My Butt is on Fire!

Happy Sunday, everyone! I just finished my workout for the day and oh my gosh... my butt and legs on fireeeee! This workout was inspired by my favorite fitness blogger, Cassey Ho, and it was amazing! So give it a try! Here is what I did this morning for my workout:

I started off with her Shreadmill Treadmill Workout:

 

Click here and go to her blog to print it off and give it a try! It's great cardio and really gets your butt and legs burning. After that, I moved onto one of her cardio videos. It's only about 4 minutes so I repeated the video twice, which I strongly recommend to do. This video really targets your cardio, butt, quads, and hamstrings. Alright, here we go! Do this video two times through now:

 

 



 

 

Wow! Were your legs burning after that?! Mine sure were. I burned a ton of calories this morning and I feel great after this. Do both of these routines, the treadmill workout and the video, to get your cardio in for the day.

Have a wonderful day :)

Double Chocolate Greek Yogurt Muffins

The last few days I've been craving chocolate because of little ol' time of the month! I decided to make some chocolaty muffins that smelled like cake the whole time they were baking. My kitchen smelled like a bakery shop...it was wonderful. I wasn't sure how long to bake these muffins and  I was pretty nervous they were going to come out as smoldering pudding cups or something... I'm really no genius when it comes to baking. Not my forte.  I can bake if like 3 ingredients are involved, like oats and bananas!, but not if there are a billion ingredients, like these muffins. But hey, they came out a success! So if you're craving something chocolaty, but with not a ton of calories, this recipe is for you. No flour, butter, oil, low in sugar, and it uses Greek yogurt..hence the title..and of course it uses oats because that's what I always use. Alright, enough chitter chatter...

Double Chocolate Greek Yogurt Muffins

The Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups of oats
• 3 egg whites
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used raspberry because that's all I had on hand)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter (or 2 tsp vinegar)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup of hot water
• 1 cup of sweetener that measures like sugar (I used a little less than 1/2 cup of sugar + 1 tsp vanilla extract because of the extra sweetness from the raspberry Greek yogurt)
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

How-To

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. While the oven is heating, blend all the above ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor. I blended the oats first by themselves to create oat flour for a smoother texture.
3. After all is blended, then blend in half of the chocolate chips, saving half for later. The batter will be very thin and soup-like.
4. Line muffin tins and fill each with the batter.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, take out and sprinkle the other half of chocolate chips on top of the muffins. Bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Right out of the oven. Yum!

*I made the mistake of not lining my muffin tins because I didn't have big enough ones. I did grease my pan first, but taking out the muffins was an issue. Parts of the bottom came off, which makes me very sad. I'm all about presentation, so when it's not perfect, I get sad ha!*

This recipe was supposed to make 12 muffins, but because I used giant muffin tins, I only got 6 muffins out of it. If you make 12 muffins, each muffin comes out to be only 101 calories! Seriously, these were like eating cake...very low cal cake! Each one of my muffins is 202 calories since they're larger than normal.  They're like mini personal cakes...er a cupcake! Yum :)

 

 

 

 

 

Mac and Cheese with Cottage Cheese

I had a craving for mac and cheese this afternoon but none of that crappy box kind! That stuff is gross! Don't eat it. I only like homemade mac and cheese, but I wanted to make it in such a way that didn't use flour or butter for the sauce. Instead I used cottage cheese! It made the mac and cheese extra creamy, extra cheesy, and it provided me with extra protein! That's a win win...win!  :) This took me about 45 minutes to make from start to finish, but only took me about 5 minutes to eat it. It was just that good! Give it a try!!

Mac & Cheese

• 1/2 cup of uncooked whole grain pasta
• 2 tbsp. of non-fat milk
• 1/4 cup of fat free or low fat cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup of shredded cheese of your choice (I would use low-fat cheese, but with mine I didn't have any)
• dry mustard, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper to taste. I put in lots of cayenne!
• *1/2-1 tbsp. of cornstarch (I sometimes needed to add a mixture of cornstarch and water halfway through baking it because the cottage cheese can make it a bit watery. Mix cornstarch with a bit of water and add to your mac and cheese. Stir it in and put back in the oven. It will thicken it right up and make it extra cheesey.)

1. Cook your pasta according to the package. While that is cooking, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. After your pasta is done, drain and put pack in the pot.
3. Add your milk, cheese, cottage cheese, and spices to the pasta and stir until well mixed. If you want an even cheesy-er dish, I suggest adding more cottage cheese. Extra protein!
4. Put your pasta mixture in a small, greased baking dish.
5. Cook for 20-30 minutes. Until everything looks well combined, cheesy and hot! I cooked mine for 25 minutes. *You may need to add some cornstarch as it may get watery from the cottage cheese. This can be done anytime while its baking. I did this around the 15 minute mark.*
6. Ta-da! Enjoy :)

 

 

I added 1 cup of broccoli and handful of spinach to my dish because I just loveeee broccoli! Feel free to add other veggies or meat to your dish. Cooking times and thickness may vary then, so keep that in mind.  My oh my, look at that cheese!

 

Cheesy goodness!

This recipe makes 1-2 servings. I tried to save half of it for later...but it was just too gosh darn delicious! So I ate it all :) My dish came out to be 349 calories for the whole thing. If I had waited and only ate half, my serving would have been 174.5 calories. Not bad, huh?  Calories will vary depending on all of the ingredients you choose to use, so I will not be listing any nutritional info at this time. I do hope you give this a try if you love mac and cheese. This was super satisfying and tasty! Come on, you know you want to try it :)

 

Happy eating!! 

Diets-the good, the bad, & the truth.

Happy tuesday everyone! I hope everyones day started off on the right foot and are enjoying today. I actually have a day off today where I have nothing to do-no work, no volunteering-just a day to relax, blog, workout, and tan on this beautiful, sunny day! My boyfriend is currently out of town, giving me more free time to do this (blog) and to try out all these new recipes I've been finding. These recipes will surely be posted as I try them for you guys :)

Ok. So. Have you ever thought about how many different diet plans there are out in the world? Like, there are a lot. Trust me, I looked it up! Some diets were for health issues (i.e Chrohn's disease, IBS) and many other diets were for dietary reasons and changes (i.e weight loss). I probably spent a good 2-3 hours reading through the index of all the diets, finding the most interesting, the most popular, and the weirdest diets. There are definitely a handful I found that I would never recommend, due to extreme restrictions of food. Healthy? No! I did want to share with you the pros and cons of several of the most widely know diet plans out there. I am in no way suggesting that these are the only good diet plans and what not. I am simply giving you information. These are not my opinions on such diets. Please use this information to your benefit and for yourself-however that may be.

Fruitarian Diet

• A fruitarian is a subgroup of a vegan, but goes even further by eliminating all parts of vegetables (plants and trees) except the fruit part of the plants.
• They eat only the culinary fruit and botanical fruit. As in apples, pears, nuts, seeds, tomatoes and other plant fruit. Nuts provide a great source of protein and grains and pasta are suggested for consumption for a balanced diet.
• This diet is extremely hard to follow due to extreme restrictions. Long term negative health effects of this type of diet can be: vitamin B12 deficiency, which is essential for normal nervous system functioning; chronic alcoholism, chrohns disease, fish tape worm, and pernicious anemia.

Flat-Belly Diet

• This diet focuses on losing visceral fat-its more dangerous to your health and much harder to lose. It also focuses on the consumption of monounsaturated fatty acids at every meal because MUFA's help with fat burning.
• Oils, nuts and seeds, olives, and dark chocolate are recommended. See my post "Flat Belly Foods" for more foods! This diet resembles that of the Mediterranean diet, which will be explored next.
• Exercise is recommended, but not necessary. WHAT?!
• Overall: Some of these claims are bit dramatic, but their is evidence backing up the need for MUFA's in your diet and their healthy effects.

The Mediterranean Diet

• This diet is all about consuming lots of fruits and vegetables, olive oil, fish, breads, and other grains. This diet contains only small amounts of fish and poultry and red meat is rarely eaten.
• This diet is also about enjoy the food you eat! :)
• Pros: improved cardiovascular health, focus on fresh foods, backed by solid research, portion control.
• Cons: doesn't necessarily improve weight, doesn't address other health issues, dairy is a large part of the diet.

The Raw Food Diet

• 75% of food consumed on this diet should be raw. Raw food is recommended because it contains more enzymes that are usually lost while cooked.
• This diet is generally made up of fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, sprouted grains, and dried fruit. Some add fish and poultry to their diet, but many are strict vegans.
• I didn't find any pros and cons.

The Special K Diet

• This diet is said to consume 2 servings of special k cereal, a third meal being nutritionally balanced, and snacks including fruits, veggies, and/or special k bars.
• Pros: no calorie counting, easy to follow, effective for 75% of people.
• Cons: lack of variation, not based on whole grains and not a good source of fiber, hunger is a likely problem.

The Paleo Diet

• This diet is to eat like a caveman. That being said you shouldn't eat processed foods, sugar, salt, grains, legumes, dairy products, coffee and alcohol because these were not available to cavemen.
• Pros: high intakes of protein, emphasis of fruits and vegetables, intake of essential fatty acids, no counting calories.
• Cons: highly restrictive, may be socially disruptive, diet is based on some speculation.

The Atkins Diet

• The original plan went through four phases of eliminating carbohydrates from the diet. The new plan places an emphasis on eating more healthy, and nutritionally dense whole foods.
• Pros: quick results can be experienced, may have experienced success.
• Cons: high fat diet.

There you go, a sampling of several popular diets out there. If there is anything all of these diets have in common, its the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and veggies are very important to your diet-they provide fiber, keep you full, provide vitamins and minerals, and are simply delicious! Again, these are not my opinions on these diets, but facts. Please click here for where I found this information and for even more information on these diets and much more.

Happy eating, happy exercising, happy living!