Christmas Woes

I thought I should check in. I'm still here, have no fear! Just spending time with my sister while she's still here (she's on Christmas break from school in Seattle and will be going back in a few weeks). On Boxing Day (the 26th), we're going to HAWAII! So excited to see the sun again and the ocean.

Are you all ready for Christmas? Presents bought? We're all done at our household. Usually I'm the one buying presents on Christmas Eve, but not this year! I don't even know what to do with myself.

With Christmas looming I can't stop thinking (worrying) about the food that comes along with it. I've already been to two Christmas parties, and I have to admit, they were both major cheat meals. Do you guys worry about the same things? I know in the long run meals like these won't make much difference, but I'm going to Hawaii in less than a week! BIKINIS!

Any ways, I really hope you all have an amazing Christmas!

Recording Workouts

Hey gang,

I thought I'd take a moment to ask you about how you record your workouts, or if you even do!

Mine looks something like this:

I like to keep a record of exercises I've done, how many sets, and many reps. This is an easy way for me to keep track of my progress.

This was a different workout for me. I usually don't do chest, shoulders, and biceps on the same day. I missed my bicep workout last week, so I added it this one.

As you can see I use a chart. I find this is the easiest format to read.

• Column 1: exercises
• Column 2: set 1
• Column 3: set 2
• Column 4: set 3
• Column 5: set 4

The numbers in the columns are the weight and the reps (ex. 30 lb/15 reps). When you see the ", that means that I did the same amount of weight or reps as the last box. 

Do you guys use something similar?

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

On another note, I'm picking my sister up from the airport today! I'm so excited, I hardly slept at all last night. She's been in Seattle since the end of August. I miss her so much. We're planning to finish up our Christmas shopping together, and then meet the rest of the family for dinner at my parents house.

Best Cardio Workout!

I know I said I was cutting cardio out, but I don't know if I can give up this one workout. I'll probably change my mind again, but I just felt like I needed to do cardio tonight. I really wanted to get my blood pumping! It was an intense 40 minutes.

A few years ago, when my husband and I were dating, we used to do Crossfit for date nights. He was in the military back then, so we'd truck on over to the base and get an intense, supercharged workout in. This workout brought me back to those days!

It's called The Card Game. There all types of card games used for exercise. This one is super simple.


What you'll need:

• A deck of cards (jokers in)
• Good pair of running shoes
• A mat
• And a bottle of water (trust me, you'll need it!)

There are 9 exercises (feel free to pick any plyometric exercises):

• Mountain Climbers (double the reps)
• Bicycle (double the reps)
• Push Ups
• Swill Ball crunches
• Burpies
• Reverse Crunches
• Dips
• Spidermans (double the reps)
• Jumping Jacks (double the reps)

The rules:

1. For each exercise flip over three cards. 
2. Add the numbers up on the cards (Some cards don't have numbers. Kings, Queens, and Jacks are all 10 reps. Aces and Jokers are 11 reps.) The total is the number of reps you will do for each exercise. 
3. Keep going until there are no more cards to be flipped. 

I did three rounds, a deck and a half of cards. I think I might make plyometrics part of my weekly workout plan.

 

If you try it out, let me know. If you have tried a game like this before, what exercises do you like to throw in?

A Day of My Eats

I thought I'd do a little bit more of a regular post. I took pictures of everything I ate today - just to give you all an idea of what my new eating plan looks like.

As an overview, I like my macros to be around 45 protein, 30 carbs, 25 fat.

My breakfast was my favorite bowl of oatbran right now and a coffee with almond milk.

• 30 grams oatbran
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 35 grams pumpkin
• 1 tsp splenda
• lots of cinnamon 
• 1 tablespoon almond butter 

I worked out after breakfast. My post work out snack was:

I love these protein shakes. They taste like a really good chocolate milk, with 30 grams of protein no less! 

Lunch was less than stellar, but I eat it for the nutritional stats:

• 1 can of tuna
• 1 tablespoon miracle whip
• 3 pickles, chopped
• lots of pepper
• 2 cups spinach

After lunch I got to work on some homework, finishing up the semester and all. A few hours into work, my stomach started grumbling - time for my next snack.

This is 1/4 of Jamie Eason's recipe for Carrot Cake Protein Bars. I love to eat them warm. They'd be great with a dollop of greek yogurt on top too.

A few more hours of work, and it was time for dinner. 

(This is obviously where I lost all the light! Sorry, the pics go down hill from here)

These are turkey muffins, very similar to meatloaf. Tonight I ate them with a little mustard. I also like to have them with steamed spinach and spaghetti sauce. 

For dessert I tried making a protein cake recipe. It did not turn out. I ate about half and finally stopped. So to get my calories up, I ate two of my Pumpkin Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies. I'd say it's a good way to eat calories ;)

This is what the stats looked like today:

Calories 1668, fat 55.3, carbs, 119.5, protein 189.4 

I ate more fat that I would have liked, but there are worse things in the world. Hope this paints a clearer view of what I mean when I talk about my macros. 

Have a great night everyone!

Sloppy Joes Recipe

Hello everyone,
Hope the last few days have been good for you. I've been busy wrapping up the end of my semester and getting ready for Christmas. Needless to say, it's been a busy few weeks. 


I have a new recipe to share!


Sloppy Joes with or without the Bun
Nutritional stats: 257, 14.8 fat, 14.4 carbs, 15.9 protein 

(adapted from this recipe) 

1 pound extra lean ground beef

1 onion (chopped)

2 carrots (chopped)

2 celery stalks (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (chopped)

1/4 cup ketchup

2 cups tomato sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard

1 tablespoons hot sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder 

1 teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown the ground beef in a large pan and set aside.
2. Add the spices. Cook them with the beef for about a minute. 
3. Add the onion, carrot and celery and saute until tender, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
5. Add the ketchup, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, mustard, and hot sauce and simmer for a few minutes.

Serve with sweet potatoes, any bread you prefer, or just straight up! 

Number of Servings: 6

I made this tonight for dinner. I was craving ground beef, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. Even though this meal is much higher in fat and in carbs than I would like for dinner,  it covered all of those bases! It has a great balance between sour and spicy flavors. I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I did. 

Speaking of carbs... now I know why I don't eat them for dinner any more! I felt completely exhausted right after we were finished eating. Good thing I hardly ever have carbs past 3 p.m. any more. 

Have a great night everyone. 

Leg Circuit

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd share a little about this "new workout plan" I've mentioned.

After lots of research, and talking with people like April, I've decided to switch my workouts from a lower weight, higher rep and cardio based to lifting heavy and doing minimal cardio.

About a month ago I finished P90X. I did really enjoy P90X. Tony Horton's videos are entertaining, and even more challenging. Although P90X is incredible to work your butt into shape and build endurance, I'm ready to start working towards my specific goals.

So after doing much research I've come to the conclusion that lifting heavy is the best course of action to build lean muscle mass to create the "toned" look so many of us are after.

This is the leg circuit workout I've been doing for about 3 weeks now:

• Reverse lunge with back foot on a bench - 25 reps on each leg, one leg at a time
• Calf raises - 15 slow reps, 10 fast reps
• Sumo squats with a swiss ball behind my back, against a wall (I couldn't find a video to show the use of a swiss ball. The swiss ball keeps my back straight.) - 25 reps 
• Walking lunges - 25 reps
• Wall sit - 45 seconds

Repeat 3 times. 

Try not to rest in-between exercises until you have completed a whole round. Then allow yourself 2 minutes of rest and go again. 

My leg workout is going to have to change now. Time to start lowering those reps and upping the weight! 

Thanks for reading. 

Pumpkin Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies

Something to cut the cravings!

Last night I made these cookies. They were by far the best "healthy cookie" I've made. 


Pumpkin Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies
Nutritional stats per cookie: 128 calories, 7.7 fat, 11 carbs, 7.3 protein

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup oat flour (simply blend rolled oats in a food processor until they are a flour-like consistency) 

1 cup canned pumpkin 

1 scoop protein powder 

2/3 cup natural peanut butter 

1 cup liquid egg whites 

1/4 cup splenda 

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 cup dark chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix all ingredients (the batter will seem too runny, but it's not). 
3. Spray two cookie sheets with Pam and scoop about a tablespoon and half unto the sheets until you've made 15 cookies. 
4. Bake for 10 minutes.

Makes 15 cookies

Not bad eh? Give them a try. They were awesome!  

Back AGAIN

Hey gang,

It's been a long time! I missed having an outlet to share new ideas, and a way to record past ones.

Let me update you on what you can expect to get from the blog this time around.

• Less meal-to-meal updates - meaning I won't be posting every single meal I eat. It's just too time consuming. 
• Less posting - since I won't be posting every meal, I won't need to post 3 times a day. I'm going to aim for at least one post every 3 days.
• More recipes - lately I've been focusing on high protein, low carb options. 
• More workouts - I've just changed up my workout plan. Continue reading for more info!

My goals have a changed slightly since I last posted. I'm working towards lower body fat and eventually putting on muscle. I know realize this is the only way I'll achieve a "toned" look. 

New Goals:

1. Get down to 15% body fat. Right now I'm at about 19%.
2. Once I've reached goal 1, start putting on lean muscle.
3. Eat clean daily with 1-2 cheat meals monthly. 

These goals have proven to be challenging. Probably the most so is the last one. My craving have been off the charts lately! Usually it's for ice cream or cookies, but for the past few days I've been dying for salty chips. So strange. I'm assuming it's my body's response to my sudden shift to low carb meals. 

Anyways. I think that's enough for one post. 

I'll be posting again soon,

Shayna