Breakfast Smoothie

I’ve been absent from my blog for about a week and a half but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten my goals to live an active and healthy lifestyle.

Family and school have been keeping me busy but I’m still finding time to exercise and eat healthy. I’m still riding my bike to school and around town. And I’ve been finding new way to incorporate fruits and veggies into my meals.

I was watching an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown and I was inspired by the show that was all about how he lost weight by eating healthy. His morning smoothie sounded so good that I decided to make my own.

I bought some frozen fruits from Sam’s Club. The first bag is a mix of peaches, pineapple, mango and strawberries The second bag is a mix of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. Equal parts of each put into the blender with a half cup of skim milk, a tblspn of fat free greek yogurt and a few squirts of natural Hawaiian Honey.

It is a delicious and nutritious breakfast full of vitamins and antioxidants and probably a lot of other healthy stuff. That has been my breakfast for two days in a row.

For lunch yesterday I had my favorite Spicy Garlic Veggies at school and when I came home I made a salad of mixed greens with sliced apples, baked chicken and papaya seed dressing.

I’ve been hiking on my days off, bicycling everyday and last night I went for a one hour walk/jog along the Ala Wai canal which took me an entire hour to complete.

Portabello Mushrooms! Why did it take me so long to discover these tasty little devils. I bought a pack of 8 big caps and today for lunch I sliced up two of them, sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper. OMG it was like eating a Ribeye steak. Those things are so good!

Needless to say I am experiencing a resurgence of energy and motivation.

Day 39: Back to School

Today was my first day back to school. Let the weight loss begin!

For breakfast this morning I had a bowl of oatmeal and a mandarin orange. I took my son to school and my daughter to her Auntie’s house before making the one mile bike ride up to the UH Manoa campus.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I have back to back Religion classes. After class I walked through the Sustainability Courtyard on campus to see if the vegetarian restaurant had spicy garlic veggies but they didn’t. I decided to try the sauteed teriyaki sesame vegetables instead. They were good, but not great.

It was a one mile bike ride back home. I picked up my daughter first and we walked the last few blocks from her Auntie’s house on Lime St. to our Kalakaua Ave apartment. We had a nice, quiet, relaxing two hours together before Mom came home and before it was time to pick up my son from school.

At 4:30 this afternoon/evening I had a quick dinner. My usual turkey sandwich on wheat bread with some mixed greens. The plate looked kind of empty and I thought about adding some chips (yes I still have chips in the house) but I didn’t.

My last class of the day is Spanish 102. Part II of a IV part language requirement that I need to graduate with my bachelors degree. My Spanish class is at a different campus, Kapiolani Community College which is a two mile bike ride and what used to be a quarter mile bike push up a pretty steep incline.

I left the house at five and reached Kapiolani or KCC as it is known at about 5:30. I made the effort to actually bicycle up the incline that I usually end up walking and made it about half way before giving up. Class was good. The professor, Fernand Cortiguera is a really fun guy. He’s half Spanish and half French and grew up in Africa, Kenya I think.

After class (eight o’clock at night) I bicycled the two miles back home. It was dark and the roads were wet from some passing showers but I was prepared with my helmet and flashing lights. When I got home I was hungry, really hungry. Two mandarin oranges later and my hunger has subsided, for now.

It was a good day today. I bicycled six miles and ate pretty healthy. No other exercises going on right now. My ass, I mean gluts, are sore. It was the body weight squats and lunges from yesterdays attempt at the Dynamic Warm Up on Nerd Fitness. Well now that I think about it, I could do a quick home workout for my upper body tonight. Some curls and shoulder rolls, upright rows and close grip shoulder press. Yeah I can do that!

Day 34: Healthy Eating

Today my wife and I had the day off together. Our  son went to school this morning and our daughter went to visit her Auntie so that Mom and Dad could have some quality time together. At noon we went for a walk to the Ala Moana Beach Park and spent an hour on the walking paths at Magic Island. It was nice to be walking together with the sun shining down and the cool ocean breezes blowing.

We continued our walk along Ala Moana Blvd into Waikiki and walked along the beach behind the Hilton Hawaiian Village and Hale Koa hotels. It added up to a little more than two hours of intense fast paced walking. At home we made a healthy lunch of a turkey sandwich on wheat bread and a bowl of saimin with cabbage. Our lunch was delicious and satisfying.

I really want to start eating healthy and I’m spending this afternoon making a list of delicious and nutritious foods that we can keep in the house to help us stay on a healthy diet.

Frozen Edamame. This is a tasty treat that is actually a quite popular bar food here in Hawaii. Edamame has lots of proteins and hardly any fat. Just steam it and add salt. I’m putting it on the list for our next trip to Sam’s Club.

Turkey Lunch Meat: I’ve already got a package of this in the fridge and have been making sandwiches all week. Add some lettuce, tomato and a little dijon mustard and it’s a healthy lunch.

Fish Fish Fish: We love eating fish in our house but we need to change our cooking technique from battering and frying to steaming or baking in the oven. At least once a week we go to Chinatown and pick up some fresh snapper and cook at home. When we go to the beach we usually pick up some local fish called Akule and stuff with tomato, onion and garlic and throw them on the grill. Fish is a good protein and even if it can’t always be fresh, I think it’s a nice idea to keep some in the freezer.

Incredible, Edible Eggs: I think eggs are a good source of protein and easy to cook. They do have saturated fat but I can fix that by throwing out the yolk and just eating the whites. Vegetable Omelette is a great way to get proteins and vegetables in one delicious meal.

Chicken Breasts: We usually keep the freezer stocked with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. We buy them in bulk from Sam’s Club and then put about two breasts each in a ziplock bag. Again we need to change our cooking technique and either grill or bake in the oven instead of the usual batter and fry that we employ to make chicken strips.  Chicken breasts is a good protein and pretty versatile as they can go into anything from a sandwich to a stirfry.

FRUITS!: I usually eat at least one piece of fruit a day but I’d like to eat more. My favorite is those little clementine oranges, mandarins or nectarines but I’ve been known to eats apples and/or bananas on occasion. My son LOVES to eat strawberries so we usually buy a big pack of them from Sam’s Club and they’re gone before the week is over.

VEGETABLES!: I definitely need to eat more veggies! It’s just a matter of finding interesting way of incorporating them into my meals. I want to buy some fresh spinach leaves and use them to make salads and on my turkey sandwiches. I don’t know a lot about veggies. I just know that through out my entire life I’ve never liked vegetables. How do I change this kind of mind set. I know vegetables can be delicious if you know how to cook and season them. Just from eating those few vegetarian dishes at school I know that it’s possible to cook, eat and enjoy my veggies. I want to start eating a good mix of veggies.

A lot of these healthy eating ideas came from a few websites that I came across while brainstorming.

1. Reader’s Digest – 11 Healthy Ways to Load Up on Lean Protein

2. Food Exchange Lists from National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

3. Mark’s Daily Apple – How to Eat More Vegetables

I’ll keep doing research on ways to eat healthy and I’ll keep my blog readers informed on my progress. I can’t wait to do some shopping and start buying all the healthy foods I’ve been reading about.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions of healthy foods or healthy recipes, please share with me. Thanks.