The Little Stepmom

25 Negative or Zero Calorie Foods

November 17, 2019

Have you heard of zero calorie or negative calorie foods? The concept is simple, there a foods that we can eat that actually take more calories to digest than they are worth. We actually burn calories digesting our foods so why not eat more foods that burn a lot of calories but, don’t contain many? They make perfect snacks and fillers for meals. They are often loaded with flavor and taste great.

Here’s a list of 25 negative calorie or zero calorie foods you should be eating.

Cauliflower
Cabbage
Spinach
Blackberries
Asparagus
Garlic
Broccoli
Lettuce
Beets
Mushrooms
Green Beans
Cantaloupe
Celery
cucumbers
Peaches
Zucchini
Leeks
Rhubarb
Fennel
Strawberries
Watermelon
Oranges
Chili Peppers
honeydew Melon
Mangoes

When I wake up in the middle of the night starving (totally my sign of high stress I’m dealing with) I grab a prepped dish of lettuce, cucumbers, and almonds that I top with vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper. It’s a great snack that is very satisfying without busting my calorie budget at 3 am. I also keep lots of melon and berries on hand for snacking. Since they are negative calorie foods I don’t feel guilty enjoying them.

Not Just a Day in the Park

November 4, 2019

Halloween was just a few days ago, we trick or treated in a snow storm. Everyone jokes about how we have 4 seasons in one day here in the Midwest, but this week has been extra crazy!

The snow didn’t stop our kiddo’s they all dressed up and took off running. I made it about half way through the neighborhood before I declared I was frozen and went home! The kids finished up before returning home to pour heaps of candy out!

The snow melted the next day, but the temperature was 27 degrees. By the weekend we had a heat wave of 55 degrees! 😆 no better weather for a day in the park!

We packed up 3 children, the dog, myself, and my husband and headed to our local park. Funny I have 1 stepdaughter but, children seem to multiple around here. The more the merrier.

They have an awesome fitness trail that I frequent but, today was about letting the kids play aka burn off extra energy from the Halloween candy and being confined to the indoors while the Arctic temps blasted us.

We played freeze tag which burned more calories than any cardio workout at home! Then hide-n-seek followed by an impromptu photo shoot of the girls acting silly which my husband and I joined into.

I look forward to playing with the kids unlike the way I sometimes dread a cardio workout and I burn tons of calories laughing, running, climbing the equipment, getting stuck in the slide, and attempting the monkey bars. Even the dog was beat when we got back home.

The grown-ups took nearly 20,000 steps just playing and laughing! We lost some unwanted calories and the girls made some great memories with us! Bonus I got some hilarious pictures to remember the day with.

What unexpected workouts have you gotten in this week?

15 Foods That Can Increase Your Metabolism

October 17, 2019

I look at food as fuel for my body. If I want my body to perform like a Jaguar then I can’t fill my tank with shit fuel left over in the gas can from last year. I have to give it the good stuff! There are some foods that help our body to burn calories better or take more energy to digest than the calories they contain. I aim to eat more of these foods especially when I need a snack.

Here’s a list of food that can help increase your metabolism

1. Broccoli

2. Avocados

3. Spinach

4. Water

5. Green Tea

6. Coffee

7. Full Fat Real Yogurt

8. Grapefruit

9. Apples

10. Beans

11. Cinnamon

12. Soy Milk

13. Almonds

14. Oatmeal

15. Turkey

Try eating these foods when your hungry or needing an extra snack. They will fill you up and help you burn some calories. Have you heard of negative calorie foods? Check this post out to learn about some of my favorite negative calorie foods to eat.

5 Ways For Your Family to Give Back and Get Your Sweat On

September 30, 2019

5 Family Friendly Ways to Workout While Giving Back

Have you ever hidden veggies in your kids dinner? Maybe carrots and zucchini in muffins or broccoli in the meats balls? I mean if your don’t hide something in your pasta sauce are you even a parent? Just kidding, not every mom has to deal with a picky eater (insert eye roll). My point is, as parents sometimes we have to hide workouts into our day to keep everyone active, you know the kids, husband, and yourself.

I am always looking for ways to give back to my community and workout so duh, why not combine the two. Here are a few of the things my family has done to keep active and help others.

Walk the Dog. Sometimes life gets busy and we forget that our 4-legged friends need some exercise too! Grab the dog’s leash and get moving! Better yet, walk the neighbors dog too.

Arrange a Park Pick-Up Day. Get your friends and family together for a day at the park. You can play and pick-up the litter left laying around. Sort the garbage and recycle what you can. We only have one earth let’s help keep it clean!

Beach Clean-Up. I found a company, Mermaid Straw, though a family member. They do a monthly beach clean-up. We went to as many as we could because, what’s more fun than cleaning up the beach followed by playing in the water and sand! We worked up a major sweat and helped save some turtles.

Mermaid Straw Beach Clean-up! Photo credit: Mermaid Straw Staff

Do Some Yard Work For Your Elderly Neighbors. Yard work can be hard work making it an awesome workout for you and your family. You can pass on some kindness by helping your elderly neighbors with some of the harder chores like, mowing, raking, landscaping, and tree trimming. It feels great to help others!

Habitat For Humanity is a non-profit organization that helps to build and improve the places people call home. We have recently started looking into helping with the upcoming build in our area. We haven’t started yet, but I know it will be hard work and very rewarding to help build someone in need a new place to call home. This has long been on my bucket list and I can’t wait to update you with how it goes.

I am always looking for new ideas of way to give back and keep my family active!

Comment below with your ideas.

Seven Binge Worthy Food and Health Documentries

October 11, 2018

Part of a healthy lifestyle and exercise is rest & recovery days. What better way to spend your rest and recovery day than binge watching Netflix, It is my guilty pleasure. To keep myself motivated I go straight to documentaries on health and wellness. I’m always intrigued by these shows and I love learning more about the body. Here are a few of my favorites!

FED UP

I love this documentary because, it touches base on one of my biggest sore spots: ADVERTISING! The way that the food industry has manipulated Americans into thinking we are making healthy choices when in realty all we are really doing is getting more unhealthy and making them money sickens me. I can’t stand being lied to and that is all the food industry as done.

FOOD INC.
This is one of the first food documentaries I ever watched and it change how I look at food forever. It’s a bit raw and honest, just what I look for in a good documentary. It’s hard to learn the truth about where my food comes from and how it’s processed, but it lead me to make some healthy changes so I guess honesty is what I needed.

WHAT THE HEALTH
This one stirs some deep thinking on my part and brought to light some fishy tactics. Why on earth world McDonald’s give money to fight cancer or obesity when they are a huge part of the problem? Something isn’t right and this documentary digs deep into that!

HEAL

This is a deep documentary all about your inner self and what power you have to heal your self from the inside out. It’s enlightening and I’ve watched it a few times reminding myself what power my own thoughts and beliefs have over my life.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ALCOHOL

Javid Abdekmoneim is a British doctor who took a long hard look at alcohol consumption. It’s a bit more fun than most documentaries, but it’s also full of insightful information. This documentary may just change how you look at that drink in your hand.

HUNGRY FOR CHANGE

I really enjoy the way this is filmed, you observe someone watching the film and making changes along side of you, it’s unique. The documentary goes into details about how we are not eating the right foods and how our bodies aren’t designed to function on the crap food the industry’s sell us. It motivated me to make changes and I’ve stuck with them because, I understand why I made the changes.

THE MAGIC PILL

I get a little irritated with all the vegetables people push on me, they just aren’t my favorite. I’m like a child who eats veggies because someone hid them in my sauce. This documentary won’t drone on about being vegan. It takes a look at the Keto type diets that are high fat and high protein. I appreciated them explaining so many of the myths away!

What’s your favorite health, food, or fitness documentary? I’m always looking for my next binge session film!

Realistic Goals Make The Weight Fall Off

August 5, 2018

Realistic Goals Make The Weight Fall Off

Journal Entry

Breakfast 1 hard boiled egg, glass of water
Lunch 2 lettuce leafs, 1 olive, sniff of bread, water
Snack 3 deep breaths
Dinner fasting until breakfast

These extreme trendy diets like the only eat air diet, grapefruit diet, or eat yellow and green foods diet might sound good when someone is selling the idea of rapid weight loss to you. Hell, even I followed the lemon with cayenne pepper fasting diet for days at one point! Sure, I lost some weight, but the moment I ate a real meal I gained it all back.

The overly restrictive diets will never work long term and they are the opposite of healthy. If you want real results for your real body you will need to eat real food. We aren’t designed to live off of only lettuce or gallons of spiced lemon water. These diets only set you up for failure.

1. Stop being afraid to eat. Food is what fuels our bodies and allows us to be active, exercise, and chase little humans all day long without crashing from exhaustion and lack of fuel. Eat real food and ditch the overly processed fake stuff.

2. Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate! Let me say that one more time hydrate! Water is really the only drink we need. Our bodies are made of up of around 60% water so drink up to maximize your body’s ability to function. Also, dehydration is easily confused with hunger. Keeping hydrated will decreased those unsatisfiable feelings of hunger that are often just thirst.

3. Exercise. Yep, you knew it was coming the dreaded “E” word. It doesn’t matter what exercise you do just do something! If you current take 5,000 steps a day and you get annoyed every time you watch buzzes demanding you “get up and move” then make your goal more steps. Take the kids to the park and chase them around, get on that jungle gym with them, or go for a walk (alone…hint hint hubby).

4. Set realistic goals. You won’t survive long on air and olives so that isn’t a good goal. Try 30 days no soda or 1 week no trips to the chip machine. If you currently consider walking to the café exercise then don’t set a goal of CrossFit WODs everyday for the next year. Be honest with your self and make the goal attainable.

5. Time frame is as important as the goal itself. Set short term goals and long term goals. Hitting that 1 week no chip machine goal will feel great! Set lots of small goals that you can celebrate along the way. Daily goals, weekly goals, and monthly goals all add up and make you feel great.

6. Journal the journey. Find some way to track your successes and even the failures. I use a journal and print out my journal pages. Looking back at my previous weight, measurements, and celebrations of successes motivates me when I am struggling! I remember what it felt like when I lost my first 10 pounds or finally made it 30 days no soda. Those memories motivate to keep going!

7. Obstacles aren’t always obstacles. I hear so many Mom’s say I can’t work out with the kids climbing all over me. I say include them! You don’t have to do a workout video from start to finish and get irritated when the kids are rolling around on your mat! Make them your workout! Lift your little ones instead of weights or encourage them to follow along. I know children aren’t the only obstacle we face, but no matter what’s stopping you can work with it! Don’t let an obstacle stop you! If you want something bad enough you will make it happen.

What is your biggest obstacle right now? Maybe we can help you find a way to move that mountain or make it a mole hill!

Weight Loss Accountability Partner & Why You Need One

November 13, 2017

I was a season pass holder to the weight loss roller coaster park for many years. A lot of my weight fluctuations were based around the seasons of the Midwest. When it was warm out I was active hiking, running, walking, doing yard work, anything to be outside in the warm sunshine. When it cooled off or dropped to sub-zero, like it does here in the lovely state of Indiana, I became a recluse hiding from every snowflake that fell. I didn’t want to set foot out in the cold weather that included trips to the gym. So, I made monthly donations to my favorite gym establishment and rarely visited.

I used the cold weather as my excuse not to workout all while I ate Thanksgiving treats, Christmas cookies, pies, cake, and candy and became more and more insulated. Spring would roll around and I would start working out again. It was a horrible cycle that really abused my body.

I’m sure the world noticed my ups and downs, but no one really said much about it.

Until, I met one of the best friends a girl could ask for – Melanie aka Mellie Bean. We worked together and became instant friends.

Mel was also unsatisfied with her weight when we became friends. We started working out together and more importantly holding each other accountable for our actions. It’s much harder to skip workouts when someone else is counting on you to show up for them. Our friendship was exactly what I needed to push me in the right direction YEAR ROUND!

Here’s a before & After of us. I don’t even recognize those people!

Melanie and I have both accomplished great goals together and nearly 10 years later we are still holding each other accountable and pushing each other to always meet our goals. We don’t get to workout together anymore thanks to life getting in the way and changes in our schedules, but we do talk nearly everyday and keep each other motivated. When I am eating a brownie and I see Mel eating a bag of peppers I tend to make better choices, even if I do finish my brownie first.
I know not everyone will be fortunate enough to have a best friend/workout buddy walk into their life like I did, but there are tons of places to find people who have similar goals. Melanie might be my closest friend, but I have lots of other people I chat with out fitness and healthy choices. I found some of my other accountability partners on-line. Here are some of the places online you can find other like minded friends.

Facebook– Weight Loss Motivation Tips
Facebook Group – Weight Loss Buddies
Facebook Group – Weight Loss Accountability
Meetup.com is a great site to find groups in your area and actually meet up. I was part of a running group for many years that I found here.

Need an accountability buddy? Haven’t found one yet? Feel Free to email me!