Cardio Ballet Workout

I like this one from Jessica Smith TV. She has a nice soothing voice, and everything is slow and explained nicely. There are no confusing steps. It is a blend of exercise with ballet moves, but requires no equipment. She has lots of other workouts on youtube as well, but I think this one is the most fun.

Potato, Broccoli and Cheese Soup

This is based on this recipe on All Recipes.

Ingredients

8 potatoes
5 cup water
4 chicken bouillon cubes
3 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar)
14 oz frozen broccoli (fresh works too)


Put broccoli in a pot of water and bring to a boil.
While it's cooking, chop up potatoes and put in pot of water with bouillon cubes.
Bring to a boil.
Cook about 15 minutes.
While it's cooking chop up broccoli.
Put broccoli into pot of soup.
Mix in cheddar, stirring and keep heated until all is melted.

Chicken Avocado Salad

Ingredients
2 avocados
1 red delicious apple
10 oz chopped chicken
2 tablespoons nuts

Cut open avocado and mash
Mix in rest of ingredients
Good on bread or with crackers

Banana Apple Cashew Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

1 banana
2 tablespoons apple pieces or raisins (I have done both and they were both tasty)
2 tablespoons nuts (I did cashews)
1/3 cup semi sweet baking chips
2 tablespoons low fat milk or almond milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce
2/3 cup dry oatmeal
2 tablespoons nuts

Procedure:
Preheat over 350
Mix ingredients
Spray baking sheet
Plop from spoon onto baking sheet
Cook 10-15 minutes

Makes 8 cookies
Serving- 1 cookie
Calories 100

Banana Apple Sauce Oatmeal Pancakes

This recipe makes 4 small pancakes or one huge pancake. You may tweak to fit your own needs. This recipe is a tweak of oatmeal apple pancakes from Whole Foods Market which can be found here

Ingredients:

1 cup dry oatmeal
1/2 banana
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
Cooking spray

Procedure:

Mix banana, apple sauce and oatmeal in a blender.
Spray frying pan with cooking spray.
Pour half of mixture onto frying pan, making two pancakes.
Fry for 2 minutes.
Flip over and fry for 1 minute.
Repeat with the rest of the batch.
Spread some Greek yogurt on top

Serving- 2 cakes
Nutrition information
Calories 217
Fat 3 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1g
Polyunsaturated fat 1g
Sodium 11mg
Potassium 317mg
Carbohydrate 42g
Dietary Fiber 6g
Sugars 10g
Protein 8g
Vitamin C 5%
Calcium 4%
Iron 10%


Some fun additions could be nuts, chocolate chips, or fruit topping

Welcome to My Health Challenge

So last month I decided to start eating healthy and exercising regularly, in the hopes of losing weight and living to see my son graduate with his PhD, it can be in music, I'm not picky. I used to be a fairly active human, but in the last years since I had my son, I've let myself go. Well, no more. I will be eating healthy, lots of fruits, vegetables,, low fat dairy, whole wheat and lean protein. This blog will be used to store pictures, recipes, exercises and stretches I do, and so on. 
So here is me, my first couple weeks into my weight loss journey. 18 lbs down.