My One True Love

I love pizza. It's a simple fact. I love it. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner - or all three. I can eat it cold or hot. Thin crust, deep dish, New York style - whatever. I love pizza.

However, when you're dieting, pizza consumption is threatened. And this makes me sad.

But! Ta-da! I have discovered a REALLY tasty, low calorie pizza recipe. SCORE!

This recipe can be found at one of my favorite sites, Hungry Girl. Follow the link.

Ingredients

1 Low fat/Low Carb Tortilla
1/2 c. low fat mozzarella
1/3 c. low fat tomato sauce
2 tsp. parmesean cheese

* Note: the linked recipe is a little different but this is how I make it. In regards to the tomato sauce, I just use a can of regular low sodium tomato sauce and then flavor it myself with garlic salt, oregano and basil. It's really tomato-y but I think it works well with the thin crust. You can also add whatever toppings you'd like. I usually use olives and mushrooms.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Bake tortilla on a baking sheet, 2-5 minutes on each side, until slightly crispy. Remove tortilla from oven and spread on tomato sauce. Sprinkle on cheese and toppings. Top with Parmesan. Return pizza to the oven for approximately 5 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut into slices. Enjoy!

I ate this for dinner tonight ( I usually also eat some kind of veggie or salad) and my tummy is happy.

--Shannon

Sometimes It's Worth It

It's a constant struggle every morning with my alarm clock. AT 5:45 on the dot I'm torn away from my dreams into a cold dark morning (it irks me to wake up to a day the sun hasn't even greeted yet). My bed is always so warm and cozy and it's so, so tempting to just hit the snooze button, throw the pillow over my head and sleep for another hour and a half.

Sadly, I do have to admit that this temptation wins out a lot. My WON'T POWER (see Wendy's post below) is minimal at best that early in the morning.

But when I do get up, throw some cold water on my face and lace up my running shoes, it always feels good. It's feels like I'm doing something. Yes, it's cold and I find myself yawning a lot but there's something almost spiritual about being out in the world before it wakes up. It's just me and the sound of my shoes against the pavement. And every once in awhile I'm given a little gift, like the amazing sunrise I saw the other morning (the picture truly doesn't give it justice). It's almost like God's little way of saying, "Good job."

-- Shannon

Insight from the Lunch Room

I was eating my lunch yesterday in the break room at work and I was thinking about all the exercising I've been doing and how great that has been going in combination with how well I've been eating, etc. The whole time I was eating I kept looking at a bag of Valentine's Day cookies that were sitting on the table. And as I was polishing off a container of Whips Key Lime Yogurt, the bag of neon pink Valentine's Day cookies were staring back at me whispering, 'Eat me.... we're really delicious.... even more delicious than we look... c'mon, just have one of us.... just one isn't so bad.... yeah sure you'll be able to stop after just one.... unless you can't, but that's okay.' Yes, right there in the lunch room I had a show down with a bag of cookies... I was out numbered, this is true.... and even though they were beautiful shades of pink and red, with eye catching sprinkles that twinkled at me and would mesmerize many who dare pass by... I hung in like a champ and resisted the urge to try even one sweet, shiny delight. It was in those moments of greatest temptation that I realized this: Weight loss happens with a combination of your "Will Power" and your "Won't Power." For example, "I WILL go to the gym in the morning" and "I WON'T have a pretty cookie." How's your Will and Won't Power treating you guys on your journey?

Anna Ekaterina Arkadyich Shcherbatskaya Whatsername...????

Number 10 on my list: Read Time Magazine's Ten Greatest Books of All Time

Here's the list:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch by George Eliot

Happily, I have already read three of the above novels so I've already got a head start. But the titles that are still waiting in the wings are weighty and daunting and LONG.

So let's go.

Up first is Anna Karenina. So far it's not too bad but here's my issue... the names. Holy crap with the names. I need Spark Notes and a journal and a family tree just to keep everything straight. I though MY last name in all it's German glory was long. No, these Russian names are insane and incomprehensible and almost completely void of vowels.

Here are some examples:

Anna Arkadyevna Karenina
Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin
Konstantin Dmitrich Levin ( referred to as Konstantin Lenin or Lenin or Konstantin)
Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya (referred to as Kitty)
Stepan Arkadyich Oblonsky (referred to as Stiva or Oblansky or Stephan Arkadyich)
Prince Alexander Dmitrievich Shcherbatsky (sometimes Prince, sometimes Scherbatsky)

And those are just a few of the main characters, never mind the whole slew of minor characters that pop up along the way.

My mind is swimming. This is going to be slow going...

ETA: ACK! And I just found out that "In Search of Lost Time" is 7 Volumes totaling almost 4,000 pages. Haha! I'm going to be so proud of myself if I accomplish this.

--Shannon

Some Inspiration for Working Out

One of my goals for this year is to lose 15 pounds. It is something that I have been trying to do for a while now, but I always get unmotivated. I find reasons to not work out or to not eat healthy. This year I have decided that it is time to stop all of the excuses and just do it.

I found a link to a blog that has been really helpful this month. Badass Fitness was started by a woman in Florida just a few months ago and I have been hooked since I found it. This post got me started, so inspiring!

The blog is filled with workouts, food ideas and stories about real people getting fit and healthy! I was working out last week and really wanting to quit, but I told myself "no, you are a badass, you can keep going!"

I am no where near where I want to be weight wise, or fitness wise right now, but this blog is helping to keep me motivated, even if I slip up or don't work out for a few days.

What keeps you motivated to work out and eat right?

Donate to a Good Cause

Well, it's day 21 on 2010 and I'm still enthused about The 2010 Project and my list! This is great! Today I made one, of what I hope to be many, contributions to fulfill the "Donate to a good cause" item on my list. We've all heard by now what's happened in Haiti and I recently got an e-mail from a scrapbooking website I occassionally order from and they are helping to raise money for the Red Cross to donate to Haiti. The website is donating 10% of their sales to Haiti as well as offering an "item" that you can stick in your cart... The item is a $10 donation. So it just tacks on $10 to your total and you can donate it through them. But it gets better! For every one of those items that people "purchase" the website is going to match that $10. So I'm sending $10 but Haiti will get $20! Plus 10% of my other purchases. I thought it was great that the company was willing to do that so I placed my order this morning! This fund raiser is only running from the 20-22 so if you're interested in donating as well, do it today or tomorrow! Here's the website: www.scrapyourtrip.com. ~Wendy

Bathing Suits??? Already???

I was casually strolling into Target the other day, ready to spend an exorbitant amount of money, when I stopped happened to glance towards the Juniors clothing section. I stopped short. My jaw dropped. I did a mental calculation of the date. It was January 10. The thermostat in my car had read a crisp 55 degrees. And yet...

Bathing suits.

Rows and rows of strings and tiny triangles and polka-dots and stripes and leopard print.

Oh help me.

Suddenly the summer months didn't see so far away.

***

Number 3 on the list. Wear a bikini on the beach. Now is the time to make that happen.

How?

Exercising, eating right, blah-de-blah. Same old, same old.

I'm convinced that half the time these kinds of resolutions fail because we just get bored.

I will run eighteen miles every single day and live off oatmeal and celery sticks!

Boring.

So, variety will be the keyword to my plan. I'll workout (Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred kicks my ass!) and run on the beach and hike the trails near my house and jump rope and maybe take a yoga class. I'll have fun with it.

As for food - I'm on the search for fun and healthy recipes. One of my favorite resources is Hungry-Girl.com a website that gives fun tips for dieting and healthy alternatives to some of our favorite foods. These are two of my favorites:

Chicken Cordon Bleu














Exploding Chicken Taquitos












Seriously, try these. They are so good.

So, anyone have any other recipes to share???

--Shannon