Welcome To My New Blog!

I’m starting this blog to document my journey into the world of fitness. I’m entering Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet Challenge.  I have 4 months, actually 107 days, to get into the best shape of my life!  I absolutely believe that I can do it!  I have always dreamed of looking like one of those girls in Oxygen magazine… now I dream of being one of those girls!  Part of the Grand Prize and 6 1st Place Prizes is a spread in Oxygen Magazine!!! 

I’ve never in my life had the drive or discipline to go after something like this until now.  Since the accident… everything inside me has changed.  My personality, my ambition, my goals and dreams.  Being so injured and so weak truly made me appreciate a strong and healthy body… I always took my body for granted until now.  I never believed that I could be an athelete… that I could be that strong and focused… now I know that I can!

So come along on this journey with me… feel free to lend your encouragement and support and even a kick in the pants when I need it!  This will probably end up being a mish mashed blog of sorts with my daily updates on diet and exercise, yummy new recipes I’ve tried or delicious food finds, related articles, and a whole lot of ordinary life….. 

Can’t wait to see where this journey takes me……

Stuck, Stuck, Stuck!!!!

The scale has once again become my foe… it is stuck and refuses to move no matter what I do.  I’m hoping that by posting this some sort of magic will occur and the whoosh fairy will have mercy on me and pay me a visit tonight and sprinkle me with her sparkly fairy dust and the scale will magically go whoosh downward in the morning!   Yep… I’m willing to believe in the whoosh fairy if it’ll work!

But seriously, it went down and has been stuck for 4 days straight.  I’m going to start cutting my carbs back even more and see if I can’t get this moving again.  I’m getting so close to my goal… and soooo close to the deadline of this contest…. I won’t be where I wanted to be… but I want to be as close as possible!

Feelin’ Good!!!! Happy Saturday!

I woke up feeling terrible, but that has given way to me feeling fantastic today!  I feel leaner and like I’m finally fully back on track!  The scale hit a new low for me, but I’m not officially weighing until next Wednesday… I just couldn’t wait and had to sneak a peak!  

I have a super busy day today trying to get the house back in order after a trying week… but tonight is about fun!  I get to go to Medieval Times… I’ve never been.. and can’t decide whether it will be a cool experience… or a bit cheesy!   Guess we’ll see.  Either way,  I guess it’s more about getting out and having fun… I get to meet some new people and see some that I haven’t seen in a long time… I know I’ll have a good time!  The menu is a bit sparse and they don’t carry the “rabbit food” , as my friend calls it, that I normally eat… but if I stick with the protein and veggies… I should make it out unscathed.

I really wanted to get in a cardio session today, but it doesn’t look like the clock is gonna be on my side… I may squeeze out a mini whole body workout today with my fitness bands.  I’m pretty surprised at how effective these bands are depending on the amount of resistance you allow.  I definitely feel it when I use them.

Ok… off to accomplish the days work… Have a Great Saturday!!!

Hhhmmm… just not feeling that well…

I’ve been struggling with exhaustion and weakness the last week or so. I’m sleeping ALOT… or should I say napping a lot.  I don’t know what’s going on with me. I do believe that I’m ODing on caffeine though… I’m a total coffee addict and drink it all day long in between bottles of water. So this morning I switched over to hot tea and I’m gonna see if that helps.  I’m also gonna drag my behind back into the gym. I’ve had several days off and just felt to weak and tired to commit… but I’m going to at least do cardio today and see how I feel.  

My diet has been pretty stellar. Lots of leafy greens and lean protein.  I’m happy and content with my diet and have no cravings for junk… which is SO nice!   My biggest downfall at this point, if you can call it that, is good cheese!  I keep tossing yummy crumbled Gorgonzola or blue cheese into my salads and I know I would be better off without the added fat, but it’s so delicious and really adds something to my salads… so as long as the scale keeps going down… the cheese stays!

Divine Ezekiel French Toast w/ Warm Berry Sauce

Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmm!  It is a dreary, raining day here and I have really been wanting something substantial to eat…. so this morning I made french toast!  Ezekiel bread is a sprouted grain bread that is low glycemic, full of fiber and oh so nutritious! It’s much more dense than regular bread and sort of nutty… not great for sandwiches to me, but perfect for this.

• 2 Slices Ezekiel Bread (regular or cinnamon raisin!)
• 3 Egg Whites
• Dash of Splenda and Cinnamon
• 2/3c Frozen Berries (strawberries, blueberries, mixed, ect)
• 1/4c Water
• 1-2T Granular Splenda

     Beat the eggs with the dash of cinnamon and splenda, then soak the bread for at least 5-10 minutes, turning once. This bread is dense and gets better if you allow it to soak up the eggs.  While the bread is soaking, place the rest of the ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, mashing the berries now and then, until it becomes thick and syrupy. 

     Heat a nonstick griddle or skillet and cook the soaked bread until golden brown on both sides and firm to the touch (so you know the middle is cooked through).   Plate and serve with the warm berry sauce and a sprinkling of granular splenda if you like!

A Southern Wedding Weekend!

I must admit, that even though I have been doing much better about sticking to my plan and my workouts have been great, I was a bit worried about this weekend.  My cousin got married in a beautiful little historic town in Mississippi, roughly 8 hours away.  Road trips have always been a challenge for me diet wise.  It is usually one long food fest of greasy dives and yummy new finds… but not this weekend!  With the help of my trusty little cooler I mentioned in the previous post and some wise choices… the weekend was not all lost.  There were certainly deviations… such as several mimosas during our pampering session and of course a few too many carbs at the reception… and more champagne   But for the most part I was able to make wise choices and steer clear of many of the pitfalls that I used to jump into head first.   We’ll see tomorrow if there is any damage done on the scale,  but I’m guessing probably not. 

I’m looking forward to this new week.  I’ll be cleaning out the fridge tomorrow and making way for more pre-prepped foods for my little cooler.  I have 3 intense lifting sessions planned as well as 6 cardio sessions!  I’m also starting back to occupational therapy for my left hand.  I had developed what they believe to be something like a pain disorder and just wasn’t able to make any progress because the unending pain of therapy had finally messed with my head so to speak, but after taking a few months off, and making a bit of progress on my own, my therapist thinks that we may actually be able to get my middle finger to start to bend the way it’s suppose to… Oh, I hope so!  The therapy is horrendous… it’s kind of like volunteering to be tortured for an hour once or twice a week…. but as is the case with fitness…. no pain, no gain! 

One of the most valuable  things that I have learned through this last year, is to just get over myself!  LOL.  I used to have such a lazy, self-limiting mindset… I never wanted to do anything that made me too uncomfortable… pushed me too hard… was painful to me either mentally,  physically or emotionally… guess what?  That’s all of life!  Growth and change are painful… they do not come easily… to grow you must stretch beyond your current limits… you must reach those uncomfortable places that are so unfamiliar and scary.   I love the quote “Feel the Fear… and Do it Anyway!”  It says exactly what is necessary for true growth and change.  All of those success stories… all of those people who have done the very things you dream about…. do you think that it all just came easily to them? That they woke up one morning and everything was in place and ready for them to simply take the prize?  Nope!  Everyone who achieves true greatness… who does something extraordinary with their lives… fought for it… they went through the pain of growth and change and challenges, set backs and disappointments….. And Kept Going!  They faced the fear and did it anyway…. because the payoff is so worth the sacrifice of a little comfort!

Fitness on the Road….

In one hour it will be time for me to hit the road for my cousin’s wedding,  roughly 8 hours and 2 1/2 states away.  Luckily I will not be driving for any of it…. yay!   I have packed my trusty little cooler with my new favorite yummy salad (recipe to come),  Turkey Lettuce Wraps, Cocoa Roasted Almonds (review to come… oh yeah… YUM), and several small bags of turkey breast meat in case… I don’t know… I’m stuck somewhere with no protein.   I could actually use an extra cooler, but will just have to make do with this one, and try my best to make wise choices when we are eating out.  

I have been feeling fantastic! Workouts have been tough, but good. Meghan and I decided to up the weight I’m lifting for this last month of the contest… try and get those muscles to pop a bit.   She is KILLING ME…. but I love her… and am soooo glad she’s there to push me! 

The scale is my friend again… moving down, after being up a few pounds.   I’m not taking any bands or weights or anything with me, but will probably just work on my flexibility during any down time in the hotel this weekend.  I have been greatly neglecting this part of my fitness routine and I can feel it… all over! So, no more slacking on the stretching.

Post Thanksgiving Bliss!

I’ve gotta be honest… I did not eat clean on Thanksgiving. I ate dressing and sweet potato casserole and even pumpkin tart… yum, yum, yum!  I ate and I was on a happy little carb high for a full day!  I’m past it now and back to my clean, competition diet and don’t feel one shred of guilt… and I am thankful for that.  I truly feel like I’ve gotten something out of my system… like I was feeling deprived without even knowing it and this one meal totally cured it! 

I decided to have Thanksgiving with my best friend instead of staying home with family. This year I just needed to do something completely different than what we used to do with my husband… and it was a fantastic decision! I feel happy and relaxed instead of sad and anxious.  Whenever I visit my friend Hilary I always feel like I’m on the best little mini vacations. She lives in a small town in southern Alabama… there’s not alot to do… but I always feel more peaceful and centered when I’m here. 

I brought my exercise band with me and plan to knock out an arm workout and then we’re gonna take my lil’ miss on a hike and then to the playground.  A nice, relaxing, fit sort of day!  Diet so far is great, and got my morning supplements in.   Not sure about dinner yet… probably a chicken stir fry… we’ll see.

Is MSG Making You Fat?

   I found some interesting articles years ago linking the consumption of the food additive MSG (monosodium glutamate) to obesity. At the time, I had a difficult time finding reference articles to back up the research and theories, but recently I have stumbled across numerous articles about this very thing…. Must finally be catching on!

MSG is a food additive that creates a powerful taste sensation, and it resides in most processed foods… from potato chips to boxed rice mixes to canned soups. You know how it’s difficult to eat just one of those sour cream and onions potato chips… MSG is one reason why. MSG is an excitotoxin (in the same class as aspartame) which means that it overexcites neurons to the point of cell damage and eventually cell death. The big problem comes in becomes there is no blood-brain barrier in the hypothalamus and the excitotoxins can get straight to the brain. Research has found that MSG causes lesions in the hypothalamus, leading to obesity, short stature and reproductive problems (hello all you ladies with PCOS). It has also been found to increase the amount of insulin released by the body (ya know… the fat storage hormone) to 3x it’s normal amount!

Years ago when I first found out about this link, I was shocked to discover that not only did doctors and researchers know that MSG led to obesity, but they also used it to induce obesity! I went to the site

 http://newenglandjournalofmedicine.com and put one little phrase in the search box…. “MSG obese rats” Article after article came pouring forth showing the use of MSG to induce obesity in the test subjects. Interestingly enough I just went back to the site and can no longer get the same results from the search. I’ll be checking it out more closely later on. You see, rats and mice are not obese in nature, but in order to research different aspects of obesity, diabetes and whatever else they were researching that required fat rats… they used MSG to induce obesity! Food manufacturers have known for years that they are in fact Making Us Fat… and so instead of removing the additive (which is addictive in nature, thus causing us to continue buying their crap)… they just market “diet” foods to us instead… it just makes my blood boil thinking about it! Also, because MSG raises insulin levels sharply, which drops blood sugar levels, it leads to you being hungrier than you would have been, and sooner than you would have been… thus causing the consumer to essentially consume more… hhhmmmm…. Yeah. That’s not on purpose, right?  

This is just one more reason why eating clean, natural foods makes so much sense. The truth is, manufactures add so many additives, preservatives and chemicals to our foods that we have no way of really knowing what it is doing to us or our families. Also, these additives change our taste buds, the very way we taste foods. I have been so surprised at how wonderful REAL foods like fruits, vegetables and grains taste all on their own. It’s hard to taste just how very sweet a bell pepper is when you are used to consuming processed white sugar.

Now a homework assignment… if you are brave enough… take the list of MSG names below and go through your pantry right now and see just how many products contain them. Go be brave… you can’t act until you know! And if you are interested in learning more on this subject there is a book called The Slow Poisoning of America by John Erb. I have not read the book yet and so cannot vouch for it personally, but know that this man has done extensive research on the subject.

These are names manufacturers use to disguise MSG:

The following substances contain the highest percentage of factory created free glutamate, with MSG containing 78%:

• MSG Gelatin
• Calcium Caseinate
• Monosodium glutamate
• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)
• Textured Protein
• Monopotassium glutamate
• Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP)
• Yeast Extract
• Glutamate
• Autolyzed Plant Protein
• Yeast food or nutrient
• Glutamic Acid
• Sodium Caseinate
• Autolyzed Yeast
• Vegetable Protein Extract
• Senomyx (wheat extract labeled as artificial flavor)

 

44 Days! – 147.2lbs…. ugh… wasted time!

I am so disappointed that I have wasted so many days… weeks… piddling around and not staying focused.  I’m not going to start beating myself up over it though… what’s done is done… and blasting myself and breaking down my faults is NOT going to help me in my drive to the finish line!

I’ve been pretty spot on for days and have dropped back down the few pounds that I’ve been playing with the last few weeks… the scale is moving downward again!!! Yay!  I’m trying my best… I can maintain like nobody’s business, but my diet has to be spot on to lose the pounds. 

To say that this is a stressful time for me is a gross understatement.  There is so much stress and emotional turmoil in my life right now… I told a friend that it almost feels like I’ve jumped in to the deep end of the pool and then realized I can’t swim.  I’m floating in the midst of all this grief, sadness, stress, and anxiety and I feel as though I might go under… but I keep treading water… I keep moving forward… I just keep moving.  I don’t know what else to do.  It feels as though my mind is just gonna freak out and stop working at any moment… as though it’s just gonna say to me “ok.. that’s it… I’m overloaded and can’t process another damn thing!”  And I guess that’s the key here… I can’t seem to process any of this stuff… I just keep moving through it… not looking too closely at any one thing… just keep moving… stay afloat…. but at what point do I just get too damn tired to paddle anymore?  Anyone out there got a life preserver?

It’s All In The Prep….

I spent a couple of hours last night prepping my food for the next few days. I can’t tell you how many times it has saved me to have food ready to grab and eat or grab and throw in my cooler as I‘m running out the door. I know for me personally… I am not going to prepare food 4, 5, or 6 times a day. If at least a few of the meals are not heat and eat, I will inevitably end up eating out and struggling to make wise choices.

It really is fairly simple to make food ahead and split it into single serving sizes. Even things like cottage cheese… I’ll buy a large container and split it into 1/2c servings in tiny plastic containers. Also things that don’t need to be cooked, but require you to pull out several things every time you want to make it… like my favorite protein shake. I just hate pulling out the big bag of frozen blueberries and a measuring cup… and usually end up getting blueberry juice on something… so I take the whole bag at once and divide it into 1/4c servings in those tiny snack bags. Then throw them all in one gallon size freezer bag and into the freezer. Then when it’s protein shake time,… it’s super easy and I’ve even started throwing my spoonful of coconut oil into the baggies so that eliminates yet another step.

The biggest time savings though is in the protein department. Now through much trial and error I have found that certain things freeze well after they are cooked and others… not so much. Anything cooked in a sauce and then chopped or shredded tends to freeze and reheat well (I’ll add some recipes in a bit.) But things like hamburger patties, chicken breasts, ect. tend to get tough and just don’t taste as good. I prefer to make those things up every few days and keep them in the fridge. Same goes for tuna or salmon patties… very tasty, but always better if not frozen. Now for the things that do freeze well…. lean ground beef precooked and divided into either single servings or recipe size portions (2c for a family) … then it can just get thawed in the microwave and tossed into soup, chili, spaghetti sauce… whatever. Various versions of crockpot meats also do very well…. Like Chicken Salsa Verde, Pepperocini Beef, Taco Style Chicken. Also soups and chilis are endless in variety and freeze like a dream as long as they don’t contain a starch like pasta or potatoes.

Last night I kept things very simple and really didn’t accomplish all that I wanted but got enough done to last me a few days. I divided my container of cottage cheese as I stated earlier. I made a veggie and egg scramble of onions and bell pepper and then added 4 whole eggs and 6 whites, cooked and then divided into 3 bowls to serve as breakfast with an apple for the next few days. Then I divided my blueberries for my protein shakes. I seasoned and cooked 8oz of very lean ground beef and divided into snack baggies and froze… they will probably end up being thrown into a Clean Taco Salad. Then I made my uber yummy Cola BBQ Chicken… recipe to follow! I made three thin sliced breasts which are perfect portions for my mini meals, and fantastic with either a clean coleslaw or a dinner salad. I’m going to make Salmon Patties for dinner tonight and will make double for extras in the fridge. I’ll also probably make some seasoned green beans and put 2-3 portions in the fridge… I’ve been slacking on the green veggies.

Well, this is what makes it possible for me to stick to a clean, healthy diet, and when I don’t take my own advice and keep things stocked…. I end up eating crap, feeling like crap, and not losing weight. I’ll be back later today to post several of the recipes I mentioned.