Reality Weight Loss

Starting Monday, June 21st, a new Yfit program* will begin and this time around we will be following a participant’s, Cynthea’s, weight loss journey. I feel honored to be working with Cynthea because she is such an accomplished female. She owns her own business, developed her own charity, won 2010 Luge Masters Nationals, and is a loving mother and part of so many organizations I can’t keep track. I’m constantly impressed with how much Cynthea is always doing and much good it brings to others and the community, but I have always worried about whether or not Cynthea is taking care of herself the way she should be. I met Cynthea at her salon, which is where we first started talking about weight loss and the behavioral and lifestyle changes that need to be made to make weight loss successful. When you are as busy as Cynthea certain priorities go out the door, like exercising and feeding your body correctly. As Cynthea's trainer, I will teach her to put aside time to care for herself. Through this YFit program, Cynthea will be using this blog to talk about what she is going through and how she is doing with the program. Also, as her trainer, I will be using the blog to discuss how to overcome the obstacles you face when trying to lose weight, nutrition and fitness tips, and I will post a recipe each week.

Keep checking in for updates on Cynthea and weight loss, nutrition, and fitness tips!

*Yfit is an exercise-based weight loss program that is held at the Greater Burlington YMCA. Participants meet with a personal trainer 2-3 times a week for 8 weeks.

Cornmeal-Pecan Shortcakes with Lemon Curd & Blueberries

Even though I never do it, my favorite thing to do on the weekend is stay in and make pancakes! I found this great pancake recipe on eatingwell.com, which is perfect for staying in on the weekend or breakfast in bed! Enjoy!!!

Lemon Curd
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice, juice
1 tablespoon butter

Blueberry filling
4 cups fresh blueberries, divided
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Shortcakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons chopped pecans

Preparation
1. Whisk together egg, egg whites, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a medium nonreactive saucepan. Add butter and cook over low heat, whisking constantly, until thickened, 5 to 7 minutes. Do not let sauce come to a simmer. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool slightly; serve warm.

2. To prepare blueberry filling: Combine 2 cups blueberries, water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until the berries soften into a sauce, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 2 cups blueberries and vanilla. Set aside.

3. To prepare & assemble shortcakes: Preheat oven to 425°F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

4. Whisk flour, cornmeal, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut cream cheese into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine 3/4 cup buttermilk, oil and vanilla in a glass measuring cup. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and stir with a fork until just combined. (The dough will be slightly sticky; do not overmix.)

5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently pat into a 3/4-inch-thick circle. With a floured knife, cut dough into 8 triangles; place on the prepared baking sheet.

6. Combine pecans and the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl. Brush shortcake tops with the remaining 2 tablespoons buttermilk and sprinkle with the pecan mixture.

7. Bake the shortcakes until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly. To serve, split shortcakes in half with a serrated knife. Set the bottoms on dessert plates. Spoon on blueberry filling and lemon curd. Set the tops on at an angle. Serve immediately.

Nutrition
394 calories Fat: 6g 7 Carb: 57 g Protein: 6 g

Lasagna Made Healthy and Tasty!

For all of you healthy food skeptics, this recipe passed the ultimate test: the junk food loving, health food skeptic male! He even asked for leftovers! So for all of you women out there here is a recipe you can trick your man with. Each piece of lasagna only has 205 calories, so there is nothing to feel guilty about. Here is the recipe:

Turkey and Arugula Lasagna

Ingredients
6-8 plum tomatoes, diced with the skin
1-2 tbsp tomato paste
3 garlic cloves, minced or put through a press
2 tsp Italian spices
2 tsp (separate) basil
15oz part-skim ricotta (I prefer Sorrento)
15oz fat free ricotta
1 tsp nutmeg
1 egg
¼c parmesan cheese
8 slices extra lean turkey bacon
.5 lb extra lean ground turkey breast
5 oz arugula, spinach, or arugula and spinach mix
3 tsp (separate) extra virgin olive oil
One box of Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole wheat lasagna noodles (13.25oz)
8oz low-fat mozzarella (I prefer the price chopper brand it melts the best), shredded



Preparation
1. Boil water and follow the instructions on the lasagna box. Preheat the oven at 375°.
2. In a large non-stick pan, heat up 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil and throw in the tomatoes on medium heat. Stir so the tomatoes are coated in the oil and spread out on pan.
3. Add the garlic to the tomatoes and stir until tomatoes. Continue to cook until the juices have released.
4. Add the 2 tsp of Italian spices, 1 tsp of basil, and tomato paste (just enough to thicken the sauce). Continue to let cook on low heat.
5. In another large non-stick pan, heat up ½ tsp of extra virgin olive oil and start cooking the turkey bacon strip by strip.
6. Let the strips cool on a paper towel. Then crumble it up and throw it in the tomato mixture.
7. In the bacon non-stick pan, add another ½ tsp of extra virgin olive oil to the pan and cook the extra lean ground turkey breast.
8. While the turkey is cooking, go ahead and combine the ricotta cheeses, egg, nutmeg, and 1tsp of basil in a large bowl. Just put aside.
9. When the turkey is done, add it to the tomato mixture.
10. In the turkey non-stick pan, add ½ - 1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil and throw in the arugula.
11. Lay down one layer of lasagna noodles in a large lasagna pan. Put spread a little over a third of the ricotta mixture over the noodles. Then add half of the tomato mixture and cooked arugula. Put down another layer of lasagna noodles and repeat the above (use all of the left over tomato mixture and arugula).
12. Put down a third layer of lasagna noodles and then spread the rest of the ricotta on top of the noodle. Top it off with the mozzarella cheese.
13. Cover with aluminum foil and put in the oven for 45 minutes.
14. Take the foil off and broil for 3-5min on low. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes.

Nutritional Facts:
205 calories
Fat: 7g
Carbs: 19.8g
Prot: 16.9g

Cheap Healthy Foods!!!

I researched various healthy foods and found the cheapest healthiest foods for you, so you can keep your waist skinny and your wallet fat!

• Cheap foods
  Breakfast foods: eggs (2 eggs/serving = $.30 or 1 egg and 2 whites/serving = $.45) and oatmeal ($.17/serving)
  - Cereal is about $.74/serving
  - One slice of 100% whole bread is $.32, but most eat 2 slices so that would be $.64/serving
  
  Complex carb (rice, pasta, grains, etc): Brown rice ( $.08/serving) and lentils ($.18/serving)
  - 100% whole wheat is a luxury compared to the prices of brown rice and lentils. It costs $.41/serving!!!!
  - Other grains, such as quinoa and couscous, can be found in bulk at certain specialty supermarkets and tend to be cheaper in bulk than prepackaged.
  
  Fruit: Bananas ( $.35/banana)
  - Oranges are about $.79/orange
  - Apples are about $1.00/apple, but Rome apples are only $.84/apple
  - Berries are always pricey, so I recommend buying frozen. Frozen berries are actually better for you than other berries, because they are frozen at the point of ideal ripeness, which contains the highest nutritional value. You save at least a dollar per ounce when you buy frozen.
  
  Vegetables: depends on what is in season
  - In season fruits and vegetables are the cheapest.
  
  Type of pork: Pork loin (price depends on grocery store, but it was consistent that it was cheaper than the other cuts)
  - Significantly cheaper than ribs and ham and it’s leaner and healthier than any other type of pork
  
  Type of beef: Sirloin (price depends on grocery store, but it was consistent that it was cheaper than the other cuts)
  
  Type of poultry: Chicken breast
  - Stick with chicken breast even though chicken thighs are significantly cheaper because thighs have 6 more fat gram and 4 less grams of protein for every 3oz. Huge nutritional differences!!!
  
  Fish: Catfish
  - Tilapia has a close second, usually about a $1.00 more

If you are trying to figure out whether or not to buy organic, don’t waste money on organic foods that you have to peel. The pesticides are sprayed on the outside of the fruit or vegetable, so if you can peel the outside off you do not need to worry about. Poultry, eggs, beef, and lamb are important to get organic because then you are not consuming unnecessary antibiotics that are normally given to the animals. With grains it is smarter to eat organic, so you can avoid the pesticides in regular grains.

When grocery shopping, especially for produce, meat, and fish, keep in mind prices and sales vary by grocery store. Check out the local grocery store flyers before going to the grocery store, so you can figure out which store has the best prices and you can put a budget friendly shopping list together.

- Alexandra Jasinowski

Clean Eating Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with a Chocolate Whipped Topping

These cupcakes are always a hit! Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened extra dark cocoa powder
1 ¼ cup Sucanat
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
1 cup low fat sour cream (try substituting with fat free greek yogurt)
1/3 cup plus 2 tsp. skim milk
1 Tbsp. olive oil
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites

Topping:
2 squares of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups of fat free cool whip

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.
In a large bowl combine cocoa powder, 1 cup Sucanat, flour, salt, and baking soda.
In a medium bowl whisk together sour cream, 1/3 cup milk, oil, vanilla, and whole egg.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. Add egg whites to the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Whip egg whites until foamy. Gradually add remaining ¼ cup Sucanat to whites. Continue whipping until medium stiff peaks form. Fold whites in thirds into cake batter with a rubber spatula.
Fill each of the 12 cupcake liners ¾ full with batter. Tap pan on countertop and put into oven. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cupcakes cool completely.

When cupcakes have completely cooled, combine chocolate and remaining 2 tsp. milk in a bowl and microwave on 50% power for 30 seconds. Stir until melted chocolate is completely smooth. Fold the chocolate into the fat free cool whip. Then with a tablespoon, spoon out a spoonful and spread on top of the cupcake. I tend to have half of the topping leftover.

Slimming Valentine's Day Desserts

Valentine's Day is this Sunday and you should treat your sweet with sweets or your fabulous self! I have three great dessert recipes for Valentine's Day. One is my all time favorite dessert tiramisu and the other two are chocolate recipes because you can never go wrong with chocolate.

Baby Tiramisu (from eatingwell.com)

Ingredients
1/2 cup nonfat ricotta cheese, (4 ounces)
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 ladyfingers, (about 1 3/4 ounces)
4 tablespoons brewed espresso, or strong coffee, divided
2 tablespoons bittersweet chocolate chips, melted

Directions
1. Combine ricotta, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
2. Place 6 ladyfingers in a 9-by-5-inch (or similar size) loaf pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons espresso (or coffee). Spread the ricotta mixture over the ladyfingers. Place another layer of ladyfingers over the ricotta and drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons espresso (or coffee).
3. Drizzle with melted chocolate. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set, about 30 minutes.

Nutrition Facts
Calories: 107 Fat: 2g Carbs: 18g Protein: 3g



Thick & Rich Hot Cocoa (from eatingwell.com)

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups nonfat milk
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions
1. Combine milk, cocoa, sugar and cornstarch in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking often, until steaming. Continue to cook, whisking constantly, until it comes to a boil, then remove from the heat.

Nutrition Facts
Calories: 98 Fat: 2g Carbs: 19g Protein: 5g



Chocolate Covered Strawberries - super simple

Ingredients
2 pints of strawberries
1 container of chocolate Dolci Frutta (better than any recipe I have tried)

Directions
1. Wash strawberries and lay them out to dry. Also, manually dry them with a paper towel or a clean kitchen towel.
2. After the strawberries are dry follow the instructions on the Dolci Frutta container.
3. ENJOY!!!!

Have a great Valentine's Day!!!

- Alexandra Jasinowski

Fast Food - Can it be for the healthy?

Stuart and I and other health advocates can preach all day long about how much better it is for you to cook your own meals and stay away from fast food restaurants, but realistically, who has the time to cook every meal. I know I don’t and sometimes I only have less than 30min to eat, so I feel like my only options are fast food restaurants. When I used to go grab fast food, I would feel a little guilty because I was unsure of the calories in each meal and what was actually in it. I have a short analysis of fast food restaurants, so you know what the healthiest thing is to order.

Restaurant Analysis
I have compared and contrasted McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and few others to figure out where the best and worst place is to get breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Breakfast – McDonald’s has the best selection. They have the Egg McMuffin (300 calories and 12g of fat), Sausage Burrito (300 calories and 16g of fat), and the Fruit’n Yogurt parfait (with granola 150 calories and without 130 calories and both only have 2g of fat). In comparison, Brueggar’s whole wheat bagel with light cream cheese is 490 calories and 12g fat. The fat grams are high on the McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches, but they are pretty lower in calories. Another great place to get breakfast is Dunkin Donuts. Their Egg White Flatbread sandwiches are all under 300 calories and less than 9g of fat. The Turkey Spinach is only 280 calories and 6g of fat.
Coffee drinks – McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, and Starbucks had similar nutritional facts for their coffee drinks, but Dunkin Donut’ mocha with skim had the least amount of calories and fat grams.

Lunch and Dinner –

A Grilled chicken sandwich sounds healthy, but is it really? Depends on where you go to get it and what you have on it. Wendy’s had the best grilled chicken sandwich with 350 calories and 7g of fat, Burger King was in second with 380 calories and 9g of fat (no mayo), and McDonalds was in last with 420 calories and 10g fat. Make sure the sandwich does not have cheese or mayo on it because that will add about 100 or more calories to the sandwich (scary…huh?).
Salads are assumed to be the healthy alternative, but that is not always the case, especially when going out to fast food restaurants. Be careful of what they top their salads with and make sure you always get grilled chicken and not fried. Wendy’s had the best salads, but with out all the crunchy stuff on top (i.e. croutons, almonds, crunchy noodles, etc.). Their two best salads were the Mandarin Chicken and Chicken Caesar and they contained 180 calories and the Mandarin only had 2g of fat and the Caesar only 4g of fat. If you wanted to add more crunch and flavor for the Mandarin add half of the pack of almonds for 70 calories and 5.5g of fat and use the fat free French dressing, which is only 70 calories. That would be a total meal of 320 calories and 7.5g of fat… not bad at all! For the Caesar, I’ve used the fat free French dressing before instead of Caesar dressing and it tasted great. Beware of Wendy’s BLT grilled chicken salad because it has 470 calories and 27g of fat without any extra toppings or dressing. Burger King and McDonalds both have their salad pre-packaged with cheese or the toppings, so if you don’t use dressing their salads are pretty healthy. McDonald’s highest calorie salad is the Southwest grilled chicken salad, which has 320 and 9g of fat without dressing. Because it has corn and black bean salsa on it, I think it taste great without dressing. Burger King just has a basic grilled chicken salad with lots of veggies and cheese that is 270 calories and 9g of fat without dressing.

Other – chili, wraps, and desserts.
A lot of the fast foods have developed these inexpensive grilled chicken snack wraps, which come off as being healthy. They aren’t that big and they are made with grilled chicken, but they are not that innocent. They have around 270 calories and 10g of fat and they are small! I know I was expecting around 150 calories and 6g of fat in one snack wrap, so I shocked to find out this information.
For dessert, the best place to get ice cream is McDonalds! Their ice cream cone has only 150 cal and 3.5g fat and their strawberry sundae has 280 calories and only 6g of fat! I know where I will be getting ice cream this summer. Be weary of the soft serve ice cream treats with mix-ins like McFlurries and Frostys. They all have over 480 calories!!!
I do want to mention Wendy’s chili because it has a lot of protein and fiber and the large is only 280 calories. It is probably one of the best things you can get for dinner at a fast food restaurant.

I hope this makes eating out at fast food restaurants less stressful and a lot healthier!

- Alexandra Jasinowski