Size does matter!

I was talking with my wife this morning about how great she is doing with her weight loss. Her weight had been static for a few weeks but she just dropped another couple of pounds. She was telling me how she felt that she hadn’t lost much weight. It got me thinking about the way 90 percent of people gauge how well they are doing weight-wise — the scale!

The truth is if you are exchanging fat for muscle, you won’t see a change in your weight. In fact, it may even go up — and yet you are still getting healthier. So why do we keep track of just our weight, something I am guilty of myself?

Bahamian Grilled Chicken

Summer is finally here, and what better way to welcome the warm weather than to get outside and fire up the grill? In the first of two Caribbean recipes, I share a recipe for Bahamian Grilled Chicken adapted from a recipe I found in “The Barbecue! Bible” by Steven Raichlen.

Ingredients

4 skinless chicken breasts
1 cup fresh lime juice
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 to 2 hot chiles, sliced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme 1 or 1 teaspoon dried
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Carbohydrates are not your enemy

So this week I lost another 2 pounds. For those who are keeping track, I weighed in at 278 pounds on Monday. So after another successful week I started to reflect on what my food intake had been like the last few weeks. The answer may come as a surprise to some people, because although I had stuck with fairly low fat food, I had consumed plenty of carbohydrates as well. Recently with diets like South Beach and Atkins, carbohydrates have been given a pretty bad name, but I’m here to say that carbohydrates are not your enemy, at least complex carbohydrates aren’t!

Distorted Self Image

I was looking around on YouTube for a new video to post here on Thrive! TV and this is what I came across . . .

What a reminder of how the media has distorted peoples’ self image! When I watched the video, my immediate reaction was shock at how thin the person looked, then disgust at how overly skinny her examples of what she wanted to look like were.

Smart Eating Out: The Prelude

I’ve been trying to get started on a series of posts about making smart decisions when eating out for a while now, but for some reason I was suffering from writer’s block. That is until I came across this article on WebMD. The article summarizes a study performed by Pierre Chandon, Ph.D. and Brian Wansink, Ph.D. and published in October’s edition of the Journal of Consumer Research.

Forty Pounds Down!

Well it took longer than I hoped, but I finally reached the 40 pound loss mark! Now I am back to the weight I was when I arrived from England in 1999. Any weight I lose now will also result in my wife seeing me at the thinnest I’ve ever been

So how did I do it? Well, to be honest I can’t point to any one thing. I did go into this with a much different attitude — I wasn’t starting a quick fix diet, I was making a permanent change. I think having that outlook made a big difference in how I approached my weight loss, and made it easier to get back on the wagon if I ever fell off.

Carnival of the Recipes - May 19th Edition

Having been sick for most of last week I was looking forward to finding some new comfort food recipes as part of my round up of recipes for Carnival of the Recipes. This recipe from thecookmobile.com for Hawaiian Spare Ribs stood out immediately. If you’ve checked out my personal blog here on Thrive! you realize I love BBQ food — this will definitely be a recipe I try sometime.

Next up is recipe for Chicken Spaghetti, you can never go wrong with pasta when you need a pick-me-up.

Talking of pasta, Jennie W from Jennie’s Rambles presents Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta.

Grilled Marinated Vegetables

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
1 teaspoon fresh basil, minced
2 teaspoons lemon peel
salt and pepper, to taste
Various vegetables, possible choices are sliced mushrooms and red onion, corn on the cob, squash, zucchini and endives

Directions

1. Combine the marinaded ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Mix the marinade and vegetables in a bowl and marinade for 15 minutes.
3. After marinading empty the vegetables into the grill basket.
4. Cook over high heat for 15-20 minutes.

Beer Can Chicken

This is a simple recipe that combines two of my favorite things, beer and grilled food.

Ingredients

Large whole chicken (4 - 5 pounds)
3 - 4 tablespoons of rub
12oz can of beer

Office Chair Stretches

For a while I’ve been thinking about how I could fit in some extra exercise while stuck at my desk all day. This video shows you how you can do some simple stretching exercises while sitting in a chair. If you can’t get out of the office to fit in a walk at lunch time, try these stretches… now you have no excuse to get a short workout in during a busy day!

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