As part of the Your Shape Challenge I was challenged to make a healthy dinner. We have covered healthy snacking in the past, so I dove right into the challenge!
I typically plan my meals for about a week, but I try to be flexible since occasionally something pops up that makes it difficult to cook a big meal. My meal plan usually includes 3-4 nights of traditional meals, a night of something fun and easy (like brinner), and 2 nights where we usually eat leftovers or clean out the fridge.
Our healthy dinner menu included:
Skillet Chicken: I used some chicken breasts I had frozen for this recipe. Melt small pat of butter or heat up about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add chicken (if not frozen you can salt, pepper, and spice it, but frozen I wait until it’s thawed a bit), I spice it simply since the kids like that. Garlic salt, pepper, and a dash of poultry seasoning. Cook until it is the browned on the outside making sure to check the internal temperature.
Steamed Broccoli: simply steam it until bright green, add a small amount of butter and salt and pepper to taste.
Salad: My kids LOVE salad. We eat it with almost every dinner. Tonight I served the salad with chopped carrots and celery.
Potato Wedges: Potatoes get a bad wrap. These were frozen potato wedges I found at Walmart with only a few ingredients. IF I had more time I would have made them by hand, but I was busy this evening.
Fruit salad: If there is one thing my family can never get enough of it’s fruit. This salad contained frozen pineapple, frozen organic strawberries, mangoes, and oranges. I like to mix fresh with frozen when it’s warm out. You could even serve this as dessert!
Water: We always serve water or milk for drinks. Everyone gets a cup of water, because there is no healthier beverage choice! Occasionally we serve it with lemon (which we call lemonade), but since my kids started off drinking water at a young age, it’s normal for them. I try not to keep fruit juice in the house since it would be everyone’s first choice otherwise. It’s more of a special treat.
You may notice the meal is a bit plain. I serve it that way and everyone can add what they want to it. For instance 3 of the kids love ketchup and will use it for everything (almost). I made a salad with the salad, chicken on top, and broccoli and fruit on the side. The kids all get a little of each thing to try. Sometimes it’s a struggle to get them to eat certain foods, but usually a dip in the ketchup does the trick.
The 365 Day Cooking Challenge and Your Shape Challenge I’m participating in have fallen by the wayside a bit these last few weeks. I have been pretty sick, and the kids were as well for awhile, so it was tough to cook. We ended up eating a lot of sandwiches, brinner, and odds and ends for dinner. I was also away twice in New York City, and my husband had the kids out once each day for a meal. Partly this was my lack of planning ahead, and partly it was due to everyone being stuck inside for 2 weeks straight.
My doctor told me not to exercise while I was having breathing issue, but now that I’m starting to feel better (thanks to a round of antibiotics), I will be slowly reintroducing exercise into my day. I’m starting today with some yoga.
My challenge this week along with the 10 other Your Shape challengers is to create healthy snacks for myself, and family. Since I’m all about whole foods, I found the challenge of going to Walmart to shop a little difficult. I tend to eat fresh foods for snacktime.
Snacks in our house are usually:
fresh fruit, or frozen fruit-the kids love frozen blueberries
carrots and celery with hummus, dressing or plain
cheese- I love cheese, sometimes with whole grain crackers
nuts-a handful of nuts is really filling, and healthy
bars-more for the kids than me, they love a good cereal bar
yogurt-another favorite whether plain with blueberries, or pink yogurt
occasionally pretzels, or potato chips-while not super healthy, they aren’t terrible either
stovetop popcorn-yum
leftovers-if we’re really hungry we will eat leftovers for snacktime
GUACAMOLE!-my favorite snack, avocado with sea salt and lime-perfection
I did find some good things, and you can see more about what I picked out in my whrrl below.
I’ve been fortunate to be a part of the Your Shape Challenge. Along with 9 other women I am using the game to get fit over the next 3 months. You can follow along at the Your Shape Challenge blog, or on twitter with the hashtag #yourshape.
I enjoy the workouts since they are so varied. I can choose to focus on different areas of my body, and every day I get a different workout. I get bored easily so this is a great way for me to stay entertained while I exercise.
Now you have the chance to win a copy of Your Shape to give it a try for yourself! One lucky winner will be chosen! If you don’t win this week, please keep checking my fellow participants’ blogs, there will be more opportunities to win!
Here’s a video of Jenny explaining how the Your Shape game works:
To enter:
Leave a comment telling me what your fitness goals are for this year. Whether it’s eating better, maintaining your routine, or taking the first step.
Rules:
Winner will be chosen by random.org on 02/6/10. One comment per person will count. Comments will close at 2pm EST 2/6/10.
Good luck!
Kelly
Disclosure: I was given the game, and receive prizes and swag for participating in the challenge from Collective Bias.
On days when I didn’t have time I did time to work out, I did “household exercises” like taking the stairs 2 at a time, doing squats when I have to switch laundry from the washer to the dryer, etc. Since it’s so cold I often do jumping jacks to get my heart pumping, and warm myself up. But that wasn’t enough.
I was thrilled to be chosen along with 9 other bloggers to take part in the Your Shape Challenge. I think it will be a great opportunity to support each other as we get fit, and a wonderful way to stay motivated.
What’s Your Shape? Your Shape is a Wii fitness program produced by Ubisoft that uses a camera along with the game to make sure you are exercising properly. There’s nothing like seeing yourself on TV to make you want to lose weight!
First Impressions
I played around with the game last week, and found I had to play around with the lighting in our living room. Since our TV faces a doorway the camera had trouble reading me. I fixed it by changing the lighting, and wearing brighter clothes.
Today was my first official day exercising with Your Shape. Though I had a 30 minute workout it felt like a lot less time, and the animated Jenny really pushed me. I really like the music, it’s very fast and kept me pumped.
Using it for the 1st time I was surprised there wasn’t more talk about form during the exercise. I had trouble particularly when my head was supposed to be down for exercises, but Jenny said to follow along with her with no verbal instruction for what to do. If there had been a verbal cue then following along would have been easier. I think it will get easier once I know all the exercises.
Your Shape Challengers
These are my fellow Your Shape challengers, please stop by their sites to show them some love.
Before
Today I weighed in at 152.5 lbs. (Already down 7.5 lbs. from 160 at the end of December, WOOT!)
I may seem thin to most people, in fact the Wii Fit tells me I have a 22% BMI which is average, but I don’t feel good.
I’ve always been extremely thin, but that changed around the time I got pregnant with my 4th child. My 4th pregnancy was really tough (not with complications, just physically hard), and after I had my son I had a lot of issues with joint pain. I ended up hanging onto about 20 lbs. of extra weight. After a few months of intensive chiropractic care I felt much better, but still had trouble finding time to exercise. My little guy is so sweet, but he was a complete and utter Momma’s boy. No one else could hold him or comfort him, not even my super experienced husband. He was a terrible sleeper, too, taking a long time to fall asleep and waking up SCREAMING every time he woke up (somewhere between 5-10 times a night).
Now the little dude is finally a (mostly) good sleeper, and I am working on seeking balance in my life, so I’m reintroducing healthy eating and an exercise routine. It feels good to be getting back to eating well, and being fit-something I thought I would always make time for when I was younger and passionate about health and fitness.
Without further ado, here’s my before shots. You can see my problem areas are my stomach, and my rear. Please be nice, I’m kind of nervous about posting photos of myself.
Disclosure: The challenge is sponsored by Collective Bias, Ubisoft, and Walmart. I received the game and will also receive additional incentives throughout the challenge. For more information please read my Disclaimer page.
to give it a try for yourself! One lucky winner will be chosen! If you don’t win this week, please keep checking my fellow participants’ blogs, there will be more opportunities to win!
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