7/23 – Carbs in rice & Intense game of Ultimate Frisbee

Tuesday is usually a tough day to decide what type of workout I want to do.  My favorite group fitness class is Muscle +. It’s an hour long of group “personal training”. It’s major muscle groups using heavy weights focused on intensity and not reps. I love this class because it helps always gets in all muscle groups even ones I never think about working out like inner/outer thigh, calves and butt.

However I chose Ultimate Frisbee today. An INTENSE game at that. My team won, and we were the underdog the entire game. We were always losing got up to 9/9 and just shut it down after that.

A few things I noticed about myself during this game:

• I felt out of shape…why? I’m not sure…I think it’s mainly because of my running skills. I haven’t ran in awhile.
• I felt like I was breathing super hard, like I couldn’t get enough air in per breath. I think this just meant I haven’t done any real cardiovascular exercise in awhile.
• I realized that my body & mind could handle the pressure I was putting it under and that felt great. Means the workouts, the training and consistency allowed me to react at my optimal capacity.
• I was on it. Every time the frisbee was moving, I was at the right place, at the right time, and one guy said, “You can really thread those needles!” He was talking about being ale to still pass while under pressure and finding the right teammate and putting him in the right spot to catch. In other words, throwing to a seemingly covered teammate, but getting him to move out of that state and positioning him for the catch.
• I ran faster than any of the other girls. I think maybe a couple of other people ran faster, but I was running sprint circles and making great catches around the field.
• I am intense. I have fun, but I take my catches and passes seriously and I am in the zone.
• ALWAYS glad when I choose frisbee over Muscle+. I just hate that I can’t do them both.

Next time I’ll take some photos so I can post how our games look.

For lunch: I had a very simple lunch. Just rice soup and that fish from yesterday. I kept it simple because I didn’t want to put any thought into what I was eating. I didn’t want that to consume my day. I gotta tell you a little about rice and it’s nutrition content.

As you can see for 1 cup cooked, its 205 calories….ok not too bad, eat that with some veggies and meat, you can get away with a 600 cal lunch or dinner. But LOOK AT THE CARBS! Holy milkshakes! 44.5 GRAMS! The recommended carb intake before you start gaining weight is 100-150! If I accidentally eat 3 cups of rice in a day, I’m automatically on the path to gain weight!! I ate roughly 3 cups today between lunch and dinner. 😦

For dinner: Korma stir-fry. I used a bottle of simmer sauce and chopped up shitake mushrooms, green beans, red sweet peppers and sauteed it with chicken as my meat. Of course, I ate it with rice. Dang it! I will really think twice about how much rice I can put away.

Well, there’s my day. It wasn’t too glamorous today.

7/22 – Banh Xeo, Tight Butts & Bellies, and Spot Training

Ladies & Gentlemen, this golden delicious crepe-like concoction is called Banh Xeo made by my lovely mother! Pronounced, “Bahn Chow”. It is basically a crepe-like mixture made of rice flower and I’m not sure why it’s yellow, but it always has been. I think they put something in to color it, because it’s just rice flour…it’s actually really plain flavoring. Maybe the yellow is curry powder?

The inside is ground chicken stir-fried with some garlic, fish sauce, sugar, chicken bouillon, onions, and coconut shreds, and after my mom pulls it off the heat, she puts a handful of mung bean sprouts on top, then mixes them all together. She starts the banh xeo crepe – and once its brown on the bottom she puts half a handful of the chicken mix on one side like an omelet then she moves it off the skillet and onto a plate. It’s a famous and popular lunch item among the southeast asian community.

I particularly love it because my mom makes the best – and you eat it like a salad. So putting one on your plate, then hand shredding iceberg lettuce, mint leaves, basil leaves, and cucumber slices, and lay it all on top, then you spoon or ladle over the special vinegar sauce over it, and then eat it like a salad! Sooooo healthy, light and very delicious! You will fill up fast on this thing, cause it’s light, and you feel like you can keep eating and eating, but the fibrous greens will prevent you from eating a ton.  Ahhh….that was my Sunday with my parents.

As I left my parent’s, my mom sends me off with a million things. This is a habit I tend to do also, guess who I get it from? She gave me an entire giant jar of pickled mustard greens….it’s a Khmer thing… My mom makes this stuff and she made 4 jars from her own garden. She also gave me a jar of that special vinegar sauce for the banh xeo, but I could eat it with other stuff too. And she gave me some sesame seed candy, some peanuts, some fish jerky, some summer rolls wraps, rice noodles, and 4 bottles of water in case I get thirsty on the ride home.

Pickled Mustard Greens – Jrouk Spey in Khmer

It’s pickled so it’s salty and sour, but soo yummy, and I can eat far more of this than pickled cucumbers or any other pickled items…this is also great to stirfry with chicken! Just a few plants can make A LOT!

My Tight Butts & Bellies workout: I give it an A+ for a great workout! It could have been more intense but even then, I was rolling in sweat, especially the mt climbs and crab kicks, but very proud of myself for creating a workout and then sticking to it!

I added a few extra exercises, because as I was finishing up, I realized I had enough energy to do more, so I added in 50 Tricep Dips, 10 roman chair dips, and 25 foot kicks while on my knees for extra butt work. Where I feel it the most is in my saddlebag/butt area….because those kicks are really intense if you give it your all! All of this took me about half an hour. Who says you need to be working out for an hour? That’s RIDICULOUS! I can get more done in 20 minutes than an hour in higher intensity, and I still have room for core and cardio. Ahhh….I can’t help contemplating….

It’s like this fitness roadmap is beginning to take shape, and I can see that fitness has become a lifestyle for me, and not just something that will help me lose a few pounds before bikini season. It’s really a part of my life. I don’t feel as good, as energetic, as focused without exercise being as an important part of my day. I’m a high-functioning individual who needs to be 100% all the time and ready to give 110% anytime I’m called to do so.

Spot Training: So I believe wholeheartedly in spot-training….I’m talking about areas that need work. I workout on a regular basis, so when I feel the need to work a single muscle-group more often than the other it’s because that particular muscle has a long way to go.

The areas that I’m pretty jelly in are triceps, inner outer thighs, and my gut…those areas have hung loose on me for awhile. I HATE THEM. I wish death upon them! Well, that’s a little harsh, but geez, they WON’T GO AWAY!  I am SLOWLY, but surely working off the gut, and the triceps.

What I’ve been doing is ALWAYS doing CORE. Every workout has to include a core session and always include reverse crunches or lower ab work. My obliques are surprisingly really strong and they are trimming up very nicely.  It just dawned on me recently that I’ve been doing core work every workout, well, my other problem area is the triceps – the jiggly-wave-back-at-me fat that has proven to be the hardest to control. So now, I am adding triceps work in every single workout. So I’m spot training those problem areas…I guess other people would say tone up…but tone up kinda gives me the idea of total body toning…and “Spot Training” is like “spot cleaning” the dirty part of your rug, without shampooing the whole thing. It’s more intense work on those areas which are sure to provide better results. Especially if the rest of the body is toning up nicely.

Sometimes if I feel like certain areas haven’t been worked intensely out in awhile, I’ll pick up those areas and give them a good “spot clean”.

Back to my dinner: I needed protein after that workout – so I cracked 3 eggs, 18 grams of protein, 0 carbs, 70 calories a piece. I scrambled it plain with nothing in it.

I created my dinner that consisted of rice soup – basically I took half a cup of uncooked rice, filled up the pot full of water, then stirred it the entire time it was cooking….this made it into a soup. I had a small piece of fish jerky, 3 eggs, picked mustard greens and rice soup. I’m not sure how many calories this all was, but I ate the whole thing. I wasn’t full at all but was sufficient. I’m going to try to trim up the body fat this week, so I only want to consume light and  less foods. I’ll also go on a rampage to drink about a gallon of water a day. It’ll help my skin out, and wash a lot of the toxins out.

 

7/22 – Cardio/Leg/Core HIIT

I’m gonna start creating HIITs , so I have planned workouts to get in each week – wrote this in like 5 minutes!

Leg / Core Session Today – tight butts and bellies! This is about 25 or so minutes – the crabs and mt climbs are quick.

Start off with –

• 25 Prisoner Squats, then lift up your RIGHT HEEL and do
• 25 Inner Thigh Squat – should feel it inside your thigh, now do the other side
• Find a step, like a curb and with your LEFT FOOT, step on it, and lift your other knee to elbow, then back down into a squat, and repeat for 25 times, then switch to the RIGHT FOOT do for 25 times
• Go back to a regular squat and squat it out 25 times

Now get on the floor –

• 25 mountain climbers, then turn over
• 25 crab kicks, turn over
• 25 mountain climbers, turn over
• 25 crab kicks

Now get on your knees –

• working hamstrings – 25 hamstring kicks each leg
• 25 – side knee kicks, each side
• repeat, 25 ham kicks each side,
• 25 side knee kicks each side

On your back – some core work

• 50 bicycles
• 50regular crunch
• 25 top hat abs
• 25 touch the skys
• 30 second plank
• 30 second side plank
• 30 second other side plank
• 30 sec yoga – downward dog
• 30 sec yoga – childs pose

Slowly get up, and reach for your toes, and you are done!

7/21 – Weekend of fondness, family, and my 64 yr old Dad is on Facebook?

Ahhh…what a weekend! I think everyone longs for familiarity at times, and this weekend I certainly did. I took an impromptu trip to my old familiar stomping grounds in a last ditch to see my parents this summer that I’ve only seen twice this entire year so far. I didn’t want to go too long without a visit. The quality time spent is a far more precious and valuable gift to the ones I love.

So Friday night, I had a chance to hang out with my husband and we ate dinner at Tupelo Honey. What a great southern restaurant focused on local farm fresh ingredients and GMO-free meats and veggies. I am thankful for places like these that understand quality is more important than quantity.

We decided to order a “pound” of Tupleo wings for an appetizer, then didn’t realize how beefy these wings were, so we decided to split our entree – Brian’s Shrip & Grits – Shoo Mercy style. It was sooooooooo much food. A pound of those wings were only 8 wings, but very meaty wings. So we didn’t eat all of our entree or all of our wings – BUT – I ate my weight in biscuits…..

Well, 1.89 biscuits that is. They were probably the best biscuits I’ve ever had in my entire life. They came with a blueberry preserve that was fresh with real whole blueberries…sooo delicious! The server came back and said, “Would you like to try any of our desserts?” and I replied with, “I thought I was eating one of your desserts.”

I did a short 25 minute workout at my office during lunch that we put together on the fly and it worked really well!

Chest, Triceps, Core – 25 mins

• 25 Chest Flys
• 25 Upright Rows
• 25 Lat Raises
• 25 Tricep Kicks
• 25 Pushups
• 25 Pullups
• Bicycles til you feel it – 60+
• Top hat til you feel it – 45 +
• Side plank crunch til you feel it 30 +
• Other side crunch plank til you feel it 30+

For Saturday, I woke up late – slept in, and really got to enjoy a slow moving Saturday morning with my husband and my dog. We didn’t get breakfast like we wanted to before I left, and he was concerned he wouldn’t have anything to do but he decided to go for a long run after I left. On my way down to Nashville, I soaked in the gorgeous day ahead of me, and listened to a book on tape called Red by Ted Dekker, part of a trilogy called the Circle Series.

It’s the 2nd book and so far, I’ve been able to follow this book better than the first one. On a 3 hour drive, it was perfect listening material to really knock out some hours in this book. My book club meets again in just 9 days.

As I roll into Nashville, I found myself feeling wistful – I really miss this place. But not as a place to come back to and live – as a place that held a lot of memories. I stroll into town as though I only remember it by habit and landmarks, and not by roads. I run all of my usual 4-way stops, wind through Shelby Park roads nearby my parents home, look at all of the usual weird looking homes in my old neighborhood and make note of any new changes I see. Then I pull up into my parents home and always tell myself I need to help my mom pull the weeds out of her garden beds…but never do. Then I park, unchain the link on my parents gate, and stroll in, and see my dad laying on the parachute hammock that makes him feel like he’s in Cambodia cradling away under the humid breeze.

As new buildings rise every year, and new greenways are built connecting neighborhood to neighborhood, not a single thing has changed when I get to my parents. It’s like 1996, the year we moved in, every time I come home. My bedroom is still in tact, with my blue ribbon borders across the top, and it’s still that faded shade of blue that I loved.

Usually the first thing I do when I visit my parents, I raid their house for food. They only eat Khmer (Cambodian) food, and as the Foodie I am, I’m always making requests when I come home, and this time my request was Banh Xeo. Except she didn’t have all of the stuff to make it, that we’re going to have it for lunch on Sunday (today) instead. But for dinner that night, she made Salah Mahchew – it’s a lemony stew medley of green veggies – potato leaves, chinese eggplant, some other green stuff, with beef, tripe, and she used lime leaves as one of the citrus agents. It was a delicious meal served over rice.

I made a visit to Walmart and I found this card that had me cracking up in the Hallmark aisle. It’s going to be my friends and I one of these days. We’re so determined to stay young and firm looking that we’re going to not realize that we’re getting old and our boobs are sagging, and after a spray tan, I’m sure we’re going to have one of these experiences.

My dad and I were never too close when I was young, but it is never too late to rekindle relationships and since I graduated from college he and I have worked on our relationship quite a bit. I never really realized back then but my dad is a good looking guy. My mom thinks so too. In fact she has a picture of my dad when he was 52 yrs old in her cell phone that she shows to other people.

This is my dad when he went to visit his family in Los Angeles, CA back in 1991-1993. I can’t remember what year. He was in his 40’s.

He was 52 years old here at my aunt’s wedding in Seattle.

This one is of us that we took off his MacBook for his Facebook profile pic. He wanted to be on Facebook so he can see his other kids and grandkids where 2 of them he didn’t know were even born. He’s such a bright person who can learn things very easily so it wasn’t hard at all to get him adjusted to Facebook. I’m glad he got a chance to see those pics of his family.

Me & Dad – July 20, 2013 – 64yrs old

7/18 – Grillin’ in the dark & Late night HIIT

Hello! It’s a happy Thursday and after a long drive to Charlotte and back, I’m pooped! I woke up this morning out of a coma after yesterday’s workout! Wow! You can definitely tell it was a hard one when you’re completely stiff and tight all over. Glad I had my protein shake afterwards, I think that helped me not be so sore, and avoided Ibuprofen this time.

The best way to knock out soreness in my experience is to continue to workout, even in lower intensity a few days in a row….just work through the pain, and my body will get used to the trauma I put it through. Then the efficiency mechanisms kick in and gets the body ready for that type of intense workout, and all the right muscles will engage, then I can do hard work out after hard workout, and no soreness for awhile until I start missing workouts again. In fact, sometimes I’ll workout so hard having only a couple off days a week that I can’t reach that point of soreness unless I radically change my workouts or increase my weights.

What’s great about that type of “pain” (soreness) is that the next time you “need” to put your body through it, ie: running long distance races, triathlons, unloading heavy bags of sand over and over again, digging trenches, carrying lumber, moving earth…yeah I did all of that recently…the body just engages into preparing for that mode of labor, and you would be SURPRISED that it will not struggle but efficiently pulls all of the right muscles needed to do those things, and I’m not saying it’s completely effortless, but almost. That’s a nice feeling. One of the worst feelings I remember back in the days where I didn’t know “how to exercise” or what types worked for me, just a short flight of stairs would wear me out and I’d be huffin’ and puffin’ like a 200lb diabetic woman. It was so bad that I was embarrassed and would slowly walk up… AND still get a bit winded.

So tonight was an incredibly beautiful night in the middle of nowhere of TN. The sunset was so incredibly blue, that my entire backyard was tinted blue! Then there was a haze of pink and purple off in the distance. In the mountains, you get so many different hues of sunsets….and what a great place to live. 🙂

I haven’t done a workout yet today, so I am putting one together as I am blogging this. The one I want to do is a rather light HIIT to still get my heart up, help me loosen up, but still engage those muscles I just worked out yesterday. AND I’m doing it after my dinner…which is never a great idea, but I’ll give my tummy a chance to digest before I start.

Late Night HIIT: Light core & body weight movements

• 25 Pushups
• 25 Prisoner Squats
• 25 Inner thigh squat each side
• 30 secs plank
• 25 crunches
• 25 bicycles
• 30 sec side plank each side
• 25 trip kick backs
• 25 bicep curls light weights
• 5 burpees for extra measure…. 🙂

 

Here’s my dinner!
I decided to grill out in the dark! I got a steak kabob from Fresh Market and threw on the grill some italian mild sausages, and cut up a whole onion into thick slices and grilled those too. Made a side of fresh avocado salad and had it as my veggie side. I ate on the deck table underneath the moonlight with a little red LED hurricane lantern. Very relaxing evening.

I picked up this bag of chips called Eat Your Vegetables for my husband tonight. He’s jumping on board on the healthier eating wagon. I hope he stays on.

Has anyone ever seen these before? I’ve never seen little mini grapes! They are super cute! I thought about buying a container but I don’t know what I’d do with them! I guess I could eat them like any other grape…but they look like they should be a part of some fancy appetizer.

7/17 – Filthy Fifties & Fresh Vietnamese Summer Rolls

Ahhhh…..the Fabulous Filthy Fifties! It’s a “Crossfit” style workout routine where we do 50 reps of each exercise, but not exactly. We do traditional exercises like chest press, shoulder press, situps, etc….no cleans and snatches or box jumps (by the way, box jumps are super un-safe!)

So today, I woke up, extremely woozy and stumbled to the bathroom, checked my cell phone for emails and messages, and fell back into bed then passed out for another hour. Needless to say, I got to work super late. After 10am….yikes.

I worked my buns off today getting important stuff done, then our power went out 10 mins before the office lets out, and I decide to say, well…guess my workout starts early today. Isn’t that the right attitude? Yea I thought so. So I found all of the flashlights in the warehouse and put them all around in our “box” downstairs and proceeded to work on the Filthy Fifties!

Here’s the workout!

50’s of Everything on this List – I finished in 37:28

• Chest Press
• Shoulder Press
• Full Situps
• Reverse Crunch
• Single Arm Rows (50per arm)
• Jump Pullups
• Roman Dips
• Tricep Dips
• Lunges (50 per leg)
• Prisoner Squats
• Weighted side crunch (50 per side)
• Bicep Curl (15lbs) (50 per side)
• Pushups

I highly recommend these kind of workouts when you have to do it yourself. Because you can focus on total time completed and compare to last time. We started this workout as a conditioning workout cause we haven’t done other stuff lately, like the short burst tabata workouts…and the first time we started this about a month ago, I finished in about 40mins, then 3 days later, did the exact same workout, and finished in 29 minutes, then 3rd time 2 weeks later, finished in 37mins but I added 1 extra exercise to the mix.

Food Log:

Breakfast only included 1 cup of coffee with creamer and splenda. I know I should eat breakfast, but I like to keep it simple and so I don’t get hungry all day. Eating bfast always makes me hungry…but I know it’s good for me.

Lunch was nice, I had 2 packs of a rice noodle soup, kind of like ramen noodle pack but white rice noodle version. Each pack has 180 cals, but probably less for me cause I didn’t use the oil packet that came with it. I just used the dry spice packets. I ate that, an ounce of cheddar sour cream baked lays and 40 ounces of water from my handy dandy water bottle that sits next to my desk all day.

After workout shake consisted of just 1 scoop of powder with water. I don’t like drinking protein powder, but when I remember, I just guzzle down a scoop, which I think is right for my size and weight.

For dinner I decided to make something that I had at home. I had shrimp and rice wraps, so this was the perfect super low cal, enough protein (maybe not enough for some folks), green veggies, and simple carb dinner. Just shrimp, rice wrap, cucumber, basil and sweet chili sauce for dipping.

Getting back on the wagon is so much easier now in this time of my life than ever before. I think recording my efforts regardless of how nice or eloquent I wrote those posts, just the simple record of the things I did, how I did it, what trouble I went through, and learning from the mistakes, has become an invaluable habit that I didn’t realize drafted my fitness road map.

 And that is an incredible feeling to know that fitness is now a part of my lifestyle and not some yo-yo diet I start 4 times a year with no lasting results.

Mon, 3/25 – Oh Spring? Where did you go?

Spring time! I miss you!

What the heck happened this year? There’s literally a blizzard outside right now. Spring came out for a couple of days and decided to recoil. Last I checked, spring sprung 4 days ago! Regardless, I can’t wait til the weather gets warmer so I can do more stuff outside. One of my favorite things to do that I did last year was to find a nice patch of grass preferably near water and stretch out, do some yoga or some basic exercises and enjoying being in the company of nature and her friends. Can’t wait to start that up again. 🙂

Last spring, we had Easter Games – basically a “Field Day” for big kids (bunch of 30 year olds…lol) but this year, I’m afraid to throw Easter Games on Easter because we need to be outside doing crazy stuff, and with the weather being all icky and temperamental, I must wait til winter decides to call it a year.

By the way, I am a pro at bobbing for apples….

To pick back up posting and updating my whereabouts and workouts and food logs and so forth….I must admit, I DID workout and I DID eat good-for-me foods, however, I slacked more on the updating side rather than the choosing-unhealthy-food-and-not-exercising side…WHEW! That’s a really long fragmented sentence! Forgive me, it’s really late right now, and I just wanted to be good and make an update, REGARDLESS of how tired I am. 🙂

Alright, March was not as good as the other 2 months. It was tough, and it I did not feel as COMPELLED to resist the sweets and “restaurant” food. However, I can still go back to my healthy diet with no problem, because I didn’t eat the junk because I “relapsed” or something weird….I just forgot how it all tasted because I hadn’t had it for 2 months. Eating that stuff is PAINFUL to say the least. I’m glad I have a fall-back to Paleo when it comes to food…allows me to feel like I have somewhere to go when the acid and gas gets too much to handle. I don’t have to feel like I have to starve just to be able to deal with the pain.

Ok, so here are my adventures from the past 3 weeks….I will try my best to make them as entertaining in as few sentences and pictures as possible 🙂

• Red Rock Canyons, Las Vegas, NV – Hiked “Calico Tanks” trail – scrambled to get an incredible view of LV. AMAZING HIKE! Highly recommend 😉 
• 
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• Red Rock Canyons – Hiked “Ice Box Canyon” trail – a seasonal waterfall trail that led to the waterfall, but it was out of season so just a trickling…but there were some pools.
• 
• Chuckey, TN – Hiked “Marguerite Falls” – nice upwards hike along a waterfall trail up to the waterfall – very beautiful hike.
• Cherokee Nat’l Forest, Gatlinburg, TN – Drove up to some overlook and saw everything covered in new freshy freshy pow pow. Beautiful scenic drive. Too bad it was so cold, didn’t get a chance to hike anything.

As for workouts – some accomplishments are:

• I practiced swimming again and was able to swim a half mile and did it in the average time of 30 minutes. I just learned how to lap swim last May – so this is a MAJOR accomplishment for me….I usually just panic in the water until I get out. 
• To make sure it wasn’t a fluke that I swam a half mile, I did it again 2 days later. So it’s been confirmed, I can ACTUALLY swim a half mile. 🙂
• I have a strong core. I know this because my ab workouts are so easy. I feel like I can do crunches, bikes, etc all day long. Also planks too. Also, I can do pushups far better and longer than most women.
• I did a 300 workout – 300 pushups, 300 squats, and 300 crunches – I only got to 100 of each, but did it in 6.5 minutes. Not too bad. But it wasn’t enough at 100…so I’ll definitely attempt it again.
•  I can get right back into intense internal training without a problem even if I have not actually done it in a week. Muscle memory sure plays a big part. But my heart can feel the burn though….

I guess I can smile again. My struggles and demotivationals were expressed, and sometimes just stating my position or “admitting” my faults helps clear my head and refocuses me towards my goal.  I am hopefully back to normal again.

Today’s log:

Food

• No breakfast except coffee
• Lunch – Chicken and Cabbage soup – 2 drumsticks for the meat portion, lots of cabbage, and rice (yes, this is an asian dish and it wouldn’t been right without rice)
• Dinner – same thing, with less rice, less cabbage, and 1 drumstick. 

So not much to eat today…I also had a fiery acid stomach today…not sure from what…perhaps the spices I used in the soup. It was vegetable broth, chicken bouillon, fish sauce, garlic and sugar….not much to the soup at all.

Workout

• Jump and Jacks to Tubthumping by Chumbawamba – about 4 mins long, drop to the floor everytime they sing “I Get Knocked Down”, then get back up again….great for cardio – got my heart burning…
• Tabata – 8 rounds – 20 work 10 off – pushups, then dips
• Tabata 12 rounds – 20 work 10 off – kickboxing kick, then upright knee to elbow (switch sides after rounds)
• Tabata – 10 rounds – 20 work 10 off – bike abs, upright torso twist, top hat abs, dead bug abs, upright torso twist, then repeat

I forgot to have a protein drink so I’ll probably be sore the next day. Guess I should get my beauty sleep now. I’ve been worried about getting wrinkles (is this my way to defying the inevitability of approaching my 30’s?) so I’ve been really trying to take care of my skin…using glycolic cleansers, microdermabrasion facials, moisturizing, eye creams, pore refiners, and the whole nine yards. So each day, I’m taking my makeup off, going through the regimen….I hope I see some results…my face just feels tight every day now, but the “intense” moisturizers help a lot. I’ve also been splurging on “smell good stuff” like scented shower gels, lotions, perfumes, hand soaps, body soaps, fragrant lip glosses… It feels really nice to feel pretty and smell good. I’m sure the people around me would appreciate it if don’t stink or look like I just rolled out of bed…and I’m telling you, this girl does not look good rolled out of bed.

Some of my favorites…

Ok, off to slumber land.

 

 

Mon, 2/25 – “Practical Paleo” Book has arrived!

Howdy!

So I figure, if I’m going to do this right, I need to know everything I can about Paleolithic eating. Before Paleo, I was consuming easily 300 grams of carbs per day. If I was “seriously” trying to cut carbs, the most I was able to do was roughly 100-150 grams per day. That’s mostly because I didn’t know what foods were carb-friendly, or how to even cut typical carbs out of my diet. I didn’t realize the amount of carbohydrates were in the typical foods I ate.

I can’t out-exercise a bad diet.
It’s true. I couldn’t. I tried. Really hard. I exercised all the time, and still this ridiculous waistband gut was never going to leave this body. I had a “permanent” muffin top that would not go away. Oh and let’s not forget, permanent flab on my triceps and calf-flab (I know this is weird, but it was there. I pinched it all the time.)

My goal is fat-loss.
I worked really hard to keep my weight down, this time I’m going to focus on actual real fat loss. I want to lose fat in areas around my belly and arms, and thighs and shoulders.

Many people have had terrific results with body composition while on the Paleo diet.
Yes, and I honestly believe this is true, because I have seen dramatic fat loss just in the last month of starting this paleolithic diet. It’s a weird way to giving your body more of what it needs than what it wants. I’ve prided myself on how much more protein I’m consuming while sparingly using powders (shakes, etc.) I’m eating nutrient rich foods that are far healthier than any protein shake could be. My grocery cart is full of “whole” foods instead of boxed up, pre-packaged microwaveable junk from the freezer. I’m learning so much about cooking combinations and what items to substitute for the best nutrient-dense output. When your body burns the right nutrients more efficiently, the amount of body fat evens outs and it’ll feel like it doesn’t need to store everything you eat.

Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo – a bestseller for Paleo Diets

I ordered this on Sunday, and surely enough, it was on my doorstep by Monday. Thanks Amazon! The best thing about this book are the beautiful photos. I’m a sucker for easy reads and pictures in books. Yea, I know that makes me sound like a 10 year old, but I’m a skimmer, and reading makes me sleepy. Where was I? Oh yea, besides the great layout of the book, I enjoyed reading about the “leaky gut” aka all of the bloating, irritation, gas, acid, sour stomach, sinus infections, and the list goes on. Even if it’s not as “scientific” as some of us would like, it gives me a different perspective on the notion that if I just cut out the problem makers, then I won’t have the problem anymore. The problem is I didn’t know what and why the problem-makers were causing those problems. Sometimes, we need that extra oooooh….to get to the ah ha!  Well, now I know…I know that the strain of foods that are the disrupters (dairy, grains, legumes) are causing a serious disruption in my belly.

“Why is it so critical not to disrupt digestion? The ability to fight chronic and even acute, disease states begins in the digestive system (the gut). 60 to 80 percent of the immune system is within the gut. There is immune tissue that follows the entire length of your small intestine. You’ll learn more than you ever thought you needed to know about this in the digestion and leaky gut sections of this book. If your body constantly suffers from digestive irritation, you set the stage for suppressed immune function in all other areas. This can result in a condition as innocuous as seasonal allergies or a problem that is much more aggressive like diverticulitis, eczema, psoriasis, or a number of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.” – Practical Paleo

So despite the nice surprise of getting this book early, I’ve started reading it and getting excited to have a new set of super easy recipes to start my Paleo journey for next month.

EXERCISE: Today I did the exact same workout I put together last Wed.

10 reps / 10 mins / 3 sets of workouts
Set a time for 3 rounds, 10 mins long, with 35 seconds between eat round and do as many rounds as you can per set. This one gets really tiring and your competing against yourself and not everyone else.

FOOD: Can’t quite remember much
Bfast: Banana peanut butter roll up
Lunch: Pad Thai (only ate half)
Dinner: Sweets – gluten-free blondie and paleo muffins, maybe some chicken breast

 

Sun, 2/24 – Paleo Chili! Chia Chips! Dirty Dog!

Howdy!

Paleo Chili Mix!! 
I was at Fresh Market today shopping for today’s meals, and I stumbled across a jar of Two Step Chili Mix by Cookwell & Company. To me, chili doesn’t have to take hours slaving and waiting to eat. In fact, my chili can take 20 minutes…but if you want even faster, and probably tastier chili, you got to try the Two Step Chili jar. It was fabulous. It was also paleo, because it did not contain any gluten or flour of any kind, just a bunch of veggies stewed together long enough with the chili spices. Even says, “Gluten-Free” on the jar.

Ok, today was weird…I decided to tough out the 12 hours at my husband’s place while he was working in the ER all day…therefore, trying to find random things to do. If you know me, you know that vegging out for extended periods of time is not my kind of thing. I feel like a 5 year old who’s told to take a nap in the middle of the day, when I just don’t need one.

Exercise:
I did do 1 round of 2 exercises from BodyRock – definitely not enough, because I didn’t do 3 rounds…I made excuses because I didn’t have all of the weights, and space…etc…EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES….blah.

HiitCore – Kill Me Now Abs

HiitBody – Fat Suck Off

I’ve already cleaned his house. It’s a tiny 1-bedroom apartment with carpet. So, as always, he loves it when I come over, because I usually clean his apartment and do his laundry. (Seriously!?)  I clean his apartment not because I’m trying to be nice, but because I can’t stand clothes and books all over the couch, dishes in the sink, and dog hair on the carpet.

Condiments, Sodas, and Milk in fridge. My husband doesn’t buy groceries. He hates the grocery store, but I, on the other hand, sifts through every isle as though I’m searching for gold. Therefore, there is nothing to eat at his house. As always, a freezer packed full of frozen boxed stuff. Well, this just means I need to go grocery shopping for him!

I picked up a carton of eggs, a carton of almond milk (lol), some chicken breast, a pound of ground sirloin, an onion, a tomato, a container of mushrooms, some fruit, a bag of Chia Chips (super yum! try it!), some bananas, and a couple of oranges.

My breakfast, which turned out to be brunch at 11:30am. 
I made my traditional spinach omelet (I gave him some veggies to take to his apartment and cook his own meals, but did it only once..boo) with some onion and mushrooms. I plated the dish, took it out on the balcony and ate it with a glass of almond milk. How relaxing! It was a beautiful day with birds chirping in the woods, and the sun was peering through the trees and hitting me on the face. Very nice little time.

For lent, I was supposed to give up 15 minutes of my day, and be inactive, and let my thoughts run free. So this porch time was that time.

The husband called and said, “Hey can you bring us food for lunch?” Of course! I suggested Sergeant Pepperoni pizza, because I heard it was the best pizza in town. At least the dough was good. But he and another resident working with him only had Chicken strips as the option for lunch so I thought I’d bring them in something a bit more filling. So I got them the largest size pizza they had, and filled it with veggies and chicken. So no processed pork. I tried to make it as healthy with the toppings as possible.

Onto more random things to do, here’s my list:

• Took my car to the full-service car cleaning place, they did a great job cleaning all of the dog hair and paw prints, etc. 
• Walked the dog
• Left my phone at home, and took the dog to the park by the river….I let her loose and of course she finds a puddle of water and jumps in it. Then she rolls in it to cool off. Ahh…..can’t get mad at her. She’s being a dog. But of course she has to go back home in my freshly clean car…yea…this sucks. But she had a great time, and that’s all that mattered.
• Took my dog home and had to give her a bath. So the clean house is dirty again. Yay…
• It’s 4:30, and I have roughly 4 more hours before my husband gets home…so I try my best to kill some time catching up on blogs and watched hours of HGTV.
• Then by 7:30 I decided to start the chili…by the way, like I said earlier…this is 20 minute chili we’re talking about. For some odd reason I thought it was gonna take 2 hours…

Oh the Two Step Paleo Chili….

Super easy…and super delicious. Here’s the directions in order of how I made it:

1. Heat up the pot, and put a tablespoon of oil in it. 
2. Add minced garlic and chunky diced onions, saute until onions begin to sweat.
3. Add the pound of beef, and cook that almost until completely browned.
4. Add 2 table spoons of brown sugar.
5. Add sliced mushrooms.
6. Saute until mushrooms are looking not raw any more, like a little cooked.
7. Add stewed tomatoes.
8. Add a little salt and pepper.
9. Taste the meat mix and make sure it tastes good to you. Don’t over do the salt, and sugar and pepper. The sauce will do the rest of the work.
10. Now you are 10 minutes into making chili.
11. Add the Two Step Chili jar, and mix well, then turn down the heat, and let simmer. Once it simmers, it’s ready.
12. You might need to keep stirring to keep the beef from sticking to the bottom. But once the heat gets down enough it won’t do that any more.

That’s it folks! Two Step Chili that I stretched out to 12 steps..but still only takes a few minutes longer! I like fancy chili…but sometimes good ole fashion ones will get the job done too. Notice, there are no beans in this chili…aka legumes my friend are a no-no.

 

Wed, 2/20 – Last day of the trip and I’m ready to tear it up!

I woke up feeling completely refreshed and I feel great. So for lunch I had Chipotle salad, no rice or beans. I could only consume half due to my lack of eating yesterday.

For dinner, I had 2 cilantro and onion tacos: 1 fish and 1 lengua (cow tongue). I might have had a few queso and chips 🙂

For my 530pm workout I did a 30 min session: here’s the pic of the workout. Really good butt kicker. I was starting to feel queasy again and having headaches so I was going to take it easy except I didn’t. And I powered through this workout.