We thought about where we could go for a quick healthy dinner. And if you read my Lazy Man and Money site, you know that I was also looking for something cheap. That’s a tall order, but I think we made the decision in going to Taco Bell. Taco Bell is not typically at the tops of the “healthy eats” list, but in the last year, it’s gotten a lot better. They’ve figured out that simply by offering the option to substitute the cheese on anything on the menu with some pico de gallo, it can be a healthy meal. If you want this, you just ask for something Fresco style. They’ve even created a whole Fresco Menu, to make ordering easier.

I got a couple of the soft taco’s. That came in at 360 calories and 14 grams of fat. It ended up costing me under $3. My wife went for two chicken soft tacos which were 340 calories and only 8 grams of fat. The chicken version was probably a dollar or so more. From a combination of speed, health, and cost, it was so much better than we could have done at many other places.

We might be mixing a little more Taco Bell into our diets when we can’t cook things ourselves.

Microwave Popcorn - We find the “100 calorie pop” is perfect for one person and occassional split a bag at night before dinner. Though it’s not the protein content that I would typically look for in a food, the amount of chewing and time that it takes to eat 50-100 calories make it appear to much more food than it is.

South Beach Diet Cereal Bars - We found a great deal on these at the military commissary (24 bars for $10). They are 140 calories with 10 grams of protein. It has 5 grams of fat and 9 grams of net carbs, but it tastes like a candy bar. In contrast to the popcorn above it’s a dense 1.23 ounces. Few foods beat it for portability and speed to eat. I have a friend who is a busy doctor and keeps them handy because she might only get 2 minutes here and there to eat during the day.

Slim-a-Bear ice-cream sandwiches - At 100-calories per sandwich, these are a perfect substitute for the full fat ice cream. You wouldn’t want them to be your whole diet, but you feel completely guilt-free after eating one.

Fruit - Nature’s candy is an easy choice here. We keep apples and oranges around all the time because they have a good shelf life. Occasionally we will have bananas, but they go bad in a couple of days.

Whey Protein Shake - I’ll blend some whey protein and milk and have a shake every now and again as a snack. It’s not very portable, and it’s not going to taste as good as the South Beach Diet bars or Slim-a-Bear ice-cream sandwiches, but the thought of 25-30 grams of protein makes my analytical mind excited. Occasionally, I toss in some frozen berries for more anti-oxidants - other times I will use a Splenda-based low-calorie chocolate syrup for taste. Another similar idea is to use a Carnation Instant Breakfast package instead of the whey protein.

I find that most of these healthy snacks stay under 200 calories. They give me a variety of choice depending on my mood: popcorn for when I want to pick at something, cereal bars when I need something on the go with no preparation or refrigeration/cooking necessary, and ice-cream sandwiches for cravings.

When you want a healthy snack what do you go with?

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…The way they evaluate weight loss seems flawed. Everyone has a healthy minimum weight. The doctors wouldn’t allow a 90lb woman to continue to lose weight for example (unless she was really short). More than likely, they would probably stop her from dropping under 110. Watch Ali, this year’s winner end up around 120 pounds is pretty much a good range. That means she had a “limit” that depended on where she entered the contest. If she entered at 200 pounds that limit would be about a 45% before she hit the 110 mark, not enough to win the competition this year without going to the unhealthy site.

And what of the men? I believe they allow some men to start at the 400 pound weight. One could imagine that a healthy weight for a guy could be 170. We could argue that it’s much lower - Bernie weighed around 153 at the end this year and looked great. If we use that 170 number, the 400 pound man’s limit would have the potential of 57% weight loss. It seems like those who start out the worse have the potential to do much better.

So what’s the solution? I’m not sure I know. Perhaps you take into body fat measurements? That’s difficult as well because women are supposed to have more body fat than men. Maybe you can do that, but crown a King and Queen Biggest Loser?

In the end, I’m being nit-picky. It seems like all the contestants lost a lot of weight, while inspiring many viewers to do the same. That’s a really the point right?

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Today, I’d like to bring you a new breakfast. Like the other breakfast, this is cheap, healthy, and quick - but it’s not hot. As a bonus, I’ve found that I can buy everything at Trader Joe’s. There are only five ingredients. This breakfast will take you a total 210 seconds a week to prepare - that’s 3.5 minute for you math majors.

A cheap and healthy breakfast:

1. Gather ingredients - Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal (Fiber One is a good, but more expensive substitute), Kashi GoLean Crunch, sliced almonds (or chopped walnuts), dried cranberries (feel free to substitute banana chips or other dried fruit as well).
2. Mix ingredients - See, this is easy…
3. Store in a container… …for use later on in the week
4. Add Milk… … when you are ready to eat.
5. Eat… … preferably with a spoon.

You’ll notice that this healthy breakfast is high in fiber from the cereal. It has bit of protein from the milk and almonds. This cereal has some antioxidants from the cranberries (or dried fruit) and almonds (or other nuts).

The most important part is that it’s really good - I look forward to eating this every day. I am going to switch off between this breakfast and my old breakfast, but try to mix in an orange or apple as mid-morning snack. I feel healthier just having a plan in place.

We’ve been looking forward to the release of the Nintendo Wii Fit in the United States. There are times when my wife works late - the last thing she wants to do is go to the gym. However, there’s a good chance that we’ll fire up the Wii and play a few of the games. As a bonus, the Wii Fit will keep track of our weight and BMI and graph it over time.

I can’t wait for it.

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carrying your wallet in the back pocket of your pants can cause discomfort… Sitting on your wallet or card holder for the entire day will create a pocket in the muscle lying underneath the wallet, and whether your pants are tight or loose-fitting, this can result in discomfort or pain.

The recommended solution is to not carry a wallet in your back pocket. However it’s difficult for many people to carry a wallet in their front pocket. If you have as much stuff as I do in my wallet, you can see why it wouldn’t fit in my front pocket.

I went through a two step process to eliminate the bulk in my wallet:

• Remove unnecessary cards - I did this by eliminating a couple of the credit cards that I bring with me. I don’t need to bring the Home Depot card with me - and it’s been years since I went to Blockbuster. I decided that I needed the Costco, Safeway, two credit cards, two bank cards, health insurance card, my driver’s license, and my military ID. I looked into Just One Club Card, but I’m too Lazy and I’m not sure I can consolidate things any more.
• Get a Thin Wallet - I did a lot of research and found two possible solutions. The Junior All-Ett and the Jimi Wallet. These two wallets had tremendous reviews.

I realized that I couldn’t go with the Jimi - I just could limit myself to the 4-5 cards and one or two dollar bills. However, the Junior All-Ett was exactly what I was looking for. It has space for 10 cards and a few bills. It arrived in a standard envelope - I almost expected it to be a notice of the item being back-ordered. Upon shifting to it, I couldn’t believe the difference between it an my leather wallet. It’s not going to win any fashion awards, but I still want to show it off every chance I get. Unfortunately it’s so thin that I forget about it in my pocket and fail to show people.

I’m not sure if it’s going to prevent me from getting back problems in the future, but I feel good knowing that I’ve eliminated a potential problem

Photo Credit: b_d_solis

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Wii Tennis is a good workout

My favorite game is Wii Sports Tennis. This is the only game where my wife and I can play on the same team. (When we are on opposing teams, we get a little too competitive and it doesn’t end up well). I focus about 90% of my time on this game. After a day or just a couple games a day, my wife and I noticed that we had a case of Wii Tennis Elbow (Wiibow?). We took a day off and have been fine since.

So what about burning calories? My wife really puts her arm into every shot. She says she builds up quite a sweat that way. (I build up a sweat from trying to dodge her swings.) However, if you want a scientific study, this study showed that Wii Tennis burns 92 calories in 15 minutes - nearly 400 an hour.

Wii Boxing is a great workout

For awhile Wii Sports Boxing was up there with Wii Sports Tennis, but I got more involved with Tennis. I simply didn’t want to plug and unplug the nunchuck controller. This game has a punching component which is a little like Tae-bo workout. It adds a dodging and blocking component, so I’m moving everything from the waist up. I winded afterwards and realize that I clearly am getting a great workout. The previously mentioned article measured Wii Boxing as burning 500 calories an hour.

The Key to the Wii is Motivation

As great as I feel after I get back from the gym, I often don’t feel like going. It seems like I have too many other things to do and it gets pushed off. However, with the Wii our entertainment has become our exercise. This is a great way to not only be productive, but motivate ourselves into shape.

Bonus: Wii Tennis Tips

I am a 1700 skill level (2000 is near the top) tennis player now and it goes up a little with each game I play. I’m sure there are better people out there than me, but for beginners this may help

• Fast Serve - I found that I can fast serve more often when I press A to toss the ball up in the air. It’s worth trying if you can’t get the swing timing right.
• Net Guy - If I can hit it with the net guy I do. He rarely hits the ball out and if you miss you get a second chance with the back guy.
• Swing Early - This is especially true with the net guy. If you swing early you can often spike the ball in such a way that the computer had to dive out of bounce just to return it. This sets you up to slam it on the other side of the court.
• Tire Them Out - The computer players start to sweat after awhile. Their abilities goes down and you can take advantage of that. Annoyingly they are very good at slow lobs when they are tired, so they can get back into position. This leads to a drawn out game. I’m happy with that because it means more exercise.

That’s all I have for now. I haven’t worked on any spin shots or anything of nature. Maybe in the next two weeks I’ll get that down.

Photo Credit: Thivierr

I had no idea that it’s a regional product. I couldn’t find it in any of 7 local grocery stores. When I went back to Boston it wasn’t there either. Finally I found it in the most unlikely of places a Navy base Commissary.

How to Make a Good Easy Chili

I’m not the best chef. If you read about my healthy sauce you know that I improvise. Chili Magic helps me do that. One can of it, some ground beef or turkey, and a can of diced tomatoes and the base of chili is done. You don’t need to do anything else if you don’t want to. Often times that suits me as I am Lazy. Other times, I like to get crazy and add things that many people wouldn’t put in Chili. I add salsa, buffalo wing sauce, corn, mushrooms, peppers, onions, a little cheese (go easy on this), even wheat germ. It really is magic in that I haven’t been able to make a bad one yet.

Why Chili is Important to my Diet

It’s extremely healthy. The beans are a great source of fiber which keeps me full longer. The ground turkey/beef provides a lot of protein. The diced tomatoes and extras give me vegetables that I often lack when I’m making other dishes.

I tried to make chili the conventional way, but have failed to duplicate the success that I get Bush’s Chili Magic. It’s given my diet a kick start.

Have a chili recipe secret? Share it below.

[You’d think Bush paid me for writing so highly of them. I want to stress that is not the case. I really like their product and think that it should have wider distribution. Plus, I’m also extremely excited to find a place where I can finally buy it.]

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Today my wife and I make our own tomato sauce. It sounds like it is a lot of work, but it takes me around ten minutes. The key to the sauce is to have a can of regular cheap tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes. I generally buy the cheapest, but we recently found that Costco has a very good price on both - and they are organic too.

Much to my wife’s disappointment, I’ve never been one to follow a recipe. I will look at recipes to get an idea of what I’m making, but I’m too Lazy to measure out things to the last ounce - or to measure many things at all. The best part of this recipe is that you don’t need to measure anything.

Here’s how we make our Lazy Man’s healthy tomato sauce:

1. Brown some ground beef or ground turkey on a stove top at high in a pot/skillet, whatever is available. Drain out the excess fat. Skip this step if you are vegetarian or simply want a meatless sauce
2. While browning the meat, open up your cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Pour them into another pot and put that on the stove at medium heat
3. Add your spices… we like oregano, and basil. Trader Joe’s has frozen concentrate garlic which we love, but you could substitute garlic powder if it suits you. Add a dash of olive oil (or not it’s all up to you!)
4. Have some fun with it. I tried to do a red wine reduction with some $2 Charles Shaw wine from Trader Joe’s. I couldn’t tell the difference in the final sauce, but it was good to try once.
5. Mix the meat into the sauce, give it a couple minutes at medium to low stirring occasionally. Serve

The biggest problem that I have with this sauce is that it’s so good that we want to have it often. What goes with tomato sauce? That’s right - pasta. It’s high carb and not as healthy as I’d like. If we ran marathons that would be different, but we don’t. If anyone has suggestions for what we could have this sauce with, let me know in the comments.

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For those unfamiliar with the Wii, where have you been? It’s a gaming system with a control that senses your movements. This means that you swing a bat or tennis racket, not just push buttons and stare at a screen. In short it’s a way to play your way into shape. I had been holding out for the Wii Fit to come out, but I felt it was time to give it a try. I am sure I can add the Wii Fit when it comes out in May.

I have two DVDs of games - Wii Sports and Wii Play. Wii Sports has 5 games ranging from Tennis to Boxing. I like the tennis quite a bit, but the boxing is growing on me - plus it seems like it has the potential for a full body exercise. You physically have to punch - with both hands, block, and dodge. I’ve just fought one match and I was sweating a storm. Happily, I won a decision in the third round.

One of the great things about Wii Sports is that you can take a set of tests. Your performance is rated and the Wii gives you a Wii age. The first time I took the test, I got an age of 34 - not bad for a soon-to-be 32 year old. I have a little more practice now and I bet I’ve cut a few years off of that age.

I’ll continue to play it and give occasional reports of any health related milestones I reach with it.

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