Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I love the presentation on this Caprese Salad. I found it here:

• beautifulpicturesofhealthyfood: Hasselback… – Turning day-dreams, into reality

I’m used to seeing Caprese Salad looking like this:

Cutting the tomatoes partially looks so pretty and allows the vinegar and olive oil to pool nicely between the mozzarella and basil. Here is how it looked when I made it.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 tomatoes
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella
• 20 to 30 leaves (about 1 bunch) fresh basil
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Coarse salt and pepper

Directions

• Cut the tomatoes into 1/4-inch thick slices, but only 3/4 of the way through the tomato.
• Cut the mozzarella into 1/4-inch thick slices.
• Tuck one slice of mozzarella and a couple of leaves of basil between the tomato slices.
• Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over the tomatoes.
• Sprinkle salt and pepper over the tomatoes.
• Serve chilled.

Next time you’re not in the mood to cook in the hot kitchen, make this chilled salad and enjoy the fresh flavors!

Here is the complete playlist for the BBC documentary, “The Men Who Made Us Fat.” It’s worth a watch.

Now, the blame for the obesity epidemic isn’t the fault of the farmers who are trying to make a living. Too much food isn’t the problem. The WRONG food is the problem. HFCS AND sugar are bad for us. If our consumption of soda that had been sweetened with sugar had increased as much as it did with HFCS, we would have gained the SAME amount of weight. They BOTH have fructose.

I don’t know about everyone else, I snacked between meals because I was STARVING. I felt hungry all the time because I was eating sugar all day long. Even when I was on Weight Watchers, and losing weight, I did it with fruit smoothies, whole wheat bread and Kashi cereal. I was eating high carb all day long and it made me SO hungry. Once I started eating low carb, my need for snacks throughout the day evaporated.

I don’t believe that the palatability of food caused this constant hunger. I eat good foods now, but avoid carbohydrates. My food tastes delicious, but I’m not obsessed with food anymore. It’s not the fact that food tastes so good that causes people to overeat. It’s the carbohydrates.

I also don’t agree with taxing food manufacturers. They are just trying to make yummy food and sell it. It’s OUR responsibility not to buy it.

This is a pretty good documentary, but it goes overboard on laying blame and doesn’t spend enough time tell people what to do about it. I’m less worried about blame and more worried about how to get healthy.

via: Don’t Miss BBC Two’s Documentary ‘The Men Who Made Us Fat’ « Jimmy Moore’s Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Blog

Paula Deen recently lost 30 pounds to help keep her diabetes in check. She talked about it on the July 9th issue of People Magazine, but the recipes that she shared were LOADED with carbs. I’m glad that she has lost weight and I hope her diabetes is controllable for her, but most of the things she recommended to lose weight with, like fruit smoothies, would send my blood sugar through the roof.

She did have one good recipe, though. Chicken Kebabs with grilled onions.

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 2 TBSP lemon juice
• 2 TBSP teriyaki sauce
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
• Pinch pepper
• Pinch salt
• 1 lb. chicken tenders cut in half
• 1 small bunch green onions

Directions

• In a large, resealable plastic bag, combine the garlic, soy sauce, lemon juice, teriyaki sauce, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and salt. Add the chicken. Seal the bag and chill for 1 hour.
• Soak 10 wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes.
• Spray a grill track with nonstick cooking spray, then preheat grill to medium high.
• Drain the chicken, discarding the marinade.
• Thread the chicken onto the skewers.
• Grill the chicken about 3 minutes on each side.
• Grill green onions until browned, about 3 minutes on each side.
• Arrange onions on a platter, top with the chicken and serve.

I wish Paula Deen the best and I hope she lives a long and healthy life. I just want the world to know that her love of butter did NOT cause her diabetes. It was the carbs.

I read this saying on Lifehacker the other day:

It reads:

If you want guaranteed results, do nothing—you’ll be guaranteed nothing in return. But that’s no way to succeed. -Ben Nesvig

The truth is, I WANT guaranteed results. I want to be able to know that if I follow the exact eating regime and workout plan that I will be to goal at a specific time. It’s depressing to know that there are no guaranteed results, except in failure.

No diet or workout can promise that I will get to goal, especially if I’m not willing to work at it. As long as I am willing to get my butt off the couch and my face out of the fridge, however, I will be better than I was yesterday.

If your morning bacon and eggs has gotten a little too routine, here is a way to mix it up. I made myself a chocolate and cream cheese omelet on Sunday and it was divine!

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 TBSP heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa
• 2 packets of stevia
• 1 oz. cream cheese

Directions

• Put the butter in your skillet and set the flame on medium.
• While the skillet is warming up, mix the eggs, cream, cocoa and 1 packet of stevia in a bowl. The cocoa won’t fully mix in (there will be tiny chunks of it), but that doesn’t affect the taste.
• Once the butter is fully melted and bubbling, pour the egg mixture into the pan and put on a lid for approximately three minutes.
• Mix the cream cheese with the other packet of stevia (you can use the same bowl that you mixed your eggs in).
• Flatten the cream cheese mixture until it is approximately the size of half your omelet.
• Place the cream cheese on the egg mixture and gently fold in half.
• Cook for two minutes more or until the cream cheese is melted.
• Allow to cool slightly before serving (no one wants molten cream cheese lava burning their tongues in the morning).

Nutrition Facts:

• Calories 396.6
• Total Fat 37.2g
• Total Carb 3.6g
• Fiber 0.6g
• Protein 15.3g

The next time you’re feeling chocolate deprived, remember that you can create low carb chocolately food on your own without sacrificing your health.

Update 02-12-13

I’ve found that Sweet N Low tastes better than Splenda in this recipe. Additionally, using coconut oil instead of butter makes it taste especially yummy and only adds twenty calories. I talked about it here:

• Starling Fitness – A Delicious Tweak To The Chocolate Cream Cheese Omelet

Avocados were on sale at my grocery store, so we bought a couple of them. Sunday morning, I made a yummy treat for breakfast.

It was so easy, I feel silly writing the directions here.

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium avocado
• 1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese
• Sprinkle of season-all

Directions

• Cut the avocado in half. Save half for next time and use the other half.
• Sprinkle cheese and seasoning over the top.
• Put it in the toaster oven at 275 degrees for five minutes.
• Increase the temperature to 400 degrees for one minute (or until golden brown).

Nutrition Facts

• Calories 199.3
• Total Fat 16.9g
• Total Carbs 8.5g
• Fiber 8.0g
• Protein 8.4g

The next time you’re feeling like you don’t have anything good to eat, run to the store and grab an avocado. It will be a great treat if you haven’t had one in a while.

I tried making Candice’s Low Carb Chocolate & Peanut Butter Protein Bars with a few changes for my diet (since I can’t eat half & half and I prefer almonds to peanut butter. Those few changes, however, really screwed things up. When I followed the directions for the bar, instead of being sticky, it was nearly as dry as before I added the wet ingredients, so I had to double the wet ingredients.

Here is what my bars look like:

So, are they as delicious as they look? To me, they tasted FAR better than they should be for only 7 carbs. I think they are heavenly, but I haven’t eaten anything sweet for weeks. When Mike tasted them, he told our dog, “No, Nina, you can’t have this, but I’m not eating it either.” When I asked him why he didn’t like it, he said that it didn’t taste sweet to him. Of course, he had just eaten a Mrs. Field’s cookie a half hour earlier. In comparison, many things don’t taste sweet. All I know is I like them and they are perfect for a treat every once and a while.

Here are the altered ingredients, directions and nutrition facts.

Bar Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cup chocolate protein powder: I used Warrior Blend Raw Protein Chocolate Flavor because it had the least amount of carbs than the other brands I looked at.
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter
• 1/2 cup natural almond butter (no sugar, no salt)
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3/4 cup water

Topping Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (no sugar, no salt)
• 1 Tablespoon (0.5oz) salted butter
• 2 Tablespoons cream
• 1 packet of stevia (or sweetener of your choice)

Bar Instructions

• Line bottom of an 9×13 baking pan with parchment. Set aside.
• In medium sized bowl add protein powder, almond flour, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
• In small bowl add butter and almond butter. Heat in microwave until melted, about 45 seconds.
• Stir until combined.
• Stir in half & half and water with the butter and almond butter mixture.
• Mix wet mixture into your dry ingredients. Stir until smooth. Batter will be sticky.
• Pour into your prepared pan. Smooth evenly in pan with a spatula.
• Set aside.

Topping Instructions

• In small bowl heat almond butter and butter in microwave until melted.
• Stir in cream and sweetener into your almond butter/butter mixture. Mix until smooth.
• Pour on top of protein bars and smooth evenly.

Finishing

• Place pan in freezer for at least 30 minutes to set.
• Take out cut into 12 equal pieces.
• Store in air tight container or baggie in freezer until needed.

Nutritional information for 1 bar (12 servings):

• Energy: 285.3 cal
• Total Carbohydrates: 7.3 g
• Total Sugars: 1.0 g
• Fiber: 2 g
• Protein: 12.8 g
• Total Fat: 24.5 g
• Net carbs: 5.3 g

My bars were so big and thick that I cut them into 12 servings instead of 8. My bars are very close in calories and carbs as the original supposedly were, although I have my doubts whether the simple replacement of almonds and cream could have affected the consistency of those bars as much as it did for me. Had I added more water to the mixture instead of cream and butter, I doubt they would have set up properly in the freezer. Additionally, I have NO idea how the topping was so thick on those bars when it was such a thin layer on mine.

In the end, I have my doubts whether the bars pictured on Candice’s website were ever made with the ingredients that were listed in that recipe. The consistency and texture are so different than mine. That doesn’t make either recipe bad, but the photo on Candice’s recipe doesn’t quite match up to reality.

On Pinterest, there is this picture of a chocolate and peanut butter protein bar that looks beyond delicious.

Unfortunately, when I go to the website to see the recipe, it’s GONE.

• Tickle My Sweet Tooth: Candice’s Low Carb Chewy Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter Protein Bars

As of this writing, the entire website is gone, so I looked to see if Google has anything in their cache to make these protein bars. They did!

• Google Cache: Tickle My Sweet Tooth: Candice’s Low Carb Chewy Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Here’s the recipe, just in case it disappears altogether:

Bar Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 cup (about 160g) chocolate protein powder (protein powder is already sweetened, so no need for extra sweetener)
• 1/4 cup peanut flour
• 2 Tablespoons dutch process cocoa
• 1/4 cup (2oz) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (no sugar, no salt)
• 1/4 cup half & half
• 1/4 cup water

Topping Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (no sugar, no salt)
• 1 Tablespoon (0.5oz) unsalted butter
• 2 Tablespoons half & half
• 2 Tablespoons Splenda (or sweetener of your choice)

Bar Instructions

• Line bottom of an 8×8 square baking pan with parchment. Set aside.
• In medium sized bowl add protein powder, peanut flour, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
• In small bowl add butter and peanut butter. Heat in microwave until melted, about 45 seconds.
• Stir until combined.
• Stir in half & half and water.
• Mix wet mixture into your dry ingredients. Stir until smooth. (Batter WILL be VERY sticky!)
• Pour into your prepared pan. Smooth evenly in pan with an offset spatula.
• Set aside.

Topping Instructions

• In a small bowl mix cream and splenda. Stir until splenda is dissolved. Set aside.
• In small bowl heat peanut butter and butter in microwave until melted.
• Stir in cream/splenda mixture to your peanut butter/butter. Mix until smooth.
• Pour on top of protein bars and smooth evenly.

Finishing

• Place pan in freezer for at least 1 hour to set.
• Take out cut into 8 equal pieces.
• Store in air tight container or baggie in freezer until needed.

Nutritional information for 1 bar:

• Energy: 306 cal
• Total Carbohydrates: 6.34 g
• Total Sugars: 1.77 g
• Fiber: 2.46 g
• Protein: 23.65 g
• Total Fat: 21.29 g
• Net carbs: 3.88

I can’t wait to try this and I hope Candice gets her website up and running again!

I have found a lot of really motivating things on Pinterest lately, so I started a couple of boards to keep you motivated and fed.

• Starling Fitness Motivation Pinterest Board
• Starling Fitness Low Carb Pinterest Board

Whenever I’m feeling like there is nothing I can eat, I look at my low carb board and get some good ideas. Whenever I’m feeling like giving up or skipping my workout, I look at the motivation board and get inspired. They have been very helpful to me.

Please follow me on those boards and enjoy the daily motivation.

Here are a few videos showing you how to cook a low carb pulled pork feast. First, you have to get the pork roast ready.

Don’t let the holiday derail your healthy eating. When you think about going off your diet because it’s the holiday, you are cheating yourself. There is ALWAYS a reason to find to go off your diet, but think how proud of yourself you’ll be if you are able to stay healthy despite the holiday.

There are two more videos showing how to make the rub and the low carb BBQ sauce after the break: (more…)