Opportunity Knocks..The Conclusion

And now the conclusion to our dinner with two “Biggest Winners”….

Our nerves were still jumpy as we pulled up to Harbour Sixty but excitement was taking over. We were early (which is a rarity for us) so we relaxed and waited in the main lobby. About 10 minutes later Antoine and Alexandra arrived. It was really comfortable right off the bat as we chatted and were walked to our table. Of course, being the kind of restaurant it is, we received a grand tour of the kitchen, past the display cases of meat, seafood and other delicious looking food. Just getting to the table was an experience.

We sat at our table for a good hour just talking and getting to know each other. We covered everything from our upbringing to work and everything in-between. The conversation flowed; it was almost like we had always been friends and were just catching up over a few glasses of water.

One of our topics of discussion was how Antoine and Alexandra were able to help family, be around family or participate in holiday gatherings without the usual bad food and weight implications. We listened very closely to this advice as this is always one of the areas we struggle with. Antoine and Alexandra gave us some great advice on how they did their first thanksgiving together for their family and cooked nothing but healthy food. It was a compromise for their family, but it was the idea and follow through of actually doing it that mattered.

Our poor server must have come back four or five times over the hour we sat there before we even opened up our menus. When we finally did, we got our first lesson on how Antoine and Alexandra have been so successful in their journey so far. While looking through the options for an appetizer, we all gravitated towards the shrimp cocktail. Rather than each of us ordering our own, Antoine made a great suggestion: Let’s split one! The server was very accommodating and split them up into four plates and we were able to each have a taste without over-indulging.

Moving on to dinner: we said it before, we had no idea what to expect – what would Antoine and Alexandra order? Once we started discussing it we realized that we had nothing to worry about, they eat like normal people, not like they did while they were on the BL ranch. Antoine was pretty settled on getting the Dover Sole that was flown in from France that morning, (there were only three in the entire restaurant), and then Lisa, Alexandra and I all settled on a nice steak. Alexandra had always wanted to try lobster and asked the server to add a lobster tail to her order, but we then found out the tail was 16oz! So we used one of the tips that Antoine had shared with us and we split it between the four of us. To cap off our superbly delicious meal, we split a lovely fruit and crepe platter.

Now I know by this point you must be thinking where are the great pearls of wisdom? How are we going to learn from these two successful, interesting and outgoing people? (Antoine and Alexandra – not us). I think our key take away from this dinner is the fact that losing weight and keeping it off is an ongoing thing. You constantly have the option to make choices and it’s up to you to make the right ones. You can still go out, still enjoy yourself and have a great lifestyle, but it’s what you choose to eat, what activity you choose to do that makes the difference in how you feel, how you look. I think this dinner highlighted that small adjustments (like sharing an appetizer for example) can help with the bigger picture. Another thing that really stood out for us, and that is becoming more and more apparent is that talking with other people that are going through a similar journey really helps us re-energize and focus on our goals. Talking about our struggles and listening to other people’s struggles and triumphs helps us grow and continue what we are doing.

This was a great experience and once in a life time thing. We have made some great new friends in a few hours together and we want to thank Antoine and Alexandra for selecting us, and the WeightWise Expo for running the contest.

Dinner With Antoine + Alexandra from Biggest Loser

 

Take care
~ira

Tags: antoine dove, biggest loser, healthy living, reality television

Opportunity Knocks

“Holy crap! Lisa, they chose us.” Those were the first words out of my mouth when we got the email. Lisa and I won the opportunity to sit down with two people who were on the Biggest Loser. More than that, they were a couple just like us. They had been successful and can help us.

We had so many ideas that were running through our heads as we read that first email from Amanda at the Weight Wise Expo in Toronto.

Let me back up a bit. I had found a contest online with the Weight Wise Expo, (a show for anyone who wants to explore options and learn about the latest nutritional, medical, fitness, cosmetic and surgical weight management information) and the winners would win a dinner with two former contestants from the Biggest Loser – Antoine and Alexandra:

I submitted our story and didn’t really think about the contest again. Until the email.

During the week following the email, we started to get nervous; there had been some mention about press and more. This would be a great opportunity to promote NoMore560 but were we even ready for it?

We finally received the final plans for dinner: “Antoine and Alexandra will meet you at Harbour Sixty at 7 pm” read the e-mail. Oh Boy! Where do we even begin? First of all, it’s one of the nicest steak houses in the city. Then the thought set in: here we go, it’s real now. What do we wear, what will they be like, are they only going to eat salads and steamed veggies? Will we have anything to talk about? These are all the questions we were asking each other before heading out.

Check out NoMore560 tomorrow for photos, dinner details and our reactions to the whole experience.

~Ira

Tags: biggest loser, contest, dinner, healthy eating, weight wise expo

Life has a tendency of getting in the way…

You may have noticed that we have been a little quiet over the past couple of weeks. We have been really busy as life has gotten in the way of our well-intended blogging duties. However, that just means that we have a lot to blog about because we have been out doing things!

Please come back over the next few days as we fill you in on what we have been up to.

Keep working towards your goals – whatever they may be!

~Ira and Lisa

30-day Detox Challenge – Conclusions & Thoughts

So we finished the 30-day detox challenge. In fact, we have been done for about 2 weeks now. We thought it would be good to write a post outlining how we felt on the challenge and how transitioning back to some of the banned foods has made us feel.

During the Challenge
To start, the challenge was a lot easier than either one of us expected. As I’ve mentioned previously, the only thing I really missed was coffee (problem solved by one of our readers Alison, who introduced us to Swiss Water Process of removing caffeine). The one thing that Ira really missed was pop, but 30 days is really not that long to go without indulging in something. Along the way we had a couple of struggles, mainly surrounding eating out – which is inevitable in our line of work, but we managed to get through without cheating. We also made it through the high holidays without giving in to temptation. All in all it was a successful detox and showed us what our bodies could feel like – more energetic, better digestive functions, better skin, and better moods. Also, I was going through one of the most stressful periods of work that I have ever had to deal with and I managed to get through it without any breakdowns or suffering from an emotional rollercoaster, which is a pretty big deal.

After the Challenge
After our 30 days were up, we didn’t gradually re-introduce the banned items to our diets, we went to Las Vegas instead. That’s right, land of the “all you can eat buffets”. Boy, were our systems shocked! My stomach was not a happy camper during our trip, and it is still wonky after two weeks. Ira also discovered he now has lactose intolerance symptoms when he consumes dairy. We are not sure if he has always had an intolerance and now his symptoms are exacerbated due to the hiatus or if he has developed it (if there are any nutritionists out there that could shed some insight that would be lovely!). I have also started drinking caffeinated coffee again, but I find that just one cup of it gives me the shakes – not sure if it is permanent or if my body is adjusting, so I might make the switch to decaf permanent (never thought I would say that!).

Going Forward
Overall, we thought the 30-day detox was great. We are planning on trying it once a year to help “reboot” our bodies. There are also many things we will start incorporating into our everyday diets including almond milk vs. dairy, quinoa for breakfast and limiting the amount of caffeine we consume. As for the gluten, we are not sure that we can make that change permanent. We both love bread way too much, and since we do not suffer from celiac disease, we don’t feel it’s necessary to cut it out permanently. However, I have a number of bread-only cookbooks and we are going to start making our own bread with healthier flours like whole-wheat and spelt, etc… so we can control exactly what goes into it. Over the past year we have made a conscious decision to cut processed foods out of our diets so they won’t ever be an issue for us as we consume them in such small amounts.

Conclusion
Going through the process helped to empower us and show us that we are strong people and have the willpower to get through a difficult time. We are using that confidence as we continue along our journey and hope that it will help get us through tough times.

This has been a relatively long post and we were unable to talk about everything relating to this challenge. If you have any questions at all, don’t be shy. Feel free to add a comment or e-mail us at: NoMore560@gmail.com.

~lisa

Long Weekend Healthy Grilling Idea

We are going into the final throws of summer. Have your weekends been packed with meat, beer, more meat and most likely more beer? Well maybe it’s time to work some more meat into it, but maybe some lighter fare.  Twice this week we have had a fantastic light and tasty burger.  What’s that you say? A light burger? Yes…behold the turkey burger that is one of the tastiest burgers you have ever had!  The great thing about this burger is the little twist on a traditional burger that makes it fine for our 30 day challenge: Portobello mushrooms for buns.  Check out the picture below:

Turkey Burgers with Portobello "Buns"

How and why did we come up with this?  We both love burgers since they are a great comfort food. We wanted a burger that would allow us to feel satisfied that we were having something that is traditionally “unhealthy”  but in a healthy, tasty way.  Because of the low calorie nature of Turkey, it also acts as a nice building block that gives us the option to pack on a couple of extra things. For instance, we used avocado and some nice crispy lettuce to dial up the texture, the nutrients and the taste.  This meal is low in fat as turkey is naturally low,  it is also high in B vitamins and is loaded with folic acid and zinc.  (With the weather starting to change colds are starting to pop up and zinc is a great reinforcement for your immune system. )

This meal is full of whole foods. The nutrients in this meal help to prevent hunger, sickness and unhealthy habits.  Try it and tell us what you think.  Check out the recipe

~ ira

Tags: 30 day challenge, BBQ, detox diet, Gluten Free, grilling, healthy, healthy cooking, recipe, Turkey Burgers

30-day Challenge Update: Missing Coffee

Our second week on the 30-day challenge is going well. My energy levels have been great, my tummy issues have completely disappeared and I would like to think that my skin is looking better? (hard to tell).  I find that the only thing I really have a craving for is coffee. I really, really, really miss it. I have a rooibos tea at work as a coffee replacement (it is naturally caffeine free), but I always find that tea (while delicious) just doesn’t do a good job at replacing coffee – the drink is never strong enough for me. For someone who really loves strong, bold, dark coffee flavours, tea always seems so watered down. Other than that, I have been doing really well and I don’t miss anything else, not even cigarettes – I have absolutely no interest in them right now. I have been really enjoying our breakfast foods and think that once we start re-introducing some wheat and gluten into our diets I want to keep having the quinoa/kasha + almond milk + berries for breakfast. I just find it really filling and it’s delicious. All of the cereals we used to eat have so much sugar in them, even the so-called “healthy” options. If it’s not sugar they have, it’s a huge amount of sodium. I just don’t think it’s worth it. I will be excited to start eating my homemade granola again though, I think it would be really yummy with the almond milk.

The thing I am most proud of is that I have gotten back on the treadmill. It’s been over a month and a half since I have done any form of exercise (because of my lung infection). My lungs have completely cleared up and yesterday after work, even though we were exhausted mentally and physically, Ira and I went downstairs and got onto the treadmills. I did about two miles of running/walking, I’m back on the “learn to run” program, but I’m back at week one. In any case, the run went well, my lungs were totally fine throughout it and I finished. I was so proud of myself to take that step back into the gym. I felt nervous since it had been so long and I was wondering what kind of shape I would be in. I look forward to rebuilding my stamina over the next 7 weeks so that we can run together in the Toronto Zoo 5k in October.

Anyway, we have a long weekend (including a dinner party) coming up as well as the holidays next week and those will be the real challenges for us. We will keep writing about our experiences.

~ lisa

Experimenting…

With our new way of eating, we have been trying new recipes and combinations. Who would have thought quinoa and eggs would be so delicious? Anyway, our breakfasts during the past week have consisted of either hot quinoa + eggs or fruit salad. We really want to try cold quinoa with some of our blueberries and raspberries, but of course we can’t have milk. But wait – we can have milk, just not cow’s milk. That leaves several options for us. We looked around the grocery store and found soy milk, almond milk, rice milk and coconut water. The problem was the level of sugar that was added to these store varieties was terrible. Once we got home, I jumped online and found a ton of sites that gave directions for making your own almond milk (apparently you can make milk out of pretty much any nut or seed, but we like almonds). Fortunately we had just bought a nice supply of almonds to snack on so I put some in a bowl to soak overnight. Today I ground the almonds in our tiny little food processor and mixed them with water (and a dash of vanilla and a pinch of salt) and strained the mixture with cheesecloth. This was the result:

Homemade Almond Milk

It is quite delicious. Tastes just like almonds, which is fine with both of us. We can’t wait to start using it both as a milk-like drink substitute as well as incorporating it into recipes.

~lisa

30 Day Detox – Week 1 Summary

So the first work week is down and we have to look back and see what went well, what didn’t go well and where we are with this 30 day detox challenge.

I do not know if writing a daily recap is going to be entirely plausible.  With Lisa in the midst of 2011 planning and my entering the end of the month billing cycle, things will get really busy very fast.  I am sure we will give our very best to get a post up every day so keep checking in.

Onto this week. People have asked us if it is tough, and in all honesty it’s a yes and no answer. Of course there will be tough times that tempt and tease us but for the most part it has been good. At the beginning, we went through a few days of feeling like garbage. This was just the toxins being scrubbed from our system and after three days, today seems to have been one of the best days with almost no sluggishness, lots of energy and regularity (if you catch my drift).  Even though our energy levels were up, we did have a few curve-balls thrown at us.  To start this morning we woke up a bit later than our usual 5AM call and were a bit behind so we had to improvise breakfast. Thankfully because of good planning we had a couple of boiled eggs in the fridge ready to go along with a piece of fruit. When we got to work I went to the backseat to get my laptop and lunch and I discovered that I had left my lunch, which was carefully prepared the night before, sitting on the counter at home! Well shit…

The first part of the day sped by and it was noon before I knew it and my boss and I were hungry so we ran out to get something. I knew there would be no problem with this as there are enough salad bars around. I ended up with veggie chili and a small salad that was packed with extra yummies. The chili was packed with beans and veggies and the best part is that Soup it Up makes everything themselves.  It was probably a little higher in sodium than I have been used to but it was better than eating too little.

The real screwball for both of us came at Beer Cart.  Now for those of you who do not work in advertising there is this wonderful occasion that takes place at 4PM on the nose every Friday (Noon on half Fridays). A pile of beer and snacks are on display in the lunch room for everyone to enjoy. Well with the restriction of  no gluten, no dairy and no booze there was not much we were going to eat there. To add insult to injury poor Lisa was charged with the task of planning beer cart this week and had to buy all the chips and candy! She showed tremendous will-power and I for one am so PROUD of her!

We had dinner at home tonight and it was a yummy brown rice pasta made with the chicken we bought this week and all organic Ontario-grown zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, onions and garlic. It turned out phenomenal. Take a look!

Dinner from tonight.

Like I have said, this week has been tough but we are starting to see the benefits showing already. Lisa’s lungs are doing well and we are feeling better. There has also been a nice little by-product of weight loss. This has never been about weight loss, just about healthy lifestyle and cleaning out our toxins, but it turns out I have lost 6.5 lbs this week. Very pleasant surprise!

As always, take care. Also we always welcome comments so please leave them, we love to hear from our readers .

~Ira

Tags: 30 Day Plan, detox, diet, eating right, healhy living, health benefits, healthy living, living life, nomore560, ontario produce, organic produce, positivity, weight loss

Challenge Day 1 – Cont’d

So yesterday was the start of the 30-day challenge. And it was my recent attempt at quitting smoking. Since Ira’s day went really well, I thought I would share how my day went.

First of all, we started off with a yummy breakfast as Ira mentioned: 

30-day Challenge Day 1: Breakfast

 The only thing missing was protein (we had a bit in the nuts, but not a lot). That was solved this morning with a hard-boiled egg to accompany the fruit. We are going to be getting better at this, I suppose we should have planned a little more, but you work with what you have.

Anyway, back to yesterday. I wrote myself little notes throughout the day and reading over them again today it makes me sound like a drama queen. But I swear that quitting smoking affects you not only physically but psychologically as well. I couldn’t concentrate on work all day long, I was boiling hot – then freezing cold and I was irritable and didn’t want to talk to anyone. This is hard in my line of work when I have regular contact with clients, colleagues and sales reps. Of course I didn’t have caffeine to help me through the nicotine withdrawal either so I was starting to get really symptomatic in the afternoon. Then, just when I was at my peak of withdrawal, a rep came by my desk and handed me a chocolate bar. Lovely. So what do you think I did with the chocolate? I contemplated eating it; after all I was only on the first day of the challenge. But then I realized if I gave in at that moment, I would continue to make excuses throughout the entire process. So I tried to pawn the chocolate off on my boss but she didn’t want it. I put it in my desk drawer to enjoy once the 30 days were up, but I ended up giving it to a desperate coworker this afternoon. After the chocolate bar incident, I actually went downstairs to the café and bought a fruit cup:

30-day Challenge Day 1 - Fruit Cup

Filled with nothing but pineapple, melons, watermelon, and grapes it was a nice satisfying snack that was way better for me than chocolate.

By the end of the day, I had a massive headache and was totally drained. We ended up having stuffed peppers for dinner:

30-day Challenge Day 1: Stuffed Peppers

and I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 while Ira was cleaning up. It was a tough day, but I was very proud of myself that I stuck to the rules of the 30-day challenge and didn’t give in to the nicotine habit at all. Today has been a little better than yesterday – the headache is only a dull pain and I have had no issues at all with the food. I am more and more positive that we can get through this challenge with no major setbacks and I am waiting for the good, healthy feelings to kick in.

~ Lisa

Challenge Day 1

As the day closes on the first day of our challenge I feel accomplished, empowered and full of pride.

The day really started off easy, we had a great breakfast of fruit and nuts.  It was quite literally a giant bowl of fruit with some nuts mixed in.  It wasn’t absolutely ideal (we were missing protein) but we will learn as we go.  We are reading a lot about foods that will help us detox down to a cellular level and it is fantastic because it is heavy in foods we love, like green leafy vegetables.

Lunch was a delicious tomato based chicken stew with onions served over a serving of quinoa, with it an apple and veggie pack (packages I make in the morning of cucumber, radish and carrots.)  We have also worked in snacks along the way to ensure we don’t stray and today was delicious Ontario watermelon slices, some almonds and lots and lots of water!

Dinner is the time where I was faced with my very first challenge.  In the afternoon my bosses and I had to go up to the north Outrider office as the CEO and his team of the America’s were in.  After the presentations were done our VP brought in dinner for us and boy was it tempting.  But with some forward planning and her help I was able to eat gluten, dairy and processed free.  The meal that was being brought in was BURRITOS!  But I had a wonderful steak salad with beans and romaine and avocado.  The portion was perfect and the taste was spot on.

That is pretty much it. Overall it was a solid, good day.  It was the perfect start to what the next month is.  Plans for tomorrow include a run in the morning, shopping for some seeds and proteins after work and hopefully getting an air popper for pop corn at night.
Gotta run, have a tray of chicken breast with potatoes in the oven that needs to come out.

PS.

I wanted to echo what Lisa said in her previous post.  This is a lifestyle, health conscious decision.  We have researched and thought this out, the only thing we are restricting are things that either over half the planet doesn’t eat (dairy) or the disgusting processed things that the entire world should not eat.  We are doing this for our health and our lives.

~Ira

Tags: detox, diet, health benefits, healthy living, living life, weight loss