Christmas Cheer Brings… Dance Revolution??

Happy New Year Everyone! Here's my first post of the 2011:

For the past two years, I have been in South Africa for Christmas, so I figured it would be a good idea to spend my last Christmas before I move with my family. Nothing beats an American Christmas. However, my family’s holiday gatherings are not what you would call the typical or traditional in any sense of the words.

This year, the most festive day of the year started out normal- tranquil and cozy- with baking, a toasty fire, and a beautiful tree.

Mons making deviled eggs.

Jelly-filled cookies

 Then the family began arriving… I had the brilliant idea of having all finger foods instead of a big sit-down dinner (we usually make a gigantic pot of paella). We grazed at the table the whole day, probably consuming way more calories than we would have otherwise. But who cares?

Finger food-ville

 We worked off some of those spinach dip and little sausage calories with a Spanish dance contest that my grandfather concocted.

The day turned into evening, and I decided it was time to speak to my Hot Soccer Player. I emerged from my room I stumbled upon this:

Since an alien abduction is highly unlikely, I’m satisfied with conclusion that there had been a Bollywood invasion. All we needed was a villain emerging from a tree somewhere…

This scene was a result of courtesy Wii Let’s Dance 2. It’s a blast. We danced for 2 more hours after that.

I suppose you could call Thursday night our pre-New Year’s Eve parteezy. Three of my cousins spent the night, and guess what they happened to bring along with them- Let’s Dance 2. We couldn’t help ourselves.

Loving the face on my cuz.

On New Year’s Eve, mom, stepdad, cousins, and I went to the mall, shopped around a little and bought Wii Zumba!

Buy Zumba on Amazon!

 A few of our relations joined us for dinner, and we had some delicious Mexican eats.

Picked over food

Mexican Bean Soup

 Immediately after we ate, we ran straight for the Wii remotes. It was a horrible idea since I felt sick afterward. But it was a total blast. Great way to spend New Year’s Eve. 

Wishing this cookie was my honey.

Obsessing over peanut butter chocolate chip cookies in between songs.

I think this could be a new way of life for the New Year. I am obsessed. A dance revolution has begun.

Annual Resolution Failure

The New Year is almost upon us! Every year, after the holiday season comes to a close, people’s minds jump straight to losing the few pounds they put on. The most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. This sounds wonderfully fantastic on New Year’s Eve when you are sipping champagne with friends and family.

But how much weight are you trying to lose? By when? How do you plan on doing it? Those little details are what make us quit our diet and exercise plan by January 15^th. No one wants to have another resolution implementation failure.

What if we tried to not make different resolutions this year? What if we resolved to be healthier instead of thinner? That’s still a pretty broad resolution. My suggestion is to make a bunch of small resolutions for ourselves.

Here is a little list of ideas that I have come up with:

• Start taking a daily multi-vitamin
• Walk 3 times a week for 30 minutes
• Cut down your soft drinks (or cut them out all together!). 
• Get a nice, bright water bottle and make sure you are drinking ½ your body weight in ounces of water every day- having a bright and interesting bottle with make you more aware of the need to drink your H2O!
• Drink a glass of water before each meal- We all know this, but really. Do it.
• Buy an easy healthy cook book- Finding a book with both easy and healthy recipes, will make you more likely to want to cook  

• OOOR, go to FoodNetwork.com- they have tons of options for healthy and quick cooking
• Take 5 minutes a day to relax- Find a quiet place to close your eyes and clear your head.
• Cut down your sugar intake- If you take two sugars in your coffee, try to but it down to one. 

You only live once, and for me, life on a diet is no life at all. Why not eat sensible, and think about being healthy, not being skinny.

By being healthier, you will be happier, look great, and feel better about yourself. Take the next week to come up with a few of your own little resolutions! Leave a comment! Maybe you can inspire someone else.

Ener-G Sent Me a Christmas Present!

Nothing makes me happier than getting packages in the mail. Ok, a few things make me happier, but that is definitely in the top 5 list. When I got home from getting my hair done on Wednesday, I was delighted to find a big package sitting on my doorstep, just in time for Christmas.

In this contained in this rather large box was Ener-G Gluten-Free products! Ener-G was so kind as to send me some of their awesome products to try out.

Box of Goodness

In this box was a sample of:

• Seattle Brown Bread
• Tapioca Loaf
• Light Tapioca Loaf
• Corn Loaf
• Egg-free Raisin Loaf
• Macaroni
• Rice Mix
• English Muffin
• Pound Cake
• Wylde Pretzels (the only gluten, wheat, casein, dairy, egg, soy, and nut-free pretzel on the market!)  
• Ginger Cookies
• Vanilla Cookies

I don’t know about you, but mass quantities of gluten-free foods make me giddy. I decided to dive right into this pile of scrumptiousness and make my lunch. I chose to use the Seattle Brown Bread.

Nicely packaged.

When I pulled the slices apart, one of them ripped. This is understandable, considering gluten-free grains are not as elastic as wheat. For me, the smell of bread just makes me melt. This bread, did not smell as strong as I had hoped, but it was still a nice aroma. I was starving, so I used it to make a veggie sandwich. The veggie sandwich consisted of hummus, mustard, chipotle relish, sauerkraut, romaine lettuce, cilantro, and a sprinkle of hot sauce. 

Snow Peas, Giant Carrot, Veggie Sandwich.

I forgot all about the rip and chowed down on my lunch.  Ok, let me just tell you how good this bread was, rip and all. The sandwich fillings were salty and lacking in any sweetness- almost on the bitter side. The brown bread was very hearty and had sweetness to it, probably due to the raisin concentrate in it. Very interesting ingredient. Combining this bread with those fillings was GENIUS. The taste was amazing.

Another common trait of gluten-free bread is the need to be toasted. Not this bread. No toasting required. It wasn't spongy or stale. I am definitely ok with the fragility of this bread since the taste was so delicious. The bread was slightly sweet and almost nutty in flavor. It was not the least bit dry- still moist as if it had just been baked and cooled.

I really enjoyed this sandwich bread. It was not your run-of-the-mill bread, for sure. Regular sandwich bread sometimes just doesn’t cut it for me. I always appreciate bread with a little pizzazz.

Thanks to Ener-G for letting me taste their delicious product! There is much more to come!

For more information about Ener-G and where you can get some for yourself, visit http://www.ener-g.com/. Happy Eating!

The Holidays Are Here!

On Monday, it hit me that it is the week before Christmas! YEAH! I am so excited. It also occurred to me that I had one more Christmas present to buy. Yikes. I know that the malls and stores are crazy right now, but I also knew that further delaying the shopping would lead to an even more painfully stressful experience.

I woke up with sore calves from this weekend’s jump roping, and decided against cardio. So, I piddled around, spoke to my lovey, and got ready to go out on the town. 

Then, being the wonderful daughter and sister that I am, I took my sister and my mama out for lunch at Panera. Yes, gluten-free people, Panera. When I went gluten-free, I assumed that Panera Bread was totally out-of-the-question. However, when it was suggested as a meal option, I was curious to find out. I read that nothing is "certified" gluten-free (obvs. It’s a bakery). But, there ARE several dishes with all gluten-free ingredients. Check it out

Note: If you are a severe Celiac, you probably shouldn’t try this out due to cross-contamination.

Hurrah! I celebrated this discovery by getting a Classic Café Salad.  

Cafe goodness.

Mons and I happy to be at our long, lost cafe.

Afterward, I made my way to America’s Friendliest Hometown to get my last present. Great success!

When I got home, my mama and I gave each other manicures. Productive activities. It made me realize how much pointless stuff I do every day. Geez.

At least my nails look awesome.

Since my nails were wet, and my mom’s weren’t, she was kind enough to make my dinner.

Low cal pastrami (this is not a joke) and sauerkraut sandwich with sauteed veggies

 Unfortunately, this lovely dinner was followed by this:

Food for baby dogs.

 I say unfortunately because munching a little bit of Puppy Chow equals munching on lots of calories. Oh well. ‘Tis the season for enjoyment, fa-la-la-la-la…la-la-la-la.

To work off some of those glorious calories, I did an upper body and ab workout.

It struck me that I will be battling minor weight gain this week. But I am completely ok with it. As long as I workout, do my thing, and don’t go overboard, then why should I worry?

 I know those extra pounds we rack up during the holidays make us feel a little bleh, and everyone wants to stay in tip-top shape. Some of us have weddings to attend, parties to go to, or just want to feel a little lighter. Well, there is a solution that the makers of Yoplait have come up with! It’s called the Two-Week Tune Up! It’s a custom diet plan designed especially for you by Yoplait!

For more information, visit Yoplait’s Two Week Tune Up.

I have been given the opportunity to try out this new plan after the holiday season has ended, thanks to Yoplait! I will track my progress here for you guys to see! I will share more information about it when the time gets closer!

Until then, I will just be enjoying myself in moderation, keeping up my workout routine, and having happy holidays. I hope you will too!

What are your holiday plans this year? How do you plan to stay fit and healthy over the next two weeks? Leave a comment!

Disney Christmas Extraveganza

This year, I was so privileged to accompany my wonderful Biff and her family for their annual trip to Disney to look at the festive hotel Christmas décor. Friday morning, I rushed through my upper body and abs workout and jetted over to her house. Then, we saddled up and made the 1 ½ hr. trip to the magical Land of the Giant Mouse. 

Biff and  I on the road.

 But first, we stopped off at Premium Outlets for some retail fun.We spent a few hours walking around, grabbing sale items as quickly as possible.

Large grass moose holding some sort of burger. Interesting...

We made our purchases and had worked up and appetite, so to Outback we went. Biff and I deliberated over sharing a meal or getting children’s portions, but I was convinced neither would satisfy my voracious hunger. I ordered the adult-sized Grilled Barbeque Chicken.

Basically two chicken breasts and a ton of veggies.

It was too much, but not wanting to be rude, I ate the whole meal. I was bursting at the seams. I knew we would be walking it off, so I felt a little less guilty.

Biff, the parentals, bro, grandparents, and I loaded up in the car and made our way to Disney.

Carousel made of chocolate.

Posey-pose

Lights on the water

Unhealthy, delicious-looking Christmas goodies.

Pure sugar. Bleh.

More sugar.

Creepy tiki man at the Polynesian hotel.

Gigantic tree at the Grand Floridian

Pretty gingerbread house.

Everything was so beautiful. We went to all of the wonderfully decorated hotels, looked at the lights, walked around, just enjoying the Christmas spirit.

We finished our night off with some quality chocolate. Ghiradelli’s was giving away Peppermint Bark, and I got a cappuccino at 10pm. Probably not the smartest idea, but it was delicious.

Cappuccino

Minty-Chocolate

By the time we reached home and I finally got to bed, it was 1:30am. Biff and her grandmother had the wonderful idea of going to the farmer’s market at 8am Saturday morning, so I woke up and drove home. I had a simple breakfast.

Cheetah-banana and cottage cheese with apple butter and almonds.

Then my mama informed me that we would be seeing, “How Do You Know?” It seems everyone was having bright/energy-sapping ideas for Saturday. We watched the movie, which was super cute, and then went to Toojay’s Café.

Salad trio- Chicken mandarin, Dill chicken, and Tuna salad. 

I spent the rest of the day recovering from exhaustion. In the evening, I had a light dinner.

Cheese and crackers with wine

I knew I needed to do some sort of physical activity, so I jumped rope for 30 minutes, while watching “Inception”. Curious to know what kind of good I was doing, I checked out how many calories jumping rope burns. The general consensus is that it burns about 11-20 cals/minute. Awesome.

So, the Disney extravaganza really got me into the Christmas Spirit! What a beautiful way to start the countdown to the most awesome day of the year. Only 6 days, 3 hrs to go! But who’s counting?

Walking, Running, Dancing, and Jumping in a Winter Wonderland:Tips for Winter Workouts

Every year, it’s so tempting to just curl up on the couch and eat your life away during the winter. Well, it is for me, at least. But instead of succumbing to my body’s natural desire for fat storage, I have decided to push through this terrible cold front and work out.

Since I didn’t work out on Saturday and Sunday, I knew Monday had to break the streak. It was so cold outside, but I wanted to go for a run. Taking all my skills for staying warm that I gained from my daily article reading, I dressed super warm but still comfortable for my workout.

I was outfitted with a hat, scarf, long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, gloves, and sweatpants to brave the 40 degree weather. I did my walk one song, run one song workout. Ok, so maybe it was more like jogging. The wind was blowing against me like a hurricane, but I trudged on. Fifty minutes later, I was glove and scarf free, feeling super energized and loving the winter weather.

Monday night, I went with my grandfather to his ballroom dance class’ annual Christmas party. Very surprisingly, I had a great time, and got a workout out of it! We danced the night away, burning extra calories while staying inside. It was super fun! And quite entertaining.

Posey-pose in front of the tree. Ready for my night on the town.

She's really not Devil dog. I promise.

My and Papi. Cute, huh?

Tuesday’s workout was a combination of things. Since I was in the dancing mood, I did some Zumba. Here are a few of the videos I did:

1. Latin Mix
2. Waka Waka
3. Krazy
4. Calle Ocho

After that, I did Dancer’s Ab Workout.

Apparently, my sister thought it would be funny to take a picture of this...

I followed this up with a few upper body exercises with 5 lb. weights. Once it warmed up to a toasty 29 degrees, I took the poopers for a little walk. I figured, since I wasn't doing any really intense exercising, I could afford a longer workout.

Being in the winter weather does not mean you can’t work out. Now, if you are in 20 degrees or lower weather, you might want to consider some indoor workouts like workout videos or strength training. If you do decided to workout outside, you should:

• Dress in layers- You can always take them off if you get hot!
• Keep your head and hands warm- your blood rushes to your core to keep your organs warm when you're cold. Also, most of the heat escapes through your extremities. 
• Wear reflective/bright clothing- If you are exercising at night, be careful of slippery surfaces and make sure people can see you!
• Keep wearing your sunscreen- Cold does not equal UV free!
• Stay hydrated- It's easy to forget to drink water when you're cold, but this is important!

Here are some non-video or strength training ideas for getting exercise without the getting chilly:

• Have a little dance party- An hour or two of dancing, and you’ve had an awesome workout.
• Dance in your room- Seriously. You might feel dumb, but once you get into it, it’s so fun.
• Jump Rope/Jumping Jacks- Alternate jump rope for 5 minutes and jumping jacks for five for 20-30 minutes. This will work up a sweat and you can even do it in front of the TV!
• Step ups- Find a step in your house and step up and down (like step aerobics) for 30 minutes.
• Stairs- If you have stairs in your house, use them! Go up and down while listening to music.

Don’t use the excuse that it’s cold outside not to work out. There are so many other options that there’s no reason to let your fitness slip!