Taste the Rainbow - Diversifying your Fridge

Diversity
Google defines diversity as “a range of different things”. Picking the same color shirt off the rack every time you go to Express is pretty boring, and so is cooking the same meal every night.  Diversity is a concept I employ in my life every day. Whether it be my food choice, music choice, or men. After a year and a half of clean eating, I have learned the key to staying on track is being creative in the kitchen.

Not only will diversifying you fridge help when it comes to trying new recipes, it will also help your body get the vitamins and nutrients it needs. Next I will list some of the colors available to you in your local produce aisle.

Taste the Rainbow – ROY G BIV

• Red – red apples, cranberries, strawberries, tomatoes, red peppers, and pomegranates. Since red is my favorite color I tend to be a little partial to this group. I like putting roasted red peppers in my scrambled eggs in the morning. It definitely helps spice up the egg whites.  
• Orange –oranges, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and carrots. My favorite out of this category is the sweet potato. I bake them with a little olive oil and sprinkle with cinnamon. I end up eating everything except the skin because my coworkers may judge me if I tried to eat that.
• Yellow – pineapple, bananas, yellow peppers, summer squash. I am a believer that fresh pineapple is the best thing put on this earth. (The bright yellow was a little hard to see)
• Green - kale, spinach, kiwi, broccoli. These veggies can be cooked in larger batches and ready to eat with lunch or dinner. Spinach is great in an egg white omelet for breakfast.
• Blue – so apparently this is no true blue fruits and veggies as they all seem to be grouped with the purple group.  See Violet.
• Indigo – skip
• Violet (purple) - blueberries, eggplant, plums, prunes.  I mix blueberries and a little flax seed in my Greek yogurt to give it a natural flavor boost. 

For a more complete listing of fruits and vegetables as well as a breakdown of the vitamins and nutrients each category contain visit the website below:

http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/fruits-vegetables.shtml

Food of the Week:

This week I will advertise the very versatile Greek Yogurt.  You can buy Greek yogurt plain, flavored, or with fruit on the bottom. My favorite is the Chobani plain Greek Yogurt. It is very creamy, and easy to mix. I buy the 32oz container because I use it for a lot of different recipes: 

•  I mix it with a little Stevia, fresh or frozen (not in syrup) fruit, and sometimes walnuts. It provides protein, carbs, and healthy fat.
• I use it as a mayonnaise substitute in chicken and tuna salad.
• I recently baked a sweet potato with a little cinnamon and mixed it with the sweetened Greek yogurt and walnut mixture. It actually makes a really good dessert.
• I also tried it in a Creamy Taco Soup recipe from the Muscle and Fitness Hers website.

Recipes of the Week

This is going to be a challenging weekend for the majority of the football loving fitness junkies out there. If you are attending a Super Bowl party, I don’t really have many options for you unless you pack some chicken breast in your purse. My only advice is to stay away from the Queso dip. That cheesy, meaty, salty, delicious goodness could get you into a lot of trouble on Monday morning (on the scale as well as in the bathroom).

If you are hosting a Super Bowl party, you will be lucky enough to cook up some healthy snacks that you can treat yourself to while watching either the biggest game of the year, the commercials, or Beyonce’s half-time show. There is something for everyone on Super Bowl Sunday. The great people at bodybuilding.com have put together some healthy chicken wing recipes for your Super Bowl party. You can enjoy food and the game without the guilt.

Status Update

This time I decided to include a before and after pic. The before pic is a Girls Vacation in Las Vegas in January 2011 and the after was last weekend at a basketball game (Go Gators). Instead of telling you what the scale was saying 2 years ago, I will just say the after is 71 pounds lighter. My focus now is to lower my body fat percentage.  

Story of the day: I was told that “nobody wants bones but a dog” and “if I get too thin I will be out of competition with the other shapely women in my building”. To summarize that conversation in a few words “don’t lose that donk”. I like to think that I am thicka than a (fun size) snicka so as much as I want to decrease my body fat; I can’t accept losing some of my more womanly features. Therefore I have added back in some lower body training days to help tone what the cardio doesn’t burn off.

Some of my favorite lower body exercises include:

• Front Squats (love these) 
• Deadlifts 
• Leg Press
• Pistol Squats on the TRX
• Weighted walking lunges

When performing lower body exercises the most important thing other than form is music selection. Don’t think you are going to push through that last squat listening to baby making music. I usually listen to alternative rock on lifting days and hip hop during cardio. The key here is…the more ignorant the music the better the cardio.

Accountability
I wanted to share one of my biggest goals for the upcoming year with you guys because I need to be held accountable. It’s easy to tell yourself you want to do something, but if you never ask for help there is no one to:  1. Help you during tough times 2. Keep you motivated 3. Keep you from disappointing yourself. That motivation buddy may be the difference between you living your dream or adding another item to the failure list. Therefore I am asking you (my friends) to keep me motivated in these next 5 months.

I have decided to do a fitness photo shoot at the end of the summer so I am increasing my training and being a lot stricter on my diet (except for 15-19 Feb; Happy Birthday to me). I did this at the beginning of my weight loss journey, but with a more hectic schedule and tighter budget things get a bit harder.  So I am asking for your support. J

In my next blog I will include some starting body fat and weight numbers. Also, I will be updating you on my progress every couple weeks. If I start acting like Aretha Franklin from the Snicker commercial, just remember I am sugar/cake deprived.  I tasted a Caramel Sugar Mama Cupcake from GiGi’s on Tuesday, and it was better than…..a back massage after a long day, and so that you guys understand what I am giving up for the next 5 months click on the link above for a view of the sugary goodness.