21 Day Detox Challenge - Day 9

I know I haven't been keeping up with this but I wanted to post some pictures of food I've been eating over the past week. Also I have to confess that I cheated on Friday and had a Quest bar...oops.

I got a Vitamix last week, and I love it! So far I've used to make carrot juice, a spinach/wheatgrass/fruit smoothie, banana nut porridge, and to grind some chicken to make Sweet Potato and Kale Chicken Patties courtesy of Multiply Delicious. I miss coffee, and when this is over I am going to make my own coffee creamer now that I have something to make date paste in :)

I have actually been feeling a little "blah" the last couple of days, and occasionally experience "brain fog" (one of the reasons I miss coffee). Another thing I've noticed is how full I get, I can barely get 1400-1500 net calories a day. I guess that is a side effect of eating more vegetables and nutritious food.

This weekend I made Beefy Mexi Cauli Rice (without sour cream) and Chicken Bacon Alfredo for my main food for the week, I might whip up the chicken patties again during the week (they were soooo good!). A Chipotle salad is my fall back plan in case I run out of leftovers.

Anywho, here are some pictures in no particular order:

Carrot Juice

I made this carrot juice in my Vitamix today, it was one of the recipes in the book that it came with. The first time I made it I put way too many carrots and it came out super thick, I watered this batch down (and yes that is a Miller Lite pint glass I am drinking it out of)

Beefy Mexi Cauli Rice (recipe from Healthy Living How To)

I made the Beefy Mexi Cauli Rice last night for dinner and it was surprisingly delicious and filling, as was the chicken bacon alfredo I made today (I cooked and prepared the squash last night):

Chicken Bacon Alfredo (recipe from PaleOMG)

Banana Nut Porridge (recipe from Against All Grain)

This I have to talk about. Mine doesn't look anything like the picture on the Against All Grain page, maybe it's because I used light coconut milk and not the full fat kind. But even with light coconut milk it was really rich and kind of liquidy. It was weird, but it filled me up until lunch.

Mish mash of other pictures:

Chicken and Kale Sweet Potato Patties (recipe from Multiply Delicious)

A random breakfast of leftover chili, eggs, broccoli and avocado

Chicken salad with guac from Chipotle (no dressing)

Another random breakfast

Fruit and wheatgrass smoothie

Good night!!!

21 Day Detox Challenge - Days 3 & 4

I knew once I went back to work it would be hard to keep up with this but I'll try my best. I took yesterday off to spend time with my dad and take him to the airport so he could fly back to the land down under.

Day #3

Yesterday was a much better than Sunday but I still had a dull headache in the morning. I gave in an took an Advil because I am a big baby when it comes to pain. I then proceeded to make a shitty smoothie with no protein powder (we're supposed to only have protein powder after workouts IF absolutely necessary). I mixed berries, wheatgrass, half a banana and some coconut milk I had leftover in a Mason jar that I have no idea if it was full fat or "lite" as I have both in my cupboard. So I either consumed 420 calories and 42 grams of fat  in one sitting or 150 calories and 13.5 grams of fat. I hope it was the latter, but whatever it's over now :) The smoothie itself didn't taste bad but it left me hungry probably due to the fact there was only 7 grams of protein in the drink. An hour later I was downing a can of tuna and a hard boiled egg and I felt much better. Then I went to lunch with my dad and cousin at a Mediterranean restaurant and tried to order as paleo-ish as possible. After barraging the server with question after question I finally settled on a salad with some chicken on top with no dressing (just some lemon). However, the chicken may or may not have been marinated in a yogurt and lemon sauce (don't tell anyone). I avoided the pita bread and hummus and downed like 4 glasses of lemon water.

My second attempt at eating out

For dinner I had leftover pork tenderloin, collard greens in coconut oil, and half a yam. I cooked 3 yams on Sunday night in preparation for this week.

Monday's dinner

Day #4

I woke up too late to make a decent breakfast so I brought half a sweet potato and a hardboiled egg to work. It did the trick but I also had to eat a banana and some almond butter a little while later.  At 12:30 or so, I ate my bean-less chili for lunch as slowly as possible and tried to enjoy all the flavors. I wished I had a piece of cornbread but instead I focused on the sweet nectarine I was going to have for dessert instead. Another thing I've realized about this detox is that it forces you to stop eating food "just for fun". You change your mindset so it's more like you're eating to live, not living to eat. I used to walk in to the kitchen at work and think "Mmmm, a rice krispie treat sounds really good". Now it's more like, what does my body actually need and want? Not to say that I don't still enjoy delicious food but I don't feel as though I'm depriving myself if I avoid the rice krispie treat and eat an apple instead.

After work I went to Crossfit, I haven't been since I started this program. The warmup and the WOD were both killer, although I enjoyed the workout (I love kettlebell swings for some reason), I didn't feel particularly strong. I was actually pretty hungry. Immediately afterwards I had two scoops of whey protein and then went home and had leftover chili with avocado and cilantro. Now it's time for bed. Good night!

Tuesday's dinner! I <3 avocado

21 Day Detox Challenge - Day 2

Not gonna lie, today was rough. I wanted to read about other people's experiences on similar programs and I found this: http://whole9life.com/2013/08/revised-timeline/ It's basically a timeline of how one typically might feel throughout the course of a Whole30 program. Days 2-3 are the hangover phase, and that's exactly how I felt today... Hungover. I woke up in the middle of the night with a slight headache that never really went away. I woke up a few hours later and all I wanted was a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. Instead I made eggs and broccoli, bacon, avocado and green tea but still felt foggy most of the morning.

Since my dad is in town, my sister came down for the day. After breakfast, we decided to go to the Tech Museum for the day. If you live or happen to be near San Jose and have never been it's a pretty interesting place. Before we left I decided I should eat again if we were going to be walking around for a few hours. So I heated up the pork tenderloin I made and ate it with a side salad of just greens and lemon juice.

Sometime during the day the headache got worse. I bought a bottle of water and noticed that walking around felt better than standing or sitting still. We stopped after the IMAX movie and had a snack. I had brought an apple and some almonds, and at this point I was feeling terrible, but after eating I started feeling better and we continued on. The rest of the day was okay, I was obviously not feeling 100% but I still enjoyed myself, and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out or anything. Then we left and on the way home is when I started feeling worse. Holy headache batman, I wanted to throw in the towel right then. At home, I drank some water, and ate a banana and some almond butter and laid down on the couch with a blanket and watched my A's celebrate their division championship. I was freezing, which was ironic because a few hours earlier my sister was making fun of me and asking me if I was going through early menopause because I had been super hot. At this point I also took 2 ibuprofen because I couldn't take it anymore. Once it kicked in I was feeling a lot better... but tired. I don't know if this is caffeine withdrawals or carb withdrawals (or both)?

For dinner I had some more pork tenderloin and some asparagus with olive oil that I roasted this morning.

Two things I have observed so far:

The amount of meat that is involved is more than I am used to. I'm more of the mindset that a whole foods (mostly) plant-based diet is ideal. I've seen the health benefits a vegan lifestyle can give a person. That being said, I've never been a vegetarian but I try to at least not eat meat once or twice during the week. Also, I miss my oatmeal and my sprouted grain bread.. and my coffee of course..
Another thing is that I realized I need to eat more. Since starting this program I decided to start logging my food in MyFitnessPal again. I barely had 1250 calories today, and my goal is 1800. I ate more yesterday, but it was still only 1500. I need to up the calories or I'm never going to have enough energy to work out. I miss Crossfit and strength training! It's only been a week but that is a week too long!

Nighty night... 19 more days!

21 Day Detox Challenge - Day 1

Wow! It's been 7 months since I last posted. Work and life kind of just got in the way, but not to worry I have been working out, eating and repeating ;) But honestly, I haven't been extremely diligent with it, which is part of the reason for my latest challenge, a 21 day detox program my friend's gym is doing. I was intrigued when I heard about it because I wanted change things up a bit, and it being only $21 I decided to take the plunge.

This past Wednesday I went to a meeting with about 50-60 others who had signed up and the gym owner stood up in front of us for an hour and explained why we were doing this and went down the list of what we could and could not eat during this detox. No grains, no sugar, no alcohol, no dairy (except eggs), no caffeine/coffee.... wait, what? You could hear the exasperated sighs and groans all throughout the room. I'm not sure how many people decided to drop out at that point, I know I almost ran for the door but then he said we could have green tea, so I decided I could live with that and sat back down. I guess the benefits of green tea outweigh the detriments of caffeine (although I don't believe coffee is terrible for you). He also says we should have 3 meals a day and allow between 4-5 hours in between meals to allow the digestive system to function properly and to keep leptin levels normalized. But I don't know if that will work for me. I had about 5 meals today, including my snacks. I feel like I can't keep going without a small healthy snack in between the bigger meals.

The plan reminds me of a Paleo or Whole30 type diet, basically you can have vegetables, fruit, healthy fats, and quality protein for 21 days. So I perused some recipes provided by the program as well as some found on the internet and went to the grocery store and dropped a bunch of cash on organic fruits, veggies, and meats. And here we go...

Day #1

Weigh-in day, I drove down to the gym to get my weight and BF% measured and also have a before picture taken. I might share those results with you later if the final outcome is to my liking. Then I went home and ate breakfast along with a cup of green tea. Breakfast was egg whites and one whole egg cooked in coconut oil, broccoli, half a yam, and avocado.

Meal #1 10:00am

Then I sat down and made my grocery list and went out and ran my errands. Before I left I had meal #2, half a banana and a tablespoon of almond butter. Then I was out for about 4 hours and when I got home I was starving. I bought this kale snack at Whole Foods, I read the ingredients 5 times and I think it is acceptable: Organic Kale, Organic Pumpkin Seeds, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Chia Seeds, Organic Extra Virgin Oil, and Himalayan Crystal Salt.

I snacked on that while I prepared my next meal, leftover crockpot chicken (made with chicken, all natural salsa, organic chicken broth and garlic powder), over a bed of greens, avocado, yellow tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Meal #3, aka lunch at 4:00pm

My dad is here from out of town for a couple more days and he had wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes (also known as Souplantation in some states) which is one of those all you can eat salad buffets. Before we went I did some googling to figure out what other like-minded people ate there and came across this blog which did not inspire confidence but was definitely entertaining: http://paleojen.blogspot.com/2009/08/poop-plantation.html 

I ate a boring salad with olive oil and vinegar and watched as my sister and dad and the rest of the restaurant ate croutons and wonton strips on their salads, pasta, cornbread and other starch-filled options. In retrospect not all the ingredients on the salad may have been "detox-friendly", who knows where those beets came from, but I refrained from eating any bread or quinoa or cheese today so I think I still win.

Meal #4, 7:00pm

I also cooked some pork tenderloin with pineapple in my crockpot today, tomorrow I'll be making ground beef chili (sans beans). I'll post the recipes later....

Overall I felt okay today, besides being mildly hungry all day and a bit foggy probably from lack of my usual cup of strong AM coffee... also Aunt Flo is in town... energy level was about medium to low.

20 days to go...

6 Healthy Snack Ideas

In between breakfast lunch and dinner, I make sure to always try and include a 100-300 calorie snack twice a day, three times if I'm working out (as a post-workout snack). I wanted to document some of my favorites here along with the nutrition facts (courtesy of MyFitnessPal).

1.   Wholly Guacamole Snack Pack + Can of Albacore Tuna + 3 ak mak Crackers (high protein)

266 calories, 18g carbs, 13g fat, 26g protein, 584mg sodium, 0g sugar

Mix the guacamole and tuna in a container in the morning before you leave for work.

Tip: Try and find a store that sell the 100 calorie snack packs of Wholly Guacamole - my nearby store only sells the big container so when I'm at a different store that does carry the snack packs I usually buy 2-3 (a package contains 3 packs). These are perfect because they are each individually packaged and you can freeze them if needed.

2.   8 Almonds + Slice of Havarti Cheese

136 calories, 2g carbs, 12g fat, 7g protein, 120mg sodium, 0g sugar

3.   4 oz non-fat plain greek yogurt + Open Nature Cranberry Nut Goodness

210 calories, 27g carbs, 4g fat, 15g protein, 108mg sodium, 13g sugar

Tip: You can also add berries to this for a little extra deliciousness

Greek Yogurt & Granola

4.   1 Hard Boiled Egg 

70 calories, 1g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 65mg sodium, 0g sugar

Tip: I like to boil 5 eggs on Sunday so I have one ready to go every day of the week.

5.   2 scoops of Jarrow Whey Protein Caribbean Chocolate mixed with water (high protein)

210 calories, 12g carbs, 2g fat, 34g protein, 80mg sodium, 8g sugar

Tip: Buy a blender bottle and make sure this is always in your gym bag with 2 scoops of protein ready to go. Once your workout is complete you can fill up the bottle at the drinking fountain, shake & go!

6.   3 ak mak crackers + cucumber slices + Garlic & Herb Laughing Cow Cheese

111 calories, 15g carbs, 3g fat, 5g protein, 326mg sodium, 2g sugar

Crackers, Cucumber & Laughing Cow Cheese

What are your favorite healthy snacks?

Oatmeal & Strawberries

First off, I must apologize. My last blog post was titled "No excuses" but I'm about to sit here and spout off excuses as to why I haven't updated this blog in over two weeks. The week of that post I was doing pretty well with working out. Then I developed a toothache, which ended up in getting a wisdom tooth pulled. So even though it's an excuse I think it's a pretty good one ;)

Taking it day by day now, I'm not promising to do any challenges at this moment in time... :) I wasn't supposed to do any strenuous exercise for a week after the tooth pulling (I did do yoga once though), so after a week had passed, I decided I missed strength training and decided to do the first workout of "New Rules of Lifting for Women". Wow, what a difference, it was really difficult for me since I haven't been strength training consistently. But at the same time it felt amazing and I am looking forward to including that back into my routine. I am traveling for work starting tomorrow and am packing my gym clothes!

Now to address the topic of this post... today's breakfast recipe.

A 2 lb container of strawberries were on sale at Safeway last week, so I've been eating strawberries almost every day. I sliced up a bunch of them and have been using them on Greek yogurt and oatmeal. Yummy!

Today I made a delicious bowl of oatmeal with unsweetened coconut milk, vanilla protein powder, about 6 strawberries and added some granola (Open Nature Cranberry Nut Goodness). This protein infused take on oatmeal tasted great and lasted me well until lunchtime.

Ingredients:

1/2c old fashioned oats
1/4c unsweetened coconut milk
1/4c granola
5-6 sliced strawberries
1T vanilla protein powder

Instructions:

- Heat up oatmeal with enough water to cover, in microwave for 90 seconds
- Add ingredients and enjoy!


367 calories, 60g carbs, 8g fat, 15g protein, 107mg sodium, 13g sugar

No excuses

Wow, I have been really bad about posting and keeping up with my challenge, which I have to admit, didn't work out so well... Between work and getting sick, and other social events, things have just slipped through the cracks. No excuses, but I am picking myself back up and starting again, and that's really the key, not to beat yourself up if you fail, just to revise your plan and continue forward...

So for February my new plan is the following - exercise in some form (not necessarily Ripped in 30) 4 times per week, and cut back alcohol to 4 times per month (3 was too conservative). I have the 8K on March 10th, so I needed to incorporate running/jogging back into my routine. I also want to do more yoga. I had a groupon for a nearby yoga studio, which I ended up using most of, but it has since expired so my choices are P90X Yoga or 24 Hour Fitness yoga... this past Wednesday I found a class @ 7:30 which was actually pretty good, once I got over the fact that you could still slightly hear the music thumping outside in the gym and that it wasn't warm :)

Workout log for Jan 20-26:

Sunday - 2.5 mile jog, outside
Wednesday - yoga
Thursday - 2 mile jog, treadmill
Saturday - snowboarding in Tahoe

I love snowboarding! it's so fun... Even though I am hurting today... I want to go back soon... It just needs to snow more.

Plan for this week 1/28 - 2/2:

Monday - run 2.5 miles
Wednesday - yoga
Thursday - run 3 miles
Saturday - run or hike

with some strength training in there somewhere... and abs every workout day. I was supposed to go grocery shopping today, but was far too lazy when I finally got home... I think I can scrape together something for snacks & meals tomorrow before going to the store tomorrow night. This weekend was pretty much a no-log weekend (meaning I didn't log anything I ate), but I'll be back on track at least for the week ;)

Have a great Monday!