Health Challenge Complete & Nutrition Tips

Back in May, my company opened up a 6-month health challenge that we could opt to participate in along with your spouse. When I heard that the prize for successfully completing the challenge and meeting your target weight was a night at the Gaylord Palms resort in Orlando, I definitely wanted to be in.

Now, I'm naturally a "smaller boned" person so I didn't have a huge amount of weight to lose but you can set your own goal so mine was to tone up by replacing some extra fat with muscle and K's goal was to lose 15-20 pounds.

To complete the challenge you had to attend the gym at least 10 times/month for 6 mths and do weekly check-ins with a Nutritionist, which they paid for both the gym membership and the nutrition counseling so what did I have to lose?

The end of October marked the 6 months and K & I both hit our goal so last weekend was our trip to the Gaylord Palms resort.

I can't share the complete diet plan that you would pay to get from a Nutritionist but I thought I'd share some huge tips that have helped K and I change our life/diet around and really keep the weight off:

Diet Tips:

~ Limit sugar intake (check the back of labels and opt for salad dressings with less than 3g sugar)

~ Milk is liquid sugar

~ Coffee drinkers, try to use non-dairy creamer

~ Green vegetables have less sugar so opt for these when you can (broccoli, zucchini,etc.)

~ Packaged/processed foods such as instant rice and pasta meals = no bueno

~ Workout out as much as you can, even a quick 15-20 mins of cardio is better than nothing

~ Some good, low cal snacks are protein shakes, cottage cheese, string cheese, almonds, yoghurt.

~ No carbs after lunch or at least none at dinner.

Need some ideas for low carb dinners?

~ Baked parmesan-crusted pork chops with fresh veggies

~ Chicken stirfry

~ Baked tilapia topped with shrimp & asparagus

~ Chicken & mixed veggie kabobs

~ Steak & shrimp with mashed cauliflower and broccoli

~ BBQ jerk pork chops with vegetable medley (zucchini, carrots & onion)

I'd be happy to share any of these recipes with anyone interested. 

Joining Jenn for What I Ate Wednesday.

Happy hump day everyone!

Here's the link to my Beauty Bag Giveaway going on now ;-)