19 Simple, Do-It-Yourself Snacks

This looks awesome!!:

Making your own snacks to have at home or take with you is usually far more nutritious -- and economical -- than relying on packaged foods.

Here are some snack suggestions:

- Guacamole (look for the 100-calorie packs in the refrigerator section) or small can of bean dip and baked snack chips or toasted whole wheat pita bread, broken into chips

- Low-fat microwave popcorn tossed with Parmesan cheese

- Trail mix ingredients: 1/4 cup each: whole-grain cereal, raisins or dried cranberries, and 2 tablespoons each: sunflower seeds or chopped nuts

- Low-fat ice cream topped with fresh fruit

- Snack size (8 ounce) box of low-fat plain or chocolate milk and whole wheat pretzels

- Whole-grain crackers, string cheese, and mango slices

- Cooked or raw vegetables with low-fat ranch dressing, and a hard-boiled egg

- Instant oatmeal made with milk in the microwave with 1 teaspoon cocoa powder stirred in and topped with sliced raspberries or strawberries

- Whole-wheat pretzels with peanut butter, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter

- Cherry chocolate smoothie: Combine 1 cup low-fat milk, 1/2 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt, 1/2 cup frozen or fresh pitted cherries, and 2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips in a blender or food processor and mix until smooth.

- Bowl of whole-grain cereal and low-fat milk

- Edamame

- Small container of Greek yogurt

- Mini bagel spread with low-fat cream cheese and strawberry jam, and low-fat milk

- Hummus and whole wheat pita chips

- Half a sandwich and glass of orange juice fortified with calcium and vitamin D

- Slice of pizza

- Hard-boiled egg and whole-grain roll

- Pistachios in the shell and glass of chocolate milk

Sourced from: WebMD:
https://www.webmdhealth.com/nl/nlv.aspx?id=gbf7sLIjlyw=&s=30141

Tomorrow begins the start of a healthier diet and exercise reigmen. Ugh.

It's been awhile since I was able to consistently exercise and eat right-- Vacation, Overloaded work schedules, and have knocked me off course from my path to healthy living. The result? A weight of ~230 and BMI of 33. Ouch. Reality Hurts. And it is also motivating. Enough to start the same thing I did the beginning of 2010, just a couple weeks earlier :)

This year was the year of Travel and food: Philippines, Europe, China, Hong Kong, Macau. Next year will be the year of savings and internal refinement starting right now. Let's do this how I know best, Geek-style.

A weight management scale that can track daily weight readings and BMI is on its way to the house. I'm already armed with the gadgets needed to view my progress on an excel spreadsheet or through pie charts and bar graphs. Channel that with the motivation to do the unthinkable-- Get back healthy again. I did it once and I can do it again :)

Post-Kirkwood thoughts

Good morning folks,

Just thought I'd share my experience from skiboarding yesterday at Kirkwood. If you're like me, skiing, snowboarding, skiboarding all take a toll on the legs. Most of the backside runs yesterday tied out my calves, hamstrings, and quads to the point past LT (lactate threshold) and basically had jelly legs.

In preparation of the remaining part of this season and into next year, I'm looking forward to build more leg endurance. Came across this site and thought I'd share:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/legpower.htm

It doesn't look easy; Then again nothing that is good for us ever is ;-)

For now, cardio, cycling, lunges, squats, and now one-legged pistols are chalked on the list of exercises to do.

We'll see how things progress...