I'm not eating sweets for 21 days

Lately I've been really noticing that I always have this major need to have something sweet after my meals (lunch & dinner anyways) and since I eat whatever I want pretty much I satisfy my cravings. Some of you know I used to be majorly addicted to dieting. I would eat super clean for a while and get pretty lean. But then I would always get to the point when I would feel deprived and binge on junk food for a day or 2 then feel terrible about it and put myself right back on clean eating until I felt deprived again and then the vicious cycle would repeat itself. A year and a half ago I read a book called intuitive eating the truly changed my life. It taught me how to break that dieting cycle, listen to my body and finally have a healthy relationship with food again.

My friend Kat has a diet/fitness blog its mommygoodbody.blogspot.com if you want to check it out. I was on it the other day and she proposed a challenge for everyone to make a diet or fitness related goal and stick to it for 21 days. You report back on her blog each day that you succeed. Each of those reports is a entry and at the end there is a drawing for someone to win a cute workout clothes item. Since I've had this sugar addiction after meals I said I would cut down to sweeting after 1 meal instead of 2. Kat sort of called me out and said that wasn't good enough and I should be more ambitious and cut sweets out all together. I thought by cutting out treats completely it would be going against intuitive eating and I was afraid I could possibly end up feeling deprived and end up bingeing on sweets at some point. So my original thought was that I was way too scared to do that and it wasn't a good idea. Kat helped me realize that I was eating these sweets after meals out of habit, not really as legitimate, every once in a while sweet craving, and the only way to break this habit it to cut out the sweets completely. She is right. While I believe being a intuitive eater is healthy, having a sugar addiction is not. Thats why I have decided to cut out sweet treats for 21 days. I always feel SO much better when I keep the sugar at bay (not to mention I get a lot leaner) so I'm actually really excited to do this and feel really good again. If you feel so inclined you should do it with me, the challenge officially starts tomorrow. I could use a buddy for support.

My new favorite dinner

Healthy turkey mini meat loafs

This is a biggest loser recipe and its super lean and yummy. Also I tweaked the recipe a little and added little side notes which I explain throughout the recipe in blue

You will need the following



1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 stalk of celery, coarsely chopped
2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I'd never heard of this before, it sounded like something I was going to have to get at a specialty mexican shop but no its at the regular store, I've gotton it at wal-mart and reams, it's just down the mexican aisle by the refried beans and taco shells and what not)
1 (20-ounce) package JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE® lean ground turkey breast (ok it doesn't have to be Jennie-o just make sure its the really lean 97-99% lean ground turkey breast)
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 egg whites

For Topping
1/4 cup fat free and sugar free ketchup (I just used organic ketchup, regular ketchup is fine too just not quite as healthy)
1 tablespoon chipotle pepper adobo sauce (I found the meatloaf to be way to spicy for my taste when I added this to the topping so I just used the same amount of Worcheshire sauce instead and it turned out great, but if you like really spicy stuff go for it)
1 tablespoon brown sugar substitute (such as Splenda® Brand) I don't like splenda since its artificial so I just used regular brown sugar, but either one will work fine

Preheat oven to 350 F



Chop up onion, carrot and celery like so (you don't have to do it too small)





put it all in a food processor and blend till it's finely chopped (I have a tiny food processor so it took me 3 times to get it all)



Heres the adobo peppers, just mix them in with the other veggies, I just forgot to



In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey with the peppers and vegetable mixture. Add egg whites and oats; gently mix until combined (Just mush it up with your hands)



Until it looks like this



Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray (if you don't have a muffin tin, I'm sure a regular cookie sheet would work fine, the mixture is firm enough)

Ball up and put into wells, put it in the oven for 20 minutes



I had this much left over to cook up later

Now for the topping



Just blend all the ingredients up in a bowl and honestly I just eyeballed it instead of measuring it out



After 20 minutes in the oven take them out and put topping on, put back in the oven for another 8 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 170°F.



and wha-la pair it up with a salad or some veggies and I would also usually add a 1/2 cup of brown rice or a half a sweet potato for good carbs. Also I am obsessed with this dressing from Gingers health food cafe in Springville. Cilantro curry dressing, its a little sweet and a little spicy from the curry and it's flipping delicious. I put a little ranch on it too this time. I always put 2 sometimes 3 different dressing's on my salad (like italian on 1/2 then ranch on the other half for example) I just like having multiple tastes I guess

P.S. If you don't like spicy things at all you can omit the chipole peppers all together

P.S.S. if you don't have worcheshire sauce you could just combine the ketchup and brown sugar or just use ketchup. Sometimes I just hate going and buying a condiment or spice I don't have for just one recipe and then maby never using it again

Oh and here are the nutrition facts:

Tara's Turkey Mini-Meatloaf
Biggest Loser season 7 all-star Tara Costa's favorite ranch recipe.
Per Meatloaf: 110 Calories, 1g Fat, 25mg Cholesterol, 180mg Sodium, 6g Carbohydrates, 16g Protein, <1g Fiber

So there you go, I hope you love these as much as I do :)

Where are ya'll?

Where is everyone??? I think everyone forgot about me since I went private

The I wish it was summer post

There must be something about the middle of February. I've just been thinking today that I'm really ridiculously like beyond ready for spring. I remembered writing a blog about this exact same thing last winter and I looked to see when I wrote and it was Feb 16th, Ha. This must just be that time of the year that I get really fed up and impatient with winter.

I'm really excited to do this soon:



Ok well maby not at the beach (not that I'd be opposed to that) but I'll settle for the scera pool



I just thought this picture was funny. More like I heart skin cancer. Did anyone else used to go to the tanning salon WAY to much? Sheesh I was like the queen in high school, I have this date dance picture of homecoming my junior year and I swear I look like a blond indian, big regrets there.

Also really excited to use these soon:



and this:



and eat this:



Watermelon = happiness

and I'm looking forward to this:



Yes a green lawn to mow

and this:



Better believe I'll be hiking Timp again this summer, who's in?

OK I found a laying out picture



Me, Brooke and Carolyn a few summer ago in Las Vegas

and hopefully going here



Disneyland! I'm really dying to take a little So. Cal trip and take Crew there

So thats it for now, come on summer!

Catching Up

Ok lets try this again

I have a bunch of photo's I never posted from the last several months So:

Crewser chillin like a villan in his "jammas"

I miss her SO much. This is our ex next door neighbor dog Shady. She was the sweetest dog ever. Our neighbors are renting the house, so when their landlord found out they had a dog, he said Shady had to go : ( I would have taken her in a second if I didn't already feel my plate was full with a dog, 2 cats and a 2 year old.

Walking in mamas character heel. His dad wound be so proud. Actually Crew is obsessed with shoes he's always putting on mine and Jared's shoes and walking around the house

HALLOWEEN 09

Thanx to Laura for the awesome skeleton costume, whom I mooch a costume off every year for Crew

Faify, Crew and Brody

An attempt to get a photo of all the Kozlowski grandkids at their little halloween party

ha ha, driving home after trick or treating, he was sooooo tired

FALL

Dressing up the dog in my "No more stinkin tacos" shirt



1st experience with magic markers





Best wrestling buddies, Beef and Big Foot



This is just to random and Jared like to not post, don't ask

CHRISTMAS 09



Crew on Santa Koz's lap. Bless Richards heart, he dresses up in this costume (that they bought) every Christmas for the grandkids. They just love it. What grandparents go out of their way to buy a santa costume to dress up in, just to make their grandkids happy? Freaking awesome ones, thats who. OK I know Crew does not look happy here. He only started crying because right before this Faify got her new bike from Santa and it was a bit too much for Mr. anything with wheels obsessed Crew man to watch her wheel it away.



OK all in right in the world now



Thanx G'ma and G'pa for the awesome Trike



This was the 1st year we had Christmas morning at our house with just our little family







Crew's latest doings/sayings/favorites :

- This kid is talking up a storm I feel like he can say almost anything now

- He counted all the way to 10 for the first time the other day, thanx Little Einsteins. I swear he learns so much from that show its crazy. Almost makes me feel not guilty about letting him watch TV

- Current favorite shows: #1 Little Einsteins, Chuggington and Hip Hop Harry

- Crew has taken a recent interest in flaculence (spell?) and does not hesitate to let everyone know "I farted" whenever he does

- Loves taking "tubbies" with his hermit crab, duckys, pelican and dolphin and such

- Current favorite food: Bo-a-ear-e-o Traslation: Bowl of cereal, mostly oatmeal squares and raisen bran

- Other favorite foods: Mac n cheese, jelly sandwich (PB and J), cookies, yams, orange juice, raisens, cottage cheese with oranges or pineapple, cliff bars, chocolate, chips

- Favorite games: Fishy game (lets go fishin), ice (don't break the ice), mem-ry (memory), shoot hoops (basketball in his room) and going down his little slide in his room

- Playing "get me"

- Terrorizing the dog and cats

- taking all the pots and pans out of the cupboard

- washing his hands

- He loves the movie Cars and he favorite toys are his Lightning Mcqueen, Mater, Ramone and Sarge

- Jumping on the bed and couches

I'm sure there's a lot more stuff but that will do for now

More half marathonin

I'm officially running the Utah Valley half marathon on June 12th. I registered for it today, thanx to my girl Darise for persuading me. I'm really excited about it, its good for me to have things like this coming up to look forward to and keep me in shape. It starts at vivian park up Provo Canyon and you run all the way down University Ave to the Provo Towne Center mall. That seems SO far. The last half I did in Las Vegas wound around all over the place up in the mountains so you couldn't really get a visual on how far it was from point A to point B. I ran my last one in 2:37:00 about, thats a tiny bit less then a 12 minute mile average pace. I know slow as a turtle right. That one I was really just concerned with crossing the finish line. I want to improve my pace this time, maby a 10 minute mile goal. Darise is fast so it will be good for me to train with her. I better get me some new Asics soon and start runnin.

That little stinker

Crew just said to me "Stop it ma'ma, your in time out" with a very serious tone and wagging finger to boot

Also:

Little man loves his juice, this is my way of pumping him full of vegetables without him knowing it. I juice everything from carrots to spinich and beets and as long as there is a granny smith apple in there to sweeten it up he'll gulp down just about anything