Day 33: Supersets and Food Prep

Hello one and all! It was weights today, and I did not skimp on my arm workout. I did a full superset workout for both my upper and lower body, plus more ab work from the Oxygen special. I feel awesome! Then I went shopping to get some things I needed to make myself some frees able, healthy dinners. Breakfasts too! So, tonight, clean pancakes and waffles, clean bread and possible clean French toast too. I made 9 individual meatloaf cups, using ground turkey, grated carrots, half a red onion, finely chopped celery (lol fine for me honestly), black pepper, basil, oregano and time. I also made nine individual whole wheat lasagnas, using whole wheat noodles, ground turkey, low fat cottage cheese (the fat free stuff is full of chemicals), low fat mozzarella cheese and low fat Parmesan cheese. Yummy!

In the slow cooker right now, I have a great recipe from Tiffany at The Gracious Pantry. It's called red lentil stew! It's supposed to use an Indian spice called garam masala, but I didn't have that, and forgot to get it today when I was out, so I just used extra curry instead. Smells great! I used another one of Tiffany's recipes last night, for clean banana muffins. Big hit at this house! If you haven't checked out Tiffany's website, you seriously need to give it a read. She does great work!

In sad news, fitness legend Robert Kennedy passed away last night. My thoughts are with Tosca Reno and their family. Bob was a huge inspiration, and a role model for everyone trying to learn to eat right and exercise. I'll really miss reading Bob's Tough Love in Oxygen every month. RIP, Robert Kennedy.

Day Ten: Lack of Sleep and Weights

Hello one and all! So today I had to get up for work at four AM. Which is normally totally okay for me, except I just couldn't sleep last night. I was just really restless, and I couldn't turn my brain off. I hate nights like that, especially because I seem to only have them when I need to get up early. So I came home from work, had a snack, drained my iPad battery, drained my phone battery, finished a book, and found a couple new exercises to try. I mean routines, like circuits and supersets. I'm really loving supersets though. I like the time crunch! I feel like I don't have to schedule time to work out this way. Anyway, after I did all that, I finally managed to doze off (earplugs in and sleep mask on).

I did add two extra exercises (one superset) to my work out today. Calf raises, one leg at a time, holding a dumbbell behind my back, and little leg lifts lying on my side with a weighted bar. I feel great now! Wide awake. And I had a great protein shake. I really had a hankering for something sweet, so instead of ruining my food day, I made my shake with half chocolate milk and half low fat soy milk. It definitely hit the spot! Took my sugar craving right away. And I reheated one of the clean pancakes for breakfast, topped with Greek yogurt and berries. So good! So they do reheat well. Here's the link:


http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=573914

So give them a shot if that's something you would be interested in trying! Have a great night, folks!

Day Three: Recipes & Variety

Hello one and all! So after I posted yesterday, I spent most of the night looking up clean recipes. You know, things like comfort foods made clean, desserts, pasta dishes, etc. In short, things I love to eat. I found a lot of good stuff! It was really nice to see that I can clean up recipes and still enjoy them. I found one recipe in particular I can't wait to try, which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows of my love of baking: lemon meringue cupcakes! They look divine, although I'm sure mine will look nowhere that good. But I'll still give them a shot!

Still on the subject of food, lots of good things were had today. Steel cut oats again for breakfast, with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries! This time, instead of a hard boiled egg, I scrambled one egg and two egg whites, then cracked a bunch of fresh pepper on top. Tasty stuff! For my afternoon snack, I had a handful of grapes and some almonds. For lunch, a chicken wrap on a whole wheat tortilla with a bunch of mixed greens, a single (TINY) pickle, and a bit of brown rice. It was okay, I've never been much of a salad person. Then after my workout, I had a chocolate-peanut butter-banana protein shake, in the cute new tumbler I got from work. For dinner, I had a delicious beef stew, with a couple potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, and peas. And whole wheat biscuits. I had one and a half, not the one I was supposed to. But they were so good, I couldn't just have one. And at least I didn't eat six like I usually would...

Dan and I went to a hockey game tonight. It was really fun, we actually won! But there was a lot of junk food around us. Popcorn, pizza, french fries... Although I noticed that that stuff kind of smelled sour after. The smell just lingered. Maybe it was just crappy arena food? Who knows. Oh well.

Workout today went okay. Did more push ups, although I still couldn't manage the decline push ups. Instead of pep talking myself today, I cursed relentlessly at Tony Horton. That's it for me tonight, though.

Good night to all!