Cauliflower Crust Pizza

In a quest to make a healthier pizza for my family a friend suggested this recipe for Cauliflower crusted pizza. I thought it was wonderful and will definitely be making again! It is not like you typical pizza were you can pick it up and eat it. So you will need a fork. But it was totally worth it. The best part is the kids liked it! I had already made them their lunch, but I had them try this one and they liked it. It became their afternoon snack! Easy to make and delicious! If you decide to make this for yourself I would love to hear your results in the comments below.

 Ingredients:

Large head of Cauliflower
2 cups shreeded lowfat Mozzarella cheese
2 egg whites 
2 tsp dried oregeno
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried basil
Extra Virgin olive oil
Tomato sauce or pizza sauce
Shredded cheese
your choice of toppings

1. Remove stems and leaves from cauliflower. Chop the florets into small chunks

2. In a pan over medium high heat bring 2 cups of water to boil. Add in cauliflower chunks and cook 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain.

3. Use a potato masher (or food processor) mash up the cauliflower. Don't over mash (or over pulse) as you want the texture and for it not to be complete puree.

4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

5. In medium bowl, stir together mashed cauliflower, egg whites, and cheese. (save some cheese for pizza topping) Stir in oregano, basil, and garlic powder.  

6. Spread mixture into 9" circle on the baking sheet. Brush olive oil over the top of mixture (optional)


7. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

8.Remove from oven. Add sauce to crust, and topping of choice.


9. Bake at 45 degrees  for 10-15 minutes , or until cheese is melted.


10. Enjoy!

Have A Happy Healthy Day!

Ways to live a healthy life

Drink more water. Most of us actually don’t drink enough water every day. Water is essential for our body to function – Do you know over 60% of our body is made up of water? Water is needed to carry out our body functions, remove waste and carry nutrients and oxygen around our body. Since we lose water every day through urine, bowel movements, perspiration and breathing, we need to replenish our water intake. 
 

Furthermore, drinking more water alone actually aids in losing weight. A Health.com study carried out among overweight/obese people showed that water drinkers lose 4.5 more pounds than a control group. The researchers believe that it’s because drinking more water helps fill your stomach, making you less hungry and less likely to overeat. I agree with that, and I have an added take that your body tries to retain whatever water you take when you don’t take in enough water, leading to increase in weight. Whereas when you regularly drink water, your body knows that it’s going to get its supply of fluids, so it doesn’t try to retain more water. 

The amount of water we need is dependent on various factors such as the humidity, our physical activity, and your weight, but generally we need 2.7-3.7 litres of water intake! Since food intake contributes about 20% of our fluid intake, that means we need to drink about 2.0-3.0 litres of water, or about 8-10 glasses (now you know how the 8 glasses recommendation came about!). One way to tell if you’re hydrated – your urine should be colorless or slightly yellow. If it’s not, you’re not getting enough water! Other signs include: Dry lips, dry mouth and little urination.

 

Get enough sleep. When you don’t rest well, you compensate by eating more. Usually it’s junk food. Get enough rest and you don’t need to snack to stay awake. Also, lack of sleep causes premature aging, and you wouldn’t want that.

Meditate. Meditation quiets your mind and calms your soul.

Exercise. Not just a few times a week, but every day. Movement is life. Research has shown that exercising daily brings tremendous benefits to our health, including increase of life span, lowering of risk of diseases, higher bone density and weight loss. Increase activity in your life. Choose walking over transport for close distances. Climb the stairs instead of taking the lift. Join some aerobics classes. Take up a sport of your liking

Pick exercises you enjoy. When you enjoy the sports, you’ll naturally want to do them. Exercise isn’t about suffering and pushing yourself; it’s about being healthy and having fun at the same time. Adding variation in your exercises will keep them interesting.

 Work out different parts of your body. Don’t just do cardio exercises (such as jogging). Give your full body a proper work out. The easiest way is to engage in sports, since they work out different muscle groups. Popular sports include basketball, football, swimming, tennis, squash, badminton, frisbee, and more.

                                     Have a Happy Healthy Day!

Drinking Recommendations for Walkers and Runners

Water is essential to preforming at your best; staying hydrated is essential to your fitness and you ability to lose weight. Water helps your cells repair themselves and helps keep your joints lubricated. I have been curious about what I need to do as I prepare for My Marathon walk next March. So I ran across another great article from about.com. Enjoy :)

Have a Happy Healthy Day!

 Read full article at About.com

 The International Marathon Medical Director's Association revised guidelines for drinking and fluid intake for walkers and runners at endurance events in May 2006.

What Should You Drink?

For a workout of 30 minutes or more, they recommend drinking sports drink, and not diluting it or alternating sports drink with water. The carbohydrate and electrolytes in the sports drink helps the body absorb water faster, and provides energy for the body. If you dilute the sports drink, you decrease the benefits. In my experience, many walkers are likely to try to ignore this advice in order to take in fewer calories. During a marathon or race, they should drink carbohydrate-containing sports drink for performance. For walking workouts, they could use a low-calorie sports drink to replace salt without adding calories.
However, the IMMDA also recommends that during a marathon, participants drink whichever beverage most appeals to them, relying on their body to know whether they need more sodium or more water. Event directors need to have both water and sports drink available at water stops. I think this is good advice for walkers on long walks as well - have both available to you and drink whichever appeals to you at the moment.

How Much Should You Drink?

There are dangers in drinking either too much or too little. Drink too much and you risk hyponatremia - low blood salt level and fluid overload. Drink too little and become dehydrated. The needs will vary with many factors: the weather, your body's reaction to the exercise demands, sweat rate, etc. Weigh Before and After: Weighing yourself before and after exercise can often help you know whether you are drinking too much or too little. The guidelines say: a weight loss of more than 2% or any weight gain are warning signs that justify immediate medical consultation and indicate that you are drinking too much or too little.

Drink to Thirst

Erase the old advice that you can't rely on thirst. New evidence says that thirst is the best protection for athletes when it comes to drinking the correct amount.

• Drink when you are thirsty.
• Don't drink if you aren't thirsty.
• Don't drink at every water stop at an event just because it is there or your companions are drinking.
• Rely on your thirst unless you discover it is leading you wrong, from weighing yourself before and after a workout.

Drinking Guidelines For Walkers and Slower Runners

No more than 1 cup of water per mile is a good rule-of-thumb for walkers and slower runners - anyone who takes more than 4 hours to complete a 26.2 mile marathon, or a pace of greater than 10 minutes per mile. Your weight determines the range - a half-cup if you weigh 100 pounds and a full cup if you weigh 200 pounds.
The slower you are, the less you should drink. While a fast runner may need 4 liters of fluid for a marathon, a walker or slow runner needs only 2.5 to 3 liters for the entire event.
Thirst may not kick in as fast if you are in extreme heat and not yet acclimated to it, or in cold weather, or if you are over 65.

Calculating Your Fluid Needs

Your needs may change based on the weather, your conditioning, and other factors. IMMDA provides this method of determining your fluid needs: One Hour Test

1. Weigh yourself nude before the walk or run.
2. One Hour Test: Walk or run or alternate walking/running at race pace for one hour, just as you will do during the race. IMMDA recommends one hour to get the sweat rate you will have during the endurance event.
3. Write down how much you are drinking, in ounces, during the 1 hour walk or run.
4. Weigh yourself nude after you finish the 1 hour walk/run. Subtract from starting weight. Convert the difference in body weight to ounces (multiply pounds by 16).
5. To determine hourly sweat rate, add to this value the volume of fluid consumed (from Step 3).
6. To determine how much to drink every 15 minutes, divide the hourly sweat rate by 4. This becomes the guideline for fluid intake every 15 min of a walk/run.
7. Record the weather and conditions on your test day. Do the test again on a day with different weather and conditions, so you can see how your sweat rate reacts to different conditions. 

 Source: Lewis G. Maharam, MD.FACSM (chair),Tamara Hew DPM, Arthur Siegel MD, Marv Adner, MD, Bruce Adams, MD and Pedro Pujol, MD, FACSM. "IMMDA’s Revised Fluid Recommendations for Runners and Walkers." IMMDA. 6 May 2006. Tamara Hew-Butler, DPM, Joseph G. Verbalis, MD,w and Timothy D. Noakes, MBChB, MD, DSc, "Updated Fluid Recommendation: Position Statement From the International Marathon Medical Directors Association (IMMDA)," Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, 2006;16:283–292)

Swollen Hands after exercise

Today's post is some great information I came across from about.com. I deal with swollen hands on long walks or during intense exercise. I plan to implement some of the suggestions and see what happens. I will let you know how it goes. Marathon training is going well! LaDawn and I are right on track. We just moved up to a goal of 9 miles a week with a long walk of 4 miles once a week. We are seeing improvement in our ability to walk as far as we need to. We don't get as winded and are not as exhausted after our walks! Ya! progress.

                 Have a Happy Healthy Day!


Full Article at about.com
We've all experienced it - your hands swelling when you go on a walk. Sometimes it is worse than other times - puffy, bloated hands. Why? And how to prevent it?
Our correspondent Melanie Jonker questioned several walking-related mailgroups about this problem to get theories on causes and how walkers dealt with the problem. The good news is that no walker or their health care provider found this problem to be serious and it always went away soon after completing the walk. If your hand swelling doesn't subside soon after the walk, you should consider consulting your health provider.

Theories on Causes

Weather:

• Many walkers say long walks in warm weather lead to hand swelling.


• Some walkers reported the problem more often in cool weather.


• Some walkers thought that higher altitude contributed to more swelling.

Electrolyte imbalance: Electrolytes are the salts in your bloodstream, which must be kept in balance to prevent swelling in the tissues (edema). When you sweat, you lose salt. When you eat too much salt, you body has to work to balance it with more fluid. Either way, you may have swelling. Appropriate use of a sports drink that replaces electrolytes, as well as taking in the right volume of fluid (not too much, not too little) are key to maintaining electrolyte balance.
Drinking Guidelines for Distance Walkers Arm Motion (or lack of it): There is some debate on whether certain types of arm motion force more fluid into the hands by "centrifugal force." Walking with your hands constantly below your heart makes it more difficult for the circulatory system to return your blood flow back from your hands.
Racewalking coach Bonnie Stein of Acewalker.com describes "blood pooling." Our leg muscles are working hard during a walk and help return blood from the lower body. Despite this, your feet still swell as much as a full shoe size during a long walk. The arm muscles are smaller and in less use when walking, so they don't help as much in returning blood from the hands. This may lead to the swelling.

 Melanie Jonker received these suggestions to combat swollen hands when walking:

• Remove your rings prior to a walk. Loosen your wristwatch strap and elastic sleeves.
• Carry a walking stick and switch hands while you walk.
• Carry a small object to grip lightly from time to time as you walk: a small foam pad, rubber ball, map, or flashlight.
• Do an occasional arm circle.
• Don't clench your hands, keep them relaxed and slightly open. Every so often, stretch all of your fingers out for a few seconds and then make a fist. Repeat this several times. Or sort of "play the piano or accordion," with your fingers only.
• Racewalking coach Bonnie Stein of Acewalker.com recommends using correct arm motion with your arm bent at almost a 90 degree angle and swinging back and forth from a relaxed shoulder, rather than opening and closing the arm at the elbow.
• Play stick-em-up: rest your hands on top of your head for a few seconds to get them above the level of your heart.
• Whenever you are sweating, take care in balancing your water and salt intake. Drink sports drink after the first hour. When possible, weigh yourself before, during, and after your walk so you can see whether you are drinking too much or too little. Your weight should remain the same. .

Do You Have a Positive Attitude?

Positive attitude helps to cope more easily with the daily affairs of life. It brings optimism into your life, and makes it easier to avoid worry and negative thinking. If you adopt it as a way of life, it will bring constructive changes into your life, and makes them happier, brighter and more successful. With a positive attitude you see the bright side of life, become optimistic and expect the best to happen. It is certainly a state of mind that is well worth developing and strengthening. A positive attitude leads to happiness and success and can change your whole life. If you look at the bright side of life, your whole life becomes filled with light. This light affects not only you and the way you look at the world, but also your whole environment and the people around you. If it is strong enough, it becomes contagious.

Negative attitude says: you cannot achieve success.
Positive attitude says: You can achieve success.

If you have been exhibiting a negative attitude and expecting failure and difficulties, it is now the time to change the way you think. It is time to get rid of negative thoughts and behavior and lead a happy and successful life. Why not start today? If you have tried and failed, it only means that you have not tried enough.

How to develop a positive attitude that will lead you to happiness and success:

- Choose to be happy.

- Look at the bright side of life.

- Choose to be and stay optimistic.

- Find reasons to smile more often.

- Have faith in yourself and in the Power of the Universe.

- Contemplate upon the futility of negative thinking and worries.

- Associate yourself with happy people.

- Read inspiring stories.

- Read inspiring quotes.

- Repeat affirmations that inspire and motivate you.

- Visualize only what you want to happen.

- Learn to master your thoughts.

- Learn concentration and meditation.


Following even only one of the above suggestions, will bring more light into your life!

25 Benefits Of A Positive Attitude

Here is a list of 25 benefits of a positive attitude.

1. You are more motivated to get things done and achieve your goals when you have a positive attitude.
2. You expect positive outcomes and results, and you usually get them.
3. Problems are no longer problems, but become opportunities to learn and grow.
4. You have higher self-esteem. You believe in yourself and what you are capable of.
5. You see opportunities where other people see problems.
6. Your thinking is more creative.
7. You have more inspiration and you rely less on others to help motivate you.
8. You are generally much happier.
9. You have much less stress.
10. Your health is better because you are less stressed.
11. Your immune system is stronger.
12. You will live a longer life.
13. You have more friends. Who wants to hang out with somebody who is negative?
14. You are more influential.
15. People will respect you more.
16. You make a better leader or manager.
17. Your significant other will like being around you more.
18. Achieving success is easier and more fun.
19. You have more perseverance since you expect things will turn out well in the end
20. You have more energy. Negativity can really drain you!
21. You will affect others have a more positive attitude. Attitudes are contagious.
22. You bounce back from setbacks much faster.
23. You enjoy your work more.
24. Your kids will like being around you more.

   25.  You enjoy more success in all areas of life.

                  Have a Happy Healthy Day!

My first 8 weeks with Beachbody

Hear I am 8 weeks in and I couldn't be happier :) It has been a great week for me! I have advanced in rank with Beachbody so now I can start helping others and I am so excited! I also FINALLY am in one-derland!!!! 199 was on the scale yesterday morning *happy dance inserted here* :D My smaller clothes are starting to fit, my house is clean, my children are happy and My relationship with my husband is stronger then ever. Can you just visualize the birds singing in the background and us running through a flower filled meadow? Bliss. That is the best word I can use to describe my world right now. There are still all the little things that happen but they don't derail me like they use too. Before any little bump in the road would derail me and send me right back to my bad habits. I am so excited that I have overcome those obstacles.

January 1st                               April 14th

Chest: 42 inches                       Chest:40 inches

Natural Waist: 37 inches           Natural waist: 35inches

Abdomen: 42 inches                  Abdomen: 40 inches

Hips: 46 inches                          Hips: 44 inches

Thighs: 24 inches                       Thighs: 23 inches

Calves: 16 inches                     Calves:15.5 inches

Arms: 15 inches                       Arms: 14.5 inches

Weight: 213 pounds                 Weight: 199 pounds

I have lost 14 pounds and 10 inches since starting my workouts with Beachbody! I am just amazed with the differences I am seeing in myself and the people around me. My Friend LaDawn and I are training to walk a Marathon in March, we are getting fit together. My husband is eating better and exercising and I even bought some workout DVDs for my kids. They wanted to exercise like mommy but couldn't keep up with my DVDs.

 

The kids  working out to "Tony and the Kids" for the first time.

I am really looking forward to my new life. I am changed forever and I am never looking back!

Have a Happy Healthy Day!

Dreaming

What is your dream? If you are like me, your dreams change. When I was eight my dream was to be a mermaid. I lived and breathed Disney’s “the little mermaid”. I spent my summers at the local public pool.  I wore out the cassette recording of the soundtrack three times and watched the movie endlessly.  Fast forward to high school and my dream was just to graduate and move out of my parent’s house. By the time I was 24; I was pregnant with my son and married to a wonderful Man. My dream at that point was to figure out how to juggle all the parts of my life. I was working as a hair stylist, had a small child and a new marriage. It was a rough transition going from single and dating to married and children. We have now been married almost 6 years, have two children and life is much smoother. Our relationship is solid in spite of some difficulties we have faced.  We have been tested and have come out the other side stronger. I thank God every day for my husband.  

My dream now is to be a financial equal to my husband. I am not discounting my role as a stay at home mom. I love my children and my time with them. I would not trade it for anything.  I also know that with two incomes there would be so much more we could do. Dave could be a full time book illustrator (his dream) also working from home. We could buy a house, take vacations, and not live paycheck to paycheck. We have big dreams and with two incomes anything is possible.

 I am so excited that Beachbody has given me this opportunity. Just think of Beachbody as “Avon” but for fitness products. As a coach I get to help others who are on their road to fitness too.  I get to share what I am learning and earn money all from the comfort of my home. I get to be a “stay at home mom” and make a living. I have found something I am passionate about and excited to “go to work” in my home every day.

What is your dream? What are you passionate about? Have you put an effort into making those things happen or are you still dreaming? Anything is possible with work and dedication. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Fight for your dream and make it happen!

Have a Happy Healthy Day!

Loving yourself unconditionally

What does that mean to you, to love yourself unconditionally just as you love those closest to you despite their faults?  Sometimes I wish we could see ourselves they way people around us see us. My husband loves me despite my faults. Faults like I don’t always listen to him, or I can get super cranky. I am messy, and I do have some weight to lose. These are things that bother me about myself. (I have lots of others I could list) The thing is he sees me for me. He loves me despite it all and I am thankful everyday for him. He doesn’t put me down or tell me I am not worth it. Those are things I have told myself. It is amazing how hard we can be on ourselves when no one around us sees the same thing.

Today your mission is to let go of all those negative thoughts.  Be the person you want to be. Be a little less cranky, clean a little more, eat right and exercise. Take care of the things about yourself that bother you. The people around you aren’t bother by your faults but the will notice how much happier you are when you start loving yourself unconditionally.

Have a Happy Healthy Day!