Cinchtastic Breakfast

To get back into the healthy eating game, I've decided to do The Cinch! Fast forward plan this week. If you recall, I did this back in January and is sort of a detox, with real foods. ALL the weight I had lost while on the fast forward, I was able to keep it off! The fast forward is comprised of five foods:
Spinach
Eggs
Raspberries
Almonds
Yogurt

Last time, I did not find it difficult to do this and I expect this time to be same.

So, here's the deal for breakfast. I had one poached egg over saute'd spinach. On the side I had a cup of frozen berries with almonds! This was actually pretty refreshing for hot day!

What did you have for breakfast?

Cinchful Breakfast...

This mornings breakfast was easy an one. Still following the Cinch! guidelines I had a piece of Ezekiel's toast with a TB of peanut butter and sliced banana on top. I also had a cup of almond milk with some coffee in it.

Here's how this meal shaped up:
Whole Grain: Ezekiel toast
Plant Fat: peanut butter
Produce: banana
Protein: almond milk

What did you have for breakfast?

Thoughts on lunch...

It's 12:10pm and now I'm starting to get hungry! I'll be meeting my friend Tika for a Subway lunch. I'm thinkin of a loaded veggie sandwich on whole wheat with a slice of swiss and some oil and vinegar!

What are you guys having for lunch?

My Cinch-tastic breakfast!

Starting my day off with a great Cinch-tastic breakfast. I had a bowl of sliced banana and whole almonds(12) in almond milk. I also had a slice of Ezekiel Sesame Seed toast.

Whole grain: Ezekiel toast
Produce: banana
Plant fat: almonds
Protein: almond milk

Breakfast eaten at 9:00am.

What are you having for breakfast?

Monday Morning: A weighty issue...

Good Morning All,

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I know I had a fun filled, exciting weekends! I had an awesome evening down the shore and had a great time with great friends!

This morning I woke up and weighed myself and saw the scale read 137.8...YOWZA!!! So, I went away for a few days towards the end of June. For five days I really did not watch my diet, but I did manage to get a work out or two in. For five days I pretty much ate as much as I wanted and whatever I wanted. Those five days were enough to throw me off track once I got back. Yup, I never really returned to a regular workout program and I never returned to eating a healthy diet most days of the week. So, I completely understand why the scale reads six more pounds than usual. As my clothes are getting snug and my energy levels have slightly gone down, I feel it's best to get right back on track and start eating and exercising like I use to! I still have a month and a half of summer left and I plan on enjoying it to the fullest!

At the end of the day what really works for me is eating right and exercising. As far as eating right goes, following the Cinch! principles is what has really worked for me. Yes, each meal must consist of: lean protein, produce,plant fat and whole grain.

As far as exercising goes, I'm still in love with INSANITY. In fact, I last left off on the last week of month two. I'm now going to go ahead and start INSANITY all over again. That mean it's a Fit Test workout today! I just love the intensity of INSANITY. I love leaving a workout dripping in sweat and knowing I've accomplished something I thought I could never do. As grueling as INSANITY is, time flies by each workout.

I'm happy that I'm realizing now that I must get back on track. The old me would have been so discouraged that I would have continued on with my bad habits and let things spiral out of control. Now, I'm more realistic about things. Why did I gain weight: I continued to eat junk and not exercise. This was all my doing, but it's OK since I know what I need to do to get back on track.

Alright, so I will be documenting my exercise and eating habits. If any of you out there need to get back on track, hopefully you can join me or look to this as inspiration. At the end of the day it comes down to two things: eating right and exercising. You can do this!

Recipe Alert: Whole Wheat Pasta and Veggies

Yesterday for lunch I had a hearty pasta and veggies dish is a creamy sauce. The secret of the creamy sauce is Greek yogurt. This is such a wonderful trick,if you mix a tablespoon of pesto sauce into 6oz. of non fat Greek yogurt, you get a thick, rich, creamy sauce with such little fat and calories. Below is the recipe for my Whole Wheat Pasta and Veggies. Ingredients: 1TB of pesto sauce 6oz. non fat Greek yogurt 1tsp. onion powder 1tsp. garlic powder Freshly cracked black pepper 1/2 cup of cooked whole wheat rigatoni 1 1/2c of chopped veggies of your choice Preparation: Stir the pesto sauce, onion and garlic powders and black pepper into the greek yogurt. Place the pasta and veggies in a bowl. Add the pesto- yogurt sauce. Toss to coat. I enjoyed this meal cold and it was delish. Enjoy! Servings: 1 Here's how this meal shapes up: Whole grain: pasta Plant fat: pesto sauce Produce: veggies Lean protein: yogurt Sass: onion and garlic powders

Recipe Alert: Whole Wheat Macaroni Tuna Salad

As promised, I wanted to share my delicious lunch with you guys. Today I had Whole Wheat Macaroni Tuna Salad. Here are the deets: Ingredients: 1/2c cooked whole wheat macaroni 1c of chopped mix veggies of your choice (I used Trader Joe's chopped mixed veggies made of carrots,cabbage and radish) 1/2 can of tuna, drained Small box of raisins 2tsp of onion powder 2tsp of garlic powder Freshly cracked black pepper 1TB of Kraft Olive Oil Mayo Preparation: Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Stir to combine well. Enjoy! Servings: 1 Here's how this meal shapes up: Whole grain: whole wheat pasta Lean protein: tuna Produce: veggies and raisins Plant fat: olive oil mayo Sass: onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper

Breakfast...lately....

Good Morning All,

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend!  I wanted to share what I've been having for breakfast lately.  Yes...I have moved on from oatmeal bowls to cereal bowls.  I pick a whole grain, high fiber cereal and carefully portion out a serving size.  These days I'm liking Kashi's Honey Sunshine cereal.  I then top my cereal off with some raisins and almonds -14 almonds to be exact.  Lately, I've been on a coconut milk kick.  Silk makes an amazing coconut milk.  I've only found the sweetened version, which contains 6g of sugar per 8 ounces. I use half a cup. so that's not bad.  I also sprinkle in a ton of my favorite cinnamon - Simply Organic Cinnamon.  This bowl of cereal will seriously keep me satisfied until lunch time!

Here's how this breakfast shapes up:
Whole grain:  cereal
Lean protein: coconut milk
Plant fat:  almonds
Produce:  raisins
Sass:  cinnamon

Also, weighed myself this morning, and I'm down .6 pounds from last week!  Yay!!

Today......

Hi everyone, Today was another good day! You may have already read how I started my day, with a wonderful breakfast. Lunch was a wonderful Mediterranean pasta salad that I made. I'll give you the recipe tomorrow, but tease you with a photo now :-p


Dinner was another creation of mine. I don't have a name for it now, but was inspired by a south Indian yogurt rice dish. I'll think of a name and post the deets. My go to snack for the day was a peanut butter larabar. Oh sooooo good, but they can be a bit expensive. I'm working on creating my own version of larabars which would be much cheaper! Lastly, I managed to get my workout in today. I did thirty minutes on the arc trainer and then did 90 crunches. I feel good. How are you guys doing?

The Cinch!

About four weeks ago I started the Cinch! Diet by Cynthia Sass. So far I've lost 8 pounds and many inches. The diet is based on a puzzle with five pieces for each meal/snack: Whole grains Plant fats Produce Lean protein Sass (seasonings) I did not blog about this earlier because I wanted to make sure this was not a quick fix diet. After three weeks I've been able to keep the weight off, eat fresh healthy food, and still be able to go out and eat! I've started to develop my own recipes and snacks by putting the puzzle pieces together and this has been a great experience. I hope to continue to blog about recipes and ways to eat out while incorporating what I've learned from The Cinch! and I hope you all will follow me on this! If you are trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and lose weight at the same time, I think you all should look into buying Cynthia Sass, The Cinch! Any questions?