The Health Challenge

Pete and I have been doing a Health Challenge contest with some other family members. It's extremely basic, not diet-ish at all, and it feels good to know that I'm getting enough water, fruits and vegetables, exercising, and keeping at least some kind of control on the sweets.

Here's how it works...

Each participant keeps track of points awarded for the following items:

• Journal- 1 pt for writing down everything you eat daily.
• Liquid- 1 pt for each cup of liquid (except soda) that you drink (up to 8 cups/day).
• Fruits and Vegetables- 1 pt for each  serving of fruit and or vegetables you eat (up to 5 servings/day). *1/2 cup chopped veggies=1 serving; 1 cup leafy greens=1 serving
• Exercise- 1 pt for each 10 minute increment you exercise, up to 15 pts a week (30 mins/day for 5 days) 
• Sweets- 1800 calories per week, no points gained, but -2 points for every 100 calories you go over 1800

We have an excel spreadsheet that helps us keep track of daily points and weekly totals that looks like this:

It has been really fun--like a hobby--for me to come up with new ideas on incorporating veggies and fruits into our daily meals and snacks. I love finding new ways to be healthy!


Here's some recipes and tips that have helped Pete and I get our daily fruits/veggies points. I'll probably be posting more as time goes on and I make new discoveries. In the meantime, I'm open to any suggestions!


Ideas:

• Bake squash or sweet potatoes and keep them in the fridge for a microwaveable snack. Top with cottage cheese for added protein.
• Keep easy veggies on hand such as frozen peas, canned green beans, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, sliced bell peppers, etc.
• Dump a can/bottle of spaghetti sauce in the crockpot and load it up with chopped veggies (my favorite  are zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers, and carrots). Let it cook until veggies are soft. You may need to cook without the lid for a 1/2 hour or so towards the end to let the steam blow off and get the sauce thickened up. Heap on top of whole wheat pasta and enjoy. (Side note: whole wheat pasta can be nasty. I recently learned that the "Barilla Plus" brand is good).     

                

Recipes:

Fruity Spinach Drink (2 half cup servings vegetables, 3 half cup servings fruit)

• 2 cups packed spinach 
• 1 cup frozen berries (I use a Costco bag of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries)
• 1/2 banana
• water

*these measurements are really relative, you can add more or less of just about anything.

Instructions:

Blend up the spinach and water in a blender. Then, while blending, slowly drop in the berries and banana. Blend well.

Tips:

•  Add a large spoonful of frozen orange juice concentrate to the blender (yummier, but more sugar).
• Eat it in the morning to jump start your veggies for the day! I used to put it in a bottle with a lid, stick a straw in it and take it to class.
• If you think drinkable spinach is just more than you can handle (I promise it's good!), try the next recipe instead.
• Get creative and try adding other things like oranges, mild tasting veggies, or even oatmeal for added fiber.

Fruity Spinach Smoothie (3 half cup servings fruit, 1 half cup serving vegetables)

• 6 oz light vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup spinach
• a little less than a 1/4 cup fat-free milk or water
• 1 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 cup frozen berries (I use a Costco bag of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries)
• half a banana

Instructions:

Add yogurt, milk/water, spinach, and OJ concentrate to blender. Pulse and blend. Add in frozen berries and half a banana and blend well. You won't even be able to tell there's spinach in it! Seriously! Test it out on kids if you have them :)

Such pretty colors! You can use a normal blender or a magic bullet.

Yum!

Lunch Wrap (2 half cup servings vegetables)

• 1 “Flat out” wrap (or other high fiber wrap)
• 2 cups lettuce
• A bit of low-fat ranch
• Fat-free croutons
• 2 pieces of bacon (I discard fatty parts or use 50% less fat real bacon bits)
• 1/4 of an avocado, cut in thinly sliced pieces
• A few grates of fresh romano/asiago/parmesan cheese

In a bowl mix lettuce, cheese, low-fat ranch, croutons and some freshly ground black pepper. On wrap, layout bacon pieces and thin slices of avocado. Dump contents of bowl on top and wrap!

Wrapping is kind of hard/messy/impossible. You could put less lettuce on, but I like to maximize the veggies, so I keep the two cups, wrap it up the best I can, and eat the lettuce that falls out with a fork.

Tips:

• Add in chopped tomatoes
• For more protein, add some cottage cheese in with the ranch or replace the ranch with low-fat or fat free cottage cheese (you could add some garlic salt/pepper in the cottage cheese to give some added flavor)
• Add spinach to the lettuce for more nutrients

Chicken and Veggie Teriyaki Stir-fry (As many cups of veggies as you make!)

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp white vinegar
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Chicken breasts/tenders (I do enough chicken to feed the two of us and then freeze the leftover sauce in tupperware for next time). 

Directions

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the cornstarch, cold water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegars, garlic, ginger and ground black pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens and bubbles.
2. Cut chicken into strips and brush with sauce and non-stick spray. Grill.

Oven directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Place chicken pieces in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Brush chicken with the sauce. Turn pieces over, and brush again.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn pieces over, and bake for another 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Brush with sauce every 10 minutes during cooking.

Eat the chicken with stir-fried or steamed veggies atop brown rice. (Add a little sauce to the veggies when they are done cooking).

Tip: I've found that when stir-frying veggies, you only need a tbsp of oil or even less to do a substantial amount of veggies. Heat the oil, add the veggies, and cover with a lid. Take lid off every so often to stir the veggies and towards the end of cooking, take the lid off to let the water off. You want the veggies to still be crisp and brightly colored--not soggy and dull--so test with a fork to make sure they're not getting too done.

I got the original recipe from the link below and tweaked it a bit (less sugar, different vinegars, and grilling instead of baking).

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Teriyaki-Chicken/Detail.aspx