Into Fitness » healthy living

Healthy Cinnamon French Toast

IntoFit — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:21:05 +0000

I could have this for breakfast everyday. And the best part is – I should! It’s a great way to start the day packed with whole grains, fiber and lean protein! Imagine French Toast for breakfast everyday and calling yourself healthy at the same time. I love it!

Cinnamon French Toast:

2 slices of Ezekiel Cinnamon Bread defrosted
3 egg whites
Dash of Cinnamon
Dash of Vanilla
1/2 a banana – sliced
Canola oil spray

How to make it:

Heat both pans on medium
Whisk egg whites, cinnamon and vanilla in a bowl
Drench your Ezekiel bread in your egg mixture
Spray both your pans with a touch of oil.
In one pan: place your toast and top it off with any remaining egg. Then brown both sides!
In the other pan – saute your sliced banana
Place your banana on-top of your french toast and voila!

Here is the scoop:

Calories	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat	Fiber
275	50.1	17.4	1.7	5.5

Calories Carbohydrates Protein Fat Fiber

275 50.1 17.4 1.7 5.5

Lunch Club

IntoFit — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:37:17 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! I’m sure many of you have all sorts of resolutions to have a healthy 2011 so I thought I’d start this year with a very helpful idea to keep your resolutions in line.

This one is sure to fatten your wallet and loosen your belt.

I’m a big advocate of bringing your lunch to work. But for many, packing a lunch 5 days a week is just out of the question. Time seems to be an issue. If it’s not time , it’s what the heck do I pack for lunch!? Why not take some of the stress of you and delegate! Form a lunch club this year!

Here’s how it works.

Put an email out to see who would be interested in joining your lunch club.
Whether you have 2, 4 or 7 people on board you’ve just formed your very first lunch club!
Assign everyone a day to bring lunch for the gang.
On your lunch day – pack a healthy lunch to feed the troupes!

Now you only have to worry about lunch one day a week and on the other days you know your going to get a healthy home made lunch!

Here are some lunch ideas to help you get started!

Turkey Chili
Any type of salad with any type of lean protein
Sandwiches with lean meat on whole grain bread with veggies and hummus to dip!
Hearty soup with chicken and vegetables – Try this one!
Lean Beef Stew – like my Hamburger Soup
Healthy Casseroles – like my Chicken Nachos
Chicken or tuna salad made with Greek yogurt. Try my Curry Chicken Salad recipe.
Crust-less Quiche – Here is my favorite recipe!
Turkey Burgers on Whole Grain English muffins. Make these the night before and heat them up day of.
Quiona Salad and Soup. Try my Feta Quinoa Salad and my Green Soup!

You have 10 ideas to get you started! And don’t forget, everyone in your lunch club will have 3 or 4 ideas up their sleeve that they love. This is a great way to form a little team at the office and encourage each other to stay healthy and on track this year. Team support is the best kind of support to help you reach your goals. Happy Lunch-ing! Keep me posted on how it goes!

Fighting Off A Cold

IntoFit — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:36:09 +0000

Want to avoid your annual winter cold? Get yourself to the gym!

And I’m not the only one saying it

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/101101/science/science_exercise_fitness_colds_1

Healthy Chicken Nacho’s

IntoFit — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:15:00 +0000

I’m cooking up a storm these days! I think it’s because I’m working full time and going for lunch everyday in a food court is not really an option if I want to keep my pants the same size.

I try to make things that are great for dinner, but really great to heat up the next day.

This week I made a Mexican Casserole (which I called chicken nachos because I think it’s sounds more delicious and that’s what this recipe is ) – delicious!

I found this recipe is Cooking Light- and I did nothing to it. I followed the recipe as written. Here is the scoop:

Ingredients

Cooking spray ( or 1 tbsp olive oil)
1 cup thinly sliced onion
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast ( I used white meat rotisserie)
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 cup salsa.
15 (6-inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1-inch strips. ( I used Ezekiel Corn Tortillas because that’s all I could find (they just happen to be the healthiest ones out there)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. ( I used some olive oil here) Add onion; sauté 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add chicken; cook 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl; stir in beans. Add broth and salsa to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Spray an 11 x 7 baking dish. Place half of tortilla strips in bottom of dish. Layer chicken mixture over tortillas; top with remaining tortillas. Pour broth mixture evenly over chicken mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes or until tortillas are lightly browned and cheese is melted. ( I cooked mine for 20 minutes)

* To reheat this, add a touch of water!

* Nutritional Info:

	Calories	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat	Fiber
	293	40	22.9	4.9	5.9

Calories Carbohydrates Protein Fat Fiber

293 40 22.9 4.9 5.9

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO COOKING LIGHT

Chicken and Feta Wrap

IntoFit — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:44:07 +0000

There is this fantastic magazine in Ontario provided by the LCBO called Food and Drink , and every now and again I find an amazing recipe that I’m able to “health-ify” and then share with you!

This great chicken recipe was in the Summer 2010 issue. Here is what I did with it:

Leek, Chicken and Feta Stuffed Pita’s (serves 4)

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3 leeks (the white’s) – chopped
4 garlic cloves- minced
12 ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts- diced (you can use raw or cooked)
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 ounces Feta Cheese
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
2 egg whites -
salt and pepper to taste
4 whole grain whole grain wraps

Heat oil on skillet over medium heat and cook the garlic and leek until softened. 10 minutes.
Add chicken (if it’s raw, put your stove top on high). Cook.
Add dill, mint, salt and pepper.
Stir in Feta, Parmesan and the egg until well combined. Careful! You don’t want the egg to scramble so make sure you stir!
In a new DRY skillet on medium lay down your whole wheat wrap.
Covered 1/2 the wrap with 1/4 of the chicken mixture and brown on both sides.

ENJOY!

* Nutritional Information (with a Weight Watchers whole wheat wrap)

Calories	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat	Fiber
318	16.7	33.8	11.7	1.5

Calories Carbohydrates Protein Fat Fiber

318 16.7 33.8 11.7 1.5

* You can lower the fat (and calories by using low fat cheese

How Much Sugar is In Soda Pop ?

IntoFit — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:30:36 +0000

This is a great commercial put out by The New York City Heath Department. If you know anyone who still drinks pop, this is really worth a look. Click on the picture to see the video!

Now they just need to make a commercial with a guy chugging a bottle of toxic chemicals sitting beside one person drinking diet pop and the other person eating a “sugar free / fat free ” treat.

Ginger Salad Dressing

IntoFit — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 05:29:13 +0000

Have you ever been to the restaurant Fresh? Well, if you have or have not they make this delicious ginger salad dressing. Now I am actually not a big ginger fan – but for some reason I LOVE THIS DRESSING! This is the dressing that makes you WANT to eat salad! No joke! My sister owns the Fresh Cookbook so I thought I would pass along the recipe. I ALWAYS have a jar of it in my refrigerator!

Ginger Salad Dressing

1/2 celery stalk chopped
1/2 a small onion chopped
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Water
1/3 cup Sunflower or Canola Oil (recipe calls for 1/2 a cup)
1/2 cup Rice Vine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp Fresh Ginger diced
1 tsp raw sugar (recipe calls for 1.5 tsp)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine Well! I use my Magic Bullet, but if you don’t got one of those you can use a blender or hand blender.

* Nutritional Information (1/16th of Recipe)

Calories	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat	Fiber
44	.9	.1	4.5	.1

Calories Carbohydrates Protein Fat Fiber

44 .9 .1 4.5 .1

* CHECK BACK to get the recipe for my favorite lunch! “Chicken Ginger Salad Slaw”

H.A.L.T

IntoFit — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:05:38 +0000

My husband sent me this really interesting articles about impulse shopping. I read it and immediately thought how much it related to impulse eating. It seems everyone has some sort of vise to help them cope with everyday stress. Some people “shop till they drop!” Some – eat.

The article talks about four reasons we may act on our impulses and not always our best interests.

They are :

Hunger
Anger
Loneliness
Tiredness

I think if we could just for a second before we start to over-eat (and I know how hard it is to capture that second), ask ourselves these four questions:

Am I Hungry ? Am I Angry? Am I Lonely ? Am I Tired?

If we know the right answer we may just be able to feed our body what it really needs. And sometimes when our bodies are hungry – it’s not necessarily for food.

To read the article CLICK HERE .

* Fridays’ Steps – 6423

* Monday’s Steps – 8923

Greek Style Yogurt and Weight Loss

IntoFit — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:50:43 +0000

Ever since I moved form the States to Canada I have been obsessed with finding an alternative to my favorite Greek style yogurt: Fage. Why they don’t sell it in Canada, I don’t know. Anyway, I think I found something!

I love it because it has 20 grams of protein in it! Most yogurts have 2 to 6 grams. This is sure to help keep you feeling full and satisfied whether you eat it as a snack or include it in a yummy breakfast.
I also love it because low fat dairy is great for weight loss! Recent studies suggest that dairy products help eliminate fat from your body!
Not to mention that protein takes more time and is harder for your body to digest then carbohydrates or fat! What does that mean?
1. You burn more calories working to digest protein then you do fat or carbohydrates.
2. Because it takes more time to digest, you stay full longer.
And of course, this product has 150mg of calcium, that’s 15% of your recommended daily intake.

Liberte now makes a Greek Style Yogurt that is rich, thick and creamy and a pretty close (although not a prefect) match to my favorite Fage .

Here are the stats for 175ml (3/4 cup):

Calories	Carbohydrates	Protein	Fat	Fiber
110	6	20	.4	0

Calories Carbohydrates Protein Fat Fiber

110 6 20 .4 0

Check back in! I’m going to post one of my favorite Greek Yogurt breakfast recipes !

* Monday’s Steps – 10,197! Whoot!

Walking Working Girl

IntoFit — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 05:17:09 +0000

Life has really changed for me these days, I’m working full time in an office. I’m so used to running here and there that getting my 10,000 steps a day has never been a challenge. And if I didn’t get in my 10,000, I had the time to go for a walk or something.

Now, I’ve got no time- at least it seems that way! So I pulled out the old pedometer to see how may steps I was getting and how hard it would be for me to reach a daily goal of 10,000.

Day One

I strapped on my pedometer as soon as I was dressed for work (even though I was walking around the house a bit more) those steps still count! ( I may just have to put it by my bedside table and strap it on as soon as the alarm goes off to help get in those steps! Seriously! )

I walk to the subway in the morning which is really a stone’s throw away from my house and then from the subway to work (again, really close).

During the day I tried to get up from my desk as much as I could to get water, go to the bathroom, talk to a co-worker (instead of calling down the hall).

I got home and was at 4352 steps. A far cry from my 10,000! Thankfully I had to go grocery shopping and thankfully it was DAY ONE of my challenge and I REALLY wanted to hit my target.

By the end of the grocery shop and walking here and there around the house I managed to squeeze out 11,234 steps! Sweet! I don’t however think everyday will be this magical. But I can say this, just a 30 minute walk with my husband (bonding time!!!) would have for sure done the trick.

I’ll try to keep you posted with my numbers. It would help if there was anyone else out there that wanted to take on this challenge with me! Get yourself a pedometer and start sending me those numbers! It can be a fun game if you’ve got someone to compete with.