The Good, the bad, and the ugly.

Welp, I had my first carb night last Friday after 10 days of eating only 30g of carbs a day! This was a struggle, let me tell you! I love my carbs, I love bread and all things that go with it. It was especially tough when I’d come home from work and my mom would be making stuffed shells or some sort of delicious pasta dish…and there I was…making chicken…again.

I had to get creative. I had to start googling and make this more fun for myself, or else I’d never survive! I stuck with the stables of veggies as far as eating spinach on a daily. But I started to change up my proteins. Shrimp, ground turkey, and eggs (not the biggest egg fan but I spiced them enough to where I enjoyed them)! But I did the 10 days, and that glorious day had finally come!

That morning I had work and then a training session for a brutal leg day! I love me some squats and an intense leg workout, but this one was definitely a kick in the butt thanks to my trainer! I probably looked like I had a stick up my butt when I’d try to walk to the next machine, a stick that kept getting bigger and bigger after every exercise.

But after pushing through and working hard during my session, I was beyond excited!

Had some chocolate muscle milk and a banana after my workout and was ready to get this going! My Friend and I had been planning this night since before I even started this diet (sad I know). But what can I say, I love fooooood.

We knew we wanted pizza, along with some other goodies we picked up at the store while our pizza was being made. I literally kept jumping up and down in excitement and played blaring music in my car while dancing to it…again this all sounds so sad now that I am thinking back on this. But no carbs for 10 days and make a girl a little crazy.

Allow me to show you what my night looked like.

So after, 6 slices of pizza, 2 donuts, and a triple decker ice cream sandwich made by yours truly I was a little nervous about what would come in the morning. I went comatose after trying to finish the ice cream sandwich (but couldn’t), and finally went up to bed. I didn’t get the best nights sleep, mainly kept tossing and turning. And in the morning, I didn’t feel as “tight” as I was described as how I should have felt…More so bloated and soft.

I was a little disappointed, but realized that this was my first time, and now I know I have to make adjustments for my next carb nights. I am also making more adjustments during my low carb days. For example, less cheeses, more nuts and seeds for my fats, and a lower fat content in my proteins aka no more fatty bacon and sausages for this gal for right now!

I must say, as excited as I was for carb night, it was definitely a lot. The next day I was definitely looking forward to getting back to the healthy eats and cooking all my meals instead of ordering out. So until next carb night, I shall be enjoying my own delicious dishes…like this one!

Surprise Massage? I don’t hate it!

            First and for most I need to announce, ONE MORE DAY UNTIL I CAN EAT CARBS!! Sometimes I think that it’s a little sad how excited I get over this, and then I think WHO CARES! After 10 days of nothing flour based, no sugars, basically nothing high in carbs (only proteins, fats, and green veggies) I’m super pumped to stuff my face with those yummy carbs!

              As excited as I am, I’m also a little nervous. Nervous that I’ll eat the wrong carb and this won’t work out and it was all a waste! My biggest nightmare would be that I would have to go through the prep phase again! But I can certainly believe that my body is in the fat burning phase since I have lost a good amount of weight in the past 10 days…close to 10 pounds.

             My plan is to have some pizza and some sort of dessert…Every time I keep thinking of this, I keep thinking about so many things that I want to eat! But I’m gonna control myself!! I have a session with my trainer tomorrow and I’ll definitely make sure with him that my backloading plan is A ok.

              Speaking of training I had my 2nd session on Weds, I will admit I was a little hesitant. The plan was to  go over the olympic lifts (cleans [no jerks yet] and snatches). Doing these lifts make me nervoussss…Well more so the snatches. I didn’t know what to expect, only that I wasn’t fully trusting myself. We started with cleans and I’v been doing cleans since I was 14, but NEVER from the ground…I always started from my thigh and let me tell you, starting from the ground and bouncing it off your hippish area makes a HUGE difference! I felt more secure, stronger, and definitely had more momentum. I ended up with cleaning 105(?) for 3. It was awesome!! The snatches were a little bit of a different story. This was a lift I have never ever ever done before. After practicing and adding some weight a couple sets at a time, I was getting a little bit more comfortable with it. I know I’m going to have to keep working at that lift if I want my strength in that area to keep going up. We ended with shoulder push press, and all in all it was a very fun workout!! I loved every second of it and can’t wait to do them again!!

            In other news, today I had my appointment with my acupuncturist, or at least I thought I did. I get very bad back pains, and its not my back muscles. I’v been to 4 chiropractors in my life, and nothing has ever made me feel 100%  than after and acupuncture session. A year ago I had sciatica, the most painful thing I have ever encountered in my back. I could not sleep at all. The pain would go from my lower back straight down to my ankle. I started taking some of my grandma’s pills to help me sleep! I was basically on some sort of drug sleeping on and off all through Christmas. When I came home, we finally made an appt with the acupuncturist. The experience was little nerve racking, but VERY peaceful…I almost fell asleep. And after two sessions BAM pain GONE! It was unbelievable!

             Currently my back is starting to flair up again after sleeping on a couch (pathetic, I know but thats how bad my back is). We made an appt for me as soon as I was free from my jobs! So today I went into the room the woman told me to take my clothes off and lay facing down on the bed, yes this was normal…except for the bed part. Whenever I came here before the Dr. would always evaluate where my pain was first by asking me questions. I kept thinking, ok, so maybe this lady does things differently, so go with it. She came back in, and told me that I needed to take my bra off because my straps would get in the way…Again, wondering to myself, wait what?? Now I know I always kept my bra on when getting the needles! After I took it off I laid face down again. All of a sudden I feel her warm hands with some sort of liquid on them rubbing my back! After this kept going for 5 minutes, it all came together….This is a massage!! No needles here! I was excited and definitely not prepared!! But it felt great, not the treatment that I needed, but regardless it was niceeee!

Welp, I might be a little too busy stuffing my face tomorrow night to blog about it, but I’ll update you on how it goes and my workout prior to Saturday! For now check out my dins on my instagram!!

Puttin’ my Big Girl Pants on.

   Hiya guys! Today is NOT going to be another lazy day for me! I’m puttin my big girl pants on and keeping myself busy today. No I don’t have work today, but my throwers that I coach do have a novice track meet this evening that I am VERY excited for! Its been a while since I’v been to a track meet, and I definitely miss going to them. To get out of the house before that, my friend and I are going to an early movie! I love love movies…who doesn’t?! My friend and I used to have what we call “special lady days” all the time over the summer when we had more time. Now with us both being super busy, it’s hard to find times for when we are both free, but when we do, it now makes “special lady days” EXTRA special and exciting!! 

 

 

      After all is said and done, I have my 2nd training session with Rob and I am super pumped!! I’m making sure I get enough protein and fats today to prepare for it. That being said, I had a BIG GIRL breakfast. A little bacon and egg action, and a couple slices of cheddar cheese on top of the eggs for some extra pazaze! 

 

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention….TWO DAYS PEOPLE! TWO DAYS TILL I CAN HAVE A MOUTH FULL OF CARBS INSTEAD! 

Lazy Snow Day

  This will be my last post of today…I promise. It has been a long lazy day full of snow, christmas movies, and relaxing. Now don’t get me wrong it was not a bad day! I definitely enjoy those unexpected days where I’m off from all of my jobs and get to lounge around in my comfy sweats. Especially since this isn’t something that happens too often for me anymore. But these kinds of days often throw me off track. I get into a serious lazy mode and start an argument in my head of “should I just go to the gym today, or should I do (what I know will be) a half assed kettle bell workout at home?” I then continue to answer both sides with a “Just go to the gym and do your workout, get out of this house full of carbs!” Which the devil on my shoulder answers back with…”I never have real days off anymore and you deserve to keep resting! Besides look at how snowy out it is! You don’t want to drive in that, do you??” Ok I’ll stop it with the corniness now, you get the point.

 So in the end of all that arguing, I got my butt off of the couch, put some real clothes on, and went to the gym. And damn did it feel good. It was just a cardio and abs day today, but it snapped me out of my laziness mode and made me a real functioning person. Just because I had a day off from work, doesn’t mean I suddenly get to plan a day off from my workout as well (especially when I already had the weekend off from workouts).

 

With my new mindset I now kick that devil in the shins and now win every argument, resulting in me feeling ten times better after leaving a successful workout! AND I got to use the gym’s foam roller, that I was introduced to by Rob yesterday. And let me tell you, that thing is one of the greatest inventions EVER. Check out the video on my instagram—> here

 

So my advice to everyone on the snow day…SNAP OUT OF THE LAZINESS AT THE END OF THE DAY AND GO! You’ll feel like a million bucks!

“I hate food!” Said no one ever!

 Since today is a snow day, I figured I’d keep myself occupied and do another post, lucky you! 😉

And the main thing that has been on my noggin is foooooood. I love food, who doesn’t?? Especially these days where I have been very strict about the things that I throw into my mouth. Thanks to myfitnesspal it has made it a lot easier in seeing what foods have carbs and which don’t. Because let me tell you, there are a lot of foods that I wouldn’t have even guessed have carbs, but do. For example, carrots, peas, and onions! Now I know your probably thinking, those aren’t bad carbs, those are the good complex carbs. I understand that, but with this diet of eating only 30 grams of carbs or less a day, I don’t want to risk anything and try to stay away form carbs as much as possible! If I do eat carbs, I make sure that they give me other benefits as well like, fiber, protein, and fats (good fats).

      One carb food I always make sure to eat everyday is a half an avocado a day! An avocado is a power food, with good fat that includes the fiber I need to have a successful morning poop (yes, we get real personal at this blog). A couple days into this diet after being very strict with no carbs and eating around 20-23 carbs a day, my poops were less than sub par! I reached out to a friend (who did the Keto diet) and asked what the hell is going on here! He told me I needed fiber to make sure that everything comes out as smoothly as it goes in. After I incorporated the avocados back into my diet (which made me a very happy girl because I LOVE avocados) my morning poops were back to normal!

I shall now show you some of the recipes I have been making to survive these ten days! A BIG help from food gawker  and pinterest for the ideas for some of these meals!

This deliciousness is a low carb pizza. Probably my favorite recipe so far! It most definitely helps with my pizza cravings! You can find the recipe here! It may seem strange and may seen like it just won’t be the same as regular carb loaded yummy pizza, but trust me it is! You also get your proteins and fats from this meal! Now if you are going to do this diet, because this pizza does contain some carbs your gonna wanna just watch how much of it you consume. But it’s rather filling, so that might not be a problem anyway.

 These next two recipes, are my bacon wrapped inspired recipes! Now one of the things that I am enjoying about this process is that I can have all the bacon I want! I’ve been trying to keep it to turkey bacon so that my calorie intake isn’t too high from just one meal. But let me tell you, these were deliciousssss.

The top photo are my low carb jalapeño poppers! So simple: cut jalapeños in half. Take 1/3 the fat cream cheese and spread it inside. Wrap in bacon. Bake at 375 until bacon is cooked!

The photo on the bottom is my bacon wrapped stuffed chicken: Take some chicken cutlets and pound them flat. Spread cream cheese on one half the chicken. Add in some jalapeños for spice. Then fold the other half of the chicken on top (so it kind of looks like a taco). Then wrap the chicken up in bacon (I tend to use 2 slices per breast). Then Bake at 375 until chicken and bacon are cooked. This meal is low in carb, and high in protein!

With these next photos obviously the one on the left is NOT low carb at all! This was a temptation test after a coworker brought in a container of soft baked chocolate chip cookie heaven. My week was full of temptations full of sweet things! I have a HUGE sweet tooth, so this is particularly hard for me to say no to. Plus they smelled so gooooood, but I didn’t even have 1!  Instead I went home that night and made myself a low carb cheesecake. Another super easy recipe here that can help out any sweet tooth. Whats nice is you can also adjust the serving size depending on how much or little you want to make.

Welp the countdown continues with 3 more days left until I can have some legit carbs! YUM! If you interested in some more info via photos check out my instagram

New Chapter

   This week I start a new chapter in my life. After have been regularly lifting for the past 14 weeks and feeling stronger by the day, I now take a turn and start working out towards something. Before, I was lifting to change my body into a body that I would love. Now I’m lifting to gain strength and to bring my competitive side back! I’v have truly missed being a part of something athletic wise. Growing up I always played some sort of sport. And in college I played rugby and threw for track and field. Throwing was always a passion of mine since my freshmen year in high school, and that was originally one of my goals at the beginning of my lifting plan. Get strong so I can throw farther and compete at a higher level. But things change, life changes, and my passion is included in that. Now I will always and forever love and be passionate about throwing. But these days, lifting is my new passion.

 

         I take all my stress, all my emotions, anger, frustrations, anything I’m feeling that day, I take it out on lifting. I leave it all in the gym and walk away feeling cleansed. These days I’m pushing myself to new heights to start competing in Strongwoman competitions. To take what I’ve accomplished so far, keep working, and then put it all to the test! I’m beyond excited to start training for this!! With the help from my new trainer Rob, who has competed in Strongman competitions, I know when the time comes I will be prepared and stronger than ever!

 

        Of course I know this isn’t going to be easy at all, most definitely will it be full of hard work and dedication, which I am totally prepared for. Currently I am already in the process of changing my diet to carb backloading.  This way I can get leaner, maintain my strength, and keep building muscle. Basically you go through a 10 day recalibration phase of eating 30 or less grams of carbs a day, which means you end up eating mainly proteins and fats. Then on the 10th day after your have a resistance workout (try to workout between 5 and 6pm) have your protien and then have whatever carbs you want until bedtime. Pizza, ice-cream, and all that yummy stuff you couldn’t eat during those 10 days! And with this diet you want to keep it so that the carbs you inhale on your carb nights are the greasy bad carbs you usually try to stay away from on other diets. No brown rice or sweet potatoes here! Check out the link and see why!

 

     For me I am on day 7 of my recalibration phase, and I CAN’T WAIT TO EAT CARBS ON CARBS ON CARBS ON FRIDAY!! I have been dreaming of cheesecake and pizza! With so many temptations everywhere this has definitely been a challenge! I have done a lot of different kinds of diets before, including a low carb diet, but I have never been this strict about it before. I’m on a mission and no carb is going to get in the way of that! But I’ll go into that more later, including pictures of some of my meals that I have been eating while on my no/low carb diet! And some progress pictures, even though I am always nervous to show whoever looks at this those things. But I figure, this blog is for myself and pictures help me see that all my hard work pays off!

 

    If you are following along with my journey and have any questions or comments, I always love feedback!