As promised, a "before" picture
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Sorry about the lighting- we have exactly 1 full-length mirror in our house.
Taken 5/25, just out of bed |
I must admit, I did not take measurements, other than weighing myself. But I will, once I find a recruit to help me. Measuring myself (with accuracy) is a tough task!
7:00am [breakfast]
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| I sautéed 2 tbsp onions, ¼ c red & green bell peppers, 3 sliced mushrooms with some non-stick cooking spray |
*Please note: It’s better to eat “real” food, like butter,
than it is to consume the artificial, processed ingredients in imitation
products, although everything should be eaten in moderation!
9:15am [workout]
I got in a great circuit-style, total-body workout this
morning! I spent 5 minutes warming up, walking at an incline on the treadmill,
then got to work!
4 rounds of the following:
dumbbell chest press x 15 reps
clean & press x 15 reps
lat pull down x 15 reps
dumbbell step ups x 15 reps/leg
machine crunches x 15 reps
rest 1 minute
Make sure you choose a weight that is challenging for you to
complete all of the reps by the 3rd-4th round. You should HAVE to rest by the time you finish all of the exercises. On the
last round of my circuit, I either dropped the weight or “failed” at ~12 reps for each of the exercises. At
this point, I checked my heart rate monitor to check to see how many calories I
had burned. [278] My goal is to eat half of these calories back, later in the day.
[Why would I want to eat those calories I worked so hard to burn back? I’ll
answer that below…]
Then I completed 15 minutes of sprints: running at about 80%
of my max for 30 seconds, then resting 30 seconds x 15 [at this point, I wanted
to puke, pass out, or just lay down… but I didn’t!] and spent 20 more minutes
on the elliptical at a nice easy pace while reading my
Oxygen magazine.
The workout took me 1 hour and 15 minutes from start to
finish
10:30am [post-workout]
I enjoyed a protein shake, a chocolate rice cake, and a 100
calorie pack of Cinnamon Roast Almonds (ok, I didn’t enjoy the shake at all…
don’t ever buy Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey in Vanilla Cream flavor. I
absolutely LOVE all of their products… other than this one! YUCK!)
12:30pm [lunch]
Since I only had the food listed above with me at work, I
added back those calories I burned during my workout to my lunch meal.
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| My Tupperware included: 3 oz baked chicken breast, 5 spears of asparagus with garlic salt, sliced zucchini and yellow squash sautéed with parmesan infused olive oil, Italian spices, and topped with more parmesan (it ends up being <1 tbsp/serving) and 50 g baked sweet potato wedges with Barbeque Seasoning (it literally tastes like BBQ chips! and I got it at the Dollar Tree!) |
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| To that, I added ~2 tbsp Spinach & Artichoke hummus (on sale at Safeway right now! + ½ slice of bolani, and ½ a TJ’s wheat/corn tortilla (not pictured) |
= 165 extra calories, which
is about 15 more than I was “supposed” to eat… but I think I’ll live. The reason for eating back 1/2 of the calories burned (I only take into account those burned during the weight-training portion of my workout) is to preserve muscle mass and stay healthy while trimming away the fat. Burning lots of calories during a workout, without replenishing at least some of them, is the equivalent of eating too few calories during the day. Side effects include, but are not limited to: muscle catabolism, irritability, damage to your metabolism, and hormone imbalances.
It was probably the most I’ve enjoyed a meal in a long time
a) because I took the time to sit down and really savor each bite and b)
because I flavored my food! I cannot express how much easier it is to eat
healthy foods when they actually taste good! Be cautious of added sugars or too
much sodium (keep it to <500 mg/meal), but use other herbs and spices to
your heart’s content!!!
3:00pm [afternoon snack]
In my magic bullet, I combined 1 c ice, 5 frozen cherries, 1
scoop protein, 1 tsp cocoa powder and 1 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk and
blended it all up! Yum!
6:00pm [dinner]
Ok, so it hasn’t actually happened yet, but, I’m planning on
a taco salad: 4 c lettuce/spinach mix, 2 tbsp sliced olives, 3 oz sliced
sirloin, 1/8 avocado, a pinch of 2% cheese, and salsa for dressing. I might add
some black beans, depending on what my macros look like after I enter all of
this into My Fitness Pal. I'll take a picture and add it later if it looks appetizing enough.
8:00pm [late snack]
If I’m still hungry (and/or awake) at this hour, I’ll
indulge in a casein concoction that helps keep my sweet tooth in check! Mix 1
scoop casein protein powder (I use
Optimum Nutrition Chocolate Supreme) with 6
oz unsweetened vanilla almond milk and 1 pump
Torani Sugar-Free Peanut Butter flavored
syrup. Shake it, let it set for like 2 minutes, and voila! Reese’s Pudding!
All that clean, healthy food adds up to just 1424 calories, 115 g carb (which is actually low... and it includes black beans!) 151 g protein, 46 g fat, 34 g sugar and 27 g fiber... just because I know someone is gonna ask :)
It goes to show you that you can eat A LOT if you make your meals count!
