Eat clean: 41 days

So I obviously can’t count since my last post I thought I was at day 7 of clean eating. Only 41 more days til Mexico which means 13 days since I started my countdown. I’m still struggling to have consecutive eat clean days. This week I just want to make it to Thursday without a slip up. Again I haven’t been eating horribly but there’s always room for improvement.
This past weekend the hubby and I had our companies xmas parties to attend. Total damage? 2 cosmopolitans and 2  glasses of red wine.
I’ve got overnight oats in the fridge, first time making it, can’t wait to see how it turned out.

Eat clean: Day 6 of 55 and meatless Monday

Todays elf 4 health challenge was meatless Monday. And it was a success! Toast & peanut butter for breakfast, grapefruit, homemade granola bar, Margarita pizza (tomato, mozzarella and basil), and mushroom egg scramble. Not an ounce of meat. And a fairly clean eating day!

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of what I ate. Tomorrow I will be giving a handwritten note to a friend. I love handwritten notes, they always feel more personal.

Busy evening running around so I didn’t get a workout in. legs are sore from yesterday so I’ll consider today my rest day. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Eat Clean: Day 4 and 5 of 55

A couple days ago I had breakfast at McDonald’s and I came up with a plan to get back on track and focus on eating clean for the rest of the day.  I had a plan and I just had to execute it.  Unfortunately I failed the execution part.  Looking back I can’t remember what I even had at lunch time but for supper I did have a spicy chicken wrap (breaded chicken fillet) a couple chicken nuggets and a few nachos with cheese & chili.

I find that when I’m indulging, it’s not a big amount, it’s a little bit here and a little bit there.  It still catches me off guard when I feel the guilt of eating 2 chicken nuggets.  One of the individuals I follow on Instagram posted something I found to be very motivational.  Her message was that there needs to be a balance in life when it came to healthy eating and exercise.  It needs to be a lifestyle can you enjoy and doesn’t feel like “work”.  Why be so strict and hard on yourself?  There are those that are training to be on stage at a contest/competition and if I’m not one of those individuals then I need to learn to give myself a little bit of breathing room.

I do have goals to feel confident when I wear a bikini in January (unless I wear a tank top and shorts) but I know I can get there without the guilt.

So the past couple days still haven’t been great for me, but I did have a great leg workout today and eating has been pretty good.  I enjoyed going out for dim sum with the family, and for the first time ever I stayed away from the usually delicious deep fried dim sum dishes.  I’m always a sucker for the beef curry wontons or calamari or spring rolls.  And I usually always indulge in the fried noodles too, skipped that completely today.  It’s the small victories for me.

The elf 4 health challenge starts tomorrow and I’ve already started exchanging emails with my elf buddy Brianna.  She’ll be my buddy for 2 weeks and we will keep each other motivated and focused on our health-related goals.

As part of the challenge there are also daily challenges to complete.  Here’s the list of Week 1 challenges:

Monday

Go meatless today.
Show us what you make! 

Tuesday

Send a card or handwritten note to a friend.

 

Wednesday

Try a new workout today!
Show us what you did to sweat!

 

Thursday

Get up 15 minutes early to meditate and reflect. 

Friday

How many colors can you eat today? Challenge yourself!
Post pictures of your colorful eats in our Facebook Group, on Instagram or by Tweeting. Email photos to your elves!

Eat clean: Day 3 of 55

Day 3 definitely wasn’t an eat clean kind of day. Woke up feeling completely…. Off. Don’t have another word to describe it.
Eyes felt strained and tired so I had to wear my  glasses. Body was aching and I had a headache that stuck with me the entire day. The turnout? Hashbrowns for breakfast, potato chips for an afternoon snack, a 2nd cup of coffee in the afternoon and sushi for dinner.
Didn’t workout either. Not a good day.
Now I’m sitting at McDonalds with the kiddies sipping on a skinny vanilla latte and feeling guilty about the egg McMuffin I ate for breakfast. UGH!
Need to move on and focus on clean eats for the rest of the day which I should end with a good leg workout.
Now that the plan is set I just need to execute it.

Here’s a back progress shot. Top picture was taken this week, bottom picture from a month ago. Hard to tell if there was progress, especially since I’m wearing a different top.

How do you get back on track?

Also good luck to any shoppers going out for black Friday shopping!

Eat Clean: Day 2 of 55

Good Morning!

My days for the next two weeks are long ones at the office because I am carpooling to work with the hubby.  Which means I get dropped off first (before 6:30am) and I get picked up last ( at 4pm) which means I’m at the office way too long.  This also results in long days where I start losing track of today and yesterday and the day before.

I could’ve sworn my first day of clean eating was Tuesday, turns out that was Monday and I’m on Day 3 now.

Yesterday I had one minor slip up… just when you think all the Halloween candy has been cleared out of the office, my coworker shows up with a huge bowl of halloween treats.  So I had a small pack of fuzzy peaches.  Not the end of the world, but definitely not something that I needed.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all good and also managed to squeeze in a  good shoulder work out too. Yay!

Last night a tried out a new recipe for zucchini crab cakes.

Very simple recipe:  shredded zucchini, crab (I used canned), finely chopped onion, old bay seasoning, a couple eggs and a few tbsp of whole wheat flour.

I followed a recipe online (can’t find the link at the moment) but I cut down on the amount of old bay seasoning, and the crab cakes turned out too salty 😦

I can’t imagine how much saltier the dish would be had I put the full amount of seasoning as listed in the recipe.  So today I’m having the zucchini crab cakes with brown rice.  Hoping the brown rice will help with the saltiness.  Hubby won’t eat any of them, but I’ll have to.  It wont’ be so bad… the doctor actually suggested I increase my salt intake to help increase my low blood pressure.  This dish will definitely help!

Eat Clean.. Day 1 of 55

First off, it’s hard to believe that it’s only 55 days til Mexico!  The year has definitely flown by and I can’t believe another new year is just around the corner.

The past weekend was a pretty bad weekend in terms of healthy eating.  Again, I didn’t go to any extremes, had a couple potato pancakes, some popchips, a handful of deep fried goodies.  But nothing horrible.  I still felt bad about it though.  So today I’m back to blogging about my clean eating goal.  We went grocery shopping yesterday, so meals and snacks are ready to go for the week.  I do have a couple celebration meals on Wednesday but I’ll do my best to select the healthiest AND tastiest dishes.

For the next 5 days, here are my rules and goals:

• No processed food (although I’m pretty good with this one, just thought I’d list it anyway)
• If I have a cup of coffee in the morning, limit myself to a splash of french vanilla creamer.  Ultimately, the goal is to not have any coffee, so I will try to have green tea instead.
• Add a veggie to every meal.  The past week a few of my meals consisted of brown rice and protein.
• 180 lunges each day.  This is going from the 5th floor to the 17th floor twice.
• Train hard and lift heavy.  Hubby is home in the evenings so there’s no doubt he will be pushing me hard to lift heavy.

So far today has been going ok.  I was up til 11pm working last night and had to be up at 5am to get ready for work.  So I had my cup of coffee this morning.  I had a slice of whole wheat bread w/ natural peanut butter for breakfast, but I really wasn’t impressed with the whole wheat bread that we picked up.  I failed to check the ingredient list when I picked it up at the grocery store and I’m not too impressed with what I read.  Oh well…

Anyway, shortly after lunch I had a bad craving for chocolate, for something sweet.  I thought, I should just go and satisfy that sweet tooth, get the craving out of my system.

So I went down to the cafeteria to pick up this:

 

No worries.. it’s actually still sitting on my desk, untouched.  Looking at it, I know that if I ate it, I’d feel bad afterwards and really it’s not even a good brownie.. just tastes like .. sugar.. hehe..

I’ve already tried giving it away to a coworker, but no one wants it.. hehe.. oh well.  I’ll take it home to see if the hubby or kids want it.  Lucky hubby can eat whatever he wants and still remains in amazing shape.

So here’s to Day 1.  So far so good.

It’s only 55 days.. sounds simple doesn’t it?

Eat Clean: The weekend…

I was a bit nervous about eating clean over the weekend, since that is when I usually indulge in my meals and snacks.  This past weekend was a good one, I did allow myself to indulge and had some whole wheat thin sliced pizza.  I woke up this morning and was quite surprised that I wasn’t craving a coffee, it really is amazing how I continued to drink coffee out of habit.  I still haven’t indulged in any halloween chocolates, no more twizzlers either.  

I’m taking it easy the next couple days, so workouts may not be as great as I’d like.  Went to the doctor’s earlier today to have a minor procedure done and as expected there are some cramping side effects.  Had a great leg workout yesterday and now my lower back is quite sore.  I’m concerned that I’ll experience lower back pain now following my leg workouts.  If it persists, I may need to see a physiotherapist.

This won’t be a very long post, just wanted to update that I’m still focused and motivated, progress photos in a couple days.

Eat Clean Day 5: Smooth sailing…

So here I am Day 5… eating as clean as possible.  I started having coffee again yesterday, no french vanilla creamer though, just a bit of sugar and milk.  Feeling good, the cravings for crunchy salty foods have weakened which is definitely a good thing.

Had an awesome chest/bicep workout yesterday.  When hubby is home in the evenings he really tries to push me hard to go heavy when we’re working out.  Which makes sense, since he’s there to spot me.  For the most part, I find that I can push myself to lift that weight that’s uncomfortable and scary (for me) but after the first few reps, the giggles start to kick in.  I’m not sure why I want to laugh when I’m struggling to lift the weight.  Maybe it’s the sound of myself grunting?  For as long as I can remember, when it was time to focus and push hard to get that last heavy rep in, I start to laugh.  Hubby hates this about me, but I tell him I can’t help it.  I tell him that’s why I would never be able to compete in a competition, I get giddy when it’s time to lift heavy.

Speaking of lifting heavy,  I was very proud last night when I was able to bench press 85lbs (new PR!).  

From today on, clean eating should only get easier and easier.  Hubby mentioned that I need to allow myself to cheat, and I told him I would but I would make sure that it was something that was worth cheating for.  I’m not settling for a fast food cheat.. If I’m cheating, I want something good!

Another 5 days before my next progress pics and that bloated feeling is fading, so I’m very excited to take pictures and compare to last month’s picture.

Eat Clean Day 4: Halloween Success!!

Halloween is over and I am so excited to announce that I did not have a single Halloween chocolate treat!  Notice how I couldn’t just say “Halloween treat”?  That’s because I had two Twizzler treats.  I don’t remember where I heard this, but someone once told me that if you wanted to have “candy” that Twizzlers were the best option.   Honestly I can’t remember where I heard Twizzlers were okay to eat, but yesterday I decided to have a couple Twizzler treats.  Looking back now, I realize that wasn’t a good decision, Twizzlers are just corn syrup and a bunch of other not-so-healthy ingredients.

Of course I love to make things as difficult as possible for me, so I volunteered to help push around the treat cart that the Fun Committee put together for Halloween.  So there I was yesterday morning, pushing a cart overloaded with Halloween treats… chips, chocolates, candies.. it was a beautiful sight… and I pushed the cart around 6 different floors at work.  There was even free coffee too, but I stayed away from that as well.

The kids had fun trick or treating last night, they didn’t make it very far but loved it.  Afterwards they helped me hand out candies to the kids.  My kids aren’t really huge on candy so I emptied out their Halloween bags and we took about 70% of the candy haul and handed them out to the other kids.  I also hid most of their candies last night and I suspect today they won’t even look for it or ask for it.

Day 4 of eating clean and I’m feeling good today.  Still feeling bloated (due to a girls monthly visitor) but I’m really looking forward to getting through this week and then continuing with the clean eating for another week to see what kind of progress I can make.

I’m working out but any high-intensity cardio is almost non-existent right now.  That’s definitely something that I need to incorporate into my routine again.  Mexico is only 10 weeks away and quickly approaching so I know that closer to the trip I’ll have to add more cardio to my routine.  For now, my focus is eating clean and lifting heavy.

Eat Clean Day 3: There will never be a good time to start…

so you just got to do it.  I was thinking more about starting my 5-day clean eating goal, and I started thinking that this probably wasn’t the best week to get started.  First off, it’s that time of month for me (sorry.. TMI) which makes me feel bloated and always craving something.  Second, it’s Halloween today, which means that there will be a never ending supply of treats floating around the office today.  I will need to stay very focused today because should I slip and indulge in a treat, I can see myself just having “one more”.  

I know that every now and then a treat is a good thing, but I really enjoy my dark chocolate treats, so if I’m indulge, I may as well indulge in something that I will really enjoy.  And last week I discovered a new dark chocolate bar:

 

It’s not one of the healthiest dark chocolates out there (with the addition of toffee) but the combination of the salted toffee and banana is a great combo!  I probably should have picked up a bar yesterday to help me get through today.  

Yesterday was definitely a tough day for me, but by the time I got home I was feeling much better and the rest of the evening was good.  Today will be another tough day but I’m already looking forward to tomorrow.  I was thinking this morning, that if the 5 days of clean eating goes well, I’ll extend it to November 7th when I’m planning to take my next progress pictures.