I am a FIRM believer that 80-85% of all successful weight loss and body transformations happen in the KITCHEN. Yes, a regular gym routine IS key, however if it doesn't go hand in hand with healthy eating then you are in essence wasting your time. When I first started going to the gym regularly I would work out hard and think that it was an excuse to eat whatever I wanted when I got home-needless to say I wasn't totally surprise when I wasn't seeing results. When I discovered Clean Eating magazine I started using a lot of their recipes and making minor substitutions in our pantry and that is when I saw what a difference a little more effort put into meals made for our whole family. Now, cooking and preparing meals the CE way is second nature and a lot of those foreign ingredients that I didn't have in my pantry (let alone pronounce in some cases) have become a staple in our meals. Now, I am in NO WAY an expert on weight loss in fact I have struggled (and continue to struggle) my entire life with my weight and literally have tried every pill, powder, drink and fad diet geared toward being that magic key in losing weight to no avail. The problem with everything I was doing before I discovered CE was that I LOVE food and paired with the fact that I have NO self control I was setting myself up for failure every time. My only true understanding of changing our way to eat came when I noticed that through CE I wasn't dreading eating the food I made-it wasn't a diet at all... it was a life change and I needed to make amends with certain foods I just had to cut out of my life all together and others that I needed to learn to make differently. Now, I look at it as a challenge to make healthy meals that my whole family enjoys-which can be hard at times with a husband that hardly ate anything resembling a vegetable when we first met and having those meals appeal to not only us but our boys as well. It was easy when we lived overseas-Sean never knew what a McDonalds was until we visited the US and Brayden was born at a time that he has never even eaten a slice of white bread. When we came here-things got a little more challenging but I think (for the most part) we are on track and though they are afforded a little "junkie" treat once in a while-they will grow up with a pretty clean diet themselves. I have tried to instill the healthy lifestyle into them at a very young age so when we found the genius gym here "American Family Fitness" I was 100% positive that we needed to become members ASAP. Our whole family can go to the gym together-the kids have an area with instructors that lead them in activities that are fitness centered and they see us working out regularly and we have discussions with them about the benefits of being healthy and active and the negatives of eating junk and not working out. As it is you can just ask Sean what happens to people who eat junk and don't exercise and his response every time will be "they can get fat." That being said my mission this month was to find a good solid list of healthy snack foods that the family will enjoy that is a little more involved than just fruits and raw vegetables-though we did find out that the boys LOVE raw broccoli this week and I am SUPER excited about that (Brayden will eat any fruit or veggie you put in front of him but Sean is harder to get on board-his father's son I assume). I am including a recipe for a tasty (and Clean snack that we recently enjoyed) Why not try it out this week in place of the same boring old snack from your pantry??
Ciao for now!!
~L
Crunchy Garam Masala Chickpeas
from Clean Eating, April/May 2012
Ingredients:
3 c. cooked chickpeas OR
2 (15-oz.) cans unsalted chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. garam masala
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, toss chickpeas with olive oil. Spread chickpeas evenly over a baking sheet and bake until, stirring occasionally with a spatula, until very crisp, about 45 minutes.
