Delicious, Easy AND Low-fat!

Posted by beth on April 7, 2009

One of the things we all struggle with while trying to lose weight is eating in moderation.  Above that?  Eating in moderation during the holidays.  Holiday get togethers are traditionally centered around food, which pretty much sucks because it’s nearly impossible to turn down my sister’s cheesecake or my Mom’s potato salad, so I’m not going to, but I will be eating less of it this year.

To try to help ease the dilemma of fattening Easter food, I found a low fat dessert recipe that I tested this past weekend and I have to tell you, I give it four stars for TASTE, EASE, CLEAN-UP and TASTE.  Oh wait, did I say taste twice?

It’s that good.

Also, no baking is involved and barely any measuring.  It’s perfect for those of you that do not favor baking.

It’s also only two points per slice.  While serving it to my family, my five year old son continued to say “man, why is this SO GOOD, Mom?“  My six year old daughter had two slices and when we took out the leftovers the following night, we heard a round of applause (my husband being one of those happy people in the audience).  I will be making this recipe on Easter and no one will ever know I found this recipe while searching for healthier Easter menu options.

Here are the basic ingredients:

The recipe calls for a 10 oz prepared angel food cake, I could only find 15 oz, so I cut some off of the bottom and re-weighed.  I did this until it said 10 ounces.

You need to slice the cake, if you’re like me, you’re not very good at slicing.  I used a serrated knife.

Be sure to measure everything when trying to lose weight.  When you guesstimate, you’re probably wrong.  The extra calories, the extra fat and the extra points can make or break your weight loss progress.

I was lucky enough to have a little helper, who loved to lick the cool whip whenever she could.  The recipe calls for whole strawberries, but I sliced mine.

This recipe contains twelve servings.  I always have difficulty evenly slicing my servings, this time, before slicing, I used toothpicks as my guide.  Worked like a charm.

A PERFECT dessert!  Simply delicious!

Neapolitan Tower Cake

Get your shred on.

Posted by beth on April 5, 2009

Monday, April 6th, marks the first of the 30 day Shred Challenge.

What does this mean for you?  Lots of sweat, sore legs, burning arms, sore abs and maybe even some tears.  And no, I’m not trying to scare you, I’m just telling you what to expect.

But I want to tell you what else to expect.  (I started this challenge last week so I can tell you from personal experience a few things.  and yes, I went from couch potato to shredder, just like so many of you.)

Around the third day you can expect the soreness to subside some.

You can expect to feel a difference in your body within a few days

You can expect the workout to feel easier, your endurance to increase.

You can expect an increased energy level that will last all day long. (!!)

You can expect to feel really good about yourself for doing that thing that you’ve been putting off for way too long.

And at the end of the thirty days (YES, THIRTY DAYS IN A ROW, NO MATTER HOW SORE YOU ARE, I PROMISE, YOU’LL BE FINE.)  you can expect to see and feel like a brand new you.  A healthier you.  A happier you.  Your friends will notice, your family will notice and YOU will notice your change.

All of these good feelings will be worth the hundreds of push-ups and crunches you’ll  be doing over the next thirty days.

I promise.

Just don’t quit.  Don’t give up.  Keep going.

You can visit The Sisterhood and find that one of our beautiful (and slimming) bloggers will be writing a post each day to document their own personal experience with Shredding.  (remember, we are doing this, too!)   Feel free to jump in with the discussion in the comments sections and if you write a post on your blog, leave the link in the comments.

WE KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS.

Happy Shredding.

Dead update. I mean, Shred update.

Posted by beth on April 4, 2009

Listen, I’m about to embark on day 4 of shredding and I have good news.  I’m not as sore as I was yesterday morning!  I actually feel quite good!  Which is good because yesterday morning I stood at the top of my stairs and considered rolling down the stairs, I thought that it probably wouldn’t hurt near as bad as actually walking down them.

The bad news, for some of you, is that typically I would never have worked out being as sore as I was (am), because this is BY FAR the sorest I have ever been.  However, with this program, in order to follow it correctly and have it work the way it’s intended, you have to workout every single day, even if you can’t climb your stairs and putting your bra on makes you groan like a cow in labor.

So, no excuses.  (don’t you hate that?)

But I have good news, AGAIN!   Once you get into the workout, you actually lose the soreness while working out, it’s like a tiny miracle in the midst of severe pain and torture.

Don’t worry, an hour later it returns, but at least you have relief during the time that matters most.

I know I’m probably scaring the entire population of people we are committing on Monday to start this challenge and I can assure you, IT IS MY INTENTION TO SCARE YOU.

But it’s also my intention to tell you that it’s okay.  You are this sore because this is how your body should be worked and you haven’t so now it’s time to train your body to do what it needs to be doing.

Losing weight and getting healthy is NEVER, EVER EASY.  If anyone ever tells you it is, they are either lying or they want you want you to buy some product that doesn’t work.  It’s time to stop looking for the easy way out and face your current situation head on.

The workout is so hard, it really is, but anything worth doing is worth doing right and I can tell you already, this is worth doing.

DO NOT GIVE UP.

Just keep shredding, just keep shredding…

Posted by beth on April 2, 2009

It’s hard to believe that a little blue fish is helping to motivate me to get off my duff and do some hard core exercise today, but she is because what she says is so right on.  Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

Yesterday I shredded for the first time and it was really, really, really hard.  REALLY hard.  Although it was only twenty minutes, it was twenty minute of intense workout that my body was not prepared for, because normally I hardly move at all.

However, when I completed the workout, I was so proud of myself (and SO disturbingly sweaty).  And now, almost twenty hours later and completely and totally sore (every.single.muscle), at 10:15 today, I’ll be doing the workout again, which I can’t imagine doing because OW, it hurts to stand up or walk up the stairs.  But what I did find out is that the more I move, the better I feel.  The less I move, the more sore I am.

So, last night when I had planned to sit around and rest my fatigued body, instead I got up and cleaned and I actually felt better.   I even played Wii with my family!   This morning when all I wanted to do was lie in bed and stare at my ceiling?  I got up and cleaned some more and did laundry.

I’m pretty pleased with that, really.   And even though my arms and legs (and neck and back and ass) feel like they are going to fall off, I’m still so glad to have FINALLY taken this step.  I’m finally taking care of me and I am so excited.

I also lost four pounds last week, which makes me doubly proud of myself.  It’s a really good feeling.

(by the way, if you’re looking to Shred with us but did not win the DVD, it’s on sale at Amazon for $8.49, IT’S A STEAL.)