Day 18: Just 10 Challenge -My slip up

Day 18 of the Just 10 Challenge was not too great from lunch onwards. First of all, I did something that I had not done since starting the challenge, which was mindless snacking. This was not a little mindless snacking but I had quite a few sweets w hile talking to co workers. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two I ate a lot of Indian food last night, and this was not the healthy type of indian food. Mistake number three: I did not go to the gym. This morning I was very afraid to get on the scale, but I did and the weigh in was an extra pound. Now, not so bad, but when you think that I have not lost any weight in a few days and then I go ahead and gain a pound...that hurts. Of course I know what I did wrong and everyone has their slip ups, but I need to stay focused. The good thing, I'm realizing this now, when I've only gained a pound, instead of realizing it after gaining the five pounds that I lost back and then losing total motivation! Also, on a side note, I realized after eating all that junk food yesterday, I did feel a bit funky... So, we all mess up, but the key is to get right back on track right away rather than wait!

Day 17: Just 10 Challenge

Good morning all, I hope you're all doing well. I know I know, it's been a while since I've last posted! So, I'm still following all of the rules for the Just 10 challenge, but just as I have suspected the last five pounds are seriously taking there sweet time to come off! I weighed myself this morning and there has been no change since last week! Which is still not too bad. It's much better than actually gaining weight. I did gain 1.5 pounds on Sunday, because of eating too much Saturday night. Much of this was probably water and bloat though. I am also working out regularly. One thing that I have noticed is I'm starting to fit into a few things that were a bit tight on me in the past. Which also makes me realize that I probably should have taken measurements also. It's quite possible that I'm losing inches right now. How are you guys doing?

Day 9: Just 10 Challenge

Hello Everyone, Due to technical difficulties I was not able to do a weigh in today. No, I did not break my scale, but it had stopped working. Oh, but don't worry, I know you guys are waiting with anticipation for tomorrow's weigh in :-p Ok, so how was today? Well, I started off with the usual breakfast. Lunch was a little cheese,marinara sauce and veggies. Snacks consisted of Chobani yogurt and carrots. I also had one mini bag of peanut m&m's. These guys were totally mini because two bags have 120 calories and I only had one bag. I also managed to get my workout in! Yay, that's two days of workout done and three more left! Let's see what's in store for dinner. How was your day?

Recipe Alert: Eggplant Pizza

My healthy, delicious lunch...


Ingredients: One medium eggplant, cut into thick slices Extra virgin olive oil Spaghetti sauce Shredded mozzerella or mozzerella slices Turkey or chicken sausage, sliced Salt/pepper/garlic powder to taste Preparation: Coat each eggplant slice with no more than a teaspoon of olive oil per slice. Turn your oven on to 400 degrees and place eggplant in. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the sides of the eggplant and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and top each eggplant slice with sauce, cheese, sausage and garlic/salt/black pepper. Place the eggplant pizza's back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese is slightly bubbling. Enjoy! Servings: 3 eggplant pizza's per person

Day 8: Just 10 Challenge

I made it through another healthy day today. When I got the munchies between breakfast and lunch, I had some carrots. Lunchtime rolled around and I had three slices of my eggplant pizza, which was very filling. This kept me full for a few hours and then I had a Chobani Vanilla yogurt as a snack. Dinner was a chicken cobb salad from Pret. I don't know how many grams of fat this salad was, but I do know it had 430 calories. I also managed to burn a good 300 calories at the gym today!

Day 8: Just 10 Challenge

This mornings weigh in revealed a gain of .2 pound. Again, this is not a big deal whats so ever!! It's been a week since I've started the Just 10 Challenge, and I'm already down 5 pounds. Another 5 to go, but I have a feeling the weight will start coming off slower. Again, this is probably totally normal because this is a healthy way to lose weight and I'm instilling the values in myself to keep it off! This is not a quick fix people, but a healthy lifestyle! This mornings breakfast was the usual. I'll let you know when i get tired of toast with almond butter, banana and cinnamon. OK, I thought it would be a good idea to go over the rules of the Just 10 Challenge for you all to do this as well. Again, you can finds this on Dr. Oz's website, but these are the rules that have helped me thus far: 1. Get your free Just 10 bracelet by going to the Dr. Oz site 2. Cut out soda and high fructose corn syrup. If I need a bubbly fix, I go for seltzer water 3. Stop eating at least 3 hours before bedtime. This works. 4. Get your activity on. Dr. Oz says 10 minutes a day. I try to do 30. Yeah, I'm teachers pet. 5. Watch out for portion distortion. I'll post a good guide soon. Alright peoples, more to come later....

Just 10 Challenge: Day 7

Hello all, This morning I weighed myself and found out I lost .8 of a pound. Not bad! Breakfast was my usual, toast with almond butter and cinnamon. This time I also added some pumpkin spice powder also. This didn't hurt and actually tasted quite good. I think I will continue adding the pumpkin spice:-) Lunch today was at Cosi. I had the Light Cosi Cobb salad, minus the bacon, with a light vinaigrette.


I am now working on some healthy lunch options for the week. I'll post some Oz friendly recipes soon!

Just 10 Challenge: Day 6 cont....

So, you all know how I did for my weigh in and breakfast. I did manage to get my workout in. I did a 30 minute run outside. I also did a mini ab workout. So, today being the weekend, there was a lot of eating out, but I do think I handled my eating out healthfully. For one, I had Subway for lunch, but they were out of their whole wheat bread. Since I did not want to eat their whit bread, I got a buffalo chicken sandwich loaded with veggies. I then asked them for a bowl and put all of my sandwich innards in there and behold, I had a buffalo chicken salad sandwich. This is a great tip for any sandwich.


Along came dinner and I had Chinese food. So here's my tip. I ordered chicken with garlic sauce and asked for extra broccoli. As Dr. Oz says, broccoli sweeps the colon. I decided to get some cleaning done. None the less, ordering extra veggies is a plus. Anywho, I then added a bit of some of my own frozen veggies (more broccoli) and mixed half of this with my chinese take out. By doing this I was able to eliminate half the fat and sodium.


My goals for the day were accomplished. I was able to get my exercise in and eat right. Tomorrow is another day... Hope your all doing well!

Day 6: Just 10 Challenge

Good morning all, It seems like I made it through a successful day yesterday. This mornings weigh in revealed a loss of 1.2 pounds. I already ate my usual breakfast, but I did not have any bananas so I replaced the banana with a nectarine. Still, almond butter and cinnamon make everything better:-) Ok, the goals for today: Get some exercise in Eat right Move as much as I can

Garlic Balsamic Glazed String Beans

Hello everyone, Here is the super easy recipe for my Garlic Balsamic Glazed String Beans. I hope you make this and enjoy it.


Ingredients: One pound string beans 1 tablespoon of garlic powder 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar Salt to taste Preparation: Place the string beans in a sauté pan. Place the pan on medium heat and add the vinegar, garlic powder and salt. Cook the string beans for five minutes, constantly tossing them. Turn heat off, and plate string beans. Drizzle with remaining liquid in pan. Enjoy!

Day 5: Just 10 Challenge ....dinner

Well I said I would keep dinner light due to the fat in the cheese slices from lunch and keep it light is what I did. First off, I was not even that hungry, this made my keeping it light easy. I decided to warm up a bowl of Garden Broccoli soup by V8 and make some garlic balsamic glazed string beans. I made the string beans with no oil. This my friends, was my wonderfully light dinner.


Now, the only thing that I did not do today was go for my workout. This is ok, as long as I at least go for a run tomorrow and Sunday.

Day 5: Just 10 Challenge cont....

Mmm...I did eat my usual breakfast of toast with almond butter, banana and cinnamon. Today's snack was not a yogurt though, instead I munched on some crunchy baby carrots.


For lunch I had two slices of vegetable pizza. Now, before you go saying this is a carbo load lunch, what I did was only eat the vegetable and cheese from each slice. I admit, this may have been a bit much with the cheese and all, but I plan on keeping it light and simple for dinner. Also, I had lunch at 1pm and have not had the urge to snack in between. Hope your day is going well! More to come for dinner...

Day 5: Just 10 Challenge

Last night I did eat dinner at 8:30pm. I had a very small portion of smoked salmon and greens. This morning I woke up and weighed myself. I was up .8 of a pound from yesterday. Honestly, this does not discourage me. First off its not even a whole pound. Secondly, this could have been from excess sodium. Thirdly, remember,you are not going to lose a pound of day. This is not a fad diet, but a healthy lifestyle! Right now I am on the train CRAVING my morning breakfast of toast, almond butter, banana and cinnamon. I also have to think about how I will be strong this weekend. I need to get at least one exercise day in and of course eat right. Its always hard to make healthy food choices when you are in a social environment and out with friends. After I get done with this weekend I will post some tips on this. More to come later...I hope you all have a great day!

Just 10 Challenge: Day 4 cont.....

I did buy my almond butter and had my usual breakfast of ezekiel's bread, almond butter,banana and cinnamon. This breakfast usually holds me over for about three hours, then I need something to refuel. Lately, I've been having a yoplait Splitz yogurt. Odd, such a decadent flavor can be made with regular sugar, but if you look at the ingredients for a regular Yoplait yogurt flavor, you'll see its made with high fructose corn syrup! Anywho, my yogurt held me over until lunch time. Lunch was a wonderful 'Rainbow Salad' with a light sun dried tomato vinaigrette. This was sooo delicious! I call it my 'Rainbow Salad' because I had most of the colors of the rainbow in. Red cherry tomatoes, orange and yellow peppers, green spinach and some chickpeas and broccoli for fiber.


The salad held me over until 5:30. Then I reached for a hearty Kashi bar. I call it hearty because it was certainly bigger than a granola bar. The Kashi bar ranked in at 230 calories -a bit high for a snack, but I also knew I would be working out later and did not want to be famished. Needless to say, the Kashi bar was delicious! Its 8pm and I even worked out, but I'm still not hungry!


Like I said, I did do my workout today. I did 30 minutes of cardio on the stair master and then I did my sit ups/ crunches. For cardio, I burned 300 calories -atleast that's what the machine said. Even though I'm not too hungry, I still need to eat a healthy dinner...let's see what I come up with :-)

Just 10 Challenge: Day 4

Well guys, as promised I hopped on the scale this morning hoping my eating out from yesterday did not throw me off track. I must have made some pretty smart choices because I lost .8 of a pound! Not bad at all. Looks like my breakfasts are working out also. I ran out of almond butter yesterday so I'll be getting some more before I get into work. I also didn't bring my lunch today, but that's ok, I know I will get a salad. Today is also my gym day, which will be cardio and abs. Not bad, just gotta keep it up...after all its only 10 pounds!

Just 10 Challenge: Made it through dinner....

Dinner tonight was Afghani food, which actually resembled indian food a lot. I think I did pretty well with dinner. I ordered the eggplant and lamb with salad and rice, but I asked for no rice and extra salad. I ate all of my salad and some of the lamb and eggplant. I don't know how many calories this was but I did not have any non complex carbs. I also went to Pinkberry for dessert. I ordered a mini twist of original and chocolate with about a tablespoon of toasted almonds. The Pinkberry mini's rank in at 90-100 calories. This is not bad at all for a dessert and certainly better than ice cream. All in all, I feel today was a very decent day and considering I ate outside for lunch and dinner, I think I did pretty well. I will weigh myself tomorrow morning to see if any damage has been done! Have you guys joined the Just 10 challenge

Just 10 lunch

So far my day has been going well! This mornings breakfast was the usual: two slices of ezekiel's toast with almond butter and a sliced banana. I also had my usual snack of a 90 calorie Yoplait Spitz yogurt. These are so delicious! I had the strawberry sundae flavor. Not only are they 90 calories, but they are also all natural. A great snack to hold me over til lunch! So, I knew I would be going out for lunch today, just didn't know where. I thought, ok wherever we go, I'm sure I'll be able to at least get a salad. We wound up going to a diner and I decided to get a Greek Omelet made with egg whites, tomatoes, peppers, onions and feta. My omelet came with plain rye toast and fries. I had one piece of toast and one fry. I feel like this was a fairly healthy lunch. I even asked that they make the omelet with little oil. Now, to get through dinner!

Just 10 Challenge: Day 3

I am now beginning day 3 of the Just 10 challenge. So far I have lost 3 pounds. I'm sure much of this is water weight, especially with all the junk food and sodium I ingested over the weekend. To my credit though, I have been eating right and exercising. Lately for breakfast I've been having two slices of toasted Ezekiel's bread with almond butter, cinnamon and sliced bananas. A pretty


filling breakfast. Lunch the past couple of days has been a mozzarella and tomato salad with a balsamic vinegar. I'll also have a small tomato soup on the side. Dinner has been something light such as a bowl of roasted veggies drizzled with a little olive oil. When I snack I always have fruit or veggies. The other day I bought a bag of baby carrots and I've been having them when I crave something crunchy. I will also keep a Kashi granola bar in my purse, for those unexpected hunger pangs. Today will be a bit tricky. I will be going out for lunch and dinner, so I need to be careful with my food choices. More to come later....

Losing the last ten pounds...

Yesterday morning I got on the scale and saw I did not lose any weight. In fact, I had gained a pound. I was not shocked,no...I totally expected this. In fact, I was surprised I only gained one pound. After all, my weekend consisted of zeppoles, two types of crepes, chocolate mouse and an all you can eat Indian Chinese buffet. After all that, the one pound weight gain didn't really shock me. Oh, I also managed to get no exercise what's so ever. So, the weekend has come and gone. Monday I made smart food choices through out the day. Today I plan on doing the same. While I was at the gym yesterday I watched The Dr. Oz Show. I love Dr. Oz, he's my hero. Anyway, Dr. Oz was explaining the benefits of losing just 10 pounds. By just losing 10 pounds you decrease your chances of heart disease, cancers and cholesterol. By losing just 10 pounds you gain more energy and confidence. Also, losing 10 pounds is an extremely reasonable goal! So, I decided to take Dr. Oz's advice and just focus on losing 10 pounds. With this commitment, to make a conscience decision to eat healthy and exercise, you gain a new sense of motivation. Next time I eat at a buffet, I'll think to go easy, after all I just need to lose 10 pounds. This can definitely be done and you can do it too! Setting small, realistic goals will help you get back on track! Dr. Oz even has a free bracelet you can order and wear, just to remind yourself to stay on track. To get started, I suggest you all visit Dr. Oz's website (www.doctoroz.com) and take the Just 10 Challenge. You can also sign up to receive a free Just 10 bracelet, which will serve as a constant reminder to stay on track. How about we take the Dr. Oz challenge and commit. ourselves to eat right and exercise and to lose just 10 pounds!

Lite Chef's Salad

Ingredients Half a head of romaine lettuce, chopped One quarter pint of cherry/grape tomatoes, halved Two slices of provolone, thinly sliced Two slices of turkey bologna, thinly sliced Two slices of smoked or honey turkey, thinly sliced One quarter of red onion, thinly sliced One cucumber, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced Freshly cracked black pepper Dressing: Two tablespoons of Greek yogurt Two tablespoons of light mayo One teaspoon of garlic powder One teaspoon of Dijon mustard Two teaspoons of vinegar Salt/pepper Preparation Whisk all of the dressing ingredients and set aside. In a large bowl, combine all the salad ingredients and toss with dressing. Enjoy! Servings: 2