Insanity Max 30, Knitting, and Other Odds and Ends

I've spend some time over the last few weeks getting back to me. What does that mean? I have no idea, but I've been doing it. 

Over the last week, I have been up at 5 am, which is just an ugly hour, to work out. I decided on Insanity Max:30. I love Shaun T and find him funny and very motivational. He inspires and does the workout to, so it is kinda nice to watch him get his ass handed to him while I get mine handed to me. This has reduced my food cravings. In the food world, I have worked toward balance. I am enjoying my meals, my wine, my coffee. But I am focusing on moderation with the 21 Day Fix food plan. I am rebuilding my relationship with food. This means, I'm eating good, healthy foods. MOST importantly, I'm not beating myself up for not being perfect. The result this week? Less food stress, more working out, and clothes fitting loser. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: I stepped on the scale and NO MOVEMENT and I was damn pissed. BUT, I measured, compared and saw inches move down. Dont trust the scale. It LIES. Reduction in inches dont always happen early either. BUT, in my case it did. It was a reminder to me to focus and be happy, results will come. 

In getting back to me, I guess I should let you know I knit. I LOVE to knit. And I'm pretty good at it. Not outstanding, but good enough where my stuff fits when I make it and I'm pretty proud of it. It had been a while since I knitted. I picked it back up in December to reduce stress and it is working. I made a few gifts for the holidays and now am finishing up some socks (hope this week) for me. I have planned 2 more projects and have set goals to do 1 project a month.

In other news, work has kept me stressed, which is why working out and knitting have been great stress reducers. I am planning a trip in the beginning of March to see my parents. A mini 2 day cruise and a tattoo is planned for then as well. In between all this is my masters program. 

I'm feeling like I'm on the right path. I have amazing support. Every day is better.

Vacation is Coming!

I am heading on vacation to Sandbridge, VA on Saturday (outside of Virginia Beach). I'm excited but am trying to keep in mind balance. It is vacation so I know there will be some drinks and high fat foods. That means it is up to ME to balance it. Here are some ideas that I will use on vacation. They may also help you when you go.

1. I'm bringing precooked steel cut oats. I'm cooking them and putting them in a large Tupperware. Also bringing apples and cinnamon. Healthy breakfast for me!
2. I'm bringing my tablet. There will be wifi at the house and I can use Beachbody On Demand to get my work outs in. I am not bringing weights so I can do P90x3 or Cize, and yoga (there are many others but those top my list right now)
3. Tracking my food. Yup, food journal is coming. This way I can track my healthy and unhealthy options. I'm real. I will have small amounts of some things. I won't deprive myself, but keep it in balance.
4. I will continue to keep up with my challenge group. Why? Because just because I'm on vacation does not mean I can't be accountable. Besides, by using my challenge group, I can ensure I'm not falling off the wagon completely and eating the wagon!
5. Have something green with every meal. Not just green, but colorful. Any kind of veggies will do. But don't forget to eat them on your trip. I won't!
6. Have fun! It is vacation!!!

I will do my best to keep you updated on my awesome adventures!!

Meal Prep Monday: Zucchini Bake - A Kitchen Adventure

Meal prep Monday. What are you making in the kitchen? Me? Well there is the usual of steel cut oats, meatballs. I have fruits like bananas and apples, and I also have veggies like carrots, green beans, and zucchini bake. What?? Yup I make something new. I love zucchini so I picked a recipe from Fixate. It makes 4 servings and now I have some super awesome veggies for the week. Here it is below:

Zucchini Bake

4 servings

2 green, 1/2 blue 1/2 tsp

Ingredients:

4 zucchinis

2 tbs lemon zest

1/3 - 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp oregano

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbs olive oil

Directions:

1. Quarter the zucchini

2. Mix lemon zest, thyme, oregano, cheese, garlic, salt and pepper 

3.  Brush zucchini with olive oil put in baking dish

4. Sprinkle with mixture

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 mins

Take out and enjoy!!!

Want more recipes like this? Send me a note and I will get you set with more!

Meal Prep Monday - A Kitchen Adventure! Zucchini Chips:

Well, its that time again! Time to cook with me!

Last kitchen adventure, I posted a recipe from the Autumn Calabrese cookbook, zucchini chips. Well, this week, I made them as part of my meal prep. Some things to note:

1) WATCH THEM! We have some skinny little zucchinis here and I used one. The recipe says 2 hours, mine could have done better at an hour and 15 mins. Some were supa crispy BUT it did not take away from the taste. I strongly recommend them.
2) smaller zucchini means more in my serving. My 1 little sad zucchini turned into 1 serving.

Here is the recipe again in case you missed it

Zucchini Chips from Fixate
Containers: 1 Green and 1/2 tsp

Ingredients:
2 large zucchini, very thinly sliced
1 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 225 F
2. Place zucchini slices in one layer between paper towels to help draw out liquid
3. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper
4. Place zucchini slices on parchment paper
5. Brush zucchini with olive oil and season with salt
6. Bake for 2 hours, or until golden brown and crispy
7. Cool completely before serving

You can also try different seasonings like Parmesan (that is what I did), red pepper flakes, pepper, BBQ seasoning, Mrs. Dash....really whatever you like. Play with it some.

As usual, I also made oats and am still rocking some leftover meatballs from last time. I also have 3 more servings of the mac n cheese. I need to learn not to be scared of the grill since I want to make some chicken kabobs with pineapple and veggies.

Mouth, Body, and Mind

When we think of health and wellness, we tend to think of nutrition and exercise. Yes, this is a big part of getting healthy. But there is one more thing that needs to be added, and that is the mind. Let's explore more about this trifecta.

Nutrition
Food. How we love to eat. According to the Journal of American Medicine, about 78.6 million Americans are obese. That, my friend is a lot of people. We have so many food choices from fast food to comfort food and home cooking to any cultural food we want. With all of the options out there, why wouldn't we partake in all of the food. We don't want to miss out on the good stuff. When people think about getting healthy, they seem to think health food has to be bland, boring or just plan gross. Sorry friends, that is false. Nutrition is an important part of health and wellness. We need to eat good, clean, nutrient rich food most of the time. Everything should be in moderation if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Generally, I will say aim for 80% clean healthy foods and 20% other.

Exercise
You can't undo a crap diet. You just can't. You cant workout all day to burn off that burger (see moderation above). Exercise should be incorporated in your health and wellness plan 30 minutes every day. I'm not talking hard core exercise every day, but a mixture of different levels. One day go for a walk, another do a class, try yoga or a cardio class, you can workout from home to (that is what I do most times). The idea is to balance exercise with your nutrition.

Mind- and here is the good stuff
This one is a little more abstract. For nutrition and exercise to fall in place, you also need a healthy mind. This covers everything from why is it important to mental health in general (I'm talking things like depression, low self esteem, sadness, anger, and even happiness). You see, in order to keep you moving in the direction you want to, you need to believe that you CAN do it and have a positive mindset. Let's face it, it is not easy to change. Sometimes you need help (professional and non-professional) and support from friends and family. Sometimes you need personal development that you can find in a book or by journaling. I'm an avid reader and have found a few books that have really helped. Developing yourself and taking the time to work on you can help with changing negative mindsets. (I will include book reviews on personal development books as we go along as well.) At the end of the day, your positive mindset and belief that you can do it will help you meet nutrition and exercise goals (see, they do tie in).

Why did I share this with you? Because for you to meet your health and wellness goals, you need to feed all three. I will post a lot about exercise and meals but you will also see me post about things that make me happy. I invite you to share with me some of your favorite meals, exercises, or just things that feed your mind and make you happy.

References:
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

A Kitchen Adventure - Meal Prep Monday, Fixate, and 6 Recipes

Its Meal Prep Monday. I know what you are thinking, This girl is in the kitchen WAY more than anyone who hates to cook is in the kitchen. I'm surprised too. But there are 2 very good reasons for this! First, I need to prep my week to make sure that I stay on track. Second, I just got the cookbook I have been waiting for!!! Fixate is the new cookbook by Autumn Calabrese and it is full of healthy meals, 101 of them to be exact. Of course I'm going to test some out this week.

While there are a lot of recipes in this book that I want to try for breakfast, I'm leaving them for my weekends when I have more time. Things like chicken and waffles (yup, that will happen), chocolate crepes, and omelets. As normal, I prepped some oats for Monday - Friday (cuz I love them and they make me happy and fill me up).

Snacks will include my usual Shakeology (and yes, I have some new recipes to try with that too), and fruit.

The main events? Open faced meatball sub and mac n cheese with broccoli and chicken. Oh yes, this book has HEALTHY MAC N CHEESE! (I did green beans since broccoli and I are not friends.)

What stunned me was there are recipes for cake, cookies (raspberry-filled cookie bites that will happen too), and skinny cocktails. Everything in moderation and you have a healthy balanced diet. For me, who kept making the same foods, it is a game changer. Especially since they are easy and require little work. Want a few samples? Click HERE. Pineapple chicken skewers are on my to do list along with zucchini chips and ice cream (Yes ice cream).

As you can imagine it works well with 21 Day Fix. It also works great all by itself. If you want to get your hands on this cookbook, let me know and I will help you. Just send me a message.

A Kitchen Adventure - Turkey-Veggie Meatballs

Time for a new kitchen adventure!

I've been looking for things OTHER than chicken. Don't get me wrong, I love chicken, but I love to mix it up some. Today we will talk about meatballs. This is one of my favorite prep and pull meals. Here is how you add it to your menu.

Turkey-Veggie Meatballs
Serving size - 2 balls
21 Day Fix: 1 green 1 red 1 blue

Ingredients
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 red pepper chopped
1 onion chopped
1 cup spinach
1 zucchini
seasoning

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 350
2. spray tin
3. split veggies 4 ways and zip in the blender
4. mix in 1 red of meat (3/4 cup) and a blue of cheese (1/3 cup) and season (this holds it together)
5. split and roll into 2 balls and put in the muffin tin
6. bake for 40 mins or until done

Now what? You can toss it with pasta, put it on a sandwich, or a wrap. You can also serve with more veggies.

Binge Eating and Personal Development - The Hunger Fix - A Journey Through A Book

Something you may or may not know about me: I am a binge eater and a food addict. There it is in all it's ugly glory. I have always been embarrassed about this. I never talked about it. I never shared it. I would eat a small amount in comparison others because I was so worried about my size and them seeing me eat. When you are the biggest one of all of your friends, you notice, and they did too (I'm sure of it). Again, it was never really talked about. I would eat at home. I would hide food in my room, junk food of all kinds. I hid my food and my guilt. It was not until the last few months that I finally started to address it. For me, it is embarrassing, but if I am going to get better, I have to address it. How? I started to really look into it and read up on it. I needed to get under the problem. Address it head on. By working on my personal development, I grow as a person and learn more. That, my friends, is where I started. This brings me to The Hunger Fix by Dr. Pam Peeke. I first heard about this book when I was listening to a podcast by Chalene Johnson.

Food addicts exist, and worse, it is a scary drug. DRUG? It's food. Yes, that is what makes it scary. Food addicts get a hit of their drug every day. You HAVE to have food to live. While other drug addicts can go to rehab and get away from it, food addicts cannot. They use false fixes to help them feel better. It affects the dopamine in the brain (something I had no idea about). This book talked about taking that false fix and making it a healthy fix and using other ways to get that "fix" and get the happy centers of the brain to work.

This book had me do activities. Video journals, written journals, foods I like verses food I would eat on a binge on my worst days and the calories that go with them. This book really opened my eyes to what I was doing to my body. It also had personal stories from people who suffered and are in continued recovery. The book also explained it is easy to fall back to old habits and the importance of being vigilant. It walked me through different stages and steps to take. It also gave different recipes that were healthy and balanced.

There are some important tips in the book that I have been doing and have learned in the last few months of doing Beachbody. I want to share them with you because I've been there and am working on bettering myself.

• Surround yourself with positive supportive people
• Get rid of the junk in your house
• Get rid of your trigger foods
• Get moving
• Balanced food + intentional exercise = weight loss 
• Be present in what you do. This takes away mindless eating
• Quality, Quantity (portion control), and Frequency (eat every 3 hours) are important

It's not easy. I will NEVER say it is. There are programs out there to help you. I found the one that helps me and I work with others to help them as well. The journey of recovery comes with lots of rewards. I coach because I can relate. This book helped me to work on myself as well as ignite a passion to help others. If you are struggling, reach out to me. I'm happy to help and support you in your recovery. Read the book.

Book Rating: Read it! Contains information on how the brain works and how to apply that to recovery. 

Menu Planning

Let's talk about clen eating. I would say I eat clean 80-85% of the time. Some days, I rock out at 100% but not every day. That being said, eating clean is not about reinventing the wheel. I used to think clean eating was way too hard. I couldn't even pronounce qunioa. And do I really need to eat veggies?!

I am a firm believer in keeping it simple. So, I thought I would share what a day this week looked like.

Breakfast: 1/2 cupSteel cut oats, 1 apple (chopped cinnamoned and warmed), 2-3 pieces of turkey bacon
Snack: Shakeology (pudding with peanut butter)
Lunch: Caprice turkey burger, no bun, tomato, cucumber and basil salad,  1/2 banana with peanut butter
Snack: watermelon
Dinner: whole wheat pasta, chicken, veggies

Nothing really hard right? I don't cook every night. Mainly because the hubs cooks. When he works, I cook for me. Here are some tips for a good menu that is healthy without the crazy amount of work.

• Frozen veggies are my friend! Quickly measure and heat.
• Pick a day and prep. I do all my cooking for the week (breakfast and lunch) on one day. Makes the rest of the week grab and go. Bonus, frozen veggies need no prep!
• What do you like to eat? I'm sure we can find a healthy version to it (most times)
• KEEP IT SIMPLE

Here are some examples of things you can cook that are in frequent rotation on my menu.

• Pasta: Whole wheat or quinoa. Cook, portion, and toss in the fridge
• Baked chicken: seasoned, lemon rosemary, chicken parm...so many ways to bake chicken. Portion and stick it in the fridge
• Roasted veggies. portion and put in the fridge
• Burger (turkey, beef, chicken.....make an extra and put it in the fridge)
• Pork chops
• Pork tenderloin
• Oatmeal
• Fajitas
• Meatballs
• Zucchini chips
• Stuffed peppers

I usually pick 1 or 2 main dishes for lunch or dinner during the week. It works. If you need help menu planning for something you like, let me know. I'm always happy to help!

Zucchini Pizzas: A Food Prep Kitchen Adventure

Its food prep day again! Time to get my week planned for healthy eating. As you well know, I hate to cook. I keep it simple. I had no idea what to make this week that was simple and healthy and did not contain chicken. Why no chicken? Cuz I'm all chickened out! I need some variety. So without further delay, here the plan for the week:

Breakfast
I'm a creature of habit. I love my steal cut oats for breakfast. I made a big vat of it again and have enough for 5 days. The other 2 will either be Van's multigrain waffle OR egg, cheese, spinach, and turkey bacon in a wrap.

Lunch

Lunch is a hard one for me to come up with. I had to make some decisions and I really have been wanting some pizza. I decided I will have caprice turkey burgers (2 meals) and zucchini pizza coins
(2 meals). The recipe for my zucchini pizza coins are below.( I doubled it to get 2 servings. Really, the sauce is an estimate, it really didn't take much.) I'm thinking the last day will be a cuke, tomato, basil, feta salad. I will tell you about it later this week. It's pretty far out and that last one may change pending dinner left overs. Weekend lunches tend to be a quick thrown together meal of left overs from dinner throughout the week.

Snacks
Fruit is a staple for me. I got some apples, bananas and watermelon for the week. I also have carrots and hummus.

Dinner
So, I'm sure you realize that I hate to cook by now. (Have I mentioned I hated it?) I'm lucky in that my hubs likes to and cooks dinner. Most dinners are healthy. We normally have some form of meat, a carb, and veggies. I make sure I stay balanced in my meals. Since I follow a specific eating plan, I measure and make sure that I am within what I need to eat.

Zucchini Pizza Coins: When you want pizza but not the carb.
1 serving 1 green 1/2 blue 1/4 purple

Ingredients:
1/2 Zucchini sliced thin
1/4-1/2 cup of Tomato Sauce (home made or low sugar)
2.5 tbs of  (or 1/2 blue if you are doing 21 Day Fix) Shredded mozzarella cheese or parmigiana
Seasoning (pizza seasoning, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, whatever you like on your pizza)

Directions:
1) Place zucchini coins on parchment paper and brush or spray with olive oil and season

2) Place under broiler until start to get golden
3) Flip, olive oil, season and broil until start to golden
4) Add sauce and cheese and put back in the broiler til melty goodness
5) EAT

Don't want coins? Make the zucchini a boat! It will make more than a serving but you can cut your zucchini in half and trim the bottom so it sits flat. You just need to brush the tops with olive oil and season. I recommend baking them at 400 degrees for a little and then adding your toppings. Toss back in and back some more until melty goodness. It can take between 10-15 mins to cook. Leave them in longer or broil a bit for more crisp.

Food Prep...a Kitchen Adventure - Tacos

I'm going to put it out there. I hate to cook. There I said it. I just hate it. I find NO joy in it. But BOY do I love to eat. Sprinkled throughout the blog I will add some of my favorite recipes and (some made by others) where I....GULP...cook.


Why do I do it? Well, food prep is important in my healthy and fit journey. Yes, working out is great, but real health starts in the kitchen. You can quickly undo a workout by grabbing chips or something else quick. If you are ready and prepared, there is a better chance of grabbing something yummy and healthy.


Today, I prepped. I made a weeks worth of oatmeal, turkey taco meat (courtesy of a recipe I found online that I tweaked a little), there are always carrots and veggies in the house for a quick salad snacks and of course, hummus.
















And now...here is that taco recipe:
(makes 4 servings) 1 red 1/2 green if doing 21 day fix

Ingredients:
1 pound lean turkey meat
1/2-3/4 zucchini minced
3/4 bell pepper minced (I used an orange one)
1/2 onion minced
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt (or to taste if you need to watch for salt)
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 cup tomato sauce or salsa (I've done both...today I used sauce)
1/2 cup water ( like some juice in mine....if you want less, do 1/4 cup)

Ingredients

Directions:
1) Brown the turkey meat
2) Add spices, water, and sauce or salsa
3) Mix in onion and pepper and zucchini
4) Simmer for 20 mins on low
5) EAT

Simmer time

Done!

What to eat with this? Its a choose your own adventure!
....put it in a hard taco shell
....put it in a soft taco shell
....put it in a lettuce wrap (anyone watching carbs?)
....put it in a zucchini or squash boat (hollow out and stuff, toss in the oven and cover with cheese)
....put it in a salad

What will I do with it? I see a salad, lettuce wrap and soft taco shell in my future :)

Enjoy!
In Health!