I Want to Start Baking My Own Bread

Yeah, I have made a few loaves of bread in the bread machine, but my recipes are boring and the bread machine doesn’t seem to be the best way to bake. I have been talking to other bread baking Facebook friends, and I really would love to bake my own bread, even if I use the machine or food processor to knead.

My friend suggested this web site: http://www.thefreshloaf.com and it looks amazing. Wow, the photos and the recipes are inspiring! And there are “lessons” for learning how to start baking bread right on the site.

I will start with the first lesson. Just plain ole white bread. I am sure DH will be happy with white bread for a change. LOL. Yeah, there is nothing like delicious white bread, right?

And I am amazed at the difference in sodium levels in home made! I calculated the nutritional data for the bread I am making today (in the bread machine) per 2 oz (12 servings):

Calories 130.5
Total Fat 1.8 g
Saturated Fat 0.2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 0.3 mg
Sodium 65.2 mg
Potassium 16.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate 25.9 g
Dietary Fiber 2.3 g
Sugars 4.1 g
Protein 3.9 g

That’s well over 200mg (at least) difference in sodium from commercial bread! I really have to start baking my own bread. I think I can do it, sigh. I have always disliked baking because of all that precise measuring. But it would be so much more healthier!

Baked French Toast with Apples

Oh I had the best best best breakfast this morning.

Baked French Toast
2 servings – Approx 390 Calories per serving (including real maple syrup)

Ingredients:

  • 3 – 4 slices of bread
  • 3 whole eggs (or more)
  • cinnamon
  • vanilla
  • One peeled & thinly sliced apple
  • 1 tbsp real maple syrup

Cooking Instructions:

  1. Place 3 – 4 slices (depending on size) into a square baking pan
  2. Sprinkle cinnamon over bread
  3. Place peeled, thinly sliced apple on top of bread
  4. In a separate bowl, beat together 3 whole eggs and vanilla
  5. Pour egg mixture over bread
  6. Bake in 350° oven for 10-15 minutes
  7. Divide into 2 servings
  8. Top with real maple syrup and enjoy

Baked French Toast with apples and maple syrup

No More Scale

I know I am obsessed with the scale and I must stop weighing myself so much.

I am setting a new goal! Only one weigh in every week! I am just making myself crazy especially when I seem to be at another plateau.

So today I weighed myself and I was still at 164.4. I am really going to try to not step on the scale until at least next Saturday. It’ll be a good test of wills!

Of Course Pizza Can Be Healthy

Even though I consider myself a healthy clean eater, we all need comforting cheat foods.

For example, I like pizza. So, instead of getting a take out thick crust pizza from a nearby restaurant, I make pizza at home. I can satisfy my pizza craving once in awhile, and still try to stay within my daily calorie intake.

Initially, I bought a good quality frozen pizza from the grocery store, like Newman’s Own 4 Cheese or Kashi Mediterranean. Half a pizza is about 450 calories.

Then one week, I purchased a Rustic Crust thin pizza shell, loaded it with fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, spinach, & cheese and baked it myself. Still low in calories -approximately 500. It’s easy to create, and so much better tasting than frozen.

homemade pizza with onions, garlic, spinach, & cheese

But the thin pizza was made with processed white flour, and I really wanted to try to stick with whole grains. So, I decided that even though the thicker whole grain crust was more calories, it was better than a thin crust made with whole flour.

I found these really delicious whole wheat “Tandoori Naan” breads from Whole Foods 365 brand. One package contains 4, and each naan is 260 calories. I can put together a healthy veggie cheese pizza for 500 or less, depending on how much cheese I use.

Last Thursday, I spread 1 oz Friendship Farmers cheese on the naan bread, and topped it with 1 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, tomato slices, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, & olives and it was less than 450 calories. Paired with a bowl of leftover onion soup, it was a fantastic and delicious meal!

Here is a photo of the finished pizza, keep in mind that the sun dried tomatoes look a bit overdone, but they weren’t.

Pizza made with whole wheat tandoori naan bread

Pizza made with whole wheat tandoori naan bread

Yoga is even better

I can’t believe how much better I am getting at yoga! It’s amazing! I tried the same OnDemand “YogaWorks -Begin” show tonight and I could do just about everything, while my poses and holds were so much smoother. And it makes me feel so strong and confident. I love yoga!

Sleep Apnea

I am pretty sure that when I was heavier, I had sleep apnea. Occasionally I would wake up coughing and gasping for breath.

Thank God I haven’t had an episode for awhile. I am so grateful that I am healthier!!

Eating Most of My Calories

Most days, I try to stay 150 – 250 under my total daily calories. Just to give myself some wiggle room, since I am at a higher calorie count, due to lower weight loss goal.

But this morning I found a new podcast to listen to on healthy weight loss, called Fat 2 Fit Radio and they suggest a much higher calorie consumption – my “lightly active” calorie intake should be 1964. That’s a lot higher than what I am eating now. I don’t know if I will go as high as their BMR Calculator chart suggests, but I will try to eat all of the calories that MyFitnessPal suggests, if I can – all 1680 of them!

It’s worth a try for a few weeks to see if I can kick start weight loss again. Since I have been working out more regularly now, my body might be more efficient, I hope. Well, we’ll see.

Anyway, the Fat 2 Fit Radio podcast looks like it’s going to be very helpful. They have a ton of shows to listen to, so it’ll give me something new to inspire me on the way to work! In looking at their topics, there are so many really interesting ones. I don’t know if I should start at the beginning, or maybe start with the show from a year ago.

Yoga Revisited

This morning, I woke up and my whole upper body was wonderfully sore!

I have been working out every night, and last night I thought there might not be enough time since we went out to eat to the Outback, but I looked at the clock, it was 7pm, and I thought okay, let’s do something.

So, I checked out the fitness shows on OnDemand, and decided I wanted to try yoga again. I chose “Yoga Works” Beginner. It was pretty intense considering I am still a newbie but I did a good job! I was so proud of myself! My Downward Dog pose is so much better now! And I could even do the Cobra and I was shocked that I tried and could accomplish the Upward Dog as well. I only stopped once or twice. It felt amazing afterward!

And this morning, my muscles were feeling the workout. But the cool thing is once I was up and moving around, my muscles aren’t so bad. It’s really amazing and wonderful what my body is able to do now. I am so proud and happy!

Holding at 163.8

Yeah, still holding on at 163.8 – been working out for 4 days straight. I might take tonight off, don’t know. Once 7pm comes around, I usually end up doing something!

Using Google Calendar to Track Weigh-ins & Workouts

I love MyFitnessPal.com to track my calories and exercise, but sometimes it is not easy to view my weight loss and exercise diary. I would love to see it all displayed in calendar form, so I decided to try Google Calendar.

It wasn’t time consuming to add my exercise information, since I have only started to exercise in January. Then I created a new “weigh-in” calendar (using a contrasting color format), and went back to July, adding my weigh-in numbers.

I really like being able to view how many days during a specific week/month I worked out! And to view all my weight losses (and gains) is also very convenient. I can export each of the calendars into iCal if I want to, which might be nice. Then I can edit on my iPhone instead of online at Google. We’ll see.