Easter Feaster

Weight this morning:  131.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout:  none.

Sometimes my husband and I get together and we’re bad.  Real bad.  Meaning, we throw all caution to the wind and just eat our hearts out.  Today was one of those days.  We were major “Easter Feasters”.  Here’s a recap:

 

A delicious vegan brunch (my plate + my husband’s).  Mine was scrambled tofu, beans, salsa, corn tortillas, brown rice.  Yum!

 

I had ONE of these vegan “everything” cookies.

 

We had an early dinner at an Asian joint.  I had a 1/2 order of brown vegetable fried rice and half of a mushroom veggie sushi roll.  

 

We had a late night food craving, so we stopped at Steak and Shake, and I ate the above dessert.  By myself.  I pushed the whipped cream and cherry and fudge to the side, but I definitely ate BOTH cookies and the ice cream.  It gets better…

 

…then we went to Walmart and THEN we went to Applebee’s for some late late night eats.  I had about 1/2 a basket of fries.

And then I called it quits.  So, we didn’t exactly have a big family feast today, but we still managed to stuff ourselves silly.

Food i 8 today:

• brunch –> 2 corn tortillas, scrambled tofu, brown rice, beans, and salsa
• vegan cookie
• 1/2 order of vegetable fried rice (with brown rice)
• 1/2 a mushroom veggie sushi roll
• some popcorn at the movies
• a cookie and ice cream dessert
• french fries

canoeing and a movie

Weight this morning:  131.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout:  does canoeing count?

Happy weekend!!!  Today I slept in and it felt oh-so-good.  It’s starting to get warm around here, so the hubs and I decided to head to a nearby lake for a little canoe action.  I whipped up a protein shake and drank it on the way to the lake to hold me over until lunch.

After a lovely 2-hour canoe ride, we headed to a local burger joint for lunch.  I went with a bunless garden burger with pineapple, mushrooms, and pesto and a side of delicious sweet potato fries.

I ate about 2/3 of the burger and maybe 3/4 of the fries.  Then it was time for soaking in more sunshine poolside at our apartment complex.  Afterward, I had a bowl of Fiber One chocolate cereal.

I had this little treat since we were headed to a 7:30pm movie, but we had a late lunch, so I wasn’t quite ready for dinner yet.  Instead, I had the above cereal and snuck in a couple of my berry cups into the movies.

Yum!  Then I had ONE more after I got home from the movie, and that’s it for the day!  (oh, and we went to see Django Unchained at the cheap theater…it was awesome!!)

Food i 8 today:

• protein shake –> 1/2 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 TBSP sunbutter, 1 scoop Sun Warrior chocolate protein powder, 1/2 banana
• veggie burger + sweet potato fries
• Fiber One chocolate cereal
• 3 berry oatmeal cups

Good Friday fish fry

Weight this morning:  130.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout:  Body Attack

Although I’m not exactly religious myself, I do have a few fairly devout Catholic friends here in town.  And they’re from Louisiana.  So what do they do on Good Friday?  A fish fry!  They invited a group of us over to join in on the fun of fried fish, pickles, jalapenos, fries, hushpuppies, dessert, etc.  All the things that good diets are made of.  😉

So, I was left with a conundrum.  I had six days of good, I mean really good, nutritious eats.  I stuck to my plan.  The scale didn’t move much, but I put in a good faith effort.  And how often will I get an opportunity to have a Good Friday fish fry with these Louisiana folks?  OK, so they didn’t really have to twist my arm–I’m in!

I did a big no-no in the diet world and ate basically nothing all day prior to the event.  I did want some energy for my morning workout, so I grabbed an oatmeal cup early this morning.

I baked a dessert for my co-workers today and then a second dessert for the fish fry tonight, so I definitely helped myself to some tastes and spoon/bowl-licking, which held me over until dinner.  (Note–the desserts were both totally indulgent and NOT healthy, so no need to get into that detail here!)  I also brought a summer salad to the dinner and started with that to fill me up some.  While I wouldn’t say I went crazy or binge ate at the dinner, I had my fill of fries, hushpuppies, and dessert.

So, it wasn’t a very nutritious day, but it was worth it–fun times were had tonight!  🙂

Food i 8 today:

• one berry oatmeal cup
• many tastes and bowl/spatula-licking while making two naughty desserts
• @ the fish fry –> 2 Mich Ultras, summer salad, hushpuppies, fries, Oreo cake, chocolate chip cookies

Berry oatmeal cups

Weight this morning:  131.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout: Body Pump

I’m holding steady at 131 pounds even.  Grrrrr.  I guess it takes more than a week of being very good with my food intake to undo two days (last Friday and Saturday) of being pretty darn bad!  One day at a time…just keep going…consistency is key…

One way I try to get through each day of making the right food choices is by having something somewhat exciting and tasty to look forward to in the evening.  A little pat on the back, if you will, for a good effort during the day.  You might have noticed that my go-to healthy evening treat is overnight oats, but recently I was inspired by a post that gave a recipe for basically oatmeal muffins, so I decided to give them a try.  The ingredients are simple:

• 3 mashed bananas
• 1 cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk (or any milk)
• 2 eggs
• 1 TBSP Baking powder
• 3 cups quick oats (0ld fashioned works, too)
• 2 cups frozen blueberries or mixed berries [still frozen] or even chocolate chips

Welp, I forgot the baking powder, so mine didn’t exactly “rise” too much.  I am notorious for leaving out one or two ingredients when baking–dangit!!

The recipe called for 15 cups, but I was able to easily stretch it to 19.  I listed out the calories for each ingredient below.

When I divide the total by 19 cups, I get 80 calories per serving!  These are a tasty, healthy, and all-natural way to eat muffins!  They’re basically just a cup of blueberry oatmeal that’s baked, hence the name “berry oatmeal cups” instead of blueberry muffins.

A couple of final words before you get too excited:

#1:  These are flourless, so they do stick to the cupcake liners quite a bit–some worse than others.  Peel with caution, people!

#2:  These are sugarless, so the flavor is what you’d expect–oats, banana, blueberries.  Note that the original recipe does call for some artificial sweetener, which I omitted since I’m trying to go as el naturale as possible this week.  This is not a 400-calorie Panera muffin–it’s a healthy cup of oatmeal.  Keep that in mind. 😉

Alright, I’ve talked your ear off enough for now.  The rest of the day went along as planned.  Not much else new!

Food i 8 today:

• slice of Ezekiel bread + 1 TBSP Bonnie’s raspberry jam
• protein shake –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 TBSP sunbutter, 1 scoop Sun Warrior chocolate protein powder, 1/2 banana
• 3 oz. Publix dip chip carrots + 2TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• afternoon smoothie –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 C blueberries, 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder
• Green Giant frozen veggie mix (entire package)
• one sliced green bell pepper + 2 TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• 2 homemade berry oatmeal cups

A little spring cleaning

Weight this morning:  131.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout:  Spinning

Today I was all about some good ol’ spring cleaning.  I desperately needed to go through my closet to “purge” (remove any clothes I haven’t worn in the past year, and thus will never likely wear again).  From there, I was inspired to do the same with all of my costume jewelry and the clothes in my dresser.  I ended up with a huge garbage bag full-o-stuff for Goodwill.  It felt good to de-clutter my life a bit!  🙂  Then, it was time to sit and do some work at the computer…

…with my delicious Sun Warrior protein shake!  Followed by some carrots and hummus.

 

I kept the veggie train going with a delicious Green Giant mix this evening.

Overall, I stuck to my plan yet again today, but I did swap out the evening chocolatey overnight oats for my old recipe (oats, almond butter, banana, almond milk).  I think having the blueberry/chocolate smoothie in the afternoon and then the chocolate overnight oats was making me a little tired of my Hershey’s powdered dark chocolate, so it was a good switch-up.

Feelin’ good!

Food i 8 today:

• slice of Ezekiel bread + 1 TBSP Bonnie’s raspberry jam
• protein shake –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 TBSP sunbutter, 1 scoop Sun Warrior chocolate protein powder, 1/2 banana
• 3 oz. Publix dip chip carrots + 2TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• afternoon smoothie –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 C blueberries, 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder
• Green Giant frozen veggie mix (entire package)
• one sliced green bell pepper + 2 TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• “overnight oats” –> 1/3 C Quaker old fashioned oats, 1/3 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 mashed banana, 1 TBSP almond butter

2nd place baby!

Weight this morning:  131.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout:  Body Step

When I went to the gym today, I finally got my prize for the fitness challenge that finished mid-March.  I came in 2nd place, with 94 fitness classes taken during an 8-week period.  The first place winner took 120 classes, and the third place winner took 73 classes.  I know they say “second place is the first loser”, but I’m pretty stoked that I placed!  Anyway, I was expecting a water bottle as a prize, but actually it was…

a $50 giftcard to Academy Sports, woohoo!!!  I am excited about this gift!  I can’t really think of exactly what I want right now, but I’m sure if I go browsing, something will come to me.  😉

The rest of today was business as usual!   I started with a gym session and stuck to my daily food plan for this week.  I’m kind of liking this “don’t have to think about what I’m eating” thing, since it’s already planned out.  It’s really nice to just reach in my fridge and get what’s next on my list!  I’m not saying I could eat the same thing every day forever, but one week definitely won’t kill me.

Here are some eats from tonight:

LOVE snacking on these lil tomatoes!

Green Giant definitely helps me get my daily fill of veggies!

 

Chocolatey overnight oats!  I actually got a little sick of the taste as I was eating these tonight, so I might have to switch to my usual overnight oats recipe for tomorrow.

Food i 8 today:

• slice of Ezekiel bread + 1 TBSP Bonnie’s raspberry jam
• protein shake –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 TBSP sunbutter, 1 scoop Sun Warrior chocolate protein powder, 1/2 banana
• 3 oz. Publix dip chip carrots + 2TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• afternoon smoothie –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 C blueberries, 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder
• Green Giant frozen veggie mix (entire package)
• one sliced green bell pepper + 2 TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• “overnight oats” –> 1/2 C Quaker old fashioned oats, 1/2 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 mashed banana, less than 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder

Good start to the week

Weight this morning:  132.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout: Body Attack

I stuck to my food and exercise plan today–woohoo!  Here are some snapshots from the day:

Morning toast (Ezekiel sesame bread + Bonnie’s raspberry jam)

Post-workout protein smoothie

Carrots + hummus

Afternoon blueberry chocolate smoothie (inspiration from here)

Green pepper + hummus

…and then I got lazy taking pictures, hehe.

Overall I’m feeling pretty darn good.  I’ll feel even better if that scale keeps going down back to my pre-spring break weight.  🙂

Food i 8 today:

• slice of Ezekiel bread + 1 TBSP Bonnie’s raspberry jam
• protein shake –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 TBSP sunbutter, 1 scoop Sun Warrior chocolate protein powder, 1/2 banana
• 3 oz. Publix dip chip carrots + 2TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• afternoon smoothie –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 C blueberries, 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder
• Green Giant frozen veggie mix (entire package)
• one sliced green bell pepper + 2 TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• “overnight oats” –> 1/2 C Quaker old fashioned oats, 1/2 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 mashed banana, less than 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder

my detox plan

Weight this morning:  133.0
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout: Body Pump

eeeeek, so I left for spring break two weeks ago, weighing in at 128.4.  Today I’m up 4.6 pounds to 133 even.  Granted, I stuffed my face silly the past two days, so I wouldn’t exactly say I “gained 5 pounds” over break, but I’m definitely not still at 128.4.  What does this all mean?  It’s detox time for me!!!

No, I don’t mean starving myself for a day or only drinking water with lemon juice and cayenne pepper for three days…I mean:

(1) loading up on lots of fruits and veggies, as well as some seeds, nuts, and whole grains

(2) NO dessert or sugary snacks

(3) exercise daily

(4) do all of this for the next 6 days straight.

So, I started today.  I stocked my fridge with nutritious, whole foods.

Please, pay no attention to the sodas at the bottom of the fridge–these serve strictly as “mixers” for when my husband and I get our drink on!  They are not a part of my detox program.  Promise.  🙂

Anywho, starting today I am trying to stick to 1200 calories of the following foods, which I calculated on MyFitnessPal (this also serves as the food i 8 today list):

• slice of Ezekiel bread + 1 TBSP Bonnie’s raspberry jam
• protein shake –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 TBSP sunbutter, 1 scoop Sun Warrior chocolate protein powder, 1/2 banana
• 3 oz. Publix dip chip carrots + 2TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• afternoon smoothie –> 1 C spinach, 1 C almond milk, 1 C blueberries, 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder
• Green Giant frozen veggie mix (entire package)
• one sliced green bell pepper + 2 TBSP Sabra red roasted pepper hummus
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• “overnight oats” –> 1/2 C Quaker old fashioned oats, 1/2 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1/2 mashed banana, less than 1 TBSP dark cocoa powder

I am going to try to stick to the above foods from today (Sunday) until Friday as best I can.  So far I have no plans for the week, but I might have a dinner thing Friday night.  Hopefully I can find something veggie-licious to eat there, though.  Ok, that’s all for now.  I’ll be back tomorrow!

Bad couple of days!

Weight this morning:  ???
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout:  Body Attack

I woke up today feeling blah from all the bad eats yesterday… and I’m going to bed today feeling blah from today’s bad eats!  Today my friend had a crawfish boil.  He’s from Louisiana and wanted to bring a taste of home to us here in Florida.

While I did not partake in any crawfish-eating (nor the veggies thrown in with the crawfish), I did chow down on some spinach dip and crackers, mac & cheese, and dessert.  So yeah, the only veggie I had today was the measly spinach that shows up in the processed spinach dip I ate at the party.

I think all my bad food choices today and yesterday have to do with my hiatus from the gym/routine.  I just got home from an   extended (two-week) spring break.  While I was actually quite “good” eating-wise during my time away, I know these are the final couple of days before I go back to my healthy eating, so I just kind of let myself go.  I know the extra pounds will come off.  But it doesn’t feel too good right now!

Food i 8 today:

• spinach dip + crackers
• mac & cheese
• TOO MUCH dessert!

bad decisions…

Weight this morning:  131.4
Low weight:  128.4
Goal weight:  125
Height:  5’6″

Workout:  none.

beget bad decisions, beget bad decisions!  I was BAD today.  I don’t even want to list it all out.  Nor weight myself (for a few days), haha.  So, I’m not going to.  I had a bad eating day.  I’ll get back on track soon!