The Recipe! Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

This made A LOT of crust - next time I would make a little less crust, but it's so much better than oreo cookies crust! I put a few more chocolate chips in the batter also. I also baked it in a water bath (set it in a large deep cookie sheet of water). This is supposed to help cheesecakes cook the way they're supposed to (not cooking the outside too quickly). Also, have the cream cheese at room temperature before you start. Had never heard of using sweetened condensed milk in a cheesecake before, but this was very rich and just like the ones at the expensive restaurants! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake:

1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter and cocoa. Press onto bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Set crust aside.
2. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk; beat well. Add vanilla and eggs, and beat on medium speed until smooth. Toss 1/3 of the miniature chocolate chips with the 1 teaspoon flour to coat (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Mix into cheese mixture. Pour into prepared crust. Sprinkle top with remaining chocolate chips.
3. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1 hour. Turn off oven (do not open oven door) and leave the cake in the oven to cool in the oven for another hour. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate before removing sides of pan. Keep cake refrigerated until time to serve.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake and a companion

Well, so much for eating healthy! I made chocolate chip cheesecake from scratch for Becky's birthday (my daughter-in-law). So yummy, but very rich. Ate too much of it and got heartburn!

But Caitlin (my darling daughter) had stayed the night last night, and this morning she did a Jillian shred workout with me! She's going to buy the DVD, so I hope she joins our blog!

Visited Jillian

So last week I did a lot of walking/jogging in the park behind our house instead of the workout DVD. Emily started a little dog-walking business. Someone is out of town for two weeks and asked her to walk their dog every day (100+ pounder). Since I don't want her in the park alone anyway, it's been a great excuse for me to get out and jog while she's out there with the dog, especially with the perfect fall weather.

But I've been starting to feel like I need a workout here and there too, so this morning I visited Jillian with Level 2 - amazing how my body notices one week of not doing a workout! Had to do a little of it with low impact, but made it through.

Here's to a great week of drinking lots of water, eating healthy, and continuing to enjoy our beautiful weather out in the park!

1 lb lost!

So I finally lost 1 pound (after losing the 2 lbs. I gained when I first started out). I know this doesn't sound like much, but for me, it's a big thing! Just need to keep things going in that direction now. :)

A break from Jillian

Hi all,
Haven't posted for awhile. It was a busy weekend, but I got out and did a very brisk walk Saturday. Yesterday and today I walked and ran too. It's been so nice out that I really wanted to be outside instead of inside with Jillian. Still haven't been able to tone down my eating, but at least I'm not gaining!

No weight loss

Well, yesterday I weighed myself and had loss the initial weight gain I had gotten after the 1st week of doing Jillian, but had not lost anymore. I was really bummed about it and decided I just wasn't working out that day!!

But today I got back on track and was up early in the morning doing Level 2. I tried 5 lb weights and used them until the very last weights exercise. My body had gotten too used to the 3 lb weights, so I will definitely keep using the 5 pounders till I can use them the whole time.

Thanks for the advice about not drinking too much water during the workout - I just took sips this morning and didn't get any cramps. Definitely easier for me to work out in the morning when I have a little more energy!

Am really hoping that I'm losing inches somewhere because it's really frustrating to not be losing any weight. Tomorrow I hope to do better in the areas of drinking at least 2 quarts of water for the day and leaving more of the carbs alone.

Late Night Workout

I just finished my workout, and it's after 11:30. I really wanted to stop after the 2nd set. Definitely think it is harder on me to do it in the evenings, but I feel really good that I still got it in today! Maybe it will discount the 2 rich cookies I ate earlier. My husband bought a CASE of the Nestle chocolate chip cookie dough, cookies ready to put on the sheet. Yikes! I'm already getting a little tired of them, though, so hopefully I'll be able to pass them up fairly easily.

The past two days I've gotten a small cramp in my right side - haven't had a cramp there in many, many years. Anyone else get side cramps? I wonder if I'm drinking too much during my workout....

Worn out

I tried to do too much this morning and didn't get my workout in. But I just finished Level 2 - arms are a little sore, but I feel good that I got it done. If I could ever leave the sugar and carbs alone, I might lose a little weight! Thanks, Sarah, for keeping us going!

P.S. I DON'T care for those squat thrusts (I think that's what they're called.)

Need a kick in the pants here in Utah

Friday my alarm didn't go off, and time management for stuff just went downhill from there! Needless to say, I didn't get any kind of workout in that day except for a few sit-ups before my shower. Saturday I was up in Park City for the Bascom sisters retreat so didn't do the DVD workout, but did go on a nice run - gorgeous scenery, beautiful weather. My neice ran with me, so that was fun. Today is my day of rest, but tomorrow I need a good kick in the pants to get in gear and back on track. I also ate way too many yummy things at the retreat (so hard to say no!), so have to repent in that area too. My classes are proving to be a lot harder and more time consuming than I was thinking they'd be, so that has been extremely stressful, which has brought on the eating binges. Sometimes I wish I could put a lock on my mouth!

My Reeses Story

Okay, I'll put off studying stats and tell my Reeses story - what I can remember anyway! This was a LONG time ago - like almost 20 years ago! Annette (Sarah & Rachel's mom) and I are riding along a neighborhood road. Annette is driving, and I'm in the passenger seat when we pass a small orange thing in the curb gutter on the right - I barely notice it - just a flash of orange as we drive by. But it's enough of a flash that I'm thinking, "Could it be? Could it really be......a Reeses?" "Hold on, Annette! Back up! I think that's a Reeses!" Being the awesome sister that she is, Annette comes to a stop, backs up for me, I hop out of the car, and sure enough, it's a Reeses, UNOPENED!! Of course, I snatch it up, open it, eat it, and get my sugar fix for free that day! (Don't remember if I shared with Annette or not!) I must have been pretty desperate.

Then there was the time that Annette and I bought a 4-pack of Haggendaz ice cream bars at the store (I think that was the brand) and each ate 2 before we ever got back to the house. Actually that probably happened more than once! Another time we stuffed ourselves at Olive Garden (NOT the soup and salad), then had a huge piece of cheesecake (each of us), and literally WADDLED out of the restaurant. We have Lots of stories!

There you go - I've since come out of the closet and am fairly open about the fact that I'm totally addicted to sugar and will do some pretty wild stuff to get some, including eating chocolate chips right out of the bag, mixing Cool Whip with peanut butter, and fooling myself that eating frosted mini wheats is okay because it is, after all, nutritious hay bails. :)

Does Jillian drink water?

Did my workout at 6:00 this morning so felt good about that. But I'd like to know how these ladies get through the workout without any water?? Maybe they're pausing somewhere in the video, getting a drink, and then putting all the filming together, but there's definitely NO WAY I can get through my workout without water!

Posting from Utah

I didn't get my workout in this morning, and was so tired after tucking Emily in, I want you guys to know that this blog and knowing all of you are making an effort to work out every day is the only thing that got me starting that DVD! I got through Level 2 and did a little more ab work at the end, those bicycle things with the legs in a sit-up position. I have to say, Jillian gets a little annoying at times, but sometimes her nagging talking actually keeps me moving!

On the downside, my weight was up yesterday and today - Dave says maybe it's because muscle weighs more than fat so maybe I'm toning, but I'm afraid part of it is from eating too much sugar and carbs over the weekend. On the upside, I think I feel energized enough to go through my next Stats chapter. Bye for now!

Utah - Feeling it Today

So this morning I was definitely feeling my workouts from last night. I only did 2 last night because I wanted to see how far I could push myself. Now I know, so no need to repeat that. :)
Timewise, I will usually only be able to do one workout anyway. I did Level 2 this morning with some extra sit-ups at the end. It's a challenge for me right now because part of the time I have to do the low intensity, so I'll stick with that one for awhile with 3 lb weights. I did great eating healthy until I went to help in the kitchen for a funeral lunch, and they were serving the BYU brownies. (Anyone who has had those knows how scrumptious they are). Ate 3 of them!! Dave made cookies AGAIN, and of course, I ate 3 of those too. Did have a salad for dinner, though.

I've Now Met Jillian

My DVD came this afternoon! I just finished Level 1 and Level 2, although I had to do the low intensity part of Level 2 part of the time and took a few "rests" that were a few seconds longer than she likes. I'll probably be sore tomorrow, but for awhile now I've needed something that will make my muscles work, so here it is! Now if I could just eat healthier and leave the cookies alone!

Day 3 - a new day!

Should just skip Day 2 (yesterday), since it was a total bomb for me (and not just in eating and exercise) Didn't get the workout in in the morning, but ate healthy until a previously arranged lunch at Olive Garden. Only ate 1/2 a breadstick and was so proud of that, but had two bowls of the nocchi soup, which is just laden with fat!! So good though. Was okay at dinner, but then Dave made chocolate chip cookies with dough he'd found for 79 cents! I ate 4 large cookies right off the bat.

Today is a new day, though, and I just finished 40 minutes of a Jane Fonda workout video with the steps and weights. Threw in some situps too. Here's hoping for a much better day!

Joining in from Springville, UT

Hi all,
I thought I'd post a little about where I'm coming from. I'm 48 1/2 (yikes!) and have raised all my children but one, our 8-year old daughter, Emily. My husband, Dave, is self-employed. I work part-time and go to school part-time and the past few weeks have been getting into a rut of snacking on the wrong foods while studying. 2 1/2 years ago I was looking at pictures of myself and realizing how the weight had crept on. I got very motivated and lost 14 lbs and was 2 lbs short of reaching my goal when I fell off the band wagon and went back to no real exercise and not being careful about what I eat. Since then I have gained back 10 of those 14 lbs - :(

My long-term goal is to stave off diabetes, the silent killer that my parents and now 3 of my siblings have, and that I know I'll have if I keep gaining weight. My short-term goal is to lose 15 pounds which would put me at the weight I was 10 years ago when I got married. Of course, this would also help me fit in some of the clothes I have that are starting to look like they aren't really mine (don't fit right anymore), but I just keep wearing them anyway because I insist on not buying a bigger size! I also want to do more toning of my muscles.

Yesterday I did 20 minutes collectively on the step, squats, and some sit-ups. I ordered the DVD 2 days ago and am anxiously watching my mailbox!

Thank you, Sarah, for starting this challenge!