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?

Good morning...

Good Morning Everyone,

Monday is over with!!! Yay...I always find Monday's to be the hardest day of the week. Last night I made it back to my apartment at 8:45pm. Much later than expected. I whipped up my Cinch! Smoothie with yogurt,berries and almond butter. I also added a sprinkling of cinnamon :-)

By 9:15 I was exhausted and had showered and was comfortably watching Antenna TV (All In The Family is so much better now than what I remembered), when I looked at my room and thought about rearranging. Now, I told myself that I'm pretty tired and I will rearrange when I come home at a decent hour. The problem is, I was already thinking about how I would rearrange my room and once I go thinking about it, I know I will do it. Yup...so as exhausted as I was, at 11pm, I started rearranging! Ok- so it wasn't that bad. I only moved my bed and TV. For some reason they were bothering me the most. I still have a couple of other things to move, but they are some light things which I will finish up today. Needless to say, I got a pretty good nights sleep.

Ok- now that you know all about my night, let's talk breakfast. This morning I had my Cinch! breakfast a little differently than yesterday. I chopped up my spinach, sliced my egg, added slivered almonds, dusted with some onion powder and balsamic vinegar. On the side I had a bowl of berries. This time I got a mix of black and red berries. So far so good, this is day 2 and I've been doing well!

Will post more later....

Question of the day: What is your favorite tea to sip on?

The Cinch!...AGAIN!

Good Morning All,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! So, last week my dear friend and coworker, Vianny asked if I would be willing to do the five day fast forward plan of The Cinch! with her. I've already tried this in February, with success and have not gained any of the weight back, as I'm doing a good job with maintaining.

I decided to go ahead and do this but tweak it just a teensy weensy bit. One of the things that irked me the first time I did this was the amount of raspberries that needed to be eaten. I LIKE raspberries, not LOVE them and to be having so many in a day really got to me. Last time, by the end of the fifth day, I did not want to look at another raspberry! The good thing about The Cinch! is you could substitute any berry and still get the same result. So, for today, I'm subbing the raspberries for blueberries.

Now, the typical Cinch! breakfast is an egg scramble with sauteed spinach and a cup of raspberries and slivered almonds on the side. I decided to have a hard boiled egg sprinkled with onion powder with spinach on the side. I had a cup of blueberries and 10 whole almonds, which I'm thinking is about 2TB chopped or slivered. So, that was breakfast. I'm guessing The Cinch! will be much easier for me this time around because I've already adapted the ways of eating.

Question of the day: What's your favorite berry and how do you like to eat it?

***Recipe Alert: Smoky Bean Stew***

The original recipe for this stew is on my weekly column for The Ajnabee, www.theajnabee.com. This recipe is awesome and I decided to try it out by using pinto beans and adding spinach! Ah, so delicious and hearty, I really suggest you try this out! Here are the deets:

INGREDIENTS:

· 2 15.5oz. can of pinto beans, partially drained

· 1TB. of EVOO

· 1/2 onion, diced

· 2TB. of cumin seeds

· 2 cloves of garlic, sliced

· 1TB. of freshly grated ginger

· 1 tomato, diced

· 2tsp. of chopped chipotle peppers

One bag of baby spinach

· 1/4c. freshly chopped cilantro

· Juice of half a lemon

· Salt/pepper to taste

PREPARATION:

In a saucepan, add the oil and place the pan on medium heat. Once hot, add the onions, cumin and salt. Saute until onions are translucent. Add the garlic and ginger, saute for another minute.

Add the tomato and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the chipotle peppers and stir. Add the spinach, beans and lemon juice

Add the cilantro and season with salt/pepper to taste. Allow this to simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

***Recipe Alert: Mediterrranean Salad -My Way***

For dinner I made a great mediterranean salad with some simple things that I had in my pantry and refrigerator. Here are the deets: 1/2 bag of fresh spinach 1/2 bosc pear, thinly sliced 1/2c. of chickpeas 1 oz. of soft goat cheese, broken into pieces 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced 1/8th c. of walnuts Dressing: 1 garlic clove 1/2 t. of EVOO 2 tb. of Balsamic vinegar. salt pepper This salad is super easy. Add all of the salad ingredients in a bowl. Wisk up dressing ingredients, and drizzle over salad. This salad is VERY filling and you get the whole serving for only 5 WW points, dressing including! Enjoy!

***Lunch Time***

Hey Guys,

Surprisingly I stayed full until Lunch Time :-) For lunch I had a home made spinach salad with sliced apples and walnuts. The dressing was garlic chips, lightly toasted in a teaspoon of EVOO, and balsamic vinegar added. This was delicious. Lightly toasting the garlic adds tremendous flavor to such a simple dressing! Total WW pts: 4. What did you guys have for lunch?