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31 days of clean food: days 21-23

The last few days had been busy, worked til late last night and didn’t get a chance to post so I’m posting days 21-23. Next post will be up after Christmas so I can have some time with the family. These last few days have been rough – between my stomach hurting and working long hours, plus being extra hungry and not really feeling strong or like I’m making any progress. I guess these are the downs of the ups and downs. But I know that as long as I stay consistent and focused I will be successful….. Anyways, here’s the breakdown of the last few days….
Day 21
7:30am: Tiny tea
8am: 2 eggs, 2 egg whites, small Apple, 2 slices Ezekiel bread
8:45am: I got really nauseous, am I hungry? Thirsty? I just ate, why would my tummy be so unhappy? So I had 2 protein cookies to see if that helped settle my tummy but it just made me poop (haha sorry but it did!)
Teach Bp @ 10am
11:45: 2 protein cookies, 1/2 cup granola, 1/2 cup muscleegg, 1 scoop protein
3pm: protein cookies
5:30pm: teatox tea
6pm: 2oz chicken, 1/2 cup rice, 1/2 cup green beans
Chest & leg workout @The Powerhouse Gym in Syosset NY with the boys
9pm: 2oz chicken, 1/2 cup green beans, 1/2 cup rice
10pm:Teatox tea

Today there was a bit of a wavery moment where I started to feel old feelings of binging – trying to hault them in their wake, faultered a little bit but got right back on top of things. My biggest challenge is stopping – it’s like the evil guy on my one shoulder is telling me that I must keep going or something bad is going to happen. But I know that’s not true, the only bad thing that’s going to happen is me getting fat and totally going in the wrong direction.

Day 22:
Teatox: 7:30am
Breakfast: 9:15: 2 eggs, 4 eggwhites, 2 pieces of Ezekiel bread
11:30: Apple
1:30: 4oz chicken, 1 cup green beans, 1 cup rice, trail mix
2:30:Tea
Got stuck working, didn’t have a chance to eat – wasn’t too hungry though so it wasn’t too bad.
7pm: 1/2 tea
7:45: sweet potato chips, organic cocoa nibs and 80% dark chocolate pieces, macro bar, steak and veggies from whole foods salad bar
9:30: 1/2 tea

Day 23:
6-7am body pump
6:30-7am: 1 cup muscle egg, 1/4 cup oats, 1 scoop MN
9am: Ihop- Harvest grain pancakes, eggs, turkey bacon (I’m aware this is not EXACTLY whole foods… But I was starving, and I didn’t work my normal time today, so I had a “cheat” because I was hungry, and had the opportunity to be a real human and go out for breakfast with my husband)
9:30: tea
2pm: steak & sweet potatoes
2:30: tea
4pm: steak (like 4 cubed pieces)
8pm: Apple
Got stuck with a patient between 9-11pm, I was falling asleep – and when I left I headed to Walgreens – probably a bad idea – when I’m tired and hungry and not on all cylinders I tend to fall into old habits. I tried to pick some decent options
11:30pm: trail mix, chiaPoo, turkey wrapped in a whole wheat wrap cut into small pieces – actually looked more like a taquito cut into sushi roll pieces…. Got home and ate my chicken, rice, and green beans
12 am: Tea

….

Overall the last few days have not been my best. And as I’m writing this on Day 24… I’m not feeling very good. I’d like to ring out the remainder of the month feeling great about my whole foods endeavor. I’ll tell you that I definitely found new foods that I like, and have done lots of soul searching. I hope over time this healing process brings about positive change. I’d really like 2015 to be MY year!
Let’s go!

31 days of clean foods: day 20

Woke up and weighed in – it’s been about a week and a half so I figured I’d check on my progress. Up 3lbs…. I think that goes to show you a diet soley based on trail mix and quest bars is probably not the “ideal” so I will be better this week. I know I’m not doing this to lose weight, but I was hoping to lose some fat and get a bit tighter. Also, I feel very bloated today, so I dug out my TinyTeatox herbal tea by Your Tea and since I have 16 days left of tea, I decided I’d add this to my routine for the next two weeks. It can’t hurt right!? Even if it just gets rid of the bloat. I’m also thinking about changing my training a bit. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Monday: fasted cardio in the AM, legs in the PM
Tuesday: body pump for the next two weeks in the am but after the new year: full body circuit in the AM followed by chest/abs in the PM
Wednesday: fasted cardio in the AM, back/abs in the PM
Thursday: body pump in the AM
Friday: fasted cardio followed by body pump followed by spin in the AM and shoulders in the PM
Saturday: fasted cardio in the AM, at home full body circuit in the PM (since I’ll be working on Saturdays for a few weeks)
Sunday: teach body pump in the AM, arms in the PM
I know it seems like a lot but I feel like I haven’t been lifting until the weekends- with the exception of a 1 hour class on Tuesdays and body pump on Thursdays. I really love lifting, so I don’t know how I moved so far away from my daily lifts.
The plan for the second half of the month is really to tighten up my diet – more real food, utilizing bars only if I’m on the go and don’t have time for a full meal, and getting my lifting back into the mix – if that means two a days, then so be it, because I really love it – so why not do what you love? I think if I can really prep my meals right I can get 3 solid and full meals of 4 oz chicken, 1 cup greens, and 1 cup rice which should be a good starting place for a future prep – I’m still working on that….
Anyways, here’s what today’s food looked like:
Woke up: 7am, morning vitamins by 7:30, tiny tea with a squirt of honey from mr honey bear at 8am
8:30: 2 eggs, 4 eggwhites, two slices of Ezekiel bread
11:30: 2 protein cookies
1:30: tiny teatox tea
2pm 4oz chicken, 1 cup green beans, 1 cup rice
3pm: 2 protein cookies
5-7pm: shoulders
8:30 Tiny teatox tea
9: 1 egg, 4 egg whites, 3.7oz baked chicken breast, 1 cup green beans, 1 cup rice, 1 protein cookie
I know you’re wondering what these protein cookies are well, I found this recipe that sounded really good – I’ll post it tomorrow – but it was basically protein powder for the protein source, I used granola for the fat and some of the carb source, and whole wheat flour for the remainder of the carbs. They were a bit too yummy, and I think I may slow down on baking anything for awhile. It’s ridiculous, but when I make things like this it triggers something in my head – almost like having too many quest bars around – it’s like I have something preprogrammed in my head that says if I don’t eat it all now it will somehow disappear and won’t be there tomorrow… This all takes time, it takes time and I have time and I’m going to keep working to conquer this thing because I’m better than an eating disorder….. I am determined, and my determination is going to conquer I know it!

31 days of clean foods: day 19

December 19th, day 19:
What may just be my last “free” weekend for awhile, I decided to sleep in a little. I woke up around 7:30-8. I headed to body pump with a protein shake in hand which consisted of 1cup muscle egg, 1/4 cup oats, 1 scoop of metabolic nutrition Protizyme protein, and 2 tbsp pb2. When I got to the gym around 8:30 I hopped on the stairmaster for about 15 minutes on level 15 to get in a quick fasted cardio – according to the machine I burnt 200 calories – cool beans! Then, before body pump I made sure to drink my shake. Pump was from 9am – 10am, followed by a half hour of spin. I got home around 11, and prepared my post workout meal – I was really hungry, so I had 1 cup green beans, 1 cup rice, 1 serving of fresh cut sweet potato fries, 2oz chicken and 2 eggs. After this meal I had some errands to run, but I was super tired, so I headed out to try and get everything done in one shot so I could just rest the remainder of the day. While I was out I picked up some organic beet chips – which had beets, corn flour, and salt as ingredients, and some quest bars … Here we go again with the quest bars. At around 2 pm I had some of the best chips with hummus and 2 of the quest bars .. The thing is, they are tastey but don’t really fill me and when I’m not at work I have no control – I mean I do, but I don’t – and I eat and eat. That’s the whole point of this process though, right? So, anyway, at 3:30 I had another quest bar (thankfully I only bought three) and at 5 an apple. Realizing I had only one full “meal” of whole foods and with a grumbly tummy, I decided around 6:30 to have 4oz chicken and 1 cup of white rice.
This held my tummy pretty well but I was getting sleepy. I decided that my last meal would be around 9pm and would consist of a 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup muscle egg, 1 scoop Of metabolic nutrition Protizyme protein, and 2tbsp of PB2. I cooked this up to make a cake-like consistency a which was quite dry, but tasted good, as always.

Nothing like a little #vominabowl to finish off the day!

Tomorrow I reflect on my training schedule, attempt a new “plan” for the remainder of the 31 days, and start thinking about what happens after the 31 days.
So, stay tuned!

31 Days of clean foods: day 18

Day 18 was like any other, woke up at 5am and headed to the gym for Body Pump. About 10 minutes prior to pump I consumed a small apple, 2 eggs, and 1 slice of Ezekiel toast.
I felt good during pump, I had energy and really felt strong.

After class I headed home to get ready for work. At 8:30am I had 1 cup muscleegg, 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 cup raspberries, 1 scoop Metabolic Nutrition Protizyme protein, and about a TBPS PB2 mixed together to make a shake. After my shake I headed out the door for work.
Work wasn’t a very busy day, which is unusual, but my food intake started like no other. By 12 I was hungry so I split up my lunch and had 1/2 cup rice, and about 2oz chicken. At 2:30 I went to lunch and had the rest of my lunch which was 1/2 cup rice, 2oz chicken, and 1 cup green beans.
Here’s where things got rocky… We were done with our appointments, so I got bored…. Between the hours of 3-5pm I consumed about 1200 calories of trail mix…. Yup, that wasn’t exactly planned for. I literally fell into one of the binge eating disorder comas where you eat and eat with total disregard… You know the kind that I’m trying to learn more about why this happens so I can stop them or at least try and prevent them… I also only has 2 liters of water all day, which is minimal since I’ve gotten back on my gallon + a day water habits again.
I know boredom was a huge factor, but I’ve noticed there’s also a trend in trail mix and quest bars. You’ll see on day 19 I continue the quest bar trend – but more about that tomorrow.
I want to start trying to add another 2-4oz of chicken, 1/2 cup of rice (or more) and veggies into my daily intake – maybe having more full meals will keep me away from all of the grab and goes.
After work I went home and had 1 cup rice, 4oz chicken, and 1 cup green beans at around 7:30pm. By 8:30 my husband and I went to my jobs holiday party – I didn’t skip this one, but I made sure to eat before I went!
My husband ate which was fine, I had a glass of water and enjoyed the company – I wasn’t hungry but there was pizza in front of me, I looked at my husband and said “I want a slice of pizza” he said “stop” and moved it away from me. I thanked him and we continued with out night.
It’s so important to have a support system. I’m so thankful for my husband, because I may have made some sort of excuse as to how that pizza was “whole” and had a slice just because it didn’t have cheese, but I wasn’t hungry – at all – so I’m glad he was there to move it and support me!

So I talked yesterday about how I would talk about my new hairstyle… When I was younger I always did what I thought was socially acceptable – Id always stay out of the lime light, I was the kind of person who was quiet, and sat on the side lines. Too much attention and Id hide away until the attention was no longer on me. I was a big self conscious mess, until I met a few very integral people who have helped shape me into the person I am today. I am still uncomfortable sometimes in large crowds or when there’s too much attention, but at the same time I challenge that uncomfortability and I welcome it most times. The biggest example is when I teach body pump – I honestly do my best when I have a large class – give me a room full of people to focus on me and I turn into a confident instructor! How does this relate to my hair? Well, a few times in my past I’ve done a few big things with my hair that caused people to pay attention – the first being in 10th grade when my mom died my hair pink for Halloween and it never washed out – for weeks Id cry myself to sleep because I hated getting made fun of. “Halloweens over” they’d say… Yea, well the pink won’t wash out, what do you want from me?!?! I’ve cut my hair to my chin and put colorful streaks into it in my early 20s and then when I was 25 I cut off my mid-back length hair to a pixie cut – with shaved out sides and all. Now, 28 years old – trying to grow out my pixie, I decided I hated how it looked and it was time to do something drastic – if I didn’t have a real day-job Id go even more drastic but – I really think this is going to be my “signature look” for awhile. So, I express myself with my hair – I’m spunky, edgy, and have an air of “badass” around me. Don’t get me wrong – I know i’m not capable of a lot, and I’m continuously working towards getting better everyday, but I am confident, something I never used to be. And although sometimes what others say affects me, overall I don’t give a fuck what people think and I am going to push forth towards my goals whether the general public agrees with what I’m doing or not!

31 Days of Clean Foods: Day 16&17

14 days left. Yup, 2 weeks – but I feel like I don’t want to eat junk anymore – I have no cravings, although being so restrictive has it’s downfalls – in today’s world it is possible, but it’s not easy to eat whole all the time. Maybe it’s because I’m still new, only 17 days into this that I find it still difficult to have anything “fun” while staying whole. I’ve faltered a little here and there – it hasn’t been perfect, but I feel much better overall so I suppose that’s a good thing and the point to all of this! Here’s how the last two days have gone:

Day 16-
Woke up 5am and had a Quest bar at 5:45. Hit the gym from 6-7 for a class that consisted of bands, kettle bells, and plates. Then I headed home. I had breakfast at 8am which was 1 cup oats. 2/3 cup muscleegg (almost defrosted), 1 scoop MN, and 1 banana and then headed to work from 9-7.
At 11:30 I had an apple and some trail mix, at 1pm I had trail mix and some cauliflower dipped in hummus, and I had lunch pretty late at 4pm which was 2 pieces of steak, 1 cup of green beans, and 1 cup of rice. At 5pm one of my coworkers brought me an organic candy cane — which I checked the ingredients and everything was organic… After I ate it, I thought “that wasn’t whole although it was made from whole foods it wasn’t unprocessed… I mean, look at it” but I ate it, it was actually pretty tastey but not crazy sweet like candy canes are, and I went on with my day. – I’m learning that when I do make mistakes I can’t completely derail and get upset with myself or I’ll never learn – at
8:30pm I had 2 pieces of steak (small thinly sliced skirt steaks), 1/2 sweet potato, handful of sweet potato chips with hummus, 1 cup green beans and 1 quest bar and at 10pm I had quest bar before bed – these quest bars are becoming a problem. I either need to limit them or stop eating them – but they are a quick and tastey go to … I think I’m taking advantage of my original allowance of them…

Day 17
I woke up late, made breakfast, lunch, and dinner and got to the gym around 7:15. Hit the stairmaster for 40 minutes, follows by a treadmill walk for 5 minutes .. I’ll be honest I was nervous because of Monday’s experience on the stairmaster. I was nervous Id get nauseous, but I didn’t. My legs got tired but I didn’t get sick to my stomach – thank god! I headed to work for 8:30 and had my Breakfast which was 2 eggs, 1 piece of Ezekiel bread, and a small Apple.
Today I didn’t write down the times like I have been so here’s what I remember: between breakfast and lunch I had a pack of trail mix (there’s a theme here with this trail mix….) I had lunch at around 1:30pm which consisted of 1 cup rice, 4oz chicken, and 1 cup green beans. Then at around 3 and 4 I ate more Trail mix. I left work just after 7, headed to get my hair cut and got a quest bar on my way home at around 8pm. Got home around 8:30 and had dinner by 9 which was 1 cup rice, 4oz chicken, 1 cup green beans. By 10 I was hungry so I had 1/2 cup oats. 1/2 cup muscleegg and 1 scoop MEtabolic Nutrition Protizyme protein with a sprinkle of almonds on top.
I was supposed to go to a holiday party for the gym I work at tonight but I totally chickened out – mostly because of food…. No good. I was nervous that id be going to this fancy restaurant and not being able to eat or knowing how to order to match my challenge this month. My goal is to have a healthy relationship with food so that means also being able to handle these types of situations. I have another holiday part on Day 18… Which I will not be missing — but it’s also with my regular job — of people who know my diet restrictions and won’t pressure me or care if I eat or not.
–still learning–

31 days of clean foods: day 14&15

December 14th. Day 14.
It was a slow Sunday – nothing was really planned but I felt a sense of energy that I hadn’t felt in quite some time, so I decided to get up for fasted cardio. I got to the gym around 9am and I hit the stairmaster at level 9 – which was almost too easy – but forgot I had done level 10 the last session so in hindsight it makes sense. I had a meal replacement shake provided by the gym at 9:45 and then I went in to teach Body Pump. The group consisted of 13 people, 13 strong, athletic people. It really felt good, had them working really hard and they worked me just as hard. After class I was going to head home when I decided I still had energy and I wanted to capitalize on that so I did a 1 hour legs workout concentrating on hamstrings (my weakest part of my leg) followed by a 20 min handstand practice – it’s been awhile and that was clear for the first few tries but I’m getting stronger in my core which is making the “liftoff” easier!
After I finally decided I was spent, I headed home. At 1 pm I consumed 5oz chicken and 1 cup white rice. I wanted veggies but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat them so I decided I would just hold off til later. At 4pm I had 4oz chicken, 1 cup white rice, and 1 cup broccoli (yay! Finally veggies!). At 4:30 the hubby and I headed to the gym to get in about an hour and a half of arms – which consisted of three major supersets of Bicep curls with Dumbbells and the bar, Tricep dips, tricep pushups, pull downs, concentration curls, hammer curls, and wrist extensions — that’s not in order that’s just a few of the exercises we did!
After the gym we went food shopping, and by 6:50 I was feeling a bit hungry so I grabbed a quest bar.
For some reason I really wasn’t that hungry after all that working out on Sunday so for dinner I had 1 cup of organic chocolate milk – my muscleegg is defrosting so I bought that chocolate milk from the local farm that I bought in the beginning of the month – 3.6 cocoa nibs (organic and only had 5 ingredients – all of which were in plain English and consisted of real foodstuffs) and 1 scoop of metabolic nutrition Protizyme protein.
Around 10pm I finally decided to hit the hay after a long and exhausting – but fun day!

Monday, December 15th. Day 15:
As with every Monday I woke up at 5am. I thought about sleeping in but decided I’d only get another hour to sleep which isn’t worth it so hit the gym. I got to the gym by 6:30 after making breakfast and lunch and putting together snacks for the day which includes an apple and those cocoa nib thingys. Got to the gym, feeling energized and hit the stairmill – level 10, 45 minutes. But something happened mid step.. With 18:10 remaining a wave of nausea hit me like a ton of bricks and by 18;04 I had to stop, breathe deep and take off my sweatshirt. In the almost month and a half that I’ve been getting in at least 3 days of fasted cardio in a week, I have yet to have to take off my sweatshirt…. I quickly recovered from my nausea and got back to it. But with 3:36 seconds left it hit me even harder and I started looking around for the nearest garbage pail. What the hell is going on? I stopped, held my towel up to my mouth, downed my liter of water and told my body to cut the shit. I finished my 45 minutes, with a 2 minute cool down on the stairmill and an 8 minute walk on the treadmill. I’m confused about the reason for this feeling – the ONLY thing I did differently this morning was not have my morning vitamins with the C.G.P. Like I normally do. About a week ago I stopped adding Spark to my morning drink because I realized I didn’t need the extra energy – only adding it when I really needed it. Could the lack of creatine monohydrase really be the reason for the overwhelming nausea? I’m going to have to keep close tabs on this one that’s for sure….

Here’s how the day went with food:
8am – morning shake – 1/2 banana, 1/4 cup oats, 1 scoop MN protein, 1/2 cup chocolate milk, 1/2 cup egg whites, drizzle of muscle egg – it’s still defrosting so I used the chocolate milk and egg whites to mimick my muscleegg
9:50: quest bar
12:30: 3oz chicken, 3/4 cup broccoli, 1/2 sweet potato, 1.5 cocoa nibs
4: Apple, 1 cocoa nib
7:30: 3oz chicken, 3/4 cup broccoli, 1/2 sweet potato, 1 cup rice, organic sweet potato chips with hummus
8:45: banana, 1 cup chocolate milk
Here’s the 7:30pm meal:

Check out my Instagram @pugs_and_pushups for more on this meal….
Overall I felt alright as the day went on. Stomach was still a bit unhappy throughout the day up until that dinner. I have a feeling that I haven’t been eating enough for the amount of training I’m doing, plus I didn’t really eat dinner on Sunday night.
Let’s see how I feel tomorrow….

Halfway there — and overall the 31 days isn’t half bad…. Follow along as I finish up the rest of this month strong!!

31 Days of Clean Foods: Day 12 & 13

Friday, December 12th. Day 12.
At 5am I woke up, got to the gym around 6:30 and hit the stairmill at level 10 for 45 minutes. Once done with my cardio I headed in to work. Around 9am I was starving so I had 1/2 cup oats, 8 oz muscleegg, 1/4 cup of raspberries, 1 scoop Metabolic Nutrition Protizyme protein mixed together in a shake. Work wasn’t too bad, not too busy which usually means I get hungry sooner, but given that I hadn’t eaten right after cardio like I should have, around 11:30 I grabbed an apple. For some reason this apple had me full for awhile because I didn’t eat lunch until 3. Lunch consisted of 3 oz of beef, 3/4 cup jasmine rice, and 3/4 cup broccoli. Yum! After work I headed home for another meal which happened around 7pm and consisted of 3 oz beef, 3/4 cup jasmine rice, and 3/4 cup broccoli again! (I really love me some jasmine rice). Around 8:30pm I had a handful of trail mix that really only had seeds left in it and two spoonfuls of almond butter.
I’m feeling good about my food intake, but I miss lifting. I feel like all I’ve done this week is cardio. I can’t wait till tomorrow and Sunday because this girl is going to pick up something heavy!

Saturday, December 13th. Day 13
Wake up time today = 7am. Pretty soon after waking up I made a shake that consisted of 1/2 cup oats, 8 oz muscleegg, 1/4 cup of raspberries, and 1 scoop Metabolic Nutrition Protizyme protein. After my shake I headed to the gym for the surfer abs class from 8am-9am. This class utilizes core exercises that aren’t just plain ol’ crunches. We do all different types of planks/pushups/and plyometrics to really engage the core. I like doing different types of exercises! Anyhow, after the class I decided to hit shoulders – doing a very DLB-(Dana Linn Bailey)-esk type shoulder training that involved giant supersets!
After the gym I headed to the deli and got my breakfast. So, around 11am I had 2 eggs, one slice of organic cheddar, and a slice of turkey with a pint of mixed fruit.
Lunch was at 1:45pm and consisted of 1 turkey burger, 1 egg, 1 cup green beans, and 1 sm/med sweet potato. Around 4pm I had another shake with 1/2 cup oats, 8 oz chocolate muscleegg, 1/4 cup of raspberries, 1 scoop Metabolic Nutrition Protizyme protein (this is becoming a weekend favorite). Then we headed back to the gym to hit back. I hit some serious weights and by the time we got home I was quite literally – exhausted. So around 8pm I had about 4 oz of turkey, salad greens, corn, beans, rice, and 1 cup of veggie soup.
Not to far after this, I fell asleep – like into a dead, you can’t move me, kind of sleep… It felt good….. I guess I really needed the rest!

31 days of Clean Foods: Day 10 & Day 11

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!

31 days of clean foods: day 9

Today I woke up 5am, I had a shake with one scoop of metabolic nutrition protizyme, 1 organic banana, and about 1/2 cup muscleegg before heading to the gym for my workout. I got to the gym for the Beach body burn groupX class at 6am. The class didn’t really get started until around 6:10 but we worked hard from that point til about 6:55am. Class was hard, 25lb plate squats super setted with front leg raises. Side leg raises with weighted plate, bear crawls, a lot of Burpees, frog jumps, etc. It was challenging but most definitely not the hardest thing I’ve done – that’s okay though, I always enjoy the Tuesday class.
After class I went home to shower and get ready for work. On my way out the door, around 8:30am I had 2 eggs and 2/3 cup raspberries. I got to work at 9am, and it didn’t seem like it was going to be too bad of a day.
Around 11 I got hungry so I had 1/2 cup pistachios which held me over until lunch where I had 4oz chicken breast, 1 cup green beans, 3/4 cup jasmine rice at 2:30/3pm.
We had a meeting at work from 6-8pm so I had about 5carrots and hummus while everyone else are breaded chicken and pasta that my job provided for us.
Around 8pm I left work and by 9 I was really hungry so I had 3/4 cup jasmine rice, 4oz chicken, 1tbsp hummus, and 1/4 cup almonds.
-At around 9:45 I decided I was going to try to make some protein muffins. To make them I used

2 organic bananas, 2 scoops of Metabolic nutrition Protizyme, 1 cup oats, 1/3 cup muscle egg
Use food processor to squish bananas to make a paste, add other ingredients and mix
Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 15-18 minutes
Makes 6 small muffins

When they were done I ate 3 of them, leaving 3 for tomorrow at work.

31 Days of Clean Foods: Day 8

“It’s Monday… It’s day 8, and it’s back to work. I feel like I haven’t gotten any break. I’m tired, and really not working off all cylinders at all. I must be strong, but I’m pretty sure it’s days like today – nothing totally crazy, just tired and overworked, without a chance to really catch up – that I fall off – but not today, I’m going to do this, let’s go”

Positive self talk this Monday Morning… It didn’t go exactly as planned but, work (thank god) wasn’t too stressful – it was actually like a real regular day at work. We even got to leave pretty much on time AND got a full hour break! I was tired though, and that showed when I got home, but I made it through the day at work. Here’s how it went down:

Skipped the gym because I was super tired so I forced a rest day. (Hardest part of the day!)

9am Oatmeal, almond butter, Metabolic Nutrition Protizyme protein

12:30pm- chicken, sweet potato, squash&cranberries& onions, with 6 roasted Brussels sprouts.(this was from whole foods. I chose items that had 5 ingredients or less on the list provided at the salad bar)

3:30- 1/4 cup almonds

6:30- Apple

7:30 6oz roasted chicken, 14 baby carrots, 2tbsp hummus, 1 med sweet potato

8-9 coconut organic macaroons

So – about these organic macaroons. I went to stop and shop after work looking for a snack (BAD IDEA) and I found these three ingredient “organic macaroons” they literally had like whole wheat flour, egg whites and coconut. I shouldn’t have gotten them despite being 30calories each – because I know that I have a problem, but I suppose that’s what this is for right? To learn triggers and recognize things like this to learn and not do this again? So, although they were 30 calories each, I had 6 before I even got home from the super market. By the time I went to bed I had eaten all but 5, and decided – “let me just eat them all so they are gone and I don’t have to look at them in the cabinet and eat them tomorrow” …

This is NOT a new thought – but I was tired (I know, it’s not an excuse) and I started falling into an old habit. After I had eaten them I thought about it and realized what I had done. I realized that by eating all of them, whether “healthy” food or not, it wasn’t healthy to have eaten them. If you eat 100 10 calorie items you’re essentially eating 1000 calories…. Now, I know my goal with this 31 days is to stress less about calories and counting and all of that, but I think it’s important to also notice trends and triggers and pay attention to things like this. What if those macaroons were – say, a pint of ice cream – one spoon turns into the entire thing and before you know it you’ve consumed 900+ calories and you’re not even full because the food you chose is not whole, or fiber rich. Sugar is not filling. So in essence you’re not satisfying hunger – but something else – boredom? Some other emotion? I think what I was doing was making an excuse – whether consciously or not – because I was tired. “Well I’m tired so I can eat this” of course I CAN but I don’t want to, so I shouldn’t have since my goal is to not only make healthy food choices but to also make healthy mental choices as well.

Learning from my mistakes – or better yet, learning from my experiences so that future experiences are better in line with my goals!
What did you do today to move in a positive direction, to get closer to your goals, and what did you learn in the process??