2% short

My professor handed our papers back in class today. I got an 88. 3 whole days and 13 pages written for 2% short of an A. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect perfection, and in most cases, a B is A-okay with me (clever). However, I do believe that if you can get an 88, you can also get a 90. My pity-party has officially ended.

The rest of the day was actually quite stress-free, which is a nice change considering how harried I’ve been the last couple days. I even had time to check out this article in the health section of the New York Times. I don’t know how many of you have heard that New York city recently initiated a calorie-labeling law requiring all chain restaurants to list the respective nutritional content of their menu items, but I personally was really looking forward to seeing how the general population would respond. I have to admit, I wasn’t all that surprised to learn that of the 13 restaurants surveyed, 8 reported little to no difference in the amount of calories consumed. From a sociological standpoint, I think this is a really interesting issue and one that desperately needs to be addressed. Clearly, America’s overwhelming rate of obesity is not as clear-cut as calories in versus calories out. Anyway, let me know what you think. Would you prefer your favorite restaurants to list the calorie content of their menu items? Do you think it takes away from the experience of dining out?

On a lighter note 🙂 here’s what I ate:

Breakfast:

Strawberry Protein Pancakes with peanut butter : 1 scoop chocolate whey, 2 tbs cottage cheese, 2 egg whites, water, 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1 tbs peanut butter

Lunch:

1/4 cup brown Rice, 1/4 cup black beans, broccoli, bell pepper, 1 egg over easy, salsa, 1 tbs nonfat greek yogurt

Snack:

Kashi Cookies and Cream Energy Bar (very disappointing, Kashi. Very, very disappointing)

Dinner:

Roasted bell pepper, onion, and broccoli, fire roasted tomatoes, 1/4 cup edamame, 1/2 cup garbanzo beans

Snack:

Raw Almonds ( a lot :))

These are my confessions…

Hey guys,

Its a little too early in my blogging career to take a hiatus, but this is finals week after all, so I’m going to go ahead a cut myself a little slack. I hope that all of you had a fantastic, fun-filled weekend. I, on the other hand, studied my life away (read: moped my life away) in a giant sea of self-pity. I’m not a scholar and school sucks. That’s all.

Today was major step forward in self-reflection, however, and I have decided to reveal a revised set of goals and a couple issues that I would like to come clean with: I eat my feelings…a lot. I wouldn’t ordinarily feel the need to validate that statement with an entire post on emotional eating and how millions of men and women struggle to get a handle on their individual relationships with food–but for the purposes of this blog, I think its important that I discuss those issues fully and openly so that I can better understand my own body and what it needs to function at its optimum level. I will try to be as honest as possible and I look forward to any and all comments regarding any level of disordered eating including emotional, compulsive, or binge eating. Trust me, I have experienced all of the aforementioned and I struggle daily to establish a healthier, more satisfying relationship with food.

In comparison to my last set of goals, this week’s goals will be a little more emotionally friendly. While my philosophy, in varying degrees, has always been to eat as clean as possible–sometimes I overestimate my own ability to maintain eating habits that are both physically and mentally feasible. Having said that, here they are:

1. Eat 5 small meals a day–try to make at least 3-4 of them “clean”

2. Estimate calories in my head without judgment

3. Cut back on Diet soda–aim for 1-2 per week

Thats it!

So really, the objective for this week is to experiment with controlling my intake without really controlling the types of food I eat and fostering healthy habits without driving myself insane. Sanity is the priority here. Alrighty then, I’m all out of thoughts and ideas for today. Have an awesome Sunday night!

Squats and Snacks

Hey guys,

Another rainy day here in Savannah, except suddenly, its absolutely freezing cold. I’m a trooper though, so no whining here. 🙂

I read an article the other day in the latest issue of FitnessRx, which happens to be one of my favorite health and exercise magazines, entitled “Post-Exercise Snacks Cancel Weight Loss Benefits”. I think the title speaks for itself in that the following article encourages dieters to abstain from consuming “carbohydrate supplements” immediately after cardiovascular exercise. I am by no means a nutrionist, nor do I claim to be an authority on what any one person should do follwing their workout, but I found this article a little difficult to stomach. The author cites a study done by the Amherst University of Massachusetts, in which one hour of treadmill walking per day improved blood sugar regulation by 40%. Unfortunately, the healthy benefits of said walking were completely canceled out when the test subjects consumed a post-workout snack. Really? Does the article mention what kind of snack it was? Nope. Does the article describe the test subjects in terms of height, weight, age, level of cardiovascular endurance, or even at all? No. Does the article mention anything about the standard diets of the test subjects outside of their post-workout snack? Of course not. Thanks a lot FitnessRx, for publishing a completely meaningless article that has absolutely no valid information.

If you disagree with me (I know I was a little harsh) or have read the article and have a different opinion, feel free to let me know! I could be completely off the mark here, but I always get a little uncomfortable when magazines (especially ones as fitness specific as FitnessRx) make sweeping claims without providing the necessary information to make a rational decision.

So, major success today…I made it to the gym (!!!) And did legs. It was really cathartic for me, and even though I was only there for about 45-50 minutes, it was really nice to work up a sweat and really kill my legs. Here’s what I did:

1. Weighted Barbell Squats

Warmup- Barbell 1×20

increase weight, 1×15

increase weight, 1×10, drop weight, squat to failure

repeat 3 more times

2. Wide Leg Deadlift (Killer!)

2 x 12

increase weight, 1 x 10

3. Lunge Super Set (3 sets, 60 sec rest between sets)

Bulgarian Lunge (12 each leg)

Lunge with plate press (6 each leg)

Power Lunges (5 each leg)

note: Very painful

4. Calf Raises

4 x 15 on hack squat machine

Short and Sweet!

Here’s what I ate:

Breakfast: Green smoothie (amazing), 1/2 cup egg whites, 1/4 cup organic white cheddar

Snack 1: 1 apple, 1/2 pumpkin spice cliff bar

Lunch: 1/3 cup oatmeal, 1 oz 70% dark chocolate, 1 tbs smart balance peanut butter, 1/2 scoop chocolate whey, and the last of my Walden Farms pancake syrup

Snack 2: Gigantic plate of broccoli, orange bell pepper, and snap peas AND 4 oz chicken

(its a weird day when I eat broccoli and chicken in the middle of the afternoon)

Dinner: 1 (tiny) sweet potato, 1 egg, bell pepper, onion, 1/4 cup kidney beans, 1 tbs salsa, 1 tbs nonfat greek yourt

Snack 3: remaining half of cliff bar (i LOVE pumpkin spice cliff bars!)

If you’re still with me, I’m very impressed–this was a long one. Have a great Thursday night!!

 

 

Green smoothie and pumpkin fail

Hey everyone!

I’m so glad the week is almost over, because after tomorrow, I will have only 7 more days until I get to go home for fall break. Im not kidding when I say this- I NEED the break.  While I’ve never been much of a “homebody”, seeing my parents and being in our old apartment always helps me “find my center” again. We also live a mile away from the beach, which doesn’t hurt either 😉

Unfortunately, I had another gym bail today. This is getting sad…and I’m all out of excuses. I LOVE working out, I don’t understand what’s going on. I have decided, however, to cut myself some slack, because it is the end of the quarter, and I really do need all my energy to push through the one week I have left. Nevertheless, I can commit to doing the best I can before I go home. Hopefully, my best entails at least a couple more decent gym sessions.

On a positive note, I added a couple new recipes to my clean eating menu:

Spinach, chocolate, carrot smoothie (its good, i promise)

1-2 cup spinach, 1/2 cup carrot juice, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 scoop chocolate whey protein, stevia

I was really pleasantly surprised that the smoothie retained its vibrant green color despite the chocolate protein and the orange carrot juice. I’ve never actually made this before, but the end result was…incredible (if I don’t say so myself) 🙂 I would totally suggest adding a tbs of almond or peanut butter and maybe a little flax. Everything tastes better with peanut butter.

Now on to the pumpkin fail…

I tried my hand at protein pumpkin muffins…and totally overbaked them. They were dry and…spicy. Weird. Maybe too much clove? I still have half a can of pumpkin, so I’ll be giving it another try in the near future. Here’s the recipe nonetheless:

1/3 cup oats, 1 egg white, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 cup pumpkin, 2 tbs flax, cinnamon, stevia, clove, nutmeg, 1 scoop whey chocolate protein. Bake at 350.

If at any point you decide to make pumpkin muffins, with or without protein powder, and you like the way they turned out, please let me know how you made them so I can figure out what I’m doing wrong 😦

As for breakfast and lunch…trust me, they were not forgotten.

1/2 cup egg whites, broccoli, onion, mushroom, green bell pepper, 2 tbs avocado

Lunch:

Sugar snap peas, broccoli, onion, mushroom, 4 oz chicken breast

Dinner:

TBD, Although I’m sensing some more chicken…and maybe a truckload of green beans. Who knows.

Thats all for now!

Motivation…or lack thereof

Hey everyone,

I feel like death today and studying for finals is really starting to get the best of me. However, I did want to take a moment to talk a little bit about motivation, because as of late, I’ve been having a difficult time staying on track. As a chronic yo-yo dieter (former), I find that I alternately cycle in and out of periods of either unwavering commitment or a complete abandonment of all concern for my physical appearance and well-being. I am all or nothing. And I know that I’m not the only one. Additionally, I wish I could say that my lack of commitment was strictly contained in the diet and exercise department. Its not. With only ten days to go before the fall quarter ends, the very act of dragging myself to class is a battle not easily won. Is it burnout? Am I spread too thin? Its a possibility, but nevertheless, I can’t afford to drown myself in sugar-laden vats of ice cream everytime a little fatigue gets the best of me. I suppose that when the proverbial “shit hits the fan” is when my stores of motivation should kick into gear. I’m not asking for perfection. I just wish the fear of “letting myself go” wasn’t as palpable as it so often is.

Alrighty then…I feel a little better now with that off my chest..

I would tell you all about my meals and workout for today, but I’ve been so super unproductive, and quite frankly, disfunctional, that I won’t even bother. Lets just say that ample amounts of carbs were rapidly consumed and leave it at that. However, I WILL get back on track tomorrow and I WILL be doing an intense leg workout tomorrow morning. Thats all for now, have a good night!!

6:30 min mile!!

I think we should all just take a moment and celebrate the fact that today I ran a mile in 6 minutes and 3o seconds. Un-freakin-believable! You’ll have to excuse my excitement, and being as how I haven’t given you a whole lot of context on my running abilities, this may or may not be as big of a deal as I’m currently making it out to be. With that said, had someone told me this time 6 months ago that I would be able to run a mile that fast, I would have not so tactfully laughed in their face. Ok. Enough celebration.

So, I hit the snooze button this morning. At least 5 times. I had a weight workout planned for 7 Am, and though I did manage to get out of bed and feed myself, I promptly decided decided the gym was a no-go and left it at that. Clearly, motivation is a bit of an issue. Nevertheless, I redeemed myself by hitting the gym after practice with the team and managed to squeeze in a pretty productive upper body routine. Here’s a rundown of what I did:

10 min treadmill warm-up

Push up routine courtesy of onehundredpushups.com (seriously check it out, its awesome!)

5 sets of pushups, 14, 14, 10, 10, 15

Incline Dumbbell bench press 5 x 10-15 reps

Machine Pec Dec  4x 10-15reps

Dumbbell military press 3x 10-15 reps

Bent over lateral raise 2x 10-15 reps

Front shoulder raise 2x 10-15 reps

Upright row 5x 10-15 reps

 

Not really sure how much I liked this workout, but I guess it beats no workout at all.

Ok, here’s some food for thought. I recently picked up a bottle of Walden Farms 0 calorie maple syrup. (http://waldenfarms.com/products/syrup_pancake.html) I know its wrong. A part of me feels guilty everytime I use it…but I can’t stop. I’m starting to forget what oatmeal tasted like without it. I know, I know–I’m basically filling my body with copious amounts of chemical-laced artificial maple flavoring. And I really should be reducing my consumption of artifical sweeteners anyway (goodbye diet coke), but in all honesty, I would hate to see my Walden Farms Pancake syrup go. I mean, how bad can it be, right? Right?? What do you guys think??

Alrighty then, here’s the eats for today (sans ugly google images)

Breakfast:

1/3 cup oats, 1/2 scoop Optimum Whey, 1 TBS Flax Meal, 1 tbs Almond Butter, 1/2 frozen banana, AND 2 TBS (more or less) Walden Farms pancake syrup Lunch

1/2 cup broccoli, 1 small green bell pepper, 1/2 medium onion, 5 mushrooms, 1/2 cup diced tomato, 1 large egg

1/5 of an 87% dark chocolate Dagoba bar (i.e. sand flavored chocolate bar) 😦

Pre-Gym

Cliff Builders Bar Vanilla Almond (not my favorite flavor and not my favorite bar, but 20 grams of protein! YAY!)

Post gym

More sand flavored chocolate 😦 and a tiny bit of almond butter

Dinner still to come and will probably consist of a sweet potato and some kind of egg white concoction…oh, and an obscene amount of vegetables

That’s all for now!!

-Mags

Sunday not so “fun”day

Hello hello,

I think my muscles might be atrophying. I seriously haven’t moved from my futon (yes, a futon) in at least 8 hours. I happen to have a humongous paper due for my professional writing class tomorrow and I’ve spent the majority of this weekend sloowly chipping away at it. What a way to spend my sunday. Anyway, for future reference I’m going to try to split this blog into equal parts daily food intake, daily workouts, recipes that I’ve tried and loved (or not loved),fitness goals, and, when I gather enough courage, possibly daily or weekly weigh ins…just to keep myself honest, right?? Moving right along, here’s a rundown of some of my short and long term health and fitness goals:

Short Term

– Consistently maintain a daily caloric intake between 1400 and 1600 calories with a heavy emphasis on fruits, vegetables, non-processed grains such as oats and brown rice, and mostly plant sources of protein. 100% vegan hasn’t worked for me before so I’ll likely include a little bit of dairy, whey, eggs, and fish.

– Lose about 10 lbs of fat and maintain my weight at a healthy 135 lbs.

– Commit to running more: as in running 3 times a week and eventually completing a 10k

– Strength training in the gym 4 times a week.

– Reduce binge eating (another nasty habit) to no more than once a week.

Alrighty… long term goals, anyone?

– Become a certified personal trainer

– Graduate with my degree in professional writing

-Write and become a correspondant for a fitness/health related publication.

-Maintain my happy weight, permanently!

-Uh, more specific long term goals to come…

 

Ok, now to the good stuff: Here’s what I ate–(please excuse the lack of photos, or in some cases, the really embarassing stolen google images) 🙂

Breakfast!

1 cup strawberries, 1/3 cup oatmeal, 1 tbs ground flax, 1 scoop Optimum Whey protein powder, 1 tbs almond butter

Lots and lots of carbs so my fingers have energy to type. all. day. long…and walk to the gas station to drown myself in diet coke. Fantastic.

Lunch!

A gigantic mish mash of all the vegetables (and some beans) I had in my fridge including, but not limited to:

– 1/2 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup green beans, 1/2 cup mushrooms, 1/2 cup canned tomato chunks, 1 cup sliced green bell pepper, 1/2 medium onion AND 1/3 cup edamame, and 1/3 cup black beans

(Again, sorry, but I hate a post without pictures)

 

And finally…(at least for now…)

Protein Muffins!

1/2 cup oats, 1 scoop Optimum Whey, 2 tbs ground flax, 1/2 tbs baking powder, 1 tbs peanut butter, 1/3 cup egg white, 1/3 cup water (or enough to make batter), sugar substitute, cinnamon. Bake at 350 degree’s until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (5-10 min) 8-9 small muffins or 3 large ones.

A little almond butter on top for good measure 😉

Alrighty guys and (mostly) girls, thats all for now!! Seeya tomorrow!!

-Mags

Hello and Welcome!!

Hey There!

Welcome to my blog! Unfortunately, my first post won’t be too incredibly exciting as I don’t have a whole lot to actually blog about yet. I also need to get my camera charged up and functional. But anway, the upcoming posts, will be full of fun commentary on food, fitness, running, tennis (I’m on a varsity tennis team here at school), more food, and probably more fitness. While I don’t necessarily believe in dieting (anymore) you should know that a lot of my writing will probably focus on my efforts to attain and maintain a balanced way of eating that allows me to sit comfortably at my “happy weight”, which happens to be about ten pounds less than my current weight. With that said, I do have a history of “disordered eating”, which is essentially why I started this blog. By staying accountable to myself AND my readers, hopefully my quest for fitness peace of mind won’t be in vain. I’m also not a big fan of long-winded introductions so shoot on over to my “about” section or leave a comment if there’s anything else you want to know! Seeya soon!

-Mags