Welcome back!!

So it has been a while since I have been on here ... 7 months and 29 days to be exact. Over the past seven months, I have been busy getting closer to my degree, getting promoted, starting up a new love for boxing, and meeting tons of new people along the way. Last time I was on, I mentioned having my New Year's Resolutions. I have still been trying to keep up with them and even have them in print so I am held more accountable.

Most of the things on this list I have been able to uphold. I have been trying my hardest with the things that are life changing and key to living a well balanced and happy life -- things like doing what I love, live my life, laugh often, don't judge, eat from the earth, being open minded, and all over having a better outlook on life. Along with these things, I have been putting a lot of effort into going local, especially when it comes to my food. I love knowing where my food is coming from and what I am putting into my body, but even more importantly what I am NOT putting into my body (pesticides, transfats, processed products, hormones, and all the unnecessaries). Food is such a necessity when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle. It is your fuel and helps to set you up for living a good life, so you may as well make it the best quality you can.

Although food accounts for 80-85% of the whole package, the rest of it is made up with fitness and activity level. As you know I am already an active person, always on the go, running around, doing yoga, and riding my bike, but over the past few months I have been really focusing on my strength. To do this I picked up boxing, started doing more weights and strength training, and doing more fast paced and full body cardio work outs. Doing this has all worked out for me thus far, but I have been wanting something a little new. Some of my friends have done or are currently doing P90X and absolutely love it. I hate having to go out and buy a whole new workout routine, but I have heard that this one is definitely worth it. Lucky for me, my sister and her husband did P90X a while back and she so graciously let me borrow theirs. So starting tomorrow, I will be starting in my P90X journey!

During this journey I will be writing on here, filling in with how the workouts are, how I am feeling, what I am eating, and my "transformation" along the way. But knowing that I am starting tomorrow, I must be off. I need to make sure and get a good night sleep so I can be well rested for the day ahead of me tomorrow :) Goodnight all!

Welcome 2012!

Happy new year! It's a new year and I am ready for anything. I am not usually one for making "New Year's Resolutions", but for some reason this year just feels a bit different....

One of my resolutions is to actually start blogging regularly. I clearly have been neglecting FridaRitaMargarita, and it is about time that I get back in to it. For at least the next year, I am taking on the lifestyle of a pescaterian, blogging about it along the way. I will be eating as natural of a diet as I can, making new recipes and trying new foods.

I am super excited to get back in to the swing of things and start sharing my good food and crazy times with everyone.  A new year calls for a new outlook on life, and I definitely have a positive one! I can't wait to let the good times roll :)

Until next time...
HAPPY 2012!

Hello there, again. Sorry for my disappearance! (PLUS the second half of the challenge!)

So today is day 15 of the 30 Day Challenge, the day that I am giving you the second half of the challenge. I know that I have been a little out of the loop for about a week, and I apologize. Things on my end have been oober crazy whirlwinds all over the place. I barely have enough time to stop and breathe, let alone write in my blog. In the past two weeks, I have started at a new school, made the final decision in my moving process, began packing, and been at work any time that I haven't been at school. And although I may not have written about the second week of the challenge, that doesn't mean I haven't been doing it.

I have stayed true to my challenge and been pushing myself to do the challenge, no matter what the circumstances -- and boy has it been tough. I even managed to eat completely homemade meals/snacks on day 10, even with having to leave my house for school at 6 am, and not getting back home until 7:30 pm. I was able to pack breakfast, two snacks, and a lunch to bring with me. I almost caved after my last class ended at 6:30 pm and stopped at Chipotle on my way home, but I stuck it out threw my 45 minute drive and made something when I got home instead.

So although I have not been as on top of every bit of the challenge (especially writing things down and posting on my blog), I would like the take the last 15 days of the challenge to change that. What I would like to challenge myself, and all of you, to do for the next two-ish weeks is to take everything learned from the first 15 challenges and combine and improve on them.

I have decided to do this because I feel that it is very important in life to be able to organize your health and food choices on your own. Real life may become an obstacle every now and then, but if is our job to know how to assess each situation and work with it accordingly. We need to be able to balance everything in life, and learn how to do so on our own terms. And that is what I will be doing.

This will be my experimenting phase and I will make sure and keep track and record about what works, what doesn't, what I can change, what I am thinking about next, and more. So I hope that you join in, let me know what works for you, or what you think about what I am doing!

Thanks for all the support so far! I really appreciate it!!!

Happy Monday, and Happy Healthy Eating!

Days 6 & 7: Food Pyramids ... well, sort of.

Over the decades, the food pyramid has changed several times. When thinking about the food pyramid, most probably think of the old school pyramid with the bottom fourth being grains, the next fourth being half fruits and half vegetables, the next fourth being meats/proteins and dairy, and the top fourth being "extras" (fats, oils, and sweets). Now, the food pyramid goes from left to right and the proportions are different as well. Instead of the grains being 1/4 of the pyramid, and most other categories being about 1/8 or less, each category is very similar in size -- except for the "extras", which is still the smallest.

With all the changes in the food pyramid, it is easy to see how someone could get confused or behind with the latest information. That is why I wanted to try and get back on track and fit my meals in to the pyramid.

You may think it can be a bit difficult to actually keep track of it all or work out your food in to the pyramid, but luckily if you go to www.mypyramid.gov, there is a system that lets you fill out all of your information (age, weight, height, sex, etc) and plans out a specific pyramid just for you. This will help you get started and set a customized plan for you and your food.

As far as the "food plate" goes, it is a more specific design for the food pyramid at each meal. If you are to take your plate at each meal and first fill it up with at least 1/2 vegetable (and/or fruit), about 1/4 protein, and the remaining 1/4 complex carbohydrate (aka: grain/starch) then that is your food plate. This design allows for you to fill up on your fiber, keeping you full and stopping you from filling up on unnecessary calories.

If people were to do this for every meal of every day, then it would leave very little room for swerving off the path of healthy eating. And following this meal plan allows for people to have those foods that they can't live without -- all in moderation of course.

So I challenge you to do this -- today, tomorrow, for yourself, your family, friends, and more. This will help to teach your body to know what it actually needs and suppress those urges for things that you may think that it needs.

I hope this helps, at least a little bit! And until next time, Happy Healthy Eating! And happy Tuesday!!

Day 5: Making all grains WHOLE

It may seem like it's not too difficult to switch all the grains you are eating to whole grains -- and you're right, it's not. At the same time, you have to be very conscious and read the labels of the grains that you are eating. It is just as easy to think you are eating whole grains when you're actually not, as it is to truly be eating them.

That is why reading your labels is very key to eating healthy. No matter what the food, no matter who the company/maker is, no matter what the front of the packaging says ... READ YOUR LABELS.

There are a few things to look for when reading labels:

• When looking at breads, pastas, and other grains -- the first ingredient should be a whole one. Whether it's whole wheat, whole oats, etc.
• Know your ingredients. If there is something on the label that you can not pronounce, it is probably not something that you should be putting in your body.
• Beware of hidden ingredients. There are lots of ingredients that are hidden by other names. For example -- high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, monosodium glutamate, hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated oils. These are all things that you need to watch for because they can easily be looked over when looking at the ingredients. And you'd be surprised how many things these couple ingredients are in.
• Sugar content. The amount of sugar per serving should not exceed about 10. This will help to prevent blood sugar spikes with quick drops in energy, leaving you feeling groggy and bad. There are a few exceptions, like juices (you still want to make sure that your juice does not have any added sugars to it).

For me, it has become innate to look at the labels of almost everything I eat. But I too get off track with my grains, especially when I go out to eat. Yesterday, I tried to be very conscious about every grain that I ate to make sure it was the best quality and a whole grain. A way that I do this, is making sure that anything that I keep around the house is whole grain, so I am not tempted to snack on/eat things that are just empty carbs. 

Some of my favorites that I like to have around are: Ezekiel bread (found at whole foods or any local health food store), homemade granola/granola bars, Food Should Taste Good Brand whole grain/whole corn tortilla chips, Kashi whole grain frozen waffles, Barilla whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and quinoa.

And I understand that sometimes when you go out to eat, it can be hard to make whole grain choices. That is why I always consider two different options when I am out.

1. Is it made in house? More times that not, if the restaurant is good enough quality to make their own pizza dough, pasta, tortillas, etc, then those grains are probably good enough for you to eat.
2. Opt for no grains and sub for other complex carbohydrates such as: potatoes (not fried!), root vegetables, corn, or beans/legumes.

I hope this all helps keep you on the track for sticking with whole grains! I know that it has definitely helped me out a lot. If you have any other suggestions or questions, please don't hesitate to speak up! Hope your week ended on a high and I hope that your weekend is great!

Until next time... Happy Saturday!!!

Days 3 & 4: Taste the Rainbow

So I know I was really bad and forgot to post notes on my day yesterday, and I apologize. But I am back on track and to catch up, I am going to talk about yesterday and today all in one!

Yesterday (Day 3) was the day to "eat the rainbow". And when I say eat the rainbow, that doesn't mean have a bag of skittles and you're good to go. I mean that you need to eat something that is naturally each color from the spectrum of the rainbow. This includes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and even white.

My day looked a little something like this:

Breakfast- Greek yogurt with fruit and nut granola (purple in the raisins)
Snack- Red apple (red in the apple)
Lunch- Chicken salad sandwich with vegetable chips (white onions)
Snack- Peanut butter and banana smoothie (yellow banana)
Dinner- Salmon with a sweet potato and a salad (green salad, orange sweet potato)

Although there were more of each of the colors throughout the day, those were the big ones that I had. And I must say I did a better job than most do on a daily basis. I got every color but blue! I thought we had blueberries at the house, but I was sadly mistaken :(


As far as today went (Day 4), I did an average job. Today's challenge was to get a full days serving of fruits and vegetables. I didn't quite get all my servings of fruit, but I know that I got my veggies!

For fruits, I had a handful of red and green grapes with my breakfast, an apple as a snack, and salsa in my tuna sandwich (if you are one of those that counts tomatoes as a fruit).

For vegetables, I had onions and peppers in the salsa that was in my sandwich, mixed vegetables (carrots, celery, and cucumber) with hummus for a snack, and a big fat chopped salad or dinner with onions, zucchini, and tomatoes.

That being said, I know there are definitely things in my day that I could have done better (like having fruit for dessert instead of a cookie ... or a side of fruit or veggies with my lunch), but all in all, I feel like I did a good job -- especially since I packed everything up and brought it with me when I left at 7:30 am to get to and stay at school until 6:30 pm.

I know that there is a lot going on in my life, and it makes it difficult to stay on track with this challenge, but I am still trying very hard to stick with it and do my best! And I hope you all are too :)

Hope you're having a great week and just keep your head up because the weekend is just around the corner!! and PS -- I would love some feedback if you have any!!


Happy Thursday!

Day 2: Naw on the Raw

So it's Day 2.... and I'm sick. This sucks. Of course I would just happen to get sick the weekend before I start my challenge. I mean, why not? Just adds another level of challenge I guess...


Anyway, I am still going to try my hardest to stick to the challenge of the day and stick to raw foods -- although, I may have to make a few exceptions due to the state that I am in. Since I am still in the (excuse me for being gross) mucousy faze of being sick, dairy is not really my friend. So unfortunately, that cut outs a lot of sources of carbohydrates and protein for me. And as much as I want to stick to the challenge, I don't want to make myself worse either. I have work tomorrow and school starts Thursday, so I have to be at my best for that!

So far, I have been going strong (I know, I know, it's only 9:30 am... but still). I had a delicious breakfast of bananas and nut butters and a glass of refresh tea. I am hoping that I can keep this up the whole day..... We'll see.

I will be back later to update on how everything is going. So if you have any ideas for snacks, meals, etc for today please let me know!

Until then,
HAPPY TUESDAY!