Week One, Day One

As promised, a "before" picture

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]

I sautéed 2 tbsp onions, ¼ c red & green bell peppers, 3 sliced mushrooms with some non-stick cooking spray

I scrambled in 1 whole egg + 3 egg whites, plus some salt (yes salt! don’t be afraid to season your food… unless you have high blood pressure, a heart condition/(medical) reason not to, or a photo shoot or something. Salt is NOT going to ruin your diet!) & pepper. I also had a slice of Alvarado Street Sprouted Wheat Cinnamon Raisin bread (thanks Reuben) with 1 tsp Land O Lakes Light Butter with Canola Oil.

*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 3^rd-4^th 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.

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!)

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!