Things have changed…

As you can see, it’s been quite some time since I have posted.  That is because everything in my life has changed.  My job, my home, my hobbies, even my hair – yep, I’m going blonde (no pics to post right now, but I’ll work on that)!

I wore that uniform well! 🙂

First things first, I am officially a civilian now – my tour with the U.S. Coast Guard has ended.  When I joined the military I was sure I would be a lifer.  Both of my parents retired from the military and I thought I would follow suit.  But, of course, life has a way of changing plans but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  While I may miss the Coast Guard sometimes, the decision to get out was one that my husband and I decided upon as a family and we know it was the best for us.  He will remain active duty, which leads me to the next BIG change.

We’ve moved to SoCal!  HOLLA!  The hubs got stationed in San Diego which could not have worked out better.  We are out of the cold and snow of Sault Sainte Marie and into the sun and fun of California.  While I always considered myself to be an East Coast girl, I definitely think I can get used to living here.  We found ourselves a beautiful home that is TWICE the size of the one we had in Michigan and we are enjoying filling it up.

Image courtesy of http://www.medifast1.com

The third big change is that I have started a new job already.  While in the Coast Guard I found my passion for fitness and started working as a personal trainer.  As a trainer a majority of my clients were weight loss clients.  I absolutely loved being a part of the weight loss process because I know what an impact weight loss can play on health, happiness and overall quality of life. So, I decided to take my passion for fitness and weight loss and my knowledge of diet and nutrition  (70-80% of weight loss is nutrition, not exercise, in case you weren’t aware) and go to work for Medifast as a weight control counselor.  I typically wouldn’t get behind a weight loss plan like this because I think everyone should learn proper nutrition, however that is what this company does.  Yes, you have meal replacements, but we also teach you how to choose and prepare healthy and nutritious meals.  Plus, once you hit your goal we don’t just show you the door.  We transition you back into eating your own foods and we have a year-long maintenance process to make sure your weight loss is life long and you don’ just yo-yo as most people tend to do.  (This is not an advertisement for Medifast, I’m just explaining the aspects of what I like about the program.  It is not for everyone and I will never try to  pitch or sell this product on my blog.  Likely, this will be the only mention of Medifast just so I can explain the changes in my life.)

Courtesy of http://rabbidblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/crossfit-murrieta/

Anyway, moving on…change number four and probably the biggest, most exciting change for me.   I’ve joined CrossFit!  We didn’t have CrossFit available in the Soo so it wasn’t an option until now.  Ever since I saw my first competition on TV I have been dying to do it.  Right now I am in week two of fundamentals.  You have to do 8 classes to learn the basic movements of CrossFit before you can do the WOD (Workout of the Day).  At the end of this week I will be able to go daily, 5:30 am and just rock out classes.  I love, love, love it.  This, you will  be hearing A LOT about!

I think that covers all the big changes.  I will be posting more often now that I have a daily routine set in stone.  Thanks for being patient and for coming back!

Discovery Post

I haven’t posted this week because nothing has really happened. Work, training, exercise, food prep…you know, the usual.

Anyway, I decided I had to do a quick post about a little discovery I made this morning. As I’ve mentioned before, I have workout ADD. I’m always looking for something new and something I can do at home. This morning my YouTube search for “30 min HIIT workout” delivered. A channel called FitnessBlender popped up. I ran through a 30 minute cardio/ab HIIT routine and it did not fail. I highly suggest those of you who don’t have a local gym, don’t have time to get there, or, like me, are just too lazy to leave your house but still want to get in a workout check them out. Here’s the link to the routine I did this morning and here are my results.

They have a couple 1,000 calorie workouts so I think I’ll check one of those of tomorrow. I’ll let you know how that goes and post my results.

Sweet Potato Weekend

As promised, I had a little fun cooking with sweet potatoes this weekend.  And let me tell you, they did not disappoint!

Friday night I did a little prep work.  I peeled, diced, steamed and mashed one sweet potato.  This was all done while watching tv so believe me, it’s not too strenuous.  I knew that I was going to make two recipes like I had said – sweet potato protein pancakes and sweet potato pie overnight oats.  Both of which were huge successes if you ask me.  Here’s what I did:

Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes

Ingredients:

1/2 sweet potato steamed and mashed

1 Tbsp Vanilla Protein Powder (I use Iso Sensation 93 – Vanilla Bean)

2 Tbsp Oat Flour

3 Tbsp Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

1/4 Tsp Cinnamon

1 Egg

Process:

Mix all ingredients together. 

Pour onto heated skillet.  Make sure you coat your pan with coconut oil or non-stick spray first.

Once you see bubbling, check to see if they’ve started to brown and flip.

Whole recipe makes 3 pancakes and serves 1.

Nutritional Facts:  213 Calories, 6.2 g Fat, 19.8 g Carbs, and 19.5 g Protein

***I topped mine with 0-calorie spray butter and 1/4c of Sugar Free Syrup, but you could use damn near anything they are so delicious!

Sweet Potato Pie Overnight Oats

Ingredients:

Overnight Oats Base (you can find this here)

1/2 Sweet Potato steamed and mashed

1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 tsp chia seeds

Nutritional Facts:  234 Calories, 5 g Fat, 39 g Carbs, 13 g Protein

I’m looking forward to making both of these recipes again and playing around with some more overnight oats ideas.  I bought a peach the other day and I’m planning to put that bad boy and maybe some nuts in together.  I dunno, we’ll see.

Oh, and before I go, I almost forgot the most important thing.  Friday, I passed my NASM Personal Trainer exam. I’m really hoping this will open up some new opportunities for me in California.  I’ve been studying for the past 6 months prepping for it.  Now that I have that done, it’s time to really start focusing on that “trainer body”.  Friday night we did go out to celebrate.  I was good and ordered a healthy meal and we opted for seeing a movie rather than going out of going for drinks.  No binge weekend means that I am still on track and moving forward with my birthday goal – 27 days left BTW.

Step Aerobics???

I’m sorry but did I just time warp back to the 90’s??? Nope, but I did just complete my first step aerobics class. I had no idea how hard these mothers were!

It’s hard to tell but I’m DRENCHED in sweat. I’d say it was a pretty successful workout. I will most definitely do this again. Hell, I may even invite a friend to join me once I get the moves down a bit and stop looking like a crazy person.

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats

My adventures with overnight oats has continued.  What you are seeing was my batch from last night.  The basic base of oats, yogurt, milk and Truvia didn’t change.  This time however I chopped up 1/2 a gala apple, added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of chia seeds.  Super good.  Nutritional facts are 220 calories, 5 g fat,  38 g carbs and 12 g protein.

Tomorrow, I think I’m gonna change it up and have grapefruit, eggs and bacon.  I don’t want to burn myself out on ONO but I will be making another batch this weekend.  I have a sweet potato that I am planning on using for two recipes:  Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes and Sweet Potato Pie Overnight Oats.  Those posts (assuming the recipes are a success) will be posted Sunday.  See you then and have a great weekend!  🙂

Overnight Oats and my Birthday Countdown

I realized something yesterday: my 30th birthday is approaching fast.  33 days away to be exact.  I’ve decided that all I want for my birthday is to be pampered and to celebrate a month of hard work – the hard work of course being eating right and working out consistently from now until then.  I’ve decided to make a few changes to my routine and nutrition however. 

The first change I am making is my routine – sometimes I just go crazy, as you could see from my dire need for a rest day.  What I think I really need to do is to be more consistent (consistency is the key to success) rather than hitting it crazy hard for a few days and running out of steam.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to only do one workout a day, but that not every single one of them needs to be a balls-to-the-wall workout.

That being said, I still began my morning with my DailyHIIT routine.  I just love these routines because they are fast and intense but I am not going to kill myself for the rest of the day with it.  I was planning to do some light cardio during lunch break.  Probably just a walk on the treadmill at a moderate incline or a 30 min elliptical session, but I wasn’t able to make it to the gym today.  Instead I am sitting here writing this, so I think it works out.  Tonight I am going to hit another Jillian Michael’s routine.  Even though I haven’t been good about following her plan like I did the first time around – I still love the workouts and go back to them all the time.  Today should technically be my JM rest day, however I didn’t workout Monday so I am pushed back a day.

The second big change I am making is in my nutrition.  Previously I had a plan where my macros were 50% protein, 30% fat and 20% carbs.  While this works to help take off the weight fairly quickly, I don’t feel that this is something that would be healthy for me to continue over the long-term.  It was also creating a “carbs are bad” complex in my head and that is most definitely not true.  I’ve decided to change my macros now to 30% protein, 30% fat and, and 40% carbs.  This is all based on a goal of 1200 calories/day so it comes to 90g protein, 40g fat and 120g carbs.  I’m in the trial phase of this macro count but I’m looking forward to it.  I am now going to be able to incorporate healthy carbs in my diet like fruits, sweet potatoes, brown rice, 100% whole wheat bread, oats, legumes and such.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you carbs are bad and if they do, just smack them right across the face!  Carbs are what our bodies use for energy – you just have to be smart about what types of carbs you are eating and when.  I still don’t plan to have many carbs with dinner, but that is a personal preference and you will have to make that decision for yourself. 

I think initially it is going to be hard to start taking in more carbs, but I found something that is really going to help me out.  Overnight oats!  Ever heard of them???  They are a glorious little concoction I see on blogs all over the place.  They’re super simple to make, a great healthy food, and perfect for a girl on the go such as myself. You start with a nice little base of milk, yogurt and oats.  That’s it!  No seriously, THAT IS IT!  Easy peasy, right?  Below is my first ONO breakfast and I was very happy with the outcome.

 

Ingredients:

1/3 C Oats

1/3 C Greek Yogurt (I used plain but feel free to add any flavor you’d like)

1/2 C Milk (any type will work fine)

Sweetener to taste – I used 1 packet of Truvia but it seems a lot of people use Agave, honey or stevia.  Your choice.

Any toppings you like – in this batch I added 1/2 banana, 3 strawberries diced and chia seeds

Nutritional Facts:  232 Calories, 5g Fat, 42g Carbs, 13g Protein

This is the finished product:

Ok, I know, not really the best or most appetizing photo.  I wasn’t sure how big the batch would be so I ended up using a large soup container from a chinese restaurant. Note to self, large container is too large!  The meal itself though was just the perfect size to fill you up and keep you full until snack time.

I’ve got some apples and cinnamon at home and thinking I might make myself another little batch tonight using those ingredients…maybe even try it warmed up tomorrow.  I don’t know, but I’ll keep you posted.

Hallelujah a Rest Day!

It’s Wednesday and in the “Making the Cut” world, that means a rest day. In my case, a MUCH needed rest day!

Monday I began my morning with a DailyHIIT routine. During my lunch break I did a tabata routine you can find here. Then, nope I’m not done, I rocked out my Jillian Michaels routine after my clients. Tuesday wasn’t much different: morning HIIT, cardio lunch consisting of the below treadmill routine and 28 minutes on the elliptical and after clients another JM routine.

*Image courtesy of www.superskinnyme.com 

http://www.superskinnyme.com/butt-sculpting-cardio-workout.html

So, as you can see I’m not kidding when I say I need my rest day. I won’t be completely lazy though – it will be an active rest day. The hubs has decided it’s time to come back to the gym so we are hitting a spin class together. Maybe he’ll even let me snap a pic after so you all can see out hard work…although I won’t count on it. 😉

Anyway, here’s hoping my legs still work tomorrow! Happy training!

I got my pic…

 

 **Disregard our un-sexiness, we were sweating bullets and struggling to get out those smiles.

An Update for Steph :)

I had a few ladies over this weekend for a Mary Kay party.  It was lots of fun and I definitely needed the dose of estrogen around me since I work with only males throughout the week.  At the party, somehow this blog was mentioned.  I can’t remember exactly how, but I do remember one very important fact.  My friend Steph told me she was waiting for my next post and asked me where it was.  What, what, what?  Someone actually reads this bad boy?  I couldn’t believe it.  And not only does she read it, but she actually enjoys it.  Well, hallelujah!  I told her that all I wanted to do was one more post that simply read “FAILURE” because that is how I feel.  I started this blog to document my journey towards fitness. Instead it has become a diary of all of my pitfalls along the way.  But that is what she likes about it – it’s real.  Sure, I am not the epitome of health and well-being, but I am trying.  No one is perfect and is going to get it right 100% of the time, but the important thing is to keep going back and working at it.  I’m not a failure, I am just hitting a few bumps in the road.  So, without further ado, Steph this post goes out to you.  Thank you for the encouragement and for asking for a new post because without you I don’t think I would have continued. 

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By far the biggest downfall I have is that I love food.  And not just any food but horrible, greasy, fatty food.  I swear if I never gained a pound I would be happy living off of fast food.  Well, maybe not every meal but you know what I mean, right?  It’s just so good, but oh so bad for my thighs…and ass…and gut…well, you get the picture.  I’m trying to venture out a little more so that I can satisfy my palate without compromising my wallet.  This is not always the easiest thing to accomplish.  Prep time has also become an issue recently. Now that I am working full-time with the Coast Guard and my number of clients has picked up significantly at the gym I’m not getting home until 8:30 most nights.  At that point I have to shower, pack up my clothes for the next day, lay out my uniform, eat dinner, make meals for the next day and take care of the dogs.  EEESH!  It’s a lot.  And I really like to be in bed by 9…ain’t happenin’!  So now it’s time to find things that are fast and simple to cook.  Pre-made turkey burgers have been a staple the past couple days.  Fairly inexpensive, easy to cook while I multitask, a good source of protein, and delicious to boot.  I forgo the bun and just eat it with a slice of fat-free pepper jack cheese and some Dijon mustard.  If I’m feeling feisty I may throw in some sort of veggie, such as my fav creamed spinach.  This was lunch Tuesday:

Nutritional Info:  329 Calories, 7g Carbs, 13g Fat, 29g Protein

For breakfast the past couple of days I decided to do something a little different.  While I love my eggs and bacon or eggs and toast or eggs and fruit sometimes you have just had enough eggs. Instead I opted for some 100% Whole Wheat Mini Bagels.  These definitely don’t break the bank and are great for topping with sugar-free preserves, some type of nut butter, or a low/reduced fat cream cheese.  However, I took it just a step farther.  The past couple mornings I’ve been doing cream cheese and smoked salmon.  This morning I got a hankering for avocado so I threw that in the mix with some red onion.  OMG!  Absolutely fantastic!  I highly suggest putting this one together.  It takes no time at all and you can even eat it on the fly if you’re in a hurry.

Nutritional Info:  411 Calories, 30g Carbs, 24g Fat, 20g Protein

And finally, my morning ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) drink.  I am still trying to keep up with this drink.  First thing I do when I wake up in the morning is take the dogs out.  When I get back inside I start this drink by adding 1 tsp of chia seeds to 8 oz of water.  Then, I’ll go and get ready.  The reason I start it first thing in the morning and drink it right before I leave is because I like to let the chia seeds sit and soak up the water.  This gives them a gel-like consistency instead of crunchy seeds and makes it much easier to drink.  Anyone remember Orbitz drinks?  It’s sort of like that.  Right before it’s ready to drink I’ll had a bit of lemonade drink mix and voila – faboo drink!

Nutritional Info:  38 Calories, 5g Carbs, 1g Fat, 1g Protein

So there we go.  My strides in the right direction and my post for Steph.  Now that I know that this blog inspires one person it makes it so much more worthwhile and I’ll try to post more often.  If there is anything you want to hear about just let me know!

Mid-Week Update

In case you were wondering why I haven’t posted any recent updates, it’s because this happened Thursday!

I was driving my husbands Jeep when I completely lost control on some ice.  Luckily a very nice lady was able to stop my spinning with the front end of her car.  ARGH!  It was absolutely terrifying.  Luckily no one was injured, but mentally it sort of put me out of commission for a few days.  Friday I was depressed.  I woke up angry because I cost my husband and me the price of our deductible, we won’t be able to sell his Jeep for what it is fully worth because it’s been involved in an accident, and I felt extremely guilty that I wrecked his car and not my own.  Well, as many people are, I too am an emotional eater.  I started Friday off with a healthy breakfast, but that didn’t last.  By lunchtime I was ready to indulge…and indulge I did!

 

I ate every single morsel you see in that picture.  A salad with ranch dressing and pasta salad on the side.  A bowl of cream of mushroom soup.  A cheeseburger with all the fixins’.  And to top it all off a big slice of red velvet cake.  It didn’t end there either.  What else did I do?  Well I drowned my self-pity in my old friend BEER!

What a sad and pathetic face.  I just curled up in my living room, drank and ate all night  I attempted to have a healthy snack while I was drinking and found something new and delicious that I absolutely love.  Toasted Ezekiel bread with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light Swiss and Olive Tapenade.  Sounds weird but it was fantastic!

But that doesn’t really help when you consume more than your daily allowance of calories in just beer now does it?

Saturday I woke up feeling rested and surprisingly not hung over.  I decided to catch up on my 30 day Challenge from Daily HIIT since I hadn’t done my workout Friday.  I knocked that out, and started feeling better.  The rest of the day I did nothing but relax, pick up a few things and relax some more.  Sunday was pretty much the same minus the workout.  Instead of my BodyRock routine I went and walked an indoor track with my friend and got a little time to vent, which I needed…desperately!

Monday, I opted for one more day of rest and relaxation just to make sure all the depressed gookies were completely gone and lo and behold when I woke up Tuesday morning they sure were!

Tuesday I woke up early and knocked out my morning HIIT routine.  That afternoon I decided to hit the gym during my lunch break for a mid-day cardio session.  Those always seem to make the day go by faster and give me a little boost of energy.  At the end of my Coast Guard day I went straight to the gym to train with a few clients and followed that up with an intense Jillian Michaels routine.  You read that right, I got in 3 full workouts yesterday.  On top of all that, I ate impeccably. 

I guess what I am getting at is that life happens.  How you deal with it may not be the same as how I deal with it, however we all have coping mechanisms.  I’m not saying mine is a good one, because lets face it, it’s not!  I do not recommend you eat and drink away your problems because it really isn’t going to get you anywhere.  However, what I do recommend is that when you are ready you get right back on that horse and keep on trekin!  I had a mini-mental-meltdown and it sucked, but today I realize that it’s not the end of the world and I am ready to just keep moving forward.

What mental setbacks have you had in the past, and how did you deal with them?

An Oops And a Lesson Learned

Photo courtesy of thefitmissltumblr

You may have heard me bitch about mention my will power in the past. Well, I’m not perfect and I have again hit a little snafu. However, I’m taking a negative and trying to find the positive.

Basically what happened, is I had three horrible meals: Burger King for dinner Tuesday night, a work BBQ chock full of sweet treats Wednesday afternoon, and a pizza and bread stick feast that night. The scale went up 3.8lbs between Tuesday morning and today. Super discouraging, right? Well, yes and no.

My initial reaction was to beat myself up and then bury my face in a carton of ice cream because I’ve already messed up, why bother keep going? However, the trainer in me jumped in and kicked that idea to the curb! Just because I messed up on a few meals doesn’t mean I can derail all of the progress I had made up to that point. “If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up,” popped into my head, and that quote gave me strength. I know I’ve set myself back a few days – I figure 5 total, 2 bad days of eating, and 2-3 to get me back to my pre-binge weight. But, that’s only a couple of days. Not years, months, or hell not even a full week. So, I’ve decided to get right back on track today. I’ve kept up with my workouts at the gym and I’m still going strong on my 30 day challenge, so really, I haven’t fallen that hard.

I’ve dusted myself off and put together a great menu for my day. Egg whites with avocado and turkey bacon for breakfast. Raw almonds as my morning snack. Chicken breast, brown rice and broccoli for lunch. Protein shake as my afternoon snack and then salmon and spinach for dinner. DELISH! No junk food, no worries.

When you get off track, what motivates you to get back on and move forward?