My New Site

Ok, it’s official, I moved the site to a new location. From now on you can view and comment

here!

Hope you like it!

Trying out a new site…

Hey Guys!! Just for today I’m testing out a new site I was working on. I want to make sure its compatible before I switch and see what you guys like better!

Let me know if the comment function on the new site doesn’t work!

CLICK HERE TO SEE!

Counting my blessings!!

Hello everyone and hope your thursday (almost friday!!) nights are going well. I’m happy to say I had an AMAZING day! I couldn’t believe it but someone actually returned my cell phone and I get to pick it up tomorrow!! HOORAH!! Oddly though, I haven’t missed it much these last couple days! It’s been pretty nice… =)

Today was busy, but “good busy” if that makes any sense? I intended to lift before my cardio dance class (which i’ve learned doesn’t really count as exercise- I’m lucky if it gets my hr to 130)  but I pressed the snooze button a few too many times… In an effort to save a little time, I made delicious breakfast cookie last night: (1/3 c. oats, 1 T PB, 1/2 serv pro powder, 1/8 c. UVAB)

I dont know if it filled me up quite as much as my normal bowl of oatmeal, but it sure was delicious and  nice little change! (I tried hiding the bite I took lol)

After munching this down I hurried off to the gym, got about 3/4 of my weighs in and hurried off to cardio dance (today was kickboxing- aerobically it wasn’t much work at all but my legs felt like boulders from the leg workout I did before hand- bad idea- I fear my kicks and punches were pretty weak looking )

Here was my leg/ab workout:

weights: time- 1hr, 10m, cal-318, max hr- 160

cardio dance class: time- 58 min, cal-264, max hr- 138

After my class I was sooo hungry, so I rushed back home and had some leftovers: 4oz Faux Fried Chicken w/ .5 T BBQ, 1/2 c. Kashi with 1 T Fage & pinch of stevia.

Kinda boring but it was what sounded good and I was in a hurry to make it here:

Did some tanning for an hour and got my the best email ever... my phone was returned!!!

I snacked on this on my walk down: a cookie doughBalance Bar!

very tasty AND it had no Malitol!

So something I’ve been meaning to mention is malitol. A few days ago I posted a picture of one of the Think Think bars I had, which states that it “contains no sugar”. Well as Ian pointed out to me, it actually contains an artificial sweetener known as Malitol which is NOT good (especially if you are aiming for lower carb macros). Take a look at this link (i had no idea!) That being said, I’m definietly going to start reading the labels more carefully for this ingredient.

That being said, the balance bar (at least this flavor) was awesome! Plus, no malitol! AND great stats: cal-200, fat- 7, pro- 15, carb- 21

After my quick 1 hr tanning break, I walked back home, changed really quick and drove out to a random gym; I had a spin class I was supposed to attend and do a write-up on… except I was a tad late.. and got a bit lost…

So, no spin but I did make up for my missed cardio and did a quick 25 mins HIIT on their elliptical (burned another 250 cal). This gym was crazy!! You aren’t going to believe what I did after the workout…

Well, my sweay self sauntered on downstairs to a lobby bigger than the gym itself… complete with waterfalls, massage chairs, a bar, cafe…. Oh and it was a tax day party..

SOooo… I did some wine tasting (no beer for me), grabbed a few chocolate covered almonds/malt balls, some grapes/carrots/caulilower.. skipped the pizza and subway…

THEN had myself a nice little aqua-massage!

Umm.. I would like to know what kind of gym this is and if people here actually come to workout… there was also a olympic size ozone pool, spa, sauna, steam room, outdoor sand volleyball courts, racquetball, squash, basketball (all indoor courts) etc….

After this little adventure I hurried home to a quick but tasty dinner (3.5 oz tuna, 2 hard-boiled egg whites, 1T sweet & sour sauce, on top of an orowheat sandwich thin):

The sweet and sour sauce is only 35cal for 2 T and tastes awesome!! I was still full from all the snacks =)

(He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. -Isaiah 40:11)

Then I showered really fast and went to my bible study, which was awesome. Ohhh and almost forgot, I was sure to stop on the way and get my free brewed coffee @ Starbucks (which you got for tax day w/your reusable mug)

Came home to this tasty dessert, which was a repeat of last night but with 1 T Better n’PB: (fage, kashi, stevia, pb)

Soooo good!

So thats about it, here’s my macros (not counting my little wine and choco treats): macros were good again!

cal: 1424

fat: 30.94g / 18.91%

pro: 161.18g / 43.79%

carb: 137.32g / 37.3%

Have a wonderful friday! I’m going wine tasting tomorrow, should be fun!

Lost.. and not found.. (yet)

Hello all my lovely fellow bloggers. Today was filled with many ups and downs:

Up’s:

-Got to meet another amazing new blogger, Maggie, for an early-morning bicep/tricep/delt workout!

-Had a sunshine filled day (no rainboots required) =)

-Finally got a hold of our Kinesiology center and got an appointment to get my body fat tested using 3 different methods: dunk test, hydrostatic & skinfold, for a total of $10!!! How awesome is that? No more crappy scale with inaccurate numbers that change every 10 mins.. my scale is completely useless, as are most bf testing scales in my opinion. Thoughts?

-Got an important form signed (been trying to get this one signed for months now)

-Had some really tasty eats, AND managed to hit my macros (about time LOL)

-Started designing a new blog layout.. woo hoo! =D

Downs:

-Lost my cell!!!! In all the years I’ve had a cell phone (since middle school), I’ve NEVER lost or broken one… until now. Well it’s a pretty sad story. I had a 10-min break between classes today and laid down the grass to enjoy the lovely sunshine and the tasty protein bar I had packed.. Somehow in that 10 min span my cell fell out of my bag… fast forward 2 hours later and I leave class, realize my cell isn’t in my bag, go to the lawn, realize cell phone went MIA. UGGH! I’m staying optimistic in the hopes someone will turn it into the Lost and Found!! Say some prayers for me!!

-Luckily that was the only big down today and seeing as how the ups outnumber the downs, I’ll keep smilin =)

Now for some of my eats:

-Breakfast: (the regular protein oats, minus the psyllium husk. I noticed I’ve had some stomach aches the last few days… not sure if it’s correlated but its one of the few changes I’ve made so I decided to cut it out and reintroduce next week to see if the husks are the cause)

-Post-workout Shake: (1 serving eas vanilla whey, 1 cup UVAB, 4 strawberries, stevia, pinch guar, ice). I’m really loving this new powder.. Thanks costco for giving me 6lbs for $30!

After, I ran off to meet a friend for our weekly coffee and was starving for lunch when I got back, so I decided to have the leftover spaghetti squash from last night (5ish oz, 4.75oz cooked ckn, 2oz avocado, 1T tomato paste, italian seasoning, splash of water and a laughing cow wedge) MMM.. it was delightful!

Meanwhile, I baked some sweet tater’ fries (my fav) and discovered our oven timer is broken… needless to say they were a tad crispy.. I’ll just show you the happier pre-bake and seasoning pic

And packed one of my straw-nana bars with 1T of TJ’s Pumpkin Butter (super tasty, low in cal/no fat, tad high in carbs (10g for 1 T)- conclusion: totally worth it!)

Ate this tasty guy after my first class and then lost my phone without realizing it.. walked home… walked back to school to get phone.. didnt get phone.. walked home agin..ate way past my dinner time.

But hey, on the plus side i got in some extra exercise and dinner tasted that much better LOL.

Dinner was some Faux “Fried” Chicken w/1 T BBQ sauce I had marinated earlier, just popped it in the oven and added some sweet tater’ fries and wall-a!

Ok, so the fries were a bit crispy… dont judge! LOL. I normally never burn food, it was the ovens fault this time! I picked at a few and went for round 2 of dinner: a Yog-Mix! (6oz Fage 0%, 1/2 c. Kashi go lean, 1/2 serv. vanilla pro powder, pinch stevia) SOOOO GOOOD! Definitely eating this every day!!

Bed time snack was a cold pear (i hate room temp fruit, it always tastes so much better cold!) with some cinnamon. YUM!

And for my macros:

cal- 1472

fat- 31.95g / 19.01%

pro- 164.8g / 43.57%

carb- 141.52g / 37.42%

My macros looked a lot better today, but my cals were too low.. Well hope you all had a wonderful wednesday! See ya tomorro!

Second Attempts…

Hello everyone! It’s tuesday and its nice and sunny here in california after 2 extremely windy and rainy days! I don’t know about you guys buts it’s always an extra mood boost when its sunny outside! I woke up this morning and made myself a nice bowl of Chocolate Protein Oats: (1/2 cup oats, 1 cup water, 1/2 c UVAB, 1 scoop chocolate pp, torani chocolate syrup, cinnamon, stevia, 1T psyllium husks and 1 T PB)

MMM… oatmeal always hits the spot, especially when its chocolate! What are your guys favorite Torani syrups and your favorite uses?

After breakfast, I hurried to the gym to get a workout in before my cardio dance class. Today, my workout was focused on chest and back. Here’s what I did:

In addition my dance class was one hour: cal- 337, max hr: 162

After my class I snacked on this new Think Thin Bar (brownie crunch):

(Sorry for the blurry pic of my half-eaten bar and goose-bumpy legs =) ) The bar has 0g sugar!!! Also, it has decent stats: 230 cal, 8g fat, 20g pro, 20g carb

After class I came home and decided that I wanted a really filling lunch. I decided to try making egg white oatmeal with sweet potato and flax:

Think it looks disgusting?? THATS BECAUSE IT WAS!! Eww I think this is probably on of the nastiest things I’ve ever tasted. I just can’t do the oat/egg combo, sorry guys! I would much rather enjoy the two separate, a nice bowl of oatmeal, with some tasty scrambled eggs on the side.

So I made it through one bite of that, decided to add some sf maple syrup in the hope that it would mask the flavor… NOPE, nothing was going to cover up that nastiness!

So my second attempt at lunch was this: 2 Straw-Nana Bars, topped with 1 T Better n’PB, and some turkey lunchmeat (3.25 oz):

The bars ended up being wayyyy more filling than I thought, so I saved the lunchmeat for later.

After doing some serious room cleaning and laundry folding, I made myself a DELICIOUS yet simple snack that really made up for the earlier disaster attempt at a “protein-packed” lunch.

The winning combo was my lunchmeat from earlier and 2.75 oz of avocado, all drizzled with lemon juice and topped with nutritional yeast (1T):

Wow! The lemon and yeast combo and top tasted soooo good! Try this please and tell me what ya think!!

For those of you who have never heard of/used nutritional yeast before, it has many benefits including: 18 amino acids, high-quality protein, 15 minerals,rich source of vitamin B complex which helps in managing stress levels, helps maintain a good metabolic rate, helps prevent cancer of the pancreas, and ensures healthy skin.

It’s pretty tasty sprinkled on top of a lot of different things and has a slightly cheesy flavor.

So my blog would have been posted in a timely matter, if the school had not planned a fire drill as I was typing this and eating my tasty dinner. Not to worry tho, I had my trusty earplugs (our alarms are the REALLY loud industrial ones). Here I was sitting in my room thinking I was all cool and avoiding evacuation, and the RA opens my bedroom door. Ooopps LOL. Needless to say at least I only had to sit in the parking lot for half the time!

Dinner was super tasty, I had a spaghetti squash that was just begging me to cook it up.. so I combined a cup of the squash with 3 cups of coleslaw sautéed with onion, garlic, cayenne pepper, tuna and a tasty sauce inspired by surprise, surprise APRIL, which included some tomato paste-1 T, dijon mustard (1/2 T) and cider vinegar. Then I melted a wedge of laughing cow over the top.

Now I know you are all thinking it sounds like a weird combo, but it was honestly SO SO good and really simple (minus waiting for the squash to bake… I’m not super patient). Definitely give this one a try!!

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a huge fan of broccoli slaw, which is basically just shredded cabbage with the occasional broccoli and carrots thrown in depending on the brand. It goes with so many things and really helps make the meal more substantial and fill you up without adding a ton of calories.

Dessert was quite the tasty yogurt concoction: 6oz Fage 0%, 1/2 T cocoa powder, 1 T Torani chocolate syrup, stevia,a bit of guar gum, 4 strawberries and 1 T Better n’PB. YUMMERS!!

Also, I’ve been meaning to mention this site that I found, called Body Rock. This lady has some crazy abs to go with her accent and some interesting clothing choices, but none-the-less seems to have a pretty decent site. She basically has this video fitness business and posts a new workout each day, along with a lot of other info. I haven’t actually tried any of the workouts yet, but a lot of them are HIIT style and she has a nifty little tabata timer that I really want! Check it out and tell me what you think! I can’t wait to try some of them!

Have an amazing wednesday!!

Straw-Nana Bars!

Hello everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your monday evening (actually it’s almost tuesday morning for me) =)

Today was pretty crazy for me, but good because I got a lot accomplished and even better I was able to do a leg workout and my quad did just fine. (I skipped the lunges though… I have to admit I’m a little weary of them now)

This morning I woke up and made some Protein Oats: (1/2 c oats, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup UVAB, 1 scoop chocolate pro powder, vanilla extract, cinnamon, stevia, 1 T PB)

So tasty! Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal! I think if I could have oatmeal for every meal I might actually do it! =D

After eating my tasty breakfast and getting some work done, I headed to the gym for my modified hams/calves/quad workout. Here’s what I did:

This was the first time I’ve made it to 8 plates, so I was pretty excited!!

For cardio I did 30 mins of HIIT on the elliptical.

Workout Totals: time- 1:42 mins, cal- 587, max hr- 170

Afterwards, I came home to a big Vanilla Coconut Protein Shake (w/1 T psyllium husks )and got to try out my new EAS Vanilla Protein Powder. It was quite tasty! (notice I had already started drinking it when I remembered to take the pic!)

For lunch I had the leftover sushi even thought it didn’t sound really good and I knew it would throw my macros way off for the day. I just couldnt bring myself to throw away $15 of sushi! =(

I also cooked some beets and carrots, sprinkled with nutritional yeast (1/2 T) to snack on during class, as well as a nice ripe pear:

I hadn’t had beets for a while but got the idea from April =) They were surprisingly better than I expected!

The weather was crappy so I was prepared with not only my snack but these babies as well:

Dinner was an futile attempt to get my macros where I wanted them… I needed to up the protein, so egg whites topped with pumpkin pie spice and a GINORMOUS Vanilla Pumpkin Protein Shake it was (it literally barely fit in my giant blender)

The shake was quite yummy. I used: 1/2 cup UVAB, 1 cup Vanilla Caramel Tea, 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1 serving vanilla pp, 1/2 tblsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 teaspoon guar gum, stevia and lots of ice (and topped with a little choco syrup)

Dessert was this luscious creation I had been experimenting with, aka. Straw-Nana Protein Bars!!!

Im happy to say they turned out wonderfully, and I topped it with some of the new pumpkin butter I got from trader joes! DELISH TO THE MAX!! I’m still tweaking with the recipe a bit… I kind of lost track of how long I was cooking it… and i might reduce the eggs a bit since it took  a bit long to cook. BUT, taste wise they were INCREDIBLE and super moist. You can click for the recipe and let me know what you think!!

Also snacked on some of these throughout the day… quite dangerous.. i need to hide the box!

So my daily macros were way off… darn that sushi…!

cal: 1716

fat: 40 g (20.75%)

pro: 154 (35.59%)

carb: 189 (43.65%)

This is way off for me, as you all know I want my protein to be higher than my carbs. Tomorrow is a new day tho and there will be no sushi standing in my way!!

Sushi Sunday!

Hello my lovely ladies and HAPPY Sunday! It is dreadfully grey and rainy here, but I’m still in a good mood nonetheless. All day has been CRAZY windy and the power even went out a couple of times during church. So for those of you who don’t know, I take Sundays off from working out and I usually get all my grocery shopping done instead.

So I’m apologizing in advance for a somewhat boring post today, paired with boring eats. But I will say I had some exciting grocery store finds! Also, I thought I would share with you guys a couple progress pictures.

I’ve gained some good muscle in my arms over the last month as you can see from these pics. This was all the result of a cleaned up diet that involved MORE calories, mainly consisting of more fat, more protein and less carbs. The downside is my main trouble area is my hips and lower back (just that midsection in general). I haven’t seen much difference there, but Im trying not to let it discourage me beacuse I know the trouble areas are always the last to go.

Here’s the pics (feel kinda weird posting these, but here goes! Oh and I apologize for the super fuzzy before pic!!)

BEFORE

AFTER (1 MONTH LATER)

This morning I woke up early to another oatmeal pancake topped with sf strawberry jam and 1/4 sf syrup (sorry for the lack of bf variety, im trying to get rid of these babies so I can make some better varieties):

After eating this, I had work (I work from my computer during school, which is very convenient =) ) and then church. On the way I scarfed down one of these Iced Oatmeal Raisin Luna Bars- WOW was its good,  I was really surprised!

Before I hit the grocery shopping I ate a turkey sandwich (40z) on a Orowheat Sandwich thin w/1 wedge of Laughing Cow. Boring I know, but I was late for church and at least got some good protein in!

Church was really great, just what I needed and was soon followed by the grocery shopping- which involved FOUR different grocery stores: Food-4-Less, Trader Joes, Costco, and New Frontiers (our health food store). ARRGGH! Too many but there are things I need at each and I actually skipped out on Vons. Here was my beautiful stash:

Some of my most exciting finds were UVAB on sale for $2.5 (for the big container!), EAS Vanilla protein power (6 lbs for $30 @ Costco!! – Has anyone tried this?), a variety of new protein bars, pumpkin butter (cant wait to try it!!), pumpkin pie spice, some strawberry yogurt-o’s (from traders and they look delish!), and some new veggies I’ve never tried (Kombochu squash, spaghetti squash and beets)

Overall, I would say it was a very successful 4-stop grocery trip! =D

I had a really early lunch/dinner at a new Sushi restaurant. We were supposed to try out Evo’s like I mentioned yesterday but it got postponed until later this wee. Oh well, something to look forward too!

I was kinda bummed about sushi though because it was supposed to be half of rolls like they told us when we called, but when we got our bill (which was not small I might add) it was for full price. Apparently they failed to tell us, that this half off special only included one thing on the menu. SAD days! But, alas the sushi was good. Here’s a little looksie:

Needless to say, I ordered two whole rolls for myself (this is why you don’t go out when you’re starving) and was grossly full after I got through one. I don’t know if any of you get this way after Sushi but I have no desire to eat my leftovers, but I know I’ll feel really guilty wasting them (especially since they were so expensive) =/

Well that was my day in a nutshell, sorry for the boring post today; I’ll be sure to make it up to you all with some new recipes next week!! Hope you all have a great rest of your Sunday!!

I have no idea what my macros are for the day and I don’t think I really want to know after that giant mash of sushi LOL. I do know I’m good on protein but that’s about all =) Back on track tomorrow (Oh and my quad is feeling much better- YAYYY!!)

A Change in Plans..

Hey everyone! I just wanted to start by saying how inspired I have been by all your blogs!!! I ABSOLUTELY love reading them all and discovering new recipes and hearing of everyones progress. It really keeps me on track! I cant believe how much time I’ve spent reading blogs lately LOL.

That being said, today I awoke to clouds! =( So sad… No beach for me. This morning was really nice though; instead of jumping out of bed and rushing to the gym I just took my time and enjoyed a long breakfast, a tasty cup of coffee, all while doing what else… reading all your blogs! =D

For breakfast I tried out the new Protein Oatmeal Pancakes I made last night from my Eat Clean Cookbook (I topped them with 2T of sf jam and dipped in a 1/4 c sf syrup) and a bowl of strawberries (5 oz):

They were really tasty with everything on top, but I do have to admit they weren’t as great as I was hoping. I think I’m still expecting my mom’s bisquick pancakes LOL. I did find a ton of different protein pancakes on all of your blogs tho, so I wont give up! I really would like something a little less dense with some more flavor! What are your guy’s favorite recipes for protein pancakes?

I also enjoyed a cup of coffee with some chocolate-flavored stevia drops and a 1/2 T of sugar free vanilla creamer.

Next, time for the gym… Instead of my usual saturday workout of calves/hams, I opted for a chest/delts/lower back workout so I wouldn’t iritate my quad further! Here’s what my workout looked like:

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a spotter so I wasn’t able to lift as heavy today. I was really excited though becasue I was actually able to some cardio without my leg hurting all that bad!

Here were my workout totals: (time- 1hr 54m, cal- 484)

After my workout, I came home for my regular protein shake but this time I added a splash of diet pomegranate blueberry juice. Very tasty! Along with the cold smoothie and the ice pack on my quad, I was FREEZING!

Lunch was Salmon Stew again becasue I was craving it, with an additional 2.7 oz of ground turkey, along with 3 oz of a Sweet Tater’ w/cinnamon… YUM YUM!

The rest of the day was pretty lazy since the weather was all cloudy today and nobody felt like going outside =( The good news is though, I actually did end up at the beach.. not quite the way I had initially envisioned it though. I was in jeans and a sweatshirt instead of tanning in my bikini, but enjoyed a beautiful hike with the roomies none the less. This beautiful place always reminds me of how blessed I’m to live in such an amazing town! God was having a good day when he made all this :

Came home late and STARVING and my tummy was telling me it was time for some Chocolate Protein Oats. I cooked 1/2 C oats in 1.5 C water, added in 1 scoop of Chocolate protein powder, some vanilla extract, chocolate stevia, regular stevia, and 1/2 C 0% Fage. Toppped it all off with 1T Better n’pb and some cinnamon… Heaven in a bowl!!! Just what I needed to warm up!!

For dessert some of April’s Protein Cookie dough w/1 oz of a banana:

Well that about wraps up my today, I have to wake up early tomorrow morning for work, then church and I’m meeting some friends after for this great little restaurant called Evo’s. The idea behind it is really cool, its basically an all organic fast food place. They have all the “normal” fast food but it’s all organic and sustainable. Their air-fries are to die for and they even have a ketchup bar!! Ohhh and also going to get some grocery shopping in tomorrow, hopefully I can find some new gooodies! =) I’m such a nerd; I look forward to grocery shopping so much!

My macros for the day: (cal-1590, fat- 31g, pro-148g, carb-162g)

Think I’ll make some tea and wind down. Hope you all have a fun and relaxing Sunday!

Ouch!..

Hello everyone and happy friday! I hope you all are looking forward to the weekend!! I’m planning on waking up early tomorrow, hitting the gym and heading to the beach (dont worry I got a big tub of aloe, some sunscreen and will only be only laying on my tummy) =)

Some of you were asking what macros I’m aiming for. Currently, I’m going for something around this: 15% fat, 45% protein, 40% carb. Lately my fat and carb have been a bit higher (especially the last couple days!  lol). I’m experimenting with adjusting these % and seeing how my body reacts. Also, I try to listen to my body if I feel a big urge to say have more carbs one day.

I’m thinking of doing a post/experiment soon on the discrepancies between the different methods of body fat testing if anyone would be interested? I will be getting my bf tested using 3 methods: my scale, the pinch test, and the most accurate “dunk” test. Im interested to see the variance!

Also Im thinking of posting some progress pics from the last month, but feel kind of strange putting these on the internet… LOL

The day started off a little later than usual since I had stayed up pretty late last night, doing what… I have no idea..

Today’s breakfast was pumpkin oats topped with 1 T PB:

and some homemade granola bars my sweet roommate made: (sorry the pics are blurry, had to use my phone)

After scarfing this down, I hurried off to the gym. Today was all about quads and hams. My workout looked like this:

Quads:

1. Barbell Squats on Smith Machine: (10@135, 10@155, 10@185)

2. Lunges (3 sets of 10@100)

3. Leg Press (10@180, 10@230, 10@270, 10@270)

4. Lay-down Leg Press (10@80, 10@90, 10@100)

5. Seated Leg Curl (10@60, 10@65, 10@70)

6. Stiff Leg Barbell Deadlift (10@65, 10@75, 10@85, 10@85)

Abs:

1. Side to side crunches w/med ball (4 kg)

2. Under the bridgge

3. Ball Pass

4. Hanging knee raises ( 3 sets 10 reps)

5. Reverse Crunches

6. X-Obliques <– these kill me every time

7. Russian Twists

8. Oblique Crunch

9. Single leg lift on stability ball

10. 2 Leg lift on stability ball

11. Plank on bosu w/tilt (held 1.5 mins)

(time- 1:31, cal: 387, max hr: 158)

NO CARDIO…. Why you ask??

Well my workout was going great until the very end when I was doing my lunges, all of a sudden my right quad felt really bad. That being said I think I somehow pulled the muscle in my thigh. UGGH! Im the person who avoids the doctor AT ALL COSTS! Well after looking really lame limping around the gym, I decided to skip cardio and walk home. I’m so bummed… =( Has anyone had this happen? I know I should be icing it…. I know I probably shouldnt work out tomorrow…

Well maybe it will feel better in the morning =/ Any advice??

On a happier note, back to food =)

After my less-than-stellar workout, I made my usual Chocolate-Strawberry Protein Shake w/some spinach added:

all blended up –>

(202/ 4/ 27/ 14)

YUMMERS!

Lunch today was super tasty, I made what I call Salmon Slew. It consisted of:  2.6 oz of pink salmon, 1.5 cups broccoli coleslaw, onion, shredded spinach (1.5 c), avocado (1-5/8 oz), all seasoned up with braggs aminos, cayanne pepper, some garlic powder and pepper. SO TASTY! You guys must give this a try! By the way, does anyone know on wordpress how to have links to recipes work without having to make a page for each recipe? I’m impaired on this sight (I’m sure it’s really simple) =/

(211/ 8.5 / 17/ 11)

Later, I joined my friend Christian who’s visiting from Sweden for some coffee. I got a Passion Green Tea.. my favorite!

Later, some fresh pear slices with cinnamon:

and a turkey sandwhich (4 oz) on an orowheat sandwich thin w/a wedge of laughing cow swiss cheese: YUM!

So the rest of the night was really random, my eating habits seemed really snackish today since I didnt do any cardio. For a snack I made my Chocolate-banana Protein Mousse: (i’ll put up the recipe as soon as I figure out how to make the link not a separate page) sorry!

My friends all went out tonight, but I was having one of those lazy feeling nights and decided to stay inside and cook. I have some great recipes I’m experimenting with, so I can’t wait to share them with you all soon! (get ready for low-carb strawberry-banana protein bars..shhhh)

Tonight I did make some Power Oatmeal Pancakes from my Eat Clean cookbook and some of April’s Protein Cakes:

I topped the Protein Cakes with 1 T of sugar-free strawberry jam and 1T of Better N’PB (very tasty! I swear PB makes everything so gooood!)

I cant wait to try the Power Oatmeal Pancakes for breafast tomorrow and let you guys know how they taste! I’ll be posting the recipe if they are good. Lemme tell you they def have a whole bunch of good stuff packed in one pancake!!!

Well, I’m just finishing up my night with some green tea blended with a little strawberry-kiwi crystal light.. so tasty! Have a wonderful weekend!! (and 2 dates… they are going bad.. nnoooo!)

Oh and almost forgot here are my day’s totals:

Cal: 1697

Fat: 33.125 g

Pro: 124 g

Carb: 201 g

Ok, so I was wayyyy off my macro goals. I’ve been really bad with that the last few days! Instead of my totals looking like how I want them: 15% fat, 45% pro, 40% carb.. They were more like this: 17.78% fat, 29.47% pro, 52.75% carb

Back on track tomorrow, promise!

If in doubt wear sunscreen..

Hello everyone and happy thursday!! Thank you all SOOOO much for all your sweet comments and April for helping me out all getting the word out! They all mean so much and it’s so nice talking to someone other than myself!! I cant wait to check out all your blogs that I haven’t read yet. BTW, how do you add a blog roll on the side??

I started off the morning nice and early, meaning instead of just setting my alarm for 6am I actually got out of bed at 6am! (This required 2 alarms, so I wouldn’t press snooze for a half hour like usual) Does anyone else always set their alarm 30 mins before they want to wake up??

This morning i made some chocolate-pumpkin protein oatmeal:

**So many ingredients going into one bowl. Today I tried using double the water to get a nice big bowl of oats. It worked, but took way to long since I’m usually in a rush in the morning. Back to normal oats tomorrow. Still turned out tasty tho!**

After breakfast, I headed to the gym for my bicep/tricep/cardio workout. Here’s what I did:

Biceps:

- Hammer Curls ( 10@20, 10@30, 9@30)

-Dumbbell Incline Curls (10@20, 10@20, 5@30, 5@20)

-One arm preacher curls (10@15, 10@15, 10@20, 10@20)

Triceps:

- Kick Backs (15@10, 15@10, 15@15)

-Tricep Pushdowns (10@30,15@30,5@40) <– I’ve noticed I do 1/2 the weight with this free standing machine than I do with the other tricep pushdown machine where you are seated

-Dips (unassisted: 10 reps, 6 reps, 5 reps)

Randoms @ End

- Plie Squats (10@40.10@60, 10@60)

-Overhead tricep press (10@20, 10@30)

** So if you didn’t notice on my shorter weight day like these, I like to add in a  few random exercises at the end to keep my muscles guessing and just mix it up a bit.**

Cardio:

-20 mins on stair master, 25 mins HIIT on elliptical

Workout totals: 1 hr, 29 mins / 536 cal / max hr: 172

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After my workout I didn’t have time to run back to my apartment for the usual post-workout shake, so I instead snacked on a Genisoy Protein Bar (ultimate chocolate fudge brownie flavor). It was actually really tasty. I tend to like the chewier, dense bars more than the “granola-ish” ones. I feel like they fill me up more. This bar has ok stats, a bit high on the carbs for me (240/7/14/32)

I had my cardio-dance class that I’m actually getting 2 units for! haha.. yay for having an easy last quarter! It’s not much of a workout so far because all we’ve done is “warmup” moves. I’m practically crying from boredom by the end. But on the plus side all those warm-up moves added up to another 219 calories!

After showering, I decided to take a quick beach break with my friend and grabbed some leftovers (another boring pic I know) of my Faux “Fried” Chicken (4oz) , with some bbq sauce and 3 dates (my fav!)

The beach was AMAZING by  the way, buuuuttt I was only there for 1 hour and I forgot the sunscreen =0

The results:

+ some sun = CA sun w/no sunscreen is NO BUENO!

Other mishaps for the day (quite a usual occurrence for me) included half a jar of spilled cocoa powder, as well as half a coffee in my lap:

Ok so im clumsy… I wasn’t always this was I swear! =)

After the beach and the resulting burn, the only thing that sounded good was something cold! So i whipped up another of my go-to chocolate strawberry protein shakes and a fresh pear. YUM! (no spinach this time)

After, I went with a friend to volunteer a homeless overflow shelter. It was a little different from most because it was only families and single women. It’s always such an eye opener!

I didn’t get home until 8pm (way past my dinner time) so I threw together some of my favorite broccoli carrot coleslaw (3 cups) with leftover ground turkey (4.5 oz). I threw everything in a pan and coated with some braggs aminos… mmmm, one of my fav meals!

I’ve noticed that the difference between the lean ground turkey vs. the lean ground turkey breast, is huge in the fat department. Of course, the lower fat option (breast) is way more expensive, so a trick that I learned to save money, is to cook the turkey like normal and when finished cooking, throw it in a pot of boiling water and drain. This makes it TOTALLY FAT FREE! Pretty spiffy huh?

Well, that’s about all.. I’ll probably have one of these for dessert:

-Fage 0%, blended with sugar free strawberry preserves, a pinch of stevia, some strawberries, bananas and pb.. SOO tasty!!

These were my totals for the day: carbs were higher than I like but planning took a backseat today.. ohhh well =)

cal- 1668

fat- 26.3 g

pro- 150 g

carb- 175 g

See ya all tomorrow!! Have an AMAZING friday!