Swap Saturdays: Buffalo Chicken Wings

4 Feb

Photo provided

Chicken wings tend to be a staple at sporting events. They are served at most restaurants and bars, easy to eat, delicious, and a great food to share. These little wings may seem harmless, but in reality, they could be your diet killer.

Chicken is normally a lean meat, so your mind was on the right track. But the way chicken wings are prepared adds extensive fat and calories. Buffalo wings, for example, are cooked in a fryer — to give them that crunchy outer texture. If your wings include the skin, that increases your calorie and fat content. According to livestrong, eating 3 or 4 regular buffalo wings provides around 500 calories and nearly 40 grams of fat. If you follow a 2,000-calorie diet, this is one-fourth of your calorie allotment for the day and more than half your recommended fat intake.

Don’t forget about dipping sauces that are usually included with these diet-sabotagers. Blue cheese and ranch tends to be served with wings. Most often, these dipping sauces will have more calories than the wings! “Consuming a 2 oz. serving of blue cheese dressing contains around 300 calories,” according to livestrong. “And more than 30 grams of fat.”

Swap:
MorningStar’s Buffalo Wings

Serving Size: 5 wings • Calories: 200 • Fat: 8g • Carbs: 20g • Sodium: 640mg • Protein: 12g 

Photo courtesy of morningstarfarms.com

These are vegetarian, but I swear they taste amazing! They are easy to make at home and taste just like chicken! Your waistline will be thanking us later.

If you are going out to a restaurant or a bar and wings are ordered, here are some helpful tips for you if you
can’t resist.

•    Ask for the wings to be prepared in the oven rather the fryer

•    Ask for the buffalo sauce on the side — buffalo sauce is prepared with hot sauce and butter. Then you are in
control of how much sauce goes onto your wings and into your mouth

•    Celery and carrots placed on the side are there for you to eat and enjoy, not for decoration. Fill up on these veggies while eating your wings! Make a rule for yourself, for every one wing you consume, you need to eat at least one veggie. You’ll see, you’ll be full in no time!

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Fit Friday – Super Bowl Edition

3 Feb

In honor of the Super Bowl on Sunday, I figured why not stay fit for this week with exercises inspired from the football athletes themselves. Of course, we are not going to eat over 4,000 calories and bench press 300 lbs, but there are some exercises we can adapt from these men.

For a football player, or any athlete, the foundation of their workout is strength training. Football players will focus on strength training legs, if they want to improve their kicks, and upper body, to increase general strength. But both strength training and cardio are super important to the success and capabilities of any athlete.

In an interview with Bodybuilding.com, Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, during the season does strength training (lifts weights) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. He takes a break from strength training on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but still stays active on Sundays when he is playing in games. In order to improve his conditioning, Brady also does 40-60 minutes of cardio six days per week.

“In the off-season I still do cardio six days per week 40-60 minutes per day but I do more running than in-season,” said Brady. “In the off-season I also switch my weight lifting over to a routine more so orientated toward strength and my sessions are usually about 25% longer since my body isn’t beat up from playing.”

Obviously, we aren’t expected to have a fitness schedule parallel to Tom Brady’s schedule, but one thing we can learn from him: it takes cardio AND strength training to see the results we crave.

Often times I find that women will avoid strength training because we are afraid that we will get muscly. Fear not though ladies, we would have to be strength training like Tom Brady to see results like that!

Photo courtesy of lancetraining.com

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Try This! Thursday: Skinny Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 Feb

Photo courtesy of skinnytaste.com

This is a recipe from skinnytaste.com. I’ve made this multiple times and have made several people invest in a Crock Pot for this recipe alone! With the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday, I recommend making this recipe. If you are hosting a party, entertaining a few others, or just going to be alone, this is a must-make recipe!

All the flavor of buffalo wings without messy hands! This recipe was lightened using low fat and fat free ingredients. Adjust the heat to your liking and serve this with celery, chips or crackers – I always serve it with celery only (to save on the extra calories).

Lighter Buffalo Chicken Dip
Ingredients:

  • 4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup fat free sour cream
  • 1/2 cup Franks hot sauce (or whatever hot sauce you like)
  • 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
  • 1 tsp. white wine vinegar
  • 2 cups (14 oz  raw) cooked shredded chicken

Directions:
Mix the first 5 ingredients together until smooth. Add the chicken and put this in the crock pot on low for 3-4 hours. Serve warm. Makes 5 1/2 cups.

Servings: 9 • Serving Size: 1/2 cup
Calories: 107.9 • Fat: 4.9 g • Carbs: 5.4 g • Fiber: 0 g • Protein: 10.3 g

For the complete recipe and more delicious recipes click here

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Weight Loss Wednesday

1 Feb

I am that girl that has been on every diet ever. You name it, I’ve tried it. From fad diets, to expensive diets with dried prepared food, to diet plans with catchy names –  I have tried them all and failed at them all. When I came to college my freshman year, I finally began to better understand my relationship with food and suddenly, the impossible had happened. I lost weight – years of weight I was never able to lose.

I am now a senior in college and my weight has fluctuated throughout the years but now I have finally grasped how my body loses weight, what I need to do to lose weight, what I need to eat, and more. I will share these tips with you, offer you advice that I’ve read, and offer some of my own advice.

Unfortunately, I am not as perfect as “Naturally Thin” Bethenny Frankel, I can’t taste foods and feel satisfied, and I certainly have a hard time ignoring calories – but that is just me. Everyone is different and that is the best realization I have ever had while dieting. A diet should be specialized to you and should be a lifestyle, not just something you do temporarily.

My biggest dieting dilemma is binging. I am a binge eater. I will diet perfectly for 3 days straight and then ruin it all in one night. I know that I am the kind of person that cannot handle a box of cookies in my cabinet because I can never have just one – I can’t even stick to the serving size. I need to eat them until I feel so sick that I have entered a “food coma.” How to avoid this? I am still working on it, but what I’ve found is to not have tempting food in the house.

As I’ve said, I am not perfect. But, I am honest. I will not lie to you and tell you my journey is easy. I will guarantee to be honest 100% of the time and help you lose the weight, keep it off, and be happy.

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First Post, First Day of February

1 Feb

I have found that beginning something on the first day of any month is always the easiest to stick to it. I’ve decided to begin my website and my weight loss journey for the new month. Some of my goals include updating my site daily and to provide female readers with weight loss information, recipes, motivation, exercise tips, and more! Ultimately a girl’s complete guide to weight loss.

  • Motivation Mondays - thinspiration images, success stories, inspirational quotes, any and all things that provide positive reinforcement
  • Tips Tuesday - tips for staying strong during your weight loss journey
  • Weight loss Wednesdays - I’ll give an update on my weight loss progress and discuss any and all obstacles I face on my journey
  • Try This! Thursdays - recipes!
  • Fit Fridays - exercise moves and ideas to get you through the weekend
  • Swap Saturdays - food swaps to keep you looking fit and healthy
  • Selfish Sundays - a day devoted to you to do something good for yourself

Check back daily for new posts!

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