Body For Life & Grandma's Bran Muffins

As you may have seen me mention, I am a "Body for Lifer" along with my husband. We started this program in February of this year. He, because he wanted to gain weight (gain muscle & be healthier), me, because I wanted to lose weight (tone muscle & be healthier). I'll be the first to admit that when we met a couple at the gym who recommended Body For Life to us, I was a little skeptical. At that time we were working out about 2 times a week and eating like any normal Americans. They were working out 6 times a week and eating very healthy. Ugh. But 5 months later I am a believer. This program has changed our life. For the better. Now I'm not saying it's a super easy quick fix do it and get it over with diet or something. This lifestyle is work and it's long term. But the rewards are worth the work.

Monday-Saturday we work out in the morning...Mon, Wed, Fri is about 45 minutes of lifting and Tues, Thurs, Sat is 20 minutes of interval cardio. And 6 times a day we eat 1 portion of lean protein (chicken, egg whites, lean hamburger/steak, cottage cheese, low-fat string cheese, etc.) & 1 portion of quality carbs (whole wheat bread, fruit, healthy cereal, whole wheat pasta, etc.). And as many vegetables and as much water as possible. And 1 free day a week (we chose Sunday) you can do whatever you want, pig out, lay around, it really doesn't matter (this usually involves Casey's taco pizza and ice cream for me :).

More than just the fact that we have met and exceeded our goals (me losing 30 lbs so far and actually finding my triceps and Matt looking quite buff) it goes beyond to emotional and physical well-being. The amount of energy I have now compared to 5 months ago is ridiculous. My mom used to give me crap because I would yawn literally every few minutes all throughout the day. I think I yawn about once every other week now. I used to hate carrots unless they were slathered in dip. I now call carrots my "new chips". I love them.

I think the best part about this program is that it is something that can be adapted to be a lifelong lifestyle. It's not a get-skinny in 5 days (and then gain all of it back and more a month later) kind of thing. And having 1 day a week to indulge in foods I love makes resisting those temptations throughout the week much easier.

Enough blabbing on, I'll devote some other posts to the working out, etc. because some of this stuff was really revolutionary to me. I had no idea how to really work out to optimize results and it was really a simple concept that all these fad-diets had washed away into basically starve yourself, don't eat carbs, and get a gym membership to use for 1 week before quitting. No thanks.

So anyways, on to the yummy part. I have been in love with these muffins ever since I was a kid. My grandma Jeanie always makes them and they are simply a part of me, I love them that much. But unlike what everyone says, I think they are better cold (store them in the fridge)...but considering my quirks, it is true that most people like them warmed up in the microwave so maybe it's just me that likes them cold. And P.S. I swear this isn't going to become a food blog, it just happens to be that I've been cooking alot this week and realized I could adapt these muffins to my healthy lifestyle! :)

Grandma Jeanie's Bran Muffins

*2 cups of non-instant oatmeal
*2 cups boiling water
*4 egg whites
*1 cup sugar
*1/4-1/2 cup of oil
*1/2 cup natural apple sauce
*1 qt. lowfat buttermilk (to make it even healthier I did 1 cup skim milk & 3 cups LF buttermilk)
*5 cups whole wheat flour
*5 tsp. baking soda
*1 tsp. salt
*4 cups All Bran cereal

-Preheat Oven to 375 degrees
-Combine oats & boiling water, let cool.
-Mix in eggs, sugar, oil, applesauce, & buttermilk/milk.
-Stir in sifted remaining dry ingredients until moist.
-Bake in muffin tins for 15 minutes.
-Makes 5-6 dozen muffins.
-Batter can keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks if you don't want to cook the whole batch at once.

-My advice is to freeze them in plastic bags for a day or so and then put them in the fridge to thaw before you eat them. This makes them moister :)