Life on Beacon

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

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All this hot and cold weather has me craving Mexican food, totally unsure why.  But, flour enchiladas filled with fatty ground beef and dripping with cheese would likely not sit well these days, so I went searching for an alternative that met my cravings without sacrificing dozens of those precious fat grams.  

The result: Chicken enchilada casserole.  I got the idea from Gimme Some Oven, one of my favorite recipe sites.  Unfortunately, 3 cups of cheese still wasn’t gonna do it for me.  I swapped the full fat cheddar for reduced fat, cut the amount in half, and loaded up the dish with extra veggies.  The result?  A HUGE hearty slice of casserole with plenty of kick at just 9f/37c/26p per slice {that’s just 333 calories for you non-macro counting folks}.

Leftover Soup

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One of our goals for this year {I stray from using the word “resolution” – more on that another time} was to cook more at home.  With our hectic travel schedules and late nights at the office, it became all too easy to pick up Chipotle or pre-made meals from Central Market on the way home.  The food was healthy enough, but our sodium intake was soaring and not having food in the house when we were home led us to rely a little too heavily on sugary snacks and protein bars on the weekend.  

The one downside of all that cooking – we inevitably have some leftover vegetables in the fridge, canned goods that we accidentally bought two of, and meat in the freezer that we keep forgetting is there.  Enter leftover soup.  It’s a standard base made of things we typically have in the pantry, mixed with extras from meals earlier that week.  Each ladle {I ate 2 per meal} was 3f/17c/12p for our version, which included added veggies and pasta.

Orangetheory Recap

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I’m a huge fan of mixing things up when it comes to my workouts, so when the opportunity arose to pop into an Orangetheory class with my fellow Dallas Fitness Ambassadors, I jumped on the opportunity.  Orangetheory offers heart rate monitored fitness classes that mix running on a treadmill with row sprints, weights, and resistance band exercises.  I’ve never claimed to be much of a runner, so this class definitely had me panting!  

Orangetheory gets your heart rate up, and keeps it up.  For each class, you rent a heart rate monitor that projects your status {color coded based on % of max rate} on screens around the facility as you work out.  It’s an easy indicator for whether you need to slow down in the active rest and when you need to push harder at different points in the workout.   By the end of the workout, their system estimated that I burned about 600 calories.  Not bad for a 50 minute workout!

Easy Breakfast Options

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When I first started tracking macros last July, I ate the same meals. Every. Single. Day.  It can really wear on you, and isn’t the whole point of flexible dieting the freedom to mix it up?! Knowing what to swap for what is difficult, though.  

Thankfully, some of my fellow Grit Girls have let me into their daily diaries as input to a little data mining/programming project I’m working on {more to come on that}.  Armed with data about what a lot of girls tend to eat in the morning, I’ve compiled a sampling of delicious, easy breakfast ideas.  They’ve been modified to all hit similar macros targets, enabling easy swaps from one day to the next without jeopardizing the numbers you have saved up for other meals.

Fit Girl Cyber Monday Deals

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It’s Cyber Monday, which means great deals at some of your favorite online retailers!  I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite finds for the fit girl. If you know me in real life, you know I love a good deal – and 6pm.com {the Zappos closeout site} is my go-to for brand name activewear…

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Emergency Stash

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When I travel places I’m pretty familiar with, I tend not to bring along my Isobag or Six Pack Bag with prepped meals.  Both bags are pretty bulky, and sometimes, I just don’t have the bag space {checking bags is highly frowned upon for this girl}. Case in point: My last trip to Boston.  The…

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Greek Pasta Salad

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Summer is almost over {I know it’s past Labor Day, but temps are still 90+ in Dallas}, and I’m still trying to squeeze in a few last rounds of my favorite warm weather recipes before everything swaps to stew, soup, and pumpkin.  A few weekends ago I whipped up one of my favorites for a…

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Bulu Box Review

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Have you heard of Bulu Box? It’s a new subscription box that sends you 4-5 vitamin, supplement, and healthy snack samples to try each month. I was given the opportunity to try out a box last month, thanks to my friends at SweatPink. My box had 6 samples in it, as well as the option…

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It’s a Lifestyle

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This journey I’m on – it’s a lifestyle, not a diet.  Today I woke up and a number appeared on the scale that I haven’t seen in ten months.  In less than a month, I’ll be spending 6 days on the beach.  The combination of those two factors ordinarily would terrify me, but if I’ve…

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ClassPass Recap

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For those who may be unfamiliar with ClassPass, it’s an innovative fitness membership that enables you to take classes at different studios around town for one fixed monthly rate – $99, in most cities.  The classes range from bootcamp to barre, yoga to rock climbing, and just about everything in between.   Since I was in…

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Road Trip Snacks

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We’re Tulsa bound this weekend, and everyone knows road trips require snacks.  Gas stations and fast food restaurants are full of temptation, so I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite make-at-home snacks to help me hit my macros on the road and stay away from those fat-packed, super sugary, pre-packaged options.  All of these can be mixed…

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Choosing inconvenience

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When you travel a lot, you pick convenience at {almost} any cost. Direct flight for $100 more? Done. Upgrading on a red eye to sleep better? Of course. A more expensive hotel closer to where I need to be? No brainer. Not this week. On Monday, I canceled my nonstop flight, gave up an extra…

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