Centsably Fit

Yesterday was super busy.  Getting menus out; swimming lessons; helping Darren get ready for a camp out; babysitting 12 kids and fixing their dinner.  Stuff like that.  I fell into bed after it was over and decided to post about yesterday this morning.

I’ve been able to get up at 6:30 every week day morning and get my scriptures read.  That makes a positive difference to how my day goes and how I feel about things.

Breakfast:  Fit and Active Protein cereal from Aldi with hemp seeds; almond milk and a bit of stevia.  I’m not sure if this cereal is on plan or not.  It had the best nutrition I could find in a cereal and it tastes terrible :).  But in a hurry it satisfies and stevia makes the taste a lot better.

I was supposed to work out with my friend Pam at 7:30 am at my house.  She came over and I didn’t hear her!  I was busy working on my menus and poor thing had quite an awkward moment standing in my foyer in the dark wondering if I was expecting her after all or if she was breaking and entering.  Poor thing!  I will be much more attentive from now on.  So neither of us worked out in the morning, but I did get my FYM work out in at 7pm last night.  More on that in a bit.

Morning Snack: 1 homemade protein bar. I had planned to eat an apple with my snack for the produce, but I bit into it on the way to the car to pick up my girls from swimming lessons and it was rotten!  It looked beautiful on the outside, but ewwww on the inside!  Maybe that was my morning lesson from the Holy Spirit.  “1Tim4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little; but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” It’s no good to be amazing on the outside if inside I’m rotten to the core.

Lunch: 1 spinach basil tortilla with deli turkey and lettuce.  I tried to eat a nectarine with it too, but 3/4 of it was bruised.  The fourth I did eat had no flavor.  I’m sure there is a lesson in there too.  The fruit was a gift from my neighbor…long story.  I will have to cut everything carefully and use it creatively.  But it was a welcome sight since I hadn’t been to the grocery store in over 2 weeks.  Right after lunch, Grant and I headed to Costco to refresh our carrots and Greek Yogurt.  But I’ll need to go to Aldi today to get the bulk of our produce.  I’ve found Costco’s produce prices to be pretty high on most things.

Afternoon Snack:  Carrots and hummus (oh it tasted so good to have fresh produce again!) And I did taste test 3 thing at Costco.  Multigrain nuggets–it was more like a cookie, but I thought it looked like a big granola bite.  A skinny cow wafer; and a piece of Italian chicken sausage–yum!

For dinner I made a low carb pizza with a whole wheat Ole tortilla topped with marinara; turkey sausage; onion and 1 oz of mozzarella cheese.

I waited an hour after dinner and made a workout shake. It is super sweet tasting so I doubled the recommended liquid with it, which made it taste perfect and last a bunch longer :). I sipped it while I did Holly’s June A workout of the month.  That one is super hard!  I only have a 10lb kettlebell so  switched it out for a 25 lb dumbbell for my swings.  I couldn’t keep a grip on it with just one hand so did 2 hand swings for the whole thing.  My backside is super tender today.  Yay for more muscles.  I was surprised how much easier the workout was Friday than it was Monday.  Our bodies change and adapt quickly.

Last Night I made homemade protein bars from this recipe.  My protein powder isn’t very sweet (I used Desiger Whey in French Vanilla) so I added 2 Tbs of stevia in the raw. They tasted ok, but I’d double the stevia next time. I was pretty excited to read that the recipe made 6 large bars and had such few calories.  But I put the ingredients into Myfitnesspal and found that the calories and other macros were DOUBLE what the bog post said.  Oh no, I already ate one!  I’m working on tweaking the recipe to improve the macros a bit.  I’ll let you know if it comes out any good.

I woke up at 6:30 am, read my scriptures (big win there) and then went to workout with friends at 7:30.  Wow, that was hard.  We did a Bob video from the Biggest Loser series (30 min) and finished up with a 10 minute quickie from Jillian.  It was a different type of workout than I’m used to which was very challenging.

Then I rushed home, showered and took 4 of my kiddoes to swimming lessons.  I took a homemade protein bar and an orange to the pool for my snack which I ended up splitting with Grant.  And I’m so glad I did now that I know how many calories are REALLY in there.

For lunch I warmed up another bit of turkey sausage and onions on a low carb tomato basil tortilla with romaine and a Tbs of caesar dressing.  I’m sorry all my food looks exactly the same.  I do that a lot–make a big batch of something and then eat it over and over.  I fix different stuff for my family that is more versatile.

I worked all afternoon on menus.  Which involves looking at a lot of delicious pictures of food.  One picture of food can make me think I’m hungry.  I got through it with 2 sugar free popsicles spaced far apart.  And then my real snack was a bowl of plain yogurt with peanut flour and apples stirred in.

Dinner was a low carb tomato basil tortilla with homemade tuna salad.  My daughter made a huge batch for the family with full fat Miracle Whip and Sweet relish.  I made a smaller bit for me.  It had:  1/2 can of tuna; 1 Tbs light mayo; dash of worchestershire sauce; 1 hardboiled egg chopped and 1 celery stalk finely chopped.  I add lettuce to it for extra crunch and to make me think I was eating more.

After dinner I went to a baby shower and had planned on an indulgence there ahead of time.  I was out of calories for the day and kind of nervous about what food I would find.  There was a huge assortment of fresh fruit and veggies and pistachios.  They also had brownies and sweet breads, but I was ok with passing them up, even though I know they were yummy.  I ate all the fruit and veggies I wanted without worrying about the calories.  I just enjoyedthe delicious food.

I know deep down that this idea is ridiculous, but every time I start to eat right and exercise, I think my ideal body should appear overnight–or at least by day 3.  Bwa ha ha.  It just doesn’t happen that way.  It takes consistency for weeks upon weeks.  After today I’m going to have to dig deeper to find the motivation to not give up.  I think if I had eaten a brownie, it would have been easier to give up–since it wouldn’t feel like such a flawless performance. kwim?  Do you make your own protein bars?  How about whey? I’m looking for a different brand.  It needs to be Whey isolate and stevia sweetened. Know of one I should try?

My ballet class last night was so much fun.  I’m not very good at it yet.  Those little girls make it look so easy!  There are so many things to think about.  Lean slightly forward, back straight, hips tipped under; shoulders down and back; arms out, elbows up, fingers pretend to grab a marshmallow.  Toes pointed, hips turned out, don’t lean on the bar….now try to move, but don’t loose your posture.  I was never out of breath, but I’m very SORE today.

There are mirrors everywhere in the ballet room and I couldn’t help looking at myself and wishing things were different.  Well, they are going to be different. I have a vision in my mind of what I’m shaping my body to be. It’s reasonable and I’m set emotionally not to quit until I reach that goal.

I got up at 6:30 again :).  For breakfast I had my workout shake, then did Holly’s workout of the month June B.  It had more bodyweight things in it so I was able to finish, but I was still shaking by the end.  I added my ballet bar stretches as a cool down since weight lifting has greatly reduced my flexibility.  I think if I can do those stretches every day and maybe twice, I might get somewhere.  It feels good to be flexible!

I was shaking so badly after my workout, I didn’t know what to eat.  I already had my shake and there wasn’t much time so I grabbed 1/3 a protein bar.  (It’s one of those crazy big bars with 400 calories and 35g of protein so I don’t need to eat a whole one.)  I’ve been trying to do without the protein bars, but today it was that or cookies…..

It’s swimming lessons for us for this week and next.  So for my morning snack I grabbed a string cheese and an apple to eat pool side.

Lunch was the rest of my huge bowl of romaine (it’s not very fresh and lovely looking I know, but it’s what I have.)  Someone ate my last grilled chicken breast, so I quickly sautéed up some Italian turkey sausage with onions and sprinkled that over the lettuce.  Added half a diced avocado and some caesar dressing.  It tasted a whole lot better than it looked.

My Afternoon snack was the rest of the protein bar, an orange and 12 almonds.  I forgot to take a picture of it.

For dinner I made the family skillet lasagna in my electric salad master skillet.  But that wasn’t appropriate for me and by then I was so tired and in a funk I warmed up some scrambled eggs and a bit more of the turkey sausage.  Then had a plate of lettuce with fat free Italian dressing.  Not the most exciting meal, but for having a fridge as empty as mine and being too busy to shop right now, I’ll take it.

Tomorrow I get to work out with friends.  I haven’t figured out how to fit in FYM intervals into my workouts yet.  I have some bad feelings about them being too hard that I need to get over.  And I benefit emotionally a lot from working out with friends.  They choose some pretty hard stuff when we are together, but not the same as what Holly does.

P.S.  The hunger comes and goes but it does’t panic me.  I’ve noticed sometimes all I am is thirsty.  I’m chewing gum now since I feel the most hungry after dinner.  It just never seems like enough at the end of the day.

Today was a little crazy. I got up at 6:30–excellent! I wanted to work out and study my scriptures, but instead I cleaned my house. I’m enjoying the cleaner areas, but still haven’t gotten to my workout or scriptures yet. Tomorrow, I will get it right.

Breakfast was a Trim Healthy Mama inspired chocolate Waffle with blueberries and plain yogurt (sweetened with stevia in the raw.) Recipe at the end 🙂

Snack: 1 oz of sprouted almonds and a small apple

Lunch: 2 cups of torn romaine with 3 oz of grilled chicken, half a diced avocado, and 2 Tbs Aldi Light Caesar Dressing

Snack: 6 oz plain lowfat yogurt with 1/4 cup peanut flour stirred in. I wanted to grab a produce with it but couldn’t decide what. I already ate an apple today, the carrots are gone and then I ran out of time. So I took the kids to their Doctor visit and vowed to do better next time.

My mom came to stay with some of the the kids while I took others to the Doctor. She heard Heidi ask me if she could bake cookies. We don’t have an oven so I told her it would have to be eggless cookie dough. Which is soooo yummy! Then I asked her not to, because it would be such a temptation to me. So my mom went home and baked cookies and brought them over. OH my! I was so hungry form my pitiful snack and so close to dinner that it was a huge temptation to me. With our limited fridge (we just got back from vacation for a week) there weren’t many good choices for me. So I had a sugar free popsicle (not stevia sweetened so not on plan–but the best I could do.) And it tasted so good I had another. Whew! I made it by on 30 calories without a cookie and quickly made dinner.

Dinner: 1 Ole Extreme Wellness lowcarb tomato and basil tortilla (toasted) with 2 oz ground beef and .5 oz brown rice stirred together and seasoned with my homemade taco blend. Topped with romaine, salsa and about a tsp of hummus–just enough for a creamy cheesy flavor but still be dairy free. An avocado would have been lovely here, but I already had my allotment for the day at lunch :).

I saved 80 calories for an after workout snack tonight–if I remember to stop by the store for more almond milk I’ll make a half smoothie.

I’m going to my first ballet class at 7:30!!! I’m super excited about it. Heidi gave me her old split sole shoes and I found my leotard in the back of the closet. I’m going to let this count for my workout today so I can spend more time in the scriptures tonight.

Here’s my food summary before the snack tonight 🙂

Wowsers!  Check out my fat grams today.  I’m still in line with my calories so won’t stress to much.  But maybe nuts; coconut oil; and avocado doesn’t need to be all in one day, lol.  Or maybe it’s fine.  What do you think?

So on the hungry scale.  It’s not as bad as yesterday, though I’m still plenty hungry tonight.  It’s the way I’m made.  I’m always hungry unless I’m sick, lol. I’ve found the first few days of a new food routine to be more hungry than normal but my body seems to settle in after a bit and not complain so much.  Also, I think drinking more water would help a bunch.

Waking up this blog.  Holly’s Summer Transformation Challenge lasts only 6 weeks and it starts on Monday the 17th!  You can register as soon as tomorrow.  Come join me, it will be fun!

My kitchen currently looks like this:

So I’m cooking in my attic ↓

Where the head height is a little low. But I’m grateful that the previous homeowners put in this little guest space.

And I’ve been using convenience foods for, well, convenience.  (Notice the canned biscuits above and cream of ? soup.  Well, my tummy bloated right up and my patience level went down.  When I don’t eat well, I don’t feel well.  I know better, but sometimes I don’t do better. And dairy and I aren’t friends.

My sister-in-law recently finished the New Year Transformation Challenge and then the Team challenge that followed.  Wow! I’m motivated to get myself back on track.  And just so you know, she has 6 kids–so no excuses.

I’ve already started eating right and working out, now to be consistent for the next 6 weeks.  It’s my kitchen remodel and body remodel at the same time :).

Tomorrow I take measurements and photos to make it all official.  See you then.

 
Read more…