Berry Creamsickles

All you need are two ingredients: Frozen berries and fat free vanilla creamer and that’s it!
I’ve used stawberries, blueberries, blackberries and a combination of all (all from Trader Joe’s btw) and all are delicious. Sometimes I’ve also add a few frozen banana pieces. I’ve even frozen some mandarin orange sections. Then the ice cream tastes like a CreamSicle.
Pour the desired berries into the Ninja and process until all the fruit is reduced to tiny little pieces. THEN add the fat free vanilla creamer..a little at a time until the desired consistency. If you want to add more sweetner, you can, but the creamer is pretty sweet.
Just experiment with different fruits and flavors. Since it only makes 1 – 2 servings at a time, if you don’t like it, it’s not a big $ so you don’t have to be obligated to eat it.

Ninja Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe–Gonna Make Low Carb!

Ninja Master Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup whipping cream, heavy
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup strawberry, frozen
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine 11/2 c of the milk, whipping cream and sugar, and then stir to dissolve sugar. Fill one 16 cube ice cube tray with the mixture. Freeze for at leate 3 hours, or until frozen solid.
Place ice cream cubes in the Master Prep Pitcher and then add frozen strawberries, strawberry syrup, vanilla extract and the remaining 1/2 c of milk over top. Secure the Pitcher’s top and pulse for 10-15 seconds, until smooth and creamy.
Serve granished with a drizzle of strawberry syrup or fresh strawberries.
Weight Loss Journey–Part II of II (Pictures!)

Weight Loss Journey–Part II of II (Pictures!)

In my previous post (https://characterinkblog.com/), I described the weight loss/health journey that I have been on. Below, I am posting pictures and losses. Thanks for joining me!

This is a terrible picture! And it does actually make me look a lot worse than I did (or thought I did)…but here I was six years or so ago (before dancing!) at my highest-ever weight. I won’t tell you what that was…but it was high! Here I wore a size 22 (or 24).

After six years of dancing, I had taken off thirty pounds! This was Spring 2011. Losses: 30 lbs; 25 inches; and 3 sizes (from 22 to 16). This was a month before I began an 800 calorie diet and intensive exercise.

And Fall of 2011. Three months after I began the very low calorie diet with Curves and T-Tapp exercises. Losses since Spring 2011: 35 lbs; 35 inches; 2 sizes (16 to 12). Losses over six years: 65 lbs; 57 inches; 5 sizes (22 to 12).

                                                   THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR NEXT
                                                  20 TO 25 LB LOSS!!! 🙂

I am working on maintaining my summer loss. It was a quick loss–and could quickly be put back on too. My Curves has pretty much gone by the wayside due to work, school, and family. (With homeschooling and working in the school year, it’s hard to do too many extras.) I have a maintenance plan of lower calorie/carb/fat eating; Daily Dozen exercises; walking with my boys and dancing with my Prince—and after a month of so of maintaining with that plan, I hope to dig back in and lose some more…..regardless, my carbohydrate intolerance/pre-diabetes is under control and I feel young and energetic! 🙂

Weight Loss Journey Part I of II

Five or six years ago, I began a looonnnnng weight loss/health journey that is still very much a work in progress. It began when I hit the highest weight I had ever been (including during all eight or my pregnancies!) AND my husband and I began ballroom dancing. I had wanted to ballroom dance for many years–and when I received lessons from Ray as a Christmas gift in 2005, I was ELATED. However, I quickly found out that dancing at the weight I was at the time was nearly impossible.

But dance we did. We danced as much as we could the first few years–group classes, private lessons, practice sessions (the studio was just a few miles from our home), and open dances. Soon I found that I was losing weight little by little just from dancing–until after three or four years later I had lost thirty pounds. However, to lose more weight and get healthier, I had to change my eating habits–something I did not want to do.

Three years ago, still dancing (though not nearly as often–weddings, graduations, kids’ moves/job starts, etc. interrupted our dancing a lot), I found myself sick. To make a long story short, I discovered that I had carbohydrate intolerance/pre-diabetes. I could only feel well if I limited my carbohydrate intake. It didn’t have to be drastic, but it did have to be down to 150 carbohydrates or fewer (average person eats 300 a day!) to keep my pre-diabetes in check. Well, true to many moderate carbohydrate diets, I did not lose weight on that number of carbs–mostly due to the high fat and high caloric intake that cutting carbohydrates can created.

So, while I felt better, I kept gaining and losing many of those thirty pounds that I had danced off in the previous years. Then I heard about a very low calorie diet that caused you to lose weight very quickly–and being an all-or-nothing kind of person, I jumped on the bandwagon and started losing pounds quickly for the first time in twenty years (when I had lost 80 pounds between baby four and five!).

Also at this time I joined CURVES and began an amazing exercise program called T-Tapp–while stepping up our dancing for more aerobic activity. Within three months, I had lost 35 lbs and 35 inches, making my total weight loss for five years 65 pounds.

I also discovered that an overall decrease in calories, fat, and carbohydrates, with good amounts of protein, lots of strength exercising (Curves and T-Tapp), and moderate aerobics (dancing and/or walking for 30 mins four to eight times a week) kept my pre-diabetes in check and helped maintain my loss.

So…here I am, six years after we began dancing, with a 65 lb and 55 inch loss, from a size 22 to a 16 now to a 12, and controlling my carb intolerance. I still want to lose another 20 to 25 lbs and 20 to 30 inches…..but I’m working on maintenance for a while—making all of these changes a way of life for me.

See next post for pics! 🙂

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