It’s Been Awhile!

Hi Everyone!  It has been toooooo long since I’ve posted.  Since last march, I have successfully been a vegetarian (pesc- and ovo-lacto- I still eat fish, eggs, and dairy).   However, I have actually GAINED weight.  I contribute this to a few things – 1) quitting smoking 2 years ago in February finally caught up to my metabolism and sloooowed it down  2) I went off birth control pills in April of last year, so it’s officially been a year for that.  My hormones are finally regulating themselves again, but it took almost a full year and weight gain is also a side effect.  I’ll post about my reasons for going off the pill (yes, it was for health reasons, not because we want to get pregnant).  3) my lack of activity I’m sure has a LOT to do with it.  4) my boredom with being a vegetarian – yes, there are lots of healthy, delicious options but during the winter it is difficult and expensive to get the full range of vegetables that I require to keep my diet interesting and plant-based.  I sort of slacked on that part – lots of pasta and carbs.  I decided I needed a lifestyle change when I needed to buy new pants for work because my old ones were no longer fitting very well, and I was bulging in all the wrong places.

I was looking for a plan that I could follow to the T, that would give me results.  I don’t know enough about fitness to know what exercises to do when, to get the results I want, so I started searching around and asking friends that are very in shape.  I was lead to BodyBuilding.com, where I found Jamie Eason’s LiveFit trainer.  It was exactly what I was looking for!  Not only does she lay out 12 weeks worth of exercises in three phases, she also gives you mealplan guidelines to follow.  You can modify the mealplan to your liking – I’ll put an example below.   So far I’m on day 4 of phase 1 – there are 84 days total.  To further encourage myself to continue with this program, I signed up for the Tough Mudder competition in August with my best friend Katie!  I’m enjoying this workout plan way more than I thought I would – turns out weightlifting is something I really like to do, and actually look forward to doing every day.  And, I lost 3 pounds since I started!  So, here are the specs:

Starting weight: 145.2 lbs
Current weight: 142.0
Goal weight: 120 lbs
Starting % body fat: 28%
Current % body fat:  I’ll know on Sunday when I do my measurements
Goal % body fat: 16%

I’m not going to include my starting measurements, but I might do that later.  I’m itching to go to the gym!

A typical meal plan modified for me looks like this:

7:00 AM – 1/4 cup oatmeal with 1/4 cup berries and 1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed in; 2 egg white cups
10:00 AM – RAW meal replacement mixed in unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1:00 PM – 1/2 cup quinoa cooked in thai ginger chicken broth and 1/2 a sweet potato, roasted, with coconut oil and cinnamon; salad with olive oil and apple cider vinegar
4:00 PM – greek yogurt with some type of fruit mixed in, 1 whole grain rice cake with peanut butter
7:00 PM – lean meat, such as fish or chicken; brown rice; veggies
If I’m hungry any time after 7 PM, I just have an apple either by itself or with peanut butter.

Some things I’d like to clarify:

• Egg white cups are liquid egg whites over sauteed veggies (this week I used green and red pepper and kale, spinach and arugula) baked in a muffin pan.  (Word of advice:  GREASE THE MUFFIN PAN FIRST.  It’s been 6 days and that damn thing is still sitting in the sink soaking.  I’ve tried scrubbing it multiple times.  I just keep coming back to it, every day it gets a little cleaner.  This is a judgement-free zone, remember that!)  I just make a batch on sunday and I have egg white cups for 6 days.
• The RAW meal replacement tastes like absolute shit.  I will not ever lie to you and tell you that it tastes delicious, because then my pants would be on fire.  However, it is packed with such amazing things that I will gladly choke (most of) it down in order to reap the benefits.  It even has live probiotics.  Show me another meal replacement shake that is raw, organic, contains sprouted things, vitamins, minerals AND probiotics that tastes better and I will give it a go.
• The quinoa that I make is cooked in a processed, high-sodium chicken broth that comes from a box.  I am not proud of this but I can’t choke down bland quinoa five days a week.  Just can’t.  Since quinoa is a complete, lean protein, and I’m still not trying to eat meat all the time, I’m going to continue using this broth until it is gone, and then I will see what I can do in terms of eating clean.
• The plan was to allow myself one cheat meal a week – however, my cheat meal was last night, and it was a tempura veggie roll followed by clear soup and side salad with ginger dressing, and hibachi tuna dinner with rice and veggies.  We went out to our favorite hibachi/sushi restaurant, Lil Tokyo, and my stomach was so upset for a few hours after eating such a large meal that I don’t know if I’ll do a cheat meal again.  It was so delicious but I don’t think it was worth the pain afterwards.  And let me just say that I KNOW IT WASN’T THE QUALITY OF THE FOOD – this seriously is THE BEST hibachi and sushi place in Myrtle Beach.  So if you ever visit, check it out!

The meal plan by Jamie is supposed to include eating meat four times a day – I can’t do that.  I have it once a day if that.  I can’t afford to buy enough meat that is organic, hormone- and antibiotic-free, free-range, humane, etc. to feed myself that much.  No bueno.  I think my plan works well though, I definitely feel good, and eating every three hours eliminates the desire to snack.  I contribute my success thus far to meal prep – it is a heck of a lot easier to just grab-and-go, and I think that is where I failed before.  I didn’t have things readily available, so I purchased things instead of going through the effort to make them from scratch.  I also think my body was in starvation mode, which stores fat – I ate twice a day, with intermittent (unhealthy) snacking in between, although it was vegetarian and mainly organic.  The main thing I’ve learned over the past year is that I feel good about eating clean and organic, but it isn’t enough just to buy things with those labels – you won’t look or feel any better unless you feed your body at the right times, with the right types of clean and organic fuel.

I’m going to get ready for the gym – I’ll catch up with ya’ll tomorrow after I take my measurements!

Selling Attraction Coupon Books!

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Green Smoothie Challenge Commences Soon!

Hi everyone!  Just checking in, haven’t written a new post in forever.  I’m happy to report I haven’t had ANY meat since becoming a vegetarian in March, about 4 months ago.  I recently donated blood (help three people with one donation! http://www.redcrossblood.org) and they told me my iron levels were 14, which is perfectly normal (normal range for women is 12 – 15.5g hemoglobin per deciliter of blood).  I was worried about this since I don’t eat red meat.  I do, however, eat a LOT of fruits and vegetables.  Spinach has a TON of iron in it.

Speaking of spinach, I am beginning a challenge on July 1st – the Green Smoothie Challenge!  It’s this great challenge that helps you get 2 cups of greens (either kale or spinach) every day, in a simple, great-tasting smoothie!  We received our first shopping list today through e-mail; the first week’s recipes focus on tropical fruits such as mango, pineapple, guava, papaya, and avocado.  I’m really looking forward to starting!  In addition to the fruits and veggies (which of course are loaded with healthy stuff), I’m also adding chia seeds and ground flaxseed for that extra bump of nutrition.  Click on the icon below to learn more about the GSC (green smoothie challenge!) and after you visit them, come back here to learn more about chia seeds and why I am choosing to add them!

Welcome back!  I hope you were inspired to join the challenge with me!  As I was saying, chia seeds are these tiny little seeds that come from the Salvia hispanica plant.  You may be asking yourself, wait, haven’t I heard of chia seeds before?  The answer is YES!  They were attached to your favorite funny looking face- or animal-shaped planter, also known as Chia Pets!  But they do more than provide fast-growing hairy entertainment; they are a complete source of amino acids, which is so important for your health!  The Wikipedia entry on chia seeds says that “according to the USDA, a one ounce (28 gram) serving of chia seeds contains 9 grams of fat, 5 milligrams of sodium, 11 grams of dietary fiber and 4 grams of protein. The seeds also have 18% of the recommended daily intake of calcium, 27% phosphorus and 30% manganese.”  And people say vegetarians don’t get enough protein! 

(Sidebar:  the recommended amount of daily protein for women is 46 grams.  Considering kale has around 3 grams per cup, mango has around 3 per cup, pineapple 1 gram per cup, oranges have 1 gram per orange, and 1.5 gram per banana, without chia or flax my Citrus Breeze smoothie has 13 grams of protein!  With 1 tbsp chia (2g) and 1 tbsp ground flax (1.5g), it brings the total up to 16 grams of protein, in a SMOOTHIE!!!! That’s more than 1/3 of my recommended daily protein intake. Join the challenege for the Citrus Breeze smoothie recipe!  I substituted kale for spinach.)

Click here for the Huffington Post’s 10 reasons to add chia to your diet! (A potential cure for type-2 diabetes! Wow!)

Let me know if you’re going to join the challenge – we can do it together!  I’ll update after week 1.

Peace, happiness, and leafy greens!

 

Is your wine/liquor/beer vegan?

Is your wine/liquor/beer vegan?

Interested in whether there are animal products in your cocktail, or if animal products were used to create that nightcap?  Head on over to Barnivore.com, where a TON of alcohol products are rated VEGAN or NOT VEGAN.  Happy drinking!

23 Houses Built Into Nature

23 Houses Built Into Nature

Thought this was awesome…this really brings a new meaning to “becoming one with nature”

How to move to a new city

How to move to a new city

Just wanted to share this wonderful article (?) by Shane Townsend with you.  I thought the writing was wonderful and there was a heartwarming undertone, almost to say “everything will be alright.”  Take a look, let me know what you think.

LADIES Listen Up! Tampons can lead to infertility!?

Check out this post I just found from Weed ‘Em and Reap.  Here’s what I learned:

Tampons can cause infertility and a ton of other problems!! For example, did you know that producing Rayon, which is the other material in tampons besides cotton, results in a toxin called dioxin?  Dioxin levels have been found in SEVEN BRANDS OF TAMPONS!  This can cause a host of medical issues.

Also, MOLD has been found in tampons, along with the occasional dose of cocaine.  COCAINE! WHAT!

What about the pesticides used to treat all the cotton you’re shoving up there for a quarter of each month?  Nobody thinks about that.  Let’s start!  Let’s be educated consumers!!!

Read the full article here:

http://www.weedemandreap.com/2013/02/just-say-no-to-tampons.html

Let me know what you think!

How to eat real food, easily!

Eats from the box, and my first strawberries!

As mentioned in the last post, I got a big box of delicious organic produce!!  Above is the first meal I made with that produce – some beautiful Bright Lights rainbow chard (from the box) with chickpeas, feta cheese, cremini mushrooms (from the box) and lemon!  It was alright, I need to work on my wilted greens skills.

This was all the fruit that came in the box – anjou pears, fuji apples, valencia oranges, bananas and roma tomatoes.  The onions I purchased elsewhere.

 

So let’s recap:  the box contained pears, apples, oranges, bananas, tomatoes, mushrooms, rainbow chard, butter lettuce, red potatoes, and carrots.  I think that’s it.  But it was a lot!! I’ll be picking up my next box on the 17th.

My strawberry plants are producing more and more strawberries every day!

These were the first two strawberries I ever harvested 🙂

 

Pictures of my growing garden to come soon!  The tomato plants are growing so fast!  No tomatoes yet.

Gary’s Organics Day!!!

Today is the day I pick up my first box of certified organic produce from Gary’s Organic!! I’m very excited to be a part of this, and of course there will be pictures as well as the recipes I will be using to cook up this delicious fare!