Intermittent Fasting

Since moving to 3rd shift, which coincidentally coincides with the canceling of my cardio classes, I've put on weight.  If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I try to be healthy (with balance, I love ice cream and pancakes more than anything!)  I've completed 7 Spartan races, and I teach dance fitness 4 times a week.  I don't own a scale, I use my clothes and how I feel as the guide to where my weight is.  And currently, I'm pretty displeased.  My clothes all still fit, but, I'm not comfortable in them.  I really dislike the way I look without them on.  I tend to gain weight around the middle as my thighs are already pretty THICC.  Nobody wants a chubby waist.  No one. 

I follow a functional medicine doctor, also a fellow cardio dance instructor, on IG and FB.  Dr. Lauren Fitz if you want to look her up.  I've been following her for years just to be clear, she's not someone I just found and decided to jump headfirst into following.  Last week she did a series of posts on IF and its benefits to the body.  I have a work kid (I somehow adopt the kids I work with) that I watched have amazing success with IF last year, but put on 25 pounds after finding a girlfriend and has now gone back to IF to try to rid his body of those pounds.  So I had some experience with the concept, but I eat A LOT so I just couldn't really imagine myself diving in. 

After listening to Dr. Fitz, I thought it is at least worth a try, right?  It's only been a week.  But, so far so good guys.  I'm working up to a 16-8 fasting window.  Currently at 14-10.  I started at 12-12.  I fast the entire time I'm at work overnight because normally I'd be sleeping anyway.  It gets a little dicey around 2 am truthfully.  Dr. Fitz told me though that feeling of hunger usually only lasts 20 minutes and I just chant that to myself when I start to get hangry.  It passes.  I'm proud of my resolve because as I stated earlier I eat a lot.  I mean often.  Every couple of hours normally at least. 

IF has also caused me to be more aware of what I'm putting in because it occurred to me that I should probably be more mindful of what I'm eating first thing when I'm breaking a fast.  Since I'm so used to eating every few hours, it didn't occur to me before because I was just always eating something.  But after NOT consuming anything for 14 hours, I feel like I need to give my body more nutrient based things right from the jump.  Here's a list I found and have been using to remind myself of what to eat first thing. 

Foods to Eat When Breaking Your Fast

My main goal is to kick-start my metabolism again and hopefully burn some fat.  However, this isn't the only thing I'm doing.  I also realized the correlation with stopping my classes, so I've been determined to move more this week too.  I am often exhausted after work, I walk 5 miles each night at work (I'm not even kidding) and my feet HURT.  Hurt so much I've even purchased special toe-flexing socks to wear during my off time to help with the pain.  Adding in dancing or running didn't seem like a lot of fun, and those are my main sources of exercise.  Yesterday I danced.  And it was only the 2nd time since my classes got canceled in the middle of March.  So twice in a month, when I used to dance 4 times a week.  I was DRENCHED at the end of just 30 minutes (my classes are usually an hour but I was dead at the 30-minute mark and decided to be kind to myself.)  Today, I plan to dance--I'm working on my Return To Class After Quarantine Playlist--and hopefully at least walk, maybe a short run.  Running is BY FAR the quickest way for me personally to lose weight.  I can drop a few pounds in a week if I can get in a couple runs. 

If you're interested in learning more, I suggest you follow Dr. Lauren Fitz on IG and FB and go back in her posts to look for all the information she shared last week.  Here is a quick link to some of the benefits:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327398#how-to-do-it

Skinny Housewife

The season of fresh veggies is upon us!

For Sunday dinner this week, I made 3 things.  I'm going to post a link to each one.

Summer Vegetable Casserole;  This blog has the cost breakdown.  For me, this casserole was nearly free since we got all the veggies from the garden (my next door neighbor has a small garden, but it still produces more veggies than just their family can eat!)  I left out the tomato, because we don't have any ready from the garden yet, although, I can see why it needed it for the moisture.  It was a tad dry, and the potato was slightly underdone...both would have been remedied by the added moisture of a tomato in there I think.  I look forward to making it again in a month or so, when we have fresh tomatoes too!  Overall:  One and I were the only people in our house who ate this.  The Punk, Two, and Three don't care for squash or zucchini, and I made it with a cheese that Four can't have...  One and I both loved it though.

Pioneer Woman Green Beans are the very best green beans I've ever eaten.  Tru dat.  I made these back in January (with frozen green beans) when my MIL and SIL were here.  The last night that SIL was here The Punk asked her to choose what she wanted for dinner....I had already made the green beans three days prior, but it was the ONE thing she REALLY wanted with dinner before she left.  They are just that good.  As I said, I've made them with frozen beans, they are way better with fresh, but you work with what you have, and they are still fantastic.  I've never added the red pepper, and I've made it with both fresh onion, frozen chopped onion and dried onions.  This is a FOUR star recipe in our house.

Grilled Island Chicken this was a first time recipe (as was the casserole) and it was simple to throw together.  I let it marinate while we went to the pool.  It was yummy, everyone ate it, and no-one complained.  :)

Today, I'm going to do this "Dirty Thirty Workout" and an additional challenge that my birth board weigh loss group is doing.  Recently, I've run into several people who I haven't seen in at least 3 months, and all of them have said things like "You look amazing."  "You're really slimming down!"  "What are you DOING to look like this?"  It's a big confidence boost, but honestly,  I'm really working hard at it.  I'm proud of my body, and I feel sexy....for the first time in YEARS.  You can do it, too.  I promise.


Now, my phone just reminded me that Four has his 3yr well check and we need to leave in an hour....then we're going to head out to the farmers market because Three has been asking to go (it's mostly for the cookies...but he likes to pick out veggies too.)  Have a great day!

Healthy Housewife Dinner

Tonight's dinner is slated to be Smoked Sausage and Pasta. There are two versions of this dish. The lazy (I say that with love, some of my dinner posts are lazy housewife dinner after all) version involves cutting up the sausage, boiling the pasta, and dumping it together with a can of cream of mushroom soup and milk.

The healthier version involves making your own cream of mushroom sauce. It's really much easier than it sounds. You make a simple white sauce, add in mushrooms (and onions, and celery since I'm making it myself!) and voila. Better for you than the creamy soup out of can--I'm not judging, cause seriously, some days, I'm just dumping that stuff in. But, if you have 5 minutes and the motivation (this is KEY) you can make a healthier version pretty easily.

Recipe:

Smoked Sausage (I buy the all beef one.)

Rotini pasta (you can use whatever shape you have on hand.)

Flour

Milk

Butter

Salt/Pepper

Mushrooms

Onions (optional)

Celery (optional)

Start water boiling and get that pasta going. Cut up the smoked sausage and sautee it in a pan. Remove the sausage from the pan and use the drippings to cook up the mushrooms and onions and celery. Make the white sauce (recipe to follow.) I use the same pan that the veggies are in. Drain pasta. Add to pan. Stir. You can top it with some parm if you like (my kids are all secretly mice and love cheese on EVERYTHING.)

White Sauce Recipe:

Basic White Sauce from scratch.

In a saucepan over a low/low-medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2-3 tablespoons white flour. With a fork/whisker, mix and heat until bubbly without burning. You want this to become a paste. Next, stir in about a cup of milk and keep stirring on medium heat until thickened. I’ll keep lifting the saucepan up off the burner as needed to keep from burning, as I’m stirring the sauce. The key is to keep stirring.

Remove from heat and use in your recipe. Easy.

Want to make it a cream of mushroom, celery, cheese, etc? Begin by sauteing your veggies in the butter and then continue with the white sauce. This way you can make a fresh cream sauce which always tastes great.

Ideas: fresh mushrooms, celery, onion, cheese(Just add cheese after the sauce is made and melt it down while the sauce is still hot)

No fresh veggies? Try adding some celery salt or onion salt to taste. This works great too.

*From crockpotguys.com.

And, since this is doesn't really qualify as SKINNY...

A Four Minute Workout I usually do this workout a couple times a week, on days where a.) I've just not been really active, or b.) days where I ate more sweet stuff than I should have. :) It's fast, it will get your heart racing and tone places you weren't working before--I know because I'm always sore after it, so I'm not working those places doing the other things I do (Zumba, basketball with the kids, tag, etc.)