Ribollita and Other Delights: It's Menu Plan Monday!!

How does Monday always come around so fast?  Well here it is and I'm back in my menus, linking up as usual with OrgJunkie.com's Menu Plan Monday.

For the uninitiated, let me state that I cook low-fat, healthy, utilizing local and sustainable foods 90% of the time, year round. I make exceptions on the holidays but still try to be reasonable. This means we eat a lot of greens and root vegetables in the winter because that's what grows here in the cooler seasons. When feasible, I include calories and/or Weight Watcher's points plus values for my meal plans. Many of my linked recipes contain complete nutritional information.  If you post your menu plans in any type of public forum, please comment on the post so we can all share your inspiration!

My plan of coming up with several lunch and dinner choices worked well for me last time, so I am repeating the theme this week. We are taking the little ones camping for a night, hence the camping food!

Lunches
Shrimp with Zucchini and Tomatoes (stir fried with garlic and a bit of oregano) (4 WW Points+), toasted whole bread with garlic and misted olive oil.
Spiral turkey dogs (camping day), green salad, baked orange rind muffins
Tuna salad on whole wheat toasted sandwich thins, salad with vinaigrette (5 WW Points+)
Turkey, egg and carrot Soboro bento, brown rice, fresh fruit
Crockpot Spinach Manicotti, sauteed seasonal vegetables, fresh fruit (I am still calculating calories on my low fat version of this dish!)

Dinners 
Ribolllita (a Tuscan soup with kale, beans and bread), green salad ( 5 WW Points+, 245 cal.)
Chicken Parmesan, whole wheat couscous, roasted root vegetables seasoned with sage (8 WW Points+)
You Won't Miss the Meat Chili with cornbread dumplings, coleslaw (camping night) (4 WW Points+) In the dutchoven, over a fire!
Baked white fish with Quinoa with sweet potato, zucchini, carrot and kale; Garlicky Green beans - (6 WW Points+)
Slow Cooker Roasted Turkey Breast and Potatoes; sauteed greens, roasted baby turnips (7 WW Points+)

Chili with cornbread dumplings

Fit Friday - Tips, Tricks and Inspiration

I apologize for the inconsistency in posting lately; my parents are in town for several weeks and I am suddenly super-stingy with my time, trying to soak up every minute of family time!  Nonetheless, the fight to fitness goes on so here I am!

I have a tip: If you want to change the state of your health, don't spend time worrying about small things, like the timing of meals, but focus on reducing calories and increasing activity. This article on timing of meals is interesting, but in the end, metabolism plays only a small part in weight loss. Exercising more can reduce stress and build muscle -- which does speed up our metabolism -- but most importantly, the common side effect of exercise is that when we feel better about ourselves, we make better choices about what we eat. We all want the magic thing that will make weight loss easy and while speeding up our metabolism can certainly aid our efforts, in the end, it's all about what we eat versus what we burn.

The trick of the week is one I picked up at Weight Watchers from last week:  Put your fork down and take a small sip of water after every bite.  It's a simple tip to slow down my eating enough for my brain to get the message that I've had enough. The question is, how will I remember? My plan is to take the time to set a lovely table in the dining room each evening so I remember -- this is family time, not mindless-eating-time. I think is as much a challenge for the week as a trick; who is going to try this with me?

For this week's inspiration, I offer this wonderful article from the amazing Dr. Katz. When I suggest to people that toddlers and children can eat whatever adults eat, they think I'm crazy. Even some of the healthy eaters we know feed their young children differently than they eat. Dr. Katz says we are ruining our children with "kid food" and I agree. After 10 years of eating mostly home cooked healthy food with limited forays into processes or restaurant food, I will tell you that those odd chemical flavorings that are added to almost everything these days taste really weird to me! My concern is that if we acclimate our children to these chemical flavors, real food won't stand a chance.

The flavors in nature's food are more subtle than chemically enhanced ones. Kids will complain at first so we parents have to be patient but any child can learn to eat healthful, real food. Bento boxes are one way we've made real food fun for our kids. One of my proudest moments as a parent came when a worker at school commented on my 4-year-olds love of all types of vegetables. Oh and be realistic; my kids go to birthday parties and trick-or-treating. They get their occasional dose of candy and confection. It's all about moderation and a gradual lifestyle shift. Please read the article for yourself and let me have your thoughts.

I'm healed up from a foot injury so back to my Couch to 5K program this week.  Have a good weekend, everyone.

Slow Start Continues and It's Friday!

Slow Start to the Gym Continues

My slow start to the gym seems to be working.  I have only had normal post-workout soreness and no injuries; I have not experienced that debilitating soreness that goes on for days.  Perhaps more importantly, because I've set my expectations of myself uncharacteristically low, I am meeting (and exceeding) my expectations!  Here is how my program has progressed so far:

• Week One- get up, get to the gym, and do something for 30 minutes or more, 5 days a week (no calorie or heart rate monitoring; no "programs").
• Week Two - do a little more; push myself a bit on the cardio (still no monitoring or tracking)
• Week Three - begin a program of 3 cardio and 2 strength training sessions per week
• Last week:  Begin Couch to 5K (C25K) program; pay attention to weight and reps; begin gradual increase in weight or reps (not both).
• Begin tracking calories burned (that is this week); also because of C25K, I am noting distance. 

• Next week:  Increase cardio to 35 minutes or more
• The next step, which will probably be in 2 weeks, will be to start monitoring my heart rate.

I feel great and my motivation is high.  That's priceless to me!

Friday Tips, Tricks and Inspiration
This week's theme is making changes to reach your goals in this new year -- or to take another shot at the resolutions you've already forgotten about!

My tip for you this week is to put support in place for yourself.  I currently have 4 kinds of formal support:

1. I attend weekly Weight Watcher's meetings (for the weigh-in and the community atmosphere); 
2. I have my text friend with whom I exchange "get up and get to the gym" text messages every weekday;
3. I have my weekly call with my long-time support partner (although it isn't necessarily about weight loss);
4. I exchange a weekly email with a friend on a similar eating plan
5. Informal support systems:  My family is very supportive.  They don't offer temptations to me and my hubby makes sure I get to attend my meeting.  They all are so encouraging of my efforts.  I also have tracking and sharing websites (both for weight loss and fitness) that I frequent and a bunch of blogs I follow.  All these little things add up to a lot of inspiration and motivation.  

Yes, this is a lot of support.  And it turns out with 5 kids, that's how much support it takes to for me to keep me near the top of the priority list.

The trick is to keep some (or most) of your goals attainable and short term.  My next fitness goal is to walk/run a 5K in about about two weeks.  I have another scheduled a month later.  After that, we'll see!  My short term weight loss goal is to be "in the box" every day for 3 weeks.  Once I attain that, I will set a new goal. 

This week I offer a tongue-in-cheek look at the gym for your inspiration.  My friend Colleen shared it with me and it is too good to keep to myself.  It is both funny and true -  let me know which ones make you smile!