what I ate: Sun. Nov. 20, 2011

WARNING:  This was a very sinful day of bad eating!!!  What was supposed to be a cheat meal, turned into a full-blown cheat day!  But, I'm being fully honest with you guys here, so this is what happened yesterday:

10:30am

- 2 pancakes with butter & syrup

- a bit of eggs

- 1 1/2 slices of toast with butter and jam

- potatoes

1 - 2pm

teach boot camp

2:30pm

- the best grilled cheese sandwich I have ever made! 

(made with lots of butter, cheddar, and feta cheese)

7:30pm

- 2 Eggo waffles with butter, syrup, and cinnamon sugar 

9pm

- 1/2 this bowl of popcorn

- icecream with peanut butter, caramel, and lucky charms!

So, you see, it was really bad!  When I'm bad, I'm really bad, but when I'm good, I'm really good!  So, today, I'm back onto GOOOOOOD!  Got up early and ran to the gym, did an intense back workout, ran back, then made a nice healthy breakfast! I now see another benefit to photographing and posting everything you eat... looking back at this day of food I ate is a little disgusting to me in hindsight - the foods look gross now - I will have to remember this before having another day like this!   I can't believe how differently I felt yesterday because of eating bad! I was falling asleep at 5pm and found it difficult to be peppy and fun, plus my stomach still hurts this morning from all that garbage!  Sometimes having a crazy day like this really makes you thankful for healthy foods you usually eat and how they make you and your body feel!

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What I ate today: Sat. Nov. 19, 2011

7:20

- 1 whole egg + a bit of extra egg whites

- part skim grated cheddar cheese

- 2 tbsp. salsa

- small whole wheat tortilla

- green tea with fresh mint

11am

- avocado/tomato/cucumber/feta salad with 1 tbsp. light dressing

- only ate one of these pieces of fake crab (pollock) 

9:45 - 2:30pm

teach dance & fitness classes

2:40pm

- small whole wheat tortilla

- 1/2 pkg. Carl Buddig beef deli meat

- part skim cheese, cucumbers, yogurt sauce 

6:40pm (on my way home from a long day at the studio)

- 1/2 cup cottage cheese

- 1 apple

- small chocolate milk (instead of nuts at subway station)

10pm

at home relaxin with my:

- 3/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt with strawberries and multigrain cheerios 

Today was another awesome day!  I usually find Saturday daytimes really easy to eat well as long as I pack healthy meals for my day at the studio as I'm so busy and it's hard to eat anything so I don't have time to get creative or bad (lol!) but often I come home after a long day at the studio and just wanna binge on everything at home.  Tonight Wala'a is out and that made it much easier to resist making a grilled cheese sandwich or a big bowl of popcorn while we watch a movie.  On my way home I was really craving something sweet as well as dairy, so instead of buying almonds for my bus ride home, I indulged in the chocolate milk and it was great!  I still haven't had my cheat meal this week which shocks me!  We're going out to brunch tomorrow - that might be it!

what I ate - Nov. 18, 2011

7:20

- whole wheat english muffin

- whole egg

- slice of cheese

12:10pm

- 1/2 cup 2% cottage cheese dip (pureed cottage cheese with garlic & dill)

- broccoli

- 1 apple with almond butter

- 1 tsp. honey

3:45pm

- small chicken breast

- cucumber slices

- 1/4 cup plain yogurt with dill, garlic, & mint

- 2 rolls of Rockets candies

6:30pm

- whole wheat english muffin

- small homemade chicken burger (made with extra lean ground chicken)

- ketchup, cheese, and veggies

10pm

= 1 cup 0% fat Greek yogurt with honey & strawberries

Today was great as I just did groceries and was home all day taking it easy for a change, but I did have two english muffins which wasn't prime in my mind.  But, in general - healthy times! yay! Tomorrow is my official weigh-in with my 12-weekers and I'm feeling pretty good about it... my goal is to have lost 2 pounds from last weigh-in last week.

New Fitness Inspiration!

Finally got together with Valerio Mosca (TeamBodyPro) and had my first personal training session with him this past week.  I've been training myself forever, I can't remember the last time I've had a trainer check out what I'm doing, but I've been thinking about it for a while, just waiting for the perfect match to present itself... Then I found Val Mosca!  I had seen him through Facebook and he seemed just like the trainer I was looking for... the real deal... knowledgeable, tough, and results-oriented with tons of experience and background.  And when I heard he trained people out of Olympia Muscle and Fitness gym, I though double yay! as I live nearby and that gym always looked so wicked and just like my type of gym. 

We had decided to go through a leg workout for our first workout Wednesday night.  I knew he was gonna be tough, and he was with both brand new and familiar exercises with a new twist (including a zillion walking lunges around the gym that I can't even imagine how he got me to do!) But I think one of the biggest things that came out of this session was I realized how little I was pushing myself lately, or how much more I was capable of with someone like Val pushing me to keep going and choosing the weight for me (lol!).  It's great to have someone push you past where you think you can go... I think of myself as pretty hardcore in the gym and thought I was pushing myself, but during the workout with Val, I realized I hadn't been coming near my full potential lately!  Unlike many trainers who just do strength workouts with their clients and tell them to do cardio on their own, Val actually made me do a psycho stair-mill routine after all the weights (my legs/butt were on fire and the sweat was pouring!) He targeted exactly the areas I needed help with, taught me new techniques, and left me with tons of renewed energy for getting to the gym on my own and pushing myself until I see him again! 

You know you've done something great when you can barely climb stairs or sit down after a crazy workout!  I look forward to more sessions with him to keep me accountable with my goals and to stay super-inspired like I am now right after his session!

Valerio Mosca

http://www.teambodypro.com

what I ate: Nov. 17, 2011

5:30am

- 30 minutes cardio (bike & run)

7:30am

- 1 egg & 1/2 cup egg whites

- 2 slices Ezekial bread

- 1 slice cheese

- green tea with fresh mint

10:30am

- avocado/tomato/cucumber/feta salad with 1 tbsp. low fat dressing

- 2 sticks of fake crab (pollock)

- 10 rice crackers (I blame Zak for this - lol!)

12 - 2:15pm

- teach boot camp & bellydance class

3pm

- chicken breast with tzatziki

- Greek salad 

6 - 9pm

- teach classes

11pm

- 3/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt with strawberries and 1/2 cup cheerios 

- package of almonds

Today was an awesome day... lots of exercise and healthy eats!  My Greek salad out was the only kind of questionable... I asked for not too much dressing on the salad which worked well, but then I said yes to tzatziki and it definitely wasn't just low-fat yogurt tzatziki - I could taste some mayo in there I think (yuck!)  But that meal did keep me full for a long time and I ended up having one less meal than usual (4 instead of 5). I also went out after my classes and I was really proud to have not drank anything or inhaled all the popcorn that was out at the event!

getting all packed and ready to go for the day!

what I ate - Nov. 16, 2011

7:30am:

- whole egg

- 2 tbsp. salsa

- 1 small whole wheat tortilla

10 - 11am:

- teach boot camp

12pm:

- Chicken breast baked with barbeque sauce

- 1/4 english cucumber

- 1/2 cup 2% plain yogurt with garlic & dill for dipping 

4pm:

- apple with almond butter

(I usually don't peel my apples, but this was Zak's and he didn't want it, so I ate it!) 

5:30pm:

- 2 caramel rice cakes

- 1 stick of fake crab (pollock) 

6:30 - 7:45pm:

- Insane leg workout & cardio with Val

9pm:

- lemon/pepper tuna

- 1/4 English cucumber

- 1/2 cup 0% fat Greek yogurt with a few multigrain cheerios

        - sleepytime tea

This was a pretty perfect day for me!  Lots of working out, lots of clean eats including tuna and chicken (which I tend to not want to eat much eventhough I know I should!)  Training with Val was intense and really showed me how little I've been pushing myself in the gym lately!  I feel totally re-inspired and ready to be the best and sexiest me I can!  Clean eats, hardcore workouts, gonna be great - woo-hoo!

what I ate: Nov. 15, 2011

7:30am

- 1 whole egg

- 1 cheddar cheese slice

- 1 english muffin

(was all out of my brown english muffins, so this tasted soooo much like an egg mc muffin without the bacon - not quite right, but better than Lucky Charms I figure!)

11am

- package of deli chicken meat

- 1/4 english cucumber 

12 - 1pm

- teach boot camp class

2:30pm

- Starbucks spinach/feta/egg white wrap

5:30pm

- Starbucks turkey sandwich

- mint tea 

6 - 9:30pm

- teach bellydance classes

10pm

- whole bag of cashews

So, I feel I did pretty good today except there was a little too much bready stuff... I'm trying not to worry too much about that though as I am working on being a balanced normal healthy person, not a crazy all-or-nothing freak that I usually am, so I think today was a good day for that.  I ate every meal out except breakfast so this is also a great day to show that you don't have to eat unhealthy foods just because you're out and about or forgot to prepare a bunch of meals before leaving! The cashews at the end of the day weren't really my ideal dinner, but after the crazy long day I had, I was really craving all sorts of bad things and almost gave in, but I had the cashews as my fairly healthy treat and it worked!!!