A Few of our Favorite Things

A couple of months ago, some work friends and I participated a Game On wellness challenge in order to fulfill our "eating smart" requirement for our health insurance discount. Turns out there were a lot more benefits to this game than the money we saved. For four weeks, we stuck to the wellness plan outlined in this book:

Basically, you compete against other teams and the winning team is the one with the highest point average at the end of four weeks. You can earn up to 100 points daily by doing the following:

1. eating 5 small meals a day - each meal consisting of a lean protein, carb, fruit/veggie, and healthy fat
2. drinking 100 oz (3 liters) of water a day (this was tough, but did miracles for my skin and energy level)
3. Exercising for 20 minutes
4. Getting 7 hours of sleep
5. Praciting a new healthy habit
6. Avoiding an old, unhealthy habit
7. Communicating with a team member

Seems easy enough, right? Well, the catch is that you lose points for eating anything other than your meal requirements. No white flour, refined sugar, butter, soda, or alcohol allowed for any of your meals. You get 100 calories of whatever you want daily, 1 meal off a week, and one day off of everything. That's it. It was really hard, but I couldn't let my team down, so I had to stick to it. I ended up losing about 7 lb, and felt better than I had felt in a long time. I was less hungry, had more energy, and felt better physically and mentally. It took a lot of discipline, but it taught me how much a difference it can make to change a few habits in your life. Once the challenge was over, I was happy to be able to have some freedom again, but I am trying to continue some of the things that I benefited from the most ... drinking lots of water, being more active, and eating more frequent, smaller meals throughout the day. If only I could work on my sweet tooth.

We are generally pretty health conscious when it comes to food. We try to eat plenty of lean meats, whole grains, and fruits/veggies and avoid most fatty red meats, fast food, and unhealthy processed stuff. Eli reads Michael Pollan's books and teaches me so much about where our food comes from. Over the past few years, we have really learned a lot and have put more thought into what we look for at the grocery store. Here are some of our favorite things to buy.

1. Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips (they also have a sweet potato kind, which also rock)
2. Raw or sea salted cashews
3. Raw almonds
4. Kraft Mozzerella String Cheese with 2% milk
5. Pepperidge Farm 100% Whole Wheat Bread (the softest kind we have found)
6. Whole Grain Goldfish Crackers (can't tell the difference)
7. Kashi Blueberry Waffles - you can find them at Walmart and Target
8. Green Giant Veggie Steamers - huge time saver if you want to add a side of veggies to a meal
9. Quaker Hearty Medley Oatmeal - Apple Cranberry Almond is our fav
10. Multigrain Cherrios - Ella's a big fan of any kind of cherrios
11. King Aurthur Flour White Whole Wheat Flour - can hardly tell a difference
12. Lipton Green Teas - come in all kinds of yummy flavors
13. Dole Salad Bags - Tender Garden is perfect mixed with almonds, dried cranberries, and vinegarette
14. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - pretty much the only oil we cook with. You can even buy a light kind for baking
15. Dole Fruits in 100% Juice - handy single serving packs; you can even buy a whole jar of sliced fruit
16. Dunkin Donuts Coffee - heard this was the best coffee, and I have to agree
17. Chobani Greek Yogurt - this stuff is hard to get your hands on b/c it is in such high demand, but it is SO good and packed with protein. The pomegranate kind actually has really seeds in it. Delicious.
18. Cage-Free/Grain Fed Eggs - I love that you can find these so easily in your local grocery store
19. Jif Natural Peanut Butter - tastes great and no need to stir
20. Smuckers Simply Fruit Jelly - all natural, 100% fruit
21. Skinny Cow Ice Cream treats - in a million years, you would never guess these things were low fat
22. Just Bare Chicken Breasts - cage free, all nautural; we have to stock up when we find them b/c they sell out so fast in our grocery store
23. Kraft Dressings with Olive Oil - we love the Italian and Raspberry Vinegarettes
24. Yoplait Frozen Smoothies - throw this in a blender with a cup of milk and a scoop of whey protein - instant, easy meal-on-the-go

If you are looking for some healthier stuff to buy at the store, hope this gives you some ideas!