Making Good Choices

Roseann:

Hope your weekend was fun and healthful!

Saturday, we had to spend some time with my father-in-law, so I did not walk as much as I usually do. I did some housework, so puttered around the house mostly. My steps were the smallest amount since I have used my pedometer, but kept under my caloric goals, so I didn’t feel so bad. It was a productive day, and that is something to be grateful for.

Sunday I spent a lot of time outdoors, moving rocks, tilling, weeding, raking, digging, moving plants, watering, and watering, and watering some more. I haven’t quite figured out how to calculate calories burned during yardwork, but I know that I did, as I was sweating and drank all my 8 glasses of water again, so I know I burnt calories.

I have still been making good choices with food. We went to Aldi’s on Friday, and I looked through their premade pizzas (both my husband and I were craving pizza). I read the nutritional information, and we chose the 16” sausage, pepperoni, black olive, and mushroom, thin crust pizza. I was able to get huge slices, that helped to fill me, without eating way too many calories. Even though it was a lot in one setting, I had minimized my calories earlier, so I was able to eat 3 slices and still stay within my caloric goal! Yeah! I love being able to eat fun food without having to deny my intermittent cravings. The key, keep the frequency and calories low, and keep the portion size down!

On Saturday, I had salmon for dinner. Yum! It was delicious! I am going to try to make sure I eat fish at least 2x/week. That is what they recommend, and I love to do fillets, of tilapia, haddock and salmon, so that is good that I have some variety in choices. And Aldi’s has very good fish!

I made those low fat chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I had spoken of in my last blog. I haven’t eaten any yet, I will tomorrow for snack, but my husband said they tasted good. He is not fond of quick oats, but he said they tasted great. I did make some changes to try to make it as healthy as I could. The recipe made 25 cookies, at about 99 calories each. What I did to maximize health benefits, was, instead of using butter, I used shortening and used 1/2 of what the original recipe called for. It has slightly more fat than butter, but no cholesterol. Then, I used a sweetened cinnamon apple sauce, and decreased the sugar in the recipe by 1/4 cup (both the granulated and brown sugar). I decreased the sugar content because the original recipe called for unsweetened applesauce, but I didn’t have any. And I don’t eat the “unsweetened”, we eat the Walmart cinnamon apple sauce. Cinnamon is really good to lower your cholesterol, so why not add a little more by using cinnamon applesauce instead of regular? These are small changes, but by doing this each time I bake, these small changes will add up within the year, and help me to lower my weight and my cholesterol numbers over time, and help me to keep my weight down, once I reach my goals. If you want the recipe, just let me know, and I will be more than happy to send it to you.

Even though it is going to be muggy on Monday, I plan on using my hand/reel mower and my weed eater tomorrow morning, so I will be doing cardio and strength training at home. I should be burning as much or maybe even more than going to the gym. What will you be doing this week to exercise? Remember to just keep moving.

Wishing you all Healthy Blessings,
Roseann