New Rules to Live By

My husband has decided he needs to start eating healthier and wants to go on a “diet.” Since I’m all about the healthy lifestyle, I told him he doesn’t need a “diet”; rather, he just needs to cut out certain foods, like fries and hot dogs. He is committed to healthier eating, so to ensure this “diet” doesn’t fail, we’re both going to start living by some new rules.

1. No eating after 7:30 p.m. If REALLY hungry, we can have a spoonful of peanut butter or an apple.

2. We will use the crock-pot to cook meals on Wednesdays and Sundays (starting this Wednesday). We have been cooking turkey chili the last two weekends, so we’re going to mix it up a little on Wednesday and cook Chicken and Black Bean Chili.

Recipe:

Ingredients: 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch piece/2 teaspoons chili powder/2 teaspoons ground cumin/3/4 teaspoon salt/1 green bell pepper/1 small onion, chopped/3 cloves garlic, minced/1 can diced tomatoes/1 cup chunky salsa/1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained.

Instructions: Combine chicken, chili powder, cumin, and salt in Crock-Pot. Add bell pepper, onion, and garlic, mix well. Stir in tomatoes and salsa. Cover, cook on low 5-6 hours OR cook on high, 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours.

3. Each of us will do at least some form of exercise for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. This can include walking, weight lifting, biking, running-anything!

4. No fried foods.

5. No Oreos (Golden Oreos are Frank’s guilty pleasure, and by association, mine as well). We recently ran out of Oreos, so we won’t be buying them for a while!

6. No chips (for me). I’m not sure I can convince the husband to give up Stacy’s Pita Chips!

7. No dairy or chocolate. This is easy, since Frank is allergic to these foods. I usually buy Greek yogurt, but I want to try giving up dairy to see if it has any effect on my skin. So instead, I’m going to drink unsweetened almond milk to help fill my calcium quota.

8. No soda for Frank, except when we go to the movies. He dislikes coffee, but since he is only drinking soda for the caffeine, I’ve convinced him to try drinking black coffee every morning for the next couple of weeks to see if he can develop a taste for it!

We’ll see how this goes. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up very quickly, I think it’s a great idea to start developing healthy eating habits before the holidays!

Do you have any other “diet” tricks the husband and I can incorporate into our lives?

-KRG