Nutrition and Exercise!

In this fast paced, fast food life style it is hard at times to ensure that you and your family get the most nutritional foods and the exercise that you need. I'm going to share with you some of the tricks I use and maybe they'll help you too.

We really try to avoid eating out at all but when we do we try to make the best choices. For example, if we go to McDonald's or Wendy's we buy regular size hamburgers NOT cheeseburgers with NO mayo. That cuts a ton, maybe up to 400 calories off the order. No Big Macs for us. Then if we let the kids get fries, they either share one large one or I buy just a small order each (depends on which is cheaper, coupons etc...) A normal serving size for an adult is a Happy Meal/Kid's size but we have super sized everything including ourselves. At KFC they now have grilled chicken so that is what we get instead of fried and we get corn as a side. Corn is better than fries! Some places have a healthy menu and we order off of it. If we get PIZZA which I love I ask them to go light on the pepperoni. Jon and I usually get a separate pizza with chicken and veggies on it. We all go with thin crusts at the pizza places that have them. That usually cuts down several points in fats. If we go to a nicer place then we still try and eat as healthy as possible!

At home, we only keep healthier snacks. We like Ruffles chips and dip so we buy the lower fat Ruffles and the low fat dip. Or we go with salsa (fat free & chocked full of veggies) & chips. We buy microwavable popcorn but it's the SMART BALANCE kind and low fat. I don't keep any sweets in the house, on occasion we might buy a cake or something but not very often. We do have fruit and fruit snacks always available. I will make brownies BUT when I do, I use Eggbeaters (egg whites) Smart Balance Oil, Smart Balance margarine and I spray with a non stick spray. So they are as low fat as possible but still taste good. I make cakes & muffins that way.

I also puree' vegetables into food. For example: if I make meatloaf, then I use the leanest ground meat (with no antibiotics) as possible and I puree' a 1/2 cup of carrots into it. No one knows the difference and they end up with some extra veggies! I use the book Deceptively Delious by Jerry Sinfiels's wife. It's great! I also add flax meal to casseroles alot. There is alot of things I puree into dishes thanks to that book. Also I drain meat after it's cooked...that gets a few more calories/fat out!

And we NEVER eat anything or buy anything that we know has trans fat!!!!!!!!!
I try to always have fresh salad in the house, ready to eat. Midget carrots too and ranch dressing...at least they are getting veggies in them!

I try not to buy much processed food and the less preservatives the better. We have quit eating lunch meat, bacon, hotdogs etc....because of the NITRIDES. It is usually the last ingredient in cured meats and it will kill you!!! There are links with lunch meats/hot dogs / bacon and cancer. There is UNcured hotdogs and bacon out there, you just have to look for them and then check the fat content. Publix carries two brands of uncured hotdogs and one has like 18 grams of fat!!! Also Boar's head deli products carry some lunch meats with no nitrates.

All our pastas are either wheat or vegetable pasta (one brand has a tri colored pasta that will give you a serving of vegetables in each 4 oz. I stick with those. Even Kraft's famous mac & cheese now offer whole wheat boxes! My kids can't tell the difference! It's so much better for them. And bread is whole wheat...soemtimes I'll let the kids get the white wheat but it's really not that good for you. Our grocery store carries whole wheat fresh breads and that's what we use to make garlic bread with. It's so good!

When I buy frozen foods like fish sticks, I get the lowest fat possible. It's no good to eat fish if you're eating a serving with 22 grams of fat!!!! I buy low fat ice cream....

We rarely fry anything in our house. I bet in 20 years I've fried less than 20 times! We bake everything but every so often...I'll bread and fry okra or green tomatoes...but I do it the smartest way possible. I use egg whites and fat free milk as the "wet" ingredient and I picked the "healthiest" seasoning/coating and I fry in Smart Balanc oil. I drain the stuff really good to get as much grease as possible out. If I stir fry something, I use olive oil which is a good oil.

Also be very careful with your salad dressings!! A salad is no good if you put on 30 grams of salad dressing! We use Kraft's low fat dressings. They have no preservatives and are really tasty. We also use fat free mayo~the only difference is it's made with egg whites and no the whole egg. I make my own tarter sauce with fat free mayo so when I'm eating fish, I'm not eating a ton of fat!

Eating HIGH fat will kill you dead! We eat as low fat as possible- fat free milk (again Smart Balance that comes from cows who don't get antibiotics) FAT will clog your arteries, it causes heart attacks, strokes, and cancer!

We try and watch portion size with my husband, me and our teenage son. We don't just keep eating and eating or we try not to:) Also if I buy a treat, like a bag of chips and dip, that's it, when it's gone it's gone...I don't keep a ton of that in the house. It's just too easy to keep eating and eating!


So as you can see I use alot of tricks in my cooking and buying food. My kids already read labels and without me telling them will, put something back on the shelve and say "oh it had trans fat or the sat. food was 13 grams" They know we wouldn't buy it! I'm trying to install good healthy eating habits in them. My husband's side of the family has lots of heart disease so we are trying to avoid them following in relatives footsteps. My side of the family, for the most part, were pretty healthy as far as food went. But they all had their own gardens and ate lost of vegetables even if they were fried at times. But they got alot of exercise, they didnt' have a sedentary lifestyle at all.



EXERCISE! Well I try and walk 10,000 steps a day. Usually I get about 5,000 done at the track and then the rest throughout the day. If I don't go to the track then I make myself do 40 minutes on my exercise bike at level 3 which is pretty hard. I don't love exercising but I know I must to stay as healthy as possible. I love it when I'm done! Boy when I get up and get my walk in by 7 pm, I'm wide awake and ready to face the day ~ those endorphins are kicking in!!!!!


My husband is quite the walker/runner and he goes for about an hour most days. It's hard for me to get the boys to exercise at home. They do good at school (their school is VERY sports oriented which we LOVE) but at home, they want to watch tv, play video games...so we do things as a family to get them off their butts! Whether it's going to the State Park or any park, the beach or even getting them to walk around at the mall...they tend to do better away form home. Now when it gets cooler and they can be out without getting so hot (we do live in Florida) then they will play in the yard or on the trampoline. It's challenging but I don't want my kids having health problems as young people!!!

So we try everything we can to be as healthy as possible. It's challenging and Lord knows I'm not some tiny little person BUT just think how big and unhealthy I'd be if I didn't use this self control in food and exercise