Wednesday: Day 10: Woke up 5:23am, well – actually I woke up at 5 but stayed in bed until 5:23 because I was having a lot of issues with motivation – playing on facebook/instagram sounded like much more fun. Eventually I got out of bed and walked the dogs, grabbed food for the day, and headed to the gym. I got to the gym around 6:30am and did 45min on the stair master at level 9. I’m noticing that level 9 doesn’t seem as hard – next time I will up it to level 10. I like small increments when it comes to the stair master because a small increase seems like a huge one especially when the high intervals come (yikes!! My old smoker lungs can’t handle it – HOLD UP – yes, I used to smoke. I quit about 7/8 years ago but I still feel the effects when it comes to high intensity cardio like intervals or when I’m trying to sprint on the spin bike).
After my workout I had a chocolate peanut butter quest bar and off to work I went (after the shower of course!).
At around 10am I had 1.5 of the muffins I had made the previous night (see last post for recipe!), and at 12 I had the remaining 1.5 muffins. Lunch was around 3pm, and I was unprepared as I brought two uncooked eggs – what was I thinking? – so I went to the supermarket and picked up a small package of spring mix, some Pollock, basmati rice that I could microwave and some cranberry trail mix. Lunch consisted of a handful of said spring mix, 2 pieces of Pollock, about ¾ cup basmati rice and a handful of the trail mix thrown together to make a nice sized salad.
The trail mix was probably not the best idea as I kept grabbing cranberry trail mix as snacks whenever I thought I was a bit hungry starting around 6pm.
As I was leaving work I am so delighted to see this on the table:
But don’t worry, I didn’t touch it!
When I got home around 8pm I had ¾ cup of basmati rice with 2 scrambled eggs mixed in, and then continued to snack on cranberry trail mix until about 9-9:30pm. I didn’t realize until before bed when I was writing what I ate for the day to prepare to write this out that – Holy cow I didn’t eat any veggies today!!!
Tomorrow will be better with the veggies!!
Overall my energy is pretty consistent throughout the day and I don’t feel like I need any extra coffee or caffeine in general. Fueling with whole foods (for the most part) seems to be helping with my energy levels as a whole!!
Thursday: Day 11:
I woke up at 5am rearing to go. I was excited for Body Pump, as I usually am. Because I felt woozy last time I took the morning class I made sure to have a protein shake before class. Around 5:50/6am I had about a cup of chocolate Muscleegg mixed with 1 scoop of Metabolic Nutrition Protizyme. Class didn’t start until about 6:05-6:10 so I felt like I had enough time to digest but it was probably a little more protein than needed all at one time (but oh so good!). After class I went home to shower and get myself ready for my day. At around 8am I had ½ cup of oats, 2 eggs, and ½ cup of raspberries (mixed into the oats). I really need to go food shopping, because I miss my cream of rice – oats don’t seem to sit in my stomach as well as cream of rice – but I will make due with what I have for now. After that, I cooked up some beef and rice and put together a few meals for the rest of the day and headed to work. Around 10am I was a bit hungry so I had an apple and ¼ cup of that cranberry trail mix from Wednesday. I made sure to only bring a half a cup so I wouldn’t spoon it in my mouth all day. At 12 I had the other ¼ of the trail mix because my tummy was grumbling. Lunch was between 2:30 and 3 and I had about 3oz of beef (seasoned with salt and pepper), a ½ of a 99% lean turkey burger, about ¾ cup of broccoli and ¾ cup of jasmine rice (Jasmine rice seems to digest better in my belly – the basmati rice from the day before seemed to just sit there). After lunch I seemed to be fine, but got hit with hunger pangs like no other after work. I left work at 6:45 and went home – on my way home I pass a starbucks and a GNC. I contemplated stopping for coffee but then remembered how I’d be up all night if I did that so opted for a quest bar. When I got to GNC the bars were on sale so I picked up 4 of them. I ate one of the quest bars on the way home (which to put into perspective – it literally takes me 2 minutes to get home from the GNC… the bar was gone way before I made it out of the parking lot). I got home and heated up the dinner that I had made for myself earlier in the day – 3 oz beef, 1/2 turkey burger, 3/4 cup broccoli, 3/4 cup jasmine rice and I added about a 1/2 of an orange bell pepper with 2 tbsp hummus. Here’s where things get fuzzy. Remember those quest bars? So I think I had a moment where I would have typically “binged” because between 7:45 and 8-8:15 I had eaten all three remaining bars. Logically I know this doesn’t make sense, I wasn’t hungry – But as I continue to learn about why I do things, and extrapolate information from previous experiences – I think I was “lucky” to only really have that trail mix and the quest bars available to me. I find that when I buy only one, it prevents me from doing these types of things – I’m filled and I don’t need more so I won’t go out of my way to go back to the store to buy more. But when I buy multiples – or when I buy a box of something for instance – it’s like having just the one is not the same – I “must” have them all. At least, that’s what happens. It almost feels like an out of body experience – like my logical mind is no longer in control and my “Must eat everything” mind kicks in. My goal in all of this is really to understand what drives this – what force inside me causes me to eat uncontrolled amounts of food when I’m not hungry. I could immediately go to stress or tiredness, or some emotion driven response – but I don’t feel like I was stressed, or bored, or very tired for that matter. I think the problem lies in the purchase of the product. I know that multiples are a trigger – but I bought multiples anyway, because I was really hungry. I told myself – somewhat half-assed – that I would buy more than one so I had a quick go-to snack for the following day. Last week when I bought multiple quest bars and they lasted in the house – it was because I told myself – without question – that I was buying them so that I had a quick snack throughout the week – allotting each bar to a particular day. This time I just said “yea it would be good I’ll have a snack for now and cool I’ll have something for tomorrow.” But I didn’t really commit to having a bar for the following day nor did I commit the other bars so they were fair game – or so I thought.
I don’t feel bad for eating the bars, I actually feel okay about it because I’m learning from these experiences so that hopefully they can be few and far between rather than an everyday occurrence. I still feel good, less bloated, and am full of energy! Real food = healthy & happy!
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