Ingredients

* 2 medium tart apples, sliced
* 1 cup diced cooked chicken breast
* 1/2 cup shredded fat-free cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
* 1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn, thawed
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 6 flour tortillas (8 inches), warmed
* 3/4 cup shredded lettuce
* 3/4 cup salsa
* 6 tablespoons fat-free sour cream

Directions

* In a large bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. Place about 3/4 cup on half of each tortilla. Fold tortilla in half over filling and secure with toothpicks.
* Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
* Carefully turn quesadillas over; bake 5-8 minutes longer or until golden brown. Discard toothpicks. Cut each quesadilla into three wedges. Serve with lettuce, salsa and sour cream. Yield: 6 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 3 wedges equals 289 calories, 6 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 28 mg cholesterol, 629 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 18 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 2 lean meat, 1-1/2 starch, 1 vegetable, 1/2 fruit.

By Madeline Vann, MPH
Medically reviewed by Christine Wilmsen Craig, MD

The last thing any of us wants is a diet “do-over.” Yet there are diet mistakes that can send you back to your starting point, wrecking all your hard work and success at losing weight. Don’t let these diet mistakes happen to you.
Diet Disasters

10 Ways to Ruin Your Diet

Do you know the number one way to derail your diet? You may be surprised. Here is the top 10 countdown of diet disasters.

10. Overeating away from home. Eating out poses a special challenge when calorie counting because restaurant portions are overgenerous; your best bet is to ask for a to-go box and put half your order away before you start eating.

9. Not reading labels. The most important number you need to pay attention to is the serving size. It’s easy to eat too much if you aren’t aware of how many servings are in a bottle or box and you consume the whole package, thinking it’s a single serving.

8. Eating too fast. If you eat quickly, your brain won’t get the message that you are full in time, says Kathy Hubbert, MS, RD, of EatRight Weight Management Services at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Put the fork down between each bite,” she advises.
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7. Denying yourself your favorite foods. Be it chocolate or bacon, totally banning a favorite “unhealthy” food from your diet sets you up for temptation. Instead, use your calorie-counting skills to build in a small indulgence now and again.

6. Guilt over mistakes. If you are out with friends and get talked into dessert, don’t beat yourself up. “Guilt can set in and, for some people, that gets them moving in a backwards direction,” says Hubbert. Even if you did enjoy your indulgence, put it in perspective — it’s just one mistake compared to all your good diet choices yesterday, today, and the ones you’ll make tomorrow.

5. Putting too much “weight” on the scale. Hanging all your feelings of success on the numbers on the scale can be a diet disaster. You should only weigh yourself once a week, says Gail Curtis, assistant professor at the Wake Forest University Health Sciences department of physician assistant studies in Winston-Salem, N.C. Curtis recommends tracking other short-term health goals, such as eating more veggies, walking daily, or drinking water instead of soda, that will give you a sense of accomplishment.

4. Not exercising enough. Even if you could achieve your diet goals by calorie counting alone, you would be more successful (and healthier) if you were physically active. “The number one barrier to exercise that I hear is time,” says Hubbert. National recommendations are at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week. You can break this up into three 10-minute segments per day, says Hubbert.

3. Emotional eating. Eating in response to sadness, boredom, or stress wrecks your calorie counting for at least one day. “We learn to associate food with feeling better,” says Hubbert, a self-confessed boredom eater. When you become aware of your urge to eat in response to emotions instead of hunger pains, find something else to do that will distract you for 10 or 15 minutes, such as taking a walk, says Hubbert.

2. Thinking of your diet as a diet. “There is diet fatigue if you go on a diet,” says Curtis. “Most people can stay on a diet about three months and then they are done with it because they can’t stand it.” Instead, focus on making healthy lifestyle and diet choices that you can live with for a long time.

And the biggest mistake of all:

1. Letting one mistake start you on a downward spiral. “I’ve seen people completely go back to square one,” says Hubbert. “They make one mistake and it starts a whole cycle.” The remedy? If you make a mistake, admit it, forgive yourself, and get back on track right away.

So now that you know the top 10 diet mistakes, you should be able to avoid them — and know you aren’t alone if you make one yourself!

Last Updated: 04/07/2009
This section created and produced exclusively by the editorial staff of EverydayHealth.com. © 2010 EverydayHealth.com; all rights reserved.

I still love Zumba, just 46 minutes of fun and a good sweat. I am also going to start my 10 Minute trainer routine, I was to start it today, but it slipped my mind, so hopefully tomorrow I will do it. I won’t do it when I do Zumba, maybe in the afternoon. I also want to try going up and down the stairs more often, because for someone who can jog 5 miles straight, going up the stairs at any great speed, knocks the wind out of me.

I am hoping to go to the gym tomorrow for weight day, but not sure, my workout buddy is still sick and seems to be getting worse. We will see. If gym doesn’t work out, then I will go jogging and see if I can do the 5 miles again.

Click on the link to see her story:

http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/video.aspx?vid=15ff65a9-128f-499b-bf80-d9d449ea4489%26tab=TODAY&from=cp_en-us_health_weight-loss

I couldn’t afford to not workout this morning because I ate a lot over the weekend. Yep. I sure did. Let me give you a breakdown, my husband decided he wanted to do some jerk chicken and festival (traditional Jamaican dish), and I ate a lot of that, because I love me some jerk chicken! And oh my goodness I love festival!! Anyhow, to top it off I had 3 Corona 2 glasses of Moscato and cake with ice cream on top and I tried the Twix ice cream bars for the first time along with some Chester’s hot fries, and that was all Saturday. Sunday I tried to balance it all out, I think I did pretty well. I had the last of the jerk chicken and wholegrain bread, sad to say no festival because they were all done for breakfast with a slice of avocado, fish and rice and peas for dinner and then one more Corona and some more Moscato and a wine from the Riesling region, which I did not like at all.

My scale finally went below 153, it only said 152.8, not much but enough to make me very happy this morning and even more pumped to work out today, and drink loads of water, to ensure that the 0.2 pounds doesn’t come back.

My best advice is to take it slowly, one day at a time. Eat no less than 1200 calories per day, and this 1200 minimum isn’t for everyone, some people need to eat no less than 1400 and so on. Initially when I started on my weight loss journey, I stuck to a 1200 calories diet. After I lost the first few pounds, I hit a plateau. I knew then it was time to “shake up” my routine. I then increased my calories to 1400 per day.

I try to eat a minimum of 4 fruits per day. I drink my protein shake after every workout. I also eat every 2-3 hours. That is vital because eating often helps the metabolism work faster and prevents it from getting lazy which results in your body storing the food as fat. I also drink a lot of water. On Sundays, which is my rest day I drink 64 ounce of water. Monday thru Saturday, I drink a minimum of 96 ounces of water, maximum of 128 ounces.

I need to try and increase my vegetable intake. I mainly eat vegetables with dinner, but I need to add it to my lunch as well, to increase my vegetable requirements.

Let’s do this the healthy way.

2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp mild chili powder
1-2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup quinoa
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 cups cooked kidney beans, pinto beans, or chickpeas
1/4 cup chopped green chilies
1 tsp dark agave nectar or honey
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 1/2 cup guacamole

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion, celery, pepper flakes, and chili powder, and cook for eight minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.
3. Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
4. Stir in the water, salt, quinoa, tomatoes, beans or chickpeas, chilies, and agave nectar or honey. Cook for twenty-five minutes, covered, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir in the cilantro and cook for five minutes.
6. Top each portion with a dollop of guacamole if you wish.

This recipe can also be made with Buckwheat.It is dairy free and wheat and corn free, from the Allergy Self-help Cookbook.

Water

Correct timing to drink water, will increase its effectiveness:

Two glasses of water – After waking up – Helps activate internal organs

One glass of water – 30 minutes before meal – Helps digestion

One glass of water – Before taking a bath – Helps lower blood pressure

One glass of water – Before sleep – helps avoid stroke or heart attack

During my walk, I started thinking I am a “wuss”, I could have jogged but I didn’t even try and at that same time when I was having that thought, I was about to cross the street but a car was also approaching, so the car slowed and allowed me to cross, so I decided to jog across the street so as not to hold the person up too long……that two second jog across the street felt like 2 hours, the muscles in my calves all started hurting at once Describing what I did as jogging is even pushing it, it was more like a wobble! That feeling I had of being a “wuss”, went right through the window…no way I could have jogged this morning. I couldn’t even wobble across the street!

Nonetheless I had a very good walk this morning, finished in 93 minutes, but I had a good sweat and I felt awesome. During my walk though, I felt shin splints coming in my right shin, or I think that’s what it was, so I stopped and stretched and rotated my ankles, tightened my sneakers and stretched some more, I pressed my leg on a palm tree and did lunges; I read that on a website yesterday. It came in pretty handy. I have heard people say how painful it is, and the little tweaks in my shin were painful enough, I tried everything I could to not make it get worse, whatever I did helped because the pain stopped and I was able to finish my routine.