80 Days (Jennie)

80 days to go... wow! Three weeks down of daily blogging, trying to eat well and get in some exercise. So far, so good; having a goal in mind at the end is really working well for me. Besides the fear of the all mighty Mudder looming at the end, I'm really looking forward to seeing the change in me at the end of it as well, physically and psychologically. I grew up painfully shy and still fight many of those demons today. Working out gives me confidence like nothing else and ignites a fire in my belly at the same time. Strong is amazing!

Food for the day
Breakfast: turkey bacon, coffee and a nectarine
Morning snack: grapes
Lunch: salad with spring mix lettuce, jicama, carrots, bell pepper, tuna, ranch, corn, edamame, ranch. I know this sounds like a strange combo, but it actually worked well!
Dinner: chicken breast sandwich on a whole wheat bun with pickles, lettuce, tomatoes and honey mustard
Dessert: Frozen yogurt with almonds

Total calories in: 1850
Calories burned: 2300
Today's workout: 2 mile walk at lunch (11000 steps for the day according to Fitbit)

I missed my main workout this morning- bad night of sleep led to me sleeping through my alarm again. I guess 2 alarms aren't enough, might be time for 3.

So next steps from here... about 11 weeks left. I want to make this less of just a food diary and more informational, on the off-chance that someone out there besides me is reading it. ;)  I looked at heart rate monitors tonight, but wanted to do a bit more research before committing the funds. So far, I'm leaning toward the Polar FT7. I looked at a few of the pricier models, but can't seem to justify the cost with the extra features offered. Between the blog, Fitbit, and the Beachbody forums, I probably don't need one other area to have to record workouts to. But darn that pink FT60 is such a pretty HRM... if only I could justify the extra $100 price tag.

admit it, I'm totally cute for a heart rate monitor

But the black/red combo on the FT7 isn't too bad either... so this may be the one I start looking for. I have no patience for ordering online if I can find it anywhere within a 30 mile radius of me. I'm an instant-gratification kind of gal.

not as pretty, but friendlier on the wallet!

Alright, time to drag myself to bed- workout awaits in the morning. Cheers!

94 Days (Jennie)

Oh Wednesday... you haven't been kind to me! A few months ago, my phone took a bad fall and all the king's horsemen and all the king's men couldn't put it back together again. Actually, it still works, but the cracked screen causes it to lock up from time to time and the only thing I can do is pull the battery to reboot it. At 5:00am, my cell phone alarm dutifully goes off and proceeds to lock up. Half-asleep me fumbles for the snooze and after a minute or so I realize it's not just me, that it's locked up again. So I (still half-asleep) continue to fumble to get the case off, then pull the back off the phone and take the battery out to shut off the blaring alarm. I decided to close my eyes for just a few minutes, then get up... and an hour and a half later I did. Oops. Needless to say, the AM workout didn't happen.

Fast forward to lunch, we went out to celebrate a coworker friend's birthday. Going out is always a challenge, but I stuck with salad and skipped the amazing looking bread. Victory! We also went out for dinner (had errands to run as soon as I got home from work, no time to cook dinner), and I did my best to make wiser choices there too. Last but not least, frozen yogurt. Again, not the greatest, but far from the worst too. I stayed away from all the tasty candy and cookie toppings if that counts!

Moral of the story- I'm trying to do my absolute best over the next 100 days. I'm sure there will be days that I can't squeeze in the workout or restaurants that don't offer the healthiest food. But I'm really trying to at least choose the optimal thing that I can for the situation that I'm in.

Breakfast
Small banana muffin (homemade), 4 slices turkey bacon and coffee


Lunch
Salad (spring mix lettuce, carrots, steak, blue cheese, tomatoes and balsamic reduction dressing)

PM Snack
Banana and yogurt

Dinner
Baja Fresh steak and shrimp baja bowl (didn't eat the entire thing though!), along with a few chips

Dessert
Chocolate and almond frozen yogurt

Right now I'm sitting at 1990 calories. Not great, considering I've barely burned above 2000 today. Considering what it could have been though, I'm pleased overall. Time to get a baby workout in before bed and back to it in the morning!

96 Days (Jennie)

Oh Monday, you always come too soon. Today went fairly well. I had a dentist appointment this morning and was up earlier than normal to get the workout in and get to the appointment by 8. I was a bit worried that my energy level would be pretty bad after a very busy weekend and not a lot of sleep, but I did okay thankfully.

Today's rundown:

Breakfast
Spinach protein smoothie (spinach, vanilla protein powder, blueberries, unsweetened almond milk)

AM Snack
Banana and string cheese

Lunch
Lots o' salad (romaine, mushrooms, red peppers, turkey, cheddar, tomatoes, corn, avocado, jalapenos and a little ranch)

PM Snack
Granola bar

Dinner
Grilled chicken breast, roasted asparagus, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes and grilled peaches. Our little peach tree has been working overtime and the birds were kind enough to leave a few for us, so they hit the grill.

It's grilled fruit!

Dessert
Fresh berries with a little whipped cream. The beauty of making whipped cream is to be able to control the sugar or add a more glycemic-friendly sweetener.

This morning's workout was P90X Kenpo. Total calories in is 1685 and burned should be about 2200 by end of the day. Tomorrow I'm aiming to get a lunchtime walk in to get this calorie burn up!

97 Days (Jennie)

Today was a good realization. Sometimes it's not always about what you do and instead what you don't do. Mindy and I took the kiddos up to visit our Dad and Grandma. We all had a great time, sadly, he lives about 3 hours from here, so I skipped the workout this morning so I wouldn't have to get up at 5am (especially since I didn't go to bed til midnight!). I had a tasty BBQ burger. Far from diet food, but... (stay with me here)... it's what I didn't eat. No chips, no dip, no potato salad, no desserts. Have the burger, but keep the sides healthy, veggies and watermelon. Dinner was a quick stop at a local Tex-Mex place where I indulged a bit with cheese and steak enchiladas, but after 200+ miles of driving and two overly tired fighting kiddos... insert excuse here. :)

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs with spinach and 3 slices turkey bacon

AM Snack:
Caramel light frappuccino (okay okay, not my healthiest day!)

Lunch:
Burger on whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, light mayo, pickles, mustard and ketchup
Watermelon and veggies with a little ranch
These crazy addictive apple straw things... not terrible, but only had a few too!

Dinner:
 Aforementioned cheese and steak enchiladas. I did leave the rice and beans mostly untouched and only had a few chips, hopefully not a total loss!

Workout- No! :(  Breaks aren't a bad thing though, and a recovery day was probably in order. Visiting Grandpa always gets me up and moving around a bit, even with all the driving, I should still hit about 2200 calories burned by end of day.

Tomorrow- back to the craziness!

98 Days (Jennie)

Hooray for Saturdays! I actually had a pretty productive day today. Attended to my horribly overgrown yard, filled the green waste bin with grass clippings, pulled some weeds and still managed to get the workout in this morning (hooray!). We had a busy day with a birthday party later in the afternoon, so it was a bit of a challenge to get it all done, but mission accomplished thankfully!

I love making breakfast for the family on the weekends, it's nice to sit down and enjoy a meal together as opposed to the normal craziness of the week. This morning I made Baked Oatmeal, which I found on Annie's Eats blog here. I love her site, she has many amazing looking dishes and, as a fellow mom of young kiddos, keeps me inspired to keep cooking fresh wonderful food. I do make a few minor modifications to her original recipe, basically eliminating the pecans (kiddos don't like them), sub unsweetened almond milk for the regular milk and today I made it with half peaches and half blueberries. It's a very versatile dish, I always use the bananas as the base, but blueberries, peaches and and raspberries have all done well as the second fruit. Definitely use ripe bananas though, the only time it hasn't been so great is when my bananas were still a bit too green, it made the dish taste very starchy.

Oatmeal awesomeness!

Here's the rundown for the day.

Breakfast:
Baked Oatmeal

Lunch:
Plain greek yogurt with honey and grapes (I was in a rush to get cleaned up from yard work, get to a party and finish a pie... yikes!)

Snack (on the go on the way to the party):
String cheese and granola bar

Dinner (at the birthday party):
6" roast beef sub, watermelon, strawberries and carrots/snap peas from a veggie tray

I did stop for an iced raspberry latte on the way home. Not exactly the greatest, but I was tired and had an hour drive ahead, so I justified it. :)  I'm a little light on the calories today, but didn't want to overdo earlier in the day since I wasn't sure what we would be having for dinner at the birthday party. Total calories in: 1600

Workout for the day was Aslyum Back to Core. Not too intense of a workout thankfully since I followed it up with close to 3 hours of yardwork. 2500 calories burned so far according to my Fitbit with an hour left to go in the day still.

Tomorrow the family and I are heading up to visit my Dad for a belated Father's Day BBQ. So maybe all those saved calories from today will come in handy.

Have a fantastic weekend!

100 Days (Jennie)

Tomorrow, we're officially into double-digit days left before Tough Mudder, yikes!!

So far so good! I'm a bit of a broken record when it comes to breakfast and snacks which is going to make this a little repetitive... breakfast and snack choices always seem limited for on-the-go. I do start checking out more recipes, especially things that can be made at night and reheated or just grabbed in the morning on the way out the door.

Breakfast:
Vanilla protein shake with almond milk, spinach, and blueberries
Turkey bacon and coffee

AM Snack:
Greek yogurt
Small handful of almonds

Lunch:
Healthy taco salad (sans the "taco")  :)  Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, corn, avocado, jalapenos, cheddar, ground turkey and a little guacamole ranch dressing

PM Snack:
Granola Bar
Small banana

Dinner:
Tuna rolls (tuna, mayo with olive oil, relish, wrapped in butter lettuce)
Fruit salad (bananas, apples, strawberries, blueberries)


And because I was having a dessert craving... some plain Greek yogurt with a little honey and red grapes. It was just enough to quiet the sweet tooth and keep me away from the cookies I made hubby last night! Calories burned for the day was 1988, on target to burn 2400 per my trusty Fitbit.

I'm a big fan of Greek yogurt, Chobani in particular. One 6 oz serving of nonfat plain yogurt has 140 calories and 23 grams of protein, twice the amount in normal yogurt. It's filling and very versatile- add fruit, honey, or sub in baked goods. It also provides 30% of your RDA for calcium. Best of all, it's an easy and healthy snack to take on the go.

I am tasty and delicious!

This morning's workout was Asylum Strength. My goal was to make it through the entire workout with 15# dumbbells, thrilled to say I did it! Even knocked out a few of the rotational jumps holding a 45# kettle bell... wowwowwow... that was a challenge. My inside forearms, of all strange places, are even sore. I was planning to do the P90X Ab Ripper X workout tonight, but haven't been able to separate my butt from the couch the past hour for some crazy reason. That's okay, I'll make up for it in the morning with a hot date with Shaun T. and the rest of the Asylum crew.

Happy almost Friday!

101 Days (Jennie)

Last night's post really ignited something in me. While I was driving to work this morning and realizing that there are just 101 days til Mudder, I thought "hey, why not make these days count?" Really count too, as in eat clean and train dirty kind of count. 100 days from now I will not only be ready for Mudder, but will see a drastic change in my body as well (pics to come!).

Breakfast:
Vanilla protein shake with almond milk, spinach, and blueberries
Turkey bacon and coffee (oh sweet nectar...)

AM Snack:
Greek yogurt
Small banana

Lunch:
Chicken and orzo soup
Mixed greens salad (spring mix, edamame, carrots, celery, bell pepper, corn), raspberry vinegar

PM Snack:
Granola Bar
Small handful of almonds (15)

Dinner (my pork chop plan went awry, I must have frozen them too late, yuck!!!):
Scrambled eggs with spinach and salsa
Turkey sausage patty
Fruit salad (bananas, apples, strawberries, blueberries)

All in all, not a bad day, although a shade under 2000 calories, which I'd like to lower a bit to try to knock off these last few stubborn pounds. Calorie burn according to my Fitbit should hit about 2400 by the end of the day.

Today's workout: Asylum Gameday... 60 minutes of joy! ;)

So that's it... 1 day down and 100 more to go!