Update on the 28 Day Fitness Challenge Book and more

I haven't written in a while, so I thought I'd give an update. I'm currently reformatting the 28 Day Fitness Challenge book to make it easier to use. I hope to have it completed by mid-to-late August. I'm also working on a cover for the book. (I might have to ask you all for help choosing between the ones I am coming up with, or I may end up having one custom-made for the book by a company that creates book covers regularly.)

I took way too much time off from my own fitness, which has shown on my physique, but I am slowly getting back into it, and I know I will be back where I was at my optimum fitness phase again soon.

I am also working on a second book to compliment the fitness book. This book is a combination of many useful things for people trying to fit in the right nutrition and lose weight. It is a food diary, a weight loss log, and it also will give tips on eating healthy. It will have some healthy recipes in the book, and there will be a place to set up mini-goals and log when you have reached them. Used in conjunction with the 28 Day Fitness Challenge, it is meant to assist in weight loss, fitness and over-all health. I'm still trying to determine what I will call it. It's still in the planning stages, with only the preliminary rough draft written, so if you have any ideas of other things that would be helpful to include, feel free to let me know in the comments.

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Are you ready for the Zombie Apocalypse? #ZAP

My friends Anna Meade over at Yearning for Wonderland and Emmie Mears drew my attention to Zombie Apocalypse Preparation (ZAP).  In order to be ready to survive the zombie apocalypse, you have to be fit, able to run, leap and survive on only the food that's necessary to keep you strong. I have some friends doing #ZAP, and I think I am going to join them.




Here are some key points to achieve for your Zombie Apocalypse Preparation:

1.  Ability to run long distances at a decent pace. Good endurance.

2. Ability to lift yourself over walls or to climb up the sides of buildings. Good strength.

3. Ability to survive off of only food that is necessary to your continued health. Good nutrition.


Here are some ways that you can gain these abilities:

1. The best way to build up endurance is to practice. Participate in aerobic exercise for long periods of time. Start slowly but build up your endurance over time. Running is an excellent way to build up your endurance. Start by running for 10 minutes straight. When that becomes comfortable, start running for 15 minutes straight and so on until you can run for at least 30 minutes. It's even better if you can train until you can reach an hour of running.

2. There are many ways to build up your strength. Lifting weights is one way, but sometimes, you can replace weights with other things around the house. (If you're a mom of young children, you have an edge on others as you can practice lifting your children while doing other activities. It's a great way to build up strength.) Another excellent form of resistance training is swimming. My 19 year old daughter has found an excellent form of training for Zombie Apocalypse Preparation; she has taken up parkour. In parkour, she is training to do somersaults off of buildings, climb many different structures and run and jump over obstacles. It's a more extreme form of training, but might be an excellent and fun way to prepare. Doing push-ups, sit-ups and chin-ups are also good methods for building your strength.

3. In order to be eating for optimal nutrition and health, it is necessary to give up junk food. Sweets, chocolate and sodas are not going to do your health any good. Carbohydrates will only slow you down. You only need healthy carbohydrates such as whole grain breads, whole grain pasta and whole grain  rice, to help with some of the burn-off during your aerobic and endurance training. Protein is excellent to help with your strength training. And you need to stick to monounsaturated fats. You need fat to help you when times get lean, but you don't want the unhealthy saturated fats that will harm your heart. Eat things like fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, lean meats, eggs, fat-free yogurt, beans and legumes. Limit your breads and cereals. Get used to drinking plenty of water.


Now, I must admit that I will probably not be doing everything on this list. My endurance is already high as I have been doing a large amount of daily aerobic exercise for years now. But I do need to increase my strength training, so I am implementing this plan by adding strength training to my weekly exercise. Whether that means I will be lifting weights, training using a strength training video or taking up swimming, I don't know yet.

As most of you know, I lost over 145 pounds through healthy eating and exercise, and I maintained it for years. Recently, I have gained back about 15 pounds. This is due to old bad eating habits creeping slowly back into my daily diet, which includes a strong sweet tooth. I intend to go back to writing down my daily food intake and reducing the amount of chocolate and other junk food that passes my lips. I also intend to drink more water (something I have never been very good at) and upping the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables I eat.

I've been debating taking some form of karate classes. I haven't taken karate lessons since I was a teenager. Back then, I trained in Shotokan, which is a style that is a combination of several karate fighting styles. My eldest daughter is taking Taekwando, and my second eldest is taking a weapon's based form of Kung Fu. I will have to see what is available to me here and what the costs are before I decide what to do.

I'll be ready for the Zombie Apocalypse in no time!

Who is with me in joining in with #ZAP (Zombie Apocalypse Preparation)? Ready to become a ZAP warrior?

P.S. Another ability that is a good one to have in preparation for the coming zombie apocalypse is the ability to make lethal weapons out of common household objects. But since this is a fitness and health blog, we'll save that training for someone else's blog.


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Juggling Two Dreams

When I was morbidly obese, the only thing I dreamed about was losing the weight and getting myself healthy so that I could live long enough to see my children grow up. It took a long time for me to believe in myself enough to start working towards that dream, but eventually, I made it come true.


Then I started focusing on other dreams. One of those dreams is to be a published author. While I have had some short stories and some articels for magazines published, I haven't yet finished any of my novels to the point of having them ready for publication.


I am finding that trying to maintain one dream while striving for the other is not a simple matter. Writing is a process that keeps me sitting at my computer for long periods of time. Between that and shuffling my children to and from school, keeping tabs on them while they are home and general household maintenance (cooking and cleaning), fitting my usual two to three hours of exercise into my daily regime is increasingly difficult.


I have learned to try and fit my exercise in early in the morning, and, when that is not possible, right after my youngest children go to bed (7:00pm) which leaves me with some time to write later in the evening. I also get some of my exercise through walking and do a lot of walking while taking my children to and from school.


I am also finding that writing works better when I am not hungry. The temptation, when I am writing, is to snack on junk food. I have been fighting that temptation, and sometimes the temptation wins. I have learned that I need to eat something healthy (such as fruit) before sitting down to write and that I need to make sure to stop, even when my creativity feels like it's on a roll, to have regular, healthy, balanced meals at mealtimes.


Maintaining my weight loss sometimes feels like it is harder work than losing it was but it is worth the effort. I still have more energy than I had when I was overweight, and even my creative ideas seem to flow more easily now. Juggling two dreams isn't easy, but it's worth the effort.



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We Need To Be Healthy For Our Kids

I wrote this for Beverly Hills Child Magazine and it was originally published in the January 2011 issue.



There are many benefits to being healthy and physically fit. Most of us are aware of how our being healthy benefits ourselves. We know that exercise helps to keep our heart strong and prevent heart disease. We know that weight bearing exercise helps to strengthen our muscles and that more muscle mass increases our metabolism. We know that maintaining a healthy body mass index and not letting ourselves get overweight helps prevent diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure and a host of other health problems. We know that strong bones help our posture and that strong stomach muscles can help prevent back pain. We know that being physically fit means we will have more energy than if we were heavy or out of shape. We know that eating healthy food like vegetables and other fresh produce helps prevent certain cancers.

There are a myriad of health benefits to maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet and getting a moderate amount of daily exercise. And we know about these benefits. Newspaper headlines shout about these benefits to us regularly. Television newscasts inform us of these benefits almost daily. We already know.

But parents are busy people, and often we ignore these warnings about diseases that being overweight can cause. Often we ignore the headlines that tell us to eat fresh produce every day. What some of us don’t understand is that when we ignore these articles, like the ones that tell us we should exercise to help prevent heart disease, we are being completely selfish.

Selfish sounds like such a harsh word. But it fits. Letting ourselves be overweight and unfit, eating fatty, sugar-laden food, sitting watching television instead of going out for a walk, all of those things are selfish acts for parents to do. How is it that doing something that is normally seen as only harmful to ourselves can be called selfish? It’s selfish because our lives are no longer our own once we have children.

By not taking care of our bodies, all kinds of things can happen. We can become more prone to injuries and illnesses. Our children need us to be able to take care of them, and that is very difficult to do if we’ve got injuries that keep us from walking easily, or keep getting sick and have trouble getting out of bed.

We can develop chronic diseases. These can be really frightening for our children to see in us, their parents. If Daddy goes into a diabetic coma, his daughter is going to cry and worry and miss him until he is okay, and then she will continue to worry that it might happen again. If Mommy faints because her blood pressure is too high, her son is going to cry and worry and miss her until she is okay, and then he will continue to worry that it might happen again. The safety he once felt will be gone.

We will have less energy. Anyone with small children knows how difficult it can be to keep up with them when all you want to do is sleep. We need all the energy we can find to keep up with our children and to have the patience that they so often require from us. Many of us will have less patience when we are tired. And many of us will be less able to concentrate when we are tired. And children are incredibly inventive at getting into trouble when parents are too tired to be patient or to concentrate fully.

We can die. It is silly to think that playing fire with our health will only affect ourselves. Any child who has lost a parent will tell you that he was never the same again. Our children need us to be in their lives. They need us to give them love and hugs. They need us to help them with homework. They need us to encourage them, to teach them, to listen to them, to talk to them, to just be there for them, always. They need us to live.

We also need to be an example for our children. Our children need to see us being healthy. They learn more from what we do than from what we say. If they see us eating fast food and sitting in front of the television most of the time, then that is what they will learn to do. If instead, they see us eating fresh fruit and going for a walk every day, then they will learn that from us.

It is selfish of us to live an unhealthy lifestyle. By living an unhealthy lifestyle, by letting ourselves remain overweight and unfit, we are harming our children. This is a new year, a time for new beginnings. So let’s start this new year by making a promise to make sure that we are living a healthy lifestyle for our children. We owe it to them.



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Obesity & Children - No More Excuses!

This is a topic that is on my mind a lot as record numbers of children are becoming classed as obese in both America and in the United Kingdom. How can this happen? Aren't parents supposed to be in control of what food is in their home and how much a child is allowed to eat? Aren't parents the ones who prepare their children's meals? As parents, don't we love our kids enough to feed them properly with good nutritious food? Because that's what is comes down to. If you love your child, you will make sure that most of what she eats is nutritious and healthy, full of all of the nutrients and vitamins that she needs and lacking in things like sugar.

I know that, for some, it is not as cut-and-dried as that. I do know that it can be more expensive to buy healthy, fresh food. I know that our kids plead with us on numerous occasions to buy them sugar-laden food, and I know that for some parents, the time it takes to prepare a meal from scratch is a luxury they don't often have.

But I also know that some things in life are more important than all of the excuses that we rely on to keep us from feeling bad for not doing something. The health of our children should be a huge priority in our lives. And that means feeding them healthy meals and limiting the junk food they are allowed to eat. So here are some tips to help us make sure that we do everything we can for our children's health and that we keep those excuses at bay.

Excuse #1 - Healthy, fresh food is too expensive.

Solutions:

- Grow your own fruit and vegetables. You don't even need a yard of your own in order to do this. Some properly sized planting pots and hanging baskets can be enough to help you grow fruit, vegetable and herbs of your own.

- Re-use left-overs to create numerous meals from the same ingredients.

- Buy generic brands. Sometimes they are just as good as the more expensive brand name products, and the nutrition, in many instances, is just as good.

- Buy in bulk. Certain fresh ingredients can be bought in bulk and frozen in order to use later, and buying in bulk often costs less per item bought.

Excuse 2 - My child likes junk food, and they beg and plead for it all of the time.

Solutions:

- Be a parent. Part of being a parent is telling your children "no" when it is in their best interests. You don't have to eliminate junk food from your child's diet, but you should definitely limit it.

- Don't use sweets as a "treat." You don't want your child to be associating sugar-laden, non-nutitrious food as a reward or a special occasion, and giving it to him as a treat or a reward will just enforce the idea in his mind that good times equal sugar (or fast food or whatever unhealthy food you are using).

- Make sure your child can have nutritious fresh food on hand to take the place of the junk food they are craving. Fresh fruit is naturally sweet and filling at the same time. I know very few children who will turn down something as sweet and delicious as strawberries, for example, and strawberries are GOOD for your child to eat.

Excuse #3 - I don't have time to prepare healthy meals or to cook from scratch.

Solutions:

- Batch cook ahead of time. Take one day, maybe Saturday or Sunday (or whatever day you have the most free time) and cook the whole week's meals and then freeze it all, ready to be microwaved or reheated in the oven when you need it.

- Chop and freeze your fresh vegetables needed for cooking ahead of time. For example, if you will be making a lot of dishes that required diced onions during the week, then chop and dice some onion ahead of time and freeze it in freezer bags in the serving sizes that you will need for the meals.

- Measure out and portion your ingredients ahead of time. For example, you can do this with grated cheese. To keep yourself from using more cheese than a recipe calls for, measure out the portions you need into individual bags and store it in the fridge (or freezer) ready to use.

- Use your crockpot (slow cooker). If you wake up early enough in the morning, you can prepare the entire meal and start it cooking before you even leave the house for work in the morning, and by evening, a hot, healthy meal will be ready for you and your children. (Also, by then, the house will smell delicous!)

These are just a few solutions. I hope they are helpful. I'll tackle ways to help your kids be more physically active in a later post.

Fitting In Exercise With Family Life & Work (Guest Post)

I asked my husband Robert (photo above), who has lost over 84 pounds himself (6 stone), and only rarely uses my elliptical crosstrainer or Wii Fit, to explain how he fits exercise and fitness into his daily schedule with the responsibilities of work and family life. (For those of you who don't know, we have 7 kids.) You can see an occassional post by Robert on his family life blog, Baby Blues. (and pester him to post more on it, please) and you can see some of his wonderful photography at his photo gallery.

Lots of people ask how is it that I do all the exercise I do and fit it in with my work and family life as they do not have the time to apply the same effort that I do.

I have often thought on this and realised that two things help to free up so much more time for doing the healthy option and these are a family that usually works as a unit and simplifying my daily activities.

Becky asked if I would write a piece on fitting in exercise into my working day and I must admit it took a second or two to understand exactly what this meant as I always thought that in general it was the time I spent exercising away from work that was the most effective, so rather than a list of exercises and times achieved, I decided to write a diary entry for the typical day to day activities and healthy alternatives that I do to keep my weight down.

Six a.m. the alarm wakes me from my slumber, and I stumble out of bed to wake my 16 year old so she can take her dog out for a walk before getting ready for college. I pass my wife on her way to the Wii to do her early exercises as I hop back into bed for the next hour and snooze whilst listening to the local radio morning hosts go in about traffic problems and traffic jams. At around seven thirty my seven and four year olds jump on the bed beside me to do their daily reading, and then I rise for the second time to weigh and have breakfast.

Breakfast for me consists of high-fibre serial, additional powdered bran, sultanas, sliced banana and a fat free yogurt; I would put in more but as it already spills over the edge of the bowl it is kind of difficult to think how. This is then followed by two eggs on a slice of toast; the eggs can be scrambled, poached or, as long as it’s with a light oil spray, fried. If I am still hungry then I also have an apple or a low fat fibre bar.

By now Becky has fed and dressed the three little ones while I shower and shave having run up the stairs as I am behind the time as usual.

As I leave home to take the kids to school, I wave hello to my neighbours, who are fitting child seats and strapping kids into seats whilst throwing school bags into the backs of cars and driving off to drop the kids off, and I walk at my 4-year-old’s leisurely pace along the half mile pavement to her school where along the way I wave hi to my neighbours, who are parking cars on cluttered road sides, unpacking their kids from their cars and collecting bags from the back of their cars, and enter the school grounds where I drop off each off the little ones, checking that they are signed in, lunches placed on shelves and books put away. After I sit with my daughter and “Wow!” at her interesting colourings or chat with her teacher about after school clubs, I plug my headphones into my ears and walk the three miles to my office, having plenty of time to think about what the day may offer or issues to resolve, only stopping to wave to my neighbours who toot their frustration at the traffic jam they now sit in (obviously they didn’t get time to listen to the traffic reports this morning).

Arriving in the Town Centre, I pop into my local Starbucks, and I am greeted with the customary hello and beverage, an Americano venti with an additional shot, plus one on the house for that really great caffeine kick (I guess I come here far too often). As I walk into my building, I wave hello to my neighbours as they rush by from parking their cars on their way to work. I work on the fifth floor so I greet my colleagues in the elevator foyer and pass the time of day until the lift arrives. At this point, I take the stairwell and run up the stairs to the second floor where the delivery reception has our office milk supply, collect our two litres of milk and then run up the stairs to the fifth floor, slightly out of breath but concerned to hear from those arriving in one lift that the other has broken down again and Jinni or Jenny or Jimmy is going to be late as they are stuck in it.

The morning ritual of “check in” with my fellow colleagues now commences while we wait for our computers to grind their own morning rituals of updates and security policy checks and again remember which post-it note stuck on the monitors is our current password and then ring the helpdesk as after three different passwords we are locked out; my colleagues and I swap stories about their great nights out that in truth get a bit hazy after ten o’clock, and it takes several of their friends to fill in the blanks leaving them a little blushed.

Of course by now the customary cakes and biscuits now litter the tops of the stationary cupboards and post area tables. Not bad considering most of the people in my office are all on long term diets and cannot figure out why they don’t lose the weight, even though they spend three hours a week in the gym before they go out to get sloshed with their mates.

Hey you make your choices.....

After checking my e-mail I then go in my morning rounds of visiting the senior managers and directors to discuss their business whilst drinking tea and coffee, this done by walking from building to building and taking the stairs; the Council has many offices and buildings, and most of these are around the shopping plaza (pedestrians only) and about half a mile apart. There are a couple of sites that are a mile or two away but several cycle and footpaths connect them, and, as most people take the spider web routes by car, these tend to be pleasant walks where only the distant beeping of horns from traffic stuck in queues disturbs my journey.

As lunch time arrives, I pop into the local greengrocers or supermarket to purchase fruit for my mid-day snack and return from my walk carrying a couple of heavy bags up the stairs to my office where people marvel at my serving bowl of melon, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, banana and kiwi which is topped with a fat free chocolate yogurt and a sprinkling of high-fibre muesli and agree to me making them a small bowl too where, once they have eaten, proclaim themselves full and wonder how I can eat my very large bowl of the same stuff. “It’s all the exercise I do at night,” I proclaim as I bring out two large bowls of apples, pears, bananas, oranges, plums and peaches, one to share with the office and one for my desk, which I promptly start to munch my way through as I write up my business reports and e-mails for the day.

Pretty much the same goes on for the rest of the afternoon with meetings and typing, munching and drinking coffee and then often the running, yes the running, to and from the toilet ( I really drink too much coffee).

Often when inspiration is required, I will go for a walk around the offices of the block and jog up to the ninth floor and down to the third several times as I pop into the offices of my business support colleagues.

The day then comes to a close and as we all get up to go, turning our computers off in order to, as the poster says, save seventeen thousand cooked chickens a year or five microwave dinners from being unboxed and microwaved. (Who it is that does all this because I leave my computer on is a mystery and why they do it every night I do not know.) Actually as a “Green Champion” for the council most of my office friends have now been beaten (metaphorically speaking, well in most cases anyway) into keeping their computers switched off at night and the last one turns the light off, which our cleaner hates as it leaves him in the dark (not metaphorically speaking) but I do love saving those microwave meals from being cooked.

Well getting back to my day, about now I plug my headphones back in to my ears, turn up the music, tuck my hands into my pockets as it’s usually raining or cold, and start the three miles walk uphill to my home. This walk actually takes less time even though it’s uphill as the rewards at the end of this trip are far greater. In these winter evenings my street is so dark as I walk to my home as most of my neighbours are still in their cars heading home, but there is always a warm glow from our home and squeals of delight as I enter the home (from the children mostly).

In general, I walk over nine miles a day just going and returning to work. In most cases, I take no longer than my colleagues in getting from one meeting to another, although those pesky cyclists are beginning to show me a wonderful technological advancement called the bicycle that apparently will move me from one place to another in half the time; golly what next?

Keeping healthy and fit is very important to me at forty five as I love the time I get to spend with my family from the one year old through to the seventeen year old and of course my wife. Dieting is not starving yourself but eating smarter. Nature does not in general create waste so sticking to that simple premise I can eat as much of what I want, I just have to make sure I do not mix the wrong types of food together. Fruit and vegetables can be eaten by the casserole dish load and eggs are great as filler for those times I feel like I need a small snack. Pasta, rice, pulses all good and meat is great as long as I keep away from the fats. Steak and chips often appear on my daily menu, and Saturday I lose weight with sausage, bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and a slice of toast for lunch. All of this only works when supplementing an active life. The body will only convert all of this food to energy if you get off your butt and wiggle it.

Eat Eggs To Help Lose Weight

After writing about the connection between dairy and weight loss, I started thinking about the connection between eggs and weight loss. Eggs are another food that is “free” (meaning we can eat as much as we want of it) on the Slimming World plan.

So are eggs really good for weight loss or is Slimming World wrong and its members’ weight losses just unrelated flukes?

According to the studies, eggs are an excellent source to aid in fat loss. And this is great news mainly because I enjoy eating eggs, but also because eggs don’t cost much to buy. They are also, apparently, good for eye health.

According to this article in Medical News Today, eggs are helpful to weight loss because they contain an essential amino acid called leucine. The article references a study which found that leucine

“potentially provides a weight loss advantage during dieting by helping reduce loss of lean tissue, promote loss of body fat, and stabilize blood glucose levels.”

This article on the website Bio-Medicine references a study that promotes eggs eaten for breakfast as aiding in weight loss. It even mentions that the egg-eaters had higher reductions in their waist circumferences. (Loss of belly fat is always a good thing for those of us who need to lose weight!) There also seems to be connection between eating eggs and feeling full, as this article states,

“This study further substantiates the findings of a previous study, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition,2 which found that an egg breakfast induced greater satiety and significantly reduced short-term food intake compared to a calorically equivalent bagel breakfast.”

This article on the website Weightlossresources.co.uk found a connection between eating eggs and satiety too,

“According to new research from the Rochester Centre for Obesity in America, eating eggs for breakfast could help to limit your calorie intake throughout the rest of the day, by more than 400 calories.”

A reduction in daily calorie consumption by 400 calories a day could result in a weight loss of a pound every 8 or 9 days. (Results, of course, vary for individuals.) If eggs make you feel fuller for longer, then it corresponds that you would find it easier to reduce your calories throughout the day after eating them for breakfast.

This article on Food Product Design states that not only do eggs aid in weight loss but they also help to increase energy levels. It states that this is because eggs are a good source of high quality protein. Too little high quality protein is bad for the body as this article states,

“In May 2008, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a special issue on the value of protein in the diet. A major finding was that getting too little high-quality protein may contribute to obesity, muscle loss and increased risk of chronic disease.”

This article by Feedstuffs Foodlink continues making the connection between egg consumption and weight loss and energy levels. It references a study done at the Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center with lead researcher Dr. Nikhil V. Dhurandhar,

“The women who consumed eggs as part of a diet plan lost "significantly" more weight and reported "significantly" higher energy levels, Dhurandhar said.”

The studies show that eggs really do aid in fat loss. This fact, in addition to all of the other health benefits to be gained by eating eggs, makes them an ideal choice of food for anyone trying to lose weight (barring any egg allergies).

Slimming World suggest having your eggs, boiled, scrambled, deviled, made into an omelette, poached or dry fried. (Dry frying eggs means spraying the pan lightly with a low calorie oil spray and frying the eggs in no more than that.) I enjoy my eggs in all of these forms, but my favorite way to eat eggs is to make an omelette stuffed with bell peppers, spring onions and sprinkled with a little low fat grated cheese.

What's your favorite way to eat eggs?

Trigger Foods

I am finding on this journey that certain foods are trigger foods for me. I don't go on all-out binges anymore, because I would have to log those into my food log and the calories numbers would haunt me all week. But certain foods still cause me to want to eat more, and I wind up with a higher calorie count for the day on days when I eat those foods.

About a month ago, I tried having oatmeal for my breakfast in the morning each day as a healthy start to the day. Unfortunately, oatmeal turned out to be a trigger food for me, and I would either go over my calorie allotment for the day or I would struggle all day fighting cravings and the urge to eat.

Oatmeal is a trigger food for me.

I recently learned that oatmeal is a common trigger food for people. I wonder how many people who have this problem with oatmeal have yet to make the connection. Trigger foods can be different for different people though. While oatmeal might be a trigger food for me and many others, there will be others who have different trigger foods or more than one trigger food. Chocolate is another common one. Most trigger foods are carbohydrate-rich foods.

Have you discovered what your trigger foods are?

New Recipe Blog

I started a blog to put the recipes I have tried out all in one place, with pictures of the food Robert and I have made. I wil still post them as I make them here, but in my recipe blog, it will just be recipes and all in one place, so it will be easier to search for recipes you might want to try out. Skinny Dreaming Recipes (I also have it listed in my sidebar now.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

I made this for my family last night. It was really delicious, and everyone loved it! The kids are already begging me to make it again! Next time I make it, I'll take a picture of it to add to this post.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

1 large onion, chopped
3 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 cups chopped cooked white meat chicken
1/2 cup fat-free chicken broth (All I could find in my store was Asda Extra Special Chicken Stock.)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
6 corn tortillas, cut into fourths (I found Old El Paso ones.)
1 cup shredded fat-free Cheddar Cheese (All I could find was Asda Good For You Medium Fat Grated Cheese.)

Lightly spray an 11x1x 1 1/2 inch baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Saute the onion in 1/4 cup water in a medium skillet until tender, stirring often. Add the tomato, chicken, broth, chili powder, salt, cumin and oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer 5 to 6 minutes. Layer half the chicken mixture, half the tortillas and half the cheese in the baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken and tortillas. Reserve the remaining cheese. Cover the casserole and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Uncover and sprinkle evenly with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake an additional 5 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly.

Serves 6. (I made it for 4.)

2.09 grams fat per serving

The fat grams per serving was given with the recipe, but I wanted to now the over-all calories, so I worked them out myself, using the ingredients I used in the recipe.

I served 4 with it instead of 6, so the calories are for serving 4.

Chicken stock - 2.5 per serving
Medium Fat cheese - 152 per serving
Corn tortilla shells - 193 per serving
Chicken - 168 calories
Total calories per serving - 515.5 calories(I excluded the onion and tomatoes from the calculations because I never count vegetables and fruit in my daily calories.)

If you serve 6 with this recipe as directed, the total calories per serving = 344 calories.

Slimming world Syns: If serving 4, 3.75 syns on green and original
If serving 6, 2.75 syns on green or original