Classika Fitness 2306 Bedford Avenue / Lynchburg VA 24503 / 455-4788

Pork Chop Suey

Quick, easy, and delicious! I would probably cut back a bit on the soy sauce to keep the sodium content down a bit. Also, mushrooms might make a good addition. From Eating Well magazine:

A week of eating pretty well

I'm tracking the food journal for a client wanting to lose 15 lbs. in one month -- ambitious but doable. So, in her first week she lost three pounds, and her journal was a very good real-world example of how to make some good choices. It does not have to be rocket science, but it does take discipline and focus. She also made a few not-so-good choices on one day when she was traveling. But, that's life. Altogether, she did well and I wanted to share it with you all, because often we're asked about ideas for healthy lunches, snacks, and dinners. Sorry, the first page seems not to have scanned well.

sample menu -- one week021

300-Calorie Meals

This blog has a nice representation of what several 300-calorie meals (give or take) look like. For those of you wanting to lose weight, we have found that many clients do well when they can hold to about 1500 calories per day. So, if you were to try that, you could actually eat 4 or 5 of the meals pictured. I would think you would find yourself filled up nicely for the day with those meals on your plate in addition to however much water you're drinking.

Tuna Salad Wrap

Quick, easy, and healthy! From TRX's website.

Taqueria Style Tacos

Here's a good recipe for tacos. I would think it might be a good one to try for an informal party or movie night. You might experiment with cooking the meat in your crockpot. The recipe as shown is pretty healthy. The only caveat might be the 1/2 cup of soy sauce. There's a lot of sodium in soy sauce and this can cause bloating. Not the worst thing in the world, but it is something to watch out for.

Grilled Chicken Marsala

Here's a good recipe from Clean Eating Magazine. For cooking novices, the only semi-tough part might be the marsala sauce, but it really wouldn't be so difficult. This is a good one to practice on! And if you don't have a grill, you could use an indoor grill (aka Foreman grill). Or, you could bake or pan fry the chicken.

A quick way to make pizza healthier

Pizza can be a mixed bag when it comes to nutrition. On the positive side, it can have some healthy toppings and provide a concentrated source of lycopene. On the negative side, it will usually be a dense source of calories and have fairly high levels of saturated fat and sodium. All that said, it isn't the worst thing out there, that's for sure.

University of Maryland researchers have found a way to make pizza a little healthier still: make the dough out of whole wheat flour, let it sit for a day, and then bake the pizza at a fairly high temperature (~500 degrees). This combination tends to bring out more antioxidants than regular dough. Antioxidants help cells recover from damage. (Although, as with many things, virtue is found in moderation. Too many antioxidants can reduce blood flow and inhibit muscular function.)

Calorie counts off a bit

Shocker, I know, but have you seen the report recently about how some restaurant foods aren't nearly the same calorie count as advertised? One might understand being a little off, but there are some very large discrepancies. That's why the Classika food diary gives you a point if you prepare all your own food. Not because your food doesn't have calories, but that 1) there won't be any calorie surprises in your meal, and 2) the portion will likely be more fitting.

Thai Spring Rolls

My wife and I are hosting a Korean student over Christmas break, and he introduced us to homemade spring rolls recently. Well, the rice wrappers weren't homemade, but everything else was. Basically, you dip the very thin rice wrap in hot water until it becomes limp, then lay it on your plate. Simply fill it with whatever you like -- we used onions, carrots, cucumber (sliced long-wise), greens, scallions, noodles, chicken, and shrimp in varying combinations. Then you fold up the rice wrap, which is easy and holds together well, and dip it in sauce. The meal was quick, healthy, delicious, and flexible, so it made me go looking for an equivalent recipe online, which I found here. Another possibility is to bake them.

Blackened Salmon

And since I'm on a recipe kick this morning, here's another favorite. It's equally quick and tasty!