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! 🙂

PATIENCE = PROGRESS

Hey guys! I took a new progress picture yesterday and wanted to share! I also have a picture from when I first started my weight loss adventure about a year ago! NO JUDGING HERE! I, along with a lot of other girls, used to be embarrassed to say what my weight was out loud. But with where I am right now stronger inside and out, I don’t care anymore! This is MY journey and MY blog and I am here to be completely 100% honest with myself. If I’m not honest with myself then it will only be that much harder to achieve my goals! So here we go…

 In the top picture  I weighed a gross 250 lbs and in the newest progress pic I am down to 216! I am a tall girl so my weight (from what doctors have told me) should be around 180.  But for me, I’m not aiming for a specific number, I’m aiming for more so a specific body type. Which is strong, muscular definition (and no not to look like a man!) and lean. When your lifting it is very important to not weigh yourself on the scale constantly! Your body will be changing and turning that fat to lean muscle which is what mine started to do. Before I started carb night and just tried to eat cleanish I kept weighing myself and getting discouraged because the scale wasn’t going down…but yet I noticed I was getting leaner. Then it hit me. I was gaining muscle! I was loosing inches, but not lbs. Instead of weighing yourself, try measuring yourself! You definitely see a difference!

I started off with eating low carb, doing cardio, and some lifting. I now do carb night, lift heavy, with cardio 2 or 3 days a week,  and train 5-6 out of 7 days a week. I didn’t do any crazy crash diet here. I was patient with this whole thing (as much as I didn’t want to be!). I keep my lean proteins, green veggies like spinach asparagus, kale, and mixed greens in my diet. I changed my fats from eating cheeses to eating a little bit of cheese and getting my fats from avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, and seeds, AND LOTS OF WATER. As long as you eat clean and train hard theres no need for diet pills or crash diets! Your only hurting your body!!

A lot of my fat as turned to lean muscle mass which I am pumped about! I feel great, and super motivated now that the holidays are over…aka no more distractions by delicious holiday foods!

I shall get to it now!

Before:

250 lbs ugh I hate this pic.

And heres my current pics!

Catching up.

Hello all!

Ok we have some catching up to do. Lets see when I last left off was my first carb night. I most definitely went overboard with the amount I ate that night. I was pumped to get back to eating healthy and cutting the crap out again and training hard. My next carb night I had was wayyyyyy more controlled and I felt a million times better the next  morning!

That time I had BBQ pulled beef, mashed potatoes, and carrots for a traditional dinner. Then over an hour later I had one chocolate chip pancake. Then an hour or so after that I had 3 peanut butter cookies. Got some better sleep that night than the first time, and the next morning I felt tight and not bloated!! I was sooo excited!

heaven on a plate

for some reason I always crave pancakes when keeping it low carb.

happy Keeley!

After that night I had a week of training and then I would be off to Seattle for the holidays. This made me verrrrry nervous. I was just getting the hang of carb night, and now all those delicious holiday treats and wholesome carb filled foods that you devour to the extreme one time out of the year was fast approaching. I told myself I wouldn’t fall for it! I would stay dedicated and not go back to those old ways.

That week came and went, and in the middle of the week I made the executive decision that I was going to enjoy myself. And that doesn’t mean eat like complete sh*t. That means that I would portion my meals out and eat what I wanted in a controlled amount. I knew just from that one week I wouldn’t gain back a boat of lbs. But I also knew that while on vacation I wanted to spend it relaxing with my family, working out, and not counting every little thing that I eat. I have been eating clean enough for a while to know what a good portion amount for me is. But I also knew that upon returning I would just have to keep working my butt off.

And thats just what I did.

beautiful

Seattle

freshest shrimp I’ve ever had!

I’v been back on the low carb eating until tomorrow (my next carb night) and working hard in the gym. I decided to push my carb night back a couple days to fully recover from vacation. Even through New Years Eve My friends and I had a low key  nights where I had two drinks (which were no carbs) and raw tacos on a lettuce leaf. The next day I wanted to be nice and well rested to kick off my new year with a squat and leg day!!!

Christmas gift

NP in the sled

Oh and I got to use my new lifting shoes and lever belt that I got as Christmas gifts!!

Gifts that I got from one of my closest friends! She’s the besssst!

Ok and now, last but not least! I have a couple progress pictures from this past fall and winter. I am really excited about this because it just continues to show how far I’ve come! And even if I get a little discouraged if I’m not dropping a certain amount of weight at a certain pace, this just goes to show that when you work hard and consistently lift (with some cardio of course)  lean muscle really takes over fat and does its thing. I will leave you with those progress pics and that is all for now! I will try and be better about posting more often as the progress continues!

left side is not flexing and the right side is flexing.

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!

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!