Staying Fit and Being Healthy by Five Feet of Spice

I would like to welcome my VERY FIRST guest blogger, Victoria from Five Feet of Spice. Victoria is a fellow Weddingbee blogger and amazing girl. She’s working full time, going to school full time, all while still finding time to blog. I know how hard that is with part-time school, I can’t imagine how busy she must be. This post is truly inspiring me to get off my rump and get back to Jazzercise.


Hi Everyone! My name is Victoria (also known as Handbag on Weddingbee) and I am so excited to be stealing a spot on this fantastic blog!

Growing up I was always super thin and petite (don’t smack me!) and I used to always try to gain weight. Then I graduated high school and continued to eat like a truck driver; pizza, pastas, sweets of any kind, you name it, I ate it. I moved out into my own place and found my love of cooking. Growing up Italian, pasta was an every Sunday kind of thing. You can’t eat pasta without bread and you can’t have those two, without wine. Before I knew it I was at 140lbs on my little 5’ frame. You may be thinking, that is not fat, and your right. But it is way too much weight on such a small person.

What did it for me was my best friend’s wedding. She posted the pictures on Facebook and I cried. I had no idea that I looked that big, even though I felt it. I was the MOH in her wedding and I couldn’t even save the pictures. After sulking for a while, I joined Weight Watchers; went to a few meetings, felt uncomfortable but learned a lot about food. I was eating a ridiculous amount of calories and not burning any of it (I hate to work out).


I dropped about 15lbs on Weight Watchers but had a hard time sticking with it. It was so hard to not eat the foods that I loved on a regular basis. So I gave myself the “treat” system. Stay on track all week and then eat a “treat” meal on Sunday. Of course, this was pasta, bread and wine. But I noticed that after eating so well all week, I was becoming sick on Sundays. The food was just too heavy for my stomach that had been trained to eat healthy.

So then I started to alter the pastas, Smart Taste Ronzoni Pasta (half the calories and fat but the same taste), homemade sauce with less parmesan cheese, 94% lean meat, and reduced fat mozzarella cheese on the bread. One glass of wine instead of 3. This worked.


Then a coworker told me about this gym that she went too that included all fitness classes with the membership; Zumba, hip hob abs, body pump, spin, etc. I am the type of person who despises working out. I hate the gym, but I love to dance (even though I am so not coordinated). I signed up with her and started going to Zumba and I.was.hooked. It is 50 minutes of a high cardio dancing routine. Our gym has a Zumba room where they turn down the lights, turn on the strobe light and blast the music. It feels like a club. I.love.it. and the best part about that, they offer it 6 days a week.


I started going twice a week. Just to give myself a start. I continued to eat healthy and on days that I worked out, ate more protein (chicken, eggs, etc). Then I started to love it so much, I upped my times to four times a week (3 during the week and on Sunday).

Now you are probably thinking to yourself “I don’t have time to go to the gym 4 days a week!” you’re right, I don’t either. I work full time and go to college full time. 40hrs a week + 17 credits a semester and it makes for a very tired girl. But I always say to myself “You won’t regret going, but you will regret not going” and when I get frustrated with not seeing results right away (I am an instant gratification kind of girl!) I always say to myself “It took time to put it on; it will take time to get it off.”

I have drastically changed the way that I cook/eat as well. Days that I don’t go to the gym, I fill myself on fruit, yogurt (Chobani strawberry!) and salads. If I want a snack throughout the week, I like to eat Weight Watchers Ice Cream. It is really good and I don’t feel guilty about it. Also, I love to bake. Flour is not so great on the hips. So I switched to Wheat flour and also only use Splenda. You can’t taste the difference.



Being fit doesn’t always mean being “skinny” (I hate that word). It is about finding that balance between eating healthy and living your life. You can still enjoy the foods you love, but just alter the ingredients. Exercise is something that none of us like to do, but it is great for our bodies and it will thank us for it. You will have more energy, more confidence, better self esteem and you will feel great.

We only have 1 body, let’s take care of it!

My go to recipe guide for healthy foods that I love is Skinny Taste! What is yours?

For more inspiration, please stop by Victoria’s blog Five Feet of Spice! Be sure to tell her you found her though this post :)

* If you’re interested in guest blogging here on His Birdies’s Nest, please feel free to email me :)

Cooking Light: Fresh Tomato, Sausage, & Pecorino Pasta

Source

I'm leading with the photo of this recipe from the Cooking Light website because, as you'll see, mine didn't turn out as pretty.

Heirloom Tomato, Sausage, & Spaghetti Squash
Adapted from this recipe from Cooking Light

Ingredients

1/2 Large Spaghetti Squash
8 ounces sweet Italian sausage
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup vertically sliced onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/4 pounds tomatoes, chopped
6 tablespoons grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup torn fresh basil leaves

Directions

1 - Pre-cut onion, garlic and tomatoes

2 - Cook spaghetti squash, for directions check out this post I did on Vegetarian Spaghetti.

3 - Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Remove casings from sausage. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add sausage and onion to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring to crumble sausage.

4 - Add garlic; cook 2 minutes.

5 - Stir in tomatoes; cook 2 minutes.

6 - Remove from heat; stir in pasta, 2 tablespoons cheese, salt, and pepper.

7 - Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese and basil.

Wine note: Italian sausage craves a clean-tasting wine with the substance to complement the rest of the dish without overwhelming it. The smoky 2006 San Lorenzo Verdicchio Vigna Delle Oche ($23) is a great choice. -Gary Vaynerchuck

Mine doesn't look quite as colorful. I thought we had WAY more fresh basil than we did... well we did have more it was just all brown. I also let the 'sauce' sit on the stove WAY too long while I tried to salvage the little bits of green basil I could.

I also made sad pieces of garlic bread (which were tasty, just not visually appealing) with Weight Watchers bread, margarine and Lawry's garlic salt.

Fancy Pasta - Squash Pasta Carbonara

A twist on this recipe found on Simply Recipes.

Food picture taking mental note #3 - Don't take pics outside at night.

Squash Pasta Carbonara
posted by Elise on Simply Recipes

Serves 4

Salt
3/4 pound egg noodles
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
1/4 pound prosciutto, thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 summer squash, yielding 4 cups chopped squash (I used butternut and Acorn squash)
Salt and pepper
4 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup basil leaves, sliced thin*

* To slice the basil leaves, chiffonade them by stacking basil leaves on top of each other, roll them up into a cigar shape, starting at one end and working your way down the "cigar" take thin slices from the end.

1) To cook the pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water (one tablespoon of salt for 2 quarts of water).

2) As the water for the pasta is heating, prep your vegetables and heat olive oil and butter on medium high in a large sauté pan. Working in batches, lay pieces of sliced prosciutto down in the pan. Fry gently on both sides until just lightly browned (no more than a minute, more likely 30 seconds each side, the prosciutto is very thin), remove from pan with tongs or a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Once cool, tear into bite-sized pieces. Reserve oil in the pan.

3) Add pasta to boiling salted water. The pasta should take about 10-12 minutes to cook until al dente (cooked but still a bit firm), which is just about the right amount of time you'll need to cook the vegetables. Cook with a rolling boil, uncovered.

4) While the pasta is cooking, add the onions, garlic, and summer squash to the sauté pan that you had used to cook the prosciutto. The heat should be medium high. Stir the vegetables so that they are all coated with oil from the pan, then spread them out in the pan, generously salt and pepper them. Cook until they are just lightly browned, stirring only occasionally. Remove from heat.

5) In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the grated Parmesan and lemon zest.

6) When the pasta is ready, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, then drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the squash and onions (or add the veggies to the pasta, depending on the size of your pans). Pour the egg, Parmesan, lemon zest mixture over the pasta mixture and quickly stir in with a wooden spoon. The heat from the pasta will sufficiently cook the eggs. Add a little of the reserved pasta cooking water if it looks a little dry. Stir in the prosciutto and basil.

7) Garnish with more basil and grated Parmesan.

Tip - I would cut the skin of the squash when you prepare you vegetables. We left the skin on, it's still VERY tasty, but I think it would be more enjoyable without the skins.