Her Bizzy Diet – Day 8

Welcome to week 2 of my challenge!

The weekend proved to be a big obstacle.  Saturday during the day was very easy because I was at work and able to keep on my regular schedule.  After work I picked up my step-daughter, took her for birthday manicures, and then we met up with my husband for her birthday dinner.  We wanted her to pick the restaurant, since after all it’s her birthday.  She chose Macaroni Grill.  I knew from the start that it could pose a challenge because I looooooove pasta, but I wanted to be good so I veered away from that portion of the menu.  However, so many of the dishes have pasta of some sort and I really wasn’t in the mood for chicken or steak since I can make that at home and not pay $18/plate.  I thought I had decided upon a dish until I noticed the calorie contents next to them.  I can’t remember my first choice, but I do remember that it had about 1100 calories in it.  Thanks, but no thanks!  I opted for a Caesar salad and added shrimp.  First off,  yeah, I know, Caesar dressing isn’t healthy, but remember I don’t really care when it comes to fat.  Second, don’t order shrimp to add to a salad because it was a total rip off – $4 to add shrimp and I only got 4 shrimp.  I ended up coming home and making some beef strips so that I could get in more protein.   The next morning I was up about .8lbs which kinda sucked.

Next comes Sunday.  I always wake up earlier than my family so I spent the first couple of hours in my normal breakfast routine catching up on all my trashy reality shows on DVR.  I even made pancakes when the other two woke up and didn’t so much as even taste it.  Then come the temptations.  First it was lunch.  My husband wanted taco bell so the two of them went and picked it up and brought it home.  We all sat at the table and while they ate tacos, gorditos and chalupas I sat drooling, staring and quietly ate my tuna salad.  Later that night we met up with friends for a BBQ – we brought steaks and asparagus so I don’t feel bad there.  However, after dinner the family wanted ice cream.  ICE CREAM!  I dropped them off and went to fill up my car with gas so I didn’t even step foot inside because I knew I would have ordered something.  They brought their ice cream home and I made a chocolate peanut butter protein shake.  I thought I did a pretty good job, although this morning I was up another .8lbs.  GRRRR!!!

That’s ok, because at the end of the week I still ended up down 7lbs from my starting weight.  Today was totally on point, so here’s what I got:

Workout:

Day 1 – Cardio & Upper Body

 

Meals & Supplements:

• 3:30am –  2 Burn (according to the plan I am supposed to take 2, this morning I only did because I was exhausted) , 1 Tone
• 6am – 3 Balance, 2 whole eggs, 1 slice center cut bacon
• 9am – 1 scoop Vanilla Chai Delight Protein
• 11:30am – 1 Burn, 1 Tone
• 12pm – 6oz chicken, 2c mixed greens, olive oil/vinegar dressing
• 3pm – 1 scoop Vanilla Chai Delight Protein
• 6pm – 5 oz shrimp, 1 bunch chard, 1/3c coconut milk, 1/2 lemon juice and chipotle pepper flakes
• 8pm – 2 Cleanse, Cup of Vanilla Sleepy Time Tea

Weight: 136.6

Her Bizzy Diet – Day 4

For some reason, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning.  I was pumped for the workout…even if my calves didn’t feel the same way.  I went ahead and ran on the treadmill because I was determined to fight through the pain.  I did lower speeds, but still pulled through.  I would love to show you how much I burned but my HR monitor didn’t want to function.  Several times during my workout it would tell me that it wasn’t reading my heart rate and at the end of my workout I was at a total of 189 calories tracked.  I’m calling bullshit on that number because I could walk for an hour and burn that much.  Anyway, here’s the workout:

Workout:

20 minute cardio intervals on the treadmill (low intensity 3.5-4; high intensity 7-8.5)

 

Upper Body (20 reps 2x’s through)

• DB Chest Press
• 1 Arm DB Row
• Military Shoulder Press
• Bicep Curl
• Tricep Kickback

10 minute cardio (5 min low intensity, 5 min high intensity)

Repeat Upper Body Weight Training

 

 

Meals & Supplements:

• 3:30am –  1 Burn, 1 Tone
• 6am – 3 Balance, 2 whole eggs, 1 slice center cut bacon
• 9am – 1 scoop Vanilla Chai Delight Protein
• 11:30am – 1 Burn, 1 Tone
• 12pm – 6oz tuna, 2c mixed greens, 1/2 an avocado and some red onion
• 3pm – 1 scoop Vanilla Chai Delight Protein
• 6pm – Salmon filet topped with dijon mustard and coconut flour, 1 bunch swiss chard with 1/2c coconut milk, lemon juice and red pepper flakes
• 8pm – 2 Cleanse, Cup of Vanilla Sleepy Time Tea

I may have gone a little overboard eating an entire bunch of swiss chard, but there was no way my husband was going to eat any of it and I knew I wasn’t going to have a snack tonight.  Plus, I earned it!  You may notice that I am incorporating some things that aren’t on the official meal plan, such as coconut milk, coconut oils, avocado, etc.  I feel like for me, it’s important to have healthy fats and lots of them.  This comes from my time following a Paleo diet (which I feel like I am pretty much doing right now, and intend to bring back in full force after this is done).  Every body reacts differently to different macro-nutrient ratios. The best for me is one of high protein, high fat and low carbs.  Not excessively low carbs, because carbohydrates are still important.  But I like my carbohydrates to come from fruits and vegetables, mostly vegetables.  Anyway, if there are any questions about my nutrition or recipes, just let me know.

 

Weight: 136.8

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!

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.

Venturing Out with Food #2

I woke up this morning ready to knock out my workout and EAT!  The whole time I’m doing my Daily HIIT routine I was going through all the possible things I could make for breakfast.  What occurred to me first was the fact that I had crab left over from my lunch yesterday and I should try to incorporate that into my meal. I’m very excited to present to you what I came up with!

Carey’s Crab Cakes

Ingredients:

1/2 Pkg of Lump Crab Meat

2 Tbsp Plain Greek Yogurt

2 Tbsp Panko Style Breadcrumbs

1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Red Onion

2 Tbsp Finely Chopped Celery

1/4 Tsp Old Bay Seasoning

1/4 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 Tsp Coconut Oil or your favorite cooking oil

1 Tbsp Chopped Green Onion (optional)

1/4 Lime (optional)

Process:

1.  Heat coconut oil in a saute pan.  While oil is melting, mix all ingredients together.

2.  Create patties with the mixture (I made three small ones so they would cook a little faster –  I was super hungry!)

3.  Cook until golden brown and flip.

4.  Remove from heat and top with green onion and fresh lime juice

Nutritional Facts:  151 calories; 2g fat; 12g carbs; 19g protein

I made these crab cakes with 1 egg over easy and a side of fruit.  The cakes came out pretty spicy but the egg yolk really calmed them down.  Plus, the combo was damn delicious!  Hope you guys enjoy and I’ll have more recipes coming your way soon.

Oh and before I forget, I also started drinking Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) each day.  I make a quick drink using 1 Tsp ACV, a tiny bit of a calorie free drink mix and 8oz of water.  I’m only on day two so I haven’t really started to reap the benefits, but I’m looking forward to everything it can offer.  If you are curious about why I would do this, check out this post from Brittany at Eating Bird Food.

Working in BEAST Mode!

I’m feeling so great about myself and life this morning that I just couldn’t wait to post. I’m in BEAST MODE and I just gotta share!

Yeah, I realize that isn’t the most flattering picture but sometimes you just gotta ROAR!!!!

I’m excited about my progress this week both in the gym and in the kitchen. Monday after trying to get my phone and kindle to load the Daily HIIT routine with nothing but failure I was left with only 4 minutes to workout. Don’t fret, the time was not wasted. At the urging of my hubby I did some high knees and jumping jacks to get my heart rate up a bit. Each day since I’ve gotten up early and done the routines. They give me such a boost of energy in the morning I feel ready to conquer the long day ahead.

As well as keeping up with that 30 day challenge, I’ve mentioned starting back on with Making the Cut. I hit that hard Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was a rest day. I made it an active rest day by doing my morning routine and also squeezing in a quick 20 min on the treadmill before clients last night.
Most of my days I spend sitting at a desk. As many of you probably know, this makes you feel super inactive, well, because you are. So to break up my days a little I like to do little mini-workouts. There is a bench in my bathroom/locker-room on base so I’m using it to my full advantage. I’ll do 10 incline push-ups, 5 single leg squats per leg, and 10 in-outs each time I have to hit the head. So to recap I’m rocking the shiz outta some workouts this week!

On the nutrition front, well I’m killing that too! I’ve hit my calorie goals everyday this week. I’m getting lots of fresh fruit and veggies in. I’m eating salads and lean protein. And best of all, I’ve discovered new and exciting uses for cauliflower, HALLELUJAH!! Prepping Sunday made my life exponentially easier this week so I’ll try to do that again this weekend.

I’m hoping this motivation keeps on coming because the progress I’ve made over just these past 5 days has been amazing. I want to keep seeing results and reap the benefits of all my hard work! More updates to come and hopefully some positive progress photos. 🙂

OMC! (That’s right C!)

I just have to say, I ❤ cauliflower! Who knew it was so versatile? I was searching around last night trying to locate a low carb shrimp recipe for dinner last night. I found this little gem – Low Carb Guilt Free Shrimp Dirty Rice.

I may not have made it exactly as I was supposed to because my totals were a little different, but it was bangin’! That is actually a pic of my dinner last night, not just one I snagged online. Even the hubs liked it. He put his first portion on a whole wheat tortilla and really liked that. His second helping was just straight but with no cilantro topping like mine.

I’d like to try it again using turkey sausage in place of chorizo and maybe add more cauliflower.

Oh yeah, that brings me back to cauliflower. Well you may notice the recipe calls for “ricing” your cauliflower and provides a link for instructions on how to do this. I was a little skeptical since I have your basic chinsy blender but it worked perfectly. Not sure why I didn’t take a pic of that. Oops! Anyway, I was so damned amazed at this technique, plus the fact that I can have “rice” at dinner that I had to keep experimenting. I looked on The Big Red Kitchen for more and found a recipe for cilantro lime cauliflower “rice”. Well of course I had to try that shiz, I love cilantro lime rice. The recipe was easy enough and I had plenty of cauliflower leftover from last night. Again, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, only because I wanted to make a single portion just for lunch today. I reduced my cauliflower but didn’t bother with the other ingredients. Bonehead move! Tons of cilantro – I’m TOTALLY cool with that because I love cilantro. The lime however, well I still used half a lime and it is quite overpowering. Still good though. Can’t wait for lunch today!

Does anyone have experience with “riced” cauliflower or recipes to share? I’m hooked and dying to try more!!!

Workout ADD: A Self Revelation

Yes, I’m still alive and still blogging but it’s been an insane couple of weeks! I have barely been able to get my hair washed daily so hopping on a computer has just not been an option.

Here’s a little update on what’s been going on.  December 27th thru Jan 6th the hubs and I went so So Cal to spend time with his daughter. We hit outlets, Sea World, Dave and Busters, Mulligan’s, and so much more. It was a blast! 

Upon returning home, I found that I had gained 7 new clients at the gym and 7 new pounds on my body. GAH! It’s ok to splurge a little on vacation however we got crazy!

Coming back with those extra pounds and extra clients however made me realize how far off track I have gotten. How can I tell my clients to eat clean and workout consistently when I am doing the opposite and steadily packing on pounds? (16 lbs to be exact from the time I started personal training until now.) How about practice what you preach?  Ever heard that, Carey? Yup, sure have! Now it’s time to take it to heart!

We all know this can be difficult to do.  Everyone has busy schedules and things come up.  Right now, I’m working 8 hour days with the Coast Guard and then going straight to the gym for another 5 hours or so.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, just explaining. I’m trying to make it work. I’m having good healthy breakfasts.

I spent all evening prepping food Sunday night.  I separated fruit salad and greek yogurt into 1 cup portions, made three salads, four pieces of chicken, Jamie Eason’s Turkey Meatloaf Muffins, and tons of rice.  The only thing I didn’t cook in advance was breakfasts and veggies because I don’t like when cooked veggies sit for days plus they are so easy to steam while I’m having breakfast.

I’m also working out again, which I just loooove! And here is where my title comes in. I had a conversation with a friend recently where I explained my new workout plan. She says to me, “You change your plan a lot, huh?” I thought and it and responded, “Yeah, I have workout ADD. I get bored easily.” I just can’t seem to stick to one plan too long. Does anyone else have this problem? I like different workouts and different plans and different meals. Don’t tell me to lift 5 days a week, run long distances and eat chicken, brown rice and broccoli because I’m gonna tell you where to shove it! I want circuit training with different moves and routines. I want all kinds of new recipes incorporating foods I’ve never tried before (more about that in future posts!). And I want new ideas I can take and apply to my clients.

So, on that note, here’s what I’m trying to do now. BodyRock, now The Daily HIIT, has a 30 day challenge going. These workouts are posted daily and each one is different from the day before. Best part, they’re only 12 minutes. 12 MINUTES! If you don’t have 12 minutes a day to dedicate to your health and well-being then you have bigger fish to fry my friend. But anyway, I’m trying to do these in the mornings. If I wake up only 30 min earlier than normal, I can get in a great workout before work everyday. I’m one day behind because I couldn’t get anything to work yesterday morning, that’s no big deal.  This morning I did Monday’s workout, tomorrow I’ll do Tuesdays workout and so on.  As long as I stay on track for the 30 days, I think I’ll be ok.  I’d like to try to link the videos in here each day, but that is time permitting. In the evenings I’ve gone back to my tried and true Jillian Michael’s ‘Making the Cut’ book. The first time I ran through this program following it perfectly, I dropped 14 lbs in 30 days and felt better than I can ever remember.  This time around, I will follow the workout plan exactly, but I’m going to change up the meals.  I am sticking to the percentages for Fast Oxidizers (50% protein, 30% fat, 20% carbs) but trying to create the meal plan myself.  This will help me develop my own healthy eating habits without having to depend on someone elses meal plan.  Hopefully I’ll be able to post some progress photos soon. Something I realized in California is that it is ok to be a chubby trainer here in the Soo, but that shiz ain’t gonna fly down there. Gotta get it together! Anyone else wanna join in this 30 day challenge?

Heart Rate Monitors

Ok, lets talk Heart Rate Monitors.

This is fairly new to me.  I’ve heard of them before, but haven’t had much experience.  When my dad purchased his elliptical it came with two chest straps for monitoring heart rate and accurate calorie counting.  This is the only time I have personally used them.

Heart rate monitors however, are becoming something that I am seeing and hearing about more and more.  After I taught a group class at my gym, one of the women came up and showed me that she had burned 340-something calories during our 30 min session.  AWESOME!  A friend of mine posted a pic of her HR Monitor on Facebook and I was super impressed with her results – 1074 calories burned in a 1 hour 40 min gym session.  SUPER AWESOME!!  Then my bestie tells me yesterday that her mom got her a monitor for her Christmas present.  So of course, now I am intrigued.  I must find out what all the hype is about. 

I have done a little research and found the one I want.  It’s a Polar (because I read that is one of the best rated brands out there) FT40.  Looks a little something like this:

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

It has a few features that I liked such as:

• The ability to show if your workout is “fitness improvement or fat burning”
• An accurate calorie count based on several different factors
• A chest strap that is specially designed to not have any “cross-talk” when working out at a gym
• The chest strap should work with most Polar cardio machines which is what my gym uses

It is available at Polar USA for $179.95 which is a little pricey, especially considering I don’t know if I’ll even like it.  Of course I had to check ol’ faithful – Amazon – to see if it is available there, which it is for $104.85.  I’m asking the hubs for it as a Christmas present.  Hope to find it under the tree!

Do any of you use HR monitors?  If so, what kind?  What is your favorite feature?  How useful do you find it for your specific goals? Does anyone have experience with Polar HR Monitors or this one in particular?  I’m extra curious so hit me up with your opinion!