June 2011 - Page 9 of 11 - My Healthy, Happier Life

ashleyd / June 5, 2011

Bermuda in Pictures

Right now I’m in the midst of unpacking, doing wash, and trying to get my life back in order before returning to work tomorrow. While on the plane I had a chance to organize our pictures so that I can finally order one of those really cool coffee table books that we talk about but never order. Unfortunately, my husband has realized that I’m not a domestic diva. But, at least I won the battle convincing him to “lug” the DSLR on our trip to Bermuda. It was the best decision ever!

While I spend the rest of the evening unpacking, and putting together the health & beauty giveaway box, we hope you all will enjoy a few pictures from our trip!

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I’ll be back tomorrow with reviews of each of the restaurants we enjoyed and back to basics day of workouts and meals.

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ashleyd / June 4, 2011

Healthier Pocket Pies Recipe

Well hello there, Healthy Happier readers! I’m Meg, a long-time friend of Ashley’s, and I blog over at The Strawberry Swing. Any friend of hers is a friend of mine, so I’m quite glad to have a chance to meet you while she’s got her toes in the white sands of Bermuda. Lucky girl. I’m jealous!

Me and Ashley, back in the day at UGA.

A little bit about me: Like Ashley, I went to the University of Georgia. She and I met our sophomore year and were fast friends. Also like Ashley (and some of you, I bet) I’ve long struggled with my weight. So much so, that when I ordered my wedding dress I ended up on Say Yes To The Dress: Atlanta paired next to a bride with similar struggles. Unfortunately while I was in a good place, she wasn’t. They filmed her trying to squeeze into a tiny couture gown against their advice, and it got stuck on her backside. I identified completely and felt horribly for unknowingly being juxtaposed as the “skinny” one. Because I’d once been in her shoes and I make the daily decision not to go back.

I’ve struggled with weight for a number of reasons. I lived in 9 houses and went to 11 schools before I was 18, so stress eating has long been a bad habit for me. My grandfather weighed almost 400 pounds at his heaviest, so it’s in my genes, too. At my heaviest, though, I weighed in at just under 200 pounds. I was 18 then. It took two years to lose the extra 50 pounds I was carrying around, but now, nearly ten years and six dress sizes later, it hasn’t come back.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in losing weight and keeping it off, it’s that completely denying yourself things is not a sustainable way to exist. It’s about finding ways to make small changes that accumulate into big results over time.

You see, when I first started dieting (and now I can’t stand that word) I cut out sweets completely. Bad move. Because you know what happened? I’d want a cookie. I love cookies. One look at my blog will show you that I love to bake and to cook. So instead of the cookie, I’d eat an apple. And still want the cookie. So then I’d eat a cheese stick. And still want the cookie. You catch my drift. The cookie won every time.

If I’d just eaten the one cookie to start with, I’d have been better off than eating multiple “healthy” alternatives and then still caving to the cookie. For me, it’s all about portion control and moderation. So now I bake a batch of what I want, eat a few, and take the rest to work for my coworkers to enjoy. All the joy of baking with far less guilt.

These little pocket pies are perfect for just that. They’ve been the dessert du jour at our house lately. Individual size servings paired with fat free whipped topping or low fat ice cream will satisfy even the sharpest sweet tooth. (Be it mine or my hungry husband’s!)

Pocket Pies

from The Strawberry Swing

Click here for an easy to use printable recipe!

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ashleyd / June 4, 2011

Biking around Bermuda

Okay, so here’s a bit of advice for all you gentlemen out there. DON’T expect your wife to enjoy a 24 mile intense bike ride when you’re on a tropical island. Trust me…that is NOT the reason that she’s there with you.

She would much rather be sunbathing on the beach. All of those facts notwithstanding, I think our ride, though a little excessive, allowed us to see more of Bermuda than we would have through any other means.

We awoke at 8AM (8AM…really Ash?) as we had to get to the beach to start enjoying ourselves as quickly as possible.

The view from our villa was amazing in the morning sun!

I like to shower, shave, make some tea or coffee and ease my way into the day whenever I’m afforded the luxury. Another point of compromise – she let me shower and shave but I was rushed to the beach with the promise of breakfast and coffee on the beach.

I’ve never been a big fan of eating on the beach (I hate it when sand gets all over everything) but in the interest of compromise, we ordered our food from the restaurant overlooking the beach and brought it down to our beach chairs. The menu consisted of hot tea, egg whites, some grapefruit and rye toast. I added a little ham to mine for an awesome egg sandwich.

After a few hours on the beach, we decided that it was time to explore the island. So far, Ash has been a little freaked out by the prospect of letting me loose on a moped, so we opted for bicycles.

On went our helmets and away we went. Just a little tid bit for those of you who have never been to Bermuda: IT IS HILLY. It was also 1:30 and we hadn’t had lunch so our goal was to head straight to Henry VIII restaurant for a nice fish sandwich.

We passed some amazing coves along the way and the views from the road were fantastic.

It was a little further than we hoped but after 45 minutes, we made it and, despite the fact that the restaurant was empty, were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. Ash and I split a bowl of the famous Bermudian fish chowder and we both had the grouper sandwich. The tarter sauce tasted home made and we could definitely taste the British influence in the cooking.

Our trek continued and we decided that we’d ride all the way to the old British Royal Navy Dockyard.

We didn’t know exactly how far it was but we figured that it would be the best way to see the whole west side of the island. After we got home, we found out that it was 13.4 miles which would have been a great distance had we not decided upon the next leg of our journey.

We took the ferry from the Navy Dockyard to Hamilton where we continued our ride.

The ride around Hamilton to the north side of the island was great until we found ourselves in rush hour traffic which was DEFINITELY not fun. Bermuda is a British Crown Colony and follows British traffic law including driving on the left side of the road, using language such as “give way” rather than yield, and having roundabouts instead of intersections. The latter was what caused the real stress as trying to maneuver the busiest round-about on the island during rush hour whilst simultaneously trying to figure out how to get back to the resort created a little friction between us. To add insult to injury, we got lost (or I got us lost) and added an additional 3 miles to our ride at the worst possible moment. The 11 miles that we did after the ferry ride put us at almost 24.5 miles for the day.

All Ashley wanted after the long ride was some yoga time in our villa.

I don’t think my bride liked me very much after this trek.

Within minutes, we rushed to the bar at the beach for some rum and soda (that was my order) and a vodka-loda (Ash isn’t very fond of rum so the made a pina colada with vodka instead of rum). We swam, laid out on the beach and finished our drinks before heading back to the room to shower and change for the evening. We ate dinner here at the resort’s restaurant, Sea Breeze. It is a highly recommended sushi and tapas restaurant.