Forget the Past, Live in the Moment.

Good morning!

Last night I hit a pretty big realization which just motivated me to the max. What I most realized was that I had probably one of the best cardio work outs on my own that I’ve had in a loooooong time. And that was mostly due to the fact that my other cardio day this past week was complete crap. I made excuses after excuse that day, “my legs were tired from my leg day Monday”, “It’s snowing really bad out and I shouldn’t stay long”, “Well I did this many sprints, sooo that should do the trick”. GRRR just thinking about it makes me so mad!

I’m not one to not put my whole effort into things anymore. That was the old me, and it made me so mad that I let the old me slip in and make excuse after excuse to make myself feel better about the situation. The main reason why I’m frustrated is because my trainer gave me a goal weight to hit by February 14, which I know I can do! But if I continue to have crappy cardio days like that, then someone might as well hand me a donut because it just won’t happen…(I have donuts on the brain because tonight is my card night 🙂 !)

But thats why last night I knew that I needed to forget about Tuesday, I can’t change what happened, and hey I slipped up it happens. BUT NO MORE! I woke up yesterday on a mission, a mission to kick my own butt harder than I’v ever before!

I focused on my eating, went to work, then on my way from work I was off to the gym. I snacked on some sunflower seeds to get a little energy kick. Mind you, my drive from work to my gym is about 35-40 mins depending on traffic, and usually I can time my eating before workout out right. But anyway, I put my motivation cap on, put my handy dandy Polar Watch on so I could keep track of calories, and off I went!

I first attacked the rowing machine because treadmills were all taken, (I do HIIT [High intensity interval training] on all the machines I use). Then I ran over to a treadmill, when I saw it was freed up! SCORE! Now we can get this party started with some sprints! Whelp, as soon as I started going, I got a major you didn’t digest those stupid sunflower seeds you just ate cramp! I tried to keep sprinting through it, but it was useless. Beyond frustrated I knew I had to switch gears. This was NOT going to stop me, NO excuses here!

I decided to kick my butt in other ways…I did HIIT on the stationary bike and battle ropes. Did some ab work then light arm work. Then went back over and did more battle ropes and decided to finish with some HIIT on the stair master (which by the way, as much as I love that burning feeling, the stair master is the devil).

After an hour and a half I believe I was successful and it felt great! I got in a nice stretch afterwards, went home, had some isopure, ate dinner, and was lights out at 10:00.

Basically, we just have to remember that you can’t change the past, so why dwell on it?? Why waste all that time when you can enjoy the present moment? We never know how many present moments we are going to have (morbid, I know) so make them meaningful!

Oh by the way, I’m off from work today so……I’ll be back. 😉

Fats, a Carb Nighter’s Best Friend.

Goooood day good day!

All morning before my workout, I’ve been doing a little cooking and catching up on some How I Met Your Mother. I figured I’d start waking my brain up a little and do a little post about how I have really started to acclimate to carb night. Annnnd if any of you follow my instagram you saw that I made egg bacon muffins with some deliciousness inside, which I shall be sharing with what exactly that is here!

Lets see, it has been almost 2 months now that I have been venturing on this carb night diet. I have made noticeable progress in my muscle mass and weight loss. The scale might say that I have made minimal progress with only losing about 9 lbs, but thats because I am also gaining lean muscle mass! I recently checked my BMI and Body Fat and that has been decreasing!! I am proud to say that I am not longer in the Obese category yay! I also started to measure myself and take more progress pictures and those have reallllly showed me how far I’ve come! So guys don’t always trust the scale! I REPEAT don’t always trust the scale!!

Annnnyway, I am now understanding the way ketosis works and understanding what my body needs if this way of eating is really going to work and keep me fueled. I have noticed a HUGE difference in how I used to eat when starting this diet to what I consume now. I started off with thinking “oh ok so low carb aka no grains…meaning meats, cheeses, and fats” aka I ate bacon, cheeses, eggs, chicken, cheeses, red meat, cheese, ground turkey…and did I mention cheese?? Then after just feeling tired most of the time and lethargic, I was constantly asking my trainer questions about the diet almost every day! But he was very knowledgeable abut carb night, because he used to do it, and I wanted to make sure I was doing it right!

So here I am, yes it took me over a month to finally get it but hey at least I got it! I know, not only focus on my carbs but also on the fats I eat and the amount of fats! I no longer eat a boat of cheeses during the day to get my fat contents, instead I eat and cook with oils (extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, saffron oil), I snack on seeds and nuts, and I have a half to a full avocado every day! I even eat a little chunk of coconut oil before my workout and throw a little chunk into my morning green tea. I may add some cheese in my omelet or meals every now and then, but the majority of my of fats are coming from healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats! And let me tell you what a difference it has made! I feel energized, and I don’t feel like I could have a heart attack at any minute with all the saturated fatty cheeses and meats I was eating. SO TIP for eating carb night…keep track of those fats!! They are a carb nights BEST FRIEND!

Nooooooow recipe time! Yay!

Turkey Bacon Egg Muffins

1 muffin=10g fat and 1CARB THATS RIGHT 1 CARB!

Serving size: 6 muffins

Ingredients:

-6 stripes of turkey bacon

-a half a habanero pepper

-6 eggs

-1/2 cup of baby spinach

-4 breakfast turkey sausage links

-about a 3/4 cup of parmesan cheese

-Start by buttering your muffin tin and setting your oven to 350.

-Then take your sausage links and slice to casing in half and take the meat out of the casing so you can have ground breakfast sausage. Heat up and brown the turkey in sausage in a pan.

-Next crack your eggs into a bowl and add in the diced habanero pepper, chopped spinach, salt and pepper, cayenne pepper (I like my food spicy), some crushed red pepper, and some of the parmesan cheese (as much or as little as you want).

-Wrapped your turkey bacon around the muffin tip

-Pour your ground turkey into the bowl with your eggs.

-Then pour your mixture into the muffin tin and top it with a little more parmesan cheese

-Then pop in the oven for about 15 or so mins and BAM!

Turkey Bacon Egg Muffins!

I added some sriracha sauce at the end 😉

Peanut Butter Cup Lovin’

 

Now if your life me then you are a peanut butter cup loveeerrrrrrrr.

If there is one thing that is constantly a battle with my new way of eating, its my persistent sweet tooth! But I try to trick it with sweet things that have a healthy low carb twist to them. Today while I had a lot of time to get things done at home I decided try and make some peanut butter cups!

And let me tell you! They turned out to be pretttttty good if I do say so myself 😉

They are of course VERY easy to make with only 3…count them 3! ingredients.

Ingredients:

-PB2

-Dark Chocolate (I used 90 % Cacoa by Lindt chocolate–has less carbs)

-almond milk

Heres the recipe

Serving size is for 6 larger peanut butter cups in a muffin tins

-Butter your muffin tin

-Take half of your chocolate bar (should be about 4-5 squares) and put in a small pot with some almond milk. Stir while chocolate melts and add more almond milk if needed so that chocolate is liquified.

-Pour chocolate into in the bottom of each muffin tin filling a quarter of the way.

-Pop the tin in the freezer until chocolate is hard

-After chocolate is hard take your PB2 and scoop our 6 tablespoons into a bowl.

-Add in some water and almond milk till its smooth and liquified. Then pour on top of the chocolate and pop it back into the freezer for another 10-15 mins

-Take the rest of your chocolate and melt it the same way you melted the first half. Then take the tin out of the freezer, pour the rest of the chocolate on top of your cups, and pop them back into the freezer for about 30 mins.

-When cups are hard take a knife and pop the cups out of the tin, throw them into a baggie and store them into the freezer!

Preparation is Key!

Goooooood Morning!

  Today we shall focus on being prepared when it comes to dinning out options.

First, twice this week I will be having dinner out… aka not prepared by yours truly…aka menus filled with the overwhelming amount of carbs! But no need to fear, there are ways to go about this without feeling the dread of the possibilities of those sneaky carbs getting into your “clean” meal!

Numero Uno! Find out where you will be dining. This way you can look up the restaurant and know what kind of cuisine they serve. Along with checking out their menu to see what options you have to pick from. Tonight I will be going to a pub type place, which I’m a huge fan of because pubs tend to always have a variety of options of their menu. You can get a burger and hold the bun and add your own carb free/ low carb toppings, with a vegetable side (tell waiter/waitress NO FRIES pretty please and get a substitute, that way they aren’t just sitting there staring at you and tempting you). Or if you want fries and only want like 2, to try them, then have two and IMMEDIATELY throw something gross on them so you won’t eat anymore!

Numero Dos! WATCH OUT FOR THE “LOW CARB” MENU OPTIONS! It may say low carb, but if you doing carb night and have a VERY limited amount of carbs you can eat during the day, then look closely, because in reality its not carb night low carb. Just because they remove the bun and add a lettuce leaf instead, doesn’t immediately make it low carb. You gotta watch out for those onions, tomatoes, and other carb loaded toppings! Restaurants are usually good about adjusting the meal to fit your needs, so don’t be afraid to ask if you can eliminate and add things.

Number Tres! Get a gooooood workout in! Today I have a cardio workout, and not that I’m a slacker when it comes to doing workouts when I don’t go out to eat, but I like to just kick it up a notch. I always go hard at the gym no matter what day it is, but if I know I am going to go out to eat and if there is a chance that sneaky carbs get in, then I go bigger and harder during my workout. Adding extra sets, extra minutes, extra sweat.

And last but not least, if you know your going to be going out to eat, and it’s not impromptu, then plan your day. Plan out what your going to be eating through the whole day, so that you know when dinner comes you have extra carbs to use at dinner …just in case. And if it is impromptu, and you have smart phone, and you  have the myfitnesspal app, then while your looking at the menu take your time by checking eat ingredient in the meal your interested in to make sure it fits your diet! And if you don’t have the myfitnesspal app THEN GET IT!!! IT’S A LIFE SAVER!

Basically when going out to eat, check out the menu and find something you would like that follows your diet plan before your get there, don’t be fooled by the “low carb” menu option, get a good workout in prior to, and lastly plan out your day! All simple things!

Now I wanted to put up a quick recipe!

Dark Chocolate Black Raspberry Sneed Bars

These high fiber and low carb gluten free bars are great for keeping in your fridge, and grabbing to go when in your in a hurry! I have been eating them before workouts to get some of the carbs that I need to get fueled. And because some of the carbed ingredients contain fiber as well, that cancels out the carbs and makes it low carb! It’s like magic! And the best part is, it only takes like 5 mins to make!! LOVE IT.

 This recipe should make 12 muffins (or in my case because I couldn’t find my muffin tin, I made 12 bars)

-100g. almonds

-50g. sunflower seeds

-50g. sesame seeds

-50g. flax seeds

-50g. pumpkin seeds

-1 handful of blackberries

-50g. of dark chocolate (yuuum)

-1tsp sea salt

-1/4 cup of oil (olive or sunflower)

-3 eggs

preheat oven to 390 degrees F. Chop the almonds and dark chocolate coarsely. Mix together almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, blackberries, chocolate, and salt. Add in the oil and then the eggs and mix well. Pour mixture into nonstick muffin tins (or baking dish) and bake in the oven for about 15 mins. Allow to cool and store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Truly a Break-Fast

Goooood day!

      Ok this post will be quick, I say that now but of course paragraphs later and I’m still going ;-).

        This morning I was definitely feeling extra tired from this past weekend. It was one of my best friends birthday and we went out Friday night and so yesterday I was beyond tired and very thrown off of my regular routine. Which hey, it’s not always gonna be perfect, just means I have to suffer the consequences and get back on track. But it was definitely worth it, we had a blast!

Were crazy, but we don’t care.

       Anyway after working late last night and having to get up early this morning, I was slow to get out of bed and tired of eggs! But I definitely needed to eat something. So after a quick brainstorm I decided to throw together a smoothie. Of course when your going low carb a smoothie is a difficult task because most fruits are high in carbs. BUT I recently found out that blackberries are free game! And luckily I had some left over after making this blackberry dark chocolate sneed (nuts and seeds) bar (I’ll be most definitely sharing the recipe on that on in another post).

   I did a nice simple smoothie full of protein and nutrients.–> About a cup of blackberries, a cup of baby spinach (you can’t even taste the spinach I swear!), some ice, some almond milk, a scoop and a half of isopure strawberry and cream zero carb protein powder (you can use any protein power of course), hemp seeds, and chia seeds! –>For a little tip next time I’m going to freeze the blackberries instead of using ice so you don’t have tiny ice bit and so it’s doesn’t get watery.

About a cup of baby spinach

Some blackberries

A scoop and a half of protein

And BAM! Smoothielicious with chia seeds on top!

Basically what I wanna get at is to not skip any meals with the excuse of “I didn’t have enough time”. When I was in high school I would rarely eat breakfast, and if I did 9 times out of 10 it was some sort of granola bar. No bueno. You can make breakfast in seconds if you just take a second and use what you have and whip something up. And even though we all have in are heads what the typical breakfast food is, breakfast can consist of anything you want to eat! Don’t get stuck in the mindset that you have to have eggs and bacon! Have a burrito! Have some grilled chicken and spinach. Just make sure to eat something! Put fuel in your body to start your day off right. Ever since starting my carb night diet I haven’t skipped breakfast once. I make it a point to have something even if its going to make me late to work. Theres no way I am going to stat my day off with an empty stomach, not allowing my metabolism to get roaring, and feel tired and sluggish. Plus with the amount of calories I burn each workout, I need to stay energized with food and need my body to burn something while I workout!

In spite of what I said I do tend to make eggs…alot. Its just a really easy fast breakfast, and I make them in different ways to keep it interesting. But after having my smoothie this morning, it inspired me to take the next step and check out other fruits that are on the lower carb side and experiment with some smoothie options!

But all in all, EAT! Nothing makes me more frustrated when people think that skipping meals or not eating breakfast is going to help them loose weight. WRONG! But that will be in another post…And I promised to keep this short. So until then! Happy eating! 🙂

“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