TWO MORE WEEKS!!!! And, a nutritional resource you can use!

ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS UNTIL THE PHOTO SHOOT!

Exercise:
Pilates (25 minutes)
Zumba! (50 minutes)

Eating:
9:00am Egg White Omelet w/Tri-Color Peppers, 5oz orange
12:30pm Think Thin Brownie Crunch Bar
3:25pm Easy Fajitas (only 1 corn tortilla), lettuce with 1tbsp balsamic vinaigrette, and orange
6:07pm 4.5oz Tilapia, 2/3 cup cooked spinach, 2oz Crystal's Sweet Potato Delight
8:40pm 1 cup Crystal's Turkey Chili w/Black Beans 

Drinking:
128oz h2o

I can hardly believe there are only 14 more days--a short two weeks--until the photo shoot!  This time has really flown!!!! Everyday, I have really looked forward to achieving the goals I have set for myself and sharing them with you, through this blog.  Today, I don't have much to share, but I did want to let you know about a tremendously helpful resource I found.  

Before I get to talking about this resource, I should let you know what I think about the "Think Thin" bar I had today, as promised.  Honestly, I am not in love with them.  I think its the consistency... With the Zone Bar, I liked them so much because they were crunchy and it was like I was eating a crisped rice bar.  The "Think Thin" bar was similar in consistency to the Fuco Protein bar I had yesterday, but wasn't as rich.  I'm not sure if I can get used to this.  I have 4 more bars to try.  If after the remaining bars I am still not satisfied, I will continue my search. :( 

Part of the challenge for me during these 30 days was to not go out to eat, which really means not to consume any prepared foods that I didn't cook myself.  As  a result, what this has translated into is me eating meals with nutritional values that are pretty easy to compute.  For example, most days I have 3oz of chicken, some spinach and some sweet potatoes as one of my meals.  Based on the serving size and portion of food I consume (I have an electronic kitchen scale), I can compute how much protein, carbs, and fat I consumed pretty easily.  Today, however, I wanted to cook a pot of chili.  But, how does one compute nutritional value from a recipe with tons of ingredients and multiple servings?  Of course, I did some research on trusty old google and found an EXCELLENT recipe nutrition calculator.  All I had to do was input each of the ingredients, the quantity I used and the number of servings yielded from the recipe.

Today, I made Turkey Chili with Black Beans. The ingredients I used are below with their corresponding carb, fat, and protein count.  What is wonderful about the calculator is that it has a database of common foods (and brands) that you can search with all the nutritional info preloaded.  It's makes this tool so simple to use.

With all these ingredients, I yielded 6 one cup servings of chili.  Using the calculator, this came out to each serving having 247 calories, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fat, and 22 grams of protein.  My chili is pretty healthy, huh?!  Yep!   So, try the calculator (and the chili recipe!) It's pretty cool. :)

For the chili, brown and drain the meat, then add all of the other ingredients, bring to a boil, and let simmer for 20 minutes.  If you like spicier chili, add cayenne pepper.  Makes 6 servings.  Because I like things really spicy sometimes, in the bowl I had today, I added a few red pepper flakes for an extra burst of heat! :)

Ingredients	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
Jennie-O Turkey Store - Lean 93/7 Ground Turkey, 16 Oz. (112 g)	680	0	32	84
Great Value - Canned Black Beans, 1 3/4 cup	385	67	4	25
Ortega - Diced Green Chiles, 6 tbsp	15	3	0	3
Del Monte - Diced Tomatoes, No Salt Added, 1 3/4 cup	88	21	0	4
Great Value - Tomato Paste, 10 tablespoon	175	30	0	10
Chef's Cupboard - Beef Broth All Natural No Msg* & Fat Free, 2 cup	20	0	0	4
Mccormick - Chili Seasoning Mix 30% Less Sodium, 4 tbsp. dry mix	120	20	2	4
Add Ingredient

Total:	1483	141	38	134
Per Serving:	247	24	6	22