Online calorie tracking

I have been tracking my caloric intake and physical activity for about 4 months now, because I am actively trying to loose a little weight I put on when I started sitting at a desk 40 hours a week. I use the "MyPlate" tool on Livestrong.com.

This is a healthy living website brought to you by the foundation of Lance Armstrong. Basically, the MyPlate tool is an online food and exercise journal, you enter everything you eat, and the amount of physical activity you do, and it shows you your overall caloric intake (minus calories burned). It also shows your intake of basic nutrients like sugar, protein, and fiber versus the recommended daily allowance (from the FDA). It is free to use, but they only keep your journal for something like 40 days, than it is cleared. You can pay for a higher level membership, and they will keep your journal forever and you get more features, but for me, just seeing the calories add up daily is really useful.

I love the MyPlate feature because you can search for specific foods from specific brands or restaurants. I mean, they have everything! My Toufayan whole wheat pita, and Sabra classic hummus? Yep, they have the nutritional info, confirmed from the manufacturer. They have the nutritional content of many dishes from small and large chain restaurants (like Chipotle, Noodles & CO., Pei Wei, etc.) as well as the info for basic foods like fresh fruits and veggies. You can also add in your own recipes and get the nutritional analysis for them, it's pretty amazing.

I have always considered myself a pretty healthy eater, I don't eat fast food, or fried food, I rarely drink soda, and I almost always eat whole foods, rather than pre-made packaged stuff. Still, I was surprised at how quickly the calories add up in the day, and especially shocked at how hard it is for me to keep my sugar intake under the RDA. Seeing my calories add up using this tool has helped me "just say no" to unnecessary snacks, bites, and tastes, because it is just not worth the extra calories. So far, using this tool, and being more active (hello YTTP doing yoga 20 hrs a week!) I have lost about 5 lbs of solid fat (not including water weight fluctuations) in 2 months, but more importantly, I have lost inches. I can fit into pants that wouldn't even button back in February!! That is freaking satisfying!

Disclaimer: I am not paid by any of the companies or services I recommend or review on this blog (unless otherwise stated). I just like to share things that I find interesting or useful!

Burger Review!

Burgers on the grill are the harbingers of summer, one fleeting whiff of the burning charcoal and meat can send me into an elaborate day dream involving cute summer dresses, bare feet, beer, fresh fruit salad, strings of pretty garden lights, and of course a deliciously juicy burger, just off the grill.

My blogging buddy Liam at My So-Called Knife, posted his recipe for the Perfect Burgers a few weeks ago, and I got the chance to try them out on Memorial Day. His recipe intrigued me because of its use of interesting and exciting ingredients. Unfortunately, on the big day, I woke up with a terrible cold, and no sense of taste, due to a stuffy nose :( Never-the-less, I forged on and made these for my family to enjoy, and enjoy they did. My mother, grandmother, sister, husband, and brother-in-law all declared them the "best burgers ever!" I think is has something to do with the pork sausage...my family has an unhealthy obsession with pork... Even in my sick state, I thoroughly devoured my burger, and it was juicy and perfect, even though I couldn't taste it as well as I wanted too :)

This recipe is also great because he goes into the subtleties of burger making, a great way to take your burgers to the next level of awesomeness!

From MSCK:

"My perfect burgers call for a mix of ground beef and sausage, at about a 70%/30% ratio. I could probably increase the perfection quotient on the burgers if I started grinding my own meat, but that will have to wait for another day. I also occasionally have been known to use some buffalo meat in the mixture if I can get a good source for it. But for this base recipe, we’ll just go with the beef and sausage.


Perfect ingredients…

- 1 lb ground beef (you can go lean if you want, but I usually don’t)
- 1/3 lb pork sausage (Italian, sage, mild, spicy, whatevers – mix it up)
- 2 heaping spoonfuls of sour cream
- 5-6 splashes of Worcestershire sauce
- 1 c bread crumbs
- 3 or 4 slices of cheese (I used Swiss in this iteration)
- 1 egg (optional)
- hamburger buns

Perfect toppings…
- 1/4 lb bacon
- lettuce
- caramelized onion
- raw onion
- mushrooms
- tomato
- your favorite ketchup/sauce

AWESOME ALERT! I got to use my own lettuce for this, grown in a container on my back deck. It’s the first non-herb food product of any sort that I’ve eaten that I have grown myself. I had to have a moment.

Anyway.

First thing you want to do is fry up the bacon for topping. Fry it in a skillet (cast iron if possible), and as it’s frying prep your toppings – slice up the tomato, onion and mushrooms to appropriate size pieces.

After the bacon’s finished frying, take it out of the skillet and lay it out on a paper towel so the oil will drain off. Reserve bacon fat in the skillet and set aside, we will be using it later.

Next, set out a large bowl and put in the beef, the pork sausage, the sour cream, the bread crumbs, the Worcestershire sauce, and the cheese. Break the cheese up into small pieces as it’s going to be mixed in with the burger meat.

You can add an egg here into your mix, I occasionally do, but if you do then you probably want to add more bread crumbs – with the sour cream and the sauce in there already, it gets pretty runny if you add an egg. Top off with more bread crumbs if it is too liquidy, until you get a consistency that’s solid enough to stay together on your grill.

Step away from your bowl now and go fire up the grill. If you’re using a charcoal grill, fire it up 20 minutes ago.

Take your hands and mix all the ingredients in the bowl. You will get good and messy here, so just suck it up. You want to make sure all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly but try not to over-work the meat.

When forming your burger patties, go for something a little bit smaller than the size of your fist. Flatten it out a little bit in the center but not too much. You want it to cook evenly so bear that in mind as you are making the patties.

By now your grill should be pretty warm and ready to go.

Cook the patties over a medium-high flame for 7-9 minutes. You should see the meat browning just shy of half way up the patty when it’s ready to flip. Cook the other side another 7-9 minutes.

Whatever you do, do not flatten your burger patties while they are on the grill. I’ve known people to have a tendency to do this, thinking that if you flatten them they will cook more evenly. Well, they might, but in doing so you’re squeezing all the juices out of the meat when they could be cooking into the burger and you’re losing all your flavor.

Optional bonus: sear over high heat for just 1-2 minutes on either side right before they come off the grill.

While the burgers are cooking on the grill, heat the bacon fat in the skillet back up. Sautee the mushrooms and onions in the skillet in the bacon fat. Take them out after the onions have browned slightly and the mushrooms have taken on a semi-transparent quality. Set aside on a towel to drain.

Can’t make a perfect burger without perfect toppings.

Take burgers off grill. Top with awesome toppings. I like to use Bigg Riggs Awesome Sauce instead of ketchup. It’s technically a wing sauce, but I like it on all kinds of stuff.

Eat. Enjoy. "

Liam, my family and I thank you for making our Memorial Day, Memoriable...memorable...you rock!

Liquid Calories

*Quick note: I am currently working on giving my blog a makeover for Spring/Summer, so don't mind me if it gets a little schizophrenic around here while I try out new looks.

Today, I was innocently checking out one of my Favorite blogs, Not Martha, and came across a link to

this article:

Harmful Drinks in America

After reading the whole thing, I feel like my innocence is lost, a part of my soul gone... forever...I have been critical of bottled beverages for a very long time, but I don't think I ever really knew the depths of their wickedness until now.

This article reviews several of our nation's worst beverages, and gives the "sugar equivalent" in junk food. The sugar content is not the only shocking thing about the drinks, MANY of them reach 1000 calories or higher. Here's the thing about liquid calories, they don't really make you feel any more full than before you drank them, but your body processes those calories just the same as the calories from solids. This means you are taking in a crap load of empty, potentially harmful (don't even get me started on the evils of high fructose corn syrup, I will save that for another post) calories on top of your daily food intake. This leads to fat storage, weight gain, and all that goes with it.

Now, I could certainly go off on a tangent about food companies and their questionable ethics in making these beverages (especially the ones marketed to children!), I could go off on the FDA for allowing them to sell us this junk, but I won't. One of the nice things about living in a capitalistic society is that we have the choice to NOT PURCHASE these items, and drink water instead (or at least go for a lower calorie option...c'mon). We are fortunate enough to live in a time where nutritional information is widely available on the Internet, and in most establishments where food and drinks are sold. All you have to do is ask, it's easy, I do it all.the.time. It's not embarrassing, and the person behind the counter doesn't mind, as long as you smile and ask politely.

In this day and age, we finally have the opportunity to empower ourselves, and make to good choices that lead to a happy, healthy diet.

When consumers show whats most important to them by buying the healthier (the real thing, not just something claiming to be healthy on the label) options at restaurants and grocery stores, the people making this crap will listen, and supply us with more of what we want. I am an optimist, and I believe that the movement that some call a "trend" or a "fad" to buy whole (not processed), local, and organic foods is going to change the way our nation relates to what we eat.

OK, I will get off my soap box now. I guess that all there is left to say is "power to the people!"

Source

Finally! Garden Plans 2010...

I think it is finally time to start planting my garden! The trees have began to blossom, and the bugs are coming out in full force. Last weekend, I evaluated our new outdoor space to see what I could do, and it looks like the little bed in front of our house is perfect for a vegetable garden, it gets about 8 hours of direct sunlight a day, and is right next to our house, so hopefully only the bravest squirrels and birds will try to eat my produce.  I am going to try to grow some tomatoes upsidedown this year. I read about this in Real Simple Magazine. If you grow your tomato plants in hanging pots, you will not have to try to prop them up with flimsy wire cages! I am also going to plant my pumpkins and squash in the backyard, away from the rest, because in my experience, these will take over the entire garden if they are in a confined space.

Front yard flower bed:
Corn
Bell peppers
Jalepeno peppers
Loose leaf lettuce (field greens)
Spinach
Broccoli
Cucumbers
Carrots (I've never been successful with these before, so we'll see how it goes)
An herb garden with:
Basil
Cilantro
Parlsley
Oragano

Tomatoes in hanging pots on the patio

Back yard:
Pumpkins for carving
Pumpkins for eating
Butternut squash
Possible more corn

I will also plant a few flowers, just for fun :)
I have 2 calanchos that desperetely need potting and 2 primroses that also need a home.
Growing up, our entire porch was covered in morning glories, they are one of my favorites. It is such a consolation to me when I have to get up early to see the lovely flowers that only come out in the early morning.

I have found that the Farmer's Almanac website has a plethora of gardening advice, so I will be basing the planting dates off of their guide for my region. I will make sure to take tons of pictures as things start to pop up and grow!

A peek inside my grocery cart

I think we all like to look into other people's lives a little bit, and that's why blogs are so popular. That's also why it's so much fun to look into other people's carts when grocery shopping and see what kind of stuff they buy (or at least...it's fun for me...maybe I'm a freak...). In celebration of a much needed shopping trip, and to give some ideas to those who are less inspired while grocery shopping, here is what was in my grocery cart this weekend:

whole wheat pita bread
flour tortillas
hummus
shredded chedder
shredded mozzarella
a ball of pre-made pizza dough
whatever fish is on sale that week (this week, halibut)
ground beef
local made pork beer brats
round steaks
chicken breasts
no bone pork chops
broccoli
field greens (salad mix)
sweet potatos
small red potatos
cilantro
avocados
baby carrots
cucumbers
tomatoes
apples
oranges
bananas
lemons
limes
grapefruit
light vanilla soy milk
half and half
yogurt with no hf corn syrup, and active cultures, my fav is Cascade Fresh
butter...sweet amazing REAL butter. I gave up on the smart balance type stuff because, taste wise, it just does not compare. I do use it sparingly however :)
eggs from a local eco friendly farm
granola with whole grains and low sugar
dark chocolate covered orange sticks (so delicious)
tortilla chips
organic salsa
coffee
when Zak is with me: diet pepsi :)


These are basically all the items we need to buy about every other week. Things like fresh produce, meat and dairy, not to mention treats! For these things, I go to Sunflower Market, it's a grocer that specializes in local, and natural food. Their meat is all hormone free and mostly comes from local farms, that treat the animals ethically. The things I buy at Sunflower are very affordable, some things are just a few cents more than what you would buy at a regular store (like safeway or target) their produce and meat are actually cheaper (seriously, 2 steaks for $5)!

For other staples like flour, spices, zip lock bags, parchment paper, and toiletries I go to King Soopers because they are the cheapest in my neighborhood. When I shop, I look for what's on sale, then base all my meals around that. This way you can save A LOT of money. I also always look at the lables of what I am buying to quickly check to make sure there is no hf corn syrup, low sugar content, and to make sure the ingredient list isn't full of stuff I can't pronouce.

All in all, we spend a little more on groceries (about $300-400 a month) but it's worth it for me, and I compensate for it by going out to eat very rarely (once or twice a month), and going to starbucks very rarley (once a week or less).

Stay tuned this week, I will be posting some awesome old family photos of my grandparents and their horse ranch!