Two Last Things to Go

Hey gang,

Today has been another productive day!

As soon as I got out of bed, I got to work on my breaky.

Pumpkin Oatbran

In the pot:

• 40 grams oatbran
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup UVAB
• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 egg whites
• cinnamon
• nutmeg 
• cloves 

Toppings:

• 70 grams strawberries
• 1 T natural PB
• stevia
• cinnamon

After I ate this, I loaded up my books and drove to school to work on a project that's due tomorrow. My project took me way less time to finish than I thought it would. So at around 1:00 p.m. I left the library to get some lunch. I wasn't even hungry when I ate my lunch, but knew it had been 5 and a half hours since breakfast. 

I decided on Pita Pit, since it's so close to our home. This is their chicken breast pita with lots of veggies and honey mustard dressing. 

I was going to go to the gym soon after I ate my pita, but I fell asleep on the couch! Craziness. When I woke up I had to push myself off the couch and into my workout gear. I had a pretty good workout too! I love it when those are unexpected. 

I did 30 minutes on the stepper, 15 on the treadmill, and then I did some abs and stretched. 

Here are the stats:

Time - 58:35 minutes

Calorie burned - 555

Max heart rate - 187

Average heart rate - 162  

I came home and snacked on this. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 100 grams of blueberry yogurt 

Dinner came quick. 

The same tomato shrimp dish I made a few weeks ago. 

I love the spinach in it. 

I know I'm gonna need something else tonight - I'm only at 1048 calories today... hmmm.....

Can't Wait

Hello - thanks for stopping by :)

I can't wait for this week to be over. Then I'm free for the summer! Whoot!

Before church this morning, I ate this beauty for breakfast.

• 30 grams oats
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 banana
• 1 T UVAB
• 1 T natural PB

It's been awhile since I've had a breakfast cookie with banana in it. It was SO sweet! I almost went back to the fridge to put some plain yogurt on it to mellow it out, but I wanted to keep my breakfast calorie-light because I knew we were going out for lunch after church. 

I didn't bring my camera with me to the restaurant, I was just going to use my iphone to take a few pictures, unfortunately my iphone was dead. So I'm sorry to say, I have no pictures of my lunch. I had a poached egg sandwich with tomato and herb mayo with hashbrowns. It was face rockin. 

When we came home I got to work on a final project and snacked on this. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 100 grams strawberry yogurt
• 4 small strawberries 

I kept working on my project, and then it was time to go to church for the evening service. 

I was starving by the time we got back to house, so I whipped up this salad. 

• 1 Italian chicken sausage 
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1/2 tomato
• 2 cups romaine 
• 1 cup mixed salad greens
• balsamic dressing 

It hit the spot. D's out riding his Harley around town with some of his friends. Time for me to get back to my books. 

Have a great night everyone! :) 

Pumpkin Crazy

Hey gang,

Today has been one of those quietly busy days. D and I got so much done, but it felt so relaxing at the same time!

My breakfast didn't stay with me very long. About 3 hours after I ate my breakfast cookie, I chowed down into a small bowl of cottage cheese, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

I poured a little sugar free maple syrup over the top.

Then lunch came about an hour later.

Leftover potatoes (102 grams) with ketchup (1 T)

and the same lunch I ate yesterday.

It was pretty darn tasty. Right after this, D and I got going on our errands. We went to Sears to get a fan for our bedroom. Then we dropped D's car off to get new tires put on. And after that, we hit the gym. I did a biceps and back workout.

• 21's - 30 pounds, 3 sets
• bent over row - 40 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• hammer curls - 12 pound dumbbells, 3 sets of 20
• lat pull downs - 70 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• back extensions - 3 sets of 25
• seated close grip row - 50 pounds, 3 sets of 12

My stats looked something like this:

Time - 40 minutes

Calories burned - 169

Max heart rate - 142

Average heart rate - 110

Usually I would be disappointed with the lack of calories I burned, but I didn't want to push too hard with my hips in the state they're in.  

As soon as we came home, I devoured this bowl of food. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese 
• 2/3 cup plain yogurt 
• 2 T pumpkin puree 
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder 
• cinnamon 
• nutmeg 

Can you tell I love pumpkin?

Dinner was alright tonight - not amazing. 

Chicken Caesar Salad

• 4 cups romaine 
• 5.5 ounces chicken breast 
• 7 grams croutons 
• 1 1/2 T caesar salad dressing 
• lots of lemon juice

I usually don't even like caesar salad, but I've been craving summer foods lately (e.i. burgers last night). 

I'm still hungry... what shall I eat, what shall I eat? I'm not sure yet. 

Have a great night everyone :) 

I Almost Forgot!

Hi friends,

How was your day? Mine was amazing. I worked out!!

So let's talk about that first, my workout.

I ran to the gym, which is barely under 2 miles. It took me about 17 minutes (it was pretty windy this morning, so I'm happy about my time).

When I got in the gym I did an arm workout:

• push ups - 3 sets of 12
• shoulder presses - 30 pounds, 3 sets of 12 
• bench dips - 3 sets of 12
• chest flies on a stability ball - 24 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• chest press - 30 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• front raise - 20 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• lateral raise - 20 pounds, 3 sets of 12
• crunches - 3 sets of 15

Then I hit the sidewalk, and ran the other 2 miles home. 

My workout was an 1 hour and 30 minutes. I burned 801 calories. My heart rate peaked at 188 bpm, my average heart rate was 158 bpm. 

I came home and wasn't really hungry, but I knew I hadn't eaten for about 5 hours, so I ate lunch. 

• Italian chicken sausage 
• 3 cups cabbage 
• 1/2 cup brussel sprouts 
• 1/2 T worcestershire sauce 
• hot sauce

THIS hot sauce.

 

My favorite hot sauce. 

After I gobbled up my lunch, I went and got cleaned up. My stomach started growling while I was in the shower. 

Hence lunch part 2. 

• 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 100 grams of strawberry yogurt 

I almost forgot to take a photo of my dinner for you guys. Luckily I stopped part way through!

I made D and I burgers (mine's buried under that white sauce, which was a spicy mayo), roasted potatoes, and a mixed green salad.

It was pretty amazing. I've been craving red meat, and I have no idea why! It was delicious.    

Right now I'm not sure what dessert will be, but I hope it's as good as all my other meals. 

Have a great night everyone :)

Blogger Fail :(

Hello bloggers!

It's a beautifully sunny morning where I am. This makes me so happy because I'm going on a run outside today!! Yes, that's right. I can workout again! Yesterday was the last day of my no-working-out for a week plan. I feel great. I did some stretches before bed last night to make sure I'm all loose and ready for a hard workout.

I have to say, I'm sorry for not posting yesterday. I was planning to do one big post last night, but I COMPLETELY forgot to take pictures of my dinner party last night :( I realized it after all our plates were cleaned off, and the food was gone. I'm sorry - blogger fail.

I do have photos from all my other meals though.

For breakfast I had another breakfast cookie (courtesy of the Fitnessista).

(chocolate pumpkin breakfast cookie with plain yogurt and strawberries - stay tuned for the recipe)

Lunch was cottage cheese mixed with yogurt and a few blueberries, veggies, light laughing cow cheese (I'm addicted to these), and an oatmeal to go bar.

I packed it all up to take to class with me.

When I got home, I snacked on this tasty treat. Half and banana with half a tablespoon of peanut butter.

I haven't been eating bananas much lately. I'm watching how much sugar I'm eating, so I usually only eat fruit once a day, if I eat it at all.

Dinner was just what I told you guys it would be. Lemon chicken, yam fries, and a green salad with goat feta, cranberries, and pine nuts. It was so good! I just wish the lemon would have absorbed more into the chicken (I used this recipe, but I changed up the chicken things for chicken breast, and only cooked it for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees).

This morning I made the same thing as yesterday.

Pumpkin Chocolate Breast Cookie 

• 40 grams of oats
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 2 T pumpkin puree (any more and the cookie is still soft the next morning)
• 1 T UVAB
• 1 T natural peanut butter

Throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Once it's all combined, spread it evenly on a plate, and place it in the fridge over night.

The next morning I like to put plain yogurt and strawberries on top.

Please don't be scared of the combination of chocolate and pumpkin. It works, trust me!

Ok... enough blogging. I'm itching to get active and workout! See you all soon :)

Thankful

Hey gang,

You cannot even believe how happy it makes me to be blogging again. I really missed taking pictures of my food and documenting my day. Is that weird? Probably...

I ate lunch at 10:00 a.m! I know... ridiculously early. I was starving, and couldn't wait the extra hour (11:00 a.m. is usually when I eat my lunch).

Tuna wrap! 

• 1 can of water packed tuna
• capers 
• light mayo
• dill
• pepper 
• 1 whole wheat tortilla 
• 2 cups spinach

It really hit the spot! It wasn't till after I was finished stuffing my face that I realized I forgot the pickles! I love pickles in my tuna salad. 

Well, I think my final went pretty good this afternoon. Right before I started writing it, I ate an oatmeal to go bar. I didn't take a picture, but I'm sure you all know what those look like any ways.

I came home and chowed down this snack.

• 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
• 148 grams of strawberries 

Simple and scrumptious.

I spent my afternoon searching out recipes for tomorrow night. D and I are having my parents over for dinner. I'm thinking lemon chicken and yam fries with dill sauce. Mmmmmmm.... 

Dinner time came quickly. 

Tons of veggies and 5.7 ounces of tilapia.

Lemon Tilapia

• 1 tilapia fillet 
• 2 lemon slices
• dill 
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp coconut oil

Pile all of the ingredients on the fillet of fish and wrap it in foil. Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve along side your favorite green veggies (mine are broccoli, asparagus, and brussels). 

It was a good dinner, but I'm still hungry. Hmmm.... what shall I eat? Yogurt maybe... 

I'll talk to you all tomorrow! Yay! Have a great night everyone. 

A Great Day

Morning!

I hope everyone's yesterdays were fantastic. Mine sure was! J and I went to our big mall in town and shopped till our hearts content. We both walked away with some fantastic purchases. Before the mall, we went to the gym. It was an awesome workout. I wish J lived here! She pushes me so hard. We did 30 minutes of cardio, and just under an hour of an arm and ab workout. Faaaantastic.

When we got back from the workout we ate this AMAZING lunch.

This was my plate.

I made the smoothie that's in that bowl.

• 1 cup berries
• 1 cup water
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1 T cocoa powder

(serves 2)

It was so good! I've been making all my smoothies in the food processor lately; it makes them so frothy! I might never go back to a blender. 

J made the salad. 

• lots of spinach
• red bell pepper
• mushroom
• tomato
• cucumber 
• leftover turkey sausages from last night
• balsamic dressing

It was just as good as the smoothie! Such a great lunch. 

We hit up the mall till around 6 pm. We were starving by the time we left! We went and picked up take out for dinner. 

J and I got the same thing - chicken teriyaki with sauce on the side, no rice, and extra veg. We picked D up a beef and chicken dish (similar looking to this one), and california rolls. 

Now, to this morning. 

(sorry the pick is so dark)

Pumpkin Oat Bran with "Baked" Apples

Pumpkin Oat Bran

• 30 grams oat bran (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup pumpkin
• 2 egg whites
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• cloves

Baked Apples 

• 92 grams (half an) apple
• cinnamon

Place the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for about 40 seconds. 

It was so yummy. It fixed my grumbling tummy problems. 

I have two classes today. One is Intro to Lit, the other is Intro to Rhetoric. I love rhetoric! 

I'll chat with you all soon :)

A New Recipe for Pizza Crust

Morning gang,

We've been bussssy over here.

Let me quickly recap the eats from yesterday.

This was J and mine's lunch.

Check out how big it is! I named them veggie mountains instead of pizzas!

I made their crusts using this recipe. J cut up all those veggies, and we topped the pizzas with nutritional yeast and goat cheese.

I ate all the veg and cheese, but could only get through half of the crust. It was filling! 


The crust was more like a pancake. I don't know if I'll be repeating it, even though it is low carb.

Dinner was just as filling last night.

• 1/4 head of cabbage steamed with water, and sprinkled furiously with pepper
• red bell pepper
• onions
• tons of garlic
• chicken sausages 
• pickled veggie salad (I picked this up at the deli department in my grocery store)

This dinner had tons of spice. I'm so happy to have company over who loves spicy food as much (if not more) than I do. 

Last night I taught J how to make breakfast cookies. She's not out of bed yet, but I can't wait to see if she likes it! 

How could you not like this? I mean really... I'll let you know how it goes. 

Have a great morning folks! I'll try to get my updates coming in sooner.  

I Need a Rest

Evening to all,

Today has been quietly productive. By that I mean, I've checked off about half of the things that were on my to do list. I still have that horrible paper to finish.

One of the things I checked off my list, was my workout. About an hour after my breaky I headed to the gym for light cardio, abs and lower back.

My cardio was 20 minutes of the stairstepper. It got my legs burnin!

Then I hit the mat for abs and lower back.

• long arm crunches 
• reverse crunches
• supermans
• crunches on stability ball
• knee tucks 
• russian twists 

2 sets of 20 

Not bad... but I didn't get through all of the exercises I wanted to, and I wanted to do 3 sets of 20. I think my day off is really needed. I need to get back some energy!

Food

Post workout was the usual. 

• 1 cup UVAB (unsweetened vanilla almond breeze) 
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 4 ice cubes

See that red make on my wrist. That's a burn. I ALWAYS burn myself when I make quesadillas. I have a few other burns on my right arm. I might start wearing oven mitts for all cooking techniques! 

In a few hours it was time for lunch. 

Ingredients sauteed together:

• 4 oz chicken breast
• 3 brussels sprouts
• 3 oz mushrooms
• 1/3 cup brown rice 

Vinaigrette to pour over everything:

• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/2 T olive oil
• 1/2 T white wine vinegar 
• stevia
• pepper 

Nestle everything over 2 cups of spinach and enjoy!

So yummy, and so good for me. 

I decided to try a new recipe as a snack. 

This is April's recipe. It was so good! Moist and rich. Mmmmmmmmmm...

Here's dinner. 

I can't believe it was just a few days ago that I wasn't eating meat! I love not having that restriction over my head. 

This was a canned tuna dish. 

• Chop of 1/4 green bell pepper and 1 clove of garlic. Saute them in 1 tsp of olive oil. 
• In a medium size bowl add 1 drained can of tuna (packed in water), 1/2 T mustard, 1 tsp capers, 1/4 lemon's worth of juice, and pepper. Mix these ingredients well. 
• Add the cooked bell pepper and garlic into the tuna. 
• Add the whole mixture back to the pan. Cook till it's all heated through. 

I served asparagus on the side. In my opinion this was the perfect side dish. It was still crunchy, which added a needed textural element to this dish. 

Now, I really need to get this paper down. Tired of hearing that yet? I'm tired of saying it... 

A Better Day

I'm so close to perfect with my macros today! Whoot Whoot.

After I gave my breakfast a few minutes to settle in my tummy, I hit my yoga mat for about 40 minutes of yoga. I did a yogadownload.com sesh... no surprise. Thanks to the Fitnessista, I got 35% off my purchases. Can't beat that :)

It was killer today. My body has felt super tired these last few days, and this workout didn't help make it feel any more perky. I did the Yoga for Runners download. It's their daily deal - quick go buy it! It's awesome.

Here are the daily goods.

Salmon Salad

• 4.4 oz salmon (leftovers from last night)
• 2 hard boiled egg whites
• 1 T light mayo
• 1/2 tsp mustard
• 1/2 celery 
• 1/4 cup cooked brown rice
• dill 
• pepper

So yummy... especially since I cooked the salmon with lemon the night before. :) 

This was my before class lunch. After class I ate this grapefruit as a little pre workout snack.

Then I hit the gym for some triceps and shoulders. It was killer. I was so tired afterwards. I really wanted to do at least 30 minutes of cardio, but I just didn't have it in me. 

Workout:

• Pushups 
• Overhead Press 4 sets of 10
• Upright Row 4 sets of 10
• Bent Over Lateral Raise 3 sets of 12
• Skull Crushers 3 sets of 12
• Bench Dips 15 slow reps

Now that I'm writing it out, this seems so short. Maybe I need to take  rest day tomorrow to get back my energy.

Post workout smoothie:

D's beer cups are perfect for the size of my smoothies. I'd take a smoothie over a beer any day!

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1/2 frozen banana 
• 4 ice cubes

Perfect and filling! 

Not long after this it was time to think about dinner. I made D this turkey ragu. 

Wow... sorry about the lighting here.

This was my dinner. 

The only thing new here is the added chicken breast. 

• 4 oz chicken breast
• 1 cup broccoli 
• 2 cups cabbage 
• worcestershire sauce 
• tons of black cracked pepper
• hot sauce

So good. My lips were on fire by the time I was finished - gotta love that hot sauce. 

So by the end of the day my macros looked like this - 46% protein, 28% carbs, and 26% fat. I'm getting better! 

Time to start writing for my school work - bla, bla, bla. I just wanna be done! 

Fish for Dinner

How's everyone's day been thus far? Mines been good.

I have a few more things I've been thinking about today. My brain just doesn't stop ;)


More Changes

So you all know how much I adore seafood. I've been missing it oh-so-much. The new macro combination has been crazy hard to do (as I suspected it would be), with my experimental vegetarian diet. I think you can tell where I'm headed with this...

I wanted to try out vegetarianism to see if my body would feel any better, not that I was feeling poorly to begin with. Perhaps this is why I haven't seen the results I thought I was going to. People say that it affects their skin, they feel less lethargic, and lighter when they don't partake meat. To be honest, I didn't see these results. It was easy for me to give up meat, especially red meat, since I'm not a fan to begin with. As of late, I've really been missing the fish and the chicken breast. So I've decided to start adding lean protein (from meat) back into my diet. I think this will help balance out my new macro requirements.

If you can't tell, I'm all about experimenting with what works best for me, and I'll keep experimenting until I find the perfect balance!

Now! Let's get to the good stuff - the food.

My pre workout snack was new for me.

• 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1/3 cup Kashi puff cereal 

For my workout:

Eliptical:

1-10 minutes at level 6

11-20 minutes at level 8

21-30 minutes at level 10

Stairmaster:

30 minutes at level 4 

My legs were burning by the end of my workout. It was great! 

My post workout snack was a smoothie. 

• 1 cup spinach 
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder 

It was SO good. I loved the change of protein flavor. Chocolate is so much better than vanilla. I made the smoothie in our food processor, since both our blenders are broke. :( 

An afternoon snack

A hard boiled egg. Love these, I forgot how much till this afternoon. 

Can you tell I'm trying to keep my protein levels up? 

Dinner looked something like this. 

Tons of greens and SALMON! Oh how I've missed thee fish.

5.5 ounces of salmon:

• wrapped in foil with coconut butter, lemon, and pepper
• baked (for far too long, it was over cooked) at 375 degrees

Broccoli and asparagus - steamed 

Green salad with about 2 cups of mixed greens, 1/2 cucumber, and balsamic vinaigrette. 

It filled me up to the brim. So much good filling food. 

So what do you guys think of my diet changes? I welcome all of your thoughts!