Clean Up in the Kitchen

No, I didn't spill something in my floor and need to clean it up.  I cleaned up my eating routine last week and guess what...I'm feeling amazing, super energized, and way less bloated.  Who knew that food really impacted how you feel?!?!?!?!

For those of you that have been following recently, I talked about joining my accountability group after deciding that I needed a change from the gym.  Recently, I joined a 5 day clean eating challenge that ended Easter weekend (thank goodness, because I needed a jelly bean or 20).  The challenge was within our group and it was amazing to see all of the recipe posts and pictures of delicious whole food that people would post.   We had a fun little Facebook group that kept us right on track with each daily meal plan.

Here is what I've learned about eating clean.  I feel like a lot of people out there are nervous to do it because it can be a little expensive (especially if you have kids), but it's not terrible.  It does require cooking and prepping, which is key. It's also challenging if your spouse/mate/partner in this thing called life is a bit of an unhealthy eater.

Let's take my hubs for example.  

You guys know J. (I love this picture, isn't he handsome with his Don Draper hair?)

Jarrett is like a straight up man's man, that likes to eat pretty much all things meat and potatoes. Or rice, he grew up with lots or rice, macaroni and cheese, and ham.  That was pretty much our Easter Dinner this past weekend.  Nothing wrong with that, but it's hard to cook like that all the time.  

He also like cigars and beer.  See? Man's man. 

Anyway, last week's challenge was interesting because I knew that J wouldn't love things like brown rice and spinach.  I tried to bulk up on the meat portions for him and reserve more veggies for myself.  You know what though, he did ok with it.  I can't really control what he eats outside of the house, but at home, he's mostly eating what I cook.  We eat lots of sweet potatoes now.  He does eat brown rice if I make it, I just have to cook it long enough.  Crunch rice = unhappy spouse.  I asked him what kind of veggies he likes and he's good with broccoli, squash and zucchini.  No asparagus or brussell sprouts though.  

The point I'm trying to make is that you can still eat healthy and meet the needs of your loved ones.  I'm not super extreme to the point that I force feed him green beans, but I do care that we live long and healthy lives.  Even on the days that we can't make it to the gym, I can feel good about the fact that I cooked a really healthy and hearty meal at night.

I read a blog post that said it best this morning "I'm eating for fuel".  SO FREAKING TRUE.  How many of us eat for comfort? Or because we are having a bad day? Or because we're just bored and want to shove office candy in our mouths?

It's all about control you guys.  When you're out of control in your life, you'll eat that way too.  You'll stuff your face and gut until you're miserable, and then keep going.  

So here's the deal.  This time last year, I went to my doctor and realized I was 30 pounds away from 200 pounds.  It was eye opening and super life changing.  Since then, I've gone through some extreme highs and lows of fitness and emotional eating.  I was supposed to go to my new doctor today and see how that had changed, but my schedule conflicted, so that's been pushed back to May.

Meaning I have ANOTHER month for the slim down, bikini/beach season AND to see what progress I've made.  Totally stoked, a little nervous, but I know that it will be eye opening to see how things go a month from now.

They say it takes 30 days to form a habit.  Well, I'm already a week in and loving how I feel.  How do you guys cook healthy and balance your life with whole foods? What's your new favorite recipe you can share that tastes good AND makes you feel good?

Happy Tuesday!

Friday Randomness

I for reals thought Friday would never get here.  I like begged and pleaded for it to show up and it HERE!

Ok so it's the freakin' weekend, and we all know what that means.  Booze and bad food decisions! YAY!

Not so much.

So true story, last night I went to a work happy hour and since there was free stuff all over the place, I felt like a kid given a free pass to Disney when there's no people there.  I was like "ALL THE THINGS! BEER! WINE! OMG MOZZARELLA BALLS WITH MARINARA!"

I had a pretty bad night of eating and some slight drinkage.  I mean when stuff is free, I just want it in and around my mouth. 

 

Jump to this morning, bright and sunny spring day dawns with a headache reminiscent of last night's fun.  And some super attractive stomach bloat was definitely going on. 

Since I've joined my accountability group, I feel like everyone gets on the Facebook and encourages everyone to the point to where I'm like "Dang, these people are my online friends and are like more encouraging than some of my real friends!"  But every single day, I see someone backing up another person.  It's amazing! I love it.

I managed to drag myself out of bed, hair sticking straight up and shuffle over to my condo's little gym.  Nobody was there at first to watch me suffer.  Then some old ladies showed up and were like "how do these treadmill things work, OH you have to plug them in!".  That was my queue to quickly get the crap out of there to avoid random old ladi-ness.

I stole a workout from Nerky Meg called The Elevator Workout.  Meaning, after you do it, there will be no stairs that you will want to climb that day.  You can check it out here: Nerky's Elevator Workout!

There was sweat all over the floor and in my eyes and like sliding down to places I didn't know sweat would go.  Needless to say, 3 hours later, I'm feeling pretty peppy, have managed to rehydrate, and even though I'll be walking like I rode a horse today, it was worth it.  

So the randomness for this Friday's post is the fact that it's Friday, I'm off of work and totes could have slept in and gotten up at 12, but I didn't.  I could rolled around in the bed and felt horrible for myself, but I didn't.  I got up, I did something, and even that something impressed this little old ladies as I was sprinting on the treadmill for 10 minutes.  The thing is guys, progress happens because you make it happen, not because you just expect it to rock your world.  You have to do things like get up on Saturday and go to the gym, or run, or lift some weights. Or not eat crappy foods. 

Until next time guys, enjoy your weekend!

Feel good about all the things!!!

Happy Hump Day guys!

It's been a busy week and I've been doing some crafts for my sister in law's wedding.  Thought I would share before I start writing about all things working out and eating clean.

Isn't this CUTE! I may have to start a side business to bring home some extra bacon.  

Mmmm bacon...ugh, I can't eat it!

Back to business.

So since my last post, I have joined my online accountability

 group and started making some good changes!

I mean, this is USUALLY my workout routine:

But not so much.  One thing that is really hard for me is to not snack at work.  Our office caters lunch for clients all the time and there's always some random pasta salad, burrito makings, pasta, even like full on BBQ sometimes.  

There are days where I eat my salad or my leftovers...and then someone brings by the tray of leftover wraps (full of fatty goodness like cheese and thick ham), and it tempts me.  From 3 feet away.

So this week, I made the solemn vow to myself that I would bring my own food, stick to eating really clean, and drinking lots of water.

Here are a few yummy meals I've made.  

Breakfast is usually something like this, rice cakes and almond butter and a banana or apple.  Lots of fiber and fills me up until lunch!

I made some DELICIOUS chicken lettuce wraps for dinner that I took for lunch the next day.

Dinner has either been leftovers or roasted veggies and chicken.  Tonight I made some roasted gnocchi, zucchini and sun dried tomatoes.  Doused with a little hot sauce. I really LOVE pasta and it's usually a staple for me, but I'm pretty OK with gnocchi as a back up.  I feel like it's fun to eat too with it's little ridges. 

I have not had ANY ALCOHOL since Saturday! (Sorry Mom, that makes me sound like a lush).  

The one thing I'll say about eating this way is that even though I haven't been able to work out everyday like I've wanted to, I feel amazing right now and my energy level is really high.  Lots of protein and water has left me feeling less bloated, more full, and not having massive stomach pain like when I scarf down those cheesy sandwiches at work.

Next week I'm going to continue to up my protein intake.  I tried on a bridesmaid's dress for a friend's wedding at the end of May today.  While it's beautiful and fits like a glove, I definitely saw areas for improvement.  There's some missing muscle definition in my arms.  I would love for my stomach to be slimmer.

The thing is I KNOW I can do this, I just have to fight the urge to be lazy and eat bad.  

Cause this is the truth y'all:

GO GET IT!

Making it work!

Little bit of a serious post for your Sunday.  Prefacing the week with some goal making, so I'll be posting more workouts and cleaning eating posts this week. (YAY!)

 

You guys know my story.  You've read about how I was teaching spin, but getting chubby, and continuing to eat/drink bad things while falling in love.  Hence the inspiration for the blog name.

 

It wasn't until last April that I got serious about my health and starting to do something about it.  I joined a great training program and was working out 3-4 times a week, and had wonderful trainers that helped me see some amazing things happen with my body and my mind.  I was lifting heavy weight and watching cool things happen to myself.  A lot of people took notice.  I was feeling pretty awesome.

 

And then a little thing called "life" happened.  J and I were amazingly happy after a wonderful wedding, honeymoon, and then a return to normal life.  We did the normal thing of getting a dog and making him our first official furry baby together. 

 

In the midst of all of that, I started to put on the happy pounds again.  It's funny, gaining weight is like an out of body experience.  You can see it happening kind of like you're watching yourself from the ceiling. You know that your pants are really fitting anymore.  I could see my cheeks getting a little chubby again.  You do more deep knee bends to get your fave jeans on. 

Here's where things get interesting.  I tried going back to the gym.  I desperately tried to motivate myself to attend the same training classes.  There were some changes.  A lot of my previous trainers had moved on to other adventures.  The program itself was changing.  Being an instructor myself, I know that life is not always going to stay the same and that programs need some renovation from time to time.  So it's fine, but with those things happening, I just got really far away from wanting to step foot into a facility.  I haven't taught in a few months, but that's ok.  I don't have a regular class anymore, but I'm ok with that.  I taught to inspire other people, not myself. I will always identify with being a teacher/instructor and have cherished that time in my life. 

Jarrett and I are saving lots of money these days for things like a house, paying off debt, and having fun money to be able to treat ourselves to vacations.  We recently lost a car to a small car accident, so we needed to re-evaluate the money situation.  All the while, I knew that paying money for a program that I wasn't even going to anymore wasn't a good idea.

 

So I did a thing that was a little scary for me.  I decided to walk away from the training program that impacted my life for so many months.  It was a tough call, but I knew it was a good call. I had built up a great little community of friends and still keep in touch with them.  Training was a great avenue for my blog to earn some readership.  I think it's a wonderful program and I know it will continue to impact members with positive changes.  I wasn't very public about it, but it was time to move on. 

 

So no more chalkboard WOD posts.  Not unless I spray paint a wall in my condo!

 

I'm big on working out with other people. I feel like you are held accountable, and other people can watch you get stronger, motivate you, live with you through your changes.  It was hard, but I had this crazy itch to get back to doing things on my own. I know it's really easy to like pick up the remote and a cupcake and then say you'll do it later.  But I had watched so MANY of the girls in my blog-sphere lose a ton of weight, all while doing this on their own.  Walking, running, workout DVDs, maybe some free gym sessions from time to time.  I knew that it was time to take control of things myself, and that crap can be scary as hell.  But I remind myself that there was a time where I ran, did races, and lifted weights in my living room and was a size 6.  It's definitely do-able.

 

In the midst of making this decision for myself, a guy that I used to work out with reached out to me on Facebook about an accountability group.  And I was like "wow, God really does work in mysterious ways, that's what I need".  People that are posting their stories of fitness and success, but most of them aren't using a gym.  They are making it work because they have real lives, kids, schedules, jobs, and they need a community that will support them through the ups and downs. 

 

I feel like it's time to be real again.  Real to the point to where I share myself publicly.  I've been hiding the past few months because I've felt kinda fluffy.  But it's amazing the small changes I've seen in starting to work out on my own.  I've rediscovered my love for running.  And while I can't go very far, I love getting back outdoors and just clearing my head.  I don't mind blowing the dust off my P90X DVDs and giving it another shot.  My accountability group is about to start a big clean eating challenge soon, so I'll post details about that soon.

The thing is you guys, you have to make it work for you.  You can't force yourself to go to Zumba class if you don't love it.  You can't become a runner overnight, it happens with time.  You have to learn what works best for your.  And you have to be ok with life happening, but at the same time, you have to not let yourself go.  You have to be strong for yourself and for your family.  And that's exactly what I plan to do.

 

So I ate some French fries today at lunch.   But I'm also about to lace up and go run three miles this evening. 

What are you doing to make it work?

 

Happy Sunday y'all!