made me feel more in control, and I don't feel so cranky from being hungry all the time!
With that being said, my friends, eat your meals when you're hungry. Who said breakfast has to be early morning? When you get such notions out of your head, you'll feel tons freer, and you'll appreciate your new way of living even more!
Until next time,
Rachel
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)