Chicken & Scrambled Eggs

I suppose the downside of eating healthier or even when you stop eating something altogether and you go back to it once, your stomach likes to fight it. Maybe that's just me? /squints. For example: If I consume too much bread, dairy, or just grease in general (deep dried stuff), I get freakishly bloated and stomach pains starts to settle at night. Then the next morning I get a 100% guarantee trip to the restroom.

Every now and them I still allow myself to eat things like doughnuts or a piece of bread, but in moderation of one small bite or so or else I end up facing the wrath of my stomach. But you know you what I don't regret making this decision. At all. So what if I can't eat rice, noodles, pasta, or deep fried Oeros? I have my own arsenal of snacks and delicious recipes. #NoRagrets. It's all about finding that balance and coming to realization what you're giving up and if you're willing to give it up to become a better you.

Here was day #3 of my health journey:

Eggs has become my best friend... Get them brotein!

Happy Eating!
~Kitty

Bunless Burgers

The thing about being overweight is that you don't notice yourself gaining weight and realize that you're actually getting pudgy. At least that was true for me. You tell yourself pretty little lies like "Oh, I know I'm not fat" or "There's no way I'm overweight" It wasn't until I decided I really needed to weigh myself to truly see where I was and this was a tough feat. I guess somewhere deep, deep, deep down I had known all along that I wasn't as healthy as I should be and had started to develop this intense fear of weighing myself. I finally gathered up the courage to step on the scale.

As of August 2013 I was a hefty weight of 147 pounds.

It was mindboggling at the amount of weight I had gained since entering college. Something had to be done. I decided I needed to change the way I ate, especially given that I hated going to the gym (I preferred doing sports). I took up the challenge of going paleo for a month. This was the initial challenge. It wasn't easy the first few days, but it actually got easier as time progressed. It's been over a year now that I've begun this journey. What started as a month challenge I decided to make a life commitment. I'm proud to say that I've shed 40 pounds from learning to choose the make the right decisions. :)

Day #2 Meal:




















The recipe can be found two posts down if you're interested in making it at home!

Happy Eating!
~Kitty

About Staying Healthy...

I feel like... I need to use this blog more. :| If it wasn't for sheer laziness, I think I would. Well, maybe not laziness, more so... I feel like blogging time could be put to better use like walking the dogs or something. I'm just not dedicated enough. -_- #LameExcuse #FTW.

But I'm here to clarify a few things that people has been asking me a lot about. And I mean a lot. Like serious a lot. "How do you stay so skinny? Must be those good genes!" or "How'd you lose so much weight? Must be good genes!" Please. You might as well just stop now, turn around and walk away. If that was that easy I would've gotten this done a long time ago. Everyone seems to use that 'gene' excuse as if it held the secrets of the world when it comes to staying healthy and fit. Let me you, it's fucking not. It's about dedication, sweat, and most of all will power. Are you willing to make a lifestyle change? No? That's really your loss.

People also have a tendency to to blame their genes for being overweight, I know there's a fine line between those people who really do suffer from weight problems because of it, but I have also seen people abusing that excuse as a reason not to be healthy. I'm not sorry to say that I don't believe in 300 pound 'curvy women', I just don't. You only get one chance at this, make every second count. Why would you want to destroy your body? My thoughts exactly.

I'll admit it I've never had super overweight problems before, but I did reach an astounding 147 pounds at one point in my life last year and I was only 5'3". I was terrified of looking at the scale because I knew I was getting to the point where I was disappointed in myself. I wasn't working out and I had a pretty bad diet to go along with it. I knew something had to change or else I was going to drown. I started working out 6 times a week and made some muscle gains, but my appetite went through the roof. With this I was actually gaining MORE weight than I had anticipated. After 4-5 months of working out, I needed another option. Around this time a friend (Thanks, Gabe! LOL) actually introduced me to a diet called 'the paleo diet' named after cavemen diet of veggies, nuts, and meat only. No bread, wheat, dairy, rice, and processed sugar (as opposed to natural sugar like fruits). I didn't honestly didn't think I would be able to pull through, I love carbs way too much. I was scared, but I told myself 'fuck it, lets do it!'.

The first week was tough, but once I got the ball rolling it was surprisingly easy. Saying no to rice and pasta was merely a wave of the hand and I found myself craving healthy food. I stopped drinking (serious excess calories, but red wine every now and then is actually good for the heart ;) ). Junk food actually started giving really bad stomaches (I broke out in hives once from eating greasy KBBQ) and that was when I decided to just make a lifestyle change, it was much easier to just eat healthy then having to stay on the toilet for hours on end because of a cupcake I wanted to eat for dessert. Not that I don't treat myself every once in while because it's good to treat yourself, it'll keep the cravings away. I've been on this diet for about nine months but it only took the first four and half months for me to shed 32 pounds, the rest was about maintaining the weight.

It gets easier, but it's never 100% easy. Watching friends eat whatever they want is hard, still is. It's a battle everyday to say no to other things like ice cream and milk (I love milk :( and most dairy products) but I push through. I literally have to shove that motherfucker of a thought off the edge of the cliff to get it off my mind, so no, it's not my genes. The amount of will power and dedication that I have put into being healthier is what got me to my goal. So don't ask me how I stay fit when you're buying a handful of chocolate bars and chugging down two Rockstars, don't tell me it's my genes when you're shoving a fried twinkie down your throat. At the end of the, it's the choices that you make that shapes who you are. Literally and figuratively.

I'm not saying my decision is the only path you can choose, but rather everyone has their own goals, mine was simply to lose weight and be healthier, other people's goals range from being fit and build muscles to just toning out, but these all take a lot of dedication and will power. The question you have to ask is: Are you up for it?

Happy Eating!

♥ Kitty

A New Year with Protein Burgers

It's a new year! Happy belated new year to you all and hope you all had a wonderful holiday! :) I'm hoping for great things in 2014, one of them being able to blog more and continue this fascinating adventure I've taken in 2013 in search of a better and healthier lifestyle. I'm quite proud to say that I've lost tremendous weight being relatively average in size through making smarter choices in picking what I eat. Now that the holidays are over it's back to better eating healthier again! I've been feeling the full force of holiday dinners and parties for the last 31 days and they are not pretty. But it's back on track from here. :)

There are certain things I've learned in the last five months in taking control of what I ate and I have to say that eating healthy is really tough in this society. The fact that we have so much fast food chains every few steps it's tempting not to go in and order a large hamburger with fries and a soda, plus it's convenient for most consumers. People! There are great alternatives to eating such high calorie foods by swapping some of the ingredients out for something else. For me, since I love burgers I have them protein styled. Making them at home is so simple and easy with just a few ingredients it makes for a great meal.

Protein Burger
Ingredients:
90% and above lean ground beef is most desirable
Worchester Sauce
Salt & Pepper
Onion Powder
Romain Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions

Many places that offer protein burgers usually wraps the burgers in Iceberg Lettuces. In all honesty, that is a big no-no in my book. Iceberg lettuce while shape works great in a lot of situations lacks flavor and texture, nutritional value, and overall sustainability in your fridge. Compared to iceberg, romaine has five times more vitamin C and a hundred times more beta carotene. I take the large leaves of romaine, wash them and cut them in half and use those as my buns.

As for the meat we use ground beef, before shaping them we drizzle Worchester sauce, I don't use a spoon, we eyeball when we cook. About three to four seconds of drizzling of the sauce should work for a medium sized bowl of ground meat. After we put in the salt and pepper and onion powder. We use grinder salt and pepper from Costco and we use about four turns when making our protein burgers. Then we shape them into balls the size of an average fist as the patty shrinks when cooked. The tomatoes and onions can be cut however you like them to be. Once the patty is cooked, place them on the lettuce, dab on the vegetables and voila! A hearty hamburger! I normally also eat them with yam fries on the side from time to time. :)

Eat smarter. Healthier life. Happy eating!
~Kitty

New Paleo Things

I've been trying a few things the past few months to try and tone up and lose weight at the same time, but after two months of trying, I wasn't seeing the results that I had wanted. A good friend of mine actually suggested changing my diet, because a big part of losing weight is about what you put in your body. I considered it and the thought of change terrified me. I love my food, especially carbs. But nothing was going to change if I didn't take the first step and so my journey into the Paleo World began. In short, a paleo diet basically mean a caveman diet that consists of mostly just meat and vegetables, no carbs, grain, and dairy. Supposedly everything should be organic as well, but in this day and age living off a college budget, it's hard. I still try and buy organic when I can though.

The first few days were harder than most as I tried adjusting what I ate and cooking took twice as long as now my boyfriend had to cook two different meals rather than one. Yet once the ball started rolling it did get easier. Yes, I said it, it does get easier. I could feel my body getting accustomed to the greens and protein and whenever we had those terribly nice cheat days, greasy food (even simple things like bread) just made me bloated and nauseous. It made me think that I never wanted to eat them again. Working out were the worse right after cheat days which then I've concluded, it's much better off not having them. The occasional (in small moderation) I think would be much better than stuffing your face on cheat days.

As I move along this new path that I'm taking with my health and diet, I thought I'd share a few dishes that I've been trying and that maybe you guys out there might want to try it out yourself. :)

Day One consisted of a Grilled Chicken with Mixed Fruits. We just added a simple shake of black pepper to each side and slapped it onto the grill. I picked out an apple and a few nectarines, chopped it up and used that as a side.  It's amazing how filling it is! ^__^

Happy Eating!
♥, Kitty