Healthy Habit of the Month III.

Find a super buddy, share some super (will)power.

This post is the third installment of SeektobeMerry's "Healthy Habit of the Month" series. Sourced from my bff's at Weight Watchers, online articles and my own efforts to keep fit and trim, throughout 2013, I will attempt to integrate one new healthy habit into my life each month. Join me!

Can you believe that it's already time to incorporate another healthy habit into our lives!? It seems like just yesterday we were scheduling a weekly workout and making fruits and veggies mandatory at mealtime! Though my "healthy eats intake" continues to be a work in progress, I'm thrilled to report that I succeeded in scheduling (and completing, ha!) at least 1 workout every week last month. Who'dve thunk that the simple act of writing it on my calendar would increase my accountability so much!? Is anyone else on this journey with me? If so, I'd love to hear from you because having a buddy always helps. And speaking of buddies (and accountability)...

Healthy Habit of the Month #3: Find an "Accountability Buddy"
This one is for those of us actively seeking to lose a few pounds (eghm)... this month we're going to find an "accountability buddy". My accountability buddy and I email one another each morning with a list of everything (I mean everything, even that "fun size" piece of chocolate) we ate the day before. This allows us to keep the number on the scale private (I'm not brave enough for a "humiliation diet"), but still be accountable to someone outside our own brains for what we pile into our mouths. I've been accountabil-izing (hehe) for a few weeks now and it's seriously working. As I'm standing in front of my open fridge debating my next move, having the thought "I'm going to have to share this decision tomorrow morning" has actually stopped me from needless snacking. I have even been ordering a bit better in restaurants! Now, do we always share our Saturday night/Sunday brunch indiscretions? Not a chance... but together we're 2 buddies, taking baby steps in the right direction.

Healthy Habit of the Month II.

Yup, that sounds about right.

This post is the second installment of SeektobeMerry's "Healthy Habit of the Month" series. Sourced from my bff's at Weight Watchers, online articles and my own efforts to keep fit and trim, throughout 2013, I will attempt to integrate one new healthy habit into my life each month. Join me!

So we meet again impending spring... With March just 1 week away, I'm trying to overlook the lion and focus on the lamb. Before we know it, warmer weather will allow us to shed our bulky sweaters and full-coverage outfits for spring apparel, meaning it's time to get serious about our healthy habits people!!! How are we doing with last month's pledge to eat a fruit or veggie at every meal? Full disclosure, I've achieved only moderate success. I'm definitely eating WAY more of the good stuff, but for me every meal is a major change and requires a lot of advance planning. I'm getting there. Baby steps right? This month we're going to shift gears from food to activity.
Healthy Habit of the Month #2: Schedule a workout. Just one. EVERY week.

We all have the best intentions, but fitting in exercise can be a real challenge. You have to physically get to the place you're going to workout, you have to have energy to do your workout and then you have to clean yourself up (with the sweating and the hair and the re-dressing...) For me a 1 hour workout can take nearly 2 hours if I include travel and cleanup times. And we're all busy (and lazy and thirsty for a cocktail) so some weeks I get in 3 or 4 workouts, other weeks, nada. For this month's challenge, I'm going to look at my calendar every Sunday night and schedule in 1 workout for the week. I'm going to treat it like an important meeting - it cannot be cancelled or rescheduled for anything short of a true emergency. No more excuses, just a better ability to make time for working up a good sweat. Game on exercise!

It's Game Time!

I am ready for some football.

With Super Bowl XLVII just a few days away, it's time to settle on the perfect game day eats to make you the King/Queen of your viewing party. Whether your rooting for the Ravens, feelin the Forty-Niners or just love an excuse to drink beer on a Sunday night, here are a few standout recipes for your eating pleasure:

Beefy mac cheese of the Gods.

* Hamburger Mess - Full Recipe HERE. Because nothing says sports like a huge casserole of gooey, meaty macaroni and cheese!

Meat, this time STUFFED with cheese

* Feta-Stuffed Buffalo Meatballs - Full Recipe HERE. There are no words, only a small trail of drool...

Hot & Healthy

* Jalapeno Poppers - Recipe HERE. This is actually a Weight Watchers recipe... so you can save your calories for beer:)

Get. In. My. Belly.

* Mini Taco Bowls - So easy, you don't even need a recipe! Just place won ton wrappers in muffin tins, fill each cup with taco seasoned ground meat, cheese & bake for 8 minutes at 350. Top with favorite taco toppings!

For the gourmet fan...

* Brie Bites - Full Recipe HERE. Because bringing anything involving jam to a Super Bowl party automatically makes you the classiest guest around.

A dessert DIP!!!

* Funfetti Cake Dip - Full Recipe HERE. This stuff will blow your mind... super sweet and less unhealthy than you'd think (uses fat free greek yogurt and cool whip!)

And last but certainly not least (these will never stop blowing my mind)...

For those with ambition greater than any I've ever known...

Healthy Habit of the Month

Learning to love my fruits and veggies

Recently my bffs over at Weight Watchers shared a new way of thinking about eating right. When their researchers discovered that we are straight up hard-wired to crave junky foods (read about the brain scan research HERE) they deduced that we cannot rely on willpower alone because our brains are programmed to be like "gimme the pizza dammit" and no amount of willpower can control that sort of Jedi mind control. Apparently, in addition to a strong resolve to eat better, we've got to build habits and environments which help us defeat these chemical reactions. Sounds exhausting right?

Well, since everyone I know is looking for ways to be healthier and look skinnier (<-- let's call it what it is people) I thought perhaps together we could attempt to integrate one new healthy habit into our lives each month.* One small change we'll test out together and see how it feels. Ready?! Here goes:

Healthy Habit of the Month #1: Add a fruit or veggie to every meal.
Maybe this isn't a change for you. Maybe you're all "ohmygod how unhealthy is this girl that she isn't eating a fruit/veg at every meal?" Well, I'm not, so I'm gonna try it, the theory being that 1) fruits and veggies are super healthy 2) if you round out every meal with fruit/veg, you'll get and stay satisfied for longer. So if you usually have yogurt for breakfast, add a banana. If lunch is soup and a half sandwich, add some baby carrots or an apple... you get the idea. I'm really curious to see how I do with this challenge since I'm definitely NOT a huge fan of fruits and veggies... I am, however, a fan of feeling full, so maybe, just maybe, it can work. Good luck!

*Note: Sometimes the healthy habit will be Weight Watchers suggested, other times I'm gonna think it up myself. It's like I'm paying your WW membership for you. You're welcome:)