I Know This ::Sounds:: Ungrateful On Many Accounts. It is.

I'm so glad the government took 42% of my bonus.

How come they couldn't have just paid me that much more this year?

Its like, "HEY!! LOOK!! We grossed SOOOO much money this year! Lets give half of it to the government in attempt to make our employees less ticked off that they work here!! Ooooooo yeah! Good idea!"

Ya know, I hope 3-4 more grown-up adults get yet another pair of ultra expensive Reeboks purchased at the first of this next month, cuz its on me.
Next time, just pay me more throughout the year. Thanks for my meager, could-be-awesome bonus.

XOXO,
Jen

The Nasty-Nast

i just came to the realization that anchovies and sardines are indeed NOT the same thing.




which means there are TWO kinds of grimey, smelly, canned-whole fish running around.



..........what kind of world do we live in!?!? Why is there a need for more than one variety of such a repugnant, repulsive, and revolting substance!?!?
 
you sardine/achovy lovers are sick....... just sick.

Dessert.

I had something I REALLY liked as a dessert to share with you readers! I use dailyburn.com for nutrition info.

stir together in a small bowl---

*1/2 cup plain 0% Chobani greek yogurt: 70 cal, 0g fat, 4.5 carbs, 11.5g protein

*1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or to taste): 6 cal, 0 fat, .3 carb, 0 protein

*3/4 packet of truvia: 0 cal, 0g fat, 2.3g carbs, 0g protein

Top with---

*1/2 cup raspberries: 31 cal, 0.4g fat, 7.3g carbs, 0.7g protein!!

Thats just 107.5 calories for a satisfying dessert that has filling protein and fiber to boot!

I wanted to wait and take a picture, but I ate it instead!

Must-Haves

My healthy eating must-haves are as follows:

1) Chobani 0% Plain Greek Yogurt: Its awesome and extremely versatile and delicious in a million ways. It has over twice the protein of regular yogurt, less sugar, and more fiber. Did I mention its awesome? I eat it by itself or with cereal or mix in sugar free jello powder or freeze it or use it to make taziki sauce or as a sour cream /mayo substitute in recipes or as a....... SEE? the possibilities are endless. Its the perfect dairy product.

2) Oatmeal: I like to throw in blueberries, cinnamon, and 3/4 of a Truvia packet as I cook it. Whole grain? Check. Protein? Check. Fiber? Check.

3) Tomatoes: I eat these like they are going out of style.

4) Flax seeds: I usually just toss them in to whatever dinner entree I am making or sprinkle some on my sandwich. I just put them into my Greek burgers today, though I thought the texture was a little weird for a burger. But who can say no to the highest plant source of Omega 3 fatty acids?? not to mention the phytochemicals and B vitamins and.... really!! I could keep going.

Hrm.

I've been eating tomatoes like they are going out of style.

I had a hospital stay this week. More on that later, maybe....

Favorite Breakfast

As you could have guessed, I have started to lose weight. I started working nights at the hospital and started to gain a few more pounds. Not only am I losing my "night shift weight," (I have almost lost those pounds completely!) I am going to lose what I need to lose to be awesomely healthy.

Anyway, I think I am going to start to blog about my weight loss journey and see where is gets me.

Goal:  -42 lbs (yeah. 42!!!! wow. i know.)
Where I'm at now:    -7.6 lbs.

So. I shall tell you about my 2 favorite breakfasts.
1) Oatmeal+berries+3/4 Truvia packet, along side 1 egg+ 1 egg white
2) Whole wheat toast (or whole wheat waffle) + reduced fat peanut butter + banana + honey,
     all stacked together like this:

and that's what I'm talking about.

PIZZA!

I am dedicating this post to pizza. I admit pizza is fabulously delicious in practically all its forms. (I find that the crazy-person's grease-lovers pizza is not so nice!) Pizza an excellent food. It deserves its own blog post. You can get a good dose of carbs, veggies, fruit (tomatoes! duh!), and protein all in one punch. These nutrients can be drowned in a lot of fat (especially the saturated kind!!) and unneeded calories. So as much as I LOVE my homemade pizza dough-homemade pizza sauce creations doused with all sorts of cheese and all other goodness, I wanted to provide you (and myself) with easy, healthy, yummy alternatives for when you don't want to go all-out on your calorie and saturated fat intake.

So. I have two favorite low cal pizza recipes so far, and this is one of them:

Friends, meet the ultra-healthy, ultra low-calorie delicious pizza knock-off. Its a variation of an English Muffin Mini-Pizza, except it kicks all the other ones in the butt.
Here is your ingredient/calorie/directions breakdown:

• 4 sprays canola oil: 8 cals
• 100 Calorie English Muffin: 100 cals. duh.
• 2 big ol' tomato slices: 8 cals
• Italian-type seasonings: garlic powder, basil, oregano black pepper: zero cals
• low-fat cheddar cheese
• low-fat mozzarella cheese
• I only used 1/8 cup of shredded cheese combined: 17 cals
• onion slice: 3 cals
• green pepper slice: 3 cals
• 3 slices turkey pepperoni, chopped into tiny bits: 12 cals

Spray the front and back of each muffin half with canola oil cooking spray. Then pile your tomatoes, seasonings, cheese, veggies, and pepperoni. Cook in a 500 degree oven for 6 minutes. I like to give any mini pizzas a 30 second blast of BROIL tacked on to the end of the cooking time. Enjoy!

The nutritive qualities this creation possesses, according to dailyburn.com, where I entered in all the ingredients appropriately:

151 calories. 2.7 grams of fat. 28.2 grams of carbohydrates. 9 grams of protein. 5.2 grams of fiber. 100% yummy.

**add 1 tablespoon of Ragu pizza sauce (not that it needs it, really!) to each half and get:

     176 calories. 3.2 grams of fat. 30.5 grams of carbohydrates 9.5 grams protein. 5.7 grams of fiber.