Back to Reality

I've been so busy lately.  I've made these little one page sheets to keep myself organized, writing down what I need to do each day, what to do for school, for fitness, and for my personal life.  I do it in an attempt not to let my school work keep me from getting in that 40 minutes of fitness.  Last week was a model week.  I was really pleased with everything I did... especially the FOOD.  We're going to start with that.

As a quick aside, I'm writing this at 5:30 AM because I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.  My sleeping has been really weird.  One night I'll go to bed at 8:30, then the next night not until 10:30.  And I've been waking up before my alarm each day.

I think the trouble people have with eating comes with the preconceived notions they have about when and what they should eat.  The food pyramid is great and you should definitely get all of your nutrients and food groups in, but who says you have to eat them ALL at every meal?  It sort of forces over eating in my opinion.  That's why, with my 5 small meals a day, I try to get in all of my carbs in the first three, protein in all of them, veggies or fruit in all of them...  and I find that preparing many things ahead of time help me do that.

Last weekend I prepped 4 servings of seafood to have ready and waiting at the beginning of the week.  I made some cajun shrimp and some salmon.  These are both very quick things to cook.

Just in case you've never tried cooking any of these things there's different ways.  If you're busy doing something else and you don't want to babysit it, bake it.  Salmon is usually pretty good at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, depending on how thick your piece is.  I made both of these things on the Foreman Grill, which is super fast.  Salmon usually cooks between 3-4 minutes.  I flip it after 3 and then do a little extra.  Flake a little off.  If it's too pink (and you'll know the difference when you see it) just cook it a little longer.  Shrimp cook in about 2-3 minutes on the Foreman Grill.

I made some Cajun Shrimp and Broccoli Alfredo with one of the servings of shrimp.  Came in at 260 calories.  Here's what I used:

1 cup cooked spaghetti squash
1/4 c Ragu light alfredo
8 cooked large shrimp
1 serving frozen broccoli florets

This recipe couldn't be faster because everything was already cooked.  I spend my Sunday cooking things like my sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, meat, anything that I'm not going to want to cook after a day at work and then a workout.  

So reheat your spaghetti squash then add your sauce.  Stir well to get the sauce well distributed.  While stirring, microwave your frozen broccoli until done.  Add broccoli and shrimp and heat again until shrimp are warm.  Try to not over-nuke this last step because it can make your shrimp a little rubbery.

It was very tasty and just what I needed.  Definitely try it out for yourself!

As an example of showing that you don't HAVE to eat every food group at every little meal, I'll show you my lunch from yesterday.  I love avocado with salmon, which sucks because it's super fatty (though all good fats!).  I literally just heat up a little salmon and eat it in a bowl with some avocado.  If you have strawberries, that is also fantastic with it!

I've been on a pursuit for new ways to have my protein shake.  It's not that I'm getting tired of them, but hey, why not enjoy something new?  So I tried the coffee protein shake recipe that I saw on Pinterest.  Here's what I used...

1 scoop vanilla whey protein
1 brewed cup (not necessarily 8 oz) of coffee, cooled
1/2 cup almond milk (sweetened or unsweetened)

Couldn't be easier.  Just stir your protein into the coffee (you'll be surprised how well it dissolves in coffee!) and then pour in the milk and stir again.  Done!  I've used a couple different coffees.  I have a Keurig, so I made a Caribou Daybreak the first time and it was good.  The second time (and each time after that) I used the Green Mountain Caramel Vanilla Cream.  Dunkin Donuts got nothing on me.  Especially because, depending on your almond milk (and yes, you can use regular milk), it could be as low as 115 calories for the lot.  I've stopped buying cow's milk.  Thank you, almond milk.  Don't worry.  I still get plenty of dairy.  Mmm.  Yogurt.

Something else I tried from Pinterest... the "making popcorn in a bowl in the microwave" trick.  I swear to you... it works.

I took a serving of popping corn and put it and nothing else into a pyrex bowl.  I placed a plate on top and set the microwave for three minutes.  It started popping!!  And not burning!  Once the popping slowed down, I took it out:

There were some unpopped kernels, and according to the Pinterest link, you can remicrowave that.  So I removed my popped popcorn into another bowl and was left with this:

See the super dark ones?  Those won't pop... Most of these popped when I put it back in for another minute (don't forget to cover again with the plate).  They will not pop with a third time in the microwave, so whatever you get from the second go round is what you get.  But it's popcorn, quick, with no stuff all over it.  You can, of course, add whatever you want, but you have so much more control this way!  It's also easier to track your stats with this.  My big serving of popcorn was 130 calories.

I've been working on eating what I have in my freezer.  Not just to save money (saving it as in eating what I have rather than buying more food to pile on top of it) and I finally finished my box of Gordon's Skillet Tilapia.  They're pretty good, not going to lie.  It's also great that you can cook them in the skillet and get a nice crust on it.

I made some fajita veggies to go with it and though I had no tortillas, this was super tasty.  Just another example of the fact that no, you don't have to have a "carb" with your meal.

Lastly, Sunday (when I was supposed to be making a blog post!) I made those paleo pancakes (1 banana + 2 eggs) but I added cherry craisins and white chocolate chips.  Oh my goodness.  DELICIOUS.  This was also an attempt to use what I had.  I found that my craisins had well exceeded the expiration date :P

I really need to figure out how to make a table of contents for recipes for my blog... if anyone knows how to do that in blogger and wants to lend me some tips, I would love them!

So that was the food.  How about the fitness?  Week Two (and now the first workout of Week 3) of Chalean Extreme going off without a hitch.  I got to lift at the Handsome Gentleman's house last Thursday and his weights are so much easier to switch than mine.  Also, he has a freaking billion of them so you can leave the 12 pounds there while you work with the fifty other little handle thingies he's got.  Love it.

Last week I did...

Monday:  Running.  2.5 mi.
Tuesday:  Chalean Extreme, Burn Circuit 1, Week 2
Wednesday:  REST
Thursday:  Chalean Extreme, Burn Circuit 2, Week 2
Friday:  Running.  4 mi.
Saturday:  Chalean Extreme, Burn Circuit 3, Week 2 and Jillian's Killer Abs Level 1 (yea... I missed Jillian... so what?).
Sunday:  Running.  6.05 mi.

My body requires a little more rest than it did before.  Monday was to be my Chalean day (I try to put at least one day between those lifting workouts) but I just... couldn't.  I've been having some issues with only being able to do about 12 pushups at a time.  I was tired.  So instead of doing that, I worked on school work all night and went to bed a little after 9.  

When I got up yesterday morning, I did 20 pushups.  I blew past 15 no problem.  I think I just needed the extra day.

Of course, I'm busy, so I felt like I needed to get that workout in as well as get miles in, since I have a 12k in a month.  So yesterday I ran almost 2.5 miles at lunch and then came home and did Chalean.  I always feel so good when I exercise.  I feel sluggish when I get absolutely nothing in.

The rest of this week will be challenging.  I have a lot of school work to do this week, but I've been keeping up fairly well.  Just need to stay focused.

Some upcoming events in my life:

May 1:  Going to go see JILLIAN MICHAELS!!!  I'm so stoked!! :D
May 4:  First Obstacle Race Ever!!!  I've ordered some pretty pink gloves to keep my hands safe :)
May 18:  My first race longer than a 5k!!  12k!!  
May 29:  Half Marathon Training Begins!

What have I gotten myself into?