I made it through Week #1! Wahoo. Let me tell you, this was way more difficult than I anticipated. Even slight lifestyle changes are hard y'all. But I did the best that I could, and realize coming out of the week that there are definitely some big improvements I can make for next week. This post is entirely too long... I need to figure out a better way to keep track on a weekly basis. I suppose you don't need ALL this information each week... Let me know in the comments what you think!?
I realized I never posted my starting #s and also realized that I completely forgot to do my starting photos on Monday! Whoops. So I did them today.
So, now that you can see what the progress was... Let's recap the week, shall we:
Day 1- Monday 9/2
It's Labor Day! But I still managed to get started. We didn't do much so I was able to stay on track and get my timing of meals sorted out, along with getting some things made.
Overall, I had a good day. Here is a pic of my Food Log including the things I ate, and in terms of my macros, I had an okay day.
I am still having a little trouble fitting it all together, despite tracking macros for months now.* It's actually pretty annoying. I was over on fat, way under on my carbs, and at my absolute minimum acceptable fiber number. I shoot for 35g/day but won't eat less than 25g if I can help it. It isn't digested by your body, so it fills you up and then kind of disappears. It also negates carbs. Fiber FTW. Remind me to do a post on the benefits of fiber. I think it's very underrated and very helpful in the grand scheme of weightloss life.
One yummy meal we're eating this week is my White Bean Chicken Chili, that is legit.
I had a ton of random green peppers laying around so threw them all in- I doubled up on onions because it was pretty much double the peppers too. Served it with non fat plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream and used a TON of cilantro. I also am not sure why the recipe calls for 1 cup of broth... I typically use 1 carton which is 4 cups. This time I used twice that and I used vegetable stock because I love it in my heart. It was too much for a chili, but I haaaate when you run out of liquid.
I ended Monday feeling pretty bloated... which was either because I ate way too much of the chili orrrrrr because I drank a sh*t ton of water and liquid in general. 104oz water, a 12oz seltzer and a cup of green tea with matcha, since I have given up coffee for this challenge. I was tired, but that goes without saying, I have a 2 year old. Need to figure out how to differentiate "mama tired" from "challenge tired" .. or something.
Day 2- Tuesday 9/3
6am wakeup call... turned off. Yep, missed my cardio workout yet again. That being said, I did have one of my Metabolic routines scheduled which was killer. Like I thought I might die. And when you feel like you might die when you're alone in your basement, that's kind of a freak-a-deaky feeling, but at least you know you're self motivated.
I'm working on increasing the intensity of my workouts anyway, because I'm concerned with the number of calories I'm burning when I lift (hence why I'm adding cardio in... or should be... ugh.) but this workout racked me up a total of 262 calories, which is actually pretty high for me. If I had moved faster through it, I could probably have gotten close to 300 but I'm always a little slow the first pass through my monthly workout plan. Note to self for next Tuesday.
Because I went to bed early on Monday night in anticipation of getting up to workout, I think I maybe slept too much? I got 10 hours I think, so maybe that is too much for my body. Time will tell.
I'm pretty much eating the same stuff all this week, but it's all yummy so I'm all in. Here is my Food Log including the things I ate on Tuesday.
Macro-wise, I didn't have much better of a day on Tuesday. Still way low on carbs/fiber. Under on protein vs. over, and I was over on my fat again. I always eat healthy fats, at least, but it might be a trend I need to do something about.
I did however have a cute little breakfast with my daughter when I broke my fast at 10:30am. She had already eaten once, but I made her the same plate as mama had, and we dug in. Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and toast with a side of berries. Obviously they were prepared slightly differently, she got cheese and white bread toasted with cream cheese {something her father has started her on that I don't fully understand} and I had a little nutritional yeast on my eggs along with chia seeds and hemp hearts, and EBTB avocado Ezekial bread toast. Click here for my homemade EBTB seasoning! Love that I'm reincarnating a bunch of old blog posts!
She liked almost everything, but didn't really eat the bacon. Probably because it's turkey bacon. I feel you, girl. {note: even when buying turkey bacon, I still purchase nitrate free etc etc. I believe the one I got this time is Oscar Mayer, but it might be Nature's Promise. I looked at both and decided specifically on one that was higher in protein and lower in fat than the other. Sorry, I can't remember which.
Tuesday had lots of liquid too, rounding out at 104oz water again, 2 seltzers, and tea.
Day 3- Wednesday 9/4
Ooh did I wake up C-R-A-V-I-N-G something sweet at 6:30am with that alarm clock ringing. I had to ignore it, and got up to do my workout. Now people. My kid normally sleeps until 8/8:30am every morning. But wouldn't you know, 7:15 hits and I hear her on the monitor. So that first of two got cut very short, and I knew I'd have to double up later in the day.
Either way, the craving for something sweet did not go away. No, it did not. Lord Baby Jesus, all I wanted in my life was to eat the pancake smothered in butter and maple syrup that my daughter was scarfing down. Can't even lie. So, instead of that, and instead of my usual savory breakfast, I decided to go with a power house sweet breakfast.
I have these Kodiak Power Waffles in the freezer that are higher in protein, so started with that. Topped with some almond butter, vanilla Oikos protein greek yogurt, chia seeds and hemp hearts, and berries. A little higher carb-wise than I usually would have for breakfast, but holy-not-guacamole was it yummy.
I also did better yesterday with my equation. Actually my higher carb breakfast helped. I was still under, but not nearly as much. And I almost hit fiber. Fat was still over, daggonnit.
I know my breakfasts tend to be higher in fat. I only have 1/4 avocado because of this, when in actuality I really want the entire dang thing. But adding in the turkey bacon also doesn't help any. Also a factor is the tuna salad I made this week.
This Mediterranean spin on tuna is soooo good, but the olives add fat, and the lemon dressing you toss it with, while not mayo, still adds fat because there's EVOO in there. You guys, it's seriously delicious. I threw in kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, red onion, and tossed with the vinaigrette.
I also chopped up cucumbers and tomatoes on the side, but felt like they might make everything too soggy to add in the larger portion of it. I didn't have capers {what?! IRL I always have capers in my fridge} but next time would add those too. I ate it up one day in lettuce wraps, and the rest of the days I've had it in my mini bell peppers. All the YES!
So back to this workout situation. When Peachy finally went down for her nap, I set to work and had to double up. I'm doing a BOD program for my cardio, which this was day 1 of. 20 minutes of death and it was only the first workout, so I can only imagine what I am in for. Then it was back/glutes which was another amazing routine. Definitely felt great doing it but know that it's going to cause some serious burn.
Still was craving sweetness, so I tried this seltzer. Not a fan. I also got a few other flavors, so will try those next. Weird, they only make certain flavors in bottles?? Because that didn't cut it, it was time to bust open my new tea.
Open the little packet where the teabag sits, and the smell is simply divine. Everything you want in a pumpkin spice beverage. That being said, when I steeped it, I wasn't as impressed. I drank it with a stevia and a splash of almond milk. It still tasted good, but was more of a chai spice to me than real pumpkin. I need to get a little more creative with how I make it. Maybe double brew and then when I have some extra macros make it with coconut milk or something. Or get soy milk since I always love a good soy chai from 'Bucks. I don't know, I'm getting away from myself. I was a little behind on my water, but the seltzer and two teas helped with my liquid intake.
Day 4- Thursday 9/5
I woke up so sore on Thursday, having actually completed both my workouts on Wednesday. I ended up not working out at all this day, which is terrible but true.
I did create this Protein Chia Seed Pudding. I need to tweak the recipe a bit before sharing, but I ate it swirled with some vanilla greek yogurt and it was pretty tasty.
I did create this Protein Chia Seed Pudding. I need to tweak the recipe a bit before sharing, but I ate it swirled with some vanilla greek yogurt and it was pretty tasty.
I started to get a little off track on Thursday, didn't have nearly the amount of food I should have, and I think it started me off course a little. Didn't help me have the energy to work out either. This is why hitting macros is so important!
Day 5- Friday 9/6
Friday was a normal day, nothing out of the ordinary. Slept a solid 8 hours, woke up feeling great! Because I had my pudding a little later on yesterday, I stretched out my meals and didn't break my fast until 11:15am (I couldn't wait a second longer!)
Has anyone tried these think Thin Protein bars?? They're actually so delicious! I bought them for in a pinch (and because we're going on vacation again next week so I wanted to see if they were any good). 20g of protein each! So far, I've tried the lemon and chunky peanut butter. Both are good, I think I like the lemon better.
For my workout today, I did my second Metabolic set and then tried to run on the treadmill afterwards. That was not a smart idea, I definitely need to separate the two workouts, or maybe do cardio first? I only made it like 7 minutes. Sigh.
Has anyone tried these think Thin Protein bars?? They're actually so delicious! I bought them for in a pinch (and because we're going on vacation again next week so I wanted to see if they were any good). 20g of protein each! So far, I've tried the lemon and chunky peanut butter. Both are good, I think I like the lemon better.
For my workout today, I did my second Metabolic set and then tried to run on the treadmill afterwards. That was not a smart idea, I definitely need to separate the two workouts, or maybe do cardio first? I only made it like 7 minutes. Sigh.
Day 6- Saturday 9/7
I got up and did my Legs/Core workout, but *AGAIN* really should have done my extra cardio. I need to be better about this, this was part of my commitments coming into this challenge. Especially because this was our Anniversary Dinner night, which was a "preplanned cheat" on my calendar.
I honestly did try to choose make good choices, but it's really hard at a restaurant like this when you just want to try the chef's creations! They've already changed over the menu so I can't even pull up everything that I had. But, thankfully I texted my sister the details:
It was a three course meal, so I ordered Monkfish to start, which was in a coconut sauce with cauliflower. They actually brought out their Octopus dish, in a lime cream sauce with cauliflower and I ate half of it before they came by to tell me it was the wrong dish. Second course I had the Scallops, which were in a Vietnamese style beurre blanc with a roasted corn crumble that was out of this world (and I don't even like corn). Third course, I had the Lamb that was wrapped in pesto, and served over celery root puree and charred bok choy. We shared the crispy Brussels Sprouts. And for dessert, I chose a brownie with salted peanut crumbs and raspberry sorbet.
I had three glasses of red wine, and then we went for an after dinner drink and I had a vodka cocktail which was not part of my plan. It was soo tasty though, the cucumber smash!
It was a three course meal, so I ordered Monkfish to start, which was in a coconut sauce with cauliflower. They actually brought out their Octopus dish, in a lime cream sauce with cauliflower and I ate half of it before they came by to tell me it was the wrong dish. Second course I had the Scallops, which were in a Vietnamese style beurre blanc with a roasted corn crumble that was out of this world (and I don't even like corn). Third course, I had the Lamb that was wrapped in pesto, and served over celery root puree and charred bok choy. We shared the crispy Brussels Sprouts. And for dessert, I chose a brownie with salted peanut crumbs and raspberry sorbet.
I had three glasses of red wine, and then we went for an after dinner drink and I had a vodka cocktail which was not part of my plan. It was soo tasty though, the cucumber smash!
Day 7- Sunday 9/8
The last day of the week! as you can see, I was not feeling it.
Do you ever have one of those days where you just throw sh*t on a plate and hope for the best? That is 100% how my M2 was yesterday. It ended up being pretty good, though. Fried eggs over cauliflower rice and spinach. Seasoned with a little season salt. Top with kalamata olives and chopped cherry tomatoes, and cilantro. Hey, it worked.
Sunday was a little strange of a day, because I ended up waking up with pink eye in both of my eyes. I have never had it before, which is so weird, but it is pure and utter torture. I don't know how kids survive it. So that did not help my desire to cook or do much of anything, and I ended way under on most of my macros (except fat, duh, but I didn't eat enough meals to be as over as I was since I apparently decided it was a good idea to just eat kielbasa for a meal). Sigh. And I didn't work out, but I did perform my stretching routine with the foam roller, which felt sooo good.
SO there you have it. My entire week in one post. I promise I won't do this again, it's painful to even write, I can't imagine how hard it is to read. And clearly I started slowing down with my photo taking as the week went on also and got less fancy with it. What can I say.
Please check out the * all the way at the bottom for my macros by day if you are at all interested. xoxo
Do you ever have one of those days where you just throw sh*t on a plate and hope for the best? That is 100% how my M2 was yesterday. It ended up being pretty good, though. Fried eggs over cauliflower rice and spinach. Seasoned with a little season salt. Top with kalamata olives and chopped cherry tomatoes, and cilantro. Hey, it worked.
Sunday was a little strange of a day, because I ended up waking up with pink eye in both of my eyes. I have never had it before, which is so weird, but it is pure and utter torture. I don't know how kids survive it. So that did not help my desire to cook or do much of anything, and I ended way under on most of my macros (except fat, duh, but I didn't eat enough meals to be as over as I was since I apparently decided it was a good idea to just eat kielbasa for a meal). Sigh. And I didn't work out, but I did perform my stretching routine with the foam roller, which felt sooo good.
SO there you have it. My entire week in one post. I promise I won't do this again, it's painful to even write, I can't imagine how hard it is to read. And clearly I started slowing down with my photo taking as the week went on also and got less fancy with it. What can I say.
Please check out the * all the way at the bottom for my macros by day if you are at all interested. xoxo
*Here are all my macros for the week. As you can see, there is definitely a trend here.
