Something weird happened today…

“Something weird happened… I walked around stop and shop and had no desire to buy or eat anything that wasn’t a whole food or considered clean”

This morning I had to substitute teach Body Pump at 6am for one of my friends so I had a banana on my way in (I’m really trying not to workout completely fasted). When I got home I had 1 egg, 1/2 cup egg whites, and 1/2 cup Brussels sprouts with a squirt or two of ketchup (finally a photo!)  

 
Around 11am I was starving but knew I didn’t have any quick snack with me so I waited, but around 11:45 remembered I had thrown an Asian pear into my bag! So I chowed down on most of the pear – until my tummy felt better and then I headed back into work.

At 1:30 I had lunch which consisted of about 4-5 oz of chicken breast and about a cup of green beans. I added butter because there was nothing on either and it was totally flavorless.

At 4:30pm I had a grapefruit with a packet of stevia in the raw – I ate the whole thing since I didn’t have the half at breakfast due to time and, well, I’m not eating a grapefruit in my car! 

As I was leaving work (around 6:45pm) I decided to have 1/2 of an Italian cookie because one of my coworkers said they were the best she had ever had – it wasn’t that good so I didn’t finish it. 

Then I headed to go teach another body pump class and stopped by CVS to pick up a thing of laughing cow Swiss cheese. I ate one block and headed into class (7:30pm). After class I ate one of those really long cucumbers with two more of those laughing cow Swiss cheeses (9pm). Cucumbers and LC Swiss (or cream cheese) are probably one of my favorite snacks! 

Since I had yet to eat dinner I decided to head into the super market.  When I got there something weird happened… I walked around stop and shop and had no desire to buy or eat anything that wasn’t a whole food or considered clean. I bought an organic butternut squash soup, a honey Chobani yogurt, an organic almond bar, and a can of peas … I don’t know why but I wanted peas! 

When I got home (9:30pm) i had the butternut squash bisque soup and ate the small can of peas mixed with some shrimp (don’t judge me).  

I only had one moment today during work where I wanted to eat junk – it’s something about my work environment that makes everyone seek bad food. After I allowed that to pass I felt much better. Today was overall a good good day despite eating a bit more fruit than usual. I feel good and I’m interested to see if the food cravings continue to decline as I choose more clean/whole foods!

Sweets everywhere😓

Today was the first day back to work after 4 days off – so you can imagine that I was less than excited to get back to my routine. Despite cookies and holiday goodies still making their way around the hospital (I work for a very high paced specialty animal hospital that seems to moonlight as a junk food safe house during the holidays) I kept my distance. Here’s how the day looked:

Breakfast (around 8am): 1/2 grapefruit with 1 packet stevia in the raw, 1/2 cup egg whites and 1/2 cup shaved Brussels sprouts with a squirt of ketchup on top

Snack (around 11): 1/2 grapefruit  with 1 packet of stevia in the raw and the rest of the quinoa salad from yesterday which was probably about 1/2 cup.

Lunch (1:45pm): leftover chicken from last nights chicken stuffed peppers wrapped in lettuce wraps – probably had about 6 or 7 smal wraps

Snack(5pm): a handful of shrimp and a cup of green beans with a little butter melted on top  

 probably the most boring snack but I really like shrimp so – boring is where it’s at!

After eating this snack I tasted a small piece of a brownie that had been staring at me all day – I was happy with the small piece and didn’t go back for more.

Dinner(8:15pm): I didn’t feel like cooking so I headed to whole foods and got some ginger carrot bisque (soup) and vegan stew. I was also really craving peanut butter so I found these 5 ingredient organic chocolate peanuts butter Minis –  

 I had no idea organic chocolate that literally has 5 ingredients could be this good! Have you tried these!?  Not too shabby! 

In other news I sent out 4 clothing items that I sold from Facebook today! Who knew! Probably everyone, but I thought it was kind of cool that I could sell cloths that are just sitting in my closet! When I was there I asked the cashier for holiday stamps – they are to send my Christmas cards – and this is what he gave me  

 Lol! So my belated Christmas cards will have Hanukkah stamps! Oh well! Haha
Overall I felt good today. I definitely felt deprived around that second snack – I didn’t want shrimp and green beans, I wanted to eat the whole brownie, but I was proud of myself for choosing the green beans and shrimp while only having a small piece of the brownie… I’m sure in time this will get easier. Woke up with a little headache – I wonder if that will subside once my body is used to eating whole foods most of the time. 

What treats do you allow yourself?

Do you find it hard to say no when there’s treats everywhere? What is your fail safe plan?

Food journal: the beginning

I mentioned this morning that I was starting a new plan. The plan consists of eating mostly vegetables and lean protein. I’m not counting calories or macros because in my experience doing these things tends to exacerbate my binge eating disorder. So, without further ado – here’s what I’ve eaten today. 

Woke up: around 7-7:30am

Breakfast (around 8:30am) : 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/4 cup shaved Brussels sprouts, squirt of ketchup, 1/2 grapefruit with 1 packet of stevia in the raw 

Taught Body Pump 10am-11am

Post workout Snack (11:30am): venti cafe americano 1/2 grapefruit with 1 packet of stevia in the raw, 1 cup quinoa salad with cranberries and cashews

Lunch (3:30pm): shrimp, eggs, salsa, and shaved Brussels sprouts mixed together in salad boats and two organic carrot sticks  

 

Dinner (7:20pm): 1 yellow pepper stuffed with shredded chicken, onions, green peppers, and black beans, topped with shredded taco cheese and 2tsp guacamole

 

  1. Snack (9pm): 1 med banana with 1tbsp nut butter 

Thoughts:

As I round out my day, I reflect on what I’ve eaten today and how I’ve felt. I feel like I could add more veggies to my meals – but I wasn’t really hungry. My main carb sources were eaten before and after my workout and I felt good throughout. I didn’t feel overly hungry or feel the need to search for food. My only real craving was for the banana but mostly because I’ve walked past them all day. I stayed pretty busy most of the day despite being home. I sold some clothes online and washed dishes. I also spent some extra time playing with the pups and laughing at Louie (my cat) who decided it would be fun to fall asleep in my laundry basket  

 Silly boy.
It’s been an overall good day with no real thoughts of binging. My focus has shifted from needing something to work towards – some event, competition, race, etc – to wanting to lose some extra weight to be happy with my own body and be healthy. I feel this will both be good for myself but also for my clients – to see that I’ve struggled but have managed to focus on myself and heal myself before putting any extra or excess stress on my system by doing anything drastic to lose weight for some other reason other than health!

Do you struggle with finding a balance between weight loss for health and weight loss for some idea body image?

What is your favorite healthy recipe?

What is your favorite vegetable?

Spending the day with my pups & new diet plans

Today has been a pretty standard day – woke up, walked the dogs, watered the Christmas tree 🎄, and ate breakfast. Breakfast wasn’t too standard though … I’m trying someone “new”!!

 

Breakfast today was 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/4 cup shaved Brussels sprouts, 2tbsp shredded taco cheese, 1/2 grapefruit, and a packet of stevia in the raw. This “new” plan I’m trying seems so obvious – focusing on eating mostly plant based foods, some lean protein, and limiting high carbohydrate processed foods – but as someone who has been trying to recover from binge eating disorder it’s taken a lot for me to get to basics rather than trying to yo yo my way  back to a healthy weight. 

As I mentioned, the basic principle to this plan – which is “the skinny” but I won’t call it that because of the implication of that word – is to eat whatever you want, BUT you must have a serving or two of vegetables before. The idea is that you fill up on veggies, then lean protein and by the time you get to the carbs you may take a bite or two but you’re too full to finish. As you can imagine this is a bit more complicated than that and that’s why there’s a book about it – but I guess the point here is that I tend to make nutrition so much more complicated than it has to be.  

 
The book describes different options and gives a very clear discription of how to eat  – and surprisingly it is a lot of volume. What really got me what just that – the volume! I’m what you’d call a volume eater – I’ve never done well with diets or nutrition plans that are super restrictive. What has drawn me to this book is the simplicity – and the statement that you can literally eat as many vegetables as you want – fill up on veggies, then lean protein – snack on veggies all day – you can never eat enough veggies. 

Now, the drawback for me is that I am not a huge fan of veggies, but I’m open to learning how to cook with different vegetables and maybe I can learn to like something other than green beans and Brussels sprouts! 

As you can imagine the plan is pretty low-carb for the first phase – but if you ask me, I feel that if you listen to your body you can play around with the carbs. What I like about it is there’s no need to count – eat as many veggies as you’d like – you can probably eat an entire cup or two of veggies and be full and only accumulate 30-50 calories where the same cup or two of cake would be 300-500 calories (or more) and you’d be hungry right away.

As I get further into eating more veggies I’ll try and post some recipes, if you have a favorite recipe please share below!! 

On another note I’ve made it a priority to spend time with the fur kids  …

 
Played tug of war with charlie and even got Louie to play a bit with the laser pointer (Louie doesn’t usually play with me much).

 
Miley has never been a big fan of playing with others, so she’s just been hanging out by my side as I’ve enjoyed some play time with the boys.  

 

The rest of today is pretty much going to be full of relaxing and enjoying my last day off before the week starts – it’s really freeing to know I can begin a healthier eating style without a whole lot of stress – recovery isn’t easy but it’s much easier when there’s less emphasis on what you can and can’t have and more emphasis on eating more healthfully!


What are your plans to get back on track after the holidays? Why wait?

What are your favorite vegetables? Share your recipes!

 Do you struggle with an eating disorder? Have you had trouble staying true to a healthful diet plan due to your history? My dogs help keep me calm – what do you do to take the pressure off of yourself?

Spending more time with my pets…

I don’t write about them often, but for those who know me, my pets are more like my children – an extension of who I am. When I started this blog I wanted to bring my love for fitness and my love for pets together. It’s a work in progress – as is much of my life – but I’d like to really explore this more in the coming new year. 

As a licensed veterinary technician I understand what it means to care for a pet, I see love and loss on a daily basis, and when I get home I sometimes don’t give my “kids” the attention they deserve.  A lot of times I think this is because work gets me pretty burnt out – on long emotional days, it’s hard to come home and allow my mind to be present. 

During the holidays this year I find myself reflecting on this and trying to figure out how I can make it better. Have you ever been sitting on your phone and your pet jumped up and tried to get your attention!? It happens to me on a daily basis. I think about how I can give them more attention while still feeling connected to the world — and then I realize that I’m not feeling connected at all when I completely disconnect from those who are most important to me. 

This holiday has had me spending a lot of time alone – without the accompaniment of human interaction. In reality though, I’m not alone because I’ve been with my pets – which has got me thinking that I don’t spend enough time with them – really paying attention to them… 

So, in 2016 I plan to not only write more about my own pets, but bring more pet related topics to this blog – and eventually maybe even discuss how to stay fit and healthy with your pets! 

   
   

I’ve decided not to compete

Over the summer I wrote about my road to recovery with my ankle fracture, but the reality is that I haven’t given it much time to recover. I probably took a week off after my injury, and then went back to training – pretty much back to normal. I spent about a month in the last 6 months with little to no pain in my ankle but over the last 6 weeks (coinciding with my powerlifting training) my ankle has gotten to the point of pain where now both my knee and hip are giving me issues during simple movements. I’ve also found it harder to warm up enough to get to a point of no pain and I feel that I’m compensating and using my right leg more to lift up for most squat lifts. 

The problem with all of this is that if I continue this way one of two things will happen – I will either get injured to the point that I can’t do anything, or I will inevitably cause enough damage that I won’t ever be able to reach my potential. 

So, with my teeth clenched, and my heart heavy, I have decided not to compete in what was to be my first powerlifting meet in January. 

This in no way means my dreams of competition are over – but just on hold for a bit.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m competitive and always trying to do more – but this time I need to be realistic and take note that there will be more powerlifting meet opportunities and more opportunities to master a craft such as powerlifting. I feel that if I give my ankle more time to actually heal (I’m going back to the doctor for a second opinion and will actually ask for an MRI this time) and do a bit more research to get a plan and coach that will help me reach a potential rather than trying to be a know it all and figuring it out on my own …. I will be more successful in the future.

Have you ever had to put a dream on hold due to injury? How did you cope with your decision to step away? 


Thanks for stopping by and all of your support! ❤️

Diet & workout plan

In an effort to be completely transparent, I want to share with you my plan for the next 7 weeks. My powerlifting comp is approaching a bit faster than I thought and my weight has been pretty stagnant – mostly because I have yet to really do the plan I set up. (Funny how that works 😜).
Since I have been working some weird hours, my diet has been less than ideal – so this week I have set into place an easy to follow plan that allows me to pick and choose what I want for the most part as long as it fits the description. This diet will bring me in around 1500 calories, with a plan to get to 1350 at my max defecit (rest days) and 1800 cals on super heavy days. I’ve started with two days of 20 minutes of fasted cardio with the option to increase if after a week or two my weight stagnates. 
The plan is as follows:

  
 

With my workout schedule looking something like this:

  
  

I may have a Chobani flips instead of a protein shake (because they are yummy), or 1/2 portion protein and veggies in that place just because I literally can’t stand drinking protein shakes, but I will make an effort for this to be the plan at least for week 1 and then plan to increase or decrease depending on how I feel. As far as my workout schedule, I know it’s a bit much, but my body is used to this kind of volume, and when I decrease the volume I start to gain – so I will have to just do what feels good and take an extra day off here and there depending on how I feel. If I feel good I will go straight through. As long as Monday, Wednesday, Friday continue to be my 5×5 squat, chest, DL (deadlift), then the rest will depend completely on how I feel! 
Stay tuned as I update ya’ll on progress! Ps- I have 4 days left of my cleanse – so don’t worry I’ll post an update once it’s done! It’s taken a few extra days because I’ve worked some overnights which wind up making me eat weird and take supplements at weird times so it spread out the cleanse a bit 💪🏼❤️
 

Crossfit to Powerlifting 

What I’ve learned in the last 6 months of crossfit can be summarized in one sentence: as long as you’re always working hard, you will crush your goals! 

There’s no denying that my fitness goals are always evolving, I started 6 years ago with the couch to 5k program and over the last few years have run 5ks, 10ks, half marathons, Spartans, completed a woman’s only bootcamp, became a group fitness instructor, and began crossfit. To continue the evolution of my fitness journey I venture into the world of powerlifting. To say I know what I’m getting myself into would be a bit of a stretch, but I have a lifting plan (a basic 5×5 powerlifting plan) and a macro based diet plan to get me to my goal. 

I am scheduled to compete in the Northeast Iron Beast Winter Classic in Latham, NY on January 23rd and 24th. I’ve signed up for the complete meet which means I will be competing in squat, bench, and deadlift. I will have three attempts at each lift. I am not planning to go in and win anything, I am using this meet as a base point – a place to start, to see where I can get better, to learn from those around me, and to network.

After this competition I will shift gears in my training to include more running as my first Spartan is in April. I plan to run 3 trifectas in 2016 – that’s 9 races total – and do at least two powerlifting competitions. I will continue to go to crossfit as it allows me to be an all around athlete and work on other lifts. 

As the meet gets closer I will post more about my training and diet – for now I just ask for your advice!

If you had any advice for a first time powerlifter what would it be?! 

A New Direction…

As a group fitness instructor I’m asked almost daily the same simple question – what should I eat? My answer is usually something like this: In general to eat healthy – eat mostly vegetables, berries and fruit, more veggies than berries and more berries than fruit – healthy fats and protein like salmon, avocado, coconut oils, and hard pressed veggie oils (I.e. Extra Virgin), grass fed beef and bison, cage free organic eggs, and poultry; make sure your carbohydrate source is from sweet potatoes, quinoa, or rice (in other words not processed) and stay away from or limit processed sugars and carbohydrates from a box such as cereal, bars, candy… The processing is the main factor that affects long term health…. 
The problem I’ve encountered with this advice is that I’m not following it. The majority of the time I preface this conversation with a brief sentence explaining that “honestly, with an eating disorder it’s hard for me to answer this question but… ” and then I continue with the prior paragraph.

So, after a lot of different diet attempts, and lifestyle types, I’m going to try to take it back to basics. I want to follow my own advice and once I’m comfortable eating by choosing the healthiest options – concentrating on organic, grass fed, and where my food comes from – taking away as much dairy and processed foods as I can – I will dial it down to work with whatever macronutrient profile works best for me (after some trial and error) for my activity level — but my goal here is to really go back to a basic paleo-ish  eating style with emphasis on vegetables and eating whole, clean foods.

What is your favorite meal? How can you make this meal healthier? Can you add vegetables to your current diet? What would that look like for you?   

 

Barbells For Boobs

Yesterday I participated in the Barbells for Boobs fundraiser at the crossfit box affiliate that I have been going to since May. I was super excited about this fundraiser as the barbells for boobs organization uses the money that they receive to help in the prevention of breast cancer. Breast cancer affects so many people and anything that we can do to help in the prevention is totally worth it.

  
My gym, Crossfit Westchester Pelham, and our brother gym, Crossfit Westchester White Plains, got together yesterday to complete Amazing “Grace” which is a crossfit benchmark workout that consists of 30 clean and jerks for time. Men are to use 135lbs and women 95lbs and we are instructed to scale according to abilities. Being fairly new to this, I had never completed this specific workout nor had I done it with 95lbs, but my fellow members believed I could do it so I went for it – knowing the worst that could happen is I fail reps and have to strip the weight. 

Well, I completed Grace, using the Rx (prescribed) weight of 95lbs in 5min and 20 seconds and it felt incredible! I also raised 176$ towards the prevention of breast cancer – the two gyms combined raised over 8600$!! 

Donations will continue to be accepted through the end of the year even though the fundraising event is over – breast cancer doesn’t stop just because we did our workout! If you’d like to donate please head over to my donation page by clicking here! 

Such a fun event, with great people and I really can’t wait for next year!! 

If you’d like to see a video overview that’s literally 6 minutes (4of which are of me lol) with no special effects… Head over to my YouTube channel by clicking here and don’t forget while you’re there to subscribe!! 

In honor of those who donated, I promised to do 1 burpee for ever $1 donated to my page.. Well, I received $176 in donations (50$ was cash that I still have to actually post on my page but I counted it since it was handed to me prior to yesterday). So today I completed my promised burpees after I taught BodyPump. 176 burpees in 14min 51seconds.. And boy am I tired!! 

I will be posting a YouTube video to thank those who donated and showcase my 176 burpees!