Sugar Free Banana Oat Muffins

I accidently made these muffins sugar free this morning. In my defense it was 5am and I had yet to have my morning cup of joe. I just wanted to have something warm for the kiddos to eat for breakfast on a chilly morning (temps in the mid 20s, brrr). I didn’t realize I had forgot to add sugar until after they were baked and I had went to eat one. Well the flavor wasn’t bad, just not sweet at all. However, with a little smear of butter these are just fine. I liked the second one I ate better than the first.

Sugar-Free Banana Oat Muffins I made 16 muffins with this recipe

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup of oats (I used old-fashioned not quick)
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 medium bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of milk ( more if needed)

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in large bowl.
2. In another bowl, beat eggs add bananas and milk. Pour into dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Be careful not to over stir.
3. Fill greased muffin tins about 3/4 full and bake at 425 degrees for ~15 minutes, until golden.

Nutrition Data

Calories: 139

Total Fat: 1.8g

saturated fat: 0.5g

Polyunsaturated fat 0.4g

Monounsaturated fat: 0.5g

Cholesterol: 24 mg

Sodium: 210 mg

Potassium: 119 mg

Total Carb: 26 g

Dietary Fiber: 2g

Sugars: 3g

Protein: 5g

Vit. A: 1.6%

Vit. C: 2.4%

Calcium: 10.2%

Iron: 11%

First Monday of 2013

    I love Monday's, really I do. Monday, to me, is the start of a new week. Whatever you did wrong the prior week is gone, history. You have a new week to start over after being refreshed, hopefully, over the weekend.  Monday has a bad rap since everyone is grumbling about having to get up early, go to work or school, get back to life. However, since we're busy most weekends I'm just getting up a little earlier than I did yesterday.

   So, how's everyone's resolutions/goals for 2013 going? For me it's still too early to tell since I'm just starting today on most projects. I'm doing a 21 day Challenge with Nicole Kellerman, which begins today. I'm also trying to run 1,000 miles in 2013. Though I let the chilly weather chicken me out last week and only got 1 mile in. So I need to run at least 2.79 miles a day to meet that goal. I'll probably make that an even 3 miles a day.  I also need to get a meal plan for when classes start next week.  I do not want to waste my money and calories on food on campus. Though I will give a little bit for Dunkin Donuts coffee, mmmm coffee. Or maybe some chai tea at Starbucks. However I draw the line at any pizza, Taco Bell, Burger King, Chik-fil-a or any other fast food restaurants that are on campus. Again, not worth my dollar or calories.  I also need to make a workout plan. Some days I'm going to workout at home, some the church gym and some at the campus gym.  All free, which works with other goals for 2013.

    Also, who watched the premeire for The Biggest Loser last night? I love the Jillian Michaels is back and that they are including some children ambassadors. I wanted to cry for those poor kids. I also want to slap their parents up against the back of their heads (kind of like the V8 commercials). Those kids did not get to be so overweight on their own. They weren't purchasing and preparing the food they consumed that led to being overweight. Their parents should of made them eat better, do more, and create a good example. I saw a preview and the parents are overweight themselves.
The childhood obesity "epedemic" in our country is horrible. Horrible because most of the time it is 100% preventable. These kids are fat because the adults in their lives made them this way. It is a form of neglect, or at least I think it ought to be treated that way. Not to get the parents in trouble, but to force them to be educated. Open their eyes, and lose the excuses. My kids all lost their "baby fat" by the time they started school. They tend to do that once they start walking and running around. It's not baby fat when they are 10 years old and eating McDonald's 2x a day and sugary cereal for breakfast and junk for snacks. 

   Anyway, have to get off that soapbox. It's a pet peeve of mine and one I may address once I become a RD. I hope all my dear readers have a great week.

Good Bye 2012, Hello 2013

    In just under 14 hours we welcome in a whole new year. Now everyone is thinking over their plans for 2013. Deciding on whether or not to make resolutions and what resolutions they will make and break this coming year.

    Last year I didn't make any resolutions.  I just kind of winged it all year. Which didn't work all that well for me. I think because I didn't start out with a goal or two that I had more trouble then usual in keeping them.  I have a plan for this year, because 2013 should be a great year.

   In honor of , hopefully, earning my bachelor's degree this year (I'm hoping for a December 2013 graduation) this year will be dubbed a year of finishing. My resolution this year is to finish everything I start. All my little hobby projects I've started, my weightloss/health projects, my household projects. I'm good at starting, just not finishing. So here's to finishing.

Well, the nurse practitioner I saw yesterday thinks it may be the lovely fellow H. Pylori causing my stomach pains.  I have to agree since I do have most of the symptoms. I'll know more sometime today when my lab results come in.
  
    Hubby mentioned that it's ironic that the one of us that actively tries to be healthy is the one of us that gets ill the most. Ha ha huh. Well, one of these days my body will get it right and I'll hardly be sick, right?

    I'm trying to start Hip Hop Abs (a Christmas present for myself) and today I thought I could do it. I made it through 16 minutes of the first dvd before having to stop.  My body was telling me to slow down I guess. That and my tummy is still feeling uncomfortable.  I'll get into a schedule soon, I'm sure.

   Well I guess I've got to go and get things done. I'm planning on chili and cornbread for dinner. I'm going to add some ground flaxseed to the cornbread to make it a bit healthier. The chili is being made with lean beef and beans and tomatoes. Our chili is fairly healthy and will be oh so yummy on this very brisk December day.

Still Hanging in there, sort of

    I'm trying to eat right, however exercise is put on hold for a few days. I've been having this incredible cramping pain in the epigastric region of my abdomen yesterday and today. Well actually I've had it a few times the past couple of weeks but it went away and so I ignored it. Yesterday it was horrible and debilitating. Today it's not as bad. Still hurts but not as often and the pain is a bit duller.  Hubby keeps mentioning taking me to a doctor, however I keep putting him off. I say as long as I don't turn yellow or start running a fever I'll be fine for a while. We haven't got the funds for a doctor visit and it's Christmas coming up very quickly and I don't want to worry about test results or anything till after the new year.

    I will go if the pain gets worse, or if I start changing colors or running a fever. I can handle a little (
okay a lot) of pain for a few days.  From what I could figure, it could be one of three things and I don't want to deal with them at this moment so I'm going to act like a man and ignore them. 

   So some exercise is out because lots of movement hurts. The most I've done since Tuesday afternoon is walk the big boy dog, Dude. He pulls on the leash quite bad and this causes me to tighten my stomach to keep him in line, which causes unpleasentness. However it's something since I walk him a minimum of two times a day.

    Well, I'll try to update at least once over the weekend. I hope everyone is having a great day.

Time to Begin Again

Now that I've finished another semester of college I can relax and work on getting my diet and fitness straight again before the next semester begins. I have one month to try and set up a plan. So I bought a new tool in order to do so.

It is an exercise tracker from Gold's Gym. It gives helpful hints to start on a healthy lifestyle. Has charts for food calories and calories burned from activites. There are 8 weeks of pages to plan and write down what you ate, and what you did activity wise. There are also some workouts listed using equipment most people have at home.  It's spiral bound in a hard cover and is a size that would fit nicely in my purse and/or gym bag. So I think it's worth what I paid, or I hope so.  I plan on starting tomorrow working on new goals.

One of my goals is to eat more vegetables.  So I'm going to try and eat a lacto-ovovegetarian type of diet for breakfast and lunch and snacks and eat like an omnivore for dinner.  I'm working out my meal plans in order to accomplish this. Because if I don't plan I'll eat whatever and whatever isn't always good.

I'm learning so much in my classes and need to start applying this knowledge to my daily life in order to be able to teach my future patients without looking like a hippocrite.

So here's to new beginnings and tomorrow always being a new day.

One of these days...

...I'll make a challenge stick.

Sorry for not updating sooner or more often.  I've been so busy and stressed about school that I have not been able to keep up with my personal challenge.  So what I'm doing instead is not worrying about calories in and calories out and trying to concentrate on just eating generally healthy and making sure I'm doing some type of exercise daily. I aim for an hour, but if all I get is 20 minutes then that's okay too.

It's never a good idea to try something new or break habits during a high stress period in your life. I know this, and yet I thought I could do it. However, it just became another source of frustration for me.  So I'm pausing this challenge for now and will pick it up later. Right now I have kids, tests, projects and other things in life to worry over. Also finals are less then a month away, yay.

I have a couple things that I'm doing for my classes that I will share with my dear readers once I complete them. One is a gluten free white cake I'm creating for my Experimental Foods class. I'm so impressed with this recipe. I started out with a dry awful tasting cake and now I have something that you probably couldn't discern from a traditional white cake. It's that yummy. High in calories, but yummy.

The other thing is I have to make a 2 day workout regimen for my resistance training class. Well, I don't HAVE to it's extra credit. I like extra credit so I'm going to do it anyway.  It will consist of a power exercise (think clean, jerks, snatches), a strength exercise (squats, presses), two accessory exercises (something that uses machines or dumbbells usually, leg press, curls) and an ab/core workout.  I love exercising with weights so this is something I'll probably make and do for my own enjoyment as well.

Well dear readers, I have a busy weekend(for the next couple weeks) and so must get off here and get something done before I have to be at work.  I also have one week and one day and I join the mid-thirties. I think this may be hard on me...