Recent Meals

Hey guys! I'm back! I have a very busy week ahead trying to get the 8 week fat loss plan finished up and available for purchase THIS week! So excited to offer this to you all! I also have to sneak some studying in, continue doing individualized workout plans, and work on other services I'm wanting to offer soon. But for today's post I am going to share with you all random meals I've had lately, most of them are my nightly sweet treats or pre/post workout meals!

(Artic zero ice cream, peanut butter, almond joy ice cream bites, quest bar)

(asparagus, shrimp, zucchini, bell pepper, pineapple, sweet potato, sriracha)

 

(rice cakes, peanut butter, banana)

(low carb tortillas, peanut butter, strawberries, cinnamon)

 

(spaghetti squash, frozen mixed veggies, asparagus, chicken, sriracha)

 

(lean ground turkey, spinach, avocado, rotel)

 

(1 cup blue bell no sugar added ice cream, strawberries, questbar, walden farms 0 calorie chocolate syrup) 

 

(kashi blueberry whole grain waffles, sugar free strawberry jelly, peanut butter, cup of joe)

 

 

And there you have it! I have a major sweet tooth so I always try to save up some macros to end my day with a nice little treat!

 

Make sure to check out some more client progress pics I added to the above page! My girls are KILLIN' it!

 

Happy Monday! 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry!

Real quick...there will not be any posting from me this week with it being my last week in the corporate world, studying AND working on an 8 week fat loss plan that I will be making available to purchase :) Not being able to log onto blogger at work sucks and I just do not have the patience or thumb energy to type things up on my phone. Next week will be the beginning of my consistent blogging though! So sorry for the lack of posting for this week but I have so much in store that I can't wait to share! 

Random Facts About Me

Since I can’t do too much posting until I’m working from home, since blogger is blocked at the office I’m at, I thought I would do a post on just some random facts about me! Enjoy

 

·My favorite junk foods are pancakes, pizza, and ice cream – not necessarily in that order!

 

·I absolutely LOVE the way it feels to have a clean house – I feel so accomplished and my stress and anxiety lowers….for a day or two

 

 

·I love gambling….well mainly roulette….I can see how people can become addicted!

 

·I haven’t had any form of soda in over a year and a half

 

 

·I am a very easy-going person, therefore easy to get along with. I don’t like confrontation nor do I have energy for it

 

·My husband and I are obsessed with Big Brother! Amanda needs to GO – Am I right or am I right??!

 

 

·My Dad and I have birthmarks on our backs in the exact same spots

 

·I like rap music….a lot! It’s the only thing I’ll workout to and it’s the most played music in my car. My husband hates it so of course I’m dragging him to the Lil Wayne concert next Friday :)

 

 

·I make up songs about everything – in regards to my kids. For instance, we sing a made-up song while brushing teeth, when I ask them how much they love me I sing a tune….I get this from my Mother and I admit It’s very weird! When she does this I look at her like she’s gone crazy – kind of the way my husband looks at me when I do it!!

I am an extremely accepting person and also very open-minded. I like to hear people’s side of things and try not to judge too soon

 

·I want a third child but my husband does NOT. I’m hoping I can get him on the baby-makin bandwagon in the next couple years! ßHe is going to kill me!

 

 

·I can be very shy when I first meet somebody where as my husband is the exact opposite. He is not shy AT ALL. It’s good to balance each other out in this way I think

 

·When growing up, the neighbor who lived across the street set his house on fire (we didn’t know that it was him at the time) – he ran to our house with his baby in his arms screaming for us to call 911. We also later found out that he drowned his wife right before this and dropped her body in the lake. I’m guessing he is in prison still…

 

 

·My two favorite drinks from Starbucks are iced skinny cinnamon dolce lattes or skinny cinnamon dolce fraps. YUM!

 

·We will probably end up moving towards East Texas (country) before long – my husband wants land  - I have fought him tooth and nail on this over the years but have recently given in

 

There you have it! Some random, useless non-sense that I’m sure you were just dying to know J

 

 

 

 

My BIG News

So much is going on and I’ve been so crazy busy lately that I don’t even know where to begin…

My husband is a Superintendent for a commercial construction company and in general superintendents are known to travel. The company he has been with for the past two years has not had him travelling, until recently. There are a few projects that the company has coming up that are out of state, therefore my husband will be leaving us for about 6 weeks here soon. We don’t know if this will be an ongoing, non-stop thing or if he will just do a few jobs out of town and then be in town for a while. It all depends on the projects the company bids and gets. He will, however, be able to fly home every other weekend. I love my husband dearly and this sucks big time, but I have done it a time or two and although it never gets easier, I get stronger. Having him home with us these past two years has been such a blessing and I’m very thankful for it.

With that being said, we have made the decision for me to put my resignation in at work so I can better manage the kids, their activities, school, the house, appointments, etc…My family is my number one priority and this is what IS right for our family at this time. My last day is August 15th.

I will still be working though. This is where the exciting BIG news comes in!!

I will be doing private training, either mobile where I come to my clients that are located in the area, or at my house where we are getting a gym area put together in our garage. I will also be doing full time online coaching and training as well as offering a few different types of services/packages. All of this info will be updated here on my blog once I am finished at work and have the time to get it put together and set up. I will add a page at the top named “Services” or something similar.

Health and Fitness is a HUGE part of my life obviously and I can’t wait to work more closely with others to help achieve their goals. While I am closing a small chapter of my life, working in the corporate world, I am opening a new book, full of exciting opportunity that I can’t wait to explore further!

Fit Tip Tuesday: The Negatives Make for a Positive

I wanted to quickly go over a method used during weight training you may not be familiar with; Eccentric Reps or, as many call them, Negatives.

 

Negatives are an extremely effective and proven approach for muscle growth after you have hit your 5RM (5 rep max – the maximum number of times you can lift a weight before hitting muscular failure). This is going to be a heavier weight, for me it would probably be between 30-35 pound dumbbells for an exercise like bicep curls.

 

Using bicep curls as our example, you would perform 5 reps at your 5RM. You would do one count concentric (going up towards your shoulders) and one count eccentric (going down towards your sides).

 

For the negatives (eccentric) you can choose to up your weight by 5-10 pounds (your 3RM or 2RM more than likely) and negatively contract (go down towards your sides) slowly – a 4 to 5 count should do the trick. This is going to completely fatigue your muscles and allow for greater tension!

 

Some things to keep in mind:

 

·Do not overuse negatives or you will quickly over train

·Make sure you are eating enough calories and protein to aid in recovering your muscles

·This is a great way to switch up an “oldie but goodie” exercise and can be done with any exercise you choose!

How Much to Eat Pre and Post Workout

Properly nourishing your body prior to a workout and post workout is extremely important and helpful if you want to see results whether that be fat loss or muscle gains.

 

Like I mentioned in The Truth about Carbs post, our chief energy source comes from carbohydrates and they are easily depleted which is why our bodies continual crave them. It is recommended that you eat a high-carb meal 2 to 4 hours before exercising.

 

So how much is a high-carb meal? Well, that can get a little tricky. Research shows that you should generally eat about 30 to 60g of carbs prior to working out. This number depends on your goals, your workout intensity, and your energy level. You can play around with it and see what number works best for you. I will try to eat around 30 of carbs about 2 hours before my workout when I exercise in the evenings and I will eat around 35-40g of carbs when I exercise first thing in the morning.

Another thing to note is if you are going to be working out for longer than 90 minutes (such as marathon runners) your muscle-glycogen stores become depleted therefore causing a decrease in your endurance. For athletes it is recommended to consume between 30-60g of carbs ever hour to be able to maintain glucose levels and energy for performance.

 

For post-workout it is very important to replenish your glycogen stores with a high-carb intake, another 30-60g is a good range to stay in. I usually will eat close to 50g post workout. I also workout at a high intensity level, no steady state cardio hereJ

Carbohydrate Food Sources: Fruit, brown rice, oats, whole wheat pastas and breads, vegetables such as potatoes, peas, corn, etc…

As for protein, it is recommended to follow a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein. If you eat 30g of carbs pre workout, you would want to eat 15g of protein with it as well. This goes for post workout too.

 

Complete Protein Sources: Whole egg, yogurt and granola, milk, oatmeal with milk, meat and poultry, fish, rice and beans, peanut butter on whole wheat bread, etc…

 

20-35% of your total caloric intake should be fats and for athletes this should be more like 20-25%. You can divide that number between all your meals. For instance If you were eating a 2000 calorie diet you would eat 40 to 70g of fat and if you ate 5 meals a day, you would be eating between 8 and 14g of fat at each meal.

 

Fat Food Sources: olive oil, avocado, peanuts, almonds, salmon, flaxseeds, whole milk, cheese, eggs, coconut oil, etc…

The moral of this post is that you need to be properly nourishing your body to meet your goals of weight loss, maintenance, weight gain, and/or adding muscle. Nutrition is the main key to the puzzle of altering your body composition.

 

Meal Prepping Part II: Cooking the Food

First off I will start by saying I work full time and I honestly don’t want to put in the effort to spend more than an hour for meal preps. Know what that means? I make a lot of the same foods and I keep it simple! “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is my motto for a lot of things, meal prep being one of them!

Meat – I do either Chicken Breasts orTilapia, but usually chicken breasts. I preheat the oven to 400, spray a baking dish with pam and seasoning (roasted garlic and herb is all I use on mine, but you can use whatever you want) I place all the chicken breasts from the big frozen bag I bought into the dish, sprinkle seasoning on top and place in the oven, uncovered, for roughly 40-45 minutes.

While my meat is cooking, I tear open a big bag of frozen veggies (2 bags usually) and dump it into a big pot, put it on the stovetop over medium heat, and stir every few minutes. Once it’s pretty much cooked I turn the heat to low and cover the pot for about 10-15 minutes

             (This was only one bag)

At the same time I will also make spaghetti squash. There are many ways to make this, but the way I make mine is in the microwave- Put it on a glass plate, poke holes all over it with a sharp knife, and place it in the microwave for 4 minutes if it’s a small one, or 6-8 minutes if it’s a larger one. Once the microwave stops, I slice bigger holes in the squash and put it back in for another 4-8 minutes depending on the size. I then am able to get my knife through the squash and make 1-2 inch slits in it. I put it in one more time for 4-8 minutes. I pull the plate out with a dish towel or gloves because it is HOT and I cut the squash completely in half. Let it cool down for about 20 minutes. Once it’s cool enough to touch, I take a fork and scoop out the seeds and slimy squash and then scrape out the squash and dump it into a plastic container and place it in the fridge.

Complex Carbs – I only make one at a time, either sweet potato, brown rice or quinoausually. For sweet potatoes I boil them for about 25-30 minutes and they are ready to be cut into slices. For quinoa and brown rice I follow the directions on the packaging.

Once all the food is done I put them each into their own containers and stick them in the fridge. Each night I pack my 2 lunches for the next day (meals 3 and 4). I have a cheap little scale I use to calculate my macros (bought for $20 at Walmart. It’s digital) as I’m measuring my food with the scale and with my measuring cups, I simultaneously enter it into myfitnesspal app on my phone for the next day. Most recent foods are saved, so it’s really easy for me to just click on a saved item and enter the amount.

 

The next Meal Prep installment will be snacks!