November Goals

I know it's already 2 weeks into November, but I finally figured out my goals for this month!  Here they are:

• Stick to Half Marathon Training Runs

I've been alright so far 3 weeks into my training, but I'm still slacking.  I need to make sure I'm getting all 3 runs in each week or there's no way I'll hit my goal time for the race in February.

• Crossfit at least 5x a week

This is one of my goals that I've been really good at keeping!  

• Stick to nutrition challenge rules

I've had WAY too many cheat meals than I should be!  Other than the cheat meals I have been doing quite well.

Do you have any November goals?  How are you going to stay strong through the Holidays?!

And On The 7th Day, She Cooked

"If you fail to plan, then plan to fail."  

Such a TRUE statement for anything in life, even your diet.  That's why I am always cooking food in advance if I know that I won't be home for a meal.  Sometimes I have a big cooking day, like Sunday's or I'll cook during my class breaks in the week.  I don't usually cook these massive, amazing concoctions.  Usually it's just ground turkey, chicken, and some sort of meat in the crock pot as well.  I'm a pretty simple kinda girl.  I don't like to put a lot of time or effort into my meals, so it usually ends up being meat and a veggie or salad.  If I can mix it all together into one dish...YIPPIE!

Here's a pretty common example of a meal.

Cooked ground meat, sauteed veggies, mix together, and TADAA..AMAZINGNESS :)

For some reason this week though I was channeling my inner Rachel Ray.  The first two recipes are based on different ones from PaleOMG.  If you haven't checked out her blog...DO IT!  The first one was egg muffins.  I put one whole, beaten egg in a muffin tin and sliced up a piece of bacon inside of it.  You can honestly put anything you want with it- veggies, bacon, cheese, etc.  I just think bacon is the BOMB DIGGITY!  Next, I made a turkey dish.  I baked cooked ground turkey, hot sauce, and sweet potatoes...yummy in my tummy.

Egg Muffins:

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

Beat one egg and pour into muffin tin

Mix in any other ingredients you want

Cook for 10-15min (or until eggs are no longer gooey)

Turkey Meatza..maybe:

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

Shred a whole sweet potato

Place in Skillet and cook with Coconut oil for 5min

Add in Ground Turkey and cook until turkey is completely cooked

Add 1/4 cup Hot Sauce

Coat turkey and sweet potatoes evenly

Pour mix into a baking pan and place in oven

Cook for 5min

The next thing I decided to bake is based off of Bare-To-Bake's recipe for peakaboos.  I exchanged some ingredients to make it paleo-acceptable.  

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees

Mix 1/2 cup coconut flour (next time I'll use less), 3 whole eggs, 1tsp of baking soda, 1tsp vanilla extract, cinnamon (to taste)

Place evenly among muffin tins and cook for 10-15min (will still be gooey in center)

Cut in half and place a nut butter (I used cashew) and stick back together

Top with more cinnamon!!

When I went shopping on Sunday, I decided to try something new that I have been seeing on Facebook, Instagram, and LOTS and LOTS of blogs: Kombacha Tea.

I had the mango one.  There is also plain and a chia seed one.  It's pretty good, but it does have a little bite!

So, do you need to make all these meals and spend all this time making meals for the entire week??  No, but make sure every day you know exactly what you are going to eat. Whether you are eating at home or some where else; YOU NEED TO HAVE A PLAN! With that I will leave you with a picture of my scheduled cheat meal this past weekend: FROYO..mmmmm

Whole 30 and Moving Forward

PREFACE:  I’m writing this on my plane ride back from New York, so I’m sorry if I start ramble, but sitting still drives me nuts, so I just keep thinking of things to talk about!  Give me a break, I had 7 hours to kill!

Alright, so I didn’t make it 30 days of the Whole30 Challenge, but I made it further than 21 days.  Which is apparently the magic number; if you can make it at least 21 days you are usually good to go.  Let me tell you, it is SO true!  I honestly have not felt better since taking out the gluten, grains, and cutting way back on fruit.  I went against everything I thought eating a lot more fats and meat, but man do I feel AMAZING!  I feel like I work harder during my workouts because I’m not worrying about stomach pains or bloating I used to get from eating all those supposed “necessary pre- and post-workout carbs.”  Am I saying that carbs are bad? Am I saying that you shouldn’t eat bread or pasta?  Not necessarily, it all depends on what works for YOU!  Personally, I noticed when I started running long distance my stomach became more sensitive and it seemed like NOTHING I did could fix that.  I tried eating “all natural”, “low fat”, “sugar free.”  It wasn’t until this Whole30 that I truly understood what all those cute little categories meant:

All Natural: “everything we put in our food is natural.”  Does NOT mean it is good for you.  If you check some “all natural” foods it will still have hydrogenated oil or those nasty -lose ending ingredients, which are usually fake sugars that make you bloat.

Low Fat: “low-no fat.”  Did you know skittles are technically “low fat,” but would you eat them? 

Sugar Free: MY FAVORITE haha.  They don’t contain sugar, BUT they contain those pesky fake sugars that can reek more havoc on your body then the real deal.  Sometimes your body has a harder time digesting them and that’s why you end up feeling bloated and gassy. 

So why did I cut the 30 short if I am so pro-Whole30?  Well, in case you don’t follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I went to visit my boyfriend this week in New York for his last home series (yes, he’s a baseball player..love my boy of summer).  Monday-Wednesday  he took me out for really nice dinners after his games.  He wanted me to get some really good hearty meals in since he knows I try really hard to eat “clean.”  Now, before you say anything about “he should be supportive of your healthy eating.” BLAH BLAH BLAH.  He is, but every once in a while he likes me to let loose and just enjoy myself.  I did!  I didn’t go hog wild the whole time I was out there.  I would eat really good during the day, workout (workouts below post), go watch him play, and then indulge at night.  

What I learned the most from indulging?  I no longer have an emotional attachment to food, like I used to.  Don’t get me wrong, the food was DELICIOUS, but I wasn’t all giddy or excited when I ate the food and I didn’t kick myself afterwards.  Instead, I ate until I was no longer hungry and then pushed the rest to the side.  Those 21 days really allowed me to just focus and re-teach myself to use food as my fuel.  I learned how to eat around my workouts, so that I was properly fueled and I wasn’t eating things just because I had a craving for it.  

I know you’re next question: where do you go from here?  What do I do now that I’m finished with my Whole30?  Do I go back to eating like I did before?  NO WAY!!  I plan on staying paleo and just adding some things back in, like the occasional piece of gum, almond milk, and coconut flour to bake with (when I get the initiative haha).  I honestly do not miss bread or pasta anymore.  I don’t crave sugary drinks or my energy drinks.  I actually had one of my favorite energy drinks this week to give me a boost one of my boyfriend’s games and for the first time I realized how AWFUL energy drinks taste.  It tasted like metal against my tongue and I was no longer a fan.  I actually was craving my dark roast, black coffee!  The front desk got so used to me coming down for extra coffee that they had it out before I even asked (gotta love good customer service).  

Moving forward my diet is going to look like this because there are somethings I still want to tweak.  I want to try and keep my fruit intake to once a day, maybe two when I have a heavy cardio AND weight day.  I also want to keep my fruit intake mostly from berries and melons.  I also want to start making my plates half protein, half non-starchy veggies.  Have a cheat meal once a week or every other week.  

I have still a little ways until I reach my physique goal, but for once in my life that is no longer my main goal.  It no longer fills my every waking moment.  It finally hit me, “why am I worrying so much about my physique,” this vacation.  My boyfriend never has anything to say about my physique turning him off or wishing I looked different.  Why shouldn’t I give myself the same respect as he does?  

What I gained from all this?  A challenge for September (and I challenge you all to do the same)!!  

1. Love myself every day!  Whether it is replacing every bad comment to myself with a positive or giving myself a break on a stressful day.

2. Eat paleo 90-95% Why only 90-95%?  Well, we’re not all perfect and damnit I want a cheat meal every once in a while ;)  

1. Plan my meals for the week and cook (as much as I can) on Sundays.

3. Drink more water!  At least half a gallon a day.

Well, I think that’s about enough writing for today and I’m sure you’re trying to figure out when my rambling ends, so here you go....THE END.

PS: here’s my hotel workouts!  Also, you may notice that they’re a little easier than usual and you’re exactly right!  I wanted to back off a little from my intensity, focus on my form, and let my body recover a little so I can (hopefully) ROCK my 5K on Friday night!  Don’t think for a second though that if you do these RIGHT you won’t be sore.  I was definitely still sore, but not the sore that makes it hard to roll out of bed.  Rather the sore that keeps me coming back for more!

SUNDAY: Ran 4.5 miles before getting on my plane

MONDAY: 4 rounds:
20 backward lunges Overhead (2 10# dumbbells)
10 pushups
20 Kettlebell Swings (25#)
15 chair dips
TIME- 9min

Sprints: 30secs on, 30secs off increase incline every minute
TIME- 14min

Tabata: 8 rounds (20 sec on, 10sec off)
Squats

TUESDAY: 4 Rounds:
15 burpees
25 squats
35 situps
TIME- 11:45

Tabata: 8 rounds (20sec on, 10sec off) 3x

Burpees
Situps
Pushups

WEDNESDAY: 5 rounds:
30 Kettle bell swings (25#)
25 squats (2 12.5# dumbbells)
20 overhead lunges (2 7.5#)
15 push presses (2 12.5#)
10 burpees

Arc Trainer: 30min

"Cheat" and Off Days..and some more

So I have learned from my trainer that everyone needs a day off or a so-called "cheat" day.  Where you ignore your diet and your workouts for one day a week.  It allows your body, mind, and muscles to totally recoup from the weeks workouts and get ready for the upcoming week.  It also allows your to "cheat" on your diet, so that you don't go completely crazy from being so strict with yourself.

Of course, I have been making myself participate in these days and most the time I embrace them, but there are some days (like today) when I feel guilty about not working out or sticking to my diet.  Am I the only one with these thoughts??  Which is why I try and remind myself that these days are not making me weaker, but making me stronger.  I know it is because this thursday when I was at training we took measurements and I have put on 4 lbs, but lost inches everywhere.  Which means I'm losing fat and putting on more muscle- which I'm TOTALLY okay with.

This putting on muscle reminds me of a few blogs/facebook pages I have found and am completely inspired by.  One is "Strong is the New Skinny" and "Girls Gone Strong".  I love these because they are all about promoting women's strength as beautiful and sexy.  They aren't showing pictures of anorexic looking, 90lb, 6ft models.  They're applauding women throwing up weights with the guys, completing marathons, and living life to be healthy and happy.  I'm so glad that these are becoming a more common sight because I grew up short and stalky because of my genetics and never thought anything was wrong, but everyone in all the magazines and other places said you had to be extremely tall and skinny to be pretty.  I noticed very young how it affected young girls because I was in dance class growing up and girls when I was 10, 11, and 14 were talking about how they needed to lose weight and were too fat...REALLY???  We didn't even have boobs yet and girls wanted to go on diets?  That's why people like the ones running the blogs/facebook pages from above inspire me because I don't want little girls to ever think like that or if I ever have a daughter I never want that to run through her mind either.  These two pictures (from the mentioned pages) really explain the need for us to praise the strong, healthy women over stage models, not just for us, but for girls still to come.

Well enough with that rant...my last subject: expanding my name and contacts with the fitness/ nutrition industry.  Like, I had mentioned in a previous post I want to start spreading my name out in the fitness community, so first off I am going to be a spin instructor starting next month (CAN'T WAIT) and until I can actually start personal training once I get my certification I have started this blog and now have a twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/HardbodyMaureen...so please "follow" it and share this with people you think might like it!

Til next time!

Mo