Meal Planning

On December 29, I started the new Beach Body program Insanity Max 30 with a challenge group and I've really enjoyed it despite it being as flipping hard as the original Insanity, maybe even more so!  I am two weeks in now and working out consistently, only missing one day.

This makes me super proud of myself because after all that hard work last year, I slacked off. I felt good, watched what I ate and stayed moving periodically. Then I did it less and less and found that weight I had lost again.  Oops, that wasn't what I wanted.

So, I started and stopped a few other programs and eventually, this one by Shaun T came out and caught my interest.  Even better, I know I can do this program physically so to maximize my results, in week 2 of the program I committed to creating and following meals that fit with the program's recommended meal plan.  It took me a long time to do that. It's hard to get the  right amount of protein and veggies and carbs when you aren't familiar with it but I was determined and it eventually came together. That's what this post is really about. What meals I planned out, my prep for the week and whether I followed it.

First off, the plan in the program is relatively easy to follow. I just like a lot of variety in my eating so wanted to give myself that through the week.  Below are the meals I set up for myself. I eat 4-5 times a day so I can keep my metabolism moving (and because, let's face it, I get hungry!)

    

    

  

I have to say, I did deviate from these just a little bit but I managed to stick with it for the whole week. (Some recipes and photos below.)  Meal prepping for the week helped. What did I do as the weekly prep?

1) I made egg muffins instead of cooking eggs each morning. 

  

2) I pre-baked the chicken meatballs and roasted the spaghetti squash (I also removed the squash from it's skin. 

3) I cut all the veggies I could precut for salad and cooking (carrots, cucumbers, onions, mushrooms) and labeled the bags so I knew how much to use for each meal and what meal. (FYI, a paper towel helps keep moisture at bay and keeps the veggies longer in your refrigerator.)

4) I made my almond milk (I use that in the shakeology or smoothies)

I could have prebaked the pork and precooked some of my vegetables but I don't like eating leftovers more than a few times and the egg muffins were enough for me. I wanted to cook during the week. As it is, what I did do took a couple hours but will go faster each time I do it. Mostly, I was trying to figure out what worked best for me.  That time was well spent b/c actual meal prep/cooking time during the week was next to nothing. I enjoyed yummy meals! 

Seriously, yummy.

Now, did I stick to this? Mostly. I find it REALLY hard for me personally to have pre-planned meals.  I think for me, I need to have a more generalized plan and then fill it in with my day to day needs (sometimes I want protein over veggies and sometimes I want all veggies). :)  I will be better about tracking my macros and following a little more closely to a plan during the week. Like a category of foods rather than actual meals.  For me, I can still prep veggies, etc. for meals but I don't have to eat the meals at exactly the same time I originally suggest to myself. Does that make sense?

I am going on and on about this, I know but it is an important part to our health. We eat so many prepared and processed foods that we don't realize how poorly we do eat simply by not knowing what ingredients are in the food.  I don't want that for me anymore. I love the taste of fresh food with 5 simple ingredients. These chicken meatballs? Just look at the recipe below to know how simple and yummy they are.  I will stick to my plan, 6 more weeks and I will proudly come back here and post my successes once again. I'm so excited. 

I hope, if you are thinking you need to make a change, you take a little time and think about why you haven't started and then start.  Or, if you are making a change toward healthy and fit, you continue on your journey. You are all so worthy of being healthy, fit and happy! 

If you are interested, here are the meals/portions I planned.  Part of this helped me prep and portion out the meals.

Per Serving Meals

Eggs w/veggies: 2 lg eggs (or 4 egg whites & 1 lg egg) plus 1 cup worth of veggies (tomato, onion, asparagus, mushroom) - Need 4 servings

Avocado & Tomato on Rye Bread: 2 slices tomato , ¼ c. mashed avocado spread over rye bread – Need 4 servings

Mixed Veggie Salad w/Turkey: 1 c. veggies (mixed greens) plus tomato, cukes, 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds, 1 Tbsp Dijon Vinagrette, 3oz turkey, ¼ cup avocado (only for 1 serving) – Need 4 servings (only 3 have turkey)

Berry Banana Shakeology: strawberry shakeology, 1 banana, 1 c. almond milk – need 4 servings

Bananas Yo Shakeology: chocolate shakeology, 1 c. almond milk, 1 tsp. peanut butter, 1 banana - Need 2 servings

Chicken & Veggie Meatballs:  chicken meatballs (see recipe p. 2), 1 ½ c. spaghetti squash, ¼ c. tomato sauce – need 1 serving

Beef & Veggie Stir Fry w/rice: ¾ c. brown rice, 1/2 c. steak cubes, 1 c. veggies (use broccoli, peas, carrots, onion, water chestnuts), 1 egg, olive oil & sesame oil – need 1 serving

Avocado & Shrimp bowl: ¼ c. avocado, ¾ c. shrimp, 1 c. brussel sprouts (or 5 md. sprouts) w/shrooms & onions – need 1 serving

Roasted Pork Loin w/carrots & Couscous: 1 c. carrots, ¾ c. pork, ½ c. couscous – need 1 serving

Chicken Breast w/Veggies: 1 c. veggies of choice (leftovers?), 1 chicken breast, ½ c. couscous –need 1 serving

Grilled Steak w/brussel sprouts (cream corn for M) & mashed taters: ¾ c. steak, 1 c. sprouts (or 5 md.

sprouts) sauteed w/shrooms & onion, ½ c. mashed taters – need 1 serving

Green Smoothies: see recipes below – need 2 servings

A couple recipes I used.

Veggie Turkey Meatball (on yourtea.com)

This lean, clean and green delicious meatball is shared by YingYing Kuang (IG: @yingying258) is super easy to make.

INGREDIENTS:

- 1-1 ½ pounds 99% lean ground turkey (substitute ground chicken)

- ¼ cup chopped onions                                                                     - ¼ cup chopped celery                     

- ¼ cup chopped kale or spinach                                                        - ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

- 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed                                                                - ¼ teaspoon sea salt (I prefer Trader Joe’s Garlic Salt)
- ¼ teaspoon of pepper                                                                       - 1 large egg white
- 1 teaspoon of almond flour (secret ingredient)(substituted 1Tbsp quick cook oats)       - Coconut oil/cooking spray

*Note: you can also use any of your favorite veggies as substitutes to the above

 Preheat oven to 325C - Coat broiler pan with coconut oil or cooking spray. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well, shape into size you prefer. - Bake at 325C for 15-18 minutes (depend on the size of the meatball) or until done.

GREEN SMOOTHIES (from simplegreensmoothies.com)

Apple Pie                                                                               CITRUS CRUSH

serves two                                                                              serves two

2 cups fresh spinach                                                              2 cups fresh spinach
1 1/2 cups almond milk, unsweetened                                  1 ½ cups water
3 apples                                                                                 1 cup pineapple
4 mejdool dates                                                                     1 orange, peeled
1 tsp cinnamon                                                                      1 cup grapes, any variety
pinch of nutmeg

For the egg muffins, I just used whatever veggies I wanted and precooked them a bit before adding the egg to muffin tins and baking.

All said and done, this one week experiment was a success for me and I will take a good bit of it into these next several weeks so I can retrain myself to make better choices and to enjoy the benefits of it, too!

Here's to a healthy and Happy New Year!

Becky

Weigh In Weds. - Insanity completed!

Yes, you read that correctly, I completed the Beach Body workout program called, Insanity. I'll bet you thought I quit since I hadn't posted in so long but just the opposite, I've been focused on fitness, life, some quilting and then there's that always present work taking up 8+ hours of my Mon. - Friday. :)

When asked about the program I find 2 things pop to mind right away.
1) It is aptly named. It's insane, and
2) I took a leisurely tour through Insanity.

Shaun T, Insanity's creator and coach on the DVD has taken to calling those who've graduated the program and still want more hard core workouts, "Insaniacs." My friends, I'm now an Insaniac.  One day, I'll start my Dear Jane Quilt and I'll be an Insaniac Janiac! LOL

Back to the program, though. If you've never heard of it, feel free to check out this You Tube video. It's a condensed version of the infomercial.  If you've heard of it, let me explain why I say I took a leisurely tour.

It is a 2 month (60 day) program that offers a year's results in that time frame.  I took just about 3 months to complete it.  I repeated a couple weeks to ensure I was feeling okay about and strong enough to progress to the next step and there were the weeks I stepped back to start back up with a friend who took a break. I also took a week off. When I decided enough was enough, I dug in and finished the program.  So, instead of 2 months, it took 3.

There were a couple times where family members joined me. Okay I got everyone but teenage daughter to join. Either she's brilliant to stay away or super lazy. -wink- She'll say she's brilliant! LOL

Before I get into the show and tell, I should also add that there is a nutrition plan with the workout. Highly recommended, of course, but not required.  I chose to skim it then not pick it up again until the end of month 1. At that time, I skimmed it again, set it down and I still haven't picked it up. Here's why.  I wanted to learn to take my own diet habits, likes and dislikes, and find a way to make those work along with better choices.

Let me restate that. I wanted to learn how to eat properly on my own with the amount of exercise I was putting my body through. To choose better foods and meals but not lose out on what I love. The glass of wine, the steak, the ice cream, maybe. :) In other words, I wanted to make better choices but I wanted to live with what I choice I made, right or wrong. I wanted a lifestyle change in eating and exercise that I could/would maintain.  That was my goal and no matter what the numbers say, I met that goal and I'm thrilled. Could I have had better results, I think yes. I also think, however, that this was the beginning of a life long change for me and I needed to do it this way and that is why I'm not short changing the effort or results I did achieve.

I'm also still accountable for every bite I eat using the MyFitnessPal app on my iPhone.

I have a daily caloric intake I should be achieve. After month 1, I saw NO results. Zero.  Wait, that's not quite true. I did feel stronger and I could do a lot more of the workout after 4 weeks than I could in the beginning but I started wondering, where's all this weight that's supposed to come off? Why haven't my measurements changed? I thought about my food.  I was eating a lot healthier and making better choices but then, something clicked.  I was eating a light breakfast, working out, grabbing a snack and eating a decent sized lunch and dinner.  I needed to eat 4-5 (preferably 5 for my body, I found out) balanced meals a day. That was hard.  I think figuring out meals and making sure I get them all in and with generally correct calorie intake  took me a full month of really close attention. I chose healthier meals out, and tried to cook better foods than ever that I could eat in smaller portions but would have a great impact on my needs.

I'm glad I did. Within a week, I dropped 2 lbs and it seemed like clothes were starting to fit better. People were telling me they could see a change even if I couldn't. I didn't weigh myself or measure myself until the end b/c well, if they were just being polite, I didn't want to be discouraged, I wanted to see this through. With the new eating habit, though, I remembered what I knew before and had forgotten. Smaller and more frequent meals help keep your metabolism moving.  Aside from the weight and inches coming off (which, remember, I was still not seeing at the time), I was feeling stronger and had more energy and I found I could work out with efficiency at any time of the day instead of the previous scenario where I was sluggish if I tried for an afternoon workout.

One additional note, when I didn't lose, I asked a lot of questions on my fitness board and found a lot of people had little to no results, like me, when they started their 1st program ever.  Turns out, there's this thing call a cortizol response to the stress where you reatin water like a crazy person & as a response to the stress, water is trapped around the muscles.  After about 4-6 weeks, it starts dropping off. That could have contributed to my lack of seen results in month 1.

Now, onto the fun photos.  These were the first couple of days.

 Remember this one?

There was a lot more sweat and I started to feel better.

 Note: my jumps didn't look like Tanya's I thought they did until I took the video. hehe But I'm getting there.

And there was #sweatnsew! A super fun distraction.  One day Amy over at Amy Lou Who Sews was chatting with Kelly from Kelbysews on Instagram (which is a great little app & a nice daily distraction to see what everyone is up to.  Who needs Facebook? lol)  They mentioned there should be a hashag for quilters who are also exercising. I think Kelly coined "sweatnsew".  The way it works, post your pic and type in the hashtag and name. Then your pic is tagged in a group, of sorts. The hashtag becomes a hyper link and anyone who searches under that hashtag or clicks on the hyperlink is taken to the group page of photos with the same tag.

Anyway, I was looking for some daily motivation and accountability and got the idea to make it a challenge. I offered up 10 FQs, 5 each to 2 winners.  I invited anyone who wanted to get a healthier lifestyle to join. Better eating habits, exercise, whatever.  Deal was, take a pic. describe how it relates to yoru healthier lifestyle and hashtag it.  1 entry per day.  After 2 weeks, I choose winners at random from those who participated.  It grew like crazy and a we developed a nice little community of support! Not everyone is exercising. Some exercise only 3 days a week, some are doing the same programs like Jillian Michael's Shred and some no programs at all. There's been a lot of discussion about better food choices and some folks have started paleo eating or WeightWatchers. Recipes occasionally get shared and we are all at different fitness levels. It's awesome.  So much so that if you are on Instagram, maybe you want to join in? I'm going to be starting a new challenge real soon. :-)

Additionally, I was checking in and participating more regularly with my Coach's challenge/support group. (Beach Body will assign you a coach or if you know one you can sign up with a coach when doing a Beach Body program for support, questions, assistance).  I happened to meet this coach at just about the same time I was starting Insanity and she invited me in.  Oddly, we met through Instagram photos tagged for vizsla. We both have vizsla pups. :)  Anyway, she invited me in and it worked for me. They are wacky and nutty, I dare say "crazy silly." Committed to being fitter and healthier but they know how to laugh. They can empathize, motivate and offer support.  I would not be half as energized today as I am if I didn't have these people "in my corner" so to speak.  It's actually making me consider being a coach myself but that's a conversation for another day. For all of them, and especially my coach who welcomed me and has been a great supporter, thank you, I am so lucky to have landed with you.

Finally, the day came and I took my final fit test (you take fit tests throughout the program so you can track how much stronger you are and how much more you can accomplish as time goes on. It's really a great idea.) I was surprised at the change in my numbers. It really is easy not to see progress when you are in the day to day but when you see side by side numbers and/or pictures and measurements. My friends, you can't help but be proud of yourself and know it was worth it.

So how did the #s look?
First, fit test #s  (day 1/last day):
Switch Kicks - 59/ 96                         Power Jacks - 25/ 56                     Power Knees - 50/ 82
Power Jumps - 15/ 35                        Globe Jumps - 2.75/ 8                    Suicide Jumps (Burpees) - 7/ 15
Push-up Jacks - 5/ 16                         Low Plank Oblique - 10/ 33

Weight Loss: 12 lbs.   Total Inches lost (all msmts): 16.5"

My before and after photos!

What's next?
I just started Insanity the Assylum on Monday.  After the 25 min. fit test alone, I was dripping in sweat. Insanity was hard and insane but this... this one, I think, is going to be so intense that being committed to the Assylum is about the only way to describe those of use doing it.  With this one, it's 30 days so while I'm not following the nutrition guide fully, I am trying 2 things different. 1) to incorporate a good portion of the nutrition guide into my daily routine and 2) to drink a Shakeology shake every day. I have started the second part of this already and the first will be started this weekend when I can prep meals for next week. After I'm done, I'll let you know how it all went & give you my honest 2 cents.

Whle this program may not be for everyone, health and fitness is.  If you want to get healthier, no more excuses. Make a decision and step into it. Find a way to be accountable to yourself, to family, and/or to me, even. I'll help where I can. I am being honest when I say that even if I'm not at my goal weight, I feel good. I feel fitter and healthy and energized.  I want you to feel that way, too.  I hope you enjoyed the photos and forgive the long post. I'm just trying to keep it real!

Cheers!
Beck

Swoon QAL blocks & a Spaghetti Squash recipe

I'm sorry I missed my Weds. weigh-in this week. I found myself a day behind all week at home and work. Finally, today, I've caught up on the home stuff.

I did manage to finish two blocks for the Swoon QAL, today. I cut all my pieces yesterday and the day before. It actually took that long but doing it all at once was the way to go b/c I'm happy to just plug away on each block. Also, once the first block was pieced, it was much quicker to piece the second one.

Finally, I had to change my chosen Swoon QAL fabrics b/c it turned out I had fat eights of the Sip of Summer line and not fat quarters. Not wanting to purchase anything, I pulled from the endless  (and I mean endless) "mom's calico stash".  To keep the blocks feeling modern, I stuck with the white background. I think they are looking good.

Now, a recipe to share.  Please feel free to play with this one. It was a "what do I have around here" type that can be adapted.

Spaghetti Squash w/Meat & Veggie Sauce

1 Spaghetti Squash
3 oz steak, cubed
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 cup tomato sauce (spaghetti sauce)
1 big handful raw, baby spinach leaves (no stems), roughly chopped
1 small tomoto, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup white wine
salt, black pepper, paprika, dried italian seasoning, garlic powder
grated parmesan/reggiano cheese
extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds.  Lay  cut side up on a shallow baking pan and season the top with salt, black pepper, paprika & garlic powder.  I just sprinkle over the top (use as much or little as you want or change the seasonings to your preference). Roast for about 35-40 min.

2. When your squash has about 10 min. left, put a medium frying on the stove. Heat oil on med./high heat for a couple minutes, season the meat with salt & pepper and place in the oil. Brown on all sides & cook through to desired doneness. I like some pink so this takes aroudn 4-5 min. for me with stew like cuts of meat. Remove from pan & set aside.

3. Put onions and garlic in pan and sautee until soft.  Add wine & deglaze pan. Cooking off the alcohol. About 5 more minutes. Add  about 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, tomatoes, water and tomato sauce. Simmer on medium for another 5 or so minutes. 

4. While simmering the sauce, remove squash from its skin with a fork.

5. Back to the sauce, add the meat to it and any other seasoning you want, mix. Add spinach the last 2-3 min. of cooking to wilt slightly.

6. Serve sauce over a helping of squash on a plate or in a bowl.  Top with a sprinkle of grated cheese and enjoy!

Yum!
Beck