Recipe: Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

This recipe from Tasty Kitchen is simple and rather healthy.  I used nonfat Greek Yogurt rather than the sour cream and didn't notice any difference in texture or taste.  I think I just might start substituting nonfat Greek Yogurt for any recipes that ask for sour cream because it's healthier (more protein, less fat, and contains probiotics).  Livestrong reviews the difference between the two in an article. 

I did a Weight Watcher's point calculation, and for five servings, it's 11 points, but it could easily be six or seven servings depending on hunger.  I found that the brown rice really filled me up.  I made a few minor modifications to the original recipe of Tasty Kitchen, which I also added in below.

Ingredients

• 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (cooked, boiled)
• 4 cups Cooked Brown Rice
• 1 cup Frozen Corn
• 15 ounces, Can Black Beans, Drained And Rinsed
• 1 cup Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt
• 3 Jalapenos
• ½ cups Salsa
• 1 cup Low-fat Cheddar Cheese, Plus More For Topping

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 350F while boiling the chicken. 
2.  Cook brown rice according to directions.  Add chopped jalapenos to the boiling water.
3.  In a large bowl, combine cooked rice, cooked chicken, corn, black beans, nonfat Greet Yogurt, salsa, and cheese.  Stir and season with salt and pepper if desired.
4.  Add to oven-safe dish and top with extra cheese if you choose to.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until heated through. 

My Walking Maps

My Walking Maps is a really cool website in which you can track your walking/running routes around town! Check it out, it's super exciting! I mapped the 10K from this past weekend. Google sometimes messes up on this computer, so hopefully you can see the path clearly...

Going Green: The Daily Green

The Daily Green: The Consumer's Guide to the Green Revolution

Tip of the Day (by Brian Clark Howard):

Keeping your refrigerator full, but not to the point of overstuffing, will allow it to run at max capacity. To help retain cold temperatures when the fridge and freezer are less full, place glass or ceramic pitchers of water in their compartments. Like using ice in a picnic cooler, this will insulate the interior and keep it cold.

Refrigerators and freezers account for about a sixth of all electricity use in a typical American home, and they use more electricity than any other single household appliance.

Over- or under-crowding makes the fridge work harder to maintain its optimal internal temp (37 degrees F).


Also check out the website for other cool features! :)

Tip #6: Avoiding colds at work...

A long time ago I heard the following tip on the radio and have always kept it in the back of my head. I thought y'all might enjoy it.

Do not keep a tissue box on your desk at work. People will come by to grab a tissue from you and who knows what kind of germs they will leave behind. More than likely they need a tissue because they are sick (or may have allergies); do you really want to take the chance?

I hide mine in the filing cabinet.


And speaking of germs...do you know what public place has the most germs in which you are going to catch a cold from (e.g., the office, the gym, a bar, etc)? I'll leave the answer in the comment section this weekend.

As promised, here's the answer. When I first heard this question, my thought was a subway railing, being from the Northeast part of this country, but alas, that was not correct either. Actually, it's a gas station pump. Handles are rarely cleaned, and hundreds of people use them every day. AND...I don't know about you, but I know when I used to take long road trips, I would buy something edible in the convenience store. So not only are you using a gas pump in which thousands of people have used, but then you are also eating right after doing so.

I now keep a mini hands cleanser in my car that I use every time I go to the gas station. Okay...call me an aware germ-o-phobe...I'm okay with that. Actually, it's probably because I'm an epidemiologist that I'm so aware.

Tip #5: When you need a bit of motivation...

My trainer has me walk with weights all the time. Usually, I'm doing something with those weights - lateral raises, bicep curls, shoulder presses, triceps, etc. On occasion, he just adds extra weight and has me walk with him. On Monday, I got to walk a lap (0.1 mile) with 40lbs in hand. Do you know how heavy that felt? And to think three years ago I weighed 70lbs more?

When you need a little bit of motivation, grab a weight that equals what you have lost and walk for a bit as a reminder of where you once were. It'll get your butt in gear again, guaranteed.

Tip #4: Increase Fiber Slowly

Since I will be leaving for Christmas soon, I'm finishing off what I have in the fridge. All I have is salad, so I bought some chicken to make buffalo chicken salad. It has been soooo yummy, but I noticed after the second day, I started feeling a bit bloated and have had some major gas (I know, I know...too much information for you). I decided to check it out, and here's what I found out.

According to MedlinePlus, a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, "You should add fiber to your diet slowly. Increasing dietary fiber too quickly can lead to gas, bloating and cramps." Go figure, and I have my weigh-in and measurements tomorrow...yikes...

Women aged 50 years and younger should consume at least 25 grams of fiber per day and men aged 50 years and younger should consume at least 38 grams of fiber per day. These past few days have been hovering around 35-40 grams for me. So in the end, I'm taking tomorrow's weigh-in with a grain of salt.

Tip #4: Reward Yourself

I'm sure y'all have read this plenty of times, but reward yourself when you hit certain goals or have completed something you never even imagined doing. Really make these rewards a treat (not edible!), and something you usually wouldn't do for yourself. Make it special and memorable; you deserve it after all! A few ideas:

Massage
Pedicure/Manicure
Facial
A new outfit
A night on the town (in that new outfit)
Trying something new (skiing, snowboarding, etc)
Take a class
Mmmmm...peace and quiet for an hour
Skip town and go somewhere you've never been
Hire a cleaning lady for a day
YOUR CHOICE HERE

So what's my reward for hitting my goal? I'm going to buy a new outfit and possibly get a well needed pedicure/manicure. My trainer's allowing me to drink Saturday night when we go out! First time in about a month!

How do you reward yourself when you achieve the unachievable?

Tip #3: Squeezing in extra cardio when all you want to do is go home...

There are two floors at my gym; the lower has the locker rooms, pool, sauna, hot tub, trainer meeting rooms, cycling room, and the upper has all the weights, cardio equipment, aerobic room, and functional training room. For the most part, I'm always upstairs (a few times I jump in the pool). The only bathrooms in the building are in the locker rooms, so any time I have to go, I have to head downstairs. For me, this is sometimes a trial because I walk pass my locker and it is SO tempting to just grab my stuff and go home. I occasionally have the same problem after lifting with Matt, so I came up with a trick: I leave something upstairs that requires me to go back upstairs no matter what. Since I have to go back up, I'm more than likely to leave my crap in the locker room and do more cardio. Tricking my mind helps every so often!

Five fashion tips for the gym...

I'm not one to judge usually, and I'm pretty forgiving for fashion flaws because I know I have them myself, but there have been a few things that I just have to get off my chest...

1. No matter how cool you are, you are not cool enough to wear shades at the gym. (Now I know some people wear prescription glasses and if they forget their regular glasses they wear their prescription sunglasses. This is fine, but I know this isn't the case for everybody who does this at the gym.)

2. Guys...please...pretty please...do not wear boxers that are longer than your gym shorts.

3. Girls...a sports bra does not need to be reinforced with a regular bra.

4. We're in Y2K7, do we still have to dress as if we're in the '80's?

5. You don't have to match everything you wear, including your ipod and sneakers.


Since I can dish, I will take it too... My fashion flaw at the gym? I occasionally bust out a t-shirt or two that have a few holes in them; although, a good majority of them have been replaced.

Great Trainer vs. Good Trainer

The difference between a great trainer and a good trainer is rather simple:

1. S/he can look into your eyes and say, "I don't have to do this, I want to do this." And you know s/he means it.
2. S/he has the desire to help you without conditions.
3. S/he knows your limits and pushes you just past them every single time.
4. And lastly, s/he does not use high pressure sales tactics for things you do not need to increase how much s/he earns on commission or for a promotion.

Diet Blog

The most recent post on the Diet Blog is excellent (The Beck Diet Solution: How to Think Like a Thin Person), it gave me a lot to think about. The following points are areas that I will be working on:

1. How to motivate myself
2. Plan in advance and self-monitor behavior (I think I got this covered!)
3. Overcome sabotaging thoughts
4. Tolerate hunger and craving

The next few days I will be writing on #1, #3, and #4.

Airport Gyms

"Welcome to Airport Gyms, the most comprehensive and fastest growing community on the Internet for the FREE listing of airport gyms, airport exercise clubs, and airport fitness centers available in and around select popular US (and Canadian) airports today.

With the vast amount of airport based travel engaged in by active, exercise conscious travelers, and the long delays, long layovers, and early arrival times that arise when traveling (along with the current need to be at the airport hours early) - finding a gym in a airport, an airport gym, or a gym near a airport or airport exercise based club in or around your airport terminal may just be possible."


I think this website is absolutely fabulous for the frequent traveler. I do have to laugh at the "early arrival times" bit because that has not happened for me in quite some time. I wish there were more gyms in actual airports though because with long security lines these days, it's difficult to hop in a cab and go offsite to workout during an hour and a half layover. Hmmm...maybe I should go into business. Anybody want to join me?

Products...

Being a chronic disease/behavioral epidemiologist and a frequent reader of health magazines/journals/websites, I sometimes come across products that seem to be useful and beneficial to people who are trying to lose weight. If you are interested in obtaining further information on the products listed here, please follow the links that I have provided.

The Diet Plate


At work, I read plenty of abstracts, especially when I'm writing a publication or two myself. As somebody who has struggled with obesity my whole life, certain publications catch my attention and help keep me motivated in my weight loss efforts.

Like so many others, I have had a hard time losing weight because of portion control. When I started to measure food items out, I was shocked that I was eating two, three, or four times an actual serving size, and this adds up. No wonder why I'm fat.

To the left, you will find a picture of The Diet Plate, taken from their website. The Diet Plate was introduced into the U.S. market earlier this summer. Results from their clinical trial on the control of Type 2 Diabetes were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (June 2007). Patients who used the plate lost more weight than those who did not.


bodybugg


The bodybugg is an interactive website program tailored for you and your weight loss goals. The armband (seen left) calculates the number of calories you burn throughout the day through four sensors:
1) Accelerometer
2) Heat Flux
3) Galvanic Skin Response
4) Skin Temperature

The website program allows you to 1) record your food calorie intake and 2) download your daily physical activity by hooking up the armband to your computer. At the end of the day, you will know whether or not you were in a calorie deficit or surplus for the day.

I am a part of this program and I'm still trying to figure out its accuracy. I was a skeptic at first, but it definitely has increased my physical activity level.

The bodybugg website is slightly hard to navigate at times, so I'm posting the link that lists where their publications are: Frequentely Asked Question 9: Where can I find published research/white papers about bodybugg?

Tip #2: Exercise

I am now physically active for at least five days a week for 50 minutes or more. I think this has tremendously helped me in my weight loss. When I hit the gym (4-5 times per week), I burn at least 600 calories. At work, I walk with coworkers on breaks, and have estimated that I burn 420 calories if I walk both breaks, or 210 calories for the one break. I have also estimated that at work, we walk about 1.15 miles for each break.

It all adds up. The more active you are, the more weight you can potentially lose. My appetite has increased due to my new metabolism levels. I just feel great after a great workout at the gym, if I hit that next level.

Here's a few tips I have learned and picked up. To burn fat, your heart rates needs to be raised 55-65% (for training 65-85%). I also learned that for me, the best time to work out at the gym is in the morning, I feel better, healthier, and I get more out of my workout. I am also not as intimidated in the morning - there are not as many people, and the crowd is usually an older crowd that is more encouraging. Find the best time that is suitable for you.

Tip #1: Portion Sizes

When I actually started measuring out what I ate, I was floored!!! I didn't realize how many servings I was truly eating! I now measure everything out and eat individual servings of all items and types of food. This alone has decreased the amount of food I eat.

I also have the tendency to stay away from junk food. Recently, I splurged and bought a "Big Size" fritos bag down in our cafeteria at work. Without realizing it, I polished the bag off. AFTERWARDS, I looked at the nutritional content and was stunned, there was actually 4.5 servings in that bag!!! If I remember correctly, there was 10 grams of fat per serving! EW! And yet we regularly eat one of these bags? I'll never make that mistake again!

So here's the tip I have learned to keep my portion sizes to one serving. Once I get home from the grocery store, I will break apart any big items into the correct number of servings. A big bag of baby carrots, a set of grapes, even Baked Lays! Everything gets bagged individually, that way, I know one bag is all I get at that sitting!